Legal Disclaimer: The characters and situations presented here are not mine. All characters will be returned unharmed at the end of the fanfic.
Story Title: Chains of Crystal
Chapter Title: Enslavement
Romance: Fubuki x Otogi
Timeline: Effectively AU season 1 of GX.
Author's Notes: This was my Nanowrimo 2007 project. The story itself is complete, and I will post up a new chapter every Saturday and Wednesday until I have posted them all.
AU Info: Frankly, if I started to tell you everything, you wouldn't need to read the fanfic. Just take it as a given that it is effectively season 1 of GX. Fubuki is seventeen and in his third year, as is Ryou. Otogi's age is irrelevant, for all intents and purposes, as he is a djinn in this AU. Manjoume, Asuka, Shou, and Juudai are fifteen and in their first year. Hayato is sixteen and is repeating his first year. Some events have not yet happened (the Seven Stars, for one thing) but some have (Manjoume running away to North School, finding Ojama Yellow, returning, dueling his brother for the school and having the other Ojamas) have. I believe everything else you will find out as you read the fanfic. I hope you enjoy.

Otogi Ryuuji shivered. It wasn't out of fear, though a small thin line of it surged back and forth through him. It was from the chill of the wizard's work room and the cold iron chains that bound him to the wall. Cold iron: one of the few substances that could bind a djinn against his will, and that he could not use his powers on.

He stared across the room towards the wizard as the other worked on something that he couldn't see. If he had had access to all of his ablities at the moment, he would have turned the mage into something small and repulsive, such as a roach. Anything would have done, as long as it would have led to his freedom.

Instead, he was forced to watch and wait to find out what was going on. Though he thought he had an idea. It was something that most mortals tried to do if they were so lucky to get hold of one of his kind.

He'll regret it. Otogi wasn't certain of how he would make certain this would happen, but he would. This mage, this wizard, this beast was going to pay enough of a price just for holding him like this. If anything more was done, then the price would just get higher and higher. It was already going to be too expensive of a bill.

The wizard turned around and smirked a hideous smirk at Otogi. "Are you certain you don't want to reconsider my offer, Otogi? You could be very powerful if you do."

"Even if I wanted your kind of power, I wouldn't take it from you. And I have all the power that I do want." Otogi spat the words out at him and yanked again at the restraints. He wanted to be far from here, far away from where this bastard could do any harm to him.

The wizard came closer to the djinn, each step made with unnatural perfection. Otogi was revolted the closer he got. He could feel the kind of magic the other had: the power of blood and death, power stolen from others over the course of centuries. He wanted to throw up.

Once he drew close enough, the wizard reached out and lifted Otogi's chin with one finger. "If you won't work for me because you want to, then you'll work for me because I'll make you."

"That's the only way that you'll get any of my power," Otogi retorted, green eyes flaring angrily. The wizard appeared to take no notice.

"I suspected as much." The wizard held one hand out behind himself, and a flawless crystal flew across from where he'd been to land there. "I'd hoped that you would see things my way, but since it appears you'd rather be foolish, I've already made plans."

Otogi rolled his eyes. This guy was more over the top than Pegasus! He hadn't thought that was even possible. "Whatever you're going to do, go ahead and do it. I'm bored." He didn't betray that nervousness that grew thicker and thicker with every moment. He would not let this beast know about that.

The wizard brought the crystal around. It was transparent, the most perfect and flawless crystal that Otogi had ever seen. He swallowed briefly; for all of the crystalline beauty there, it radiated the most intense evil he could imagine.

"Say hello to your new home," the wizard purred. "And know this: so long as you are imprisoned within, you will belong completely to the person who owns it. You will obey their commands and grant any wish that they so desire, for so long as it remains in their possession."

Being bound to something like that wasn't exactly new to those of the race of the djinn. It wasn't something they looked forward to or expected to have happen to them, but it was a possibility nontheless. Otogi wanted to strangle someone. Preferably the far too pretty mage in front of him.

The wizard began to chant something in a language that Otogi didn't recognize, and after the first half-dozen words or so, the crystal turned a deep shade of smoky black. Otogi tried to turn away or close his eyes, but his attention was drawn to it regardless. He thought he'd seen a flaw within it, and against all reason, he wanted to see more. He could still hear the chanting, somewhere in the background, but it failed to mean anything to him now. Instead, all of his attention was taken up by this crystal.

Said crystal was changing colors once again, and he thought the mage was bringing it closer to him. Or perhaps he was drawing closer to it. He wasn't sure of his own being anymore. Everything was fluid, except his focus on the crystal and the crystal itself.

There was a shriek, a sharp piercing howl of pain, from somewhere even beyond the words that he couldn't understand, and then he was somewhere else. He wasn't in the mage's workshop anymore. He looked around, confused. Where was he? What had happened? For a moment, Otogi had no more memory of knowledge of who he was and what had happened than a child would have.

But when the moment had passed, everything flowed back into him, and he swore for two minutes straight without repeating himself. That damned wizard! Trapped! Trapped and enslaved and not able to break out! No djinn could ever break the bindings placed like this. Their power simply did not extend to that.

He slammed his fists against the crystal walls around him, swearing even more. If only he hadn't been so stupid! If only he'd listened to everyone else, just once…

Now he suspected he'd never see them again. All of his friends…gone.

He had known anyway that he would outlive most of them, being what he was, since they were mortal. But he wanted to see them grow up anyway, to see what happened with their lives, and how much they accomplished. He had wanted to be there for them, for all of them.

And instead, he was in here, where the only slim chance he had would be if this crystal were somehow stolen and brought to his friends. He didn't think that would happen. It would make him happy, and the wizard had gone out of his way to make certain he wasn't happy.

Any second now, the bastard would call him forth and command him to do who knew what. Otogi's powers weren't quite infinite, as he was still under a hundred years old himself, but they were more than impressive enough to bring the kingdom itself to it's knees. Atemu… He didn't want to do that to his friend.

Minutes passed. They could've been hours or days or even weeks. Time here didn't feel like time had outside of it. Maybe that was so the djinn inside wouldn't go too crazy.

Not that Otogi really cared about going crazy. He already wanted to murder the mage.

At least inside it was kind of comfortable, with cushions scattered at least two feet deep. A few tests proved he had limited access to his powers, so he could keep himself fed if he wanted to. But he couldn't communicate with the outside at all. He was in his own little world, all but literally.

After prowling around for what he surmised was something like half an hour, Otogi settled himself on a cushion, choosing one that matched his eyes just for his own personal amusement, and relaxed. Maybe the wizard was going to wait a few weeks or months before he called him out, to see if he'd be more tractable than he'd been before going into the crystal. Even though he'd be forced to obey him now, the mage would probably want him to do it 'willingly'.

Yeah. As if that was ever going to happen. Willingly obey the person who had hunted and hounded him for two years before finally capturing him and binding him with cold iron, of all things? If they'd just been mage-bindings, there might have been that infintimesal chance. But cold iron burned and froze at the same time. Otogi glanced briefly down at his wrists, and was not surprised to see the faintest hints of the markings still. They would likely be there his entire life, no matter how many eons that lasted.

Moment by moment, time crept by. Otogi stared at the crystal walls around him until he could stand seeing them no more. He couldn't see through them, he could only see to them, and he could hear nothing outside. If the crystal was being moved, he couldn't feel that either.

Atemu. Yuugi. Anzu. Honda. Jounouchi. Bakura. Ryou. Mai. Shizuka. All people he would never see again. At least not as they had been. Yuugi and Atemu had been the only ones to know his secret. He'd trusted them that much, and they had trusted him, after everything that had introduced them to each other.

His fists clenched against the softness of a pillow, and he slammed it hard against the others, his frustration building and building without any outlet at all. He couldn't even satisfactorily break something. All he could make in here was food, and even the dishes it appeared on wouldn't break.

It was all his fault. The mage. The wizard. The one who had put him in here in the first place.

All his fault. He would pay for it. Otogi knew he'd promised this to himself before, but now he swore it all over again. No matter how long it took he would find a way to get his revenge. His eyes flashed brilliant emerald sparks as he began to fantasize about just what he'd do when he had the chance. There was a way to break this binding, he just didn't happen to know what it was or be capable of it himself.

But there were always other ways. There were other people out there, and he didn't think this mage was liked all that much by anyone else he knew either. Perhaps one of his friends could be lucky enough to free him. Ryou was studying to be a wizard himself after all, a good wizard, not one that stole his power from everything and everyone else that he possibly could. He might know a way. For that matter, Bakura might help as well. Who knew when a thief's talents might come in handy? Otogi could only hope at the moment.

So that was what he did. He laid back on the cushions and fought to keep his temper from flaring, no matter how much he really wanted it to. There would be a time and a place for it, and he would unleash it with all of his power when that time and place came. That wizard would learn what it was like to cross one of the djinn. He might not be high-ranking, but he was still a djinn, and imprisoning one of those for no more reason than not serving him would have consequences.

When the mage called only Darkness came back into the reach of his hands, he would show no mercy.

To Be Continued