Ryou

I was trapped. I regained just enough energy to move about, but I could find no way out. My yami had left me here and taken my place, and I had no way to warn Yugi and the others.

I felt drained and terribly frustrated. I walked but seemed not to be getting anywhere. Everything was the same here. I would never find a way out.

I sat down, needing to rest again. I went over the things my yami had said in my mind, trying to find some clue as to how I was going to survive here. He had mentioned something about the eye. How if I had used it, I would not have been weakened. But how did he mean? The shadow realm seemed to be draining me of my energy. Maybe the eye's magic could be used to stop that somehow. But I wasn't sure how. There wasn't any mind to read here, so how would the eye be of any use?

I began to wonder about how my yami had managed to keep his energy. He hadn't seemed all that weak when I saw him. But magically... The eye should have let me sense his magic regardless of whether I invoked it or not. Maybe he had been magically drained. That would explain why I had been unable to sense magic from both him and the ring. Had he been allowing the shadow realm to take his magical energy so that he would save his strength? The reason mortal souls could not brave the shadow realm is because it sort of feeds on energy. Both spiritual and magical. Yami had told me this. Mortal souls eventually waste away. That is why only millennium item holders can go there and return safely. Their magic must act as sort of a shield against the realm. God, that was it!

I had to think about how I was going to go about this. I was weak, but the eye still contained most of its power. I had to find the strength and concentration necessary to invoke it. Under the circumstances, this was not so easy to do.

I summoned up everything I had every learned about the eye and its magic. Things I had learned on my own, from Yami who had helped me when I needed it, and even from my own yami who I am sure never taught me anything on purpose.

I closed my eye and focused. I could feel the glowing of the millennium eye. I knew its light was piercing through the darkness. I extended its power, forming a sort of barrier between myself and the shadows. It was like a sudden weight was lifted off me as the shadow realm stopped draining me and moved on to this new source of energy. The eye had far more power than I did, and was able to take it.

The barrier formed, I was able to relax some. I opened my eye. The barrier was not visible, but I could feel it. Sort of like I surrounded by the magic of the millennium eye. Well...one problem solved. At least I could survive here. But this was little consolidation when I thought of the evil my friends would have to face with no warning whatsoever. And I was afraid for them...
 

Anzu

Jounouchi, Honda, and I scraped together enough money for bus fare, but barely. They were unusually quiet as we boarded the first bus we could that was heading toward the hospital. I knew Jounouchi didn't like hospitals. They made him anxious. Honda was obviously worried. He was probably the closest of us to Bakura besides Yugi. He felt somewhat protective of Bakura. Honda often felt the need to protect others, having on many occasions tried to help Jounouchi and me. But Jounouchi's "manliness" couldn't take it, and I had always felt that Honda was just being sexist towards me, though now I knew better. Bakura had never minded Honda's protectiveness and need to defend, so they got along swimmingly. I guess Honda saw this as a failure.

The bus ride was slow as there were many stops along the way. There was an awkward silence. It seemed each of us had our own feelings of guilt. I know I had mine. Bakura had gotten hurt doing a favor for me. My insides felt like they were tied in a knot as I thought about this.

Eventually, we were within a block of the hospital. The bus wasn't going any closer, so we had to get off and walk. The walk was just as quiet as the ride. None of us said anything as we continued on to find out the fate of our friend.
 

Yugi

"Would you please explain the accident?"

I was sitting in the waiting area of the emergency room being questioned by a very firm looking receptionist. The doctor was still examining Bakura and was not yet sure how much damage there was. More tests needed to be done.

"I didn't really see the accident itself," I answered. "But from what I understand, Bakura was on the other side of the door when this angry guy threw it open."

"And when you found him?"

"He was out cold and his head was bleeding. Then he sort of woke up."

"What do you mean, 'sort of woke up'?" she asked.

"He opened his eye, looked around but didn't talk, and then he closed it again. But he was kinda in between asleep and awake."

"Hmmm..." she said as she wrote something down. She then continued with her questions. "How long before the paramedics arrived after the accident?"

"About twenty minutes," I said.

"And did you notice your friend acting out of character at all? Did he seem different in anyway?"

"Yes," I responded. "But of course he would, right?"

She ignored my question, and asked another herself. "How did he seem different?"

"He seemed really aggravated and a bit...I don't know...grumpy, I guess. It's weird because he is usually really nice and tolerant."

She wrote on her clipboard again. I sighed. She wasn't being very helpful. She told me to go sit down and the doctor would call for me as soon as they knew something. I did as I was told.

After about ten minutes, the rest of the gang had arrived. They were eager for news, but I had nothing to tell them. All we could do was wait. It was terrible just sitting there. Bakura had grown close to us all, and here we were waiting to find out just how bad off he was. Endless amounts of concerns passed though my mind. How were we going to let Bakura's dad know about what had happened? What if there was some serious problem? What if Bakura had a fractured skull, or brain damage or something? Anzu was the only one of us who had any knowledge whatsoever of medical ailments and that was just from a simple CPR class she had taken. She didn't know anything about head injuries.

Yami seemed concerned about it being something more than a simple physical injury. He suspected far greater complications of a supernatural nature. He sensed something, something he couldn't place, but worried him greatly. I felt he was just being paranoid.

It was about two and a half hours before the doctor appeared saying that we could see Bakura now. We all had dozens of questions we wanted to ask, but we remained silent as the doctor led us to Bakura's room.
 

Yami Bakura

I woke up alone in a white room. My symptoms had lessened some, but were still present. I sat up wearily, examining the body that I now possessed completely for the first time since my return.

I found a needle taped to my left arm, and a bandage around my right, though Ryou's memory told me that that had been there before. It seemed that I had caught him at an inconvenient moment when I had tried to summon him when he was awake. With all my other concerns, I had barely noticed this injury. I raised a hand to my head to find that this, too, was bandaged. I sighed. It would take time before I was strong and healthy enough to reek my revenge upon Yami Yugi. Even with both the eye and the ring's magic... The ring? It was gone! Where the hell was my ring?!!!

I searched frantically about for it for several minute before I remembered them trying to take it from me when I had just arrived. They must have snatched it from me when I lost consciousness, the dirty vultures...

The room was spinning from all the excitement and I had to lie down again. I was not sure whether this was from the injury itself, or from the medication they had me on. It sure as hell wasn't just water in that IV bag.

I heard people approaching and shut my eye. I did not want to face or talk to anybody for fear that I would be unable to control my anger at the loss of my ring. I did not want to blow my cover. I had to be careful to retain Ryou's kind appearance and nature. I couldn't let my "personality quirks" show through. I'd have the ring back soon enough or all hell would break loose.

The door opened and I heard several people walking in. One I knew had to be the doctor. The others I recognized once they spoke. Ryou's little friends were here. I remained motionless and listened.

"How bad off is he?" Anzu asked.

"We still need to run a few more tests to be sure," said the deep-voiced doctor, "but it seems that there is no permanent injury. He X-rays showed no sign of fracture, but I cannot rule out brain damage until we take a scan, which is scheduled for tomorrow."

'I don't have brain damage!' I thought angrily, but tried not to let it show. I continued to listen.

"How long 'til he gets better?" asked the innocent Yugi.

"Depends on what the scan shows," the doctor replied. "Best case scenario, he'll be fine in a week or two. Worst and he'll rely on others for the rest of his life."

'No way in hell was that happening' I thought. Yugi's gang must have shown signs of shock at this statement by the doctor because he felt the need to reassure them.

"Don't worry too much. We just need to prepare for whatever may happen. He's shown all the typical symptoms of a concussion, faintness, irritability, and such. It is likely that that is all it is, and he will recover from it with little or no after-effects."

"After-effects?" Honda questioned.

"Yes," the doctor said. "In these cases, it is not uncommon for the person to undergo some personality changes, even when it is only a concussion and no damage is detected. These changes can last for a few days or they can be permanent."

"What kind of personality changes?" Yugi asked, concern obvious in his voice.

The doctor sighed. "It can be anything, but the most common are an increase in moodiness, aggression, loss of tolerance, irritability, depression... And there can be rapid mood swings with no warning."

Jounouchi scoffed. "Sounds like P.M.S. to me. OOF!!" Anzu must have elbowed him for that.

Things couldn't have been more perfect if I had planned them. Even if I did not play the part of Ryou, they would suspect nothing. They would just think that if was a "personality change" due to the head injury. I could take my time and build up my strength and power. By the time the fools figured out what was going on, it would be too late. Nothing could stop me now...Nothing...
 
 

 Authors note:  This chapter took me longer than any other to write because I actually researched to damned thing!!! Thank you webMD!! The science freak in me would not allow me to post symptoms and side-effects that I did not know was accurate. Which means YES, the side effects are true, not made up to go along with my story. They just happen to along very well.