It's been over two years since I published a fanfic. I never thought I'd be posting fanfiction, or if I'd ever return to Yu-gi-oh again. However, here I am. For the first two chapters, which are Yami Yugi's and Yugi's views respectively, it takes place before the Pharaoh's memories return.
I chiefly use manga canon. In the anime, the darker side to the series dropped off notably with the second series anime. I refer to the Japanese subs when needed (but it's not too noticeable, for I don't include the filler arcs). Most fans have never seen the Toei anime (season zero), and even less have read the manga. To me, the second series anime didn't emphasize a key element to understand Yugi and his darker side, which became far less present with how the dub messed with the canon.
Chapters one and two were revised on 1/9/2018 to fix grammar and spelling.
Chapter 1- The Fuel
Where had he been until his savior breathed life and consciousness into him?
His whereabouts remained somewhere within the pieces of the puzzle, he and Partner had concluded. He attempted to give the inky blackness an identity, a form so that Partner could understand his prison easier. Whenever he meditated on what lost world he had been consumed by, he rarely had the strength to acknowledge the perceptions he had. In that lifeless land he slept in, he heard disembodied screams, echoes of past recollections he failed to make sense of, and voices speaking in strange tongues, the meaning behind their words lost to the ages. The cold, in that unknown dimension, destroyed any sensibility he had left from his displacement into the golden artifact. A negative vibration tugged at his soul for eons, and it had only been recently that he and Partner began to theorize what that force was.
Partner's grandfather had revealed that he challenged people that desired the golden vessel housing his shattered spirit to shadow games. His initial resting place was notorious for the hostile spirit within, his very own. The mystery behind the soul allured countless trespassers into the crypt, for his anonymity alone sparked more curiosity than the desire of the spoils from the tomb, which were sparse.
The ancient soul could not recall a single occurrence in which he dueled with grave robbers or archeologists. He wouldn't deny it. He punished these people harshly, despite being unaware of what he'd done. His heart skipped a beat whenever he acknowledged that some good-intentioned archeologists may have entered to just try and figure out who he was. He had sworn upon himself that he wouldn't toss away potential help ever again towards the same goal he pursued.
Tension rose within Partner whenever these bouts of reminiscing were brought up by the other self. The ancient spirit knew exactly what he had done to the people he penalized when he possessed his better half before the two began to interact. Partner expressed to him, more than once, that this wasn't the right way to exact justice or teach a lesson. It only made the darker self wonder, in shock, how cruel he may have been long ago.
His universe had been dark, but Partner shined a flicker of a flame into the spirit ever since he touched his golden tomb, the shattered millennium puzzle, at the tender age of eight. Once the other had completed it, he felt something delightful for the first time in millennia. He became overwhelmed by his vessel's memories, thoughts, and emotions which he believed were now his own. He used to think that was the day he was born, as he had no indication that he had a life before then. He believed he had been a split personality Yugi Mutou held within his heart, driven out by the completed millennium puzzle. Upon rationalizing he was a separate entity, he returned to being as lost as when he was snarled in the darkness itself. Almost. Partner gripped his hand, reassuring him with his compassionate demeanor, and pointed in the direction to travel next. They would work together to figure out another puzzle, his other self assured him. Their skills were unmatched if they worked together, and the spirit within the artifact again felt the warmth of his vessel's everlasting light.
Nonetheless, his consciousness reconstructed to become a composite form, and he vowed to protect his savior as compensation, and that sometimes didn't even feel adequate enough. Once he learned of his true ancient identity at a museum with Partner's friend, he quietly pieced together that his personality remained relatively intact despite being trapped in the shadows for thousands of years. He must have loved and protected the land of ancient Egypt, and acknowledging his less than wholesome punishments to his opponents, he may have been quite ruthless as pharaoh.
None of it surprised him. Partner and his friends seemed to have become a "country" to monitor as he once did. He talked it over with Partner when his kinder self figured out that he had been withholding this information. His discovery of himself led him to question why a king would have been wiped from history. Had he done something heinous? No, his orchid-eyed friend asserted. Of course, the younger soul would say that. He just couldn't help but wonder why his own life in ancient times was contrary to the one he experienced now, a regular teenager without any royal privileges or prestige. Being trapped in darkness may have been his punishment, but what was this experience now? His turn to redeem himself?
He didn't know what else to offer his twin flame of a comrade. He had nothing but wanted his savior to have everything- anything he believed he never had himself. Partner shook him from his dreamless sleep, guiding him from the deepest corridors of his stale, headstrong way of performing business. He showed him the bitterness of defeat to accept what winning really was. He showed him humility when his arrogance reared its ugly head. He showed him compassion, for he told him their enemies transformed their suffering into malicious deeds.
Partner's pure motives and considerate actions juxtaposed his own, like the opposite sides of a coin. They were two parts of a whole, but with vastly different projections featured on both sides.
He was a proclaimed dead perennial that had been nourished back to life. Wherever he walked, he wielded his partner's flame like that of the torches he numerously held in the brief glimpses of his previous life. The dark corridors of his mind and of the world no longer brought as much fear into his heart if he saw what was lying before him. His partner was his most valued advisor, pointing out and finding faults in his logic.
Partner's flame wasn't always the brightest, but the light it emanated was ample enough. Partner had mentioned that with no darkness, one would never cherish the phenomenon that was light. Unfortunately, the ancient self could not carry said torch aloft forever, and when he realized such a thing, he wondered when he would need to release it, its purpose having been spent.
He was not yet ready for such an occurrence, and anticipated the event's coming arrival with bated breath, as he became frightened of losing his way again. He refused to envision groping and feeling his way through the blackness he had endured for thousands of years. He couldn't fathom the pain of losing Partner, his friends, and the memories of them, akin to the instance that led him to this point, 3000 years ago…
Partner explained his theory of unorthodox reincarnation to him during one of their many conversations where the duo tried to make sense of how they were tied together. He did not want to part with what he thought was the sensitive side of his soul. He did not want Partner's heart to harden to the evils of the world. He used to fear the isolating darkness, but now he feared what said darkness would afflict upon the other self. Was the younger soul strong enough to remain upstanding and dauntless without his presence?
Was he strong enough to conquer his fear of eradication in the void he had been entombed within?
He knew he was the darker soul for quite some time. The abyss he slept in seeped into his being, no doubt. It was a part of his essence. However, he loved the light like a moth to a flame, fluttering about the heat and radiance it emanated, constantly returning to it when led astray. The longer he remained alongside his companion, the more his devious behaviors purified. Outstandingly, Partner had yet to succumb to the ancient king's murkiness. Perhaps the younger soul really did have a chance on his own. The other's strength could be seen, but most haven't seen it.
Like Partner told him, "I will be the light to guide you through the darkness."
On the day they reached equilibrium, he would no longer fear the effects of darkness for Partner or himself. For eternity, they would bask in warm, clean light.