Title: Karma

Author: Futile Faith

Rating: R

Pairing: Bakura x Yami – Bakura x Yami x ? (maybe)

Warnings: language, sexual content, and violence

Disclaimer: Yugioh does not belong to me

Summary:
Yugi, in a huge argument with Atemu, took apart the Puzzle and abandoned the spirit of the Puzzle. Years later the Pharaoh returns again ready to get revenge for the betrayl of his so-called aibou

Prologue

Anger hung so thick in the air that it would have suffocated the spirit if he could have breathed. The malice feeling felt like it was choking him, draining him of his non-existence life. Never had his aibou showed anything like this towards him ever. The once carefree, loving soul had become nothing more than a selfish, vile creature, hell bent on taking his guardian down.

Atemu couldn't place his finger on when all this really started. It had to have been slow in coming for a while. He thought all was right with their shared partnership. But his aibou began to slowly cease his time with the yami, spending more and more time with his friends, their little group.

Duels were even played without him, their shared mind not wanted during the various tournaments. Granted they weren't life threatening, but still, wasn't that one of the main reasons for his existence now, to help his hikari be the King of Games? Did he have another reason for being now that all the danger was over?

After all protecting him wasn't needed anymore. Who would mess with the King of Games? No bullies, no mind controlled zombies were after him. No one wanted the power of the Pharaoh anymore. So all they had was their friendship and duels to keep them together.

But the shared duels were no longer wanted.

And the friendship was lost.

So what was there now? What did his aibou – no Yugi want from him?

Was he supposed to be nothing more than a personal possession? Something to hold, locked away, until it's needed or wanted again? But what if that time never came? Would he be nothing more than a useless spirit, ever watchful but never needed or wanted again? Something that would fade away over time like a lost childhood memory?

He didn't understand.

He had given up his long awaited afterlife to be with Yugi, thinking they were inseparable. Two halves of the same soul, light and darkness, yin and yang, forever a completed circle. But that circle now was divided, clearly as water and oil, fire and ice, two things forever separated.

It was also clear he couldn't do anything right by his other either. If someone did pick on him, and the spirit took over to defend his precious little light, he would be forced back into his soul room to only be met with an angry Yugi telling him that he was strong enough to handle it on his own.

If he saw a flaw in an opponent's strategy, and formulated a crushing move he was reminded that again his help and knowledge was neither needed nor wanted. Yugi had said on more than one occasion that he wanted to prove himself that he was the true King of Games. Atemu understood that and left him alone, after all Yugi was growing up and needed to be his own man.

But then that led to another problem.

Soon Yugi was telling him it was Atemu's fault that they didn't get along, saying his withdrawal was the cause of the rift between them.

The true Yu-gi-oh was losing his heart, soul and mind to the game of his existence.

He had a name now, he had memories of a life he use to have, friends and loved ones, yet the one that mattered the most to him refused to acknowledge his life, his feelings, his needs anymore.

He was still called 'other me' by Yugi, not even Yami was used anymore. His true name was becoming more and more a myth, or a curse, depending on how he looked at it.

A myth because it reminded him of his life long ago where he felt with his own hands, he ate with his own mouth, his own body that craved touches and caresses of a lover, his own eyes to look upon the beauty of his land, home, and people. It was nothing more than a legend, something that was written and filed away on a shelf to collect dust.

It was a curse because that was the start of the problems. Yes, now he saw it clear as day. His accursed name, the one they had fought so hard to find out was the root of this fissure that now divided them.

Back in his time, a Pharaoh's name wasn't freely given for to know the name meant you held power over them. For Atemu this was true even in modern Japan.

Couldn't Yugi see what this was doing to him? How it left him completely numb inside, making him feel like nothing more than an empty shell?

Was the sacrifice of his afterlife, his chance at final peace and rest, worthless?

He was beginning to feel that way.

A life of his own, no longer the dark shadow of Yugi, was what he longed for. He wanted to be known as Atemu, a regular teenager that just happen to have special powers. He wanted to feel this world, not just see and hear it through the eyes and ears of another.

But he was nothing more than a spirit, bound to a golden object, forced to live as Yugi saw fit.

Yet even that was fading away from him.

Atemu turned his attention back to Yugi as they stared each other down in his bedroom. He knew this fight had been too long in the making. The spirit had held his feeling in long enough and it had all come to a head over a simple friendly duel with Joey.

Yugi had been cornered, having lost over half of his life points and was starring at his cards just not seeing the move that would have defeated the blonde. Atemu, being the avid gamer he was, quietly told Yugi the move that would finish the other off. And again, the spirit of the puzzle was yelled, screamed, and called every name in the book, just for stating the obvious.

Which all led to Atemu finally having enough and told Yugi just what he thought about it and him.

"Ra Yugi, don't you see what you've become over the last several months? Haven't you seen what you've been doing to me?

Don't you see that I'm tired of living as a possession now? You never speak to me, you never use my name – one that I might add that we went through hell and back to get –, you hardly ever put the puzzle on anymore!"

Yugi glared down the translucent darker half, "Hai mou hitori no boku, I know what I've been doing, it's you that doesn't understand."

The spirit narrowed his crimson eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Then why don't you make me understand? Please tell me what horrible things I have done to make you this way?" he said, dripping with sarcasm.

"You have been ruining my life! You stole Anzu's heart, you take over when you are not needed, and you are becoming a pain in my ass! Every time I turn around I realize that you are the one that keeping me from doing what I want to do. Can't you take a hint? I don't want you around no more, I don't need you anymore!"

Atemu held back a gasp as those words came out of Yugi's mouth. They were the ones he feared, the ones that had plagued his nightmares over the past few months. Yugi didn't want him or need him. So again, what was his purpose? He could no longer go into the afterlife; that option was thrown away long ago.

"Do you know that Kaiba won't duel me anymore? He only wants you, says you're the real Game King and that if he is to get his title back then it has to be you he defeats? Guess he forgot it's my body that allowed him to duel you in the first place and that you are me.

And if you were gone then my friends would be out of harms way. No more maniacs, no more power hungry people wanting to take you and us down? I could have a normal life! A regular life!

The almighty power of the Pharaoh, a simple little spirit that is locked away in a tacky golden pyramid for all of eternity, something that is unfortunately bound to me, for the rest of my life!"

"It doesn't have to be," the rejected spirit whispered.

Atemu's second chance at life was crashing around him. His once aibou was crushing him, tearing his non-beating heart apart with just simple words. Never had he felt pain like this since he was released from his ungodly prison, never had he felt so utterly defeated.

What had he done wrong? What had he failed to do for Yugi that caused him to feel this way? What the boy said was partially true; Kaiba did only want to duel him, but that was only because they shared the same competitive streak, the same passion for the game. They each were willing to take any and all risks to meet their goals. Kaiba always did see him as something more than Yugi.

And true again, their – no his friends wouldn't have to have faced the dangers that they did if he wasn't around. They would be safer without him.

No, Yugi's life wasn't normal, after all, how many teenagers lived with a three thousand year old spirit in them?

Only one other, but that didn't make it any better.

Yes, he was bound to the puzzle and it was bound to Yugi, but he was his reincarnation. Fate brought them together.

But was this Atemu's fault? Did he ask for this to happen to him? Did he want this slavery as his reward for everything good he had done?

No.

He was heartbroken, but he was also disappointed in the boy. For one that went on about the ties of friendship and always sticking together no matter what, he sure as hell changed his tune. He had told him they would meet whatever challenges lay ahead of them together; they would always be together.

Yugi walked over to his desk and picked up the golden object that fuelled his anger. Turning around he faced his other and glared him straight in the eye. "You're right, it doesn't have to be."

Atemu's eyes widened when he watched the boy place his fingers around the piece with the Eye on it. Throwing pride out the window he sank to his knees as he witnessed his final moments in this world before the boy pulled the piece out from the rest of the puzzle.

xXx

Darkness

It was all that he knew now.

It wasn't the Darkness that arrived when lights went out; no, it was impenetrable, living Darkness. The kind that waits on the fringes of your mind, tempting, ready to consume you and drown you in its twisted comfort. The kind that strips away all that you are, leaving nothing but your fears. You can't fight this Darkness, you can only adapt, learn to live with, let it become your friend; let it soothe you like a lover's caress.

The darkness was his only friend now.

How long had it been now? Days, weeks, months, or even years; he didn't know, he didn't want to know. All he knew was that Yugi had forgotten about him when he took apart the puzzle and damned him to this torture. He couldn't take it anymore; he could feel his mind breaking and crumbling under the weight of the shadows.

A pair of eyes watched helplessly as their Pharaoh and long time friend slowly lost his mind to the Darkness. He'd been coming back here for weeks, hoping against all hope that the Pharaoh would be able to resist the temptation and survive this torment. But each day he watched as little by little, a piece of his soul was stripped away, and each day he had to listen to the screams that twisted his very core from the agony echoed in them.

He closed his eyes as yet another scream was pulled from the lips of someone so great, and he turned and walked away, trying to escape the crazed mutterings of a tortured soul. He'd had enough; only the coldest of hearts could sit there and do nothing as another was condemned to this agony.

Shadi.

What is it, Mahaado?

You told me there was nothing I could do to relieve him of his pain, but I cannot bear to witness anymore of this. Each time a part of his spirit is stripped away, a part of mine goes with it.

What do you want me to do?

Anything.

There is perhaps one thing I could do. Fury like he'd never felt before crashed over him.

Why are you only considering this now? Why did you sentence him to such suffering when you could have saved his soul before?

Because I had to wait and see.

For what?

I had to wait and see whether his aibou, the other half of his soul would reconsider and put the puzzle back together. I'm only free to act now.

What is it you plan to do?

To relieve the Pharaoh from his torment, I will take both the spirit of the Tomb Robber and the spirit of your best friend to reside in the Realm of Shadows instead. I shall give them their items as well.

Very well. He went back to where Yami was and was pleased to see him gone.

Thank you.

xXx

A bright glowed in a bedroom, emanating from the pieces of gold resting on the dressing table, illuminating the Dark Magician posters on the wall and the small figure resting in the bed. Then, as sudden as it had arrived, it vanished, taking the Sennen pieces with it.

The Ring, hanging on the corner of the bed, began to glow unnoticed by the boy sleeping on the bed. But not by one Tomb Robber, who was awakened by it and came out of his soulroom, angry at being woken up. He squinted his eyes against the bright light and reached out to grab the Ring, but he vanished just as his fingers grazed the surface, the light and the Sennen Ring going with him.