Chapter Three:
To Wild Yonder

They'd been there forever.

Yugi could hear the Nobodies swirling around them, he could feel them messing around with Joey.

"C'mon, man..." Yugi whispered, "Please..."

Joey was shaking under his arm, his hand clenching Yugi's wrist so hard it might have been cutting of circulation.

Joey whimpered.

"God damn it, Joey! GET UP!" Yugi shook his friend desperately.

"Yugi." Atem said, "He's not getting up."

Yugi whirled around to face his brother.

"I WILL NOT LEAVE UNTIL HE STANDS UP!" He shrieked.

"Yugi!" He heard Téa call, "Yugi, where are you!"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Yugi shouted as Téa came into view. She looked horribly pale, but she hadn't died.

"I'm trying to- What's wrong with Joey?" Here last sentence came quiet and shocked.

At that point, Yugi almost broke.

His best friend, who he'd been through everything with, who had gotten a probation, and would be willing to risk expulsion to help him, was slowly loosing his soul.

"There's no point." Atem said.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?" Yugi screeched at him, "I'VE KNOWN YOU FOR 10 MINUTES AND I ALREADY WANT TO STRANGLE YOU, SO CAN YOU PLEASE SHUT UP?"

Atem looked slightly hurt, but clenched his staff tighter, keeping up the protective shield he'd put around them.

He couldn't keep it much longer.

Téa sat beside Yugi.

Yugi slipped his hand into Joey's. Not a romantic gesture, as some would make it out to be. No. He was reassuring his friend.

"Joey." He said quietly, "Look at me."

He moved Joey's face upwards to look at him.

His eyes were half shut, his mouth shaking in a whimper.

"It's not real..." He said quietly, "Please, Joey... Fight it..."

Joey's mouth slowly curved into a scowl, and then his face scrunched up in concentration.

His eyes shot open, pupils back, and he gasped, sitting up and clutching to Yugi.

Yugi laughed, half-hysteric, half-relieved, and hugged his friend back.

Atem was obviously exerting too much energy.

"We should probably get going."

Atem stood.

"One..." He counted, "Two... THREE!"

He released the shield and dived out the window.

"IS HE INSANE?!" Téa shouted.

"I'm beginning to think so." Yugi grumbled, supporting Joey as they went to the window.

"What are you doing!?" Téa demanded.

"Do you want to go through a whole school of that?" He asked, throwing himself out the window.

They were two stories up, but Atem caught him.

"C'mon, Téa!" Yugi shouted, "Jump!"

Téa considered it, and leaped.

Atem caught her as well, and she put her arm under Joey's armpit and over his shoulder, giving him a bit more comfort than Yugi holding him.

They scrambled around the school and across the courtyard.

Yugi heard newscasters talking.

"Fire at Domino High School..."

"... Horrible fire. Luckily, no one was killed..."

Fire?

How could anyone call that a fire.

They stepped onto the street, and Yugi realized just how bad they all looked.

Atem's hair and face was streaked with grime and pale from the effort of keeping a spell going for that long. Téa was better off, pale, but not dead. Yugi, himself, had a red hand from Joey squeezing his wrist so hard, and tears on his face.

Joey was the worst off.

He was pale and terrified, that was obvious. He tried to stand and had to use a wall for support, eventually using Téa.

Atem walked right up to a Jeep and crawled into the front seat.

"Where did you get this?" Yugi asked.

"Stole it." He said bluntly.

Joey took a step back, nearly falling over in the process.

"Don't worry." He said, "I'll take it back. They probably don't even know it's gone. Common minds are easy to manipulate." He looked at them for a long time, "Well get in."

Téa helped Joey into the back seat, and Yugi climbed into the shotgun seat.

Seat belts on, they drove off.

…

"Would you mind explaining to me what the hell is going on?" Yugi demanded as they exited Domino, "Where are we going? What are we doing? Why did those things attack?"

Atem took a breath.

"You deserve an explanation." He said, his fingers flexing on the steering wheel. He took a breath and began, "When you were 5, Mother and Father decided that it would be best for both of us, for all of us, if we were separated... And to do that... They had to deplete you."

"What does that mean?" Yugi asked, feeling his hands shake.

"To deplete a magician... You lower their abilities, their sight, and repress their memories... It is commonly used to keep a magician safe if they are too powerful..."

"You're saying my- our- parents took my memories?" Yugi felt hurt. How could you do that to a child?

"Yugi, it was necessary. If we stayed together, our power... We could attract enough Shadows to break through the barriers, a-and..." He flattered, clutching the steering wheel so hard his knuckles where white, "You don't want that to happen. So, we staged your death. Said you fell off a roof... It was kind of like you did die, you know?" Atem looked over at his brother, his crimson eyes sparkling with tears, "I'm glad we're together again, but you must keep in mind, now that we're together the depletion is deactivated. Your powers will grow, and... We have to close the barrier properly. But to do that... We'd need all 7 Millennium Items."

"Millennium whats-it-nows?" Joey asked, sounding quite well for someone who's mind had been trapped in the Shadows.

"The Millennium Items." Atem said, "Yugi and I share one- The Millennium Puzzle. Father split it in order to make sure that I could know it was him. But the others... No one has seen many for thousands of years. The Tombkeepers- the Ishtars- have kept the Necklace and Rod safe for millennia, but... They were stolen, recently." His fingers tightened around the wheel again, and he snarled with quite a lot of hatred, "I am very sure I know who it was."

Téa asked,

"Who?"

Atem straightened his back, realizing he'd been slouching.

"A thief. His name is Bakura. He..." His hands shook with rage on the wheel, "I will never forgive him for disgracing my father like that. Dragged his bloody sarcophagus across-" He stopped and willed himself to calm down, "But on the other hand, we're headed to New York."

"Why?" Yugi asked.

"The closest portal is there. It will take us to Rome. But, Yugi, we must be careful. Egytians and Romans... We don't really have the best track record with each other. A-and if the ghost found out I was a-" He stopped himself.

"You're a what?" Yugi asked quietly.

"That I'm a pharaoh." He said quietly, keeping his eyes on the road.

"That's crazy." Yugi said, though he'd seen enough crazy to see that this was not, "The pharaohs haven't been around for, like, 3000 years."

"Not on the surface, at least."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey demanded.

Atem took another deep breath.

"Ancient Egypt has flourished underground, in large caverns underneath Modern Egypt. A-and... Yugi and I... We are of the Royal Line. As the eldest, and the only one presumably alive at the time, I took up the role of the Pharaoh, a-after... After Father..."

He turned his head away so none of us would see his expression. Yugi could see from his shaking shoulders that hew was crying.

Yugi wanted to comfort him, but didn't know how.

It wasn't like he'd known him forever and could just hug him.

He didn't even know how he liked his coffee, his favourite shirt, what his favourite ruddy colour was!

How were they supposed to be brothers without knowing anything about each other?

Atem sat up straight, wiping is eyes carefully, as not to smear the kohl.

"I-I suppose that we should keep going." He said, his voice tight, "Just... Just drive."

And so they did.

…

Aw, Atem! :(