Yami Yugi burst through the door to find Ryou sitting on the floor. He had just taken a dry washcloth off his yami's forehead, and dipped it into a bucket filled with ice water. He rang it out a little, and then put it back. The movement caused Yami Bakura to tremble.
"Ryou, I'm back!" Yami Yugi shouted, followed quickly by Malik and Isis. "How's Bakura?"
Ryou slowly stood up.
"He was awake for a little while… but… he passed out…" Ryou attempted to say more, but found himself unable to continue talking. He sat back down, and checked on the washcloth again.
Malik stepped out from behind the pharaoh, staring at the emaciated form of Yami Bakura.
"Oh my Ra…" Malik felt his legs turn to liquid beneath him. He staggered back into the pharaoh.
"This cannot be…" Isis gasped as well. "This… this is not part of the ritual…"
Ryou looked up.
"Then what could have caused this?" the pharaoh asked, almost demanding.
"I do not know for sure, but I have a few vague ideas…" Isis eventually whispered, still trying to gain a complete grasp of the situation. In the meantime, Malik had dropped to the floor next to Ryou.
"Is it really…"
"He had the millennium ring and everything, Malik…" Ryou answered. "Who else could it be?"
"But he's so…" Malik stopped. Ryou could easily fill in the gaps – Weak. Powerless. Broken. Emaciated. Close to death. It didn't really matter.
"I know…"
"Pharaoh… he was such a strong spirit…" Isis finally answered. "It is possible, I suppose, for his will to survive to be stronger than the ritual itself. Or perhaps it is the light in his soul, having nowhere else to go, inventing a physical form for it to inhabit…"
"You mean, he escaped the ring?" Ryou asked.
"I suppose…"
"But sister… the ritual was complete! You felt it. I felt it." Malik interrupted. "We destroyed the darkness. Nothing could survive."
"Malik. The ritual only destroys the darkness." Isis disputed her brother's claim. "If anything was able to escape from the ring, it would be light. It would be the goodness inside the spirit."
Ryou froze. He stared for what felt like hours at his yami's face.
"I knew there was good in him…" he smiled. "I knew he wasn't completely evil!"
"But look at the spirit of the millennium ring now, Isis..." Malik interrupted Ryou's first pleasurable thought all day. "What goodness he might have possessed is not enough to sustain him in this realm."
Ryou's hopes fell.
"No, I suppose not." She nodded her assent.
"But…"
She bent down to examine the former spirit.
"He's dying." She continued, her tone never changing. She turned to leave.
"Is… is that all you can say?" Ryou suddenly demanded. "The pharaoh brought you over here just to tell me he's dying, and leave!"
"I'm sorry, Ryou." Isis placed an arm around him. "But what's been done has been done. The ritual was complete. At least he is free to pass on in goodness. His soul will be well received on the scales of judgment. I know it is only a meager consolation… but I hope you can find…"
"No." Ryou interrupted. "The ritual's not over!"
"Ryou, I know this has to be difficult to accept… but…" Malik attempted to intercede.
"No. It's not over!" Ryou glared at the two tomb keepers with a wicked glare. "In his mind, it's not over!"
"What are you talking about?"
"While you were gone… while he was awake…" Ryou tried to calm himself down, but found the anger swell within him. "He… he could still hear you chanting… he could still see the light… He kept asking me to make it stop…"
"He's delirious with fever." Yami Yugi tried to reason with Ryou. "His body is dying. He can't control what he sees and hears anymore."
Ryou didn't want to believe them, any of them. But he knew, deep down, that they were speaking the truth. Over the course of the hour, his yami's breathing had grown shallower. His heartbeat was faint, almost non-existent. The mortal body he had inhabited for only a few hours was slowly breaking down.
"He… he called me aibou…" Ryou finally added, another tear falling gracefully from his pale cheek. "He begged me… to make it stop… Just like he did… while you were chanting… What if part of him is still there? I can't just leave him now… not after everything I did…"
"Ryou…" Malik whispered. They had been through this before, but somehow, he couldn't bring himself to be repetitive. "You can't blame yourself. You did what was best for…"
"Malik's right." Yami Yugi added, interrupting the tomb keeper. "No one could have foreseen this, not even Isis. This was never meant to happen."
"But it did." Ryou confronted them all. "It did happen."
No one knew what to say.
"He fought so hard to survive… and this is how it ends?" Ryou shouted. "I can't let it end like this! I… can't… I can't do that to my other half!"
Isis bent over Yami Bakura, and whispered a few prayers in Egyptian. Upon hearing them, Malik reluctantly joined in.
"His soul is very weak, Ryou." She finally spoke. "He… he only has a couple of hours left, at best…"
The white haired teen refused to acknowledge her.
"Try to keep him comfortable if you can." She smiled weakly. "Talk to him. Give yourself a little time to say goodbye."
"But there has to be some way to help him…" Ryou continued to protest. "Pharaoh?"
"I… I don't know of anything, Ryou." Yami Yugi sadly shook his head. He knew a great deal of shadow magic, but nothing that could even come close to saving his nemesis now. "And the ritual Isis performed today… that is one of the strongest spells I know of… And I knew many powerful priests and magicians."
Ryou wiped his eyes dry, and leaned back against the couch, watching his yami's sunken chest rise and fall ever so slightly. His breathing was even more labored than before.
"If you like, we could leave you two alone for awhile." The pharaoh finally spoke again. Ryou gave no verbal response. He only nodded.
The other three walked into Ryou's gaming room, and carefully closed the door, leaving Ryou alone with his dark half.