Chapter 33

The King of Spades had no choice but to sigh when he saw the two circus employees rolling around on the floor laughing. He had a sneaky feeling that Marik wouldn't last long in the croquet tournament, either getting defeated or disqualified. It turned out that he should've put into account Marik's feline instincts of birds are prey, since his dear Cheshire Cat was pretty much the same. At least that cat was much more controlled with his urges. The King also had a feeling that Akefia, his mirror image, didn't teach Marik anything about control. Hell, it was probably simply because it was much more fun to be out of control, especially at the Nightmare Circus.

He felt a sudden weight jump upon his shoulders but he managed to keep completely still while the Cheshire Cat settled and whispered into his ear. "Those two are planning something." The purple and black cat breathed quietly. "They're going to rescue Akefia 'the Nightmare way'."

"I'd expect nothing less." The tanned and toned royal man grinned to himself. At least they now had two ways of going about their rescue. He, Alice, the Duchess and the March Hare would all compete, taking the offensive yet most defensive angle of a straight forward attack, while the lion and the knife thrower would sneak around behind everyone's backs and do it their way, in the darkness, as he suspected they always had.

The first round of the tournament ended with the King of Spades beating his friend and occasional lover to go on to face Lady Isis in the semi-finals. The March Hare wished him luck, a little dissappointed with his loss but quickly getting over it as the still invisible Cheshire Cat caressed him secretly. The losers were allowed to remain on the field to watch the rest of the games, unlike the guests who had to sit in the stands with a slightly worse view of events. The Queen sat up high on his throne, looking over all of the players, almost bored but almost hysteric with excitement. He loved crushing players when they were on a winning streak.

Behind everyone's backs, as the King of Spades had thought, Marik and Bakura had disposed of their itchy horrible suits and were happily crawling around in their usual (if somewhat torn) circus performance outfits. Bakura's shorts were still held together by barely anything, and Marik was fighting his urge to tug them and see if they ripped off, like a stripper's shorts. But one glare from the white haired knife weilder had kept his fun at bay. Besides, they had a more important task at hand.

They had managed to sneak into the palace with surprising ease, what with all the soldiers and most of the guards surrounding and hidden in the fields where the tournament was being held. "Silly Queen Bitch." Marik muttered to himself, sounding oddly like the Mad Hatter when he thought about it.

They found the balcony they were looking for; three doors on the left through the wide corridor next to the second entrance to the kitchen on the first floor. It overlooked the playing fields, giving the two partners in crime the perfect view of where everyone was and where the Ringleader's cage was. From what they could see their leader had awoken and was submissively sitting on the metal floor of his confines, shackled to the bars and looking around a little deliriously. It was clear that he was still udner the influence of something and the blonde lion guessed it was the 'uke-shrooms' the King of Spades had mentioned. He growled. He's burn down all of those plants when he had the chance.

"Fuck, that's just wrong." Bakura nearly heaved next to him, hidden from view of down below and looking at the area though a decorative hole in the stone. "Just... so god-damn fucking wrong." Marik patted his shoulder to offer him the same reasurrance that the albino had given him before.

"We'll get him back. We have to." Marik turned from the view and slumped back against the wall. "So what's the plan? We need to distract the guards somehow."

"My best idea is to insult or do something to the Queen." Bakura mused out loud. "He holds himself in such a bloody high position that he'd be an easy target for a flying projectile." The lion knew exactly what kind of 'flying projectile' and smirked at his friend, "But we don't hit, we just make Queen Bitch think he's under attack and then the guards will rush to him and leave the cage wide open."

"Yeah, seems kinda stupid that they'd have the Ringleader in the middle of the fields and not by the throne." Marik commented, thinking of the giant golden and red velvet throne that sat in the shade of the palace, while the cage containing their master was in the crossroads between the four croquet fields. Sure, it was surrounded by guards, but not as many as what surrounded the Queen himself. "You'd think Queen Bitch would want to keep an eye on him."

"Don't complain." Bakura told him, "It just makes it easier for us. Even easier if the Queen is in a game while we launch our attack." The white haired performer scratched at the stone floor with a knife he'd pulled out of his pants, carving random symbols and names. "Yeah, while he plays. He'll have to have his full attention on the game if he plays someone as good as the King or Alice."

"So that's when we'd start our Nightmare-inducing plan." Marik grinned in his trademark smile, turning and flashing his sharp fangs at Bakura. "Lets raise Hell."