Author's Notes:

Thanks to all those readers who have been constantly supporting and reviewing this fic. You know who you guys are, there is just too many of you to be named specifically. But hear this, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

This is MY fic. Therefore, I am free to call everyone by any name I choose to call them with, and you've got nothing to do with that. (This goes to that particular insufferable know-it-all.)

The usual: I don't OWN Yu Gi Oh!

And last, on to the story. Enjoy!

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Here and Thereafter

Chapter 5: The Scream

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Ryou slammed down onto the very same highway where he died with such great force that it was a miracle the road was unscathed. But then, Ryou was just a soul now, so he couldn't really do real damages…

"My head hurts…" Ryou moaned as he stood up groggily, clutching his head. "Shooting down from Paradise faster than the speed of light is no mean feat…ouch…"

Suddenly, two giant lights greeted Ryou's eyes, automatically filling his head. Next came the loud screech of rubber tires on the street. Ryou stood stock-still as a gray BMW roadster passed right through his body. He blinked.

He spun around and looked after the car. "What the—?"

That was fast, he thought. If I'd been alive, I surely would've been killed. Ryou felt a painful pang erupt from his chest. Somehow the word alive made him want to cry until he had no more tears to shed. He looked down at his hands. They have become more transparent, and the gentle light surrounding his fingers seemed to have decreased in brightness as well.

Ryou felt weaker than when he was up there. Was it because of his journey back to earth?

He turned his white head to the towering buildings of Domino High. Ryou felt an unexplainable pain—some sort of irreparable and gaping hole in his heart, if he still had one, that is. Looking at Domino High from the dark, abandoned street as a spirit was just—so painful. Ryou knew he was just being touchy about being dead, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to die in the first place. He didn't even know he was going to die that day…

"Nobody's here anymore…" Ryou said wistfully as he stared at his old school. "Maybe—maybe I should have just gone to the Game Shop…"

He made to fly to where Yugi's house was, but then he sensed something from the empty school campus. Ryou paused in mid-float, a slight frown on the deathly resemblance of his angelic face.

It was coming from one of the CRs in the Math building. Ryou could feel it emanating, such a powerful life force, full of the strenght and vigor of youth. He could feel this life washing over him, giving him warmth and caressing what used to be his face and hands.

Somebody was still lingering in Domino High. Was it a student?

Quickly, Ryou knew he had no time to lose. He could feel himself weakening little by little, what little life that remained in him was slowly ebbing away. He started feeling this jerky sensation somewhere beneath his chest ever since he'd come back.

He willed himself to the air and soared toward the school, hoping against hope that whoever was there could help him. He had to tell Yugi, Téa, Tristan, Joey and Marik what happened to him. He needed their help more than anything else now, because this help was suddenly the most important thing for him in the whole cosmos.

"Please let it be help," Ryou prayed as he passed through the school's walls. "Please let it be someone who would understand. Please…"

Yami moaned painfully as he sat down on the tiled floor of the last CR he was cleaning. The ex-pharaoh leaned against a cubicle wall, sitting just beside the sparkling red American Standard toilet. His eyes were closed, and rivulets of sweat were flowing freely at his temples. He was dead tired.

"I haven't done…anything like this…my whole life…" Yami groaned as he waited for the throbbing pain in his torso to subside. "Pharaoh of Egypt…cleaning toilet…utterly stupid…I'm dead…"

Yugi's voice came echoing in his head. "Now, now, your back's aching isn't it? Well I hope that has taught you how to shut up properly, my other self."

"Ah, shut up, don't start with me." Yami snapped. It was good he was the only one remaining in the whole school. "I'm dead tired and I'm in a bad mood, you don't know what I can do to you when I'm in this state!"

Yugi didn't reply to this. This was true, after all. When Yami was maddened by grief, anger or weariness it was best to keep away from him. Or else.

"Come on, Yami, just three more toilets away from a soft mattress bed and a cup of hot chocolate!" Yugi said invitingly.

"At least let me regain some of my energy, I'm totally drained." Yami answered as he remained where he was, still not opening his eyes. "Then I can continue…"

Then a gentle silence fell between them, Yami and Yugi.

"Hey, Yami…" Yugi began.

Yami opened one eye. "Yup?"

"Why did you just go to sleep like that, without even telling me the reason why?" Yugi asked without any real conviction. "You had me worried, I thought you'd shrunk back to the Realm again."

Yami sighed, a slight crease appearing between his brows. "I just wanted to…well, ponder about my death. I was thinking how the Puzzle suddenly sucked me up, leaving my body there, took my priests days to find…then I dozed off without knowing. Overslept, me. But it was a peaceful sleep, one with no nightmares. I haven't had any sleeps like this for centuries and centuries, it was refreshing. It was like I was…well, back in Egypt again."

"That's why it took you so long to wake?"

"Yeah, well…I couldn't help it. Nobody can."

"I understand perfectly. But next time before you go dozing again, please at least leave me word."

"Count on it."

Finally, Yami did regain some energy. He stood up and grabbed the brush from the floor, ready for the last three scrubbing. My, his body already ached for the comfort of a warm bed…

"Yami, I think you should do the mirrors first, you haven't touched them yet…"

Yami looked at the five panels of mirror to his left. True, he hadn't cleaned them yet. "Well, okay then."

He reached for the rag and soaked it into the soapy solution in one of the pails. He was humming as he wiped the bubbly cleaner onto the smooth glass, enjoying the flowery scent from it. The pharaoh cleaned with renewed energy, the thought of the much-coveted bed sustaining him.

Yami…

He gave a start. "'Sup, Yugi? What do you want?"

"Huh?" came the reply. "I wasn't calling you."

A frown appeared on Yami's face. He blinked. "Then…who?"

"Are you sure you aren't sleepy again?" Yugi inquired.

Yami took a step from the mirror he was cleaning with soap. He looked hard at the bubbles, but they were too thick to allow him to see his reflection. He bent down, eyes still at the mirror, and reached for a spray bottle of water on the floor.

"Yami! Don't act stupid, for Horus's sake!"

"Shut up!"

Yami reached up and aimed the spray bottle at the mirror. He started by giving little, tentative squirts at first, which got stronger, clearing away greater chunks of soap and bubble from the surface.

Yami…

Yami froze. "Did you hear that? An echoey voice…it's so creepy…"

"Stop it!" Yugi snapped. "You're scaring me!"

The rag in Yami's hand came in contact with the mirror and wiped it dry. The pharaoh stared hard at his bewildered expression on the glass surface, which to his horror, began to change.

"Holy shit—?!"

The reflection gave way to a particular, angel-faced and white-haired boy. What made the reflection so scary was that it looked so dead—so pale and awful to behold. Yami felt one hundred percent pure terror shoot in his body as the image of Ryou Bakura in the mirror opened its eyes and emerged from it, ghastly hands outstretched toward him.

Yami, help me…help me come back…tell them…help me…come back…

Then both Yami and Yugi did the thing that seemed reasonable at the moment.

"GGGYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The glass pane broke into millions of tiny shards.

Seto Kaiba reeled backward, right hand tightly clamped across his nose and mouth. The thick cloud of purple smoke that seeped throughout the Kaiba manor had finally broken through his lab's defenses, the strong drugged scent overpowering his senses, making him dizzy, making his knees shake—.

He couldn't stand it—the drugged scent was too powerful, clouding his mind, snaring his senses—!

With his blurring vision, Kaiba staggered toward his worktable and grabbed the KDC, stuffing it into his right breast pocket. Then he pivoted and burst out of the laboratory and out to the empty hallway.

"Damn—!"

The thick, purple cloud was all over the manor. Kaiba ran toward the dining room, right hand still clamped across his face. Mokuba had to be alive, goddamn it, Mokuba had better be alive!

Who could have done this, Kaiba thought frantically as he dashed down the grand staircase. Nobody could have penetrated my security system that easy, let alone release this drugged cloud in my house!

"MOKUBA!"

He burst into the dining room. He had a brief glimpse of all the maids, butlers and Mokuba lying unconscious on the floor before a booted foot came out of nowhere and slammed into his face with such force.

Kaiba fell backward to the floor, taking in a considerable amount of the drugged cloud into his body. He blinked up at the black clad young man standing above him, looking down at him with soulful brown eyes that seemed vaguely familiar. The thief was wearing a black face mask so that only his eyes showed. He was also wearing a full-body suit that fitted him perfectly, showing the contours of his shoulders and chest.

"Who are you?" Kaiba gasped through the violet cloud. "I'll have you for this!"

The culprit frowned and answered him with the strongest punch he had ever encountered. Drops of red blood flowed from his nose and busted lip. Kaiba crashed into the dining room's walls, shattering a pot as he went.

But that wasn't over, though. The culprit spun around and slammed his booted foot into Kaiba's face again in a spectacular roundhouse.

"What do you want—?" Kaiba gasped again. He wished he could fight back, but the drugged cloud had weakened him too much already. "What—?"

The masked culprit pointed at his breast pocket. Kaiba knew now.

"Never!" he gasped, his lungs struggling to find oxygen. "I won't—give it—to you!"

The soulful brown eyes narrowed into angry slits. Kaiba sputtered as the culprit picked him up by the neck with one hand, his feet dangling five inches from the floor. His blue eyes widened with fear as he struggled against the lethal grip around his neck.

A gloved hand reached up and went into his pocket. Kaiba could feel nimble fingers against his chest. He sensed it close in on the KDC. After that he was thrown again, this time slamming into the long table, sending dishes flying in all directions.

Kaiba felt consciousness leaving him. There was pain, then, quickly, it was gone. The blackness swallowed him without effort at all.

The thief escaped like a phantom, his dark form visible only for a moment as he fled on the roofs. The Kaiba manor was silent as a graveyard.

Bakura arrived at the equally silent mansion that was Ryou's home. He'd slipped through one of the many stained glass windows and found himself in Ryou's fantastic Victorian bedroom, complete with the purple iMac PC, bags, clothes and magnificent four-poster with the white linen hangings.

He stood at the middle of the room and took off the facemask, allowing his waist-length snow-white hair to fall gracefully around his angelic face. He strode toward the four-poster bed and pulled back the hangings haphazardly before collapsing onto the soft cushion and staying there for a few minutes in silence.

Then he opened his brown eyes and took the KDC out of his pocket, surveying it between his gloved fingers.

"Plan A accomplished." He said. "Now ready to proceed to Plan B. Get ready, Pharaoh Nefer Atemu of the Royal House of Amenhotep. Get ready to feel the same pain you made me feel."

Bakura turned on his side and faced the four-poster's ceiling. A smug smile curled on his lips before his eyes closed…and he drifted off to sleep.

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Whooo! Sorry it took me a long time to put this out…we were busy with our Electronics subject, an I'm telling you that it SUCKS. Totally. So please leave a REVIEW!!! Thanks!