After the Light

See part one for details.

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"Yugi?" his sister's voice softly brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh…yeah…sure." He tried to be perky.

She frowned. "What's wrong Yugi? You look miserable." Her eyes flashed. "Is someone hurting you again?"

He blinked. "No, no one's hurting me…just…" he trailed off and fixated his attention to his shoes. Ryou looked to Yugi with understanding and his eyes glittered with moisture as he hid his face beneath his hair and looked down as well.

"We lost someone dear to us all, but especially close to Yugi," Isis' calming voice sounded in the mournful silence.

Maeve hugged her little brother close feelingeep eep hurt growing in her own heart that he would experience such grief as losing a friend so young. "Oh Yugi, I'm so sorry, who was it?" she rubbed his back soothingly as his eyes glittered with fresh tears.

"M-m-my Yami's gone Maeve!" he buried his face into her chest and began to sob.

"What do you mean your Yami's gone?" She asked baffled.

"Well…I know this is kinda hard ta believe, but ya see, Yuug had this puzzle…an' there was dis spirit that lived in it and…I sound stupid." Joey muttered.

"Nice to see you finally admit it Pup." Seto smirked. To which Joey bawled up his fists and was about to snap back.

"No, no, I understand the millennium items and the spirits, and no you don't sound stupid Joey, it makes sense. What I don't understand is how Yami can be gone…he's a spirit…they tend to stick around." She shot a dark look in the direction her friends had gone and when her eyes came back she noted that Yugi was not wearing his favorite accessory as he had been in all the recent photos he had sent her. "Wait, did someone take the puzzle?"

"You mean, you know about Yami…?" Honda asked dumbfounded.

Yugi shook his head with a sniffle. "No, it's gone too. It went after he did…he's gone Maeve…he went through the gate of the dead…he's gone." Yugi whispered as tears slid down his face.

"Yes, I know about…what was the Pharaoh's name after all? Yugi tells me most things over our weekly phone conversations and regular es yos you know. I even spoke to Yami on the phone once..." Maeve gently hugged her brother closer.

"Atemu." Yugi mumbled sadly. "Atemu's gone…"

"Oh Yugi," she whispered resting her head in his hair. "It's ok to cry…it's ok…it's best this way…it's over for him…he had to go and he's where he's at peace now…as long as you keep his memory in your heart love, you can keep what you shared alive. I know it hurts to see them go…I know you miss him…I know it hurts…it's ok. Shhh," she hushed him as his tears fell and he held onto her sobbing. Their grandfather stepped up and wrapped his arms around them both comfortingly. A hiccup to her left alerted her to another in grief. Looking up she released one arm from Yugi and extended it to the albino boy trying not to draw attention to himself behind the others. "C'mere Ryou…it's ok." At first he stayed back, afraid to come forward and show his tears. "Ryou, you're my brother's friend, and from what I know, I know yoe fee feeling a loss of your own too…come over…it's ok." At last he came over and burst into tears, gratefully joining in the Mutou hug. "Oh, all of you, get over here. Group hug!" Maeve cried out pulling an unpleasantly surprised Seto into the embrace that pulled in Mokuba. Joey, Honda and Anzu were not far behind. Duke dragged in Malik and Isis. The hug lasted for several long minutes until as a group they found they could no longer stand being this close to one anothere wee were more adamant about that than others were. With that the hug pulled apart with Ryou and Yugi sniffing as their tears eased up.

Honda was squirming with a pained expression on his features.

"What's wrong Honda?" Anzu asked as she noticed his odd behavior.

"Oh...er…it's nothing." He mumbled.

"He still has diarrhea," Joey stated loudly.

"Joey!" Honda punched him in arm.arm.

"Wha? You do!" he yelled defensively.

"Fine! But you don't have to announce it!" Honda shouted. "Duke, I need the key to the room, please?"

"No, last time I gave it to you, you lost it." Duke retorted crossing his arms against his chest.

"Well, I need to go!"

"I'm not giving you the key to the room again!"

"Fine, then you'll come with me!" Honda grabbed a protesting Duke's arm and started to haul him away. "We'll catch up with you guys later!" "Oh "Oh brother, I think I should go with them and make sure they don't get into any trouble." Anzu muttered as she began to follow them.

"Seto, I'm hungry," Mokuba yawned.

Anzu paused, "come with me then Mokuba, we can get you something at the hotel…plus you can keep me company."

"Ok." Mokuba ran over and took Anzu's hand and they rushed off after Duke and Honda who could still be heard arguing.

"If anything happens to him, I'll kill you!" Seto bellowed after them.

"Oy Seto, lighten up a lil will ya?" Joey bitched.

Seto only glanced coldly at him, "Stop nagging, pup."

Joey was about to explode when Malik's voice interrupted. "Hey, Maeve, how come you're not surprised about Yami? Most people wouldn't believe or accept it so easily."

"Yeah, he's still in denial," Joey pointed to Seto.

"Stop trying to keep up with the conversation Joey, your brain will burn out." The CEO smoothly replied.

Maeve gestured to Joey and then to Seto as she spoke, "if hea doa dog…I guess that one's the bitch, how cute." Maeve smiled.

Both Joey and Seto turned to look at her and fumed.

"I ain't no dog! Yuug's sis or no, I ought deck ya!" Joey shouted.

"I can make your pathetic life a living hell if you show me such disrespect again woman." Seto growled.

"…and both are in heat, lovely." She waved off the threats. "Joey, if you hit me I will hit back and you don't want that, Seto I've seen Hell and trust me, you can't match it. Plus Joey is right, you need to have someone fish that post out of your ass and lighten up. And as for your question Malik, the reason I'm so accepting of the possibility of a spirit from the past living in an item is because I've done it…a number of times." She paused. "And not as in I'm a spirit living in an item…as in I've put spirits in items…though technically I've only done it that way once…usually I'm taking them out of items and letting them go."

Joey, Malik, Isis, Seto, and Ryou stared at her in shock. Yugi just sniffed and blew his nose on a Kleenex.

Grandpa Mutou sighed sadly, "it's their father's fault."

"Everything was father's fault in your eyes grandpa. He wasn't that bad…he just…had bad blood which Yugi and I both share, so I'm hoping it's not completely bad." Maeve responded.

Grandpa Mutou looked away, "Maeve, that man did some pretty wretched things to us. I can't forgive him."

She nodded quietly, "I know grandpa…but he's still our dad."

Yugi looked from one to the other, he barely remembered his father since he left when he was so young. There was much he had wanted to ask, when he tried to talk to his grandfather or mother about him, they became angry and told him nothing. Maeve had lived with him in America until he had died about three years earlier in an accident, and by then she was looking to go to University. Yugi had never been told exactly how his father had died or much about him. He had often wondered, perhaps Maeve would tell him more during this visit. Or at least explain to him what he had done that was so bad no one wanted to talk about it.

"Yes…I'd say that was the only good thing he brought to the world." Grandpa Mutou's fists were clenched and his eyes closed with uncharacteristic anger. "Excuse me…I need some time." He gently squeezed Yugi's shoulder and nodded to Maeve before he shuffled away to be lost in the passing crowd on the street.

There was a moment of awkward silence after he had left them. Isis thought it best to change the topic from Mr. Mutou and turn it back to what Maeve had said. "Maeve? How do you mean you let spirits go from the items?"

Maeve regarded her thoughtfully, one arm loosely resting around Yugi's small shoulders as she responded, "our father's gift, or curse as you might see it…an ability to deal with souls. Yugi is susceptible to them, it was no wonder he was destined to share his body with the Pharaoh who wielded the Shadow Games…Yugi can guide souls, while I can set them free…"

"What do you mean by setting them free?" Malik asked her.

She grinned. "Some of my friends, the ones I duel with, were spirits…"

Yugi's eyes were huge. "But, how…? They were normal people!"

She looked at Ryou. "Care to be my example? I can feel his life force still haunting your veins…" She glanced around. "Let us leave the crowded city, and go to somewhere more secluded for this." She took Ryou's hand, while still lightly hugging her brother's shoulders and headed towards the street and hailed a cab. The others followed her out of curiosity. They piled into the small vehicle. Joey ended up sitting on a homicidal Kaiba and Isis perched on Malik's knees while the two Mutous and Ryou's slim rear crammed into the reing ing space. They traveled a ways from the city into the dessert, once they were far enough away and before Joey and Seto killed each other, Maeve stopped the taxi and they piled out onto the scorching sand. She paid the driver who seemed to think they were crazy and muttered something about tourists as he sped off.

Maeve walked off the road and into the sand, sweat forming on her pale features and giving the leather she wore a sheen under the late afternoon sun. "Ra I wish I'd thought to change, getting out of wet leather is as easy as trying to take off a limb with a sponge." She walked out until she was satisfied and turned to the others who were following her intrigued. "Ryou? Are you ready?"

"Um, I guess…though I don't know what -" he started nervously.

"Good, step forward, everyone else, get out of the way please." Maeve closed her eyes a moment, the metal ornament in the design of a Celtic knot adorning her forehead shimmered in the sunlight and those gathered felt a chill slip down their spines. Ryou nervously stepped forward so he was standing just in front of her. His large, innocent eyes watching fearfully. She took a deep breath, exhaled and rolled her shoulders. "…let's go." Raising her arm the design of the Celtic knot seemed to unravel and twine through her entire body in pulsating gold threads of never ending energy, and her eyes flew open glowing a bright green. The pattern bled from her body and traveled over the sand to form a pattern of light in the earth around Ryou's feet. He looked around startled and confused then yelled in shock as a shadow burst from his chest. All stood watching in mingled horror and amazement as the shadow swirled into the insubstantial shape of the millennium ring. Maeve's face was scrunched up in concentration as she whispered to Ryou, "this is going to hurt like a bitch I fear."

Before he had a chance to move her hand with the millennium ring's ghost slammed against his chest. With a howl of agony a dark figure was thrown from his back and into the pattern of light. Ryou fell to his knees gasping. Above him Maeve stood the millennium ring's darkness sluggishly held in shadow between her hands. Before her and behind him the light that held the figure imprisoned flaring skyward in the shape of the Celtic symbol she bore upon her brow. Laying in the center of the pattern was the unmoving spirit of the tomb robber Bakura.

"His soul has been dormant a long time…he has been used by another bound to that ring… What would you have me do with him Ryou?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered, terrified of what he was seeing. His body was shaking in the sand as his eyes fixed on the figure.

"I could send him back as he was…damaged residue within your soul to live out eternity. I could cut him lose and send him to the underworld to live in eternal darkness… can can make him whole once more so that he has a chance to make up for what was done…to find his own way instead of being forced by another's. The choice is yours little light. For the answer shall affect you the most."

Everyone gathered was staring at the events unfolding. They were outside of the pattern watching those within. Ryou was on his knees, his eyes wide and frightened as he beheld the form inside the prison of light. His fate in the youth's shaking hands. "I…I…"

"Hurry up Ryou, I can't hold him like this much longer. " She murmured, beads of sweat appearing on her face. Her arms stretched out with the phantom form of the ring existing between them. It seemed to be gathering substance… "I must…destroy the ghost of the ring…I need to set the albino loose before…make up your mind Ryou!"

"Bring him back! Make him whole!" Ryou cried out, tears spilling from his eyes as he sat in the sand still throbbing from having the residue of the spirit yanked out.

"I thought you might say that…" she mumbled. "This is going to hurt me like a bitch…damn me and my generosity."

Taking a deep breath she called into the world around her and the prison of light erupted as roots of green rose from the sand and traveled into the tomb robber. The figure of Bakura awoke with a howl and writhed as his body began to rebuild itself in the shape of his spirit from the earth.

Slowly the body formed and filled with blood and covered with skin. The spirit of the tomb robber merged with the new skin and a final scream echoed from his mouth as he fell with a dull thud to the sand. Maeve was sweating and swearing throclenclenched teeth, her eyes were squeezed shut and her muscles were tensed and she struggled to maintain the spirit's reforming. At last completed she threw back her head and with a scream of her own the darkness that made up the phantom millennium ring shattered and dissipated into the prison of light. With a final flare the light burst outward in a wave and swept through all those gathered.

Once eyes readjusted both Bakura and Maeve were lying on the sand, Ryou kneeling between them.

Maeve panted heavily, "Man I hate that…feels like my organs just played bumper cars…ouch…I think I'll just…lay here a few…days…just refresh my creecreen…and get me water…and tell Joey to stop looking down my shirt…ok then…"

Ryou was staring at his other self mutely. Tentatively he reached out a slender arm towards the tomb robber. Creeping closer he poked him in the side to make sure he was real.

Bakura's brown eyes flew open and he lunged out and grabbed Ryou's wrist. "What do you want?!" he demanded angrily.

Yugi yelped and jumped back tripping over his sister. Meave groaned an ouch of reply. While Ryou squeaked, his eyes practically bugging out of his skull in shock. "You…you're…Bakura?" he whimpered.

"Yeah, what?" demanded the tomb robber.

Without warning Ryou threw his arms around the larger male's shoulders and hugged him tightly. "You're alive!"

The yami looked like he had just been kicked in the gonads as the thin hikari pounced him and gave him the first hug he\erhaerhaps ever had. "Ryou…how…" his eyes grew wide. "I'm alive?!" Frantically he began to touch his new body with his hands. "Holy Ra, I'm alive!" He laughed insanely and leapt to his feet, picking up Ryou and swinging him around. "I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm alive!" The tomb robber bounced around laughing like a lunatic all the while swinging and hugging Ryou. Abruptly he came to his senses and dropped Ryou to the sand with a loud thud and jumped back. "How the Hades am I alive?!"

Yugi sat up, his legs over his sister who knocked them aside, disgruntled that he should be adding to her discomfort. His large eyes simply stared at Bakura utterly stunned. "Yami Bakura!"

The tomb robber looked over to whomever had said his name and made a face. "Pharaoh's whelp. Where is his highness anyway?" He grumbled darkly.

Yugi's eyes misted over. "He's gone…"

Bakura blinked and looked around again confused. "What do you mean he's gone?"

Yugi swallowed hard and looked at his hands. "He went home…"

Bakura stared. "He went…" looking down at Ryou. "What the bloody Hades has been going on?! The last thing I remember I was stealing Pegasus' eye so I could add it to my collection…"

Maeve propped herself up on hebowsbows from where she was sprawled in the sand. "To make a long story short…from what I understand you were being used and seduced by some big evil dude named Zork who embedded himself into the ring before the dark magician and wanted to squash Atemu for his own dire and world dominating with darkness needs. He used you to do what he wanted and in the end he lost to Pharaoh who remembered his past and got his name back from these guys…then?" She glanced at them.

Yugi piped up, "he then played a match with me…and lost we put the millennium items together and he said his name and then he…went to the underworld..." He looked down.

"Right," said Maeve taking over, "while Zork and he were playing about you weren't needed anymore so the part of you he was using was turned to sand there. The rest of tomb robber Bakura…or your real essence…was left dormant in Ryou. I just ripped it out and woke you up and gave you your body back. Go me." Maeve flopped back onto the sand again and closed her eyes.

Bakura stared at her. "That's…" he looked back at his hikari who was still staring at him as though mesmerized. "Who the bloody Hades is she?"

Maeve lifted her hand. "Maeve Mutou. Yugi's older sister, nice to meet you Bakura,"

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Maeve." He responded automatically, then once again confusion overcame him. "Wait, how do you know who I am?!"

She sighed and lifted herself back up to sit and squint at him. "Yugi tends to keep me updated in our phone calls. Can we move on now?"

Bakura sat down in the sand and looked from Ryou to Maeve to Yugi and back again. Vaguely noticing Seto, Isis, Malik and Joey standing there with there completely silent with their mouths hanging open in the background. "This…is…going to take a while for me to understand." He mumbled and stared at his hands.

"You'll get used to it. There's always a period of shock and adjustment. Oh…I should probably mention something here." Maeve said as she got to her feet and hauled her little brother up after her.

Ryou poked Bakura again in the side just to make sure. Bakura swatted his hand away in irritation. "Huh? What?"

"The probleth bth being a spirit is that you need a connection to remain. The reason you continued to stay in existence is due to a reason or a mission…a connection of the mind. When I return a spirit to the living world they are connected to something that embodies that purpose…they can't part from it for more than 24 hours before feeling…pain…lots and lots of pain."

Bakura looked at her darkly. "What then am I connected to? Where's the bloody ring?"

"Oh, the ring and its residual evil are somewhere in the bowels of the earth. Besides, your purpose is no longer for vengeance Bakura, you let that go. You're here to redeem yourself now." Maeve stated as she brushed sand off her rear.

"I did?" Bakura looked stunned. "I am?"

"Yup. So you have an attachment that embodies your new purpose of course. Something of great light and value which you are to look after." She stated.

"And what's that?"

"Him." Maeve pointed to Ryou.


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Author's note: I had to split the last part into two for formatting reasons. Oh well. I'm having fun writing this.