Author Note: Ummm Oops

I'm sorry, I meant to update before now but hey, it's Camp Nano, so you will have a daily update now for the rest of the month. Enjoy

Author Note: Sorry

Sorry for no update on the 3rd, I was distracted hatching many many many many Pokemon Eggs. And working on the new Shadow Treaty chapter. Mostly hatching eggs though.

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 6

“Spike,” Luna grumbled as she let go of the door handle and started knocking on the door, “Snap would have been carrying too much stuff to bother pulling a prank like this.”

“Sorry.” Juliet sighed, slumping down onto one of the tables, trying not to feel like the walls were closing in. She hated being inside for any length of time as it was, yet alone being trapped indoors. Then she spotted the partly open window just above head height, “I didn’t think they’d take it out on you too.”

“Mikey, open the door!” Luna bellowed, shaking the door on its hinges before turning to the dejected looking girl, “I’m the one who dragged you shopping, and I’d rather they were aiming our way than picking on the others again.” Speedster just nodded as she moved round the room and pulled a table under the window. Luna wandered over, curiosity obvious on her features as Speedster climbed up onto it and poked her head out the open window. “Speeds?”

“I could get down from here.” Juliet replied, “Its only one floor up.”

“You might, I’m not so sure I would without breaking something.” Luna sounded thoughtful as she joined her friend in looking out the window, “At least if I jump, there’s a ledge, look.” She indicated the ledge in question, “If I edge around that and climb in that window,” She pointed, “I’m pretty sure that leads onto the main corridor.”

“And if you fall, I’ll catch you.” Juliet agreed, liking this plan better than just sitting around or shouting their heads off until someone came and unlocked the door. At least this way they weren’t waiting on someone who might not come to the rescue till morning. “Toss our bags down?”

“My laptop...” Luna hesitated.

“It’s either that or try and carry it around the ledge.” She reminded the other girl who honestly looked like she was considering it. “Fine, okay, toss my bag down. It’s not got anything breakable in it.”

When Luna nodded, Speedster carefully climbed out of the window and jumped from the ledge to the ground, rolling as she hit the floor and coming out of it standing up. Her bag came next, ruining her triumphant grin by smacking her in the head and causing her to back up a little as Luna clambered out of the window, backpack on her back.

“You alright up there?” Speedster couldn’t help but ask as Luna considered the route for a moment or two.

“Yeah,” Luna nodded, thinking about something for a little longer before turning around, letting herself down using the ledge and dropping the last couple of feet to the ground safely. “Just that seemed easier.” She grinned at her friend.

“Just be glad security didn’t see us pull that stunt.” Speedster chuckled back, “Or they would have pitched a fit.”

“So where’re we now?” Luna asked, looking around at the disposal bins and piles of cardboard and rubbish.

“Behind the Student Union building I think.” Speedster considered, starting to climb the wire fence. “There’s a road on the other side of the fence.”

“Sounds good to me.” Luna nodded, wincing in sympathy as Juliet reached the top, which had barbed wire wrapped around certain parts, and got her hand spiked for her troubles.

Luna didn’t fare much better as she joined her friend on the other side of the fence and by the time she had reached the ground she had torn her tights and cut her hand open. “You do realise Shade is probably going to find this hilarious.” She warned Speedster who just let out a frustraited huff.

“If this wasn’t his idea I’d be surprised.” She admitted, “Trap the two claustrophobic Club members in a room and leave them? Seems right up his alley.”

“Actually it seems kind of tame for him.” Luna huffed, “I mean I love my brother, but he can be incredibly vindictive when he wants to be. He’s not shy about it either.”

“So...since we don’t appear to be flavour of the week at the moment,” Speedster sighed, “How about you come over mine. I have that film you wanted to watch. The Avengers?”

“Sweet!” Luna grinned at her, before pausing, confusion spreading across her features, “Wait, why do you buy DVDs? I thought you couldn’t watch them anymore.”

“I can’t, not without the flickering between frames driving me nuts or giving me a headache.” Speedster shrugged, “But I can still listen to them and I get a good idea of what’s going on from the sounds. Besides, if I have the newest DVDs I have an excuse to invite people round.” She poked her tongue out at Luna who chuckled back.

“Fine, fine.” Luna giggled, “And I can work on my essay at the same time.” She tilted her head at Speedster. “Should we pick up snacks? Or...”

“No, I’ll cook. I’ve got stuff in for lasagne, sweet and sour, tikka or chilli dogs.” Luna grimaced at the last, causing Speedster to grin, “Okay, okay, not chilli dogs.”

“Chilli is fine, chilli dogs yuk.” Luna grouched, “Sweet and sour sounds good, what with?”

“Pasta, rice, stir fry?” Speedster offered, thinking about what she had in the house as they walked, “Would have to pick up some stir fry veg, but I have the noodles and the pork in.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Luna nodded, “We’ll stop by the corner shop on the way to yours and...” By the time she got to ‘and’ Speedster had vanished in a blur of blues and greens. “Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen,” She started counting down, continuing to walk towards Juliet’s house, partially amused at her friend and her inability to wait for anything, “Six, five, four, three, two...”

Before she could hit one, Speedster had returned carrying a grocery bag, inside of which was a pack of stir fry veg. “Sorry, would have been faster, but the self scan till was so slow.”

“Everything is slow compared to you, Speeds.” Luna waved it off, wondering once again how her friend put up with moving at her pace, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Got bigger things to worry about than a slow till.” Speedster nodded, causing Luna to wince slightly as Juliet’s constantly flickering moods headed back towards frustration and worry. “I’d be happier if I just knew where the damn thing had ended up.”

“Look, I know it’s a problem, I’m not saying it isn’t, but constantly worrying about it isn’t going to help. You can’t do anything about the missing World Sphere until we get a lead and that’s not going to happen until someone does something really stupid.” Luna informed her friend, “So there’s nothing you can do for now.”

“But...”

“I know it’s an unusual concept.” Luna teased, “You waiting for anything, but you don’t have a choice this time I’m afraid.”

“Waiting is a bad plan.” Speedster grouched, “I’d rather do something about it now, before we run the risk of being revealed to the whole world.”

“Speeds, I have a question.” Luna sighed, “When you shoot off and do things like buy your shopping at the sort of speed you do, or do your rounds at top speed, do you really think that no one pays attention?”

“No one’s ever said something.” Speedster frowned, confused about what she was getting at.

“No one would, unless they get really curious.” Luna sighed, “But every time you do something like that, or one of the others uses their powers around normal people we run the risk of discovery.”

“So what? We’re just getting away with it?” Speedster asked, confused. “I mean surely if we’ve been noticed there would have been consequences by now. I mean it’s been almost a year.”

“People ignore the weird if it makes their life easier.” Luna chuckled at her, “As long as we’re not doing anything to impact on their lives negatively they really won’t care what we get up to. Hell the people whose houses are on your route are probably just happy to get their mail before midday.”

“People are weird.” Speedster looked confused at that. She had honestly expected a bigger reaction from the normal people of the city. Knowing that the Club had been ‘outed’ for probably as long as they had had powers and yet not a single member of the public had said anything to them disturbed her slightly. She had expected shouting, riots, lynch mobs. Not ‘oh well, as long as it stays away from us who cares?’

“That hasn’t changed since long before we Fused.” Luna grinned at her, “People have been weird for a lot longer than that. We’re just so weird we actually notice now.”

“Heh. I suppose.” Speedster chuckled slightly, before a wicked smirk crossed her features, “Fine, you know what?” She scooped Luna up bridal style, “Hang on. I want to show you something.”

With that she shot off, careful to keep her speed down enough to not be too fast for Luna to cope, but fast enough that she was one with the wind, dodging around cars, vans and pedestrians as she shot across the country.

“Speeds?” Luna asked, confusion obvious as Juliet slowed down, breaking slowly instead of her usual complete stop and slide, going gently for Luna’s sake.

“Wait right here.” Speeds grinned at her before shooting off.

Luna looked around, confusion coursing through her as she realised that Speedster had brought her to a small clearing in a forest in the middle of nowhere. In the trees above her there was a small wooden building which was joined to another one by a walkway that looked like it was almost rotten through.

A rope ladder, relatively fresh in comparison to the rest of the building work, hung down from the builidng’s balcony. Unable to resist the pull of her curiosity, Luna clambered up the rope ladder to find that the tree houses looked like someone had been working on them recently.

“So this is what she’s been up to when we haven’t been able to find her.” Luna realised as she brushed her hand against the recently replaced railing. 

Clanverse: 3 Days: Part 2

They were good. They managed to wait until lunch time, when it became obvious that Yugi wasn’t going to be joining them, before cornering Yami.

“So,” Joey asked as the last of their classmates left the classroom, leaving him and Honda alone with the Pharaoh, “Not that we ever mind spending time with you, but is there a reason Yuge’s avoiding school?”

Yami let out a huff, “It took you this long to notice?”

“It’s not like we could bring it up in front of the others.” Tristan pointed out. “What’s happened?”

“Nothing.” Yami’s reply was short and irritable, giving lie to his one word answer.

“Okay, so where’s Yugi?” Tea asked, worry sinking in at Yami’s reluctance to answer, “He has a maths test this afternoon, he probably shouldn’t skip.”

“If I knew where Yugi was, I’d happily swap with him.” Yami replied irritably.

“Say what now?” Joey yelped.

“What happened?” Tea asked. “Is he alright?”

“Someone decided he was going to take a walk through the Puzzle last night and got himself lost.” Yami grumbled, “I would have gone after him but he left a note asking me to go to school.”

“But I thought Yuge said the Puzzle was dangerous.” Joey yelped.

“Yugi’s travelled through it before.” Yami tried to hide his own concern in order to reassure his friends, “He knows what to watch out for. He’ll be fine.”

“I hope you’re right.” Tea worried.

“The moment school’s over, I’ll go looking for him.” Yami promised, “Until then I have to respect his wishes and get through the school day, test or not.”

“I knew Yuge wanted to get out of the test, but this is ridiculous.” Joey grumbled as he sank down on his seat.

Tea paused and considered the Pharaoh, “How much attention do you pay to Yugi’s classes?” She asked, concerned now for a whole other reason.

“Not much, but I have access to Yugi’s school memor...” Yami trailed off as he tried to poke the memories in question, only to find the door to Yugi’s soul room was shut and wouldn’t open for him.

“Yami?”

“I can’t access Yugi’s memories.” Yami replied, mentally shoving the door, not that it did any good.

“Is that good or bad?” Tristan wondered aloud.

“It’s...fine.” Yami considered his words carefully as he tried once again to mentally trace the thin sliver of light he could sense from Yugi, only to lose its trace within the Puzzle’s maze. “I can still sense he’s there. He’s probably just gotten far enough in that our bond’s strained.”

“Are you sure you shouldn’t be going after him?” Tea worried.

“If I did that there would be no one to control the body.” Yami grimaced.

“And Grandpa would freak if he got a call from the school ‘cause ‘Yugi’ passed out.” Joey understood.

“So you’re stuck attending school till he finds his way out?” Tristan asked.

“Unless I can find him before then, yes.” Yami grimaced.

“Well in that case,” Tea commented, “I have an idea.”

“Oh?” Joey asked, wondering what she had thought of to help find Yuge as she pulled her maths textbooks out of her bag and dumped them in front of Yami.

“I’m about to introduce you to something,” She told the Pharaoh, “It’s called last minute revision.”

Clanverse whatif: Yugi and Harry and the Broken Chains: Part 3

By the time the pair of them had been through the chest, Yugi was pale and shaking and Yami was ready to slaughter someone. They had tendered their resignation from Hogwarts twice before, once before they had even started at the madhouse Dumbledore had the audacity to call a school. The way they had remembered it, though, the Headmaster had shown up, given them the basics about the school and they had jumped at the chance without a second thought.

In hindsight it was so out of character for them he should have been wary, but it just hadn’t occurred to him.

The second time they had tried to withdraw was worse. Most of the broken and damaged memories weren’t actually the fault of the wizards doing the sealing. No, that had happened because Yami had failed in his most important task and Voldemort had gotten into Yugi’s soul room in an attempt to possess him and the pair of them had fought.

It was a net loss of about three years worth of memories, most of them from between the time Yugi had solved the Puzzle and gone to Hogwarts. Thankfully though there weren’t many of them that were in a huge chunk together and with the ‘fuzzy’ memories regained, Yugi was easily able to piece together his history a bit better.

Yugi had been in a lot of pain after the fight. Voldemort’s attacks on his soul had left him in a dire state. It had only been through Yami’s intervention that he was still here. The wizards would have removed him from Yami’s side if they had had their way, placing him in St. Mungo’s long term care ward where he would have been kept sedated ‘for his own good.’

Yami, of course, had said no. Firmly. So firmly in fact it had ended in a Shadow Game between the Pharaoh and the Headmaster. Though Yami didn’t remember the Game, suggesting that it had been wiped from his mind, it had obviously ended in their favour. It was after that game that they had tried to withdraw from the school.

They had remembered none of this before they had found the chest. The memories that they had had before hand spoke of a swift recovery and little to no interact with healers or teachers.

The final set of memories they had found were of events that had transpired over the last school year. Things like Yugi’s Shadow Game against Draco and the battle against the basilisk had been hidden away in the chest. Yami had seen the memories before, Yugi had shared them with him after he had come round from the petrifaction. Yugi, however, felt like he was seeing events for the first time.

“They have to be doing this to the others too.” Yugi mumbled as he tried to settle down, the truth of how close he and Harry had come to dying multiple times and how little Dumbledore seemed to care for the safety of his students seriously worrying him. Yugi’s eyes widened he thought about the fact that most of the memories that had been sealed away involved Harry. “Harry!” Yugi yelped, “We promised we’d check up on him!”

“I know.” Yami nodded, having caught the man in the process of editing the duplicate of that particular memory. “But I was more concerned about...”

“Yami, we left him with the Dursleys.” Yugi interrupted, “The Dursleys! We know what they’re like. Harry’s told us multiple times, apparently. And they took our memories of that away!” Yugi paused, determination creeping into his features, “We have to go get him.”

“How?” Yami asked, not disagreeing with his other self, but trying to think through the logistics of kidnapping their friend and bringing him to Japan. “And are we bringing Hermione and Ron too?”

“Ideally.” Yugi was thoughtful, “There’s no way their memories haven’t been tampered with somewhere along the line. But I’m not sure how to do it without worrying their families or alerting Dumbledore.”

“Even if we just go and get Harry we’re going to need help.” Yami admitted, “We couldn’t smuggle him back on a plane and we don’t, exactly, have any way to get to England without...what?” Yami asked warily as Yugi got a speculative look.

“Mahado, the Dark Magician.” Yugi explained, “He’s still hanging around right?”

“As are the rest of the Duel Monsters we accidently summoned.” Yami nodded.

“He might have a way of travelling we haven’t considered, or a few spells we could use.” Yugi pointed out, “And even if he hasn’t, he might be able to help us find one. He’s a fully trained magician after all, we’re still students.”

That was a surprisingly good idea and Yami couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t gone to Mahado regarding what he could teach them before.

“Let’s talk to the others, then we’ll make rescue plans.” Yami grinned at him, a vaguely vindictive smirk that spoke of trouble ahead for their adversaries. “Don’t worry. Now we know that they’re doing, they won’t be getting away with it again. I won’t let them.”

Clanverse whatif: Yugi and Harry and the Broken Chains: Part 2

Yami didn’t answer, he didn’t need to as he searched the room for magicks that shouldn’t be there. Yugi swiftly joined him, not sure what his darker self was looking for but very aware that it had to be something bad if Yami was this ticked off. Between them it didn’t take long to discover the locked chest hidden away under the bed in the corner of the room.

“Don’t touch it. Not yet.” Yami cautioned when Yugi moved to drag it out, certain that the chest, which looked a lot like the one he used in real life for his Hogwarts equipment, was not something he recognised. The hikari moved back, allowing his dark first access to the storage trunk.

Yami scowled as he defused the trap that had been set, his anger only getting worse as he realised that someone had not only changed things in Yugi’s soul room, but had been setting up traps against the room’s own owner. Once it was safe, he and Yugi pulled out the heavy wooden box.

“I didn’t set that up.” Yugi worried at his darker self, his hand brushing the wooden surface. Under normal circumstances he would have marvelled at how real the texture was, despite this all being in his head, but right now he was too worried to consider it.

“I know.” Yami was focused on the lock as he tried to break the spell holding it shut only to look chagrined when Yugi reached under the bed, felt around for a bit and then pulled the key out.

“Wizards are lazy.” Yugi reminded his darker self as he put the key in the lock, “And they wouldn’t want to spend ages casting the spells if they were worried about getting caught. You terrify them, remember?”

Yami just looked smug at that, even as he took Yugi’s hand off of the key and turned it himself, expecting a trap. Shockingly there wasn’t one, but when they looked at the items in the chest it was rather disturbing to discover over half of them were broken or damaged.

Yugi let out a soft gasp as he beheld the sight. Each of these things, be them toys or games or trophies or pictures, held a memory or a group of related memories. If they were damaged or broken, it was highly possible the memory inside would be corrupted or worse, lost forever.

“Careful.” Yami murmured as Yugi reached for one of the few undamaged ones.

Yugi didn’t reply, too intent on regaining his sealed memories. Instead he just picked up the first item, a small, rather fancy looking mirror with some sort of message above it that looked like it should be in latin but was in fact just mirror writing, and let the memory sweep him away.

Clanverse whatif: Yugi and Harry and the Broken Chains: Part 1

It had been a long time since Yami had activated a Shadow Game. Most of his dealings with the dark realm in more recent years had been instigated by someone else. However the Shadows were more than willing to answer his furious call, descending upon the fool of a wizard who dared try to erase his memories of the previous school year.

The wizard didn’t stand a chance. The Shadows were hungry and Yami was more than willing to let them feast. The Pharaoh dragged the truth out of his attacker, that he had been hired by the International Confederate of Wizards to ‘encourage’ them to return to Hogwarts in September, before allowing the darkness to sweep him away.

He knew what had brought this on. They had sent letters to the school just a few days ago, withdrawing from Hogwarts. With everything that had happened there during the school year Yami had managed to convince Yugi that it was better for everyone if they stayed away. Of course if Yugi wasn’t going, Kari and Joey had no interest in disappearing for nine months of the year and Ombre went where her hikari went. If Kari wasn’t going, neither was she. Yami had also spoken to Kaiba who was refusing to go anywhere near that madhouse that they called a school and would not be sending Mokuba back either.

This was quite obviously the response to their letters and Yami was ready to destroy anyone who had agreed that this was a good idea.

For the first time he was glad that the Puzzle guarded its secrets so carefully. The wizard had been casting spells when Yami had found him, but the ‘memories’ he had been carefully editing had been fakes, generated by the Puzzle in order to confuse and confound anyone trying to find anything useful. All the spells had done was alert Yami to a foreign presence in his mind and give the Pharaoh some idea of what the enemy was trying to do.

He slipped out of his soul room, stepping over the body of the mindless wreck of a wizard and headed for Yugi’s bedroom. His hikari had to be told about this affront. He knew Yugi would try and talk him out of taking vengeance, but he still had to be told. When he reached Yugi’s room, however, he found his hikari led on his bed, pouring over his potions’ text book and frowning at a piece of parchment.

“Yugi?” Yami asked, confused.

“Can you check this for me?” Yugi asked, looking up at him with a hopeful expression.

“I thought we weren’t bothering with doing the homework since we aren’t going back.” Yami replied, dread sinking in as he realised that he hadn’t seen Yugi for a couple of hours.

“Ah... uhh, Yami...” Yugi trailed off, looking sheepish as the Pharaoh moved across the room, “I wanted to talk to you about...” He trailed off as he felt the Pharaoh’s anger flare up. It wasn’t aimed at him but he was in a foul mood and Yugi could feel the Shadows just waiting to lash out at the slightest provocation, “Yami? What’s wrong?”

“Yugi, I need you to come with me a minute.” The Pharaoh’s anger was obvious in his tone and Yugi quickly closed his text book, pushing his parchment to one side and scrambling to his feet.

“Sure, where...?” Yugi paused, confusion obvious as his darker self pushed him sitting. “What’s going on?” The hikari asked, worried now. Yami was acting weird and Yugi didn’t know what was causing it.

“Just come with me to your soul room.” The Pharaoh didn’t explain. Yugi didn’t need him to. He trusted Yami without question, acting weird or not, and he took a deep breath before mentally ‘stepping back’ into the corridor between his mind and Yami’s.

The Pharaoh was waiting for him, the powerful spirit’s anger manifesting as an aura of shadows that roiled and blazed like flames. Yugi didn’t understand what was going on, or why Yami was so furious when he had seemed so happy earlier, but he knew he had to try to calm him. He reached out, putting his hand on Yami’s arm, concerned confusion etched on his features.

“Yami. Please talk to me.” Yugi ignored the pins and needles in his hand and arm where they contacted with the dark energy, “What’s happened?”

“There was someone in my soul room.” Yami explained, hesitating at the door to Yugi’s soul room until Yugi preceded him and pulled him in after, shaking his head in amusement at Yami’s actions. No matter how many times Yugi told the spirit who had once shared his body that he was welcome in Yugi’s soul room any time, Yami always waited until Yugi had invited him in to enter.

Then what Yami had said actually sank in.

“Someone in your...” Yugi’s eyes widened, shock obvious.

“Well, in the maze that makes it up.” Yami shrugged, already scanning the room and noting that it looked different from how he remembered it being this morning, causing the shadows surrounding him to flare up once again for a moment before Yugi let out a sharp, pained hiss and pulled away from him. Almost instantly the Pharaoh pulled the power back within himself and opened his mouth to apologise, only to note that Yugi was looking around his soul room, implications already sinking in.

“You think they got in here first.” Yugi suddenly understood his darker self’s anger far too well. 

Light Amongst Shadows Part 7

Low, vindictively pleased laughter caught her attention. She wheeled around and glowered at the group of robed figures who had appeared out of nowhere.

“Well, well, well.” The leader, who she could only pick out because of the ornate markings on his robes and the fact the body language of the other goons seemed to turn to him, “I intended only to split up your little group and leave the light undefended.” With a gesture his mooks spread out to circle Oneesan. “I didn’t expect to find one of those.”

When he gestured to the Puzzle Oneesan’s hand covered the front of it protectively. “The Puzzle’s mine.” She snarled, “You can’t have it.”

“I suppose with everything it takes to make the blasted things, I can understand you not wanting to hand it over.” The leader snorted, “But you see, I can’t let you keep it.”

“Dark Magician!” The spirit of the Puzzle snapped, not needing any more words. The Spellcaster type monster knew what she wanted, launching an attack on the goons in order to clear a pathway out.

It didn’t work, the Dark Magic Attack bounced off of a mirror like shield that rose to protect the goons and struck both the Dark Magician and Oneesan. The Spellcaster shattered with a screech, while Oneesan was sent flying by the blast, crashing into another mirror like wall before slamming into the ground, her head smacking the ground so hard that she blacked out.

With Oneesan unconscious, Yugi had no choice but to take control of a pain riddled, concussed body. Her mind could not function properly as she tried to make herself get to her feet to face the leader, who was approaching. Even thinking in full sentences was a huge problem.

“I...I’ll never...” Yugi forced out as she managed to stand up, pushing back at the Shadows, who with Oneesan’s loss of consciousness were trying to dig their claws into her, “Let you have... my Puzzle.”

“You honestly think you can fight me in that state?” The leader sounded like he was smirking.

He knew she was beaten, Yugi could hear it in his tone and if Yugi was honest with herself, she did not stand a chance of winning in a fight or a game right now. But she had to try. That was all there was to it. She could not and would not just let them take Oneesan away from her. “It’s mine...you can’t...ack!”

Yugi’s attempt to stand up to him came to an abrupt halt as the man slapped her hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground, her ears ringing and stars dancing in her vision.

“You don’t seem the type,” The leader said as he examined her, amused by the fact she still glowered at him even though pain was etched in every inch of her body language, her eyes didn’t focus properly and she looked more like a hissing kitten than a viable threat, “To do what needs to be done. Not to get one of those.” He gestured to the Puzzle, causing Yugi, whose ears were still ringing, to cling to the item, “Who did your killing for you?”

“Wh...What?” Yugi gasped out, not understanding the question.

“To create a Shadow Set, you need to sacrifice human lives. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.” He explained, “But you’re light, you don’t have the darkness within you to do what it would have taken to create that item you wear.” He smirked as realisation and horror, along with a healthy dose of disgust settled in, “Oh? You didn’t know?”

“N...No...” Yugi stammered, staring at the golden object that was now cradled in her hands. She did not want to believe his words. If it was true, had Oneesan been the one who had committed the same massacre that these men now wanted to commit? She did not want to believe it of her other self, not of the brave and proud Pharaoh who shared her mind, but was it true?

“Don’t worry.” The leader sounded highly amused, “You won’t have to worry about it much longer.”

“Wha...?” Yugi did not get to finish her question before something hit her from behind and yet more pain rushed through her causing her to scream in agony.

Then everything went black.

Clanverse: Three Days In The Puzzle Intro

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep...

‘Yugi, alarm clock.’ Yami groaned, rolling over and attempting to go back to sleep.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep...

‘Yugi?’ The Pharaoh sat up and frowned, it wasn’t like Yugi to completely ignore him or the alarm clock. Even when he wasn’t well Yami normally got some response out of him, even if it was completely incoherent.

When he didn’t get a response this time, he reached down the link, wondering if something was wrong that he hadn’t been aware of.

Yami borrowed a phrase from Joey as he realised that, while he could still sense Yugi’s light, he couldn’t actually reach Yugi’s mind to speak with him. It wasn’t completely surprising, considering that Yugi often darted out to the bathroom before he put the Puzzle on, except...

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep...

It wasn’t like his hikari to leave his alarm clock going.

Yami stretched, dismissed the bed that he conjured in his soul room every evening, and headed out into the corridor between ‘his’ room and Yugi’s, becoming a lot more concerned when his hikari wasn’t in his soul room and it became obvious that Yugi wasn’t in his body either.

“Damn it, hikari, where are you?” Yami growled as he slipped into Yugi’s body, surprised to find Yugi had fallen asleep wearing the Puzzle considering that he’d been certain Yugi had taken it off before he’d gone to bed.

The Pharaoh slammed his hand on the off button in order to avoid worrying his grandfather, before looking around the room, searching for any signs of a struggle or a battle, only to find that the room was only as messy as it had been when Yugi had finally gone to bed last night and, except for a note on the bedside table, everything was as it had been when he’d retreated to the Puzzle.

A note addressed to ‘Yami’.

Since there was only one person who called him that (his friends called him Yugi or Pharaoh and the Tomb Robber came up with a lot of different names, most of them rude), he quickly read it, groaning when the contents sunk in.

Yugi, who, for some reason, had been unable to sleep, had figured that if no one was in his body, it would be like it was sleeping, so even if his mind was tired for school his body wouldn’t be, and so he’d decided (and Yami couldn’t understand why) that it was a good idea to go wandering around Yami’s soul room.

The note did say that Yugi thought he’d be back before his alarm clock went off, but if he wasn’t then he’d already made his lunch up and put all his school books in his bag. Yugi also apologised in advance if he hadn’t returned, but he was fine and he’d be back as soon as possible.

Yami would have cussed creatively, after all, he and Yugi had looked around the maze that made up the interior of the Millennium Puzzle and Yami’s soul room and ‘safe’ was not a word he’d use to describe it, however at that exact moment someone knocked on the door.

“Yugi?” Yami hid the note under his... Yugi’s pillow when his... Yugi’s grandfather entered the room with a concerned look. “Are you feeling alright? It’s not like you to take that long to turn off your alarm.” Before Yami could answer, Solomon had a hand on his forehead, “You don’t feel like you have a temperature.”

“I’m ok, Grandpa.” Yami sighed, knowing that, while he’d rather spend the entire day combing the maze of the Puzzle for Yugi, his hikari would be ill amused if Yami didn’t get him to school like Yugi had asked him to and Yugi’s friends would freak out if Yugi suddenly came down with something when he’d been perfectly healthy last night. “Just tired.”

“You were up rather late last night.” Solomon nodded, backing off but giving ‘his grandson’ a concerned look, “You sure you’re feeling alright?” Yami nodded. “Alright, your breakfast in on the dining table. Come down when you’re ready, but please don’t forget you need to sweep up outside the shop before you go to school.”

“I won’t.” Yami nodded, willing his grandpa to leave so he could make a quick check of his room before he got dressed.

Three seconds after his grandfather left the room, Yami was back in his soul room.