When her eyes crack open to see her Spirit crouched on the coffee table and leaning over her, Ryou's first thought is I must be dreaming.

Her second thought is I must be having a nightmare.

The eyes staring at her are wild, narrowed in confusion and more lilac than rust. Her hair is long and tangled as always but her skin is dark and Ryou distantly realizes this must be the thief's real body before launching herself off the couch and away from the sudden apparition in her apartment.

The Spirit catches her by the ankle before she can make it off and she crashes hard, stomach slamming in to the arm rest when she is yanked back and knocking the wind out of her.

"You."

Ryou is gasping, trying to push air in to her burning lungs. The Spirit's voice is raspy and grating. Like she hadn't used her own voice in a long time, throat straining to push out sound while her tongue was struggling to remember how to form the proper words.

"Ryou."

The pain in her stomach and her lungs made this real.

"Ryou, look."

The warm palm on her skin made this real.

"I," Ryou tries to tuck her arms around her midsection as mobility returns to her along with her breath. The - Thief's, no-longer-the-Spirit's, left hand is still wrapped around her ankle while the other one presses in to the edge of the couch to balance herself. "What?"

"Look." Ryou hears shifting and her bowl from last night clutters to the ground as the Thief releases Ryou's ankle and leans back on the table. Ryou drags her eyes to look, avoiding the Thief's eyes and the bare chest peeking out from the large cloak. "How?"

"I don't," Ryou knits her eyebrows together. "I,"

"You did not do this."

"No."

The Thief stands up and marches out of Ryou's sight. Ryou tenses. She can hear the Thief in her room and the adrenaline rushing through her tired body makes it hard to focus on anything other than fight or flight, get up now, but her body is still trembling.

The Thief comes back out in to the living room with her old black coat tight around her, shendyt and sandals exchanged for jeans and sneakers. She leaves immediately, not even sparing Ryou a second glance.

For the next few minutes Ryou stares at the closed door in confusion. For the next few minutes after that she slumps on the couch and tries to calm her shaking. After half an hour has passed, she drags herself up and goes to find shoes.

…

Ryou had fantasized about what she would do if she was ever faced with her Spirit again. A lot. Rarely the same way twice. Yugi said he did too, sometimes, but she doubts his thoughts were the same as hers.

Ryou would wrap her hands around the Spirit's throat and squeeze until she felt her stolen life return to her.

The Spirit would hold her gently and say I was as much a puppet as you were; forgive me? and Ryou would.

Ryou would throw her out to the modern world all alone and feel bigger than her scars because she didn't need a ghost to haunt her lonely bones anymore.

The Spirit would kill her before she could open her mouth to scream or ask why? and she would laugh and laugh and laugh and Ryou would be the fool again, a tool that outlived its usefulness.

She did not quite imagine the events that took place, or herself walking through the cold night towards the Kame Game Shop with only a wool jacket pulled on over her thin pajamas in the aftermath.

The Thief took her main pair of shoes so she had to dig around in her closet for a suitable substitute. They were her old school shoes and they fit fine, but there was the beginnings of a hole in the left shoe and every time her toe moved against it she wanted to throw them off and go barefoot, frostbite be damned. Her phone was in her pocket, dead. She rarely used it and by extension rarely kept it charged. It had enough battery to let her send a quick message to Yugi as she left her apartment but it had died before she got to the first street corner. She hopes he sees the message and she doesn't have to wake his grandpa.

She was at a loss.

Without the literal looming threat of the Thief, and with the help of the cold bite of the night air, she could begin to rationalize. But thinking was not helping her make any more sense of it.

Why was she here? Not even a ghost anymore - but as a person, a person who should be dead, swallowed whole by Ammut to never be seen again. Did she escape the Gods? How could she have? Why had it taken so long; unless time flowed differently there? That would make sense, Ryou supposed. But if she did escape, why would she show up here, one of the first places anyone would surely look for her? Ryou could not be used as a vessel to hide in anymore. She had no obvious use to offer.

And I wouldn't offer it even if I did, she thought, bitterly.

She likes puzzles. Perhaps not as much as Yugi - she preferred puzzles that furthered stories, that brought about changes, like in her campaigns, over the physical kind you put together piece by piece. But this wasn't a puzzle she could hold at arm length and easily pick apart without emotion. It was too close to her. It reminded her of how she felt the first time she faced the Spirit.

But the first step to solving any puzzle was to have a grasp on all the pieces. If her spirit was here, for whatever reason, then Yugi's might be as well. If only as an extended arm of the Gods to pull the Thief back to where she should be.

She wonders if the Thief would be returning to her apartment. She might. The rational part of Ryou told her to hope not, but her curiosity kept surfacing enough to make her hesitate saying a firm no, even in her own mind.

…

Yugi systematically presses his thumb to his pointer finger, his middle finger, his ring finger, his pinky. He touches each one quickly and moves on to the next hand. Pointer. Middle. Ring. Pinky. Breathe. Pointer. Middle. Ring. Pinky. Breathe.

Steady hands wrap around his own to hold them still.

"Partner," Atem starts, turning Yugi's hands over and rubbing circles on his palms. "I'm sorry for upsetting you."

Yugi shakes his head furiously. "I'm not upset."

Atem looks pointedly at their hands. Yugi fidgets. "You are."

"It would be stupid for me to be upset about this."

Atem hums. "No. I don't think so." He turns their hands over again to lace their fingers together. Yugi is torn between melting in to the touch or pulling away. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Why am I sorry?"

"Why are you here? I thought I won."

Atem draws his shoulders back straight, and manages to look serious even with a marshmallow jacket squishing loudly while his body half twists towards Yugi on the couch. "You did win."

"Then how…?"

Atem frowns and Yugi marks his fuller lips as another difference between their faces now. "I do not know. One moment I was in Aaru, and the next," he untangles a hand to gesture around the room. "I was here."

"Do you think... something bad is going to happen?"

"I hope not." Atem returns his hand to Yugi's and smiles sadly. "But, with our track record..."

"Right."

They sit in silence for a while, thinking. Yugi wishes he could still hear Atem's thoughts, but their mind link is severed, and Atem's face is much less expressive than Yugi's own. Then again, Yugi was never really good at reading expressions anyway. Body language, sure, but not expressions. Atem was, though. Can Atem see all the emotions he's feeling right now?

"...I really am glad to see you again, Atem."

"I am as well. Though I was not expecting us to meet again so soon, or like this." Atem pauses like he's contemplating something.

"Aaru is wonderful. I am surrounded by my friends and family once more and have the past few thousands of years in paradise to catch up on, but." Atem looks to the side, and his smile is softer. Yugi can only tell that he tenses because their hands are still linked, but he doesn't know what it could mean besides possible nervousness - but what would Atem ever have to be nervous about around Yugi, of all people? - and focuses on Atem's words instead. "I missed you."

Before either could say anything more, an upbeat jingle comes from upstairs. Yugi wants to ignore it. But...

Atem turns his body back around to look at the clock. His eyes narrow. "Who would be calling this late?"

"I'll be right back." Yugi reluctantly lets go of Atem's hands and dashes up the stairs as quietly as he could. His grandpa was a heavy sleeper, but he didn't want to take any chances at waking him. He, guiltily, wanted to be alone with Atem a little longer before telling anyone else.

His phone is on his desk, no longer beeping, but the green light flickering showed he had a message. Yugi unplugs the charger and flips open his phone, his small kuriboh charm bouncing off the back of his hand. His eyes widen in surprise.

"Partner?"

Yugi whips around to see Atem stepping through his doorway and it's such a familiar-but-not sight that he has to force down the sudden burning lump in his throat before he can speak. "It's Bakura."

Atem crosses the room in seconds. He looks down to read the text and pauses. He smiles awkwardly. "...Ah. Speaking is coming back to me rather quickly, but I'm afraid the ability to read your characters is coming back much slower."

"Oh! Right, sorry, here," Yugi smiles back, but makes his face more serious as he turns back to his phone and types in a quick message to Bakura. "Bakura is on her way here. She said that the other Bakura showed up. We should go wait for her."

"Of course." Atem nods and he leads the way out of the room.

Yugi follows, keeping his phone out. He opens a new message, this time, to Ishizu. He bites his lip, trying to remember the time difference. Would she even be awake? But it was important. Maybe she would know something. In the years that they have kept contact, she always seemed to have at least some of her powers left, if only about little things.

The two cross from the living area to the game shop front, and Yugi looks up to squint out in to the dark night beyond the glass before turning back to his phone. "I'm asking Ishizu if she's Seen anything," He says aloud for Atem's benefit.

"Perfect idea." Atem moves closer to the door, leaving Yugi to stand by the counter. Yugi is annoyed at himself for wishing he had stayed closer, especially when the situation was growing so tense. He braces his arms on the counter and sets his phone down in between them, flipping between watching the screen and watching Atem, who was now leaning against the glass and sweeping his eyes across the parking lot.

"You don't think she's hurt, do you?"

"...I am not sure." Atem murmurs, turning from staring outside to stare at Yugi. "I will admit I had wondered if that wretched thief would be here as well, considering I had no warning from Ra or any messengers before finding myself here, but I had hoped that she would not be. Whatever this is, it must be her fault."

Atem crosses his arms and turns back to the window. "...If anything has happened, I take full responsibility. I should have acted on my hunch the moment I arrived."

"But it's not your fault! If anything it's the other Bakura's fault. If you're right, it's all her fault," Yugi stressed. "Besides, we don't even know if anything happened yet. Bakura's changed a lot, Atem."

Atem doesn't turn around. "I have a feeling you have as well."

"Well," Yugi looks down again. "Yes, of course I have. It's been years."

"How many?"

"Three," Yugi answers immediately. "Three years, and a month."

This time, Yugi can clearly see Atem tensing. "Three..."

Yugi switches between screens on his phone, still with no new messages, to avoid looking at Atem as he asks his question. "How long has it been, in Aaru?"

"Time passes differently there. It is not easy to explain. An infinity in a moment, maybe." Atem's last sentence comes out distracted, and Yugi looks up to see him pressing closer to the glass. "Is that Bakura?"

Yugi leaves his phone and crosses the shop to the door. Bakura is walking briskly across the parking lot, dressed less warmly than Atem who had found himself shoved in a thick, noisy jacket minutes after suddenly appearing in the middle of a winter night.

The first thing Bakura does after Yugi opens the door for her to slip inside is look at Atem and say, mostly to herself, "Well, one question answered." She bows her head slightly. "Hello, pharaoh."

Atem nods back slowly.

"Bakura," Yugi is already pulling at her sleeves, leading her across the floor. "Aren't you freezing? Come on, it's warmer in the house, we can talk in there. Are you thirsty?"

"I'm fine," She carefully tugs her sleeve out of Yugi's grip, but continues to follow him. "But thank you, Yugi."

They gather in the living room to talk and come to a frustrating conclusion: none of them know anything.

"I don't understand." Ryou leans forward, angling herself at the two pressed together on the couch. "There has to be a reason."

Atem looks grave. "I have no doubt that there is one. But I do not know it."

"So what should we do? Just wait and see what happens?"

"You can stay here," Yugi offers. "On the couch, or I can pull out an extra futon, if you want."

Ryou shakes her head. "No. It's better if I go home." She really has grown closer to Yugi, but it still catches her off guard and warms her to have people who see her as someone worthy to extend their hand to. "I'll need to be there in case she comes back."

Neither of them look happy with the decision. "We will come by in the morning," Atem nods at her from his seat while Yugi rises to walk her out.