Last Time

"Get....off me....ya jerk! Whaddya....want.....wit us....anyway?!" Joey gasped out, his breathing growing labored due to the heavy blood loss.

"Isn't it obvious?" It was the redhead, Helio, who had spoken, now standing beside them. Some blood remained on his lips and chin, Tea's lifeless corpse on the ground behind him, he having already drained more than enough blood to kill her. "Blood. Human blood, to be exact."

"Yuge...I'm....sorry....man....I....tried..." Then Joey fell to the ground where he soon breathed his last breath…

-Later-

"Aibou, aibou easy. What exactly did you see? Tell me everything you saw." Yami told his trembling hikari, still trying to be gentle with him.

Yugi took a deep breath and stopped crying for the moment before he spoke.

"Well I saw Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Insect Queen, Panther Warrior, Gearfried The Iron Knight and Jinzo all covered in blood. Then just ahead of those cards, I saw Joey and Tea's lifeless body all drenched in blood." Yugi whispered, trying not to cry even more.

"Oh dear Ra…" Yami muttered.

"It's true, Yami! Their gone!" Yugi cried.

Yami just hugged Yugi tightly, trying to quell the small boy's pain in any way he could.

End Flashback

Yugi didn't sleep at all that night. Finally morning came for the traumatized teen.

"Yugi...Yugi...please wake up." Yami begged him, as he heard the boy still sobbing as he had been the entire night...

Yugi sniffled, buried under his covers. "I-I am up, Yami..."was his muffled reply. He had been all night long.

"What do you mean, little one?" Yami probed gently, not wanting to frighten his traumatized partner.

"I-I never went to sl-sleep..." Yugi whimpered from under his covers.

Yami gasped. "You...You didn't?" He asked, both shocked and stunned.

Yugi shook his head. "E-Every time I closed m-my eyes, I saw th-them..." Fresh sobs and tears came at the thought of his now deceased two best friends in the entire world.

"Tea and Joey..." Yami fought back some tears of his own.

But they soon came...

"Yugi...please. Come here." Yami told him, as a few tears came.

Yugi heard Yami's voice shake, and peeked out from under the covers to see his dark's tears. "Y-Yami..." He said, before getting out of bed and burying his face in the ancient pharaoh's chest. His arms wrapped around him in a tight hug.

"Yugi, did you get Joey's cards back?" Yami asked, a sense of hope in his voice.

"Y-Yeah...they're in my desk drawer..." Yugi answered, a little shakily at that.

"Good. This may sound weird but something tells me their not permanently gone."

"Yami, if they're alive, then I'm an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh."

Yami could sense his light's dark humor. "I'm serious, Yugi." He replied, still looking hopeful about Joey and Tea's fates.

"Yami, how could they still be alive? They were...d-dead...it's impossible..." Yugi replied tearfully, looking more downcast than ever now.

"Do you know what attacked them?" Yami asked, hoping to learn as much about the attack as possible.

"No...they were just...c-covered in bl-blood...and so were his cards..." Yugi squeaked out quietly.

"Yugi, if this is true, their bodies should still be there. Show me them." Yami spoke in a soft, but firm and loving tone.

"O-Okay..." Yugi replied, a little nervous.

And so the 2 left the quaint little Game Shop and headed for the alley in which Joey and Tea had been killed and later found dead in. But when they got there…

"No, this is...impossible!" Yami cried. He and Yugi had just arrived at the alley in which Yugi had found his friends' blood-stained corpses. But now the bodies were nowhere to be found…

Yugi's eyes were wide, jaw dropped. "B-But, this is right where I found them last night! Look, the blood's st-still there!" he yelped fearfully. The bodies of his two best friends were gone, but the remnants of their blood remained…

"But then...where are their bodies..." Yami murmured fearfully.

A voice yawned. "Mornin, Yuge." Came Tristan's sleepy reply.

Yugi turned toward him, and suddenly felt a rush of relief. He hadn't even thought about Tristan perhaps being gone, too, but now the thought struck him. And he was glad that his friend was all right. "Tristan!" he yelled, hugging the taller teen.

Tristan nearly fell over. "Hey buddy. How was the duel last night?" He asked, knowing of Joey's desire to duel Yugi the night before.

Yugi's mood instantly plummeted again, and he buried his face into Tristan's torso as fresh tears brimmed his eyes. "Tristan...th-they...Joey and Tea are..."

"Bro, its just a game…" Tristan chuckled, not realizing the magnitude of the situation.

Yugi was incoherent, wracked by fresh sobs.

"Tristan...Yugi means they are...no longer in this world..." Yami explained gravely.

"Th-They're...d-dead...Tristan, they're gone!" Yugi screamed, the tears rushing down his face.

"Say WHAT?!?! That's insane!" Tristan cried in complete shock.

"It's true! And now, they're...they're b-bodies are missing!" Yugi cried, sobbing even harder now than before.

"Hey Yugi!" Came Kaiba's voice.

Yugi turned in surprise, tears still streaming down his face. "Kaiba?!" He shouted in total disbelief that it was Kaiba approaching him.

He nodded, coming towards him. "I heard what happened to Wheeler and Gardener..." The teen CEO hugged him out of sympathy. "I'm so sorry, kid..."

Yugi was surprised by the hug, but grateful for it none the less. However, he was even more surprised that Seto knew. "H-How did you know??"

"I'm a techno geek, remember?" Seto laughed teasingly.

"But...I didn't think anyone else knew..." Yugi replied.

"I couldn't identify what killed them. Sorry kid."

"Do you know where their b-bodies went??" Yugi asked shakily.

"To another realm..." Seto remarked grimly.

"Another...realm?" Yugi questioned, very puzzled.

"Yes, one devoid of mortals like you and me." Seto answered in as calm a voice as he could muster up.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Yugi asked, growing scared…

"Let's just say its a realm of non-human beings. That is all I know." Seto sighed.

"But why would they go there..." Yugi muttered, frowning. He was less than truly believing this.

"I doubt it was their choice, kid." Seto replied.

Yugi sighed forlornly, praying his friends were safe wherever they may have been taken to…

Meanwhile in another dimension eons away from that of the mortal realm...

To be continued…