Inside the puzzle, Yugi felt the ground quake. The tremors swept his spirit off its feet, sending him crashing through the door into his yami's portion of the soul. At the same time, the pharaoh had been running towards that very door, a desperate attempt to reach his hikari.

"Yami! What's going on?" Yugi gasped, his shoulders aching from tumbling down a flight of stone stairs.

"I… I don't know, aibou!" Yami Yugi shouted back. He tried to stand, but the shaking sent him flying backwards into another wall. He cringed as the stone met his spine with a loud crack. "Something's wrong with the millennium puzzle!"

"I guessed that much, yami!" Yugi added, trying to stand. He again found the challenge too difficult. "But if you're here, why aren't I in control of the body!"

"I don't know, aibou!" the pharaoh shouted again, a little more frustrated than before.

A crack of light ran through the ceiling, or perhaps floor, above them. The pharaoh, acting on his reflexes, quickly pushed his hikari out of harm's way before a thick piece of stone crashed onto them below.

"The puzzle's acting like it's going to fall apart!" Yami Yugi gasped.

"Can it do that?"

"I don't know that either!" he exclaimed, "But that's exactly what it looks like!"

"But why?"

"That's what we have to find out!" Yami Yugi grabbed his hikari's hand, and pulled him towards another door. "Hurry, before there isn't anywhere left for us to go!"

"Where are we going?"

"Deeper into the puzzle." The pharaoh would have elaborated, were it not for the floor crumbling beneath him. His grip on Yugi tightened.

"Pharaoh!" the hikari shouted, trying to hold onto his yami. A sharp cliff had suddenly materialized where a long stone passageway had previously been. Pieces of rock continued to slide down the sharp ravine, into the darkness below.

"Yugi!" he shouted back, trying to find footing against the uneven rock. He almost regained his balance, but a sudden blast of dark magic disintegrated the stone beneath his left foot. "Aibou, I can't find footing!"

"That looked like the Dark Magician's attack!" Yugi gasped, still trying to hold on to the pharaoh. His small hand was starting to slip.

The pharaoh's grip loosened, and he slid down his hikari's sleeve.

"Pharaoh!"

"I can't hold on, aibou!" he shouted, clinging desperately, and poorly, to the rock at his chest. "Can you pull me up?"

Yugi braced his feet, and tried to pull the pharaoh forward. However, the puzzle shook again, sending them both flying to the side.

"I can't…" he gasped, holding on to the pharaoh with one hand and a broken stone pillar with the other. "If this breaks… I'm falling down with you!"

"Aibou!" Yami Yugi gasped. Another blast of dark magic shook side of the newly formed cavern. "Then let me go! Save yourself!"

"Not a chance, yami!" Yugi shouted, grunting as he tried to pull himself closer to the stone pillar. "We'll figure this out some…"

The rock broke apart. Yugi clutched several stone fragments as he fell backward. But tiny pieces of grey stone couldn't stop the inevitable.

"Aibou!" Yami Yugi screamed, as the cold air struck his back. The rock spun around them as they plummeted towards the darkness. Yugi grabbed onto the pharaoh's sleeve, trying desperately not to let go. "Yugi!"

"I'm still here!" he shouted back. The darkness grew. He could no longer see his yami, nor his own outstretched hand.

"I can't see…" Yami Yugi began, but was cut off by a strong pair of hands wrapping themselves around his waist. "… you…"

The hands pulled them both into a cave. Stairs led out of the small grotto sideways, another piece of the puzzle falling out of place.

When Yugi felt his feet on solid stone, he collapsed to his knees. His legs could have turned to liquid for all he knew. He was simply glad they had stopped falling.

"Yami?"

"I'm here. It's going to be all right…" Yami Yugi cradled his hikari as a streak of bright light illuminated the dark cavern. The Dark Magician was standing over them.

"My pharaoh!" the monster bowed respectfully, before raising his wand in a defensive stance.

"What's going on in here?" Yami Yugi demanded. "What's happening to the millennium puzzle?"

"It's the spirit of the millennium ring, my liege." The Dark Magician answered.

Yugi looked up. What did Yami Bakura have to do with this? After the ritual Isis had told him about, the spirit wouldn't even exist!

"Mahado… the spirit of the millennium ring is dead." Yami Yugi attempted to protest, calling the duel monster by his former name. "I saw him with my own eyes. The thief king is lying broken and emaciated on his hikari's couch. If his mortal body isn't dead already, it will be by the time the moon rises!"

Yugi gulped. He could only imagine the sight that his yami had kept from him. And knowing Ryou, he was probably devastated, despite his desire to be free of his evil yami.

"Do you understand me?"

"Pharaoh, you are respectfully mistaken!" the Dark Magician inserted. "He is most certainly not dead."

"That is impossible!" Yami Yugi shouted. "I know what I saw! Isis performed the purification ritual!"

The Dark Magician pulled the pharaoh away from the opening of the cave as another series of boulders came tumbling down. They shattered into thousands of fragments on what was now the floor of the puzzle. Another crack of light burst through the side of the wall.

"I know the ritual, my pharaoh! I was the one who invented it!" the Dark Magician stated rather calmly.

"Yes… Yes, I had forgotten." Yami Yugi whispered back.

"And like any ritual, it has its limitations!" he added. "I created the purification ritual as a way to protect and serve you, my pharaoh. Through the millennium ring, I could seal the darkness of my soul, or any of the other priests' souls, into an amulet, and destroy it."

"You mean…"

"Yes… Through the ring, part of my soul would always remain protected from the devastating procedure, while at the same time, my ka would remain pure. Only then could I or the other priests faithfully protect you. Should a being of light be purified, they would remain unharmed."

Yami Yugi's face blanched.

"The ritual was designed to work with the ring, not against the ring!" The Dark Magician shouted. "I can only imagine what unexpected disaster has already come from such a misuse!"

Yugi glared up at his yami, who suddenly felt very guilty.

"I… I didn't remember…"

"But first, we must solve another problem, my pharaoh!"

Yami Yugi turned his complete attention to the spirit of his former priest. Yugi did as well.

"Given that the millennium items were tainted upon their creation, I knew that the ritual, in the hands of a darker magician, could possibly be rewritten, and then turned against me." He continued. "That is why I made it impossible for my soul to ever be devoured by it. If subjected to the proper spells, the ring would automatically project my soul into the safest vessel!"

"So that's why the tomb robber appeared in a human body!"

"Light without a physical form would be given one, pharaoh." He added. "I have created such life on several occasions. It was Mana who first suggested that use. Were she not killed by the tomb robber, she would have used it to create a child!"

"Then where did the spirit of the ring send…"

The pharaoh froze. Suddenly, everything made sense.

"Before the ritual could be completed… it was sent to the safest vessel." The Dark Magician repeated himself. "It was sent here!"

"Why my puzzle?" Yami Yugi gasped.

"A small piece of the thief king's soul has resided here for at least a year of your hikari's time. We have since tried to track it down, but just like the thief king of the ancient days, this sliver of darkness has eluded us in the darkness of the shadows."

"When Ryou gave me the piece of my puzzle… when it broke…" Yugi gasped. "That's the last time he was even close enough to touch the millennium puzzle!"

"He's been hiding here all this time?"

"Yes." The Dark Magician nodded. The puzzle spun around again, sending all three of them slamming into a new floor. Another crack of light, bigger and brighter than any of the others, slit straight through the wall behind them. "And now, combined with the rest of his soul, it's tearing this puzzle apart!"

"Mahado… Is there anything we can do?"

The Dark Magician shook his head.

"I have tried everything, my pharaoh. I thought I had him cornered, only to discover that it was you hanging from the top of that crevice, and not the tomb robber." He sighed. "My fellow guardians have covered this puzzle from one end to the other, unable to subdue his wicked spirit."

"Has there been death?"

"Much death, my pharaoh… much death…" he hung his head low, the purple robe falling sadly around his face. "And there will be much more should this puzzle shatter."

"Can we stop it from breaking?"

"Not from in here." Mahado shook his head weakly. "But the ring should draw the soul back once the danger has subsided!"

"It can do that?" Yami Yugi gasped. He knew the millennium ring could seal a soul into other objects, but not back upon itself.

"Only in the course of this ritual!" the Dark Magician emphasized. "In order to protect me from dark magic!"

"How does that work?"

"I know the spells well, my pharaoh. But we need a medium…" He added. "Does your young companion's priests know the proper incantations?"

Yugi looked at the duel monster with regret in his eyes.

"I don't think they do." He sighed. Isis and Malik were the closest people he could think of as priests, and they only discovered the ritual recently.

"Then pray that they discover it quickly, my young pharaoh." The Dark Magician added, bowing respectfully to Yugi. "Before the thief king tears this puzzle apart trying to break himself free!"

Again, the puzzle shook. This time, both Yugi and his yami, along with the Dark Magician, were thrown from the cave, and up the ravine they had previously fallen down.

"One of us must make it out of here!" they could still hear the Dark Magician shout, his composure firm despite the shift in direction. "If I could reach the young pharaoh's mortal body! Tell his priests!"

Yugi gulped. He no longer knew where they even were, yet alone how to get back. Neither did Yami Yugi, whose memories of these passageways had no doubt been shattered with the rocks themselves.

"We have to get back to my consciousness, pharaoh…" he whispered, falling harshly upon the stone.

"I know, aibou…" Yami Yugi added, trying to pick himself up again from the long tumble.

Yugi looked around. Nothing looked familiar anymore.

"Dark Magician, are you all right?"

The man in the purple robe nodded slightly.

"But where do we begin?" he finally asked.

"I… I don't know…"

"I guess we start by believing in our friends…" Yugi sighed. "And hoping they can figure out what to do if we can't reach them in time…"

"Have faith, aibou…" Yami Yugi put his arm around his hikari, and helped him to his feet.

"I do, Yami. I do." He replied cautiously. "It's just…"

"I know…" Yami Yugi whispered, mainly to himself. "We were so eager to squelch the darkness, we might have just smothered what was left of the light…"

And with that, all three spirits started climbing up a massive wall.