More than four years later, this story is still here and not deleted, haha suck it haters. AND NOW, NEWLY EDITED AND (HOPEFULLY) IMPROVED! I left the pilot chapter virtually untouched, just a few minor edits here and there.

Bold face is the abridged series.

This takes place right when Yami Marik is about to send Yami Bakura to the shadow realm. (episode 97)

.

Depressing purple clouds were a mist along the surface of the blimp, making for an even ominous and dreary mood along the two friends.

"I must put an end to Marik's evil plans." Yami said determinedly as Tea gazed at him worriedly. "You will!" She interjected fiercely, wholeheartedly believing the ancient spirit could save them all but it seemed the past Pharaoh's conviction waned at those words. Violet orbs cast down and a pensive discouraged look passed by his face, which only served to concern the brunette even more.

"You make it sound so easy, Tea...but he seems to get stronger and more evil with each duel." He spoke solemnly. "And I believe that the darker Marik becomes, the harder it is to shield the world from his wrath. " He turned his head to the left, unable to look at Tea as he knew his eyes would betray his fear. "Now Marik has begun to target my friends because of a grudge he has against me."

He thought of the people Marik has hurt, of Mai currently in a coma (with no guarantee of her ever waking up) and fear paved the way for anger. "He must be stopped before anyone else falls victim to his insanity!"

Tea immediately piped. "I'll help!"

While the two still talked about their plans to halt Marik in his evil path, the duel between the two Yamis was about to end. Ra had obliterated Bakura's life points, and the evil Marik was about to be declared the winner.

"Get ready to enter the darkness at the hands of Ra!" He said giddily in a morphed monstrous voice. Strangely enough, an unsettling knowing grin settled on the white-haired spirit's lips.

"Don't you realize that I AM the darkness?" Bakura stated in a calm rasping tone, seemingly not caring his body was wisping away like cigarrete smoke on a windy day. Marik chuckled, almost shaking his head at the tenacity of the spirit's refusal to lose. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked in an amused tone.

"It's quite simple. It means I can't be destroyed." The smoke faded all around him, yet he still had the chance to give a large smirk.

"You haven't seen the last of me!" Maniacal laughter still echoed after the last remnants of his eyes vanished, and the glittering millennium ring clattered to the floor.

Silence.

Nothingness.

Darkness.

.

.

White. Pure white.

And...

An earsplitting shrill exploded in everyone's ear, and they all cried out in pain at the same time. In an instant, the shrill was gone. And now, everybody could see perfectly, think coherently and everything around them was just confusing as hell.

"...Can anyone explain what just happened?" Tristan moaned out, still hearing the remnants of that horrible sound. He was just sleeping normally, when he appeared here inexplicably. Joey was also in his PJs, wondering how he's managed to go from dreams of Mai to here. Everyone just kept staring at each other, as if expecting for someone to actually give out a logical explanation. Unfortunately, no one piped up with an possible reason. So all they did is stare and look at around at their surroundings, hoping that might give them a clue.

It was a white room, with a large white leather sofa in the middle of the room and a big screen TV right in front of it. "A tv room?" Tea muttered confused.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Joey shouted, shocked beyond comprehension, jumping away as if he just saw a poisonous animal trying to attack him. Immediately, everybody zeroed in on the scene and like clockwork, Tristan, Tea, and Kaiba soon all had their eyes as big as dinner plates at what they were seeing.

Yugi and Yami.

They were right next to each other.

In separate bodies.

The two were also staring straight at each other with a shocked look in their face, disbelief in both of their violet eyes. "How is this possible?" Yami spoke first, lowly as if speaking to himself.

"Y-Yami?" Yugi said timidly, never seeing the Pharaoh with a real body of his own and not just the manifestation his mind created for him.

"This literally cannot be happening." Kaiba growled, refusing to believe what he was seeing was actually true. Magic did NOT exist! Maybe this was a bad nightmare? Somebody must have spiked his food. Probably that mangy mutt Wheeler.

Yami couldn't help but notice something looked off in Yugi's disposition. He seemed at odds. Like if he wanted to do something, but was afraid of his reaction. He extended a hand to his aibo, and immediately noticed the problem. "Go on. You want to confirm I'm flesh and blood right?" A smile graced his lips.

Yugi didn't have to be told twice. He immediately glomped his darker personality, ecstatic beyond anything else in the world. So many times he'd pray to whatever was up there that Yami would be given his own body so he could literally feel him and not feel like such an insane person when he was talking to him. He just never believed it would come true. The Pharaoh chuckled at the exuberant display of affection and wrapped his arm around the smaller boy's waist.

"Hey, there's a note on the edge of the sofa." Tristan said, quickly unfolding the mysterious piece of paper and reading aloud the printed words.

"Welcome all. You will be shown an alternative universe of your entire world. Specifically, you will see your own life through an outside point of view. Just be warned, your character might not be what you thought it would. As episodes continue, wait episodes? The hell-" Tristan interrupted the letter with his own confused questions. "We're here to watch some type of TV show?"

"Keep reading it Tristan." Yugi urged his friend, completely intrigued and plenty confused at the letter's strange contents.

"The entire time you are in this room, there will be no magic allowed from millennium items or otherwise. There is no way to summon the shadow realm here, and the injury of anyone is strictly prohibited, i.e impossible. The strongest emotions your character feels in the screen will also be sometimes reflected to you in a somewhat lesser state. Play the first episode, and have fun! - LK."

"Who the heck is this LK?!" Joey shouted, aggravated by the letter's inability to explain anything.

"And what does this LK have in mind for us? What is the purpose of all of this?" Yami wondered out loud.

"He keeps referring to 'our characters' and 'episodes', like a show." Tea said thoughtfully. "I just don't get it. None of this make any sense! I seriously feel this is all just some crazy dream."

"Great, that means I'm not the only one." Kaiba stated sarcastically, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes at the audacity of being stuck in this room with these losers.

"Well, we're not going to get any answers just standing here looking at each other, so we might as well turn on the TV and see this 'show' LK seems to be insisting on." Yugi stated in that oh-so optimistic tone he perfected over years. Everyone looked around, not finding any type of retorts or objections so they all shrugged and took a seat on the abnormally long couch. Even Kaiba reluctantly sat down, but only at the farthest end of the sofa away from anyone else. He was NOT part of the dweeb team.

"So...where's the remote?" Joey finally stated lamely. With these words, it seemed like the TV magically turned on. At first, it was a couple of seconds of pure static and the picture cleared up to show...Yami's face.

Yami stood straight, eyes directly at the screen while many duel monster cards flew around like a running movie tape. "Yu-Gi-Oh! is filmed before a live studio audience. "

At this, everybody looked at each other strangely.

A blue sky with the sun shining brightly was shown briefly before the screen steadily lowered down to a school building.

"Wait isn't that our school?" Tea asked, eyes furrowed in growing confusion.

"Hey Joey. Earth to Joey!" The scene cut to Yugi's face half-cut by some Duel Monster cards. "Hey are you in there? It's your move!"

"Have people have been following us around with cameras or something? I don't recall anyone taking a video of that duel..." Yugi stated worriedly. And was it just him, or did his voice sound kind of wonky?

"So in this weird show, we're the main characters?" Joey said disbelievingly.

Joey is shown with a small on his face, putting a monster card on the playing field. "Sorry, Yug. Doing this Brooklin accent makes it difficult to concentrate on card games!"

The room was filled with a confused silence. "Yeah, I don't remember saying that." He finally said, scratching his head in confusion.

Tristan suddenly appeared, throwing an arm around Joey. "I know what you mean! My voice is pretty crazy too. I'm thinking about changing it."

"What the hell?!" Tristan shouted. A loud snort almost escaped Tea's mouth, and she covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Tristan's voice was absolutely ridiculous! Who in the hell had stolen his voice and replaced it with that?! Yugi looked more worried than ever, and Yami seemed to be thoughtful about something.

Yugi appears on the screen again. "By the way, my grandpa has a super rare card!" The scene goes back to Kaiba reading a book, while Tristan says stupidly."Groovy!"

Joey retorts with a "Hey Bada-bing!"

"Okay, seriously. Why do I sound like a complete idiot?" Tristan complained at no one in particular, while Kaiba's attention was peaked at his first 'appearance' in this absurd show.

"Rare card? That sounds vague enough to be the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. And since I'm a child billionaire in charge of a huge gaming company, I obviously have nothing better to do than to check it out."

"Hey you know, the show is kinda right." Joey idly says, trying hard not to grin. "It WAS totally vague! How'd you figure it was the Blue Eyes White Dragon?"

Kaiba merely rolled his eyes in response.

The scene cut once more to Yugi arriving with his friends to his grandpa's game shop. "Hey Gramps, can we please see your super rare awesome chocolaty fudge-coated mega supercard?"

Now Yugi's character was acting weird. He slightly pursed his lips at the sight.

Solomon replied. "I don't see why not. Here it is! The blue eyes white dragon!" He showed the card to the youngsters. Joey appears with a wide grin on his face. "That's..the least threatening name for a monster I've ever heard. What kinda mook would want a card like that?"

Suddenly Kaiba storms in with a stead fire determination. "I'm here for your Blue Eyes old man, and I won't take no for an answer! Now give it to me."

Solomon closed the special casement for the card. "No."

A close-up of an angry Kaiba is shown. "Curses! Foiled again."

Snorts start up from Tristan and Joey's side of the couch, and Kaiba's eyebrow is twitching from the stupidity of this show. It's been less than a minute, and he already loathes everything about it, or more so he loathes how he's being portrayed as a moron.

"I'm gonna go hire some thugs to kidnap you now. I'm a billionare so nobody will even think about pressing charges. "

A question marked popped in everyone's mind. Come to think about it. Why didn't it occur to anyone's mind to call the police?

"That Kaiba kid needs to get laid." Solomon says.

"Big time!" Tristan agrees.

The snorts turned to full-blown snickers from Joey and Tristan.. Both Yami and Yugi were fighting smirks, but failed miserably. "I think that applies to THIS Kaiba as well-"

"If you have any desire to keep on living, you will shut your damn snout this instant, mutt or I will make you regret it." Kaiba hissed acidly.

The scene fades into black for a second before Yugi appears with a phone in his hand. "Hello? Game shop?" The scene is split into two places and Kaiba appears at the bottom of the screen. "I kidnapped your Grandpa, Yugi. And then I dueled him into submission. So could you get over here and call an ambulance for him? I have far too much money to be expected to do it myself!"

"Wait, who is this?" A moment later, Grandpa's body is shown lying on the floor while Yugi come running out of an elevator. "Grandpa! Are you okay?" He kneels down to his grandpa who rises his head to talk briefly with his grandson.

"For some reason, playing a card game has caused me to become severely injured!"

Once again, more questions popped in everyone's mind. The show was bringing up a bunch of good points that they never thought about.

Kaiba is shown with the blue eyes white dragon card. "That's right! And now!"A close up of his hands ripping up the card are shown. "Watch this!" Yugi's shocked and angry expression fills up the screen. "Grandpa's super special rare awesome supercard!" He exclaims.

"What the heck did you do that for?!" Joey shouts angrily, while Tea looks at the screen weirdly. "So it can never be used against me." Kaiba explained vaguely.

"In that case, why not just tear up every card in the whole world!?" Yugi shouts exasperated.

"Shut up and duel me."

Yugi then turned his attention to his Grandpa. "Don't worry Gramps! I'll win this duel with your deck." Solomon is looking up at Yugi again, as if stunned. "W-wait a minute. I've been injured so you're going to steal my deck and go play cards with your arch-rival?"

"Pretty much. "

"No wonder your parents are never around!"

The atmosphere filled with tension after this, and with good reason. Yugi's friends never asked about why he lived with his grandpa and not with his parents because it was none of their business, but with the tight-lipped awkwardness regarding the issue every time it was brought up by accident or otherwise, it probably wasn't a happy story.

"Gather round everyone." Tea spoke for the first time in the series so far. "And I'll mark us with a special sign." A smiley face was drawn on four hands. Joey spoke up after seeing the mark on his hand, face betraying doubt. "Uh,Tea. Not for nothing but, ain't this permanent marker? " She raised her hand up. "Oh. Whoops."

"Why were you even carrying that thing around in the first place?"

"I'm a kleptomaniac. I stole it from school." Tea stated simply.

"Hey, my wallet's missing!" Tristan's voice was heard.

"KAIBA TOOK IT!"

"Wow. That's just great. I'm a kleptomaniac in this show. And my voice sounds like a middle-aged man trying to sound like a woman. Fantastic." Yugi smiled at her and offered a consoling pat on the shoulder. "Hey, don't feel bad. It seems like this show wants to make fun out of all us. It's not like it's real or anything."

"I think I got it." Yami suddenly declared. "The beginning of the letter stated we were about to see an alternative universe of our own world. What we are literally viewing is a portal or such to an alternative reality of ourselves in a form of a television show."

"So...you're saying these stupid versions of ourselves really exist?"

"Unfortunately."

"Kill me now." Kaiba muttered.

"It's time to duel!" Yami spoke with an exaggerated low tone of voice. Kaiba looked shocked. "W-wait. Did your testicles just drop in the last five seconds or something? What the heck happened to your voice!?"

Yami closed his eyes, hoping for his character to not be too bad. It was his turn to 'shine' in this world full of idiots. Let's see how he fared.

"Holy Ra! Real monsters!" Yami exclaimed after seeing a large green monster rise from the card it had been placed in. "Actually, they are just super advanced holograms created for the sole purpose of enriching the experience of a children's card game." Kaiba explained with a smug look on his face.

Half of Yami's enlarged face took up the screen. "Okay, seriously you've got to be be F**#ing kidding me."

And there it was. Yami facepalmed. The first to openly swear in this reality show, and in less than 30 seconds too. Off to a great start! "Man, Yami. Watch the language, this might be a kid's show." Joey said jokingly, smiling at the obvious trauma the Pharaoh was going through.

"Who wastes all that money on something like that?" Yami continued to rant.

"The guy who's going to beat your pasty Pharaoh butt with three blue eyes white dragons! That's who!"

Yami was shown with a conflicted look in his face. "Wait a minute, did you just summon a bunch of monsters in one turn?"

"Yeah. So?"

"That's against the rules, isn't it?"

"Screw the rules, I have money!"

"This Kaiba doesn't seem all that different from the one in that reality." Joey mumbled. "BE QUIET MUTT!"

"Now draw your last pathetic card, Yugi so I can finish you. " Again the screen split into two parts and Yami was at the bottom. "My grandpa's deck has no pathetic cards, Kaiba. Except maybe the Kuriboh. But it also has this!" The card of Exodia is shown. "The unstoppable Exodia!"

Kaiba is shocked out of his mind. "AH! Exodia! It's not possible! Nobody's ever been able to summon Him!"

"Really? Is that because it's so rare?"

"NO, it's because this game makes no sense, nobody can figure out how to do it."

"I beg to differ, I think it's a pretty straight-forward game." Seto crosses his arms.

"Nobody except me!" Yami boasts. "Exodia, OBLITERATE!" The burst of Exodia's energy destroy's Kaiba's lifepoints. And then suddenly, out of nowhere- "Big Brother!" Mokuba suddenly appears. "Is it time for my cameo yet?"

"Cameo?" Seto asks bewildered.

"H-how...? How could you summon Exodia?" Kaiba, defeated and devasted, kept repeating to himself. Yami's forehead glowed with an eye. "Kaiba. If you really wish to know..." He dramatically threw an extended hand at his opponent's general direction. "Then TALK TO THE HAND!"

Kaiba screams unconvincingly, while his image shatters.

"Clever comeback, Pharaoh." Kaiba actually manages to get amused by this, even though it is a reminder of the loss he had towards his life-long rival. Yami manages a weak glare in return.

Grandpa is shown in the hospital. He opens his eyes while Tea looks at him.

"I wet myself."

This time, the entire gang facepalmed at this.

A platinum-haired man appeared in a dark background, holding on what seemed to be a glass of wine in his hand. To his back, a shadow of a man stood in the middle of an open doorway.

"Mr. Pegasis sir. The reigning Duel Monster's champ has been defeated by someone named Yugi. Also, it's time for your sponge bath." Pegausus looked directly at the screen with a pleased look on his face.

"Mmmmm."

The scene went black.

"That was the weirdest freaking thing I've ever seen." Tristan muttered. "And I think it still continues." He pointed at the TV screen, noticing the blackness started to fade to white.

"Oh great, here we go again." Tea rolls her eyes, but nevertheless, all eyes are glued on the screen to see the next episode of their alternative lives.

Let's see if I can continue to be motivated from this quarantine thing and fix up the rest of the chapters...fingers crossed.