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Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! It belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

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Chapter 8

Yugi felt a jolt in his hand, it felt like a small bolt of electricity. Looking down he saw a small microchip in his hand. Frowning, he pulled the microchip out of his hand and held it at eye level. What was this and how did it get there? He then looked around, he was alone by the Game Shop. How had he got here? The last thing he remembered was watching the Pharaoh walk into Visual Arts. Speaking of the Pharaoh, was he here too? Where were Joey and the others? Looking around it appeared that he was alone. Yugi entered the Game Shop, thinking that the Gang was there. But the shop was completely empty. It was hard to remain calm. Yugi had no idea what was going on but he knew he had to find his friends. Returning to the street outside he ran into the town, there was the chance that the Gang would still be there waiting for the Pharaoh. Even if they were it made no sense why he was not there. What was going on? The run or rather sprint into town seemed to take twice as long as it usually did. That was probably down to the intense worry that was going through Yugi's mind. He had to find out what the hell was going on and make sure that his friends were all ok. Just as the Visual Arts building came into view he spotted someone very familiar.

"Joey!" Yugi cried, skidding to a halt in front of the blonde, "Joey, hey! What's going on? Where are the others?"

"The Lord of Darkness will protect us." Joey droned, his voice was slow, emotionless and almost robotic.

"W-What?"

"Our Lord and Master will protect from the evil Pharaoh. All hail the Lord of Darkness!"

Yugi frowned at Joey but then spotted a microchip in Joey's hand. With what Joey had just said and the microchip, Yugi was able to put two and two together. Zorc must be using these microchips to brain wash people into believing the he was the 'supreme' one. But the question was; Why had his stopped working? There was another important question. Where was Atem?

It was like Joey was reading Yugi's mind as he suddenly called out;

"The Pharaoh is the enemy!"

Then it hit him. His memories returned to him. Yugi remembered going into Zorc's office, seeing the bleeding Pharaoh and attacking him. He remembered what he did to Atem. The sight of Atem's pained face when Yugi had forced the latter's head into the desk was so clear in his mind it was like happening right in front of him. Fear raced through Yugi and he spun round to look at the Visual Arts building. Atem was in there right now and who knew what Zorc was doing to him.

"Pharaoh!" Yugi cried.

He started to run towards the building, but just as he had barely taken a few steps when the building exploded with an almightily bang.

His head hurt... a lot. His vision swam as he tried to open his eyes. It was so blurred that he could not really make out where he was. On the second attempt to open his eyes he was just able to make out the shape of a desk and... maybe a person sitting behind it.

"Look who's awake." A voice taunted.

His vision cleared and the Pharaoh saw Zorc looking at him.

"You know next time you're knocked unconscious don't be out for nearly twenty four hours. I wanted to taunt and torture you but wasn't not able to."

"Why didn't you just do it anyway?" Atem asked, weakly, "It's not as thought I could have stopped you."

"But then I miss out on the reaction." Zorc smirked.

Atem made no answer but just took a quick glance around. He was in the corner of the office, but it appeared that he could not move. He tried to move his hand but when he did bolts of what felt like electricity ran through him. It was excruciating but he allowed no noise to escape. He'd closed his eyes while being bolted with electricity but upon opening them he found Zorc smirking at you.

"That's more like it. I enjoy watching you suffer."

"You're sick."

"And?"

Atem had no reply so didn't make one. He knew that he had to figure out a way of here, but the problem he had was that he could not move. In his mind he went through all the things he could do, but there was one big issue... he had no power. How could he defeat Zorc when he had no power? And, how could he insure that Zorc would not come back. Then it hit him. It was like someone had just slapped him across the face. He knew what to do.

"You know you never be powerful." Atem said.

"How so Pharaoh?"

"Because someone will come and take it from you." Atem taunted, "Think of it this way. You tried to take over Egypt but just as you got to this point I stopped you."

Zorc eyed him, "This time I have made sure that no one can stop me."

Atem rolled his eyes; "That's what you think. But are you sure about that."

He could see Zorc becoming angry; "I am sure, Pharaoh. You're taunting will do nothing to me."

"You sure about that?" Atem smirked, "I think that you now have no idea what you doing."

"You want to watch what you're saying Pharaoh."

"Why? What are you going to do?"

He found out a second later. He was thrown into the middle of the office by shadow magic and before he knew it a clawed hand had slashed him across the face. Hot and sticky liquid was running down his face. A hand went to the effected spot and Atem saw blood stuck to his fingers. Zorc put a hand to Atem's throat.

"You really dare to taunt and insult me. I should remind you who is in control here. Me. I could destroy you at any time."

"Then why don't you." Atem spat.

"I don't have to justify myself to you."

"Ah, that means that you don't have as much so called power as you think you do."

It was possible to see Zorc's face turn into a look of fury.

"You dare speak to me like that!" Zorc's voice was becoming more demonic.

Grabbing Atem by the collar and threw him across the room, where he crumpled to the ground.

"Just do it!" The Pharaoh cried, "Prove that you are the Lord of Darkness."

Zorc smirked and sent the Shadows to destroy the Pharaoh once and for all. But something was wrong and Zorc, realising his mistake, cried out in anger. There was an almighty bang and all of a sudden they were both falling, falling to the ground.

Yugi stared in shock at the rubble which had previously been Visual Arts. He stared at it for a moment before beginning to climb over the rubble shouting for the Pharaoh.

"Yugi! Yugi, what's going on?"

Yugi turned, Joey was running towards him.

"Joey! You're back."

"What happened?" Joey repeated.

"I'll explain later but help me find the Pharaoh, I am sure he was in Visual Arts before this happened."

Joey decided that the questions could wait and hurried to join Yugi in the search. People were starting to gather around the ruins of Visual Arts while Yugi and Joey searched. They pushed rubble aside trying to find a sign of the Pharaoh.

"Pharaoh!" Yugi called, panic starting to set in.

"Yugi, are you sure that the Pharaoh was in the building?" Joey asked, "He might not have been in there."

"He was Joey, I will explain later in detail later but Zorc had taken the Pharaoh so I know he was in there."

Yugi looked around, he could see people staring in horror at the sight before them. He saw Tristan and Tèa clambering towards them. He also saw Grandpa staring at the ruins in shock. Everyone was there apart from the Pharaoh. Where the hell was he?

"He has to be here somewhere." Yugi insisted.

He looked over the ruins again but then he saw something. A hand was sticking out of the rubble.

"Atem!" Yugi cried, running towards it.

Grabbing the hand, he felt a jolt as the owner of the hand felt someone grab it. Immediately, they all began to dig, throwing the bits of rubble aside. The first thing that came in to view was tri-coloured hair. Then, Atem's face came into view. The Pharaoh was conscious, but his face was covered in blood. There were three long gashes across his face, one had missed his left eye my near centimetres. There was also four cuts across his neck, these had forms scabs but one of them was oozing blood. He was struggling to breathe and that turned out to be caused by a large piece of rubble that was crushing his chest. It took both Joey and Tristan to lift it off, and once it was removed Atem took a serve deep breaths. Joey tried to lift another piece of rubble that was on top of the Pharaoh's waist but a sharp intake of breath stopped him. It appeared that removing any more debris would cause the Pharaoh pain, so they stopped digging him out.

"What happened, Pharaoh?" Yugi asked.

"I s-sorted it." Atem said, his voice was weak.

"By blowing up the building?" Joey asked.

"N-no. I got Z-Zorc to d-destroy me."

"What!" Yugi asked, his eyes widening, "What do you mean?"

"Me and Z-Zorc were l-linked like we were Y-Yugi. Zorc h-had stolen all my p-power so I c-could not do anything but k-knowing that we were linked m-meant that I knew t-that by destroying m-me it would destroy him as w-well."

As if on cue there was a roar, which Atem recognised to be Zorc's roar.

"He is g-gone." Atem said.

"So, Zorc's was linked to you and verse visa." Yugi said, trying to make sense of the situation, "So by Zorc destroying you it destroyed him as well."

"Y-Yes, the f-force of us b-being destroyed b-blew up the b-building." Atem said, his voice was getting weaker, "I-I didn't know that w-would happen, b-but there we go."

"But there must be something we can do." Tristan said, not quite believing that this was happening.

"There's n-nothing. T-This was the only w-way to stop him."

"You can't go Pharaoh," Yugi said, tears leaking, "Not like this."

A small, sad smiled crossed the Pharaoh's face, "I'm s-sorry but it w-was the only way. The only w-way to e-ensure he d-does not c-come back."

"Will you be with your family?" Joey asked, he was struggling to hold his own tears.

He shook his head, "I d-don't think s-so. I d-don't know w-where I'll b-be but n-not home."

There was silence for a while as they all took in the information. They could not believe this was going to happen but there was no way to stop it. It was the Pharaoh who broke the silence.

"Remember t-that I w-will always b-be w-with you."

Yugi looked Atem, years still falling. Despite that fact Atem was about to leave the world but not return to where he should be he smiled at Yugi. But Yugi could not quite return the smile. He watched as Atem's eyes grew distant and his eyelids closed. He knew. He knew that Atem was gone.

Three weeks had passed since the day Atem had made the Ultimate Sacrifice. He had traded being in the afterlife to being well... nowhere. All the save the world. Yugi had explained in full to Joey and the others about the mircochips they had all had in their hands which made them become Zorc's puppets. The official cause of Visual Arts collapse and the death of two people had been blamed on a weakness in the buildings foundations. But Yugi knew better. He had wanted to take the Pharaoh back to Egypt to rest with the other members of his family but they had been unable to do that, so the Pharaoh had been laid to rest in a pretty, local church. Yugi had never inquired as to where Zorc had been laid to rest, he didn't care.

Yugi sat back in his chair, gazing out the window. It was raining outside and there was condensation on the window. He was thinking about the last thing Atem had said to them;

"Remember t-that I w-will always b-be w-with you."

He smiled to himself.

"You are always with us, aren't you Atem?"

His eyes caught movement on the window. A small smile crossed Yugi's face as he read the word, which had appeared in the condensation;

'Always.'

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So that's it. It was a long chapter but I hope you liked it! I could have split it into two chapters but I thought it would be nicer to make it one big chapter.

Your final thoughts are much appreciated! So please review!

Usually I tell you here about my new fic. But unfortunately there is no new fic, I haven't got any ideas for a new ficlet at the moment. Hopefully I will come up with ideas soon but who knows.

So thank you for reading! Hopefully see you soon!

Peace out!

~RedRosePetal