Here we go. I've had to increase the rating to T upon the addition of this chapter, simply for Yami's morbid visions. It's not incredibly explicit; I can't say yet whether it will get much worse after this.

Thank you so much for the lovely reviews last chapter, please be sure to drop one this time round too ;)

Warning: blood (I'm never really sure where to draw the line in warnings, but I'm putting this here to save complaints anyway)

Enjoy!

The demon grimaced quietly as it sat crumpled on the floor, clutching its middle as if that would help in any way to stem the flow of the vital crimson fluid that seeped relentlessly from it, staining its tatted clothing. Yami watched the pitiful sight with strange detachment. It turned its gaze up towards him, scowling bitterly with eyes shining as red as the blood that ran from its mortal wound.

"You see, Pharaoh?" it sneered. "You really aren't that different from me after all."

He said nothing. With one final groan, the creature perished before him. Yami had no time for this. He stepped indifferently over the fresh corpse and made his way down the corridor.

Nightmares within the Puzzle – however rare they were – were always particularly horrific.

The Pharaoh wasn't certain they were technically nightmares, as he never technically slept, but the apparitions that occasionally crossed his path as he wandered the labyrinth were nonetheless deeply influenced by his state of mind and plagued him only during the night. He'd long since grown used to them and now they were more irritating than actually frightening. Interestingly, most of them had involved Kioku lately – murders of the Shadow that ranged from fast and clean to slow and merciless. Yami tried not to ponder the implications of such malicious visions born from his subconscious; he imagined his Other would see far worse anyway.

He spun around when he heard shuffling behind him. Kioku stood silently in the middle of the corridor, inspecting the walls with mild interest. The Pharaoh frowned and continued onwards. The Shadow followed, never directly regarding the taller spirit. This went on for a while before Yami grew tired of it. He turned on his double, drawing himself up as tall as possible to loom angrily over him.

"Was there something you wanted?" he asked, eyes hard.

Kioku was unfazed, glancing up at him as if by afterthought rather than an irritated prompt. He shifted his gaze back to the staircase that wound impossibly above them, serving as more of a ceiling than an upwards path. Yami wondered briefly if the spirit had also seen the apparition earlier – his own death.

"Yugi's still asleep," Kioku said.

"It's the middle of the night."

He stared at the Pharaoh. "How long is the night?"

"Several hours."

"We can't go into our Hikari's room when he's sleeping."

"No, we can't."

The Shadow thought for a moment. "I want to see him."

"You can't," Yami repeated sternly.

Kioku frowned and turned away. He was acting awfully strange. The Pharaoh had never seen him look so lost – not to mention actually obey set boundaries. He wondered what had happened to replace his usual vital, overbearing demeanour with one so meek and almost childish. Perhaps it was because Yugi himself had told him not enter his soul room, rather than Yami. The Shadow walked quietly back down the corridor without regarding the Pharaoh any further.

Night-time within the Puzzle was always particularly bizarre.

"Good news." Yugi grinned as he placed the phone back on the cradle in the living room. "The museum director called. An extension on the Egyptian exhibit came in last week and it's all set up now."

Yami, leaning easily against the wall beside him, smiled. "Interesting. I'm glad you've got such a fascination with history that the museum director sees fit to call you about new developments."

In fact, that was almost true. The boy had specifically requested to be notified of anything new regarding Ancient Egypt that may appear at the Domino City Museum; with Solomon's contacts it was easy to arrange.

"Pharaoh," Yugi laughed. "Do you want to go take a look or not? You never know what we'll find."

"As long as it's not too much trouble, Aibou, I would like that," the spirit told him, straightening up.

"Is this something you do often?" Kioku asked distastefully, appearing and standing between their hikari and the Pharaoh. "Build your hopes up about something so hopeless?"

"It's not hopeless unless you allow yourself to think it is," Yami said coolly. "Does the phrase 'heart of the cards' mean anything to you?"

"No," was the Other's offhanded reply. "Too many have failed Shadow Games for me to place hope in the impossible."

"It's not impossible!" the Pharaoh growled, stepping forward. "We'll find my memories!"

"How long have you been searching?" Kioku glared.

Yami opened his mouth to respond but Yugi interjected before the argument went exactly where he knew it would.

"Okay!" He put his arms out in an effort to keep the peace. "So, the museum! We can head over there right after school this afternoon! How does that sound?"

The two spirits glared dangerously at each other for several moments.

"Fine," they both huffed.

"Great…" Yugi sighed tiredly.

The museum was particularly quiet. Yugi wandered the corridors on his way to the exhibit with Tea in tow. He'd been reluctant to have his school friends with him; the two entities sharing his mind were already difficult to handle and the addition of more voices wasn't going to make things any easier. Unfortunately, Tea was insistent that he needed someone with him 'because he wasn't telling them something and even though he wasn't ready to talk he would still have support,' as she'd put it. At least Joey and Tristan had kept their distance.

"Alright, so we're looking for information on… well, anything," Yugi said when they arrived.

It turned out very little had been added at all. At the far end of the exhibit there were a few new banners of text and decorations along with a handful of excavated artefacts that were of no relevance to their search.

"What about this thing about Senet?" Tea asked, indicating one of the banners. "The Pharaoh's a gamer. He would have played this, wouldn't he?"

Yugi walked over and skimmed the text. "Probably – I think. It's not too late for his era."

Yami appeared beside him, inspecting the stock images of the ancient board game on the cheaply designed banner.

Any of it ring a bell? the boy asked him.

It looks vaguely familiar but I'm afraid not, Aibou, he replied dejectedly. It's interesting to know, at any rate.

Yugi sighed; he'd expected as much but it didn't make the result any less disappointing. He absently looked over the rows of odd tools and household items in the new display cases before him.

"Did the director say anything else, Yugi?" Tea crossed her arms casually over her chest.

"No, not really," the boy replied. "I guess we could ask the librarian if any new books have come in but I doubt it."

Tea dropped her gaze. She looked like she wanted to say something. Yugi was about to prompt her when Kioku decided to come out.

He looked the girl over. "Tea, isn't she?"

Yes, the light told him.

"She's gentle," the Shadow observed. "She clearly cares about you. I like her."

Yugi's face reddened. Kioku smirked and continued.

"As long as she's treating you well, Hikari," he said, glancing around the museum. "Those other two can be rough sometimes. I think they forget that you're smaller than they."

"Yugi doesn't need your opinions on his friends." The Pharaoh watched him with hard eyes.

"He does need to make sure he's not going to be hurt." Kioku's voice was stubbornly even.

"And your approval of his friends will decide that?" Yami's voice, on the other hand, was rising quickly.

Come on, settle down, Yugi tried. Let's just focus on Egypt right now, okay?

The spirits stared at him for a moment before grumbling tolerant apologies, neither bothering to acknowledge the other. Yugi rubbed his face, the effort of constantly trying to prevent a shouting match starting to take its toll on him. Tea noticed and frowned.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine." Yugi smiled weakly.

"You can talk about what's wrong, Yugi," she persisted. "It's better to tell someone than leave your problems bottled up inside."

This is your fault, he groaned to his yamis. What do I say?

"She'll know if you're not telling the truth and she'll keep asking," the Pharaoh sighed.

"But you can't tell her," Kioku stressed. "It'll be fine, she'll let it go eventually."

That's helpful, Yugi despaired.

He scratched his head awkwardly and began trying to talk away the slump his friend thought he was in. Neither yami envied him.

"How do you know you were a Pharaoh?" the Other asked, apparently unconcerned about the struggle he'd placed his hikari in.

"We've been informed several times," Yami told him levelly. "There's no doubt."

Kioku hummed in contemplation and gazed at the artefacts beside them, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"A gambling Pharaoh," he mused. "How did Egypt trust someone who likes to take such risks?"

The taller spirit paused. He thought about what he'd just been asked.

"I'm sure I never took any irresponsible risks," he reasoned. "A good gamer always knows when to back out."

He hoped Kioku didn't know of the times he had in fact failed to do just that.

"How did you end up dead if you never took any risks?" the Shadow asked.

Yami bristled. "That was a sacrifice! To save Egypt!"

"From the disaster you'd caused?"

"Of course not!" the Pharaoh growled. "I never caused a disaster! My lineage never made a mistake! Sometimes things are simply out of even our control!"

For a long moment he didn't care that he'd just lied through his teeth because it was so rare to see Kioku so stunned, but he'd regret his petulance later. He honestly had no idea why he'd died or how many mistakes on his part had lead up to it, but he was not going to tolerate his competence in any life being questioned – not by this demon.

Unfortunately, his shout came at just the wrong time.

"Can we just let it go?" Yugi suddenly yelled.

The entire museum floor seemed to fall silent at his outburst. The relentless arguing and pestering had gotten too much and he'd needed it to stop. Tea stood shocked before him. His yamis were just as bewildered. He relished the newfound silence – such precious silence – before bowing his head.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, blushing madly. "I have to go."

Yugi turned and strode towards the exit. He was thankful the silence carried on.