Author's note: Hey! I never get a chance to do this, so I just wanted to thank any of you who have read and reviewed either of my stories! Flame or support, I really appreciate it and it helps. Anyway, this is where it starts getting darker, so if you don't like this kind of thing, sorry guys! Please keep in mind that I have not seen the Japanese version of the U.S.A movie made last year, nor have I read the Japanese novel that was released for it, thus I have no idea how they tied the movie in with the storyline. So I am going off of what my original ideas were (please see other story, In the Shadows, to understand). Just making sure you all knew! Enjoy!
Again, he had been sleeping peacefully, trying to regain some strength. Much of the day had passed, and he still hung where he had been for the past few days. The blood had begun to dry, but still dripped slightly. The pain was nearly unbearable, yet Yugi acted as if it were not there. He was confident he would not give into Anubis' dark temptations.
Anubis returned to the room where Yugi was held captured. Instead of having to wake him up this time, Yugi awakened on his own. A bit disappointed, he approached Yugi, but he only hatefully glared at him.
"Why are you so hateful to me?" he asked him. "You know that I and you are not as different as you suspect."
"We are plenty different," Yugi argued. "You are consumed by the darkness in you, which makes us almost opposite."
Anubis laughed.
"Is that so?" he began. "To say there is no darkness in anyone's heart is a lie, as it is to say that there is not light in someone's heart. Darkness is not only evil, but it is also whatever may cover one from the light. Depression, heavy sadness, anger, hate, discrimination, that is all part of it. There is not a person who does not have at least one of those aspects."
Yugi sighed in frustration.
"You tell me what I already know," he said. "Why waste your time telling me this?"
"You do not understand it is why. Even within you, there is darkness. Within everyone, within life, there is darkness. And in this world, there is no escape from it. You are doomed to come face to face with it, sometimes without even knowing it, but be unaware of it, and you are fated to be consumed by it."
Yugi had no time to reply. Anubis' pearl in his crystal pyramid had started glowing, and Yugi waited to see what was in store. A flash shined in his eyes, temporarily blinding him. When his eyes opened, the room was black, and Anubis was not in sight. Yugi still hung from the wall, but it was as if he were hanging in mid air, because everything that had been visible in the room was gone.
The room began to light up again. It was as if he were staring at a giant movie screen. What he saw was a familiar place. Domino City! It was at the park at the center of the city. He saw a familiar child then walk into the sandbox, which was the main setting of the scene. The child, with spiky hair and large cordial eyes, sat in the sandbox alone, watching the other children happily run around and play. Unsure of what to do, the lonely child walked away elsewhere, hoping to escape the sights of fun which he could not experience himself. Unfortunately, he didn't, and his feelings of exclusion worsened. Yugi knew this. He realized he was watching himself. This was a piece of his memory; a flashback. Yugi remembered that event, as he continued watching the short flashback, and how horrible he had felt. The view of the memory brought back the emotion, the feeling, the pain he had felt at that time, which seemed to haunt him.
That would not be the only flashback. Yugi was forced to watch many more, each bringing back a haunting memory or a dreadful feeling which pounded on him emotionally. Bullies beating on him, including his present friends Jounouchi and Honda, his grandfather's soul being stolen away, his duel with Kaiba at Duelist Kingdom, his cruel duel with Jounouchi in Battle City, Mai being sent to Hell, Yami Yugi playing the Seal of Oreichalkos card, and many others were shown to him, and none were exactly among Yugi's most pleasant memories. In fact, they were among his least favorable, for obvious reasons, and seeing them from the outside made him remember only the worst of it all. What hurt him most was the flashback of the departure of his mother. Being the most recent, and the one that bothered him at the time, Yugi had hoped it would not be shown to him. It was when watching this memory, he began to cry. He refused to look away, wanting to show his foe he could survive through everything shown to him, but his heart had been struck hard after this one, and could hide his emotions no longer.
It was the last of the flashbacks, but then he was shown one other thing. It was another clip, but not of the past or present. It was in a hospital, and nurses and doctors surrounded a patient who seemed to be having a heart attack or seizure. The doctors scurried around, trying to save him, but they had been too late. The line had gone straight, and the patient had no pulse. Yugi could not see the patient, but the doctors then moved, allowing him to see who was on the bed. The man's face was not recognizable at first, but looking closely he saw it was an elderly form of Jounouchi. Yugi stared in shock as the scene of the hospital transferred to a graveyard. In that graveyard, it was raining as another elder stood before Jounouchi's grave stone. This old man, Yugi saw, was again himself, standing by his friend's grave. Scarily, the gravestones next to Jounouchi's were of his other friends: Anzu, Honda, Otogi, and even Mai and Seto Kaiba. Yugi could not believe what he was seeing. His friends were all dead, and he watched the older version of himself walk away without a look of concern or grief, leaving not even a flower.
All of a sudden, the room returned to its normal state, Anubis standing next to him. Yugi breathed heavily, a bit shaken up from what he had just seen.
"The past is haunting; the present is hard; the future is doom. All three spark fear and darkness in the minds of many," Anubis explained to him. "Can you not see it? You just reviewed everything from your past and your present, and saw what destiny has for you. This is all kept in your mind, in your heart, and continues to grow and overwhelm the goodness within you."
Yugi was silent for a moment.
"This was once I. I, too, let it grow and burn my tenderness to ashes, but I have found a way to revive it. Do you now understand how similar we are? Why I am hateful towards society?" he continued.
Yugi, still trying to recover, only nodded.
"How can you see the world as I, especially with your growing darkness? You live denying the world's truth, which is its black nature. Why is this so?" he asked of him.
"I don't see it like you do because though I do have darkness inside of me, like everyone else, I never let it overwhelm me," Yugi began. "You're right. A pure heart in the world does not exist, and the world does have an existing black nature that has been made obvious. But there is a better side to it, too, and that, I have found. Because of that light, I can't see the world negatively much, even in times of despair."
Anubis turned his back to him.
"Maybe you were not aware of this, but I have been watching you in preparation. I must admit, I am impressed by what you have overcome and survived. But on the path you are on, the path of suffering and constant hardships, you cannot last much longer. How long do you wish to continue to struggle? Can you make it down the entire road?"
"I didn't pick the path I'm on. It's what was destined for me to take. If this is the way I have to go, then I accept it. With my friends as my guiding light, I'll continue this road."
"Can you continue it alone?" he faced towards Yugi again. "You sound as if you rely on your wasted trust to get you through. You have faith in a light with many dark spots in it. Do you not see how much of yourself you waste on people? You are giving them your soul, and they slowly are taking it piece by piece."
Yugi denied his words.
"Do you not recall some of your flashbacks? When Jounouchi vowed to kill you for Malik?"
"He was brain washed and possessed. That was not Jounouchi talking and committing the acts, but Malik. And in the end, Jounouchi broke free of his control and saved me," Yugi argued.
"What about your other half playing the Seal of Oreichalkos?" he said.
"His intention was not to betray my trust, but to win. He knows better now."
"Maybe it was not intended to betray your trust, but he did. He disregarded it and played it anyway, all for the sake of winning. And then the worst happened, and Yugi, you were sacrificed."
Yugi was about to argue back, but was cut off again.
"And what about your mother? You had trust in her to be your guardian, your parent, your family, but she abandoned that trust and her responsibility!"
This was on topic Yugi could not argue against, because half of him agreed with his enemy. Starting to shake, Yugi remained quiet. He could not admit to him that had an edge.
"You abuse yourself and your trust by overusing it on the wrong people," he pointed out again. "There are three types of people: the carcasses, the scavengers, and the predators. The carcasses are peaceful and kind hearted, but are defenseless and weak. The predators are strong and attack at will, but are consumed by their own selfish desires. The scavengers, they are cowardice and have little pride, but are patient and strike when the time is right, and take whatever is left. No matter how bold or pathetic one may look, he is still of one type, and his characteristics of his type. Only one type however, can progress. Predators die because they have a civil war for power with one another, and thus self destruct. A carcass can never succeed anywhere because it is dead and has given himself up. He has no faith in his self, and allows others to easily take from him and step on him. What takes from the carcasses are the scavengers. The scavengers are the only ones that can continue on, for they wait for the predators to die out, and for the carcasses to appear. That is when they show themselves, and they time it to perfection as they take what they need. In this case, you are the carcass, they are the scavenger. You are the dead body, they are the vultures. You have shown them your dead body, now they will pick every last piece of flesh on your bones to help them continue on while you are left with nothing but death."
Yugi, despite understanding how this idea was created, didn't buy his theory. He continued to refuse to believe his friends were capable of betrayal.
"That is why the world is horrible," he continued. "You cannot rely on anyone but yourself. Cold hearts are overtaking the world, preventing true happiness from being fulfilled. What is worse is that it is all believed to be a step towards perfection, to a better life. The world does not understand that they are trying to create a paradise that cannot exist here."
Yugi had had enough of his negative rambling, even though he brought up points that had Yugi questioning some things.
"You only say these things because you haven't seen the brighter parts of life!" he scolded.
"You only resist me because you deny the truth, and that is your problem. You do not see that in this world, there is nothing worth living for, because everything is deceit. You are always alone, and if you cannot adapt to going about life on your own, you will not survive."
There was a moment of silence between the two, indicating to Anubis that Yugi had no reply to him. He walked away and out of the room, somehow knowing he had left Yugi with something to think about.
Yugi was relieved to see him gone. He did not know how much more of Anubis' explanations he could take. He could hear Yami Yugi calling to him from within the back of his mind.
"What kind of twisted mind does he have? Don't believe a word he says. You're right, Aibou. He is not," Yami Yugi told him.
"I cannot hate him for the way he is," Yugi admitted. "I understand the pain he has had before."
"That may be true, but I can't forgive him for trying to pull you into darkness," he said. "Are you okay, Aibou? Must have been a bit stressing, especially when he brought up, well you know."
Yugi sighed.
"I'm fine," he said. Yami Yugi was skeptical of his answer. "I am. He can tell me all this, but that doesn't mean I have to believe it."
Yami Yugi wished not to bother his partner any longer. He left Yugi alone to rest, hoping that help would come soon. It was hard to watch him try to fight a strong foe that really did speak some of the truth of the world.
Yugi knew that better than Yami Yugi did. Anubis had been right about many things, and now Yugi began finding himself in doubt and losing faith. He tried to rest, but questions and fear kept him awake.
The gang had finally arrived at the Kaiba Corporation main building. Luckily, they were able to catch Seto's younger brother, Mokuba, downstairs at the time. With his help, they were granted the wish of visiting Seto in his main office upstairs. They explained their problem and idea to Mokuba, who was a bit surprised by the entire thing. He agreed to do what he could to help them as they arrived at Seto's office.
Jounouchi not being among Seto's favorite people, Seto, when they all first entered the office, turned his spinning chair around, not wanting to face them.
"Perhaps you shouldn't be the one to talk to him," Otogi whispered to Jounouchi. Angrily, Jounouchi agreed.
"Seto," Anzu began, "we need a favor. Could you help us?"
"I'm busy," he sighed in frustration.
"Please, Kaiba?" Honda asked him politely. "You're the only person that can help us!"
"I don't have time for this nonsense!" he snarled. "Leave!"
"Kaiba we need you to pull through for us!" Otogi hollered at him.
"Come on, you idiot! Help us out here! Yugi needs help, and he's not going to get any without your help!" Jounouchi couldn't help but snap at Kaiba. Honda pounded his head.
"You're the idiot! We told you not to say anything! Now he's not gonna help us for sure!" Honda complained.
Kaiba actually paid attention to the part about Yugi, and disregarded the rest of Jounouchi's rude statement. Seto had remembered over hearing the many problems Yugi was having at the time, and almost pitied him for it. He knew what it was like to have family problems. Now that Yugi was missing, Seto actually began to fear Yugi might be at risk not with other people, but with himself.
"Brother," Mokuba pleaded, "both you and me know his pain. And we can't forgive ourselves if something were to happen to Yugi that we could have helped prevent. Seto, let's help them, for Yugi's sake."
Seto turned his chair around with a serious, yet annoyed look on his face. He was silent momentarily. He was about to do something he'd normally not do.
"What do you need?" he asked the group.
The gang sighed happily.
"Look, Yugi's missing, but he has his duel disk with him, and your computer has a program that detects the simulator on it that sends a signal to a surveillance system in it," Otogi told him. "Is there anyway you can use that and look up where he is?"
Kaiba held his head.
"That program has long since been moved to a different file, one of the many on our computer data at Kaiba Corp. Once Battle City ended, I didn't have much of a need for it, so I had it stored by one of my workers into a different file," he explained to them. "To make it worse, the worker that moved it was released. It could take me all night to find this program, but I suppose that, under these rare circumstances, I could find it for you and locate Yugi."
They all leaped into the air, Anzu attempting to leap in Honda's arms, but Honda did not catch her. Kaiba was doing them a huge favor for once, and soon they would be able to find Yugi and hopefully bring him home safely.
"Kaiba," Jounouchi said in a calm manner. "Thank you. We owe a lot for this."
"Come back tomorrow morning. I should have it by then," he snarled at him and sent them on their way.
Jounouchi and the gang left as Seto began searching the computer files for the program which would locate Yugi. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a card he had not used or seen in a long time. He removed the glass case and took out the rare, powerful card that only suited his deck. Seto recalled its significance and placed it next to the computer, using it as a motivation to find the program. Mokuba then pulled up a chair next to him, wanting to help his brother find what he was searching for. He, too, knew the importance of that card to Seto, and knew that Seto, for among the first times, was not doing this for a future favor, but for a friend's safety.
Author's note: Sorry again, but please keep in mind that I am no computer whiz, so the entire thing about the duel disk simulator may be inaccurate. If anyone can help me out with that, please let me know and I'll fix it up somehow. Thanks again!