Mokuba Kaiba yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he wearily watched his brother prepare for a meeting with foreign investors from his seat on the end of his brother's bed. The young vice president was still visibly tired, but big brother Seto didn't seem to know the meaning of the word "sleep." There was far too much work to be done to mess with such a trivial thing.

Seto Kaiba was ruffling through his papers, making sure he had all the information he needed when there was a knock at his door. "Enter," he said without looking up. The door opened.

"Mr. Seto," came the voice of one of his employees. "The motion detectors have picked up some movement on the south end of the property. Security can't seem to find anything on the cameras, however."

"You bother me for this?" Seto replied, finally raising his gaze. "It's probably nothing more than an animal. Some loose dog."

"It would have to be a pack of them, sir. All the sensors in that area are responding. Should I dispatch the Security team?"

"Humph," Seto murmured. "Do what you feel is necessary. That's what I pay you for." The employee nodded, bowed, and exited the way he came in.

After one last look-through, Seto closed his briefcase confidently. Today would surely prove to be quite profitable. "Let's go, Mokuba," he said. The younger Kaiba paused mid-stretch and hopped off the bed, quick to his brother's side.

"Should I call for the car to be brought around?" Mokuba asked helpfully.

"No need," Seto replied. "It should be there alrea-" Seto was cut off by a sudden boom from the lower floor that reverberated through the entire house. He blinked in surprise and then narrowed his cold blue eyes. He pressed the communicator button on his coat. "What the hell is going on down there?" Only static responded. Seto tried again. "Report!" he ordered. Nothing.

The floor rocked with another boom. The brothers caught faint whiffs of smoke on the air. "Big Brother, what's happening?!" Mokuba asked, trying not to reveal that he was scared.

Seto sneered. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out. Come with me, Mokuba."

The elder Kaiba led the way down the hall to a seemingly bare wall. Seto pressed a panel to the lower right and the wall opened up to reveal an elevator. The brothers entered, the door sealing shut behind them. Seto pushed a button marked "B2" and the elevator began lowering them down to the basement floors.

"What's going on?" Mokuba asked nervously. "Are we being robbed?"

"They would have to be very stupid thieves," Seto muttered.

Another explosion rocked the elevator. The lights flickered and went out; the elevator came to a halt. Mokuba tightened his gripe on his brother's coat but Seto only scoffed. Without the need of light, he reached forward until his hand came in contact with a keypad. He punched in a code and the lights returned. Back-up generators. The elevator hummed back to life and they were able to continue their decent.

Only the emergency lights were on in basement 2. This was Seto's observatory floor, containing controls for all the mansion's systems. None of the employees even had access.

Seto took a seat at the main computer. Mokuba sat at the secondary controls and they simultaneously inserted their keys to boot up the computer. The back-up generators kicked on and the screen flashed. Seto placed a headset on and attempted once again to communicate with his underlings. Again there was no reply.

"Did they all just suddenly disappear?" Seto mumbled aloud. Mokuba looked at him. If Seto was confused, then this wasn't a good situation at all. From his station, the young boy began bringing up the emergency powered surveillance cameras one by one, looking for something that would tell them what was going on.

"Nothing showing on camera 1. 2... 3... 4...oh!" Mokuba covered his mouth in shock.

"What is it?" Seto asked. He leaned over to look at Mokuba's screen. The CEO's eyes widened. There apparently was a huge smoking gap in the wall of his house. Sparks flew from it where electrical wires were severed. A small fire burned nearby.

"Move over, Mokuba," Seto ordered. Mokuba did as he was told and let his brother take the seat. Seto flipped through the camera views personally. Some showed nothing. Some show scenes of absolute destruction. Every once in a while he would see one of he guards lying motionless on the floor, knocked out or worse, there was no telling.

Suddenly the communicator crackled and a voice was heard.

"Mr. Seto! Mr. Seto!"

"I'm here," Seto replied through the headset. "What's happening?"

"They're here! East wing! First floor! They have...s-some weapon. I-I think they killed Tanaka!" the terrified employee spoke in a frantic whisper. Seto realized that the man was taking a risk just talking to him. The intruders had to be close.

"Don't speak again. Do not let them find you. If you're hiding from them, then stay where you are. Don't risk running if you can help it. Authorities should already be notified. I'm switching to visual."

Seto's fingers flew across the keyboard as he brought up the cameras on the East Wing. Sure enough, there they were, at least half dozen of them. He could just barely make them out in the light from the fires in they set in his hallway. Seto was more confused than ever, but his expression remained stern.

These intruders were clothed entirely in black. Robes by the look of it. Seto's first thought was that the Ghouls were back. But no, that couldn't be. And even if it were, then why? He didn't have the God cards and surely even his rarest cards were not worth this. Well, maybe his Blue Eyes...

The intruders seemed to be at a halt. Arguing among themselves it seemed. Seto narrowed his eyes and switched on the two-way intercom system for that hallway. It was time to see what was going on.

"-if you would have just listened to me!" the intercom picked up. "We don't even know if he's in the building!"

'English?' Seto thought. He knew English pretty well because of his frequent dealings with Americans. But then were these goons from Industrial Illusions? But Pegasus was dead...

"Hush up!" came another voice. "We do not have time for muggle means. I am not going to tell the Dark Lord that we wasted time trying to work around simple muggle security."

"Would you rather tell him that you let the target escape?!" shouted the first voice. "This house is protected by the best in security. If he is here, then he knows we are. And the muggle authorities will be here any minute! We do not need this kind of attention! We're supposed to make this look like an assassination or terrorism or some other muggle attack!"

"We are not leaving without finding him," the other insisted. "Once we have the item, we can curse him all we desire. And I would enjoy cursing him a lot after all this trouble."

Even though his English skills did not permit him to understand everything being said (what the heck was a "muggle?"), he did understand a threat when he heard one. So...these goons wanted him, right? Well, he would just have to-

Seto was cut off mid-thought when the intercom picked up another voice.

"We found someone."

"Is it the target?"

Seto stared at the screen. They'd found the employee he'd spoken with seconds before hiding under the debris of the all but destroyed hallway.

"Not the target. Too old."

"Then kill him."

The eyes of both Kaiba brothers widened as they waited for gunshots, a knife, laser, whatever. But then...

"Stop! We can use him! Don't kill him yet!"

"What is it now?" This voice was beginning to sound impatient.

"This muggle may be able to tell us where the target is."

"You are not wasting any of our Veritaserum on one of the underlings," the second voice replied in a manner that seemed almost bored. "We don't know how much we'll need to break the target's will and find out what we need. That object of his may increase his resistance."

'What is it they think I have?' Seto thought. 'Are they after the company?'

"We'll never find the target if we don't find out where he's hiding!" the intercom crackled. "It won't take much to find out a few facts from this man. We'll still have plenty left."

"Oh, very well."

Seto and Mokuba watched as the last cloaked figure who spoke pulled something from his robes. Several other figures held the shaking and shivering heap that was their employee, and then, as if nothing were wrong, the employee slumped down, now appearing to be quite calm.

"Take us to where your boss is hiding," came the cold voice over the intercom.

"I can't," crackled the all too steady voice of the employee. "I don't have access."

"But you know where he is, don't you?"

The employee nodded. "He should be downstairs..." he muttered in monotone. "Basement two."

"That traitorous little-!" Seto let several swears leave his mouth.

"I think they brainwashed him or something, Big Brother," Mokuba spoke up nervously. "He risked himself to inform us earlier...I don't think he would reveal us so easily. They must have done something to him..."

"It doesn't matter, Mokuba," Seto said, clenching his fists. He was now faced with a decision. He could take Mokuba and get out of there (not run away, mind you, just leave) or he could go and show those strangers what it means to challenge Seto Kaiba. The latter appealed to him most. But that nagging practical side of his brain kept telling him that these intruders may not be impressed with his dueling abilities and no matter how skilled at judo he was, he couldn't take on that many men, especially when he wasn't sure what sort of weapons they had. He was doubtful that even guns would be of much use. And Mokuba...he couldn't risk Mokuba getting hurt.

What came over the intercom next helped him make up his mind.

"If he can't even take us to the target, then we have no need of him. The Dark Lord said to leave no witnesses."

"Fine then."

There were more nonsense words, a flash of green light, and the employee fell to the ground. Mokuba gasped and Seto's eyes showed his disbelief. They didn't need to check to make sure. Somehow, they both knew the man was dead.

"Mokuba, go ready the jet," Seto said in a voice that seemed too calm for the situation.

"Y-yeah," Mokuba mumbled in response. The boy's mouth was suddenly very dry. He grabbed his brother's briefcase and took off as fast as he could under the load to the underground launch pad.

Seto glared at the screen. There was so much he wanted to do but couldn't. With power out in much of the house, he couldn't operate the defense systems. He couldn't seal off the exits and he couldn't fire the weapons. He could, however, activate the explosives positioned within the house and take the whole place down along with the strangers. It was tempting, and it wasn't like he couldn't afford the losses. But a nagging voice told him that some of his employees might still be alive in there. As useless as they sometimes were, he could not simply incinerate them with his enemies.

Frustrated, he made his way to a large safe on the other side of the room. There, he inserted his key (the one disguised as a picture of Mokuba) and opened the door. Inside was another briefcase, this one containing his cards.

He headed back to the control panel. His long, slender fingers typed with impressive speed. He was sending a message to the authorities, telling them the location of the intruders, that they were armed and dangerous, and that he and Mokuba were making their escape. They responded that they were less than five miles away.

"Big Brother, everything's ready," Mokuba said, stepping into the room again. He had grown concerned with the time he brother was taking.

"I'm coming Mokuba. Wait for me in the jet." Mokuba gave a worried look, but did as he was told. Seto glared at the visual from the camera. He couldn't leave without doing something, even if it was just blowing off hot air. He brought up the intercom.

"Attention, intruders!" he announced in his accented English.

"What the hell was that?" came the voice of one of the robed figures.

"It's the target! He shouldn't know this spell! Darcy, you said he wasn't a wizard!"

"He's not! I told you, it's muggle technology!"

Seto was growing tired of listening to them argue about things he didn't understand. "I don't know what you want and I don't care. Whatever it is, I'm going to make sure you don't get it. No one challenges me in my own home. You will not get the chance to do this again." He flipped a switch. The generator powered up the red emergency lights throughout the house and an alarm sounded. They didn't really mean anything, but they made for an impressive effect.

The cloaked figures seemed baffled by the happenings. Seto smiled a self-satisfied grin. "You have ninety seconds to live before this building explodes. Have a good trip to Hell." He was bluffing, of course. But the intruders didn't know that, did they? Seto turned away and left to join Mokuba.

"What did he do?!" crackled the intercom.

"It's nothing! He can't do anything!"

"Is this the power of that item?!"

"You idiots! We have to get out of here!"

"Are you mad?! We can't abandon the mission! The Dark Lord will have our necks!"

"It's an emergency system! The house is going to self destruct! We have to leave!"

"M-maybe we should listen to him?"

More was said, but Seto and Mokuba heard none of it. The BEWD jet was ready for take off and they didn't have much time. Seto took the pilot's position and Mokuba took the co-pilot's. A concealed hatch opened above them into the backyard of the Kaiba estate, giving them an escape route. A computer generated voice counted down.

"3...2...1..." And they were off. The ground rumbled as the jet took off. They shot into the sky, out of reach of their pursuers. From their vantage point, they could see the police cars pulling into the driveway of the Kaiba estate. The way Seto had it figured, the intruders would flee the building right into the waiting police forces. Then they would be for the officers to deal with.

Seto glanced at his watch and scoffed. He was going to be late for his meeting.

…………………………………………………………………..

Ryou wondered into the Great Hall in an unusually good mood. He had no practices scheduled, there was no Divination or Potions class today, and all his homework for that day's lessons was completed in full. It was shaping up to be the first stress-free day he'd had in weeks. And why not? It was a holiday, right? And his favorite, at that.

At least as far as he knew...

Yugi greeted Ryou with a wave at the breakfast table. Everyone else was already there. Malik didn't say a thing, which Ryou felt was unusual in itself, but he was confused by the way Malik kept expectantly eyeing him. It made him think Malik had something up his sleeve, but he tried to ignore it. He proceeded to help himself to fried eggs and sausage.

"I've still got another two or three inches to write," Ron said. Ryou seemed to have walked into the middle of a conversation. "I'll just do it at lunch. Eat really fast so I can get to it, you know?"

"I'm done, but it's really bad," Harry replied. "I think I made up the last half of it." Hermione eyed him disapprovingly.

"You know, it's not really THAT hard to write ten inches on bog sprites. I could have written that much just comparing them to wood and river sprites. But Professor, er, White, said I need to work on being more concise. I had to struggle to get it down. After fifteen inches, I just couldn't cut anymore out."

"Well, don't we all wish we had your problem, Hermione," Ron said, rolling his eyes.

"The Defense Against the Dark Arts Essay?" Ryou questioned, trying to get into the conversation. "Heh, at least you all are ahead of me. I haven't looked at the thing yet."

Hermione blinked at him. "What, do you mean you haven't started yet?"

Ryou didn't know why this was so odd. "I'll just do it this afternoon. I don't have practice, so I'll just do it before the feast."

"Feast?" Ron said. "We having another feast? Why didn't I hear about it?"

"But you guys said the school always has a feast..." Ryou said, confused.

"Uh, I better start heading out to the Greenhouse," Malik said, trying to gather his things as quickly as possible. But he wasn't fast enough.

"Yeah, we have a feast on Halloween," Harry said. "But we've never had one on November FIRST to my knowledge. And we DO have Quidditch practice today. At four. Did you forget?" Ryou was still lost at "November first". Then it dawned on him.

"Malik..." Ryou said in a voice that was eerily calm. "May I have a word?"

"Uh..." Malik didn't have a chance to answer. Ryou was dragging him across the Great Hall by his robes, a look of anger on his face that matched his Yami's. The Gryffindor table stared after them.

"What was that about?" Harry asked.

"Does Bakura have memory problems?" Hermione asked.

"I think it was the half a turkey he ate yesterday," Ron commented wisely. "It must have put him in a coma that fried his brain or something. The guy needs to change his eating habits." Hermione sighed and shook her head at him.

"I better go see what the problem is," Yugi said, sliding out of his chair, half concerned and half curious. As he walked away, Harry, Hermione, and Ron exchanged silent looks before nervously returning to their breakfast.

Ryou had dragged Malik off to a hallway adjacent to the Great Hall where they could talk without being heard. The fire in Ryou's eye's made Malik think it might not be such a good idea to struggle. When they were out of earshot of the other students, Ryou released Malik and turned to face him.

"What's going on?!" Ryou demanded in a forceful whisper. "Why were they looking at me like I'm crazy? And why are they saying it's November first when it's Halloween? Is this some sort of joke that everyone is in on but me? Huh?! Ha, ha, lets all laugh at Bakura, is that it?!" Malik hesitated. "Well?!"

"Uh...no," Malik answered finally. This seemed to be the wrong answer.

"Then what...is going on?" Ryou said, losing his patience for the first time that Malik had ever seen. He decided he'd rather deal with Yami Bakura than an angry Ryou any day. Angry Ryou was scary.

Yugi jogged up to them, having caught up. Malik wasn't sure if it was a good thing that he was there or not...another person to yell at him, but someone who'll stop this unpredictable Bakura from harming him. "What's wrong?" Yugi asked, blinking at the pair of them.

"Yugi, what is today?" Ryou asked, his tone of voice making it clear that he was in no mood for jokes. Yugi was a bit taken aback.

"Thursday?" He replied, unsure of what was expected of him. "November first?"

Ryou shut his eyes, clenched his fists, and shook his head. "I missed Halloween... I'm in my first year at a witchcraft school...and I missed Halloween. I'd been waiting for weeks to see what that day was like here."

"What do you mean you missed..." Then it suddenly dawned on Yugi. "Oh..."

"And it was my day off! I'd planned so that I wouldn't have to rush through any work that day! I was supposed to have a break!" Ryou suddenly grabbed Malik's collar again and eyed him angrily. "Damnit, Malik! Couldn't you and the other me have scheduled whatever trouble you were up to on another day?! Did it HAVE to be Halloween?"

"Well, that was part of the plan," Malik replied honestly, putting his hands up in defensive position. He was completely taken by surprise. He had not expected Ryou to be this angry, and it was frightening. Ryou was actually cursing at him!

Ryou tightened his grip on Malik's clothes for a minute before finally throwing his hands in the air, completely lost in his anger and frustration. "Do you two EVER think about anyone but yourselves and your own selfish games?! What the Hell was so important that you cut me out of a whole day?! Without even a heads up?!"

Malik knew already that Ryou wasn't going to like the answer. He wished the white-haired boy would switch his attention to the other culprit so that he could slink away. "I was going to call it off, but HE insisted," Malik said, pointing to the ring under Ryou's robes, attempting to get the attention off of him. It didn't work.

"Insisted on WHAT?!"

"Well...we wanted to get Malfoy back for locking you guys in the girls' bathroom. So we spent the day scaring him."

Yugi stared back and forth at the two of them, not sure what side he should take. Ryou was perfectly right to be angry, but Malik seemed to be in the most trouble. He wisely decided to just kinda hang back a minute.

Ryou gawked at Malik, shaking his head. "I should have known. Well, fine. That's just great. So long as you guys got what you wanted. Now, if you excuse me, it seems I have an essay to work on." He roughly released Malik and stalked off in the direction of the library without looking back.

Malik stared after him in shock, absentmindedly straightening out his ruffled collar. "Geez," he muttered. "I didn't think he would take it this hard..."

"Well, what did you think?" Yugi said, finally daring to speak up now that Ryou wasn't around. "I don't blame him for being angry. Just think how you would feel."

"Yeah, I knew he wouldn't be happy, but I didn't even know he was capable of being this angry."

"There's your other problem," Yugi said. "You guys just expected Bakura to accept you taking advantage of him. You didn't even take into consideration how he would feel about it, did you? And you couldn't have picked a worse time to do it."

"Yeah, he is a real Halloween buff, isn't he?" said Malik.

Yugi shook his head. "I'm sure it's not so much that it was Halloween. Bakura has been under a lot of stress. Homework, and the Quidditch game this weekend...it's all kinda piling up on him. That, and...and I think he was just getting to be in comfortable coexistence with his other self. They were at an understanding and they were getting along. And now the ring spirit has really taxed Bakura's trust with this stunt."

"You know him well, don't you?" Malik asked, somewhat impressed with Yugi's take on things.

"I just know how I would feel," Yugi answered with a shrug of his shoulders.

Malik sighed. He knew he needed to apologize to Ryou. He considered waiting until Ryou calmed down a bit, but no. The longer he waited, the worse it would be. That and...he felt strangely guilty. Ryou had always been so nice and quiet and reserved. Malik didn't like having a hand in finally making Ryou lose it. He took a deep breath and headed down the hall after his companion.

Malik found Ryou sitting at a table in the library with his back to him, already writing furiously on a piece of parchment. The rest of the library was empty, save for the librarian who was busy in the back. Malik approached hesitantly, not wanting to set Ryou off again. Ryou already knew he was there. Malik swallowed his pride and began to speak.

"Bakura, look, I'm-"

"I'm sorry," Ryou said, cutting him off. The motion of his quill stopped, but he didn't turn around. "I really shouldn't have acted like that. It's just a silly holiday. I can do without..."

Malik stared at Ryou's back. "No, no. Don't apologize. I'm the one who's supposed to be sorry. Me and, well...him."

Ryou sighed. "It's not really you I'm mad at, either of you."

"You certainly had me fooled," Malik said, taking a seat next to Ryou. The white haired boy smiled a little.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I know it's no excuse. It's just I needed that day off for myself. I've just been so stressed out and...nervous. It's strange. I guess I'm just not used to having this much attention on me."

"What do you mean?" Malik asked.

Ryou sighed. "Back in Domino, I did a good job of blending into the crowd. Nothing was really expected of me. And now...now everything's...different."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I'm just afraid of disappointing everyone," Ryou answered.

"Look, Bakura," Malik said, "Don't worry about impressing anybody. And don't be sorry for standing up for yourself. You're allowed to get mad, you know. No one is going to hold it against you. I'll be the first to admit it, I deserved to be yelled at. I really am sorry. I got carried away with the revenge thing and it wasn't my place. I wasn't thinking. So feel free to yell at me, ignore me, smack me around, whatever it is that will make you feel better. Then we can all go back to being friends, right?"

Ryou smiled that little smile again. "Tell you what Malik. If you do your best to stop the other me next time he plans to do something you know I won't approve of, we'll call it even."

Malik grinned. "It's a deal." He stood, pushing his chair back in. "I'd offer help with the report, but you know I'm no good for it."

"That's okay," Ryou said. "Hermione was right. It's not that hard, really."

Malik scratched his head. "If you say so. I guess I'll see you later." He waved and was off.

Ryou looked back down at his essay and busied himself with it. About five minutes passed. And then...

//I'm...uh...sorry, er, whatever, too... I probably should have worked something out with you.\\

Ryou sighed again. The same deal applies to you, too, you know. Promise to stop Malik next time he has a stupid plan, and I'll forgive you. There was silence for a moment.

//I can live with that.\\

Ryou grinned.

//Just don't ever tell anyone that I apologized.\\
 

There's a new YGO fanfiction site, the Millennium Library, and they're looking for good authors, so if interested, check it out at www.sennen-ring.net. And I now HATE fanfiction.net because it no longer wants to let me do my slashes and little star thingies. So there is a good chance that I will soon be switching my stories AND updates to Millennium Library and Kokoro no Naka as soon as both are caught up.

Final note: White Angel is going to A-Kon in Dallas this June! And she's looking for roommates to help with the cost of the hotel room. Girls preferred, but that's not set in stone. It'd be nice if you also plan on cosplaying YGO, as she's looking for a group for that, too. (she's Yami Bakura, Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and Trenchcoat! varieties) I'm looking for four people, which would bring the cost of the room down to $25 a night (although any number of people would be great). E-mail if interested or for more info: whitetenshichanhotmail.com
 

More action next chapter! Which shouldn't take as long as this one did. School duties are almost over. Don't forget to e-mail me if you're interested in rooming for A-kon!