"Ryou! Ryou, what's wrong?" Yami Yugi shouted, racing back across the street to where Ryou had just fallen. "Are you okay?"

He helped Ryou stand up, not even looking into the alley at first.

"What happened?" he asked again, sensing only fear in the other boy.

Ryou tried to speak, but found his words packed tightly in his throat. Instead, he just pointed, mouth agape, into the dark alley.

Yami Yugi gasped.

It was a body, broken, battered, bleeding, and most likely dead. It was a sight gruesome enough to make even the strong pharaoh's knees give way. But what was most frightening was that it looked exactly like Yami Bakura, down to the last detail.

"… it can't be…"

Ryou, still paralyzed with shock, stared at the body. It had to be. Although the clothes were shredded and soaked with blood, anyone could tell that the striped t-shirt and grey pants were an exact match to what Ryou had been wearing. The pale skin and white hair were almost enough of an identifying factor on their own. But this wasn't a spirit… this was a flesh and blood human being!

"Tomb robber…" Yami Yugi gasped, and bent down. He lifted the frail arm that Ryou had first tripped over. It was nothing but scarred skin and bones.

As he examined the body more closely, the pharaoh realized that wasn't an anomaly. The rest of the body was equally emaciated.

"Oh my Ra…" he gasped again, brushing the tangled mess of white hair away from the face of the fallen man. His cheeks were sunken like a badly preserved mummy, and several cuts on his face were still bleeding.

"Pharaoh…" Ryou finally found his voice. "L…look at that…"

He pointed timidly to a gold light glistening from underneath the body. Yami Yugi reached around the figure's neck, pulling out a leather strap. As he followed it, he found another copy of the millennium ring.

"…that's… impossible…" he stuttered, dropping the other ring back onto the pavement. It clattered to the ground with a haunting melody. There was no question in anyone's mind now. This was Yami Bakura. But how…

"Yami?" Ryou whispered, trying to control the terror that was curling up his spine. "Pharaoh… what's… what's going on here?"

"I… I don't know…" Yami Yugi answered. He was destroyed in the ritual, and yet, here he was, as solid as him or Ryou. He turned Yami Bakura's body slightly, and heard a weak groan.

Yami Yugi froze.

"He's not dead." He whispered, his voice barely above a faint gasp.

Ryou dropped to his knees, and crawled quickly to the body. He felt for a pulse. The pharaoh was right. There was one, albeit weak and staggered. His yami was still alive.

"Yami?" Ryou whispered, but received no response. He pressed his hand gently on the former spirit's chest. Only then did a weak moan escape the man's lips, a meager attempt at showing signs of life. "Pharaoh, we have to do something!"

Yami Yugi nodded.

His hikari had often said that the healers in this time period were powerful, but this time, he doubted it would be a good idea to get them involved. How exactly, in a time where magic was believed to be merely superstition, could he explain that this broken body, with no identification or proof of existence, was the other half of Ryou's soul that somehow survived an exorcism meant to kill him completely. They would find themselves locked up for sure, one way or another.

"I don't think there's much that we can do." Yami Yugi eventually admitted. The body was ravaged, like he crawled out one of those wicked camps his hikari read about two days ago. Blood was everywhere, and it was still fresh. "He's… I've never seen anything like this in my entire life…"

"We can't just leave him here on the street." Ryou protested.

"No, you're right. We can't…" Yami Yugi paused. He looked up. Ryou's apartment was only a couple blocks away. "Ryou. You're apartment is the closest place we can take him. Once we get there, I can go find Malik and Isis. Maybe they'll know what to do."

Ryou nodded, and swallowed hard.

Yami Yugi carefully bent down, and carefully lifted Yami Bakura's head. The former spirit groaned, and a trickle of blood ran out the side of his lips. He cradled it gently for a minute, trying to determine if his neck was broken. Everything was so fragile, he couldn't tell for sure. But they hardly had time for certainty.

"Be careful…" Ryou whispered.

"I am…" the pharaoh gently answered. He folded Yami Bakura's spiderlike arms across his sunken chest. Upon hearing no disapproval from Ryou or the former spirit, he slid his other hand under Yami Bakura's thin legs, and picked him up off the ground.

Yami Yugi steadied himself, while Ryou tended to the spirit in his arms. The pharaoh couldn't help dwelling on how frail the tomb robber's body seemed. A stark contrast to anything he could remember about the spirit of the millennium ring, it was so light, so insubstantial. No human could survive like this.

"Let's go." Yami Yugi announced, carrying Yami Bakura much like a child. They walked as briskly as they could, trying not to injure the former spirit any further.

They reached Ryou's apartment not a moment too soon. The extra attention warranted by an obviously dying man was not what either of them needed.

Yami Yugi carried Bakura up eight flights of back stairs, and Ryou quickly unlocked the door to his apartment and turned on a light. The rooms looked so clean and sterile, adding extra emphasis to the blood that was now dripping from the former spirit's back and Yami Yugi's leather pants.

"Can you put him on the couch?" Ryou asked, throwing various throw pillows off the cushions to make more room. Yami Yugi nodded, and gently laid the tomb robber across the young teen's sofa.

"Ryou… stay with him…" the pharaoh took a quick breath. "I'll be back soon, with Isis and Malik."

The other boy nodded, and knelt beside his yami. Now, in the full light of Ryou's apartment, the injuries looked even more severe. The contours of his impossibly thin face created their own sharpened shadows. He was so engrossed in the sight before him, he didn't even hear his front door close behind Yami Yugi.

"Yami?" he finally whispered. "Can you hear me?"

The spirit on the couch made no response. Ryou leaned in close, just to check if he was still breathing. It was slow, but Ryou sighed in relief that he still was.

"Yami, I…" Ryou's voice was overcome by guilt. "I should have stopped them…"

His mind lingered between the two options for what felt like a lifetime. On the one hand, he had to stop the rampage of the wicked spirit, one way or another. If not, sooner or later, he would have surely died at his yami's hands. Or worse, someone he cared about might have. But on the other, if this were the product of that bizarre ritual, he would have found another way somehow. It pained Ryou to see his other half, even his darker half, like this.

No matter how much convincing the pharaoh managed to do… it still didn't seem right.

"I'm sorry, Yami…" Ryou started to cry. He laid his head gently on the former spirit's chest, letting a few tears wash over one of the dried bloodstains.

Yami Bakura answered with a sharp moan, followed by a series of choking coughs. Ryou quickly lifted his head.

"Sorry!" he gasped, and backed away. Yami Bakura gasped for breath.

Slowly, Ryou crept back up to his other self, and tilted his head.

"There… that should help you breathe a little better…" he whispered to the man on the couch, trying to feign a smile.

Yami Bakura painfully opened his eyes. He wanted nothing more to find the source of that soothing voice. To Bakura, Ryou's face was nothing but a white blur above him, but at least he saw something other than darkness. And this time, the light didn't burn. Or was it still burning, and he had finally lost the ability to process it?

"Yami?" Ryou whispered again, noticing that the former spirit was awake. "The pharaoh's gone to get help. He'll be back soon. Just… just try to hold on, okay?"

Yami Bakura couldn't make an acknowledgment if he wanted to. His body was too weak to move on its own, and there wasn't an ounce of Ra's will that could force it to. If there were, he would have stolen it a long time ago.

"… Ry…ou…" the broken spirit finally gasped, letting another mouthful of blood run down the side of his chin.

"Yes. It's me. Ryou. I'm here." The white haired teen answered quickly, reaching for Bakura's hand. It trembled as he clasped it gently, trying not to break the slender fingers as he closed his grip. Seeing the spirit's face contort in pain, he switched to massaging the frail hand, trying not to show disgust as his soft fingers ran over each protruding bone. "I'm here."

"… Ryou…" Yami Bakura moaned.

"I'm right here…"

"… aibou… no…" he groaned again. "st… stop… p..plea… please… stop…"

Ryou let go of his hand, and let it fall off the side of the couch.

"It… it burns…" he choked, his body shaking with an uneasy spasm.

"The light? Is it too bright?" Ryou jumped up, and dimmed the overhead lights. "Is that better?"

"… aibou…"

"Yami?" Ryou asked, now growing quite afraid. "Yami, the pharaoh will be here soon! I… I don't know what to do…"

"… pain… st…stop the… pain… the… the chanting…"

Ryou froze. The chanting from the ritual?

"They stopped chanting, Yami… they stopped chanting!" Ryou shook his yami gently. "Nobody's chanting!"

"…chanting…" he squinted his eyes in agony. "st…stop the voices… aibou… tell them… ple…please…"

He coughed again, trembling as another spasm rocked his emaciated body.

"The ritual's over, yami!" Ryou shouted. "Listen to me! It's over!"

"Please… Ry… Ryou…"

"It's over! There is no more chanting!" he shouted again, but Yami Bakura didn't seem to hear him. "I'm sorry it ever started! Yami! Please… I'm sorry I ever started it!"

"… aibou…"

"I'm sorry!" Ryou's screams gave way to tears, and he threw his head down onto what remained of the middle couch cushion. "I should have stopped them!"

"… stop the… pain…"

"I don't know how!" Ryou cried, frustrated and confused.

"… aibou… can… you hear… me…"

Ryou finally looked up, tears streaming down his face.

"Yami?" he whispered. "I'm right here."

"… aibou… please… I… Ryou…"

Ryou leaned directly into Yami Bakura's line of vision. Could his yami not see him? Could he not hear him?

"Yami?"

He carefully placed the back of his hand against Yami Bakura's forehead. It was like touching a hot stove, and Ryou leapt back, clutching his hand protectively.

"oh… Ra… aibou…"

"Dear, Gods… he's burning up…" Ryou gasped. "And he's completely delirious…"

"… light… there's… there's so much… light…"

He gulped, dashing towards the bathroom to get a washcloth. If anything, maybe he could keep the fever from rising.

"Yami! Please hang on!" Ryou shouted as he ran. His emotions surprised even him. He could not have imagined these words sounding so forceful, at least, not before today. "Please! Yami! Just don't leave me!"

"… aibou… for…forgive me… for ev…rythin…g…"

"Don't leave me!"