Artificial Souls
by TAFKAE

Part One

Chapter One: Deep Blue

~~~

Saturdays could be okay.

Jou kept sleeping through his cartoons every week, and he never ceased complaining about it. Yugi also managed to sleep through his shows, but he taped the good ones. Right now he was sitting in the living room, having just gotten dressed, and was watching his cartoons over a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. Cocoa Puffs always seemed a bit better with Dragonball playing in the background.

The doorbell rang then, and Yugi, in the middle of the initial "crunch," didn't hear it.

The doorbell rang again, and Yugi tried to ignore it; the store was closed today, after all.

Then the doorbell launched into a tremendous flurry of rings. Yugi groaned, got up, paused his tape, and walked to the front door, wondering all the way why someone would come to the door when the sign said "CLOSED," and then ring the doorbell this insistently and drag him away from his Cocoa Puffs. Oh, the blasphemy! the treason! the injustice! the –

Well, that explained it. Jou wasn't exactly known for his good manners.

Yugi opened the door and was greeted with a rush of cold air. October. Great. Of course, he was also greeted with a warm "Hello!" from Jou, who sort of let himself in. "Geez, how many times did I have to ring that thing?" he asked rhetorically.

"I guess it's good to know it still works," Yugi joked. "What's up? Forgot to tape Dragonball again?"

Jou frowned. "Well, yeah, but that's not why I came over." He grinned and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "I found something really cool in that virtuapod game, and I thought you'd want to see it!"

His friend twitched noticeably. It wasn't so much that he was getting upset over the last time he'd played that game, as that Yami was still worried and perhaps even (though there was no way he'd admit it) a little afraid. But he and Yugi were so close that that sort of thing tended to rub off from one to the other. After a moment of hesitation, the latter sighed. "I dunno, Jou. Every time I play that game, something bad happens."

"This time it won't," Jou assured him. "It's just a special dueling arena. I played one guy there, and totally wiped out his life points, and he just walked away from it like it never happened!"

"I'm still not so sure playing is a good idea."

"Aw, don't be such a bad sport." Jou grinned and elbowed his friend a little. "Y'know what? I bet you're just scared I'm gonna beat you."

"No, it's not that," said Yugi. "Just – let's watch today's Dragonball and let me think about it, all right?"

"As long as it ain't Tao Pai Pai…"

~~~

The boy was lost. He didn't know where he was, or what he was, or why he was. But oh, he was, and he knew it. For the moment, he would have been lying down had there been any ground in this place, holding himself together will every fibre of will he possessed, wishing so desperately… so absolutely…

And then there was a ground, and he looked about to find nothing now existed in this place but that ground. For a moment he wondered if it was he who had created it, but that theory was quickly put down by the unexpected but not entirely surprising presence of another behind him.

"Astounding," the voice breathed, a soft but foreboding one. The boy made no effort to move, nor to acknowledge the person there. But that person continued.

"Astounding," he repeated himself. "It's amazing that you're still around, after everything I've tried to do with you. Torn you from your avatar, but you remained; deposited your data in here, but you endured; even tried to delete you, but every time, my OS mysteriously locked up!; and now this!"

The boy shuddered as the other man prodded him with his toe. "You've created an avatar of your own! In the spitting likeness of your counterpart!" A pause. "Well, perhaps it's because you were inadvertently made from a player character, but I have never before seen such an incredible will to exist! And especially not in a mere artificial intelligence!" He sighed. "Yes, you are a remarkable creature indeed – only two weeks old, and already given concrete, absolute form. Real people need around fourteen years to progress as far as you have in fourteen days."

"You seem to know who I am," whispered the boy. "Tell me."

There was another pause. "Actually, I don't really know who you are," the man said at last. "But I do know that you play a crucial part in my operation, now. I would like very much to see just how adaptable you can be."

The boy hesitated, then slowly sat up, and then just as slowly turned about to see his newly arrived tormentor. His already wide eyes widened further when recognition set in. "You – you're the –"

"I am; what of it?" The man chuckled. "That look on your face – it's priceless." He turned halfway from the boy as if to leave. "I have matters to attend to, but I'll be back. Don't stop existing while I'm out, all right?" He didn't wait for an answer before a purple glow surrounded his slim frame, and then he was gone.

For a moment an expression of mixed fear and bitterness crossed the face of the Yugi Mutou look-alike, and then he slumped over in resignation to a fate unknown.

~~~

"Okay, how about a rematch of a rematch of a rematch?"

"I'd just beat you again," Yugi replied with the confidence of his darker half, but the innocence and appearance of the lighter. "Thinking about it" had actually consisted mostly of trying to convince Yami that there really wasn't any harm in just one duel, and eventually Yami had folded, but then they'd both gotten carried away, and Jou had gotten carried away, and one duel had turned into two and three and was about to become a fourth if something wasn't done about it. "Besides, this is starting to get kind of boring. Wanna go see if we can find a quest?"

Within two minutes of that suggestion being made, both boys were back out on the street, looking for an intermediate quest or two. Jou was talking to an old lady about just such a quest when Yugi stopped short and began staring intently into an alleyway nearby. What's wrong? Yami inquired silently.

I thought I saw… He stopped, unsure of what exactly it was that he thought he'd seen, but certain it was familiar. He shook his head and turned back to Jou. Never mind. It's probably nothing.

I hope so, said Yami, and then he was quiet again.

And from the shadows of the alleyway, a lone figure watched them for a moment, thinking how lucky he was to have not been seen, and then he glowed purple and vanished, on his way to the implementation of his Phase Two.

He boasted longish silver hair and glasses.

~~~

One hour became two, two hours became three, and three hours drew near into four. A fairy appeared to inform Yugi and Jou of their allotted time in the pods almost being up, and when Jou mouthed off to it, he promptly received a nice bruise on his head and a firm "You brought it on yourself," the former from the fairy and the latter from Yugi.

"Kind of a bummer, though," said Yugi, placing one hand behind his neck. "Maybe we ought to come back next Saturday. This game can be really fun when it's not trying to kill me." The comment was intended as a joke, but emerged laced with seriousness.

Seriousness, however, was lost on Jou; he took the statement at face value. "Heh heh! Yeah, you bet. I'll bet anything there's a million more quests we've never even heard of out there!"

The little fairy suddenly reappeared out of thin air. "Well, Sir and Madam – " that second one was spat out at Jou " – are you ready? Although that's a bit of a stupid question, because I have to kick you out anyway, regardless of whether or not you're ready."

"Yeah, I think so," said Yugi.

"MADAM?!" exclaimed Jou.

"An eye for an eye," replied the fairy casually. "Yugi Mutou logoff commencing…"

~~~

So Yugi logged off, but it was not Yugi who awoke in the pod at the arcade. Instead opened the eyes of a scared little boy surrounded by people he didn't recognize, in a place he didn't recognize, without an avatar to hide behind, and full of utter noncomprehension. Nervously he backed out of the arcade and began walking briskly but apprehensively down the lightly crowded street.

A thought struck Yami, and he was quick to voice it. Is something wrong?

The boy who was not Yugi stopped in his tracks, parting the small sea of walkers around him like a rock in a river, trembling as he did. They were back. After all that, now that the question of his existence was out of the way, he was hearing voices again…!

Voices – ? Yugi, are you all right?

Not Yugi. No, the boy knew few things, but one that he did know was that he was most decidedly not Yugi. He looked like Yugi, he sounded like Yugi, and from what he could understand he might at some point have even been Yugi! but oh, he was not Yugi.

This revelation threw Yami for a loop. It was like he kept saying; something bad always happened when they used those virtuapods. Those damned virtuapods. That damned Jounouchi. But pinning the blame would help nothing now. He decided instead to ask, Then who are you?

He couldn't have known that that was the wrong question. The initial response he got was panic, the horror of not knowing the answer, and then a flurry of attempts, a storm of protests. The boy tried to produce something, anything that might set him apart, something that would make him someone, and then he delved into something he knew from the beginning of his life, having an identity for only the span of an hour or two, trying to formulate a satisfactory answer for the demanding voice in his head, all the while crying for answers, who am I, who are you?

What surprised Yami more than the sudden barrage of words was one in particular. He didn't believe it the first time, jumping out at him from the context of the hour-long identity, but after it had thrice snagged his attention, he knew he was right.

SATOSHI.

With the voice now silent in its shock, Satoshi felt it safe to break into a run, frightened tears falling down his face. It would be days before he was seen again.

~~~

"Tadaima!"

Grandpa looked up from where he'd been working under the counter. "Oh, hello, Yugi. How was your day?"

"It was good. I had lots of fun down at the arcade with Jou," explained Yugi, starting up the stairs toward his room. "I'm gonna go get my homework done, 'k?"

"All right, I'll call you down for dinner," Grandpa replied.

Yugi sat down at his desk and procured his math book, then paused. Finally he spoke as if to the air around him. "Well? Aren't you gonna make some obvious statement about zeroes?"

But the voice of his aibou was silent.

Shrugging, he pulled out a pencil and started to work. "Okay then, have it your way."

He had no way of knowing the voice would remain silent.

~~~

Where am I?

It was dark, but as Satoshi woke up, he realized that that was mostly because his face was planted in something. That something was also keeping him from breathing properly, so he pulled his head up and took a deep gasp of the foul-smelling air around him. It was still dark. He tried to remember what had happened, and with some success; he did remember getting tossed in a dumpster. So he reached up with both hands and found the lid – and also that one of his hands hurt terribly to move. He cried out and pulled it back to himself, then reached up again with his other hand and pushed the top open.

He was greeted with very little light this time instead of none. Straining slightly, he moved himself toward the outside and pushed up an opening big enough for him to fit through. Then he pulled himself out, wincing as the dumpster lid scraped against his back, and dropped to the ground, landing softly on his feet. His entire body stiffened as a jolt of pain shot up from his ankle, and it took all his self-control to keep from shouting as he collapsed to his knees. For a moment he stayed in that position, not sure of his legs' ability to support his weight, and then unsteadily pulled himself to his feet, leaning heavily on his right leg, and cradling his right arm with his left.

"Where do I go from here?" he whispered. He had to go somewhere – if he stayed out here much longer, he'd end up getting himself killed. But he really didn't know anyone real, or anyone he could trust here, except one, one by the name of Jounouchi, but the problem was where?

I'll tell you the way.

The way? Satoshi sighed heavily and fell against the dumpster for support. It was that voice again, that presence whom he'd barely been able to resist, whom he wasn't sure he could trust, even though it was nothing more than a fantasy dreamed up by his delusional mind…

Be that as it may, I still know the way, and you don't. Please trust me this time.

…but then again, what did he have to lose?

So the boy began limping in the direction his delusion told him to, biting his lip every time his left foot came in contact with the ground. It couldn't be much later than four or five in the morning, by his guess; but at this rate, it really wouldn't matter, because he'd either be several hours in getting to Jounouchi's house, or he wouldn't get there at all. Neither was altogether unlikely.

You can make it. I don't think it's far from here. If he hadn't known better, Satoshi would have sworn the voice sounded worried. So he kept walking as best he could, and ten minutes quickly-but-far-too-slowly became thirty and sixty, before he stopped, in front of a specific house.

"So, it's this one," he said softly. A pause. "Well, if you're sure…" And he made his slow way up the stairs, reached for the doorbell, pressed it…

~~~

One thing Jou hated about school was how early it forced him to get up in the mornings. It was not his only grievance against the system, and only his third foremost one, but it was there. As such, come six-thirty, he was already awake, so to speak. He was, of course, not highly conscious of his surroundings and was currently buttering a piece of toast for the second time – only this time on the opposite side.

He jumped when the doorbell rang; vaguely wondered who the hell would be at the door this early; muttered "I'll get it," though he knew his dad would sleep right through it; and trudged to the door, yawning.

Whatever was at the door fell toward him as he opened it, having apparently been leaning on it, and he barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground. What it was surprised him, though. "Yugi?" he asked in disbelief. "Good God, where've you been?" he demanded.

Yugi moaned a little into Jou's elbow and seemed to make a halfhearted effort to stand. Jou hoisted him up by his arms, where he'd caught him, and pulled him sort of into one. He didn't need to check twice to see that his friend was injured, and a bit more than lightly. His face was decorated with bruises, and displayed just a hint of the pallor of emaciation, suggesting that he hadn't had much to eat at all while he'd been gone. Jou exhaled as he hauled the half-dead weight to his side, and crouched slightly so he could pull its arm over his shoulder. He felt the weight twitch as he did so, as some-or-other agony woke him, and heard its voice mumble in a harsh whisper something about, "Arm… please…"

So he let go the hand and supported his friend more by the apparently less painful side of him. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up," he said quietly, and started into the living room. Once there, he set Yugi down on the couch and turned to leave.

"Hey, where're you going?" Yugi's voice murmured tremulously behind him.

"I'm getting the first aid kit," Jou explained, not stopping. "And by God, you look like you could use it." He disappeared into the hallway and returned not a minute later with a medium-sized, bright orange tackle-box sort of thing. "Kind of sad that I needed this thing every other day before I met you… So, where're you busted?"

Yugi paused a moment before answering. "Uh… left foot, right hand, and a partridge in a pear tree."

"If you didn't look so bad right now I'd be laughing," Jou breathed, getting up on the couch to check his friend. "Let's see if we can't narrow down the hand thing more. Can I see it?" Nervously and with a great deal of pain involved, Yugi extended the hand, supporting his forearm with the other hand, and Jou gently took it. Yugi only flinched a little until he decided to try the wrist, and that produced an only thinly stifled cry of pain. He jumped away from it and sighed once his heart had resumed its normal rhythm. "Well, I guess that does narrow it down… It might need a splint." He shook his head. "What on earth happened to you?"

"Ran into some gang or other," Yugi explained. "They beat the tar out of me and tossed me in a dumpster. I had to go somewhere as soon as I could…" He looked up at Jou with fear in his big amethyst eyes. "…and you're the only player character I know."

Jou didn't understand that one at all. "Okay, you lost me after the gang thing. What do you mean, player character?"

"You know, a character controlled by a – "

"I know what a PC is," he snapped. "But I don't know what you're talking about. This is real life, not some video game!"

"Don't remind me." Yugi had his wrist cradled back in his left arm again, and it seemed to be in even more pain than before. "Yeah, it's real. Too real, even. I didn't want anything but real, and now here it is, and – and I hate it!"

Jou's eyes narrowed slightly. "Something's up with you. If I didn't know better…"

"What?"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you weren't even Yugi in the first place. You've never been this depressed, not even after you lost to Kaiba." He straightened up a bit. "That time you didn't run off for days at a time and starve yourself half to death. Wanna humor me and tell me who you are?"

The smaller boy furrowed his brow, trying to remain calm even though he wanted nothing more than to scream and run away again; for one thing, he knew he was in no shape to do either. "I – I'm not really sure," he said at last, his voice anxious but restrainedly so. "I know I'm not Yugi, but I think I'm supposed to be him. Honestly, though – I don't have any idea who I am." He sighed. "Kind of hard to believe, isn't it? A few days ago all I wanted was to be. And now I am, and – OW!!"

Jou was checking the foot now, and he looked up briefly. "I'm still listening. Bear with me, all right?" Not waiting for an answer, he returned to his self-appointed job. "Looks like a burrito that's been in the microwave too long…"

His charge tensed, but continued. "Okay… On top of everything, I'm going insane," he sighed. "It's all … it's like a bad dream I can't wake up from."

There was a slight pause, and then a spark of recognition lit up Jou's face as if a spotlight had laid its gaze on him. "That's it," he muttered. "It's totally impossible, but you're Satoshi!"

"I guess that's more or less right," Satoshi admitted. "Maybe. It's what the game called me." He sighed. "Unless I'm a part of the game, I've really got no way of knowing if I even have a name. But I guess you could call me Satoshi. A name's just a word…"

Jou repeated his friend's sigh. "This is getting to be way too much for my little brain to handle. And this time there's no Faerie of Lost Dreams to help me get the Yugi I know back – "

"NO!" Satoshi exclaimed, the vehemence of the outburst sending a sword up his arm. "That Faerie thing – somehow he's responsible for this. And besides, I don't think it's really a question of remnants."

"What do you mean?"

He bowed his head slightly. "I don't think I'm what's left of Yugi, so much as …" he paused for a moment, searching for the right phrasing "… a copy. And he's still around someplace, I just know it."

"Whoa. So how would we get him back?"

"If I suddenly find that out, or how I got here in the first place, you'll be the first to know, I promise."

Another pause made its presence known, and then Jou pulled Satoshi's shoe off his swollen foot and started bandaging it. Satoshi bit his lip to keep from screaming, not hard enough to draw blood, but he figured pretty close. This task completed, Jou looked up again and spoke. "Tell you what. Once I'm done here, you try and get some sleep, all right? You don't look like you got any of that while you were gone."

Satoshi nodded a little; Jou's observation wasn't far from the truth. Then a thought struck him. "Hey, Jounouchi?"

"Jou is easier to say. Wha'sup?"

He chuckled softly. "Reality sucks."

~~~

And once the splint was on and the most painful experience of his short life was over, he lay down on the sofa and fell almost instantly to sleep. He didn't anticipate what happened next, and though he bore witness to it, he still wasn't sure it was possible.

He found himself sitting in a smallish room, rectangular, with something of a low ceiling. The walls, floor, and ceiling of this room were stark white, and it was occupied by very little; namely himself, a closed and locked toy-box, and a small pile, only three or four high, of neatly stacked books. However, it wasn't what he saw that surprised him but that he saw it at all. "Am I…" he whispered, not getting to his feet, "…dreaming?"

"It would appear that way," said a voice from behind him, and he whirled around to investigate who or what it was. He was surprised, understandably, to see a near-duplicate of himself leaning against the doorway. A near-duplicate only, being a bit sharper around the edges, and yes, definitely taller. It didn't seem to notice his unease and instead walked inside, seemingly inspecting their surroundings. "Interesting. Most interesting."

Satoshi backed away slightly, until he was up against a wall, though the newcomer was still not looking at him. He tried to remind himself it was just a dream, and this look-alike wasn't real … was he? He decided to find out. "Are you … the player character…? Yugi?" he ventured.

The newcomer, holding one of the books and flipping through it with no intent to read, now cast him a sideways glance, as if he hadn't noticed his presence there before. His eyes were cold enough to send chills down the boy's spine, and hard enough to scratch diamond. At last he spoke. "I both am and am not, but more the latter." He set the book back down neatly on the pile. "And you are Satoshi. We've met before."

"We – we have?" Satoshi asked, incredulous. He was pretty sure he'd never met the player to whom he owed his existence, but then again, pretty sure didn't move mountains. Not to mention he really didn't know if this was the player in question. He didn't seem to be. "When? I don't think I would have forgotten you."

Yami sighed, and took a moment to carefully choose his phrasing. "You ought to know something, Satoshi. You are not insane. When you talk about voices in your head, that's me."

Satoshi's eyes widened further. "So – so you are real?!"

He was answered by a nod. "Very much so."

"And that means…" he was scared quite nearly out of his wits by now "… that means that you're the one that tried to – " he wasn't sure what to say, what this other being had attempted, but then decided, yes, that was it " – to take me over!!"

Yami paused for a moment, knowing very well where this conversation was headed, and then responded. "Yes. That was me as well." Before Satoshi could react, he continued. "I realize there are explanations to be made…"

"Start with this one. What are you?" whispered the boy.

"Don't ask me what I am; you'll get a much better answer if you ask what I am not," Yami replied without missing a beat. "And what I am not is your enemy."

Satoshi was caught by surprise, but narrowed his eyes and stood. "If you're my friend," he said quietly, "I don't need enemies."

"Satoshi – "

"No!" In an almost uncanny act of boldness, he strode up to the other spirit and yelled up into his face. "No, I don't know much, but I know hurting people is wrong!"

"You're half-dead because of those people. I only wanted to help." The voice remained completely calm, and this only served to enhance Satoshi's rage.

"It's not helping if somebody gets hurt!"

Yami suddenly seemed to have had enough of this. He stepped forward and took Satoshi firmly by the shoulders, a cold, violet-almost-to-crimson fire burning in his eyes and into the boy's. "YOU got hurt!! And you're not making any sense at all!"

He searched Satoshi's eyes, and Satoshi searched his, both for the same thing: answers to Why. But neither found any, and after a moment, he let go his hold on Satoshi's arms. "You're confused and confusing, Satoshi," he sighed, perhaps out of pent-up frustration. "Strong, yes, I'll give you that, but from what I can see, that's your biggest weakness. And the fact that you're not thinking straight doesn't help matters."

"But – "Satoshi left it at that. His near-twin was right, after all, and it's hard to argue against what you know to be true.

For a short time they were silent. Then Yami turned and began to walk away. "Most people, by the time they reach the age of two weeks, have developed some sense of trust. Perhaps artificial beings work differently."

Satoshi let him take a few more steps before he spoke. "… Artificial …? Is that all I am?"

Yami stopped, but did not turn around or reply.

"Define artificial, then," Satoshi continued. "Can you? Who says what's real or not?" His voice steadily escalated in tone. "Who made real?! Who says, 'Let there be light'?!!" He pointed an accusatory finger at him. "Is it you?!"

The spirit turned his head halfway, then faced Satoshi full-front. "There are many things I claim to be, but God is not one of them."

"Well, that's the first good thing you've said yet!" Satoshi replied with mock cheerfulness. "Have you got any other good news for me? Tell me how I got here! Tell me how I can be! That's all I want!"

Yami started upon noticing the tears running down the boy's face, but he held his tongue and watched as Satoshi turned away, his little fists clenched tight, shaking slightly, but whether in fear or anger he could not decide. Noiselessly, he once again turned and began to leave.

"I don't care if you're going," said Satoshi, not bothering to look at him. "All I want to know right now is who you are."

He didn't stop walking. "Call me Yami. Other than that I can give you no answers." And then he was gone.

Satoshi waited a few seconds, then sank awkwardly to his knees, the sudden force allowing his tears to leave his face and take up residence on the floor. "Yami, then…" he whispered, knowing full well that no one could hear. "I don't want your real, give me mine…! It doesn't matter if it's not the real real, because neither am I …!"

He scarcely noticed that the color of the room's walls had become a deep, deep shade of blue.

* * *

Yami sat on one of the abundant stone staircases in his own room, his eyes narrowed deeply in contemplation. No, Satoshi was right in that he was not Yugi. But what he wanted to know was, how could he get the real Yugi back? The Yugi he knew?

And when he did, what would happen to Satoshi?

The boy was so confused – both hating reality and existence with every fibre of his being, and wanting desperately to be a part of them, at the same time. Yami wished he could give him the answers he needed, but the questions were beyond even his capacity.

The thought crossed his mind of how amazing was the child's progress in less than three weeks.

If it bothered Satoshi so much, though, he decided, he would keep out of things for a while. And even if he offered his support, he was certain Satoshi would just push him back again. He certainly had the strength to, and it increased every day; of that there was no doubt in his mind. He had a lot of potential, Satoshi, but…

… but if he didn't even feel he could trust himself, potential meant nothing.

Satoshi only trusted Jou. If there was any hope for reconciliation, they would find it in that trust.

Until then, Yami was trapped.

*TSUDZUKU*

Author's Note: So, how was it? Better than the prologue, right? I thought so. I'm still working on chapter 2, but it will come, it will come. And at where I'm at, it might be even better. There's even some action for a change! Don't you love it? Oh, and the thing I mentioned in my profile (none-too-subtle hint for you to go there, and while you're there you may as well read my other stuff too), hyper-kawaii, make sure you come back. Tell me what you think in your lovely reviews (I got all of two last time, but I would REALLY like some more…)

JAPANESE FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T FIND A DICTIONARY OR ARE TOO LAZY TO:

Tadaima: roughly, "I'm home"
Tao Pai Pai: known as Mercenary Tao to dubbies like myself
Owari desu ka?: "Is it the end?"
Tsudzuku: "To be continued"

RUNNING GAG REFERENCES:

I have a gag about Jou hating the Tao Pai Pai episodes of Dragonball for some reason or other.
Yami, being from Ancient Egypt, would have an innate tendency to not quite grasp the concept of zero; thus, my gag is that he likes to pester Yugi about this a lot.

COME BACK FOR THE NEXT CHAPPY MINNA-SAN!! ANATA O DAISUKI DESU YO!

(o^.^o) The Artist Formerly Known As Ed