Hey guys so I'm back with the next chapter! This one is the longest I've ever written although I'm not sure about the part in the middle but eh. The rest turned out great.

Enjoy!

This was a dream. It had to be a dream. Nothing could ever look like this in the history of mankind. Yugi was staring out from a balcony watching a great hulking shape of darkness reach out to grab hold of a small shape underneath it. Yugi was leaning so far out on the balcony, squinting to see what his brother was doing, that it was a wonder he didn't fall.

"Your majesty," someone was saying behind him. "Please. Your brother will return soon. He promised you, did he not?" Yugi strained against the confines of the balcony, wishing he could be there with his brother right then and there.

"Atem's slow on his promises," Yugi said, holding his breath as the thing began to talk.

"Give it up Pharaoh," the thing taunted and Yugi clenched his jaw, knowing Atem would defy anything the creature said. "Your time approaches as does that of your kingdom. You and your people will know suffering as you never have before."

"No!" Yugi cried, leaping upon the ledge. "I have to go to Atem, Shimon! I have to help him!"

"No, my Prince! If you are to go, then who will lead us?" Yugi barely heard him as the thing answered in retort to whatever his brother had shouted back to him.

"And what are you going to do about it oh mighty Pharaoh? Your priests are gone, your monsters defeated and you yourself are barely able to stand!" Yugi gasped and grabbed his diadhank, the one last thing his brother had left him only hours before.

"I have to go to him Shimon! He's going to be killed and then we shall have no king!" Yugi placed the diadhank over his arm and raised it above his head. "Curse of Dragon, help me!" A purple glow emitted from a far off temple and a golden dragon made up of bones appeared beneath the balcony.

"No Prince Heba! You too shall be killed!" the old man called out but to no avail. Yugi had already leapt down onto the dragon's back and was gone. The dragon was fast but Yugi still knew he would never make it in time as the thing suddenly reached down to pluck his brother from the ground and break him. He could make Atem out now and he had something in his hands. Something which glinted gold. Yugi didn't know what it was until he raised it above his head.

"What are you doing Atem?" he muttered as he urged the dragon faster, knowing he would never get there in time. And then Atem brought the Millennium Puzzle to the ground, smashing it into pieces. The results were horrible. The creature suddenly screamed and writhed as if a thousand swords had been placed into it. Smoke poured from its body and seemed to be sucked into the ground. But that wasn't the worst. The worst came in the form of his brother's screams as he fell to the ground, hands clawing at his arms as if that would make the pain go away. "No, Atem!" Yugi cried throwing himself from the dragon's back before it even reached the ground. He caught him before he fell upon his face.

"H-Heba?" his brother gasped his tanned face pale and his normally crimson eyes bleached of their colour. It was as if his brother was fading from sight. "W-What are you doing here?" Yugi didn't like the waver in his brother's voice.

"What did you do Atem?" he whispered, clutching to his brother tightly as if to stop him from dying.

"What I had to," Atem croaked before letting out an agonised scream and contorting in Yugi's arms, unable to hide the pain. "I-I sealed the creature in the Ring!" Atem gasped, clutching at Yugi's arm as tightly as he held his brother. "H-Heba listen to me. I don't have much time left." A moan emitted from his brother's throat and he curled inwards a moment but words tumbled from his brother's mouth short and fast through clenched teeth. "You must hide the Items."

"But then how will we defend ourselves? Without the Items we won't be able to control the monsters!" Yugi gasped but Atem shook his head, his hand holding Yugi's arm in a vice like grip, showing the mounting pain his brother was in.

"No, Heba, you have to listen! The spell… it locked the entrance to the realm of the monsters. Even now, they must return to their dimension. But I… I have to go and make sure that things stay that way. Heba…" Atem gasped and groaned his other hand curling around his middle and sweat poured from the sides of his face. "Heba, you must hide the Millennium Items. Hide them where no one will find them."

"Then who will rule Egypt? I- I'm not suited to the throne," Yugi stammered, unable to hide the tears at the knowledge that this was goodbye. He was losing his other half the only one who knew what he was thinking and knew how to cheer him up when he was down.

"S-Seth," Atem sighed, his breaths coming short and fast now. "Seth will rule." And then his brother gave him one last smile and Yugi couldn't stop the tears from rolling down his face. "Thank you Heba… I won't ever forget you." And with that Atem closed his eyes and his body went still. Yugi didn't know how long he sat there cradling his brother's body; he just knew that half his world had disappeared forever.

"No," he whispered, gathering himself together as people began to approach them, horror in their eyes. "No. I will see you again brother. I promise you that. Someday, we will meet again."

Yugi awoke from the dream, no, nightmare, with a gasp, wondering what it meant. He had been in some kind of Ancient Egyptian world with Duel Monsters thrown in. Right now, however, he wasn't quite sure where he was. Not his own room, but he was lying on something soft. A sofa in some kind of office… the door at the other side of the room opened to reveal Ishizu who gave him a friendly smile when she saw who it was.

"Hello Yugi," she said quietly, pouring him a glass of water from the dispenser in the corner. "Are you feeling any better?" It took Yugi a moment to work out what she meant. Then he groaned.

"Please tell me I didn't pass out." She stayed quiet, still holding the paper cup. Yugi groaned again and accepted it, wondering if the day could get any worse.

"Your friends are waiting for you if you feel up to the rest of the tour," Ishizu said, but by the sound of her voice she didn't approve of the idea of getting up. Yugi wasn't in the mood either and just shook his head, sipping from the cup.

"What does it mean Ishizu? The tablet?" he asked, hoping that she would be truthful. She sighed and sat on a chair opposite him, looking sorrowfully at the floor.

"We don't know. My visions… they tell me something bad is coming. Something dark. And it involves everyone in that room as well as your brother."

"Ryou too?" Yugi asked, hoping she would say no. Ishizu shrugged, her gaze still fixed upon the carpet.

"Ryou too has a part to play in this. We are all pawns in a grand design and I do not know how this will end. But I do know one thing." She paused and looked at him for the first time. "You have as much a part to play in this as your brother." Yugi thought about this for a moment.

"Ishizu…" Yugi wasn't sure she would be able to give him an answer but he had to try. "Why were I and Atemu split up when we were children?" Ishizu blinked and then sighed.

"When you grandfather, Pharaoh Senusret, died of a fever your father was forced to return to Egypt to rule. At the time, many believed that Akhnadin had been killed in the desert in the attempt to retrieve the Millennium Items from a village known as Kul Elna where he claimed the citizens had stolen them from long ago." Yugi felt his blood run cold at the mention of Kul Elna. It wouldn't have sounded an appealing place to visit even before he knew that that had been Bakura's home.

"What happened to it?" Yugi asked, afraid of the answer. Ishizu closed her eyes as f that would block out the truth.

"Your uncle had every man, woman and child massacred in the raid to get the Items. Only two children escaped with luck." Yugi didn't need to ask who the two children had been. "When Akhnankhamun heard in Japan what his brother had been attempting he was cautious about revealing his wife had given birth to twins, so he brought only the eldest of you to New Thebes. He entrusted the old Tombkeepers, my family, with this knowledge that there were two of you but my father…" Here she paused, her eyes trailing towards the door, a look of deep guilt and sadness in her eyes. "Well, let's just say that my father was not a reasonable man. He saw your brother only once and was convinced the time of the Nameless Pharaoh was upon us again. With Akhnadin's return and this information, your father believed he had enough evidence that you were safer here, oblivious to your heritage."

"What about Bakura? Why is he here?" Yugi asked, this being something that had always bothered him. Why send Bakura here when he clearly wished to be elsewhere?

"Many reasons. Your father ordered him to stay out here in order to protect you during the school months, when your grandfather wasn't able to keep an eye on you. To search for his brother. To get away from all the bad memories of that place." Ishizu fell silent, her gaze far reaching. Yugi wondered what ti was like being able to read the future. Hard probably. Knowing you had the answers but not able to save everyone. It took him back to his dream for some reason.

"Ishizu… what happened to the Nameless Pharaoh? I mean, I've heard the rumours and assumptions but what do you think happened?" he asked, thinking back to the vision of his brother dying in his arms. Even though it had been a dream it didn't hurt any less, as if he really had lost Atemu and gotten him back. Ishizu looked a little taken aback by the question but smoothed her features out quickly.

"I do not know what you mean Yugi," she said quietly, a guarded look in her eyes. It was not something that she had expected him to ask.

"Bakura said that he was killed fighting some dark beast. Others think he was murdered in a revolution against the pharaoh. I've heard someone even claim that he took his own life because he couldn't handle being king and so his people removed him from the records due to shame. I just wondered what you thought happened to him," Yugi said quickly, covering up the thoughts of his dream. It was weird and scary and just downright depressing. Whatever had happened, he was fairly sure that the Nameless Pharaoh did not have a brother, twin or not. That was usually something that was written down.

"Well, I…" Ishizu paused, thinking carefully. "I've never really thought about it. I know the history as well, probably better actually, than Bakura but I've never questioned it." She then smiled but it was hard, as if the thought insulted her. "But I can assure you Yugi, he did not kill himself. Whatever he did, he did not commit suicide." Yugi nodded, slightly afraid now.

"What is the official story that you know of?" Yugi asked, curiosity battling common sense. He really didn't want to know but couldn't help himself. The Nameless Pharaoh was fascinating.

"In our history it is said that the Nameless Pharaoh was forced to fight a dark beast. It blotted out the sun and destroyed half his kingdom, coming from the same dimension as the monsters the priests used to fight. The Pharaoh, knowing the danger that the Millennium Items had brought to his kingdom sought a way to destroy the creature for good but it was too strong. Instead he locked his own power, as well as that of the beast, away forever leaving behind only the knowledge that blood had been used to create them. It was said that the spirit of the beast was placed into the Millennium Ring, an Item used in the defence of the king while the Pharaoh's spirit was placed within the Millennium Puzzle and so, to this day, only the kings of Egypt have used the Puzzle for good, hoping to harness the bravery of the Pharaoh and no one has touched the Millennium Ring for fear of being overtaken by the darkness." Yugi blinked. Ishizu's voice was hypnotic, making him feel drowsy. However he couldn't forget what she had just told him.

"The Millennium Puzzle… That was the thing around Dad's neck right?" Ishizu nodded silently, as if wondering where he was going. Yugi wasn't sure either until the next question slipped out of his mouth. "Who fixed it?"

"I'm sorry?" Ishizu looked shocked, sure that she had never said anything about the Puzzle being broken. Yugi mentally slapped himself for the blunder but there was no going back now.

"The Puzzle… I heard somewhere it had been broken," he lied hoping Ishizu wouldn't notice. "So how comes it's fixed?" Ishizu blinked owlishly at him for a moment before shrugging.

"I do not know. Akhnankhamun had it when he left for Japan sixteen years ago and returned with it fixed around his neck when he returned home." Here Ishizu paused a moment before continuing. "However, he always said that it was for Atem to wear when he was old enough. When he reaches sixteen to be exact."

"Why?" Yugi asked. "Surely he's not gonna be… you know… king next week right?" that would be a disturbing thought. Not only would he be a prince but he would also be brother to a king. Ishizu just laughed and shook her head.

"No. Akhnankhamun never said why he would pass over the Puzzle before Atem's coronation when he reaches eighteen, he just said that he would." Ishizu looked a little confused about this herself but didn't seem ready to question it. So Yugi decided that that avenue would get him nowhere and diverted elsewhere.

"So how's Atemu?" It wasn't what he really wanted to know but the dream had brought a sense of worry to him about Atemu like he had never felt before. Something could be wrong. He could be hurt or dying or kidnapped or… wow Yugi thought, I have got to stop watching TV before bed. It's getting to me. Ishizu smiled as if to say 'that's a better subject. Less iffy'

"He's fine. He came down with bronchitis last night by what I heard from Seto but other than that he's the same as ever."

"Bronchitis?" Yugi had never suffered from the infection but a girl in his Primary school had come down with it once and stated that it had been horrible. Then again, the same girl had a problem with her lungs anyway and came down with every chest infection on the planet so it probably wasn't a good comparison. Ishizu nodded and Yugi shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. Inwardly some other part of his mind was celebrating in relief, although he wasn't quite sure why. What trouble could Atemu possibly get in at the Kaiba mansion?

"ATEM! IF YOU ARE OUT OF BED AGAIN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Atemu winced at the volume Seto's voice had risen to. This was the third time that day he had slipped out of bed for non-bathroom related issues (this time to find some food since he was hungry, bored and sick of being in bed) and Seto had gotten more irate each time he did it.

"The doctor told me that you're not getting enough rest. So you're staying in bed today if I have to tie you down there!" Seto had threatened when he had caught him the first time. Knowing that Seto was probably about at nuclear point now and would be tempted to go through with the threat, Atemu tiptoed back to bed and sighed, bored already of the room. He wondered if pulling the sheets off and moving to the window seat would be classed as 'out of bed'. In Seto's current mood, most likely.

Atemu groaned and whacked his head against the headboard, if only for something new. Grandpa had been forced to leave for the shop after Ishizu had called to say that the trip was over (although he had also heard that Yugi missed most of it for some reason) and so had to meet Yugi and Joey to open up the shop for them. Lunch had been and gone, he had been forced to take some medication for the infection (which had been disgusting) and he had spent the rest of the afternoon thinking of ingenious ways to get Seto to let him out of bed. It wasn't as if he had anything else to do.

The door opened that moment and a dark head peered around it. "Mind if I come in?" Mokuba asked, looking amused by the muttered swear words being repeated downstairs.

"Sure," Atemu said, gesturing for the boy to join him. Mokuba carefully shut the door and scooted over to the chair that Grandpa had vacated. They sat there for a moment in silence before Mokuba broke it.

"You must be pretty bored in here huh?" he said, looking around the room like Atemu had moments before.

"Yeah," Atemu said, leaning back. "I hate being sick."

"That's what Seto says every time he is. He refuses to stay in bed too unless we tie him there," Mokuba said, laughter lighting up his eyes. Atemu grinned too and laughed inwardly. If only Mokuba knew…

"You should come to Egypt. We just send Kisara to look after him. Never leaves the room." Atemu grinned whilst trying to rid himself of every time he had been sent to Seto's room at the exact wrong moment. Mokuba blinked.

"Who's Kisara?"

"Seto's girlfriend," Atemu and there was a sudden shout of "She's not my girlfriend!" from downstairs. Atemu wondered how he had heard that, but then again Seto always knew when these things occurred (since winding Seto up was probably the most fun he had most days). Mokuba sniggered at the sound of it and Atemu shook his head. Before he could say anything the door opened to reveal the CEO himself. Mokuba was still trying to conceal his giggles at the look on Seto's face. Atemu couldn't tell if he was angry or blushing.

"You, not a word," Seto said, a hand pointing at Atemu, who bit back his own laugh, "and Mokuba…" Mokuba squeaked, unable to hide his laughter as well as Atemu. This just seemed to make Seto blush deeper. "Fine, she is my girlfriend," he muttered under his breath. Atemu couldn't help the snigger that passed between his lips and Seto shook his head, looking thoroughly embarrassed.

"I did come up here to give you your medication again," he muttered, pulling out the bottle filled with what looked like bits of chalk. Atemu stopped laughing and curled his lip at the sight of it. Having been forced to choke down vile concoctions by doctors before, and not impressed with this lot, he was wary of anything they prescribed.

"I'm not taking that."

"You are, if you know what's good for you."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Mokuba left before the argument came to fists like it had about three hours before.

Bakura had decided long ago that the gods hated him. First his village had been attacked by soldiers. Then his parents had left him and his brother at the temple in the hopes that the soldiers wouldn't look there, before being corralled there like animals and slaughtered. Bakura had hidden himself and his brother in a gap between the alter and the steps descending to the underworld (well cavern of the Millennium Stone but whatever) and hadn't been able to tear his eyes away. As if that wasn't enough, he had been forced to look after the pair of them alone for three weeks as they wandered across the desert in hopes of finding a better life in New Thebes, only to find that nobody wanted two half-albino children from the cursed town. All Bakura had known in those days was thievery, blood and starvation. And then, to top it all off, he had returned one day to the orphanage they had been staying at that night to find his brother gone. All Old Khalem had been able to tell him was that a man had come and taken Ryou away, despite his protests.

But this… this was worse than anything he had been through. Sure, he had often been left starving and hungry four days out of five if only to give Ryou the sustenance to keep him alive. Sure, he had been beaten on a regular basis within an inch of his life. And yes, sure, he had been forced into numerous shadow games at Akhnadin's leisure for the sole sake of the man's entertainment. But he would have taken the sting of a hundred lashes of the whip over having to pretend that he knew nothing about Ryou.

There was a reason Bakura had never approached his brother. The boy needed protection of course, but not just from the world. It was also from him. After all, what could Bakura give the kid? A cold hard palette in a drafty room by the kitchens, waking before dawn to get the hell out of the palace so that he wouldn't be forced to spend the day in the dungeons facing pointless criminals in shadow games? Having to ride a horse at the very back of a procession, slower than a snail, because any further forward would be a grievance to the people? Atem may have known about the harshness of Bakura's life but he also knew he would never understand it. And Bakura was okay with that because the prince never tried to help him. Help from royals, no matter how much they understood your life, was to show that you were weak and unable to help yourself. Those were the rules of the streets.

It still hurt, however, to see his brother standing before him, still resembling the five year old he had left behind that fateful day, and seeing no spark of recognition at all. He had seen Yugi and Ryou talking, as if they had met before, and it hurt that Yugi of all people was closer to his brother than he was. Heck that meant Atem was closer to Ryou than he was. The two boys couldn't have been any further apart than they were then. And Mr Hashini seemed determined to put a wedge between them even further, as if the culture divide wasn't enough.

"What are you doing back here?" the man asked, his eyes cold when Bakura returned from the man's office where he had left Yugi. Ishizu would make sure he was ok.

"What I was told to," Bakura snapped, not in the mood for the man's attitude. Ra, the man couldn't even give a decent tour, he shouldn't be judging Bakura! Everyone judged him before they knew him and so he gave up ever trying to prove them wrong. Once a thief, always a thief and Bakura was the King of Thieves. It was something he lived by and nothing would change that, not even this man and his stupid customs. Mr Hashini scowled but moved on.

The rest of the tour was dull in comparison to the shocks of earlier. The shabti were old and decrepit, worse than some of the ones that the thief court flogged off to tourists. The sarcophagi were damaged and from a completely different time period to everything else in the room. In fact, most of the exhibit claimed to be from the tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh, however Bakura was certain he had never seen any of this crap within it and he had been everywhere in that tomb. For once, he was glad Atem had gotten them trapped in that stupid tomb for nearly three days (even if he was never trusting Atem with secret levers ever again).

Needless to say, once the tour was complete Bakura left. He didn't particularly wish to be a part of the 'I-wonder-why-that-tablet-has-Atem-on-it' discussion again and he certainly didn't want to be a part of the discussion that explained the hieroglyphs on Marik's back and Odion's face. Instead he wandered back down to his flat and scowled up at it. He had moved out of the flashy apartment close to his brother's house that Akhnankhamun had provided years ago, the thought of being so close and yet so far from Ryou being too painful. And anyway, this area was much better suited to Bakura's tastes, where no one cared that a kid was living alone underage. Even so, it was still one of the bigger ones with way more rooms than he would ever need (as if he would ever have four people over). But it was still his flat while he was in Japan.

There was a box under his bed that he had tried for years to forget. He found himself sitting with it now, clothes strewn around him and dust billowing up into his face as a choking cloud. He angrily waved it away, not giving into the urge to choke on the stuff. Sandstorms were worse than stupid dust clouds from things stuck under his bed.

The box was filled with all that he had left of his family. A blanket that he and his brother used to sleep under at night. A toy he had carved their names into. A painting his father had given him of the pair playing senet. The rumours had been that Kul Elna was filled with nothing but thieves, prostitutes and liars but Bakura knew better. The village was a simple one, filled with farmers, scribes and the odd tomb painter. His father had been one of them. Bakura sometimes wished he had his father's art of using a brush but most of his paintings came out like Ryou's had at five years old. This painting was one of the few things he had left that his father had given him. There were other assorted items in the box and at the very bottom was the thing that Bakura had been looking for.

While the rumours may have been false about most of the people in Kul Elna, there were still a few thieves around as you had in most places. A neighbour and close friend of their family was one of them and his name had long since been lost in Bakura's memory. It was hard to remember specific things now about the village but this one of the few that he would never forget. Whoever the man had been, he had been talented. One day he had returned from a robbery holding a camera, something that most of the villagers had never seen before. Being only a small village on the outskirts of New Thebes, they were barely monitored and so it was easy to hide small pieces of the outside world in their homes. The camera was one of them and the man had used it to take this one picture before leaving it in their hands. The camera was long lost, destroyed in the fire that had destroyed what the soldiers hadn't. But this was one day that Bakura had yet to forget.

It had been taken a few weeks before the attack. A five year old version of himself sat cross legged on the floor, a senet piece held in his hand as he stared at a contraption completely alien to him. Ryou was lying on his belly looking equally confused. Both boys were dressed in simple plain tunics and, since he had spent most days in the sun, it was easy to tell they were related since Ryou's skin burnt and tanned easily. Their mother had been careful about how long he spent in the sun since she, herself, was full albino. And they were in the picture too. His mother sat on the ground behind Ryou, her pale skin and white hair angelic in the sun. His father had a hand on his shoulder and he had been laughing at his sons' baffled expressions. Bakura looked much more like him than his mother, the only resemblance between himself and his mother being that they shared the same hair and eyes. Ryou took after her soft looks and sometimes Bakura felt jealous. People didn't judge Ryou by how he looked. But then he would shrug it off and get on with it. It wasn't like he would have chosen for Ryou to stay with him if he had been given the opportunity to give his brother a better life.

"I suppose it's time to put you guys somewhere else than the bottom of a box," he murmured as he shoved the rest of the stuff back in the box and under the bed. With that he stood and placed the photo gently in a photo frame by his bed before leaving the room. A few good shadow games would stop these morose thoughts he decided.

Domino city asylum owned a few extra patients that night.

God I'm evil to Bakura in this. Which is weird because I actually quiet liked the thief king and Bakura respectively (even if Yami Bakura freaked me out a bit). Interestingly, Ryou now has a bigger part than I originally planned for him in this and the sequel. But all in good time.

In terms of bronchitis, please don't shout at me for the symptoms Atem has. I've had an amalgamation of throat/chest infections in my life and I'm just kinda using my symptoms for Atem plus those generally for exhaustion. Just in case someone was thinking whaaa...? over them.

So review answers/acknowledgements!

angiembabe: hey, look more Bakura for you! And how dare you be suspicious of poor Ryou! I ripped him away from his family and tortured his brother unintentionally! The person you should hate at the moment is me! Nah, I'm just kidding but I'm glad you are enjoying this story so far.

Aqua Girl 007: Hope you like Bakura's bit here too. I'm not even going to say how hard it is to give Thief Bakura a nice side and keep him in character so I hope I haven't done too badly for you :)

Don't worry the pair of you. Atem gets better in the next chapter because I need him healthy for the next bit.