Wow...lookit that! I'm posting a whole week after my last update!

It's a frigging miracle!

...Heh heh, yeah, don't ever expect this quick an update ever again.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Claimer: I own all the stuffs what I makes ups

-

…

His head hurt.

His head hurt. The world was slowly swirling.

His head hurt. The world was slowly swirling. If he moved, he was going to be sick.

His head hurt. The world was slowly swirling. If he moved, he was going to be sick. The cold concrete beneath him and the warm body on top of him were almost comfortable this way.

His head hurt. The world was slowly swirling. If he moved, he was going to be sick. The cold concrete beneath him and the warm body on top of him were almost comfortable this way. Even though it was awkward to be half on harsh concrete and half sprawled over someone's body, it would really be too much trouble to move.

0

His head really hurt. How could you be underneath/on top of yourself and on top of/underneath yourself at the same time?

He pushed himself up, slowly, feeling his whole body protest. The pain was a welcome distraction from his confusing thoughts, anchoring his mind inside his own body and letting the other slide gently to the side - for now.

Hmm. They were in an alley now.

There were no alleys in the HellPit -

Alarmed, Yami pushed himself up, until he was resting on his knees. He would have gotten a lot farther than that, but his body was rebelling against the sudden movement and already Yami was leaning over, retching.

Throwing up seemed to help. At least he didn't feel like doing it again…once his stomach was done emptying itself - thank the gods he had forgone eating back at the hospital - Yami remained hutched over the puddle, debating on whether he had enough energy to fall away from his mess instead of just falling straight on top of it.

Hands were on his shoulder now, and there a voice in his ear was saying meaningless things, asking if he was all right and insisting that he sit back slowly, so as not to upset his stomach again…

Who was that? Oh, Yami realized, it was Yugi. Yami knew who that was.

"You aren't going throw up again, are you?" Yugi was asking now.

"I don't plan to," Yami replied, still feeling a bit light-headed, "But I doubt I should move."

"Smart doubt," Yugi said, "Are you going be okay?"

"Yes," Yami said, which was true - already he felt more like his old self.

"Good," Yugi muttered, apparently to himself, and began inspecting his surroundings.

There wasn't much to see. Aside from the concrete, the brick walls of decrepit buildings stretching into the distance, and Yami's puddle of vomit, there was nothing in this alley.

"How long were we gone, do you think?" Yugi wondered aloud.

Yami frowned slightly as he calculated the time inside his head. If he was right - which he generally was, of course - then it had been only…

"Less than a week, but more than a day," Yami hazarded.

"Oh," Yugi blinked, "Well, good! We need to go find the others as soon as possible - I hope they're all right."

"Hmm," Yami answered noncommittally.

He'd been almost right about the alley being bare, Yami realized. Sitting on the concrete just to the side was a small pyramid of gold. The metal loop on one end prevented the pyramid from resting properly, and its Sennen was pointed towards Yami and Yugi, a wary, staring eye.

Yami reached over and picked it up. It must be hollow for the gold to weigh so little…Yami's brain reoriented suddenly and he realized exactly what he was holding. So THIS was what the Millennium Puzzle looked like when it was completed! It was certainly impressive enough.

"Yeah, the Puzzle was sitting next to us when I woke up," Yugi said, reaching over and cupping his hands around the Puzzle, "Looks like I was right - we solved the Millennium Puzzle, and we got enough power to get out of that place with no problem!"

Yes, they had gotten out of the HellPit…but, as Yami was now recalling, that wasn't the only effect of solving the Puzzle.

Yami reached inwards, probing for the intrusion he had felt developing before. But he couldn't seem to find it. Yami reached down towards the depths of his body and soul, but felt only himself and his own powers. But there was a spot in the back that felt slightly odd…

If this was the power of the Millennium Puzzle in his mind, Yami decided, it didn't feel particularly bad. It was like himself, but darker, with a great deal of power lurking in its depths…

All of a sudden, Yami stumbled across something…light. It was a bright, burning light, something the mage-demon was fairly certain had never existed in his mind before…the light was twined up with his own dark soul, but it didn't feel different from him, even when it did…Yami reached out for the light.

Why was there a presence here? And - Yami started - it felt his probe, and pushed one of its own, awkward and instinctive, right back towards him. Yami registered the presence's unbelievable familiarity in the same instant that Yugi's sudden unfocused gaze and alarmed expression crossed his senses.

"It's you!" Yami exclaimed.

"What?" Yugi blinked, his gaze refocusing suddenly, "It's me what?"

"You felt that, didn't you?"

Yugi was silent for a moment.

"…Felt…you mean, when it felt like… But…how did you…?"

The boy was understandably confused, but Yami knew what he meant. Explaining, now that was going to be interesting.

Gingerly, Yami reached out and brushed the other again. As he did so, Yami said aloud, "Tell me if you feel me doing this."

Yugi's renewed alarm showed that he had, in fact, felt Yami doing that.

"That's you? Why are you inside my head?"

"I believe this may be the work of the Millennium Puzzle," Yami said, eyeing the golden pyramid in Yugi's hands with something like annoyance, "A side-effect of the two of us solving it together, perhaps."

Once again, Yami reached towards the brightness that was Yugi's mind and soul. A moment after brushing the fringes again, Yami felt a clumsy response brush him back.

"That's creepy," Yugi said, "Um…for some reason, it doesn't feel bad, but this most definitely feels creepy. And if you can poke me inside my own head, can I poke you inside yours, or is this one-way?"

"It should work both ways…let me see if I can teach you to find my mind," Yami said.

For someone completely untrained, Yugi learned fast. Yami guided the tendrils of Yugi's consciousness towards him, teasing them gently whenever they lost focus or direction. Just before they reached the walls that protected Yami's core consciousness from intrusion - walls that were still torn and sore from Seto's little rampage earlier - Yami retreated back inside them. Yugi would need to figure out where exactly his mind was on his own…this way would help him learn.

After a moment's floundering, Yami felt Yugi's bright presence touch his walls. Yugi's mind, bright as it was, had had little in the way of defenses, which was why Yami had reached softly inside the boy's mind. But even his strained defenses ought to be enough to keep Yugi out - Yami's thoughts were interrupted as Yugi slipped through his walls and brushed Yami directly. The mage-demon couldn't suppress a shiver - gods, was that what that felt like?

"You okay?" Yugi asked, quite readily picking up on Yami's surprise.

"Yes…" Yami answered distractedly.

Connections and duties aside, there was a serious problem here. No matter what sort of connection the Millennium Puzzle had wrought between the two of them, Yami's walls should not, could not have admitted anything else than Yami's own consciousness without putting up a fight. Yami really hadn't thought much of getting inside Yugi's own shielding without a fight, but now Yugi could do the same thing to him…

Basically, this meant that, on their deepest levels of self, they each recognized the other as being the same as their own self, with the same soul. But there was no way Yami's soul could have…could…have…

Oh.

Oh…

Oh!

0

"What? What's wrong?" Yugi exclaimed.

Yugi was undoubtedly upset because Yami had started chuckling to himself. It was a cold sound, surprised and bitter at the same time, and Yami was having trouble keeping it at mere chuckling instead of full-blown hysteria.

"Yami…?"

Forcibly wrenching himself back to calmness - easily done after feeling another of those electrifying touches inside him - Yami regarded Yugi with something like clinical curiosity. Yugi was worried and confused, but why wouldn't he be? Yugi didn't know yet.

"Do you remember what I said about the Shaded One?" Yami asked.

"The…Shaded One?" Yugi blinked, "Well…yeah. You said that group Bakura knew about had made a deal with the Shaded One, so that they would get powers…right?"

"That is correct," Yami said, "Now, did I mention what the Shaded One wanted in exchange for providing this help?"

There was a moment of quiet.

"No," Yugi said finally, "But…is this why you're…not all demon?"

Yami nodded.

"The Shaded One was not at all interested in any of the material wealth the group had gathered to offer him. Being the spirit that he was, the Shaded One fed on something very specific, and agreed to give power in exchange for that nourishment."

"…And…that was…?" Yugi slowly asked.

"Souls."

Yugi blinked. Then he looked nauseated.

"He wanted to eat your soul?"

"The Shaded One enjoyed eating souls of any sort," Yami said, "Human souls were just the strongest. In exchange for parts of our souls, the Shaded One gave us demon-powers."

He talked faster, wanted to prevent any outbursts from Yugi until everything had been gotten out.

"The power replaced the lost part of the soul. In some cases, the fools offered him their entire souls, and were transformed into mindless but very powerful monsters. Others like myself gave almost none, or almost all, and that was the amount of power we received."

There was a longer pause than before.

"How much…did you give up, Yami?" Yugi asked.

"Half," Yami answered.

"…How much did Bakura give up?" Yugi asked, having come to the obvious conclusion.

"More than I did," Yami recalled, "About three-fourths of his."

"And you just let some evil monster eat your soul?" Yugi exclaimed, sounding angry that Yami had even considered making such a decision.

"The Shaded One didn't eat the way you or I would eat," Yami said, wondering why he felt the need to defend his decision, "He absorbed the souls he received and would keep them inside him, feeding off the energy they produced until they faded into nothingness. Even a small piece of a soul would satisfy him for a hundred years. But it doesn't matter because he was destroyed almost three weeks after the eclipse."

"He was?"

"…The priesthood hunted us down," Yami said, pulling the bloody memories out carefully, "Eventually, only myself and Bakurah were left standing - but not before we destroyed most of the area and killed quite a few people. Seto was the one who finally cornered us. He killed the Shaded One, and the souls inside escaped to the afterlife, where they would regrow, if they were broken, and later be reborn into the world."

"…So when Seto caught you the first time," Yugi said, "…He put you into that empty place. Right? Why wouldn't he just…"

"Why not kill me?"

When Yugi nodded - the boy was not comfortable having this discussion, but he wanted to know badly enough - Yami explained, "Quite ironically enough, the massacre we demonic ones caused took out enough of the royal family that I was the next in line to be Pharaoh. Because Seto had been sworn to protect the Pharaoh from all harm when he became a priest of the court, he couldn't kill me without invoking the wrath of the gods, no matter what I had been up to."

"So he sealed you away…what did he do to Bakura?"

"I have no idea," Yami said, "Sealed him as well, I expect. You can't exactly kill a necromancer without making them more powerful in the process…but that's not the point."

"What is the point, then?" Yugi asked.

"The point, in case you haven't already noticed," Yami said, raising a hand and pressing it against his chest, "Is that that is the reason we are the same inside, you and I."

It took Yugi a minute to track. Then the boy gaped.

"You mean…my…you mean we're...mine came...from...we're the same person?"

"...Almost," Yami replied.

…