"Silent Magician… Launch a direct attack to the player!"

The duel monster raised her staff at the waterlogged command, and a blinding flash shot across the arena, bright, yet nothing more than a holographic display. But in that place, where logic gave way to fate and two people who should never exist at once were able to battle each other? That attack was the difference between life and death.

Even if the soul at stake wasn't alive.

A chorus of gasps filled Atem's ears as the light died away, allowing him to see once more. He opened his eyes slowly, no true shock in his gaze. Everything had been a given from the moment Monster Reborn floated out of that golden box, so he had already known. Had already found a quiet acceptance long before the final attack struck.

Vision restored, his attention stapled itself back on his partner. Even as everyone else stared at him, the only one he wished to lock eyes with refused to look up.

Aibou.

Silent Magician disappeared in a burst of sharp color, and the Duel Disks on both players' arms shut off with a series of electrical beeps that reverberated throughout the Ceremonial Chamber, leaving behind a tense silence no one dared to break.

Yuugi fell to the ground, head bent, shoulders shaking with sobs that leaked slowly out of him as he strained to keep himself supported on his hands. To keep from collapsing under the weight of the choice he had been forced to make.

The sound of his cries shattered Atem's stillness. He unhooked his Duel Disk, quietly crossing the dais as he dropped it and pocketed his deck. And when he made it to the other side, he smiled down on his partner's bent head, the satisfaction and pride he felt at the forefront of his mind. It overshadowed all other emotions swimming through him, emotions that could not be allowed expression, or even acknowledgement. For if he were honest with himself, truly honest, he would have rushed to him. Taken Yuugi in his arms and held him until his tears dried, rambled off desires and hopes and feelings that he had no place voicing.

Atem knew better than that. Knew there were some things that couldn't be shared.

Not when it would just hurt them both.

No, what mattered was quelling Yuugi's sorrow. So he stopped, and stood, just before his partner. Allowed softer feelings to reign, a smile to slowly form on his face as he broke the silence.

"You did it, aibou. You win."

The only answer was a hitch in Yuugi's sobs, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world for Atem to kneel. Touch a cloth-clad shoulder and tell Yuugi to stand, embrace his role as victor, the fact he could touch Yuugi a distant, screaming joy that Atem ignored.

It took some more urging, Atem reminding his partner of his strength, his kindness, but finally Yuugi met his gaze, and the desperation in those wild purple eyes tugged at the pharaoh's composure. But he covered his weakness by pulling the young man to his feet. By speaking with gratitude of Yuugi's constant courage and guidance, only a hint of everything else he ached to say slipped into his voice.

And, whatever showed, whatever Atem managed to hide, his words steadied Yuugi enough to speak through his tears. "Mou hitori no boku…"

"I am not 'the other you' anymore."

A sharp gasp escaped Yuugi as his gaze questioned him, the confusion swimming in his eyes warning Atem that he needed to make his point quickly, before his words were taken as rejection for all they shared, rather than acknowledgement of all he was.

"There is no other Yuugi than y–"

A bizarre sensation washed over Atem, and the words died on his tongue. And Yuugi felt it too, apparently, for he did not bat an eye when Atem fell silent and removed his hands. He looked just as confused as he was.

The feeling, it was not entirely unpleasant, nor unfamiliar. It felt faintly like… like a cool breeze, sneaking in to catch them unawares through the open door of another room. But there was no physicality to the sensation, and it was nothing like the mental brushes of contact Atem had known with Yuugi over the last two years. Those had always been warm, and this– this was cold. A chill through the soul, not the bones, and Atem was eerily reminded of the saying, someone walking over your grave.

Atem stared blindly at Yuugi, processing the sensation and trying to place it– until a collective gasp reminded him of their friends' presence. He looked to them, but none of the group were focused on him. And when Anzu pointed behind him, covering her mouth with her other hand, Atem turned to see– and stepped in front of Yuugi without thinking.

The door that should have stayed shut until he said his name was open.

It had unsealed itself without a sound, and what lay beyond prompted Atem to reach back and grab Yuugi's wrist, ready to pull him away in an instant.

He did not know what should be beyond that door, but everything inside of him screamed that that was not it! There was no welcoming light, no black shadows ready to claim his soul for the final time. There wasn't anything at all. It was an impossible, incomprehensible nothing, like the universe cut off right at the threshold of that door.

No color. No movement.

Nothing.

Just looking at it made that strange chill a hundred times worse, and when Yuugi tugged his hand free to grasp his hand properly, Atem turned to him. Looked him in the eye as he fought back his own alarm. "Aibou, get off the stage. Grab the Puzzle and–"

"I am not leaving you–"

Atem's demand and Yuugi's protest both died as a different voice reached their ears, and they turned together to stare at the nothing.

There was singing.

A voice was somehow coming out of that nothing, and it was singing.

And the song was soft, so very light. Feathery in its touch as it fell gently across them… and the fear in Atem's heart slowly seeped away. He relaxed out of the protective, alert stance he'd taken before his partner, and Yuugi moved, came to his side, the grip of their joined hands relaxing until only a twitch of movement might break the hold. And Atem didn't fix it. Didn't look at Yuugi, his eyes fixed ahead in search of the sound, expecting the source to appear. Anticipating it.

Why worry? What was the point of concern? Something that beautiful could only be divine, the voice of a god–

But a flicker of movement urged him to look away, so Atem did. He watched with untroubled eyes as Yuugi stepped forward. Stepped towards the door, a sheen of tears shining in his eyes.

The sight set off a warning in the pharaoh's heart, screaming to be heard, but the balm of music left everything a blur. He could not speak. He could only watch in mute, distant horror as the wrong one walked through the door.

Yuugi stepped through – stepped into nothing – and disappeared.

The music stopped.

The doors slid shut with a crash, cracks blasting across the stone from the impact.

And instantly sanity returned, only to collapse.

"What… what just happened?"

"Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"How would I know? Why'd that door open on its own? It's not supposed to do that, right?!"

"N-no! The gate was only supposed to open for the pharaoh when his name was–"

"Who cares about that?! What happened to Yuugi?!"

The cries, fighting, and fear echoing all around him didn't earn a single twitch from Atem. He remained where he was, frozen, staring at the door, waiting for it to open.

Waiting for Yuugi to answer him.

He called. He called over and over again, inside his head, as he had so many times before.

But every silent cry went unanswered. Yuugi couldn't hear him, and Atem couldn't hear Yuugi. The Puzzle was behind him, in the tablet, so their link was broken.

But even knowing that, the fact pulsed like an alarm inside his head.

Atem couldn't hear him.

"…Atem…"

Otogi cut off what he was about to say as Honda blanched at something over his shoulder, turning to follow his gaze.

A quiet word from Isis prompted her brothers to stop debating and fall silent.

Sugoroku placed a stalling hand on Anzu's arm, and she and Jounouchi looked.

"Atem… Atem… Atem."

Atem's back was to them, but they could hear the anger in the way he repeated his own name, over and over again.

The rising panic.

"Atem."

"Yuugi…"

"Atem!"

"Yuugi, it's not going to work! Just stop–"

Atem shrugged off Jounouchi's hand, not looking back. Refusing to take his glare off the faded stone eye as desperation pounded through his veins, making it impossible to feel it when he stepped forward and pounded against the door.

It didn't even move.

Honda stepped up to his other side, tried to grab his arm to stop him, but Atem ignored him. just as he ignored the pain. He managed only a couple more slams against the stone, though, before Honda and Jounouchi wrestled him away.

"Atem! Why won't it–"

"Yuugi!"

Jounouchi finally managed to grab his attention by stepping between him and the door and grabbing his shoulders, glaring down into his eyes through his own sorrow. "Stop it, Yuugi! He's gone! He's… he's gone."

Jounouchi broke with the words, wavering before the very truth he spoke until his grip on Atem went slack… and he fell. The pharaoh fell, toppling to his knees like a puppet cut from his strings. He was slumped over where he landed, a perfect, cruel mirror of his partner just moments ago, at the end of their duel.

He didn't get up.

The room fell quiet, some starting to cry, some frozen in shock, some just staring at the door, confused. And scared.

But none of them protested. No one tried to counter what Jounouchi claimed. While no one understood what had just happened, the collective belief felt undeniable.

Yuugi was gone.

And he had gone somewhere none of them could follow.

That blind truth choked them all, and left them mute… even when the pharaoh moved.

He fell further, arms shaking with failing support until his brow brushed the stone… and his breath hitched.

He slammed the ground, the weak hit barely catching anyone's attention– until he let out a scream to rip the soul.

In the shadows of the desert cliffs, someone shuffled a deck.

That someone stood alone, not far from the ceremonial site entrance, staring at the carved stairs leading down in the rocks as they shuffled their cards. Their movements were sharp, face tense, eyes anxious yet resigned, as though they feared something, yet already knew it would come to pass.

As though they were waiting.

The cries and crashes of a duel in progress had been heard echoing up the stairs for a while, but they soon faded away, leaving behind a silence… that was soon filled by a voice. A song that finally stopped the stranger's shuffling as their eyes dropped to the sands.

Eyes grey, and haunted.

Then the song stopped, and the person looked up again, uncertainty slowly rolling across their face as cries and yells echoed up the stairs.

"You– What are you doing here?"

The person whipped around, and they hid their deck behind their back as they looked in shock at Kaiba Seto and Mokuba. The two brothers stopped a few steps away, frowning with their own surprise. But before any of them could speak, another voice ripped through the silence.

A shattered voice.

"Aibou!"

The stranger dropped their cards.

Seto and Mokuba whipped around, staring in joint, confused alarm, but the stranger was frozen, dismay cracking across their face until there was nothing left but a quiet, knowing agony.

It was over.

The ceremony was over, and everything else had just begun.