This story plays with the fanon yami-hikari idea. I don't know where this will end up, but I've got a general idea. There might be OOCness but only to a realistic point I hope. Slightly AU, but you'll see when it crosses that point. If you don't know Yu-Gi-Oh! it doesn't really matter. Everything is explained as far as you have to know. Here it goes. Have fun reading!
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Tazuki Kakahashi and I don't earn anything but pleasure from writing this. I won't repeat myself.
R&R
Mariku = Yami no Malik
Bakura = Yami no Bakura
Prologue
How long has it been? I can't tell, to me it seems like every second is a whole day. How often did you tell me to go on? To heal, eventually? "It's all going to be OK." Yes, it's really simple for you to say that, isn't it? You have never experienced something like this before, you can't have. Not if you never met with the other half of yourself. With your yami. The one that makes you feel complete.
I'm not talking about the one you love for eternity, the one you marry before getting divorced after a few 'happy' years. No, I'm talking about a part of your soul. It's like you have missed it from the day you started living in this world. It's like finding something you lost a long time before – and never wanting to let go again. It's like being completed, finally. Like you could be happy for all eternity. But only with it, your other half. That's the way it feels.
It doesn't matter if you really love someone with your whole heart. The feeling of being with your other self is simply... more. You can't explain it because you just have to experience it. And that's why it's simple to say "It's all going to be OK." It's not, dammit! It's not my fault I'm in here. And it's not his fault. Not my yami's fault. This happens if you tell someone your secrets, who you can't trust, but you just trust them. Because they call themselves 'your friends'.
They didn't only betray me and my yami – they did it to the others, too. Yeah, right, there are two other guys like me. We call ourselves "hikaris" because that's the Yin to the Yang. The light to the dark. The first part to the second part of your soul. But that doesn't matter for the time being. They betrayed us all. Us as in:
Bakura, Ryou
Ishtar, Malik
Mutou, Yugi
We are the Three. The Chosen Ones. We were chosen to be the hosts to our yamis. We were chosen by them and by the gods. Now, how can our so-called friends deny that fact with so much stubbornness? Can't they see that we are suffering? Suffering our losses? Thanks to them, we can't call forth our yamis now. Thanks to them, we can't even talk to each other normally! Darn! It's like our connection is breaking... All those drugs are blocking our bonds. And now, we suffer, all six of us.
You want to know why that is so? Well, let me try to explain. I should start with the facts, I think. Yamis are bounded to an 'Millennium Item'. Yami, as Yugi's yami is called, to the 'Puzzle', Bakura to the 'Ring', and Mariku to the 'Rod'. They are special, magical items, made in Ancient Egypt. A yami and a hikari build a special bond, thus they can 'mind talk' with each other, as we call it. It's just like telepathy between the two parts of one soul. And come to think of it, that just seems natural, doesn't it?
Also, they can 'take over' the body. Means that either the yami can move the body around or the hikari. That's mostly done with the permission of the other first. The one in control decides what his other can feel, see and hear of what is happening. There are cases in which the yami takes over violently without permission, but that's at the cost of much soul energy called 'Mana'. Yes, I didn't use the Egyptian term for soul on purpose. That's because in a yami-hikari relationship the 'Ka' is the creature that you can form with your Mana.
You can't choose any creature you'd like it to transform into, because it represents your soul. Its body is independent from your own body. There is a second thing you can do with your Mana and Ka, you can change your own body, your 'Ba' into an animal. Of course, you couldn't transform into many different ones, just like your Ka. Mariku, for example, can change himself only between an eagle and a tiger.
Then again, everyone of us six is supposed to be able to change in two different creatures. So far, only the yamis achieved that goal. But enough of that already. The last ability we know about is the power over the 'Shadow Realm'. That's a dimension beside ours, where only yamis and hikaris can reach into. We borrow some energy out of it to do wonderful things, but we pay later with a great energy loss. That's why it is so dangerous to use, especially for us hikaris.
We don't know of any more abilities – yet. Our yamis discussed the chance of maybe getting a body on their own. Till today, only we hikaris can see them and they can see their fellow yamis. They look slightly transparent, but no one else can see them. And that's where our so-called friends come in. After Battle City, all of us three met again and again to discuss our yamis. We were so happy to have finally found someone to tell, who would understand even.
Yami was a Pharaoh, who forgot everything of the past three to five thousands of years ago. Bakura was, one of the things he still remembers, an infamous Grave Robber. Mariku on the other hand, told us that he was one of the Ishtars' ancestors, a Tomb Keeper. Soon enough, Yugi got us together to meet his friends – and we thought after a while, that they were our friends, too. But we were proven wrong.
You'll see... Yugi hadn't told them about Yami. No word, but now that he was sure he was sane and not schizophrenic (because, well, we could see Yami, too), he told them. And that was the big mistake. First they thought us to be insane. But we showed them our Shadow abilities. 'It scared the shit out of them', to quote Bakura. They eventually laughed and thought it to be just a joke. Now, we did the next big mistake. We insisted that it was real. This is what you get: Scared and pissed off, so-called friends, calling the insane asylum.
We were proven schizophrenic by a young psychologist, who now dates Anzu, that little bitch. Every now and then we come out, can talk to each other, being outside on a fenced meadow. The fence is a live wire, as Bakura found out by trying to escape. Now, many of you may ask, why the yamis are still with us? As I told you, they are bound to an Item each. But after some time we found out how every yami can stay with his hikari even if we doffed the Items for PE.
Bakura for example just placed his soul into the body, a special ability of the Ring. Mariku 'marked' the body with the knife hidden in the 'Rod', drawing an Udjat Eye, the Eye of Horus. Yami didn't want to deform Yugi's body thus he asked the Tomb Robber to put his soul into his hikari's body. Now, though their souls are moved into the bodies, both Bakura and Yami are still bounded to their Items thus can move between them. Mariku just marked the body, thence he can travel between Ba and Item, too.
Now, can you understand why I hate them that much? My so-called friends? I can't be with the others for long. And my yami has to rest now and then in his Item. It's boring, annoying psychologists trying to 'repair' you even if you know that you're alright. The doubts that come at midnight, when your yami isn't with you anymore, and the others that know all about it are gone, too?
Can you imagine the pain? Thinking you go mad just because you hear a voice in the morning again? Trying to deny it? Trying to make the psychologists believe you? Not meeting the others for an eternity? But meeting other schizophrenics, that don't have a yami? How can you tell the difference? Just because you can't hear their voices doesn't mean there are none. Now, can you judge over those lunatics, but don't be judged as well? Can you explain to them the differences between them and you? If you look into their eyes, knowing that they don't understand you well but having sometimes the same doubts like you? Living with only the crazy doesn't makes you a crazy yourself, does it?
I don't know. But I can tell you what happened to me and my fellow hikaris. I can tell you everything. It will be a long way, but I want you to understand. We are not mad. Not insane. Not crazy. We're just special. We're chosen. The Chosen Ones.
My name is Bakura, Ryou. I'm the one telling you the story this far. But now, it's no longer my part to tell. You'll see. You'll understand. Soon. Soon enough. But only if you want to listen to us – and not turn your back to me, to Yugi and Malik. Like all the others did. Our families, our friends. For us, there is only the six of us.
It's your decision. Will you hear us out till the very end – or run away from the truth like a coward, hiding behind Mommy's back?
It's up to you.
Choose.
Take your time. But eventually, you have to choose.
...
Choose now.
For information on updates, go take a look at my profile.
That said, there won't be any updates beyond chapter 1 in the foreseeable future. This is a rather old piece already, and I just wanted to post the idea. Consider this story on hiatus, though I do have parts of chapter 1 finished.
