I have no good excuse for the lateness, except I got destracted dressing Yami as a sheep for halloween, making Kai jump into volcanoes, and making Yami chase Kai with a GUN while riding a REINDEER!
Yep, welcome to my warped world XD In other words, I became temporarily obsessed with DeviantART -sweatdrops- Heheh... sorry.

I'll not do responces this chappy, but I promise I will next time! Thankies for all the reviews, they motivate me big time! -glomps reviewers-

Now, on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

"This is talking"
"These are thoughts and mind-messages"

Chapter Ten - Before my Yami...

"Yujhi!" Ryoura called mentally to his friend, his voice non-existent without oxygen, even if he wasn't under water. His dark-haired friend made no reaction, remaining as eerily still as the others souls around him. Reaching his arm out -surprised by the amount of effort it took through the water- he grabbed Yujhi's shoulder and pulled the boy towards him, shaking him. "Yujhi? Yujhi, wake up!"

Still, no reaction. Ryoura was getting scared now, terrified by the sight of his friend so lifeless. He continued to try and call Yugi through mind, but it didn't seem to work, and shaking him was getting any more reaction then it had the first time.

"What do I do?" Ryoura panicked, looking around as if to snap inspiration from something around him. Looking down at Yujhi's deathly relaxed face he frowned. "If he can't hear me, it's because of a mental barrier... That I'm going to have to break..." he thought, grumbling. Breaking through a mental barrier wasn't exactly something he was ever thrilled to think about; he could hurt Yujhi and it was sort of an invasion of privacy, looking into someone else's thoughts and entering their soul room. But right now, he didn't seem to have a choice.

He placed his hands at either side of Yujhi's head and slowly let his magic slip out of his palms and run over the magical barrier surrounding his friend's mind, covering it with a light veil. Unlike most, he knew a much simple method of breaking barriers thanks to Bakura; constricting. It took only a minute to surround the entire barrier with a veil of his magic and prepare himself. "Sorry I have to do this Yujhi."

Ryoura clenched his hands into fists, pressed against the side of Yujhi's head, and at the same time the veil he had created clenched in around the barrier, pushing in from all sides and shattering the barrier in seconds. As soon as the barrier disappeared, he closed his eyes and lowered his head, trying to open up a connection between his mind and Yujhi's. "Yujhi? Can you hear me?"

There was silence for a second, them Yujhi's voice echoed in his mind, sounding scared and shocked. "Ryoura?"

Mentally sighing with relief, Ryoura allowed himself to relax and slipped into Yujhi's soul room, leaving the underwater world behind. He felt the all to familiar feeling of his mind moving from one place to another, and when he next opened his eyes he was standing in Yujhi's soul room. It looked very like Yujhi's bedroom, only much bigger, and there were many items that didn't exist in Yujhi's real room.

The room was the same shape as Yujhi's attic bedroom, but there was a large row of shelves lining the wall that used to have a door leading downstairs. On the shelves were a number of things -duel monster cards, a few toys- but it was mostly filled with pictures. And there standing in front of him, was a very confused and exhausted looking Yujhi, eyes darting around the room muttering, "My soul room? How'd I get here?"

"Yujhi!" Ryoura exclaimed, forgetting himself and everything around him for a second and charging at his friend. Yujhi barely had time to acknowledge Ryoura was there before he was tackled down and sent rolling across the floor, eventually finding himself sitting on the floor with Ryoura hugging him tightly. "Man, I've missed you buddy!" Ryoura grinned.

"R-Ryoura?" Yujhi looked up, a bewildered expression on his face. "How did you-? Where did-? How'd I get-?"

"Full sentences for accurate answers, my friend," Ryoura joked, still not letting go of the smaller teen. He didn't realise until the second he saw him how much he'd missed his friend, and the relief running through him was overwhelming. He wiped away the slowly emerging tears and smiled. "Are you ok?"

"How did I get here?" Yujhi asked, looking around his soul room. "Wasn't I just in a battle with Mark?"

"Mark?" Ryoura frowned, confused. "Yujhi, you had a match with Mark ages ago. You..." he looked at the floor and bit his lip, "You lost, and you were... sent to the Shadow Realm..."

"The Shadow Realm?" Yujhi blinked. Well, that explained the odd repetition of his match with Mark over and over again. Then his eyes widened. "Wait a sec', if I'm supposed to be in the Shadow Realm then why the heck are you here? Did you lose to someone too?"

"Uh..." Ryoura blinked, casting his mind back to the red-eyed Yugi that had practically drowned in to get him here. Looking at Yujhi he grinned. "That's not important! All that matters is your safe."

"If trapped inside your soul room in the Shadow Realm safe..." Yujhi muttered, looking around again at the room. "Still, it's a step up from the battles I've been repeating over and over again for... how long?"

"About... three months..."

"Three... months?" Yujhi blinked, shocked.

"But don't worry!" Ryoura said, finally letting Yujhi go from his hug and getting to his feet, pulling Yujhi up with him. "The others'll get us out soon, I'm sure of it!"

Yujhi sighed and looked up at Ryoura. "You think so?"

"Well..." Ryoura mused, causing Yujhi to frown. Seeing the teen was getting upset, Ryoura grinned and ruffled his hair. "If Pep' doesn't get us out soon, I'm give him a smack across the head, ok?"

Yujhi laughed and ran his hand through his messy hair. "Ok..."


Steve stepped up to the side of the pool and looked down into it, shivering slightly from nervousness. Collecting himself, he took a deep breath and sighed, then looked back at the people behind him. "Ok, so what do I have to do?"

"You have to use your Millennium Rod to open the barrier between this world and the dimension the others are in," Ilia explained. She seemed calm, but Steve could see she was worried by the way she clenched her hands then relaxed them again. "After that, you'll have to let your mind relax enough to see into the world beyond the barrier, and from there you have to seek out the others..."

Steve nodded, though he honestly hadn't a clue how to do anything she was saying. Clenching the Rod in his hand he looked down at it and bit his lip, holding it out in front of him so the Eye of the Rod was facing downward. "What am I supposed to do?" he thought, frustrated and embarrassed at his ignorance.

But his body didn't seemed ignorant at all.

While his mind was still cursing himself, his arms raised above his head and he clasped the rod in both hands, his eyes sliding closed. Thoughts slowly calmed until his mind was blank, and for the first time Steve was aware of the soft waves of warmth radiating from the metal in his hands. It didn't make him feel physically different, but he had a strange sensation that a part of him had been unlocked that wasn't part of his physical being, but of his soul. "Do the others feel this all the time?"

"Has he done this before?" Joe asked, scratching the back of his head in confusion, eyes growing wide when a soft glow began to emit from the Rod in his friends hands, "'Cause he sure seems to know what he's doing!"

"It could be one of two things;" Bakura said, not getting up from the floor where he knelt next to Ryoura, "Marik may still inside the Rod, but I doubt that. With the amount of energy Mark drained from him, I'd say he's already passed on."

"And the second thing?" Joe asked, looking back at Bakura.

"He's a natural," Bakura shrugged, looking down at Ryoura so he wouldn't have to look up at Joe. He could almost feel the blond's confused stare, though. "If he is the reincarnation of Seto Kaiba, who was the reincarnation of the High Priest of Egypt, he probably has some influence from the High Priest of his past lives."

"High Priest?" Joe sniggered. "Steve used to by a holy guy?"

"Joe, it was different in Egypt. High Priests were in charged of ceremonies and offerings to the Gods, and Seth was one of the most powerful High Priest's ever," Ilia informed, not taking her eyes off Steve as he lowered the Rod in front of him, his arms out straight and the daggered end pointing towards his chest. "Let's just say you wouldn't want to get on his bad side. And if Steve's influence by him, I'm not surprised he knows what he's doing." Then she thought,"Good thing to, because if he couldn't use the magic himself we'd by sunk."

Steve took a deep breath and held it, focusing on the Millennium Rod and feeling the odd sense that something in his body was flowing into it. It didn't weaken him, but it was a weird sensation. Was this his magic, flowing into the Rod?

And now he was aware of something else; there was something blocking his way to the water in the pool. He couldn't see it, and he knew it wasn't physically there, but somehow he just knew there was a wall on the surface of the water. A magical barrier that he had to break through. Focussing harder, he felt a sudden jolt as he accidentally poured a large amount of energy into the Rod. It was a bit of a shock, which subsided quickly, and he felt the radiating waves from the Rod grow stronger.

"Now!" his mind screamed at him, and no sooner had the thought entered his mind did he Raise the Millennium Rod above his head and brought it down fast towards the water. It struck a hard surface, light exploded from where the Rod had struck, but the barrier didn't break. Pressing hard on the surface, the light grew stronger, and he found himself subconsciously giving his energy to the Rod.

The light was blinding him now, and he was forced to shut his eyes, but he just leaned harder on the surface, waves from the magic so strong it send gusts of wind through the air, but he held on and didn't let them push him away.

Then he felt the surface give way under him, his eyes shot open in shock, but his vision faded to black. His soul was pulled from his body, which fell limp but was stopped from falling into the water when Joe grabbed his shoulders. He could still feel the Millennium Rod in his hands, but all of a sudden the world around him muted and his vision fell in darkness, his soul dragged into the black pool that had claimed his friends.


"Yugi... can you... can you hear me...?"

"Who's there?" Yugi whispered, his eyes still shut. His mind seemed to had awoken, but his body hadn't. He could fell he was lying on a cold, stone surface, but his body ignored orders to open his eyes and move.

"Yugi I'm... low on... energy... can't talk... long..."

The voice sounded so exhausted and weak, Yugi couldn't help worry. "What do you want to say?"

"Don't... don't panic when... something happens... to... Ryoura..."

"Something happens to Ryoura?" Yugi asked, worried. "Why? What are you going to do to him?"

"I won't hurt him... just don't... try to stop... me..."

"What are you going to do to him?" Yugi repeated, more aggressively this time.

"Just trust me..."

"Trust you? Why should I? Who are you?" Yugi waited for a response, but everything around him had gone silent again. Slowly, he felt his consciousness returning to him, his body waking slowly. The voice had disappeared.


"So... what's with all the pictures?" Ryoura asked as he passed the rows of shelves. He picked up one of them, showing a picture or Yujhi and Yugi. Yugi was slightly faded and holding a Duel Monster card out to Yujhi with an insistent look on his face, while Yujhi was looking very critical. "You shouldn't be able to take pictures of spirits... should you?"

"Ryoura, this is my soul room, I can have what I want here," Yujhi smiled, lying back on his bed. "Those are memories I have that are important to me..."

"Fixing your deck is an important memory?" Ryoura asked, his voice curious instead of sceptical.

"It's just... one of the few times we could relax and just talk to each other, without him worrying about his past or evil guys trying to steal the Puzzle..." Yujhi sighed, putting his hands behind his head and staring at the ceiling, smiling when he sensed Ryoura pick up another picture. "First day you and I met... Gotta say, it was a unique meeting."

Ryoura laughed as he looked at the picture; Yujhi was sitting on the floor with a confused and, yes, slightly scared look on his face, looking at Ryoura who was sitting on the floor and holding his stomach while laughing. Joe stood behind Ryoura, scratching the back of his head and smiling nervously at Yujhi. There were all about nine years old. "You didn't know what hit you!"

"Well you wouldn't either if a complete stranger jumped out of no where and screamed in your face," Yujhi chuckled slightly at the memory, turning his head to look at Ryoura. "If you were being introduced to someone and they suddenly popped out of no where like that, what would you say?"

Ryoura threw his arms out as if to hug someone, "I'd say, 'Where ya been broth-ah?'"

Yujhi laughed and shook his head. "Always the comedian..." he muttered, smiling. Then a thought occurred to him. "One question though... what happened to all your slang?"

"Slang?" Ryoura looked over at Yujhi as he picked another photo off the shelf, putting the last one back. "Whacha mean?"

"I don't think you've called a single person 'dude' in months," Yujhi pointed out, propping himself up on his elbows so he could see Ryoura better. "And you don't add 'man' before you talk to people anymore. You know, 'man, how'd you do that?' or 'how you doin' man?'. You used to say that stuff all the time, but it's kinda... disappeared...

"Oh that..." Ryoura chuckled, looking down at the picture of Yujhi and his parents, frowning. "Hmm, how ironic." he thought in his fake amused tone. Sighing his placed the family picture back on the shelf. "I don't know... It was never really me saying all those things..."

"Say what now?" Yujhi asked, tilting his head in confusion.

"I wasn't always as happy as I acted," making his way over to the bed he sat down on the side beside Yujhi, "I just started acting like that one day, and everyone thought it was funny, so I kept it up. It was like I was afraid people would question me if I wasn't 'Happy-Go-Lucky-No-Problem Ryoura'..."

"So... was your entire personality some sort of act?" Yujhi asked, more confused now.

"At first..." Ryoura muttered, surprising Yujhi. "I was hyper when I was little, but not as loud," he looked over at Yujhi and grinned, "or as weird. But when I wanted people to leave me alone I just pretended I was fine. You wouldn't know because we hadn't met then, but lets just say I went through a rough spot in my life that I didn't want to talk about. So I pretended to be happy all the time so people wouldn't ask questions, and I kinda grew into the personality." "Then what's your real personality supposed to be like?"

Ryoura spread his arms and smiled. "You're looking at it. I dunno what it was, but I've become more comfortable with myself over the past... year I think it's been at this point... I just don't feel like I need to act a certain way for people to accept me. So now I act how I want cause I want to, not 'cause I have to."

"Huh..." Yujhi looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully, taking in what Ryoura had been telling him. "Maybe it was Bakura. You did start acting differently after he showed up."

"Ya, you're right." Ryoura agreed, nodding. He then put on the most serious, book-worm voice he could pull off and said, "Bakura and the Millennium Ring can be described as; 'a hazard to ones health, the human race and jellyfish'," he smiled at Yujhi's expression at his last choice of words, his voice lapsing back to normal, "but I don't regret a second since we met. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred we didn't have to visit the Shadow Realm or the hospital so many times, but if it meant changing anything between Bakura and me, I'd go through it all again. He brought out the real me and he didn't even have to try!"

Yujhi smiled at Ryoura and sat up, looking over and plucking the photo of himself and Yugi he had made materialise on the cupboard next to his bed. Looking down at, he smiled at the expressions on both his and Yugi's faces. "I know what you mean, we've both changed... Before Yugi, I wouldn't have stood up to a ten-year-old if they'd taken the Millennium Puzzle!"

Ryoura laughed. "Ya, you would have just asked all politely if you could have it back."

"And if they said 'no' I wouldn't have done anything, I'd just tell you or something, seeing as Steve would blow a fuse and Joe would probably hit them..." Yujhi grinned, still looking at the picture. "But when Mark was fighting me in the Shadow Realm, and I was exhausted and aching all over... I didn't give up. Before I would have quit, I wouldn't have wanted to suffer like I did, but I just refused to let myself do that. I know such a difference in me sounds weird, but I knew that Yugi would have done the same and for some reason that motivated me."

"Looks like Yugi and Pep' were useful for something after all," Ryoura smiled brightly, then sighed and looked down.

Yujhi raised an eyebrow and frowned. "You worried aren't you?"

Ryoura instantly put a smile back on his face -though fake or not Yujhi couldn't tell, he'd become good at faking happiness- and shook his head. "Nah! Maybe about Pepper's mental state, but who isn't?" he dropped a hand on Yujhi's shoulder and grinned. "Don't you be worrying. They'll get us out, you'll see!"

"I wish I could at least act that optimistic," Yujhi thought sadly, looking back up at the ceiling. Lying back on his bed he held he picture frame in front of him and frowned. "Please don't leave me here Yugi..."

"Hey Ryoura? Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," Ryoura said, then smiled dramatically and flicked his hair in mock-annoyance, "but I suppose the mighty Ryoura could answer one more."

Yujhi smiled and set the picture on the cupboard next his bed. Talking would be better then sitting in silence until the others showed up (if at all), plus he'd been curious for a while. "How'd you come to calling Bakura 'Pepper'?"


"Whoa!" Steve yelled, throwing his arms out beside him as he plummeted downwards, which somehow managed to slow him. His muffled hearing and appearance of the area around him told his he was underwater, but he seemed to be falling rather then floating downward unless he tried to slow himself, and he didn't feel the water either. Not only that, but he, himself, seemed to be glowing with an odd light in the blackness, the eye of the Millennium Rod shining even brighter. He didn't question the oddness of it all, however. He'd seen enough to make him believe almost anything.

He didn't know how he was supposed to find Ryoura and Yujhi, nor what he was supposed to do when he found them. All he knew was when he did find them he had to get them to the surface of this weird place, out of the water and back to their Realm. The waters surface was were the Realm began, so he assumed that was the way out too.

Clenching the Millennium Rod he narrowed his eyes and raised his arms directly above his head, allowing his form to plummet downwards again. He wasn't going to let them in here any longer the necessary, and he wasn't leaving without them.


Yugi opened his eyes slowly as the voices around him began to grow louder. He blinked his bleary vision and looked around with eye half-closed eyes. He was lying on his side, and in front of him he could see the orb of light that had been following them lately, but was more of a dim ball of blue then it's normal bright white. He stared at if for a moment, curious, before his eyes wandered a little further, and he saw Ryoura unconscious with Bakura kneeling next to him. He tried to talk, to ask what was going on, but his voice caught in his throat and he coughed instead.

Bakura looked up at Yugi, but made no move towards him. Ilia and Joe were at the steps a few feet away, Steve's unconscious form leaning against Joe. The blond was asking Ilia question after question, fuming at the fact Steve's soul was now in the pool too, while Ilia was trying to assure him that was supposed to happen. Over their own voices they hadn't heard Yugi's weak cough, and so they didn't know he was awake yet.

Yugi raised a shaky hand and placed it on the floor, using it to try and push his sluggish form up. He was still slightly dazed, having only just woken up, but he didn't care. Sitting up with some effort, he placed his hand on his forehead and groaned lightly, glancing at Ryoura then Bakura, who was looking at his hikari and avoiding Yugi's eye contact.

Yugi had been conscious of everything the spirit had done. He knew what had happened to Ryoura, and so he understood Bakura's pain. "Just like when Yujhi was taken... He feels responsible for what happened because he's Ryoura's Yami," Yugi thought, blinking a few times to wake up. "Only he has no way of releasing any of his anger like I did..."

The orb of light next to Yugi flickered weakly and he looked down, confused. "And what happened to you?" he wondered, placing his hand on the ball lightly. It didn't react to his touch by radiating a wave of light, like it usually did. Instead, Yugi felt a sharp sting and it rolled away from him, falling still a foot or two from where it had originally been. "What's going on?"

"Yugi! You're awake!" Joe almost cheered on sight of the Puzzle Spirit, who was still staring at the ball of light next to him. "Now we can-"

"Don't you dare think of getting Yugi to go after Steve!" Ilia yelled, pointing at the pool, "Steve's fine! He's only been in there a few minutes, there's no point in worrying just yet!"

"Fine?" Joe yelled, grabbing the unconscious Steve's shoulders and shaking ihm. "Does this look 'fine' to you?"

"Stop that! You'll hurt him!" Ilia yelled at him. "I know your worried, but panicking won't do any good! Yugi's been through enough right now, he needs a few minutes to recover! If Steve isn't back soon, then you can worry."

Yugi scratched his head as he tried to figure out what was happening from the snips of information they were yelling at each other. From what he could gather, Steve was in the black pool, but if that was the case they just had another soul to panic about. But Ilia said he was fine; maybe the situation was different?

Looking over at Bakura he frowned, seeing the tomb-robber sitting on the floor with his arms folded and resting on his knees, scratching at his jacket idly. He may not have looked it, but Yugi could see the guilt, hurt and anxiety in his eyes; he was so worried whatever the others had planned wouldn't work.

The orb of light on the ground flickered once again, rolling a little closer to Ryoura, making Yugi look at it oddly. There was something about the orb that didn't make him worry about it's actions, like he trusted it, but it's behaviour was beginning to make him feel slightly anxious.

Then he remembered the voice that had spoken to him in his sleep. His eyes grew wide as he looked at the orb. "Could it be?" he thought. Leaning a little closer, he shut his eyes and focussed on the orb as he would a person, and asked through mind, "Are you the one who was speaking to me? Are you then one who told me not to worry about Ryoura?"

...

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Yugi..."

Yugi's eyes shot open and he stared at the orb. "Yami!


To Be Continued
-Phew- that took a while! sorry again for the wait everyone. The interesting stuff should start next chappy, and it gets even better the chappy after that! Sorry if this one was a little dull for you, but meh, it had to be put in somewhere -sweatdrops-
ANYVAY! hope yaz liked some aspect of it! Please review (muchly appreciated XD) and slán slán til next time! (goes off to work on Captain Seto)
Bay Bay!
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