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"Oh fuck," someone hisses, "What have you done?"
There's only one light in the room, and Yusei's directly under it, swallowing everything into silhouettes.
"You said to take the most powerful," someone else replies, a little uncertainly. It's more high-pitched than the other voice, but sounds male.
"I meant the blond, you dumbass! Do you have any idea who this is?"
Blond...they were going to take Jack?
Yusei's glad he's here instead, then. Jack would start talking a big game, probably get himself killed. He can fight, but his bravado can't withstand a gun at point-blank range. Not as quick-fingered as Yusei or Crow with cuffs.
The higher voice says, "Uh...he seemed like the best duelist in the team?"
A hand whips from the shadows, gripping Yusei's chin harshly. "Take a good look!"
Yusei knows why the man is nervous. Part of the reason he stares at where he thinks the person's head is with perfect composure.
"...oh, shit," the other voice practically squeaks. "Fudou!"
"Couldn't fuckin' recognize his face? The hair? And you fucking punched him!"
"They all had weird hairstyles, sir! I-it was dark!"
"It was dark. Get the key! Fudou," the person's voice softens with a laugh, "I'm terribly sorry about this. All a big mistake, I assure you!"
"Yes," Yusei says.
"...we'll have you outta here in just a sec."
"You wouldn't have let my friend out."
"Ah. Another mistake! Listen, we'll back off, okay? Don't tell Pharaoh―"
"Tell me what?"
The Puzzle's glowing eye is easy to spot. Yusei fixates on the higher one beaming from Atem's forehead. He'd wonder how Atem found him so fast, but he's learned it's nigh impossible to understand whatever power Atem wields.
The hand holding Yusei's chin trembles before snatching back. "Pharaoh! We were just about to let him go!"
"And why did you have him in the first place?" Atem asks, boots clicking sedately across what sounds like concrete. "I thought I made the rules clear regarding Fudou Yusei."
Another hand, this one intimately familiar, brushes a gentle thumb across Yusei's cheek. The growing bruise stings.
"Yet," Atem says, voice echoing―not against the room's walls, but something unseen―"here we are."
"Sir, please―"
"Begging already? At least you have some sense." Yusei's cuffs fall. Atem cradles his wrists before he can rub them. They've left faint red marks. "But not enough."
Atem leans close. His eyes are more red than purple, sharper by the kohl around them. The eyes of the most wanted killer from Egypt to Japan and Neo Domino's King. He's wearing all black, including a black leather jacket. He already smells like blood.
Yusei looks at him and is not afraid.
"Fortunately for you," Atem says, "my mercy sits in this room. A little worse for wear," he adds in a growl, "but alive."
Yusei touches their foreheads, closing his eyes. Atem sighs through his nose.
"Yes or no, Yusei?" he murmurs.
The two captors' breaths are quick. Their sweat almost overpowers Atem's metallic scent. Truly afraid. Perhaps even truly regretful, albeit for the wrong reasons.
But.
But.
"They were about to take Jack," Yusei murmurs back, "I can't forgive them."
Atem's face twists into a sinister grin. "As you wish."
Doors snap shut with loud clangs. From his pool of light, Yusei listens to the screams knowing that his friend will be safe. He doesn't know how long it takes, only that when blood-soaked fingers reach for him, he lets them pull him into the dark.
Something squishes under his boots. Atem kisses him soundly, other hand digging into the back of his neck. The blood is rapidly cooling.
"Your bike is out back. It was under a tarp, unharmed."
Yusei kisses the dimming Eye. "I'll drive."