Disclaimer: I own nothing. The characters, setting, and even the original idea for this story all belong to other people (the last belongs to esama, if you're wondering).

CHANGE

Prologue

Yugi was tired. So, so tired. It was hard to believe a mere to weeks had passed. In his mind it seemed much longer. How long had it been since he had smiled a true smile? How long since he had laughed? Did he even laugh? He was drowning in such intense sadness and bitterness it was hard to remember that he had once been happy. Yugi sighed sadly, and a soft rustling drew him from his musings back to Earth. He was in his room, standing before his bed. Carefully, he took a seat on the bed, his hand searching of its own accord for the snow-white hair of one of the bed's occupants.

Stroking the long, soft hair, he wondered how it had come to this. He knew the series of events, of course - he had been there. What he didn't know was how that series of events had changed loving, caring people into heartless beings, ready to condone and even carry out the murder of innocents. Hadn't he shown each and every one of his now no longer friends mercy in the past, when they were still enemies? For Anzu it had been when she'd broken his Gameboy in school-he'd brought in another one the next day, accepted her apology, and proceeded to teach her how to play. Jounouchi and Honda had tormented him constantly, but he defended them from Ushio and gained their friendship. The fight against Malik and his darker half was impossible to sum up, save to say that after a difficult battle the other Yugi - the pharaoh - had triumphed, and Yugi won himself three new friends in the form of the Ishtal siblings.

And that was the heart of his problem. A few weeks after Battle City, Ishizu had telephoned the Kame game shop asking to speak to Yugi about an urgent matter. She told him that she had found, among the scrolls of the Tomb Keepers, a ritual that with the proper adjustments might give a spirit possessing a human a body of its own. She wished to preform the ritual on Malik, Bakura, and Yugi so that the darks of the former two could receive just punishment for the havoc and pain they had caused, and the latter could live as a normal human among his friends. She and her brothers were coming to Domino with Shadi and everything was going to be perfect. Except it wasn't.

The ritual was flawed. The spirits, rather than emerging the same age as their hosts, became young children with fractured memories. They looked to be two or three years old. The pharaoh was immediately picked up Ishizu, who displayed a maternal warmth none save her brothers could have possibly known she possessed. It was agreed that the Ishtals would take the pharaoh to be raised in his home country. But what to do with Malik and Bakura's dark's? Yugi assumed they'd be dropped off at an orphanage. His companions had other ideas. Jounouchi and Honda said they would rather see the child-darks dropped off the nearest bridge, with a couple rocks to weigh them down. Soft-hearted Anzu agreed, which shocked Yugi. He could understand Bakura and Malik's fear of the child-darks, but Anzu? A murderer? So he decided to shock them all back.

Yugi used the backbone he'd picked up from the pharaoh and argued passionately in the toddlers' defense. His pleas fell on deaf ears. So he did the only thing his conscience would allow him to do. After giving the child-pharaoh a brief hug, he placed Bakura's dark on one hip and Malik's dark on the other, turned his back on his friends, and began the long walk home.

The golden-haired child whimpered. Yugi shifted on the bed and switched from stroking one dark's hair to the other's. "Finally got them asleep?"

"Oh, Grandpa, I didn't see you there." Yugi looked up to the sole person who had not shunned him because of his decision, the sole person who was, in fact, proud of him. His grandfather had been his rock before he had friends, and Sugoroku seemed determined to fill that role again.

The old man gestured at the door he'd just come through. "Let's go sit in the kitchen with a cup of tea." Yugi acquiesced with a nod and got up to follow Sugoroku out, careful not to disturb the sleeping children. They walked to the kitchen in silence, and the silence remained until the old man served them both tea. Sugoroku was the first to speak. "How long did it take you to get them to sleep?"

"Maybe an hour after getting them into bed. They were hiding underneath it again, scared to death. I had to coax them out first."

"Ah, sorry about that. I used the vacuum cleaner earlier today in the shop. The noise must be what scared them." Sugoroku paused to take a sip of tea. "Well, at least they're starting to trust you."

"How do you figure that?" Yugi queried. "You were able to convince them to leave their hiding spot, instead of having to wait until they had fallen asleep to move them. I still have to do that while you're away at school." Sugoroku sighed. "It's a pity, young children having such horrible nightmares..."

"I know, but what can we do? Even with their memories hazed up by the ceremony, the things they've seen and done are too horrible for most adults to comprehend, never mind two-year-olds. Yugi hugged himself, trying to ward off the cold feelings that engulfed him. Sadness, bitterness, and an emptiness where his dearest friend should have been. Yugi reached out as he was accustomed to, though whether it was with his heart or mind he didn't know. It didn't matter anyway as he found nothing. His anguish must have shown on his face, because Sugoroku asked, "Yugi, are you alright?"

"Sorry Grandpa, just thinking. Everything's fine. What were you saying?" The look on the old gambler's face said he knew Yugi was lying, but would go along with it anyway. "I was asking how school was."

"Okay." This was another lie. School was awful. Yugi had never been a good student. At first it was because he tried to blend in by hiding his true intellect. Later, after he'd given up on ever having normal friends, he allowed his grades to fall so larger kids would stop threatening him to get him to do their work. Besides, games were much more fun than homework.

So naturally, the teachers hated him. The people who disliked anyone weak or different hated him. His former friends hated him and, because they were no longer with him, the bullies were closing in.

"I can't go on like this," Yugi murmured, staring into his tea as if he might find the answer to all his problems in it.

"Then don't."

"Grandpa? What... What do you mean?" Sugoroku set down his tea and stared straight into his grandson's eyes. Yugi was suddenly reminded that the man before him was not only a simple shopkeeper, but also the only person in three thousand years to enter the tomb of the nameless pharaoh and return alive. "Yugi," Sugoroku said gravely, "You are my only grandchild and I have considered you my only living relative since your mother left you with me. There are no words that can tell you how proud I am of you, for the trials you've faced and overcome, for the choices you've made, but more importantly, there is no way I can express how much I love you. Whatever you need to do, I will assist you. Just don't give up."

Yugi was stunned. Slowly he stammered, "I won't, Grandpa." Voice growing stronger, he said, "I will keep these children. I will raise them right, make them Mutos. But I can't do it here." A proud smile grew on Sugoroku's face, and he asked, "Where will you go, Yugi?"

"I don't know. I need to get away from Domino, that's for certain, but I don't know where to go."

"What kind of place are you thinking of?"

"Somewhere where I don't have to deal with being the 'King of Games', for one. If I'm going to turn these darks into decent people they need to grow up in an environment, not a place where their guardian is both laughed at and revered for playing a children's card game, and being inordinately good at it."

"Then you'll probably have to leave Japan entirely. How are your languages coming along?"

"My English is passable. Arabic, not so much. Those are the only two I've practiced recently." Yugi had begun learning both languages and a smattering of some others as a child. Back then, he wanted to explore and find treasure. More recently, he imagined himself as a traveling duelist. Now, neither dream entered his head. He had a responsibility to the frightened toddlers upstairs, and he would never let them down.

Sugoroku saw the resolve in his grandson's eyes, and his heart nearly burst with pride. The boy was nothing like his parents. Sugoroku's daughter was a singer who'd dropped Yugi off with her father before running off to who-knows-where, returning only every few years and pretending she was a passable parent. Neither of them had ever met Yugi's father. He had never tried to contact his son, though a sizable amount of money was deposited in an account Yugi's mother set up in her son's name every month, so he knew Yugi existed. Neither Yugi nor Sugoroku were the type to be bought off, and had never touched it. But in a situation like this...

As Sugoroku expected, Yugi vehemently protested using his father's money to set himself up in a foreign country. "Yugi," the old man said, "I know you are an honorable person and don't want to indulge your father's attempts to make up to us. Normally, I would agree with you. However, you must remember that you aren't doing this for yourself. You're doing it for the frightened children in your bedroom. You gave the Duelist Kingdom money to Jounouchi for Shizuka. You've put the rest of your tournament winnings into this shop. Your college account isn't big enough for the kind of undertaking we're proposing. When you said you'd raise those kids you were accepting a lot of hardship and unpleasantness. This is just the tip of the iceberg."

"I know, Grandpa. I'm not going to give up. I suppose I should be happy, actually. With it, I can give those darks what you've given me. A happy childhood."

Sugoroku got up from the table and walked around it to hug his grandson, a gesture Yugi returned. When he stepped back he had to wipe his eyes, and realized that Yugi's were also brimming with unshed tears, even though he was smiling. He had no idea what to say.

"Well, before all this sweetness makes us diabetic, help me figure out where I should take them."

Sugoroku laughed. "Well, if we're looking at English speaking countries, I know people who could help in America, Australia, Britain... maybe a few other places if I did some digging."

"'Magic and Wizards' was an American game, so that rules out that continent. It's been picked up in Australia, too, so that may not be the wisest idea. I think Britain sounds good, though." Yugi looked thoughtful. "Yes, Britain will be just right. But Grandpa, how will we get documentation for the darks? They appeared out of thin air."

"You leave that to me, my boy. With a little help from some old friends, I'll have you three on a plane to London within a month."