CD: Welcome to the next chapter…

Risuku: Number of readers: you.

Kat: *duct-taped to a chair* *mouth duct-taped shut* Mmph!

CD: Many thanks to Digimagic, for being the ONLY reviewer thus far. *hands Digimagic a few of Kat's hyperness-inducing candy bars* Of course, she's also the one who gave Kat one of her own infamous candy bars, leaving Risk with no choice but to bind her…

Risuku: *smiles evilly and holds up a roll of duct tape* Can't say I didn't enjoy it.

CD: Before we start the fic… Risk, say the disclaimer.

Risk: *growls* Why should I?

CD: *pulls out scissors* You WANT me to free Kat, don't you?

Risk: CyberDeletion does not own Yu-Gi-Oh. However, she does own her characters (me, Kat, and Shay).

CD: Good. *puts scissors away* Well, I forgot a key in the last chapter, so I'm putting one here.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

^^^ Dream/Memory ^^^

It was late at night. Clouds covered the moon and a chilly autumn breeze swept leaves down the road… not that many people were around to see it. There were only two people out that night, one of them closing his store for the night. The shopkeeper hummed to himself as he flipped over a sign that read, "Sorry, We're Closed", decorated with a little jack-o-lantern. Halloween was nearing. He fumbled with his keys to find the one belonging to the door.

"No, not that one… not that one either…"

"Oh, darn, you're closed?" The man turned around to see a teenaged girl looking disappointedly at him. She sighed and shoved her gloved hands into her coat pockets. "I was s'posed to run an errand for my mom."

The shopkeeper smiled kindly. "Well, it can't hurt to have one more customer. Come on in." He held the door open for her.

"Really?" She grinned and practically bounced inside. He turned on the light and let her look around for what she needed. She talked happily the entire time. "You see, I was s'posed to go out and get her some stuff 'cause she was working really really late tonight and she couldn't go get it only I forgot until a little bit ago, so… yeah. Thanks for letting me in, mister!" The girl's smile widened and she picked a few miscellaneous items from the shelves. The shopkeeper had begun to ring up the items when she picked up a roll of duct tape and looked at it carefully. "Hey, what's that?"

The man leaned forward to see the roll of tape. "I don't see anyth-" He was cut of when she duct-taped his mouth shut and shoved him onto the counter.

The girl's slightly-airheaded grin changed to a smirk. "You really are a kind man. Unfortunately, 'kind' doesn't count in reality." Keeping the dazed shopkeeper down with one hand, she pulled out a dagger and embedded it in his head. She pierced his heart as well. She pulled out one sprig of a plant - a type of basil, to be more precise - and set it inside the heart wound, just to see if her true target would figure out the meaning and be on guard.

"That Tomb Robber isn't the only one who can act," she said to herself, as she carved a simple lioness' head onto the corpse. She licked a little of the blood off of the knife and stowed it safely away in her Hikari's jacket. There would be no more killings tonight. She was content to practice on the weaker prey before proceeding to the true hunt. The Yami left the shop after destroying any surveillance tapes and continued towards her other half's house.

'Tread carefully, Tomb Robber,' she thought, 'It is nearly the Feast of Sekhmet. Her coming brought death to many and ended with the taste of alcohol; mine will not stop until I taste my sweet revenge in your blood.'

~* The next Day, Domino High, between classes *~

"Did you hear? Some guy-"

"- murdered -"

"- tapes destroyed -"

"- no suspects -"

Ryou sat in his desk at school, listening to people ramble on about how somebody was murdered the previous night. He couldn't remember what he had been doing around the time it was said to have happened; what if Bakura had taken over and done it? As far as he knew, his Yami had had no motive to kill the man, but still… Ryou wished he could ask Bakura about it, but he didn't want to anger him. Better to keep his mouth shut. It was still a source of amazement to think about yesterday after school. He had been planning to secretly keep a pet, Bakura had found out, and he hadn't even been insulted. Was his Yami plotting something? Did he want to try to lull Ryou into a false sense of security? It wouldn't be very surprising.

The bell rang, pulling Ryou away from his thoughts. There was the usual noise as everyone tried to make it to their individual seats. The teacher began the class immediately.

~* Bakura's Soul Room *~

Whack!

Another knife hit the wall. Bakura sat against the opposite wall, aimed, and threw another. It landed right underneath the first. He had been doing this for a while now.

'Why?' he thought, flinging another knife at the wall, 'Why does that cat's appearance bother me so much? It looks like Shay, but they obviously can't be the same.' Bakura thought back to Ancient Egypt. When he was young he had 'owned' a cat. Actually, he had given the cat a bite to eat and it had stayed. He had shared it with a friend of his when he was a child.

'Friends! Ra, what was I thinking?' Bakura paused in his knife-throwing. 'I was such a foolish child… I was weak. I stole for the both of us, and she nearly stole my heart. I grew attached to her. Is this punishment? Am I surrounded by idiots for having been one myself?' Whack! 'It matters not. I left her eventually, and she disappeared after some members of the pharaoh's army took her away.' Whack! Whack! 'Her and that cat both.' Whack! 'If they're gone, then why does that damn cat bother me so much?'

The white-haired spirit growled. Why was he so irritated by that cat? What had possessed him to let it stay? It was a little pet. It would only continue to soften his weak little Hikari. It was time for another lesson. The knives faded away and he sat, waiting for the end of the school day.

~* After School, Ryou's house *~

Ryou sat on his bed, petting Shay. There had been no luck finding any owners so far. He kept glancing nervously down at the Millennium Ring. He had gotten the feeling that his Yami wasn't too happy with him at that moment.

'He's probably realized that he's actually let me have a companion. I hope he doesn't hurt Shay when he comes out,' he thought, knowing that Bakura would come. Ryou was overdue for his most recent 'lesson'. Bakura always stated that Ryou was too weak for anyone's good, and that the beatings were to toughen him up. It hadn't worked. All it ever caused were wounds… many that hurt much more than any knife could ever cause.

"I see you've still got that furball."

Ryou looked up to see the ghostly form of his Yami standing next to the bed. "Sumimasen*… I haven't found his owners yet."

"You're pathetic. I see how you pet and play with that furry creature. I see how you pamper it. They way you're gentle and kind to it. It's sickening." Bakura grabbed Ryou by the hair and yanked him off the bed, next grabbing him by the neck and pinning him to the wall. "You disgust me." The spirit pulled out a knife and pressed it against Ryou's skin, dragging it down the arms of his prey. Blood spilled out of the wounds and onto the knife. He punched Ryou in the stomach twice before letting go of his victim's throat. Bakura continued punching him, kicking him, and cutting him for a while longer, telling Ryou what a worthless Hikari he was the entire time. Eventually, he stood back to "admire his work". Ryou was on his knees, holding his stomach, coughing up blood.

"As wonderful as it is to see blood, it is not wonderful to have a room smelling of it and raising people's suspicions. Clean it up." With that last comment, he disappeared back into the Item.

Ryou was left on the floor, alone except for his cat. Why did his Yami keep treating him this way? What had he done to deserve this? Tears ran down his pale cheeks. He knew, even though it didn't make sense, that he was in love with his Yami. He had felt that way ever since he had first set eyes on his darker half. He knew it was unrequited; that was quite obvious. It seemed so unfair that such things should exist outside of books and movies. That was how his life had been, though. Unfair. For him, pain and love were one in same.

The sound of things falling came from the bathroom. Ryou stood up shakily and limped towards the bathroom the see what was going on. He found Shay trying to push the First Aid kit towards him. Ryou bent down and scratched the feline behind the ears.

"Aren't you a clever one?" he said, taking the kit and going to clean himself up.

~* That Night *~

Ryou lay on his bed, tossing and turning in a nightmare.

^^^ He was back in his first house. It was not the one he lived in now, but the one he had lived in with his family before… before it happened. Ryou walked around the second floor until he reached a door that had a crude picture of a smiling cat taped to it. Right underneath the picture, in poor handwriting that could only belong to a young child, were the words "Ryou's Room". Ryou opened the door. Inside, a few toys and simple books lay scattered on the floor. The white-haired tenshi sat on a child-sized bed and sighed. He would wait, as usual, for it all to end. He did not want to go any further. The further he went, the harder it would be to ignore the screams…

He sat in the room, his hands over his ears in a vain attempt to block out what was happening in a nearby room. Ryou could practically see the white carpet staining to a shade of red. Despite him covering his ears, he soon heard a man talking and dragging someone behind him.

"You're only here because it would look suspicious if it happened to everyone but me at once. Trust me, though, things won't stay this way for long. Once everything cools down, You're next." ^^^

Ryou opened his eyes, looking around his room as if to make sure he wasn't in another dream. He rubbed his eyes. They were wet; he had been crying in his sleep. Why should he cry? Everything had happened a long time ago. He should move on… if he did, maybe he wouldn't be having these nightmares anymore. It was hard to, though, knowing the person responsible for many of his problems was still at large. He had even sent him the Millennium Ring, a blessing and a curse in itself.

Staring at the ceiling, Ryou eventually fell asleep, only to repeat the same dream again.

Bakura materialized outside of the Ring. He saw Ryou asleep, tears silently falling as the boy had another nightmare. Bakura had always meant to question Ryou about them, but never got around to it. Of course that lead to the question, "Why did he care?" He had not been able to get his mind off of Ryou after he had given him the beating. He actually felt concern for the boy whenever he sensed his fear, even though it was just because of a nightmare. Bakura could have kicked himself. As much as he hated to admit it, he was attached to him. He hid it by continuing to hurt Ryou.

Bakura turned and looked around. He felt as though he were being watched. No one was there, though, except for Shay, who was pawing at the window to be let out. The Spirit of the Millennium Ring glared at the feline and practically shoved it outside after opening the window. Casting one final glance at Ryou, Bakura disappeared back into his Item.

Shay padded silently away from his temporary household. Going just around the corner, he stopped and looked up at the girl in front of him. Risuku had been waiting.

"Well, god of fate…?"

Amazingly, the cat talked. "I still don't know how you found me out," he said, rather accusingly.

"Are you going to give me a report or and I going to have to extract one from you?"

He cleaned himself, uneasy in her presence. "Ryou Bakura is Bakura's reincarnation, as you suspected. You could get to them through their feelings for one another, but neither knows the other cares for them."

"And the murders? Has Bakura seen the mark?"

"I'm not sure if Bakura is even aware of the murders, although Ryou has heard a little about them."

"What people will say to their pets… they will confide in anything that they think cannot talk. Ah, well… No knowledge of details means I'll have to kill again. Someone they both know, perhaps? Continue to keep an eye on them for me." She looked over Shay carefully. "Do not get attached to either of them." With that, Risuku and Shay both went their separate ways.

CD: *sigh* Next to none on the plot movement… oh well. There's always another chapter.

Kat: *still strapped to the chair, trying to break free* Mmmmmph!

CD: Oh yeah, Kat's right. I'd like to thank Digimagic for letting me use an idea of hers. She knows which one.

Risk: *raises an eyebrow* You understood what Kat said?

CD: Yeah… so?

Risk: *sighs* Never mind about that. I've got an idea about Ryou's recurring dream. The first person to review guessing who the man was and what happened gets to decide who dies next. It shouldn't be too hard.

CD: Isn't that a little… morbid?

Risk: Yeah… so?

CD: *sighs* Alrighty. You heard her; guess the man and the incident and you get to play god. (No telling anyone, Digi! You know that I know that you know…) You can't kill Bakura, Ryou, or my OC's. Everyone else is fair game. Please read and review!