Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. I do not even own the situation the boys are in, that was inspired from Lizeth's picture Looking Through a Glass Darkly, which can be found at this link.

http: /lizeth . deviantart . com/ art /Through-a-glass-darkly- 188505648

Now on with the story.

Looking Through a Glass Darkly

Ryou sighed as he walked up to the dusty, dirty old house. He couldn't believe Malik had talked Yugi and him into this.

Well, it was mostly because Malik's older sister, Isis had given Malik the punishment of coming along to help her clean out an old house on the weekend. And Malik, as soon as he was able to talk to them, had then proceeded to talk them both into helping clean up the old house with him.

Isis was a historian who worked at the museum but had with a part time job of cleaning up old houses. She said that she took the job just because she liked cleaning, but Malik had said that he suspected that she thought she would find some old thing or another.

"So, what are we going to do?" He asked the other two as they waited for Malik's sister and her coworkers to get the supplies out of their cars.

"We're stuck with the upstairs. Isis and two others get the attic, while the rest are split between the basement and the downstairs." Malik grumbled. He never really did like cleaning. Ryou smiled as he remembered a very chaotic and interesting time which Malik was forced to clean his mess of a room by his sister. It was mostly chaotic because Malik would not just go and clean his room quietly. He had to "go down fighting" as he put it. He even tried sneaking out of the house to get out of cleaning.

"Ahh, maybe we'll find something interesting!" Yugi chirped. "After all it's said that people haven't set foot in there in twenty years, imagine what could be in there!" He smiled trying to make the best of the situation.

"Dust." Malik said flatly. "There will be lots and lots of dust. Then when that's done, there will be spider webs and… and who knows what else."

He was about to say more when a slim tan hand reached out and smacked him on the back of his head. "Hey!" He cried out.

"This is your punishment for taking your motorcycle out while you were grounded. The others," She gestured to Yugi and Ryou. "Are just here because they are loyal friends, and because you manipulated them into helping."

She then walked past Malik and opened the ornate wooden doors. The two doors made an ominous creeek to Ryou's ears, but he passed off the shiver that ran down his spine.

"Well boys," Isis grinned at them. "Time to get to work." She handed each of them a pair of gloves, a flashlight, and a rag to clean the dust away. Both Ryou and Yugi accepted the items with grace while Malik grumbled to himself a bit. Isis pretended not to hear him.

The boys were lead up the stairs and into a large darkened room with an old piano in one of the corners. Ryou looked up to see a very embellished chandelier hanging above the center of the room. It had a pair of dark red curtains covering almost the entire wall on the east side of the room. And on the south side, almost directly across from him, was a very large ornamental mirror. Its faded border made it almost look like it was a part of the very wall itself.

For just a moment Ryou could imagine what exactly it would be like to be standing inside the room in its prime. He imagined being dressed in fancy antique clothes as he waltzed around and around the very large room.

Ryou shook his head and broke out of his daydream. He had work to do.

"Alright," He spoke to the others. "How about this? Malik you get the wall on the north side, Yugi you try cleaning off that piano and I will get to the windows and the floor. Agreed?"

The others didn't see any problem with that and so off they went to work.

It wasn't until Malik started to whine about taking a break that Ryou started to look around the room again. More specifically, he started looking at the mirror again.

Ryou didn't know why, but for some reason the feeling that the mirror gave off, was… not creepy exactly, but it wasn't all sunshine and flowers either.

By this time Malik had complained loudly enough and long enough that Yugi burst out exasperated. "Fine. Why don't we all take a quick break?" He them looked at Malik. "Quick break, Malik." Malik actually agreed as he turned away from the wall, stretching out his muscles.

Yugi, watching him, sighed and sat down on the piano bench. "I'm timing us." He muttered loud enough for Ryou to hear.

Ryou nodded and slowly took off his gloves and grabbed his flashlight off of the floor. He had wanted to examine the mirror a bit before they had to leave, and what time would be better? He walked over to where the mirror sat hanging on the wall.

He analyzed the mirror from top to bottom. But it looked like a normal, ordinary mirror. Nothing at all was there to be giving off that creepy-not-creepy feeling that he was getting from it.

A sudden movement inside the mirror caught his eye, and Ryou looked back to the others puzzled. It had looked like Malik was writing something in the dust on the wall. Why he did this, Ryou had no idea. He turned back to the mirror again.

Meanwhile on the other side of the mirror…

Three figures were lounging in the very same room Yugi, Malik, and Ryou were cleaning.

"Man, how long has it been since we last got to scare someone?" The white hair figure of Bakura asked the others as he paced back and forth across the room.

"Quite a few years Bakura. Hush. You should know that already." Yami said he lazily sprawled across his bench.

"Yeah but we shouldn't have to wait this long!" Bakura snapped back. It was understandable really; he was the one out of the three that hated being caged the most. It bothered him even when he was human, and now that he was what he was, well, he hated it. Period.

"Do sumthin' fun!" Marik cajoled from where he was at on other side of the room. "Like Marik, do sumthin' fun." He gestured to what he was writing in the old dust on the wall, which spelt "TRICK" to Bakura's eyes.

Suddenly they all heard a thump from the other side of the mirror. Bakura grinned. 'This will be fun.' He thought as he stalked over to the wall with the mirror.

He heard a soft curse as he looked through the (sometimes) one way mirror. As soon as he saw the person who had uttered the curse, Bakura almost jumped back in surprise.

If he couldn't see the dusty, old house behind the boy Bakura could have mistaken the boy for his own reflection. He has the same shade of white hair, he had the same body figure, and even slightly the same stance. However when Bakura looked closer he did find some differences. Bakura's own hair was wild compared to the boy's slightly tamer locks. The boy's brown eyes were still wide and innocent from his youth, while Bakura's own golden had long since narrowed and become harsh. Their outfits were different as well, the boy wearing some type of shirt and trousers that Bakura had not seen before, while Bakura was wearing his cape and outfit from his time.

Bakura smirked again as he saw his counterpart stop in front of the mirror. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he got the feeling that he could do something big with this boy.

When he caught sight of the other children he full out grinned. "Hey guys!" He called to the others. "I think we just found our entertainment!"

Yami was the first to react. "What are you talking-" He stopped as he caught sight of just what was in the mirror, then he smirked. "Oh, yes. This is going to be fun."

Marik, finally done writing in the dust turned around, and grinned wildly when he caught sight of Bakura and Yami's faces. "Are we going to scare someone?" He guessed. However both Yami and Bakura shook their heads. Bakura pointed to the mirror.

Marik carefully walked over to inspect it, and view just what was on the other side. "Ah. I see." Was all he said grinning even wider.

Malik, finished wih his writing in the dust suddenly truned around and walked over to where Ryou was by the mirror. "Hey." He said quietly to Ryou. "Don't you feel, I dunno, weird?"

Ryou looked at him surprised. "What do you mean?" He asked slowly, though he couldn't help but inwardly agree with Malik, this mirror, there was something about it that unsettled him.

"Like, like, you know that shiver that you sometimes get? The one that runs up and down your spine, and completely through you?" Malik struggled with his words, as though he didn't even know what exactly he meant to say.

By this time Yugi had walked up to stand beside them. "I don't know how to explain it, but…" Here he paused, seeming to try to find the right words. "I feel it too. Whatever it is."

All three stood in front of the odd mirror staring at it. Unknown to them three others also stood behind the mirror, side by side.

Yami, and Yugi, oddly enough, were the first to move. They slowly reached up a hand and pressed against the glass.

Suddenly Yugi didn't know which way was up and which way was down anymore. He felt like one of the spinning tops he played with, around and around and around, mixed along with the feeling of flipping over and over and over again.

Then, it all stopped. Everything was back in its place, everything was fine… almost.

There across from him stood Ryou and Malik. And, when he looked closer, someone who looked almost exactly like him!

He stood shock still, confused and bewildered. However a movement form the corner of his eye made him turn to look. When he saw an older, wilder looking Ryou hold up his hand Yugi tried to stop him. "No!"

The other Ryou smirked at him for just a moment before Ryou was abruptly standing before him. The other Malik had already moved and switched places with his counterpart before Yugi or Ryou could say anything more.

Then just as suddenly as it had started, it all stopped, with only one difference. The three boys were now on the other side of the mirror, while their darker counterparts just grinned at them.