To all who have read Endless Nightmare, I am presently redoing much of it. Taking out some things that were unwanted, and spellings that I missed first time around. Also, I'm fixing the way I labeled some things, like thoughts between Yami's and Hikari's, and scene stuff. I had heard that some people were teaming up, getting people reported and such, and I really don't want to give them a reason to report me.

disclaimer: i don't own yugioh.

Some things to remember:

If you've already read the story, you already know what it means when I use parenthesis and italics, or little dash mark things, but if you haven't read:

thinking

(Yugi to Yami), (Yami to Yugi), ((Ryou to Bakura)), ((Bakura to Ryou))

-change in pov-

Chapter One- And so it begins...

"Hey Yuge! Wait up!"

A tall, blonde-haired teenager raced through the sea of people toward a group of four teens about to board a bus. A short boy, with tricolored hair and amethyst eyes, turned around, smiling.

"Joey, hurry up. Or the bus driver may charge extra for waiting so long," laughed Yugi.

"I wouldn't blame him, for all the time you're wasting, mutt," said a voice behind Joey.

The blonde groaned, "Look who's talkin' Kaiba. You're later den me!"

"That's because I've got my chauffeur to take me home. He already gets paid to wait on me." With a cocky smirk, Kaiba turned on his heels and left.

"Oh, dat Kaiba," Joey practically screamed. "One a 'dese days, I'll kick your sorry keistar inta next week!"

An albino boy chuckled under his breath. "Oh Joey, Kaiba isn't that bad, but I suppose he could be less dominating over those he thinks are beneath him." Ryou murmured the last part as though he was still in thought.

"And that's only everybody to him." Tea heaved a sigh, "But I doubt he could do that unless he got some friends."

"Uh, sure," Duke Devlin scooted away from her a bit. Aw, man. That's like the forty-fourth time she managed to work in friendship to a conversation for today.

Joey growled, "Don' gim'me dat! Dere's no redeemin' qualities 'bout 'im. Moneybags is discriminatin', decievin', dominatin' mean old lyin' bas-"

HONK

"Are you kids getting on here or do I have to wait for hell to freeze over!"

"So Joey, what took you so long to get to the bus stop? Usually you can't wait to get out of school." Yugi asked as they finally found seats.

It took awhile longer because they were the last to get on the bus, which was rather full to begin with. Somehow they managed to snag a few seats in the back on the driver's side, where people seemed to steer clear of. The only two people there were a shrimpy little kid from their school, who seemed to be engulfed in a book, and some weirdo wearing a large black jacket even though it was seventy degrees out. Duke was grumbling about having to sit next to Hanasaki when a girl on the other end of the bus asked him to sit with her. Tea and Ryou sat behind him next to a broken window, talking in whispers about their classes at high school. Behind them, Yugi and Joey were just getting into their seats when Yugi brought up his question.

"Sorry Yuge. Y'know I got study hall last period righ'?" Yugi nodded. "Well dis guy an' me were duelin' an it took longa den I tought it woul'." Joey's face became a frown before he continued, "Y'know, Yugi if ya wanted to..."

Now Yugi's face was also a frown as he interrupted the blonde, "No Joey. I've told you too many times to count; because of my dueling, so many people close to me have gotten hurt and I don't want any of you to be in danger because of me."

Before Joey could reply, a boy in the seats next to the duo spoke up, "Wow! You're Yugi Motou?! You're my idol! Can I get your autograph?!?! Could you sign my duel disk?!?! You're a legend!! You're..."

"Shut up." Yugi growled, "I'm not doing the whole 'King of Games' thing anymore so shut the hell up!!" Yugi's eyes looked blood red and menacing; his hands clenched tightly on his backpack.. Everyone from the front to the back of the bus stopped what they were doing to look at the pint-sized boy. Yugi had always seemed so cheerful and any threat he uttered was obviously a joke. But by looking at him, all could tell he meant every word of it.

Joey just stared at his best friend not in surprise but more in sorrow. He took awhile before letting out a rasp of a voice, "Y-yugi?" Joey's brown eyes looked around before pointing out the window, "Les' go over to dat park. Jus' ta..." Joey chose his words carefully, down."

Birds twittered carelessly as a gentle breeze blew through the trees. A light ripple interrupted a pond's stillness. A few toddlers played in the afternoon sun under the watchful eyes of their mothers.

But none of this seemed to be noticed by two silent figures sitting on the benches facing the pond.

Yugi sat, staring menacingly with a coldness not thought possible from his chibi amethyst eyes. Joey watched him hesitantly; ever since Battle City had ended, his pal seemed to get darker and more distant.

At first he thought it was Yami, seeing as that's how the spirit of the millennium puzzle acted regularly. The only problem with that theory was Yugi didn't wear the puzzle anymore, on account of him breaking it into pieces. He had said he'd done that so he would not have to listen to Yami's incessant bickering (as Yugi called it) about 'destiny' and 'fate' and crap.

All of this worried Joey; Yugi was normally happy and cheerful 24/7 and Yami was like a brother to him. He'd never have just gotten rid of Yami if he was in his right mind. Joey had thought of taking him to see a counselor, but the thought of having to explain the millennium items, their spirits, and the shadow realm didn't bode well with Yugi. ("You're going to make them think I've lost my marbles and get committed.") That was about a week ago.

In the last few days, Joey began to stop talking about anything that would make Yugi unhappy. He figured that if his friend had sometime to not think about his troubles, he might realize how stupid he was acting in the first place. I hope... this works out.

At four o'clock Yugi and Joey finally rounded the final corner to his house. Tea and company had taken the bus, so of course they had already been there for about a half hour. Tea turned her head to see Joey and Yugi walking up the sidewalk to them. "Hi guys!" she chirped perkily, but was ignored by the two boys. Alright, time to get on the mad face! "Hey! I was talking to you and it is rude to ignore people when-"

"Sorry Tea," said Yugi, his calmer, sweeter attitude returning like the wind changing directions. "I was a little deep in thought but I'm better now. Though it looks like we traded Ryou for Tristan."

Tristan gave a bark like laugh, "Yeah. I was feeling a lot better, so I decided to go to your house."

Tea looked a little depressed, "Ryou said he had a lot of homework to do so he left for home. I don't know how though. We have almost the same classes and we got all of one assignment."

Duke butted into the conversation, "Cut the guy some slack. He does have to walk someways home, ever since the bus driver decided he'd cut his route, so he probably just wants to go now so it is still light out."

"For once I actually agree with Duke," Tristan said, which in seconds made him the victim of Duke's headlock.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Tea agreed, but still in thought so she was totally oblivious to Duke who was strangling Tristan, Tristan who was biting Duke's leg, Joey who was trying to get Duke off Tristan, and Yugi who was, well, just standing there. None of them had noticed the pair of lavender eyes that had been watching them on the bus, at the park, and now at Yugi's home.