A.N: Wow, it sure has been a long time since I updated this story. ^^U I've been kind of caught up in my other stories. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO or HP.

Chapter 34

Yami was worried. Something was clouding his ability to locate his companions, and usually his sense of direction in the shadow realm was flawless. On top of that, he couldn't contact Yugi. And he knew that no ordinary power could block their link so completely.

The monsters also troubled him. It wasn't their presence, obviously, this being the realm and all, but all the monsters he had seen since his arrival in the mountains had been odd. They acted normally enough, but their eyes had been flat and they hadn't seemed to recognize him.

Well, first thing first. He had to find Yugi and the others before something irreversible happened to them. Hopefully the rest of the wizards would be able to keep themselves in one piece long enough for the Item bearers to reach them. That thought made him cast a glance back over his shoulder to make sure Harry was still following him. The dark-haired boy had a speculative look on his face and Yami wondered briefly what he was thinking. It had to be disconcerting for him, but the boy was handling the situation fairly well. Hopefully the rest of the Hogwarts students were doing as well.

Something pricked at the edges of his consciousness and Yami stopped abruptly, causing his companion to nearly run into him.

"What is it?" Harry asked, confused. Instead of answering, the duelist turned and started running down a narrow trail branching from their current path. Harry stared at his retreating back for a split second before bolting after him, calling out for him to slow down. The duelist didn't seem to hear him. He skittered around corners and climbed nimbly over ridges like someone well used to traversing rough terrain. When Harry finally caught up, it was only because he had stopped in a small valley of rocks sheltered by an overhanging cliff.

"What did you—" Harry started to ask only to stop when what he was seeing finally registered in his mind. He stared. There was Yugi standing in front of him where he'd stopped, and…there was Yugi, leaning against the base of the cliff.

What the…

X

It was like a scene out of some kind of nightmare. Monstrous buildings loomed high on every side, forcing away the sky and squeezing what was left into pale, gray patches that just made it all feel that much more closed in. The air itself was choked with cloying steam and almost every surface was dark with smoke and soot stains. But none of that was the worst part. No, the worst part was that there were no people anywhere to be seen—or at least no one human. Instead strange beasts and even stranger contraptions, all armored and metallic, creaked and clanked along the streets as though they owned the place.

In retrospect, they probably did. It was the three of them who were out of place.

"Where are we?" he demanded of the world in general for the umpteenth time since he'd opened his eyes in this horrible place.

Seated on the ground beside him, Seamus groaned, burying his face in his hands as though to block out the world. "I don't know either."

"What's wrong with the two of you?" the last member of their little band demanded, annoyance twisting across his face. "I already told you like a million times. This is Geartown. Man, you don't listen well, do you?"

"There's no such place," Seamus muttered, still not looking up though they could see his eyebrows drawing together into a fierce frown through his fingers. "I've never even heard a name even remotely like that."

The blonde laughed. "You wizards must live with your heads under rocks or something. Don't you know anything?"

Ron sighed and sank onto the ground beside Seamus. In normal circumstances he thought he'd probably have been insulted, but as the situation stood he was beginning to feel like he really didn't know anything. And that just really stunk.

"Let me explain then," the blonde declared, looking rather smug. Funny, Malik could be arrogant at times, but Ron couldn't remember him ever being quite so vindictive looking. "Geartown is a Field for machine monsters—in this case, the Ancient Gear tribe. A lot of those guys out there are Ancient Gears, though you'll see a few other machine types out there if you look closely."

"What I want to know is how we leave," Ron muttered, glancing out of the mouth of the alley they were in again only to find that nothing had changed.

"To the castle!" Malik announced, excitement kindling in lavender eyes as a wicked grin stretched across his face.

"Can we get back to school through there?" Seamus asked eagerly, only to receive a blank look.

"How am I supposed to know that?"

"But then why do you want to go there?"

"Because it's the castle, duh," the blonde replied as though the answer should be obvious and he couldn't understand why they were even asking such a stupid question. "There's bound to be guards to fight, treasure to find, you know, all that good stuff."

The two wizards traded dubious looks but neither of them wanted to be left behind so they had no choice but to follow the duelist as he strode right out into the street like he owned the place. Watching him, they couldn't help but wonder… Had Malik always looked so…so… The only word either of them could come up with was 'crazy', but they didn't really want to think that right now. Especially not since Malik was the only one who seemed to have any idea where they were and what they could do about it—even if those ideas were a bit skewed.

X

The part of Hermione that always wanted to learn more really wanted to ask her two companions more about the jungle they were now traversing and the hows and whys to their being here. She didn't, however, because she couldn't help but notice that there was something…off about the two duelists.

For one, Malik kept calling the white-haired boy Bakura. Of course, that was his name too, but Hermione knew for a fact that the blonde usually addressed his friend by first name. Why the sudden change? Unless he was still annoyed and blaming the other for their situation? She supposed that was possible. Still… She couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it. Something she was missing…

If she didn't know better, she'd say that this wasn't Ryou at all. But that was ridiculous. If it wasn't Ryou, who could it be? Someone who just so happened to look like him and share his name? But no, he knew about the duel Ryou and Malik had been having and talked like he'd been in it. On top of that, Ryou did occasionally act more like…well, different (and he seemed mostly normal now—or at least he did when she was looking). It was just one of those mood swings the duelists all had now and then. It had to be Ryou. All logic pointed to that.

So why couldn't she get rid of the feeling that it wasn't?

"I don't get it," Malik muttered as he pushed aside another massive, feathery fern. "It shouldn't be this hard to find the others. Something's interfering."

The white-haired duelist let out an extremely un-Ryou-like snort. "Naturally. Don't tell me you just figured that out. You're getting rusty."

"Shut up," the blonde snapped irritably. "If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

In the distance, something roared. Whatever the creature was, it sounded large, but it also sounded far enough away not to be a concern.

With so many strange noises vying for dominance in this strange place, it took Hermione several minutes to realize that there was one particular sound that was growing gradually louder. It began as a faint, low-pitched hum just barely within the threshold of human hearing. As the moments passed, however, it grew louder and more vibrant. It buzzed, rattling the air until it felt as though every molecule in the atmosphere was being hyper-charged with energy.

"What is that abominable din?" Ryou exclaimed finally, scowling around at the trees. Somewhere in the last few minutes the tropical vegetation had been replaced by a new batch of equally unrecognizable plants. Even so, they were still plenty tall and thick enough to hide the source of the buzzing.

By now all three of them had stopped walking, unconsciously shifting to face outwards in a circle. Malik scanned the rustling foliage with careful eyes. It had to be a monster, he mused. It couldn't be anything else, considering where they were. The sheer volume of sound however was almost enough to be alarming. It was either a really big monster or a whole horde of them. While he wasn't particularly worried about their odds, it did make him slightly uneasy when he remembered their wizard acquaintances who had most likely been scattered around here somewhere.

Tilting his head back, he scanned the skyline just visible over the treetops. The smoke from the volcano was no longer visible, but something else was. It was a flicker of motion just over the canopy.

"Over there!" he called out, pointing up. No sooner had the words left his mouth then the air was suddenly full of life.

There were dozens of them. Bold, yellow and black stripes danced in almost mesmerizing patterns as they swarmed. They were massive, with long, hairy legs and stingers longer than the humans' arms. It was the rapid beating of their wings that made the air buzz.

At almost exactly the same moment, three figures came bursting from the underbrush a few meters down the path they had been traversing. Hermione recognized them instantly. It was Dean, Nevile—and Ryou? She stared for a moment in confusion before she looked to her side where another Ryou was still very much there.

Nevile tripped and would have fallen if Dean and Ryou hadn't each caught one of his arms and dragged him up. Three particularly large bee monsters were hot on their heels, stingers poised for attack.

"Why are you running?" the Ryou that Hermione and Malik had been traveling with demanded of his counterpart as they approached. "They're just Killer Needles!"

At least three pairs of ears did not find this statement to be all that reassuring. Killer anything sounded pretty dreadful to them.

As though on cue, several more of the largest of the monsters zoomed forward, stingers at the ready and wings whirring like buzz saws. All six humans were forced to duck.

Malik swore, pulling out his Millennium Rod and brandishing it at the swarm. A lash of dark power took out one monster, but three more rose immediately to take its place. "Damnit, does anyone have an Insect Barrier on them? I'd Dark Hole the damned things but we haven't found everyone yet and I don't want to suck up one of the others by accident."

"I—I think I might have one somewhere," the Ryou who had arrived with Dean and Nevile stammered as he rummaged for his extra cards and tried to shuffle through them while simultaneously rolling out of the way of a particularly vicious stinger jab. All the duelists habitually kept a deck of random, extra cards that might come in handy in a pinch. An instant later, threads of brilliant, yellow light streaked through the air in every direction, forming a complex web of finger-thick threads that crackled with power. The giant bees buzzed angrily, but not a single one seemed able to move anymore.

The duelists all relaxed and sat up. Their wizarding companions took a moment longer, staring up and around at the hovering swarm with heavy misgivings. The yellow threads of light didn't exactly look strong when compared to the monstrous bee-shaped monsters. The threads weren't even actually touching the beasts in most of the occasions. However, after several long moments had passed with no further assaults launched by said insects, the wizards too sat up.

That was when Dean and Nevile really looked at the others and noticed the extra head of white hair.

They stared.

"…Ryou?" Dean ventured, eyes darting from one white-haired boy to the other in mounting confusion as he realized that no, this was not a figment of his imagination. "Uh, why are there two of you?" he managed to ask, though he didn't manage to stop staring.

One of the Ryous let out a nervous laugh as he scratched the back of his neck. "Um, well, you see… It's a bit of a long story."

Off to the side, Malik let out a snort. "Man, this is just what we needed."

TBC

A.N: To be honest, I'm still pretty stuck in this, but I am still working on it! It was funny because I got to PMs asking about this story right when I started rereading it myself. Talk about coincidences. By the way, I was informed that a couple of the chapters went missing. I replaced those, but if any more disappear place send me a PM and I'll see about fixing it. I kind of confused as to how they disappeared though. Strange… Well, thank you all for your patience and I wish you a belated happy New Year!