Chapter 1

Darkness.

That was all that Yami could remember after losing his duel with Yugi. The doors to the afterlife closed with such an absolute finality that he was positive that that encounter was the last time he would see any of his friends. Yami knew that he would miss them… more than they would ever know. It was that reason that stopped him from looking at them before the doors closed. He feared that if he looked back, that he wouldn't be able to leave. So, when the doors closed, it was almost a relief. The temptation lifted and he could finally rest in the afterlife.

Perpetual darkness surrounded him like a cloak for an unknowable amount of time, and Yami figured that eventually, he would join his friends and family in the Egyptian afterlife. It wasn't until the space around him shifted and he lost track of everything that things started to get weird. It felt like he was being sucked through a narrow pipe very quickly and it took a while before he could open his eyes. His vision was fuzzy at first but it soon cleared.

Yami suddenly found himself lying in the middle of a deserted road. He sat up, shook his head to clear it and looked around. It looked like Domino City, but it was practically unrecognizable. The city itself looked completely abandoned. Every window on all of the buildings looked either shattered or cracked in some way. Trash littered the streets and collected themselves in piles at the bases of the buildings as if the wind constantly pushed them that way. The sky was overcast and made everything look duller than usual.

The ex-pharaoh stood looking around feeling perplexed. Where was he? Was this actually Domino City or someplace else? Where was everybody? Yami looked down at himself and received a small shock. He was wearing the same clothing that Yugi always wore…it was Domino High's school uniform. The Millennium Puzzle hung around his neck like it always had. Why was he wearing this and why was he sent here and not in the afterlife? Was this even happening or was it a dream?

Questions like these buzzed around in Yami's head for a few minutes before the sounds of footsteps made him turn around. A teenager was walking around thirty yards away, his hands in his pockets looking bored. He would stop and seemingly sniff the air for a moment and then continue on with the same dull expression on his face. Yami decided to get the stranger's attention.

"Excuse me…" he yelled out to the teen, who looked at him like a dog that caught onto a scent. "Can you tell me where I am? I think I'm lost…"

The teenager remained frozen for a few seconds and all the while, Yami wondered if the boy spoke English at all. Then the boy inched towards him giving him a wary yet curious look.

"Was it…something I said?" Yami blinked uncertainly. The teen came within ten feet of him and stopped and looked at him with a strange look.

"So, you're the one I've been smelling…" he said in wonder. He took another whiff of the air.

"Um…what?" Yami was starting to feel uncomfortable and it partially had to do with the fact that this boy could smell him from far away. Now that the teen was closer, certain features on him became more apparent. His two canine teeth protruded slightly out from his mouth like fangs. The boy's nails were curved and sharp like claws, and his face was pale. What made Yami mostly nervous however was that the teen's eyes were a bright red color.

"You don't smell right…" he sniffed the air again and gave Yami an incredulous look. "You smell human but…you smell like one of us too…"

"Wh-what?" Yami said feeling more and more confused. All he asked was where he was and now he's getting this. "What do you mean?"

The teen looked at him strangely again for a minute and then smirked. He brought two fingers to his mouth and whistled so loud that the sound echoed off of faraway buildings. The sound pierced Yami's eardrums in a way that he didn't think was possible and he had to cover them with his hands until the teen had stopped whistling.

When he was sure that the boy was done, Yami slowly lowered his hands. "What was that for?"

His answer came right away. Around ten people came out from buildings and around corners, as if they were just lurking there out of sight, waiting for some sort of call. They all ambled towards him and Yami backed against the wall of a building as they all surrounded him. They all looked like people made up of men and women, but they all had the same fangs and red eyes that the teen had.

"What's going on?" Yami said trying to sound intimidating, but inside he was freaking out a little. These people seemed hostile but hesitated on attacking him for some reason.

One man with blonde spikey hair stepped forward with a woman with brown wavy hair and a lot of makeup. They both seemed to be in charge of the little group yet everyone was looking at Yami with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity.

"There hasn't been a human in this city for a while," the woman said. "But you aren't fully human…are you?"

"Of course I am!" Yami blurted out. He wished he hadn't said anything because the whole group laughed in unison. "What else would I be?"

The man with the blonde spikey hair chuckled and everyone grew quiet. "What, have you been living under a rock for the past year?" He spread his arms wide as if including the whole group. "Vampires? Duh…"

"V-vampires?" Yami stuttered as the group laughed again. How was this possible? What happened here while he was gone? "I am not one of you."

The woman strode forward and came right up to him. "Well let's see, you've sort of got the eyes...you have the teeth although they're smaller than what a full vampire would have…and the smell you give off… yeah you've defiantly got the blood…but not as much. I guess you're a half vampire?"

"Half vampire?" Yami repeated it, trying to get the name in his head. "I don't understand…"

His confusion was ignored however when the woman looked back to the man. "What should we do with him?"

"Hmm…well we can't take him back to Vlad, and I'm guessing half vampires probably aren't as powerful as us…so I say we kill him. Maybe the human half of him can still feed us."

"Then I get first dibs!" the woman said, then suddenly, quicker and stronger than Yami would have imagined, she lashed out with one hand and pinned him against the wall that he was standing in front of. Her grip was so strong that Yami found that he couldn't move from that spot.

"Wait! You can't do this!" Yami desperately searched his mind for a way to get out of the situation but he was drawing up a blank. Was he really sent back to this time just to die again?

"Oh, I think that you'll find that I can," she said. The woman opened her mouth and saw that her fangs grew about an inch since a minute ago, and that her eyes had slits for pupils and the red glow became more pronounced. "Goodbye half-breed."

Before she could land her fangs on Yami, a large ear piercing sound permeated the air like a bang. Yami flinched and all of the vampires around him jumped and were looking around in a frenzy. The woman that held Yami to the wall fell over in dead weight, and it wasn't until Yami saw the sizzling bullet hole in her chest did he realize that she was just shot.

Once the other vampires realized this, they all started looking around in a frantic rage, to find out who shot the bullet.

"Who was that?"

"Can you see 'em?"

"I don't know where that came from!"

"Keep an eye out! They're still out there somewhere!" the leader shouted. The pack calmed down slightly but the fact that one of their own was killed right in front of them sent a shiver of unease through the crowd. Yami didn't want to make any sudden moves so he stayed right where he was.

Then, out from behind the building next to the one they were at, a figure emerged and Yami's breath caught in his throat.

"Yugi?!"

Yugi didn't give any indication that he heard his name or that he saw Yami at all. He looked the same as when Yami last saw him and although it didn't seem like a long time, Yami felt a surge of nostalgia. Yugi stared at all of the vampires with a look of pure loathing. He held a pistol that was pointed at the leader, who stood there, frozen.

"Yugi, what are you doing?" Yami yelled. "Get out of here!"

Again, Yugi gave no sign that he heard him, yet the leader smirked rather nervously.

"What's a human like you doing running around with a gun like that?" he said chuckling, although it sounded forced. "Maybe you should drop that and run home to mommy."

"Maybe you should drop dead," Yugi said coldly. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger and shot the leader in the head. The man crumpled to the ground, the bullet wound sizzling much like the woman's did before him.

Immediately, the pack was provoked into a frenzy. They charged at Yugi at once and Yami wanted nothing more to run over and help. However, Yugi's next action made him freeze again. Within the span of two seconds, Yugi put away his gun and brought out a knife. Once the pack was on top of him, he started to slash the knife around in a way that Yami had never seen before. He swung it around so fast that it was almost a blur. Vampires all around him were getting slashed or stabbed. Their wounds sizzled much like the gunshots did, and if they weren't killed on impact, the wound itself seemed to kill them somewhat slowly. Either way, if they were touched by the knife's blade, they died. Two vampires realized what was happening before they got close (one of them being the teenager that stopped Yami in the first place) and started to run away. Once Yugi realized this, he aimed and threw the knife at the teen vampire right in the back. The knife hit him squarely in spine and he fell immediately.

The remaining vampire stopped, realized that Yugi didn't have the knife anymore and turned around to fight him. That seemed to be a mistake. Yugi, still moving faster than Yami would have believed, ran up to him, maneuvered around the vampire's quick punches, and in one swift move, pulled his knife out of the other vampire and sliced the one attacking him.

Yami looked on in awe and in fear as the last vampire lay dead. What in the name of Ra happened while he was in the afterlife? Has it really only been a year? How did Yugi become the way he is now?

Then Yugi was next to him before Yami could fully register what he was thinking, with the gun pointed right at his face. Yami's fear started to paramount. What was Yugi doing? Was he really going to shoot him because he looked like a vampire? With the way Yugi was looking at him, Yami expected him to shoot any second.

Yet the gun didn't go off. Yugi just stared at him with a strange look on his face. Yami figured he had nothing to lose by trying to speak to him.

"Y-yugi!" he said trying not to sound too afraid. "What…what are you doing?"

Yugi continued to give him a suspicious look for another minute before saying anything. "Who are you?" he said.

Yami blinked. "Wh-it's me! Yami!"

Yugi's face showed no sort of recognition, and he shook his head slightly. "Sorry but I don't know you. How do you know me?"

Yami started to feel worried for more than one reason. "H-how don't you know me? We shared your body for years! We saved the world and then you sent me back to the afterlife! Remember?"

Yugi looked at him with a raised eyebrow and pulled the gun closer to Yami's face. "You're crazy. That doesn't even make sense."

"Alright, alright…" Yami said hurriedly before he ended up with a bullet in his skull. He decided to take on a different approach. "What about our friends? Where are Joey and Tristan?"

At the sound of their friend's names Yugi's eyes widened. "…How do you know them?"

Yami decided to keep going. "What about your Grandpa? And Tea? Are they back at the Game shop?"

Yugi's eyes widened some more if that was possible and he took a couple of steps back, yet keeping the gun trained on Yami's face. "W-what did you say?"

Yami didn't pay too close attention to his reaction and decided to continue listing their friend's names since that was the only way he could get a response from his partner. "What about Duke or Serenity? How about Mai or Bakura? Does Kaiba still work with Mokuba at-"

"Stop." Yugi said sternly. He lowered his gun but did not lower his guard. He looked at Yami now with a pained expression on his face. "Just tell me who you are. You're obviously a vampire but…"

"I told you who I am," Yami said. He still didn't feel safe to move from his spot so he stayed still against the wall yet he felt bold enough now to start asking Yugi more questions. "But who are you…? You're not the same as when I left Yugi…"

He didn't mean for it to come out so bluntly but Yami couldn't keep it in any longer. Yugi seemed to have changed into a completely different person and it unnerved him. Not only that but why didn't he remember him? Is this really Yugi at all?

But Yami's last question was answered when Yugi looked at him in the eyes and the ex-pharaoh could tell that it was truly Yugi. There was just something about his gaze that couldn't be replicated or faked. While Yugi's eyes had more of a ferocity than they once did, it was his eyes and Yami needed no more validation than that. But that still brought up the question as to why Yugi didn't remember him? There were still so many questions that Yami's head buzzed with them.

"A lot happened in the past year," Yugi sighed. Yami felt relieved when Yugi put his pistol in the holster on his waist but didn't try to make any sudden moves. He saw how fast Yugi moved before and had no desire to die like those other people.

"Like what?" Yami couldn't help but ask loudly. "Why are there vampires all over the place? What do they want? What happened to everyone?"

"How do you not know what's going on?" Yugi looked at him with a questioning gaze. "This isn't just happening here…vampires took over the world. Seventy-five percent of the population were turned."

The fact took Yami's breath away but he was determined to have his questions answered…. preferably while he was in one piece. "I told you, I was…well I was dead…in a way."

"Then how are you here?"

"I don't know… I just… woke up here," Yami said. However, now that he thought about it, the reason why he came back was apparent. The world was in dire peril again. But what Yami didn't get was why he came back as a human-vampire hybrid.

There was silence between the two of them for a couple of minutes as Yugi gave Yami the look of death. Then he spoke up.

"Tell me something only I would know." Yugi said simply. "If you do, I'll believe you."

Yami didn't have to think for very long. All he had to do was start from the beginning.

"When you were younger, your Grandpa gave you a small box that contained pieces of a puzzle. You used to take it to school every day to try and put the pieces together. That was back before you were friends with Joey and Tristan and they bullied you a lot. And then they took a piece of the puzzle-"

"Stop."

Yami obliged even though he hadn't gotten to the part that he thought counted. However, he seemed to have said enough. Yugi looked at him with a look of new found wonder.

"That actually happened?" he said shaking his head slightly. "I thought that was just a bad dream…"

"Yugi something happened to your memory… Can you remember anything before everything that happened with the vampires?"

Yugi then looked angry again. "I am not having this conversation with you… I don't even know you."

Yami felt let down at that. No matter how much he could convince Yugi that he was a friend, he still didn't trust him. What exactly happened to him?

Yugi sighed. "Look, I have a way to figure out if you're who you say you are."

Yami's interest doubled. "What is it?"

Looking like this decision was against his better judgement, Yugi said, "I'll take you to see my friends."

Hey guys, RxR and let me know what you think and stuff. If you have any ideas, I'm all up for suggestions too! Thanks!

Yugisrose