Don't own YGO.

Using the manga names but I get confused between the English and Japanese versions so hopefully I wont mess up anything in a big way lol. Also I don't really know how the card game works, so this first part if its screwed up oh well, its just to move the story along. :P WARNING rated S for Silly.

Big Games

A darkened arena made from an old abandoned warehouse downtown Domino city. A Duel Monsters match was taking place, high stakes on the line. The stakes at hand are usually always high when this certain duelist is challenged. Yugi Mutou… no… not Yugi, though his body was present it was not he who was dueling, it was his other half, his darker side, the infamous pharaoh of 3000 years, the king of games. Yami.

They could tell of course, his friends, Jounouchi Katsuya (also known as Jou or Joey by his friends) and Anzu Mazaki, knew when a dangerous duel took place that the spirit of the millennium puzzle, the inverted pyramid hanging from a thick chain around the teen's neck, took over. Protecting Yugi from harm and using his skill and wit to outdo all challenges. Slight changes occurred in Yugi when this took place, the way he stood and carried himself changed to one with more strength and confidence. The way he spoke, his voice became a shade deeper, richer, but the most noticeable and the true way to tell who was in control were his eyes. Yugi's large innocent violet eyes changed to a burning crimson, they became more slanted, more serious making Yugi look much older then he truly was. These were the eyes of the pharaoh.

Yugi was not gone completely when this occurred however. No, he was there as well, in spirit so to speak as he too was a master at games especially duel monsters. He and Yami would work together, and together they could overcome any odds. And right now they needed each other more then ever, as the odds at the moment were not in their favor.

"I'm amazed to see the so called king of games on his knees…" A raspy voice spoke from a short distance away. An older man, around his late forties dressed in a black hooded cloak. White beard and wrinkled sunken eyes gave him an eerie appearance. His face in a mock smirk as his opponent, Yugi, struggled to stand. "… From all I have heard of you I thought taking your puzzle would have been more of a challenge!" He laughed again before turning his head to spit. "A pity, I will have to make up my story on how I manage to gain the power of the pharaoh, for this one just wont do. Now, draw a card, it's your move." He pointed a crooked finger at the boy, his face twisted in a morbid grin.

"It's not over until my lifepoints reach zero you feind." Yugi… or rather Yami, grunted as he strained himself to his feet. "You will not gain my puzzle and I will free my friends, you wait and see." He looked across to Jou and Anzu, who were currently being held hostage by this strange man and his larger goons. They had been walking home from a day in town when they were jumped from behind by a group of men, knocked out and brought to the arena were the challenge was made. A Duel Monsters game, if Yugi refused his friends would be killed, if he lost not only would their lives still be in danger, but Yugi would lose his puzzle and Yami along with it. The man agreed to let them all go if he managed to win, wording his sentence bringing Yugi to believe this would not be an ordinary duel, his suspicions made clearer as his life points dropped.

"Yeah you go Yug'!" Jou shouted from the other side of the room. "Show him whose boss!" Both Jou and Anzu cheered him on believing that Yugi could not lose, he hasn't yet, why start now?

"Yami? Are you alright?" Yugi asked, though the mind link they shared.

"I do not know, it is still early in the duel but the few attacks he has landed on us has not only drained or life points, but our energy as well." Yami replied, drawing another card from his deck, the card shaking in his hand due to lack of strength. "Good, the dark magician." Yugi's favorite card and a powerful monster as well. Yami breathed heavily as he placed the card in play, his voice raspy as he spoke his command.

"I play the dark magician in attack mode, and I place one card face down on the field."

"Our suspicions were right then…" Yugi spoke through the mind link. "He may not be that skilled from what we've seen so far, but I don't think he's planning on letting us actually finish the duel in the first place."

"Yes, he's counting on his attacks to drain us to the point of collapse and the only way he could do that is if this is…"

"A shadow game." Yugi finished the ex-pharaoh's sentence.

A shadow game was the most dangerous type of game ever. Initiated only by someone who had knowledge of the ancient past of deul monsters, a millennium item itself, or just knowledge of the dark arts. Once started a price was made an offering to the hungry shadows that would change a simple game into a struggle between life and death. Yugi had been involved in shadow games more times then he'd like to remember, each time the loser's soul or mind itself was offered up just so some madman could claim the so called power of the pharaoh that was hidden within the puzzle that hung from Yugi's neck.

"Well, are you going to end your turn or what?" The man said impatiently, his eyes bordering on insanity.

"Why have you called a shadow game? It's not necessary when I am challenged directly." Yami called out, smirking as the man gave him a surprised look.

"Ah so you've figured it out have you? It's just insurance that you would accept my challenge, and not try anything foolish." The man laughed. "No matter, soon the feeling of pure exhaustion will overwhelm you and you will fall ending this duel and granting me eternal power." He clenched his fist. "So hurry up and play your turn!"
"Fine then!" Yami yelled. Aware that the man only had face down cards, clearly a trap, but the king of games too had a trap in hand. "Dark magician! Attack his lifepoints directly!"

"You've activated my trap!" The man shouted, not to Yami's surprise. "Mirror force, redirect his attack right back at him!"

And so it did, the magician's blast rebounded off an invisible wall slamming into Yugi's body with a force that knocked him over. Five hundred life points were drained from him, as he felt his strength slowly fading away. Yami tried to get up, but found he couldn't his vision was blurring and he was slowly losing consciousness. Quickly he raised his hand to his dueling disk, flipping over his face down card.

"You've… fallen into my trap… as well…." Yami said, barley able to form a sentence. " Now its over." He played his card.

"No not that!" The man cringed as he saw the card, one that can only be played if the holder took damage from a trap card. Reverse multiplier, causing the attacker to lose four times the amount of life points that his last attack just had on his opponent. Five hundred times four is two thousand points, way more then needed to end the duel. There was a cost of a thousand lifepoints from the holder, but Yami was well aware of this as his lifepoints faded down to a small five hundred.

Yami didn't see his attack take place, all he heard was the man's screams of defeat and the voice of his friends cheering.

"Yugi… can you hear me?" He called to his partner there was no reply, Yami was only a host in Yugi's body, whatever happened to it, they both felt it. "I feel… so…weak…". Those were his final words, exhaustion taking over as the world around him blurred. Yami felt his spirit fade from Yugi's body back into the puzzle before blacking out completly.

"Yugi?"

A voice, Jou?

"Can you hear us Yugi?

Another voice… Anzu, I'd know that voice anywhere.

"I think he's coming too, give him room."

Yugi, now back in control of his body, opened his eyes to see three faces looking down on him. His best friend Jou, who had the biggest smirk on his face and glad to see his friend awake and safe. Anzu, who smiled softly, grateful once again for being saved by her brave spiky-haired friend. The third face surprised him, he was expecting to see Honda or even his grandfather, but instead he stared into the eyes of Isis Ishtar, keeper of the Domino city museum and one of few who knows of Yami's past and the history of duel monsters. She was in-fact the one who revealed to the spirit that he was the three thousand year pharaoh, and also was the one who dubbed the spirit 'Yami' as well.

"Where…" Yugi tried to speak, his voice barely a whisper. He looked around wondering how he had came to be where he was now. Slowly remembering the duel he just took part in, the Dark Magician, his trap card, the man's screams then darkness. "…What… happened?"

"Quiet now, don't speak. That shadow game has taken a great toll on you" Isis said, she lifted his head slightly. "Your friends carried you here, to the museum. As luck would have it, it appears that your duel took place not to far away from this location."

"And let me tell ya Yug' you may be short but your damn heavy!" Jounouchi joked, only to get a smack across the back of his head.

"Joey!" Anzu yelled at him. "Anyway we're glad your ok Yugi." She took his hand and gently cupped it in her own. She gave a slight frown, as she felt no resistance at all from him, it saddened her heart to see him so weak. "And thank you for saving us… again." There was shame in her voice, she felt bad that it was always her getting into some kind of trouble, with Yugi having to come saver her.

"Anytime…" Yugi said weakly, suddenly he thought of Yami, worried since it was he who had taken the brunt of the attacks, he sent a call to him down their mind link only to receive a 'leave me alone I'm trying to sleep' type grunt from the ex-pharaoh. In his mind Yugi laughed, one concern lifted. Now if could only move, things would be just fine.

"Yugi…" Isis spoke up trying to raise him a bit more. "Your energy has been severely drained, try not to make any sudden moves." She moved closer and placed a small vial of liquid to Yugi's lips. "Here, drink this." A small chuckle escaped her as he did so. The drink was sour and Yugi couldn't help but make a disgusted face as the liquid passed over his tongue.

"What… was that?" He asked, trying to forget the taste in his mouth. It reminded him of bad cough medicine his grandfather would force him to take when he was ill. "Wow." He said as he began feeling some bit of his energy returning to him, he sat up on his own now.

"Just a little something that will help." Isis turned to Jou and Anzu. " Now, he needs rest, so you two get him home and into bed. He should be fine by morning, I'll call you a taxi."

"Thank you." Joey said before turning his attention back to Yugi. "Don't worry dude we'll get you home in no time!"

Home, just thinking of his own bed right now made Yugi smile.