Last Time: Yugi and his friends went to Odaiba to collect an artifact for Yugi's grandfather. Yugi was having an internal struggle with Yami and finally decided that keeping him around was a huge risk. Once they got to the motel, Yugi went into the bathroom and took apart the Millennium Puzzle. Later, TK arrived to deliver the artifact, but Joey and Tristan handed him the wrong bag. They gave him the bag containing the pieces to the Millennium Puzzle! Now Yugi must get it back!


Key:

// … // - Yami

/// … /// - TK


Taking A New Host: Part 2


TK walked through the door of his apartment and noticed the lights were out. He stepped cautiously in the dark towards the kitchen until he found a note on the counter. It was from him mom.

TK took the note and read it. "TK, I have a headache so I went to bed early. There's a frozen TV dinner in the freezer." TK shook his head. "Always a TV dinner. They look so much better on TV."

Not feeling hungry, TK walked over to the couch and sat down. He decided to look over just how much his father got for selling this artifact. He turned the black bag upside-down, but got a surprise. All he got was a clutter of junk.

TK couldn't believe it. "Oh great! I should have checked the bag first! Dad's gonna kill me!"

TK gathered the junk and grouped it together. He didn't even know what it was. It all looked like a broken artifact. That's when TK got an idea. Maybe he could put the artifact together and give that to his dad. Or maybe he could sell it himself to someone else for the same price.

Suddenly, TK had come up with the perfect excuse to call up Kari. He reached over for the phone and dialed that number.

"Hello?"

"Kari? It's me! You busy right now?"

"Not really. Just cleaning up my room. What's up?"

"I was wondering if you could give me a hand with something…"

Fifteen minutes had passed and TK couldn't understand how this broken artifact was supposed to go together. He was completely stumped. And then, much to his relief, someone knocked on the door. TK eagerly answered it.

"Come on in, Kari."

Twelve-year-old Kari Kamiya shivered and held her pink coat tight as she stepped inside. "I'm lucky my parents let me come over this late. What's this thing you need me to help you with?"

"I was hoping you could give me a hand with this," TK grinned as he brought Kari over to the artifact. "The guys I delivered my dad's artifact to gave me this thing as payment. I figured I could put it back together and sell it to someone else."

"What's it supposed to be?" Kari asked curiously.

"Let's put it together and find out," TK suggested. "Got any glue?"

"I didn't exactly think I was coming over for a crafts project," Kari answered.

TK suddenly put two of the pieces together. "Hey, they just snap together. It's some kind of puzzle."

Kari eyed some of the pieces. "Try these two."

TK put two more of the pieces together. Sure enough, they snapped together. TK was often the creative type, though not as much as some of his other friends. Maybe he could prove something to them by putting this thing together.

So he kept on going.

"Yugi! You can't go NOW!"

Téa's pleas fell on deaf ears as Yugi continued looking for his coat. He knew that the Millennium Puzzle was out there somewhere and he had to find it. Yugi didn't want to think of what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands.

"I have to find it, Téa! It could be anywhere right now! I can't just leave it out there!"

"But it's late, Yugi!" Téa argued. "You can't go out there at this hour. We don't know our way around this city. We could get lost!"

"What's the big deal?" Tristan asked, lying on his sleeping bag on the floor. "We have the number of the guy who sold us that artifact, right?"

"Hey, that's right!" Téa said cheerfully. "We could call him and ask him if he has the Millennium Puzzle. We can do it first thing in the morning."

Yugi frowned. "I just don't know if it's a good idea to wait that long."

Joey just waved his arm nonchalantly from the couch. "What are you so worried about, Yugi? We'll get the Millennium Puzzle back tomorrow. What's the worst that could happen between now and then? It's not like anybody's actually gonna solve that thing, right?"

Yugi actually smiled. Joey made a good point. Yugi, himself, was lucky to put the Millennium Puzzle together and uncover its secret. Yugi's grandfather had given it to him because so many others couldn't solve it. What are the odds that someone else solves it? It wasn't possible.

Piece-by-piece, the puzzle kept coming together. Poor Kari was tuckered out and had fallen asleep with her head on the table. TK would have to call Tai and ask him to come get her later.

But in the meantime, he stayed focused on getting this puzzle solved. And he had fared very well so far. From what he could see, it was in the shape of a pyramid. But there seemed to be one thing missing. TK noticed he had one more piece in his hand. It was the eye. He tried to figure out where the last piece went. Then he put it at the very front of the pyramid.

Sure enough, the piece fit together. It was done. TK had solved the puzzle. But when he did…something happened.

A bright light emitted from the puzzle. Feeling curious, TK put the string attached to the puzzle over his neck and wore it as a necklace. But when he did that, the light surrounded him.

And that's when he felt something inside him.

The bright light immediately woke Kari. She raised her head and opened her eyes just in time to see a bright light coming from the puzzle…which had been solved. And then she turned her head and gasped when she saw the light surrounding TK…which quickly faded. TK fell over and Kari rushed to his side.

"TK! Are you ok?!"

TK opened his eyes and smiled. "I…feel fine. A little weird…but fine."

"What WAS that?" Kari asked.

TK got up and looked at the puzzle. "I have no idea. It must be some secret of the artifact or something. No ordinary puzzle could do that."

Kari looked at her watch and gasped. "It's almost midnight! My parents are gonna kill me!" She reached over and kissed TK. "Good night!"

"Kari, wait!"

Kari didn't listen. She ran out the door in a hurry before TK could stop her. TK would have called Tai or someone to take her home, but apparently she would have none of it. Then he thought about what sent Kari running home. It WAS midnight! It explained why he was so tired. So he headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

He walked over to the sink to brush his teeth, but he suddenly heard a voice in his head.

// W-W-What's going on? //

A deep voice came from within TK's mind. His eyes widened as he looked in the mirror and saw almost two sides of him. He closed his eyes, but that only made things worse. When he closed his eyes, he found himself face-to-face with…another version of himself. When he saw that, he abruptly opened his eyes again and just shook his head furiously.

"I've got to lay off those TV dinners. I'm seeing things."

Shrugging everything off, TK groggily went to bed.

The next morning, Yugi didn't waste any time in reaching for the phone. He dialed the number as quickly as he could.

"Hello? With whom am I speaking?"

"Uh…this is Matt Ishida. May I ask who's calling?"

"My name is Yugi Moto. My grandpa bought that Anubis statue."

"Oh, you probably mean the one my dad sold you. My little brother was supposed to deliver it to you. Did you get it?"

"Well…we did get it, but…there's a problem. You see, one of my friends accidentally gave him the wrong payment. He was supposed to get a bag of gold coins and instead he got…something VERY important to me. Is your brother there?"

"Actually, he's not. My brother lives across town and, to be honest, I haven't even seen him in a while."

"I really need to get this cleared up. What he got was VERY important! I really need it back! I'll give him what I owe and I'll even give a little more as long as I get that bag back!"

There was a hesitation on the other line. "It's that important, huh? I'll tell you what, I'll give him a call and you can go pick it up at his apartment. I'll give you the directions."

Yugi breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like getting the Millennium Puzzle back would be easier than he thought. As long as he got it back quickly, everything would be just fine.

As funny as it sounded to him…Yugi was starting to miss Yami.

When morning came, TK was feeling weirder than he ever had before. He sat up and stayed in his bed for a while before finally deciding to get up. In a zombie-like state, he walked over to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked perfectly normal. But before long, he started to hear that voice in his head again.

// Who are you? //

TK shrugged it off. "Who am I? What kind of question is that?"

"TK?"

TK turned his head to see someone else wander into the bathroom. It was his Digimon partner, Patamon, who had a worried look on his face.

"Are you ok?" he asked. "You were tossing and turning the whole night."

TK looked in the mirror again. "I'm…fine."

// Who ARE you?! //

TK widened his eyes and closed them. He felt like he was going nuts. But again, closing his eyes didn't help any. Because that's when he saw himself staring right at him. Except there was something…different about him. He looked…suave and confident.

TK quickly opened his eyes again. But he couldn't stop hearing that voice in his head.

// You can't ignore me. Why don't you just answer me? Who are you? //

That's when TK made a discovery. He closed his eyes and stared at the near-mirror image of himself. And he started to talk to this voice through his own thoughts.

/// Who am *I*? M-My name's TK Takaishi. ///

The other him thought about that. // TK Takaishi? You're…somebody else. //

/// Well, yeah. Who did you think I was? And who are you, anyway? ///

A smirk came across the other guy's face. // You're…somebody else! //

/// I'm glad we got that cleared up. Are you going to tell me who you are? ///

// My apologies. I should inform you of what's happened. Did you solve the Millennium Puzzle? //

/// You mean that pyramid? Yeah, I solved it last night. What does that have to do with anything? ///

// It has to do with everything. You went ahead and solved the Millennium Puzzle and released me. This means you and I are now one and the same. //

/// Oh, I get it! This must be a dream. I eat one of those expired TV dinners and I start hallucinating. ///

// This is no dream! Allow me to introduce myself. I am an ancient spirit, but you can call me Yami. //

"TK!" a familiar voice cried out.

TK started shaking his head furiously. /// I'd better go. I really should snap out of it. ///

// TK, don't leave yet! There are things you should know about me! //

/// Can we talk about it later? I really should get back to reality. ///

With that, TK opened his eyes and found himself looking in the mirror again. Then he turned his head to the one calling him.

"I'm ok, Patamon. Don't worry about me."

"It doesn't look like you're ok. That's why I called Kari."

TK's eyes widened. "You called Kari?!" Then he thought about that. "Since when could you use a phone?"

"Hey, it's not rocket science," Patamon pointed out. "I just pick up the hook and punch in some numbers. I've seen you do it a million times."

"Is she on her way?"

"Well…she should be here right about…"

Of course, someone knocked at the front door.

"…now."

TK walked out of the bathroom and groggily headed to the front door. He opened the door and saw Kari with a concerned look on her face.

"Patamon called me."

"Did it amaze you, too?" TK grinned.

"As a matter of fact…it did. But that's not why I'm here. TK, is something wrong?"

TK turned away from Kari and thought about what he was feeling inside him. "I don't know. I feel like someone else is inside my body. And it has something to do with this thing around my neck."

Kari reached around TK and touched the finished puzzle with her fingertips. "It's just a pyramid."

"I know, but…it's like there's something living there."

"Uh…hello?"

TK turned around and realized that his head was obviously in another time zone, because he had left his door wide open. And standing there were the two guys that had given him the puzzle, along with a girl with shoulder-length brown hair, white blouse, and green skirt. And the guy who called out was a timid young man, about their age, with a blue jacket and pants and a bizarre hairstyle. He had red hair that split off in three ways and the ends were blond.

"Can I help you?" TK asked.

"Yeah, my name is Yugi Moto. Your dad sold that Anubis statue to my grandpa and you delivered it last night? I'm really sorry, but my two friends here gave you the wrong…bag…"

He froze as soon as he realized what TK was wearing around his neck. His three friends were also stunned. TK was just confused. He wanted to know what was going on.

"Y-You solved the Millennium Puzzle?!" Yugi exclaimed.

TK blinked. "The what?"

Before he could say anything else, though, the puzzle began to react…and TK started to feel something emerge inside him.

Yugi couldn't believe it. The odds were astronomical, but this kid, who couldn't have been any more than a few years younger than him, had actually solved the Millennium Puzzle. And when he saw that familiar light come out of the puzzle, he knew what was happening.

The girl standing by TK took a step back, not knowing what to expect. Joey and Tristan were obviously nervous, knowing their blunder had caused this to happen. Téa just looked on in amazement. So did Yugi, because when the light was gone, TK had undergone a change. The yellow shirt, green vest, and brown shorts remained. But the difference was that now his eyes were filled with confidence…and he was striking a familiar pose.

The girl he was with just looked up with a worried look on her face. "TK?"

Yugi was in awe. "Yami?"


Next Time: Yugi meets…Yami TK! Yugi wants Yami to come back, but is Yami willing to let bygones be bygones? Not likely! Come see what happens next time!


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