Though Joey was sure in his mind that Yami was the culprit – and by killing him, he would be saving others from the same cruel fate – a wave of guilt washed over him, giving him incessant chills throughout his body, and a slight head-rush to go along with it.

You can't quite compare anything to the feeling you get after having committed murder.

The blonde slowly stepped off of the pharaoh's lifeless body with wobbly legs. He grimaced at the sight of the victim's neck – slightly crooked and bruised purple. Despite having been strangled to death, his face was strangely peaceful, with his eyes closed – much unlike the look upon his sister's face.

As he continued to stare at his best friend's body, he barely – if at all – noticed the dark walls of the Shadow Realm dissipating and transforming back to the familiar living room. Also restored was the carpet under his feet – blood stains and all.

Joey's hands seemed to have a mind of their own; he found himself physically incapable of stopping them from shaking. He brought them up to look at them, as they seemed to taunt him for his sinful act. He had just murdered his best friend. Killer or not, he was a human being, and his friend… and he couldn't bring him back.

But why would he want to bring the pharaoh back anyhow? The guy got what he deserved. And he didn't even fight back; he just stood there, like a fool.

Just stood there, like a fool…

You're just going to let him stand there like a fool…after what he did to your sister…?

The painful words echoed in his head. Joey couldn't remember when that strange voice had started coaxing him like that, and it was scaring him. The past few minutes, he had been too preoccupied for his lust for power and revenge against the pharaoh; the voice almost seemed to guide him…

He plopped down on the couch and stared at the two lifeless bodies on the living room floor. His sister on his right: mangled and bloody. The thing that started this whole mess.

On his left: the almighty pharaoh and King of Games. His best friend, resting seemingly peacefully with a horribly bruised and broken neck. The one that refused to fight back. His own victim.

The blonde head dropped into his trembling hands. "Oh God…what have I done…"

"Yami, I'm home! Did Joey and Serenity leave yet?"

Joey nearly jumped out of his skin upon hearing Yugi's cheery voice coming through the door downstairs. He also heard the voices of two others in a side conversation: Tea and Tristan. But what were they doing here? Didn't Yugi walk them home?

It wasn't long before soft thumping of footsteps could be heard as the trio ascended up the stairs to the entrance of the living room. Joey could swear his heart was beating harder and louder. He froze on the spot, not knowing whether to stop them and divert them elsewhere, or run. His feet seemed to be glued to the floor. His panicking heart sped faster at his inability to move.

The short teen's spiky hair came into view as his voice was heard yet again. "I thought that instead of us just going home, we could have a movie night-"

Yugi stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide as dinner plates. Seeing Joey, standing in his living room, with Serenity's and Yami's lifeless corpses on the floor, was more than a sight to see. His eyes immediately fell upon the heap of his yami on the teal carpet. Tea and Tristan followed close behind, confused about their friend's strange behavior until they saw it for themselves. Tea's mouth dropped open in horror. Tristan recoiled slightly at the repulsive smell. Three pairs of eyes looked at Joey, imploring for answers.

"Yami…" came Yugi's trembling voice. Joey's eyes were glued to the floor. Yugi suddenly rushed to his dark half's side, holding the limp form in his arms before returning his gaze on the blonde. "What happened here?!"

"Yugi…guys…" Joey could hardly find his voice. Yugi tried again, hoping for an answer. Anything.

"Who did this to them?"

"I…well…" Joey was a murderer, a fact that he now had to live with for the rest of his life, but that didn't make him a liar. "Yugi, I… I killed Yami."

The dreadful silence lingering after his words seemed louder than any physical sound could produce. No one could even gasp, only internally.

"But…Joey…why?"

Joey's mind was too numb to determine whose shaky voice broke the silence. He answered the question to everyone. The darkness inside him started to take over again, renewing new confidence and malice.

He pointed a rigid finger at his sister's body. "Why? I'll tell you why. You see that? Do you see my dead sister on the floor there? Guess who did it? That's right – this is all Yami's doing. He's a cold-blooded killer, and he got what he deserved."

All of his friends turned to him at once, appalled at his bitter accusations. Yugi, however, would not sit there, his dark half's dead corpse in his arms, and take this.

Gingerly laying Yami back down, he stood and faced the blonde, a disgusted look on his childlike face. "Joey!" he shouted. "How could you?! How could you do this to him, you know he's not evil! He would never do something like that to Serenity!" Tears freely cascaded down his face, as his voice became increasingly croaky and wobbly. As long as Joey and Yugi had been best friends, despite being constantly bullied and tormented, Joey couldn't recall ever seeing Yugi so broken and angry.

A fifth voice entered the room, and everyone went still.

How could he? HOW COULD HE? Easily, my young friends! A little manipulation with his emotions… that was all I had to do and he took care of the rest!

Joey's heart stopped for a second. That voice sounded familiar… it was the same voice urging him in his head to take revenge on Yami. However, it didn't seem as… ghostly. It sounded more human. Still, it had the same wickedness as the voice in Joey's conscience.

Dark clouds surrounded the teenagers; before they knew it, they were in the Shadow Realm. A place all too familiar for the young adventurers; dark and unpleasant memories were associated with this world. A mysterious figure emerged from one of the malleable walls of the dark void. Within locks of unkempt white hair, a pair of menacing red eyes glowed with utmost satisfaction. The gang gasped in unison as the spirit of the Millennium Ring grinned in the most evil way. The air became cold and thin in his presence – just the way he liked it.

"Bakura!" Tristan yelled, equally as astounded as everyone else in the room.

"Hello, my young friends," he spiritedly replied. "Behold this glorious day, when the almighty King of Egypt has fallen!"

"So you're the one that manipulated me into killing Yami!" Joey exclaimed. He looked down at the Millennium Ring and sighed. "I don't think taking this thing from you was such a good idea."

Bakura smirked – a sign that never sported good news. "Well of course it wasn't, silly human… after all, anything that takes advantage of your emotions and encourages you to kill your best friend is bad news, right?"

Anger and hatred fired up in Joey's core. "Shut up. I'm not proud of what I did," he growled through clenched teeth. "But he killed my sister… I had to punish him somehow…nobody gets away with murdering someone I love and Yami is no exception."

"And that is where you're wrong."

Joey's eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed in confusion. "What? How?"

Bakura cackled maniacally, sending chills down everyone's spine. "You are such a naïve boy. Can't you see that it was I who killed your sister, and not the pharaoh of whom you claim to have done it? Oh wait, but you couldn't. All you could see and feel was your anger, hatred, and lust for revenge… the Ring brought all of that out of you – enabling you to destroy him for me. It was a most brilliant plan!"

Joey's jaw dropped to the floor. "He was… innocent?"

A wave of nauseating shame swept over him like a tsunami raging over a small row boat. He dared not glance back at his friend's dead body; he couldn't take much more than this. He was a broken man, a slayer of the innocent – the very thing he had accused Yami of. And he felt like one. 'Oh God…make the pain stop…'

Bakura sneered at the blonde's reaction. "Oh please! Of course he was innocent! The pure soul of the pharaoh would never slaughter an innocent girl. I, however, am a different story…"

Suddenly, it dawned on him. Bakura had mentioned it before, but now he was fully noticing the weight of those words. "You killed Serenity."

The white-haired criminal continued to explain, ignoring the icy glare from the blonde. "I have lived for five millennia as an ancient spirit with one goal in mind: destroy the pharaoh and obtain his powers. However, I can't do much as a spirit you know; if I killed the pharaoh, the Egyptian Gods would simply banish me to oblivion. So I had to somehow get someone else to do it for me… and I thought, why not you, Joey? You are in close proximity to the pharaoh, and you had someone valuable in your life who I could easily take from you, and shift the blame. I wanted to unlock your inner hatred, to see what you were capable of…" He glanced at Yami's crippled heap on the floor, "and it pleases me to see it with my very own eyes."

Joey clenched his fists so tightly he almost cut his palms with his fingernails. He wanted nothing more than to shove the knife through this man's evil heart, and watch him die slowly and painfully in a pool of his own blood.

'No, I've already done enough damage. Enough of this shit!'

He suddenly reached up his shirt with his hand and yanked the Millennium Ring out from under, snapping the flimsy string that held it. He grasped it firmly in his hand, feeling the evil energies course through his body like blood. Fury burned inside him as hot as the blade of his favorite warrior – the Flame Swordsman. He would avenge them: his sister and his best friend, both dead because of him.

Bakura somehow sensed his deep residing anger, and laughed. His cackling was full, content and jovial, as he was the only one expressing those sorts of feelings. In fact, he was so occupied in his laughing fit; he hadn't noticed the blonde coming at him, knife at the ready. The Millennium Ring was carelessly tossed to the floor.

Within seconds, both were on the ground tumbling left and right, rolling over each other. The knife barely missed having contact with either of them several times. Finally, Bakura ended up on top, holding Joey's wrist with the knife a safe distance away, with the other hand at his throat, strangling him.

"Once I am done with you," Bakura whispered in his hoarse voice, "the pharaoh's powers will be mine and your precious friends will be at my mercy until their deaths!"

Joey thought he heard worried shouts from his friends, but they sounded mumbled to his ears. All he could feel was Bakura's strong hand suffocating him to death, and imagined to himself that this was probably how Yami felt when he did the same to him. Tears formed in his eyes – whether it was from the pain or from the memory of the pharaoh, he wasn't sure.

And that was the moment when Joey Wheeler decided to avenge his lost loved ones.

With a swift and precise kick to the crotch, Joey was free and on top again. Bakura tried to resist, but Joey's determination overpowered him. His hands were bound with one of Joey's hands, while Joey's other hand held the knife dangerously close to Bakura's neck. Both were panting heavily, as if they had just run a marathon.

Regardless of being about an inch from his imminent doom, Bakura kept his confident grin on his face. He had manipulated this boy once, he could do it again.

"Go on, kill me," he spat, "slaughter me for the world to see. You wouldn't be doing anything other than further proving that you're a murderer." His face fell when he saw Joey's eyes hold firm in their fortitude.

"You couldn't be more wrong, Bakura." Without further hesitation, he slit his throat.

His friends watched in horror as Joey leapt off the dark spirit's bleeding corpse. He violently chucked the knife to the side, not caring where it would land.

"It's true that I'm a murderer. I killed my best friend without thinking; I let my anger for my sister's death control me, and now, Yami suffered a fate that he didn't deserve.

I can see now that I'm the one that betrayed him, but he didn't betray me. In fact, he was a true friend to me; he refused to fight me and he tried to save me from my inner darkness. I don't deserve a friend like him. And I will never have another like him.

But at least now, I don't have to worry about you causing similar hurt and pain to anyone else in the world. Now, I can start anew and pick up the pieces."

By the time Joey had finished his monologue, the atmosphere of the Shadow Realm faded away, leaving the group of silently sobbing teenagers standing in Yugi's living room once more, plus now three dead bodies on the floor.

Joey immediately turned to Yugi and the others. "Guys… I cannot possibly express how sorry I am. I deserve to rot in hell for what I've done. Just know… that I'm sorry."

Yugi gave him a cold glare, followed by a reluctant nod. But Joey wasn't surprised. Just as the most important person in the world had been taken from him, the most important person in Yugi's life was taken from him as well. From everyone. From the world.

He wouldn't be surprised if Yugi never forgave him.

The air was heavy with a mutual mourning silence, everyone's head bowed in respect for the lives that had been lost that night. Nothing would ever be the same.

THE END

Sorry guys, this is where it ends. No happy ending here. Any requests for an epilogue on the aftermath? Or a happier story? Or yet another sad story? Personally, I think tragedies are much more intriguing to unravel. Holla at me.