Gemini

Pathetic cries filled the palace halls. Slaves and workers gave a careless look. Another that was bound to lose a head at the hand of the pharaoh. Hope was but a fickle thing in the endless sands of Egypt.

"Stop! Please! I had no other choice! Please, let me alone!"

"Quiet, old fool!" A guard roughly kicked his rib cage, rattling fragile bones. Years of malnutrition had left him not but a withering shell meant to die soon, anyway.

The poor beggar was thrown to the floor, his head shoved harshly down. "Do not look upon your god! Your eyes are filth!"

And so he sat there, trembling, afraid to look up and reveal his falling tears.

"What have you set before me?" The impossibly deep voice of his god was vicious to his ears as he wept, ready to pass his harsh judgment all too quickly.

"A thief, my lord. Caught in the market place for the second time stealing bread from the local vendors."

The boot on the beggar's head pushed down harder.

"You know the punishment for thieves. Away with…"

"Wait," a voice called out. Bright, warm, vibrant and young. Had his death been but postponed for the moment?

"Allow him to look upon me." The aging man felt the rough sole of the guard's boot lift from his head, allowing his battered form to shift his gaze upward. What he saw he couldn't believe.

How had he forgotten?

Two pharaohs it seemed looked down at him from their golden thrones, one's eyes hard and cold and bloodied with red, concealing shadows and hatred and loathing. The other's, however, were but the opposite. As purple as a sun-kissed sunrise, warm and endless with understanding. One pharaoh with dark skin weathered and shimmering with a golden hue, the other's soft and white, kissed by the wings of Christian angels.

The Light of Egypt

"What have you done, sir, that would land you at me and my darkness's feet?"

The intertwining hands of the two pharaohs held to each other tightly. How could two so different have such a need for the other?

He struggled to find his voice in the wake of gazing upon perfection. "I…I was getting the food for my family, sire. My children are hungry, my wife ill, my lands long since taken from me by the crown ages ago. I have no money to grow any wheat, no place to keep cows and pigs, no work to find to keep the luxuries of food and clothes…" a foot contacted with his side.

"Do not speak so openly to the Light! You have no place!"

"Stop," the soft voice said again, with a surprising firmness that should have belonged to the pharaoh himself.

The beggar looked up at the Twin pharaohs, wondering what would become of him, and then his family after that.

"Do not hurt him. He has every right to be speaking his peace. Fetch him enough food from the kitchen to last him two months, three if you can carry it."

The old man's eyes grew wide. That much food? For him? The guard looked back to the pharaoh for consent.

The pharaoh's crimson eyes narrowed as he growled. "Do not ignore your order lest you lose your head! To the kitchens!"

The beggar heard the armed man scamper off behind him.

"I want his land returned to him as well. Three acres of it. Give him enough tools to start his gardening again so he may create wheat for bead come harvest season. Two cows and three pigs, plus two satchels of cotton. That should give him a good enough start at giving his children a better life. And a healer for his wife. Now." A dozen people flew off in a dozen directions, carrying out the Light's instructions.

A silent tear escaped the old man's eyes. "For me, sire?"

The cherubic face turned to the side, giving him a contemplative look. "You had been a prosperous man in your past, hadn't you? A painter for the tombs, if I'm not mistaken?"

"H-how…"

"I have been reading up on our country's past. You had been blamed for the robberies at the excavation sites for the new tomb. Your name and you position had been recorded, along with your description. Your scar is still running down your face, and your hands are still wounded from your punishment. It is the same punishment that had been done to all that had been convicted, wrongly or justly." The Light smiled, holding the puzzle lightly in his spare hand. The Eye of Horus seemed to wink.

Does he speak directly with the gods themselves?

"Give you children and their children a better future."

The beggar smiled, unbelieving of what he was hearing. "Thank you," he whispered hoarsely. How had this ruler who looked but a mere child known that he was innocent of his earlier convictions? How had he known about the faulty trials?

A young servant girl came up behind, kindly escorting him outside of the palace where his cart of food, cotton, and tools were waiting for him, the deeds for his land waiting in a scribe's hand. He looked back one last time at the two opposite figures sitting side by side, one of light and one of shadows.

The pharaoh was leaning over the arms of the thrones, his hard eyes softening slightly as he gazed upon his Light. The smaller form laughed softly, nuzzling the pharaoh's face.

Gods, but if he ever left us, we'd all be doomed…

The beggar smiled as he walked away.

~ * ~

Yugioh ran his fingers through Yuugi's silk ebony tresses. "You keep using the puzzle in the daytime to speak to us, and yet every night you collapse on our bed, drained from the stress. How long will do you think I'll allow you to do this to yourself? I do not like to see you like this."

Yuugi hid his face in the crook of his darkness's neck. "As long as it takes. I do not know how much longer you and I need to be here. If we were to leave now there would be no one to take over the throne. Chaos would ensue, you know this. I don't know what we should do." The two collapsed onto Yuugi's soul room bed, arms never releasing each other. It was much easier to speak inside of their mind with the puzzle around both of them.

"I just want our bond back," Yuugi whispered. Yugioh silences his helpless tears with a kiss.

We'll get it, as soon as we figure out how. I promise, my love, we will get it back.

Yuugi broke the kiss, looking into his yami's blood-stained eyes. "What say you we find some of your memories?"

Yugioh was silent for a moment. "How?"

His light gave a weak smile. "I remember from the last time we took a trek through your soul room. I probably know it better than you do."

He snuggled into Yuugi tightly. "Now?"

Yuugi laughed. "Yes, now! When else?"

The pharaoh rolled on top of him, effectively pinning him in place.

"Yami…"

Snore

The teen struggled to move to no avail. "You make things so difficult at times."

"Who, me?" Yugioh smiled next to his ear. "I wouldn't do that." Wandering fingers began to run over sensitive sides.

Yuugi burst into a fit of giggles. "N-not fair! Hehehe…we're, hmm…we're supposed to be getting some…hahahaha… some progress done!"

"And you say we're not?"

Yuugi laughed some more. "Not fair! Uncle! Uncle! I give!! Hehehe…"

Yugioh pulled the two of them up into a sitting position, hugging a panting light fiercely. "Any contact with you is progress," he whispered.

Yuugi blushed. "Flatterer."

The pharaoh kissed his cheek. "Good at it too." He stood up, holding a hand out that Yuugi took. "So, where do we begin?"

"Where else, but your hall of memories?"

Yuugi's silver lighted soul room diminished, and was quickly replaced by hard stone walls.

"It looks like a tomb," Yugioh commented with loathing.

"Of course that what it looks like. It's where your body was buried years ago." Yuugi led him through a string of many corridors, stair and ladders leading off in more directions than one could count. There were more doors than Yugioh knew what to do with.

"They're traps," he stated.

"Yes, they are. There is but one door in the place that will lead to your true inner self. You and I are the only ones that can find it."

A bright illumination greeted their eyes from the depths of a dark corridor, Yuugi heading straight for it. Without a word uttered it opened soundlessly, allowing the two to enter.

Old duel monster slabs stood erect on both sides, leading down the isle into another dark hallway. Yugioh recognized them instantly, but kept wisely silent.

The Dark Magician was standing protectively off to the side, always at the vigil of guarding the pharaoh's mind. Yugioh gave a grateful nod. "Even in Eternity always the faithful. Thank you, Mahaado."

Yuugi looked up at his darkness and smiled. "You should see all that he did for us in the future."

The pharaoh nodded. "Indeed, I think I am about to."

After the duel monster slabs ended, another hall became visible, this one filled with many doors of different colors.

"Different events that you remember, these the most vivid. As you can see, there is a fine coating of dust on them, as you have forgotten that they are here." Yuugi stopped in front of one that was a deep maroon in hue. "Try this one first."

Yugioh nodded, grasping the rusty handle in a lithe hand, slowly turning the knob.

The darkness of his soul room washed away, suddenly landing him in a dark room filled with moonlight.

He was looking down upon a figure that was flushed with anticipation.

In his mind, he gasped at what he saw, but this was only a memory. He could not change what was happening in it.

Yuugi was beneath him on a soft bed, his leather shirt unbuttoned and his leather collar lying undone under his neck. Violet eyes looked in a mixture of excitement, thrill, passion, and an undying lust that longed to have been fulfilled.

He reached under Yuugi's neck and brought his head up, crushing him in a bruising, heated kiss.

Eager hands wandered down his sides, seeking out skin it longed to touch. The desire within him was raging.

Yuugi ripped off his yami's shirt, delicate fingers fumbling with a leather belt.

How long would this night last for him? His memory told him that the passion would enfold for hours. Desperate cries would fill the darkening night, leave them trembling in the wake of perfection come morning.

Yugioh stumbled back into his hall of memories, trembling from head to foot. Yuugi looked at him with an unreadable expression.

How had he forgotten such an experience? How could he have let go of a memory so precious? Yugioh fumbled up to his light, drowning him in a kiss.

Yuugi put his hands beside their lips, pulling them apart just slightly. "What had it been, darkness?"

The pharaoh closed his eyes, resting his forehead against Yuugi's. "The first night we made love."

Yuugi smiled in fond memory. "Told you."

Yugioh laughed softly. "By the gods, I'm going to go in that one more frequently."

Yuugi laughed harder. "Dirty pharaoh." He frowned suddenly. "There are many, though, that are not quite so pleasant."

Yugioh nodded, looking up past Yuugi's shoulder. A door the color of silver spattered with blood greeted him. "Then I best get them out of the way." He let go of Yuugi and walked straight for it.

Yuugi looked around, his eyes growing wide. "No, not that one yet!"

It was too late, his darkness had already turned the blood-stained knob.

Darkness was swirling around him on all sides. He was watching through another's eyes as he starred across the dueling platform, a wicked man with silver hair starring at him with an insane glee. "Go, my monster, attack!"

In a sudden flash, he felt the taxing strain of sustaining a duel monster in the shadow realm, and then he felt the sudden attack as it was destroyed. He felt Yuugi's body topple onto his dueling cards, his energy spent.

Half of himself it felt had been ripped from the shreds of his tattered, dark soul. He couldn't feel that sweet, soft presence next to him. "Yuugi," he tried, crumbling to his knees and shaking the prone spiritual form. "Yuugi, no, please, he can't be gone!"

"Well, well, so you do have feelings for the little runt. How touching."

Tears pricked at his eyes as the chillingly sweet voice sliced through his system. "Pegasus," he cried, standing up and facing the evil man. "You will pay for this!"

Oh, but how the battle dragged on. How empty he felt without Yuugi by his side, his trust only barely re-established.

Tears streamed out of Yugioh's eyes as he stumbled back into his memory hall, seeing the sorrowful look that lay across his light's beautiful face. "That one was always hard for you," Yuugi whispered. "I don't even think Battle City had you more torn than the events that transpired in Duelist Kingdom."

"Will all of them be this hard?" Yugioh asked.

Yuugi shook his head. "There are about as many bad as there are good. I think that this one was the hardest. Why don't we end with a good one for tonight, then move on to some more tomorrow?"

His darkness gave a nod.

Yuugi looked to his right, seeing a bright yellow one with a white trim. "Try that one, yami. That should be a good one."

Stepping in front of it, Yugioh took a deep breath as he turned the knob.

Bright sunlight streamed in through a glass window. There was some laughing from the back storage room, him turning to see Yuugi running past with a parcel in his hands.

"Yuugi, bring that back! I've got rare cards that I ordered in that box!"

He was sitting at the cash register as Yuugi flew past, his grandfather trying to chase him. "I just wanna look, Ji-chan! Promise!"

"Yami! Catch him!" Sugoroku wailed, trying to vainly to catch up.

Smiling, he jumped the glass counter, cornering his panting light as he protectively held the box to his chest. "You can't have it," he chuckled.

He gave a wan smile. "Whoever said I was asking for it?"

Yuugi's eyes grew wide in surprise, barely able to move in time when his yami made a dive for him. He caught him by the legs. "biAw!" the spirit cried. "Get back here!"

"No! No! Mine!!" Yuugi laughed as he kicked his legs to move, his attempts to crawl across the floor not working.

He wormed his way on top of his light, wrapping himself around the small form tightly. Snatching the box from Yuugi's hands, he tossed it to the other side of the room.

"Yami!"

He nuzzled his face into Yuugi's cheek. "biAw," he whispered.

Yuugi blushed, pouting. "I just wanted to look. Besides, I heard there was some really good dragon curses in that box, some that might even be able to defeat Kaiba faster."

He blinked for a moment, picking up Yuugi then slinging him over his shoulder. Picking up the box in time, the spirit was able to turn around just in time to see Sugoroku gaping at him. He grinned. "Toodles," then was out the door.

"Yami! Give me that box back!"

The two laughed the rest of the way down the street.

Yugioh blinked as he looked back at Yuugi. He smiled.

"Good memory?"

"Hai. Good memory." Hugging, the two allowed themselves to be brought back to reality, the confines of their bedchambers suddenly greeting their vision.

Yugioh gave his light a kiss goodnight, closing his eyes for rest and missing the dark shadow at his balcony, slowly moving ever closer to the royal bed.

~ * ~