A/N: Hi everyone! Or rather hi to the five people who’ve actually R&Red this fic. Could be more, but that’s all I can count off the top of my head ⌐.⌐ Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t complain, some stories get less than that. Of course, some stories have much shorter chapters and get more reviews, hm…nah, I like my long chapters. Long chapters are gooooooood. And I’m sure you who are actually reading out there agree with me. Anysway, I don’t have much more to say here save for that if I owned Yugioh I’d be rich and famous and I’d have a big house with a big room, my own bathroom, and a walk in closet. *looks around* huh, well what do you know, I don’t! Haha! Enjoy the fic.

*

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Laithe screamed

"This is a cruel and unusual punishment!!!" Lancy cried.

"JUST DRINK IT!!!" Elsbeth ordered, trying to shove bottles of disgusting green liquid at the two girls.

"Never!!!" Lancy finally proclaimed, dodging out of Elsbeth’s reach and going for the door.

"Someone stop her!!!" Elsbeth yelled. While she was busy getting someone to stop Lancy, Laithe was sneaking out of the kitchen in order to escape via the back yard.

Marik, being the only one fast enough (and stupid enough, haha) moved in front of the door, arms wide open to catch Lancy as she ran. Well, he didn’t exactly expect for her to be able to stop on a dime, kick him in the gut, and then bolt out the window. "Oof! Medic." Marik wheezed, falling to the ground in a fit of coughing.

"Great, Laithe will you—Laithe? LAITHE GET BACK HERE!!!" Elsbeth yelled, running down the hallways to the back yard. She found Bakura had also been kneed or kicked in the stomach and Malik was rubbing his arm where he probably hit the table when Laithe moved him out of the way. "Oh perfect!" Elsbeth exclaimed, "After them!!!" She yelled at the yamis + Malik.

"Few! That was close!!!" Lancy exclaimed as the two demons ran down the road. "Where to hide, where to hide?" She asked herself.

"Somewhere vastly populated! It’s the weekend, that shouldn’t be too hard to find!" Laithe answered.

"Right, maybe a gangster hideout or something, somewhere not even Bakura knows of!" Lancy exclaimed.

"But he knows all the gangs around here, doesn’t he?"

"He knows them, and he has a reputation, but he can’t know of all the hideouts! Come one, this way!" Lancy said, grabbing Laithe and taking a turn into the city.

"You know, eventually we’re gonna have to go back." Laithe told her.

"Pft! No we don’t!" Lancy exclaimed with a wave of her hand.

"We have to go to school, and we need somewhere to do our work at." Laithe said.

"We don’t have to go to school, and even if we did, we could just do our work in the park or something!"

"But I need my laptop!!!" Laithe wined.

"Well you should have thought of that before we ran off." Lancy told her frankly as they started down an ally-way.

"But what about your beers?" Laithe asked.

Lancy paused a moment, but just walked on, waving it off with a, "Un, I carry my stuff with me all the time, I can always buy more." She said.

"Not the same stuff without proof that you’re over 21." Laithe pointed out.

"Pft, I can go without that brand, and besides, we can just go to places that don’t care what age we are." She said smirking.

"Ah, Lancy," Laithe said, motioning Lancy’s attention to the fact that 4 gangsters now had guns and knives pointed at them.

Lancy crossed her arms over her chest and looked one of them straight in the eye, "The Blood Red Harpy sent me."

The gangster took off his shades and looked at her, "Lancy? That you?" He asked.

"You know them?" Laithe asked.

"Duh." Lancy answered, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! Lancy!!!" Exclaimed the others, now putting up their weapons in favor of a much-more-friendly conduct.

"Hi guys," Lancy greeted, "This is my friend, Erszebet Laithe. Or just Laithe because I know you won’t be able to pronounce her last name." She said.

"Hey Babe, what’s up?" Asked one of the guys, taking her arm while they lead the two to the entrance of their hangout.

"That way." Laithe answered, pointing to the sky. She gained herself a lot of snickering for that one.

"Better watch it with her, Roadkill, Bakura has his eye on her." Lancy told the guy who had Laithe’s arm.

"Lancy! You know very well I’m with Malik!" Laithe exclaimed, taking her arm back in order to cross them over her chest.

"Hm, and this is going to stop Bakura…how?" Lancy asked, giving her a ‘yeah right’ look.

"Bakura?! Oh well, pardon me!" Exclaimed the one whose title was Roadkill.

The inside of the hangout was bustling and hustling with different gangs, some having small fist-fights, others just having a good time with each other. The women in there seemed to be divided into two groups, the ones that were, to be honest, whores, and those who were the tough don’t-mess-with-me biker chicks. Laithe probably came off as more of a shy whore than a biker chick, but anyone who tried messing with her would probably find themselves eating their own feet courtesy of Lancy, despite the fact that Laithe could more than take care of herself.

"Ah, look, gambling. Let’s go get some money, Laithe!" Lancy said, grabbing her friend to the poker tables.

"Ah, Lancy, maybe coming in here wasn’t such a good idea." Laithe said, looking very uncomfortable.

"What? Don’t worry, I’ll just say Bakura likes you and anyone who comes on to you will back off." Lancy reassured.

"No, it’s not that its…well…I’m having a…ah…a hungry moment…" Laithe confessed. The amount of human meet in the room was making the slight tickle in her stomach become more and more noticeable.

"Hungry? Didn’t you just have breakfa—oooooooh." Lancy said, suddenly knowing.

"Hey look! It’s Lancy!!!" Exclaimed one of the guys at the nearest poker table.

"Wanna join?" Asked another, turning around in his seat.

"Don’t you already owe me some money from last game?" Lancy asked him.

"Aw, come on babe, you know I’m good for it." He said, winking flirtatiously at her.

"No, I didn’t know you were good for it. And if you call me babe again I’ll stick that deck of cards up your—"

"Lancy, can we please just go?" Laithe asked her, trying not to look at all the delicious hu-er-all the people around her.

"Okay, okay, just let me wring my 1,000 outta this guy and we can go." Lancy said, advancing on the one who owed her money.

"I’ll pay you back later! I promise!" The guy told her off-handedly.

Lancy’s hand suddenly shot in and out of several of his pockets so fast that only Laithe could see that she had done anything but suddenly pull out a wad of money from him. "Well, well, well, this certainly looks like enough to pay your dept to me." She said, smirking at him.

The gangster’s eyes widened and he instantly searched the pocket where he’d kept it, finding it empty. "Hey! How’d you—you give that back you little witch!" He ordered. "I said I’d pay you back later!"

"Ah, but you can pay me back now. Why should I have to wait after all?" Lancy asked, making the wad of money suddenly disappear before their eyes.

"Give that back, or do you want to make something out of it?" He asked her hotly, bringing himself to his full height in front of her so he could look down at her. But Lancy just looked back up, daring him to try anything. And during this time Laithe was fidgeting nervously, forcing her eyes from straying to the muscles one of the guys at the same poker table had, unfortunately she wasn’t thinking of them as sexy.

"The question is, do you?" Lancy challenged as two other guys stood up to defend their friend, one of them being the muscular one.

I’ve gone an entire year without eating anyone, I can do it again, I can do it again. Oh Lord give me strength! Laithe prayed. On the outside she probably looked nervous about the upcoming fight with her fidgeting and obvious discomfort. This probably made the gangster think he had Lancy at a disadvantage, seeing as her friend didn’t seem to think Lancy could take him out very easily.

"Yes, I do. Why don’t we step out to the back, just the five of us?" He asked, referring to the guys beside him too.

"Only three of you? You’re gonna need more men." Lancy said, cracking her knuckles. She then turned and winked at Laithe, who gave her a scared look in return. No, Lancy! I don’t want to!!!

The gangster just laughed, "Riiiight. Miss tough girl here thinks she can handle more opponents!" He called. Those who were paying attention laughed, some more guys got up, wanting to join the fun. Their opponents now totaled 7.

"Alright, let’s go. You lead the way." Lancy said, smirking.

"Lancy, let’s just go, please!" Laithe begged, grabbing her friend on the arm.

"No way! Come on, Laithe, let’s show these guys who’s boss!" Lancy said, turning about her wrist so that now she was grabbing Laithe’s arm and dragging her off to where the gangsters were leading them.

Laithe’s heart beat swiftly as they continued to walk, deeper and deeper into the alley-ways. She waged a silent war in her mind against her other, one that she was beginning to lose, and she knew it. 7 people, I’m about to slaughter and eat 7 people! I can’t, I have to stop myself!!! She told herself, over and over again. But it seemed like there was a clawed hand extending from her stomach that was grabbing at her throat and tugging, screaming at her to eat raw human flesh. Her nostrils were beginning to pick up all the bodily fluids and organizes in the humans, her ears could hear their hearts beating and their blood pumping. Her nails were starting to grow into claw-like structures, and it was all she could do to stop her fangs from coming out. What’s going on?! I didn’t use to have this much of a problem resisting!!! She mentally yelled at herself. Everything was grating at her nerves, gnawing at her insides and making her head pound. Her other was fighting for control, and it seemed like the demon in Laithe had suddenly become much stronger for some reason.

"Laithe, the ankh is glowing." Lancy whispered.

Laithe’s eyes widened with realization. Of course! The Millennium Items were made from demon magic, so her demon side was able to draw strength from it, she had to take it off!!!

"Alright, girlies, ready for your beating?" Asked the leader, causing the others to snicker.

Suddenly, Laithe’s lips curved up into a smirk. She stood up straight and gave the group of gangsters a haughty look, "Oh, I’m ready." She said in a deep, demonic voice that was not her own, "Ready to eat that is." She said, chuckling at the confused and ‘are you crazy?’ looks she was getting.

"Ah, Laithe, are you okay?" Lancy asked, concerned. Laithe ignored her and snapped her fingers. Suddenly there was a wall of blue-colored fire, blocking the only exit out of the alley that they had. It was so hot, even Lancy staggered to get away from its heat. "**** it Laithe! How’d you do that?!" Lancy exclaimed.

"Just so none of you find the need to try an escape, the instant you touch those flames you’ll be incinerated. And I’d much rather you not do so because I prefer my meat uncooked." Laithe said, once again ignoring Lancy. There were screams, oh how there were screams. The sound of them caused Laithe’s adrenaline to rush and excite her as she killed. The gore made her nose flair and her senses tingle, the taste of human blood filled her mouth with its sweet nectar, full of sin and iniquity. She continued to feed, unable to stop herself, and hardly able to even think of stopping.

Lancy didn’t dare intervene, instead she climbed up the wall of the building and watched on the roof, never mind that it was still broad daylight and someone might see her. Laithe’s behavior was scaring even her. The wall of fire turned from its blue color and became a line of regular fire, only it was spreading. A gasoline can exploded and the garbage can caught it.

Finally there was no more flesh to eat, and Laithe collapsed in the center of the battlefield. She looked like a tranquil demon of fire, merely sitting there in the midst of the flames as if they were a part of her. But Lancy knew better, she jumped down from the building, forced Laithe to hold on to her, and climbed swiftly back up the brick pattern.

*

"Someone should talk to her." Anzu announced.

"You heard what she said, she wants to be alone." Bakura pointed out non-too-kindly.

"Idiot, when a girl says they want to be alone what they mean is that they’re going to go off on their own and they want you to follow in order to comfort them." Anzu retorted.

"Isaac could talk to her, if he were here!" Lancy said, beyond irritation at this point. "Where is he?!" She demanded.

"I don’t know, but you’re right, he would be the best person to talk to her." Elsbeth agreed.

"Well then Malik should do it." Anzu said.

"Me?! Why me?!" Malik exclaimed.

"Because, Einstein, you’re suppose to be her boyfriend!" She answered.

"Maybe, but I think Bakura should talk to her." Lancy said.

"Okay, why me?!" Bakura demanded.

"Because you were there the last time she ate a couple of people. Provided she didn’t go completely demonic on us, but you still saw her feed." Lancy answered.

"I’ll talk to her." Yami suddenly declared. His voice had such an odd tone to it and his expression was so strange that no one argued and they just watched as he marched over to the basement door and walked in.

He found Laithe on her couch, bent over so that her hair covered most of her face, yet let her ears poke out, showing that they were rather downcast. In her hand was the Ankh.

She sat so still, for a moment she looked like some sort of statue. He couldn’t even see her breathing, it was almost as if she was some movie on a TV and someone had pushed the pause button. But then once he reached the bottom of the stairs she looked up, her movement so fluid that it didn’t seem to startle him. He walked over to her, aiming to sit down, and she suddenly held out the Ankh to him. "Here." She said, "I can’t keep it." She told him.

Yami avoided the Ankh and sat down beside her, "Getting rid of it won’t make your yami go away." He said.

Laithe took in a deep breath, and let it out. "It…it’s not like that." She said, taking the ankh back. "It, it might seem as though I’ve suddenly obtained a yami but…it isn’t that…"

"Then what is it? Or would you rather not tell me?" He asked.

Laithe shook her head as if to get rid of cobwebs. "My other, or so I call it, isn’t my yami. It’s my dark side, yes, but the barrier between me and her is not so definite. Yes, I started to feel as though I had lost control, and yes it was like I became someone else, but she is still me. I was the one who killed those people, I was perfectly conscious that I was doing it. But I was different then, I was fully demon. And the reason I couldn’t keep down that part of me was because the Ankh gives my demonic side a boost, whether it be in power or in instincts. So, it feels like I’m fighting with someone else on the inside, but I’m actually fighting with my own mind, with my own body. It’s hard to explain, but the demon side of me, it’s still me. The way you see me now, I still have a little of her on the outside, though I’ve been able to push it down for such a long time now." Laithe sighed again.

"I’m not sure I understand completely, but of course my light and dark sides are completely separated so it’s not so complex to me." Yami told her.

Laithe smiled at him, "Yeah, I know, I just need someone to listen to me." She said.

"So I guess Anzu was right."

"Huh?"

"When you said you wanted to be alone, that meant you wanted someone to follow you and comfort you." Yami answered.

Laithe blinked a moment and then laughed out loud. "Yeah, I guess. That and I really did need some time alone, not too much, but some." She answered.

"So who were you expecting to come down? Anzu said it should have been Malik because…well, you know. And Lancy said it should have been Bakura because he, ah, was there once when you…" Yami trailed off.

"Yeah. Well, to tell you the truth I wasn’t expecting anyone to come down, but I guess in the back of my mind I wanted someone." She told him shrugging.

"Who though?" He pressed.

"It doesn’t really matter who, to me anyways. Just someone. Someone I could talk to, now if it was Marik I might have been a bit edgy." She confessed, laughing a bit.

Yami’s eyes widened, "Uh, interesting mental picture." He said, causing Laithe to bust out laughing. Inside Yami’s mind a chibi Laithe was talking about her problems while a chibi Marik was busy messing with her computers in order to electrocute himself.

Laithe let out a relieving sigh, "You’re right though, throwing away the Ankh won’t make my other go away. Though…maybe I could put a barrier around it to keep it from unleashing any magic into my being unless I want it to." She mused, fingering the golden key-like object.

"We’ve got trouble!" Lancy exclaimed, "I hope you two are finished down here."

"What’s wrong?" Laithe asked standing up.

"Aaron’s not answering his cell phone, and neither is Isaac." Lancy answered.

*

"I called the Ring earlier and they said that the Slayers should already be here." Elsbeth said, frowning. "I don’t like this, something’s going on, and until we know what, I’d rather everyone stay in the house." She told them.

"Huh? Why do we have to stay?" Jou questioned.

"You’re targets." Lancy answered with a concerned frown. "This is not good."

"I guess their deciding to strike again already." Bakura said.

"At least this time they do not have a Millennium Item." Shadi put in.

"Item or no item, this is very dangerous. I am going to put a Circle around the house." Elsbeth said, putting on her jacket.

"Should we watch the television in case something shows up?" Malik asked.

"No, divine forces keep most demonic activity from reaching the media." Laithe answered. "We won’t even hear anything about this morning other than a gasoline can exploded in an alley and caused a fire." She said.

"Oh."

"So what do we do?" Bakura asked as Elsbeth walked out the door.

"Get our butts into the armory room and get weapons for everyone." Lancy answered. Three particular individuals perked up at that idea.

"All of us?" Ryou asked.

"Ah, yeah. Come on, Ryou, start asserting yourself a bit. Besides, you’ll need something in case one of us isn’t there to protect you." Lancy answered.

"This way." Laithe said, leading them out of the living room.

After everyone was suited with a weapon that suited them, blessed of course, Elsbeth had finished the Protective Circle so they could relax a bit. "Alright, its obvious that, because I’m the last guardian, I’m the next target. Knowing this we might be able to come up with some sort of plan." She said.

"Absolutely not!!!" Laithe exclaimed, jumping up. "It’ll backfire! Think about it, Itzak isn’t stupid, by now he’ll know that we know he’s getting rid of the adult figures. He’ll expect us to try and do something like that." She said.

"She’s right, we can’t risk letting you out of the house especially." Yugi said.

"But we can’t just sit back and do nothing either." Bakura growled.

"Though we could…" Lancy trailed off, everyone looked at her, finding the half-demon deep in thought. "It’d be completely unexpected, we might actually pull it off." She added.

"What?" Laithe asked.

Lancy looked up at Laithe, "We could go right to him." She said. Everyone gawked at her. "Think about it! That’s the last thing they’d expect us to do at this point! They’d think we’re going to stay in the circle and try to figure out someway of safely fighting them on earth. They’d never expect us to do something so reckless!" She said.

"Yeah, uh huh, and say this was actually, miraculously, a good idea. How, in the name of Anubis, are we going to get there?!" Bakura demanded.

Laithe looked down at her hands. "How do you think portals are created in the first place? Monarch demons, with the right tool, can make portals back and forth through Earth and Elsewhere easily. Without the right tool it’s harder, but still possible." Lancy said. "And Laithe can make the portal open up anywhere she has already been and can picture in her mind." She added.

"It still isn’t fool-proof. I mean, what do we do when we get there?" Laithe asked. "That’s an entire castle full of demons. Sure they’ll be a lot more help now that they’re saved, but there’s still a slim chance of survival!" She exclaimed. "And it’s not like killing all the demons is going to fix this problem."

"I’ll phone the Ring again, I’m gonna have to tell them what’s really going on now, with the Millennium Items." She said.

"Go ahead." Laithe nodded. Elsbeth then left the room to do just that.

"There has to be something we can do." Jou said. "I mean, we can’t just hide forever!"

Laithe sighed heavily. "They have to have a base, somewhere near the city or inside of it. Probably some abandoned house that’s thought to be haunted or some place that’s been recently renovated." She said. "If we can find it, we’ll be able to destroy their hold on this city from Elsewhere. You see, Monarchs can make portals by themselves, but it takes a lot of energy and they can’t do it all the time. So special ports are made on earth, stationary spots where any demon can pass through Earth and Elsewhere. It’ll take them a long time before they can really function in both realms after we destroy the portal. By then we should have a good amount of Slayers around, which will drastically discourage any demonic activity. After that we can work on finding out what happened to Aaron and Isaac." She said.

"Right, so we find the base and destroy it. That shouldn’t be too hard." Bakura said, smirking with a plan.

"What are you thinking?" Lancy asked, a smirk crossing her features.

"Alright, here’s what I’ve got planned. We get into the air-conditioning system and we let out some gasoline in its gas form into it. After about five minutes the entire house will be completely full of it. And what happens to gas when it meets a small spark?" he asked.

"It combusts, making a very very large explosion. I like that idea." Lancy said, "Just one problem, demons are immune to fire. Our bodies were made in hell for crying out loud!" She exclaimed. "One, we won’t be able to get away in time after we light a spark. Two, if one of us does it we have to handle lots of demons keeping us from escaping. And three, the portal is always under ground!" She told him.

"Lancy’s right, we’ll have to find the portal itself and destroy it." Laithe said.

"We could use dynamite instead. Wire up the whole place and watch it blow that way." Marik suggested.

"Uh, hello, the only way we’ll be able to destroy a port is by supernatural means!!!" Lancy exclaimed. "As much as I like to watch things go boom, that’s not gonna help us any." She told him.

"You could try and make a magic bomb. Using both magic and gunpowder and/or gasoline." Honda suggested.

"ENOUGH WITH THE GASOLINE!!! IT WON’T WORK!!!" Lancy yelled, standing up and pulling on her hair. She huffed and forced herself to calm down as everyone looked like they were going to run any minute. Even Laithe had a hand up in self-defense.

"Okay, ah, well then what will work?" Anzu asked.

"Laithe. She’s the only one strong enough to unleash pure energy in a destructive form, that doesn’t involve fire, and still be able to fight afterwards." Lancy answered, sitting back down.

"Alright, let’s try to take this in steps. The first thing we need to do is find out exactly where they are, the second thing we need to do is work on a tactical plan to destroy the port, and building. The dynamite and/or gasoline will due for the second part, but for the first it’s obvious that somehow I need to get to the port. And not only that, we have to figure out where it is. That means an inside, sneaking job. For which I wish Isaac were here to help with, but he’s not so Lancy and I will have to use what he’s taught us so far." Laithe said.

"He taught you to be sneaky?" Jou asked.

"When you’re a half-demon you have to know how to infiltrate an entire building and not be detected. Provided, you don’t have to actually do so, you just need the ability to do so." Lancy told him. "Anyways, first thing’s first. We’ll need to find out where the house is, and to do that we’ll need search parties and old abandoned houses rumored to be haunted." She said.

"I think Malik and I can help you with that." Bakura said.

"There are four such houses, one by Yusora park, another in the forest off on a road near the school, another down close to the docks, and the last is on an island in the middle of Kusochi lake." Malik said.

"Who all here thinks it’s in the middle of the lake?" Lancy asked in a board voice. Everyone raised their hands.

"Wait, we don’t know that, what if that’s what they want us to think. We should still look about the other houses too." Laithe pointed out. "Itzak could also be expecting us to try and do something about the portal, we can’t assume anything but the worst about a situation." She told them.

"She is right. But if Itzak is expecting us to destroy the house, would it not be wise to avoid doing so?" Shadi spoke up.

"Probably, but what else can we do? Besides, if we play our cards right, it won’t matter if Itzak is expecting us to do something to his house or not. He won’t know when we’re planning to do so, and if we attack in broad daylight his forces will be vastly diminished because demons are weakest in daylight. Just take off their sunglasses and a regular demon is completely blind." Laithe said. "Of course…he knew when we were coming the last time…" She said considering.

"Huh?" Jou blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean he knew we were planning to attack his Jenars, and he knew when as well. And that means he knew we knew that he had Jenars in the school." She answered. "There’s no way he’d have been able to call upon enough energy for instant transportation of his demons as soon as he seemingly did. He would have had to know what we were planning. The only question is how." Laithe explained.

"Maybe he has us bugged?" Jou suggested.

"Doubt it, he sounds like the sort of person to be above the use of human technology." Bakura pointed out.

"Not really, they weren’t above using guns. But I don’t think they’d have been able to put anything on any of us that we wouldn’t be able to find. Both Elsbeth and Isaac trained themselves to be able to detect that sort of transmission while they were still in the Ring." Laithe said. "Which leaves room to suspect that someone has been sneaking information to the demons. But the only likely suspect, Kaiba, was clean when I questioned him using Shadi’s Millennium Scales." She added.

"It could be Marik." Jou suddenly suggested, earning himself a glare.

"Calm down," Elsbeth said, coming into the room, obviously hearing their suspicions. "If we start suspecting everyone without much proof we’ve already lost. The best way to do this is to go around with the Scales and make sure everyone’s clean, that way there are no trust issues." She said. "Shadi, may I see the scales?" She asked.

Shadi nodded and brought the Millennium Scales from the folds of his clothing. Elsbeth took it and started around the room, asking everyone a very direct and to-the-point question. Laithe was the last one to be questioned, and of course she came out clean. "Now, you hold the scales and ask me the same thing." Elsbeth said, holding the scales out to Laithe.

The half-demon took them and nodded. "Have you offered any information to our enemies?" Laithe asked.

"No." Elsbeth answered. She was clean.

"Well, that theory was completely smashed." Honda said. "Any others?"

"Nope, other than that he just happened to have enough energy for instant teleportation on handy just in case." Lancy said sighing. "Or they found out Jou was poking about."

"That could be it, after all, we can’t expect Katsuya to be entirely clean in his operations." Bakura said.

"Clean? I’ll give you clean ya—"

"Down boy! Down!" Lancy ordered before he could start something. Though Jou seemed to react to that a bit violently.

"I’m not a dog!!!" He yelled, standing up.

"Um, duh. I can see that. Just sit down." Lancy said, able to mend whatever mistake she had just made by saying that.

"Anyways, what’s the basic plan?" Elsbeth asked, looking mostly at Laithe.

"Find their base of operations, in other words the ‘haunted house’ our enemies are using as a port, and destroy it." Laithe answered.

"Let’s check our four areas immediately, they won’t be expecting us to walk out of the circle so soon after we created it." Lancy pointed out.

"Four areas?" Elsbeth questioned.

"We have four spots that would be the most likely to host demonic activity." Yami answered.

"We should probably separate into groups of two, one goes with Laithe and the other with me. You’ll need us to ‘sniff out’ any demon traces in the houses." Lancy pointed out.

"And Elsbeth, you should stay here and maybe make some potions that might help us out." Laithe said. "Besides, you’re obviously their next target." She added.

"Right." Elsbeth nodded.

"So who in which team?" Asked Jou.

"Well, first off not everyone will be going. Two to each of us I’d say." Lancy said. "That means Malik, Marik, Bakura, and Yami."

"What?! Oh come on we want some action too!!!" Honda exclaimed.

"Yeah! It’s not fair that you guys just keep making us sit around protected like kittens!" Jou agreed.

"Or puppies." Bakura snickered.

"Not now, Bakura." Laithe chided before Jou could explode again. "For one, we need small numbers, for another you need to learn how to use those weapons before doing any fighting." She said.

"Besides, if all goes well there won’t be any action." Lancy said standing up. "We’ll move out now, unless there are any disagreements." Everyone shook their heads and the four humans chosen to go stood up. "Good. Marik and Bakura are with me, Yami and Malik can go with Laithe." She said in a taking-charge kind of voice.

"Let’s go." Laithe nodded.

Outside the 6 decided on the two team’s destinations. Laithe’s team would scope out the two near and in Kusochi lake, the one by the docks and the one on the island. Lancy’s team would take the one near the school and close to Yusora park.

*

"I’d feel better about doing this if it were night-time." Malik pointed out.

"Who would you rather be spotted by, demons or humans? Day is actually night for demons because they can hardly stand the sun and they can’t see without really dark sunglasses. Sort of like vampires, only they just have a hard-time with the immense light." Laithe explained as they rounded towards the docks.

"Yeah, but still. It just feels off in broad daylight." Malik told her, "Like it’s all too easy."

"And you’re complaining about this, why?" Yami asked raising an eyebrow.

"Don’t start. Either of you." Laithe ordered before Malik could retort. She could feel the animosity between the two, they thought she didn’t catch them glaring at each other behind her back.

"Yes mother." Malik muttered.

"Malik, I am twice your age, I hope you realize that." She said, causing Malik to shut up as they finally reached the docks. Unfortunately there were quite a few people going about their day there, fishing and such, so they’d have to work a bit harder to keep from being noticed.

"Easy huh?" Yami whispered to Malik.

"Which way?" Laithe asked, pulling Malik forward in order to avoid the start of something.

"This way." He said, jerking his head to where the land became a bit of a hill up into some growth. There was an un-kept path up the hill that they walked casually towards. They waited until it seemed few were looking, and then they climbed up the path, hoping no one would try stopping them.

"Forget what I said about easy!" Malik huffed, having to grab a few trees in order to pull himself up the steep pathway.

"Gladly!" Yami said behind him.

"Would you two like me to carry you?" Laithe asked, getting just a bit tired of their complaining and slight rivalry. Geez, what in the world is making them suddenly snippy at each other?! She asked herself.

"No!" The two said at the same time, finally finishing their complaining after that.

After a bit of climbing Laithe suddenly stopped them, peering around one of the trees, her nostrils flaring with demon blood. But it was only one demon, there were no traces of any others.

Then she saw him, a medium ranking demon pacing about the old house, looking nervous and, for all the world, as if he was going to die that very day. Peculiar, why is he alone? Laithe questioned mentally. She put her finger to the Ankh around her neck and gently probed his mind. Her eyes widened. "Malik!" She hissed quietly, moving down the path beside him, "Can you contact Marik from here?" She asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Tell him to tell Lancy not to check the other houses, and if they’re already doing so, don’t let themselves be seen and/or kill those near them." She said.

"Wh—"

"Do it!" She hissed, climbing down the path. "Come on, we have to get back." She told Yami.

"Why?" Yami asked, just as confused as Malik.

"Itzak knew we would be checking the houses, so he’s placed guards at each of them. And that way he’ll know if we plan to attack his base. He’ll also know, by which of these demon guards get killed, where we’ve looked as well as when." She said.

Yami’s eyes widened and he and Malik nodded. "Good news, they haven’t been detected yet. I’ve told them to go back to the house." Malik said.

"Good, we’ll take it from there." Laithe told them.

*

"Does anyone but me get the feeling that our enemy is a Mary-Sue?" Lancy asked back at the house. "He obtains a millennium item under our noses, he knew when we were about to attack his Jenars, he now has both Aaron and Isaac, he has guards at every haunted house in the area so he’ll know if and/or when we start planning to attack his base, and to top it all off none of those said houses are his base!" She ranted.

"Oh he’s good alright, almost too good." Bakura said, looking a little more than irritated at this information.

"Did you say something Malik?" Elsbeth asked, hearing Malik mumble something to himself.

"Mn," Malik grunted, "Just something Laithe and I came up with when we were captured. ‘He’s so evil he can afford to be nice to us.’ I’m not sure if you guys are aware, but he put us in one fancy jail cell. It had carpet, a bathroom, tapestries, beds, the works." He said. "Not really that important, but still."

"Something’s up with this, it’s like he can read our minds! And he doesn’t even have an item anymore!" Jou exclaimed, pulling at his hair.

"Interesting prospect to consider, but the only demons who can read minds are The Powers That Be. And they don’t have physical shape anymore." Elsbeth said.

"Huh?" Several humans asked at once.

"The Powers That Be are the 7 Fallen Ones. Those who use to be angels like Lucifer and gave birth to all demonkind. There were 8 originally, but the 8th one died on crucifixion day without any explanation." Elsbeth answered.

"Uh, elaborate please." Yami said.

"Demon races are separated into, basically, 4 steps of power. There are the Regulars, which are the demons you see on a normal basis. Their power is determined by how much they’ve worked for it and how old they are most of the time. At birth they are relatively week, but, depending on how much they train themselves and how long they live, they become higher demons. The second step up is the Viceroy, these demons are like Regulars in that they can train themselves to be stronger, but they are born with horns, a tail, and wings, much like monarchs, and are already born with the power of a High Regular. You don’t see them very often because they’re considered valuable for the Monarch who lords over them and are given much larger and/or important tasks to deal with." Laithe explained.

"The third, or final depending on how you look at it, step up is the Monarchs." She went on. "They’re exclusively different from both Viceroy and Regular because they don’t have to work to gain power, it comes to them with age and they naturally lord over the other demons. Monarchs also have very strong family relationships, unlike Viceroy or Regulars, and each monarch is so entwined with the others that you’ll be able to find at least some connection with one monarch and another. This is one reason why it’s forbidden for a monarch to have a child with anyone but another monarch. You can tell a Monarch apart from a Viceroy because the wings, horns, and tails are different. Though with the horns it’s more apparent because Monarch’s appear like bull horns and Viceroy horns look like stubs, or branches without much curve."

"Hey!" Lancy exclaimed.

"Sorry Lancy, but it’s the truth." Laithe apologized.

"Doesn’t matter, I don’t have horns anyways." Lancy said, waving it off.

"Wait, are you half-Viceroy?" Jou asked.

"Uh, yeah." Lancy nodded. "It’s not quite as forbidden for a Viceroy to have a child with a human." She said.

"Oh."

"Although I have no idea why in the world someone like my mother would ever marry such a lying, scheming, idiot ******* that was my fa—" Laithe then decided it was time to cut Lancy off.

"Anyways, the highest demon, if you can call them that, are called The Powers That Be, Sovereign demons, Dark Angels, or the Fallen Ones. As Elsbeth said before, these are the 7 who were originally angels, but followed Lucifer into hell and became demons themselves. They birthed demonkind fairly swiftly and, after demons became more or less a whole new race, they abandoned their physical forms in order to govern demonkind more effectively. Though now they’re no longer able to enter earth, they have a lot of control over the demons in Elsewhere." Laithe went on.

"What happened to the 8th though?" Anzu asked.

Lancy shrugged, "No one knows. The Bible doesn’t mention him so the only record of it is in the Devil’s Book and the word of the Powers That Be." She said.

"Okay, now that we’re completely and utterly confused, who wants to play cards?" Jou asked.

"Jou!!! This is serious!" Anzu exclaimed, hitting him upside the head.

"Owe! I’m just trying to lighten the mood a bit, sheesh!" He defended.

"Your humor is not appreciated at this time." Malik reminded him.

"So, now what?" Yugi asked.

Laithe then smirked, "Ah well, when I was probing that one demon’s mind, I managed to figure out where the base actually was." She said. "And it just so happens that one of our friends owns it." She said.

"What?! Who?!" Honda exclaimed.

"Kaiba Seto. It’s a small office building down the road from Yugi’s game shop. Fortunately, or rather hopefully, Itzak doesn’t know that we know where it is now. Unfortunately, it’s in a vastly populated area and we won’t be able to infiltrate it during daylight." She said.

"Whoa." Honda said.

"It’s near the game shop?! I have to call and tell grandpa!" Yugi exclaimed.

"Bad idea, let him know any of this and he’ll be involved. Best to keep anyone who isn’t already involved in complete darkness about all of this." Lancy told him. "Don’t worry, he should be relatively safe. From Itzak that is, he isn’t after you anyways." She said.

"Alright, best thing for us to do now is cook up a plan, and make it as fast as possible as we’ll be attacking tonight." Laithe said.

"Tonight?!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Yes, tonight. The sooner, the better. Don’t worry, I’m sure Elsbeth will have something that will keep you guys awake during that time. Meanwhile we need to, A: Make a good plan for this, and B: Give you guys the heads up on how to use your weapons." Laithe answered.

"We can’t do all that!!!" Jou exclaimed.

"Oh yes, we can." Lancy said, her eyes suddenly brightening up. The two demons looked to Elsbeth, whose eyes also widened.

"Have the two of you gone completely nuts?!" She suddenly exclaimed, realizing what they were planning.

"Elsbeth, if we used the power in the millennium items, how many hours per minute do you think a Timewarp can give us?" Laithe asked. Everyone’s mouths dropped to the floor in astonishment.

"It’s, it’s insane!!! You know I’ve never done a Warp that slowed time more than only three times its normal speed!!!" She exclaimed.

"But it can be done with a high energy source! And it’s not like we have much choice in the matter, we have to attack them quickly, but we need time to prepare for it. An hour a minute at least." Laithe told her.

Elsbeth took a deep breath, "Alright. If you help me, and if we use all the millennium items at one time, I can promise you 5 hours a minute." She said.

"Perfect."

*

A/N: Hope you liked it!!! Few, that was long for the chapter being only one day! Heheh. I don’t know about you, but I’d be a bit overwhelmed if all that happened in only a single day, and having to train and prepare for the attack that’d happen that night? Man, I’d be whipped! Of course, I don’t have a guardian who’s a witch and can brew up some stuff to help me out. Heheh.