Baku, Ra, to Ringu: UnCut

Once they'd gotten some distance away, they stopped running. Malik turned towards Jouno and slapped him smartly across the face.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You almost lost it all for us, Wheeler!"

Jouno rubbed the hot pain on the side of his face. Malik took a few steps away, glaring around the alley. They were alone. Looking at Wheeler again, he was drawn in by tearful brown eyes, and, rushing forward, he took the other blonde into an embrace.

He spoke gently, words caressing Jouno's earlobe. "I'm sorry. This has always been our weakness, hasn't it? Someone shows us the slightest kindness, and we fall in love. We want someone to believe in so badly." He stroked Jouno's hair. "ShuChan... He's...." Malik shook his head, his brow furrowing. "I'm not sure what he is..."

o o o

Keiko was waiting in the hallway, thoroughly pissed off. They could hear her heels tapping as she paced. She was pissed because Kaiba had confiscated her footage from the entire day.

Kaiba, Yugi, Ryou, Bakura, ShuChan, K San, Hiro, and Fluffy were gathered around the large-screen TV. Although everyone else would've preferred to fast forward to the end, Kaiba insisted on watching the duel.

Yugi looked at Kaiba's face as he watched Jouno.

I've never seen Kaiba glare at anyone with such intensity. He looks like he wants to go through the screen and attack Joey himself!

"Kaiba..."

Seto didn't even twitch.

"It's not him. Joey's been taken over by an evil spirit."

Kaiba half spun and glowered at little Yugi. "Don't give me any of that fairy tale bullshit now, Yugi. And don't make excuses for Wheeler-- any fool can see he's lost his fucking mind!"

"Why are you so--" Yugi looked around. Meeting Kaiba's gaze again, he chose his words carefully. "Kaiba... Where's Mokuba?"

Every muscle in Kaiba's face began to dance. Finally, he turned his attention back to the TV screen.

"... Mokuba's fine."

He watched in disgust as Malik turned Ra against Yugi. He can't even handle his monsters. How pathetic!

o o o

Hand in hand, they walked, not sure where they were going. It was Thursday, mid-afternoon.

Malik led the way. "We can't let our emotions override our sensibilities. We can't do what we want to do, or what we think is best..."

"We must simply take the correct course of action," Jouno finished.

"And what is the correct course of action?"

"To kill BakaChan and his friends." Jouno was feeling better now. He sniffled and let a grin play on his face. Glancing back, he saw his precious guard dogs following them. He willed them away so they wouldn't draw any more attention to themselves. "I feel better all of a sudden. Kinda peaceful..."

"We have to kill ShuChan."

The smile vanished and Jouno stopped, pulling Malik back.

The Egyptian frowned. "I know he's beautiful. I know he's kind. But he's able to get into our minds and weaken us. If he gets to either of us again, we could fail."

He caressed the sides of Jouno's face, his lavender eyes intent on Jouno's chocolate colored gaze. "We've waited too long for this. We can't lose now."

o o o

The angle was low and shaky as they ran through KaibaLand after Malik. They heard Keiko's off-camera voice: " The least you could've done is get a decent shot of it. I could've been the next Geraldo, for crying out loud..."

They burst into the main lobby.

The camera focused on Malik: "What the fucking hell are you doing?"

"It's gonna be okay now, Malik. He knows who we are."

Everyone was glued to the screen as Kaiba and the swat team burst in. It had seemed like an eternity in real life, but on tape, it was over in a few seconds.

Head tilted to the side, Malik opened his mouth and seemed to shriek, but the sound that came out was not remotely human.

"KEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHH!!"

As he shrieked, members of the swat team fell over, dead before they hit the floor, their faces twisted in silent screams.

That done, Malik grabbed Jouno and they ran while everyone else was doubled over in agony.

Ryou frowned. Everyone except the cameraman. I wonder if she chose not to affect him so he could capture it on film? He remembered ShuChan's words: She wants them to see. She wants people to know.

Fluffy stepped closer. "Stop and rewind."

"Something's there," said Bakura. "Go back to right before Malik opened his mouth."

Yugi operated it, wondering what they could have seen.

"Now pause, and go frame by frame."

"Okay..." Yugi began to tap the pause button, eyes scanning the background. He could only guess that there was something on the floor that he'd missed, maybe even his Millennium Puzzle. He sucked in a huge gasp as the screen was suddenly filled with a black and white image, a closeup of a girl, her face frozen in a scream.

"It's her."

"Keep going."

Three more taps, and the image returned to normal.

"Keep going..."

After another fifty taps, they saw the image of the girl struggling under the plastic sheet. She thrashed her head back and forth--

"I said, keep it on pause," Bakura growled.

Yugi looked at everyone with wide eyes, sweat shining on his forehead. "It is paused."

The screen filled with the same words over and over:

The screen went black. They waited. Bakura jolted when he heard something familiar:

"Mommy."

The image faded in and focused. It was the doll from Bakura's nightmare, sitting amongst other dolls and stuffed animals atop a bookshelf headboard.

That's not my bed. In the dream, he had believed it to be his, but now that he was awake, he recognized it as Malik's.

Static faded to black, then came a message:

I STILL LOVE YOU KAIBA