Author's Note: These prompts won't revolve around any one pairing—some may not even have a pairing at all—but I'm just trying to strengthen my skills when it comes to writing YGO stories. I say that, but I'm quite certain I'll be writing a lot about Yugi and Yami, that's why they're the main characters even if this first prompt isn't about them, 'cause I'll ship it until the world stops turning (Fan-girl coming through; I apologize in advance. We're not exactly the tamest of sorts.) I'll try to update this at least once a week. Not sure how long it'll last, but I think it'll go a good bit. I'm still learning how to do this fandom justice with the writing stuff, so please bear with me :)

This first one is about Ryou and Bakura. Maybe pre-tendershipping if you squint hard enough.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! and I most likely never will.

001 – Destroy

From the inside out, Ryou could feel himself being altered, corrupted.

There was always that voice in his head, that rough, vicious snarl that filled his heart with so many vile, malicious feelings, deep-set feelings of hatred and rage that weren't his own. He had nothing against Yugi and the Pharaoh, had actually believed at one point that they could be friends, but the spirit wouldn't stand for that.

The spirit of the Millennium Ring terrified Ryou sometimes with the force of his hatred, the fierceness with which he communicated his thoughts to Ryou. No, that's not it. It wasn't communication exactly. The spirit forced Ryou to listen, practically wrestled with his mind and very essence to get him to submit.

Ryou hardly ever talked to the spirit, tried not to acknowledge his presence if he could help it, but he sometimes found himself intrigued by the spirit dwelling within his body. Ryou was kind-hearted, much too aware of others' pain, and even if the entity within his Ring was evil, he couldn't have always been that way. Something must have happened to him to make him like that, so bitter and hateful. He was aware that the Pharaoh was involved somehow—how could one man hate another so much, anyways?—but Ryou refused to judge the spirit within Yugi's own Millennium Item.

He'd met him before, that man that looked so much like Yugi, but he'd tried his hardest to keep a somewhat safe distance away. The spirit didn't like it, and with all the pain the entity had obviously suffered, Ryou was reluctant to be the cause of more, even if the spirit within the Millennium Ring took over his body on a regular basis.

His influence was a heavy one. Ryou became angry at the most bizarre times, had odd and frightening thoughts about he would do to Yugi if ever alone with the amethyst-eyed teen. But Ryou knew with every fiber of his being that these thoughts were not his own, and it tore him apart inside when Yugi looked at him with so much trust when the white-haired boy carried within him a being that only wished to do Yugi harm. Ryou could tell the Pharaoh was weary of him. He also realized it was sometimes hard for the others to distinguish him from his "Other Self," as Yugi called his spirit.

But didn't they know that Ryou wasn't like that, that he would never, ever wish harm upon them? He wasn't the one that had trapped them inside their favorite monster cards—he himself had been stuck inside Change of Heart. He'd never been an angry person, had let people walk all over him growing up, so why did no one find it suspicious that he was acting strange? It was the Pharaoh who'd had to point it out the first time. Ryou found himself feeling angry, furious even, that Yugi and the others couldn't decipher him from an evil spirit gallivanting around in his body, but as soon as the emotion had registered, his heart stopped.

The spirit laughed in his head.

"Fight it all you want, Landlord, but you and I aren't as different as you would like to believe."

It tore Ryou apart.