Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. Yu gi oh is the property of its copyright holders Kazuki Takahashi Etc.

"Earth, sky

Day, night

Sound and silence

Dark and light

One alone is not enough

You need both together."

-Mulan, Mulan 2

Once You Speak my Name: Duel

Atemu and Yugi were on their guard for days after their encounter. Waiting, keeping an eye out for any strange activity and, much to the growing annoyance of both men, nothing happened.

Yugi came downstairs after a short, two hour, nap to find Atemu slumped down in his chair at the table as the radio blared on, on the table.

"Atemu!"

"I wasn't sleeping!" he announced, sitting up straighter in the chair and rubbing his eyes. "And if I was it wasn't restful."

"Sure you weren't. Anything new?" Yugi asked dropping into a chair himself.

"No, no strange weather anomalies, no reported incidents, they haven't even updated on finding Mr. Hopekkins at the museum and…and you aren't listening to anything I've said."

"Of course I'm listening. My eyes are closed so I can fully absorb your words without distractions."

"Very funny."

Yugi sighed. "Maybe we're going about this all wrong. I mean what evidence do we have that whoever has set this all up, whatever it is, is going to act now?"

"They sent Hopekkins to deal with you," Atemu said plainly. "Whoever they are, they felt they were ready to attack openly and they failed. Whoever is behind all this was using him we both witnessed that, and now they know we know they are here so they have to make a move eventually and they won't wait long to allow us to be fully prepared."

Yugi nodded, it made sense. Although he hoped they had made more progress than their enemy was expecting. He leaned back, rolling his shoulders; he was still sore after the last training session.

The phone rang and he jumped out of seat to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Yugi, you haven't died of boredom yet I'm impressed."

"Nice to hear from you too, you call about something other than my lack of a life, Megan?"

"Yes actually I did. We have a…really strange and creepy anomaly going on at my site, and this is more your area of expertise."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. We didn't do anything to the site and then suddenly some weird black fog came floating out and-"

"I'm on my way!"

He slammed down the phone and ran to the closet, Atemu close behind. Hurriedly tossing him supplies and grabbing his keys.

"They just made their move."

XXX

His old beat up car made it in record time to the site; and what a sight it was of people standing around staring at the blackness the crept up from the ground.

Yugi got out of the car as Megan ran up to him.

"Yugi, you made it."

"I said I'd be here, has there been any change?"

"No, but it just came out of nowhere!"

"Is there anyone in there?" Atemu asked.

"No we managed to evacuate everyone before then."

"Good, we must move quickly."

"Wait!" Yugi called out to him.

Atemu came back over as Yugi popped the trunk of his car, to reveal two new duel disks, compact, shiny…and black.

"Nice," Atemu said and quickly slipped one on his arm.

Someone laughed.

"What are you two going to do? Duel it into submission?"

"Something like that," Yugi snapped back.

They approached the entrance cautiously.

"You sense it too don't you?" Atemu asked.

"Yes, it's almost bone chilling."

Atemu reached over and gently squeezed his shoulder.

"I have faith in you, Yugi, you are ready."

"I hope so."

They descended into the dark underground caverns until they opened up to a large room where a woman with dark black hair stood in the centre. Dressed in a simple white robe, a large blue necklace with several red gems embedded in it, and menacing glint in her eyes.

"What is the meaning of this!"

"Always the blunt one aren't you, Pharaoh? I mean to avenge those that died at your hands, all those whose land you stole from them and to take back what is rightfully ours. "

"You tried before and failed we will defeat you again!"

"True I underestimated your partner's resourcefulness." She turned to Yugi. "You were quicker than I planned with his resurrection, and a fast learner, but no matter. It will not be enough to save you or your world."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Yugi said.

She smiled. "So, you say, but men are so easy to manipulate. I knew you would come to me where I have the advantage. "

The ornament around her neck suddenly began to glow. The bright light enveloped her body. She grew larger and the light grew brighter still. They shielded their eyes from it and when the light faded at last and they could see again a giant, multi-headed, snake was towering over them.

"Run!"

And run they did trying to find cover.

"I don't understand what she wants!" Yugi yelled.

"And I am supposed to?" Atemu yelled back as he pulled out a card and summoned the Celtic Guardian to defend them.

"She has an item just like Anubis had all those years ago, and like the one around Hopekkins arm at the museum; and she knows who you are. You have all your memories now you must know when you fought her just think!"

"There weren't any other battles! Next to Zorc all the others were just…border skirmishes."

He stood there, for an instant, dumbstruck as it all finally came together.

"Of course how could I have been so stupid?"

"What? What is it?"

"That isn't referring to a battle I had. It is about a battle my father had."

"But the legend said that Anubis was defeated by the one who possessed the millennium puzzle."

"Yes, and my father wielded its powers long before I did."

"When Anubis said he battled you he meant Aknamkanon."

"Yes, it was a war between his kingdom and the Nubians and if they were somehow able to get their hands on the book during that time they could have made their own to combat him. It would explain why the puzzle looked so much like ours."

"But they said he was the Lord of the Dead then how could he be their leader?"

"More like the lord of bringing about death, and besides things can misinterpreted you know that."

"Fine, we got it wrong and the antagonism between the two areas was well known, but why now?"

"She obviously did not have access until now. Those items and the millennium items are connected one cannot exist without the other. "

"So, when you were released again they were able to cross over too?"

"Exactly. Still they are different. If they did get a hold of the book, pages might have been missing words misspoken, a different process had to be used. They certainly weren't made with the same method they're not as strong."

"So, how do we defeat her?"

Before Atemu could respond the guardian was defeated, a shot hit near them and the rock crumbled beneath his feet; sending him down several feet to the ledge below.

"Atemu!"

"I'm all right!"

The rocks shifted again and cut them off further.

Yugi looked down the closest tunnel. "These are all inter connected I'll find you!"

Atemu nodded and ran down another tunnel.

Their adversary kept after them slithering as many heads as would fit down the tunnels.

Yugi was able to summon several monsters successfully to fight her off, but it was barely holding back the onslaught. He pushed his body hard as he tried to find an open chamber to have some kind of advantage again. The Earth shook, rubble fell, and the shock knocked him to the ground.

He heard something crack and a moment later fiery pain raced up his left leg. The cave in had made him safe for the moment, ironically, and he braced himself against the wall and looked at his ankle that was already starting to swell. Cursing he grabbed a card from his deck.

"I summon the Dian Keto the Cure Master!"

A bright light surrounded his ankle and the pain lessened. Yugi gently put his weight on it. It was still very tender, but at least he could walk, sort of.

"I'm getting too old for this," he grumbled, and limped down the cavern.

XXX

Atemu was fairing little better. He deck down another tunnel as one the heads managed to sweep his feet out from under him and he slammed into the hard stone that made up the floor. As he got up he felt liquid begin running down his face. He touched it and his fingers came away covered in blood.

He got up quickly as he heard movement up ahead his hand tightened on the cards

Yugi came around the corner, a hand over his own deck.

"Don't scare me like that!" Yugi cried out.

"Sorry."

"Nice to see you've been doing so well without me."

"It's that bad?"

"No drying blood's a good look for you."

"And limping is really good for your posture."

They started down another tunnel, Yugi leaning against him, and came out to find the monster full out in the open again.

"We should pull out the aces now while we still have a chance."

"I agree."

The easily found the familiar cards, just beginning to soften at the edges from years of use.

"I summon the Dark Magician!"

The spellcasters appeared before them, one of deep red and one purple. Atemu looked at Yugi.

"What, I'm not allowed to make some changes?"

Both of them battled hard and held their own against the creature, but it soon became obvious they weren't going to be enough to overcome it.

"This isn't working! We need to regroup and think of a better strategy!"

"For the moment we have it distracted! If I could only…can you lift me?"

Yugi looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head.

"You're right, stupid question."

"Better question, why should I?"

"If I could get to higher point to activate the card I might be able to immobilize it. Hopefully we will have enough time to formulate a plan."

Yugi nodded and quickly vaulted him high into the air.

"Swords of Revealing Light!"

The height and the magic had the desired effect as the monster now stood frozen before them.

"I've bought us some time perhaps now we can think of something more permanent."

"Well we can't keep fighting it like this it's like a hydra! Every time we cut off one of its heads another three, come up in its place. We have to get to the heart of the monster."

"And once we do, then what?" Atemu asked.

"Then it's your turn to think up an idea."

Atemu concentrated for a moment. "Maybe we don't have to take that risk."

"What are you talking about?"

"The barriers between our realms have been weakened by my being here. That is how all this is possible if I could seal it off properly again; she would be powerless. It worked once before."

"You can't!" Yugi cried, grabbing his arm.

"I will do what must be done, Yugi."

As Atemu made his way towards the beast Yugi felt the familiar dagger of pain as it pushed itself beneath his heart and it was made all the more painful by the new level their bond had reached.

He thought back to the day Atemu had left, about what he had said then.

"He doesn't belong in our world."

He had been wrong Atemu did belong here because he was here. He was Yugi and Yugi was Atemu, two halves of the same soul. Only together could they truly be whole and have a bond of shadow and light, joy and sorrow, love and pain; a bond that never should have been broken all those years ago.

"My name is–"

"Don't!"

Without another thought Yugi jumped on top of Atemu and pushed him to the floor.

"Yugi, what are you doing?"

"I lost you once, Atemu, I am not going to lose you again!"

"Yugi, it's for the good of the entire world-"

"The world can go hang! If you leave me again my world will not turn! I don't care if I have to fight the darkness until I'm old and grey as long as you are always by my side!"

Atemu sighed. "My greatest fear has been realized you are too dependent on me."

"It is not a weakness to love you! Just as it's not a weakness for you to love me. Being together doesn't make us weak. We come together to make greater stronger entity."

"If that is true then why our duel?"

"Because we were ready to be separate, but not to be apart. You said it yourself we don't need each other anymore, but we want each other."

Yugi twisted their bodies around and got his hand around to the back of Atemu's head; pulling his face close to his.

"That duel tested our readiness to separate, but it didn't test our willingness to separate."

He was right and Atemu knew it. If he had not wanted to stay with Yugi then why had he fought so hard during their duel all those years ago? He could have thrown it at any point saying that going to the afterlife was what he wanted and that Yugi didn't need a duel to show how far he'd come, and that he was more than capable of living life without him. He had fought because more than anything else he had wanted to stay even if it meant being trapped for another five thousand years. Just to be able to be with Yugi for the rest of his natural life would have been enough to sustain him through the many centuries he would have faced without him. He had released from the puzzle that had been his prison and-wait the puzzle that was it!

"The puzzle, Yugi, what happened to it after I left?"

Yugi was stuck silent by the abrupt change of subject before answering. "It disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"The room collapsed when you left the items fell into a hole made by the millennium stone."

"The items were never destroyed?"

Yugi cast his mind back to those final days; trying to remember how it had been explained to him. "Ishizu said that with you gone the items had been permanently sealed. I can only assume-"

Atemu cut him off repeating his question more firmly, "but they were never destroyed?"

"No," he said slowly, as it dawned on him what Atemu was trying to say. "You don't think we still could after all this time?"

"It might be the only thing we can do."

"And how do you propose we get there? I don't see a lot of travel options."

"You really are getting forgetful in your old age aren't you?"

Atemu quickly pulled the necessary card from his deck and summoned the dragon. Its body coiled around them and quickly filled the small space completely.

"You know how to get us to travel in style."

Both of them quickly climbed up on his back as the swords around their enemy slowly began fading. Slifer took off and neither man dared to look back as dragon flew up out from the underground and propelled itself through the air towards their goal.

They made it to the site of the ceremonial duel and Slifer blasted through the rubble that once made up the entrance to the battleground. Both men were thrown hard to the floor as Atemu's connection faltered and the great dragon of the sky disappeared.

Yugi ran over to him as he stayed on his knees panting hard.

"I'm all right it-it's just hard to maintain…an anchor of that size... without an item."

Yugi carefully helped him up and they both looked over to the platform where they had faced each other so long ago. The approached it quickly knowing their enemy was not far behind, and this was no time for nostalgia.

They looked down into the seemingly infinite darkness where the stone had once being. "A bottomless pit of inky blackness, nice touch."

With the help of their decks they reached the floor where the items now lay scattered in the dirt. The scales, the ring, the necklace, but Atemu did not see that one they needed.

"I think we might have a problem."

He looked over to Yugi who let the pieces he had found fall to the ground where the millennium eye stared creepily out from the dirt.

Atemu sighed. "Just to make things more complicated."

Still the quickly gathered together all of them that they could find. Moving their hands over each other's as the pieces began to slowly come together.

"Just like old times isn't it?"

"You can't tell me you haven't missed them."

"Maybe a little."

Atemu smiled over the sound of clicking, the gold moving faster as the sides came together.

"If for some reason we don't do our usual save the world routine you know I love you right?" Yugi asked.

"I do."

The last piece slid into place. Both of them just looked at the completed puzzle both hesitant about what it would mean for them about what it might mean for him

"I'm willing to risk it, Yugi."

Yugi nodded and removed a familiar chain that rested on his hips and slipped it through the hole at the top of the puzzle. Both of them quickly put the chain around their necks.

"We're both strong and capable on our own you and me."

"But we've always worked much better as a team!"

"Are you ready partner?"

"Let's do this."

"YU GI OH!"

(End Chapter 14)