Chapter 3 – Reunion

A voice; calling out. The voice is calling a name. Again and again it calls, the second more desperate than the other. Atem… Atem… Is that his name? The voice screams. That voice. It seems familiar. But he can't place it. He's lying down on hard asphalt amongst sad buildings, the next moment on a green field with a blue sky and white clouds. The scenery continues to change. He wants to stop it, it's going too fast. Faces speeds past him. He knows that he has seen them before, but he can't remember their names. It feels like space and time is not existent in this world and he can't hold one thought before it disappears like shifting sand.

A figure appears besides him, out of nowhere; it squats down, looks into his eyes. The figure smiles gently. He is small. Light seems to radiate from him. He's like a small sun. His big violet eyes are like a never ending space. He could look into them forever. The small figure reaches out for him. His hand is steady, waiting for him to take it. He wants to take it, but he can't move. He tries to speak, but his tongue and jaw won't obey him. His vocal chord feels numb. The figure tilts his head to one side, like he doesn't understand his troubles. The figure looks at him like it's only a game, like he just has to reach and nothing more. He knows that he must take the figure's hand. Rain is falling down around them now. How beautiful it is.

A familiar scenery flashes before his eyes. He's standing in a room. The boy next to him is in fear of the future. He is looking out the square window in his room. Rain is pouring down outside in the dark night. He desperately wants to comfort the boy, tell him everything is going to be all right, but he himself is only a hollow shadow, a shadow who resides inside the millennium puzzle. He's not of flesh and blood like the boy. His heart aches in the darkness. If only he could touch and reach. This was a world he once came from. It was real. He longs for it to be real again.

Amidst the darkness he finds strength, deep inside his own heart. He doesn't think about how to move his limbs, or how to speak, he suddenly just does it. He reaches, takes the figures hand.

A jolt of light courses through his body, filling him with hope and memories. He knows this person sitting beside him. How beautiful he is, small and delicate. He wants to protect him from any danger. He wants to hold him, to kiss him, to embrace everything that is him. The person smiles at him. He is luminous. His name is no longer lost to him...

Yugi… I remember.


A voice screams.

"Atem!" He opened his eyes. His limbs were weak, but he could move them. There was no rain surrounding him now. He wished there was. He felt life coursing through him and the pain that followed. He moaned loudly. He had forgotten how it felt. His heart beat strong and blood coursed through his veins with immense power. The light around him made him feel like he had never used his eyes before. It hurt him greatly.

Atem moved very slowly. He sat up with difficulty. A man came towards him, throwing something over him, a rug. Atem suddenly realized that he was naked. With a sudden, quick breath he wrapped himself with the rug. He looked around, trying to forget the pain that had control over his body. The first thing he saw was the person from his dream, or hallucination, whatever it really was.

It was Yugi. Atem's heart began to race. Yugi…

"Atem!" It was Yugi's voice he had heard all along. Yugi was held back by a hooded stranger. He struggled to break free. Why?

With a hoarse voice, Atem cried out. "Yugi!" Atem tried to rise, but his legs were too weak. An emotion, strong as nothing Atem had ever experienced welled up inside him. He wanted to go to Yugi. He needed to protect him. He had to be there for him.

Another figure suddenly towered over Atem. Atem recognized him, though his name was lost. The person had long silvery white hair. His dark eyes were glowing.

"Who are you?" Atem struggled to remember who that person was. "Let Yugi go!"

The person grabbed Atem's hair in a strong grip. "Argh!" Atem tried to break free from the stranger's icy grip.

"I'm really disappointed Pharaoh, do you really not remember my name? Or are you just playing games like always?" The stranger's gaze hardened.

"I don't know who you are!" The pain in Atem's scalp increased as the stranger's grip in his hair tightened.

"Let him go!" Yugi beckoned the stranger. Atem's confusion only got worse.

"Quiet!" The stranger twitched his head towards Yugi. Atem and Yugi exchanged desperate glances. The stranger exhaled with an irritated groan. "It doesn't matter, I will enjoy torturing you after the final ritual, no matter if you remember anything from your past life or not." The stranger smiled wickedly and gestured towards some of his followers to grab hold of Atem. "I'm sure you will remember your old friend Bakura in time."

Atem tried to say something, but his words were lost in agony and his thoughts raced, he couldn't remember who Bakura was, not even after hearing his name. Two big men grabbed Atem's arms. Atem moaned loudly while his every muscle and bone ached. He looked at Yugi, trying to find some comfort. He felt helpless. Yugi looked back at Atem with wet eyes. Atem could not place the look on Yugi's face: was it desperation? Pain? Helplessness?

Atem felt like his heart would burst. The pain in his body didn't matter as long as Yugi wasn't safe. But he could do nothing. He felt like screaming his lungs out.

Atem raised his arm towards Yugi. He knew Yugi couldn't take his hand, but he still reached out for him. Atem could not hold back a faint smile while Yugi did the same.

Screams suddenly broke through the emptiness. Bakura's follower's desperately fled the old wooden barn. Fire was everywhere in seconds, eating up the hay covered floor and making its way to the wooden walls. Atem's eyes fixed on Bakura. Bakura was enraged. "No!" Stay where you are you fools! Get the Pharaoh!"

Atem then saw Yugi's captor being shortly struck by confusion. Yugi stepped with all his power on the captor's toes. The captor yelled in pain, it was enough for Yugi to break free. He sped towards the weak Atem, who had been left on the floor while the hooded men had been fleeing for their lives. Thick smoke had quickly reached the corners of the barn, suffocating everything in its way. Atem was losing consciousness.

"Atem!" Yugi grabbed Atem around his shoulders, desperately trying to keep him awake. The thick smoke made Atem's throat contract and he coughed while the fire got closer. "Atem! Stay awake! Stay with me!" Yugi raised Atem up to a sitting position. Atem opened his eyes, searching for Yugi. "I'm here, I won't leave you… I'll never leave you Pharaoh."

"Yugi!" A voice suddenly came from behind him. Joey hurried to his side.

"Joey…" Yugi was getting dizzy. He coughed, the smoke filled his lungs. "I need help." Yugi felt like he was about to collapse at Atem's side.

Joey turned around, "Tristan! Over here!" Tristan appeared out of the smoke and grabbed Yugi to support him. Joey quickly grabbed Atem and carried him in his arms. "Hurry! Let's get out of here!" They ran as fast as they could out of the old barn. The fire was a pure inferno now. It licked the walls in enormous flames. The thick smoke encircled the statues of Set, but the flames could not burn their fabric.

Joey and Tristan made it outside with their nearly unconscious friends. A helicopter was waiting for them outside. The propeller's quick beats made the grass wave violently.

"Quickly!" Seto Kaiba's icy blue eyes awaited them in front of the helicopter. His eyes opened wide when he noticed Atem in Joey's arms, but now was not the time to ask questions. Tea was already in the helicopter waiting for them. Her eyes lit up when she saw Yugi.

"Are they okay? Please tell me they're okay." Tea laid a cool hand on Yugi's cheek when Joey had jumped in the helicopter with Tristan. "I think so." Joey looked down on the unconscious Pharaoh and checked his pulse. "He's okay!" Joey yelled, hoping his words would not be caught in the noise. "He's just unconscious."

Seto was the last to get onboard the helicopter. "Get us out of here Roland!" Kaiba's long white coat waved crazily in the air while he hurried to sit beside his right hand Roland in the front. The helicopter lifted and the land quickly disappeared beneath them. In the distance they saw the barn collapse in massive crashes.

Joey gazed towards Kaiba. He wanted to say thank you a million times, but Kaiba did not as much as turn towards the others. Joey sighed heavily; feeling a gigantic stone had been lifted from his shoulders. He looked over at Yugi. He was so exhausted that his eyelids had fallen shut and Joey noticed that he had lost much blood. Anger filled up within him. He then looked down at the Pharaoh. He had no idea why or how he had come back, but it didn't matter now. What mattered was that they were safe from harm and that they were out of Bakura's reach.


Atem moved. He opened his eyes slowly. Yugi was looking down at him and so were Joey, Tea and Tristan. At first he had no words, he just stared at them. He found it hard to control all of his overwhelming emotions.

He had been dreaming strange dreams about things that had passed. He remembered all of them and things from a life that felt long gone. The thing that stood clearest to him at that waking moment was Bakura and his Millennium Ring. Fierce duels had replayed inside Atem's head. Bakura's evil laugh echoed inside him still.

"Hey Pharaoh" Joey smiled gently down at Atem.

"Where… Where am I?" Atem sat up. He was in a bed, a rather large and fancy one. The room was neatly decorated with paintings and antique closets and drawers. The walls were midnight blue with golden wallpaper flowers and a big window let in the clear midday light.

"You are at Kaiba's" Tea replied. "He… he helped us rescue you, we didn't know what to do, we only just reached you and Yugi in time."

"Hm, I still think I would have found them without Kaiba's help thank you very much." Joey folded his arms across his chest with a pout. "As I told you countless of times I knew where it was and I was so close to finding the hideout and it was me who came up with the idea to knock the torches over, you saw how it made them flee like cowards."

"You couldn't find your own home, even if you were supported by a GPS and a bigger brain Wheeler." Kaiba stood on the threshold, watching the others. "Not to mention the fire nearly killed Yugi and the Pharaoh in the process."

Joey groaned. "Shut it Kaiba, no one asked you." Joey might have sounded confident, but he winced at Kaiba's words.

"You know they would have been dead by now if it wasn't for me Wheeler."

"You just!.."

"Cut it off you two." Tea stamped her foot on the floor. "Atem needs rest and he needs it now, let's go folks."

"Well said Tea" Tristan said and poked Joey in the shoulder. "Come on guys."

Joey groaned even louder and walked reluctantly out the room after Tristan and Tea, Yugi turned to walk out of the room as well, but he was quickly stopped.

"Yugi… stay… please?" Atem's eyes pleaded Yugi.

Yugi turned around to look at the Pharaoh. With a faint smile he said "of course."

"Get well." Kaiba looked firmly Atem in the eye, turned and closed the door behind him.

Atem sat perfectly still. He looked into Yugi's eyes. Yugi was just like Atem remembered, only taller, though still small compared to Joey and Tristan. His lean figure and wild hairstyle, with the black and magenta star and his blonde fringe resembled his own greatly. His eyes were one of the things that stood out. They were big and violet, sometimes Atem thought of a puppy when he looked into them. Atem's own eyes were far smaller and more deep purple, sometimes they looked dark grey in the light.

"You've grown" he said in a low voice.

Yugi stood like nailed to the floor. "Yeah I've… I've grown since last you saw me." Yugi looked away. "Kaiba has left some clothes for you..." Yugi walked a few paces to a comfortable looking sofa where an undershirt, a pair of jeans and a white shirt lay at the ready. Yugi took it and went over to Atem to give it to him. Yugi stopped right in front of the sitting Atem, motioning for him to take it.

"Yugi…" Atem took the clothes out of Yugi's hands, but grabbed Yugi's hand with the other. Tremors were sent from Yugi's fingertips and down his body, making him almost uncomfortable. How many times had he not dreamed of this to happen? And the fact that Atem was practically naked under the sheets made him almost blush, but Yugi wasn't? Or was he? He had never thought about it before like this.

"Listen Yugi, I'm sorry that this has happened… not because… I mean, I'm sure you had a life going on here without me and that's what I wanted for you. I have no idea why or how I came back… I don't want to ruin anything…"

Yugi's eyes opened wide in surprise. "You are sorry? You…are sorry?" Yugi had expected Atem to be sorry, but not sorry for him ruining Yugi's life, more rather him being sorry for the whole resurrection ordeal. "Pharaoh, you have been gone for three years. Since then I have thought about you every day… I've missed you so much, you have no idea…" Yugi sat down beside Atem, still holding his hand. "If anyone's sorry it's me! I tried to stop it." Yugi's voice shook and his small hand tightened around Atem's. "It's my fault that Bakura succeeded. If I had done something to prevent it…"

"Aibou… I really believe that there was nothing you could have done to undo what happened last night." Yugi froze by hearing his old nickname. His heart suddenly ached a little; he had almost forgotten how it felt, how the sound tasted on his tongue. "I'm not even sure what happened" Atem continued.

Yugi's throat contracted by the thought of what had happened and how everything would have been if Bakura had been successful. "Bakura is trying to raise the army of Set. He needs a Pharaoh in order to do that, he told me that only a Pharaoh had the power to invoke it."

Atem's eyes darkened. "I remember, a long time ago, when my father ruled Egypt; there were tales about Set's unstoppable army, but the fear of it was too vast to even think about trying to control it."

"So you know about Bakura's plans and how he intended to bring you back?"

"I… only concluded that it had something to do with you."

Yugi's hand slipped from Atem's. He suddenly felt very cold. Yugi hugged his chest with his arms. "Bakura needed the Book of the dead to bring you back."

"The Book of the dead?" Atem frowned. "But Anubis is the God of the underworld, why would a powerful God like that have helped Set to gain control of the world?"

Yugi's jaw dropped a little. "Um, so what you are saying is that these Gods are actually real?"

"You must have seen what happened when I was resurrected, it's not like me coming back could have been some magic trick Bakura conjured just for his own sick pleasure."

"You've got a point there…" Yugi's big eyes turned towards Atem. "You know about the Book of the dead and how it brings someone back to life?"

"I…"Atem stopped speaking. He suddenly realized what had happened last night. The Book of the dead was capable of returning the dead from beyond by sacrificing the blood of the one the dead had loved. That was why Bakura had needed Yugi. He had somehow known how Atem had really felt about Yugi. Atem thought of the offering and what had been necessary to perform it.

"Where did he cut you?" Atem asked suddenly.

"It's nothing…" Yugi said and covered a hand across his arm. Long sleeves on a red and green shirt with a checked pattern hid his scab.

Atem gently grabbed Yugi's arm and pulled up his sleeve. A long crusted scab covered his forearm. For the first time Atem noticed another scab on Yugi's chin, though far from being as bad as the one covering his arm. Atem's eyes darkened. "If I could get a hold on him… He would be very sorry for hurting you." Atem touched Yugi's shoulder, laying a steady hand on it. His touch made Yugi shiver. Yugi returned Atem's touch for the first time by laying his own hand on top of where Atem had put his. Atem gave Yugi a faint smile for returning his gesture.

"Bakura will come looking for us. I bet his minions are all over the city looking for us right now. Bakura wants that ritual completed no matter what it takes."

"You're right. If I know Bakura as he once was he will go to any lengths to get what he wants. We have to stop him."

"But how?" Yugi tightened his fist a little, enough for Atem to notice.

"I don't know… but we'll have to think of something. We must talk to the others later."

Yugi nodded. Then long moments of silence made them both feel awkward.

"Aibou…" Atem voice sounded shaky while he looked out the huge windows. Outside blossoming cherry trees wavered in the sunlight. He wanted to look at Yugi, but he feared it at the same time. "There are things I feel like I never got to say…" Atem forced himself to look at Yugi. Looking at him made his heart race. He felt a wave of mixed emotions.

Why did Yugi's lips suddenly seem so irresistible? Or why did the simple way he had placed his arm across his small chest make Atem want to grab hold of his hair and throw him back across the bed? No that's ridiculous…

It was like Yugi had thought something similar, because his cheeks were hot red.

"I just want…" Yugi began; he was cut off abruptly when Atem leaned over and tenderly kissed him. Time stopped in those few seconds. Yugi's lips burned when their lips parted. Yugi had not pushed Atem back, though the kiss had been very surprising. The look on Atem's face changed quickly when he realized what he had done.

"I'm sorry, I don't know…" but Yugi suddenly pushed himself against Atem with a fierceness that knocked Atem on his back. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, unable to speak. Yugi hadn't thought so far as what to do next.

Both their hearts raced like they were about to burst out of their chests. "What are we doing?" They thought the same thing, but Yugi was the only one to say it out loud.

"I don't care, just kiss me." Atem pulled Yugi down towards him. Yugi welcomed it. The sweet kiss intoxicated them. Yugi felt his knees go weak and his arms lose their strength. His logic sense told him to stop and think about what was going on, but right now he couldn't help but submerge himself in Atem's embrace. The kisses became fiercer while they pressed their bodies against one another. The only sounds were their hastened breaths and only fabric denied their bodies to intertwine. Yugi moved his lips to Atem's neck. Atem moaned in pleasure.

"What did you want..? You were saying before…" Atem only whispered.

Yugi reluctantly stopped to look Atem in the eyes. "I would have said that I just want to forget all my worries… but I know it's impossible."

"Aibou… let's forget for one day…"