CHAPTER 12: THE HERO'S RETURN CLICHÉ:
THE HERO'S RETURN CLICHÉ: A boy on the isolated, almost forgotten, desert planet of Tatooine meets a mystical mentor, leaves home, blows up a Death Star and saves the galaxy. A hero's journey, quickly told and over by the final credits. As simple a tale as that of a hobbit running out his front door without a handkerchief and returning home with a magic ring. Beginning, middle and end, all neatly slotted into their appropriate place.
MORAL: But sometimes, magic rings don't stay quietly hidden in waistcoat pockets. Sometimes, even in galaxies far, far away, the fight goes on. Sometimes, stories, like life, insist on asking: What happens after the triumphant return?
Atem and Kaiba had been gone just long enough for everyone to worry, to search the room as if Kaiba had dragged Atem behind a pillar and was hiding him. Just long enough for the gang to fear that Kaiba had died – or worse – had somehow messed things up for their friend. Just long enough to cry and demand answers from Isis, who had none to give.
And then Kaiba and Atem were back, standing in front of the doorway, hand in hand, leaving everyone as stunned by their sudden return as they'd been by their disappearance. Bakura looked behind them, staring at the still-open door as if he expected the Spirit of the Ring to come striding through it. He jumped, his gaze broken, as Mokuba rushed past him.
"You were gone!" Mokuba yelled. He threw his arms around Kaiba and buried his head in his brother's torso.
"I'm back," Kaiba said, resting a hand in his brother's hair. Kaiba looked at everyone's stunned faces and then back at Atem. "It wasn't as seamless as I'd hoped."
"I don't have any complaints," Atem answered.
"You're here. We failed. I'm sorry," Yugi whispered.
"What happened? What went wrong?" Honda asked.
"We know what went wrong! Kaiba showed up!" Jounouchi turned to Kaiba. "Do you know how much we went through just to send Yugi to the after-life, only for you to mess with shit just because you're a sore loser? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jounouchi screamed.
"Yugi?" Kaiba asked, raising his eyebrow under his bangs.
"You know what I mean. The Other Yugi! This was hard enough the first time and now we have to watch him leave all over again! Did you take a moment to think how that's going to make Yugi – the real Yugi – feel?"
Kaiba looked at Atem, eyes wide. They'd been in a cocoon. What would happen now that they'd broken free? He thought of Atem saying, "Whatever happens, at least we had this," and shuddered. Had that been Atem's way of saying goodbye?
Atem glanced at Kaiba, hunched into himself, arms crossed in front of his chest, his face averted once again, already removing himself from the scene, as if the white of his coat would suddenly blend in with the sandstone walls. Atem raised an eyebrow. "Really, Seto? After everything?"
Kaiba dragged his eyes to Atem's face and searched it, trying to read his future in the shape of Atem's lips, in the blood red light in his eyes.
"We do have some unfinished business here," Kaiba said slowly.
Atem smirked, ignoring the rustlings all around them. "Haven't you learned to use your words, yet? You've had enough time to think of them."
"It took a dozen worlds to find them: I want you to stay. But if I've learned anything, I can't choose your path for you. I can only hope you want it to run alongside mine."
"Those are the perfect words." Atem smiled. "And it's taken me just as long to find my answer. With all my heart, yes."
As Atem spoke, he couldn't help glancing around as if expecting to be yanked back into limbo.
Kaiba tightened his grip on Mokuba's shoulder, afraid of disappearing now that they'd reached the finish line.
The alarm on Kaiba's Duel Disk went off. Kaiba roared with relief. "Look!" He held his arm out to Atem. "The alarm went off! Do you get what that means?"
Atem threw back his head and laughed. "We did it! It's real. It's final. We're home." Atem leapt on Kaiba like a baseball player jumping on the winning pitcher in celebration.
Kaiba lifted him up as if he was a trophy. Atem wrapped his legs around Kaiba's hips. Kaiba threw his head back. "We did it!" he echoed. He kissed Atem with a thoroughness lived on alternative worlds and practiced in limbo, ignoring the gasps from everyone around them.
"What the fuck is going on?" Jounouchi yelled, as stunned by their kiss as he'd been by their sudden re-emergence.
Yugi barely managed to squeak Atem's name, looking like a baby chick caught in a thunderstorm without any idea where his coop had gone.
Kaiba kissed Atem again and returned him to his feet.
"I still have one last piece of unfinished business," Atem said. He walked up to Isis and handed her the Puzzle. She slotted it into place. All seven Items gleamed and disappeared. Atem swallowed, clinging to Horakhty's promise of return as he'd once gripped the Puzzle.
"Thank you," Atem said, looking skyward as if he could see Horakhty hovering above him.
"I want paradise and my old comrades and everything offered. I just wasn't ready for it to be so soon."
Horakhty's answer came to him, like an echo on the wind. "That's not an uncommon thought for mortals to have when they're approaching the after-life. Enjoy your time in this world with our blessings."
The door closed. Kaiba and Atem breathed matching sighs of relief.
Behind them, unnoticed, Bakura hugged himself, confirming he was still there; that he was still alone.
Isis turned to Kaiba and snorted. "So, you've decided to make a habit of defying destiny?"
Malik laughed, starting with giggles and working up to slightly hysterical howls. He finally gasped out, "You mean after 3,000 years of subjugation, after having your fucking destiny carved into my back, you changed your mind?"
"Yes," Atem said. "It may have been my destiny. It was never my choice."
"Priceless," Malik said in between the occasional chuckle. "You didn't want to be bound to our mission any more than I did."
"The light of the future shines on us all," Rishid reminded him.
"I don't understand…" Yugi said. "You wanted to go to the after-life. It was your chance to be at peace… to rejoin your comrades. It was your destiny."
"I thought so too. I was wrong. My destiny is what I choose it to be," Atem said quietly.
"But it was what you wanted."
"Want… choice… I had to learn what those things meant."
Yugi opened and shut his mouth a couple of times. "I didn't know."
Kaiba pressed his lips together to keep from saying, "You didn't ask." His hands weren't clean either – and having seen the horror show of a world where Yugi had lost, Kaiba couldn't even say Yugi was wrong.
"I didn't know either," Atem answered.
Yugi looked down. He bit his lip.
"Yugi?" Atem said, turning his partner's name into a question.
Yugi's eyes widened to an impossible degree. He'd been screwing up his courage for months, draining himself of everything just to help his other self reach his destination, no matter how much it hurt them both. He'd been so focused on a moment that never happened; his prepared grief had abruptly ended when both Kaiba and his other self… no… Atem… had disappeared in a blinding flash and reappeared just as suddenly. Only a disorienting sense of being lost in a fog, as if his internal compass directions had just spun around, remained. The only truth he was left with was that he'd been out of the loop. "That's great," he said.
"Yugi," Atem repeated. He hugged Yugi in a recreation of their embrace before he'd left five minutes – and over a dozen lifetimes – ago.
Yugi cried in his arms for a moment, then retreated back to his grandfather. "Are you sure this is what you want? That you won't see it as a missed opportunity to go home?" Yugi asked.
"I am home."
"Then I'm happy," Yugi repeated, a measure of conviction sneaking into his voice; only his eyes remained uncertain.
"Even miracles take a little getting used to," Sugoroku said quietly.
Anzu came up and laid an arm across Yugi's shoulders. He sighed and leaned against her.
Kaiba slipped a hand around the back of Atem's neck, then moved downwards to briefly hug his shoulder. "We were so focused on getting back, we never thought about being back," he admitted, too softly for anyone else to hear.
Atem looked around at Yugi, at their friends – at their worried faces – and Horakhty's words (or were they, as Kaiba insisted, the impulses of his own brain?) hit home. "You may return to the world you left, but it might not be yours in the way you expected." He and Kaiba had gone on an amazing, inexplicable, unimaginable odyssey – and everyone he'd fought his way back to was looking at him like he'd grown a second head.
Atem leaned against Kaiba. "We're back," Atem said. "That's all that matters. I'll trust to the future and my friends for the rest."
"I don't understand," Anzu said softly. "Back from where? What happened?" She closed her lips before she could add, "And why are you leaning against Kaiba like he's your pillow?"
Atem opened his mouth, looked up at Kaiba, who shrugged, and then turned back to Anzu. "The 'where' is hard to describe. Nowhere, really. I mean we were in limbo somewhere between worlds, in a place that connected to the infinite number of worlds the gods had sung into being… at least that's what Horakhty said…"
"Assuming she wasn't an illusion created by the electrical impulses in our brains interacting with our environment," Kaiba interrupted.
"You saw the other worlds the gods had brought into existence?" Isis asked. "You were indeed favored to be able to hear their voices."
"Yes. We were blessed, although sometimes it seemed like a challenge we didn't understand and couldn't solve. I don't know why they showed such forbearance, why they gave us chance after chance to learn and grow. We swept through a seemingly endless list of worlds… and then they let us return home."
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "We were thrown into a junction point between dimensions until we could navigate our way out. No gods required."
Atem smiled up at him. "Ah, but where does technology end and magic begin?"
"Magic is just science, imperfectly understood," Kaiba returned.
"Either way, we're back. And glad to be so."
Kaiba grunted, conceding the point.
"Wait! How long have you been gone?" Yugi gasped.
"Lifetimes. Worlds of them," Atem answered.
"It's hard to compute because the calculating mechanism on my Duel Disk didn't function properly when we were in anomalous worlds. Based on a rough estimate, approximately eight or nine days, although with the scattered memories of twelve alternative selves thrown in."
Kaiba scanned everyone's stunned faces and grunted. He turned to Mokuba. "This discussion is getting boring. It's time to head back."
At the same time, Isis said, "You are all welcome to spend the night with us, before going home." She turned to Kaiba. "You and Mokuba are invited as well."
Kaiba snorted. Did she expect them to sleep on her living room floor, next to the mutt and the rest of Yugi's boring friends?
He glanced at Atem, who was staring at the ground.
Kaiba frowned. Why was this so hard? Why did every decision seem like it was automatically going make or break their chance of reaching that future world they'd seen?
"I didn't expect this," Atem admitted.
"It's not like every little decision is going to matter," Kaiba said defiantly.
"We know better than that. We know just how important seemingly inconsequential choices can be," Atem replied.
"No! I refuse to be hostage to indecision!" Kaiba shouted.
"Uh… guys… this isn't a big deal," Otogi observed.
"Nor is it your business," Kaiba snapped. "Why are you even here?"
Otogi grinned. "You have to admit it's been quite a show."
Kaiba turned back to Atem. "Fine. Isono will rent hotel suites for everyone near Isis' apartment. He'll make travel arrangements back to Domino, since this was initially a two-person trip."
"Plans change," Atem said with a smirk.
"Just like destiny, apparently," Isis added.
They left the Ceremonial Duel site, blinking a little in the sun. Kaiba pulled out his phone and said a few quick words. "Isono will be here with the helicopter," he told Mokuba. It was hard to tell if he was including Atem in his invitation. Atem was standing next to Yugi, chattering excitedly. The rest of the nerd herd was gathered around them, adding to the noise. They could be parted for a couple of hours, Kaiba reminded himself.
"There's a ferry waiting to take us up river," Isis said.
Kaiba grimaced. For a desert, the place was entirely too full of people, a sandstorm of words and gestures and shrieks. "After navigating dimensions, I think I can manage to find my way back to a major city like Cairo on my own."
Atem laughed and nodded goodbye. It was okay for them to be away from each other. It would only be for a little while. He raised two fingers to his forehead in salute. As he lowered his hand he realized: he'd picked up the gesture from Kaiba.
They watched as the helicopter landed and Isono stepped out.
The great thing about Isono was that explanations were unnecessary. He'd flown with the Kaiba brothers to Egypt, then driven them to the excavation site before retreating as instructed to await further orders. Kaiba had been a thunderstorm waiting to burst the entire way. Isono had been torn between wanting to be far away when lightning struck, and feeling like he should remain to salvage the smoldering pieces when Kaiba finally let go.
Then had come the panicked text messages from Mokuba. Kaiba had grabbed Atem; they'd gone through some doorway to another world and disappeared. Now, Kaiba was back, as Isono could have predicted if he hadn't been too worried to think clearly. And Isono was charged with getting hotel accommodations and making travel arrangements for the entire party. Isono got out of the helicopter and surveyed Kaiba. He looked satisfactorily whole.
Isono glanced past him to the darker-skinned, much more bizarrely dressed, second Yugi behind the Kaiba brothers. He wondered if he'd ever get an explanation – or if he wanted one.
"Welcome back, sir," Isono said to Kaiba, selecting that overused phrase as the most suitable to the occasion. "Your reservations are complete."
"Excellent," Kaiba said.
Isono blinked behind his sunglasses at the superlative. "Thank you, sir."
"This is Atem Mutou," Kaiba said, as if he's been saying the name every day of his life.
"Very good, sir." Isono bowed to Isis. "Your entire group has been included as our guests."
Isis raised an eyebrow. "You're aware we live in Cairo."
Malik grinned. "Never miss an opportunity to party on someone else's dime."
"As you say, sir," Isono said with a second bow.
Kaiba and Mokuba got into the helicopter. Everyone watched as it took off.
"Well, that was extra," Jounouchi muttered.
Atem stared at the helicopter as it left him behind. He remembered flying with Kaiba, soaring above Domino on their way to the pier to rescue Jounouchi. Despite his fears for his friends, he'd stared out of the window, enchanted, with Kaiba at his side. They'd talked about power and friendship. Atem smiled. He and Kaiba had been on the same journey all along without knowing it, even back then, even when he'd been a part of Yugi. Atem watched as the helicopter turned into a dot in the distance and disappeared. He sighed. He missed Kaiba's presence. "I like flying."
"I didn't know that," Yugi said. "Were you in a helicopter on one of those weird fake worlds?"
"No. In Domino, after our tag team duel. I just didn't realize how much I liked it before."
"Don't worry, now that you're here for real, everything will settle down. You'll see."
Atem nodded. He glanced up at the empty sky. "I like flying," he repeated to himself. He turned to follow the others on their trek back to Cairo.
Isono had made the limousine and hotel arrangements by the time their helicopter landed. They swept into the hotel and upstairs as seamlessly as if returning after a routine business meeting.
"I don't understand," Mokuba said when they were settled into their suite, several floors above the ones reserved for Yugi and his friends.
"What?" Kaiba asked.
"Everything. Why you stopped Atem from leaving, why you kissed him when you guys got back. I mean we only see them at tournaments and stuff, and you usually take off right afterwards. So why are we hanging around?"
Kaiba paced the room. He had no idea what to say but he needed to talk to Mokuba before they drifted apart again and it was all his fault.
Kaiba walked to the floor to ceiling windows, stared out at the city and came back to sit on Mokuba's bed. "I know it seems like a few minutes, but I was away for days, no, for whole lifetimes." He shrugged. "We have a bond."
"Duh. I know that. He's your rival."
"Yes. I mean…" Kaiba ran a hand through his hair. "I mean… yes, he's my rival, but he was my partner in this as well."
"Partner? Isn't that what him and Yugi call each other?"
Kaiba frowned. Maybe partner wasn't the right word. He hadn't needed to hunt for words when it had just been the two of them. "I care about him, Mokuba."
"Then why is he with them right now?"
Kaiba refused to think about how his mind kept going back to the same point. "Well, I'm with you."
"That's different! We're brothers! I wish I'd been quicker. I could have gone with you."
Kaiba couldn't repress a shudder, thinking of the worlds where they'd drifted apart. Mokuba never needed to know. Kaiba frowned, remembering the one world where their parents had been alive. "I kept trying to get back to you."
"Duh! I know that."
Kaiba nodded in satisfaction. "That's okay, then."
Mokuba leaned his head against Kaiba's arm. "I still don't get it. How could it have been days for you and minutes for us?"
Kaiba breathed a sigh of relief. Explaining multiple worlds theory and the fluidity of time across dimensions was easy by comparison.
Once the gang got back to Cairo, they picked up their baggage from the Ishtar's apartment and went to the hotel. After checking in, they gravitated towards Atem and Yugi's suite. Atem was still in his tunic and cape, still laden with gold. He refused to take his Duel Disk off. The staff pretended they didn't notice. The other guests weren't as discreet.
Sugoroku looked at Atem speculatively as everyone raided the mini fridge before settling into the living room area. "I can't wait until we get home. I have so many questions," he said to Yugi. "It's a shame he didn't get more than a peek at the after-life, seeing as he managed to find his way back to us."
"Grandpa!" Yugi sputtered.
"What?" Sugoroku put on his most innocent face. "I spent a lifetime piecing together broken pots and digging out foundations of long destroyed buildings, and wondering about the people who had created them. And now I have something no archeologist has ever found: an eye witness."
Once they were settled in with snacks, everyone started talking at once.
"I don't get it. How could it be minutes for us and over a week for you?" Jounouchi asked.
Atem shrugged. "Horakhty didn't explain." Atem hadn't cared about the details. Kaiba had spun dozens of theories about liminal spaces and junction points and naturally occurring temporal and spatial anomalies, but Atem didn't have Kaiba's unwavering belief in a random and uncaring universe.
"And, of course, Kaiba thinks he did it all himself!" Jounouchi laughed.
Atem's answering smile was gentler. "Where does magic end and technology begin?" he quoted softly. "Or was it the other way around?" He looked at everyone's puzzled faces and smiled again, a little ruefully, realizing how private his inside joke had been. "I don't know, I'm just glad it all worked out."
Honda nodded. "Yeah. It would have been awful if we'd been standing around for weeks, not knowing whether you were alive or… uh where you were." Honda's voice trailed off as he remembered the original, planned end to the Ceremonial Duel.
"All's well that ends well!" Jounouchi shouted, waving his soda bottle.
Atem winced, remembering Jounouchi saying the same thing following Kaiba's death at Duelists Kingdom. He shook his head. That was another world and a different Jounouchi.
"Although," Jounouchi continued, "it must have been a wild ride if it ended with you smashing faces with Kaiba."
Anzu, Honda and Otogi all burst into speech at once, drowning each other out.
A knock on the door cut their confused attempts at conversation short. Isono entered the room, carrying several garment bags. He bowed, then said to Atem, "Your clothes will be in your closet."
"My what?" Atem asked blankly.
"It's back there," Yugi said, pointing to a room in the back, when Atem didn't add anything.
Isono bowed again and walked into the bedroom. The babble of voices started up again. After a minute, Atem got up and followed Isono.
"I don't understand," Atem said. "These are my only clothes."
"We plan to be here for one or two days before flying home. Mr. Kaiba thought you might want other outfits to change into. I purchased a selection. He wanted you to have a choice. Please inform me if you have other requirements. Your night clothes and underwear are in the drawers."
"Thank you. And thank Seto as well," Atem said, still stunned, staring at the now full closet. They could be rags and he would treasure them. He and Kaiba might have left limbo; their bond had survived their escape.
Isono reached into his pocket and handed Atem a phone. Its gold back had a KC logo on it. Atem took it as if he was being handed an alien artifact and turned it on, reassured by its similarity to Yugi's phone. There was a message waiting for him from Kaiba. "Meet me in the bar at midnight." Atem searched through the emojis before sending a thumbs up.
Isono bowed again and went back into the common room. He glanced at the empty snack wrappers and soda cans, reminded everyone that room service was available and left, mumbling something about making sure the mini-fridge was kept properly stocked.
Yugi wandered into the bedroom after Isono left. Atem was staring into the closet. Yugi walked over. Out of their garment bags, the collection looked even larger. "Wow!"
"Wow, indeed," Atem replied.
It wasn't just the quantity of outfits or even their obvious cost. The variety was stunning. There was a blue jacket that resembled Yugi's school blazer, except for the black leather collar and cuffs, a tarnished gold leather coat that swung with the ease of a cape and whose color reminded Atem of the coat Mokuba had thrown over a chair before discussing college with a slightly older, slightly wiser Seto, and other coats in other colors from a black tuxedo jacket to a hooded coat made out of sweatshirt material. There was a red shirt that matched his eyes and blue and gold ones stamped with geometric designs that made Atem think of hieroglyphics that had been dragged into the modern age. Atem chuckled, wondering if that was Kaiba's sense of humor or if Isono had thrown a dart at random and scored a bullseye. He thumbed through a selection of pants and leggings, then looked down. The floor was filled with boots and shoes.
"At least you don't have to worry about having a change of clothes," Yugi said faintly.
Atem threw back his head and laughed, giddy with a joy that bubbled up through him. "I have a choice! I can toss out half the outfits deeming them unworthy of touching my skin. I can order them into separate ensembles, each one unique and inviolable, or mix and match, changing each outfit with my mood!" Atem hugged Yugi, then leapt into his closet, embracing his clothes.
Yugi usually threw his school blazer over a white shirt and called it a day; his fashion choices were limited to his choker, bracelets and belts. He didn't really get why Atem was exploding with joy over a bunch of clothes, but Atem's over-sized happiness was infectious and Yugi found himself grinning along. Yugi glanced at the multitude of belts hanging from a rack on the closet door. "Trust Kaiba to remember to give you an adequate supply of belts."
Atem emerged from the closet and smirked. "Feel free to borrow a couple." He waved his hand towards his closet. "Borrow anything you like."
"That's okay," Yugi said. "My school blazer is fine."
Atem glanced at his new phone. "I'm meeting Kaiba downstairs at midnight. For the first time I'm going to pick out an outfit!"
Yugi shook his head. Since when had Atem cared about clothes? Was that something else he'd missed? How had Kaiba known? Yugi opened his mouth to ask if Atem needed help, but Atem had turned from him and was back to embracing his outfits. Yugi shook his head, more gently this time, and left the room.
Atem looked up as the door closed behind Yugi, then turned back to his clothes. They were everything he'd learned about choice: consequence, opportunity, identity, all its joys and challenges. They were his new, scary and wonderful chance at life made solid in silk and cotton and lightweight wool. And yet, faced with their opulence, Atem suddenly realized he didn't want to leave his old clothes completely behind, the ones that had carried him through limbo, the ones that still bore the invisible imprint of Kaiba's hand. Atem fingered the raspy threads of a red and black and orange coat; its roughness carried a hint of Kaiba in its weave.
Atem's eyelids drifted shut. He saw Kaiba, hunched over his Duel Disk, amid limbo's orange and red flowers, set against the night sky. Atem gasped; his eyes snapped open.
He was home.
It was just a memory.
Atem sighed in relief. He checked the clock on his phone, eager for midnight to arrive. This was the longest he'd been separated from his rival since the world where Kaiba had died.
.
Thanks to Bnomiko for betaing this chapter, and especially for reminding me of all the transitions I'd left out!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: One of the biggest stumbling blocks I faced when first thinking about this story – and to be honest, for a while it was a deal breaker – was that telling the story of Kaiba and Atem getting home felt incomplete. I could see Kaiba and Atem feeling like once they got home everything would be perfect, but it felt like a bit of a cop out to sign on to that. Although it was something Kaiba and Atem never considered, there's a huge difference between learning about choice and being together, in a vacuum, and then putting that into practice in the real world once reunited with their friends and family. They considered a lot of facets of choice: consequences, the contexts we make choices in, the opportunities and limitations they present and how choice can even define us – but they'd overlooked another important factor: all of the minor, seemingly small choices we make every day and how they shape our lives and define us just as surely. It also occurred to me that they'd had this incredible, occasionally terrifying, life changing journey – and no one else knew it had even happened. Anyway, like I said, feeling like so much was left out of telling a there and back again story, seemed a real deal breaker for telling any of it, until in a real light-bulb moment, I realized the solution staring me in the face was to tell it all.
I'd love to know what you think.
Yugi as a name note: One thing that struck me is the way, even after learning Atem's name in the Memory World arc, the gang still calls him, "Yugi." I wanted to carry it forward in this story.
Alternative world count: Kaiba refers to them being in 12 alternative worlds (he's including the one where he was dead in the count. But Atem also briefly went to an alternative world where he went to the afterlife in the last chapter. So, you can either say that Kaiba won because he got home with the fewest number of side trips or that Atem won because he saw the most worlds.
Stay safe everyone!
SOCIAL MEDIA NOTE: I am on Tumblr, Dreamwidth and Pillowfort as Nenya85. Come check me out there!
To paraphrase Louise Rosenblatt, "A story's just ink on the page until a reader comes along to give it life." This is my way of saying that I'd really like to hear what you think. Please comment.