3 days have passed since the night Yami first saw snow in New Egypt. Thus, making it 6 days since Yugi ran away at the wedding.

One morning Yami was sitting in the throne room with all the others, discussing about Yugi.

"It's been six days already since the wedding," exclaimed Yami to his friends. "And the search team has not found Yugi yet." He sat with his legs crossed, hugging himself self-consciously, and thinking about what he saw in the fog the other night.

"We have to find Yugi before he gets hurt!" said Joey with strength and authority. He and the others were sitting on the steps that led to the throne.

"No," disagreed Yami, looking away from them. This made Joey turned around completely, surprise on his face. "the search team will find him. As Pharaoh I cannot allow any of you to be harmed out there. I... I can't allow Yugi to harm any of you."

Joey was ridiculed and said, "What? Why would Yugi harm any of us? He would never do that!"

"Yes he would Joey; with his mental state corrupted he would do what it takes to be alone and away from another human being."

"You're crazy! Yugi is not corrupted! He's our friend and-"

"Silence Joey! Pharaoh speaks!" shouted Yami as he immediately stood up, anger flaring in his eyes.

Everyone went silent from that, and Joey seemed very hurt. Yami realized what he said, and guilt poured out all over his face. He began to sob and fell on his knees. He covered his face with open palms, saying over and over.

"Oh, God! God! Why!? Why!? Yugi!" Everyone watched and kept silent, but Tea was the voice of reason.

"Yami...it's not your fault Yugi ran away. He was confused and wanted to get away from it all, but you didn't do anything wrong." She walks over to him, bends down and holds her hand out to him. He slowly uncovered his face, a spark of innocence in his amethyst eyes. He took her hand and she pulled him up.

"Yugi will be okay, as long as we have hope. So please, don't cry Yami." She wrapped her arms around him, catching him off guard and gave him a kiss on the forehead. His eyes shined and were very large and innocent, taking in the moment, the unforsakeable trust. She wiped his tears, and he was about to give her a kiss back, until his cell phone was ringing. He froze, took out his cell phone and answered it.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Good morning Yami, this is Seto Kaiba speaking."

He twitched from hearing that.

"Seto...Seto Kaiba!?"

Everyone gasped, all except for Bakura, whose face was quite expressionless at the moment.

"That's right Yami, and I have someone that you hold very dear to. He's knocked out at the moment, so he doesn't know how long it's been since he was last awake. I never noticed how small and innocent he appears in such a state; too bad he's all beaten up, heh."

Hearing Seto say that in such a slow manner, emphasizing the words small and innocent, sent a chill of fear up Yami's spine.

"Kaiba, you've captured Yugi?!"

"That's right, and the poor little thing lost to a duel against me. The conditions were simple: If he wins, I would let him go. If I win, which I did, my men will beat him, which they have. Don't worry; he has no broken bones, not yet. If he wakes up again, it will be my turn to take delight into beating him, though he may not wake up a second time."

Yami heard Seto laughing, and yelled in the phone

"Seto I won't let you get away with this!"

"Ah now, Yami. Don't be such a cynical fool, you have so much hidden potential; I bet you haven't even noticed the patterns of Yugi's strengths and weaknesses!"

Yami winced at the air of familiarity in the tone in Seto's voice. It was the same tone he had when he first dueled Seto in Kaibaland.

"Tell me where you're keeping Yugi, now!" Yami yelled in the phone.

"Of course Yami, that's the whole point I called you. I'm at Kaiba Corporations Master Dueling Arena, an arena I made especially for my duel with Yugi. You can come for him and I will let you have him, but ONLY if you retrieve to me my blue-eyes white dragon cards, and your millennium puzzle. You have three hours to bring those items to me. The Master Dueling Arena is at the lowest floor underground. I'll even let my men allow you to pass through, but I only want YOU to be in the arena. If you bring any of your friends, my men will lock them up forever, and let them rot."

Yami gripped the phone very tightly, fear and anger flashed in his eyes.

"I'm coming for you Kaiba! You'll regret the day that you hurt my friend Yugi!"

"So I see, but is he really your friend? Why, after all you've put the poor boy through, taking his body, his freedom and his girl, I don't recall those acts to be acts of friends, Yami."

Those words cut through Yami right in the heart, and it showed greatly on his face; a face of regret and anger swiftly showed on Yami's face, hearing Seto hang up the call. He was frozen like that for half a minute, the others, even Tea, were to afraid to ask what Seto had said to him.

Yami, though hurt very deeply, was not going to give up on Yugi.