"Woah, that's… uh…" Jounouchi didn't finish, but his wonder and discomfort were obvious all the same. And Atem silently agreed, a heavy, stale pain settling in his gut as he stared across the parking lot.

They were standing before his palace, the same one he had known in the world of memories. It was a ruin now, just a vast expanse of cracked pylons and obelisks and collapsed walls, but Atem still recognized it the instant he saw it. And as Jeu drove up to the site surrounded by cars and concrete and modern buildings, Atem had stared at the tourists walking about. They were all pointing and raising cameras and chatting amongst themselves, and their presence just added to the surrealism of it all, because to them, it was a historical relic, nothing more. Dust left behind by a defeated and lost world. Dust he had once called home.

The rest of the group got out of the jeep and gathered around him, clearly expecting Atem to lead the way. And when he kept staring at the palace, not moving, Malik asked, "So, this is where we're headed? The Temple of Amun-Re? You said Karnak, but I wasn't sure which part of the complex you meant."

"Not the temple," Jeu responded. "Just this precinct. But yes, Amun-Re."

Atem frowned, and turned to face them, questioning them with a look. But it was Jounouchi who asked, "Wait, temple?"

"What?" Jeu mirrored their confusion, then seemed to process the question and shook her head, gesturing towards the structure. "Oh, yeah, this is Karnak. Though, this is actually just part of it. The Precincts of Mut and Montu aren't open to the public anymore, and you can't see them from here. But you know about this place, right Atem?"

Atem nodded, frowning at Jeu's question. It sounded like she already knew the answer. "Yes, I know about Karnak." It was one of the largest structures in the area of ancient Thebes. It came up a lot in the history books Yuugi bought and started reading after Battle City. He would scour through them between homework and games, and share the curious bits and best pictures with Atem, always smiling and enthusiastic about it. He'd wanted so much to show Atem that it was alright, that he supported his need to find himself and why he was there. Atem hadn't doubted him for a second, not since Yuugi confronted him and supported him in the same breath back in Battle City, but it still warmed him when he did that.

Still, when he thought back on it, there were a number of photos of the temple's statues and pillars in those books, but never one of the whole structure. If he had actually ever seen–

"Woah, woah, woah." Jounouchi held up his hands in a staying manner as they all looked at him, and once he had their attention, he focused his frown on Jeu. "Is a 'temple' what you called the place where pharaohs actually lived or something? Or did the history people get it wrong somewhere? Because that is definitely where Yuugi– where the pharaoh was when we found him in that game world."

"Well," Jeu started to say, but Malik cut in with an amused chuckle.

"I take it you think pharaohs lived in giant palaces or castles like emperors and modern kings? It didn't work like that."

"Well, it was kind of like that," Jeu countered, but she was interrupted again, this time by Jounouchi.

"What are you saying? That pharaohs didn't have palaces? That can't be right!"

"Oh, they had palaces," Malik assured him, still smirking. "Dozens, at least."

…Jounouchi kept staring, clearly dumbfounded by the answer, so Atem grabbed his attention and tried explaining himself. "Pharaohs spent most of the year traveling across the kingdom. They would check in on local governments and harvests, celebrate local festivals, go on military campaigns and oversee construction, that sort of thing. And since they moved around they didn't waste time or money on building monumental palaces they would rarely see. Instead they used a number of smaller palaces built along the Nile, with just a few larger ones in key places. But even those rarely matched the size of temples like this."

"Oh." Jounouchi looked towards the temple as he processed the information, then shot Atem a grin. "Right, you would know that, wouldn't you?"

Atem shook his head. "I learned about it from a book." Yuugi's book. Though, the claim had certainly resonated with him when Yuugi first shared it with him. It felt right somehow.

"Oh," Jounouchi repeated, looking uncomfortable. And thus irritated. "Well, where are these palaces, then? If there's so many of them, they should be all over the place, right? But I haven't seen or heard of any of them."

"There aren't many intact ones left," Malik answered. "They were made of mud bricks, so they didn't last like the temples did. There were a lot of them in this area, though. A lot of kings tended to make their own. If we get the chance, I could take you by one of the sites."

Jounouchi just frowned harder, and gestured towards the complex. "Okay, then why did we find Yuugi staying in this temple instead of a palace?"

…

No one answered. Malik looked thoughtful, like he was considering some theories, but he didn't share them. And Jeu didn't offer anything either. She just kept staring at the temple, her expression heavy.

Atem eyed that expression with a tight jaw, then faced the temple, too. "Where are we going exactly?"

Jeu ducked her head for a moment, her hair obscuring her face. Then she hitched the black back she'd brought higher up her back. She started across the parking lot. "This way."

Atem followed, swinging Yuugi's backpack over his shoulder as he and the group joined the tourists at the temple entrance. The crowd wasn't thick, likely thanks to the heavy heat of the midday sun, but Atem still felt stifled and watched. As they waited to get through, he eyed the people and the area around him. There was a row of broken ram statues on either side of the path guiding them up to the entrance, and when he glanced to the right he could see a similar road of statues leading to an unseen side of the complex. He had raced down one of those paths in the world of memories, chasing the thief Bakura, but he couldn't say which one it had been, and he was distracted from the question when he spotted a man sitting on one of the rams, eating a sandwich. A man in uniform rushed up to talk to him, but Atem looked away before the exchange was finished. His stomach was twisting again.

"Woah," Jounouchi murmured, Atem focused forwards again, and instantly saw the problem: There was another man in uniform at the entrance, taking tickets and ripping them apart as each person passed by. Atem looked to Jeu, but she just shook her head and tossed him an empty smile before reaching into her pocket. When they reached the man and he put out a hand, she handed him the open wallet instead. The man frowned at first, clearly ready to correct her and give some order, but Jeu said something in Arabic before he could.

And whatever it was she said, it made Malik jerk upright and frown hard at her back, his reaction prompting Atem to do the same. What had she said?

The staff person looked surprised, too, but he took a second look at her wallet, holding it at an angle where Atem could see it – Wasn't that just her license? – and nodded vigorously. He handed the wallet back with a clearly polite word, and Jeu nodded back before turning to the rest of them. "Come on, we should be good now."

"Cool," Jounouchi said, sounding uncertain, and Atem said nothing. Malik, however, waited just long enough for them to leave the ticket stop before asking, "Did I just hear you tell that man 'I'm the one who needs into the Barque Chapel of Ramesses the Third?'"

Jeu stopped and looked back at Malik, but she didn't look surprised. She just stared at him, openly weighing her response… then turned and kept walking. "Yes. I arranged ahead of time for it to be blocked off today so we'll be the only ones in there. We're going to have to… do something there most people won't approve of."

"And to do that," Malik went on. "You decided to cut off access to a major historical site in the middle of the day. And you managed it. Do we have the former Secretary General to thank for that, too?"

"Yes," Jeu said, not looking back. She didn't pause or hesitate at all, clearly untroubled by the admission, so Malik's grimace and suspicious glare went completely unseen. He didn't say anything else, but Jounouchi still shot Atem a look as if to say, 'Should we do something?'. Atem just shook his head and kept following. He didn't care about the hows or whys of it all, not even why they might bother Malik. He just wanted answers. And with that in mind, he willed himself not to react as they passed through the pylon gates.

But he did. The moment he stepped through, he knew something was wrong.

Someone ran into his back and jostled him, passed by with a sharp word, but Atem ignored them as he looked around the courtyard he'd just walked into. "This is wrong."

The others turned and stared at him, confusion and expectation on their faces. But Atem had no explanation for them. He just knew. When he thought back to what he recalled of that world of memory, and looked around now, he–

His eyes went wide as he finally realized, and he spun around to stare back out the way they had come, over the heads of the tourists to streets and buildings and the river beyond.

The river. That made this the western entrance. But– "The western entrance opened to the harbor."

"The harbor's gone." Atem turned back and saw Jeu staring over his head, looking at the river herself. "The entire area where it was is above water now. I think the parking lot is right in the middle of where it was, actually."

…Atem didn't respond.

Jeu didn't wait for an answer, turning around to face the courtyard again. "Everything in this area was built by the Setis and Ramesses and others pharaohs after them, so they would have torn whatever was here down, if there was anything there at all."

And there was. Recalling the harbor and regaining his sense of direction made Atem realize he knew exactly what should have been there, right where they were standing.

The palace. It was built against the western wall, right up to the pylon gate they stood under. The temple had been in the center of the complex, beyond the palace. They should be standing in the place the moment they crossed inside.

But they weren't. It was gone. The palace is gone, and…

Atem rushed past Jeu into the center of the courtyard and looked off to the side, towards one corner of the complex, looking through broken walls and past elbows in an effort to confirm– Yes. There. It should be there.

But it wasn't.

"The Shrine of Wedju," he murmured, staring at the space where the shrine should have been. There were a number of smaller buildings in the area, but nothing familiar. The shrine was gone, too.

"Uh, the shrine of what?"

Atem glanced back at Jounouchi's question, and saw him and Malik both frowning at him uncertainly. But Jeu was looking at that empty space, too, pinching her lips against some unsaid response. And when she noticed him looking at her, she turned her back on him again. "Come on. The chapel's over here."

For a heartbeat, all three men stared mutely at her back… then Atem led the way, following.

They didn't go far. The place they walked to was set in the wall on the opposite end of the courtyard, its entrance marked by a tiny pylon gate of its own. The doorway was blocked by a velvet rope and two more men in uniform, and while most people were passing by without comment, understanding it was closed, there was a small group of people trying to argue with the guards. They thankfully gave up before Atem's group reached the spot, but Atem heard someone snap an outraged word behind their backs when Jeu flashed her wallet and the guard unhooked the rope for them. They filed inside, not looking back as an argument erupted behind their backs.

The new room was smaller, but still long and open to the sky, lined with towering statues of – Atem assumed – Ramesses the Third, all identical save for how time had worn them down. On the far end of the room was another doorway, likely leading to a sanctuary, but Jeu didn't lead them to it. Instead she looked to the side and walked up to one of the many statues.

Atem watched, confused as Jeu stalled and looked at the ground. He couldn't see why, but he was willing to wait for answers– until the girl knelt on the ground and tried to pry up a stone with her bare hands. "What are you doing?"

"Something people won't approve of," she grunted, letting go of the stone's edge and standing to peer at another statue further down the hall. "Maybe it's that one?"

"What do you–?" Atem started, a possibility already forming in his mind, heavy and alarming. She had said beneath.

"There's no way you can pry those up by hand," Malik interrupted, frowning after Jeu as she moved to that next statue and knelt again. "You're just going to damage them. Or split your finger open."

"Sure, if I was really trying to force up a proper one. But one of these– Ah!" Jeu fell back on her butt with a thump, but otherwise looked unfazed and satisfied as she looked back and grinned at them, a large stone in her hands. It should have been painfully heavy, but Atem saw at a glance that it was actually thin, its bottom side made of metal. There were no signs of real age on it at all. It was new. "The ones next to it should be the same," Jeu claimed, putting down the 'stone' with the metal side facing up. "They were held together with these hinges on the side, see? It helps them support any weight on top of them."

"Okay," Jounouchi said, bending down to peer into the small hole Jeu had opened up. "But, still, you just found this? What're the chances of that happening?"

"Good question," Malik commented, but Jeu ignored his pointed tone and the question both. She dusted off her hands and reached for the exposed edge of another 'stone'.

"Just help me. We've got two hours before they open this place back up, and I don't want the guards coming in and seeing this. If you pull on those two there, we can open this up."

And so they helped. One of the false stones was wedged in hard enough that Atem and Jounouchi had to pull on it together to get it up. When they finally had it in hand, they discovered rust around the hinges, causing Jeu to wonder if a rare rain had gotten through the cracks. But finally the way was open, and they were left standing over a hole about a meter or so wide. Atem knelt on his knees to look down into it… and saw nothing. It was completely black inside.

Before he could ask, Jeu reached for her backpack and pulled out two flashlights, pressing one into his hands. "Here. We're going to need these going forward." Atem nearly dropped the thing in his surprise, and before he could get a proper hold on it Jeu shrugged her bag back on and sat down beside him. He watched numb-faced as Jeu swung her legs into the hole and dropped down.

Jounouchi instantly balked. "W-what?!"

"What are you doing?!"

"Jeu!" Atem called over Malik's question, his heart hiccuping as he peered down into the hole–

A light flashed on below, bouncing and reflecting off the darkness, and in the sudden light they saw Jeu looking up at them. "What?"

…They all deflated, recovering at the sight of her confused face floating just a meter or so below them. Jounouchi quickly snapped, "Damn it, don't scare us like that!"

"Ah– oh," Jeu turned away, and Atem couldn't see her face anymore, but she was obviously embarrassed. "Sorry."

Atem shook his head, breathing out the hard tension in his spine to ask, "You expect us to jump in after you?"

"It's really not that far. I was fine."

"And how will we get out again? Is there another exit somewhere?"

"Well, I… I figured we'd hoist each other out?"

Ah.

Atem shared a look with the other boys, but none of them protested. The pharaoh just swung his legs around and dropped in after her. The short fall was easy, but there was something disconcerting about the shifting light as he landed on his feet and straightened up. Jeu was right there, ready with a weak smile of a greeting. Atem didn't return it, but there really wasn't time to: Jeu's expression shifted to alarm and she grabbed his arm and pulled, and before Atem could protest the contact, something dropped right behind his back.

"Damn, it's dark down here," Jounouchi said, squinting at them through the light of their downturned flashlights. He seemed completely unaware of the accident he'd nearly caused, and despite an initial urge to snap about it, Atem just pulled his arm from Jeu's grip.

Malik joined them a moment later, landing a far more considerate distance from the others before straightening up and peering down the only visible path. "How did you find this place, Ravin?"

"I didn't so much find it as trip into it. The original rocks collapsed and I fell." Jeu pointed her light down the path Malik had found, and the other three stared down the lit space.

It was black.

Not dark or unilluminated, but black, and reflective. A long passage of dark walls, floor, and ceiling lay before them, reflecting the glow of Jeu's flashlight back at them in a thousand tiny specks. As Atem's eyes adjusted to it, he could even make out himself and the others reflected in those surfaces. Their images danced and broke apart, distorted across the space, but they were still disturbingly clear.

"Is this place made of obsidian?" Malik asked, his words distracted as he approached one of the walls and ran his fingers over it. Atem hadn't seen them at first with the reflections distracting him, but there were hieroglyphics there, running in long, symmetrical lines down the entire wall– no, the ceiling and floor, too. He'd never seen anything like it, it looked like the inscriptions they wrote in tombs, but there were no images or empty spaces or separate sections. It was all just one endless stream of text.

"It seems to be, though it must have been reinforced somehow," Jeu said, keeping the light on the wall for Malik a few moments longer before moving on. She slid to the front of the group, leading the way down the hall with her flashlight pointed ahead.

Jounouchi rushed to catch up with her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Obsidian is a black stone that acts like a mirror, but it's usually too fragile to be used in construction like this. It should have cracked or fallen apart long ago, if I'm right about the age. But whatever it is, we'll be seeing a lot of it. There's still a long way to go."

And there was. As Malik and Atem trailed the pair, they walked on and on, and on, the narrow yet surprisingly tall passage seeming to go on forever before it finally began to shift, sloping down and going further and further beneath the surface in a gentle incline. And the walls– Atem knew logically that the passage hadn't narrowed. He and Malik had just enough room to walk together, and that never changed. And yet, the further they went, the more it felt like the walls were pinching in on them.

And it was cold.

Not literally. If anything, the heat was stifling. But still Atem felt a chill in his bones as they walked on. Before long he was fighting back shivers. It was strange, and familiar. It was almost like someone had used dark magic in that place, or he had walked right into the influence of one of the Items.

But, that was impossible, wasn't it? It had to be. And yet it was undeniable. A destructive magic lingered in the air. In the walls themselves, blackening Atem's senses.

He said nothing, but he stared at Jeu's back, wondering.

Malik seemed disturbed, too. As the path sloped down, he kept glancing over his shoulder every now and then, like he could hear something creeping up on them. But Atem heard nothing, and when he glanced back, he saw nothing. And Malik said nothing. Even Jounouchi stopped once to stare at a wall, and when Atem came up behind him and asked what was wrong, he whispered that he saw something there, in his reflection. When Atem asked what, Jounouchi just shook his head, shooting the wall a disturbed look before rushing after Jeu and returning to her side.

If Jeu noticed the exchange, she didn't show it.

Then finally, after what felt like thousands upon thousands of steps, the passage opened up on a large chamber– and Atem forgot to worry about walls or passages or magic.

It was the ceremonial rite chamber.

Not the true that had collapsed to rubble a river and a valley away, but a macabre copy in pure, shimmering black with the same eerie lines of hieroglyphs running along every surface. Other than the coloring and hieroglyphics, it was a perfect likeness, the columns and the shape of the room and the dais at the back– there was even a tablet there, wrought in vibrant blue and shockingly bright against the black.

But Atem didn't focus on that. He was looked beyond it, to the–

He burst into a run, ignoring Jounouchi's cries as he rushed across the room. His partner had walked through the door of the original chamber. If this place existed, if Atem was supposed to come here, then that door–

Aibou–

He ran up the stairs, dashed passed the tablet, across the dais… and stopped. Yuugi's bag slid off his shoulder and he let it fall as he took those last few steps, his feet numb as he stared up at where the door should be. No hieroglyphics or anything else marked the stone. He didn't raise his flashlight to check, but he knew he would find nothing but his own reflection. A great stone archway outlined the wall in the shape of a great gate, or door, but its surface was an undisturbed, inky black… with no crack. No break in the wall. Nothing to mark an opening.

There was no door.

He stared… and reached out, touching the shadowed surface.

It felt cool, as smooth as glass, and just as unyielding as the stone door he'd pounded on back in the valley. When he reached out, he sensed the same lingering darkness: The byproduct of magic. That was all he could find. Darkness, and magic, and his own crushing grief.

There was a soft thump and he turned to see his bag dropped by his feet, Jeu backing away from it. She offered no smile when they locked eyes, no words of comfort, just stared at him in a sad, knowing way. It made Atem's stomach clench.

"What is this? It's different from the other one."

Atem wanted to snap that of course it was different, but then he realized Malik wasn't talking about the room. Atem and Jeu turned to see what he could be referring to– and Atem stalled after just one step.

Something had cracked under his foot.

He stepped back, shone his light down, and frowned when he saw pale stone. Beige bits of rock and dust and pebbles were surrounding the wall in a sort of splash pattern. Most of it was ground down to a fine powder, so he hadn't even noticed it at first, but it was strange. Everything else in the room was black, and smooth, barely touched by time. This? Atem bent down and picked up one of the larger shards, one still small enough to fit in his palm. It crumbled a bit in his hand. It was old, and brittle. And oddly familiar. When Atem turned it over, careful not to damage it further, he saw that there was something etched on the back of it. An… outstretched hand? It was hard to tell, it was only a fraction of a larger image. But he could clearly make out fingers, and the cuff of a sleeve. And there was something on that cuff, a detail that almost looked like–

"Pharaoh, what do you make of this?"

Looking up, Atem saw Malik pointing at the blue-toned tablet. Pocketing the stone fragment, he walked over to look and quickly realized the Millennium Stone's copy wasn't just a strange, vibrant blue. It was flecked all over with white specks. "I know this," Atem said, surprised by his own recognition. "It's…" He frowned as he tried to remember. He did know it, but the name just wouldn't come to him. And why did he know it, name lost or not?

"It's lapis lazuli." Atem turned. Jeu, still near the wall right where he had left her, was looking at the tablet. "It's thought to amplify awareness and magic."

A pang of alarm shot through Atem, and he spun to face her directly. "Then if the Items were actually put in this tablet, it would make their powers stronger?" Increase their darkness?

Jeu looked up, her expression dazed, but Atem's glare must have belatedly registered because she jumped. "What? No!" She shot a quick, anxious look at the wall behind her then rushed forward, joining them near the tablet. "I mean, it's just– I read that lapis lazuli was used for magical things because it purified as well as strengthened. That wouldn't work with the darkness in the Items, right? And obsidian–" She took a look around, gesturing at the black walls all around them. "It's supposed to be a protective charm. And the text that's been written all over the place here? I never got a good look at it before, but I think it's all spells to ward off evil and keep order and so on."

"Uh, okay, I get the 'warding off evil' thing," Jounouchi said, frowning as he looked around, too. "But why does this place look just like the tomb Yuugi and– Yuugi dueled in?"

"I don't know. I imagine one room was modeled after the other, but as to why, or which came first…" Jeu shrugged, looking back at the tablet. She didn't know.

Atem stared at her, and no one else spoke. Silence held the room for a while. They all just stood there, staring, and waiting… and waiting… until Atem finally asked, "Well?"

Jeu looked up, then mirrored his frown back at him. "Yeah?"

"You said we needed to come here. I've come."

Jeu didn't respond. She just stared back at him, her eyes widening and her expression tensing as– she looked alarmed.

Atem bit back a comment and traded it for another. "You said that you were told to bring me here. That you were to show this to me. Why?"

Jeu pinched her lips together… then looked down, staring at their feet. "I don't know."

"You said I would learn something if I came here."

"I thought– I assumed… that just makes sense. Why else would they have told me–"

"Who? Who told you this, Jeu?"

Jeu grimaced again, met his eye again, but the defeat and apology in her gaze raked at scraped nerves. "I can't say."

…

Atem turned and walked away.

"What– Hey! Yuugi!"

"There's nothing here," he snapped, ignoring Jounouchi's rushing footsteps and Malik's silence, heading back for the hall. "You can see it for yourself! If there's nothing here and Jeu has nothing to say, then we're going."

"Pharaoh," Malik called, his voice distant and sharp and tight, and oddly angry.

But Atem ignored the bite in it, shaking his head and spitting back, "We don't have time for this. If this isn't going to help us find aibou then we can handle it–"

"You will never find him if you do not listen, Pharaoh."

Atem froze. That answer had not come from Malik, or Jeu, or Jounouchi. That voice was–

Jounouchi let out a strangled shout and Atem whirled around– and dropped his flashlight, numb with shock as he looked at the transparent form hovering between him and the dais. Empty blue eyes gazed back at him, and when he spoke, Shadi's voice was flat, and hard enough to shatter stone. "It was important you see this place. Even if it is no longer here, the entity that was sealed here is the one responsible for the loss of Mutou Yuugi."

Suffocating silence fell over the room… then Atem snapped. "What?"

Shadi didn't respond, didn't flinch, and his intransigence did nothing to soothe Atem's outrage. But Jounouchi jumped in before Atem could speak and screamed, "Yuugi was swiped by a demon?!"

"He is not a demon," Shadi started to say, but Atem cut him off as he rushed at him.

"Where is he?!" He moved towards Shadi, demanding the answers he so needed and Shadi taunted– he shouldn't even be there! He had sacrificed himself to save him in Zorc's world, hadn't he?! So how– But that didn't matter! Shadi wasn't responding! He just stared at him, silent and still as a statue as Atem closed in on him and lingered in his face, his fists tight at his sides. Atem could not touch him. He could not use magic. He could not read the man's face. All he could do was demand, "What happened to him?!"

"I cannot say."

Atem opened his mouth, but nothing came out, shock catching on his tongue. But Jounouchi was quick to fill the gap with a sharp, "Gee, why does that sound familiar?!"

"Jounouchi-kun…"

Atem shook his head against the distraction of Jeu's hurt voice, narrowing his eyes on Shadi. "What do you mean by that? Are you trying to hinder me in finding–"

"Forgive me, you misunderstand me," Shadi interrupted, his eyes dropping to the ground in a show of deference even as he interrupted him. "I mean I am incapable of saying. It is not my place to give those answers, and it would only harm your cause if I did."

"…What do you mean?"

Shadi's expression remained impassive, but still Atem thought he saw hesitance in his face. If he had, it was gone when Shadi looked up and met his gaze. "I am here to relay a message to you from the Gods."

…

Atem stared, smothering an impulse to gape at the man. He waited for the words to reassemble themselves in his head, shift into something that made sense, but they refused. He looked back and saw the same disbelief on his friend's face, then glanced around Shadi to see Malik glaring at the incorporeal man, his gaze enraged, and dull with shock.

Jeu was just staring, completely unshaken. She didn't look surprised at all.

Atem bit back another snap and turned back to Shadi. "I'm not sure I understand your meaning."

"There is no 'meaning', my pharoah. I mean it literally."

"Literally, as in– Ra? Thoth? Amun?"

Shadi neither confirmed nor denied. He merely said, "You need to know that the whereabouts and wellbeing of your former vessel are only a small part of what is at stake right now."

Atem bristled, ready to reach out and grab him, logic be damned! "My former–?!"

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Jounouchi broke out of his paralyzed shock to offer volume and articulation that Atem couldn't manage as his mind burned. "Are you saying what happened to Yuugi doesn't matter?!"

"On the contrary," Shadi said, his dead tones untouched by their collective wrath. "The whereabouts of Mutou Yuugi are essential. But it is just as important that you understand the one who stole him away: The Devourer."

"The Devourer," Malik echoed, the tense, furious shock that had marked his features since Shadi's appearance fading a bit as he considered the term. If his expression was anything to go by, Malik knew the name.

"Who is he?" Atem asked, his gaze lingering on Malik before shifting back to Shadi. "You said he was sealed away here?"

"Yes. As I said, he escaped from this chamber eighteen years ago. And–" Shadi's gaze flicked over Malik and Jeu in turn. Why, Atem could not see, for their reactions were as different as night from day: Malik glared at him again with vicious question, Jeu and looked away towards the tablet, dodging his eye with a grimace. "He has been preparing himself for this day," Shadi went on, returning his gaze to Atem. "The day you were supposed to crossover."

"The rite?" Atem had guessed as much. It was everything else that baffled him. "Why would that matter to him? How would he even know it would take place? Has he been watching us?" He recalled the uneasy sensation he'd felt since he walked down that black hall, and wondered, had that been the sensation of being watched?

But no, he had only felt that here, not before. And either way Shadi said, "Possibly, but he didn't need to watch you to know of your duel, or how it would end. He was aware of everything that would pass long before it occurred."

"What, you mean like her?" Atem glanced at his friend and saw Jounouchi pointing at Jeu.

Her eyes remained on the tablet, but her expression grew impossibly heavier.

"Exactly like her," Shadi confirmed, shocking Atem into meeting his gaze again. "But she has never used that knowledge to harm you. The Devourer has used it to set a trap for you, and he has had millennia to think and plan and prepare for this very day."

"Millennia?" Atem repeated. "You mean this 'Devourer' was there in the past, when I was alive?" If he was once sealed here that made sense, but even so–

"This guy's been waiting around scheming for thousands of years just to screw Yuugi over?" Jounouchi asked, summarizing Atem's unexpressed shock with a baffled scoff and a follow-up, "We never heard anything about him in that Ancient Egypt world! And what's his beef with Atem that he'd wait around that long just to get back at him?"

"His aim is not revenge," Shadi said as he looked blankly at Jounouchi, not reacting at all as the blond balked at his attention. "He had a purpose in appearing back then, and the pharaoh and those loyal to him disrupted that plan. He may wish for retribution, but he also wishes to fulfill his original aim. And you," Shadi shifted his gaze back to Atem. "Are directly in his way, whether you know it or not."

Atem stared back, his stiff expression growing stiffer as he grew confused and numb. How–

"A-and what does he plan to do about that?" Jounouchi snapped back, a slight stutter in his voice. "Is he planning to take us all out, or attack or–"

"That would not gain him what he seeks," Shadi said, never breaking his gaze with Atem. "And he's already made his first move. The game began the moment he took Mutou Yuugi."

The room grew cold.

Or else a chill spread through Atem, because when he breathed, ice filled his lungs, and– "Game?"

"Indeed." There was the slightest hint of agitation in Shadi's voice, so slight that it might have been Atem's own emotions coloring the words. "The Devourer has an aim, and to reach it, he is carrying out a wager he made with a god long ago. A wager that involves you, Pharaoh. You, and Mutou Yuugi."

Atem's frozen chest shattered to pieces and he tripped, unbalanced. His agony and the loss of his partner and all Yuugi might be enduring even then were all part of some game?!

He caught himself, steeled himself, but kept his gaze on the sleek black floor as he clung to Jounouchi's voice like a lifeline. "So… so, what? Yuugi's a pawn in some… some game? He and Atem both? Why?! Why would the gods do that?! I know that Atem's important and all, and Yuugi's the strongest guy I know, but–"

"You should not assume their focus on the Pharaoh and Yuugi is tied solely to their persons," Shadi said, interrupting, but Jounouchi went right on talking, his voice cracking with a vulnerable sincerity that made Atem ache.

"I don't care why it's them! Why– why would they do that?! Why would they use them like that?! And Yuugi, is he… has he already been… used up?"

Atem was going to be sick.

"Mutou Yuugi is still important to the game."

Atem could have snapped his neck looking up so fast at Shadi, looking at him with wide, desperate eyes. "Then what is he in this? What am I? How do I get him back?!"

"Mutou Yuugi is the object of the game," Shadi said, staring him right in the eye. "You are the contestant, and they are the players, wagering on whether you can 'win'."

Atem swallowed the hope welling up in his throat. "And the goal… is for me to get him back?"

Shadi shook his head, and Atem's heart shattered just as it started piecing itself together again. "The goal is simply to discover his fate and his whereabouts, not he himself. You may find him in the process, but that is only one way to win."

Atem nodded, but didn't respond, too crippled by the implications to speak.

Jounouchi filled the silence with a shaky laugh. "So, so we just need to find Yuugi? We were going to do that anyway!" He grinned a withering grin and moved to Atem's side, slapping a hand on his shoulder. Atem tripped forward, barely catching himself, but Jounouchi held him up with his grip. "No worries, Shadi. You can tell the Gods – or whatever – that even if it takes forever, we'll find him! So don't–"

"You do not have forever." The interruption sucked all air from the chamber, and Atem stared numbly back at the transparent. He could swear he saw hesitation in his muted eyes. "The day of judgment will come at sunset on the feast day of Ma'at, she of light and order. On that day, or prior, you must return here with an answer on the fate and whereabouts of Mutou Yuugi. If your answer is wrong, if you do not come, or if you do not have any answer at all, then you lose." Shadi's gaze dropped to the floor, and for some reason Atem felt colder than ever without his eyes on him. "If you lose, you will both be lost. And given The Devourer's ambitions, the rest of the world would soon follow."

Atem jerked upright, knocked out of his stupor by the words, but Shadi didn't look at him again. He looked over Atem's shoulder, towards– Malik and Jeu? "I urge you to listen, my pharaoh. To me, to Jeu Ravin, to anyone you may meet who cannot freely share their knowledge. We are bound by our own rules, but if you listen, you may yet hear truth."

Atem followed Shadi's gaze, his throat tight.

Malik was frowning hard, looking rather sick himself, and Jeu's gaze was pinned on the ghost. Her expression was stricken. Atem couldn't look at it. He turned back and asked Shadi, "What should I do? If there is a time limit to this, then–"

The ghost shook his head. "You need do nothing. Time limit or no, it is not your turn yet. You will know when it is. For now, just listen. And wait. And when the time comes, remember."

Atem stared, taken aback, but before he could recover and ask about that last instruction, Shadi bent his head, took a single step back, and disappeared.

Just like that.

There was a sharp thump.

"H-hey!"

"Malik-kun!"

Atem looked over and saw Malik collapsed against the tablet, holding himself off the floor with a grip on the bright stone. Atem and Jounouchi rushed over and Jeu crouched at his side, trying to help him up, but Malik didn't even notice, clutching at his head with clenched teeth.

"Hey, are you okay? What happened?"

Malik shook his head at Jounouchi's questions and instantly seemed to regret it, so Atem crouched beside him, too, pressing back against his own alarm to keep his voice calm. "What does it feel like?"

"Like someone's stabbing me in the eye."

"That… doesn't sound good." Jeu's observation earned a sharp Gee, you think? look from Malik. She glowered in return, but didn't say anything as Malik flinched again.

"Do you need a doctor?" Atem tried, and he thought Malik was going to shake his head again, but he caught himself just before moving.

"No… No, that's not necessary. It's passing." And indeed, when Malik took his hand slowly off his eye, he didn't look happy, but he wasn't flinching anymore. "I don't know what that was, but it's already going away."

"Still, it's suspicious timing."

"I get your meaning, but if you're right, it's likely not something medicine would help anyways. Trust me, Pharaoh, I'd benefit far more from a good meal than a doctor."

"Well, if that's what you think," Jeu said, looking far from convinced. "I guess we could stop somewhere once we're out of–" Her words were cut off by a sudden horrified screech, and the three all whirled around to see Jounouchi shuffling away from the back wall, Atem's flashlight shaking in his hand. When had he taken that?

"Th-there's someone in the wall! I went to pick up Yuugi's bag, and I looked up and–"

"It's just your reflection, Jounouchi," Malik snapped, rubbing his head again as he leaned back against the tablet. "The obsidian reflects, remember?"

"That wasn't me!" Jounouchi glared fire at Malik, then turned desperately to Atem. But Atem was too busy looking at the bag that had fallen from Jounouchi's hand to respond. He… he had forgotten about his partner's bag when he went to leave. He had almost left– "I mean, it looked like me, but it wasn't!" Jounouchi went on, unaware of Atem's cold horror. "That guy had dark skin and dark hair and he was wearing–"

"Some kind of ancient clothing?" Jeu asked, calmly finishing the thought. Apparently she was right, because when Atem focused again in his shock he saw Jounouchi staring at Jeu like she had two heads. Jeu just smiled back, the expression somehow uncomfortable on her face. "Don't worry, it just does that. It's some sort of magic mirror."

Jounouchi backed away from the wall fast while Atem stared at Jeu, his mind still reeling and heart too bruised to say more than, "What?"

Jeu turned to him, and that dead try at joy faded from her face. And yet her gaze was somehow the warmer for it. "It's a 'soul mirror'. There's references to it in some texts, but they're all pretty unclear. Do you know of it?" She looked down at Malik, but he just shrugged, looking too tired to deal with the conversation.

"It sounds vaguely familiar, but I didn't pay much attention to readings unrelated to my goals. My sister might know."

Jeu hummed faintly in response, then turned back to Jounouchi. "Well, I wouldn't worry, Jounouchi-kun. It's not supposed to do anything, just reveal things about the person standing in front of it. I guess you have a pretty ancient soul there, huh?"

"What? It– like it's possessing me?"

…Jeu gave a snort, a grin rising to her face and bringing a surprising life to it as she said, "No. It looked like you, right? So it's probably just you from another life you've forgotten."

Jounouchi's eyes went wide, and he looked back at the mirror with new eyes as Atem, unnoticed, stared at him. A… past life? Had Jounouchi had one as well? He wondered… but no one would likely have the answer, so he swallowed the question unsaid and looked back to Jeu. "Then, 'hidden things' means past lives?"

Jeu shrugged, her own eyes on the mirror. Her expression was soggy again. "Who knows? Maybe that's all." And that was all she said, but Atem heard the can't say all the same.

He looked to the wall, wondering.

…He approached the still numb Jounouchi and took the flashlight from his hand, getting little more than a confused hiccup from his friend as he walked up the wall. Once there, he stood staring into the dark of the stone… and finally lifted the light to let it shine on its surface.

Atem looked into his own eyes, lined with kohl.

It was the pharaoh, his dark face framed with gold, a bright purple cape draped across his shoulders and down his back. He looked just as Atem remembered from the game, as he remembered being when he was in the game.

Except he was crying.

There were no tears in Atem's own eyes, for he did not allow them. Could not allow them. If he did, he would shatter.

And yet, there he stood: A king beyond the mirror, crying. Heartbroken.

The vision flickered as his hand shook.

"What's wrong?" He turned and found the others staring at him. Malik and Jounouchi both looked alarmed, but Jeu was noticeably distressed, her eyes worried as she asked, "What do you see?"

Atem's hand tightened on the flashlight, and he refused to look back. "Nothing. It's just me. We should go." And he moved, ignoring the others' hesitance as he made for the hall passage– until Jounouchi called after him.

"Hey! Wait up! Malik needs help!"

"I do not."

Atem turned back and instantly saw the lie. Malik was trying to ignore Jounouchi's arm around his waist, but even when he gave up and leaned into it he still struggled to keep his feet under him. Atem returned instantly, waving back Jeu as she moved to help and pulling Malik's arm around his own shoulder. "Here."

"Pharaoh, with all due respect, you are not big enough to support me."

"He is if I help," Jounouchi countered before Atem could respond himself. "Now shut up, stop being a proud idiot, and move your feet. Jeu, you got the light? You should put yours up too, Yuugi."

Malik didn't reply, letting out a tiny huff as the group moved across the chamber. And they made it halfway to the hall before Atem processed that something was missing and stopped dead in his tracks. "I left aibou's bag." Again.

"Huh?" Jounouchi looked back with him, searching for the bag, but Jeu stepped into their field of vision and headed back towards the dais before they could spot it.

"Go ahead!" she called. "My hands are free, I'll get it! I can catch up fine on my own."

"Uh, right," Jounouchi answered, suddenly uncertain in the face of the dark hall. "You… you'll keep that light going, right Yuugi?"

"…I will," Atem said, belated with the answer as he focused on Jeu's retreating back, an uneasy feeling twisting in his gut. He wasn't particularly comfortable with her touching his partner's things…

"Are we going?" Malik asked, his voice beyond tired, and Atem swallowed back empty protests and turned away. The three continued on towards the hall while behind them, Jeu crossed the room, reached the backpack, picked it up by the straps, and turned to go. But the light of the flashlight caught on the wall, showed something, and Jeu stopped. Turned back to face the reflection straight on. And what was there… Jeu didn't look shocked by it, or alarmed. Just sad. A sadness reflected by Mutou Yuugi as he stared peered back from beyond the mirror, looking just as he had when he walked through that door.

Except there were cracks running through him, along his face and body. Cracks of black smoke and red blood that seeped through his clothes and ran so deep, he should be broken. Shattered in a million pieces.

But he wasn't. He wasn't broken. Just cracked.

A cracked soul with sad eyes.

"Hey! Jeu! You coming?!" Jeu and Yuugi turned, listening with a racing heart as Jounouchi called. "We need to get going before Malik faints or something!"

"Do you think that's funny?"

Jeu breathed out, smiled as Jounouchi gave Malik some unheard answer, and was about to yell back when Atem called, "We can't leave without you!"

…He meant climb out of the hole. Jeu wouldn't be able to get out alone. But Jeu's smile still turned wistful.

With one last look in the mirror, Jeu turned to go.

Behind Jeu's back, Yuugi walked away, following his friends.