"Oh Ra…" Malik suddenly gasped. Keeping watch over the unconscious Ryou Bakura for the past six hours, he had seen no change in his condition. The red haze that covered him from the waist down had not increased or decreased. Until now, of course. "Isis! Everybody! Come quickly!"

He dashed to the door, shouting louder.

"Now!"

"What is it?" Isis answered, rushing from another room, where she had been seeing to her guests' needs.

"Look!" he just pointed as Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda gathered around the stone slab where Ryou's body lay. The red haze had spread, considerably so, within a mere instant. Everything below his cheeks was tinted red.

"What happened?" Jou asked.

"Did all of that happen at once?" Rishid asked, standing behind them.

"Yes!" Malik answered, exasperated.

"If this were duel monsters, he would have had to loose almost half his life points in a single attack!" Yugi gasped. "Only a monster like Kaiba's blue eyes ultimate dragon could do that."

"Well, something happened…" Anzu trembled as she spoke.

"He's not dead yet, is he?" Honda asked.

"No." Isis quickly replied. "There are still a few inches of his body that aren't tinted in red. It is still possible that he might survive."

"That's right. We only see his life. We do not know that of his competitor." Rishid reminded them. "We do not know how much damage he has caused to them."

"Yes." Malik nodded as well, attempting to be hopeful when the situation looked bleak. He placed his fingers gently on Ryou's neck, again testing for a pulse. It was still there, but it was weak, and fading fast.

"But we must let fate play its game." Isis solemnly replied. "This is a battle that he must win, on his own. We must merely be ready to help him when he returns."

"If he returns." Honda sighed, tilting his head back. "God! Why would he do this in the first place? Why come half-way across the world, cross over to the world of the dead, to say goodbye to someone that tried to kill you for years?"

"Honda's right! He should be happy!" Jonouchi exclaimed. "Just think of how much Yugi had to sacrifice for him! He should be grateful that the pharaoh finally kicked the thief's sorry ass back to the shadow realm!"

Yugi's eyes fell to the floor.

"Jou, that's enough." He finally whispered. "Please…"

The friends exchanged a strange glance, and Jonouchi quieted his outburst. He looked at his best friend quizzically.

"That's exactly what we all thought. We thought we were setting Ryou free." Yugi finally continued, his voice surprisingly stern. "He never said anything, so I… I thought that's what he thought too. But it's clear, just from him coming here, that we must have been wrong."

"What are you saying?" Honda turned, glaring at Yugi. "That the pharaoh should have lost?"

"Of course not!" Yugi jumped. "He was trying to destroy the world! Of course he should have been stopped! But, even after he was, no one really thought about how big a change it had to have been for Ryou. We were all focused on helping the pharaoh move to the afterlife, and… and what it meant for him and me."

Everyone glanced around at each other.

"No one even bothered to ask Ryou how he felt. He had another soul inside of him for a long time too. And what did we do? We went back to school, and pretended that none of it ever happened. I know I've been pretty quiet these past few weeks, but did any of you even talk to Ryou since we left Egypt?"

Jonouchi rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, no." he confessed. "But he still should've been happy!"

"I didn't either."

"No… I guess we didn't." Anzu finally confessed as well.

"We're the closest friends he's ever had." Yugi sighed. "And we didn't even say a word to him."

They nodded guiltily.

"In fact, for the most part, unless the evil spirit of the ring was trying to take over, none of us really talked to him." Yugi surprised himself with those words. "All of last year, after Battle City, before the trouble with the Oricalchos and the battle with Dartz, I didn't even notice if Ryou was at school. He was just so… quiet."

"I didn't pay any attention either." Anzu sighed.

"I bumped into him once or twice." Honda recalled. "But he never said anything. Ever. You know, I think the teacher said something about him being in the hospital. But I can't remember."

"I don't remember either."

"Guys!" Jonouchi shouted, attempting to break them out of their sudden depression. "Ryou Bakura's just like that. He is quiet! Hell, he's got that whole apartment to himself! And for once, that spirit wasn't taking over! He was probably just so relieved that he didn't know what to say!"

"His whole apartment to himself…" Anzu sighed. "Jou, that's right."

"Of course it's right." He arched his eyebrow and gave a cocky smile. "Wait, what's right?"

"I think I understand why he came here…" Anzu looked up, catching everyone with her sad eyes. "Guys, the spirit of the millennium ring might have been evil… But I think Ryou felt that was all he had."

The room fell silent.

"All he had?"

"We haven't been very good friends…" she sighed. "Yugi's right. Unless the spirit of the ring was up to no good, none of us even noticed if Ryou existed."

Yugi nodded.

"He has no family. They all died a long time ago, remember? He lives by himself. And we're the closest friends he's ever had." Anzu added. "So when we weren't there… at least the evil spirit was. He was always there."

Some of them nodded, while a few just stood contemplating what Anzu had just said.

"Maybe that's why he always seemed to have the ring, even after I tried to throw it away." Honda whispered. "If that was the only thing that gave me company, I'd probably want it back too. Hell, I'd probably search the forest around Pegasus' castle until I found it again."

Yugi only nodded. He drew a deep breath, and let out a long sigh.

"Isis, fate didn't bring Ryou here." He turned, and met Isis' solemn gaze with his big amethyst-colored eyes. "We did."

His head drooped to the floor, while Malik put an arm around his sister for more support.

"All those years, we thought we were being his friend. But in the end, we're the ones that drove him to do this… this ritual." Yugi continued. "It's no wonder Ryou wanted to say goodbye. I didn't want to say goodbye to the pharaoh. And Ryou's saying goodbye to the only friend he's ever really known."

"Yugi, you can't be serious!" Jonouchi shouted one last time.

"Yes. I'm very serious." He said quickly, and walked over to where Ryou lay. The light hadn't changed since it overtook his chest and neck. "When he gets out of this, we need to be here. We really need to be here for him!"

"You're right." Anzu exclaimed, joining Yugi next to the stone slab. "We need to be the friends Ryou needs, the friends he's needed for a long time."

Honda lowered his eyes to the floor.

"Yeah. You're right, Yugi." He weakly added.

Even Jonouchi, who argued with them for the past hour, eventually joined his friends in their vigil.

"I knew they would be able to help." Malik rubbed his sister's shoulder encouragingly.

"Yes. You were right, brother." She smiled, although her expression was rather empty. "I only worry that it might be too late…"

"No." Malik quickly stopped his sister's concern. "The power of friendship will win in the end. Fate has decreed that."

She weakly nodded, and turned back to the body of Ryou Bakura and the red light that covered almost everything.