He was lost. He was falling. Around him there was only one thing: darkness.
Darkness.
And nothing else.
He wasn't blind, but he couldn't see.
He wasn't deaf, but he couldn't hear.
He wasn't alive, but he wasn't dead.
And he was afraid.
He suddenly stopped falling and hovered in the air, almost lifelessly. He had been torn from the light, and he couldn't find his way back, no matter how much he searched. The scent of death was all around him; it was recognizable. He knew this "death". He knew it by name.
Apocalypse.
Yami groaned and opened his eyes. His entire body was screaming at him in pain and agony, and he found himself unable to move. He was too weak. He had to force himself to turn his head and take in his surroundings. It wasn't the museum. It wasn't even close.
"Where am I…?" he said weakly to the landscape around him. "Where is Yugi?"
Lightning clapped in the distance, lighting up the scene that lay out before him. It was dark, darker than any night could ever hope to be. There was no sign of life anywhere; even the plants had died. Jagged edges of broken tombstones were scattered all about on the ground, as if an angry individual had crushed them with his bare hands. An ancient and crumbling stone cathedral sat to his left; the roof had long collapsed due to heavy rain and erosion.
Yami's breath became trapped in his throat, and he looked up. He was hanging by his hands from a dead tree, gently swaying with the harsh winds like a dead body.
He was inside the portrait.
"A funny thing, death," said an intimidating voice from somewhere in the eerie scene. "No matter how much someone wishes for it, it is never fully granted to the one who calls out for it. That is the fate that I was born into."
"What are you talking about?"
Yami heard the cathedral doors creak open slowly and hesitantly, rusted with age. Footsteps rang on the worn walkway, and the voice continued on.
"The fate that haunts us all."
"Fate?"
Thunder boomed and lightning crashed now; Yami caught sight of a figure still veiled by shadow. It began to rain fiercely now; the droplets pounded down upon Yami's unprotected head and slipped down into his eyes.
"You of all people should know what I mean. This is your doing…no. Our doing."
The shadow was in front of him now, glaring into his dark magenta eyes.
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Yami repeated with a snarl.
"Don't lie to yourself. You know what I mean. Murderer."
"Shut up!"
The shadow slowly circled around Yami's dangling body numerous times. "Murderer…" the shadow hissed, its voice filled with perceptible spite.
"I'm no murderer," Yami snapped. "It's you who's the—"
"Silence. You lie to yourself, Yami. You lie to your friends." By the light of the storm, Yami saw the shadow smirk, and saw the bloodstained fangs. "You lie to your human, the boy Yugi Muto."
"What…"
Something golden glimmered in the darkness of the light. It swung back and forth tantalizingly, like a pendulum. A pendulum that never stopped swinging. It was the Millennium Puzzle.