Ryou looked up. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since they arrived. The ceremonial candles that Isis had lit when she began the ritual had burned to mere shells of their former selves.

Isis and Malik had stopped chanting. They simply stood before the altar, their heads bowed, wandering in the maze of a silent prayer.

"Is it… over?" Ryou cautiously began.

Slowly, Malik turned around. He nodded.

"It's done." He sighed. He was exhausted from the ordeal.

"Yes. It is done." Isis agreed, turning around as well. She looked as though she would faint. "Never before have I encountered such a spirit…"

Ryou stood silently, taking it all in.

"He fought back for the longest time." Malik added. "I was worried for a moment that we wouldn't be able to finish the ritual."

"But thankfully, the light we produced was stronger than his dark ka. And it left him completely vulnerable inside the ring." Isis continued. "After that, it was only a matter of time before the light consumed the yami."

Ryou stood silently, still trying to remember the last thing that he heard his yami say. He could feel his pain, up to a point. But it all grew steadily weaker, until eventually, he couldn't hear anything at all. He didn't feel his yami actually die… At least, he didn't think he did. It was rather like he just disappeared.

"You may take the ring if you wish." Isis smiled. "It is rightfully yours."

Ryou nodded, and walked solemnly up to the altar. He carefully placed his fingers over the gold. Isis was right. He couldn't feel anything inside of it. Not even a sliver of light residing within the dark item.

"He's completely gone, isn't he?"

Malik and Isis exchanged glances.

"The light devoured him whole." Isis finally responded. "There was nothing left."

"The ring is empty now…" Malik added. "And without the spirit inside it, its power is gone as well."

Ryou picked up the ring. It was cold to the touch. So cold, in fact, that Ryou nearly dropped it.

"You are free, Ryou Bakura." Isis placed a tender hand on his shoulder.

Ryou didn't look up. He was still studying the ring. For the first time, it felt like a simple piece of metal. But something inside his mind kept insisting that the ring couldn't have been powerless.

"You will no longer be burdened by the evil spirit of the millennium ring."

"Thank you." He finally replied, letting a weak smile escape his young face. He put the ring over his head, feeling the weight of the gold fall onto his chest.

He walked over to the stairway.

"Malik will lead you out." Isis smiled.

She thanked Ra that the ritual had gone smoothly. Although she didn't tell Ryou, there were still missing pieces of parchment that her team of archeologists had not uncovered. If something had gone wrong, there was no telling what might have happened.

"I must rest now…" She retired out another door, leaving the young tomb keeper with the former host of the tomb robber's spirit.

"Malik… I …" Ryou smiled, embracing his friend. The ring pressed between their bodies.

"Like I said before, it is the least that I could do." He replied. "After everything our spirits have caused, it is good to know that we can now move on with our lives."

Ryou nodded.

They started walking. Malik opened the wooden door, and started climbing the stone steps. Ryou followed silently behind him.

"Ryou?" he finally asked. "Is something wrong?"

The white haired teen was shaken out of his thoughts.

"Oh… nothing…"

"No… what?"

Ryou sighed. He ran his fingers across the ring, and leaned against a wall.

"I could hear him screaming… when he was dying…" Ryou crossed his arms at his waist. "Screaming… shouting… crying… It was too much to bear…"

"That is what light does to darkness." Malik answered. "It is natural."

"He was begging… begging for me to stop you."

"Did you really expect anything different?" Malik replied with a question of his own.

"No… not really… but it hurt… to hear him pleading for his life…"

They started walking again.

"Well, let me ask you this… If you did stop us, and the tomb robber survived, do you think his actions would change? Do you think that in three months time, he wouldn't be taking control of your body, risking your life or Yugi's life just to collect another millennium item?"

Ryou paused again.

"Do you think anything would have changed?"

"…No… I guess not…" Ryou finally admitted. He hoped that it might, but deep down, he knew that wasn't the case.

"We did the right thing, Ryou." Malik put his arm around the other boy.

"You're right." He eventually sighed, as they reached the top of the stairway.

Yami Yugi was still sitting on the steps outside. They could easily see his unusually shaped hair from the open door.

"Pharaoh! It's done!" Malik shouted, his voice echoing in the dark entryway.

Yami Yugi turned around.

"That took three hours." He stated with surprise. His chest hurt a little, but he shrugged it off.

"It was a difficult battle." Malik replied. "I had to join in just to support my sister."

Yami Yugi gave a glance of concern to Ryou, who was still clutching the millennium ring.

"But was it successful?"

"Yes."

"The tomb robber?"

"His soul was completely devoured by the light." Malik answered confidently. "After the ritual was over, there was nothing left of the spirit."

Malik's words suddenly felt as cold as the pendant in his hands.

"How do you feel, Ryou?" Yami Yugi asked gently, also placing a hand on the boy.

"I… I feel… strange…" he finally spoke.

"That's to be expected. It has been a long time since it was just you inside your soul." Yami Yugi attempted a comforting smile, but it was apparently lost on Ryou, who remained fixated on the ring.

"If you don't mind… I… I think I'd like to go home now…"

He turned away from Malik, and walked towards the door.

"At least let me walk with you." Yami Yugi suggested. "You seem tired from the ritual as well."

Ryou stopped. For the first time, he noticed how exhausted he actually was. He had been standing in the center of that sanctuary for the better part of three hours. Of course he would be tired.

He nodded appreciatively to the pharaoh, who returned his gaze to Malik.

"Give our gratitude to Isis as well." He smiled.

"Of course, pharaoh." Malik smiled back, and closed the door. Ryou and Yami Yugi walked slowly down the front steps.

The rain had stopped not long ago, probably around the same time that Yami Bakura had finally been destroyed. The scent of the fresh air still clung to Yami Yugi's senses. It was a sensation he didn't have that often in Ancient Egypt, and therefore one that he cherished.

"Pharaoh?" Ryou finally asked, after a good five minutes of walking.

"Yes?"

"I… I was wondering… do you think we made the right choice?"

Yami Yugi was a bit taken aback by that question.

"Are you having second thoughts about…"

"No… it's just… well…" Ryou attempted to gather his thoughts. "I guess I miss him a little, that's all…"

Yami Yugi smiled.

"It's going to feel strange for a little while, that's for certain. But in the end, you made the best choice." He tried to comfort the other boy. "Now he can't hurt you or anybody else."

"It's just…" Ryou inserted. "I guess I thought there would be something left of him… after the ritual was done…"

"Something left?"

"Malik said that only the darkness would be destroyed. That if there was any light in his soul… that it would remain…"

"And you thought that…"

"There would be some good in him, pharaoh… I didn't think he could have been completely evil… Not like the spirit that embodied Malik."

The pharaoh didn't have a ready response for that.

"But there's nothing in the ring now."

Yami Yugi picked up the millennium ring, and studied it for a moment. Ryou was right. There was no sense of anything hiding within the ring. Nor did it seem to activate when he held it close to his millennium puzzle.

"No… there isn't."

"Then he really is gone."

Yami Yugi nodded.

They approached a junction in the road, where they had already planned to go their separate ways.

"You're sure you're going to be all right." Yami Yugi asked the white haired boy, who still seemed lost in his own thoughts.

"Yeah." Ryou replied sheepishly. "I'll be fine. I just need a little time to think."

"If you need anything, anything at all, call Yugi." The pharaoh smiled. "He, and I, will be there in an instant."

"I know." Ryou nodded, smiling a little. He turned at the corner, and started walking towards his apartment building. Yami Yugi turned the opposite direction, towards his hikari's home and game shop. The pharaoh turned around to check on Ryou one last time, but the boy was completely lost in his thoughts.

And Ryou would have reached his apartment without ever breaking out of those thoughts if he hadn't accidentally tripped over something in the nearby alleyway.

As he stumbled to catch his footing, he looked down to see what had caused him to trip. There was a body there.

"… oh Ra…" he mumbled, sounding very much like his yami for a moment. "Ph…pharaoh…"

He turned around quickly. The other yami was already a good block away.

"Pharaoh!" he shouted, and then fell back against the curb, trembling.