Ryou: What?

WSJ: I kidnapped Zutsokaki the other day, but Brood made me give him back!

Bakura: She did pay the ransom 'SJ. Twice. It's only fair.

WSJ: Well yeah, but I wasn't actually planning on returning him!

Ryou & Bakura: -.-;; Riiight...

Bakura: WSJ doesn't own YGO.

//....// Yami to Yugi

/..../ Yugi to Yami

()()()()()

All Saints' Night

Chapter 3 -- Betrayed by Comrades

Ryou groaned slightly, wondering what had hit him. The sound of voices nearby made him freeze, and he slowly took stock of his surroundings. He was laying on the ground, apparently in a forest somewhere by the feel of wet leaves under his hands and the dirt that was undoubtably getting in his hair.

As quietly as he could he reached out with his hands to feel around him. To his left was the trunk of a tree, and to the right a screen of bushes. The voices seemed to be coming from the other side.

Ryou turned his head so that he could breathe easier and so his face wasn't burried in mud. That caused him to gasp, before quickly putting a hand over his mouth. He could see!

Well, not exactly. It was like when he had a vision, everything was inside-out. But usually that vision-sight only lasted for a second or two. Now he could see clearly. Well, as clearly as you could with the colors reversed.

(A/N: Ok, I'll try to explaint that a bit better. It's like when the Dark Magician uses his Dark Magic Attack. You know, everything that's white is black, and black is white? Ok, just imagine that Ryou's seeing in those dimentions.)

He pulled his legs under him and got to his knees, peeking out between the bushes. What he saw made him gasp again. He remembered this!

Ryou let out a muffled sob and backed away until his back came in conact with the tree trunk. He collapsed against it and pulled his knees up to his chest, burrying his face in his hands. But still, he could see what was happening in the clearing just before him. It was like he couldn't get away from it, no matter how tightly he closed his eyes.

It registered in the very back of his mind that the reason was because he wasn't seeing with his eyes, but with his mind and heart, so it didn't matter whether his physical eyes were opened or closed.

But at the moment poor Ryou was too terrified to think, even though he knew that this had to be a dream, or a flash-back of some sort.

On the other side of the bushes, in a clearing, was a campsite. In the center was a dying fire, and four people lay in sleeping bags around it. Tea, Joey, Tristan, and Yugi were sleeping peacefully, content in their own dreams.

It was Halloween night, one year ago. This was the Duelist Kingdom, and this was the night that Ryou had remembered with shivers of terror ever since. Just a few hours before, Yami-Yugi and Bakura had dueled in the Shadow Realm for the souls of Yugi, Ryou, and their friends. Player Killer had just attacked, and been defeated, and now everyone but one were asleep, exhausted.

(A/N: I'm using Player Killer instead of Panik because Panik, like many other dubbed names, is sooooo lame...)

Ryou, the Ryou of that night, was wide awake, and terrified. His yami towered over him, his eyes narrowed and menacing. Present day Ryou watched in absolute rapture, terror washing over him in waves. This was the second worst beating he had ever received, and he did not want to relive it, but it seemed he was given no choice in the matter.

(A/N: I know, I'm interrupting again... -.-; From now on, when I'm talking about the present day Ryou, the one that is blind and a telepath, I'll put *stars* around his name, so we don't get confused with past Ryou, whom *Ryou* is watching. 'Kay? ^^; Sorry if it's too confusing... I'm also going to call past-Bakura, the one *Ryou* is also watching, by Yami-Bakura, instead of just Bakura, who is our present-Bakura and no longer a yami. Got it?)

Yami-Bakura grabbed the trembling Ryou by the collar and hauled him out of his sleeping bag, dragging him up so that their noses were an inch apart. "You thought you could betray me?" the yami hissed. "You thought you'd be cheeky and help out Yugi, didn't you? Well, now you'll pay up."

In his sleeping bag, Yugi muttered something in his sleep, and Yami-Bakura looked sharply at him before turning back to Ryou. "Oh yes, you will pay for that, little hikari."

*Ryou* winced, along with his past-self, at Yami-Bakura's harsh words. He whimpered and huddled further into himself, but still the vision invaded his mind. He wished Bakura were there with him. The kind Bakura, the one who helped him, not this monster of the past, whom he was being forced to look opon again.

Yami-Bakura scowled and glanced around the clearing, still holding Ryou by the collar. He then dragged the white-haired teen through the bushes until they came upon another small clearing, empty and well out of ear-shot from the camp. He threw Ryou on the ground and delivered a sharp kick to his side, causing the hikari to cry out.

Yami-Bakura sneered, and kicked him again, harder this time. "You are my slave aibou, and you will not forget it! I will make sure you do not betray me again!"

The "betrayal" he was talking about was, of course, when Ryou had used his powers as the Change of Heart card to take over Yami-Bakura's Lady of Faith, instead of Yugi's Dark Magician, thus ensuring Yami-Bakura's defeat earlier that night.

"No..." Ryou whimpered, trying to pull himself up to his hands and knees. "Yugi sealed you away! Why are you back?" Tears dripped down his face, mixxing with the dirt on the ground to create small splatters of mud.

"Why?" Yami-Bakura asked, his voice mocking. "Why, to make your life a living hell, of course! And as for Yugi's stupid other sealing me away..." He reached down and grabbed Ryou by the hair, pulling him upright. "I am darkness, and darkness always finds a way back. After the sun sets, the darkness defeats the light, driving it back, breaking it, scattering it in a million different directions. I will do the same to you, hikari."

With that said he threw Ryou back to the ground and grabbed a heavy branch that was laying under a nearby tree. Yami-Bakura snarled and raised it over his head, bringing it down on Ryou's back and causing him to cry out in pain. Yami-Bakura lifted Ryou by the hair again and threw him against a tree, causing a sickening crunch to echo through the clearing.

*Ryou* suddenly became aware of mental conversation going on somewhere near him, and stretched out his senses as best he could to tap into it. It hit him in the face that whoever it was, and he knew who it was, were talking about him. Casting his "eyes" around him, he saw the short figure huddled a good distance away, peeking through the bushes.

*Ryou* felt another sob tear at his throat.

He'd been betrayed.

(WSJ: I was gonna end it there, but I desided that if I did then both this chap and the next would be too short, so I combined them into one.)

/Spirit! We have to help Ryou!/

//We can do nothing Yugi, nothing that won't make Yami-Bakura hurt him farther.//

/But we can't just sit here! He's in pain! Spirit, he'll die!/

//No aibou, he will not. I can make sure of that, at least. But trust me as you usually do. We can do nothing for Ryou right now. We must wait, hikari, I will not have you put yourself in danger for him, even if he is your friend.//

/But-/

//Do not question me Yugi, I know best, trust me.//

/. . .All right, Spirit. . ./

With a sickening jerk, *Ryou* felt like he was being pulled in two. He let out a startled cry, and felt a hand over his mouth. "You're safe Ryou," the voice of Yami-Yugi said next to his ear. "Don't worry, you're back in our time, where you belong."

Ryou realised that he couldn't see anymore, not even in his reversed-vision, which made him feel oddly better. Darkness was much more welcome then watching his yami beat his past self up. With a shivering sort of cry he backed away from Yami, and felt the spirit's surprise.

"Ryou?"

That voice was Yugi's, Ryou thought with a sad sense of loss, thinking back to what he had just discovered about that horrible night one year ago. "Y-You! You betrayed me!"

"Betrayed you?" Yugi asked, puzzlment evident in his voice. "I just saved your life!"

Ryou took a deep, shuddering breath, and, fueled by anger he didn't know he carried, he reached deep into his heart for the power he needed. Tears dripped down his cheeks from his pale eyes, and a white aura began to surround him. "You left me! You left me alone with that monster! How could you do that, how could you watch me moan and wince the next morning, and pretend you didn't know? How could you do that and still dare to call yourself my friend!?" He was now levetating at least two feet off the ground, and Yugi and Yami had backed away from him, their eyes wide.

"How could you!?!" In one mighty burst of white light, Ryou released all the anger and frustration and sadness he had pent up inside. Anger at realising that Yugi and Yami had left him to his beatings. Anger that he was nothing at all of worth, thoughts that were residue of Ushio's tauntings two months before. Anger that now he could never be what he wanted, and his destiny was forever changed.

After that flash, everything went black.

()()()()()

WSJ: *giggles* Suspence!!! I love it!!! I think I'm being influenced by Eye of Horus, this really awesome suspence/mystery novel I'm reading. If you like drama and ancient Egypt, I really recomend it. It's by Carol Thurston.

Chapter 4: Hold it! Back up a bit! Bakura's just been downed, and now he's experiencing a flash-back of his own. Will it hurt too much to remember his wife and the daughter he had to give up? And what of the Pharoah, and his brother Jonathon? (Builds on what I hinted at during chapters sixteen and seventeen of VotH.)

God bless minna-san!