meh. not completely happy with this, but despite all my ideas, i had a heck of a hard time trying towrite this - i think mostly because i had trouble just settling on one idea. Anyway, don't know if it comes across like i wanted, but i hope it still comes across well...guess i'll see. and hey, at least the action is finally starting to pick up some...

thanks to everybody that left reviews
hill - wow, quite a compliment! and a big thanks for finding me...
Cettie - yeah, more than anything, the conversation made yugi think, which continues some in this chapter. also, you should find out at the end of this chapter who the girl mentioned last time is, maybe with that a few things will make sense...
sakura - hehehe...and the tension is far from gone.

and on a side note, i really really really want QuickEdit to die. >

Part 3 (Chapter 6) - Pawns

Dear Diary,

Well, it's finally the start of a new school year, and we're all in the same homeroom this time – even Mai and Seto. I never knew much about them until everything that happened at Duelist Kingdom, but I hope we can get to know them better this year. There's a new girl in the class too – from America. She seems nice, and she's really good at games! Yami doesn't trust her, but I think he might be overreacting.

Also, Tea came along with us after school. Apparently they cut back some of her hours at her job. Maybe it's a bit selfish, but I'm glad. She…

Yugi blushed slightly, remembering what he had written, and flipped ahead in the book.

I'm so tired lately – all this running around at night really wears me out. Even if it's only in my dreams…it's my spirit that's really being worn down. And we're still not any closer to finding Ryou or understanding anything of what's going on. I feel like I'm wandering in circles a lot of the time. I don't know where the answers are, but no matter where I go, I can't seem to find them. I didn't expect things to turn out like this at all. And yet, if somehow, in the end, it all turns out for the best – if I can see all my friends, even Ryou and Kira, here and happy again, well, I guess I don't mind being a little tired until then.

Frowning as he thought back what had brought him to write those words, Yugi turned another couple pages in his diary.

Instead of getting better, things are just getting worse. Every turn we take, it's like Bakura's winning. Sometimes, I wonder why the millennium puzzle chose me. Sometimes I don't feel like I deserve the responsibility that comes with it. But all the same, I'm glad that I have Yami here with me...

Looking over the boy's shoulder, the Pharaoh smiled.

You didn't try to get rid of me…why?

"You wanted me to?"

I didn't care.

"I don't know why…but it's like everything around me is changing…or maybe everything inside. You're different, and you've been changing me." Bakura sighed. "Seems nothing is how it used to be…"

Dear Diary,

It's over. Or at least that's what I'd like to say. Bakura did something with Ryou – took him away to some place I can't find. Now, it's like the searching will start all over again. But hopefully this time we'll have help. Yami and I were finally able to get through to Kali, and I think Kira will be fine. It was close for a while there, but we managed to get them out of Bakura's control. This time – maybe the worst is over. Bakura is planning something else, but now, we have Kira and Kali. And I have my friends. Just knowing that they are there for me through it all is enough. I'm still not sure what things I can do to make a difference, and it's painful when I come face-to-face with the reality of the situation, but having someone believe in me gives me the courage to try again.

That was the last thing he had written before the diary had turned up missing. Silently closing the cover, Yugi closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the soft binding. "So much has changed…"

Hikari… Yami's voice, silent up until now, came hesitantly.

"I had so much hope," Yugi murmured. "I tried to believe in everyone, and look where we are now. I believe in Kira and Ryou – that they would come through – and look where they are now." The corners of Yugi's mouth quirked upward in the slightest bit of a wry smile. "Tea and Joey and the rest – I know they support me. But that's all, Yami." Yugi drew in a long breath. "They can't go to the Shadow Realms and fight with us. They can't really share my pain, even if they want to, because they weren't there. They aren't me. They haven't seen and felt everything that's in my mind. They can't understand…not completely."

No, Yami agreed softly. They can't. And when it comes right down to it, I can't either. I can look through your memories; I can see what drives you, but those thoughts and feelings are yours and yours alone.

Then what do I do? Yugi asked.

You're not alone, Yugi. You never have been, and with friends like these, you never will be. Yami paused for a moment. But now, this time around, you need to start believing in yourself.

A shifting breeze lifted a few strands of hair from Bakura's still face. Fingers of shadows stretched in the current, reaching until they were pulled too far and melted into the rest of the dim light. Bakura's deep emerald eyes didn't even blink, but continued to connect with some spot no one else could see.

A faint force, like a wave deep underwater, pushed its way through the shadows, bumping the usual wind-like currents aside for just a moment. Feeling it brush up against him, Bakura frowned and his eyebrows deepened. He lifted a hand against the feeling, holding it back for just a moment. The wave seemed to grow as it moved to try to pass him. "Is this…" But his hold on the force slipped and he felt something shoving him away with a strength that surprised him.

"Maybe you're right, Yami." Yugi stood and stretched after a few moments. "I just wish I knew something specific that I could do."

Where are you going?

For a walk. Yugi slipped into some shoes and grabbed a jacket. I need some fresh air.


Watch out!

Bakura glanced back at the lady picking up her dropped groceries and shouting at him to help. "She's fine." He turned around and kept walking at his quick pace.

Why— the voice in his head started to ask again, but Bakura waved a hand and cut him off. "Haven't you felt it?"

Felt what?

Bakura resisted an urge to shout. "Never mind…" He took a deep breath. "I've known Malik for a long time, and he was doing his best to hide it, but I could tell in his eyes – even he's worried about something."

It's in the Shadow Realms though, right?

"Yes…"

Then, um, why are we here?

"I certainly didn't choose to suddenly jump into your body." Bakura ground his teeth. "We were thrown out."

Of the Shadow Realms?

"Can you be any more dense?" Bakura slapped a hand to his forehead, not noticing the couple people who had stopped to watch his apparently single-sided conversation. "I'm sick of this," he cursed lightly. "If I have all this power, why can't I use it? If there's a way to win, then why am I afraid of…" He trailed off and glanced sharply off to the side.

I felt it too.

"Someone opened the Shadow Realms," Bakura nodded and took off running in the direction he had looked, "And I want some answers."

"Y-yami?" Yugi looked around the darkly-lit void that had, only moments ago, been grass, a few brown trees, and two squirrels playing around a park bench.

"Be on your guard, Yugi." Yami's maroon eyes flashed darkly. "Someone brought us here for a reason."

"So true…" A girlish voice laughed from somewhere in the dark around them.

"Where are you?" Yugi looked from side to side.

"Why should that matter?" The girl asked. "It won't change anything. Better to ask what you can do about it. Though…I doubt you would be satisfied with that."

Yami stared straight ahead. "I know that voice…"


It's getting late… Tea glanced at her watch and picked up her pace just a little. I was at Yugi's house a lot longer than I meant to be. She sighed, and if on cue, a nearby streetlamp flickered and turned on. I wonder if I told him the right things. Yugi…both Yugis…they're so strange sometimes. So distant, that I don't really know what to do.

"Gardner?"

Tea glanced up and out of her thoughts at the voice. "Oh, Mai." She managed a smile. "How are you?"

Mai shrugged, "I've been better. But you don't look so hot yourself. Did you just come from Yugi's house?"

Tea's smile faltered a little and she nodded.

Falling in step beside Tea, Mai sighed. "I don't know why you bother. In the end, Yugi's going to do what he's meant to do."

"How can I not bother?" Tea asked, losing her smile altogether. "I'd do anything for him."

"Whoa…" Mai held up her hands. "Don't get me wrong. I think that's great and all. I just don't think there's much point in worrying about it." She turned to face Tea. "You trust him, don't you?"

"Yeah…" Tea said slowly. "With all my heart."

"Then I'm sure he knows it," Mai smiled. "Just let him do something for himself too."

"All right." Tea said softly.

"Anyway," Mai folded her hands behind her head and continued walking. "As I was going to say, I've had enough of men lately. They all…" She stopped as a blur of white darted in front of them and dashed out into the street, and very narrowly avoiding the oncoming cars from both directions. Brakes screeched and drivers yelled. The figure paused ever so briefly to swear back at them, then turned and continued running in the same direction as if hell itself was giving chase.

Mai stared, wide-eyed, and swallowed a couple times as the cars next to her slowly began to resume their normal paths. "Was that…"

"…Ryou?" Tea finished in a similar state of shock. "But I thought…that is, didn't Yugi say that he was…dead?"

Mai shook her head as if trying to clear her mind. "I didn't say anything earlier because it was so strange, but the other day, I saw him in one of the corner shops – just for a moment."

"But how?"

"No idea." Mai wrapped her fingers firmly around Tea's wrist. "But I'm not just going to stand around and talk about it. Come on." Before Tea could object, Mai pulled her across a gap in the traffic and down the same direction that "Ryou" had disappeared.

"Coward!" Yami shouted out into the darkness, turning in a circle, looking for any recognizable form. "Show yourself, Destiny, or can't you face me!"

"I can see your face just fine…" Unmei's voice snickered from all directions. "But you may not like the one that I have to show…"

From behind the angry Pharaoh, shadows began to pull away. Yugi was the first to notice and pulled silently on Yami's sleeve, unable to manage the words. Slowly, Yami turned and spoke with some degree of dread. "Kira…" He felt hope leap up in Yugi, but placed a hand on his hikari's shoulder and squeezed tightly. "That's not the girl you remember."

Yugi looked and saw that he was right. Kira's hands hung limply at her side, pale with very little life in them. Her footfalls were heavy and deliberate, distant from the rest of her but equally cold. No emotion of any kind showed on her face, and Kira's eyes reflected what Yugi had once before seen on Ryou – a sort of empty, soulless existence.

"How observant, Pharaoh," there was a mocking murmur in Unmei's voice as it continued to echo around them. "No, it is not the Kira you remember – her soul is still safely sealed away in the lands of the dead, but right now, her body is mine."

"No…" Yugi shook his head. "Why here? How could you?"

"Ah-ah-ah…" Unmei teased. "I'm not as evil as you think. We had a bit of a bargain, your friend and I. I gave her some of my power…surely you've noticed, Pharaoh?"

Yami clenched a fist. "That's why…"

"Why what?" Yugi asked.

"You've been caught off your guard, haven't you, King of Games? You're afraid to lose…"

"How dare you!" Yami broke in before Unmei could speak further. "How dare you use her like this! For your own entertainment! You treat all of us like pawns, but these are people's lives that you're fooling with – not pieces on a playing board!"

"I'm disappointed, Pharaoh," Unmei said, sounding no such thing. "I would have thought you might realize it by now…" Shining with white light, Unmei's form appeared in the air just behind Kira, and the only evident feature was the growing smirk. "Life is a game. You just have to learn how to play."