The Alternative

Twenty Four

            When Yugi woke up, his breath had grown heavy and his whole body was quivering. Atem noticed it right away and began to massage his arm.

"What's wrong, my love?"

Yugi raised his head to make eye contact with Atem. The comfort of his now purple wine eyes had allowed him to catch his breath and relax his muscles.

"You should know who's responsible for me learning the truth," his lips curled at the side.

"Who?"

Yugi grinned. "It's me."

"You?"

"Me."

"How?"

"Other me. Egyptian me...real me. He's been working with Mahad and Mana to use magic as a way to reach out to me and tell me the truth."

"Why would he do that? He knows that's dangerous!" Atem looked down while trying to piece things together. "Well, I guess I never told Yugi...you, that you were meant to be a sacrifice. I-I didn't think that was something he needed to know."

"Mana told me the truth," Yugi informed while reminiscing on his dream. "In front of your council, matter of fact. But it doesn't matter. Knowing the truth didn't change my mind. I needed to get you back, and I didn't care what the exchange would be...even if it were me."

"You should care, Yugi! I didn't do all of this so you could be hurt."

Yugi slowly grabbed the back of Atem's hand and looked him in the eye. "You leaving...it hurt more than you would ever know."

Atem's gaze shied away. He pulled his hand away as a defense mechanism and turned his whole body to look at the window. "It's common knowledge that interfering with the dead is bad news."

"But you're not dead, Atem! You're right here! You've been here all along!"

Atem sighed deeply, followed by the slightest chuckle. It made Yugi cock his head in confusion.

"You're lucky, Yugi."

"I'm...lucky?"

"I would have been utterly disappointed if all this had happened and I had not solved the puzzle."

Yugi raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Imagine you learned the truth and I didn't know how to save us. Now that would have been horrible."

"So...you do know how to save us?"

Atem turned back to Yugi, grabbing him by the hands and trying to pull him up slightly. He had the largest, most excited grin on his face that had Yugi blushing.

"I do!" He jumped off the bed. "Come, get ready, I want to tell you! But not here."

Yugi rolled his eyes in amusement. "Okay."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The garden was beautiful. It was a hidden gem on campus. The walk to get there was a tad unsettling. Yugi hadn't recognized a single student in sight. It was as if the façade was fading and he was beginning to see what Atem had seen all along...

Tokens taking up space in his own personally crafted nightmare.

"I love the flowers here," Atem hummed, gazing at the tulips and roses that adorned the lush green bushes. A stone path wove through the garden with benches every thirty feet apart. "I used to enjoy painting them whenever I had enough sanity to." He took in a deep breath of fresh air. "Whenever I'd go through bad spells, just looking at the paintings of flowers I had made were able to cool me down."