"Ryou!"
"Is he okay?"
"Hey man, wake up!"
Once the five friends had awoken from their strange Shadow Game, their first concern was to make sure that Ryou was indeed alright. He'd sacrificed his very soul in order to save them, and for a few minutes there, he'd been dead, actually dead. If the White Mage hadn't sacrificed himself to save, Seto didn't know what they would have done. How on earth would they explain that to Ryou's parents?
"Look!" Anzu pointed as the cord holding the Millennium Ring around Ryou's neck severed of its own accord, the artifact falling to the ground with the sound of clinking metal. Marik had his arm around Ryou's shoulders as the teen stirred and opened his eyes, sitting up with a look of confusion only to have Marik pull him upright so that he could hug him tightly. With cries of joy, the others piled on in a group hug, except for Seto, who merely pat Ryou on the head awkwardly. Ryou didn't seem to mind, though, since he grinned at Seto as warmly as he did the others.
"How's your hand?" Seto asked, and in doing so, reminded the others that Ryou's left hand had been impaled on one of the turrets of Castle Zorc. Ryou was quickly released and ushered upstairs by a fretful Anzu and an affectionate Marik. Seto pulled out the Millennium Rod and looked down at it. He had so many questions for the spirit who had identified himself as Seth and played the game beside Yami against the Spirit of the Millennium Ring.
"Man, how come I don't get any magical doo-dads?" Joey pouted with crossed arms.
"Trust me, Joey, you don't want one," Seto answered sourly, putting it away and noticing that Yugi was holding the Millennium Puzzle and staring at it in a similar manner.
"Didn't it seem like your spirit knew mine?" he asked, looking up at Seto with his large, innocent eyes. "I wonder if they were friends in ancient Egypt long ago."
"But didn't they both identify themselves as pharaohs?" Seto pointed out skeptically. "It seems more likely to me that they were rivals of some sort."
"Well, they could still have been friends," Yugi pointed out. "I'll have to ask Yami about it."
"It also seemed like Ryou's spirit knew ours from long ago, for that matter, and he was incredibly dangerous. How do we know that Yami and Seth aren't just as dangerous as him?" Yugi thought carefully for a moment before answering.
"Just because they are dangerous, that doesn't mean that they are evil," he said slowly, looking to Joey for confirmation, who nodded. "After all, I would say that you're dangerous, Seto, but you're also good." Seto scowled at that.
"Don't you think it a little strange that Yami can't remember his own name? Wouldn't he be able to remember his name if he could remember anything else?" Yugi's forehead wrinkled with thought as he considered Seto's words. Unlike the violet-eyed teen, Seto was not optimistic about this arrangement. He didn't like the idea of a spirit being able to take control of him, talk to him, and exercise magical powers. While Yugi felt like he'd been given a purpose in helping the lost, troubled spirit find peace, Seto felt like he'd been shackled with yet another burden, something else for him to stress and worry about, something more to complicate his life.
"Well, even if he can't remember, maybe Seth does, and he can help." Yugi's optimism was starting to grate on Seto's strained nerves. Their were too many things for him to deal with right now, and this was the last thing he needed.
"What makes you certain that they're good?" Seto pressed, unable to hide his irritation. "It's naive to think that the world is so easily divided into good and evil. It's much more complicated than that, and for your own sake, I hope you soon start to realize that." With that, he turned and left, going upstairs to check on Ryou and Mokuba as Yugi watched him sadly.
"I've got a feeling," he said to Joey contemplatively. "That he's already seen far too much evil in the world if he thinks like that at this age."
"You have no idea," the blond responded with a sigh.
"What do you mean?"
Joey started, realizing that he'd said allowed what he'd meant to keep to himself. "What? Me? I didn't say anything. Don't worry about it," he said hurriedly, trying to cover his blunder. "Come on, let's go join the others." Yugi picked up the Millennium Ring before following Joey upstairs.
"What happened to your hand?" Mokuba asked in horror when he saw the bloody tissues pressed to Ryou's hand. He laughed nervously, not sure how to answer.
"Just an accident," Marik said smoothly, patting Mokuba on the head in an attempt to calm the child. Anzu was getting the first aid kit—she'd insisted on being the one to bandage Ryou's hand, since, as a certified life-guard, she actually had first-aid training. Amane watched her brother with wide eyes, and Ryou would have signed something reassuring to her if he could have.
"Mokuba, can you please tell my sister that we just had an accident downstairs and that my hand will be fine?" Ryou requested, not wanting his sister to be distressed. Mokuba nodded and complied, and Amane looked slightly less upset once Mokuba told her what was going, but only slightly.
"Why don't the three of you get some popsicles from the freezer?" Ryou suggested, addressing Serenity as well this time. Joey's little sister was quite a contrast from her brother, for she was almost as silent as Amane, although that might have just been because she was upset by the sight of blood. Mokuba grinned immediately and thanked Ryou before passing on the message to Amane, who led her companions over to the freezer. Ryou let out a sigh, wondering how long a sugar bribe would continue to work on them. Marik put his arm around Ryou's shoulders again and gave them a squeeze.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, wondering if Ryou was still protected by the numb of shock, or if the weight of what had just happened downstairs had started to sink in yet.
"I-I don't even know," Ryou answered shakily, allowing himself to lean against Marik's side for a moment. "I'm mostly just shaken up by the whole thing. I mean, I completely lost control. Not only that, but he was able to pretend to be me somewhat convincingly for a while. He tried to kill you all, and I couldn't do anything to stop it." Ryou was getting upset now, and Marik wished that he hadn't said anything. He put both arms around Ryou and shushed his friend as he started tearing up.
"I'll help you make sure that it never happens again," Marik whispered in Egyptian, not wanting to upset the younger children. "That's why I'm here: to help you through this."
"What do you mean?" Ryou asked as he blinked the tears from her eyes, confused.
"That's why Ishizu let me come to Japan. She knew that if you didn't have someone to help you handle the Spirit's possession, it would break you." Marik's words sent a shiver down Ryou's spine. "He is an evil force like nothing the world has seen for hundreds of years. Anybody would break if they had to endure this alone." They rested against each other for a few long moments in comfortable silence before Ryou straightened up and gave Marik a weak smile.
"Thank you," he murmured. The door leading to the basement stairs opened then, and Seto emerged, looking irked.
"How's your hand?" he asked Ryou, trying to act normal, as if they hadn't all just been inundated with Shadow Magic and engaged in a fight for their lives.
"It's almost stopped bleeding," he answered, trying to act normal. "Anzu said she was going to get the first-aid kit, but she'd been gone for a while now."
"Sorry!" Anzu said as she finally returned, blushing with embarrassment. "It took me a while to find it." She proceeded to tend to Ryou's hand, cleaning the wound and bandaging it as best she could.
"Where's Mokuba?" Seto asked, wanting to make sure that none of the magic downstairs had affected his little brother up here.
"He and Serenity and Amane are eating popsicles on the back porch," Ryou answered, and Seto nodded, not quite focused on Ryou himself at the moment. He felt tired, incredibly tired. Was that a side-effect of the Shadow Magic? There was no sure way to know. Yugi would probably tell him to ask Seth, but that was the last thing Seto wanted to do. He didn't trust the spirit. Trust was something that had to be earned, and Seth was no exception from that rule.
I can prove to you that I have already shown myself trustworthy, Seth's voice echoed in Seto's head, making the brunette feel even more frustrated. He couldn't even think without that invasive presence spying on him.
I'm sorry that you feel that way about me. He sounded disgustingly sincere. Perhaps we should have a face to face conversation to sort things out between us?
"Seto, stop glaring at the wall." Ryou's voice was surprisingly light-hearted. "I doubt it ever did you any harm." His mild joke was enough to surprise Seto into a softer expression, almost a smile.
"Sorry," he sighed, but Ryou waved his good hand dismissively.
"No need to apologize. We all just went through quite an ordeal, so it makes sense that you'd be off-put by it."
Off-put? That was an incredible understatement. Seto felt violated; certainly Ryou of all people would feel the same way after his body had been hijacked by an evil spirit for the purpose of murdering his friends through some sick game where human lives were gambled as casually as cash. If Ryou started to talk about how the spirit could just be misunderstood or some crap like that, he thought he would scream.
"I'm going to go check on Mokuba," he said, walking out of the kitchen just as Joey and Yugi came upstairs. Yugi watched Seto's receding form sadly for a moment before turning his attention to Ryou's hand. Before he got a chance to ask about it, though, Anzu spoke up.
"Alright, there you go! That should be alright for now. If it starts to bleed again, I would suggest you see a real doctor about it, but you should be alright." She smiled at him before packing up the first aid kit. "You should probably tell you parents to refill this, by the way. It's running low on some things."
"Well, it looks like you're going to be alright," Yugi said, looking relieved. He put the Millennium Ring on the counter beside Ryou before sitting on the stool beside him. "That's good to hear."
"Yes, but… I don't know if Seto will be," Ryou said, looking worried. "I mean, I know he's got other things in his life that he has to deal with right now, and it can't be easy to have to handle this on top of all that." Joey caught his eye then, his coffee eyes intense and serious like Ryou had never seen them before. Their eyes met only for a moment, and that moment was long enough for Joey to realize that Ryou didn't know what he knew. He looked away, again, switching back to his usual careless, nonchalant manner.
"Other things?" Yugi repeated. "Like what? If he's struggling with something, he should know that he can come to us for help."
"Yeah, that's what friends are for after all," Anzu concurred, and Ryou began to regret his words.
"Look, I don't know what he's going through, but I know my parents are helping him with it, and I know that he doesn't like talking about his problems, so please don't say anything to him about it," Ryou pleaded. "I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. I had no right to."
"Okay, okay, we won't say anything," Yugi assured. "So long as he is getting help." Anzu still looked like she wanted to do something to help Seto, but she agreed with Yugi.
"Ryou's probably right, anyways," Joey commented casually. "His parents are probably better qualified to give life advice than we are, seeing as they have more experience with real life."
"Well, that's true," Anzu acknowledged. Joey's phone rang then, and he pulled it out of his pocket.
"Oh look, my parents have finally noticed that I'm not actually home," he said bitterly, pushing away from where he'd been leaning against the counter and answering the call as he walked towards the front door to take his phone call outside. Yugi sighed as he watched the blond leave.
"He doesn't have a great relationship with his parents," he explained. "They both work a lot, so they're not around much." Ryou just nodded and let out a sigh, leaning his head against Marik's shoulder as a wave of exhaustion swept over him.
"I'll go put this away," Anzu announced, picking up the first-aid kit and leaving with it.
"Do you think she'll still get lost this time?" Marik asked mischievously in Egyptian, making Ryou chuckle. Yugi looked at them both in confusion.
"How do you know that language so well?" he asked curiously.
"Hieratic Egyptian is Marik's first language," Ryou explained. "Because I am now the host to that… thing"—he shuddered as he pointed towards the Millennium Ring—"I've learned it too. Marik told me that Seto can speak and understand it as well, for the same reason. But, I guess, since your spirit seems to have lost his memories, he would have lost his language as well, simply speaking whatever language his host—you—knows."
"That makes sense," Yugi said after a moment. "But why is—"
"Alright, I have to get going," Joey said as he reentered the house. "My parents want me to get Serenity home now. Thanks for having us over, Ryou!"
"You're welcome! Although, I am sorry about, you know…" Ryou blushed as he mentioned the Shadow Game, but Joey just shrugged it off.
"Nah, forget about it! That wasn't your fault!" He disappeared to the back porch to fetch his sister, returning with her shortly. "Does anybody else need a ride home?"
"Oh, I do!" Anzu said as she returned.
"I do too, if it's no trouble," Yugi added.
"Not a problem!" Joey said cheerfully. He didn't mind taking his friends home, and if his parents got mad at him for taking so long to get home, then they would just have to deal with it.
The friends said their farewells and departed, leaving Marik, Ryou, Mokuba, Seto, and Amane home alone.
Author Notes: I know, I know, I didn't even narrate the infamous Monster World game played against Yami Bakura, but trying to write that story in a condensed manner with the altered timeline was driving me psycho, so I skipped over it. I will include flashbacks to it so that you can still get direct peeks at what happened, and I might post it in my collection of deleted scenes. It went fairly canonically, just with Marik instead of Miho, Seto instead of Tristan, etc. The Monster World arc, for those of you who don't know it, is in Volume 7 of the manga and episodes 25-27 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Season Zero (a.k.a. the "first series anime" of Yu-Gi-Oh!).
What did you like about this chapter? What didn't you like? How much longer do you think Joey will be able to keep his (i.e. Seto's) secret a secret? Please tell me in a review, because more reviews = more chapters!