AN: Hey guys, sorry I thought this chapter would be easier than it was. I ended up taking out a scene at the end and sticking it into next chapter to keep the story flowing smoothly and whatnot. Plus I've had some issues at home with my sister being in the hospital but everything seems to have calmed down now so I can do some writing Oh and if you faved my painting over on dA (you know who you are ;) I thank you immensely!

Redconvoy: Thanks so much for you're review :D I know at the moment Beri seems Mary Sue-ish (I'm trying not to make her one but it's difficult. It's hard to explain now but it will make sense in the end promis) Her attitude is flippant because there is more underneath it all. Ahh! It's so hard to explain! This is just one of those times you have to read on to find out what's going on. (I suggest paying attention to how she treats Yuugi now ;D )

Anzufan: Aww thanks! I hope I don't disappoint :D

Without further adeu, we move onward to….

Interlunar

Chapter 5: Twisted

It was a troublesome sleep. Weird dreams fluttered in and out of existence; some so vivid that Atemu could have sworn he was awake while others were so obscure and random he knew they were fake. They drifted in his mind like smoke with himself standing a drift in a sea of darkness. Through the haze he could hear voices, jumbled and distorted but he felt like he knew them. He reached out, trying to grab one of the tendrils but it just snapped back and popped out of existence. Atemu tried to move, but he was stuck floating amongst the Void.

It was almost worse than the maze his mind once was.

A small purple mist gathered behind him, swirling around and eventually engulfing him. A breeze ruffled his hair, billowing up and around when suddenly; a cackle resonated within the cloud. Atemu spun around, searching for the source but when he turned towards it, the laughter moved. No matter which way the Pharaoh moved, it was always one step ahead of him, dancing around him with nothing but silk whispers twirling where it once was to hint it was even present to begin with.

Frustrated, Atemu stopped moving and closed his eyes. He opened his ears instead, listening to the soft rustling sound the whispers made. It moved fluidly, almost like…

A cape?

Snapping his eyes open, he saw a shadow of a figure standing before him, the silk of his cape fluttering around the Pharaoh.

"Time to awaken Pharoah."

Yuugi sat bolt right when he felt a sudden coldness creep its way into his skin. Alarmed, his heart racing, he looked down at his other half who still seemed to be in a deep sleep. Carefully, he disentangled himself from Atemu, very wary not to wake him up even though Yuugi was being virtually cuddled to death by the other's legs. Flushing a deep scarlet red, he gently moved the Pharaoh's bare legs from his own, stopping only when he heard a soft groan. Looking up so fast he cracked his neck; he saw Beri curled up on a chair, her head on her knees, her midnight hair virtually covering her entire body. Turning an even darker shade of red, glad she couldn't see him at the moment; he quickly got out of bed, but not too gracefully. With a loud THWACK! The young boy started the day by greeting the floor with his behind.

Beri looked up through her curtain of hair, her usual gleaming jade eyes looking dull and almost blue in colour. "Morning midget." She greeted, her voice sounding rough and haggard.

"M-Morning!" Yuugi chirped, getting up off the floor with an embarrassed smile.

"I didn't want to wake you- both of you looked so peaceful It would have been a crime" She chuckled.

Yuugi coughed. "Are you alright over there?" He asked, trying to steer the conversation away from whatever it was she was trying to get at.

Beri ducked her head down, disappearing behind the soft curtain once again. "I'm fine. Just a headache. I get them from time to time."

"Oh. Maybe you should sleep?"

The former spirit scoffed at that. "I don't need sleep. Don't fret, it will go away soon."

"What do you mean you don't sleep? Everyone needs to."

She shook her head slightly. "Only things that are living need sleep and since I'm not technically alive even though I've been given a body of sorts… "

"Shouldn't you be living now? I mean, you breathe and I assume you have a pulse so doesn't that make you a living thing?"

Beri brought her head up to look at him quizzically. She opened her mouth then closed it. After a moment she furrowed her brow and opened it again, but no words came to her. Yuugi was reminded of a gaping fish as she continued to open and close her mouth as she tried to find a reason. The small boy shrugged. "Seems to me you do need sleep since you are technically alive."

The former spirit blinked slowly at him. "That isn't something I've honestly done in some millennia."

"All the more reason to sleep don't you think? I mean you and the other me are the same in some ways; both of you given a body with the help of others energy and look at him." He swept his hand to his other half, who was still resting as Yuugi had left him, his harsh face looking incredibly smooth and making the former Pharaoh look so much younger. Beithwal sighed and uncurled herself from the chair with much difficulty.

"Fine. I'll try to sleep. But you-"She walked over and jabbed a finger in Yuugi's face. "- should stay in here. Those bothersome mortals you hang around with are all asleep still so there really is no reason for you to leave this room."

Yuugi didn't know what to say to that so he just nodded and decided to sit at the table that was on the other side of the room. The girl sauntered over to the other bed and collapsed onto it, closing her eyes and drifting off. Within minutes, the soft sound of her snoring came to life. Yuugi smiled to himself. I knew it. But now that he was alone, he had nothing to do. The smile turned down into a thoughtful frown as he contemplated what to do, his eyes scanning the room. It wasn't much to look at; just a standard two-bedroom hotel room with a bathroom, a TV, a small glass table next to a rather large window and cheap paisley wallpaper. It was pretty squished, but at least the beds were decently comfortable even if the covers did match the wallpaper to a tee. Yuugi sighed, fiddling absentmindedly with his hands and looked out the window. The sun had made its journey to the top of the sky, shining down with all its brilliance with nary a cloud in the sky, making the younger boy wonder how long he had been asleep for.

The only thing that really held any interest to him, aside from the TV – He couldn't put it on without waking up the others- was his deck of Duel Monsters cards, snuggled safe inside their duel disk. He recalled Ryou at one point showing him a trick with the cards; a way to tell someone's fortune or to answer a question. Forming an idea, Yuugi grabbed the cards from their resting place and scanned through the deck, blinking in surprise when he found the three Egyptian God cards there as well as his Black Magician and Black Magician Girl. Curious, he shuffled through the rest. His deck had changed itself into the one he had at the end of Battle City. Marking that as another 'what the hell is this' moment on top of an impossible day, he brushed it aside and shuffled his deck, trying to remember what Ryou had done.

As he was shuffling, Yuugi wondered if it could unearth a person's true identity. Deciding he had nothing to loose but time, the young boy asked who Beithwal really was. The spirit said there was power in names, so Yuugi assumed that this meant she was lying about her true name. If he could uncover her true name…

His hands were operating on autopilot as they arranged the cards on the table by memory. Flipping over one card he stared down at it and made a mental note of the card, and did the same for the next two. Yuugi had never really been good with symbolism- he was rubbish at poetry in class without some kind of cliffnotes- and since cards didn't exactly explain the meaning behind their symbols, all he could do was wait till he could talk to Anzu or someone who spent their free time with Shakespeare.

After a few other test runs, asking questions that really had no meaning behind them, he felt confident enough to ask it a true query. There were so many he wanted to ask, but first the one that had been bugging him the most.; what is the true identity of the other me? He gripped the cards, stopping mid-shuffle. Suddenly, he had second thoughts. Was it something that Yuugi really wanted to know?

When Atemu turned his back on Yuugi back at that cold dank chamber, the young boy thought – as melodramatic as it may seem – that he was breaking in two. His darker side had only been with him for two years but through that entire time, they had grown so close. It was to be expected to some degree; they had shared the same body and as it turned out where two parts to the same soul, but there was something else. Something Yuugi couldn't quite put his finger on; something that existed between them that went beyond just friendship or even a regular relationship. All he knew is that he needed Atemu no matter what, and the Ceremonial Duel had proved it.

At the back of his mind, he wondered if Atemu felt the same.

Yuugi bit his lip in thought. Well how could he not? Atemu had been constantly glued to his side ever since they left the tomb and had glared at anyone who so much as even dared to get too close – especially at Anzu. That had to mean he at least felt something for Yuugi right?

Stop it! He silently chastised himself. So what if he does all that? He has always been the overprotective type and now that he has his own body, that's just intensified tenfold. And besides, this is about what's best for him not you. He said so himself at the gates after the Duel. It was for the best… Yuugi closed his eyes, sighing a little. Was it though? Opening his eyes a little, he saw the deck staring up at him, as if to say Stop being a little baby and do what you know is right, feelings aside. Resisting the urge to stuff the deck to the bottom of some bottomless pit, he clenched his eyes and made a silent oath to himself to do whatever was right for the Pharaoh.

Even if it left Yuugi with nothing.

Forcing his hands into action, he quickly shuffled the deck and placed the first card at the top of the table facedown. Then set two more in the same fashion, setting it up so it looked like a small 2D pyramid on the table and then laid down the third level. Yuugi's hand hovered over the first facedown card on the third level. This card was supposed to represent the past. He flipped it over and was surprised to see the Winged Dragon of Re staring at him. Furrowing his brow, he moved on to the next card in the sequence; the present. After he flipped it over, his mouth turned down more; he didn't recall having this card in his deck ever. It was one that Pegasus used back at Duelist Kingdom; the Illusionist Faceless Mage. Well I guess it makes some sense, the teenager thought. At the moment Atemu is back to where he was when we first met. He knows he was once a great Pharaoh but that's only the start. Yuugi looked at the third facedown and hesitated before picking it up and slowly flipping it over. All he could do was stare at it, his mouth hanging open like a flycatcher.

It was the Winged Dragon of Re again. Only this card showed it in its Phoenix form. His eyes swiveled from the first card to the third and back again, but nothing changed. Cautiously, he picked up both expecting one of them to burst into flames or do something spectacularly impossible but neither did. The first copy of Re in his right hand looked exactly the same as when he got it from Malik and the second copy was still impossibly there. Brining both up closer to his face, one card in each hand he squinted at them, convinced his mind was paying tricks on him. The more he stared, the more frustrated he became. Both cards were there and they weren't disappearing. Sighing heavily, Yuugi threw them both down on the table, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes.

The first Re he could vaguely understand; Pharaoh's were believed to be the avatars of the god Horus back in Ancient Egypt, but why have Re appear again? And in a completely different form? Couldn't any other god card have sufficed for the present? Yuugi folded his arms on the table and rested his head on top, his amethyst eyes glazing over in thought.

What was the link to his other half and the Phoenix Sun God?

Atemu turned towards the voice, expecting it to just start its game of cat and mouse again and was surprised to see the figure still there. It stood with its head bowed, a purple hood pulled up over his face, casting it in shadow. The only thing Atemu knew was that this person was tall. Furrowing his brow, the Pharaoh placed a defiant hand on his hip, standing in what could only pass as a haughty sexy ruler pose.

"Get out of my head." He ordered with no inflection in his voice. The figure just laughed, a strange duel tone emanating from his throat.

"But we aren't inside your thick skull Nameless One. Your mind wandered while you were sleeping and you ended up in my humble abode. So technically I should be the one to tell you to fuck off." The figure laughed again, moving fluidly around the Pharaoh. "Although I guess now you have a name to your title. But no one can say it without killing themselves. How tragic." His tone implied anything but sympathy as he drew closer to Atemu. "From what I understand, you have one year to roam this Earth as an earthbound spirit with a borrowed body until the ultimate Shadow Game is unleashed."

"If you are implying that the Shadow Games are just going to keep coming, then I already know that. There was no need to pilfer my spirit from my body to your –as you call it- humble abode just to tell me something I already knew." The Pharaoh flicked his cape and walked way from the figure, refusing to state any of the questions he had swirling in his mind. Apparently, the other could sense his curiosity and just wound up in front of him again, close enough that the Pharaoh could see that his skin was tanned and his face was marked all over the place with scars.

"Paradoxes cannot exist in one place for too long without some kind of implosion." A twinkle shone underneath the figures dark cape.

The Pharaoh snorted. "And I am the evening and morning star."

"Then you must be ready for consequences to follow O Conceited One." The man dipped his head down low, hiding his face once again. "I don't like you any more than you like me; you cost me a life but as much as I despise you, I despise the end of the world even more."

Atemu moved around the apparition, growing tired of the man's obvious insanity. He just reappeared in front again, blocking the Pharaoh's path. "Yes the world is ending; Shadow Games have extreme Penalties awaiting those who fail, but I assure you, as the King of Games, where the world is concerned, it's safe."

The figure shrugged. "Is it safe from you?"

Atemu narrowed his eyes. "Choose you're next words carefully."

He laughed manically. "You need not fear me, O Radiant One. It's the rest of yourself you should fear." The figure paused, shaking with silent laughter, ghosting around the former spirit. "One part burns with intensity that heats the planet's core while another nurtures what grows- what lives. " A bronzed arm bedazzled with golden cuffs slithered out from underneath his shroud of darkness. "Opposites attract but when combined, will unleash a force so powerful, so blinding, it will make the Sun shrivel." The apparition retreated again but not without laughter. The purple mist gathered around him into a solid pillar. Before it could solidify, Atemu saw a malicious smirk twist around an oddly familiar bronze face. "And without the Sun, the world will fall to Chaos."

With that said and done, the pillar collapsed into itself like a star, taking the figure with it, and shocking Atemu awake.

"Well look who's finally awake." Head aching, and arms heavy; Atemu forced himself up, squinting against the pocketful of sunshine that greeted him. Yuugi sat at the lonely desk, cards in hand and a smile on his face. Surprisingly, Beithwal sat opposite of him, also with some cards in hand but sans smile. Deep red sunlight seeped into the room, concentrated like laser beams, tracing intricate patterns on the walls and floor, making Atemu wonder vaguely how long he had been out. Rubbing his eyes, he noticed that his crown had been removed, as was the rest of his jewelry. "I took them off after you collapsed in the bed. I mean, who wants to sleep with all that gold on right?" Yuugi explained, a guarded expression on his face.

"What in the world are you two doing?" Atemu yawned, taking note of his aching bones, feeling a few crack out their pain.

"Playing Duel Monsters. Beri wanted a lesson." Yuugi said with a shrug, turning back to his hand to place a face down card, signaling the end of his turn. Beri looked up from her own cards, narrowing her eyes at the young boy.

"Okay I think I got this." A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth as she grabbed for two of her monsters, replacing them with one; The Mystical Beast of Serkhet. Then she used the Change of Heart magic card and snapped up Yuugi's Silent Magician. "Ha! Not bad eh? Now I think I'll take down your Big Shield Gardna."

Yuugi nodded thoughtfully, then turned over his own card; the De-spell magic card. He smiled up at the other who was now frowning dramatically. "Your getting better though Beri!"

"Ya, and one day pigs will fly." She picked up the magic card and eyed it thoughtfully before disposing of it. Atemu thought he saw a flash of… something behind her green eyes, but it didn't linger long. He remembered through Yuugi's eyes the time at Duelist Kingdom when Ryou had shown everyone his favorite card. It made sense; he had two personalities and it was strangely symbolic of the yin tearing at his yang. The Change of Heart was connected to Ryou back then. It made him wonder if she felt the same way he did.

So many mysteries were piling on top of another and it was giving Atemu a headache. For once, he would just like to lie down with his aibou and enjoy Yuugi's company and not have to deal with this shit, but the fact that there was a former spirit who he knew absolutely nothing about was playing card games with Yuugi like they were old chums plus the fact that somehow his spirit had been separated from his body to enter god knows where and find some ghost or something warning him of impending doom.

It was just another typical day in the life of the former Great Pharaoh of Egypt.

Resisting the urge to ram his face into the nearest wall, Atemu got up out of the bed, hissing in pain as more joints popped alive.

"Oh I suggest you get ready, Pharaoh." Beithwal said nonchalantly, picking up a card from her deck.

He sighed, walking stiffly to the bathroom, pointedly ignoring her. He began running some water for a nice, relaxing, hot shower when her voice drifted out from the main room. "You don't have time for that!"

"If you have time to play a fucking game I have time to take a fucking shower, wench." He snapped, slamming the door behind him. Taking a deep breath to calm the shadows before they could rip out Beri's throat - as much as he would have loved that- the Pharaoh unclothed himself and stepped into the steaming hot shower, letting the water seep its way into his aching joints, washing away the tension caused from his dream and the previous day.

It felt like he was just repeating what he had already done; living in a strangers body with no idea who he truly was. Granted this time, Atemu at least had a name even if the name was powerful enough to cause harm on whoever so much as whispered it. Still, he had no idea where to begin or even the slightest clue who he was before he was Pharaoh.

To hell with this, Atemu thought bitterly, I'm not in any major rush. A year is plenty of time when you compare it to other time limits I've faced.

And there are benefits for staying a whole year… a small part of his brain whispered. He had to admit, there were certain perks; but the fact that he did have a time limit – however long it may be- just reminded him that he couldn't get any more attached than he already was. If Atemu were to act on his impulses, he was certain he would never willingly step into Duat, for the safety of the world or otherwise. Atemu sighed, rubbing a hand over his face to clear his thoughts. No. I'm not dealing with this now. I will not think about the world or anything else, I just want to focus on what I want for once. Screw the rest of the world.

After what felt like a few minutes, but was probably an hour, the former Pharaoh turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping his lower half in the complimentary hotel towel. Scratching his fingers through his hair to regain their spikey-ness, he wiped away the steam from the mirror with his free hand and nearly fell backwards. Whipping his head around, he saw no one there but when he turned back to the mirror he was there; a Cheshire Cat in the steam. Atemu shook his head violently before looking at the mirror again. He was gone but the image of him was gnawing away at the Pharaoh. It was him. That spirit that invaded his head… Atemu thought he had looked familiar…

That face... that horrific face. The one he had hoped never to see again…

Throwing open the door, Atemu speed walked into Yuugi. The smaller boy gave a surprised yelp and quickly jumped back from the other, ducking his head upon seeing his other half's half-nakedness. Yuugi extended his arms, offering the Pharaoh some of the clothes that he had on hand for emergency. Atemu took them, but his mind wasn't fully there. He was too busy thinking.

Thinking about ripping out Malik's throat before he could do likewise to the Pharaoh.

AN: I loved writing the scene with the mystery figure. He's like my favorite person to write about but he's so damn hard to get right! If you don't know who he is yet, you'll know by next chapter

Review for me? /AN