Mokuba's eyes widened, as the glow around his hands seemed to get bigger. Suddenly in a bright flash, the glow was gone.

"Well did it work?" Ryo asked as he was still holding Mokuba in his arms. He had been since he called him over.

"We'll see." Yugi said slowly removing the now dry cloth.

Just as Yugi had hoped Mokuba's hands looked the way a normal kid his age should. No marks, no calluses, nothing.

"I did it!" Yugi said.

"You sure did." Ryo said.

"Now all I have to do is convince the doctor that I can heal patients." Yugi said.

"Don't worry Yugi, I'm sure you'll be fine." Ryo said.

Mokuba looked at his hands surprised. He couldn't believe they were really his hands. Then he leaned over and hugged Yugi.

Yugi was very surprised and unsure of what to do, so he just lightly patted the boy's back.

Mokuba sat up and said, "T-thank you Yugi."

Yugi smiled. "You're very welcome Mokuba."

"You know you're right, um I'm sorry I forgot your name."

"It's Ryo and I'm happy to help."

"Well now I know I can do this! All that's left to do is to convince the doctor and other people that I'm good."

"I'm sure you will. Well we'd better get going and let you finish up."

"Wait, you helped me, the least I can do is help you. What can I do for you?" Yugi asked Ryo.

"No, it's fine. You don't have to do anything, I'm happy to help." Ryo said.

Yugi then bent down to Mokuba. "Well little one for you I'll do two things. First, may I hold your necklace?"

Mokuba thought it an odd request but nodded in agreement.

Yugi held the baby dragon pendant in his hand, closed his eyes and started to chant lightly. Soon a green glow appeared then faded away.

"W-what was that?" Mokuba asked.

"It's a very powerful protection spell I've been working on. Now it appears like this necklace connects to something. Does it?" Yugi asked.

Mokuba smiled and nodded. "I-it's g-got t-two other p-parts, one on each side. I g-gave one to Seto and t-the other to Yami."

"Well now if you connect your half to each of theirs, it doesn't have to be at the same time, but if you connect yours to theirs the spell will spread to theirs and protect them as well. This way you will all be protected from harm." Yugi said.

Mokuba smiled very brightly and hugged Yugi's neck to the point he couldn't breathe, causing Ryo to laugh a little. Mokuba finally let up and Yugi could breathe again.

"I'll take that as a thank you and you're quite welcome." Yugi said. "Besides I would never want anything to happen to the king. I've only met him a time or two but he seems nice. Would you do me a favor, Mokuba?"

Mokuba nodded.

Yugi got up, dug around and found a small bag. Then he put some books and after glancing over them to be sure, he had the ones he wanted to send out; he put a couple of scrolls into this bag. He then walked over and handed the bag to Mokuba.

"Would you give this to Master Yami for me? I promised him a couple of my spell books when I finished with them and I'm going to give him a few scrolls to study."

"Master Atemu is into magic?" Ryo asked, surprised that Yugi got to call Yami by his first name.

"Yes, he saw me practicing one day. I was trying to make flowers bloom with my magic. He asked if the magician is powerful enough to protect the ones he loves. I told him yes. He also I think wants to get good enough that he can locate a person dead or alive. I can but my range is limited at the moment. I can locate a person inside the castle and the town but at the moment that's as far as I can go."

"Why does he need a locator spell?"

"You know about the king's brother right?"

"Oh, yes now I remember."

"Well he wants to be able to locate him. If he's dead they can accept it, move on and not have to continually wonder what happened."

"I thought they had given up when they adopted Mokuba." Ryo said.

"I doubt they will ever truly give up."

"I see. Well we've kept you from your practice we'd best be going."

"Well I still feel I owe you something. If you ever need a favor please let me know." Yugi said.

"I will thank you. Come along now Mokuba, let's go up upstairs and read for a while."

"Okay big brother. Bye Yugi."

"Bye guys."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

While all of this was going on Malik was meeting up with Marik and was soon to get a surprise visitor.

"Well I've heard there's to be a royal court held Monday and Tuesday. That means sometime after that we have got to lure him out of the castle and kill him." Malik said.

"Had Marik done his job when the king took the royal carriage into town there wouldn't be a need for this conversation. These conversations are going to get one or both of you caught when the deed is done." A mysterious voice from the shadows said.

"Who are you? Who are you to criticize how and when I do my job?" Marik said.

Then a young woman with long black hair stepped out of the shadows.

"Ishizu, what are you doing here?" Malik asked.

"If father were to find out you were here." Marik said.

"Our father has more important things to worry about. In case you've forgotten his kingship has 4 children, his new wife bent over backwards when it came to giving him new children. When he caught our mother cheating on him, we became failures in his eyes. Nothing we could ever say or do could ever please him after that." Ishizu said.

"Yeah, he threw us out after he had our mother killed!" Malik said.

"I've heard he doesn't even socialize with his new children." Marik said.

"I guess since he papered and loved us so much he felt it gave our mother a reason to cheat on him." Ishizu said.

"Yeah, now that bastard's taking it out on the new kids." Marik said sadly being the youngest of the three.

"I should rightfully take fathers place when he dies becoming the first queen to actually rule the kingdom!"

"Father would never allow it. He'd kill you first." Marik said.

"Yes, I am well aware of that. However, even if I cannot and he insists on the first born son then Malik should be the next king, but no father would never allow that, either!" Ishizu said.

"Malik, why not me? We're twins!" Marik protested.

"But dear little brother Malik is still 5 minutes older." Ishizu said.

Marik never liked to be reminded of that. "Now, what's this about my skills as a sharpshooter?"

"I saw the king in town the other day. You allowed him to get there and back without even attempting to take him out. Are you serious about continuing to be an assassin? You were only 12 when you killed your first person. So if you're getting scared and want to back out now it's understandable." Ishizu said.

"I am an assassin! Just because I'm waiting for the perfect opportunity to take him out doesn't mean I'm ready to retire!" Marik said.

"What's your excuse Malik? Being inside the castle was supposed to give you the inside scoop on things like this." Ishizu said.

"Give me a break Ishizu. By the time I learned that the king was going into town I was already on duty. What was I supposed to do, leave my post or send a messenger to track down Marik's whereabouts and say hey I left my post to tell you you've got the perfect opportunity to kill the king. Then have people question why I left my post. You don't think if the king had been killed, they wouldn't suspect me. They would have really suspected me had I done that or even if I had traded shifts I'd be the first person they'd suspect. If not me then Marik, he's been hanging around the castle a lot lately who's to say someone might not have seen him." Malik said.

"I'm careful not to let anyone see me." Marik said.

"I know you like danger Marik but that's a dangerous game you're playing. You can't know for certain that no one saw you." Ishizu said.

"I wonder what father would think if he knew 3 of his four children from a previous marriage have turned into assassins." Marik said.

"He'd never believe it. We're too soft and weak! Just like Odion, that traitor!" Malik said.

"Malik, Odion never approved of our choices not to fight our father." Ishizu said.

"Yeah, what good does it do him now, being fathers little lap dog!" Malik said.

"I'm sorry Ishizu, but he's right. Father had an affair with our nanny which resulted in Odion." Marik said.

"Yes, the poor girl, we may never know if father had her killed or just sent away. I remember mother always telling us that father had found him abandoned on the side of the road. I've often wondered if he really had her convinced or if she knew but chose not to say anything in case he hurt Odion." Ishizu said.

"I think she knew since our nanny suddenly quit as father put it and then Odion shows up. I think she knew all along." Malik said.

"Perhaps that's the reason Odion remains by fathers side, he has delusions that father will tell what he did with his mother!" Ishizu said.

"I doubt that! He always seemed so attached to father growing up as we weren't that close he for some reason was." Marik said.

"Not to mention the fact that when we told him we became assassins, he basically disowned us claiming to not know us! He's a traitor pure and simple!" Malik said.