Ryou was just doing his homework when it happened. Bakura was being quiet for once, letting him work, on the promise that they could go over to the game shop so he could challenge the Pharaoh again. It was weird not hearing the spirit make any snide comments about whatever. He really wanted to go, so he was being good.

He was just finishing the essay for English when a bright light came from his chest, forcing him to cover his eyes. Once the light died down and he uncovered his eyes, he felt like something was missing. He frowned. Didn't he usually feel something pulling on his neck and resting against his chest …?

He gasped. The Millennium Ring!

His hand flew up to his chest, feeling around for the golden ring that was supposed to be there. His eyes didn't find anything either.

Bakura?

No answer.

The feeling of emptiness was almost overwhelming. He hadn't ever been alone since he got the Ring. It scared him. Even though Bakura wasn't the nicest person, Ryou still liked having him around. He made him feel protected, even loved. But now, he was gone.

Why did he leave? Had he done something wrong? But usually, if he did something the spirit didn't like, he let him know. Of course, it wasn't in a very nice way, but he always knew. Besides, he had just been doing homework. He was going to go to the game shop once he was finished. Bakura usually understood his need to finish his school work.

Wait … How did he leave? He didn't think that the Ring could just disappear like that. Of course, it appeared on him in a similar fashion when he lost it that one time when he was younger. But it had never disappeared like that.

His thoughts were interrupted by the telephone ringing.

"H-hello?"

"Ryou?"

"Malik?"

"Yeah …" Malik's voice sounded depressed, as if he wanted to start crying. Ryou knew that his didn't sound much better. "Did … Did … You have the Ring, right?"

Normally, Ryou knew that Bakura would come out and snap at him for being an ignorant wanker. He almost waited for him to take control to do just that. Instead, he held back a sob. "N-no."

The line was silent for the next few minutes, but Ryou could swear he heard sniffles. "T-the Rod is missing, too."

"In a flash of light?"

"Yeah."

It made Ryou feel a little better that Marik was also missing, but not by much. "W-why?"

"I-I don't—"

A beep on Ryou's end interrupted Malik. A quick look at the caller ID said that it was Yugi calling. "Hold on, Malik, I'm going to make this a conference call with Yugi." He quickly put the Egyptian on hold and answered Yugi. "Hey, can you old on a sec', Yugi? I have Malik on the other line and am going to make it a conference."

"Okay." Yugi's voice was softer than usual, like he was also depressed.

Ryou quickly joined the two calls. "Yugi, the Puzzle didn't go missing in a flash of light, did it?"

A sob. "It did."

Malik sighed. "Both of our Items did the same thing. … What are we going to do?"

"We have to find them!" Yugi said fiercely.

"Well, yeah, but how? We don't even know what happened, much less where to start—"

"Kul Elna," Ryou breathed.

"What?" Yugi and Malik asked at the same time.

"Kul Elna. That's where Bakura said the Millennium Stone is. I think that they may have ended up there somehow. It's a good place to start, anyway."

"Do you know where it is?"

"Egypt, obviously."

"I know that, but where?"

"I don't know," Ryou confessed. The other two groaned. "B-but surely someone knows where to find it. Like an archeologist or something."

"Either way, I'm going."

"Me too."

The three of them came to an agreement that this was more important than school, and left for Egypt as soon as possible, giving the rest of their friends and family vague excuses.

When they arrived in Cairo, the first thing they did was to get suitable clothes for Ryou and Yugi. Then they set about trying to find someone who knew about the ancient massacred village. While all three of them felt empty and somewhat lost, they felt better doing something to get back their yamis.

At night, when they got to a hotel, after an unsuccessful day, they all curled up together on the same queen sized bed, even though there were two beds in the room.

The next day, they were back on the town, looking for anyone that would know what they wanted to know. Malik asked any of the natives that they talked to, as he was the only one that could speak Arabic. All of them could understand the hieroglyphics on the stone walls that had been built by the ancient Egyptians and felt like crying when the remembered the reason.

When they finally found out what they wanted, it came by eavesdropping on two American archeologists.

"… Yeah, down south, not far from the river. Used to be village of criminals."

"Sounds very interesting. I may have to check it out sometime. What was the name again? Kuru Enu?"

"Kul Elna."

Ryou's eyes widened. "That's it! Come on, let's go!"

They 'acquired' a car to follow the relative directions they had received towards the village. While they were normally against stealing—except maybe Malik—this time, they didn't really care. Surprisingly—and yet not—it had been Ryou who had stolen the fastest car he saw.

Malik drove as quickly as he could; only caring about any traffic laws when they were on a busy street. Nobody seemed to care. They wanted to get to Kul Elna as fast as possible.

It took two or three hours before they could see the ruins, or at least they hoped that it was the ruins they were looking for. It looked like a village that hadn't been inhabited for five thousand years. There was a sense of danger and foreboding that got stronger as they got closer. But they didn't even think of turning away.

Perhaps this sense was to keep people away? That would be good. They didn't want the Millennium Items to fall into the wrong hands. It was bad enough that the archeologists had found the village and perhaps the Millennium Stone.

Malik slowed down as they drew close and stopped the car just outside of the ruined village. They all calmly got out and gazed at the rubble. It looked very much devastated. It made Ryou sad to see it, knowing the tale behind it.

"Well, let's go," Yugi said, stepping forward.

They walked calmly through the village, looking around at all of the carnage. There were things, signs, that this village had been inhabited long ago, by children and happy families. It made Ryou sad that someone had just decided to destroy what was possibly a happy environment for its villagers just to create the Millennium Items. So they were thieves and criminals, that didn't give anyone any right to just slaughter all of them.

As they neared the center of the village, they could hear arguing voices coming from what looked like it used to be the biggest building in the village. It was still in decent condition, as they couldn't see who it was until they walked to the front of it.

They stopped, staring. At first, they thought it was their yamis, but the differences they could see, even hear their voices, told them otherwise. They silently decided not to make themselves known just yet, and listened to the argument, dimly aware that they were speaking in Ancient Egyptian.

"You might as well stop, Pharaoh. I doubt that thing is going to come out," the one that looked the most like Ryou said. The only differences besides the long red and gold jacket and the dark blue skirt wrapped around his hips, was his height, length and style of hair, and the color of skin. He was much tanner, like he spent every day out in the desert sun. It was also obvious he was fitter than Ryou.

"Be silent, Tomb Robber! I almost have it!" the one that looked like Yugi said. Like Ryou's look-alike, he was much tanner and fitter. He also had a skirt on his hips, but instead of a jacket, he had a cape on his shoulders and a ringlet with the eye of Horus around his head. He had more jewelry on him than either of the other two. His hair was like Yami's with the blond bangs shooting up into the rest of his hair.

"You said that for the last four days!"

"It's responding! I just can't manage to pry it out!"

"Maybe you should pull harder!" the last one, Malik's look-alike, said. His hair was only slightly more tame than Malik's yami, Marik's, was. He was dressed similarly to the other two, skirt with some jewelry on his tan skin.

"Will both of you just shut up! I just want to get my puzzle and leave so I can get away from you!"

"Ah, but you can't. Remember, Pharaoh," Ryou's look-alike said mockingly. "The gods said that we had to stay together until it becomes clear that we don't have to."

"I hope that time is soon. I do not wish to spend any more time around you two morons. Come. Out. Ra damn it!" The Yugi look-alike was pulling hard at what looked like the Millennium Puzzle in the Millennium Stone, but while it would move a bit, for some reason, it refused to come completely out. The other two were lounging on fallen stones, watching him.

Ryou watched with fascination, wondering what they meant and what they were doing here and why they wanted the Puzzle so badly. But he was content with watching for now.

That is until he felt something brush against his leg with a hiss.

"Eep!" Ryou jumped, looking down to see a large, white snake looked curiously up at him from the ground beside his feet. He froze, staring, wide-eyed, down at it. He was faintly aware of Yugi and Malik moving away and the sound in the building becoming silent.

Then a faint swear and a growl came from the building, he could hear footsteps coming closer. "Who are you? Why are you here?" growled the voice that belonged to the one that looked like Ryou.

Ryou looked up to see a sword that was curved slightly on the last half of the blade pointed at him. Angry red eyes glared at him from under spiky white bangs, a double crosses T scar going all the way down the right side of his face.

Ryou gulped, opening his mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

"Hey! Get away from him!" Malik yelled.

"Malik!" Yugi grabbed his arm to stop him from stomping over to the man holding the undoubtedly sharp sword.

The man's eyes glanced over at them, sneering. "Answer me!"

Ryou cleared his throat, drawing his gaze again. "I … I'm Ryou. Those two are my best friends Malik and Yugi."

"What are you doing here?"

"Calm down, Tomb Robber," Yugi's look-alike stepped up beside him, pushing on his arm to put the sword down, causing him to lash out at him. The two Egyptians glared at each other. Finally, the Yugi look-alike looked toward the three newcomers. "Don't mind him; he's just a barbaric thief. Anyway, I am Atem, Great Pharaoh of Egypt. This is the Tomb Robber, Bakura, and the moronic asylum-worthy one is Mariku."

Both Bakura and Mariku glared at Atem.

Ryou glanced back at his friends, sharing a confused glance with them. Were these who their yamis used to be in Ancient Egypt? But, how was that possible? If they were, shouldn't they be in Ancient Egypt?

"Um …" Yugi started, but paused.

"How the frig are you here?" Malik blurted out.

Bakura narrowed his eyes at him, but it was Mariku who answered. "The gods apparently decided to put us here together."

"What time period is it now?" Atem asked.

Another shared glance between the three modern versions.

"Um … Let me put it this way," Ryou said. "It's been five thousand years since you … um … since the time you came from."

The three Ancient Egyptians looked quite shocked, though all of them hid the fact pretty quickly.

"Really?" Atem breathed.

Yugi nodded. "Yeah."

"Can … you tell us about this world that we are in now?"

Yugi nodded again, enthusiastically. "Sure!"

"I think that it is a long story, so maybe we could find a more comfortable place? … Out of the sun?" Ryou asked, glancing up at the blue sky. Not a cloud to be seen. The others nodded.

The younger white haired boy went to take a step forward, but remembered the snake at his feet and stopped. He looked down and saw the white snake still gazing curiously up at him. Seeing the foot slightly lifted off the ground, the snake started to slither up his leg, causing Ryou to freeze in fear.

The snake stopped when it was wound around his shoulders.

Ryou took deep breaths to calm himself, then continued forward into the building. The snake did nothing but lay there, bobbing with his movements. Ryou failed to catch the astonished look on Bakura's face.

He carefully walked over to the Millennium Stone, very tense with the no doubt very poisonous snake on his shoulders. When he was finally standing above the Stone, he saw that only their Items were set inside it.

"Don't try and take one," Bakura growled from behind him. "They won't come out, anyway."

Ryou glanced back at him. "Maybe you're just not the ones they want."

"What—"

Ryou ignored him and bent down to pull the Ring from its place. It came easily, none of the resistance he had been expecting from watching Atem try and pull the Puzzle out. He stumbled backwards, thumping into Bakura's chest. He felt an arm wrap around his waist, probably to help steady him. He saw tanned fingers reach out towards the Ring, but when his fingers brushed the shiny, gold surface, the same bright light from when it disappeared emanated from it.

Ryou yelped when it jumped out of his hand, the light burning his eyes, forcing him, and everyone else in the building, to cover their eyes. When he opened his eyes, he let out a happy squeal and pulled out of the arm that held him and tackled the one in front of him.

Bakura—his Bakura—stood there, blinking in confusion, his black trench coat fluttering around his ankles, the Millennium Ring resting on his chest. Except for the little cat-wings—as Ryou like to call them—and the slight red tint to his eyes, he looked almost exactly like Ryou.

He caught Ryou when he jumped on him, looking down at his smiling face in confusion. "Ryou … what …?"

"Wow," Malik said, staring at the two almost identical albinos.

Bakura looked up, and froze at seeing who was there. He had expecting that Yugi would be there along with Malik, but the other three were a surprise, especially the one that he knew looked like what he used to in Ancient Egypt. His eyes narrowed, using one hand to pull Ryou closer to his body, the other reaching for a knife.

"Hey! I wonder if that will happen, too, for our yamis!" Malik exclaimed, bouncing over to the Stone and pulling out the Rod. He held it firmly in his hand, staring at it, as if waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did.

The pale Bakura ignored him as he shook the Rod, asking Marik to come out. He, instead, kept his eyes on the other Bakura, as he was the closest, and—in his opinion—the one most likely to be the biggest problem if something happened and the other three decided to attack. "Ryou, what's going on?"

He felt his hikari shrug. "I'm not sure. The Items just disappeared, so we came here to get them, since I thought it would be the most likely spot that they would be. When we got here, they were here. … They said some things that didn't really make sense to me."

He looked down at him again to ask what he meant, but this time, he saw a small white head looking up from Ryou's shoulder. He stared at the snake that was vaguely familiar. He reached up and ran his hand over the smooth scales that were draped around Ryou's shoulders.

"Hey, Thiefy! I thought you said that snake would bite anyone that touched it if it wasn't you!" Mariku whined.

"That's how it usually is," the tan Bakura answered, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

"What your idiotic snake does"—a loud, angry hiss came from the snake on Ryou's shoulders—"does not matter. What does matter, however, is what is going on, who these people are, figuring out what the gods meant, and how he appeared out of the Ring! Will you please stop yelling at it!" Atem interrupted, saying the last part to Malik, who was trying to get Marik out.

"Ryou, why won't he talk to me?" Malik whined, running over to the albino Bakuras, reaching out to grab Ryou's arm, but stopped when he caught sight of the snake and stepped back again.

"Maybe he's asleep, Malik."

"No, I mean that I can't even feel him!"

"At all?" Yugi moved up to them, but like Malik, stayed away from the snake that Bakura was still stroking much to its pleasure.

Malik shook his head. "No."

"I didn't feel it when Ryou picked up the Ring," Bakura said, very reluctant to let Ryou out of his arms. This whole situation was making him uneasy. But he did like having his hikari in his arms in the real world rather than just in their soul rooms.

But how was he out here, in a separate body? It didn't make sense. He should be in the Ring, which should be around Ryou's neck. He should be sharing Ryou's body, being able to look through his eyes. He could feel a link between them, which made him feel better, along with having his arms around him, but he was still confused and uneasy.

"Really?" Yugi asked. "But shouldn't you have been able to?" He reached down and picked up the Puzzle, frowning at it. He tapped it with his finger. "Yami? You in there?"

Ryou turned around in Bakura's arms so he wouldn't be looking over his shoulder all the time. He felt Bakura's arms tighten around his waist and he smiled up at him. He could see that the three Ancient Egyptians were confused, but only Mariku really showed it semi-openly. Atem was also easy to see by the set of his mouth and brows. The other Bakura hid it the most, only his eyes showing the immense confusion he felt.

Ryou turned to him. "Um … do you have another name we could call you, perhaps?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously at him. "Because we call him Bakura, and it would be confusing having two Bakruas," he finished quickly.

It was silent for a moment, even Malik wasn't talking, as everyone waited from his answer.

"… Akefia."

Ryou grinned. "Akefia? I like it!"

"Thiefy!" Mariku whined. "Why did you tell them so easily? It took me forever before you even told me your name was Bakura!"

Akefia glared at him. "Fuck off, Mariku."

The snake on Ryou's shoulders hiss softly in his ear, causing him to jump and yelp. His eyes turned to the white snake. He had actually forgotten it was there. Perhaps it wasn't a mean snake? Bakura wouldn't let it stay if it was. "Um …"

"Aapep," Bakura answered the unasked question, finally remembering the name of his most trusted companion at the mention of his past name.

The snake, Aapep, looked up at him with curiosity. Akefia narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"

Bakura scratched between Aapep's eyes. "Because we are technically the same person."

"This is not making any sense!" Atem snapped. "Explain what is going on. Now!"

"Wait! I have an idea!" Yugi said. Atem's eye twitched. "Hold on. I'm sorry, but I want to try this before we explain. Here, take this." He held out the Puzzle to the Pharaoh.

Atem reached out to snatch the offered Millennium Item away, but as soon as his fingers touched it, the same bright light emanated from it, causing everyone to, once again, shield their eyes as Atem and Yugi let go of it.

The person to appear this time was Yami. He was a mix between Yugi and Atem. His blond bangs shot up into his hair like Atem's while his skin was the same as Yugi's. He was dressed similarly to Yugi.

"Yami!" Yugi squealed, launching himself at him. "I missed you!"

Yami blinked, confused. "Yugi, what—"

"How did you do that?" Malik demanded.

"We'll explain in a minute, Yami, Atem," Yugi said. Yami looked up, his brows furrowed as he saw who all was there. "Malik, you have to have both of you touch the Rod at the same time."

Malik blinked, glancing down at the Rod in his hand. Then he walked over to Mariku and held it out to him. "Take it. I want Marik out."

Mariku reached out and poked the top of the Rod with a crazy grin. The same thing happened with the Rod as happened with the Ring and Puzzle.

Marik stood there when the light receded with the Rod in his hand. His spiky hair stood high. His purple cape fluttered around him. He had a black shirt that, unlike Malik's, covered his midriff. He had tan cargo pants that went over his black combat boots. His purple eyes blinked as he looked around. They stopped on Malik after assessing everyone else in the building.

"Interesting … Where are we?"

"Where are we?!" Bakura exclaimed. "You are the only one that would ask that! Did you not notice that you are separate from your hikari?"

"I noticed."

"Calm down, Bakura," Ryou soothed. "Come on. Why don't we explain things to them and try and figure out what happened?"

"Yes, that sounds like a grand idea," Atem said, glaring. "And this time without interruptions."

Bakura growled. "There is no need to yell, Pharaoh."

"Looks like someone needs to grow some patience, hmm, Mr. King?" Akefia commented.

Atem pivoted to lay his glare on the Thief King. He opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted, again, by Yugi.

"Okay! Why don't we all get comfortable so we can start explaining stuff; without killing each other."

Marik whined. "Not even a little?"

"Marik!" Everyone but the three Ancient Egyptians yelled at him.

Ryou moved to get out of Bakura's arms, only to have them tighten on him. He smiled up at his yami, then carefully pried his arms from around his waist. He walked over to a block of stone and sat down on it. Bakura followed him, sitting next to him with his arm around his waist again.

Everyone else followed suit and found someplace to sit. Akefia ended up sitting on Ryou's other side, just like the other Ancient Egyptians sat next to their respective yami/hikari pair.

Once everyone was settled, the modern ones explained everything about what they knew about the Millennium Items, including all of their adventures. It seemed to only confuse the Ancients even more when it was told that the ones that came out of the Items were their souls. They all seemed especially surprised that Bakura and Marik could get along, at least without killing each other, with Yami after some talking. The modern ones decided that, if they were going to stay, they would teach them about the modern world as they came across things and situations.

In turn, the Ancients told them what happened to bring them here. Atem and Akefia had been fighting again, getting rather close to killing each other. Marik had been with them, being one of Akefia's followers and friend, he was always finding a place to watch the fight from up close. They had been in the middle of the desert when a black portal had appeared in front of them. None of the ones on the horses nor the monsters in the sky had been able to stop before being consumed by it.

Turned out that it was the Egyptian gods that created the portal thing. They told the three that they were going into the future and to "stay together until it becomes clear that you no longer have to." When they asked what they meant, the gods simply said, "It will become clear."

With that, they were sent to the future. They had been here for about four days, which lined up with when the Items disappeared. They came to the conclusion that there was something with them coming here that made the Items disappear.

"But how did they come out of the Items?" Yugi asked after there had been a moment of silence. He sat, cross-legged between Yami and Atem on the ground across from the Bakuras. Malik, Marik, and Mariku sat on a different slab between them.

"You told me how to get him out," Malik pointed out.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "I doubt that's what he meant." His hand was stroking Aapep's scales, who was coiled up in Ryou's lap. The snake loved it, as three hands were stroking along her body.

"Perhaps it was the gods again," Ryou suggested.

Everyone grew quiet at that suggestion. It would make the most sense, as the spirits had never had their own body since they were trapped in the Items, and no matter how much they tried, the most they could get was a see-through, spirit/ghost form beside their host.

But why did the gods suddenly decided to do this? They obviously did something to prevent paradoxes, otherwise everything would be different. Or would it? Either way, why would they show such favor to them by giving them a second chance now?

Atem sighed. "Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. We can't try and guess the motives of the gods."

Yami nodded. "I agree."

"Of course you do," Bakura snorted. "He's you."

Both Yami and Atem glared at Bakura while Akefia smirked. It was silent for a little bit, rather tense between the two groups as the spiky haired ones tried to restrain themselves from attacking and the white-haired ones tried to provoke them without saying anything.

"I'm bored!" Malik exclaimed after several minutes of silence.

"We should do something," Mariku added.

"I know what we can do," Marik said with a psychotic and slightly perverted grin.

Malik only blinked, turning his head towards his yami. "And what would that be?"

Marik's grin widened, but he was cut off before he could elaborate.

"We are not going to speak about that," Yami said, glaring at them. "In fact, I think we should get going. Your friends will be worried, won't they? And grandpa? Or did they come with you?"

"We … didn't really tell them anything. Just that it was urgent," Yugi answered. "We managed to get Kaiba to buy the tickets for us."

"Mmm," Ryou frowned. "I'm not sure we will all fit in the car."

"Kaiba got you a car, too?" Bakura asked.

"Um … no."

Bakura smirked. "I believe that I am corrupting you, hikari."

"How do you know I stole it?"

"Because the shrimp"—growling came from across the room—"wouldn't be able to do it, and I know that Malik isn't stealthy enough."

"I AM THE STEALTHIEST PERSON EVER!"

Bakura ignored him. "You, on the other hand, have the instincts from being my reincarnation as well as sharing a body with me. You would be the only one here that would be able to."

"But I don't—"

"You were desperate enough. Even if you don't usually."

Ryou sighed. "Whatever. Anyway, we should go and see if everyone fits."

With that, the white haired boy jumped up and walked out of the building after setting the snake in Akefia's lap. Everyone else followed after him, eager to get back to Domino and show the Ancient Egyptians the world they were not a part of.