Chapter Six: One

Yuri slowly awoke from what felt like a slumber. He sat up and looked around with wide eyes. He was in a bedroom, but it wasn't the one at Dad's house, nor at Resheph's castle. Its only normal piece of furniture was a bed with light blue sheets. The entire place was wallpapered with poetry that he'd written, hung up with sparks of light blue magic. A window with a light blue seat looked out upon a rather gloomy yet strangely beautiful landscape, dotted with black trees with glowing light blue stripes, black and light blue flowers, and glowing light blue butterflies which flew all over the place. The very scene simply begged for poetry to be written about it.

"What is this place?" he said to himself.

His eyes fell on a light blue door. He got up from the bed and walked over to the door.

Upon opening it, he peered out into a hallway which was darkened on either end. Right across from him was a stony yellow door with an Eye of Osiris which was surrounded by old, yellowed bricks, almost like an entryway into an old Egyptian building.

Puzzled, Yuri walked over to the other door and slowly opened it.

Inside wasn't another room-it was an entire desert. In the distance was a bunch of pyramids which gleamed underneath the golden sunlight. Closer to the door was a small oasis with palm trees and a cool, sparkling blue lake right next to what appeared to be the site of an Egyptian dig. The sand had been dug up to form a small pit in the desert, leading far down into the earth.

Strangely, however, though the dig was pretty deep, there was only one person in it. Even stranger, it was a rather old man wearing a khaki jacket with lots of pockets, khaki shorts, heavy work boots, and an orange headband on his head. He was hard at work, on his knees and digging with a trowel into the sandy earth. Around him were various dusty artifacts from a gold neck-plate to a small, golden scarab.

Yuri blinked. What on earth is going on here?

The man appeared to sense that he was being watched. He looked up and saw Yuri gazing over the side of the dig. He called up, "Why are you just standing there? Come down and actually take a look at these!"

Still slightly confused, Yuri jumped and slid down the side of the pit to its bottom. He gazed down at the Egyptian treasures, very delicately picked up the scarab in his hand, and murmured, "How beautiful…"

The old man smiled. "Yes, they are, aren't they? That's the beauty of being an Egyptologist-one finds these incredible gold treasures all buried in what just looks like a dusty, barren desert. Really gets your poetic juices flowing, hmm?"

Yuri stared at him. Already, he'd been thinking of thousands of different lines of poetry ('Golden treasures in barren sand/ Hidden gems in dirty land…'). "How'd you know I write those?"

"I peeked into your room while you were away," the old man replied, continuing his digging into the ground. "I wanted to try and find out as much about you as I could while I was, erm, out."

Yuri blinked. "Uhh…who exactly are you? And where are we?"

The man put down his trowel and stood up. "This, child," he indicated the entire dig, "is my mind room. It's apparently where all of my memories and personality traits are stored away, revealing what truly makes me me." He smiled down at Yuri. "And the room you were in was your own mind room. You've been in there for…5,492 years now, I believe?"

"What?" Yuri replied. "But…I've only just seen this place for the first time!"

"That's because you were kept asleep during those thousands of years," the man replied. "You wanted to be completely locked away, and that's what you got until your father started coming into my world."

"Wait…the gods…the reincarnation…" Yuri's eyes widened. "That…wasn't a dream? It really happened?"

The old man smiled. "Yes, child. And I am your reincarnation." He bowed. "Solomon Muto, at your service."

"Muto?" Yuri paused. "Are you related to my Dad's friend? The one that looks like me?"

"Ah, so you've met Yugi? Yes, I am-he's my grandson."

Yuri became very confused. "But aren't you, like, a hundred thousand years old or so?"

Solomon was very taken aback. "I AM NOT THAT OLD!" he screamed out. "I'M JUST A MORTAL!"

"Oh." Yuri blushed. "Sorry, sir."

"And besides, I might be a grandfather, but I'm still in very good shape!"

Yuri looked up and down at him. "Uhh…no offense, Mr. Muto, but you're round."

"Well, round is a shape."

Yuri covered his mouth and tried to hide his laughter.

Suddenly, the sound of voices speaking appeared to resound from above them: "Yuri was reincarnated as your…grandfather?"

"Yes, Spencer."

Yuri recognized the voices; it was his father and that teen named Yugi talking.

"Oh my gods, Yugi…I am so sorry."

Yuri blinked. "Why would he be sor-" And then it suddenly came to him. "Wait a minute-I'm dead!"

"HA!" Solomon let out a laugh. "Young man, we are absolutely not dead. If we were dead, we'd have been knocking on those pearly gates to heaven by now."

"But…Resheph…his magic…"

"He mangled our body pretty badly, yes, but that's just how we look on the outside. Our souls are still very much alive, though-they're being kept that way by the spirits of the ones that love us the most."

"What?"

Solomon smiled wanly at him. "You haven't noticed, have you? Look closely at yourself."

Yuri looked down at his hands. He suddenly noticed that they had a very faint glow of both gold and light blue. When he looked up, he saw that the man was glowing, too, with a faint blue light. "See that? That's their life energy, pooled towards making sure you and I stay alive. And since you've got some of your light in there, too, I can tell that you don't want to die just yet either."

Yuri looked down at the ground. "I…maybe I don't…I dunno…"

Solomon shook his head. "You're worried that if you go back, you're going to just continue living that same hell you lived through each and every single day, right?"

"Yes," he murmured in reply.

Solomon knelt down to his eye level and asked, "Young man, how old are you exactly?"

Yuri looked away from him and replied, "A couple thousand years."

"That's not very old for people from your world, is it."

He shook his head. "Nope…I'm practically a newborn."

Solomon shook his head. "Well, then, no wonder you want to stay alive-you want to know if there's really more to life than being ignored and beaten up, and if it does, then you most definitely still have the chance to experience it! And you don't want it all to just go down the drain now, do you?"

Yuri paused. Finally, a tear fell down his face and he murmured, "No…I don't…"

"Yuri, young man, let me tell you something: I'm younger than you years-wise, but I've lived out a practically full life already, and I know for a fact that it can be filled with the laughter and love that you've desired for such a long time. And I promise, child…" Solomon held out his hand towards Yuri. "If you will join me, we can pool our energies together, and you can finally experience that life you've dreamed of for thousands of years." He smiled. "So what do you say, young one?"

Yuri looked out at the outstretched hand. He remembered the memory which he'd apparently gotten from the older man-such warmth…such love…he could really experience that every day…

He smiled and nodded. "Okay." He reached out and took the outstretched hand in his grasp.

The glows around them suddenly increased in intensity. Yuri watched in awe as the desert scene started swirling around them, glowing faintly with blue and gold light as well, and a strong gust of wind started picking up. The door to the memory room opened, and Yuri's poems and the blue glowing butterflies flew inside, becoming enmeshed in the wind.

"What's happening?" Yuri cried out.

Solomon smiled. "Looks like we don't have to keep switching back and forth between each other anymore. There will no longer be a 'you' and 'me', Yuri-from now on, we're an 'I'."

Yuri stared in shock. The desert scene vanished in a glow of bright blue light, and both had to shut their eyes as the light became blinding…

Spencer had his hand on Yugi's shoulder, his other one holding Yuri close to him. Yugi, too, kept one hand on Yuri, desperately hoping to sense some life in him. The others were looking down at the two sadly, with Joey and Tristan holding each other up and trying desperately to hide their tears, Téa giving Yugi a little half-hug, Bakura trying to see if he could sense any spirits in the room, and Kaiba trying really hard to remain indifferent.

Suddenly, Spencer, Yugi, and Yuri's bodies started glowing with their respective shades of magic. The teens stared down in shock as the gash across Yuri's chest started to fade away, and the glows around Yugi and Spencer flew down through their hands and joined the glow around Yuri.

"What's happening?" Yugi asked.

"I…I don't know," Spencer said, just as shocked.

Finally, the glow slowly faded away. The gash Resheph had created was completely gone.

Slowly, Yuri's body stirred. Yugi and Spencer watched in shock as he opened his eyes and looked up at the two. He smiled. "Hello."

Yugi and Spencer couldn't reply; they were too overjoyed to speak.

Yuri looked over at Yugi and laughed, "Don't be so shocked; your old man is quite resilient, you know."

Yugi stared at him; Spencer's face fell.

However, Yuri then looked over at Spencer and said, "So I can assure you that I'm not going to die all that easily, Dad."

Now the two of them were confused. "Wait…so are you Grandpa or are you Yuri?" Yugi asked.

The child sat up and smiled, "Both. I'm not two separate people anymore, you guys. My memories have been combined into the one whole person I'm meant to be. There's no more switching, no more having either one or the other out at particular points in time-from now one, it's just going to be me…" He paused. "Wait…is my name now Solomon or Yuri?"

"I'd prefer to just call you 'Grandpa'," Yugi laughed.

Grandpa shrugged. "That's fine by me..." He looked down at himself. "Although I don't really think it's too befitting for this body at the moment…"

Suddenly, a white orb of light appeared in front of them. It expanded and became a large portal which the three gods stared through. Quickly, all of you, come in here right now, D.M. ordered them.

"What's wrong?" Yugi asked, seeing the concerned looks on their faces.

Just come, before those two bakas wake up, he replied, indicating the unconscious Susiros and Resheph. The three gods stepped away from the portal and walked down the stairs.

Slightly confused, the teens stood up and walked through the portal, letting it close behind them.