Gemini

Yugioh stood protected by the palace guards, not daring to believe that almost the whole country had showed up to destroy him. Every single one.

'They've sworn to get rid of your icy heart'. . .Seth's words rung through his head.

It wasn't fair. Why did he always have to feel so empty? He didn't hold a single memory of someone standing firmly beside him, supporting him in whatever he did. From the moment he woke up, feeling an endless void swirling around in the pit of his stomach and a sinking feeling in his heart, all he received were sneers and cross looks and people trying to control him.

And it's not like he was biased with anything. He simply hated everything. The whole world looked like a bleak existence and he wanted no part of it.

Arrogant? No, he was too powerful to be arrogant. That's what intimidated a lot of his country. Even though he appeared to have lost all of his powers from the games, he was no less fierce, no less frightening, and no less powerful.

Geniuses tend to be that way sometimes. Whatever game or challenge he set up, there wasn't one that could stand up against him. Neighboring countries were falling at his feet, begging for mercy, for their children to be spared.

Scum.

He could see the shivers that went down everyone's spine when he laughed as some of the most powerful people in the world, emperors and kings and famous merchants, on their knees and shivering at the foot of his throne.

The dirt beneath his feet.

The only time when he ahd been at all worried was the night when Egypt rose against their god. Yes, he had his shadow powers, but what good would it do to destroy the whole of his people? Besides, he was only one person, could he?

Another of his guards screamed as he was struck down by a scythe.

There was no hope.

"Yami!"

Out of the crowd a young man ran out, pushing people out of his way. He was shorter than most, proving to be a struggle for the other blood-hungry Egyptians to capture.

The next thing Yugioh knew, there was a young man attached around his waist. The unknown boy started muttering in a language never before heard by Yugioh. The pharaoh's first instinct was to get rid of him. "Medjai!" One of the guards left turned around and saw the problem, striking down the boy where he stood.

'How did he get past the defenses of the puzzle' the pharaoh thought. Was this boy intent on hurting him? Yugioh looked back at the boy now on the floor. Big violet eyes looked up at him, looking. . .hurt?

The boy was hurt?

Then the shock came. The boy looked remarkably like him. Hair, face, stature. He was paler though, much paler. Yugioh had never seen someone so pale before. The boy's hair was slightly limp and dull, and his face looked a little stretched. 'Probably hasn't eaten in days.'

In an instant the boy was back around his waist. "Yami!" Now Yugioh was beginning to get annoyed. "Who are you?" he questioned. "Speak to me!"

The boy didn't answer. Such an odd language he was speaking. 'Must not be sane. Does he even speak Egyptian? He could be a threat!'

The pharaoh pushed off the arms again, intent on walking away. This boy didn't even know who he was trying to talk to.

"DARKNESS!" The boy's voice rang through the boisterous area. So he did speak Egyptian.

The pharaoh turned back around, and found yet again the boy attached to him, sobbing madly. "Beautiful darkness, mine," he choked.

'Beautiful darkness?'

"Who are you," Yugioh tried again, a bit more gently this time. The boy was beautiful, after all. The pharaoh was intrigued to see the boy take one of his hands in his own, bringing it to the boy's chest. "Yuugi," he said clearly.

Good, so he did have a name. The hand came over to Yugioh. "Pharaoh," he said.

'He does know who I am! He does!' This was a slight relief. He knew who the pharaoh was. 'Brave child.'

Yugioh's hand was put back on the boy's chest. "Ka," he said. The hand came over to the pharaoh. "Ba."

'What is this young man getting at?'

The boy clasped their hands together, intertwining their fingers. His spare hand held the two together, giving a gentle shake for emphasis. "Akh," he grinned. A genuine, happy grin. Had Yugioh ever been on the receiving end of a look that could make the whole world so much brighter?

'He's saying that we're part of the same soul. That he's my other half. . .my light. . . mine?' The pharaoh's heart felt like it was going to explode with a million different emotions. Shock, joy, confusion, skepticism, amazement.

The boy was lovely to look at. Simply beautiful. All his?

'And to say all of this in the midst of an uprising.'

"Enough of this!" a burly villager roared. "We want blood!" The whole earth seemed to shatter.

Yuugi looked back up at the pharaoh, eyes pleading, tugging on the puzzle. "Yami. . .onegai! Onegai!"

"What?" What could the boy mean?

"Onegai!" he pleaded again, tugging on the puzzle more.

'He wants to put the puzzle on?' Every instinct was screaming at him that it was a prank, and that he shouldn't do such a heinous act.

The shadows, however, in the back of his mind were screaming in agreement with the boy.

With shaking hands, he lifted the golden chain that puzzle was attached to and began to slip it over Yuugi's head. Some of the villagers saw this, gasping in shock.

The moment it was fully on, golden light spilled forth from the puzzle, and the boy's eyes became a blank white. Turing around, he kept his body in front of the pharaoh, starring down the weapons heading their way.

They never came.

Inches before them the metal melted into nothingness.

A strong voice rang out over the thousands of people heading their way. "Calm yourselves, people of Egypt. Tell me why you attack your pharaoh."

Multiple people began to scream at once. "My children are in slavery because of him!"

"He killed my husband!"

"Our village was burned and pillaged!"

"I'm not free to sell my breads!"

Soon, it was impossible to discern one complaint from another. Yuugi, however, seemed to be listening intently to what all of them were saying.

'He's using the puzzle to understand us, to speak our language,' Yugioh thought.

"Silence," Yuugi's voice boomed again, lips not moving. When he began to speak again, every face was attentive and listening with rapture. "I understand your problems, and they deeply trouble me. Your pharaoh, however, has been through a cruel act that none should have to endure. In his closing of the shadow realm, his soul was ripped violently in half, one part being lost throughout the years. Upon his return, your ruler was only half of a soul, the darkest half. Such a feeling is a pain that you couldn't possibly imagine. I beg of you, for me, don't hurt him."

Silence again. Slight shuffling in the back, then someone emerged. A woman, a housewife by the looks, stern with a mothering look. "Why should we put up with an incomplete man to rule us? Without the Akh, he is no god. Why should we not be rid of him, and find one more suitable to rule?" An affirmative roar from the crowd backed her up.

"Because if you destroy him, you will destroy me, the light of your kingdom," was the solemn reply, Yuugi holding the puzzle in his hands to emphasize his position. This statement in itself seemed to sway the crowd. Their kingdom had a light? A treasure above treasures? And what was more. . .

"Our kingdom," a young voice croaked. A boy of about thirteen, if Yugioh wasn't mistaken.

"Yes, your kingdom."

It had always been the pharaoh's kingdom. Never the peoples. And this boy was saying that he was a part of the pharaoh, speaking as if he could make the difference that so many others had utterly failed at.

The pharaoh had given him the puzzle. Yugioh had never done something even remotely like that. The similarities. . . the powers radiating from them both. . .the golden glow from the puzzle around the boy and his amplified voice. . .a god. . .he was a god.

Or rather, half a god.

Without warning, the golden glow that had surrounded Yuugi disappeared, and he collapsed where he stood, energy drained. The pharaoh ran to his side, falling to his knees and holding the limp body in his arms.

The boy felt so light, as if his bones were as hollow as a bird's. He was wearing odd clothing, leather in its feel, wrapped tightly around his legs and chest.

'No one in Egypt wears breaches,' the pharaoh thought. Where had this boy come from? 'From the gods,' he thought. Just for him.

The sight of the mighty ruler, Yugioh, pharaoh of Egypt, cruel, cold, evil. . .on his knees and cradling a helpless body in his arms. Humility in its purist form.

The woman that had questioned Yuugi walked up gingerly, setting down her pitchfork and falling to her knees, looking Yugioh straight in the eye. Pity seemed most prominent, but also a burning passion that the pharaoh had never seen before.

"You have my allegiance, Twin Pharaohs of Egypt."

The burly villager that had shouted for blood in the beginning followed suit, setting his sword down next to him. "You have my allegiance, Twin Pharaohs of Egypt." He too, had the passion burning up his eyes.

Next was that young boy, scythe now lying beside him as he knelt. "You have my allegiance, Twin Pharaohs of Egypt."

Person after person after person knelt and recited that one phrase. Word was spreading quickly throughout the crowd of thousands, heads becoming lowered, and a low hum from the pledge ringing through the massive colonnades.

A voice in the back of Yugioh's head chimed in; 'Have you ever seen a country where the people have pledged themselves and been completely behind their leader?'

Never, in history, had something such as this occurred.

'Yuugi,' the gods must have sent him to the pharaoh. How could he have calmed the blood-lust of so many? Controlled the puzzle? Had the support of the shadows? Lost through the years, Yuugi had said. How had he found his way back?

'Mine,' was the one word ringing through the pharaoh's head with a vengeance. 'All mine.'

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