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After Battle City, the Pharaoh had thought of little else except the god cards and his memorial tablet. What happened after he presented those cards to the tablet, he didn't know, but that didn't stop him from imagining several scenarios. He knew Yuugi had several ideas too, and it had caused him to break into spontaneous bits of laughter, glancing over at the Pharaoh and croaking out, "What if you get your own body, other me? What would we do?"
They didn't dwell too long on those thoughts, as neither wanted to get their hopes up. Yuugi didn't tell his friends, either, and the Pharaoh had already decided that he (well, Yuugi, too, because there was no other way) would go alone to the museum. Whatever happened would happen, but he needed to do this on his own. Their friends had been hurt too many times in the quest for his identity. Not this time.
He and Yuugi were set to go to the museum the following afternoon, and they hadn't talked for most of the day, both lost to their own thoughts. The Pharaoh had left Yuugi when it was time for bed, going to his throne room inside the puzzle and settling in for a night of meditation. It was easier than thinking, and resting insured he would be in top form for whatever was to come. He closed his eyes and, with the steady rhythm of Yuugi's heartbeat, began to fade away into the blue sea of the puzzle, losing his form and consciousness...
Until a horrible, gut-wrenching, piercing scream threw him from his seat, followed by pain like he had never known, like a thousand shadows tearing into him all at once. He laid on the ground, withering in agony as the voice screamed over and over. He couldn't think; he couldn't breathe. It washed over him like a wave, pinning him to the floor, shattering his soul.
And as quickly as it had come, it was gone.
The first thing he did was gasp for air as his vision swam back into focus and his senses feebly stirred. He reached out to feel for Yuugi, and jerked back when he felt the echoes of the same pain come off his partner. Something triggered deep inside of him — almost primordial — and he filled with rage: Yuugi was hurt. His partner was in pain. He blazed forward, losing his form as he raced through Yuugi's mind and body, ready to fight, ready to kill—
"Other me!" Yuugi cried, and the Pharaoh collided into a wall, sending him flying back. It was a mental block he didn't even know existed, something that physically cut him off from Yuugi. He only briefly had time to wonder about its origins before he took the alternate route and appeared beside Yuugi. He took everything in in a single glance — Yuugi on the bed next to the puzzle, the god cards lost in a crumple of sheets, the Millennium rod on the desk, the Millennium tauk on the floor — tension making magic ripple up and down his form. Though he couldn't see the immediate danger, he didn't like this. Yuugi, the Millennium items and god cards were too exposed, and the Pharaoh had learned not to like the fact that the person and possessions he cared about most in the world were always so open to attack. He called on the puzzle to protect them and had already thought of a dozen penalty games when Yuugi croaked out, "O-Other m-me..."
He looked at his partner and noticed Yuugi was clutching his face with one hand while the other was reaching out for him. It didn't even take a step before he grasped Yuugi's hand, reaffirming their bond and linking their minds together so he could see what happened. There were flashes of memory — Yuugi curled up in bed, fingers tracing over the puzzle before he picked up the tauk; then vivid green light encompassing everything around them and the scream, the pain—
He had to jerk away. "The tauk showed you a vision?" he snapped, and Yuugi lowered his hand from his face. He was panting for air as he shook his head, reaching for the puzzle
"I don't know," he mumbled and the Pharaoh felt a flash of anger. It wasn't directed at Yuugi, but he couldn't stop himself from snapping at him again.
"It showed you something! What did it show you?" Whatever it had been had caused such agony and the vision of that light— What was that light? When Yuugi didn't answer, his eyes wide and lost and staring into the distance, the Pharaoh snapped again. "Partner!"
"I don't know!" Yuugi sobbed, and his voice caused the Pharaoh to snap out of his rage and properly, properly, look at him. Yuugi was cradling the puzzle like a baby, all the while shaking madly, his eyes filled with tears. The Pharaoh could sense his pain, and his anger left him for the intrinsic drive to comfort and protect his partner, no matter what.
He pushed onto the bed, quickly pulling Yuugi into his arms, sending waves of comfort through him. Yuugi curled around him, breathing heavily as his heart slowed and his grip on the puzzle loosened. It took several moments, but Yuugi eventually pulled away, mumbling that he was okay. He had calmed, but his expression was serious, and the Pharaoh could sense that he was thinking about what he saw. He had calmed as well, so he gently pressed him for answers, pushing their foreheads together.
"What did you see, Partner?" he asked, but Yuugi only shook his head, lowering the puzzle back into his lap and holding it with both hands.
"I don't know," he replied, tracing his thumbs along the side of the puzzle. His eyes focused on the Pharaoh's and he frowned. "I saw that light. That green light. But everything else was all jumbled together."
The Pharaoh saw glimpses of it, seeing crystals and dragons and that green light, everywhere. But like Yuugi had said, it was brief, gone before he could make any sense of it. But if it came from the tauk, that meant it was the future, their future. "Do you think it has to do with my memories?"
Yuugi looked horrified, and in brief flashes of green light, the Pharaoh could hear the echoes of the scream and the faintest ripples of the pain. Yuugi shivered and the Pharaoh seethed again. Whatever it was, how dare it. Whatever it was, the Pharaoh would never let it hurt them.
After all, he had the advantage now. The tauk had warned him and now he knew it was coming, that nameless evil, it would feel the full force of his wrath for even attempting it. He had the puzzle, the Millennium items and the god cards. He was unbeatable.
The Pharaoh met Yuugi's gaze to affirm this, and his partner's lips twitched toward a smile as he nodded. "I know," he whispered, and the Pharaoh smirked again.
Whatever it was, let it try.
The desert was endless hills of brown and blue and ancient dust, and the nameless man collapsed to his knees, screaming in agony as the pain ripped through him.
"Partner!"
There was a gaping chasm in the place where Yuugi's soul had once been. Pages from books fluttered around in the wind; toys dangled precariously from the edges of broken bricked walls. There was a blood-stained star-printed blanket caught on a bamboo tree that had once been in the corner of the soul room, and it flapped around in the wind like a flag. The bamboo was brown and shriveled, all its leaves gone. The door to Yuugi's soul room, which had always been open to anyone who entered his heart, stood closed.
Not that it mattered — everything around it was gone. The Orichalcos had seen to that.
The spirit stood in front of the door, focusing on it so he didn't have to see the destruction all around him. The puzzle was a dead weight around his neck and cold in his hands, its warmth gone along with the piece of his heart that was called Yuugi Mutou. A gust of wind came, and one of the toys lost its battle with gravity and slid away, falling into the darkness below. The spirit swallowed painfully, his vision blurring together as tears filled his eyes.
Around him, there were voices in the wind, but none he wanted to hear because they weren't his partner's. It didn't matter, though; this was hell, and there was no escaping from things he didn't like anymore.
"You have to snap him out of it, Anzu."
"Why me?"
"Because— b-because you're a girl! And girls are good with emotions and crap!"
"What! That's idiotic, Honda, and and— Ugh! Jounouchi, you go talk to him."
"I ain't saying anything to 'im."
"Jounouchi!"
"Leave him be, Anzu. It's gotta' be you."
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because I don't want to talk to him either! You're the one that likes him, aren't you? Go talk to him!"
The spirit flinched. And the sensation of that — the way Yuugi's head jerked, his eyes closed, his lips lifted — brought him straight back to reality. Goosebumps exploded on Yuugi's arms and his body shook violently, as if it was trying to throw the spirit out. Perhaps it was, the spirit thought wildly. Yuugi's body had always allowed his soul to take over when he needed to — to become one with him — but it had always been at Yuugi's permission. Without him, Yuugi's body was revolting.
His vision began to swim and Yuugi's heart pounded as his throat closed up. The Pharaoh was blind and mute, a churning wave of nausea threatened to bring up everything Yuugi had managed to eat that morning. With that feeling, came memories.
"Darling! I have to cook for you! Sit, sit!"
"T-Thank you, Rebecca."
"Don't thank me, Darling! I've been doing research; I have to be a good cook to be a good wife, right?"
"U-uhhhhh..." Oh, shoot, did she just say she wanted to be my wife?
Yuugi had looked over at him, because he was asking him, but the spirit hadn't been paying attention. His mind was elsewhere, on the Orchialcos, on his duty, his destiny. Why did he care if Yuugi was dealing with a marriage proposal over his all-American breakfast?
But now Yuugi would never have to deal with a marriage proposal, or the slightly unwanted but "let's-not-hurt-her-feelings" attention of a little girl, or his all-American breakfast because he was gone. He was gone and he was never coming back, and the puzzle would just be a lifeless weight around his neck and his soul room would just be one massive maze with a gaping hole in it, just like the hole in the spirit's heart named YuugiMutoupartnerIloveyoudon'tleavemepleaseforgiveme.
"P-Partner," the spirit sobbed, feeling tears slip down Yuugi's cheek. He wondered, for a brief moment, if it was truly him crying, or if it was Yuugi's body mourning his lost soul. He was filled with the intense desire to search for Yuugi again and he clutched the puzzle to feel, for the thousandth time, if his partner was in there, somewhere...
There was nothing.
Suddenly, he couldn't breathe. Yuugi's lungs stopped working and dark circles began appearing and popping in front of his eyes. The spirit knew Yuugi's body was furious now and pushing back full force, trying to suffocate him out. He felt a stab of panic, but he couldn't leave Yuugi's body. Without a soul in it, it would just be a corpse on life support. Without a soul in it, it would just be Yuugi's dead eyes, his blue lips, blood oozing from under him and the spirit was screaming, screaming, screaming—
"Yuugi!"
There was a blur of pain to his back, and the spirit gasped. Yuugi's body relented and his lungs filled with oxygen. His back throbbed as he breathed, a hand rubbing circles against his chest while a voice hissed, "Geez, Yuugi, breathe. Breathe."
His vision swam back into focus and he could see Anzu kneeling down beside him, clutching Yuugi's hand in hers. There were tears in her eyes, and the spirit couldn't look at them without feeling the urge to throw up violently. His eyes jerked away, to Honda beside him, ordering him to breathe, and then to Jounouchi, glaring murderously at him, the accusation in his eyes and in his fists. You took my best friend from me.
"I'm sorry," he said to Jounouchi, and then Yuugi's stomach lurched violently. There was no stopping it this time, and the spirit heaved, feet scraping against the floor as Yuugi's body jerked. Honda clutched his shoulders; Anzu backed away. The spirit was at least thankful for that as fire ripped up his throat and out in a rush of sickly-sweet bile and half-digested food.
"Shit," Honda cursed as Yuugi's body shuddered madly in his hands. Anzu sobbed something and got up, while Jounouchi turned away. The spirit had no strength to do anything but lay there, feeling his head roll back against Honda's shoulder. His vision began to darken and the spirit welcomed it with open arms, his eyes sliding closed.
There was nothing else in this world without Yuugi in it.