Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, I don't feel like I have any free time anymore!
Ahh! I just realised the next chappy is probably gonna be the last or second-last chappy! WAA! -cries- I'm gonna miss this story so much!
Ok, I'll stop cribin'. Huggles to all my reviewers you guys are the best!

Reponses to Reviews:
BookDragon: Bwaha! I freaked out the reviewer! Yup, this has been planned for AGES and I'm glad people are reacting this way! You'll have to read to understand the entire thing, don't lose all hope til you've read the explanation! XD Hope you enjoy the chappy!

yugirules: I know, Yami's joined the dark side! -cries- Well, they did lose Bakura, so I guess it was only fair XD This parts not as interesting, but I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reviewing!

Ashla: Suzie you weirdo, you guessed it back in chapter five! Guess you forgot -sweatdrops- No, you'll have to find the clues yourself! They weren't majorly obvious... like the whole sounding like a Kuriboh was a clue, but I guess that's not very obvious. Anyway, happy clue-searching! Thanks for reviewing too sis! -glomps-

cheeky-eyes: Real glad you liked it! Hi Pepper! -waves- Strange, to used to calling Bakura that XD Glad you both like it and hope you like this one too!

Chicary: Ah, you know me well. But do you know me well enough? And yes, I AM messing with your minds! BWAHA! It's one of the many privileges of being the author. This chappy's gonna explain a few things, so I hope you enjoy!

pagethereviewer: Yes, it would be quite dull without twists would it not? Heehee, glad you liked the last chappy and hope this ones half as good -sweatdrops- heehee. Thank you for reviewing!

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

WARNING: Ya... I'm putting a warning for the way Yami acts at the end, just to be safe.

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

Chapter Thirteen - Yami's Secret Darkness

The black-clad Yami grinned as Yugi's eyes widened, staring at him with a mixture of shock and fear. He chuckled softly, causing Yugi to shiver, and let his gaze rise to the group standing before him. Each person looked equally as surprised as the boy he was holding with his arm, brown and blue eyes staring at him with horror.

His gaze landed on a pair of familiar brown ones and smiled in fake warmth, "Bakura, how are you my old friend?" he asked, twirling the rope of the Millennium Ring idly around his fingers. His smirk widened as the tomb-robbers eyes filled with anger at the sight of his Millennium Item in Yami's hands. Tightening his arm around Yugi's throat he received a gag from the teen, enjoying the flinches that ran through the group at the sound.

His gaze landed on Ryoura and Yujhi, focussing on the shorter of the two. "I see you've both returned..." he whispered thoughtfully. Yujhi took an involuntary step back. He shook his head, almost sadly, "Foolish, foolish children... You could have saved yourself such torment had you just remained there..."

"Wh-at are you do-ing," Yugi choked out, his hands gripping Yami's arm and trying to pull them away from his throat so he could breath easier, but with a sword in one hand it wasn't an easy task. He considered attacking with the sword, but... could he really attack him? This was Yami. There had to be an explanation for all this.

"Hmm?" Yami blinked in mock confusion, tilting his head and looking at the smaller boys face, "My my, Yugi, whatever do you mean?" His arm tightened around Yugi's neck again, receiving another painful gasp from the other Puzzle-spirit.

Yujhi winced and took a step forward, "Why are you doing this!" he yelled angrily, fists clenched by his side, "You're his yami! You're supposed to protect him! Why are you doing this?"

Yami looked up at Yujhi and narrowed his eyes, raising the Millennium Ring directly in front of him, his arm stretched out in line with Yujhi. The Ring suddenly flashed golden, and a wave of magic shot out, striking Yujhi in the chest and hitting him back. Joe had been standing behind the boy and managed to catch him, but the force knocked him to the floor. Lowering the item to his side again, he shook his head and tutted, "It's not polite to yell, Yujhi..." he looked back at Yugi, whose eyes were shut tight in pain. Smiling, he loosened his grip slightly, allowing the teen to gasp in a few breaths. "But it would also be rude of me not to answer your question..."

"You want to know why I'm here? Why I'm acting this way?" he looked around the at the silent faces, so full of anger and hate, yet too afraid of him to attack, he leaned down and hissed into his once-hikari's ear, "It's because you... You made me this way Yugi..."

Yugi opened his eyes slowly and moved them to look at Yami's. They were life-less; moving, gazing, glaring, but not alive. "Me?" he muttered, his voice sounding before his mind knew it had.

Yami's eyes narrowed and his grip tightened again, instantly cutting off Yugi's air suply. Ilia gasped and Yujhi moved his hands as if to cover his face, but stopped half-way. Bakura clenched his hands and the other three looked ready to attack. But they didn't. "Yes! You!" Yami yelled, his voice flaring with anger, "You ruined my life that day you left... I didn't want to eat or talk, because food had no taste and all I could talk about was how I let you down. I didn't want to sleep or think, because every time I closed my eyes you were there! I couldn't get you out of my head!

"And THEN!" he yelled as he grabbed the shoulder of Yugi's jacket and throwing him to the floor. Yugi gasped and coughed heavily, but didn't try to get up, "Then you did the worst thing of all! You came back, and for a few pitiful minutes I thought my life was alright," he scoffed and slammed his foot down on the teens back, hearing a yell of protect from Yujhi as Yugi cried out in pain, "but you didn't stay... You left me Yugi! You left me again after giving me the false hope that life could be normal again! Did you think it was funny! Do you like toying with peoples emotions? Do you like destroying peoples lives?"

"No..." Yugi muttered weakly, shaking his head. Tears were brimming in his eyes and his hand tightened around the hilt of the sword.

"Yugi!"

Yugi let out a yell as the voice echoed in his mind, throwing the sword away from himself as if it had burned him. He would have scrambled further away had Yami's foot not been holding him in place. But... wasn't it Yami's voice he heard from the sword?

"Yugi, listen-!"

It was Yami. Yugi threw up a mental barrier around himself, silencing the voice that echoed in his mind. Was he in both the sword and in his own form? Was he trying to taunt him more?

"No?" the Yami above him hissed, digging his heel in Yugi's back angrily. Then, suddenly, he raised his foot away from Yugi, placing it on the floor and smiling slightly, "No... Of coarse you didn't... because you're my Yugi..." he knelt down and grabbed the back of the boys collar, lifting him off the floor and wrapping both arms around the boy's shoulders again, "My brother would never want to hurt me like that, would he?"

Yugi shivered, terrified at the spirit's sudden change of personality. Unable to form words from his stuttering mouth, he just shook his head, looking up at Yami with wide, fearful eyes.

"No, of coarse not..." Yami smiled eerily, and had his grip been a little lighter, it almost seemed like the spirit was hugging Yugi. His voice suddenly dropped when he spoke next. "But you did."

Yugi's heart leapt. What was he going to to now?

"So it's only fitting you suffer just as much as I did..." Yami let Yugi got abruptly and stood up, the Puzzle-spirit at his feet too scared and shocked to move. Raising his arms out beside him Yami shut his eyes and a golden glow surrounded him.

Ryoura's eyes widened and he stepped back, "Bakura is he-?"

"Yes," Bakura growled, turning to the others. "Get out of here!"

"Are you serious!" Steve and Joe yelled in unison, both shook his was Bakura who had said it and not one of them.

Yujhi looked back and forth from Yami to Bakura, "What about Yugi?"

Bakura grabbed Yujhi's jacket and started dragging him away from Yami and Yugi, "If you value your life in the slightest you'll move!"

"Bakura it's no good!" Ilia called, looking back, "He's put up a barrier!"

Cursing to himself Bakura looked back at Yami.

Two glowing items appeared in the air in front of Yami's hands, his fingers closing around them, and another appeared around his neck. One more appeared around the wrist opposite to the one the Millennium Ring hung from, and when the light died Yugi saw five Millennium Items adorning his darker half, the eye and scales in his hand, key around his neck and Ring and Necklace around his wrists.

Half opening his eyes he smirked down at Yugi, then with a simple flick of his wrist Yugi was lifted off the floor, hovering only lightly above the ground in front of Yami. Yugi tried to move his arms, but found himself almost frozen, unable to move his hands more then an inch or so through the air.

Stepping forward the taller spirit wrapped his arms around Yugi's torso and pressed both the Eye and the Scales against the Millennium Puzzle hanging around Yugi's neck, lifting it up so Yugi could just see his friends over the top of it's golden surface. Leaning his head against the side of Yugi's, Yami grinned, "I had to suffer the death of my closest friend... for you to truly feel the same amount of grief with a short amount of time to live... Killing all of your friends will have to do."

"No!" Yugi yelled, struggling hard against the invisible magic that bound him. It was no use. Tears brimmed in Yugi's eyes as he looked at his friends, who had turned to face him when he'd yelled, "Please Yami, don't do this..."

Yami shook his head slightly, "You didn't listen to me when I asked you not to leave me... why should I listen to you now?"

Bakura narrowed his eyes. "He has us trapped... there's no way out..." he raised his arm across himself and slashed sideways in his usual fashion to summon the Millennium Sabre, "To hell if I'm not going to die fighting..."

"Ah ah ah," Yami scolded playfully as he watched Bakura summon the glowing green sword, "Fighting is wrong." He lifted a finger from holding the items and pointed it forward.

Ryoura yelled as an excruciating flare of pain shot through his arm, gripping the injury the spirit had inflicted on his arm hours before, just before dragging him into the temple. He tried desperately to hold back a cry, but the pain was too much. His vision swam and his body grew weak, collapsing to the floor as the injury on his arm glowed a fiery red once again. It only lasted a few seconds, but the pain was so intense tears had fallen from Ryoura's eyes without him even realising it.

"Ryoura!" Bakura faltered as he was about to charge, looking back at his light when he had yelled.

A perfect distraction.

"No! Don't do it!" Yugi yelled as a glow erupted from all the items around him. Yami chuckled in Yugi's ear and the boys vision was blinded by the glow of the items and the tears in his eyes.

"Don't worry, little one..." Yami whispered tauntingly in his ear, "I haven't finished toying with them as you did me, this is just a warm up... Should one of them die, wonderful. Should it not, it leaves more fun for me later."

Yugi cried out as an explosion of magic tore forth, aimed higher then Yugi had expected. The area thundered as the magic struck the ceiling, glowing cracks shooting across the thick rock surface." No!"

Bakura threw his arm up and held the Millennium Sabre horizontally above him, gripping the hilt tight and placing his hand on the flat side of the blade. As a large portion of the rock broke away, a wave of magic emitted from the sword, spreading a creating a rounded barrier above the group. Bakura gasp as energy tore out of his body to fuse the barrier, his vision fading.

"Guys help!" Ilia called to the others as she jumped to Bakura's side and grabbed his arm, trying to help keep the barrier up by giving him some of her powers. Steve was quickly at Bakura's other arm, not sure what to do but gripping Bakura's arm as well, a wave of energy fleeing him instantly. Joe pulled Ryoura to his feet and they both gripped Steve's arm, transferring their energy to him and then Bakura.

Bakura blinked, dazed at the flood of magic in his body. Stars seemed to swim before his eyes, the energies becoming overpowering. He couldn't focus, the power was too much for him to handle.

So his spell broke, the barrier shattering in a bright green light. The rocks collapsed down on the group. Another, almost unnoticeable white light flashed near the group -a final attempt to save themselves?- before the rocks crashed down on top of Yugi's friends.

Yami laughed loudly and hugged the crying Yugi, "This is so much fun! So much fun!" he giggled insanely as he released the magical ties on Yugi's body, holding onto the teen and he thrashed and kicked wildly, trying to get free of the spirits grasp. "No, not yet Yugi... I want to kill them in one final battle. To torture them there, and have you watch every bit of it..."

"No! Let me go! Yujhi!" Yugi yelled tearfully as Yami began to pull him away from the rubble that lay before them. He tried everything, from kicking to scratching and even tried biting, but nothing worked. He called his hikari and his friends, he tried to reach out with his magic but found Yami had blocked them, and he tried again and again to get free of his others grasp. Nothing worked. Feeling helpless and heartbroken, Yugi let his head drop to rest on the arm Yami still had around his shoulders, tears streaming down his face.

Yami merely chuckled and continued down the corridor, dragging the sobbing teen with him and humming happily to himself.


"You saved us..." Joe whispered, his voice mixed with shock and confusion. All around him was rubble, rocks that had fallen from the ceiling and crashed around them, burying them alive. But a barrier had appeared around them just before the rocks fell too far, so they rocks were built around them in a domed shape. "Why?"

Ilia clung to Steve's arm, afraid of what she saw in front of her. Steve reached his hand over and placed it on her arm, but whether to reassure himself or her she didn't know. "What's going on?" She asked, tightening her grip on Steve's arm as the person looked at her.

Or rather spirit. A grey-scale, translucent image of Yami stood in the centre of the dome, a soft wave of magic emitting from his form.

"Please..." Yami whispered, his voice full of such sadness Ilia couldn't help but for sorry for him, if only for a fleeting moment, "I made a mistake... I've come back to correct it."

"You split up your soul."

Yami turned his head slightly towards the tomb-robber sitting to his left. The thief had been unlucky to have been hit in the head by one of the smaller rocks that had fallen before the barrier was erected, and was presently pressing some of the material from the end of his jacket against the injury in his left temple while sitting on the floor. Ryoura stood by his side, still a little shaken from his injury hurting him again. He hadn't taken his eyes off Yami yet, however, and was too tense to sit down. "Yes..." Yami answered simply, his eyes lowering to the floor.

"Wait.. what are you talking about?" Steve asked, looking fro Yami to Bakura. "Split your soul? You... You can do that?"

"Yes," Bakura nodded, pulling the material away from his injury before pressing it down a little harder, "Put simply, you can take a part of yourself, of your existence, and place it in an object..." Bakura raised his gaze to Yami, "The Millennium Puzzle?"

Yami nodded solemnly, "I... I don't know why I did it... I guess I just wanted to protect Yugi... after I was gone..."

"Yugi was locked away in the Puzzle and he still felt the need to protect him?" Ilia thought sadly, "The poor guy... he never got over losing him..."

"When I placed a portion of my soul within the Millennium Puzzle, it was the day Yugi had reappeared to me," Yami continued, still looking at the floor, "He'd disappeared so suddenly I was torn, but it was like a wake-up call. I realised he was really gone forever...

"But I didn't want to leave him to carry my legacy alone, so I put some of my own soul into the Millennium Puzzle,(1)" Yami closed his eyes and shook his head, "But I forced out all my anger... I only put in the part of my soul that I had become most familiar with over the months, I never realised what I was doing. This spirit that attacked you, this part of me, is filled with nothing but anger and hurt. He's a reflection of my self-hate, my loneliness, my guilt and my secret anger towards Yugi at leaving me. That's it. He has no other emotion. He doesn't have the side of me that realised why Yugi did all this, that he," Yami swallowed hard, "that he did it because he loved me and wanted me to have the life he believed I deserved. Over the years I learned to understand that, and I lived how I thought Yugi would have wanted me too.

"But this part of me has none of that. Though he has some care for Yugi, he is only out to satisfy himself." Yami raised his head and looked around at the group around him, "Once his anger has been quelled he will cease the need to live and will disappear from existence, returning to my true soul."

"True soul?" Yujhi asked before the others could.

"My soul in the afterlife," Yami smiled sadly at Yujhi, spreading his arms slightly beside him, "What you see now is only another, weaker portion of my soul, a mere reflection. My darker side is fuelled with your life-force," he said, looking to Ryoura, "So his had powers now I couldn't compete with."

"What did you say?" Bakura growled, glaring at Yami.

The spirit sighed, "I know your angry, Bakura, but Ryoura is-"

Bakura was on his feet in a second, "Only alive because of someone elses life-force!"

"Mine," Yami said sternly, narrowing his eyes at Bakura. In an eerily calm voice he continued, "We don't have time for this Bakura. If we don't stop my darker side soon I will cease to exist. I'm using more energy then I should keeping this barrier up, and if I stay much longer I won't be able to protect any of you. He will kill you. He has decided that's what will satisfy his anger and it's all he exists for. Unless you can defeat him in a head-on battle, he will follow you all for the rest of your lives until he makes sure you meet a painful end. And Yugi will be dragged along with him..."

Yujhi looked at Yami sadly. As a pure soul instead of a solid being, Yami's emotions were a little easier to pick up to the people around him. As he was connected with the Millennium Puzzle, Yujhi was even more aware of the spirits emotions, and could feel the guilt Yami felt in the pit of his stomach. It was painful. Shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts, Yujhi pulled himself to his feet also. "So how do we stop him?"

Yami looked up and smiled slightly. Yujhi reminded him of his own hikari. When he spoke, his voice was that of authority, demanding the attention of those around him, "You need to get out of here before we came do anything, but my magic isn't strong enough, you'll have to do that yourself." he looked around at the group, all of who nodded in turn. Bakura just grunted, avoiding Yami's eyes. He was probably still upset to learn his hikari had been temporarily dead.

Pushing his worry aside, Yami looked at Yujhi, "When you get out, I'll have returned to my other form. I must get to Yugi. Most likely my darker side has gone down to the lowest floor, which is actually a mistake on his part. If I can get to Yugi while in there, I'll be able to summon more of my powers."

"How come?" Ryoura asked, speaking for the first time to Yami. He had been a little nervous, even afraid, to talk to Yami, but once he learned the spirit had saved his life he was a little less worried. "Besides, I knew he was the little ball of light from the start, and I would have sensed if he was bad. I know I can trust him."

"You'll see. If it works," Yami said, closing his eyes. "Get ready..." he whispered, hearing almost instantly the sound of shuffling around him. Bakura had moved nearer the centre of the circle and the others had joined him. Once he felt the magic building between them his took a deep breath and sighed shakily; holding the barrier was harder then it looked, "Three... Two... One... now!"

At once his body lost all form in the physical world, melting into the thin fabric of the dimension between the world of spirits and the world of the living. To them, he was no more then an orb of light now. At the same time, he felt an explosion of magic that struck the now falling rocks, not to powerful but enough to prevent any from falling on the group. Rocks scattered around them, but they remained unharmed.

Sighing with relief, Yami blinked as an odd sound reached his ears. His sigh, mingled with an odd, Kuriboh-like noise. The only noise the others could hear ofrm him. "They won't be able to understand me unless I use I talk through mind, and I need to save what little magic I have. Let's hope they don't need to much help from me yet, I've been reckless enough with my magic so far..."

"Is everybody ok?" Yujhi called, gaining a murmur of 'ya's from the coughing group. "Good." Reaching forward he gripped the rocks before him, wedging his foot between two large ones, pulling himself upwards. "Come on! We can't wait any longer."

His second voice, reacting with his emotions, made a positive noise as Yami floated off the floor and over the rocks. Looking back at the group he smiled as they quickly stumbled over the rocks, then looked forward at the dark corridor before him, "Hold on Yugi. We're coming."


"Yugi, Yugi, Yugi," Yami's darker side tutted as he dragged the teen into the lowest room of the temple, surrounded once again by the paintings and stories of the Millennium Items, "You really should stop thrashing, you'll only hurt yourself." He stopped near the end of the room and looked up at the paintingof himself, grabbing Yugi's chin and jerking his head sideways to look at it, "'The Great Pharaoh Atemu', eh? Quite a title, and all you managed was the 'King of Games'."

"Let me go!" Yugi yelled. His tears had subsided long ago, and now he was flaring with anger. "I can't believe you did that Yami. I just can't believe you!"

"Believe it Little Yugi, because no nightmare could be as horrible as what I have planned for your friends..."

Yugi gasped slightly. What was Yami going to do? And 'Little Yugi'...? Only his enemies had ever called him that...

Shutting his eyes he turned his face away from the painting on the large column. Yami chuckled lightly and dragged Yugi a little further, then dropped him. Yugi yelped as he fell, cringing when he stumbled and hitting hisback on aset of hard stone steps. Gritting his teeth Yugi sat up and rubbed his lower back, then looked back at the statue of a pharaoh laying on the floor behind him. Init were holes made in the shape of each Millennium Item. "The Millennium Stone...?" Yugi whispered.

"I've already decided what I shall do to Bakura," Yami smiled, ignoring Yugi. He stood with his back to the younger boy, looking around him lazily. "The Gods gave me the idea... I'll chop him up, piece by piece, while he's still alive..."

Yugi's head jerked towards Yami, his eyes wide with shock.

"Yes..." Yami grinned, "I'll put a spell on him... I'll keep him alive as I cut him up... I'll start with his fingers," he raised his hand and made a scissor-like shape with his fingers, placing his other hand between them, "One by one, snip snip snip."

"Y-Yami?" Yugi whispered, shivering.

"And what of Ryoura...? Ah yes! Yes, I'll make him a puppet!" Yami almost clapped with delight, rubbing his hands together, "And I'll give him a knife, I will. And make him kill Joe, stab him," he punched his hand against his palm, "again and again and again. To be killed by your best friend, that's wonderful. A wonderful idea...

"The Kaiba-"

"You are not my Yami!" Yugi screamed, charging forward and tackling the spirit to the floor. The two crashed onto the hard stone and the force made Yugi roll to the side. He got to his knees quickly and just as the spirit was getting up he threw his fist forward. It connected with Yami's jawand madehis head jerk sideways, and Yugi was quick to throw another punch. Launching himself at the other Yugi pinned him to the floor. "Yami would never say things like that!" Yugi yelled, tears of fear and anger brimming as his eyes. He punched the spirit in the mouth, splitting his lip, then across the face with his other hand. "Never!"

A hand launched up and grabbed Yugi's shoulder, pushing him down so quickly his shoulder had struck the floor before he had time to react. Now he was pinned down, the spirits hands pressing hard on his upper-arms to prevent him from punching. He tried to kick the spirit, but couldn't. Fuming, Yugi narrowed his eyes and raised his gaze to meet Yami's.

All his confidence vanished when he saw the smirk on Yami's face.

"Oh, but that's just it Yugi..." Yami whispered, Yugi's struggling ceasing at the sound of his voice, "I am Yami. You can deny it all you wish... but one quick soul-search would be all you needed to prove to you who I am."

Yugi shook his head in denial. "Y-you can't. It's not pos-"

"Yes it is..." Yami whispered quietly, making Yugi shiver. Still smiling he pressed hard on Yugi's arms as he pushed himself to his feet. He strolled away from the boy, who lay perfectly still staring at the ceiling, and folded his arms, looking at the entrance to the large room. He smiled as a soft wave of magic ran over his soul, but didn't look back. It grew warmer, more probing, until it jerked away. He chuckled and looked back at the boy behind, who was now lying with his eyes closed, tears streaming down his face. "See? One soul-search proved everything. Face it Yugi... the Yami you knew died along with your body, when you left him to live with the guilt of your death on his conscience. He's gone now, Yugi... I'm all that's left because of you..."


To Be Continued


(1) This actually happened in Chapter 13 of Soul Destruction; Torturous Trust:

For a minute Yugi thought Yami was going to try and piece the Puzzle together again, but he didn't. Instead, he clenched the piece in his hand and sighed heavily, before dropping it into the golden box. Yugi blinked. He thought he'd seen a glow.

That's what the glowing was; Yami was putting part of his soul inside the Puzzle.

Bleh, horrible ending, but I liked it overall. Only did a quick check, so forgive the mistakes. I'm supposed to be in bed!
No ranting from me. Please review and let me know what you think XD
Slán slán for now people!
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