"You're just lucky that it's tournament security who got there first." Mokuba grumbled over the phone to Meisa as the Pharaoh paced the living room, "I can have them settle things and put the report in once you're on the move again."

"Have I ever told you that I appreciate you?" Yugi took over to ask, amusing the Thief Queen who had just fired off a text message and was now watching her like a hawk.

"Yes but I will take it from you again." The young teen chuckled, "How're you feeling?"

"Jii-san and Kobayashi were hurt, but we healed them. We're fine. Nothing to report."

There was a beat of silence and then, "Who's with you?"

Amused that she was that easily predictable, Yugi glanced over at Ba-Khu-Ra as she answered, "Bakura."

"Bakura? Or Ba-Khu-Ra?"

"Yes."

"Noted. Try not to get in a fight and send me anything I need to know before the report gets sent? I gotta go, I'm getting more reports from over by the park now."

"Sorry."

"Not your mess. There's a fight." With that he dropped the call, allowing Yugi to turn her focus back on the Thief Queen, who was staring at her, highly unamused.

"Ba-Khu-Ra…" Yugi started to thank her for the help with the healing spells, only to trail off at the look on her face.

"Don't, runt." The Thief Queen saw Yugi flinch at the 'runt' but she didn't care. "When were you going to tell us you're dying?"

"I… how?" The Queen of Games squeaked, having tried to keep it to herself to stop her friends worrying.

"Ishizu. I've spoken to her." Ba-Khu-Ra huffed, "Go rest and stop burning energy."

"Sorry…" With that Yugi switched with the Pharaoh who grimaced.

"She'll be fine as long as…"

"I know the rules." The Thief cut her off, making her purse her lips. "There's shit going on you're not aware of. You might want to check your bedroom."

Ba-Khu-Ra watched as colour drained from the Pharaoh's face as she turned and darted for the bedroom. Following behind closely, in case the other girl fell again, allowed her to see the fear and anger that flashed across Meisa's features as she beheld the soulless shell of Kawai Shizuka laying on her bed.

"She said she'd leave her alone." The Pharaoh's voice shook, deepening in her rage. "If I followed her lessons alone, without help."

"Was that her exact wording?" The thief pressed, needing to know if Ishizu was breaking a deal.

"Follow my clues and leave your dog to wander and she will be safe." The Pharaoh hissed out, crossing the room and sitting next to the girl.

"Technically, as long as her vessel and her soul are protected, she's safe. So Ishizu didn't lie. It's a stretch, but…" Ba-Khu-Ra trailed off as the Pharaoh reached out with her magic, which wrapped around the empty shell, able to relax at the sight of her ex handling her power like normal.

Until she wasn't.

The thief's eyes narrowed as the Pharaoh let out a pained gasp and retracted her power like one would retract a limb when they overstretched and pulled a muscle. Meisa's eyes scrunched closed and she wrapped her arms around herself, trembling as her breathing shuddered.

"Pharaoh?"

"I'm… I'm fine." The Pharaoh lied as she remembered Bakura was in the room and rose to her feet, trying to conceal the reaction that trying to break the Penalty had caused. "Did Ishizu say where her soul is?"

The Thief Queen didn't answer. She could easily see that the Pharaoh was not fine. Even without that reaction, she'd known the other teen too long to miss the signs. The dulled eyes, slight droop of her shoulders and uneven breathing weren't normal.

She had seen the Pharaoh like this before. Ishizu's playbook wasn't new. It wasn't even original. It was almost exactly the same damn playbook that Ba-Khu-Ra herself had run back in Egypt.

Keep pushing the Pharaoh, again and again and again, until her magical core failed, her life energy stopped regenerating properly and she had no choice but to do something drastic to get it all to stop.

The only real differences were that Ba-Khu-Ra had only had herself, so she had spread the attacks out over days and weeks, rather than sending minion after minion in the space of a day or two and that Ishizu had sped up the timeline by poisoning her target.

"No, she didn't and no, you're not." The Thief's words made the Pharaoh stare at her, "Let me help you."

The Pharaoh continued to stare, confusion and exhaustion dragging out a, "Why?"

It took Ba-Khu-Ra a moment to process the question. Her first thought was, "Why should I let you help me?", which made no sense considering Meisa's current condition. Then it struck her.

The question was, "Why would you want to?"

"Easy." Bakura slipped across the room and helped the Pharaoh sit, her touch gentle and caring, "I'm oathbound right now. I can't hurt you without losing information I've been waiting millennia for. That and I warned you, a long time ago. The only one who's allowed to kill you is me."

That drew a startled and relieved laugh from the Pharaoh who leaned into Bakura's hands.

"So how bad is it, sanura biew?"

"Without you using it against us?" Meisa's head tilted in her curiosity. 'Sanura biew' sounded familiar and hit the same mental cords as other things from her past, but she wasn't sure what exactly it meant, other than the fact it made her happy, suggesting it was a term of endearment.

"I have to side with you till after Battle City, by which point you'll be better again."

"It's bad." The Pharaoh's shoulders drooped completely, "Imoto's life energy isn't recharging properly, so I can't risk using too much more magic, in case I burn through the power she has available. I stretched it further than I should have to heal Jii-san and Kobayashi as it is. If I had my own life energy we'd be fine, but…"

The words "I'm just a ghost" hung in the air as Meisa trailed off.

Bakura grimaced. Shadow magic was primarily fuelled by life energy. As spectres, neither she nor Meisa generated their own life energy so they were reliant on their hosts for the power to cast their spells. Those spells were then strengthened by the fact their hosts were more balanced towards light than dark. With Yugi's soul fading because of the poison, any spells the Pharaoh cast would drain whatever reserves her twin had that were not being spent on keeping her soul alive. That could shorten the length of time the Pharaoh had to reach Hekigan before the worst happened.

Unless…

"I… I can help with that." Bakura couldn't believe she was about to do this, but keeping this secret was less important than ensuring the goal she'd been aiming for, for the last 3000 years, stayed in reach.

"How?" The Pharaoh asked, clearly confused.

Right up until Bakura kissed her.

As Meisa started to pull back, Bakura let her energies flow through the bond the Ring had to the Puzzle, restoring the Pharaoh's dwindling strength. The Pharaoh responded on instinct, kissing back as magic and life energy flooded through both her system and Yugi's, leaving them more recharged than they'd been in days.

When Bakura finally pulled back, panting for breath, the sight of her sanura, face flushed, breathing easily and glowing for the first time all day was worth the minor headache and slight heaviness in her limbs.

After all, she would heal with an energy drink and a snack… speaking of.

"You need to look after yourself better." The Thief Queen scolded her slightly stunned ex. "Just from how much energy you drank from me, I can tell you've not been sleeping properly again and you've probably not been eating either."

"How? Why?"

"One. I've known you long enough to know your stress reactions, so it's not a hard read. Two. The Puzzle?" The Thief explained as she dragged the Pharaoh to her feet and started herding her toward the kitchen, "It's the lynchpin of the whole set of items. As such, it can draw energy and abilities from the other items and their wielders."

"Why didn't you teach me this before?" Meisa managed more coherently.

"I wasn't going to tell you about this when I knew you'd use it against me." Bakura's retort made the Pharaoh roll her eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes, you did it in Egypt, so it's not a guess, it's a fact. Right now though, you need it and I still need you alive so I don't really have a choice but to tell you."

The Pharaoh couldn't deny Bakura's words when she couldn't remember Egypt, so she didn't bother trying. Instead she spent a little of the power she'd just received to heal the damage done to her soul during the last Shadow Game. Her head spun for a moment and she felt her sister suppress a shiver as some of the life energy drained away to pay for it, but it was worth it when she compared her ability to think and act now, versus moments ago.

That and she no longer felt like passing out, which was a huge improvement.

Still…

"Does it need to be a kiss?"

"Are you complaining?"

Meisa mentally stalled, unable to answer. Honestly, no, she had no complaints other than she was in Imoto's vessel so Bakura probably should have asked Yugi's permission first. Especially since her twin had a partner already.

"But no, it doesn't have to be a kiss. Just physical contact. You can't just yank energy away from anyone you're connected to magically, at any time." Ba-Khu-Ra continued to herd, pushing her onto a stool in the kitchen before raiding the fridge for sandwich supplies. "Don't know if it works the other way too, though you being able to share energy would explain how Seth got up after I dropped him on that last day."

"Seth?"

"High Priest Seth, your cousin."

"Kaiba."

"One of his past incarnations, yeah. Ah ha!"

The Thief was far more comfortable moving around the kitchen than the Pharaoh was entirely okay with, especially since she clearly knew where all the sharp knives were and the time between finding the butter in the fridge and shoving a sandwich at the Pharaoh was an impressively small amount.

"So… real talk. Jonouchi knows about both this and Shizuka and he's ticked."

Meisa grimaced when Ba-Khu-Ra gestured to her. She had wondered if keeping it quiet was a bad idea, but she'd followed Imoto's lead. If anything she was surprised that she hadn't gotten a phone call from him, checking on her twin, since he'd found out, but clearly he was too angry for that right now. Meisa understood, even if it stung her twin bitterly.

"He's hunting out her soul. I'm going to join him in a bit, once I see you off." The Thief Queen continued, "I would work with you more directly, but I know you're not going to be able to focus until Kawaii's safe so…"

"No, no. Helping Katsuya is more important right now. Knowing you're helping him will let me concentrate. I can't have any help anyway."

"Technically, you can." Bakura corrected her Pharaoh as she double checked to see if her deck was still in its carrier. "Ishizu only said for you to leave your dog to roam, she didn't mention your Shadow."

Meisa paused. Bakura had used that term before when explaining her position in the palace before the downfall. The Thief Queen had been one of her hands. The one that allowed her to do things that were necessary but unpleasant, without tarnishing the shining gold of the throne.

It was thinking of her former friend in that capacity that allowed her to ask, "If I call for assistance…"

"I'll be there if I can, but I need to sort out Jonouchi. He has to take priority right now. For both your sakes."

The Pharaoh grimaced as she felt fear hit her twin's heart hard. Bakura was dancing around the subject, which was rare for her, but it was clear that Ishizu had her claws in Katsuya. "How bad?"

"Nothing that can harm him yet, but he's not allowed to talk to you at all." Bakura could see the 'yet' had Meisa worried. "If we get the soul back, it won't matter."

Right there and then, both Meisa and Yugi decided they weren't going to call Ba-Khu-Ra away from the hunt for the missing soul or borrow any more power from her. They would handle the rest of the lessons alone.

"Tell him…"

Meisa's phone alert sounded, cutting off what the Pharaoh wanted to say and causing her to check her phone, which had one message from Ishizu.

"Tick tock."

"I have to go." The Pharaoh showed her ex the message, eliciting a hiss. "Thank you for helping us and him. You didn't have to."

"I mean, I did, I'm oathbound, but still, you're welcome. Now get out of here."

The Pharaoh nodded and started for the door, pausing midway through to look back over her shoulder and ask, "What does sanura biew mean?"

"Nothing polite."

Meisa knew it was a lie, but didn't press when Bakura was already doing a lot to help them. Instead she took the remains of her sandwich with her as she left at a run, toward the next lesson.

The moment she heard the outer door slam, Bakura leaned against the kitchen table and let out a sigh, uncertain she'd done the right thing and cussing herself for her moment of weakness.

Sanura biew. Kitten mine.

She shouldn't have said it. She knew that. Letting herself get close to the Pharaoh was how Egypt had happened. And how this new, modern mess, had come about.

But she missed her partner. As much as her sister was amazing and she had Honda, who seemed to want to be someone she could trust, she missed having someone at her back who could and would fight as hard as she would and could hold her own magically when the shit hit the fan.

It was stupid.

'You're allowed to feel, sister.' Amane offered, 'Even this.'

'Even if it gets them killed?'

'It won't. We won't let it.'

The Thief Queen smiled softly at the confidence her host had in them. In other circumstances, she would've said it was misplaced, but right now they HAD to work with the Pharaoh, so it was justified.

'You can tell they're not okay, though.' Amane continued as her partner untucked the Ring from beneath her shirt, 'They didn't check on the downstairs before they left.'

Bakura paused and moved over to the stairs down to the shop, where she could hear the sounds of Doctor Mutou giving a detailed report to a gruff sounding guy, 'Couldn't unless they wanted to get stopped by the cops who just arrived. Speaking of, we should go.'

'Leave a note about…?' Amane did not get to finish before they heard the voice of Ms. Kawai talking to someone on the phone as she came up the stairs from the street about getting a search party together.

'Damnit. We don't have time for this.'

'If we don't tell her about Shizuka, she'll badger the police and then all hell will break loose.' Amane countered, 'And that will make things worse.'

'If we don't find that soul in time…'

'I have faith in you. And the Ring. We'll find it, but for now we're the only ones who can settle Ms Kawai.'

'Fine, but you do it. I hate having to deal with humans.'

Amane was about to agree when she found herself dumped in control and unsure how to proceed. She knew Kawai knew about the magic stuff. After she had walked in on Ginka floating in the air while being cuddled by a ghost, they'd needed to explain it, but she had no idea of how to explain that it'd been set on her daughter.

'Doctor Mutou could help there. This happened to him last year.' The Thief Queen pointed out as the woman entered the room.

'Good idea, now wish me luck.' Amane took a deep breath as she stepped forward, half tempted to just cast a sleeping spell instead of explaining anything and hoping her friends would be okay if they delayed a little longer. "Kawai-san? Hi. I have something to tell you."