Two years after his grandfather's death, Yugi was starting to live normally again and on his own. He now owned his grandpa's house and took care of his card business as a part-time job; life was staring to be fine once more.

His 12th grade had been a complete success for Yugi. Even though he had excellent grades, second best of his class, he did not wish to go to college. When Seto Kaiba realized his potential, he offered him an interesting position in Kaiba Corp.Yugi accepted the spot knowing that a well-paid job would give him a hand. He learnt programming directly from Seto. Since he memorized stuff extremely fast with his double mind, Yugi was soon working as his assistant.

He was now 18 and taking well-deserved vacations. Despite his young age, Yugi was fully autonomous.

* * *

The amethyst-eyed man awoke and sat up in his bed in the middle of the night. He took the Millenium Puzzle and slipped the chain around his neck; he HAD to speak to Yami imediately. Reguardless how late it was.

"Look, I'm sorry to disturb you but it happened again."

"Argh..." Yami rubbed the sleep out of his eyes inside of the pendant.

"Another strange dream Yugi?" He yawned.

"Yes! I'm sure they have a meaning! They seem so real... it's incredible!"

"Tell me, what did it look like this time?"

"I was still in the desert. It looked like a cold wasteland once more but I could feel the sun's heat on my back. I ran, never stopping as if I was trying to flee from something or someone. I eventually noticed an oasis. I rested there since I felt really exhausted. A strange lady came up to me and violently grabbed my arm. Then, guards, rushed to me and took me with them...

They brought me to a huge palace. It was white and gold. We entered it and ended up in a big hallway. The walls were covered of ancient writings and symbols that I cannot understand... I saw the woman desactivate countless traps. After, we entered a room and a flash blinded me completely and I woke up..."

"It still doesn't make any sense to me, Yu..."

Yugi had the same dream over and over again almost every night. It didn't make any sense to him either. Maybe if he had the next part, they would be able to figure out the puzzle...

"It's as if someone was trying to warn me about something or to give me some information about something I don't know about."

"Let's forget about it for now... We should talk about something else."

There was a long silence...

"You know, I often wish you were real." Yugi bit his lower lip. "I mean, you are real but not physical."

He was starting to be obsessed with one thing; actually seeing Yami in reality. His need seemed to grow stronger and stronger with time.

"I know..." He let out a deep sigh. "Me too, I wish I was 'real'." He hesitated a moment. "I know a way we could meet, if you really want to. Let me mention you would take risks if--"

He was interrupted by an excited Yugi...

"I would do anything for it!"

"It is not wise. I wonder if I should really tell you about it..." He paused, hoping Yugi would refuse but he didn't. He sighed. "Okay... I talked to you about what we called the 'Shadow Realm' already, didn't I?"

"Yes but you never told me anything about it! What exactly is that realm?"

Yugi had never been to it before. In fact, he had, but could not remember it...

"Let me explain this first. It is very important that you understand old beliefs before I tell you the rest. The ancient Egyptians believed that they could not only extend their lives beyond the tombs, but also become part of the life of nature after death. There were six important aspects which, together, made the being; the physical body, the shadow, the person's name, the ka which could be somewhat referred to as the spirit or soul, the ba which is the person's personality and finally the akh which is immortality. Each were said to be necessary to achieve rebirth into the afterlife."

"Interesting..." Yugi was now fully awake and all ears.

"You see Yugi, this is quite complicated to explain but I'll try to make this as easy and simple as I can for you.

First the Ka. It's a person's double or "other self". It is not a part of the personality of the living person. It's a detached part of yourself created at the same time as the physical body. It was said to guide the humans throughout their lives. When people die, they were said to join their Ka. It resided in the physical world inside of the person's tomb. This is the part to which Egyptian left offerings of food because it was said to have the same needs as a normal human being. It is represented by a pair of up-raised arms."

Yugi remained quiet, fascinated by his friend's knowledge.

"As for the Ba, it is roughly someone's personality as I mentioned already. More specifically, the Ba is the manifestation of a being after death since it enters the person's body with the breath of life and leaves at the time of death. It was represented in the form of a human-headed bird to show the freedom it had to move from the other world to the physical one."

Yami paused. He seemed to be trying to dig deeply into his memories to remember all this. Then, he continued...

"The akh is the aspect of a person that would join the gods, being immortal. It was created after death. Once this achieved, someone would be assured of not dying a second time."

All this seemed, oddly, familiar to Yugi even though he had never studied nor read anything about Egypt.

"To be more precise, at one's death, the ka and the ba traveled to join each other in the next world as I said. Once this was done, the being could become the akh, and take the form of the dead that existed among the gods."

"Egyptian had some of the parts right but it seemed they messed up somewhere since I'm stuck in this puzzle! It seems that I'm a dark person, therefore a Shadow, I still have my name, my ka and my ba united together but in this since I never joined the gods. My akh is my puzzle granting me immortality. I'm not sure about that but I guess that's what happened, who knows why.

I think it's because I worked hours trying to create the Millenium Puzzle pouring a bit of myself into it. One thing I'm sure is that my ba is in here but it can roam freely in the Shadow Realm if I leave my soul room. I'm positive it works although I never tried."

Yugi silently agreed.

"The next part...

Before I met you, someone else completed my pendant. It was a woman and she lived in the middle ages. She was considered as a witch. In other words, a wiccan. As you know, people feared them. I simply admired her though...

Anyway, she told me something that Egyptians forgot in their theories. She taught me that the Ba could also leave the physical body while alive and conscious. When a human being properly achieves this, their souls goes out and wanders in the Shadow Realm, also known as the astral, for a short or long period of time before coming back to its physical form. This can happen when you are asleep or near of death. She did it whenever she wanted though and everybody can as well.

About astral, it's the duplication of the physical world. It is similar yet different from it.The original duel monsters which was, back then, called the Shadow Game by the Egyptians was played there. The games were kept highly secret until the monsters found the portal we had set to change dimensions and erupted into our world. I don't think anybody was able to open this kind of thing since then. All this about the Shadow Game is, however, not mentionned in the history as any information from back then is lost, beside what I'm telling you.

Well, all this to say that if you find a way to get to the Shadow Realm, I could also go there and that way we could meet."

"Then that's where we'll meet." He winked.

"Maybe. For now, let's get rest. I'll explain the rest of what you need to know tomorrow."

Yugi took the puzzle off and drifted in a dreamless sleep...

___________

This was kind of the "prologue" of the next part of my fic. All that is mentionned in here about Egyptian beliefs and Wiccan is true(I did some researchs before writing this), just a bit modified to fit my story. I think the adaptation of the stuff I did, trying to keep it as true as possible, is good...Leave me your comments about that! One last thing. Okay, I'll repeat it once again here... the story is not gay at all(although I'm kinda looking foward to the romance part.)