"Guardian Kay'est attacks your set monster and destroys it. Because of the effect of Crystal Seal, he then attacks your life points directly."

The Pharaoh held up his arms and braced himself for the incoming attack, but that didn't lessen the blow at all.

It was the ninth turn of the duel, and he could already sense that it was fast coming to a close. His life points dropped fast, from 2200 to 1200, and he only had one card in his hand—a card that did him no good now.

/Partner, this isn't looking so good./ The Pharaoh thought towards his friend, a twist of regret deep in the pit of his stomach. Professor Hawkins, Rebecca's home—both of them were victims of this man's attack. Rebecca had run crying to them, throwing herself on Yuugi's chest, begging Yuugi to save her grandpa, to help bring him back. How could they do this to her...? Come back empty-handed this way? Raphael had no problems taking souls, who knew what he would do with Professor Hawkins when he was done...?

/We can do this./ He felt a reassuring push back from Yuugi, a mental touch on his shoulder. /We've never lost when we worked together./

It was true—but glancing at the frozen form of Dark Magician Girl didn't help any. He chewed on the inside of his cheek, and readied himself to draw again, but—

"I'm not finished, Nameless Pharaoh." Raphael interrupted, snapping him out of his thoughts as he turned back towards the Guardian Duelist in confusion. "I activate the magic card, Exchange. This forces us both to exchange one card with the other, and if we can play the card, we must immediately use it."

The hand not holding Necromancy tightened, but the Pharaoh held his chin up as he held it up, and threw the card at Raphael, who caught it without any trouble. Looking back down at the card he was given; the Pharaoh was immediately rocked with horror.

The Seal of Orichalcos.

"Do you like the new addition to your hand?" Raphael asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "You heard what I said, Nameless Pharaoh. You have to play the card."

/No!/ Yuugi protested in horror, and the Pharaoh nodded, anger rising on his tongue.

"This is dangerous!" He argued. "We could stop the duel right now, if you would just give back Professor Hawkins! You don't have to bet your soul on this!"

"Sounds to me like you're just stalling for time. These are the rules of the game, Nameless Pharaoh. I can let you read the card, if you'd like." To emphasize his point, he peeled Exchange from the rack of his Duel Disk, held it out, and returned it. "I play Necromancy, and four of your monsters are summoned back to your side of the field." As he spoke, Big Shield Gardna, Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts, Berfomet, and Kuribabylon were all summoned back to Yuugi's side of the field, fulfilling his end of the magic card's requirements.

/But Other Me.../ Yuugi's voice was quiet, halting, and the Pharaoh knew that he was afraid of the card—afraid of what it could do. The Pharaoh shook his head.

/We have never lost when we worked together./ He turned the card over in his fingers, and he shivered when he could feel it—the same, heavy weight that had been on him since he put the stone around his neck. Yuugi's hesitation grew, and his apprehension with it, until he was hesitating, the card just above the tray, only mere inches from the hi-tech, glossy board.

/Not when we're together. So, I can't let you do this alone./

/Partner-?/

There was a sudden, violent shove in the back of his mind—a harsh push that jerked the Pharaoh hard by his waist, grabbing him and yanking him, down until he was forced into his Soul Room. He gasped when he hit the stone floor, realizing what Yuugi had just done, and he got up quickly, immediately throwing the door open as he tried to get back to the surface, reaching up for Yuugi.

/PARTNER!/

Yuugi shut his eyes, and pressed the card into the tray.

The Eye of Horus—the Eye ever-present on his forehead even when it couldn't be seen, the symbol of his divinity as the Chosen Vessel and Reincarnation of the Nameless Pharaoh—was shattered and overrun by the Seal the instant it was placed into the Duel Disk. The unearthly Seal's insignia was drawn onto him instead as the magic circle expanded from his feet, encircling his monsters and trapping them all inside.

Yuugi Mutou dropped to his knees.

The Seal, when it was played—he could hear it, then, a thick layer of white noise overtop his thoughts, a constant push against his mind. The Puzzle glowed around his neck, brighter and brighter and brighter as darkness burst from the Eye of the Item, thick tar that ran down the pyramid and dripped in black and gold around his feet.

His hands raised to his ears as he tried to push it away, tried to block it out, but he could hear something—something being set loose inside him when the Seal pushed it back, when the Seal locked-down his shadow, his Other Self, the one who had taken all of the darkness before.

Some part of Yuugi vaguely remembered that alters were created to take the pain and trauma and darkness inside of the main personality, but the Pharaoh wasn't an alter, he was a real person.

A real person who had absorbed the darkness—that thing inside of the Puzzle, inside of all of the Items—so that Yuugi didn't have to. That thick layer of something that had blocked who the Pharaoh was before, twisting and warping and digging—pushing clawed fingers down into Yuugi's soul as the chain of the Nameless Pharaoh was thrown-off, his Other Half completely pure and untouched by darkness, a perfect feast for all.

The purest light was the easiest to corrupt.

"PARTNER!" Pharaoh cried, banging on the door of his Soul Room, pulling on the handle desperately. It was gone, the darkness in his labyrinth was gone. The ever-present slick, black mold lining the walls, all of it was gone. The Pharaoh hardly noticed when his tanned, gold-ringed hands were the ones grabbing at the door, he only pounded on it harder. "Yuugi, YUUGI!"

Slowly, the tiny King of Games shifted his weight from his hands and knees, and got to his feet.

"You've just made a huge mistake." He whispered, a smile spreading across his lips as he looked back to Raphael. His chest heaved, heart pounding. Power—power, yes, he could feel it as it flooded his limbs, singing black and gold in his blood as his shadow splashed up against the walls of the Seal. Gods, it was so much, and it was intoxicating.

He needed more of it. It was just a taste, but he knew he could get more. Eyes darting down to the Millennium Puzzle, he grabbed it, his smile widening. He knew what his Other Self could do—he'd seen his Penalty Games after Death-T. He was the one who solved it, that meant that he was entitled to the power in the Puzzle. He could release all of the power in it if he wanted to, couldn't he? Yes, he could...just follow my lead...

"I draw." He licked his lips in anticipation. "And I play Card of Sanctity, so both of us draw until we have six cards in our hands." He didn't even notice, nor care about the 200 points of damage dealt to him from Dark Magician Girl and Chimera in the graveyard, dropping his life points to 1000. He had all the power in the world now. A silly card couldn't change that, not from this mortal. "Because the Seal of Orichalcos changed Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight's attack points, she's freed from her Crystal Seal, and ready to attack you!"

"Nice try." Raphael said his voice impassive as the crystal on the dragon began to crack. "But the Eye of Timaeus doesn't do well with the Orichalcos." Raphael gave a little shrug as the dragon gave out a cry, before immediately becoming stone, and then cracking into pieces. Dark Magician Girl jumped down from the dragon in shock, before looking back at Yuugi, her green eyes widening.

Yuugi ground his teeth together, then looked back towards the Puzzle again, feeling the deafening pounding from his parasitic roommate in the gold. No—he wasn't going to do this anymore. He wasn't going to rely on someone else to do this for him. He had solved the Millennium Puzzle, he was the one who helped summon Magician of Black Chaos, he was the one who had opened up his body for the spirit. He didn't want to be rescued anymore—he deserved some of that power, and he wasn't about to let anyone stop him.

He'd been pushed around enough—he was always the victim, always bullied, and he was sick of it. He was the real King of Games, he was the one who was alive, not anyone else.

He didn't ask for any of this. The magic, the spirits, the Millennium Items. But if they were going to force it on him, then they were going to regret every second of it.

"Partner." The Pharaoh whispered, hands flat against the door while he watched from their severed mind link. "Partner, this isn't you. This isn't..." He was his light, it couldn't have...not Yuugi, he couldn't let it take Yuugi!

"I move all of my monsters back into my spell and trap card zone, then I tribute Gazelle and Berfomet in order to summon the Dark Magician."

The two beasts, rather than fading into pixels, were completely engulfed by the darkness that pooled around Yuugi's feet from the bleeding Eye of the Puzzle, crying-out as the shadows pulled them under the swarm of black. Raphael took a step backwards. He'd never seen the Seal act like this before, not even under the most wicked of criminals before. What was this?

The Dark Magician was summoned from the shadows in their place, having to rip itself free of hands that grabbed at it before taking its place among its fellow monsters. "Then I activate Kuribabylon's effect to remove it from play and summon the Kuriboh brothers, before using their effect to summon Kuribabylon again. Now—Other Me, I need your help!"

The mind link was suddenly forced-open again, hands reaching across their severed bond, and for a moment the Pharaoh was hopeful that Yuugi had been able to fight back against the darkness of the Puzzle and of the Seal at once.

As the door was opened, all he saw was his partner—but it wasn't his partner at all. He knew that wasn't his soul.

He knew that was someone else wearing his face.

Hands reached for him, fingers shoved straight into his chest, cold and sharp and digging. He gasped openly in shock as his soul was seized, and he doubled-over. The figure went with him, hands never leaving the precious heart he held in his hands.

"Can't have you interfering or holding me back anymore." The thing taunted, its voice familiar and not. It was white static against the Pharaoh's mind, the very presence of the voice feeling like corruption under his skin. The Pharaoh stared up, towards the real Yuugi, wide-eyed.

"Please, Partner, listen to me!" He tried. "It's controlling you, it's-!"

His heart was twisted, and he choked on it, falling-over again to the floor.

"You're not needed here anymore."

The Pharaoh choked on darkness welling in his mouth.

"Now, feel the power of the Dark One, and the power of the Orichalcos!"

The screams were deafening.

The Pharaoh screamed with them—the pain of having the darkness curl up and nest in your soul after clawing its way in, piece by piece. Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl both clutched at their heads, openly crying-out in pain, before the Seal was opened on them—former holders of the Millennium Ring both more than familiar with the voices in their heads.

Kuribabylon attacked and destroyed viciously, while the darkness made its way up the walls of the Seal, completely drenching the unearthly magic in darkness while Raphael was thrown against the walls. It made its way up to his waist, lapping at him while Yuugi stood atop a rock, looking-down from his pedestal at the Guardian Duelist, who barely made it to his next turn.

"I activate Swords of Revealing Light, and Monster Rebirth to return my Guardian Grarl to my deck. Then I set a card and end my turn."

"YUUGI!" Jou's voice called, just as Yuugi drew Catapult Turtle, and a plan was born. The Gambling Duelist stopped-short, seeing not only the Seal of Orichalcos in play, but the thick layer of blackness that surrounded the two, almost completely covering the Seal, if not for the dome it made.

"What...what is that stuff?" Honda asked. "Is that some kind of Shadow Game? But why would there be a Shadow Game AND a game with the Seal?"

"I don't know..." Jou said, taking half a step back. "I don't think those creeps have any of the Items, though. Can't only they make Shadow Games?"

"The Pharaoh, maybe?" Honda asked. "But why would he do that?"

"I have no idea..."

"I sacrifice Big Shield Gardna to play Catapult Turtle."

"And I activate Limit Tribute, so you can't activate its effect." Raphael interrupted.

"Tch...your turn."

The Pharaoh recognized the move in the Puzzle, and horror developed further in him when he remembered those screams, and he knew where they came from. Looking back up at the copy of his Other Self, he knew what it wanted—what it wanted to do to Yuugi. "I won't let you." He promised. "I won't let you have him!"

"But I already have."

With Raphael's Nightmare Binding preventing him from tributing Kuribabylon, and with Swords of Revealing Light still in play, Yuugi made the logical choice—Dark Magician. The dark sorcerer didn't hesitate in following his young master's order, as his soul existed to serve, no matter the circumstances. "Now that he's useless, at least he can power-up Dark Magician Girl, and take your life points!"

"No—no! partner, you can't!" He remembered the Dark Magician throwing himself in front of Pandora's Dark Magician to protect him, how he guarded his soul room from trespassers, how he smiled at the Pharaoh when he said he had complete faith in him. "He's our friend! You can't hurt him! This isn't like you!" His mentor, his friend, Maha-

The Dark Magician fired himself, and Raphael took a heavy hit, dropping down to his knees. The darkness lapped at his chin, and he quickly stood himself back up again.

Across from him, the small duelist watched with a cold gaze.

His shadow had three, red eyes, and a jagged smile.

Raphael only set a card.

"Next, I'll tribute my Dark Magician Girl."

"Dark Magician Girl...?"

She had green eyes, then, and she smiled at him, and the Pharaoh pulled himself free with effort, doubled-over. Mana, Mana! Not Mana!

"No, not her!" He cried. "Please, not Dark Magician Girl!"

Tears fell from her eyes when the dark witch sacrificed herself, though less than half the damage was inflicted. 100 life points remained. Yuugi set another card.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time." The copy admitted. "And I've wanted this for a long time."

The Pharaoh lay on the ground, shutting his eyes.

Raphael drew, and used his Celestial Sword to summon Guardian Eatos, and sent its sword to the graveyard.

"I won't let you have him." The Pharaoh promised. "I love him too much. You can't take him from me."

"I already have."

"Now, I remove from play all of your heartlessly sacrificed monsters, to increase my Guardian Eatos's attack by each one of your monsters' attacks!" Raphael said. "Look at all of them—all of the hurt that you've caused them!"

Yuugi's gaze slowly lifted, as the darkness finally reached his feet from the rock he stood on, where the darkness had reached Raphael' chest.

He saw Dark Magician Girl.

"Guardian Eatos, attack his Kuribabylon! Judge him for this! Attack, and end this duel!"

Yuugi raised his arms over his face.

A/N:

If the anime can fuck with card effects, so can I.

But seriously-I have one of three endings I can't decide on.

1.) Yuugi activates Magic Cylinder, Raphael's soul is taken, Yuugi and Yami deal with Yuugi's horror together with no rematch, and the added bonus of killing a man.
2.) Yuugi activates Secret Blast, both of their life points hit zero, Yuugi and Yami deal with Yuugi's horror together with a rematch.
3.) Yami sacrifices himself, and Yuugi deals with it alone.

What do you guys want?