The black sea of darkness was the only thing visible to the Pharaoh. The sound of silence remained in the shadows until…

"Pharaoh? Pharaoh, wake up!" A voice rang out from a distance. No response was given to its owner. "Pharaoh! PHARAOH!" Still nothing.

"Yami." Yami slowly opened his eyes to witness the blurred face of the same boy who berated him in his sleep. The vision soon became clear. That same boy, Yugi Muto, wore the face of worry and concern, shortly before relief and joy took over.

"I'm so glad you're alright." Yugi sighed. "You scared me." The boy moved himself away from his other self, giving him enough space to move his legs to the side of the bed. Yugi seated himself on the edge of the bed as the Pharaoh turned his gaze to look into the boy's eyes.

"Yugi, what are you doing here?" the Pharaoh enquired.

"I heard noises coming from inside the Millennium Puzzle, so I went inside to check it out." Yugi replied, remembering his journey to the Puzzle's insides. "Then I learned that the noises were coming from the behind the door of your soul room."

As Yugi, in flashback, entered the Pharaoh's soul room, the place literally became a maze filled with multiple doors and possibly hundreds of stairs each facing every direction you could think of. "Knowing how the Puzzle works, since there was always a maze behind the door; it took me a while to get to you. The noises made it easier for me to come and find you."

Eventually, one of the doors, in the depths of the Puzzle, caught the young boy's eye and he opened it to take a look inside. "And when I did, I saw you tossing and turning in your sleep." Yugi said, remembering the gut-wrenching shock he witnessed. "You were mumbling to yourself."

In the present day, inside the Puzzle, Yami knitted his brow in need of answers. "What noises did you hear along the way, Yugi?"

Yugi took a deep breath and exhaled. "Well, you were rambling on about how sorry you were for your… greatest mistake. You claimed that you'd never forgive yourself for what you did and you vowed to do anything to make it up to me. You even said that you'd understand if I didn't want to give you the chance to."

His innocent eyes slowly waltzed on the ground before gazing into Yami's violet orbs. "Pharaoh, I know that what you did feels like the worst thing you've ever done, from your perspective, but you don't have to keep punishing yourself over it."

Yami frowned a little more, unable to process what Yugi just said to him. "You can't change what has already happened. And what you did, Pharaoh, already happened. You played the Seal and lost the duel, but you overcame the darkness in your heart and travelled all the way to Dartz's lair to rescue me."

A smile graced the young boy's lips. His hand reached out towards Yami, gently squeezing the former King's hand as a gesture of comfort. "You have done more than enough to make it up to me, and of course I would have given you the chance if you had asked me to. I said it once and I'll say it again: you acted like a true hero. And even heroes make mistakes, just like everyone else."

The innocent one conjured a cute yet slightly larger smile. The darker half, however, was not so easily convinced to do the same. A thought entered his mind; he needed to know if Yugi was being honest about one thing.

"Would you consider my actions in my first duel with Raphael a mistake, Yugi? Because it doesn't really feel like it." A heavy sigh passed the Pharaoh's lips. "Not anymore, at least."

Yugi's smile slowly fell. "Why would you say that?" he asked, curious to know why Yami was still berating himself.

"I dreamt about seeing you again in the Stone Wilderness." Yami replied. "The dream didn't go the same way as the real event did." Yami swallowed with great force before opening his mouth again. "You… gave me a long, well-deserved lecture about what I had done. You told me that what I did wasn't a mistake. You said I wanted to play the Seal of Orichalcos and I embraced its power, only to then fear it when the tables turned on me."

Shock and horror washed over the innocent child. He couldn't believe his ears. How could he have said something so damaging, so cruel, so vile to his other, more confident self? Tears threatened to surface, yet he wouldn't allow them to fall. He wiped them away using the sleeve of his pyjamas.

The Pharaoh wasn't finished yet. "You said I threw away my knowledge, wisdom and potential for the sake of winning a simple duel; that I was a tyrant for what I did to my monsters, as well as what I tried to do to Timaeus. You even… accused me of believing Ishizu's knowledge of my mysterious past to be false. You also said that the two worlds would have been destroyed if my soul had been taken away instead of yours."

Yugi took a soothing breath as he shut his eyes tightly. The information was quite difficult to process. But then again, who was he to turn down a challenge? It was now his turn to say his piece.

"You know what I think, Yami?" Yugi began, with a serious yet gentle tone to his voice. "I think that the dream you had is the embodiment of your desire for torment over your mistake." Yami opened his mouth to speak, but Yugi stopped him from doing so.

"I don't care what you have to say about it not being a mistake. It was a mistake. End of." The Pharaoh cast his gaze to the ground, his head following suit. "You can't keep doing this to yourself, Pharaoh. People have forgiven you for this and so have I. So why can't you do the same? Don't you want to put it behind you?"

"I do, Yugi." Yugi's darker half sighed with his head down. "It's just not that simple. My wounds had opened up from the very moment I lost you. It's going to take some time for those wounds to heal. And at the end of the day, the wounds may have healed, but the scars are still there as a reminder of what I had done and lost."

Yugi quickly jumped from his seat. His face, desperate and pleading; his eyes narrowing down with a slight frown. "Stop it!" Yugi roared at the top of his lungs. "Just stop it, OK? I don't want to hear any more of this."

The Pharaoh shot up with lightning speed, his face contorted with anguish and frustration. "I heard what I didn't want to hear from you, Yugi!" he countered. "It was no good for me to wish that my soul was locked away when your soul was locked away."

The sound of a crack polluted the air in the room as the Pharaoh's face was struck with a swift blow. The pain on his left cheek was searing like the hottest flames of the Inferno. Fingers used their delicate touch to slightly soothe the pain. The Pharaoh's gaze widened as he came face to face with the boy.

The child was seething with fury as he glared dangerously at his other self. "Yugi…" the Pharaoh mumbled.

"Don't you ever say that to me again, Pharaoh." Yugi scolded harshly, his finger pointing towards the former King.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing to yourself right now? It's just like in that duel where we faced each other before I hypocritically played that evil card." The lighter half seethed once more with strong white teeth pushing against each other.

"Do you know how I felt when you said those depressing words to me that day?" he continued with the same tone of voice. "I felt sick. Physically sick." The Pharaoh's touch drifted away from the target that was struck. His eyes quickly fluttered like a butterfly preparing its wings to take flight.

He couldn't understand why Yugi felt this way in the Stone Wilderness when part of what he said was right. He was sure that what Yugi said about Yami having his soul locked away and caring about no one as long as he had power was right. Yugi must have been at least a bit angry with him at that time.

"I gave you what you wanted: a severe punishment for what you did." Yugi continued, his tone still unchanged. "But I only did it to pull you through, not to tear you down." So does that mean…? No, it couldn't be. He has to have been angry at some point.

The burning flames of rage, deep within Yugi's soul, extinguished as his innocent eyes formed the look of a lost puppy. "So please…" Yugi begged, his voice suddenly becoming worried and desperate. "Please don't tear yourself down. You were everything I ever wanted to be and you still are. You are wise, brave, strong, kind and selfless. No matter how hard life tries to bring you down, you would always get back up."

The Pharaoh sighed to himself, reluctantly believing Yugi's sincere words as the former King set his eyes on the ground. "Look at me, Pharaoh." Yugi ordered gently, managing to lure Yami's eyes into his tender gaze.

"Are you really going to throw it all away over one mistake? And yes, it is, it was and it will always be a mistake." Small, delicate hands reached out towards the Pharaoh's, taking his left hand into Yugi's tender grasp.

"Please, Pharaoh, don't do this to yourself. Don't punish yourself or torture yourself any more than you already have. Promise me you'll never go back to that place." A war between two sides raged within the Pharaoh. One side, his mind, was telling him that his actions are, were and will always be unforgivable; the other side, his heart, was telling him that it is OK for him to make mistakes so he could learn from them.

"I can't promise you that." Yami admitted, gently removing his hand from Yugi's grip. "Not until I at least have full closure on some things." Yugi nodded as his other self prepared to ask him his first question. "Were you not at least a bit angry with me over what I did, when I saw you again, before we had to face each other in a duel?"

Yugi gave a gentle sigh before parting his lips. "You want to know something, Pharaoh? I was angry with you, not because of what you did in that one duel, but because of what you said and how you said it when we saw each other again." This was definitely not the kind of response Yami was expecting to hear.

"You said that you should be locked away if you were capable of such horrific behaviour, that you should be locked away instead of me." Yugi was angry because of that? How could this be? At least one person was angry with him for what he did. That person said what should have been said: that Yami, instead of Yugi, should have been locked away.

"I wasn't angry at what you did, I was hurt. I was upset. You played that card so you could win the duel, only to end up losing instead." So Yugi was pretending to be angry all this time? Impossible!

"You lost the trust of your monsters that day, but you worked so hard to get it back." Yugi continued, smiling a little. "Your main focus was bringing me back, and you DID bring me back, Pharaoh."

"Why did you rescue me from the Seal?" asked the Pharaoh, wanting to know the real reason behind the act.

"Because you're my friend, Yami." Yugi responded, gaining a puzzled look from his other self. "You may not think it, knowing what you did, but you ARE my friend. Friends will often say or do things they will regret in the near future."

Yugi's slight smile dissipated on a recent thought that just came up. "Right now, I regret the horrible things I said to you in that duel, putting you through all this pain of having to fight me while I was laying into you." Yugi cast his gaze away from the Pharaoh shortly before looking into his eyes again.

"I also saved you because… I didn't want your soul to be fed to the Great Beast. That would have caused the destruction of our world and the Duel Monsters' world. And besides, even if that wasn't going to happen right away, I wouldn't know what I'd do. It probably would have taken me even longer to stop Dartz and bring you back."

Yami nodded understandingly at the thought of Yugi, of all people, struggling to get back on his feet to save him from Dartz and the Great Beast. "I have one more question, Yugi." Yugi gave his other self a permitting nod to ask whatever final question he had on his mind.

Yami slowly opened his mouth to speak. "Say the Great Beast wasn't here, there is no Great Beast involved. If I had lost the duel with the Seal in play, the Seal I willingly activated in order to win, would you still have saved me or would you have left me to my fate?"

Yugi's mouth opened in awe as his eyes did the same. He couldn't believe Yami would ask that of him, especially since the Seal takes people's souls almost unconditionally. Taking a deep breath to soothe himself, he spoke again.

"I'd like to answer that with a question, Yami. Do you think I would ever forgive myself if I chose to do the latter?" Yami took three seconds to come to a conclusion.

"What, letting my soul be taken?" he asked, gaining a nod from Yugi. "No, of course not. You'd be tearing yourself apart over this."

"Just like you were… when my soul was taken away." Yugi countered. "It's not like you chose to sacrifice me to save yourself, Yami, I chose to give myself up. I would do it for anyone. And if given the chance, I'd do it all over again."

Yugi gently took a corner of his bottom lip into his mouth before speaking again. "Yami, don't be mad, but… I think I could have tried harder to stop you from playing that evil card." Yami's brow jolted downward a little.

"Why do you say that, Yugi?" he asked.

"Well," Yugi began, "to be frank, there was a part of me that knew there was nothing at stake during your duel with Raphael. The reason it didn't come up was because I was just so caught up in the events." Yugi sighed to himself with a hint of guilt in the mix. "I was in such an emotional state that I felt that… I couldn't do any more than I did to try to stop you. Maybe I was expecting you to know that losing the duel without the Seal in play would have changed nothing."

A chuckle escaped the young boy's lips. "Listen to me, rambling on about common sense."

"No, Yugi." Yami followed. "You were right. I should have known better; what I did back there was the most selfish thing I've ever done. I threw away my belief in the Heart of the Cards for the power of the Orichalcos. No one was in any real danger until I made that foolish decision."

Yugi's innocent face conjured a little frown. "Yami, I told you before. That card was affecting your mind."

"No," the Pharaoh replied, "it wasn't the card, nor was it that stone wrapped around my neck. Using that card was MY decision and MY decision alone. No words can truly express how deeply I regret what I had done. Nothing I can say or do will ever change or excuse my actions."

The innocent child reached out and took the former King's hand into his own again. "Pharaoh… it's OK. I have already forgiven you and I still do. Can you at least do the same for yourself?" The Pharaoh stared into the eyes that shone with hope, love and understanding. "Please, Pharaoh?" he begged, his voice as gentle as a cool breeze.

There was no hope for the Pharaoh to resist the kind of face Yugi was making. The kind of face that was blessed with the gift of adorability. "Alright, Yugi. I will put it behind me." Yami answered, smiling to himself. "You don't have to try to look as cute as possible in order to persuade me."

"S-shut up!" the boy yelped as his face gave off a hint of red. The Pharaoh couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "See? Right there. That's the Pharaoh we know." Yugi stated, with a cute giggle to follow.

Suddenly, another thought came to Yami. "Yugi?"

"Yes, Pharaoh?" came a reply.

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?" Yugi blinked at the Pharaoh in disbelief.

"My reflection."

"No, not that." Yami countered.

Yugi pondered on the question before realising what the Pharaoh meant. "Oh, you meant… right. Well, uh… umm… gosh, I… really don't know. Maybe… a guy wearing the Puzzle around his neck?"

Yami shook his head with a silent giggle. "Any strong qualities you might have, Yugi?" he asked, hoping to get more out of him.

"Uhh… well… it's… uhh… kind of hard to name a few." Yugi thought really hard on that question. "I know I'm a nice guy, but that doesn't really prove anything, right?"

"Well, Yugi…" Yami began. "You have the gift of kindness, love, friendship and compassion. You would do everything in your power to keep your friends out of danger, even if they refuse to let you deal with such dangerous tasks on your own." Yugi nodded in agreement. "You are pure, sweet, innocent and selfless. It's those kinds of traits that helped even me out, helped soften me up enough to help me restrain myself."

Yugi's face flushed scarlet all over. "I would not have been what I am today if not for you, Yugi." It was now Yugi's turn to speak.

"And you're strong, brave and heroic. Not to mention wise. Your traits have given me the strength and courage I need to face whatever challenge I come across. I still would have been as naïve, scared and timid as I used to be if not for you." Yugi gave off a cute, innocent smile to his darker half.

A question came to mind shortly afterwards. "But Yami, why did you ask me that?"

"In my dream," Yami began, "you were taken over by the Seal of Orichalcos outside the duel. You were in excruciating pain before it happened, and I was helpless to stop the pain." Yugi's eyes widened with shock and disbelief. "I vowed never to leave your side. When the Orichalcos took you over, you said some horrible things about yourself." Yami clenched his eyes shut as his heart jumped.

"I did? What did I say?" The former King stared into the young eyes filled with simple curiosity.

"Well… you called yourself a lazy leech, a worthless whelp, a poor excuse for a hero and a student, a naïve fool and a weakling." Yami could barely keep his 'tough guy' persona up as he went down the list. He kept his eyes on the ground, clenched fists shaking. "I couldn't believe what I was hearing from you, in my dream. You even blamed yourself for losing Exodia and putting yourself, Joey and Tristan in grave danger."

He then forced himself to look the innocent boy in the eyes again, fists no longer shaking or clenched. "You even said you weren't strong enough to stand up to Kaiba when he mocked you for throwing away the duel to save his life."

"Tea gave him what for for that." Yugi chuckled. "I was really scared of what I almost did to him."

"It makes me wonder what Kaiba would have done if you and he were in each other's shoes. Not that I would wish that on you or anything like that." Yugi giggled lightly from hearing Yami's slightly worried tone.

"Yeah, I know. And Yami? I'm sorry I hit you." Yami shook his head slightly, unconcerned about the slap in the face.

"It's alright, Yugi. I have suffered worse than this, believe me." Yami shot a genuine smile at him.

Suddenly, Yugi felt that he would burst at any moment. "Pharaoh?"

"Yes?" The unexpected happened. "Huh?"

The Pharaoh found himself ensnared by Yugi's strong but gentle embrace. "You're one of the best friends I've ever had, and I love you."

Yami was caught by surprise at the warm gesture. Closing his eyes with a relaxed smile on his face, he returned the favour with his own arms wrapped his friend's back. "I feel the same way about you, Yugi."

Neither one of them would let go, for their brotherly embrace was a gift to one another. A gift that was sent from the heavens.