"Tell me what happened, Mokuba." Yugi said as he handed over a cup of hot tea. Mokuba wrapped himself more tightly in the blanket that Yugi's grandfather had wrapped around his shoulders. He looked up absently at Yugi as the cup was pressed into his hands. Its warmth was comforting, but it did nothing to heal the hole inside his heart.

"He… After the duel with Diva, he… well he found the cube that Diva was using." Mokuba took a sip of the steaming liquid. It burned as it slid down his throat. He was relieved by the pain as he had felt numb otherwise.

"The artifact that the Plana used to travel between dimensions?" Yugi asked. His grandfather watched the unfolding conversation in confusion. Mokuba nodded from behind the cup.

"Seto's been experimenting with it, trying to figure out how it works. He had it with him when he…" Mokuba trailed off, feeling his eyes filling once more. "It was with him when he left."

"It's only been a couple of months since that duel. I'm surprised that he got it figured out so quickly. I know he's smart, but still… transdimensional travel isn't something that is on anyone's radar, technologically anyway."

"He's been working on it for a while, actually. The actual ship was finished before we found the puzzle." Mokuba sipped some more of the tea. Despite everything that Seto was or did, Mokuba was always impressed by his brother's capacity for creativity and problem solving.

"Huh." Yugi said thoughtfully.

"He thought the puzzle would be an easier way to get to… well, to him. But you know my brother, he always has a contingency plan. If you couldn't use the puzzle to summon him, he thought the puzzle could be used as a key to unlock the doorway. I guess the cube was just a better key."

"I don't think the puzzle would have worked. I'm no engineer or anything, but…" Yugi took the puzzle from his neck. "It feels… dead. Like all the magic was drained out of it when Atem left." He placed it on the table in front of them. "The only thing in it now are memories." Yugi gazed at the puzzle sadly. Mokuba, also looked at the puzzle. It had been the source of his brother's obsession for so long. Seeing it now laying there, he was both enraged and sad. He was angry at Seto for allowing the simple artifact to consume him so, but sad for Yugi. He had found himself here, he had thought, because Yugi was the closest thing Seto had to a friend, but now he realized that the teenager also had lost someone close to him as Mokuba had been to Seto—perhaps closer even.

Yugi cleared his throat in an effort to shake his own grief from his mind.

"You said that Kaiba had built a craft?"

"Yeah, though I never saw it in person. It was on the space station." Mokuba swirled the loose bits of tea in his cup.

"Your brother has a space station." Yugi chuckled. "Now why does that not surprise me?" Mokuba smiled.

"Gozaburo had started it, but we abandoned it when Seto took over. Still, he did order it finished after the Battle City tournament. He said the quiet helped him think. Anyway, he built the craft there because he needed distance to open the door. I… I don't know all the details. Honestly when he would talk about all of this stuff, most of it went over my head."

They sat sipping tea in silence for a long moment.

"How about a snack?" the elderly man suggested, feeling uncomfortable in the silence.

"That would be great, Grandpa." Yugi replied, looking over his shoulder to the small kitchen.

"There wasn't any wreckage." Mokuba said distantly, his blue-grey eyes staring into the empty space between him and the cup wrapped in his hands. Yugi looked at the kid and hesitantly put his arm around his shoulders. Mokuba leaned into him.

"At least nothing that we could detect. It doesn't mean much, though." Mokuba continued.

"It could mean that it worked." Yugi suggested, hopefully.

"Maybe. It could also mean that the entire thing was vaporized." Mokuba said darkly.

"You can't think like that." Yugi started to say, when the phone rang. His grandfather answered it, but quickly called him over. Mokuba placed his cup on the small table before him and collapsed onto his side on the small sofa. He pulled his knees to his chest and the blanket around him tightly. He was exhausted and wanted to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes he relived the last words his brother had said to him and the agony of his heart breaking in a flash of bright light. At least when his eyes were opened, he felt numb instead. Yugi looked down at him when he walked back to the sofa. He recognized the blank look on Mokuba's face. He sat on the floor next to him.

"You can't give up hope, Mokuba. Listen, if anyone could make the impossible possible, it is your brother. I have no doubt that he is out there, being a thorn in Atem's side and bothering him incessantly for duel after duel."

Mokuba looked at him.

"What was it like?" he asked in a whisper.

Yugi looked at him then, seeing less of the businessman he was becoming and more of the wide-eyed, scared little boy that he barely had time to be.

"What was it like to lose him, Yugi?"

Yugi sighed deeply. He had never really talked to anyone about how it felt to lose Atem. He never thought anyone would understand, and he did not want to burden his friends with it. He had thought about talking to a professional, but quickly realized that no one would believe him. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It was… hard." He said, knowing it to be a great understatement. "Like I lost part of myself, part of my very being. But it wasn't. There's still a hole in my heart where he was that I don't know how to fill. I think about him all the time."

"Is that why you took the puzzle?" Mokuba asked.

"Yeah. I guess so." Yugi said after some consideration. He had not even thought about it after Diva had been defeated, but technically the puzzle belonged to Kaiba now. He had given it up when he had put it in its resting place, when it shattered, when Atem left. Kaiba had brought it back—likely at no small expense; Kaiba had reassembled it. True, it was also Kaiba that had given it to him once more before passing into oblivion, at least for a short while. But afterward, he had just walked off with it. "It's the only part of him I have left." Yugi found himself staring at the puzzle; his heart willing Atem to appear, but knowing that it was impossible. He took another deep breath.

"Some days are more difficult than others. They all pretty much suck though. At least at first. They get easier. Or you find it easier to distract yourself with other things." Yugi looked at Mokuba who was watching him with all the interest of someone expecting sage wisdom. He tried to smile, but he found he could not. "My friends… I never told them how I felt after he left, not really. I didn't think they would get it—how could they? But they helped, in their own way… as much as they could."

"When Mom and Dad died, I had Seto. He promised to take care of me, to protect me. We've been so close ever since. Now he's gone, and I'm alone."

"But you're not alone, Mokuba. You have friends." Yugi put a hand on his shoulder. "Your brother and I may not see eye to eye on many things… anything really, but I've always thought of you both as my friends. Kaiba was too stubborn to understand that, but you have me, if you need to talk."

"Thanks, Yugi." Mokuba said through sniffles. He wiped tears from his eyes and scrubbed the back of his hand against his nose trying to stymie a sneeze.

"And if the emptiness ever gets to be too much, or it hurts to be alone…" Yugi looked at him pointedly. "I'll be here."