A Revenge

By Aier

A/N: Sorry this took so long (my excuse - the evil necessity of school). I hope you guys like it. Or...if you hate it, I suppose that's fine...this isn't exactly a 'cuddle and smile' story. By the way, Yami will be feeling VERY angsty for a while.

Basic explanation: Yami isn't himself. Why is that? What exactly is going on? Yugi seems to be on his mind, but a shadow lurks around his vision, one that manipulates...his stream of thought? But these are things he had thought about. Why is it he feels so hostile all of a sudden? (Okay, not really an explanation, but it sets you on the right track. Don't want anyone thinking Yami is evil, now, do we?...*stare*)

Warnings: evidence of a beating, and afterwards re-mention of Yugi's death. Yami-torture.

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh does not belong to me ( how often do we put these on? _ )

Italics - Yugi

text - Yami

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Yami...I...um, I don't know...

His aibou had been afraid of him.

Yami had only played the game within acceptable rules, and those strictly forbade killing. Murder. Something Yami had not truly done, something he would not do if it meant Yugi would be there, if it meant Yugi would be scarred for such an act. Yugi was afraid of all Yami would do to ensure their success. He didn't understand...he wouldn't. Yugi had feared him.

Please I...I need to be alone now. Please.

He'd tried so hard not to show it, tried so hard to be polite while his terrified eyes followed Yami's every move with a victim's anxiety. He'd believed that he would turn against him, that Yami would dare touch the little one in a hurtful way.

Yami didn't like that at all.

Yami...sorry...I didn't mean to...

He had not dealt with situations like these before. Before had been long ago, and then he had not had friends in the way these people had friends. He could not reassure the boy because he didn't know how. He hadn't known what he could possibly do or say to calm his fears, and everything he did only seemed to make it worse. If he showed his offence, his awkwardness with the situation, or worse of all his anger at himself for his ignorance, then Yugi would cower and look at him with his wide violet eyes. He would tremble and flinch at his voice, he would let silent tears fall at night when the puzzle glowed in a weak effort to banish darkness from his small figure. When Yami was around Yugi would be guarded, weary, uncomfortable.

It wasn't very hard to guess that Yugi hadn't wanted Yami around. In any way.

I'm kind of busy now...we'll...maybe...I'm sorry.

Yami had only done what was asked of him, he had only done what he thought was best. He had been helping Yugi get his only living family back, and if that fool Kaiba chose to use cheap tricks to get his way then that was his problem. Yami wouldn't wait for him to stop and play nice. There was much more in the balance than he could afford to loose.

Yami had only done what would ensure a happy reunion.

Yugi feared...and hated Yami for that.

Yami would have left it all to the little one, but he'd chosen to protect him and his happiness. He had chosen to help when he had no reason to at all. He had gotten them through their trials, used all his knowledge, courage, and strength to assist them and still Yugi refused to believe him trustworthy.

Yami please, I am...I just...

After all of this, Yami stuck with him. Even when Yugi had desperately tried to push him away, he'd insisted and gotten through. Without him, Yugi's grandfather would not have lived those days he'd had left. Now even he, the old man, was dead, and it had been Yami whom had given him the treasure of life for a little while longer with powers Yugi did not comprehend...and now Yami thought that maybe Yugi blamed him for killing his grandfather as well. Like if Yami had not intervened yet again, Sugokoru might have lived to breathe another breath.

Yami thoroughly disliked that.

Stop!

Yugi had expressed little gratitude, all borne of fear. He had ignored Yami as much and as often as he could. He had distanced them, tried to block out all that was Yami from his mind. There could only be one result that would come from this.

Yami was exiled to his mind, locked within his soul room.

Eventually he'd had to find a way to form a temporary physical body, to get out of the darkness the millennium puzzle had imprisoned him for longer than he cared to account for. Eventually. Being in that eternal darkness did something to you, it changed you. Being in there was a personal hell.

He would not stand for being banished there again; not when freedom was so near.

What are...god, please...what...?

Yugi, once he had faced the pharaoh for the first time in the flesh, had panicked. He'd thrown the puzzle away and locked himself in his room, his frantic thoughts revealing that he only wanted him gone, that he believed that Yami would hurt him or use his magic against him, that he wished to be free of the constant terror brought on by the one who could not be closer to him.

No...I...no! Stop it! Stop!!!

Eventually Yami had had to perfect his physical body. He'd had to make it so he wasn't dependant on Yugi, not entirely, to exist. He could be his own person outside the puzzle, and he did not need Yugi's body and did not need to use all of his strength.

He'd had to find out how, to stop Yugi from destroying the puzzle and sending him back to torture. The boy had been hell-bent on it.

No! Iie! Sto...Yamete! Yamete! Itai!

He hadn't ever truly known where Yugi was from...he didn't know that the words he heard were not in Egyptian. He only heard the true sounds leaving his small pale lips if he listened closely.

Yami had made sure to listen better; it could mean preventing his banishment from one who should have shown gratitude to him for all he'd done.

ITAAIIII!!!

Wincing, Yami lowered his head and clutched at his ears, hearing the resounding scream of pain echo around him. Another soon followed, and another, all piercingly different, all holding such rich levels of pain and suffering. Memories surfaced, seeping into his brain like venom, and somehow Yami didn't think they all belonged to him.

Where was he?

A leg, bruised and lying naked on a carpeted floor.

A chest, black and blue and green, rising with too much effort and lying still for too long.

An open mouth, pleading and screams and choked gasps leaving ruby red lips, jerking to the side as a hand met that delicate cheek with bruising force.

Striking violet eyes open wide with shock and frozen pain, dulled as something inside broke.

And someone cackled through this, Yami's chest rumbling with hidden laughter, Bakura's smirking face bleeding to form his own, and both were one as he stood triumphantly over a body that slowly, oh so slowly stopped shivering and jerking once in a while.

He looked up, and there was a mirror in front of him. His face twisted into a sneer, brown eyes darkening as a rag doll with a familiar face appeared behind him somewhere.

Do you want to live forever?

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