Pharaohyamifan: Okay, I've just found out that I have made this very complicated by calling Akua Atem's great uncle. Just for those who aren't good at relations, if you had a great uncle he would be you mother/father's uncle first. Luckily, this little twist hasn't forced me to change my idea for this fic, so that's a relief.

Anyways, I just realised how long ago it was that I last updated – TWO YEARS AGO! I was like WTF!

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who's not only faved this, but have been staying alert as to updates. I honestly didn't expect people who have been here since the Yin Yang Shadows arc began would still be interested, never mind ask me to update.

Chapter Three:

"So your great uncle is a little bossy," Téa said from where she was sat on Atem's bed. "It can't be that bad."

Atem looked at her like she'd said Zork was returning. "Trust me; Great Uncle Akua is that bad. Once he tried to separate Yugi and me, saying that we spent too much time together. My parents didn't allow it, though."

Téa frowned. "Ah. Now I see why you don't like him."

"There's more." Atem said, sitting on the bed beside her. "When our parents died, he wanted to take custody of us. We knew that he wanted our inheritance more than us, and Grandpa and he fought for months before the decision was made, and then he backed off. Now he pops up every now and again to try to sway us."

"I take it he's not doing well financially." Téa said.

Atem shook his head. "No, the opposite. He's quite well off, but he doesn't think Yugi and I deserve our parents' inheritance."

"Well, you guys do deserve it," Téa said, patting his shoulder. "You've done too much to not deserve it. He just doesn't know."

"That's a plus." Atem said sincerely. "I'd hate it if he knew our identities. Like I said before, he'd most likely go around telling us how we should we doing our jobs."

Téa laughed before she placed her hand on Atem's bicep. "Well…. How about I help take your mind off that…."

"Hey guys!" Yugi called through the bedroom door, knocking at the same time.

Atem groaned. "Can't we have five minutes' peace in my own room?"

Yugi opened the door a little, peeking before he looked properly. "No. Simon wants us in the library. He says he might have something on that jewel."

"Come on," Téa said as she stood up, pulling Atem with her, before she leaned to whisper in his ear "We'll finish later."

Atem couldn't help a grin at the subtle message, and followed her and Yugi out of his room and down the long hall, into the large library. Simon was already there, looking at some old pieces of paper. "So what's up?"

Simon smiled at them as they approached. "I found some of my old notes from when I went on expeditions with your grandfather."

"Hey, where is gramps anyway?" Yugi asked.

Atem lightly slapped him round the back of his head. "He went to visit an old friend, remember? He may be old, but he still has them."

"Well, in any case," Simon said. "On one of our expeditions, we found a piece of a stone tablet that depicted what is known as the Legend of Heartstones."

Téa blinked. "Heartstones? Isn't that the jewel that was stolen?"

Simon nodded. "Yes. It's one of seven rare Heartstones. Each jewel represents a part of this world. That's why the word 'sadness' was etched onto the jewel – it's the Heartstone of Sadness. With each jewel, a different word is etched onto them, along with a particular emotion."

"So what emotions do the other stones have?" Téa asked.

"Sadly, I don't know." Simon admitted. "All we could get from the tablet fragment was that there were seven, and they each represented an emotion. We don't even know what the stones do, on their own or together."

Yugi straightened. "Well, if our new friend wanted the Heartstone of Sadness, he must want the others too. So whatever they can do, we can't let this guy do it."

"But we don't know who he is." Atem said, scowling. "This is getting to be just like Cobrakhan all over again."

Simon smiled. "Well, at least this new foe doesn't know who you are."

At this Atem's face fell even more. "I'm not so sure…."

"What?" Yugi asked.

"He seemed to know me," Atem said, making the group look at him in surprise. "He said that he didn't expect to see me there, so he knows me…."

Téa put her hand on his shoulder. "He would have come here, wouldn't he? If he knew who you really were."

Atem sighed. "I don't think he knows my true identity, but I hope not. I don't want another fiasco like we had with Cobrakhan."

"Well, we only need to worry about that when it happens." Simon said as he stood. "Now, how about you all go out? You're still young; you shouldn't be cooped up in here all day."

Yugi smiled as he turned to face the door. "Let's go to the arcade!"

Time Break – 2 hours later

"I win again!" Yugi cheered from where he was sat in a racing game chair in the arcade. Joey was sat in the opposing chair, looking glum. Atem and Téa were watching with smiles on their faces.

"What are you, the King of Games?" Joey said, frowning.

Yugi paused. "No, that's Atem's nickname. I'm more familiar with the term 'Prince of Games'. He's better than I am, and that's saying something."

Atem smiled. "Up for a round with me, Joey?"

Joey sat up, waving his hands in surrender. "No thanks. I gotta go, anyway."

Suddenly, Atem's cell phone rang, interrupting any reply. Atem took it out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"Hello?" He answered. A second later he frowned. "Oh, it's you…. Yes, we knew you were coming, we got the letter…. We'll be home soon, anyway, so don't lose your hair…. Yes. Goodbye."

Yugi frowned as he watched his brother put the phone away. "It was him, wasn't it?"

Atem huffed. "Who else?"

"Wait, who?" Joey asked, looking confused.

"Our great uncle." Yugi said, sarcastically sounding excited. "He's coming over to spend a few days with us. I bet he's gonna start another 'you guys have to do this' speech."

"If he does, I'm getting out." Atem said, sitting down on a stool. "I don't want a repeat of what happened before."

Téa looked puzzled. "What happened?"

Yugi looked at her. "Once our uncle tried to split us up, as Atem may have told you. I was too shy at the time, but Atem fought back. All he got was a backhand across the face for his troubles."

"Oh, that's awful." Téa said, patting Atem's shoulder.

Atem smiled. "Hey, I had to stand up to him. If I hadn't, Yugi and I would be on opposite sides of the world right now."

"It was thanks to that backhand that made child services realise that our uncle was not a good choice to leave us with." Yugi said. "So Grandpa got custody of us."

"Unfortunately, Akua was allowed to be near us as long as grandpa was there." Atem said with a sigh. "But that stopped when we turned 18. After that he just pops up whenever he feels like it."

"Man, that's rough." Joey said.

Yugi gave him a look. "You don't know the half of it! I still think we should go to Australia!"

Atem's phone started ringing again, prompting Atem to groan as he fished it out and answered again. "Now what do you want? …. Oh, sorry, Simon, I thought you were him…. Yes, Yugi and I are in town… oh? Okay, we'll be there." Hanging up the phone, he looked at Yugi. "Remind me to actually look at the caller ID before answering the phone like that."

"What was that about?" Joey asked.

"That was Simon," Atem sighed. "We gotta go, sorry."

Joey shrugged. "You guys have stuff to do, it's alright. See ya later."

Waving, Yugi and Atem walked out of the arcade, soon followed by Téa. "Okay, guys, what's going on?"

Atem checked their surroundings before he spoke. "Simon wants us to check out a jewellery store downtown… he thinks they may have one of the Heartstones."

Téa nodded. "I'm coming too."

"But what if whoever stole the first one comes looking?" Yugi asked. "You could get hurt."

"I was there when the city hall fell down, remember?" Téa said, frowning. "I can take care of myself."

Atem smirked. "So how come we found you hanging from a railing screaming for your life?" All he got was a smack on the shoulder in reply. "Okay, okay! You can come, just stop smacking me!"

Téa have a triumphant smirk while Yugi just rolled his eyes. "Come on, lovebirds. We may as well get to that jewellery store."

The three of them walked while chatting about random gossip when the jewellery store soon came into view. It wasn't the same one that was robbed the night before – that one was on the other side of town – but it looked about as expensive. Yugi ran over to the window display and looked carefully before turning to them.

"Nothing there. Just rings and necklaces." He said.

Atem nodded. "We need to be careful how we go about this. If we simply ask about it they may get suspicious. The last thing we need is to be accused of the first theft."

"I said we're looking for a clear, heart-shaped crystal!"

The three of them froze at the sound of a voice yelling inside the store. Téa had frozen because of the yelling itself, but Atem and Yugi had frozen in recognition.

"No way…" Yugi murmured. "It couldn't be…."

"I hope not…." Atem added as he pushed open the door and stepped in, followed by the others. Once they saw the sight they all stopped and stared.

There, standing at the counter, was Bakura and Ryou, the former looking very irritated.

End of chapter! Joking!

"B-Bakura!" Atem sputtered. The male stopped his ranting and turned to face him.

"Oh, great…."

Atem's surprise quickly turned to anger. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"We aren't banned from this country, you know!" Bakura snapped.

Ryou sighed before he stepped forward. "Hi, Yugi. Sorry to meet again under these circumstances."

"What are you guys doing here?" Yugi asked. "I thought you were staying in Egypt with your dad."

At that, Ryou looked a little upset. "Well, umm…. Our dad… he…."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "He up and died."

Atem blinked, shocked. "Died? I'm so–"

"Save it." Bakura snapped. "I know you couldn't care less about us."

"I care about Ryou, but you can jump off a bridge for all I care!"

"Okay, that's enough!" Yugi cut in, seeing a fight about to start between Atem and Bakura. "This is no place to start a fight."

There was a tense pause, and then Atem stood back. "Fine. Now, what happened with your dad?"

Ryou shrugged. "He was on an excavation site. But then about a week ago, we got news that he died. But… thing is, they don't know why he died."

"They don't?" Yugi asked. "But, surely they have some clue."

"Like you said, this isn't the place for it." Bakura said, turning to face the man behind the counter again. "Now, do you have a Heartstone or not?"

The man shook his head. "I've never heard of it, I swear."

Bakura growled. "This is a dead end. Let's go."

"Why do you want the Heartstone?" Atem demanded, glaring.

"That's our business," Bakura snapped back, walking out of the store. Ryou smiled faintly at them before he followed.

Yugi growled. "What the heck are they doing here?"

"Obviously looking for trouble." Atem replied. "Let's go. We have to get back and tell Simon that this was a dead end."

The three of them left the store, walking down the street. Téa moved to walk beside Atem.

"So you guys know those two?" She asked, though she knew the answer.

Atem nodded. "Yeah. Ryou isn't so bad. It's Bakura you have to watch. He's known for doing bad things."

"They even nicknamed him 'the King of Thieves' in Egypt," Yugi added as they passed the arcade.

"Trust me, there was rarely a time where he couldn't sneak in or steal something from someone." Atem said. "If they're here, then Bakura might be the one after the Heartstones…. But I've never seen him summon Shadow Monsters before."

Téa blinked, puzzled. "Well, maybe it's new. Something he can do now that he couldn't before."

"Who knows," Yugi said, shrugging. "Let's get to the car and go home. I'm tired."

"So the Heartstone wasn't there?" Simon asked.

Yugi and Atem shook their heads in unison.

Simon sighed. "Okay, so we have no leads so far."

"What about Bakura and Ryou?" Yugi asked before pausing. "Well, mainly Bakura."

Atem looked at him. "Bakura has always been a trouble maker, and he was looking for the Heartstone too. We heard him."

Again Simon sighed. "We'll keep an eye on them. I believe you two should stay home tonight."

"But why?" Atem asked. "Another stone could get stolen, we have to patrol."

Before anyone could reply, the doorbell rang. Amy, who had been sat quietly listening the whole time, got up to answer it. A few minutes later and there was a loud, booming voice.

"Where are my great nephews?"

"That's why," was all Simon said.

Atem and Yugi groaned out loud, sharing one thought. Great.

So there we have it! Chapter 3 all up and running! Sorry for the wait, everyone!

The next chapter is in progress, but sadly since I havent been feeling as motivated to update this one as I used to, it'll be a while before I can post it. I thank all of you again for sticking by and patiently waiting, and I hope to hear some good reviews ^^