You know the song, "Row, Row Your Boat?" What if it was right? What if life is "just a dream?"

In this alternate universe, Yugi will find out. He wakes up after the end of the Ceremonial Duel to a very different world than the one with which he has grown accustomed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

-O-o-O-o-O-

The voices were all around Yugi, but he couldn't figure out where exactly they were coming from. Come to think of it, he couldn't figure out where he was either. The darkness of the space didn't help. He couldn't even tell if he was enclosed in a room or floating in space—the voices echoed, bouncing back and forth on what might be walls, or faded as if retreating across a vast expanse.

"Our duty to the Pharaoh is complete."

"So weird."

They sounded familiar. He deduced that they belonged to his friends (and long time opponents) but he couldn't pick out who was saying what. Mostly, they melted together with only a few phrases refusing to blend.

"Look, I think he's waking up." The usually perky female voice reverberated off his mind's walls. So he was in a room. Could it be his soul room? But that was impossible; the Millennium items no longer existed.

"Open your eyes, Yugi." The throaty male voice dissolved into the air. Maybe he wasn't in a room after all.

"You can do it." The female voice was like smoke from a locomotive.

"I don't believe it!" The male voice rattled in Yugi's head.

Of all the voices, these two were the only ones that never blended. Something about them forced Yugi to try to make out every word.

"You're halfway there," the female voice prodded.

"You can't back down now." The male voice pressed.

Yugi couldn't be sure, but he had a strong feeling these voices said things like this very often. He just couldn't remember where.

Then all was silent, except for a steady beeping. He was no longer in the dark and now he was seeing…red? He realized the red was his eyelids and opened his eyes. He was now looking at a bright light—a square yellowish light.

As his eyes focused on the fluorescent light above him, he shifted his arms. He was in a bed with rails on the sides. The beeping came from behind his head and despite the thick blanket, it was positively chilly.

"Yugi."

With much difficulty, he turned his head to the female voice's source. No longer in the void, he could figure out the direction perfectly and the unearthly echo was gone.

Téa Gardner and Seto Kaiba were sitting in chairs right next to his bed. He couldn't tell how long they'd been there, but it had to be a long time because Téa flexed her foot as if it had fallen asleep and Kaiba wore a well-worn jacket instead of his usual shiny trenchcoat.

"You're alive." Téa's voice wavered ever so slightly. Kaiba didn't appear to react much.

"Téa…what happened?" Yugi tried to lift his head, then was forced to lower it by a sharp neck pain. "Must've been serious. I hope the others are okay."

Both Téa and Kaiba looked at each other. "Others?" Téa mouthed. Kaiba didn't answer. He looked almost as out of it as Yugi felt.

"Y'know, Joey and Tristan?"

Both Téa and Kaiba looked off to the side, Téa looking uncomfortable, and Kaiba, looking almost angry. "They weren't there, Yugi," Kaiba answered, his tone hard, but not as harsh as Yugi usually heard it. "Strange," Yugi thought. "Whatever I was in had to be horrible, if even Kaiba's put off. Though, the Shadow Realm was pretty bad and he didn't give a crap." He surprised himself with the bitterness of that last thought.

"Do you need the nurse or anything?" Téa asked.

"I can't remember what happened," Yugi said after a silence that felt like a year. "How did I get here?"

"You had an accident," Téa started. She blinked hard. "You were-"

"Do you want to send him back under?" Kaiba interrupted sharply.

"Oh!" Téa looked embarrassed. "Sorry. I forgot about that." She turned back to Yugi. "The details aren't that important." Kaiba seemed to tense up when she said this. "We're just glad you're awake and alive."

Yugi blinked. "Not to be rude, but why are you here, Kaiba?"

Kaiba stared at Yugi with a hard look for an eternity before asking, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Téa looked at Yugi sideways. "He cares about you, Yugi."

"Oh. I didn't realize that."

It seemed to be the wrong thing to say because Kaiba glared at the door and Téa wrung her hands.

"I don't care, Téa; he clearly doesn't remember," Kaiba muttered. Yugi did a double take, then realized how unaccustomed to bright lighting he'd become. Was Seto Kaiba, in his rather blunt way, comforting Téa?

"Something really big must have happened," Yugi tried to lighten the mood. "You two are in the same room together, I'm in the hospital, and Joey and Tristan are nowhere in sight." Yugi noticed Téa's eyes go everywhere but into his own and Kaiba exhaled hard.

"What's wrong? Did something happen to them, too?"

"Yugi, we don't talk about Tristan." Téa massaged her temples.

"What? Why not, he's-"

"We just don't, okay?" Kaiba snapped.

"Oh, okay." Yugi wondered why Tristan was such a controversial topic, but decided not to press it right now. "Wonder what the Pharaoh would say about all of this."

Now Téa and Kaiba stared dead at Yugi like he'd just turned his IV fluid into liquid meth. It was making him want to burrow back into the hospital bed. Was he forgetting some sort of agreement to not talk about the incident with the shadow games? Why couldn't he talk about Tristan? What happened to put him in the hospital, anyway?

"What Pharaoh?" Téa asked slowly.

"You remember. He lived in my puzzle. He couldn't remember who he was. You went on a date with him once, Téa. You even dueled him, Kaiba! Multiple times."

"Dueled? As in, with swords?" Kaiba was incredulous, and so was Yugi. How could Kaiba forget about dueling?

"No, with cards. We were all playing this card game, called Duel Monsters. Both you and I were the best in the world and we kept playing each other, only it wasn't in a friendly way or anything. You were kind of intense about it."

Téa looked at Kaiba. "Any idea what he's talking about?"

Kaiba shook his head. "Not a clue."

"But…but…I remember it so clearly." Yugi clutched fists full of blanket. "You kept holding tournaments and…Joey was there, too! Or are we not allowed to talk about Joey?"

Téa and Kaiba just stared. "Talk about him all you want," Kaiba finally said.

"Well, he dueled, too. And you," he turned to Téa, "you always cheered us on! And you," he turned to Kaiba, "you didn't want anything to do with us. You used to call Joey a dog, too."

"The dog part sounds like me," Kaiba admitted.

"Unfortunately," Téa muttered.

"And Joey's best friend is…the one who shall not be mentioned. And he had a sister named Serenity. Does any of this make any sense?"

"That part does," Téa said.

"And you remember Duke Devlin?"

Téa still looked confused. Kaiba looked slightly annoyed. "Never heard of him," Kaiba said impatiently.

"Did you two hit your heads, too?" How could they forget someone who'd been through hell and back with them? And why wouldn't anyone talk about Tristan?

Both Téa and Kaiba averted their gaze. "I'm going to call your grandfather and tell him you're awake," Kaiba said. Then he and Téa went into the hall, leaving Yugi to his disjointed thoughts.

-O-o-O-

Téa sat in one of the plastic chairs just outside the room. The door was open just enough for Téa to peek in at him inconspicuously. A couple yards away, Kaiba was on the payphone, talking with Solomon Muto. He tried to keep his voice low enough that Yugi wouldn't hear, but loud enough for Solomon's aging ears.

"He looks okay...He can talk and he's obviously awake, but his memory is all wrong…He acts like he remembers us, but he's getting things wrong. He's also talking about duels, Pharaohs, and card games…He doesn't seem brain-damaged…No, otherwise, he's fine."

When he hung up, Téa was still sneaking peeks into the room. "Why can't you just go in and talk to him?" Kaiba asked.

"I don't know." Téa slid back into her chair.

"He understands language."

Téa shuddered. "I want to, but it's too weird. It's like it's not him in there."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "It's not like aliens came in and swapped his body out. It's the same hardware and software, but the wiring's wrong."

Téa ran her hands through her hair. "You and your machines." She glanced over at the door. "You think you can fix him? That'd be a funny role swap."

Kaiba's eyebrows knitted. "Who says either of us needs fixing? He'll remember things properly when he goes back to living normally."

Téa looked into the room. "If he's still weird, I'll still talk to him. I just don't know what I'd say."

"Seriously. It's not that hard. Say what you always would." Kaiba entered the room, Téa close behind.

Yugi looked up when they entered, though not at them. It was more like he was staring through them, or like his eyes were just floating in his head. Hopefully, he wasn't about to go under again.

"Your grandfather will be here soon," Kaiba told him.

Yugi seemed relieved but still dazed. "Oh, good. I hope he isn't too worried. I can't wait to tell him all about Egypt."

Kaiba shot Téa an exasperated look. Not this again.

"You've never even been to Egypt, Yugi," Kaiba said.

"Of course I have. You went too—though we didn't go together. You wouldn't go until after Bakura sent you the eye."

"Since when did that English kid send me disembodied organs?"

"Not an actual eye. A gold one—the Millennium Eye," Yugi said.

"Millennium Eye. You mean like this?" Téa produced a gold plastic eye from her pocket.

Yugi's eyes goggled. At this rate, Kaiba thought Yugi'd kill his eye muscles before he had a relapse.

"But…but they were all destroyed!"

Téa looked confused. "How could someone destroy millions of eyes? They're kind of everywhere."

Yugi face was even more stricken. Kaiba was beginning to wonder just where Yugi's brain went during the month-long coma.

"See, it's a game. You love these things." Téa sounded excited. "Here, you do this." She pressed a button on the side of the eye and it fell to pieces, connected by a single string. "And then you put it back together by pulling the pieces up and down the string." She reassembled a few of the pieces to demonstrate. "It's a puzzle."

Yugi's head snapped up at the final word. "The Millennium puzzle!" He clawed at his pajama top. "If the eye is still here, where is it?"

"It's at home," a fourth voice answered. They all looked up to see Solomon Muto at the door. "You can work on it as soon as you're allowed to come home—that is, if you're feeling up to it." He crossed the room to stand by his grandson's bed. He brushed Yugi's blond bangs from his forehead. "How're you feeling?"

Yugi smiled up at his grandfather. "A little confused, but fine otherwise." He gave a sigh of relief. "The puzzle's all I have of the Pharaoh."

Solomon looked confused, then a knowing look crossed his face after he made eye contact with Kaiba and Téa.

Yugi went on. "You know, the other me? His name was Atem, but for the longest time, I kept calling him 'Yami.'"

Solomon grinned. "I know someone who would be quite flattered to hear you named a Pharaoh after him."

It was Yugi's turn to look confused. "Really? Who?"

"Your brother, Yami."

-O-o-O-o-O-