You tell me that you love me then you cut me down
And I need you like a heartbeat
The shape of the crest around Shark's neck has changed.
Yuuma almost doesn't notice, lost in the joy of Shark approaching him with a faint smile, hands in his pockets, like they are friends again. But his necklace is the wrong shape, and by the time Yuuma realizes with horror that it's Don Thousand's crest around his neck, it's too late. Shark is too close.
There's no time to get away. Shark grabs him and shoves him against the nearest rock, a slab of ominously glowing pink crystal, and Yuuma's cry is silenced by Shark's mouth. He kisses Yuuma roughly, his fingers dug into the front of Yuuma's vest, and Yuuma puts up his hands to push him away. Then he remembers that he knew Shark was taken by Don Thousand, and he could have saved him if was stronger, faster, better. Instead Yuuma is too late.
He slumps back against the rock as Shark kisses along his jaw and down his throat. When Yuuma doesn't fight him, Shark doesn't hurt him; Shark starts to undress him, and except for the brief moment of struggle when Shark's fingers brush against his zipper, Yuuma lets it happen. It's warm here in Barian World, at least, and Yuuma tells himself there's no reason to shiver as he's bent over the rock.
He can't stop shaking, though.
Shark bites his shoulder, hard enough to leave a mark, and then drapes himself over Yuuma so his mouth is close to Yuuma's ear. Yuuma can feel his erection pressed uncomfortably against his ass, the weight of Shark's body restraining him, and he closes his eyes as Shark whispers mockingly into his ear.
"You don't have anything to say?" he asks. "You're not going to promise to bring me back? Tell me how much better than this I am?"
"I love you," Yuuma says. He can't think of anything else but empty apologies, and he doesn't want to tell Shark he's failed him, so he grits his teeth and lays his cheek against the stone. Shark is close enough that Yuuma can feel his hot breath against his neck. It shouldn't feel good, not like this, but Yuuma can feel himself getting hard anyways.
Shark laughs. It hurts, but not as much as it does when Shark gets up and puts one hand on his back to hold him down, and then reaches in between his legs and starts fingering him.
The sudden penetration, dry and rough and unwanted, makes Yuuma scream and clench his teeth and scramble for purchase on the rock. There's nothing to hold onto, nowhere to go, and tears start to fall from his eyes. He can feel Shark's fingers wiggling around inside him, rubbing him from inside, and it's almost pleasant sometimes, when he does it just right, and Yuuma can't control his voice or his bucking hips. He tries to focus on Shark's other hand, which is pressing a hand-print bruise onto his back, over his spine, but the dull pain of being held down is not enough to anchor him.
Shark doesn't let up until Yuuma comes, sobbing and red-faced, all over the rock, and then he steps back and lets Yuuma slide off the rock and crumple to the ground. Yuuma rests his forehead against the warm stone, trying to get his breath. Everything hurts, and his limbs feel leaden. By the time he's mustered the strength to look around, he's alone. Shark must have left.
It hurts to get up, and he has to limp over to his filthy clothes, dress while wincing, and fall to his hands and knees and rest afterward. Shark's left his deck and his disk there, too, and even the Numbers. Yuuma draws Hope and almost bends it with his grip. Maybe it can give him power, while he has none. Maybe it can make him believe, when all Yuuma can think is that Shark needed him and Yuuma failed.
"So you showed up, after all."
Yuuma makes himself look at Shark, lying sprawled across Don Thousand's grey, twisted throne, tentacles curled around his limbs lovingly. Both of his eyes have turned red. The crest hanging from his neck is bigger, the long spidery arms sunk into Shark's clothes — maybe into his flesh underneath. But most unnerving of all is the smile. It looks like a real smile — it looks like Shark's 'I'm happy to see you and there's no one else around so I don't have to act tough' smile.
"I guess I'll just have to beat the fight out of you."
"Don Thousand," Yuuma says. He can't address Shark; looking at Shark makes him ill and remember the soreness that is still dragging him down, and he feels ashamed that he holds it against Shark, who didn't know what he was doing. Surely Yuuma deserved being fucked a little, for letting his best friend be stolen by the enemy. The guilt is so strong that it chokes him and doesn't let him use Shark's name.
"I will never forgive you!"
The shadowy shape of Don Thousand's enormous body appears behind the throne. He looks more solid than smoke, but Yuuma can still see through him if he tried. Only his eyes — three of them, two where they should be, one grossly bulging out of his stomach — are opaque.
Don Thousand doesn't say anything, but he chuckles, and the malevolence of it makes Yuuma's hair stand on end as he sets his duel disk and waits. Shark moves lazily as he does the same, a dark mark appearing around his eye as he slots his deck into place. Yuuma takes the first turn.
Without Astral to encourage him (the Key was lost earlier, and Yuuma misses its weight, and having something to hold onto), he panics whenever Shark makes an aggressive move. He plays painfully slowly, trying to work through each possible strategy . He can't make mistakes, because Shark, glowing with evil power and mounting a terrifying offense on his side of the field, definitely won't. One error and Yuuma will lose any chance of bringing Shark back.
As it is, even with perfect plays, Yuuma is barely defending himself. He used up his hand, his deck, clinging onto a few hundred life points. He waits for an opening. Astral taught him that: if you could stay alive, there would always be an opening.
But Astral never taught him what to do when there was the chance that he might die before an opening came, and Yuuma wishes he had. There's so much power in each of Shark's blows, and Yuuma is covered in wounds from head to foot. There's a deep gash across his belly that bleeds endlessly, little scratches all over his hands where he's tried to catch himself, bloody scrapes on his back from where the ground dug in on impact. It's getting harder to stand, and to see, and his deck is getting redder with every draw.
When the pace of the duel slows, for whatever reason (a bad hand on Shark's part? Luck?), Yuuma powers Hope up, eying the set cards on Shark's field, whispering prayers under his breath. Maybe this blow will connect, and knock Shark's life points down to zero, and wipe Don Thousand off the face of the universe. It has to be now, because Yuuma's time is running out with every heartbeat, every drop of blood that stains the ground.
"So, you're coming at me, huh?" Shark just looks amused. He's too relaxed, with none of Shark's usual laser-sharp intensity. Don Thousand is doing it on purpose, Yuuma thinks, making a mockery of Shark's real dueling. "Go ahead and kill me, Yuuma. If you do, Don Thousand will die."
There is a sweet, sweet second where Yuuma thinks Shark has broken through, and he's hearing Shark's real voice from underneath the brainwashing.
"But so will I," Shark says, and Yuuma's legs give out from under him as surely as if he's punched in the gut. "If you defeat us, you'll be all powerful."
"And in exchange for this power," Yuuma whispers, the words from so long ago coming back to him, "you will lose your most precious thing."
He sways on his feet, and tries to decide.
He can kill Shark, and save everyone. Or spare him and die. And that should be a simple choice, everyone's lives over only Shark's but there's no only when it comes to Shark whom he loves, Shark whom he owes, Shark whom he'll never see again if he kills him here and now. The choice is heavy, and Yuuma is dimly surprised that he can still cry, when the tears start to fall.
"I'm sorry," he sobs. "I'm…I wanted to save you, Shark…"
"Save the crying for after I beat your sorry ass." Shark says, flippantly, and that's what lets Yuuma decide. Shark as he is now…if he can see what's happening, what's become of him under Don Thousand's control, he wouldn't hesitate to lay down his life. Shark wouldn't selfish, here, and so Yuuma can't be either.
"Hope attacks." Yuuma closes his eyes. He stays down, on his hands and knees, and cringes at the sounds of battle. The tearing of metal as Hope's sword slices deep into Silent Honors Dark Knight, the cry of the monsters as they clash, they're both hideous nosies. And then there's the thump of Shark falling. He doesn't scream, but Yuuma hears the gasp as Shark hits the ground.
There's so much blood, now, and Yuuma can hardly keep his eyes open. At least he won before he bled to death. That's something, even if it's hardly anything. He lies down, the blood on the ground mixing with blood on his shirt, wet and warm and sticky, and cracks open an eye. Yuuma just wants to see Shark one last time.
Shark is crumpled face down on the other side of the field, and it looks darker where he is. Yuuma strains to see properly, as his vision blurs again. There's a dark shape on the ground around him, like a stain…like a shadow…
…like a shadow in the shape of Don Thousand's body.
"No…"
"With all seven of them dead, I've regained my true power." Don Thousand says. "And now…the Code."
He should move. Yuuma watches the shadow deepen as Don Thousand solidifies somewhere out of sight. He should do something. But he's so tired, and so cold, and so broken. There's nowhere to go, no one to rely on, no one to protect, if he gets up. There's no Astral or Barian Worlds, just this twisted pace where Don Thousand rules. What will happen to him, if he manages one more battle? He'll die a little later, in a little more pain?
Yuuma wonders where Shark's soul is, if it's somewhere safe and peaceful. He wonders, despite his sins (no Rank Up to Astral for him, no rebirth as a Barian Lord) if maybe they'll be together, wherever he's going.
Shark's hand in his, his real smile without the terrible dark edge…Yuuma wants those things. Yuuma would die, for those things.
His heart stutters. There's not much blood left in him. Yuuma closes his eyes.