Going to have a lot of formatting errors for a little bit because I originally wrote these for deviantArt, which means I used i and /i for italics instead of actually italicizing. I'll fix it ASAP, I"m just too tired to do it right now, sorry.

Comments copied from dA:

[coming soon; sorry]

Chapter 2 -_-_- Yami no Geemu

"Yug! … Earth to Yug! … Wake up or I'm gonna rip up yer Dark Magician!"

"Not my Dark Magician!" he cried out in terror, suddenly lurching forward. Tristan and Tea laughed, but not as hard as Joey.

"I knew that'd wake 'im up," he said smugly. Yugi blinked and looked at the three of them.

"What time is it?" he asked, looking at the clock.

"Two-ten," Tea said. "You've been totally out of it for the last twenty minutes or so; the teacher's let us socialize for a little bit before the day ends." Yugi nodded to himself slowly.

"Yeah… I guess I have," he admitted.

"Still worried about Bakura?" Tristan asked. Yugi nodded. He'd told them about between passing periods, and during lunch the four of them had gone to check on him in the nurse's office. The bed had been empty, and a passing teacher managed to tell them that Bakura had gone home for the day. Yugi twitched his pencil back and forth agitatedly, which he abruptly realized he'd been doing for the last… twenty minutes had Tea said?… while he worried about Bakura.

"He was acting so weirdly… and he seemed so weak," he added. Tristan shook his head.

"You don't need to justify it to us, dude. We know how you are. Still going to stop by his house when school's done?" Yugi nodded again. "I'm sorry I can't go with you though—I ipromised/i my mom I'd help her set up for her tupperware dinner—" Tristan made a face "—and I'll never hear the end of it if I back out now." Yugi smiled reassuringly at him.

"It's okay," he promised. "I'll be fine by myself." Tea had to work and Joey had received triple detentions, and a couple days ago Yugi and he had made a bet—if Yugi won a duel, Joey had to stay and do his detentions like a model student. And Yugi never lost—even if Joey had put forth so much energy and effort into the match Yugi had had to rely on the Pharaoh's strength. "Besides," he added, putting his hands on either side of the Millennium Puzzle, "I'm never really alone, right?"

iOf course, my partner, /i the Pharaoh said.

"But Yug…" Joey started. Yugi shook his head.

"It's alright, really," he promised them. "I'll be fine—Bakura's a friend, too. It's not like I'm going towards a duel."

"Yeah, but what 'bout all those duelists in town for Battle City?!" Joey cried out anyway. "E'en i without /i your duel disk people'll still know you're Yugi Moto! And they'll be able to guess that even without your duel disk you'll still have your deck!" Yugi smiled embarassedly.

"Come on, you guys!" he cried. "You over-exaggerate myself my fame i way /i too much! Guys; I can take care of myself!" Joey and Tristan exchanged a look.

"icough/iburningwarehouseicough/i," Tristan "coughed". Yugi scowled.

"But this is different! I promise I won't give my puzzle to any mysterious fortune tellers, okay? I won't talk to any strangers!" Now it was Joey's turn to cough.

"Unlessthey'rewearingadueldiskicough/i." He suddenly started coughing for real; Tea hit his back, but Tristan was too busy laughing.

"Joey swallowed his spit!" he cackled. Joey grimaced at him.

"Bye guys!" They all looked towards the door where Yugi was leaning against the frame, smiling and waving. He suddenly disappeared around the trim.

"Be safe!" Tea called after him at the same time Tristan shouted, "I haev my cell if you get in trouble!" Tea elbowed him while he laughed.

Joey stared after Yugi, a bad feeling in the depths of his stomach. If Joey hadn't made that deal he would be following Yugi right now—but he never broke a promise, at least not one he'd made with a friend.

But that didn't make him want to follow Yugi any less.

* *

Yugi craned his neck and tried to look at the numbers on the other apartment doors. 600… 602… Yes, this was definitely Bakura's apartment. He was admittedly nervous; he'd never been to Bakura's house before. And he'd been acting so strangely… what if he didn't even let him in?

iIt's alright,/i the Pharaoh promised him. iIf he doesn't let you in, the there would have been nothing you could do to help him, anyway./i

iPharaoh.../i Yugi thought. iI have to help him, no matter what./i

iI know./i

He knocked on the door and held his breath. Several moments passed without any response.

iYugi.../i the Pharaoh started. Yugi shook his head and knocked on the door again. iI do not want to crush your hopes, but—/i

Yugi knocked violently on the door a third time in response.

"Who… is it…?" a weak British voice from the other side of the door said. Even though he must have been leaning against the door, Yugi could barely hear him.

iThat's why he didn't answer earlier!/i he told the Pharaoh. He seemed unimpressed.

"Bakura, it's me, Yugi! I just wanted to make sure you're okay!" There was silence for a second, then the sounds of a scuffle. "Bakura!" Yugi shouted, feeling his heart jump into his throat. "Bakura?! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine… Just tripped," Bakura said. Yugi blinked; he didn't sound nearly as weak now. The door unlocked. "Why don't you come in, Yugi? I'm sure you must be hungry or tired—it's a long walk from here to the school, or even to the nearest bus stop."

"Thanks Bakura—" Yugi started.

iYugi, don't./i Yugi blinked in confusion.

iPharaoh, what is it now? You've been so panicky all day…/i he replied, pushing hte door open and starting to wriggle out of his shoes.

iYugi! I'm getting a bad feeling about this—Bakura's been acting strangely all day. Too strangely. I don't like this. What if he's being controlled by Marik?/i Yugi blinked in surprise as he walked into the apartment.

iMarik? No way… that doesn't seem right at all! Wouldn't Marik have had him as close to me as he could manage? But instead he's been gone for a week, and when he /i does i finally come back to school he's so exhausted he can't do anything!/i

iThat would explain why he's so tired; Marik has Bakura running errands for him./i

iLike what?! Bakura isn't very strong, and he isn't famous or have any trace of an intimidating personality. He's smart, but Marik would be using his own mind. I like Bakura, but I have to say that he wouldn't be that much use to him. He doesn't even duel./i

iI don't know, Yugi,/i the Pharaoh finally said. iBut this sits poorly with me. Please, Yugi, don't enter that apartment./i Yugi blinked and abruptly realized he was already standing inside the door in the brightly lit main room of Bakura's apartment. His first thought was to look at Bakura and see if he looked any better. But he got distracted.

"Woooooow!" he shouted without thinking, looking around the walls. Glass case after glass case lined the walls, all the way from the floor to the ceilings. In them were the three-inch tall, vibrantly painted plastic figures of Monster World, the most popular board-game/tabletop RPG in Japan. There were only a few places that were devoid of the glass cases; the front door, the window under which sat a desk, and two other doors set in two different walls. "Bakura! This is amazing!" He turned once and saw Bakura sitting in a chair at the desk. He still looked tired, but better. His eyes were sharp and clear, and he was watching Yugi like a hawk.

He smiled, and though his face warmed, it didn't seem to reach as far into his eyes as it should.

"I'm glad you're impressed, Yugi. I really love Monster World, and it makes me happy that you do too." Yugi looked at him, thinking.

iThis isn't normal for him,/i the Pharaoh said. Yugi shushed him and looked around the room again.

"Yeah… I've never actually played it before, but it looks really fun!" He rested his hand on his front right pocket absentmindedly. "I've been really busy with Duel Monsters though, not that I mind." Bakura tilted his head to one side, never taking his brown eyes off of Yugi.

"You're in the tournament, aren't you?" Bakura asked. "That big one that's being hosted by Kaiba… Battle City?" Yugi nodded and smiled at him; Bakura didn't smile back. Yugi frowned internally. Bakura seemed less tired, but he didn't seem any closer to normal.

"Yeah, Bakura. I didn't know you were that big of a fan of Duel Monsters," Yugi admitted. He could feel the Pharaoh in the back of his mind. He was not happy, but he was keeping quiet. Bakura smiled a little, but it was a sort of curious, knowing smile, not a friendly one. Yugi felt a finger of cold crawl up his spine.

"I'm rather interested," he admitted, pushing himself out of his chair. It looked like it took him a lot of effort, and he leaned against the desk once he was standing up. "I even have a deck…" He opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a small stack of cards. He looked at them for a second before resting them on the desk. "I'm not in the tournament, though. I was too busy with… things." He looked again at Yugi and blinked slowly. "It's rather interesting, though, don't you think? Eight duelists competing in finals that no one knows the location of, hosted by our own Seto Kaiba, with the title of King of Games at stake as well as the Egyptian God Cards…"

Yugi felt his body stiffen.

"The Egyptian Gods…?" he asked, his mouth dry. He was smiling, but he knew it was weak and forced and looked it. "What are you talking about, Bakura? Egyptian God Cards? Sounds powerful!" He flashed his smile at Bakura, but again he didn't smile back. He just stood there, and looked at him, his expression curious and analyzing.

iYugi get out of here now!/i the Pharaoh shouted. iHe shouldn't know that! The only ones who know about the God Cards are those directly involved with them! Marik, Seto, Ishizu, us, the Rare Hunters, and anyone who's faced them in a duel before! You have to get out!/i

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better," Yugi said, trying to make his voice sound casual, "but I really have to go now. I promised my Grandpa I'd pick up a cardboard cut-out of Kaiba from this part of town for him to show the shoppers that he's selling cards for the tournament. I just figured since I was going to be passing by I'd come to see how you were." He turned towards the door, but a crash drew his attention back to the desk. To his confusion, there was no one there.

He turned back towards hte door and jumped; Bakura was already standing there, his back straight and a blatantly cruel smile on his face. He was holding his Duel Monsters deck and was shuffling it by constantly cutting it in half.

"Why don't you stay just a little longer, Yugi? I haven't been feeling very well… It would make me very…" He looked at one of his hands, using his thumbnail to work at one of his fingernails. "…happy." He looked back up at Yugi, and his grin was even wider.

iYugi!/i the Pharaoh shouted. Yugi suddenly felt himself shunted to the side as the Pharaoh pushed himself through.

"Bakura! Let us out!" he shouted. The grin on Bakura's face became ecstatic and he let the cards cascade to the ground; as if an unfelt wind swept through the room, his hair suddenly seemed to grow wilder as the look in his eyes grew crueler.

"Well well well!" he shouted, throwing his arms out to either side. "If the Pharaoh hasn't graced us with his presence! Have you finally seen it fit to grace our lowly lives with your presence?" He threw his head back and laughed. Yami glared at him, grinding his teeth together.

"Who are you?!" he demanded. "And don't claim to be Bakura Ryou! I can tell well enough that you aren't! Is it you, Marik?!" Bakura laughed again.

"How cruel!" he taunted, looking back at Yami. His smile remianed, but now every part of his expression seemed to drip of arrogance, to the narrowing of his eyes to the tilt of his head. "You don't even remember me, Pharaoh?! What a cruel king you are! Maybe ithis/i will refresh your memory!" He reached into his shirt and with a flourish pulled out something large and gold.

"No!" Yami shouted in horror. But there was no doubt—the eye of Horus was staring back at him, so much like the eye on his Millennium Puzzle. "The Millennium Ring! But Tristan told me—"

"Oh please, Pharaoh!" Yami Bakura laughed. "You put too much faith in your petty friends! The Millennium Items are forces mere mortals could never possibly hope to understand! And the ways they work are just as enigmatic! But I suppose you won't have to worry for too long," he added, his expression turning sly. "After all, I plan on taking iyours/i from you very soon." Yami wrapped his hand as far around the Millennium Puzzle as he could protectively. He braced himself and ground his teeth in fury.

"I will never let you have this puzzle, you snake!" he shouted. He could feel Yugi's fright deep within him, but he tried to push it away; he couldn't worry about Yugi right now. Keeping the puzzle safe was the only way to keep the two of them safe, as well. Bakura looked unperturbed.

"Oh what, 'over your dead body'? If you hadn't cast me into the ring by destroying my body I would have!" He brought his hands up in front of his face, palms upward, and curled his fingers. "But it's no matter now, is it?! All of the Millennium Items have surfaced, and now it's up to me to simply gather them! And I'll start with yours!" He pointed at Yami and suddenly the room grew dark.

Enormous purple/black clouds boiled around them, the dim sounds of thunder in the distance. Every once in a while the clouds would flash as if lightning burned deep within them, but there was never anything else to break up the monotony of the surrounding world.

"The Shadow Realm!" Yami spat in fury. Yami Bakura laughed again.

"How attentive you've been, Pharaoh! So you can remember this place, but not me? I'm so offended!" He laughed again and Yami felt deep within him towards Yugi; he needed his partner's support right now—he had no idea what the spirit of the Millennium Ring planned to do to him now that he was here.

But Yugi wasn't there.

"Yugi!" he shouted. His head snapped up and he glared at Yami Bakura, who stared back at him with an arrogant smirk. "What have you done to my partner, you snake?!" Yami Bakura's grin widened and he gestured around them.

"Ask the Shadow Realm that, dear Pharaoh!" he cried. "It does as it will, and no more!"

"It does as it needs to to meet the rules of a Shadow Game!" he shouted. "So what game are you planning?!"

"Touche, dear Pharaoh! There seems to be some form of a brain beneath that glowing Eye of Horus after all!" Yami Bakura cried. Suddenly forty Duel Monsters cards appeared in front of them, all of them face-down and in attack position. They flew to the no-man's land between them and arranged themselves into two groups of twenty, five cards wide and four cards deep. "Tell me, Pharaoh, have you ever played the modern-day game of Concentration?" He took a step forward, up to the edge of the cards. Yami didn't move.

"In the game, there are an even number of face-down cards," Yami Bakura continued, picking up a card with two fingers on his side and looking at it nonchalantly. "They have matching patterns—usually for children apples or birds or xylophones or some other brightly-colored nonsense. The players take turns flipping two cards over; if they match, the cards are removed from play and the player gathers them. If the player is right, they get to go again. The positions of cards that are turned back over remain the same, so you can use your opponent's turns to help guide you to victory, as well. At the end of the game, the player who has the most pairs wins." He looked up at Yami as he placed the card back down, his expression contemptuous. The cards moved by themselves, sliding as if over an invisible plane so that each card was now in a new position. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," Yami said flatly, "but these are Duel Monsters cards. What do you intend to do?" he demanded. Yami Bakura flashed a dark grin at him.

"The game we will be playing will be very much like Concentration, Pharaoh. Before you are twenty face-down Monster Cards; Monster Cards from your very own deck!" He gestured at the cards in front of him. "And in front of my are twenty of my own Monsters! We'll each take turns flipping the cards over; one of our own, and then one of our opponent's. If the attacks of the cards match, then both cards are removed from play."

"And the person with the most pairs wins?" Yami asked, folding his arms contemptuously. Yami Bakura smiled dangerously and wagged a finger at him.

"Don't get ahead of yourself itoo/i much Pharaoh! This is my game, and iI/i am the only one who knows the rules, don't forget that! If you want to know what you're doing, you'd better shut that royal mouth of yours and listen, hadn't you?" Yami glared at him.

"We will inot/i be collecting pairs," he continued, "as you oh-so-stupidly guessed. This game's winner is not decided by how many pairs we have—you win when your opponent either runs out of monsters or their Lifepoints hit zero."

"Lifepoints?!" Yami shouted. Yami Bakura glared at him, not looking so amused this time.

"There's that 'quiet' thing again, Pharaoh. If you're that eager to play we can skip the rules and start, and I'll let you wallow in your ignorance!" Yami said nothing. "As I was saying, your opponent can also lose if his Lifepoints hit zero. We each start the game with 4000 Lifepoints.

"And now here is where this game takes the largest turn from it's humble roots—if you happen to pick a monster with a higher attack than my monster, then the difference is taken from my Lifepoints and my monster is destroyed, and your monster is turned face-down. Just like in Duel Monsters, eh, Pharaoh?" Yami said nothing, and Yami Bakura smirked. "It seems you can teach an old dog new tricks, can't you? Anyway, if you attack my monster and destroy it, the difference is dealt to my lifepoints. But if you attack my monster and have iless/i attack, then the difference is dealt to your Lifepoints instead, and iyour/i monster is destroyed while mine stays on the field! If the attacks are equal, both monsters are destroyed but neither of our Lifepoints take damage, and the player who selected can go again. Do you understand so far? You may answer, this time," he added.

"Yes," Yami said flatly. Yami Bakura smiled.

"You know, I rather like this quiet version of you. No long rants about the 'Heart of the Cards' or preaching about 'friendship'!" He scoffed and waved one hand airly. "Anyway, there are a few more rules to this game, dear Pharaoh. For one thing, when it is your turn you do not ihave/i to attack one of your opponent's monsters. You can either attack or flip a monster face-up. When a monster is flipped face-up, it will remain in face-up position for the entirety of the game, unless one of your monsters effects allows it to turn face-down again. And that's another rule in itself—the effects of monsters still work. But I'll get to that later, shall I? When you flip a monster face-up, any Flip Effects it has will happen; Flip Effects are also activated when one of my monsters attacks one of yours.

"You may turn a monster to Defense Mode, but only if it is already face-up. If a monster in Defense Mode is defeated, the difference is not taken from your Lifepoints. But in return, you cannot choose a Defense Mode monster to attack. Nod your head if you understand, Pharaoh—I'm rather enjoying not having to listen to your voice." Yami nodded. "Excellent. I believe that is all you need to know."

"Who will go first?" Yami demanded; now that Yami Bakura was done explaining Yami felt no need to continue his silence. Yami Bakura smiled.

"Not so fast, Pharaoh! Before you inadvertently accept my game, don't you want to know the stakes of this Shadow Game?!" Yami just glared at him. Yami Bakura raised his arms. "Come, stakes!" Out of the clouds appeared two objects; Yugi, unconscious and hanging spread-eagle in the air with his arms bound by dark circles of the matter that composed the Shadow Realm, and the Millennium Puzzle, its chain dangling limply.

"Yugi! My Puzzle!" he shouted. He instinctively grabbed for the puzzle against his chest, but his hand came down on only empty air. "How did you get them, Bakura?!"

"iI/i did nothing," he laughed. "They are the stakes for the Shadow Game, Pharaoh, so the Shadow Realm will act on its own to set the playing field! If you win, you get your precious little Yugi back, as well as your pathetic Puzzle! But if iwin/i, I not only get your puzzle, but I'll send Yugi's soul to the shadows, as well!" He threw his head back and laughed yet again; Yami tightened his hands into fists.

"I refuse!" Yami shouted. "The stakes are too high! If you lose you lose nothing, but if I lose I lose everything!" Yami Bakura shook his head, making a "tsk tsk tsk" with his tongue as he did.

"I wouldn't be so rash, Pharaoh! You risk too imuch/i to refuse! I have the power to send little Yugi to the shadows whether you duel or not! And if you truly refuse, I'll have no problem sending him on his way to be devoured!" Yami flinched, his eyes narrowing further.

"Then adjust your stakes!" he shouted. Yugi's eyelids started to flutter. Yami Bakura shook his head, but then shrugged helplessly, the gesture insincere.

"Very well," he said, "I see no reason why not, especially since I don't intend to lose!" He snapped his fingers and two more objects appeared out of the clouds; the Millennium Ring and the unconscious figure of Bakura, held in the air in the same way Yugi was.

"Bakura!" Yugi shouted in fright, seeing Bakura. He noticed the dark circles around the Bakura's wrists and ankles and whipped his head around, looking straight at where he expected the Pharaoh to be; and he was right. "Pharaoh!" he cried out. The Pharaoh stared up at him, his face etched with anger and worry.

"Yugi!" Yugi looked around him, taking the whole situation in. He seemed sick.

"This is a Shadow Game, isn't it?" he asked weakly. Yami opened his mouth to speak, but Yami Bakura beat him to it.

"Well isn't the host of the Pharaoh just the smartest little thing ever?! Yes, little Yugi, welcome again to the Shadow Realm!" He threw his arms out to either side. "It's missed you, hasn't it?" Some of the cloud next to Yugi bulged, nearly grazing his side. He flinched, and Yami cried out. Yami Bakura laughed. "No need to fear yet, little Yugi! There's still a chance your knight in shining armor will save you, isn't there?" he asked mockingly. Yami growled at him.

"Well Pharaoh, are you satisfied?" Yami Bakura asked, gesturing to his unconscious host and his Millennium Ring. "Now if I lose, I lose my Millennium Ring to you and the soul of my host! You can't deny that everything is fair now!"

"Lose the hosts," Yami spat. "I will not play if their souls are at stake." Yami Bakura shook his head.

"No deal, haughty little Pharaoh. The soul of my pathetic host is one of my advantages against you—I want to shake your resolve, make you not iwant/i to win. I know that losing the soul of my host won't hurt iyou/i, but imagine how much it will shatter your own host?" He laughed darkly; Yami could imagine how much pain Yugi would be in if Bakura was forfeited to the shadows. "You might say it's dastardly and dishonorable of me, but I'd like you to recall a time when that's stopped me. I'm here to win, Pharaoh, and I won't clear the obstacles for you!" Yami ground his teeth, but there was nothing he could—Yami Bakura wouldn't spare Bakura ior/i Yugi. These were the final stakes; he couldn't possibly hope to get them changed again.

"Yugi…" he started, looking up at this partner. Yugi shook his head at him, his violet eyes strong and determined.

"Don't worry about me, Pharaoh! I believe in you and the monsters who have shared so many of our duels! They won't let us down, I just know it!"

"But your friend…"

"We'll find a way to save him," Yugi said, the reassuring smile on his face genuine. "I don't want to lose him to the shadows either, but we're clever and strong, you and I—if anyone could figure out how to get him back, it'd be us!" Yami blinked at his partner's strength. He clenched his hand.

"Very well, my partner. I thank you for your confidence." He turned to Yami Bakura, his expression full of hate and determination. "I accept your Shadow Game." Yami Bakura grinned, his most cruel and blood-thirsty iteration of the expression yet.

"Excellent."