Author: Bakura's Guardian Angel
Title: Return With Vengeance
Rating: K+
Summary: Bakura never steps into a situation without a backup plan, and now he has a partner who is possibly even more dangerous than the thief himself!
Time Frame: Post-Dawn of the Duel (More exact time will be revealed in story)
Disclaimer: I am not a middle-aged man, and my name is not Kazuki Takahashi, therefore I must not have invented Yu-Gi-Oh!
A/N: (Well, Here we go again.)
Chapter One
Black and purple clouds billowed and swayed in the darkest corners of the Shadow Realm, though there was not a breath of wind. Everything was covered in an inky darkness that seemed to seep from the very ground and sky. The Shadows appeared to breath, like a great black ocean with waves of mist flowing back and forth endlessly in a timeless rhythm. There were no discernible features, just smudges and bulky masses; all blended together in meshed hues of black, purple, and grey. It was all a blurred mess, seemingly made to confuse the eye.
Occasionally a dark form would slip through the never-ending mists, walking, or crawling along miserably. A shadow among shadows, lithe and shapeless. A spirit forever lost to wander the Shadow Realm's endless dark. More often then not, it would be gone before you could be sure you had actually seen it. Like a ghost of memory, right on the edge of remembering, but too fleeting to recall.
Every once in a while a cry would echo through the murky silence, professing the pure misery of any soul, mortal or not, unfortunate enough to find itself trapped here. Hundreds of them, souls upon souls, whispered to no one and nothing making a sound like a soft breeze that muffled the occasional moans. Throughout the ages, sorcerors and wizards or all cultures had used the Shadows as a method of punishment. It could be traced back, even to before the Egyptian dynasties, as the source of rumors of mythological demons and creatures sent to feed on human souls.
Suddenly an inhuman screech ripped through the thick, underwater-like quiet, breaking it into shards like broken glass. For a moment everything was thrown into focus like a static-y television set whose antenna had been moved just enough to see the picture. Wandering spirits could be seen fleeing quickly from something just beyond the boundary of visibility. Features became clear, protruding unnaturally. There was no perception of depth, and distances were impossible to measure. It was not dissimilar to a 3-D pop-up book. There were large grey mountains in the distance, shrouded in looming ebony clouds. They looked menacing and acted as prison walls for this small piece of the never ending shadows.
Worldly features also adorned the Shadow Realm; monuments built for Ancient Gods, now left in this desolate place to rot. There were decrepit and crumbling temples, palaces with huge statues, their features long faded, overshadowing the foreign dark. Obelisks with fading ancient scripts stabbed at the pitch-black sky, and to the right of one of these markers were the Pyramids. They seemed larger in the Shadow Realm then their counterparts in their actual location in Egypt. They stood defiantly, as proud and magnificent as the Egyptians had made them to be though their great stone sides were falling apart as they were slowly chewed away by the corroding shadows.
It was as though the Shadow Realm was just the opposite side of a mirror into the Human World. A side unseen and secret. But no sooner had the Shadow Realm been unveiled, the process began to reverse. All of the buildings, temples, and even the dark mountains appeared to dematerialize, fading and blurring, like water splashed on a chalk drawing; utterly melting all the shapes and hues into the confused mess of darkness it was only moments ago.
A deep growl announced the approach of whatever had caused the strange disturbance. The ground shook. Tension grew and the very air was thick from nervous anticipation. Out of the heavy clouds appeared a beast of such great magnitude that with every step, it seemed the world would crumble. The mist surrounding it crackled with electricity and its skin emanated darkness. Its arms hung at its sides, hands curled into deadly fists with claws that could tear through any obstacle. It opened its mouth in another growl that invaded every corner of the Shadows. The sound grew until the air itself vibrated. The creature stopped, pausing in its trek, and began to shrink, downsizing rapidly. Its taught black skin and massive limbs thinned and grew more proportioned. The body deflated, the abnormal scales and claws retracting into it. Its dark red eyes glowed in endless hate and anger. After what could have been hours, or mere seconds, the creature grew small enough that it was swallowed up by the mists and could no longer be seen.
A form walked steadily out of the heavy dark from where the monster had disappeared. The form, quite obviously a man, paused and looked up though his eyes were closed now. He held his arms slightly away from him, palms up as though he were standing in the rain, despite that the only thing there to feel was mist. His hair was black. The uneven layers fell over his closed eyes, and lengthened until they hung just past his chin. He was clothed in black pants made of a material like leather. A sleeveless black shirt concealed his torso, but didn't hide his arms, which had black designs covering them from the tips of his fingers to his neck where the coiled tightly. The black marks, like inky tattoos, swirled slightly over his skin. It was as though the mist had melded with his skin, forming eery ghost-like swirls that continued to flow in tandem with the rest of the Shadows.
A whispering sigh floated over the strange man's face and his head snapped to the left. His hands fell back to his side, relaxed. His eyes opened, revealing them to be pure crimson, like twin pools of fire.
His red eyes fixed on a nondescript patch of cloud. Not a moment later a second figure stepped confidently through the billowing vapors. The newcomer's hair was long, stretching well past his shoulders, and hung in unruly white-silver tangles. He shook his hair, tinted purple by the unnatural atmosphere, out of his eyes and scanned the small clearing in the forest of thick smoke and mist. He paused on the first figure before walking forward so that they were a meter apart.
"Out for a stroll?" The white-haired figure asked, smiling a crooked half-smile. The tattooed man stood silently, not returning the grin. His blood-colored eyes narrowed slightly, but then he looked away, shrugging.
"The Shadow Realm isn't really the place to be practicing your sarcasm, Bakura. Don't try my patience." He replied finally with a dark voice that slid over the words like silk. "I've humored your request to speak with me, so don't waste my time."
Bakura laughed shortly, the sound was immediately swallowed up by the thick air. "Ah, no games tonight. Your sense of humor is strong as ever." He smirked. "In any case, I have my next plan ready. With Atem out of my way, merging two dimensions will be almost too easy."
"No." The black-haired man countered smoothly. The air around him sizzled with black sparks. His eyes turned to Bakura again. "Not this time. You are not going back Bakura. Your thirst for revenge will go unsatisfied, and you can consider your association with me and my dealings over."
Bakura opened his mouth to object, but Zorc interrupted viciously. "You've failed me, Bakura. Even with all the chances you had, you failed! We had mutual goals before, but our agreements, and my patience with you, are fading with your defeat in Egypt's past. I will be taking matters into my own hands this time."
Anger flitted over Bakura's calm face and his fists clenched. "We have a deal, Zorc."
Zorc laughed, sparks jumping from his red eyes. "Don't even consider trying to tell me that you've never brushed off pawns when it was in your favor simply because you'd had a deal."
Bakura bristled then growled, "I am not one of your pawns. And with matters such as these, it isn't wise to break off agreements prematurely. You agreed to our terms, Zorc, now consider following through."
Dark red flames erupted along the ground around Zorc's feet. He stepped coldly over to Bakura, standing just taller then him. With a voice like daggers of ice, he hissed, "Agreed, yes, that if you could successfully defeat the Pharaoh and converge my world with yours then I would grant you the power of the shadows, the equivilent of my own, and you would have the satisfaction of seeing your enemies defeated. Do not think I don't remember the terms of our deal Bakura. I was the one who merged part of our souls to seal the pact, giving you your uncanny inability to forge a path to the afterlife."
He grabbed Bakura's shirt with one hand, the designs on his skin swirling madly as though in tune to his anger. His eyes burned into Bakura's, like he could burn right into his thoughts. Then he snarled, "But you did not satisfy your end of the deal, and now the Pharaoh Atem has gone onto the next life while you are trapped here in my realm. Your quest to strip him of his power ended when he moved on. And you've proved that you are obviously just an incompetent mortal, like the rest of them, with your endless failures."
Bakura's red-tinted eyes flashed and he pulled away from Zorc heatedly. "I would have won. Every time, I would have won if it weren't for that stupid brat Yugi. He has an insatiable habit of getting in the way. But he doesn't have his baka 'yami' now. They wont suspect anything, seeing as how they think I was destroyed. By the time their slow minds have figured out that I've returned it will be too late for any of them."
The mist swirled like liquid around the two figures, wrapping their legs in black and purple tendrils of shadow that left dark stains wherever they touched. Zorc looked down on Bakura scornfully. "You truly expect me to allow you yet another chance?"
Bakura nodded once. "With the Pharaoh gone, and the mortals unsuspecting, it would be simplicity itself to accomplish our goals."
"You ask much of me, Bakura. What if you fail...again?" Zorc shook his head, but he had a strange smile on his lips.
The tense turn of conversation seemed to be past and Bakura smirked smugly. "I won't."
"The Millennium Items?" Zorc questioned.
"I need only one to accomplish my task, and I suspect that it will return to its place in due time."
"Your Hikari..." Zorc's red eyes were distant. "He is your tie to Earth...your anchor. He will be a key component in your plan." It wasn't a question.
Bakura frowned. "Yes. He's my tool, and my weapon." He smirked again. "I'm curious to see how he has changed since our last encounter."
Zorc was thoughtful. Then he smiled again, lips curving up into a feral grin. "Bakura, you entertain me. You are truly a creature after my own heart, one who would set the world on fire just to watch it burn..." He laughed, tossing Bakura a sideways glance. Then he said, his voice like poisoned honey, "Fine then. Our pact goes on...But I'm coming as well."
Bakura blinked in disbelief. "What? And just how do you intend on doing that?"
"Simply." Zorc smiled. "I join you in the mind of your Host, Ryou. Due to our souls being partially melded, my being there won't be that much of a difference for you, though your Hikari may feel some effects of my presence.
"The transfer will leave me incapable of even the most simple actions, of course. I will, in essence, hardly even be there consciously for some time. It will take days, possibly weeks, for me to strengthen. Time in which you can go through all the stages of your 'plan', but then you can perform the necessary ritual to let me manifest myself, since we're now working without the help of the Millennium Items."
Bakura paused, overviewing this new turn of events. Slowly he nodded. Zorc's prescence within Ryou would not hinder his plan in any way, and chances were that his Hikari wouldn't even know of the Shadow Lord's place in his subconscious. And in the end, the ritual to bring him into Earth physically would be made that much simpler.
Zorc nodded, then turned away. "Our transition into your Host will happen soon, after I create the appropriate conditions and infuse him with the Shadow Magic that will allow him to act as our vessel...after all, we wouldn't want him losing his mind." He smirked, red eyes looking amused.
"Don't look so worried Bakura, it won't harm him in any manner of permanence." Zorc laughed again, and Bakura scowled after him. Suddenly he turned back, scarlet eyes burning. His velvet voice was dangerous and absolute. "One more thing, my silly Bakura. I swear by every soul this realm holds that if you fail me again I will tear your soul into shreds and feed them piece by piece to my Shadow Wraiths. I'll quench their thirst with your blood, and then leave you for the mists. And I'll ensure that any afterlife whatever is left of your soul may have escaped to will be erased in all entirety. And while I do that, I'll be laughing." He chuckled as if to emphasize his threat, and then turned away.
Bakura watched him until he disappeared in the thick, purple-black clouds. Zorc didn't make hollow threats. On this point, Bakura was sure, Zorc would follow through, and Bakura didn't doubt in the least that he wouldn't enjoy it. It would be best, he thought to himself as he also turned back into the depths of the shadows, not to fail this time.
A/N: There's my redo chapter one (hopefully this will work out better then my last attempt). Thanks for reading, critiques and praises are welcome. Flames will be used to play with. Please review your way out!
ps. REALLY! CHECK MY PROFILE FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS! ALL IMPORTANT INFO WILL BE ON THERE!