Chapter Two: Contingency

"Yugi, wake up."

Yugi mumbled incoherently and moved deeper into the blankets, pulling the sheet up over his head. His shoulder was in a firm but gentle hold, and was being shaken slightly. "Wake up, Yugi… It's time for school," Solomon Mutou coaxed.

"Nomph," Yugi responded promptly, tugging his shoulder free and burying his head in the pillow face-first. He didn't want to get up; it was too early for any sensible person to be awake. He wanted to enjoy the luxury of warmth and rest for a few more seconds before being herded into school, where the teachers would drone monotonously on and on, and where he was quite often mistaken for an elementary-school little brother come to visit his older sibling. A few months ago, he would have been worried about bullies as well - but with Tristan's and Joey's brawn, Yami's glares and prideful threats, and Tea's very real warnings that she would call the principal down to expel anyone who hurt Yugi, he was a little safer now. But even without impending physical injury, school was not an extremely glorious place to be.

Mr. Mutou's voice was sharper now. "Yugi, you'll be late. Get up."

Yugi sleepily opened one eye to gaze dully at his grandfather. "Nooooooo…."

"Go to school or I'll take away your deck."

The effect was nearly instantaneous. Yugi was out of bed within a second, pulling on his pants with one hand and buckling several belts with the other. Mr. Mutou chuckled and thumped down the stairs, going first into the storage room for more cards and then to the kitchen. Yugi heard the clang of a frying pan being dropped, and then a string of… very interesting words.

Ten minutes later, Yugi ran down the steps, two at a time, grabbed a PopTart off the counter (ignoring his grandfather, who was insisting that he eat something healthy for once), slung his backpack over his shoulder and burst out to meet Tea, waiting for him. They walked to school, cutting through Main Street and glancing warily at KaibaCorp, wondering if the millionaire had already been driven to school in his limousine, and finally turned the last corner and came within sight of the school building. Joey, sitting on the steps, waved, jumped up and started toward them, and Tristan was already swaggering through the gate.

Yugi waved back to Joey, and suddenly there was a sharp pain in his chest, directly where he kept the Millennium Puzzle tucked inside his shirt. He winced and glanced down, confused. His chest panged again. And again.

"Yugi Mutou…."

Yugi blinked and looked around wildly. The sensation of words, inside his head, was similar to when Yami spoke to him, but… this was different. It hurt, almost, and pulled with it old cobwebs of guilt, frustration, and half-dead, not-quite-forgotten fears. The voice was different, as well, it was not Yami's. Someone else…? But that was impossible. No one had access to Yugi's mind except the spirit….

"Little Mutou boy…."

An unexpected, horrible tearing feeling struck him dead-center in his chest. Yugi cried out and fell, hugging his form with his arms, pressing the Millennium Item tightly against his body. He could still feel Yami, but the pharaoh wasn't helping… No… He couldn't help….

"Yugi Mutou!…"

"M - Malaise…?" Yugi choked, oblivious to the people leaning over him, mouths open, moving, eyes staring, hands flittering up and down, in and out of his vision.

"Yes. I said that you would know when it was time." He could hear her voice clearly now, almost see her swaying frame, small against the dark, wide interior of his mind.

"Now…?"

"Yugi!" A new voice, Yami's. It sounded panicked, an emotion Yugi rarely felt from the pharaoh. He couldn't see the ancient king, and hearing him was difficult - as though there was a thick wall between them, high and powerful. Unbreakable.

"Yugi!" Now another voice shouting, also sounding distressed. This one was Tea's, and there were other murmurings in the background, drowning out Malaise and Yami.

"Is it a seizure?…"

"…shock maybe…."

"…ambulance? Does he need that kind of help?"

"Yugi, can you hear me?"

"Please, be quiet!" he shouted, ripping himself from Malaise's eyes, staring unblinkingly at him, waiting. "Please, everyone just be quiet!"

"Yugi!" Joey protested. "But - are you okay?"

"Be quiet!" the smaller one shouted, and then turned his mind inward again. Malaise's eyes were the only things clear to him at this point. If he could just concentrate on what she was telling him, then everything would be all right. Or at least improve.

"The heights are calling," Malaise recited.

"What?! Malaise?! What are you -" Yugi could feel his mind and mouth forming the words, but couldn't hear them anymore.

"The gods have chosen," Malaise proclaimed, tipping her head back. Long hair spilled from the inside of her hood, plaited into tiny braids, coiling around her face and neck in a wind that touched only her - Yugi could hear it, screaming in his ears and freezing him so that he could no longer think. Every few seconds, Malaise would make a high, harsh, guttural sound in her throat; every time he heard it, his chest would swirl with pain again, clouding his eyes.

"So beckons death." Malaise lowered her head and arms; the wind stopped, the pain ceased; Yugi could see and hear again. His breathing was strained, coming in short, ragged gasps; his fingers were locked around the Puzzle, unmindful that it was quivering and searing with fire.

There were hands on his shoulders; someone was thrusting the heels of their hands into his chest; somebody was forcing hot air into his mouth, down his throat and into his folded lungs. But he couldn't hear Malaise, and Yami wasn't speaking anymore….

Yugi opened his eyes, blank and unfocused. In a moment, he could see people staring down at him: Tea, Joey, Tristan, other students, one or two teachers. Joey pulled at his friend's jacket and propped Yugi against his backpack, which someone had taken off. Yugi still wasn't talking at all; in fact, he didn't even seem to be aware of them.

"Are you okay?" Tea asked, her face several shades paler than it should have been. She had been the one breathing for him. If he could just concentrate, he probably would have been quite happy about that.

Yugi shook his head, not to clear it, but to try to get the images back… Yami's shouting had been cut off, and Malaise had simply faded… Were they all right? Yami, anyway?…

"Yugi!"

"What?" he said distractedly, not looking up. Joey shook him.

"We asked if you were okay, man - you stopped breathing!"

"I'm fine," Yugi said apathetically. His hands were still locked around his Item, but it wasn't burning him anymore. Now it was cold, dead metal cold. It never felt that way. Not since he'd put it together. Not even when it was in pieces, sitting in a gold-painted box. It was always - not warm, but - it had life. Contained life.

Tea glanced upward, at the tense faces circling the four of them, then leaned in and whispered, "Is something wrong with your Puzzle? Is that why you freaked out?"

"No…." Yugi muttered thickly, and shook his head. "That's not why…."

Lights, and a high, whining whistle began to echo over the schoolyard. A white van, scarlet crosses painted over its immaculate sides, pulled into the lot, blacktop grinding beneath the thick tires. Some people shied away from the ambulance, others, mostly the younger students, pressed forward eagerly, trying to see inside the vehicle, to the portable respirators and the sheeted gurney.

Yugi pressed his head between his knees. This wasn't right, Yami should be saying something, he should be checking to make sure Yugi wasn't hurt, he should be cursing out Malaise, anything, where was he?! He shut his eyes tightly and felt the Item draw his mind in, a slight, dizzying feeling, and then he was in his own Mind Chamber, yellow-walled and cheerful. The single mirrored wall, however, was a dark, glowing blue - the color that signaled confusion or apprehension, at least to Yugi. He stepped out of his chamber, into the pulsing, dimly glowing nothingness that was the Item itself - its own magic, both dark and light. He walked hastily through it, the familiar shiver traveling quickly down his spine. He reached the turn in the corridor, swung around it, and then -

There was nothing.

Nothing at all.

The hall ended in a blank, nondescript wall, spinning slowly with Shadow Magic, but there was nothing else. Yami's Soul Chamber was always there, on the wall, the door inscribed with hieroglyphics and seething with energy. But there was no door. The corridor wall was not even marred where the entrance to the chamber should have been. It was as though the Item did not know that it was intended to house the spirit of an ancient, young pharaoh.

Yugi stared blankly at the empty space, eyes round, mouth slightly agape. Then, a feeling uncomfortably similar to panic flooded through him, and he wheeled and dashed back out into the Item's nihility, the empty, cold, dead Puzzle thumping rhythmically against him with every step. He ran, thoughts racing, which in turn meant that he, the mental form of himself, ran faster and faster until everything ground to a complete halt. He forced himself to stop, mind no longer reeling, and turned to face nothing, hoping that she could hear him:

"Malaise!" he screamed, as loudly as he could, and was surprised to hear the thought burst as a shout from his mouth, shrill and ear-splitting, quite real to those standing around him. Several backed away; paramedics hurried forward, giving instructions, asking what was wrong, all of it.

Yugi threw his head up wildly; Joey and the others stared for a millisecond at his face, stricken. One of the paramedics reached out to touch his arm, and the instant he felt pressure, Yugi bolted.

Tristan shouted for him, but Yugi shoved through the people standing about the schoolyard, panting. He ran out onto the road; a car screeched and swerved, a loud blast from the horn rising above the volume of Tea's shriek. Yugi stumbled backwards, tripping, and somewhere in the back of his mind, noticed the car was blue, and wondered if it was the same one that he had almost stepped in front of yesterday.

Yami had been the one who'd kept him from being hit that day….

He began running again. Not a single sight was clear to him, it was simply a blur of colors and sounds, and he shut it off. Running had worked in the past; if fists were pounding into him and shouts were boring onto his ears, he could always run. Escaping, hiding had solved many problems, but they caused endless circles, ceaseless cycles: he was hurt, he fled, the attacker was encouraged to hurt him more, he ran from further torment, they persisted… on and on and on, but running always brought ease to pain. It was more than instinct - it was fact. If he ran, then maybe when he stopped, pain, confusion, the problem itself would be gone.

"Yugi Mutou."

"Malaise!"

He stumbled at the sound of her voice in his head, but immediately recovered with a sharp accusation: "You did something! Where's Yami? What did you do? Did you hurt him? What did you do?!"

Malaise remained calm, cool, impassionate. "I did nothing more than what you agreed, child. Yami is restored to Egypt - therefore, he is no longer imprisoned within your Millennium Puzzle."

"But you said I could go -"

"And you shall."

"But did you hurt him?! You cut us off from each other - he was afraid -"

"Control yourself, Yugi Mutou. The Pharaoh is not injured."

"But you said I could go too!"

"You will," Malaise replied, no emotion sounding in her voice. She was purely remote, unruffled, as though all of Yugi's panic were below her, only a trivial matter. "But you were not reacting well to the relocation. You were responding with fear and pain. I cannot transport you if you behave in such a way."

Yugi was now standing, utterly still, in the center of the road, listening to Malaise. Cars were piling together, jammed into tight knots, on either side of him, drivers swearing, leaning out of windows to bellow at him, horns blaring in high soprano crescendos. He tuned them all out and paid careful, mistrustful attention to the woman speaking inside of his mind. Only Malaise mattered now. She could tell him what must happen.

Joey pelted along the sidewalk, waving his arms in wild gesticulations, calling for his friend to get out of the street. Yugi paid no mind.

"The alteration of time will be painful," Malais informed him steadily. "You were upset by my relocating the Pharaoh; that is not an advantageous reaction. You seem rather delicate - too insubstantial for me to reposition safely -"

"I don't mind," Yugi said quickly. He rarely sensed alarm in Yami, and such an enormous wave of it had frightened Yugi badly - Yami was almost never afraid, even to the point of foolishness. He was a terrible judge of his own limits, too proud. "I'll be fine."

He could envision Malaise's curt nod. "Very well," she responded. Yugi closed his eyes, preparing for his chest to begin throbbing again.

It didn't come. Instead of a gradual building of tension, Yugi felt as though a thousand knives had pierced his body all at once. He did not have time to scream, before he felt a tearing sensation - as if his soul were pinned, ragged and torn, to the floor by the knives, and now his body was yanked away, leaving him exposed and defenseless. In the space of a second, he was unconscious and plummeting, a tiny, insignificant grain of sand tumbling from the sky, blown hither and thither by the slightest breeze.

Tea gasped in shock. Unexpectedly, a mental slug of hot iron had imbedded itself into her abdomen, twisting and gnawing at her. She swayed where she stood, and then toppled backwards, a high-pitched, guttural sound ringing in her ears, and for a brief moment, she thought she saw a woman standing in front of her, clothed in torn robes, her eyes hidden from view, creating a rasping, high animal noise in her throat, each time bringing forth new stabs of pain. Then, darkness closed over Tea, and she plunged backwards, spiraling headfirst, not hitting the sidewalk.

Malaise stood silently, watching the results of her work. She was unnervingly aware that this was her last chance, and that she had rushed. Perhaps it would have been wiser to wait… but it had been necessary to act now, as soon as possible, for the opportunity would surely pass, and then… then… failure.

Failure was unacceptable.

She prayed that she had not made a mistake, and if she had, that it not be a fatal one. Her lips moved silently in entreaty.

There could not be another error….