AN:

I finally managed to finish the cover art for this story (-^v^-)/

You can find it on my deviantart site (my username is hope27). It's in my folder with hand-drawn stuff in case you don't feel like browsing.


Fight for the Light – Chapter 4: Bonds of Friendship and Betrayed Trust


Yami was sitting on his throne in hell.

Despite his failed attempts at crushing Yugi's light, he wore a grin on his face.

He was in a very good mood because he had figured it out.

He had figured out what had caused Yugi's light to dim at that brief moment when he was in heaven.

Those annoying guardians who called themselves his friends must have been worried about him and met him there.

Which meant that they revealed their true identities to him and with that the reason why they stayed close to him.

Because it was only for the purpose to watch after him and not because they were interested in being friends with him.

Friendship.

It may be the boy's strength, but at the same time, it was his greatest weakness.

And Yami had already conjured up a plan how to use this weak spot to his advantage.

It only needed to be put in motion.

Well, the preparations were already done so all he could do was sit and wait and see how things were going to unfold.

And this time there would be no failure.


Yugi couldn't help but like Ryu Bakura.

The boy was a bishounen and the girls at their school already established a fan club.

Yet, the albino wasn't really close to anyone, making him a bit of a loner.

Yugi could sympathize with him.

He had been like that, too before he had met Jonouchi and Anzu.

So the tricolor-haired boy was determined to become friends with the new transfer student, all too happy that his two friends were sharing the same thoughts.

They approached Ryu and asked him if he wanted to hang out with them and become friends and the white-haired boy was really happy about it and agreed.

What they were not aware of was the glowing object underneath his clothes.

The demon inside the millennium ring who just known as Bakura smirked evilly.

The plan was starting to unfold.

Bakura was one of the strongest demons of hell and an old enemy of Atem.

And the demon still had some unfinished business with the pharaoh left…


Bakura had been only ten years old at the time.

He lived in the small village, Kuru-Eruna, which was located far away from Waset (*) and quite a bit isolated.

Life was not always easy, but it was peaceful. That was until one day the soldiers of the pharaoh appeared.

He had managed to hide before they found him but was forced to watch how every last one of the villagers was slaughtered.

He had been all alone then, left on his own and on that very day he swore to take revenge and avenge his entire village.

However, as it was he was unable to do anything.

What could a simple thief who lived on the streets do to the pharaoh who lived safe and in the comfort of his big and well-guarded palace?

Well, it's not as if that stopped him from trying even though every time it ended in failure. Thus, he eventually ended up getting captured.

When he had been thrown into prison and almost thought that he would be forced to give up, a person approached him.

It was none other than the priest Akunadin, who came to present him an offer.

He was going to give him the ultimate chance to kill the pharaoh.

Granted, at that point in time the pharaoh Akunamukanon who was to blame for the death of all the villagers was already deceased and his son Atem had taken over to rule.

But Bakura's hatred had passed onto Atem. The people of his village still needed to be avenged after all.

And the one who would help him do that was none other than the Demon King Zork.

He offered him an entire army of demons to command over in exchange for becoming a servant of his.

Oh, but what a small price it was to pay in comparison to what he would get in return.

And with both of them having the same enemy, Bakura saw not a single reason to recline that offer.

However, he had been greatly surprised after he found out that the pharaoh's brother was on their side, too.

Well, how does the saying go? "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

So, they had been fighting together against Atem in the war.

Shamefully they lost though.

But, by contract he was still bound to be the servant of the demon king and that was Yami now…


Ryu was quickly integrated into the small group of friends.

They would always hang out after school, occasional go eat at some fast food restaurant or just generally spend recess time together.

It almost felt as if he had always been there and a part of their little group.

And Yugi was really happy to have found another great friend.

It was weekend now and they had planned to hang out at one of Kaiba's game centers today.

This arcade, which couldn't really be called an arcade anymore because it was just so much more, was really huge and usually always very crowded. You could easily get lost in it.

Therefore, the friends had decided to meet up in front of the entrance so they could go in together.

Yugi was so excited.

It was going to be a great day.

Everything was already planned out: in the morning, they were going to check out the new games that they had at the game center. Then they were going to eat lunch at Burger World and then they were going to see what they'll do in the afternoon since they hadn't quite decided on that yet. If the weather was going to stay this nice they might go to the pool or maybe they're going to go to the movies… at any rate it was going to be a great day!

As he arrived at the place where they agreed to meet, he could see that Anzu and Ryu were already there.

Only Jonouchi was still missing, but they were used to him being late by now so no one was really surprised by this.

Eventually Jonouchi joined the group, too, getting scolded by Anzu for being late even after he already apologized for it and they enter the game center together.

They were all having a great time together, trying out many different kinds of games and played together or against each other from time to time, too.

After some time though they needed to take a break, more specifically Jonouchi needed a toilet-break and Anzu wanted to refresh herself a bit, too.

So, that left only Yugi and Ryu, who were to wait for their return.

"Yugi, there's something I need to talk to you about." Ryu told him, his tone sounding serious.

Yugi blinked at the sudden change in mood questioningly back at the albino.

"What about?" he asked back.

"I would like to talk to you about this 'one-to-one', if you know what I mean." he only answered, shifting with his eyes left and right at the masses of people who were surrounding them.

"Okay…" Yugi only replied, still a bit confused over the entire thing.

Ryu led them away to a room, which was surprisingly unoccupied.

"I didn't really know how to tell you this before, but since you're such a nice guy, Yugi, and I really like you, I thought that you needed to know about this…" The albino started.

Yugi looked still confused and slightly worried but let him continue without interruptions.

"It's about Jonouchi and Anzu… I know they really mean a lot to you, but these guys aren't really as they seem. You see, they only pretend to be your friends. You have no idea how they talk about you when you're not around. I know this may hurt, but I thought it might be better to tell you rather than for you to be led on by them anymore…" Ryu told him seriously, but also with sympathy in his eyes.

Yugi couldn't believe it.

That had to be a lie!

"No. No. This can't be true." The tricolor-haired boy slowly shook his head. "You-you're lying! Right?"

Ryu looked with utmost seriousness straight into his eyes as he replied, "I'm sorry, Yugi, but it's the truth. I'm only telling you this because I'm not like them and I want you to know the truth before they start hurting you."

Tears were coming to Yugi's eyes as his heart felt like it was slowly breaking apart.

Inside the millennium ring Bakura grinned devilishly, feeling accomplished as he could feel Yugi's light becoming gradually weaker.

However, at that exact moment, the puzzle that hung around Yugi's neck started to glow brightly.

Instead of Yugi, Bakura came face to face with none other than Atem now.

The angel had taken over the boy's body who had slowly started to break down.

Of course, he immediately figured out that it must be the work of a demon.

He knew that Jonouchi's and Anzu's friendship with Yugi was sincere and genuine.

At having none other than the pharaoh himself standing right in front of him, Bakura saw no reason to hide any longer.

In fact, this was the chance he had been waiting for, for such a long time now.

It was finally time to get his revenge!


What neither of them noticed was that they were being currently watched.

'Atem…' Seth thought as he observed the scene from a well-hidden spot.

He could feel memories resurfacing as he was seeing his cousin.

Memories of the past, from a long, long time ago…


He had been always loyal to the pharaoh, Akunamukanon, ever since he was granted a spot in his council.

Likewise, he had been always staying loyal to his cousin Atem after he had followed in his father's footsteps and ruled with the same justice and kindness as his father before him had.

However that all changed after one fateful day.

It all started out with the day where he came to meet the mysterious girl Kisara on the streets.

Odd as it may sound, he fell instantly in love with her.

And as time showed, his feelings were even returned.

It looked like they were going to have a bright future together ahead, but fate decided otherwise.

All of his happiness vanished on the day that he was told that she died.

In fact, his father, Akunadin, had told him that Atem had her executed.

With the love of his life gone the only feelings that remained inside him was coldness and hatred.

Hatred against the one, who took her from him.

And so he was brought by his father to Zork, who took him as a commander into his army.

Apparently, his father's plans after Atem's defeat was to take the throne for himself, but he told him that it would be his after his reign since he was his son and all.

But Seth quite honestly didn't really care much about that.

The only thing he wanted was to get his revenge on Atem and make him pay for taking away the life of an innocent – the life of his only love.

He had been surprised, however, to see that Yami had actually joined with Zork, too.

As he questioned his father as to why he did, he only got the reassurance that Yami said that he's not interested in the throne as an answer.

That left his actual inquiry unanswered, but he didn't attempt to pry any further.

He still hadn't asked Yami about that up to today.

But things decided to take a turn again in the midst of the war as he came to learn about the truth…

He had confronted Atem on the battlefield, but instead of instantly attacking him the young pharaoh had started to question him.

"You were always considered to be one of my most loyal priests if not even the most loyal of them all. Why? Why did you betray me?" Atem asked him with something that looked like pain in his eyes.

"Are you mocking me?! You dare to take my beloved from me and then question why I turned my back on you?!" Seth voice had been laced with the hatred, which he felt for the young pharaoh.

"What are you talking about? Who did I take supposedly away?" Atem had been honestly confused.

"I'm talking about Kisara! You had her executed! I loved her, I planned to marry her!" the priest shouted, tears almost starting to well up in his eyes as the memories of her came back to him.

"I'm sorry, but I still don't know what you're talking about. I didn't…" the pharaoh had started, but was rudely interrupted.

"Quit playing dumb! I'll never forgive you for what you've done! Die!"

However, before Seth had the chance to strike, the other priests of Atem's council appeared.

They decided to take over this fight so Atem could continue, which eventually led him to the battle against his brother Yami.

Seth of course was going to have none of that and proceeded to follow after him but was stopped by the priests.

Instead of fighting against him, they talked to him though.

Apparently, he had been yelling loud enough for it to be heard over the entire battlefield because they started to tell him that the pharaoh had nothing to do with the death of the girl.

It was quite the opposite. In fact, he was trying to protect Kisara.

At his question, who the one who did it was supposed to be, they told him that Akunadin was the one who killed her.

Seth didn't want to believe that, so he turned to his father and asked him if that was true.

In response, Akunadin just laughed.

"That woman was becoming a weak spot of you and I successfully got rid of it!" he proclaimed proudly, looking absolutely self-satisfied.

At those words, Seth's vision had turned red.

He went into a rage and killed the traitorous bastard he once dared to call his father.

Thinking back on it, his father must have been so power-hungry that he just turned insane at some point.

That was the only logical explanation that Seth could come up with for what he had done.

Anyways, since his sin of betrayal couldn't be undone and forgiven anymore (and he was still bound by contract to the demon king), he had decided to pledge his sole loyalty to the mirror-image of Atem – Yami – and thus attacked the council.

Needless to say that they still lost the battle in the end…


'Come to think of it, the one who massacred the villagers from Bakura's village might have been my father as well…' Seth thought since he couldn't recall that the Pharaoh Akunamukanon had ever given such an order despite Kuru-Eruna having been a village inhabited by thieves.

He didn't know the deeper motive behind it, but it had been a good opportunity to make Bakura join them.

Still that gave him no reason to intervene in Atem's and Bakura's fight and he was only given the job to observe anyways…


Meanwhile Atem and Bakura were in the midst of their battle.

Bakura hadn't really been all too surprised about Atem showing up. In fact, he almost knew that he was going to appear because his millennium ring had the power to detect possessed items and so he was able to tell that Yugi's puzzle was one of them, too.

But that was all right. He had been hoping for Atem to show up even if it endangered his mission.

Bakura was using two weapons, which looked like chakrams that kept Atem busy, as he had to constantly parry them with his sword.

Since the albino was keeping his distance, the angel king tried to attack him from a long range, too, with his light arrows, but those boomerang-like shadow-discs protected the other like a shield.

They even started to rotate and created a vortex that sucked in Atem's light magic.

Even if Atem should be stronger than him under normal circumstances, the hatred for what had been done to the people of his village seemed to fuel on Bakura's power and was making him strong enough to have a fairly good chance at beating Atem.

The angel was starting to run out of options as to what to do.

'If I could just get close enough to attack him with my sword…' Atem thought, as he had to evade another attack from one of the discs.

But with how things were going Bakura was keeping the distance between them at a constant and Atem was unable to advance any further.

It really looked like he might lose this battle as the odds were completely against him.

Atem made another jump back to evade one of the flying discs, however he hissed as the other one grazed his arm.

He looked at the cut, which oddly enough didn't bleed. Instead something black seeping into it.

The angel wasn't surprised by that, however he winced at the small but obvious wound.

Even if he wouldn't have to worry about his host since it won't leave any physical damage on the boy's body, Atem was the one who felt the pain and whose light energy was going to be sapped by it.

Bakura meanwhile had started to laugh at the helplessness that his opponent displayed.

The demon could practically taste his victory already.

The angel king stood no chance against him!

As the albino attacked once again, Atem noticed something, which his opponent didn't seem to.

The millennium ring around his neck was starting to glow suddenly, but Atem couldn't figure out what it meant until he noticed that something else was very off.

One of the discs that should be flying in his direction was going completely off course.

At that point, Bakura seemed to notice it, too.

The demon looked down angrily at the ring and started to curse at it.

At first Atem was more than just confused what the demon was doing when he noticed that Bakura wasn't actually cussing at the item, but at his host, Ryu.

It seemed that the favor was starting to go to his side again as the boy with the light soul apparently started to fight, too.

This was the chance that Atem had needed and now with having one weapon less to dodge, he was able to steadily advance and shorten the distance between his opponent and himself.

Bakura noticed this, but with being distracted by the struggling human whose light soul was effectively fighting against his darkness and not having control over the entire body anymore there wasn't much that he could do other than still try to attack and hope that he would hit the angel.

However, Bakura seemed to have run out of luck, as Atem was close enough to finally strike him with his blade. Since the angel had noticed the millennium ring, he knew that Bakura was actually possesing this item and therefore knew exactly where to hit now.

Unable to evade the attack anymore the demon screeched as the concentrated light magic damaged and ultimately defeated him. It forced him out of the golden object and the badly wounded spirit escaped back to hell, certainly not coming back so soon again.

Seth, who had been witnessing everything just returned back to hell to report what had happened to Yami.

With the demon, Bakura, defeated Ryu was back in full control of his body again.

"Thank you. I wouldn't have been able to defeat that demon without your help." Atem said.

"No. I should be the one thanking you. This demon had taken control of me quite a while ago. You finally freed me from him." Ryu replied in a gentle tone.

"Then, let's just call it quits." The angel king said with a smile.

"You must be an angel, aren't you?" the albino asks with a bit of curiosity.

"Yes. I know that I normally shouldn't reveal something like that to a human, but after what you've been through there's really no point in trying to hide it anymore.

However, I have a favor to ask of you. This boy, Yugi, is currently my charge. As you can see, it's kind of my job to protect him. There are also two other guardians who are staying with Anzu and Jonouchi and who are also here to protect him. I won't ask you to fight against anymore demons that might still appear, but I would hope for you to continue staying close to him and be his friend."

Ryu smiled in return. "Of course! I would love to! That is… if he still wants to be friends with me after what happened…"

"I'm sure he will." The angel said with a reassuring smile.

After thanking the white-haired boy one last time, Atem returned to the puzzle and let his host back in control.

Yugi now knelt before Ryu, crying.

"Please, tell me it's not true! Please, tell me you were only trying to make a joke!" the tricolor-haired boy sobbed.

Apparently, he had no recollection of what had happened or even that Atem had taken over his body for a while.

Ryu knelt down so they were somewhat at the same height.

"I'm so sorry, Yugi. I had been possessed by a demon who made me say such terrible things. Anzu and Jonouchi truly are your friends. And they're the best friends that anyone could ever wish for. Are you ever able to forgive me for what I did?"

"Of course I forgive you!" Yugi answered with a bright smile, happy that it wasn't true after all.

Ryu returned his smile, feeling relieved that his apology got so easily accepted and said, "We should probably head back. The others must be already looking for us."

And so the boys got back to the more crowded area and looked for their friends.

As they found them, Anzu and Jonouchi seemed to have been clearly worried as they instantly ran to them and hugged Yugi tightly.

"Where were you guys? We have been searching the entire center after you."

Yugi and Ryu could only apologize, but didn't tell them what had actually happened with the demon.

They didn't want to make them worry any more than they already did.

And so, with Yugi's light back intact, they continue with their great day…


(*) Waset = the ancient name for Thebes