Chapter Text

Meeting

Yami Yugi/Atem

You weren’t exactly planning on being sucked in here. It just…happened.

One minute you’re in your own dream, minding your own business and solving a mystery crime with a friend you knew back in the fourth grade, then the next instant you’re stumbling through a door and going into a very undignified heap on the cold stones of a very big room.

A room filled with ghouls and mummies.

Who all turned and looked at you.

And screamed.

You screamed right back.

The chase was immediate, groans and fallings echoing throughout the long hallways. Your feet slapped against the brown-gray stones, turning corners and opening doors, trying to find some way to escape or hide. But they always found you. Somehow, they always knew exactly where you were in this accursed place. Your breathing was steady, thankfully, but you could feel yourself growing tired. You ran for quite a while, never waking up, not even when you tried to wake yourself up.

Then you hit the dead end.

Not at the end of a hallway, but in a chamber, where a gigantic square hole laid in the middle. Stairs stood spiraled and hung sideways, upside down, even floating, in the gigantic, cavernous room. Your hallway lead to the only platform in the whole stupid room that lead to none of said stairs. Just the hole.

A scared sob escaped you as you turned to watch the mummies and ghouls advance on you. Their shrieks, their screams, echoed throughout the place. There was a hoard of them. Their sockets had small pinpricks of eerie light in them. Their mouths opened with stringy saliva hanging to their sharpened teeth.

Well, what else could you do?

You turned to the hole and got a running start. If this is a dream, you figure, falling to my death always wakes me up.

Two feet from the hole, a bright, golden light flashed behind you. A glance over the shoulder made you skid to a stop. The creatures were…gone. Just…poof! “What the heck…”

“Who are you?”

The voice made you jump, and you looked around frantically. A figure began emerging from the hallway you had run out of. Ah man, is this gonna be like the boss of monsters or something? Even though you shook in fear, you had to let a smirk come to your face from the thought. This was one weird dream, but it wouldn’t be the first where it turned into having some sort of video game element. Boss fight here I come.

But the figure that came into the light made any amusement drain from your body. A trickle of fear and dread pooled in your stomach, and you took a step back.

The spirit of the Pharaoh looked sharply at you, his eyes narrowed in caution. His fists were clenched, and you saw the faintest lines of an Egyptian Eye of Horus fading from his forehead. Then…he got rid of the monsters, you realized.

“I do not take lightly to intruders,” he stated. His voice was as deep as you remembered as a child, watching the show. “I will give you one chance to leave this place. You are not welcome here.”

Wow, so hospitable, you grumped. But any snark was forgotten as he took another step forward, and you took another step back. But your foot landed on nothing, only stale air and empty space. With a cry ringing out, you fell back into the dark void, hair flying over your face and turning, turning, turning. Falling.

You started awake in your bed.

Your heart continued to pound for minutes after, along with the echoing of another cry ringing out from your mind. One that was full of surprise. One that sent you shivering, vowing to never have caffeine before bed ever again.

Joey Wheeler

You wouldn’t say you were a trouble magnet, per se.

You just had some really bad luck some days. Other days, though, you had some good days! Really good days!

This wasn’t one of them.

“Get ‘er! Get ‘er!”

“No no no!” You yelled out, vaulting over a metal bench in the park and nearly slipping on the wet, dew stained grass. This morning had started out so well: you were on your way to class, got all your homework done, even got a new book from the library!

Then you decided to take a shortcut. Through an alleyway near the school. Which lead to somewhere you had never seen before. Which lead to you backtracking. Which then lead to you realizing that you didn’t know where that was either, as the alley had vanished. And then, somehow, in your panic, you had backed up and knocked over an entire train of motorcycles parked by the bar nearby.

Which lead to this situation.

The men’s grunts sounded nearer and nearer. In vain, you threw over your shoulder “I said I was sorry!” and you only heard more curses come your way. Breathe, you sounded, breathe in and out.

A hand snatched your arm.

You screamed as you were pulled behind a dumpster, but a hand slapped over your mouth quickly, your teeth clattering together from the force of it. Of course you started struggling, hitting your unknown assailant with as much vigor as you could muster.

“Shh! Shut up! I’m helpin’ ya out!” The boy grunted as you clipped his jaw, “Ow! Knock it off!”

“Emiguh!” you tried to say, licking his hand. He cried out in disgust, but pulled you closer and wrapped his arm around you to quiet you again.

The sound of heavy footfalls filled your ears suddenly. Reason came crawling back into your mind, and you stilled, clinging onto the white t-shirt the boy wore.

“Where’d she go?” a gruff man asked.

“Like I know? You idiot, you let ‘er get away!”

“I did not! ‘Ey Gerret, check out that alley.”

“Why do I gotta check the alley?”

A smack rang out, and you flinched at the sound. Gerret, you assumed, grumbled at his companion, and footsteps began coming closer to the dumpster. Your heart beat loudly in your ears. The boy that held you had stilled completely, and you faintly wondered if he’d been in situations like this before to know how to hide.

“Alright girly, where are ya?” Gerret muttered. His boots scuffed on the other side of the dumpster. “Seems a good place to hide, don’t ya think? If it weren’t so obvious, that is.”

I’m actually going to die today, you thought. Silently you cursed the boy for picking the back of a dumpster to hide in.

A boot hit the edge of the dumpster. “Uh,” the boy muttered, and you saw his eyes widen. He took a deep breath, and you squeaked when a loud yowl just came from the boy. He hissed and screeched, and kicked his foot against the metal. The gang member cursed and backed up.

“Stupid cat,” he muttered, then swaggered back down the alley. “’Ey, nothin’ but alley cats back here.”

“She musta gone further. C’mon, we’ll make her pay for those scratches to our bikes!”

Their steps faded away as they ran, and you two stayed in your cramped positions for a few more minutes, until the boy snorted. “Holy crap that worked…” he laughed, his laughing growing until you joined it, both of you curling as tears of amusement fell slowly down your cheeks.

Your sides hurt by the time you two stood up, him helping you out and taking a glance out to make sure the coast was clear. “Aw man, I really didn’t expect to hide from that gang today,” he smirked.

“Yeah, thanks for helping me.”

He turned and smiled and, finally, you got a good look at him. It took a moment to dawn on you, but when it did, the light seemed to go dark. “J…Joey? Wheeler?”

The blond’s smile brightened to blinding levels. “’Ey! You know me!” he gave a thumbs up and a smug look. “Tha one an’ only!” His smile faded, though, as he saw you backing away from him. “’Ey, it’s okay. I mean, I ain’t some wacky celeb, I promise.”

“Impossible…” you muttered, backing away more and more, back into the daylight, back from the alley. “That’s not…”

You stepped out of the alley. As you did, he vanished. And you were suddenly back on your street, the buildings of small shops glowing faintly in the dimmer weather. People passed, giving you strange looks as you stared down the empty alley, seeing the street on the other side you had meant to get to by going through it.

You picked up your bag and decided that the long way would always be the best way, and tried to completely forget about the incident. Because it didn’t happen. It couldn’t.

It was impossible.

Seto Kaiba

Gall, the line was so long.

You rolled your eyes and popped your gum. The poor barista girl behind the counter was sweating, having to run back, and forth, and back again, with no help today. This McDonald’s café was so understaffed. With how popular it is, you’d think the manager or owner would think of hiring a bit more help than the little teenager that there was. It was pathetic.

“Hey, you got my coffee wrong!”

Your eyes slid over to the huffing woman that strolled back up to the counter, cutting off the man that had been at the front of the line at that point. Ah, Hazel. The local jerk that any retail worker would dread seeing again. The broad wasn’t that old, but the chain of cigarettes she smoked every day sure made her look it. Hair in a tizzy and its owner even more so, you looked on sympathetically as Hazel’s morning tirade began. Poor sod. But you only rolled your eyes again. Now, it would take even longer for you to get your coffee. With a loud sigh, you stepped out of line and decided the McDonald’s a block or two down would just have to do today, even if it would make you late.

Half an hour later, you had a warm, steaming cup o’ joe in your hand, which you sipped happily on your walk to work. It was just bitter enough to keep you from being too cheery in the morning, but enough to get your eyes to widen and your ears to open up in the early morning. It was the caffeine hit that always made you feel better about being up at five. Any minute now, it would hit, and –

You choked on the coffee going down. A pleasant awareness split through you, but at the same instant, the world melted in front of you, giving way to a large office, with a huge row of windows, showing the glittering city below, and the wakening dawn in the distance. A man, tall and lanky, was standing in front of it all, hands clasped behind his back. You gurgled, then coughed. What in the world was –

“You’re lucky I don’t fire you where you stand. Three minutes late. I don’t tolerate lateness.” His voice was low, gravelly.

You only stood, shaking in sudden confusion. “What?” you uttered.

He suddenly swung around, and you were taken away by the blue of his eyes in the dawn’s growing light. His smile, however, was something to be desired. Scowling, and looking at you straight on, he continued his tirade. “Are you deaf? You’re late. I expect my coffee at five-thirty sharp.”

“I –“

“I don’t want to hear any excuses. You should know just by simple rumors that working here is a privilege that someone like you could only dream of.”

“Like me–?”

“One warning. That’s all you get new girl.”

Shock subsided to defiance. Who did this guy think he was? You didn’t even know him, and he dare speak to you like this? Looking at the Styrofoam cup in your hands, your nail idly tapped on it. A scheming idea formed in your head, and you smiled.

“Are you just gonna stand there and look pretty? Just put it on the desk already!”

“Oh, sweetheart,” you purred, and you felt satisfaction at the widening of his eyes, “I’m fabulous at looking pretty. But I’m not gonna just ‘stand here.’” One deft move, and the top of the cup was off, its contents suddenly pouring onto the very expensive looking carpet at your feet. The liquid burned your sandaled toes, but you didn’t care. No one told you what to do.

He just stood there, watching with a neutral expression as you finished off pouring the coffee, flicking the cup up and down to make sure it was all out. Smug, and feeling confident, you blinked at him. He blinked back, opened his mouth, and said: “You’re fired.”

A laugh hiccuped up from inside of you. “You can’t fire me if I never worked here!” You looked around, taking in the rest of the office. Paintings, dozens of plants – it was a good enough place. “Where is here anyway?”

He scoffed. “You’re telling me that you somehow slipped past every single one of my security measures, and you don’t even know where you are?” He paused. "You're dumber than you look."

You shrugged. The caffeine in your system was helping you to not have a melt down from suddenly appearing somewhere you hadn’t been. “Never said I was observant.”

His gait was hulking, he was tall, and you had to crane your neck to look him in the eye as he stood before you. “How did you get in here?”

It was then that a knock came to the doors behind you. “Mr. Kaiba, I apologize for being late, but – “ A slight woman stepped through, eyes widening behind round glasses, and mouth closing shut at the sight of you and your empty coffee cup before the man. In her hand was a much prettier cup made of porcelain, its contents steaming up and out. “Oh! Uh…”

“Kaiba?” You muttered. Kaiba, Kaiba…why was that familiar?

“Get security in here. We have an intruder.” He commanded.

The woman gasped, hurrying out. Some of the brown liquid sloshed into the air as she moved.

Hearing him step toward you, your first instinct was to duck and roll. The cup flew from your hand and harmlessly bonked off his head, but he growled all the same.

“Whoa, hey! Stop!”

He stalked forward, this Kaiba guy, surely intent on keeping you in place until security would be able to get to the office. If this guy was as powerful as you could imagine he was, that wouldn’t be too long. Holding up your hands, you took a step back. Then another.

A cold breeze hit your face, and your eyes popped open. The sidewalk stretched out before you, cars zooming by and people bumping into you, cursing or grumbling when you didn’t move out of the way for them. Your breath came out in a puff of white. Your hands were shaking from the little caffeine in you wearing off. What…?

You sighed. The fluttering of fear in your chest was present, and you felt the shock of what had happened settling in. Was that a…hallucination? Caffeine induced? You’d hate if it was caffeine induced. Not that it would stop you from having more, but…

But, maybe, today, you could go for some water instead. That sounded good.

Duke Devlin

Well, how it starts off: you’re clumsy.

Not in an, ‘oh, how cute, she tripped again!’ kind of way, and the whole school applauds for your basic cuteness in tripping over your two left feet (because, let’s face it, there’s nothing cute about falling flat on your face in front of the guy you like and making him trip over your body while doing so). No, this clumsiness was horrendous, caused by bad eyesight and worse reaction time.

Clumsy may as well be your middle name.

And that middle name is how you literally trip into his world.

A shoelace had been your undoing. You were in a hurry to get out of the house, and, like usual, you only slipped on your shoes, intending to tie them as soon as you were in the car while it warmed up from the wintry weather. Maybe it was the ice, now that you thought about it. Or both. Regardless, you went down.

Only the slightest ‘oof’ came from you as your head smacked into the snow. It poofed around you, little flakes landing on your face and in your eyes. It pricked your skin, and your teeth instantly began chattering. Why the heck did you live somewhere so cold?

“Whoa, you okay?” a man’s voice called.

Your hand shot up, waving and then sticking up a thumb to say yeah, I’m good. Grunting, you curled one leg under you, using your elbows to lift you up. This sucks. You grumped. Your leg slipped again on hidden ice, and your bum hit the ground.

Crunching of snow alerted you to a person. “Hey, you okay? That was a pretty gnarly wipe out.” A hand steadied your back, and you fought with vigor to get up quicker. “Here, I gotcha.”

Within seconds, you were up again. The snow was a bit deeper than you remembered it being yesterday, but it may have snowed last night. You weren’t sure. Brushing the snow out of your hair, you felt heat rising in your cheeks from embarrassment. Not even a minute outside, and you already had your first wipe out. You sighed through your nose. Why you?

“They really gotta put some salt around here. That guy over there just went down too.”

You jerked, suddenly remembering the guy beside you. You looked at him, and felt your face heat up more. Good night he was handsome. Black hair, and jealous green eyes, with a bit of eyeliner around them. You stared, and he smirked.

“Well,” he said, flicking up a hand to play with the dice earring dangling from his ear, “what’s a pretty think like you doing in the park today?” He winked, taking your hand. “Name’s Duke. Duke Devlin. You are?”

…

His smile fell, and he looked confused. Your eyes looked…scared. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

You snatched your hand away. Your breaths, steady before, became ragged, as his name, his face, registered in your brain. No. No way. You hit your head too hard this time. You knew you should have started wearing a helmet, or, or something with how bad your tripping was. This was too much. You must be concussed.

“Hey,” he snapped his fingers in front of your face, concern showing on his face. “You okay? Did you hit your head hard?”

Your hair flipped around with your hearty shaking. Not even a word was spoken, but you turned and fled. You had to get away.

“Hey,” he cried, “wait!”

Then you tripped.

Mouth full of snow again, you landed headlong on the ground. You coughed, having inhaled a bit of it on your way down, and again when you had landed. You were up again in an instant, because he could be there, he could be –

Your driveway was before you. Not a park, not…not Duke. Your car, still not on and still cold, sat sullenly in it. And in all honestly, you didn’t question it any. You were just glad that, whatever that was, had stopped. But you were scared now. That was…incredibly real. He felt real. And you decided, that it may be a better idea to go to the doctor to make sure your head was okay, than to the previous place you had been planning on.

Yami Bakura

It took longer than it should have to realize something was wrong with the hallway.

For starters: giant eyeballs staring at you? Not supposed to be there.

They were in the walls for crying out loud.

But your mind had been in a haze. Like something was pulling you, keeping you from realizing this hall wasn’t that dark when I came down here a minute ago, or the walls are oozing something black and sickly. No, no…you just went on your merry way, like a drugged up fool that didn’t know her right hand from her shoe.

Speaking of shoes.

My feet are cold, was a flitter of thought. The flitter started a thrum, then a flight.

Fight was nowhere to be seen. But you still flew like the devil himself was chasing you.

His laugh echoed behind you as he gave chase.

Out. Get out. You breathed through your nose, out through your mouth, arms pumping and slapping the walls that were getting closer and closer together. Minutes went by. Hours. Milliseconds, you weren’t sure. But, eventually, the walls ended at a point, and you bounced off the corner at full speed.

Stars exploded in your vision. One of them, brighter than the others, drew nearer, its points shaking, the eye in the middle glaring ominously. The devil laughed again. Its grin shone brightly in the star’s light. You curled into yourself. Your tongue was thick, mouth too dry to swallow or scream.

It -he -kneeled before you, his grin never faltering. “And how did you manage to get in here?” his musing tone was quiet. Calculating. Eyes the color of dying embers pierced your own. His hair, shaggy and white, gleamed in the light the ancient ring around his neck gave.

The…ring…

Childhood images flashed in your mind’s eye -a villain so determined, so cruel, to those you had looked up to on the show, who banished any who got in his way to the Shadow Realm. A Thief King, whose memories were ironically stolen from him upon his death and sealing. A man whose mind was so broken, no one could reach him.

“Bakura,” you uttered.

That one name collapsed his smug features to that of calm rage. His eyes flicked, back and forth, as if recalling something. “I do not believe we have ever met, and I know that my host is not well known either. So…that begs the question, as to how you know of me.”

Your teeth clicked together with how quickly you shut your mouth. Out. Get out! Your hands shook, clenching together and bringing them to your chest. He smirked, seeing the pure fear dripping off you.

“Don’t feel like talking, eh?” He chuckled. “Well, I have ways of making you talk. This is my realm, and I am the one in control.” His hand lifted up, splaying out in the air.

A wave of dark energy came out from his palm, and you screeched, feeling claws, fangs, teeth sink into your mind. They dug, trying to get to memories, greedy with the thoughts that flashed in you. It felt dirty, it felt wrong, it –

OUT! GET OUT!

You swung at him.

With a surprised cry, his head snapped to the side from your fist connecting with his cheek. Think. Quickly, think! You hopped over him, panicked cries escaping your lips. You needed to leave, escape. This place was dangerous. He was dangerous.

Run, run, run. It was how you coped. It was how you lived. It was the only thing standing between you and the maniac surely following you. Faster, you have to go faster!

Legs pumping, blood rushing, you sprinted down the long, dark corridor. His laugh followed you, sweeping up your back and making you falter. The eyes. Gods, the eyes on the walls moved and stared as you flew by them. Dead eyes. Hungry eyes. One last push, you had to get out somehow. One last –!

The world exploded before you. There was suddenly sky, and grass, and the red track you now remember being on before…that. You crashed into a hurdle right in front of you. It threw you forward, and you collided with the ground. Skin was torn from your hand, your knee. Your body rolled, turning on the hard plastic of the track, making you hiss from the pain shooting up everywhere. When you finally stopped, the bright, blue, eyeless sky was stretched up before you, with clouds rolling on, looking lazily down at you as they went.

You were out.

You were…out.

A sob broke from your mouth. What in the nine hells was that? Why…no. No, you weren’t going to think about it anymore. Sniffing from your nose, you rolled yourself up slowly, and got back to your feet. Your exercise clothes were filthy, your shoes were missing, and a few small holes were in your shirt from your tumble. But it didn’t matter. You were safe again.

Safe.