Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Meeting My Yami ❯ Chapter 24

Wingzero: O_O I haven't updated this in awhile Gomen nasai!!! ^^;; I blame homework. As you know, I'm taking Japanese classes. So if anyone needs help with their Japanese just ask.

DS: --UU Obviously, you can tell she's quite excited at learning this language.

Wingzero: ^^ *isn't phased* I have a contest….. -U stupid ff.net took it down but if you want the details just e-mail me. It's a beyblade contest, though I don't know if anyone knows about the show, but hey, I can't announce it unless it's in a fic.

DS: Let's just on with the last chapter.

Disclaimer: ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I had purposely set my alarm clock half an hour ahead, because I wanted only a select few to be going on this rescue mission. Bakura was the natural choice as he had experience with breaking and entering. Of course, that also mean bringing Ryou along, but I was sure he would be fine. Malik and Ishtar proved to be powerful magicians or spellcasters, whichever you preferred to call them. My yami and I, without a doubt, will be leading this. I don't know if the hidden powers of the high priest were awaken within Seto Kaiba, but I wasn't willing to risk it. As for the others, they should wait here.

Now for the duel monsters, Mirai, Calin, Gaia whom I summoned later on, Arian, and a few others were going to be joining us. The Harpies Lady, Orion, Cyan, Drake, Draco, Duo, and Harpie's Pet Dragon will be staying behind and guarding the others while we were away. There was no telling if Tea would send her forces while we were gone.

The plan was simple. First the Bakura would go in and locate any traps, whether they are physical or magical. Ryou followed him, bringing the supplies and give the all clear signal when his yami cleared out all the outside traps, if there was any. Once inside, Arian guarded the building from reinforcements. The rest of us headed inside and split into groups. Yami, Mirai and I will form one group. Ryou, Bakura, and Calin formed another. We had them group together, because they all have good stealth abilities. Gaia accompanied Malik and Ishtar to make sure those two Egyptians stayed out of trouble. We would leave behind a couple small groups of duel monsters to watch our backs. From there, it was anyone's game. We have no idea what to expect from her, but I knew it wasn't good.

Rolling over on the bed, I found my darker half to be still asleep. I shoved him out of bed, not bothering with my usual pleasantries. "Come one Yami, time to wake up."

"Aibou," my darker half whined. He turned in his sleep and covered his head with the pillow. "It's too early to wake up." His voice was muffled by the goose feathers. "Wake me up in an hour or two."

Twitching angrily, I yanked the pillow as hard as I could. "Do you want to wake up the entire house hold? It's bad enough I have to wake Joey up this way. Now you too?"

"Okay, I'm up," Yami relented under pressure. He yawned and stood up, scratching himself. "We have about half an hour before we should wake up. Why now?"

"Do you seriously want Duo to tag along?" I asked. In response, Yami widened his eyes and spoke rapidly.

"There's no way, I'm going if that duel monster is going."

"That is why we're leaving ahead of schedule," I sighed. This was going to be a long night. "Why don't you wake up Ryou and Bakura? I'll go get Malik and his yami."

"Why am I stuck with the petty thief?"

I sent him a glare with an explanation. "Do you want to take the Egyptians?"

"NO!"

"Thought so," I teased him with a smirk. I left him there to gape at my change of attitude as I meandered down the hallway to Malik's room. Knocking on the door proved to be useless as no one answered. I opened it to find everyone passed out. Quickly, I made my way over towards the lighter half of the two and tried to shake him awake. He only wrapped his arm around my waist and hugged me like his teddy bear.

This was seriously aggravating. I grabbed a hold of his ear and tweaked it in a painful manner, causing him to wake up and scream. Fortunately, I covered his mouth just in time so there was a muffled sound. After he was finished screaming, Malik glared daggers at me.

"What was that for?" He spoke once I removed my hand from his mouth.

"Shhh. We're going to be leaving earlier so we don't have annoying duel monsters like Duo tagging along."

Violet eyes widened with horror. "Then what are we waiting for?" He grabbed his yami and literally dragged the dark spirit out of the door. It was then I noticed the two were sleeping in their night raid attire.

I sighed a long one and chased the anxious hikari down the hallways. Upon reaching the main area, I discerned two anxious hikaris, one alert yami, and two sleepy yamis. We all needed to be awake for this one. How were we going to wake up those two? I thought about dumping cold water on them, but that wouldn't work. I hoped it wouldn't come down to this.

Sneaking behind the two sleepy hikaris, I placed my finger on my lips, signaling for the other two to be quiet. Malik had an evil grin on his face, because he thought he knew what was coming. Ryou on the other hand watched with interest.

//Aibou, just what are you planning?//

/You'll have to wait and see./ Using my powers, I temporarily changed my voice to that of Tea's and spoke to the two yamis. Well, I laughed maniacally. Ryou turned white when he heard my imitation of her. Malik laughed too upon seeing the reaction of the two other spirits. Yami had an amused smirk on his face. Bakura and Ishtar jumped off the couch and were looking for Tea.

"Master Yami and Master Yugi," Mirai greeted us, though he sounded a bit winded from running. "I thought you were asleep. What brings you here?"

"We're about to leave," I informed him. "Tell the other duel monsters to prepare for an early departure." My magician nodded and was about to leave when I stopped him. "And please don't wake any of the others, especially Duo. We don't need to be taking care of him."

"I understand, Master Yugi," Mirai nodded his head again and disappeared to where the rest of the duel monsters had set up camp.

As we were leaving, Orion and Calin insisted we eat a snack before we leave. They had a good point. We want to have our energy; plus, it wouldn't help us if our stomachs gave away our positions, now would it? Calin made sure to pack each and every one of us emergency snacks. He was going to make a great mother one of these days.

*********Bakura's POV**********

Stupid pharaoh. Why must I go first? Oh right, I was the expert in disarming traps and finding them. HA!! I beat that lazy pharaoh in one area! Dang, why must my hikari look at me like that while I was mentally gloating? Bah, he must find me strange to be laughing through our shared link. Wait a second, I thought a closed it off.

"Bakura, do you see anything?" Ryou whispered softly as possible.

//If you want to tell me something do it through our link.// I returned with a scowl on my face. We hadn't even stepped two feet into her territory and Ryou was going to blow my cover.

/Right, I'm sorry./ Ugh, why did my hikari have to be weak? Well, at least he made everything feel better.

My cold brown eyes scanned her front lawn for any signs of traps. Of course, if there had been any magical ones, Yami and Ishtar would have sensed it by now. There had to be something here. I felt in my bones. It was one of those things you know something was wrong with the picture, but you can't figure out what. I motioned Ryou to stay back as I jumped forward onto a patch of grass, that I had determined to be safe.

/Please be careful./

I snorted at that. I was one of the most successful tomb robbers in my time. And do you know how? It was simple. I carefully avoided almost every trap in existence or I had disarmed them. There was a couple times where I was nearly injured. Still that didn't deter me. I was about to call Ryou when a flash of silver caught my attention. Tracing it back to its origin, I discovered it to be the trigger device of a crude trap. The person would trip over this and fall into a hidden pit. What it was filled with, we will never know.

Fishing around my pack, I marked off where the wire was so that the others wouldn't trip over it, if they were smart enough. I called Ryou over towards me and he was careful not to activate the trap. We walked around where the pit should be and I motioned for him to stop once we were slightly past the pit. I bent down on one knee. No, I wasn't going to propose to anyone. My hikari stared at me curiously. I used my shadow powers to form the mists to travel across the floor. So far I saw nothing until the mists hit the infrared rays. I motioned for my hikari to start jumping on the tables and chairs conveniently placed there. The previous owner must have set them there for decoration. Tea was a slacker or couldn't be bothered with it.

I made sure my hikari jumps ahead of me so that way I could catch him should he fall. When we cleared that section, I told him to stay still, because I had a strange feeling. There was some sort of magic trap set here. If I concentrated hard enough, I could possibly disarm it. Unfortunately, it was beyond my skill for now. I had to go back to my aibou and we retreated to where the others were waiting.

**********Ishtar's POV**********

So the tomb robber was out now. That was rather quick for disarming the security. My hikari was about to wander out to greet them when I reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him into the shadows.

"What was that for?" He whined, rubbing his sore neck.

"You want to get us caught?" I whispered back to him. Yami narrowed his eyes at the both of us, meaning for us to shut up.

Malik shook his head to answer no. /So why do you think they're back earlier than we thought?/

//I don't know. We'll have to ask them when they arrive at our location without attracting any attention.// I glanced at our surroundings. The elf had taken a perch up in the dense trees. He was the first to alert us to their return. The magician was standing behind his two masters. Gaia seemed to be impassive as ever. The other duel monsters stood within the shadows.

"What is it, Bakura?" Yami was the first one to pounce on the white haired former thief.

"She has a complex trap spell," Bakura growled softly. His brown eyes became even colder, if that was possible.

"Looks like I'll have to handle it," I said with a smirk and cracked my knuckles. In a second, I grabbed Malik's hand and took the path with my hikari trailing behind me. Everyone else followed behind us, but they took turns going in their assigned groups.

It appeared that Bakura had marked where the traps were. If he had triggered any of them, it will cause the alarms to go off. We seriously didn't want to be caught without the old man. I can't believe that we had to rescue him. Yugi couldn't leave without rescuing his grandfather and he wouldn't want to be under her control.

After avoiding all the traps, I stopped abruptly, causing my hikari to come stumbling into me. Good thing, I chose to stop way ahead of the triggering device. Once my hikari had regained balance, I used my powers to check on what kind of trap it was, more specific which one. Indeed, this one was fatal if it wasn't disarmed. I had to disarm it without triggering it. Picking out my version of the rod, I pointed it towards the focus of the spell.

The spell was designed to keep low level magic users out of the area. High level magic users can disable it, assuming they know what spell it was and the disarming spell as well. Fortunately for me, I had experience with these kinds of magic traps. Chanting a few words, the trap was easily deactivated and we were able to pass through it. I found each trap heading in a certain direction becoming stronger and much more complex than I had originally anticipated. For this the pharaoh had to take over, which let's say I wasn't exactly too thrilled by it.

The pharaoh managed to make quick work of the spell. Perhaps, it happened to be the same one or similar to what he used to guard his treasures. Yeah, that had to be the reason. I can't imagine the pharaoh going out of his way just to learn a spell when he had the high priest to do it for him. I obviously had an evil smirk on my face as everyone else, including my hikari, was giving me strange looks and were questioning my sanity. I waved them off, but they were a little hesitant.

"He's not going to try to take the power of the pharaoh, right?" Malik had his hands on his hips and he was giving me THE look.

"Of course not," I said, trying to feign innocence. Dang, only the hikaris could pull off that move. Smart thinking, Ishtar. "What ever gave you that idea?"

"You had better not or else you're going to be sleeping on the couch," my hikari threatened me. The pharaoh had his hands over his hikari's ears as Bakura did his. Inside I was completely panicking. Malik knew how much I …… Well, let's not get into that, shall we?

*********Yugi's POV**********

When we had cleared almost all of the traps, we split up into our three groups. My Dark Magician came with us. We ventured down the hallway with the most traps in it to find that it lead us to empty closet spaces and guest bedrooms. If I were her, where would I hide him?

/Yami, where do you think Tea would hide grandpa?/

//I don't know where to start, but I would guess in the least likely places.// My yami narrowed his eyes and scrunched his face a little in concentration. //Of course, it could be where she thinks we'll be heading first and send him to the most obvious place.//

/And that would be?/

[A dungeon, perhaps?] Mirai attempted to guess the location.

Mentally, I chuckled at his lack of knowledge. /Mansions do not have dungeons or cells, but they do have several closets or bathroom. Maybe she hid him in one of those./

I rounded the corner to hear some noises coming from a random closet. With my companions behind me, we slowly walked over towards the aforementioned room. Placing my ear against the door, I heard sniffling noises, followed by some scraping. My first thought was grandpa crying because he may lose either his son or his life.

My hand reached towards the door and opened it rather abruptly. What was inside or rather who was inside shocked all three of us. Instead of finding my grandpa, we found the Magician of Faith. She was practically flooding the room with her tears. She glanced up towards us and curled into a tighter ball.

"Stay away from me!" She cried out.

"We're not going to hurt you," I said in a soothing voice. Somehow I had the feeling she wasn't going to respond well if I came closer to her. "I promise that."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because I can keep promises," I tried to get her to look me directly.

The Magician of Faith shifted around nervously. "You're not going to yell at me for being weak?" Her eyes flashed towards me before returning her gaze back down at the floor.

"I don't consider you weak," I motioned for my other companions to back me up.

"I'm sure you're a good student," Mirai said with his warmest voice, which wasn't saying much. [Although, I wish I could say the same thing about the Dark Magician Girl.]

/You're lucky that she can't hear any of our conversation./ I mentally scolded him.

[Sorry, master Yugi.]

"Why don't you stay with us?" Yami suggested to her. "If you don't like it, then you can leave no questions asked."

"You promise?" She inquired with pleading eyes.

I nodded my head. "I promise that I won't force you to stay where you don't want to."

"Okay," she managed with a small smile.

"What's your name?" I asked her curiously.

"Kari, short for Hikari," the Magician of Faith introduced herself.

"Well Kari, do you happen to know where they are hiding my grandpa?" I asked her hopefully.

"You mean you came all this way to rescue your old man?"

"Don't forget we're trusting our lives to that petty thief and those two Egyptian psychos," Yami added with a scowl on his face.

"Petty thief and Egyptian psychos?" Kari asked questioningly.

"That would be Bakura, Malik, and Ishtar," I answered her inquiry. "Let's go before they decide to do anything drastic or the others get into trouble."

"Your grandfather should be in the east wing on the third floor," Kari answered hesitantly. "I don't know where they put him, but I saw the guards hauling him in that direction."

"What is in the east wing?" Mirai now questioned her.

"Those are the guest bedrooms," Kari answered. She seemed to be warming up to us, though she seemed highly cautious.

"Weren't Bakura and Ryou heading to the third floor when we last saw them?" I asked my darker half.

"I believe so and the Egyptian psychos took the second floor," Yami said thoughtfully. "We'll have to hurry.

Before any of us knew it the female magician grabbed my darker half's and my hand before dragging us out of the closet. Mirai had barely enough time to leap out of her way and follow behind us. I recalled passing down a couple of these hallways on our way here. It was then she took a different passage, leading us to a flight of stairs.

"Up this way," she pointed towards the stairs. "This should take us all the way to the third floor, but we'll be near the center. From there we need to head to the left. And don't even try using magic. They'll be able to sense your presence immediately."

"Thanks for the warning," Mirai said. Even though she was helping us, I have this funny feeling that they didn't exactly trust her, just not yet anyways.

We ascended the stairs first. Kari and I took the lead. Yami followed right behind us with Mirai picking up the rear. If I would have known it was this many steps I could have flown up. Unfortunately, it used a large sum of my powers to summon my wings and the flight up there. Upon reaching the top, I was slightly out of breath. My yami was just breathing a little bit heavier while our Dark Magician was out of breath. I guessed he wasn't used to that much physical exertion. Note to self: have every one of duel monsters take up a work out program of some sort, especially the spellcasters.

The female magician flitted here and there, listening onto the door. "They wouldn't be suspicious if they see it's only me, being curious as usual. That's why I get into trouble with Kitana. She doesn't think I'm taking my studies seriously."

"Are you taking your studies seriously?" Mirai questioned the other magician.

"Yes, I am, though they don't know about it," Kari sighed. Her shoulders slumped forward and her eyes became lifeless for a few seconds. "But they don't need to know that. I only look like I'm not taking it seriously, because I don't want to be sent on missions. Kitana keeps telling me all about her missions, hoping that I would look up to her or something."

"I see," I said, even though my other two companions were keeping their eyes on her. She kept on checking on each door as we hid within the shadows of the hallway.

Suddenly, out of one bedroom, a fairy type duel monster stepped out of it along with that same warrior. The three of us hid within the shadows, we pressed as far as we could fit. "See to it that Yugi doesn't make it to this floor."

"They won't even come anywhere near this mansion with me on the job," Leilo boasted. When I heard this, I laughed mentally. My yami had a smirk on his face as did Mirai.

"Just go and do it," Kitana scowled. "I'm not going to report another failure." She turned and pointed towards the exit when she saw the other magician. "What are you doing here?"

"I was only exploring," Kari said, using that voice I used when I was caught. Basically, it was pretending to be innocent when gotten caught. "I've been here a couple times, but I never thoroughly looked through it. I was bored with the other rooms. Maybe a guest left something interesting behind."

"Fine. Whatever, just don't let the old man go," Kitana gave a harsh glare.

"Okie dokie!" She skipped behind the Wingweaver into the bedroom.

"That child is going to be the end of me," Kitana growled softly at no one in particular. "Let's go before they arrive here."

"Or is it because you want to get away from the Magician of Faith?" Leilo teased his female companion, who hissed in response and nearly bit off his finger.

"You have to admit she is a pain in the rear," Kitana said nonchalantly. She swayed her hips side to side as she walked away from the room, catching her companion's attention.

Once she was out of hearing range, the three of us headed towards the spare bedroom. What greeted us shocked us to no extent. My grandpa sported several bruises on his face, neck, arms and legs. I suspected there were several on his stomach and back as well. His lip was split and one of his eyes started to turn a purplish color.

"Oh grandpa," I whispered with concern. I immediately made my way to him. Fortunately, he was out cold and therefore didn't know I was around or rescuing him. Pulling out a knife, I proceeded to cut the restraints that held him in the chair.

The magician of faith had her head down the entire time. She muttered a few apologies on the behalf of her friends and herself. Kari didn't want anyone to get hurt, but she had no say in the matter. She belonged to her mistress and that was that. Well, she didn't have to answer to Tea anymore. For that she was extremely grateful, because she could never get out of her mistress's deck without outside help. She, herself, wasn't strong enough.

"Yami, we need to get him out of here before Tea comes and finds out he's missing." My voice was laced with urgency.

"We could always go back the way we came from or we can go out the window, but that will only get us located faster," Yami said thoughtfully, carefully musing over our options. "I say if we're going to be discovered early, then summon Curse of Dragon or call Arian over to this side of the mansion."

"That's a good idea!" I chirped out loud. /Arian, could you please come over here./

///As you wish master./// The Blue Eyes White Dragon soared through the sky and landed outside our window.

Not soon after that, we heard several duel monsters heading our way, shouting about a break in or break out. I couldn't tell with all that racket. Kari trembled before the mighty dragon, but he was gentle with the spellcaster. She hesitantly hopped on once Mirai took a seat on the large duel monster. Yami and my grandpa were next. I was going to be the last person, but at the last possible moment, I used my powers to bring my armor and wings out.

"Let's go!"

**********Malik's POV**********

Just great, I heard the action going down on the third floor on the opposite side of the mansion. We were currently in the west wing, second floor. How I wanted to go up there and fight off those duel monsters. Wait a second, could they even be called duel monsters? Bah, I had better dwell on it another time.

"Gaia, must you make such a racket?" I sighed out loud, sparing a glance at the warrior. As he walked his armor and sword often clanged against each other, disturbing the quietness of the area. I swore Joey was quieter than him.

"I'm sorry, sir," the warrior apologized with humility. "I'm not often on stealth missions. Please forgive my loud noises."

"One of these days, that elf should give you lessons in stealth," my darker half grumbled. He glanced around the corner of the hallway into the next one. "Stay here and watch over twinkle toes. Make sure he doesn't get into trouble."

"Me? Trouble??" Gaia inquired, completely flabbergasted. "Why I've never heard such a……" Before the warrior could finish, Ishtar disappeared completely around the corner.

I placed my finger towards my mouth to shush him. He took it rather well. Instead of giving me a justice lecture and whatnot, he kept his mouth shut while keeping an eye out for our enemies. I must admit even though he seemed stubborn most of the time, he had a good heart.

Soft footsteps caught my attention, minutes after my darker half had left. I yanked the startled warrior into a nearby closet and shut the door as softly as possible, hoping that the noise didn't catch the person's attention.

"I can't believe you let him escape!" A high pitched shriek reached our small little hiding place. Both of us had to cover our ears as it was soooo high.

"Sorry mistress," another voice apologized profusely. "We had no idea they were somewhere on the grounds."

"To make things worse, that ……. That ……. Oooooo," the first voice shrieked with anger. "When I get my hands on that Magician of Faith, she's going to beg for mercy."

"What do you have in mind for her?" The second voice inquired.

"Something drastic and very painful," Tea said with venom laced in her voice. "Physical torture has no effects on her. She's too emotional and caring. That's where we'll get her."

"Emotional wounds are harder to recover from," the second voice said with approval.

I couldn't believe she was cruel to her own duel monster. Making up my mind, I decided to let my presence be known. "You're a cold and heartless bastard!"

"Well, well, look what we have here the holder of the millennium rod," Tea said with such a dangerous voice as well as look. Was she toying with me or what?

"You're not going to get away with it," I scowled at her. I tried to imitate my yami's death glare, but I could never get it right. Note to self: have him teach me one of these days.

"What do you plan on doing about it?" Tea taunted me. I was seriously beginning to wonder what Yugi saw in her in the first place.

"You'll soon find out," I had an evil smirk on my face, which made her back up a little. To be honest, Gaia even gave me questioning glance. I raised my millennium rod high to where everyone could see it.

The warrior standing next to her jumped to knock the item out of my hand. Heh, he must have known that I could control his mistress's mind with a few words. Anyways, here he came charging at me until the last second when something or should I say someone landed on him from high above. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it had been my yami who had knocked the warrior over. Seriously, I didn't need any assistance taking him down, but it felt good to be cared for every once awhile, especially from my deranged yami.

"Ooof!!!" The warrior's breath exploded from his lungs as he made contact with the hard floor. "Get off me!"

"What makes you think you have that option?" Ishtar had a smirk on his face. His version of the millennium rod, turned sword, was pressed closely against the throat of the duel monster, underneath his weight.

"Oh," was all the warrior could manage to squeak out.

Tea, knowing that she had no way to defend herself, raced back to where she came from. I immediately followed her with Gaia a step behind me. Ishtar stayed back toying with the captured duel monster. Needless to say, I don't want to watch my darker half entertain himself.

We raced down the hallways, jumping over various obstacles in the way. I caught sight of that annoying dancer pulling everything down in our path to hinder us. That reminded me to be thankful to Rishid. He had been giving me serious workouts with those training of his. Once we reached a certain hallway, a door slammed shut with a blur of pink running through it just before.

I motioned for Gaia to back me up, which he did only because Yugi told him to follow my instructions. We silently or I silently walked towards that door. Placing my hand on the door knob, I took a breath and waited for my companion to get into position. When he was, I pushed the door open before leaping aside as not to become a shish kabob.

Nothing flew out, meaning we can carefully make our way inside. As soon as we entered, we saw Tea with a scroll in her hand. She laughed maniacally as we entered the room. "You're too late fools. I have the spell right here and the components ready. Now all that is required of me is to read this simple scroll." Her voice cracked every one in awhile as she read that complicated spell. I could see the madness in her eyes. To put it in simple terms, she was more psychotic than my yami and Ryou's yami put together.

As soon as she stopped reading it, nothing happened. It must take time for the spell to work, but then a light mist engulfed her. It started to become dense by the second until we couldn't see her. What the heck was happening? I thought something should have happened to us when out of the guest closet Ryou stepped out.

"What happened?" I inquired of him.

"Simple enough, my friend," Ryou had this knowing smile on his face. He held up another scroll. "You see I switched the scrolls. I have the real one and she has something I found while searching through the rooms."

"How could you possibly know this is the exact room she was holding it in?" Gaia now asked the white haired hikari.

"I knew it was the right one, because I followed Dumb and Dumber all the way down here," Ryou explained his situation to us. "As I was searching the third floor, I heard those two coming down one of the stairway so I decided to follow them. When I arrived here, I saw Tea looking at this one particular scroll and handling it with great care. She absolutely forbid the other two from touching it so it must have been the one."

"Cool move, but where's your yami?" I asked him. I knew that Bakura was more violent than me, but we were just as insane as each other.

"He's probably on the third floor," Ryou shrugged his shoulders. He glanced to where the mist was and proceeded to fan away the white precipitation hanging there.

"Do you even know what spell you gave here?" I questioned him. I too had picked up a piece of cardboard and started to fan away the mist.

"No, I didn't have much time to look over the spells I took from that room." Ryou now had a sweat drop. "But I do know that this has something to do with children. I know it isn't a dangerous spell, because it was clearly mishandled and left out where the dust could reach it."

"I certainly hope you're right about that," I mumbled out loud. My wrist started hurting when we found out what the spell had done.

There stood a little girl with bright blue eyes and short brown hair. She was sucking her thumb and fortunately for us, her clothes shrank along with her size. I stood there with my lower jaw literally on the floor. My guess was that my companions were in a similar state as well. It could have been worse. The spell might have changed her into a powerful duel monster, but Ra was on our side and we prevailed!

The chibi girl looked at us with those annoyingly cute eyes. "Mama!!" She screamed and raced towards me.

I let out a strangled yelp and hid behind Gaia, who rolled his eyes at my antics. There was no way I was going to be her mother, even if I did kind of look like a girl, but don't let the others know about it or else I'll use my millennium rod on you? Got that? Good.

Soft foot steps padded closer towards me. She glanced up at the knight and went under his legs to cling onto my right leg. Oh the joys of parenthood. Whoever made that up will be hearing from me shortly, very shortly. "Mama." She buried her face into my leg and sighed contently.

"Don't even start," I growled softly at Ryou, who backed up and held up his hands in defense.

"I won't," he stuttered a bit before regaining his ability to communicate. "She is cute at that age, ne?"

"Only you would think so," I sighed out loud, causing the now Chibi Tea to look at me strangely.

"Mama otay?"

Arg!!! Why do chibis have to be so cute?? "I'm fine, let's go find the others?"

"Otay." She grabbed my hand and tugged on it as to lead me out of the room. The other two followed while whispering to each other.

"Speaking of which, wasn't Calin supposed to be in your group?" I suddenly remembered.

"Yeah," Ryou gasped, realizing that he had lost his elf companion. "I thought he was following me. Elves were supposed to be good trackers, but I guess it's kind of hard to track someone down when that person doesn't leave footprints."

We had reached the place, where I had left my yami to his own device. Good thing he was still sitting on top of the warrior, who was now praying to any god for this insane yami to stop the torture. I must admit he has some of the most creative way to torture people, both physically and mentally.

"Who's the brat?"

"She's……….." I couldn't get another word out because she released my hand and immediately launched herself on Ishtar. Now it was Chibi Tea on top of Ishtar, who was on top of the warrior.

"Dada!!! I wuv you!"

"WHAT!!!" Ishtar screamed loud enough to wake the dead.

"You don't have to be loud," Calin winced at the decibel of his voice. "Master Yami has informed me that they're back at the Kaiba mansion. His grandfather is in the medical room and recovering nicely."

"So that means, all we need to do is find my yami," Ryou sighed. We all knew that if his yami didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be found that easily.

Ishtar just stared at the chibi on him. "Hikari, you don't plan on adopting her, now do you?"

"What else could we do with her?" I questioned him.

"We could give her to Ryou? Or Yugi?" Ishtar almost broke down and pleaded, the key word being almost.

"Dada no wuv me?" Chibi Tea started to cry rivers of tears.

Ishtar panicked. He had little to no experience with young children before. "Um……. Of course daddy loves you."

As soon as she heard those words, she stopped crying and brightened up. She hugged him as tightly as a two or three year old could. Of course, she did start to hic up.

About an hour later, we managed to find Ryou's darker half. He was wandering on the third floor, gathering what seemed to be golden décor. Ryou promptly made him leave it behind, all of it or the dark spirit wouldn't be getting any of it at all. As for the warrior, he could care less which side he was on as long as he was with Tea. He decided he was going to wait for her to grow up before he asked her to marry him.

**********Reader's POV*********

"Hello??? Is anyone here?" Kitara started to look throughout the room once Yugi and company had escaped. She couldn't exactly follow them or she would have felt the Blue Eyes White Dragon's wrath. The dragon had a higher attack strength than she did.

"Where did everyone go?" She sighed and resumed her search throughout the mansion.

**********The Next Morning**********

Yugi woke up to his grandfather stirring. "Grandpa, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, what happened?" His grandfather assured him. "The last thing I remembered was this strange person invading my game shop."

"That would be me," the warrior apologized as sincerely as possible. "I'm sorry if I inflicted any wounds to you. It's just that………….."

"He's head over heels for Tea," Malik interrupted from him, earning a glare and a blush from the warrior.

"Leilo is okay, he's one of the good guys," Yugi chirped. He placed his hand over his grandfather's hand and then proceeded to tell their tale with the others jumping in every now and then. The yamis had officially agreed to stay out of the room.

"My, what an adventure you had," Grandfather said with concern. "I hope you weren't injured and you could have been hurt, trying to rescue me."

"We weren't," Ryou said before Yugi could open his mouth. "Besides, Yugi didn't want to lose an important person to him. I know the feeling of losing a loved one."

"I know that feeling all too well," Grandfather sighed a long one. It was then he noticed a squirming bundle in the warrior's arms. "Who is that?"

"That would be Tea," Malik replied while sort of pouting. "She thinks I'm her mother and Ishtar is her father. Why couldn't she have chosen anyone else?"

"I think you'll make a great mother," Yugi said, trying to be polite.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Malik said sarcastically. He glared at the chibi, who was too busy playing with her new toy to even notice.

"Besides you have Leilo to help you with her and your sister as well," Ryou pointed that out. His eyes went over towards the warrior who was playing with the chibi.

"Looks like Isis will be an aunt sooner than she anticipated," Malik grinned evilly.

**********One Month Later**********

Yugi and Yami managed to discover the mysteries behind their shared past. With Grandfather's blessing, they started to date. Of course, they weren't going to do IT until they were ready, which was after marriage in Yugi's case. Yugi had trained with his new powers every day with the other yamis and helped trained the other hikaris as well.

Malik and Ishtar were getting adjusted to life with an adopted child. They had troubles dealing with her, but with the help of his sister, her fiancée, and Leilo, they were one happy family. Malik now lived with his sister in a large house. Ishtar was a handful along with their duel monsters. Yup, Isis was now engaged to one Shadi. They were planning on having the day next year. Leilo had adjusted to life in the human world. He learned how to use the modern appliances without burning the house down. They now lived in Japan permanently.

The relationship between Bakura and Ryou progressed nicely to where the two had started dating. Of course, there was that annoying headache named Duo. Bakura learned how to deal with the annoying Change of Hearts. To put it simple, he threatened to force them to watch a Teletubby or Barney episode if they so much as aggravate him. That did the trick. Ryou's grade shot up as he was now able to study and complete his work. He also taught his yami how to use the modern conveniences, but sadly, a few of them didn't survive the lessons.

Seto and Joey, those two hit it off. They weren't exactly open with their relationship, but as soon as the media picked up wind, there was no way they could hide it. All of Seto's fan girls cried as he was taken by the `mutt' as Seto affectionately calls him, but should anyone else try it on the blonde, that person found himself being…. Let's not go there, shall we?

All in all, life was back to normal or whatever normal was.

~Owari~