Day 7: Two souls forcibly split apart at the mistake of one. Both suffer in misery as they think about each other and the separate hells they're trapped in, their anguish resonating deep but unable to heal without the other at their side.

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His heart thudded in his chest. His lungs wheeze with each haggard breath. Everything felt like tiny little knives pricking through every inch of skin on his body. Eyes wide with despair could only look out to the cavernous wasteland before him. The voices of the others behind him called for a name that wasn't his. They were mistaken of who he was and for a brief moment, he too felt that he wasn't who he should be. This body...it didn't belong to him. Never did. It was but a temporary catalyst shared with another and that person...

Hot tears filled the corner of Yami's eyes, a fist slamming into packed earth. He shouldn't have this body. This wasn't his. Never belonged to him. But now he wore it like his own for the soul that truly owned it was gone. Yami was empty, alone, adrift on borrowed life. It was absolute hell to hear nothing but silence in his own mind. His other half, gone. Stolen from him. But he had to remember why. He was foolish, drunk on power he thought necessary to win. He sacrificed everything he had. His pride, his monsters...his light.

But Yugi offered, a traitorous part hissed.

He didn't have to offer a damn thing! Yami wanted to scream, wanted to break down and cry for his light back but what good would that do. The one to duel him was gone, the one behind this perilous task that halted him from his one true destiny much too far to demand what was rightfully his back. Exhausted, Yami had nothing else left to give but the emptiness inside. A dark pit that would swallow him whole and he was ready to allow it. To be trapped in the darkened nightmare of his own soul was fitting for someone so dark and malicious.

"C'mon, man. We need ta go if we're gonna save Yug'." The blonde whispered, tugging at the pharaoh's arm and reluctantly, Yami moved to stand, eyes dark with his laments to such importance lost but Jounouchi was right. They still had a target to reach, had an enemy to defeat. To save the world that gave him nothing back for keeping it safe. But Yami knew, to defeat Dartz and silence Leviathan, he would get Yugi back. Yami would have the other half of his soul back.

But...did he truly deserve it? Truly deserve Yugi and his kindness, his respect, his...love?

He certainly didn't think so now. He had cowed to power before, had nearly let desperation kill another even when it was his arrogance that threatened Yami to act. This was nothing different except the call to darkness was stronger. He wore the accursed stone that allowed him to play the card, a test of willpower and a test he had failed completely. He betrayed his loyal monsters, betrayed his loving light, lost his soul and took his body. Yami was no pharaoh, he was no good samaritan, he is a demon. A beast. A monster.

His heart broke. His lungs burned. His eyes closed. Being alive was a pain he couldn't bear. Not like this. Jounouchi settled Yami into the back seat, concerned that the other wasn't speaking but decided that to get a move on was more important, get back to Rebecca and see what she had to say on the matter and where to go from there. As Yami turned dead scarlet eyes towards the sky, the bright blue expanse with the sun a beacon of warmth that did nothing to warm the chill of this body that was not his to own, his only desperate thought was simple.

'You have no need to forgive me, aibou...no need to continue to offer me solace and love as you promised me. Just allow me forgiveness and I shall never again bother you for this great injustice I caused to you and your trust in me.'

After all, what cruel creature deserves love? Yami deserve nothing but the chains that had locked him away and rightfully so after this. He didn't deserve this life, didn't deserve this breath. He was a spirit that should've stayed among the dead and forgotten. What prophecy was worth the life of an innocent soul like Yugi's...

But far from them, in Dartz' hidden temple, a soul trapped in stone cried fresh tears. Never stopping. Even apart Yugi can feel the laments of his dark side and couldn't do a thing to placate him. Yugi never felt a hell worse than one where he couldn't comfort the one that meant most to him, trapped far away as his soul wails with an ache too great for him to handle. Yami needed guidance of right and wrong, needed someone to care for him. It took some time to realize their emotion ran deeper and as soon as they figured it out, they were torn apart from each other. He put himself in the line of fire to save Yami from the seal. Was it selfish? Yes. But Yugi refused for Dartz to take his other half, his life and love, from him. He didn't deserve Yami's spirit for his twisted goal.

But now his heart was fraught with anguish as his other self was lost, unable to cope and felt undeserving of Yugi. He couldn't bear him to think that way! He was deserving! He always was! This was torture and Dartz will never allow him freedom. Yugi knew well enough Yami will come to seek him out but if he doesn't recover before that meeting, the madman would get what he wanted as he plays with the fragility of his sacrifice and turns Yugi's trust against him.

'Please...if there is any god to hear me. Help mou hitori no boku. Help my love, free him from the chains of this misery. Send him my message that all will be well and we'll be together again as we should be. Forget the tablet, forget the end game. Forget his destiny but for one moment. Just let me have him back in my heart, my soul, my arms...'

Two souls weep for the other, entombed in a personal hell orchestrated by one man. But fate will not allow them to stay separate forever. They will be reunited once more. It was just a matter of time and trials that awaited the tormented spirit of the puzzle before he could find his light again and make peace for so much. Not just the duel that had lost his light but the hurt that stemmed for his decision.