My thanks again to all who reviewed the story - I hope it was as enjoyable to read as it was to write
Part II (cont'd) - Darkness; Dawn
The next new moon sky was starless and moonless as black clouds scurried across it like so many angry shades. The night wind breathed around Yami and Cora as they made hurried progress through darkened streets and alleys, both of them cloaked in black and hooded. Before them, the Hall of Magic loomed in shadow, its dull orange windows staring at their progress.
They reached the sandy brown building and ducked into the shadows of the alley beside it. They pressed against the wall, the stone cool against their hands. Wordless understanding passed between the two sets of eyes that looked at each other before quickly ducking into the door.
"The Game Magic is not written down. It is passed word of mouth from magic-user to magic-user," Yami had told Cora earlier. "To bind the Game, I must bind the magic-users. Their magic will be bound with them."
"They will gather again tonight," Cora had replied. "They will all be together, and they will already have drawn a circle for their magic."
"So," Yami had smiled darkly, "all we have to do is walk in and use the tools they have so kindly set up for us."
The hallway was silent except for the quiet crackle of the wall torches that illuminated their path. Stopping in front of a small room, Yami turned to Cora.
"We need items," he said. "Five of them. Make sure they are gold."
Cora and Yami went inside the room where several gold items gleamed on various shelves and tables. From a table where seven items stood separate from the others, Cora took five of them, and brought them to Yami.
"These items are magic," she said softly.
Yami frowned. He could sense it, too. Closing his eyes, Yami moved a hand over the items Cora held, and murmured: "Negi."
Behind his closed eyes, images and impressions began to infiltrate the edges of Yami's mind like a halo of white light. He began to see the magic in the items as it revealed itself to him in response to his spell.
"It... it's Game magic," he said softly, half to himself. "It gives them the power... to turn the game in their favour" - his frown deepened - "the items allow them... to see things. To control..."
Yami gasped, pulling his hand away as though it was being burnt. Cora sharply met his eyes as they flew open. The alarm she sensed from him was enough to confirm her worst fears about the Game.
"They can control their opponent, Cora," Yami said, shaken, his eyes never leaving hers. "and more. They can... trap souls..."
Yami stopped. Cora's eyes widened, then narrowed. "They have been busy," she concluded stiffly.
For a long moment, they just shared stricken gazes, their eyes saying more than an entire book of conversation.
"Well, then," Yami finally broke the silence. His voice had taken on a frightening coldness. "Appropriate that we should imprison them in their own treachery."
Cora hesitated. "Any power these items have will become part of the dark ones once they are bound," she said carefully.
"It doesn't matter," Yami answered gravely. "What is bound is bound. All the power will be bound - their's and the items' - together."
"It would make them more powerful," Cora persisted, "should their forces be resurrected."
Yami looked evenly at Cora. "Then I, too, will be more powerful."
Cora stared back at him. Grimly, she nodded.
Quickly, quietly Yami and Cora gathered the items and exited the room. They followed the hallway to the massive doors at the end, which - as they had expected - were locked. Cora, with a glance at Yami, placed her hands against the door.
"Sen," she said softly.
The doors swung open. With another glance at each other, the two of them entered the room.
The musky smells of candle wax and spices assaulted their nostrils in the warm, close air of the inner chamber. They stood still a moment before moving further into the room, letting their eyes accustom themselves to the semi-darkness. Then they looked up.
As Cora had said, the dark ones were there. Four of them, among them Samekh and his accomplice, stood around a Spell Circle which had been permanently inscribed on the surface of the floor. They were murmuring softly among themselves and it didn't look like they had begun any spell yet. They were preparing, Yami thought. Preparing to work the same magic that had nearly killed both himself and Cora at the last New Moon. Preparing to work the same magic that threatened all of them because of their own careless lust for power. The same dark magic that had driven he and Cora here tonight to bind the Game that had been his life now for nearly ten years. An angry spark ignited inside of Yami, flickering through him like a firefly.
"I'm sorry," he said loudly, "are we intruding?"
Apparently, they were. The four magicians jumped and whirled around. The two hooded figures that were Yami and Cora loomed like spectres out of the shadows around the dimly lit circle. Samekh regained a marginal composure, and his face curled into an ugly sneer.
"Yami," he said in a low growl, "you and your little witch girl are beginning to be a very large annoyance."
"By the time we are finished we will be much more than that," Yami answered with equal vehemence.
"Well, Yami, I would like to continue this pleasant conversation, but I'm afraid we're a bit pressed for time," Samekh announced, "and, in fact, your presence here works in quite well with our plans..."
"As your presence here works with mine," Yami broke in, gesturing towards Cora. Stepping forward, Cora flung her hand towards the circle where the four magicians stood. At the same instant, Samekh threw himself down, rolling away from the circle.
"Sheni!"
The three remaining magicians around the Circle had blanched, panicked looks on their faces. They began to push against the air, standing at odd angles, as though somehow suspended. They looked like they were pushing against an invisible wall. Seeing Samekh's mad rush to the passageway, Cora swung out her other hand towards the door, crying: "Ihem!" - and the door slammed shut, trapping Samekh in the room.
Samekh however sprang to his feet, and swung around to face Yami, who was advancing towards him with deliberate menace.
"Trying to leave, Samekh? Why, I wouldn't hear of it. The party's just beginning..."
Samekh lashed out, drawing his hands together, calling his magic.
"A'nen, Swordstalker!" he cried.
The air in front of Samekh exploded into a towering black, bat-winged devil swinging a massive blade. Yami stopped moving forward, narrowing his dark eyes at Samekh.
"Do you really want to play gaming spells with me, Samekh?" Yami asked softly.
"Who's playing, Yami?" Samekh replied, just as softly. "And who said anything about you?"
In the split-second of time it took Yami to comprehend what Samekh was suggesting, Samekh had yelled: "Attack!", and pointed his shadow-beast at Cora.
"You forget, Yami," Samekh shouted over the rush of his monster, "the reason we are here is to get rid of that little shadow-wench of yours. Getting rid of you as a result is just an added... What?!"
Cora had stood as resolute as a statue in the face of the charging beast. But as the Swordstalker approached her, it slowed its steps, then halted dead in its tracks. Samekh gaped at Cora as the Swordstalker evaporated into the air.
"What did you do?" Samekh hissed.
Cora's baleful stare fell coldly on Samekh in silence.
"What did you do?" Samekh repeated frantically. "You can't have power here! You are weak, now! We studied this. You... can't do that!"
"I see your insight has failed you again, Samekh," Yami broke in. "Cora may be mortal, but she is definitely not weak. And no monster summoned from her realm would dare attack her, save one. You know the one. It must be conjured, for it will not be summoned."
"But... but we are not playing the Game," Samekh shrieked. "She only has power over the Game..."
"That's where you're wrong, Samekh," Cora's voice answered this time. "Anytime you call upon the Shadow Realm for aid you are playing the Game. And over this Game I am still sovereign."
"So, that leaves you with... no monsters, Samekh," Yami said with exaggerated innocence. "Still want to play?"
"I may not have monsters, but I still have magic. Seki!"
He flung his hands out at Cora as the fatal spell streamed out from them in a crackle of yellow light - that was deflected by a towering, dark-cloaked mage that rose in front of Cora like a monolith, holding a staff and watching Samekh, unblinking and grave, with the same frost-jade eyes as Cora.
"Who is that?" Samekh exclaimed.
Cora said nothing, and the dark shadow-mage crouched on the ground in front of her, guarding, defending. Yami remained motionless and expressionless, knowing and trusting Cora's power against Samekh's pitiful, desperate assaults. But his eyes continually watched the dark-cloaked shadow-mage that had risen, unbidden, to Cora's defence. He wondered at how much the magician resembled Cora, from the delicately sharp facial features, to the frosty jade-green eyes.
"You... you shadow... witch," Samekh murmured furiously. "They defend you. Without you even having to call them..."
Yami smiled with the quiet confidence that Samekh had always found so unnerving.
"I believe you are beginning to appreciate Cora's power," Yami said. Samekh's eyes suddenly narrowed, and his gaze flew deviously to Yami.
"Appreciate this power, Yami," Samekh retorted. "Sefet Akh!"
Suddenly a glowing, silver-green sword materialised and swung down, embedding itself in Yami's arm - the arm the Soul-Sucker had injured.
Yami screamed as searing cold pain shot through him, bringing him to his knees.
"Sore arm, Yami?" Samekh asked, then added with mock sympathy, "Shadow injuries never really heal, do they? I thought I saw you cradling that arm the last time I dealt with you two."
Samekh made a gesture in the air, and the soul-sword twisted in Yami's arm, angling towards his chest. Involuntarily, he screamed again.
"Yami!" Cora cried.
"Call off your monster, witch," Samekh snarled, his black stare never leaving Yami.
Cora looked desperately at Yami. Yami glared vehemently at Samekh. "Cora, no - AAAAAAUUUGH!"
The sword twisted again, ending Yami's words with a scream.
"Call him off, witch!" Samekh cried. "Call him off, or I swear to you I will pull his arm out of its socket while you watch."
"Dark Magician," Cora said shakily, "Kheti."
The mage looked at her, as though questioning her command. Cora nodded, and the Dark Magician reluctantly dissolved, with a final dangerous look at Samekh.
"Now," Samekh went on, "release the Spell Circle."
Cora didn't move. She looked first at the Spell Circle, then back at Yami, her eyes storming with conflict. Samekh gestured again ever so slightly, and though Yami tried he could not stop the sharp intake of breath from hissing through his clenched teeth.
"Do it," Samekh said threateningly.
Haltingly, Cora turned towards the Enclosed Spell Circle. The magicians within the Circle stood up and grouped together. Shadows leaping through the room because of the dying candles made the triumphant smirks on their faces look even more grotesque than they were.
"It's always so much more difficult when you care about someone, isn't it?" Samekh taunted. "It always makes decisions so much harder when there's more at stake than just yourself. This must be so trying for a shadow spirit like you."
"You know nothing about shadow spirits," Cora retorted savagely.
Yami squeezed his eyes shut, trying to rally against the pain and the rage raining a red mist over his thoughts. This can't be over, he thought furiously. It can't end. Not like this...
You to me, me to you, Yami...
Yami's eyes flew open at Cora's thought glittering through his clouded mind.
A moment in time: Cora's and Yami's eyes connected across the semi-dark space between them. Yami saw Cora move her eyes fleetingly to the golden circlet she held. They then slid back across his gaze again on their way back to the Spell Circle in front of her.
Samekh was watching Yami. Cora stopped before the Spell Circle, raising her hand towards it. The circlet fell to the floor. Samekh's gaze shifted from Yami to Cora. Then Cora swung her arm around and instead pointed at Yami, crying loudly: "Shebi!"
There was a sharp cry as the soul-sword, which had been protruding from Yami's arm, suddenly materialized in Cora's arm. Cora clutched at it, recoiling two steps while Yami straightened. Cora's spell had switched Samekh's spell from Yami to Cora. Yami knew its effect was temporary. Ignoring the frosty needles now assaulting his own arm, he collected his power between his hands and flung it towards both Samekh and the circlet on the floor.
"Sepeh Spi!"
"No!"
It was Samekh's last word. Then he went rigid as the power struck him full in the chest. Slowly, Yami pulled his hands together - and Samekh was pulled slowly towards the circle...
Samekh screamed - loudly. Then his scream seemed to sound first stretched, pulled across time, then compressed and muffled. Samekh was pulled, pulled, pulled to the circle and his body and soul entwined around it, twisting and writhing - forced into a place it was never meant to be. Then, suddenly, he was the ring - a part of it...
The spell ended. The ring clattered to the floor.
Then Yami cried out again as the soul-sword reappeared in his arm, the jolt of it knocking him to the ground while Cora, the sword gone, remained motionless for a moment, letting the pain subside. Then she straightened, turned, and walked to Yami.
She knelt down beside him, and gently - so gently - placed her hand on the sword. Yami knew that just being near the sword would be terribly painful for her; touching it would be excruciating to the fresh shadow wound in her arm. If the pain was there, though, she did not show it, did not flinch. She only spoke in a soft voice: "Mena", and the sword disappeared.
Yami sat up, forcing his quivering muscles to relax.
"Are you all right?" Cora asked.
"Fine," Yami answered through clenched teeth. "Never better."
One corner of Cora's mouth curved upwards slightly at this. Then, knowing Yami would not want her help, she stepped back and allowed him to lift himself from the floor.
Yami turned and walked slowly to the Spell Circle. The remaining three magicians began to shout and plead, pounding and clawing noiselessly on the invisible wall. One of them, whom Yami recognized as Samekh's accomplice, flung a spell at it - and immediately fell to his knees.
"Ramen, stop!" one of the others - a girl Yami recognized as Shu'ra, one whom he had studied with - yelled at him. Yami looked sharply at the young magician who had been Samekh's accomplice. His dark hair was dishevelled, falling across the brown eyes that were dark with loathing.
"Ramen, is it? I'm disappointed in you," Yami's quiet voice resonated hollowly through the room. "Seems like you've been spending so much time conjuring Soul-Suckers you've forgotten your more basic spells."
Ramen looked hatefully up at Yami.
"Let me refresh your memory," Yami went on, more harshly. "The Enclosed Spell-Circle will absorb the power of anything trapped within it, quite effectively rendering your spell useless. More simply, Ramen" - Yami smiled - "you will find your spells don't work very well in there."
"I swear to you, Yami," Ramen snarled, "I will make you regret this."
"I doubt it, Ramen. Nothing you could do could make me regret this. Sepeh Spi!"
Cora flung another object into the air. The golden Eye of Ra was caught by Yami's spell and it hung suspended, like the now-rigid Ramen. As he had done with Samekh, Yami drew the two together. There was more screaming. Then the Eye clattered to the floor.
"That's two," Yami murmured.
From within the Enclosed Spell-Circle, the magician called Shu'ra peered her blue eyes through the tangle of black hair that had fallen unnoticed across her face in the confusion. She had been with the dark ones for some time now. She had been there when they had conjured their first Soul-Sucker from the Shadow Realm. She had seen and done many things that had frightened her, but never in all her days had she ever felt such terror as the moment Yami's night dark eyes fell upon her.
Shu'ra looked pleadingly at Yami. "Yami, please," her voice was a quavering whisper.
Yami's eyes were cold, unheeding. Shu'ra felt her stomach fill with rocks. Cora raised another item: a rod.
"Please, Yami," Shu'ra begged more loudly, her desperate eyes darting to the rod in Cora's hand. "Please don't do this..."
Cora flung the rod in the air. Yami drew his hands together, calling his power.
"PLEASE!" Shu'ra screamed. "PLEASE, YAMI-AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaugh...!"
Her scream faded, and the rod fell to the ground. The last magician in the Circle was crouched on the ground, his gaze moving furtively from Yami to Cora, and back again.
"How will you live with yourself, Yami?" he suddenly snapped hoarsely. "You and your precious good magic. How will you live with yourself knowing you have banished four souls forever? How will you go through your life...?"
"I wouldn't dream of banishing the four of you all by yourselves, Lem," Yami cut in sharply. "I am going to be right there with you."
Lem's eyes widened in shock and horror as he noticed two items in Cora's hands. There was another item. A fifth one.
"No," he breathed.
Yami's hands were drawn together, gathering, focusing...
Lem flung up a futile hand, as if trying to ward off the spell. "No!" he cried. But the single, hollow word was lost in Yami's shout.
"Sepeh Spi!"
The white light shot out as his hands outstretched towards the lone magician crouching in the Spell-Circle. Frozen, unmoving the power struck him and surrounded him, enveloped him and pulled him towards the golden Tauk hovering there like a magnet drawing iron...
The Tauk fell to the floor with a loud clang. Yami and Cora were left alone.
For a long moment, they looked around them at the items scattered on the floor, at the Spell Circle...and finally at each other.
Yami pulled a small scroll from under his robe.
"For Zaphnath," he explained softly to Cora. "It will tell him what we have done, and to lock the items away when he finds them ..."
Cora nodded. Taking the scroll, she placed it on a small table pushed against the far wall. Carefully, so as not to disturb the magic, Yami and Cora gathered the items and placed them around the scroll on the table. Cora looked apprehensively at Yami.
"This Zaphnath - he knows the Game, as do those of the light..."
"Zaphnath trusts my judgement," Yami answered the unasked question. "He will not play the Game. And unlike the dark ones' pretences, those of the light are truly subject to Pharoah. If he forbids the Game, it will be forbidden. Those of the light will not transgress his command."
Yami looked at the final item - a golden, pyramid-shaped puzzle.
"Appropriate," Yami smiled ruefully. "I often puzzle over myself."
"As do I," Cora returned, unsmiling.
There was a heavy silence, broken by Cora's low voice.
"Enclose me in the Circle, Yami. It will weaken my power, and it will be easier for you."
He nodded, and a strange sort of numbness began to creep in on his awareness, making everything seem surreal. He faced Cora, seeing every part of her with acute clarity. Her silver hair shimmering in the dimming light of the dying candles, her jade-green eyes, darker in the advancing shadows, reflecting his haggard face back to him. The first feeling pushed its way through the numbness. He felt a cold, stone hand closing tightly around his throat. He opened his mouth to try to speak, but Cora shook her head.
"Don't," she said. "It will only make it harder."
Inadvertently, he took her hand. For a moment - a long moment - he held it, trying to etch the feeling of it into his brain. And for that moment, Cora's hand held his in return with childlike tightness. Then, turning quickly, she pulled herself away and stood in the centre of the Spell-Circle.
"Sheni!" Yami cried in a voice that did not even sound like his own. It sounded like Zaphnath's: old and hoarse and tired.
Cora stood unmoving as the invisible wall rose and surrounded her. She did not look at Yami, and Yami forcefully closed his eyes and drew on his power...
It was so hard, pushing the storm of emotions inside down, shutting them off, trying to concentrate everything on the magic that was pulsing like a living thing before him. He opened his eyes, wishing he didn't have to, but the power had to be focused on Cora...
Her head was bowed, her eyes closed, as she had been when he had first conjured her. Her silver hair was whipping around her head like a corona in the magic wind that would send her back to the Shadow Realm. His jaw hurting from clenching his teeth so very hard, he flung both hands and the power between them at Cora.
"Hesek!"
Everything slowed down, every second passing before him in agonizing detail. He saw his own power shooting from his hands and advancing towards Cora. He saw the shadow-play of light and darkness shift and move over her face as the light from his power drew closer. He saw her silver hair block her face from his view for an instant before the magic wind pulled it away once more. He noticed her lips were moving slightly, as though she was praying...
Perhaps it was instinctive, he didn't know, when she opened her eyes in the last micron of time before the magic reached her. Or maybe she - like him - had only wanted one last look. Her eyes met his just as Yami's power struck her heart...
She screamed.
He tried to shut it out. Tried not to hear it. Tried not to feel it cutting his heart to ribbons. It seemed to go on for so long as he held the power there, forcing her back, and the sound of it was burned into his soul forever...
...and she was gone...
Still quivering with shock and pain over what he had just done, Yami placed himself in front of the pyramid-shaped, golden puzzle on the table. Turning his back to it, he gathered his energy again.
"Seta Mesneh!"
A glass-like wall shot up in front of him. He could see himself in it, and right now he loathed his reflection so much that his next step was almost easy. Juxtaposed between the puzzle and the mirror-wall so that he could see the puzzle behind him, he gathered his power for the last time. He saw it, reflected like a star between his hands. Pulling his hands apart slowly, he abruptly flung his power at both the puzzle, and himself in the mirror.
"Sepeh Spi!"
The power struck the mirror, shot back at him. It struck his heart.
The first thing he felt was unbelievable pain, filling him, pulling, rending. He could see his body twisting impossibly, and he was being pulled down, down into the gold puzzle on the table. It was a cold, lifeless prison he was being forced into: dark, alone. He tried to scream, but he no longer had a mouth to make the sound...
* * *
...drowning... suffocating...
...can't breathe ...can't ...BREATHE...
"Yugi! Yugi! Wake up!"
Téa was shaking him. Her face was scared. Yugi sat bolt upright, pushing her away, stumbling backwards. He realized his face was wet with his own tears.
"Don't touch me! Get away from me!"
"Yugi, what's wrong...?" Téa looked downright terrified now.
"Yug!" Joey's alarmed voice sounded to his left, "Yug! Your puzzle! It's ...glowing...!"
Yugi paid no attention to his puzzle. He didn't care if it was glowing or not. His heart felt like it was going to burst. It was agony. Drowning... no air... He looked all around him, his eyes wild and staring, not even seeing his friends. Not caring...
Clambering to his feet, he started running away before he even got to them, stumbling, running again.
"Leave me alone!"
Téa took a step to follow him, but Tristan held her back. Joey and Téa stared at him.
"Let him go," Tristan said quietly. "Let him sort this out alone, man."
Téa looked stricken. "How could you say that, Tristan?" she whispered. "We're his friends. We made a pact..."
"Yeah, Trist," Joey jumped in, his defiance rising despite the cloud of sleepiness that still hung over his head. "What gives?"
Tristan remained adamant.
"I mean it," he emphasized. "Something's up with Yugi - ever since that Cora appeared. It's some kinda magic - I mean, it's obvious. He needs to deal with it. Alone."
It stopped them. They stood, watching the bushes where Yugi had disappeared, Téa wringing her cold hands, her stomach writhing with terrible concern. Joey sighed.
"Man," he said, shaking his shaggy head, "this has been one weird day."
* * *
Yugi ran and ran and ran until he could run no more. He fell hard to his knees, eyes blinded by tears, choking and wheezing through a throat that was aching and burning, but was nothing compared to the overpowering pain that felt like someone had run a meat grinder through his insides.
What have I done? What did I do...? Oh, Cora, I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
He could still hear her scream. This was torture - unbearable torment. What had he awakened inside him? What had he allowed to become a part of his soul...?
He wept like a child, tears streaming out, crying until he was trembling and weak. How much had Cora suffered? His presence inside him?
Behind his eyelids, he saw light. A soft, undulating glow...
He knew it was Cora - knew she stood in front of him, but he couldn't look up. He couldn't bear to look at her now. His head was hot and his nose plugged and he could hardly breathe for the sobs that caught his throat. He couldn't see through the tears, anyway...
Yami...
He heard the voice in his mind, as he had heard it in his dream thousands of years ago - musical, ethereal. His own voice came out of him, choked with tears.
"No," he answered, then paused as he looked up at her with red, puffy eyes. "And yes..."
The silver-green eyes that had already known so much sorrow rested on him with immeasurable pity.
"I am sorry," she whispered, "that you have been made to suffer with us."
Yugi couldn't answer. His heart was like an iron weight, and he didn't move. Cora gingerly knelt before him so that she could look into his face.
"Do not grieve, Yugi," she said gently. A small brightness exploded inside Yugi's stomach at the sound of her saying his name. "These things are long past."
Yugi shut his eyes against this long-past pain that to him was as raw as a fresh wound. How could she have lived with this for so long? How could the spirit of his puzzle - the spirit of Yami?
"I don't... know what t-to do..." he said finally. It was a hopeless statement, and he didn't really expect a reply from Cora. He just needed to say something, to release some of this terrible weight. It came as a surprise to him when, after a long pause, Cora spoke.
"Your grandfather gave you the Millennium Puzzle," she said softly. "It is yours to do with what you will. I will tell you this, although you have guessed as much: it bears with it a great burden. The powers you deal with are dangerous and destructive - and they are all against you. Is this something you want, Yugi?"
The question made him start, and he couldn't answer. A part of him wanted to answer right away, but another part of him seemed to have cemented his jaws shut. He felt tears building in his eyes again. He viciously wiped them away, hating them, hating his own indecision. The tempest of emotions began to roil in him again, and his voice came out choking and sobbing.
"I... I understand... why... he... he did that to... to Kaiba... why... why he's always so... so serious. It's not just a... game... to him... It's not... a game..."
He broke down again. His lip wouldn't stop trembling and he bit it with enough force to make it bleed, as more tears streamed down his face, blurring his eyes. Cora was silent, her face expressionless. He sniffed, trying to stop his nose from dripping and his eyes from spouting tears. He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, not even Téa, but he was just a kid... a high-school kid... and he was afraid of this...
"I would understand if you refused this because of the burden..."
Yugi tensed, clenching his fists and teeth. No... it's not... the burden...
"I just... don't know... if I..." "But," Cora's soft voice interrupted him, "if it is your ability you doubt, I would say do not doubt your abilities, Yugi Moto."
Yugi stopped thinking, stopped breathing. He felt suspended on her words.
"I sense a strong heart in you," she went on. Yugi dared not speak. "And if Yami can live in you" - she smiled - "it must have great power as well."
Yugi met the milk jade eyes with stunned disbelief. Cora cupped his face in her hands. Leaning forward, she brought her lips to his forehead and kissed it. Yugi felt the warmth of it like he had just drunk a hot chocolate. It spread through him, and quieted the overpowering remorse that had taken him over. For a moment he looked into the timeless eyes and he was lost in them, as Yami had been. She was smiling.
Then a pale strip of grey lightened the eastern sky. Cora seemed to become misty, and at first he thought it was his eyes tearing over again, but he realized it was Cora. She became less substantial, slowly becoming vaporous.
"I want this," he said to her. "I will carry Yami's fight."
Cora's misty form hovered weightlessly over him, her hair suspended around her like sunbeams. Her eyes rested on him more kindly than ever.
"Yami could not have found a more worthy bearer of his spirit," she said with deep respect.
Yugi watched her as she began to fade into the morning light. He stood up.
"Wait!" he called. Cora looked at him expectantly, her form blurring and disintegrating, becoming part of the sky.
"Will I... see you again?"
Cora only smiled again. It was the last thing he saw before she dissolved into air.
* * *
"Yugi!"
Yugi started at the sound of Téa's voice, and immediately wondered how long he had been sitting there staring into the dawn. The eastern sky had turned a delicate rose, dusting everything with pink. The golden rim of the sun peered over the horizon, adding a gilt edging to the rose dust on all the leaves, grass and trees. Yugi suddenly realized he was damp with dew... and he was cold. He shivered.
He turned to Téa, and found Joey and Tristan standing around her. They looked tired and wan, but relieved to see him.
"We were gettin' worried..." Tristan said uncertainly. "We thought we'd better come lookin' for you..."
Téa advanced a few tentative steps and knelt down beside him a little less than an arm's length away. She was pale, and her vivid blue eyes were puffy and over-bright. Yugi felt at once both guilty and grateful for Téa's - and all of his friends' - deep concern for him. He smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
"Yugi, are you... okay?" Téa asked softly.
Still smiling, Yugi nodded, reaching over and giving Téa's arm a squeeze. "I'm okay," he reassured her.
Téa was not convinced. She looked hard into Yugi's wide, dark eyes. She saw that he seemed older, somehow more subdued, as though he had made some sort of inner peace...
...but, as she tried to further read his soul through those eyes, there was a warning look behind them - Yugi, but not Yugi - that abruptly hid the darkness inside. It startled her, and she stopped her scrutiny with a blink. That part of Yugi remained a wall to her...
Téa sat back, swallowing her disappointment. There was so much, after all, about her friend that she did not know, and probably never would know...
Yugi suddenly jumped to his feet, and held out a hand to Téa to help her up. Hesitantly, Téa took it, smiling a curious half-smile up at him. He yanked her up with playful roughness, and she laughed, breaking the stress and worry that had held her in its grip for so long. Yugi, she thought, you are a puzzle...
"Yug."
It was Joey's halting voice.
"Yeah, Joey?" Yugi answered his friend.
Joey paused, then: "Are you gonna be okay...?"
Yugi's smile waned, and his brow creased as he thought seriously on Joey's surprisingly perceptive question. His eyes slid past his friends for a moment. Would he be okay...?
Then he focused on them again.
"Yes, Joey," he answered, his voice resolute, "I think I'm going to be just fine."
Téa and Yugi walked over to Tristan and Joey. They all stood still for a moment, just letting the golden rays of sunrise creep through the trees to lay against their faces. It was a bright, warm promise of a beautiful day.
"Hey!" Joey broke the silence, "how about breakfast? I'm starved!"
* * *