Yuugi awoke slowly, practically having to pry his eyes open. It had not been a good night. His dreams had been full of twisted images from Atemu's memories along with bizarre creations crafted from his own fears. It had seemed like every hour had him starting awake from some new terror. This last stretch of sleep seemed to have lasted longer than the others, though. Maybe his brain had finally grown too tired to conjure up new horrors?

As he blinked the sleep from his eyes, he glanced down and was surprised to see a transparent arm wrapped around his chest. Now that he was paying attention to it, he could also sense pulses of soft emotions flowing across his link to Atemu. A strange sort of soothing lullaby. A slow, sleepy smile crept across his face as he turned to look behind him.

Atemu was curled up on the bed next to him. Eyes closed, face relaxed, looking for all the world like someone in a deep sleep. Yuugi knew better, though.

"Morning, mea," he whispered in Kemetic.

Atemu smiled, but kept his eyes closed. "Must you continue to use that ridiculous nickname?"

"You know I can tell that you like it, right?" Yuugi asked, referring to the warm contentment flowing between them.

"Which is why I can also pretend to not like it," Atemu countered, smile morphing to a smirk as he opened his eyes.

Yuugi let out a giggle and shook his head, a teasing glimmer in his eyes as he pointed out, "I hope you realized that only makes you more like a cat."

Atemu's smirk disappeared, replaced by stunned realization.

Yuugi just laughed and sat up, glancing over at the bedside table. It was a little after 5:30 am. If he'd slept just a little longer, he'd have been woken up by the alarm he set last night. He reached over, turning off the alarm, then made his way to the bathroom, grabbing a change of clothes on the way.

He returned several minutes later, showered and dressed, mostly ready to face the day.

Atemu took in his partner's appearance and frowned.

"Something wrong?" Yuugi asked, glancing down at himself.

"I preferred the shendyt," Atemu admitted, motioning to the outfit he was still wearing, making Yuugi blush.

"Yeah, well, the bare-chested look isn't quite so acceptable these days," Yuugi babbled, averting his eyes. "Plus, you know, I'm trying to focus on the whole saving the world thing."

Atemu raised an eyebrow as a feeling of fascinated curiosity flowed across their link. "Oh, do I distract you?"

Yuugi's blush darkened. "You- you're- yes? I mean, in the soul room it's fine, but here I, you know, and you're hot and there and chest and please make me stop!"

His flustered babbling was cut off by a pleased chuckle as Atemu came to stand before him. He glanced up, surprised to see that his partner had changed into more standard, modern attire.

"Well, we cannot have you distracted around our friends, but I will keep this knowledge in mind," he promised with a wink.

"Just wait, I'm gonna make you drive while I swan about in a shendyt and see how you like it!" Yuugi threatened.

Atemu shrugged, looking unconcerned. "They were common attire in my day. While I cannot deny enjoying the sight, it does not phase me nearly as much as it appears to phase you."

Yuugi frowned and let out a little grunt of annoyance. "Well, fine then, I'll just have to figure out something that gets you flustered and, when I do, I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it!"

"As will I," Atemu replied, making Yuugi's blush steal down below the collar of his shirt. Then he let out an embarrassed little whimper and hurried to finish getting ready. All that was left was... his puzzle. The sight of the familiar golden artifact brought back flashes from his dreams and he froze, fingers inches from its surface. Atemu noticed the change in mood and sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Yuugi didn't speak, he just picked up the puzzle, running his fingers over the cool metal.

"If you would like to carry it in a backpack or some other carrying device, I would not be offended," Atemu offered. "I know the discomfort that comes with the knowledge of its origin."

Yuugi glanced over at his partner, a determined look in his eyes. Then he looped the puzzle around his neck and said, "I'm not going to act ashamed of the thing that's basically your body. Besides, with your final act, this thing's net-neutral as far as I'm concerned."

Once the puzzle was securely in place, Yuugi glanced over at the bedside clock. The digital display read several minutes after 6am. "We should head down soon. Are you ready for that?"

Atemu sighed, flopping back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling as he said, "More so than I was yesterday, I suppose."

Then he glanced over at Yuugi. "Are you still comfortable with the idea of acting as my representative? I know that you did not sleep well."

"I should be okay," Yuugi assured his partner before heading towards the door.

He'd only taken a few steps when Atemu stopped him with a soft, "Wait."

Yuugi turned to him, curious.

Atemu rose to his feet, coming over to press a ghostly kiss to Yuugi's cheak. As the shorter teen flushed a faint pink, the former-pharaoh smiled and said, "For luck."

Yuugi smiled back, holding out his hand. Atemu took hold of it, wrapping his transparent hand around Yuugi's flattened one. It was a strange sort of hand holding, but neither seemed to mind as they headed out the door.

Yuugi and Atemu arrived downstairs to find most of the gang already present and eating breakfast. As the group turned to greet the new arrivals, a familiar ball of fluff flew from Marik's side with a joyful, "Kiri!"

Both puzzle-bearers laughed as Yuugi greeted the kuriboh with a hug. "Morning, Kiri. Did you stay with Marik all night?"

"Kiri!" Kiri replied happily before floating back to his new friend.

"You know, I think you're the first person in 3000 years to make friends with a duel monster," Marik said. "The rest of us just summon them for the fight and dismiss them when we're done."

Yuugi shrugged, moving over to get himself a plate of food. "It started out as an accident, but it's worked out pretty well for us."

Marik made a little noise of amusement and returned to his breakfast while Yuugi and Atemu moved to find themselves seats. To their mutual delight, there was an open loveseat, which Yuugi happily claimed. As he set about eating, Atemu curled up at his side, head resting against Yuugi's shoulder, legs drawn up onto the couch cushion.

They sat in comfortable silence until Ishizu rose to her feet, calling the meeting to order. Once she had everyone's attention, she turned to Yuugi and asked, "So that I may show proper respect, might I ask who I am addressing?"

"It's just me, er, Yuugi," Yuugi replied, earning a series of chuckles. "I'm gonna be in charge to start off so that Tem can focus on thinking over stuff while I answer questions. We might switch it up later, though!"

Ishizu nodded. "Then let us begin. To my line of thinking, there is an obvious place to start: does my pharaoh know of a way to destroy the enemy?"

Yuugi shook his head. "No. Tem's knowledge is all about what happened, not how to undo it. Even then, he only knew the full story for a few hours before he sealed himself away. Most of that time was spent fighting without any chance to sit down and figure out some sort of plan. He and the other item holders were really just making it up as they went, hoping for the best."

Ishizu nodded and looked around the group. "Then I believe our best course of action is the one we decided on last night."

The others nodded and started picking up notebooks. As they readied themselves, Ishizu turned back to Yuugi and explained, "Over dinner, it was decided that we needed a formal way to approach questions and ideas. Everyone was provided with a notebook to write down their thoughts as needed, that way there was no risk of things being forgotten. Would you like one as well?"

"Yes, please," Yuugi replied, smiling as Ishizu handed him a notebook and pen.

As he got himself ready, Ishizu addressed the group once more. "I have written down several questions that I believe will serve to guide us. Would anyone else like to start or shall I lead us off?"

When no one spoke up, she nodded and continued, "Very well. My first question is this: what do we know of the two potentially tainted items?"

"You mean the eye and the ring?" Yuugi asked.

Once he received confirmation, he said, "As best we can tell, the eye was 'tainted' early on. For some reason, Tem's uncle was working with the dark god. That probably started pretty much as soon as the gate was opened. We think he was trying to stage some sort of coup, though why is hard to say. There was probably some logic to it in the early days, but by the end, he'd gone pretty far off the deep end. He had the eye in his possession that entire time. It makes sense that he'd do something to keep it from falling into enemy hands. When we hold the thing, Tem can sense a 'sliminess' to it. Between that and the fact that it involves giving up your real eye, it seems best to leave it unused unless the circumstances are truly life-or-death.

"As for the ring, well, that's a little more complicated. It appears to have been fine for most of Tem's life, but the first act of the attack was to draw the ring's owner into an ambush. He fought back, apparently killing several enemy fighters in the process, but in the end, he couldn't withstand the enemy's monsters. Once he died, the ring passed into Bakura's hands and, unless you know otherwise, he probably kept the ring with him after the battle was lost. That means that the ring was only in enemy hands for maybe a day before Tem's sacrifice, which isn't a ton of time. We don't know how items get tainted, but it seems reasonable to guess that it might not have had time to wind up like the eye."

"There is a chance that you are correct," Ishizu mused. "Both items have been hidden from the necklace's gaze, but occasionally it manages to show us flashes from people associated with one of the two. Not enough to let us identify the bearers, but enough to know where to look for them. It has kept the enemy cautious, but where the eye goes, there is chaos. Where the ring goes, there is conspiracy."

"Turning all of this into a card game hardly seems cautious," Sugoroku pointed out, earning several nods from the assembled group.

"Yeah, but it is chaotic and we don't think the enemy really planned to bring Pegasus into this," Marik said. "A one eyed woman was found dead and buried in a shallow grave in the Valley of the Kings around two years back. We didn't think anything of it at the time, but then the autopsy came back revealing two things: the socket of her missing eye had odd gouges on the bone and she'd been buried about four years. That number had significance because the estimated date of death was right in a window when we know Pegasus was in Egypt.

"Now, the two events aren't necessarily related. We know Pegasus came here a couple times to find out about our monster collection, so that might have been all it was. He could have had the eye for years. However, people don't die in the Valley often. When they do, there's usually treasure involved."

"Do you know where the body was found?" Yuugi asked, a curious gleam in his eyes.

Marik shrugged. "Not off the top of my head, but we have notes on it up in the library."

"Could you go get those and bring a map of the valley back with you?"

"Sure thing."

Marik jumped up, hurrying up the stairs. He returned a few minutes later with a folder and a folded up sheet of paper. He opened the paper, revealing a large map that he spread out on the table. After consulting his notes, he looked down at the valley and pointed to a spot. "Here."

"Great," Yuugi said. "Now where's Akhenamkhanen's mortuary temple?"

Marik stared at Yuugi, dumbstruck. "Holy- yeah, yeah that makes total sense! It's real close and, if they were trying to dig in secret, they wouldn't be able to take cars and stuff down there. Too much noise. They'd have to move the body by either horse or hand and those are conspicuous."

"Wanna fill the rest of us in?" Jounouchi asked with an annoyed frown.

"When we were in the memory world, we found out about a secret cavern in the Valley that was dug to hide monster tablets," Yuugi explained. "This is just a guess, but after they lost, they probably had to go on the run and you can't exactly carry several tons worth of stone around on a chariot. It seems like their best bet would have been to seal off that cavern and try to come back later."

"And it's not like they could have come back with ease," Marik added. "The technology needed to move those tablets is really new. For the longest time, if we had to move them, it meant a months-long process involving horses, boats, and manual labor. Only in the last few decades did we reach a point where we can just load 'em up in a truck. Either way, a dig like that would require some serious funding, especially if you had to keep it secret."

"Do we know the identity of the dead woman?" Otogi asked.

Marik shook his head. "Nope. Never were able to figure that one out, which was pretty weird, because she wasn't from around here. Hard to say exact country of origin, but European or American were the top guesses. Not often you find a foreigner without a family looking for them."

There was a brief pause while everyone thought over these facts, then Anzu spoke up. "Why would they need those tablets?"

Ishizu let out a little hum, then said, "There have been discussions about harnessing new technologies in order to perform readings of the Valley in hopes of finding unknown tombs. The endeavor would be incredibly costly and is unlikely to gain the funding it needs when there is no guarantee of success. However, there have been articles on the debate in several magazines. They might have seen one of these and grown afraid that their secret would be found. It may also be the case that the monsters' names were lost to the ages and they wanted to reclaim their allies."

At this, Yuugi glanced down at Atemu with a knowing look. His partner returned the look, clearly thinking along the same lines. They both had a feeling they knew which theory was right, but they said nothing on the matter. Instead, Yuugi switched topics slightly. "If they got access to those monsters, we could be in trouble. There are three enemy creatures with powers similar to the god's monsters. Those things were how they defeated Tem. If they have access to them again..."

"That is a concern," Ishizu agreed, "and it brings us to another of my questions. When we last spoke, my pharaoh said that he fell to those beings due to multiple summoners fueling their might. Could we not do something similar? Would it be possible to grant others the power to summon the god's monsters?"

After a moment's silent conference with Atemu, Yuugi said, "It might be possible. The agreement was always that the three god's monsters would only be bound to one human, save for during times of transition, but they didn't know that the enemy brought allies over. If we could find a way to talk to the god creature that gave the ancients the rights to summon, maybe we could ask to have the power expanded?"

As Yuugi spoke, all of the Ishtars started to frown. By the time he was done, all three were shaking their heads.

"We do not know how that first contact was made, save for that it involved the use of all seven items," Ishizu admitted. "It is possible that they are not all required, but I would not know what to try."

"And if we have all the items, then we don't need to worry about the bad guys summoning their army," Marik added.

Yuugi sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Okay, different thought, is there a way to close the gate so that no one can summon?"

"Nope," Marik said in near tandem to his sister's quiet, "Possibly."

All eyes turned to Ishizu as Marik spluttered, "W-what? Since when?"

"There is a warning in one of our oldest records, the implication of which is that the gate can be closed. The wording of the text is rather archaic, but it seems to imply that the pendant or puzzle can undo the gate if all of the items are present" Ishizu explained. "I do not think anyone ever considered it of importance as, to my knowledge, the destruction of that power has never been discussed before. In fact, I only know of this note due to my own, personal research. Still, it does exist.

Yuugi frowned and looked down at Atemu. Does that make any sense to you?

Instead of replying, Atemu took over. "What knowledge do you have of my item's abilities?"

"None whatsoever," Ishizu replied, bowing to her pharaoh.

Atemu motioned for her to rise, then said, "As you are all aware, each item has a power. I believe that it is time we went over them. You will note that the first six come as pairs of a sort. The eye grants the ability to read another's mind. The rod grants the ability to control another's mind. The scales grant the ability to know a person's heart or ib. The key grants the ability to know a person's self or ba. The necklace grants the ability to divine knowledge. The ring grants the ability to divine the physical location of that which you seek. Then there is the puzzle.

"While the powers of the first six items were meant to serve whosoever wears the puzzle, the power of the puzzle was meant to serve Kemet." Atemu paused, looking down and placing a hand on the artifact. Then he continued, "My item's ability has always been referred to as 'negation'. As long as it is around my neck, no spell can harm me and I have the ability to undo any act of magic."

Marik let out a low whistle. "No wonder they gave that thing to the pharaoh."

Yuugi had been sitting next to Atemu through the explanation, listening closely to his partner's words. As he thought over them, they brought to mind a certain memory. "Wait, is that how you broke Kaiba's spell on me? And why did it only work when you took over?"

Atemu considered this for a moment, then he looked over at Kiri with an odd look on his face. After relaying Yuugi's question to the group, he said, "I have a theory on that. One that would explain several oddities.

"An item can have but one master, yet we are two people, for all that we share one body or khet. However, I believe that this shared element might be confusing my item. When Yuugi is in charge, it can sense my presence, but it must also know that the commands are not my own. This is likely allowing Yuugi the ability to only use the item's most basic power. All of the greater abilities are mine and mine alone.

"If I am correct, this would be the reason Yuugi cannot handle summoning larger monsters while I have no such issues. The puzzle is only amplifying our magic when I am in control. If I was limited as he is, then I would not be able to perform anything like the feats you have seen."

"That's neat and all, but I'm not sure how it's gonna help us if we still need all the items to pull it off," Otogi pointed out, earning sighs from the group.

"No, but it does answer a millennia-old question," Marik said with a grin. "If you need all the items to undo the spell, then that means that the items were created in the same spell that opened the gate."

This statement earned several confused looks, so Marik let out a grumble of annoyance and explained, "There's rules to magic, just like anything else. One of the big ones is that, to undo a spell, you need to have all the parts together. Otherwise the de-spell just fizzles out."

"That seems pretty arbitrary," Anzu muttered.

"You're just saying that because you don't know how it works," Marik countered. "See, when a spell is undone, all the original pieces go back to whatever they used to be. If you don't have all the pieces, you can't do that, and thus it fizzles."

"And if the gate and the items were created in tandem, you would need all of the items to allow for proper dissolution of the spell," Atemu added.

Honda had been quiet so far, but now he spoke up in a confused tone of voice. "Wait, doesn't that mean closing the gate destroys the items?"

There was a beat of silence, then Marik said, "Well, that plan just got my vote."

"Marik," Ishizu cried, staring at her brother with wide eyes.

"What, did you miss yesterday's heartwarming origin story? You know, the one with all the human sacrifice and demonic possession?"

Ishizu took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, clearly choosing her words carefully. "To destroy our items would be to abandon our family's sacred duty."

"No, it would be to fulfill our sacred duty," Marik argued. "Our job has always been to protect the gate and stop this dark god creep from coming back. From where I'm sitting, it sounds like bringing him back involves the items. No items, no dark god."

"And it would release the souls of those sacrificed for their creation," Atemu murmured thoughtfully, earning a grin from Marik.

"Exactly! Kemet's gone! We don't need her protectors anymore and I, for one, would rather not carry a bunch of dead people around my neck!"

That statement triggered something within Atemu, drawing him out of his thoughts and back to reality. He glanced over at Yuugi with worried eyes and found his partner sitting perfectly still, eyes staring at nothing. Panic resonated through their bond and it took everything within Atemu to keep his voice even as he decreed, "While there are merits to this debate, this is not the time to have it. Undoing the gate requires all of the items and we have no plan to acquire them. As both this idea and the previous one require all seven, it seems that we must focus our efforts on either creating a different plan or addressing how to obtain the final two."

Marik and Ishizu exchanged looks, then nodded reluctantly, but Atemu barely registered this. All of his attention was focused on watching Yuugi. The smaller teen seemed to shudder, then he looked over at Atemu with big, worried eyes. Atemu casually moved his hand so that it was sitting palm up. Yuugi placed his transparent hand over top of it, then moved so that he was curled against Atemu, eyes hidden from the world.

"I believe it would be to the benefit of us all if we took a short recess," Atemu said, turning back towards the group. "Perhaps 10 minutes?"

Ishizu nodded. "A wise suggestion, my pharaoh. A moment to cool our heads will do us all wonders."

As the others relaxed and began to move about or talk amongst themselves, Atemu focused once more on his partner, sending waves of love and comfort across their link. "It is alright, love. I am right here. Listen to my voice and know that you are not alone."

He continued on in this manner until Yuugi calmed down enough to quietly ask, "Can you survive without the puzzle?"

"I do not believe so," Atemu admitted.

Yuugi nodded lightly, still not looking up. "I thought as much."

"Do you need me to extend our recess? I can call a complete halt if you-"

"No," Yuugi interrupted, finally looking up at Atemu. "I'll be- well, not fine, but okay. Like you said, we don't even have all the items. There's no point in worrying about it just yet."

"But you are worried," Atemu pointed out.

"I know and I know we'll need to talk about it at some point but- but not now, okay?" Yuugi pleaded. "Not when there's already so much stacked against us."

Atemu nodded and resumed his calming efforts as Yuugi hid his face once more. They continued in this manner until a worried, "Kiri?" made them both look up.

Kiri was hovering before them, big, worry-filled eyes focused on Yuugi. The transparent teen smiled. "Hey buddy, were you worried about me?"

Kiri nodded, flying closer with a worried trill.

"I'm okay," Yuugi promised. "Just a little upset by the conversation."

"Why is Kiri looking at you like that?" Anzu asked, coming over to join them, drawing the attention of several others.

Atemu could tell that Yuugi wanted to keep the matter private for now, so he said, "Yuugi and I were discussing our options and concerns regarding what lies ahead. It is hardly a pleasant topic and Kiri likely sensed this."

Anzu frowned, clearly not fully convinced, but she didn't press the issue. Instead, she headed back to her seat along with the others as Kiri came to rest on Atemu's lap. He pet the kuriboh with his free hand and listened as Ishizu called the meeting to order once more. The discussion turned to the two 'missing' items and how they could go about reclaiming them. It was quickly decided that the ring was too big of an unknown to start with. They were far better off going after the known risk of the rod first.

"How do we get access to Kaiba, though?" Jounouchi asked. "There's no tournament coming up, right?"

"Not that I know of," Sugoroku replied. "But we do have something he wants: the items and my blue eyes. We could use those to challenge him to another match."

"Wouldn't that be pretty public?" Anzu pointed out with a worried frown.

Before Sugoroku could come up with a counter argument, Otogi chimed in, "Or you could ask your friend who's an established game developer how to get a private meeting with the guy?"

At this, all eyes turned to Otogi. As the designer smirked at them, Yuugi switched with Atemu and said, "I thought Industrial Illusions made your game?"

"My deal was with IL, but they only do physical games. Even though their name is on the box, all their e-imports and tie-ins are actually made by Kaiba Corp. The PC and hand-held versions of dungeon dice monsters? Those were a joint effort between me and some KC devs. I actually worked with Kaiba directly for a lot of it, which is why I took personal pleasure in watching you beat him. Heaven knows his ego needed deflating.

"Anyway, Kaiba's got a policy of hearing every game pitch himself and, as a guy with a successful KC title, I have priority rights. My stuff doesn't go on the slush pile. It goes straight to review and, if they like it, it then goes straight to Kaiba himself. If he's interested, I get called in for an in-person pitch instead of having to do a pre-pitch with some underlings. When all is said and done, the whole process shouldn't take more than a handful of weeks once I have a game ready to pitch."

"And do you have a new game ready to go?" Anzy asked hopefully.

Otogi shrugged. "Not exactly , but I could have something ready soon. Yuugi and I have been bouncing ideas around and, if we frame it as a video game that we want KC to program, we can get away without having a functional demo."

"Wait, what? How am I involved?" Yuugi cried, eyes wide.

"The RPG," Otogi explained. "I was gonna wait until this was all over to ask, but how do you feel about being a co-designer? Because I don't think I can do all this without you, especially with the whole deadline issue."

"I- I mean- I just gave you some ideas," Yuugi stuttered, hardly believing what he was hearing.

Otogi laughed. "Dude, that's like a third of what game design is . The other parts are balancing and testing. Something tells me you're gonna be good at those, too, though."

"If it's anything like balancing a deck, then Yuug's your man!" Jounouchi exclaimed, grinning over at his stunned friend.

"He is right, love, you are always thinking of ways to improve games. This seems like a natural evolution of that hobby," Atemu encouraged, glad for the opportunity to keep Yuugi's mind occupied with something positive.

An avalanche of excited comments began, all aimed at pushing Yuugi to agree. When they finally stopped, Otogi grinned at his new friend and asked, "So you gonna help me get this thing pitch-worthy or not?"

After a moment's hesitation, Yuugi smiled shyly and said, "Yeah, I guess I am."