Part 5

-----"When one ceases from conflict, whether because he has won, because he has lost, or because he cares no more for the game, the virtue passes out of him." -Charles Horton Cooley, Life and the Student-----

-----"Half this game is 90% mental." -Yogi Berra-----

The door's violent opening drew every eye in the lobby. Those with weapons reached for them, those without braced themselves. They tensed for the threat, and found...

...a slight, mocha-skinned woman with large eyes and close-cropped hair.

"That's the big bad?" Gunn said, incredulously.

"I know her," Angel said. "Saw her on one of my visits to Wolfram and Hart. She's one of the telepaths they use for their loyalty purges."

The woman grinned wide, too wide. "Yeah. I...read minds...read the corners, read the shadows...got stuck this time. Stuck in the shadows and it's sooo cold." She shivered and giggled at once. "Gotta find the Light, find the light from the Darkness. It's so cold...because I lost..." Suddenly she sobbed. "I lost, and then I *broke the rules!*"

"Okay, something is definitely wrong here," Cordelia said. "Fred, you speak looney. Getting anything out of this we're not?"

"Sorry," the slim brunette replied. "I think she's a different kinda nuts than I was."

"But you recognize the symptoms, don't you?" Wesley asked quietly, looking carefully at Yugi, who watched the woman with sad eyes. "What's happened to her?"

"What's happened...is Yami's justice. This...is the knowledge he's trying to keep from me. This is what he's trying to protect me from. It's why he ran away." Yugi took a deep breath, the disastrous afternoon replaying itself behind his eyes.

*~~~~~Earlier that morning~~~~~*

//Los Angeles had a homeless population much larger than Domino City's. One of the disenfranchised had asked Yugi for money as he'd followed Seto into the hotel, and Yugi'd given it. All the while the man stared into the middle distance, muttering about red eyes, gold eyes, and falling, always falling. He'd seemed familiar somehow, but it hadn't crystallized until after they'd checked in, after 'segregare.' Joey'd gone for ice, and Yami Yugi split from his other, sitting next to him on the bed.

"What's troubling you, aibou?"

"That man, today. I think I knew him."

"Really?" And the taller, darker reflection seemed almost nervous.

"Yes, I think so. It's been years, but I think he might have been that man that tried to harm me right after I freed you."

Then Yugi's next words blew Yami's world apart.

"I think he was a man you drove insane."

Quick pulse from his false heart, shallow breathing. Was this panic? He'd never felt it before.

"What ..." was all the spirit said. And his heart somehow sped up and sank at once as Yugi continued.

"It's okay," Yugi said, smiling softly. "You'd only just been freed. You weren't really even conscious. I know you do that sometimes, but only when it's necessary."

"How can you remember? I blocked..."

"The oldest blocks began to dissolve months ago, Yami. We've been one too long for me not to begin to remember what you shielded." The Punishment Games. The obliteration. The insanity.

That smile. That sweet, accepting smile.

"How can you approve? I stole his mind, crushed his soul! It's my cruelest punishment." The strong, clear voice had dwindled to a strangled whisper.

"But you did it to save us all."

"Oh, aibou." //My pure companion. My Light. What have I done to you?// Yami backed away in horror, self-directed. "These memories, these thoughts, this vengeance. They can't be a part of you!"

"But you're a part of me." The implication: We're brothers. There is nothing to forgive. The interpretation: I have become what you sought to shield me from. Your darkness corrupts absolutely.

"Perhaps...oh, aibou. Perhaps I have been so too long!" And he was at the door. He threw it open and ran, scattering ice and a stunned Joey across the hallway.

A connection attenuating, disappearing. Horrified realization. "Jou! Something's very wrong!"//

*~~~~~End flashback~~~~~*

"So Yami drove this woman mad."

Yugi sighed. "Yes, I think so." He met Wesley's eyes. "He only does it when it's needed or just! It's not something he uses to hurt innocent people. Please, believe me."

Wesley considered the boy for a moment. "Still, he feels your knowledge and acceptance of this power taints you, because he's used it on your behalf."

"That's it. It's not right! I have to make him see...I know I can make him see, break the spell. I know I can reach him." In Yugi's eyes, hope warred and combined with a desperate determination.

"Did he send this woman to find you? She located us very quickly. And if I'm interpreting her correctly, she's obsessed with seeking you out."

"That doesn't quite track, but I'll tell you what does." Lorne sat beside Yugi on the couch, where he and Cordelia had formed brackets, offering support. "I've heard of some critters, no offense, that project insanity like this. Some of them always gets into their victims. Now, if I get everything you've said about Yami, he misses you as much as you miss him, he's just in massive denial. So this girl got that, and she got..." the green demon stood. "She got the connection too! Maybe it's 'cause she's a telepath - I don't know. But she cloned the link between you guys, the un- spelled version. Question is..."

"Did she get both ends of it," Angel finished. He stood and began to head to the door, pulling the cringing telepath with him. "Fred, stay with Connor. Everyone else, find a car. We're heading southwest. And *you* are going to help us reunite the Darkness and the Light," he added, yanking on the woman's wrist.

As they headed for the door, Seto Kaiba murmured to Wesley, "Again, aren't you the boss?"

"I encourage initiative."

* * *

The tape gave way with a satisfying snap, and the cage lock yielded to a piece of gold wire from his jacket. He pushed the door open slowly, so that its hinges would make no sound. But when he won free, exited, and turned, he found himself face to face with a woman who had come upon him equally silently.

//Hmm. A new player. //

"Who are you?" he asked. "Will you try to hold me here?"

She just giggled. Her eyes were large, dark, and deep.

"Wicked, wicked Lilah can't know I'm here," she whispered conspiratorially. "It's a game, you know. It's all a game." She swayed slowly, like a snake before a bird. "I shouldn't be here. Eyes like needles, like knives...he's coming for you and he'll kill me if he finds me. But I had to come to see the king." And she curtseyed low. "You'll meet Lilah soon. She's very pretty, like a razor."

A dull ache as horror pooled in his chest. //Oh. This is the face of madness. // Poetic justice? Those eyes...

She raised a sharply manicured finger, to point directly at Yami's third eye. "Empty in there, so empty. You're missing someone. It aches, doesn't it ache so?" His body felt numb. His eyes tracked the nail. "There's nothing in my soul room, nothing at all. Come keep me company, I'm all alone." She was so close now. Whispering, "Be in me."

Then someone was grabbing him, pulling him away, binding him again before his limbs responded. He shook himself, conscious again, too late. His jailor had returned.

He was thrown against the cage wall to see the man grow a demon's face and confront the woman, likewise transformed.

"Look, Drusilla, I don't care how famous you are, this guy's my meal ticket! You eat him, I don't get paid."

"Oh, I just like to pretend," she replied. "It wasn't meant to be, but I can still pretend." Her face changed again. Human-seeming, she looked back at Yami. "You'll meet the Fool and the Queen of Swords, at least, before you leave these shores. And maybe Death himself. Wouldn't that be a party! You should have tea." She giggled again, and put a finger to her lips. "Shhhh!" Then she turned and ran out the room's side door.

Yami pulled himself up to a sitting position. "Who was that?"

"A legend," his jailor replied. "Drusilla. She's beautiful, cruel and completely insane. She did some contract work for my bosses, but they canned her after she ate about twenty of 'em." He shrugged. "Lucky for me, she got curious about you, lucky for you I got back quick. Must be more to you than meets the eye, kid, 'specially if it was you who put the whammy on whatshername, before." He scratched his head. "Oh, yeah, she's a seer too. Never been wrong, far as I know." He shot Yami a sidelong look. "Even if you weren't about to get sacrificed, I don't know if I'd go making too many long term plans."

And there came a knock at the door.

* * *

The woman had begun to hum softly to herself, making Lorne's job much easier. He just had to look through mad, nauseating emotions ("*Don't* throw up in his car," he told himself) and find the copied link through the twisty, wrong eddies. "Man, he did a number on her."

"She's one of *them.*" From Angel, driving. Joey looked at him, then turned back to watching his friend in the back seat.

"Oh, I'm not saying it was undeserved. I'm just saying that we should be careful around this guy, especially if he's hurt and half-conscious." Lorne sighed. The woman kept humming. He wished she'd stop. He wasn't a violent Pylean, but he wished he could make her stop. He shook himself. The link. Focus. Yugi, next to him, pressed something into his hands, and the link strengthened, became a beacon. "That way! Door number two, right?" The vampire nodded, and sped up. Lorne looked down.

"Hunh. The puzzle. Good thinking, kid."

Yugi smiled faintly, but the expression fell away. "He's still alive. You felt it too. But..."

"I know, I know. You wish you knew how much time we had."

* * *

"Looks like time's up, kid." Yami's vampire jailor rose to his feet. He motioned for the boy to stand as well, but he did not. The vampire shrugged.

First in were three vampires, demon-faced, garbed in ceremonial robes. Behind them walked a human woman in a business suit, a tall, elegant, cold- eyed brunette. //Pretty. Like a razor. // She was chatting amiably with a grey-haired male vampire.

"Yes, spells of this sort tend to be relatively specific contracts, binding the powers of darkness. In my legal opinion, this one should be valid, but since you wrote it Wolfram and Hart can't issue any guarantees. You have signed the waiver?" He nodded. "Good." Then the woman smiled and greeted Yami's captor.

"Nice job, Ralph. Complications?"

'Ralph?' Yami mouthed. Ralph shrugged again, almost sheepishly.

"Yeah, Lilah. He tried to bust out, 'course, and he whammied Amelia."

"Damn telepaths give me the creeps anyway." She turned to one of the other vampires. "Does he meet with your approval?"

The leader pulled some dust out of a pouch and blew it in Yami's direction. It swirled about his puzzle and glowed a deep indigo before dissipating. "He is the Darkness we seek." He leaned in and sniffed at the cage. "And unharmed. He is ready. We are satisfied."

"Well, that's all I need to hear," Lilah said. She withdrew a check from her briefcase and handed it to Ralph. He pocketed the money and looked down at his captive.

"Sorry, kid. Nothing personal."

"I know." Neither rage nor forgiveness in Yami's voice, merely a statement of fact.

And Ralph was gone.

"Well, looks like you boys bonded," Lilah said. "Now c'mon. Your public awaits." Three vampires entered the cage to pull him out, and even with the boy bound, it took some doing. Lilah met his glare as he was yanked to his feet. Then she waited for the vamps to precede her out of the small room and into the hallway. As they pulled Yami past her, she leaned in and murmured,

"Confidentially, we've been pulling a lot more on rent for this place since we put in the bleachers."

And in the distance, Yami heard a dull roar.

* * *

Wesley kept his S.U.V. right on Angel's tail. This was especially imperative as the good vampire had no idea how to use his cell phone, Lorne was busy, and Yugi didn't have the number. Gunn rode shotgun; literally, since he was sitting next to Wesley's shotgun (Kaiba had his in the back). Wes hung a sharp right and tried to tune out the pre-battle conversation from the back seat.

"So, Seto, right?" The billionaire turned to Cordelia and nodded, allowing the informality since the woman was insanely attractive and smiling at him. "What brings you to the States?"

"You're making small talk now?"

"Helps with the mortal terror."

"Oh. You get a lot of that, then?"

"Occupational hazard. So, spill."

"I thought I mentioned. I'm a former Duel Monsters world champion. Now that the game's catching on in the U.S., I'm touring children's hospitals and pediatric wings with a few other duelists. We're teaching strategy and tactics to the patients who play."

"That's it? No offense, but you don't really seem like the type. I've dated civic-minded billionaires, and they were all a lot more..."

"Compassionate?" He snorted.

"Boring," Cordelia replied. "But, that, too."

"Oh, this isn't for the masses," Kaiba replied. "I let my little brother near my public relations department, something that will *never* happen again, and he cooked up this little scheme. It's a PR stunt, a country- wide photo op, and I'm only doing it because he asked me to." His eyes narrowed, aiming a look at Cordelia that was not quite a glare. "I'm not a white knight. If you want that, go find Yugi and his friends."

Cordelia looked back at him with the expression of a woman who had seen far worse things than the patented Seto Kaiba stare. "No, you're not. But you're honest. That's important."

The car's sudden deceleration interrupted them. "We're here," Wesley said, sliding out of the driver's seat, and noticing that there were indeed far too many cars in the parking lot, several with illegally-tinted front windows. He and his passengers moved to join Angel's group. The mind reader Amelia had been bound and gagged.

"How many you figure?" Gunn asked.

Angel was still for a second. Then, "About thirty, I think. At least we've got the element of surprise."