/Text/ Spirit to Host

/Text/ Host to Spirit

Chapter 34: Dread

Mokuba let out a panicked whine. "He's not answering..."

"Maybe he didn't hear it," said Téa, as Mokuba lowered the device from his ear, frowning.

"He keeps it on him all the time," said Mokuba, "And he keeps the vibrate on, so he'd feel it in his pocket."

"Maybe he left it on his desk or something."

Mokuba shrugged sadly. "Maybe."

Roland pulled his own phone from his jacket pocket and dialed a different number. "Odd. Fuguta is also not answering."

"Could the power still be out?" asked Ryou.

Roland dialed a different number, placed the call on speaker, and hung up as it was immediately transferred to a voicemail box. "Possibly."

Mokuba tried calling Seto's phone again as Roland turned to Pegasus. "The work is all done, correct?"

"Oh yes," Pegasus said, "Your tech boys finished days ago."

Roland swept from the room and down an adjoining hall to another locked door, Mokuba hurrying after him.

Ron looked to the rest of the group. "Uh…do we follow?"

Pegasus made a sweeping gesture. "Be my guest."

By the time they made it to the locked door, it was opened, revealing an office. Roland stood hunched over the desk typing something into the computer.

Pegasus arrived at the doorway, but unlike the others, didn't step foot into the office. "Well? Did they do a good job and hook everything up right?"

"We'll know in a minute."

"I did offer to test it for you, you know," said Pegasus.

Roland glared at him briefly. "And allow you to access the Kaiba Corp servers? No thanks."

"You can access Kaiba Corp from here?" asked Téa.

"And I can for Industrial Illusions as well," said Pegasus, "We may be hiding, but the world keeps turning, my dear, and work still needs to be done."

Roland turned to Mokuba. "Did it ring out, or go straight to his messages?"

"It rang," said Mokuba.

Roland turned back to the computer and started typing once more. "Try again."

Mokuba tapped his screen again and let the dial tone ring out in the small office. But no one picked up on the other end.

"Wait," said Yugi, "Let's try something else. Are we able to reach Grandpa?"

Mokuba frowned and tapped through his contacts to find the Game Shop. It rang twice.

"Hello? Mokuba?"

"Grandpa!" Yugi cried, "Are you alright? Are you safe?"

"Yugi! I'm fine. Sturgis and Hestia are here at the shop with me. We had quite a fright a short while ago, but it's quiet now."

Yugi sighed heavily. "Oh, thank goodness. You weren't hurt, were you?"

"No… though there were some strange lights outside. Red flashes, almost like from an ambulance or a fire truck, but no sirens. But they didn't last very long."

"Death Eaters," said Ryou, "They may have tried to get in."

"Well, it seems the protections that went up over the summer did their job. Aside from the power outage, if I hadn't looked out the window, I might not have noticed anything strange going on!"

"Are you still without power?" asked Téa.

"Our street is still dark," said Grandpa, "But I can see about two blocks down that their lights came back on. I imagine it's just a matter of time now."

"Can you see the Kaiba Corp building from your shop, Mr. Muto?" asked Mokuba, "We haven't been able to get into contact with Seto."

"I'm sorry, Mokuba, but I can't from here. But if the magic around my home worked against these Death Eater folks, then surely Kaiba Corp is protected too. The same wizards put them all up."

"That's true," said Harry, "They were all Order members."

"Are you kids alright? Where are you?"

"Safe house," Roland said, "Kaiba Land was attacked."

"We're fine," Yugi said quickly before Grandpa could start to panic over the other end of the line, "Just needed to make sure you were too."

"I'm alright. Hestia is going to stay here at the shop with me tonight, and I believe Sturgis is calling in more Order members in case something else happens before you all return to school."

"Are you going to stay home, Mr. Muto, or are you going to come here with us?" asked Tristan.

"I suppose, now that this little plan is in action, I'll have to. But I do have to take care of some things before I trek out to join you. I know we spoke about it once before…."

"I haven't forgotten," said Roland.

"…But in the meantime, I'll be alright here. I'm just sorry I won't get to see you kids before you go back to school."

Yugi's face fell. He didn't want to have to say goodbye for the next few months to his grandfather over the phone.

"…How are we getting back anyway?" said Harry curiously. "I mean, we got here in Kaiba's plane…but he doesn't know where we are. Are we going to fly back to the UK?"

"Should Remus and Tonks meet us here?" said Ryou.

"I wouldn't," said Pegasus from his spot leaning against the doorframe. "That was the purpose of this little sanctuary in the first place. If we were going to invite the magical population here, then you could have stayed home."

"What are you trying to do?" asked Harry. He looked back to Roland, who was quickly typing into the desktop computer, and then opened a laptop that had been sitting idly on the desk and turned that on as well.

"Pull the cameras. If the power is truly still down, then only certain feeds will remain active remotely. If it's up, I should be able to see most of the Kaiba Corp building." Roland glanced up at large screen television mounted on the wall. "…I thought I asked for two monitors."

Pegasus shrugged. "They said there was a wiring issue."

Roland grumbled and returned to his task as Pegasus walked away. "Sure there was…."

.

Hermione sat up slowly and looked around. She was alone in a richly-decorated room, a vast change from the traveling tunnels underneath Kaiba Land. Judging by the décor in the room, she wasn't still at the park. …Unless this was a room back in the hotel.

She got up and patted her jacket pocket to find her wand missing. That wasn't good. Was someone holding it for her – or had she been captured by the Death Eaters at the park? And if that was the case, was she even still in Domino, or back in Britain somewhere? And what of the others?

Hermione pushed aside the curtains at the window and saw nothing but trees. Well, that ruled out Kaiba Land. She also scratched the fleeting thought of capture; because if that had been the case, the odds are stronger she would not have been left in an open, inviting area of what looked like someone's house.

When she started hearing footsteps coming her way, she reached over and grabbed the closest item at her disposal – a painted vase – to defend herself. It seemed silly, seeing as any person with a wand would be able to disarm her with ease, but it was better than nothing.

Pegasus rounded the corner with a steaming mug in his hand, and froze the moment he stepped onto the sitting room carpet.

"Oh my – please put that down!"

"Where am I?"

Pegasus held out his hands non-threateningly, "In Kaiba-boy's little home away from home. But please – do put that down, I just finished work on it the other day and I'd hate to see my efforts shattered on the floor – or on me."

Hermione lowered her arm. "This – this is Seto's home?"

"Well, if we want to be extremely technical about it, we're in my home. But this is Kaiba's little back-up plan, in case your masked friends decided to pay Yugi and the others a visit." Pegasus pointed down the hall he had just come from. "If it eases your mind, your friends are down that way, playing 'I-Spy' on the Kaiba Corp cameras."

Hermione looked down briefly at the vase in her hands before gently setting it back down. "Who are you?"

Careful not to spill his mug, Pegasus performed a sweeping bow. "Maximillion Pegasus, creator of Duel Monsters and the proverbial thorn in Kaiba-boy's side, at your service." He tilted his head, "I see you're one of Yugi-boy's new friends – from that school, I gather. And you are?"

"Hermione Granger," she said, and looked out the window again. "Do you really live here in the middle of the woods?"

"No, not usually," said Pegasus lightly, "But you can say I've been making use of my little cottage ever since my castle was attacked on Christmas."

Hermione nodded, eyes wide. "…That's right – it was on the news. We saw it at Seto's home during Mokuba's Christmas party."

Pegasus's eye twinkled. "Oh my – one day you'll have to regale me with the stories of not only how our dear Kaiba threw a Christmas party, but also you ended up on a first-name basis with him." He nodded back towards the hallway and led her towards the makeshift Kaiba Corp office.

"…It's his name?" she said.

"Of course it is," said Pegasus, amused, "But the only person still alive that I know that's allowed to call him by it is little Mokuba."

Hermione wasn't really sure what he was trying to get at. "…He's never told us to not use it."

"Hmm." Pegasus mused and came to stop at the open doorway. Clearing his throat, he knocked hard on the doorframe. "I believe I've found the missing little lamb to your teenage herd."

Harry looked over as Ron let out a huge sigh, visibly relieved. "Hermione!"

"Are you alright?" asked Yugi.

She nodded. "I think so."

Tristan nodded. "That's a relief." He reached into his pocket and handed back her wand. "I think you'll need this..."

She gasped. "Thank you! I wasn't sure what had happened to it. But…what of the Death Eaters? They didn't follow us here, did they?"

"No," said Harry, "At least, it doesn't seem so. Professor Lupin said that more Order members were coming. And it turns out they had already gone after Yugi's grandfather in Domino."

"He's alright," Yugi said, before Hermione could even ask, "But it was definitely a scare. The Order is with him now."

"What about Ishizu?" Téa said suddenly, "She was already attacked once, wasn't she? What if the Death Eaters came back for her?"

"The Order has been keeping an eye on her too," said Yugi, "I think she's been staying at their base house until she goes back to Egypt with the Pharaoh's Tablets."

Roland grabbed a remote and switched on the large monitor. Instead of mainstream channels, the screen was split into eight different sections of the Kaiba Corp building. "Mr. Kaiba was in the office when the power went down," he said, pointing to the top left feed, "We need to find out what happened after that."

Hermione looked to the others. "Did something happen?"

"We can't get a hold of Kaiba," said Yugi, "So we're trying to work backwards and find out why he's not answering his phone."

"Where are those other places?" asked Ron.

"Hallways, the lobby, parking garage," said Roland, "I tried to choose the likeliest places he would have gone to should he have left his office."

"Can't we bring up the live feed and see if he's still there?" asked Tristan.

Roland shook his head. "There's a problem with the connection, I can only see the archived footage up to a certain point."

"Figures," said Joey.

"Wait!" Harry pointed to one of the hallways. "Who's that there?"

Mokuba squinted up. "Oh that's…Fuguta? I thought he had an appointment to go to." He turned to Roland. "That's why you guys swapped, wasn't it?"

"Maybe it finished early and he went back to work," said Ryou.

Mokuba shrugged. "I guess…"

Hermione bit her lip and turned back as the feeds started playing at an accelerated pace.

"So this is Kaiba in his natural habitat," said Joey, watching him work at the desk, then get up to file papers away before returning to his seat.

Téa rolled her eyes.

The feeds then blacked out, and after a few seconds came back on, but the picture was much grainier than before.

"What happened?" said Ron, "You can barely see anything."

"That's when the power dropped," said Mokuba, "There are a few emergency lights, but they won't be as good as if everything was on. That's why the footage doesn't look so great."

Harry watched Seto pick up his phone and place a call. "I take it that's when he was calling you?"

Roland nodded.

"…It looks…like he put it in his pocket when he hung up," said Téa, "If I'm seeing that right."

"Looked like it to me," said Yugi.

"Hey, is that Fuguta again?" asked Tristan. He pointed towards one of the other feeds on the screen.

Mokuba squinted up. "I can't tell…." He clutched at the hem of his jacket. One of the bad wizards at the park was disguised as a member of security. Would that stop someone from doing the same at Kaiba Corp? Even with the magic protections in place? How difficult would it be to dress in a dark suit and shades to blend in with the other guards in the building?

"Stop!" Téa said suddenly, "I saw something on the far right one. A flash of light."

"Death Eaters?" Ryou asked nervously. "I don't see any. Maybe one of the lights blew out."

Yugi's eyes darted from one feed to the next. That light flash could have been a spell being cast, but no one appeared that fit the general Death Eater description. A few more followed after. A guard would occasionally be seen walking up and down the hallways, and Fuguta seemed to check on Kaiba at least once, but that was it.

"Wait!" Pegasus darted into the middle of the room, eye wide. "Go back – the last ten or so seconds, then pause."

Yugi frowned. "What is it? What did you see?"

But he didn't have to wait for Pegasus to answer him. He didn't notice the first time – like the others, he was looking at the corridors, to find where the light flashes had come from. But there was no hiding the odd fog that seemed to spread through Kaiba's office until nothing more could be seen.

"What the –" Joey said, "That can't be good."

There was another flash of light – not from the security footage, but within the room they were all gathered. As the glow of the Millennium Ring faded out, Yami Bakura growled.

"I'd recognize that anywhere, grainy footage be damned. That is the Shadow Realm."

Pegasus's head jerked to Yugi in an instant. "That can't be. Surely you've got a handle on all of those pesky items by now."

"…Most of them," said Yugi, "Between us, at least."

"Could he have summoned it?" asked Téa, "Since he has the Millennium Rod?"

"It doesn't much matter," said Yugi quickly, and he heard Yami utter a quick agreement through their link. "I can't see him doing that on a normal basis, but in a fight? Perhaps. But the fact that it was summoned in Kaiba Corp isn't a good sign. We need to get back there and find out what's happened."

"Yo," said Joey, "How long ago was this?"

Roland glanced at the timestamp. "About the same time that your Auror friends arrived at Kaiba Land."

"Seto could be in trouble," Mokuba cried, "We have to go help him!"

"Out of the question!" All eyes fell on Pegasus. He caught Mokuba's despaired face and held up his hands defensively. "I want to help Kaiba as much as the rest of you –"

Joey snorted loudly.

Mokuba glared at him.

Pegasus sighed. "Honest, I do. But we also have to realize that going back could be a rather elaborate trap. Those men in masks were looking for you, Yugi-boy. Rushing in to do your usual 'saving of the day' could make matters worse."

"But we can't sit by and do nothing," said Mokuba. He looked back up at the large screen in time for all of the cameras to go out.

"What happened?" asked Harry. "Is there more?"

"Doesn't look like it," said Pegasus, and he had to quickly step to the side as Roland swept past him and back out of the room. "And where are you going?"

"We've all seen first-hand how dangerous that Shadow Realm is," said Roland stiffly, pulling his firearm from his inside jacket pocket and checking the rounds still left in it. "If you think I'm going to stand idly by while my employer is locked in one of those games, then you're sorely mistaken."

"And if you think we're going to just sit here, then you are too," said Téa, hands on her hips.

Joey and Tristan turned to her, incredulously.

"She's right," said Hermione, "We're all in this together."

"If this is a trap, I'm certainly not tossing all of you in it," said Roland, and he saw Pegasus nod out of the corner of his eye. "It defeats the purpose of this entire plan in the first place."

"Then we'll go," said Harry, "If there are Death Eaters, we can fight against them."

"And so will I," said Yami, after a quick flare of the Millennium Puzzle. "You have never participated in a Shadow Game. Bakura and I have. There's no telling if Kaiba is in over his head."

"With how many times you've had to bail him out over the years?" Pegasus shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure he is."

"You can argue semantics later," Roland snapped. "We need to leave. Now."

.

"I wish we were able to do something," said Téa, "I feel so helpless."

They stayed, huddled around the desk in the makeshift Kaiba Corp office. Mokuba sat on the lone couch, ignoring them all, his gaze single-focused on the cell phone in his hand. No less than ten missed calls, spaced from their arrival at the house to minutes after half the group departed back to town.

"Sometimes staying out of the fire is better than jumping right into it," said Pegasus, tapping away at his own phone.

"What're you doin'?" asked Joey.

"Nothing of great consequence," said Pegasus mildly, "I only walked out on a conference call when you lot arrived." He lifted his head and sighed. "You know – adult things. Take it from me, kids. Don't get old."

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Says the person who lives through cartoons."

Pegasus's lone eye glimmered. "We all have our hobbies."

Téa sat down next to Mokuba. "I hope the guys are okay. We barely escaped those masked people at the park!"

"It is rather peculiar," said Pegasus, turning to look up at the monitor on the wall. Once they ran out of material to watch, the screen was turned off. "How would these Death Eaters manage to summon the Shadow Realm?"

"What's to say Kaiba didn't do it?" asked Tristan.

Pegasus raised an eyebrow, "Kaiba-boy may have been thrust face-first into a world full of magic, but do you really expect him to use that Millennium Item of his? I'm more surprised he hasn't used it as a deadly weapon yet."

"He tried," said Mokuba, the first words he had spoken since Yugi and the others left. "The day he got it. The handle thing comes off, and there's a knife underneath."

"You're kiddin'," said Joey.

Mokuba shook his head and paused, biting his lip. Somehow, Pegasus got wind of Seto obtaining a Millennium Item. Did he know about Set being inside it too? Or just that the Rod had changed hands, like Bakura knew before anyone had told him.

"He uh…almost attacked Yugi with it," Mokuba said carefully, and it wasn't a total lie. While Set was the one that tried to stake Yami Bakura with the dagger end of the Millennium Rod, Seto was probably ready to do the same thing to Yami if he was truly given the chance.

"Now that sounds more like Kaiba-boy," said Pegasus, "But I can't see him actively using a Millennium Item. Babysitting it, maybe, but not tapping into its power." He slipped around the desk, sat in front of the computers, and began tapping away at the keyboard.

Tristan pointed at him, confused before turning to Joey. "Uh…"

"Hey, uh…you supposed to be fiddlin' on Kaiba's network? Didn't that get you into a load of trouble during…you know, Duelist Kingdom?"

"Oh pish posh," said Pegasus, waving a hand flippantly, "It's not my fault that he left the computer on in his haste go on a suicide rescue mission." He gestured his arm widely at the couch. "And the company vice president is sitting over there. If he wants me out, he can say so."

"Depends," Mokuba grumbled, and leaned against Téa, sniffing loudly as she put her arm around him. "If it's not something to help the others, then get off."

"For your information, I'm going back through some of the footage that dear Roland showed all of you in hopes of a better clue. It's hard to focus on more than one place at a time."

"What else is there to see?" asked Téa, "We saw the smoke cloud, and flashes in the hallway that didn't come from any wizard."

"I just want another look," said Pegasus, "And then I'll slink off to the far end of the house and enjoy peaceful solitude."

Tristan pushed himself off of the wall and went around the desk to stand over his shoulder.

Pegasus flashed him a sly grin. "Making sure I'm not up to anything naughty, are we? Going to slap my wrist away and tattle if I click out of the screen?"

"No," Tristan shook his head, "But you said so yourself that it's hard to focus on a bunch of things at once. I thought you could use the help…and it's not like anything else is going on here."

Pegasus blinked, surprised. "…Alright." He pointed to the left side of the screen. "Watch that side."

The room slipped into an eerie silence. Joey had wandered behind the desk to watch the camera playback again, and Téa stayed on the couch where Mokuba had scrunched himself up against her, and had slightly dozed off, his hands still tightly clutching his cell phone like a lifeline.

Every few seconds, Mokuba would hit the button on the side of his phone to wake it up, see there were no messages or returned calls, and slump his shoulders. His attempts to sneak his way into the group heading back to Domino had failed miserably, though he knew Roland wasn't going to let him go. But he had to try.

Seto had once – more than once – risked everything to save him when he needed it. Now, situations were reversed, and all he could do was sit around and wait. It wasn't right.

"Stop."

Joey's words sliced through the quiet, and Téa lifted her head up and looked towards the desk. "What do you see?"

Joey pointed to the screen. "Anyone see what I see?"

Tristan leaned forward and squinted at the feed from inside Kaiba's office. "Is that…gold?"

"Whatever it is, it's in the Shadow Realm cloud," said Pegasus, "And…that speck of gold is shaped almost like the symbol on all of the Millennium Items."

"Wait a second," said Téa, shifting slightly, jostling Mokuba from his not-nap. "Didn't Yugi say that he and Kaiba were trying to draw out some Shadow Monster - the thing that was going after him at school?"

"It didn't work though," said Tristan, "Remember? Yugi said it didn't show up."

"But they were using Kaiba as bait," said Téa, and Mokuba froze, eyes wide. "What if it…just arrived?"

Mokuba looked from Téa to Joey and Tristan. "…What are you talking about? My brother and Yugi were trying to summon a monster?"

Joey cringed.

Mokuba leveled a glare on him that would have made Seto proud. "Alright, Joey. What else has Seto been keeping from me?"

Pegasus looked between them both curiously.

Joey let out a huge sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, man. Uh…Yug' knows more than the rest of us…"

"Yugi is not here. So you better tell me what you know," said Mokuba. All traces of exhaustion were gone. "And don't you dare leave anything out."

.

"There's no Dark Mark here," said Harry, as they hurried into Kaiba Corp. "That's a good sign."

"Is the building normally this empty?" asked Ron. "And dark?"

"The only employees that should be here at this hour are the night officers," said Roland, swiping his badge along a side door at the far end of the Kaiba Corp lobby. "And Fuguta and Mr. Kaiba, since we saw them on camera. As for the lights – it seems the main power is still down, which is odd, considering lights are on in the city square. Emergency lights are still on."

"This isn't the same hallway we down before," said Harry.

"No," Roland said, his voice low. "It is not."

"What's down this way?" asked Hermione, "The lift was back in the lobby."

They passed by a staircase going up, and then another locked door that blended in so well with the wall that Harry wouldn't have even noticed his existence unless it was specifically pointed out to him.

"Express elevator. It makes only two stops, and is only meant to be used in extreme emergencies," said Roland, "It goes only to the fifteenth and thirtieth floors."

They watched as he swiped his badge again, and then moved to line up to a panel for a retina scan.

"That's a lot of security for an elevator," Yami Bakura said, crossing his arms.

"This elevator was installed by Mr. Kaiba's predecessor," Roland said stiffly as the doors opened. Once they were inside, he hit the button for the fifteenth floor. "Through the old company's manufacturing of high-grade weaponry, he also took part in a number of questionable business practices, and used his wealth and power status to his advantage. I imagine he was concerned that something would come back to haunt him. This hallway and elevator was set up to only be accessible to a select few, so no one could just hop in and ride up to Mr. Kaiba's office. It also meant that he could have a stealthy exit of the building, if he so wished."

"But that was through the old company," said Hermione, "Seto doesn't take part in making weapons anymore."

"That is correct," said Roland, "After taking control, Mr. Kaiba reset the codes and slimmed down who had access to this route."

"Let me guess – is it just you and the boss?" said Bakura.

"Fuguta does, as well as Mokuba," said Roland, "As for anyone else, unless they are highly-trusted members of security, I doubt Mr. Kaiba gave anyone else access. Most people are unaware this route even exists."

The elevator didn't give a faint bell announcing its arrival. When it stopped, a panel on the wall turned on, revealing a camera's eye view of the deserted hallway on the other side of the door.

Ron's eyes were wide. "That's really what's on the other side of us?"

"Is it just me, or is Kaiba paranoid too?" said Bakura.

"Gozaburo Kaiba was paranoid, and rightfully so. The transition from weapons to gaming did not go smoothly. After recovering from the Duelist Kingdom fallout, Mr. Kaiba had the monitors installed."

"Makes sense, I guess," said Harry, "What's the point of trying to get away if you don't know if someone's going to be waiting for you on the other side of the door?"

"But…" Yami frowned. "Kaiba's office is on the top floor. Where are we?"

"Security office is on this floor," said Roland, pressing the button to open the door. "I'm not going upstairs blind."

"I thought the cameras were down," said Hermione as they trailed after him. "How are we going to be able to see?"

"The remote setup at the safe house isn't able to access everything. There are supposed to be back up servers running in an event like this. And if not…I'm not raising hell up there with only three slugs."

Ron wrinkled his nose. "Slugs?"

Harry shook his head and pulled his wand from his jacket pocket. "He's arming up."

"Oh. You mean whatever he used to take down that guy at the park?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah."

"Huh…Muggles sure do have funny names for stuff."

/I have a really bad feeling about this, Yami./

/As do I, Yugi./

"It's strange," Bakura mused, glancing around curiously. "When your Priest was first released from the Rod, I was able to detect the change in magic from the other side of town. But we know the Shadow Realm was summoned above us…yet I don't feel anything."

Hermione bit her lip as they entered the security office. It was set up similar to the one in Kaiba Land, only larger. The walls were covered in monitors showcasing various camera angles from all over the building, and there were no less than ten desks in the room, with another locked door in the back.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing good, obviously," said Harry.

Bakura shook his head. He had his suspicions, of course, but he wasn't about to say them out loud. He hadn't forgotten about the night that he and the Pharaoh jumped into Seto Kaiba's head to save him from the Shadow. How the shadows blocking their entryway responded to him as if he had cast the magic in the first place, despite it being the opposite. It had stumped him for a good while, at least until they were forced back into Kaiba's soul room in time for a Blue Eyes White Dragon to fry the Shadow from Kaiba's mind.

And he was able to see just who the Shadow was. True, it was only a silhouette, but there weren't a great many individuals related to the Millennium Items that took that shape.

Like Set's appearance in the first place, this changed things quite a bit.

Roland moved to the locked door. "I will be back in a moment." He gestured up at the walls. "Mr. Kaiba's office should be on the middle cluster, as should the outside hall."

Harry took another look around. "I could be wrong…but…shouldn't someone be in here? Why is this place so deserted?"

"I've got a hunch, and it's not a good one," said Ron.

"Why, what is it?" asked Yami.

"Well, let's assume Death Eaters are here," said Ron, "And they're waiting for us. They could just Imperius all the guards they found along the way to be shield fodder to them. What if the trap they set isn't from them or any Millennium Item magic – but it's the Muggles?"

Yami looked down at Yugi's wand. "Would magic stop a bullet?"

Hermione looked unsure, and it did little to reassure any of them. "I-I don't know. And that's not quite a thing you want to test out." She pointed up at the monitors. "I don't even see the office here."

Roland reemerged from the back room, sliding something into the bottom of his firearm as he crossed the room. The door behind him closed and locked with a heavy click. "It's probably one of those two," he said, pointing to the only two screens portraying static. "Let's go."

"We were wondering – where is the rest of your team?" asked Yami. "I know the man in the park was a Death Eater in disguise, but shouldn't someone have been stationed here in the office?"

"Someone should have been," said Roland, gesturing to the earpiece that wasn't in place before he disappeared into the back room. "There's no chatter, so either they're just not answering, or have up and left."

There was, of course, another option, but he ground his teeth at the thought and refused to voice it.

No one spoke on the ride back to the top of the tower. When the elevator stopped, the panel on the wall turned back on, showing another deserted hallway leading up to a corner.

Roland hovered his firearm over the door release button. "Let me go first."

"Any words of advice, if your guys are around that corner waiting for us?" asked Ron.

"Yeah. Don't forget to duck, or block, or whatever it is that your magic does," said Roland. "We have routine training and evaluations throughout the year. They won't miss."

They moved slowly down the corridor up to the rounding corner. Roland gestured for them to stay back, gripped his firearm tightly in both hands, and quickly did a slight peek around the edge.

Harry could tell something was wrong even before words were said. Roland leaned back against the wall, eyes closed for a few seconds, head hung, before regarding his charges. "It's clear – but…" he paused, and his voice was laced with sorrow, "it's not pretty."

Bakura turned the corner and felt Ryou – who had been watching from their corridor, quiet but worried nonetheless – stagger back against his wall. "Well," he said, a bit too harshly for the sight they found themselves in, as Hermione gasped and clasped her hand to her mouth in horror, "I think we found your guards."

Roland knelt down next to the closest one, pressing his fingers against the man's neck.

"Is…is he?" Hermione asked, but she couldn't finish her thought, or take her eyes off the grim sight in front of them.

Roland shook his head and got back up, surveying the scene: four of his colleagues, two of them junior officers. The guards looked to have been coming from the same direction they had – the emergency lift to Mr. Kaiba's office, and were picked off not long after rounding the corner, one by one. Did one of them discover the attack and call for back up? Which of them unknowingly sealed all of the others' fate by summoning them all to Mr. Kaiba's defense?

"Wait – this wasn't done by magic," said Ron, looking slightly sick. "If Death Eaters did this, there'd be no blood. The Killing Curse, it's not gruesome. Quick flash of light and that's it."

Roland was snapped out of his thoughts. Three of them were facing the door to Seto Kaiba's office. One faced them. All four of them had their weapons out. A few rested in lifeless hands, others were dropped. He sidestepped one of the others and checked for another pulse, only to find none.

/You don't think…/ Yugi began, hugging his arms to his chest. He felt ill. /You don't think they took each other out…do you?/

/I don't want to think so/ said Yami. /But…that's… almost what it looks like. /

Roland sidestepped one of the three clustered bodies, moved to the last one, and reached for the fallen firearm. The clip was empty.

Hermione slowly approached him, took a quick look at the guard's face before having to turn away, eyes closed, cringing.

Roland straightened up again and looked towards Kaiba's office. A large blood spray was splattered on the wall directly opposite the open doorway, but there was no body to go with it. Steeling himself, he gestured for the others to stay behind him, despite the lack of offense up to that point, raised his weapon and stepped through the doorway.

As the long occupant in the room, Fuguta lay crumpled on the office floor, his firearm resting in his outstretched hand, and his eyes wide, unseeing.

.

With a pained groan, blue eyes slowly fluttered open, blinking back foggy vision until a dark ceiling came into view. He stared up, unmoving for several seconds. That was not the ceiling from his office. Or anywhere in his home, and certainly not anywhere from Kaiba Land. The vintage light fixture, though off, was coating in a good layer of dust. The only light seemed to come from the warmth of the roaring fireplace off to the side of the room.

Seto eased himself up, his elbows digging into the equally dusty sofa and tried to look around. The couch faced the fireplace, flanked by full bookcases that seemed to stretch the entirety of the wall. An armchair sat nearer to the fire, but was empty. Clearly, this was some sort of library or makeshift study.

…Wherever here was.

He slowly got to his feet, his head pounding, and looked himself over. He didn't appear hurt, though his suit now had a fair few wrinkles in it; no doubt from sleeping off whatever drug or spell he was struck with and then brought here.

His "KC" communicator was still pinned to his lapel, but he doubted it would carry a signal to Kaiba Corp security from his current location. Sluggishly, he reached into his inner jacket pocket but the search for his phone came up empty.

"Looking for this?"

Seto whirled around, a hair too fast, and had to steady himself against the couch before he fell, disoriented. His head pounded harder. Once he had righted himself, he looked up, and his eyes narrowed as a feeling of dread washed over him.

Ishizu's description was spot-on. Sitting at the head of a long table was a man, bald and exceptionally pale, with cold red eyes, a flattened nose – if one could even call it that – and long narrow fingers.

Seto's phone sat clutched in his hand.

Voldemort gestured to the empty chair to his left at the table. "I am pleased to see you are unharmed, Seto Kaiba. Come, sit. We have much to discuss."