*White Flag* I'm so sorry. This hiatus was never intended. My only excuse is that my life had come crushing down around me from one day to another and I'm still trying to bring it back under control.

But enough, you aren't here to hear me whining and apologizing forever. I hope you can enjoy this new chapter.

He could feel his back connecting with the wall. 'Shit. Shit. Shit.' It was so typical and just his luck. Malik's sharp eyes darted over the misshapen or rather shapeless beasts, which closed up on him, in search for an escape. Of course, there was none, none he could figure out with his growing panic, which started to drown out his more coherent thoughts and paralyzed him.

'Dammit. Why me? Fuck it.' This certainly wasn't the way he wanted to die. This couldn't be the end. And where was Mariku when you needed him? Malik wanted to rip his hair out at that thought. He wasn't in need for the help of that cocky bastard, who probably wasn't doing any better than him anyway. No, no, no, he shook his head fiercely. Ra, he was his dark half. It was more likely that Mariku had the fun of his lifetime, slaughtering to his heart's biggest desire. He sure hoped so. Mariku deserved a little bit of fun, didn't he?

He definitely deserved it more than those freaky creatures.

Malik gulped thickly, seeing the beasts closing up on him, their long claws ready to rip him into little shreds. An unpleasant picture of him lying in his own blood, his eyes glassy and the majority of his body unrecognizable invaded his mind brutally. Abruptly his throat felt more than dry and the muscles in his stomach tightened almost painfully.

A high-pitched scream pierced his eardrums, making him flinch. Anzu. The momentary pain in his ears was like a short wake-up call for his absent brain.

What was he doing? Acting like the frigging princess in dire need.

Malik took a deep, calming breath. He had no time to freak out over this and he would stop right now. He had faced far more scary things in his life than those creatures (that didn't seem to be able to choose a proper form) - namely Mariku. And if he could handle that crazy lunatic he could take on anything.

He pushed himself off of the wall and took a more confident stance. The creatures halted for a brief moment before continuing in their paths. They were moving really slowly, not to say in slow motion, Malik unexpectedly noticed, that explained why he was still alive after his journey into panic-land. But, hadn't they been insanely fast when they had attacked him earlier? Were they now playing with him? Knowing that he couldn't escape? Or was something entirely else going on?

Another scream made its way to his ears, stopping the slow return of his panic. He let his eyes move to its direction for a split second and suddenly there were only ten feet left between him and those beasts.

Malik scowled in thought and for some reason they froze once again. That was strange. His scowl made place for utter confusion and they were set in motion again, moving antagonizing slow.

What the hell was going on? And why again was he scared of those slowpokes? A sudden dizziness washed over him and he forgot that one thought.

Dammit! Who cared? There was a better time to solve this mystery. He needed to escape. But for that he needed some kind of weapon or at least a shield to protect himself. Wait. Malik rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. He had all he needed in his pocket. But he still needed some help, or rather the Rod.

/Mariku! Where the hell are you?/

/Somewhere. Killing things./ For Malik's taste his dark sounded a little too excited. /We should do this more often!/ The words were followed by insane cackle. Malik closed their link in frustration. 'Screw this!' He wasn't a fucking damsel in distress. If Kaiba could do this, no, if even Jonouchi could summon one of his Duel Monsters without a Millennium Item then so could he.

One thing was sure, though, when they were out of this mess he would get professional help for his insane half... or maybe not. He wouldn't want to be responsible for driving those poor souls into suicide.

And what were those things doing? Standing around like fools, just watching him crap for his cards. Had they ever heard of the word efficiency? Weren't they going to kill him just a frigging second ago? Weren't they going to rip him into tiny little shreds? Mariku sure would appreciate such a form of action. Hadn't he always said that he was too weak? That's true. He never could do anything on his own. He always had needed his dark. Even now. He couldn't do this. What had he been thinking? He should just give up.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

Malik jumped at the growl, his head shooting up. For that moment he wondered when he had turned his gaze down but soon his mind was preoccupied with the image of a livid Mariku standing right in front of him and no sign of his attackers left but dark, shadowy pools on the ground.

Everyone could say about his dark what they wanted, but he knew how to take care of things - not like himself.

"Do you want to kill yourself?"

The question was insulting. Of course he wanted to life. This whole situation was just so... He wanted to say scary but he wasn't scared, not at all. But he had been, hadn't he? Scared and sad. Scared of those shadowy, shapeless creatures and sad about his uselessness. Now there was only anger.

"Malik! Stop daydreaming!"

Malik blinked and ignored the other, a realization dawned on him. This whole thing was strangely and annoyingly familiar for him on so many levels.

'Stupid gods.'

X

Scorpions. He could actually live with that. But why did it have to be giant scorpions with giant claws and giant poison-dripping tails?

And yet, he still could live with them.

It was his sudden isolation that he couldn't stand. Shortly after Kisara's warning he had had lost sight of her and Honda. Then he had been barely able to dodge an attack, which had separated him from Bakura. For a few moments he still had heard the profound curses of the Thief King but even those had lapsed into silence.

And now he was alone in a herd of giant scorpions.

He knew he should be scared for his live but he just couldn't feel up to it. Not that he wasn't afraid. He feared for Bakura and Honda, both had looked like death warmed over. How could they survive this? Maybe they were already dead. His soul went cold at that thought.

/Bakura!/ He tried to form a link again. Ryou had lost count of how often he had tried it and again he was greeted by nothing but silence.

A sop wanted to force itself out of his throat but he wouldn't cry. Bakura would be disappointed in him. He always had hated it when he cried like a baby. Bakura wasn't here to scold him anymore, though.

Why was he still trying to dodge those deadly appendices? Why was he still fighting? What was he hoping for? If he survived this he would be all alone, all left alone. He didn't want to be, he didn't want to feel like that ever again. And this time not even Bakura would be here to torment him, which he would deserve.

Ryou wondered how his body still was managing it to jump and duck out of the way, a tail barely missing his shoulder. He wanted this all to end and yet his body was betraying him, fighting on when his mind has long since given up.

He stumbled over a stone, of course he did, and landed on his back. One of the scorpions stood right over him, ready to deliver the final blow. Ryou closed his eyes. Finally it would be over, there was no way his body could escape.

"Listen, they're calling, you just need to follow their voices and don't come back here until you're old."

The booming voice shouted at him from the depth of his memory and with a strength, he couldn't believe he possessed, he rolled out of the way at the very last second, his mind cleared of his depressing thoughts.

And sounds returned. Ryou was stunned. He hadn't noticed the alien silence until the noise has crashed down on him. There was Bakura, still cursing everything to the deepest pits of damnation. The Blue Eyes White Dragon was screaming. (When had she turned?) Honda was also very vocal with his threats. And not to forget the scorpions that made all kind of hissing noises.

Why hadn't he been able to hear this racket?

He was so stunned that he nearly ended ripped in two if it weren't for Kisara blasting away the arachnid. The dragon looked a little miffed, as if this all was beneath her dignity and turned to the next opponent. Yes, she definitely belonged to Kaiba.

Still, Ryou noticed after he got back on his feet, getting a good look around, the number of scorpions wasn't decreasing, the more Kisara slaughtered the more crawled out of their hiding place, trying to separate them, with growing success.

Panic took hold of him. They couldn't go on like this forever. True, Kisara hold herself amazingly on the other hand Honda looked pale, he must have lost a lot of blood and Bakura has lost all his grace, his body obviously exhausted beyond its limits.

Maybe they should just give up. Dying wasn't so bad, was it? They could all be together for all eternity. The survivors were those that always ended up alone. There was no chance that they all could survive this. So, why not let those over dimensional relatives of spiders be their means to an end? This all was meaningless.

"...don't come back here until you're old."

'Oh, shut up.'

Those gods really started to annoy him. It was time for them to decide if they wanted them dead or alive.

In fact, what right did they have to play with their lives? They hadn't, none at all as far as he was concerned. They were just like Bakura had been during his worst time but his dark had actually an excuse for turning out like that. Not like those gods with their superior magic and...

Ryou paused in his internal rant. Something was not quite right. He didn't need long to figure out that for some reason the scorpions were ignoring him but there was more. One of the beast looked at him and he averted his gaze instantly and repeated the motions.

Yes, he was sure now. But how was that possible?

/Ryou, what are you doing?/ Calmness washed over him. The link was still intact.

/Thinking./

He could feel the exasperation of the other. /Now is not the time!/

Ryou agreed, now was not the time to argue. /Did you notice that they have no shadows?/

/What?/ Exasperation turned to confusion and then, /You're right./ And slowly he started to realize. But it Ryou was one step ahead and so ignored Bakura, time to figure out a solution.

'The gods are truly lazy.'

X

The feeling crashed into him like a tsunami, flooding away his own emotions for several heartbeats and disorienting him. Subconsciously he remembered that he should be ducking and hoped that his body had done just that. Consciously he tried to beat down the urge to go on a murder spree. After several strenuous seconds he was able to shove it into the back of his mind were it continued to pulse like an angry hornet.

Yuugi forced his eyes back open, he had snapped them shut after that emotional overload, and analyzed his surroundings as best as he could in his still dazed state. The first thing he registered was that two of his attackers lied seemingly dead to his feet. He wasn't exactly sure if beheading truly killed those magical creatures, Yuugi sure hoped so, though.

Next he noticed that he was indeed sitting on the ground, looking up he was glad for his bodily reflexes or that spear would be impaled in more than just stone. A chill ran down his spine and he refused to acknowledge the mental image.

What he wanted to acknowledge when he turned his head was the fact that Yami was running amok, quite literally, but somehow his brain couldn't process the information his eyes sent. His mind was still just too fuzzy to work properly not to mention distracted with keeping an imaginary hornet at bay.

"Yug', you alright?" He barely heard the distant question and nodded, his eyes never leaving Yami as he continued to slice up more of these creatures. Yuugi started to feel sorry for them deep within him but his worry for his darker half outweighed that by far.

'Wait. What?' Yuugi couldn't believe it but for a second there it looked like Yami had disappeared into the shadows. He blinked a few times and, yes, Yami definitely just emerged from the shadows after letting himself be engulfed. 'What? How? Why?'

Hands settled down on his shoulders. The movement made him aware that someone was still talking to him. "...scaring the freaking shit outta me."

"Huh?" Was the only intelligent sound that left his mouth.

"Jou, would you...?"

"Hey!" The same time in which Jonouchi made his displeasure known the hands left his shoulders.

"I hope Atemu won't kill me for this." Yuugi wanted to protest the uttered words but felt that his mouth wouldn't work, well, he couldn't even take his eyes off of Yami, who gave a perfect impression of Mariku having gone wild, indicating that the absurd words might not be so farfetched after all. A scary though, terrifying. Panic started to settle down in his stomach.

Suddenly his right cheek stung and he lost sight of his darker half, instead of him it was replaced by a frowning Mana, hand still raised. "Now is not the time to daydream." Her voice sounded more worried than upset, her intense but troubled gaze never letting go of his unblinking eyes. There wasn't a hint of her joyful self in her expression. It simply looked downright wrong and it reminded him how severe their overall situation was.

And Yuugi wanted to hit himself. How could he let himself become paralyzed like that? In their deadly situation? It was stupid, dangerous. "Thanks," he smiled softly at her before turning the conversation to important matters. "What's going on?" While Mana helped him back on his feet he let his eyes wander back to Yami, instantly he felt fear and dread creep up on him.

"Don't know." It was Jou who answered him. "One moment we're kicking asses the next Yami goes all berserk. I thought you died or something!" His friend sounded rather freaked and his voice was a little higher than usual. He didn't need to see his face to know what kind of expression was plastered on his best friend's face.

But that wasn't really answering his question. He could see quite well what Yami was doing. He wanted to know what had happened to Yami.

Yuugi more sensed than saw Mana nodding in confirmation. "That idiot," she huffed disapproving but the short teen could hear fondness in her words, "He scared us for nothing and he dares to keep saying I spend too much time with Bakura and Mariku." With that said she simply jumped back into the fight, deflecting an attack that was meant for Gaia the Fierce Knight.

Yuugi felt the dread grow. Did he miss something? Why else would Mana be so nonchalant about this? Or was she simply too preoccupied to see that this picture wasn't right, at all? Was he just overreacting?

"Yug'? I gotta help. " There was reluctance in his voice. Jou obviously felt bad for leaving his side but knew that he wouldn't be able to stand back and keep at his side when the rest was fighting. Yuugi nodded his blessing and the blond took off.

During the whole exchange Yuugi not once let his gaze waver from his dark, at least not during the moments Yami hadn't decided to dive into the shadows. (Since when could he even do that?)

And what he saw worried Yuugi to no end. His worry only increased by his inability to truly connect with Yami's mind.

Should he let the angry hornet in?

At that thought fear gripped painfully around his heart, making every breath hurt.

He felt angry at himself. What was he so scared about? This was still Yami, his Yami.

Who definitely just got a little too close to killing Jou and his friend was too preoccupied fending off a falcon to notice.

Yuugi froze, paralyzed by his ever-growing fear. He hadn't lied that day. He didn't mind the darkness that was a part of Yami but this... it was as if Yami had turned into darkness itself. And he would lie if he would say that this hadn't been one of his greatest fears, to lose his soul mate to the shadows.

Unshed tears burned in his eyes. He had no time to let himself be overcome by fear. He had to help Yami.

His feet moved before his mind could catch on with the new scene that chilled him to his bones. Yuugi didn't acknowledge the creatures and in turn they seemed to ignore him, but he only noticed this as a weak afterthought. His focus never wavered even though he felt like his fear was drowning him the closer he came to his dark.

Yami had a sword raised, ready to behead his newest victim from behind - Mana. And just before he could bring the sword down Yuugi finally reached him.

"YAMI! Don't!" He literally crashed into him, clinging to him for dear life and throwing him of balance.

Mana turned around, eyes wide but like the creatures Yuugi ignored her, instead he begged. He begged for Yami to come back to him.

X

He watched on calmly as the scenes unfold. No one has died yet. It was a bit surprising. Sure, his brother had no sense of creativity but even he had thought that one or two would find their timely end. His eyes wandered, but of course the little humans had some help.

He smirked into his tea, amused that his brother could be so blind. On the other hand... Oh well, he had made a deal with the cute hikari and such an ending would have been boring. He wanted to see the real end.

Still, cheaters should be punished, if not he would be a hypocrite. The chaos that would bring.

He burst out laughing, laughing even harder at everyone's dumb expressions. Chaos. Oh, he could dig that.

... yeah, I won't promise anything but there will be another chapter this month... if everything works out...