Thank you for the reviews! This is the final chapter for this story. I hoped you enjoyed the journey! Stay alert for the followings weeks, there may just be a sequel popping up around my profile.

Reborn

Chapter Fourteen

Bakura snickered, removing his hand and pushing Ryou foreword as he slung the bag of gold he had collected over his shoulder and grinned, tapping the white-haired teen on the nose. "Don't sound so surprised, it ruins the effect," he smirked.

Ryou gaped before his brows knotted together in an enraged expression and he swung the book in a protective hug to his chest to the opposite direction of the thief. "Just what the hell are you doing here?" he said harshly.

Bakura snorted, playing with a golden token between his fingers. "I'm here to help, what does it look like, idiot," he mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Ryou blinked twice, the expression of anger quickly melting away and replaced by one of complete confusion. Did he just hear right? Bakura wanted to help?

"WHY?" he suddenly shouted, twirling around to face him.

"Well why are you YELLING?" Bakura barked, pretending to cover his ears in a fake pout.

"RYOU!" Yugi's voice came from behind and both men looked over to see him and Yami dodge a strike from one of Atemu's shadow creature's.

Ryou gasped again, shoving the book in Bakura's hands and pointing, "I need to figure of this last symbol!"

"Uh. . ." Bakura drawled, "and you want me to do what?"

"Uh. . ." Ryou mimicked, "what does it look like? Help!"

The thief leaned over, re-reading what Ryou was as his eyes scanned, before coming to the last part. "IT LOOKS LIKE A RAT WITH WINGS!" Bakura cried out, looking over to Yugi and Yami with a completely serious expression.

The two of them, including Ryou, froze for a moment before Yami cried, "WHAT?"

"IT LOOKS LIKE A STORK!" Ryou's voice cut in. He removed the book from Bakura's hands and double checked before looking up to Yugi once more.

Yugi had turned away from the two to distract a Feral Imp from pouncing on Yami. The Imp squealed, reaching out and slashing with its exposed claws, narrowly missing Yugi as he pushed Yami out of the way.

"IT'S AHMENOPHUS!" Yugi said, running over to Yami.

In the middle of the leap he had dared a glance over to Atemu and instantly regretted it. The Pharaoh was watching him with a devastated expression, eyes glazed over in rage as they landed on Yami, but burning with desire when swept over to Yugi. The second passed and when Yugi landed in Yami's embrace, his heart wretched, for the three of them.

"Go back with Ryou," Yami whispered quickly in Yugi's ear, before pushing him away from himself and kicking at a small shadow creature. Yugi tried to cling on, but stumbled and almost lost his balance into the river. Once he had steadied himself, Yami was already closer to Atemu then Mahad.

"Hootash im Ahmenophus!" Ryou recited, both him and Bakura looking over simultaneously to Atemu.

A great shudder went down the spines of every monster and Atemu had frozen, his eyes widening in horror as he turned on his shadows.

"Destroy him!" Atemu commanded, pointing to Yami who stood motionless as well a few feet from the scene, Mahad appearing by his side. The monsters remained still, but their eyes blinked in confusion at the mummy's order.

"I command you to destroy him!" Atemu said, his voice rising as fierce anger pulsed through him. The tomb had taken to an eerie silence as nothing but labored breathing could be heard from everyone. Yugi was frozen, looking miserably at Atemu.

"Fa-Kooshka Atemu!" Ryou commanded.

Once again, time had slowed down for Yugi. He was watching, far away from his body, as Ryou's words seemed to slice through his very core like venom. No. No. NO! His mind screamed, over and over again, but he was powerless to stop. The scene before him took place in slow motion and a great ache began to swell in his soul as the first blow to the Pharaoh was thrown.

Atemu was engulfed in his shadows, fierce cries from all of them echoing in the tomb. Something tore in Yugi's soul, something deep within that he had never known existed before. Was it Heba?

He didn't know how much time had passed. It could have been minutes, hours, weeks, years. . .

"I thought they were supposed to kill him," Bakura's voice, watching as the cloud of blackness that had descended upon the Pharaoh lifted and he lay there on his knees, clutching his chest.

What? Yugi awoke from his stupor immediately, gaze instantly flying over to the Pharaoh. He. . .he was still alive? But how could that be? It made no sense, Ryou had ordered the command to kill him. So why was he still there?

Yami had the same thoughts racing through his mind as well. He had remained motionless the whole time and now he felt he was glued to his spot. The scene of the shadow creature's engulfing the Pharaoh had seemed impossible to survive. There was no way out and he hadn't seen Atemu fight back in any way. Distracted, he looked to Mahad and his gaze widened. The magician face was set in stone, hard.

"He is mortal now," Mahad spoke and Yami's head snapped up in shock.

Mortal? But wasn't the incantation supposed to destroy his soul? Ryou must have read it wrong, for he knew that it was impossible for Atemu to still be alive if his soul was gone. Nothing could save him, not even his shadows powers or the Millennium Puzzle.

"YAMI!" Yugi's voice penetrated his thoughts and left anything he had came up with unsaid as Atemu screamed, rising to his feet and thrusting the golden spear that had been lying near him.

Yami lunged, jumping to the side just in time to avoid being skewered. His thoughts were racing frantically, but as he shot Yugi a look filled with mixed emotions, he saw the boy's eyes widen in horror and it dawned on him that a powerful force was constricting his throat.

Eyes of fiery crimson locked with their twin and Yami chocked as Atemu sneered, "Now," the Prince said, "it is your turn."

Mass hysteria erupted inside of Yugi's mind as his blood pounded in his ears, feet begging to move forward to help Yami as he was being literally strangled to death. As his adrenaline soared through his veins, he sprang, but only to be detained by a strong grip. His gaze shot up to Mahad, who was restraining him slightly.

"No," the magician said, "look."

Yugi's terrified gaze returned to the two before them and he blinked, this time in confusion. Yami was gasping, hands going up to his throat and fingering at the red lines that adorned it. However, Atemu had remained where he was, but his expression had changed greatly. Instead of the cold, feral glint his eyes had contained moments before they now were wide, matching Yugi's in confusion.

A sudden sharp pang shot through the teen and Yugi gasped, instantly clutching at his abdomen where the pain had came from. He groaned, looking down and expecting to see some sort of wound, but when he removed his hands, no blood was present and there appeared not to be any sort of obvious wound. His head snapped up, looking over to Atemu. He didn't understand.

The Prince was performing the same actions as he had been; hands placed over his lower abdomen with a pained expression entering his still confused stare. When Yugi looked closer, he paled. Atemu's hands were becoming soaked with fresh, ruby blood. With a stuttering gasp, he teetered backwards.

"NO!" Yugi cried out, throwing Mahad's arm off him and running foreword, but instead of being stopped by the magician again a different set of arms encircled him.

"ATEMU!" Yugi screamed, struggling in Yami's embrace. His hand reached out to the farthest point, fingers determined to grasp the other's.

No! No! No! He moaned, only it wasn't him grieving, it was Heba. Heba was reaching out, trying to hold onto his lover. Not Yugi's. His. Heba's.

The Prince hadn't a chance of grabbing onto the boy's hand however, as he neared the edge of the darkened river. He stumbled back into it, still in shock from the wound he had received.

"Atemu. . ." Yugi gasped, but he had stopped struggling. Instead, he turned his head, and sobbed into Yami's chest. He wasn't crying for himself, he was crying for Heba.

"He. . .ba. . ." the Prince gasped, before with a fierce shudder, locked eyes with Yami. In the few seconds that passed before he sank into the black water, Atemu spoke, his words becoming muffled as his body was engulfed.

A strange shifting occurred in Yugi in the Prince's final moments. As he vanished, something inside the boy snapped, like a branch torn from the trunk of a tree. Only one string of whatever had just fallen was left, left to float and wither in the lonely breeze.

"Death," Yugi mumbled against Yami's chest, causing the man to look to him, "is only the beginning."

A great rumbling occurred then, the entire tomb moaned, a giant tremor running through the whole place. Ryou and Bakura stiffened, before bolting, as Yugi and Yami followed close behind.

"What's. . .happening?" Bakura asked, throwing his head back to Yami. The Egyptian met his gaze just as he reached for Yugi's hand, pulling him along faster at his side.

"It's collapsing," Yami said, narrowly missing being pelted by a boulder from the ceiling.

Ryou was the leader out of all of them, his grip tight on the golden book in his arms as he ran. He had just about reached the beginning of the tunnel when, without warning, he suddenly lost his footing and came crashing down to the ground, the Book of Amun-Ra sliding from his grasp and into the waters of the Nile below.

"You lost the book!" Yugi shouted, throwing himself down to try and stop it. He landed right on the edge of the ground, fingers just breaking through the surface.

"Yugi, there's no time!" Yami said, reaching down and conjoining their hands together again as he pulled the boy up and into the tunnel with him.

They tore through the tomb, racing as fast as they could through the sand and rubble. Once they entered the treasure room Yami swore, watching in terror as the doors that had been unnoticed before were now indeed very noticeable as they were going down, beginning to seal their only way out. Yami cursed, tightening his hold on Yugi's hand immensely before throwing himself into the tunnel, Ryou following right behind.

"SENNEN!" Bakura's voice shrilled out from behind and the Egyptian turned to see him just climbing the steps to the rapidly closing door. "WAIT FOR ME, DAMNIT!"

Yami froze, thinking it over only half a second before turning around and reaching out his hand.

"Hurry the hell up, Bakura!" he grunted, becoming increasingly nervous as the door neared the ground. However, Bakura's fingers touched his palm and he heaved, yanking the thief to him with great force and into the room, just as the door thundered shut.

"You. . .you. . .saved me," Bakura said, not believing what had just happened. Yami gave a court nod, but did not ponder any more on his gesture or Bakura's reaction as he scrambled to his feet, already running out with Yugi and Ryou beside him.

The sun beat down on them like dogs as they jogged away, the great coliseums collapsing at their feet as they narrowly escaped being squashed multiple times. Yugi had just dodged a second pillar when he gasped, feeling the sand beneath his feet give away the moment they were placed upon it.

A terrible roar filled with desert and the four men screamed, feeling the wind increase as a giant tornado of sorts began forming behind them.

"KEEP RUNNING!" Yami commanded, not daring to look back as he pushed on, never letting Yugi's hand slip from his own. The roar sounded again, echoing now in the vast emptiness of the place. Their camels mewled, frightened, as they ran ahead of them. Ryou gasped, looking back when they had all finally reached a semi safe distance and the sand was no longer collapsing beneath their feet.

A great, humongous cloud of sand and dust burst from the tomb, filling the entire sky with it. The four of them starred, transfixed by the site. Just as the sand parted, finally allowing plain view into the desecrated tomb, Ryou let loose a blood curtailing yell.

Malik laughed, throwing back his head as the boy placed a hand over his heart, stumbling backwards.

"Thank you, thank you very much!" Ryou gasped, falling to the ground with an exhausted sigh.

The Tomb Keeper finally got back control, now smiling genuinely to the four of them. "You've earned the respect and gratitude of me and my family, more so my sister and I."

Bakura rolled his eyes, waving his hand, "Yeah, it was nothing."

"May Ra smile upon you, always," Malik said, looking to Yami. The two held their stares for no more than a few seconds, but no words needed to be said. They understood immediately. With one last nod in their direction, Malik heaved the reigns of his horse before riding off into the desert.

"WHAT?" Bakura gapped, gesturing with his arms to the sight, "He's just going to leave us here?"

Ryou watched him go off as well, "Appears that way."

The two locked gazes and Bakura scowled, kicking at the ground. "And I guess we're going back empty handed, again!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Just like old times, eh, Yami?" he growled, crossing his arms and sighing, just as Malik disappeared from view.

However, Yami didn't seem to be listening. His eyes were trained on Yugi, who had been watching the Tomb Keeper take off silently the entire time as well.

"I wouldn't say that," he said and Yugi turned to finally meet his gaze.

He was hesitant, but only for a moment. Once Yugi's soft lips brushed against his own, he smiled, leaning into the kiss and applying pressure to his own. In turn, he felt Yugi smile and lean in as well, the boy's arms going up to wrap around his neck.

"Oh, please," Bakura and Ryou both muttered, rolling their eyes. They both stalked off to attend to the camels, but Bakura couldn't help to notice the flush that was creeping down Ryou's neck as he cast him a side glance.

Yugi laughed silently as Yami ended the kiss, rubbing his nose against his own. He sighed, melting into Yami's embrace as he placed a gentle kiss against his forehead. He would have to face what had happened soon, he'd have to decide what to do, how to look at it, and most importantly, how to move on from it. But right now, he didn't want to concentrate on anything else other then what was in front of him right now.

And, well, Yami wasn't a bad place to start. . .

The End