Last Time
"See, you like to hide things, I do too." he chuckled.
"That's different!" She shouted.
"Not really, I didn't want a lot of people finding out about my secret, but I let them know." Yuugi replied calmly. "You should give it up, if you don't trust people enough to tell them something deep, then you don't deserve to hang around in a place like this."
"What does that mean?" Anzu and Jou asked at the same time.
"I told you about Yami, she told those two girls about her problem. Good came out of my secrecy, good should come out of hers. She doesn't trust people so she can't truly fit in the way I did. The best thing she can do is give herself up for him." Yuugi claimed without turning back to them.
"She's a 4-year old child sweetie." Anzu said for once defending Alcina.
"So she hasn't had much of a chance, neither has he. Unless you're willing for the other way to get him out. The light inside would set him free, who knows what that could do to him." Yuugi replied, staring to Anzu.
"Why not sacrifice one of the other two? She's the most enjoyable to break down so to speak."
"Sure then, but I'll need your help in getting them both out of the way; the light can then be back with us!" Yuugi replied, grinning. "That'll give us all the control over it we need. I like the way you think."
"Let me get this straight. Which one are we gonna sacrifice to do what again?" She asked for confirmation.
"Whichever one you want." Yuugi replied, grinning.
"Alright." She closed her eyes and randomly chose Torri.
"Good, we have the one we need." Yuugi chuckled, lowering his head to give Torri a darker look. "Come to me, and then we can help him."
Torri approached him thinking it to be a harmless game.
Yuugi grinned as the Sennen Eye began to shine on his head, illuminating a small distance; he stared at Torri as she glared at him confidently.
Alcina watched curiously.
The same black force appeared around Torri, she gasped as she realized this wasn't a game.
Ali stepped back, watching in horror as the darkness consumed Torri and left no trace of the girl behind as Yuugi stared ahead with his lowered head.
End Flashback
"And now for the other half…" he whispered.
"She just...disappeared outta nowhere but how?" Ali asked.
"The power of the darkness…" Yuugi muttered sinisterly.
The light emerged behind the figure again, Yami stared at it with dull eyes, while the person was moving closer to him, he prayed the one had answers for him.
The part of Yuugi in Anzu's mind possibly the only shred of purity left in him entered Yami's body possessing him.
Yami shuddered as the form entered him, the bindings over his torso, arms and mouth vanished, he dropped to the ground, staring at the light with almost blank eyes, his pupils solid, smirking sinisterly. He slowly made his way to the light.
Anzu smirked sensing her lover's plan was working.
Yuugi smirked back, the Eye still glowing brightly as he moved Yami towards the way out of Anzu and out into the real world once again.
Yami slowly awoke but now he had his own body because of Torri's 'sacrifice'.
"Yami!" Jonouchi gasped.
Yami opened his eyes, turning to Jonouchi, catching sight of Yuugi and Anzu as he did, he smiled at the blonde, Jonouchi stared at Yami's eyes, and he knew that there was something different because of them alone.
"Where am I? And how'd I get here?" The more memory-less Pharaoh than before asked.
"I helped you here." Yuugi spoke gently. "This is my home; we brought you here when we found you."
"Y-Yeah…" Jonouchi added out of total impulse, unsure what Yuugi was saying.
"Yu...Yuugi is that you?" Yami asked.
"Yes Yami, it's me." Yuugi replied happily. "I thought you'd forgotten me."
"My memory of you is still strong everything else is a blur however." The ruby-eyed duelist replied.
"Really, what do you remember?" Yuugi asked.
"I remember you, Anzu, Jou and our other friends and I also remember part of highly important duels we fought but that's basically it."
Jonouchi smiled at his name being mentioned, he glanced at Anzu, Yami turned to Anzu also, Yuugi watched as he did, wondering if he had had any memory of the recent events, he set his eyes on Anzu.
He stared at the Oracle Symbol on her forehead but couldn't register any memories of what it was.
Anzu stared at Yami; she registered the look of confusion on his face.
"You don't know what this is, do you?" she asked.
He simply replied with a small shake of the head.
Anzu sighed, on the surface, one of despair at the Pharaoh's lost memories, but underneath, a real sigh of relief.
Alcina stared at Yami then Yuugi trying to figure out what was going on.
"Who's that?" Yami asked, pointing at Alcina, but then noticing Ali. "And her? What's going on?"
"Two kids we've never seen before. The one in red is Ali and the one in ponytails is Alcina." He replied making sure he didn't mention the now sacrificed Torri.
"I don't understand, you've never seen them before but you know their names. How long was I gone? What's happened while I wasn't here? Where was I?" Yami asked, his head almost throbbing at the amount of questions spilling from him.
"What I meant was before today we hadn't seen them." Yuugi corrected himself.
"I see." Yami sighed. "I don't remember much but I know I've never seen them today, I thought you had been making friends while I was gone. I'm confused about what everyone else is doing here. Kaiba, Noa, Bakura, and Varon. I'm missing something major and I can't figure out what it could possibly be, but I feel it has to do with the thing on Anzu's head." He said, trying to deduce the situation like a Sherlock Holmes wannabe detective.
"Kaiba…face it…Mokuba knows the truth about you now…" Noa replied with a wicked smile.
Yami blinked as he watched Noa teasing Kaiba, the taller growled at Noa as he did this.
Yami turned to Yuugi, looking for a clue about what the two were really talking about or whether the old feud over Mokuba had revived itself.
Mokuba stood by Noa's side just as he had those many months ago in Noa's virtual world.
"Yuugi, what's going on with those three?" Yami asked, turning to his aibou. "I can remember their fight, but Mokuba's with Noa? What happened?"
"It's a long story." Yuugi answered.
Yami groaned, rubbing a hand against his head, he felt so lost despite the fact that he was surrounded by so many people he cared about, he glanced back at Anzu.
"So, what's going on with these kids then? Are they staying around or something?" he queried.
"For now yes." Yuugi replied.
"So, what are we doing with them?" Yami asked, staring at the Seal on Anzu's forehead.
"You'll see." He said.
Yami turned to the girls, the elder seeming less willing to interact with the others, the younger of the two looking pretty confident, although puzzled.
Alcina smirked at him.
Yami stared at Alcina, stepping forward towards her, watching her smirk, he saw no reason why she'd need to, but he'd play along, she was young. How harmless could she be?
Alcina looked up at the other curiously.
Yami stared down at her, falling to one knee slowly, he held a hand out for her, as he stared down at her without emotion. "You need any help?" he asked. "Maybe when the others have done what they say they want to do, I can get you back to wherever you came from." He offered kindly, not knowing Alcina's real nature.
"No I'm fine mister." Alcina replied for once sounding polite, in order to try and lure the clueless Pharaoh into a false sense of security.
Yami smiled at her, enjoying her politeness not aware that it was a false front.
Anzu growled at the little one, knowing the true nature of her. She glared at her, expecting her to bite Yami's hand or something sinister when the clueless Pharaoh least expected it.
"Hey Yami, Yuugi and I have to speak with you a moment." she called, trying to draw him away; he looked at her, understanding.
"Sure Anzu-chan." Yuugi replied as he and Yami followed her.
Anzu led the pair away, back into the kitchen, standing close to the doorway, she turned to Yuugi, nodding.
Yami was still acting friendly towards the others, as a servant to them, she didn't want that. With Yami's head turned, Anzu leaned over to Yuugi.
"Yuugi, Yami's acting too much like his real self, he's offering to help those brats. Are you sure you did it right in my mind? We can't afford for him to catch on." She whispered the urgency easy to pick out in her voice.
"He's clueless." Yuugi answered, not worried at all.
"But if he keeps this up, he could remember things, you remember the way you helped Jonouchi It could turn out like that. We can't risk it Yuugi, you have to get inside his head, stop him from being himself. If you can gain complete control of him, he'll really be the mindless puppet you wanted him to be, it'll be the new step in getting our Kingdom you wished for." Anzu whispered.
"Yeah but how… wait a minute where did you put the Rod?" He queried.
"It should be with the other Items, aren't they still in your room?" She inquired in reply.
"I believe so."
"You're thinking of using that." Anzu replied, laying a hand on his shoulder, smiling happily. "That's my king."
"Of course it worked on you and Jou remember?"
"Yeah, Yami won't remember how to use the Puzzle to try and defend himself, he's a vulnerable as those brats out there. It'll be easy getting him on our side again."
"Alcina is the brat not Ali." Yuugi countered softly.
"But Ali could get in the way, I don't know why she's so quiet, but it could be a bad sign." Anzu replied, glancing back at the doorway behind them.
"No way..." Yuugi replied with firm certainty.
"No way what? You don't think she could be troublesome?" Anzu asked.
He nodded.
Anzu sighed, willing to go along with Yuugi in his theory; she looked up, seeing Yami still waiting for their whispers to end, looking about the room to remind himself of everything.
"You worried?" He questioned his girlfriend.
"No, of course not, I just don't want anything to go wrong." Anzu assured him sweetly.
Yuugi chuckled before it turned to outright cackling.
Yami turned back to Yuugi, taken by surprise that Yuugi had started cackling, he stared at Yuugi wide-eyed, Anzu also stared at Yuugi as if he had gone mad, neither had a theory as to what could have been so assuming even though it had only been Anzu who had heard.
"Aibou?" Yami whispered.
"Yeah?" Yuugi asked.
"What's wrong with you?" Yami asked his voice quiet as he turned back to his aibou.
"What about me?" Yuugi asked, a bit suspiciously.
"What was that cackling? There's something different about you." Yami sighed.
"Really? I hadn't noticed." He lied.
Yami raised an eyebrow at Yuugi, confused by how Yuugi could miss something, he continued to watch Yuugi as if he were mad, Anzu sighed, also confused by Yuugi's random outburst.
"Was it really that funny?" Anzu whispered. "It could happen, things have been rough at points so far, we can pull through, but there's always the possibility."
"Yes..." He ran upstairs to get the Sennen Rod.
Yami watched as Yuugi departed, turning to Anzu, she smiled innocently at him, trying to reassure him nothing strange was going on, he smiled slightly back, still wishing he could understand everything again, feeling lost.
Yuugi jogged back down holding the Sennen Rod in his right hand.
"Yuugi, what's that for?" Yami asked, pointing to the Rod.
Anzu smiled at Yuugi, still trying to look innocent, Yami stepped back, unsure why he had, but the question of why Yuugi held it still puzzled him.
Yuugi returned the innocent smile but it was an evil smile deep down.
Anzu turned back to Yami, advancing towards him slowly, she laid her left hand on his shoulder and the other gripping his upper arm, Yami stared at her before turning back to Yuugi.
Yuugi chuckled softly.
"Yuugi?" Yami mumbled. "What are you doing?"
Yuugi smirked deviously, as he pressed the button on the Sennen Rod.
Yami groaned as the Rod began to glow, closing his eyes while trying to avoid it.
Anzu held onto his arm tighter, grinning menacingly as the light shone throughout the room brightly.
"Sennen Rod, grant me your powers and control his mind!" Yuugi chanted.
Yami felt the light reach him, he tried to pull back, but the alternative power of the Rod had him frozen, he tried to block his mind of its power, but he could feel Yuugi getting in.
Yuugi laughed as he could feel Yami's mind come to him so to speak.
Jonouchi peered in, seeing Yuugi holding the Rod as the light reached Yami, the Pharaoh trying to break the other power of the Item.
"No Yuugi!" Yami groaned, keeping his eyes tightly shut. "I can't let you...take my mind like this. Don't do it, please."
"Too late!" Yuugi cackled.
Yami cried out as the Rod's power reached him, his cry cut short as his control over his mind was taken. He relaxed next to Anzu, opening his eyes; they remained blank and dark, while he stared emotionlessly at Yuugi, no control over himself anymore.
Yuugi grinned wickedly. "It worked…"
To be continued…