All your lovely reviews (And the Criminal Minds marathon I watched last night) have given me the inspiration I needed to finish this, so here it is! The next chapter, in all it's glory! Enjoy!
First Chapter: Rock Bottom
The first thing Aki became aware of was scent of roses, so strong that for a moment she thought she'd fallen asleep in the garden back home. A hand was gently stroking her hair, fingers combing through magenta locks and deftly picking out tangles. The ground was hard, but her head was pillowed on someone's lap, which was good because it ached horribly. It was only when a hand gently stroked her cheek – a hand too callused to be her mother's – that the memory of what had happened to her aching skull came back in and she bolted upright with a scream. A scream that she instantly regretted as it bounced off the walls of the space they were enclosed in and reminded her head that it currently hated her with a migraine-y passion. Probably metal, her brain decided judging by the feeling of cold, smooth floor pressing against her bare legs. Wherever she and the mystery person had been trapped, it was a lightless hole. Oh god, they tossed me into some hole in a basement somewhere to die—
"I'm glad you're awake," a voice, a child's voice, said from somewhere in the gloom. "Your head was bleeding, and you didn't move for the longest time… people can die like that, sometimes. I didn't want to be left alone in here with a dead body." The relief in the kid's voice was almost tangible, and almost enough to crowd out that sliver of fear. "I'm Rally, by the way."
"…Aki. Izayoi Aki," she murmured, rubbing the side of her head where she found something… crusty… to go with the pain. Remembering the kid's – Rally's – words from earlier added an additional edge to her wince. I wonder if I need stitches… I wonder if I'll be able to get somewhere to get stitches. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
"Exactly? No. But we're on a ship. One of the ones that brings scrap from the City to Satellite. Except this one… kinda has a bigger definition of 'scrap' than most people would think. That low humming sound you can hear is the engine." Rally's voice became even softer "We're near the bottom of the boat, as far as I could tell. I thought I could hear some other sounds coming from some of the rooms nearby before they tossed me in here, so there might be more of us. I don't know." And if that wasn't the beginning of a sob in the kid's voice, Aki would eat her duel disk. If I had my duel disk, she amended as she realized, with a thrill of alarm, that her left arm was considerably lighter than it should be. A quick pat-down of her jacket revealed that her deck was gone too. I am going to-! No, Aki, calm down… you can't snap now, this kid doesn't deserve it. Especially when she knew that she was trying to make herself angry, because otherwise she would be terrified out of her mind. Without her deck, she couldn't use her powers. And without her powers, she was a scrawny teenager whose best asset in a fight was running away. Not that I think I'll be doing much of that for a while, she noted, gingerly massaging her ribs where one of her attackers had kicked her and wondering, idly, if any of them were broken. She could breathe okay, though, so probably not. …maybe I should have paid more attention in Health. Especially when we did the first-aid unit.
"So… the ship is moving, I take it?" she asked, if only to break herself out of the bleak turn her thoughts had taken. "Do you know where we're going… oh." Bits of memory from a conversation that she had thought was a nightmare started to filter in. "Oh, no." Her arm started to throb, started to glow. "If I ever get out of this, I will hunt those bigoted, arrogant seniors down and show them exactly how monstrous I can be!"
"Ah, Aki-san… is your arm supposed to do that?" Rally asked, pale eyes wide, their color impossible to determine in the faint red glow emanating from the claw-shaped birthmark on her arm. That empty, shocked expression was like a bucket of cold water on her temper, and it snuffed out the glow from the accursed mark immediately.
"…sorry…" she mumbled into the silence.
"…it's okay. Could you um, maybe turn it back on or whatever? It was nice to have some light in here."
"It's not something I can control," Aki admitted, knowing that her cheeks were burning with humiliation. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Okay. I understand all about having embarrassing tattoos that you don't want to talk about," Rally replied in a tone of voice that Aki noticed was trying to be sympathetic. She stomped on the impulse to snap, because after all, how could anyone understand the pain, the isolation that this damned birthmark had brought her? Rally's just a little girl, and probably scared out of her mind, she reminded herself. And she's willing to ignore my weirdness, which puts her ahead of… oh, almost everyone I've ever met. Besides, we're both enclosed in a dark space, with only each other for company. "But can we talk about something? I have no idea how long I've been in here… I don't want to have to think about it anymore!"
Noting the desperation in Rally's voice, Aki cast around for a topic that wouldn't be depressing. "Um… do you duel?"
"Some. I'm not very good… we didn't exactly have a lot of money left over for cards, especially after Mom died. A lot of my cards were pity presents from some of the older girls on the block, but they stopped me from losing every time I dueled, so I didn't mind too much."
"…you wouldn't happen to have your deck with you, would you?" she asked, hoping she didn't sound too eager. She'd never actually tried to use her powers, and she had no idea if they would work without a duel disk, but she was more than willing to try.
"No. When I wasn't using it I usually hid it in with my underwear, just in case Dad ran out of money for his precious bottles and decided to sell something else. That was the one place he'd never go. I wish I could have hidden me in there; maybe I wouldn't be in this mess."
…I did not hear that right. "You're… not saying that your father is the one who…"
"It's not his fault!" Rally protested. "Not really, anyway. My mom was sick, really sick, and then she… died. And Dad got stuck with all the bills from the hospital, and we had to move down to the docks, and… everything just kind of went from bad to worse. It was too much for him to deal with by himself, and everything I did to try and help just made things worse. When they showed up, saying they had work a kid could do and that they didn't mind my Marker… he didn't ask too many questions. Especially when they paid him up front, and promised more once I'd 'worked off the starting debt'. He never would have sent me away if he knew the truth!"
("It's horrible at the Academy, I hate it there! Every day, every time I duel, somebody gets hurt! And everyone just whispers and stares at me… Papa, please don't make me stay!") How old had she been the first time she'd had that argument with her parents? Nine? Ten? She'd never been able to get through. Her father was so convinced that being at the Academy, where she would have to duel every day, would give her the incentive to find some sort of miraculous way to get her 'little problem' under control that he'd ignored any and all protests, to the point of forbidding her to complain. "Rally…"
"He wouldn't," Rally insisted, and by her tone it seemed clear to Aki that she felt the topic of discussion was closed. "I do have one card… One-Shot Booster. It was the rare card in the first pack that Mom bought for me. I'd show you, but, well… kinda impossible to see in here."
"My deck was a gift from my parents, too. It had a focus on Plant-type monsters," Aki pitched in, allowing Rally to change the subject, and filing the information away for later.
"Really? That's pretty cool… I wanted to build a Machine-type deck, but, well… never quite had enough cards to pull it off. Do you have a favorite card?"
"Yeah, Black Garden. It's a Field Magic card… I use it to set up a lot of my combos," Aki found herself admitting. Oh, people had tried to talk to her at the Academy… if they were fishing for weaknesses in her deck, or looking for someone's notes to piggyback that night's Practical Application paper off of. The last time she'd had a real conversation about Duel Monsters with anyone was…
("So, Aki-chan… if you were in a store, picking out Duel Monster cards for your deck… what kind of monsters would you want?"
"Plant monsters! Pretty, flower plant monsters! But anything would be okay, really… if you remember your promise to play with me once I get my deck. You will remember, won't you Papa?")
Aki shook her head violently to clear it of one of her last happy memories with her father. And then had to suppress a hiss of pain as her nerves reminded her, once again, that she'd been hit twice on the head the last time she'd been fully conscious. Was that yesterday? The day before yesterday? Or is it still Tuesday? "I guess my favorite monster would be the Phoenician Cluster Amaryllis. If I ever see my deck, again, anyway." One of those seniors probably took it before they dumped me here. A surge of hate for that group of boys burned inside her, and she promised herself once again that if she ever made it back to the City that she would find them.
"We'll get it back," Rally tried to reassure her. "I'm pretty good at… getting things."
"I don't even know where it is," Aki sighed.
"Um… well you see… hey, does the engine sound different to you?"
"Hmm…" Aki lapsed into silence and cocked her head. Yes, the background vibrations seemed to be… tapering off, maybe? "I think you're right."
"So we've reached Satellite," Rally murmured, almost too softly to be heard. Aki reached out through the darkness, and her hand found what was probably a shoulder. The girl was trembling.
Satellite…
She could remember nights, when one of her duels had gone particularly badly, when she would lie awake in her bed and wonder if this would be the time when she'd finally exhausted everyone's patience, when her father would finally be through with protecting her to protect his reputation and career, and she'd be thrown away somewhere so she couldn't hurt normal people anymore. Some of her classmates loved to trade horror stories of the sorts of things rumor and the tabloids claimed happened on that abandoned strip of earth. Satellite had always been the poorest part of Neo Domino City, but when it had been broken off from the mainland during the disaster fourteen years ago, it had become a prison without walls, someplace where the undesirable elements of society were dumped so that they wouldn't bother decent people, while providing an endless supply of cheap labor for some of the nastiest, most thankless jobs imaginable. Satellite was Neo Domino City's garbage dump in every sense of the term. And, according to her gossipy classmates (who would then pause, and give her a significant look from the corners of their eyes, usually complete with a smug little smile) it was a breeding ground for all sorts of crime. Untaxed gambling, drugs, prostitution. If you wanted it, and you had the money, the grimy gray sky was the limit.
("Wouldn't it just be horrible to be trapped in that filthy hole? I'm glad I always follow the rules… unlike some people I could mention. I don't have a rich, well-connected family willing to bribe me out of prison, so I have to do my best to be good… must be nice to be so blessed, right Izayoi? What with your so-called 'condition' and all…")
"We need to stick together, if we can. It'll be harder to escape alone," Aki found herself saying as her hand tightened on Rally's shoulder. Because… this wasn't right. It wasn't fair. Nothing she had done had been bad enough to deserve this, and Rally, from the sound of it, deserved this even less.
"…are you serious?" Rally asked, sounding both horrified and hopeful. "These guys are scary. The big one with his face covered in Markers said he'd snap me in half like a toothpick if I tried to run. He wasn't kidding."
"I'm always serious," Aki replied. "And make sure you hold on to that card."
"Well, I wasn't exactly planning on letting them take it, but why…" The shriek of rusted hinges being forced open, and the sudden flood of light cut off the question.
"Well, well, well… it looks like the little rosebud survived after all," A female – female! – voice sneered. The smell of roses intensified, and Aki realized that it must be the woman's perfume, adding yet another level of wrongness to the situation. The sorts of people running this sort of thing… they were supposed to be men. Fat, ugly men with pudgy, dirty fingers and half their teeth missing. (And a stick to hit the girls with, she remembered that particularly nasty group of girls had been fairly clear about that.) They weren't supposed to be women. Girls just didn't do this sort of thing to other girls. Nasty comments, cruel pranks, ruined knickknacks and clothes, if you had the misfortune to live with them or have your room's keycard duplicated… they weren't supposed to do things like this. And they sure as hell weren't supposed to smell like her mother while they did it.
Head in the game, Izayoi. Because if she thought of this as just another duel, just another opponent, maybe she wouldn't panic. "You don't sound too terribly concerned," Aki ground out as she scrambled to her feet, trying to blink the water out of her eyes as they adjusted to the rapid change of light. She could make out a female figure standing right in front of the door, along with a second hulking presence standing behind her - a bodyguard, perhaps? The woman probably wasn't much taller than she was, but bright red stiletto heels added three, maybe four inches to her height. Her blond hair fell in precisely-styled waves, and her clothing, from the cream silk blouse and the form-fitting black silk slacks to the sleek, stylized pink duel disk strapped to her arm practically screamed wealth. The abundance of gold chains that almost covered the considerable exposed by the fact that said silk blouse was unbuttoned halfway down her front screamed the fact that she didn't want anyone to miss that wealth, either.
"Oh, but I am. If there's one thing that vexes me, it's wasted money," the woman replied with a smirk that told Aki that she knew the younger girl had been trying to size her up. "And I see the little scrapper is as sprightly as ever. Do try not to bite Bryce again, dear, he might forget himself and put some scars on that lithe little body of yours. The Marker's bad enough… ruins that fresh, helpless look that certain portions of my clientele love so very, very much…"
"Why do you keep talking about me like that… I'm a boy you evil-!" Rally shouted, but was immediately taken down screaming as the woman pulled something out of her handbag and fired it at him.
"Really now, if you don't want to be mistaken for a girl, why the dress and the crappy plastic jewelry?" the woman asked, her sneer twisting her face into something monstrous. "Honestly, it's people like you that almost make me believe in fate." A twitch of her finger, and another surge of electricity ran through the writhing little figure on the floor.
Tazer. Oh god... "Stop it! She-I mean, he's just a little kid—why are you doing this to us, anyway?"
"Why am I doing this?" the woman asked, amused, as she pressed another button and retracted the stun gun's hooks. "Only a spoiled little city brat would have to ask me that. Don't worry, he's not dead. You're not even unconscious, are you my little scraper? The voltage isn't high enough to render even a little slip of a thing like you unconscious. You'd never learn anything if you blacked out before I could teach you, now would you?"
"You… bitch…" Rally gasped as he tried to get his legs back underneath him.
"Tsk, tsk, such vile language for a child! But I'll let it pass this once, little scrapper… trash is trash, after all. It'll take some time to pretty you up enough to cover the stink," she sneered, pulling a bottle of something out of her purse and spraying Rally with it. The smell of roses in the little space became almost overpowering, and Aki realized that it was a bottle of perfume.
"You…" Aki made herself shut up, as the woman's stance shifted. Her eyes, that smile… she'd seen their like before, usually on the faces of the girls back at the Academy when they could tell that one of their cutting comments had struck home. She was enjoying this. "You don't deserve to wear a duel disk." Sprang from her lips before she could stop the words from coming out.
"Oh? And what business is it of yours, girl?" the woman asked, stalking closer. "I may be refraining from injuring you to avoid exacerbating your concussion, but do not forget that I own you now… just like I own this." She brought the duel disk up, as if she were examining it, and as it caught the light from the hallway the contours of the disk went from familiar to something she should know like shape of her own shadow.
"That's-!"
"Mine. And you'll remember it, unless you want me to get… creative, with disciplining you. What do you have left to lose, after all? These ridiculous bangs of yours? The shirt off your back, perhaps? Or maybe you would enjoy spending the rest of the time from this ship to my compound bound and blindfolded. I am sure that would be quite pleasant after spending so much time in this dark little cell."
"I… understand," she murmured, hating having to submit to this… creature, but knowing that she had better chances of escaping if she stayed mobile. Avoid traps, defend against the eight-star monster with the godawful special effect, and wait for the card that will turn this around. Just another duel… would she really make me walk around in my underwear? She had a horrible feeling that the answer was yes, and it stained her cheeks bright red.
"I had a feeling you'd understand quickly," the woman congratulated her with an approving nod, and a pat to the head that made her face feel like it was on fire. In that instant, Aki had an epiphany: she truly, honestly wanted to kill this woman.
Later, she promised herself, struggling to keep her the rage off of her face.
"And the biting brat, Miss Katherine?" grumbled the man in the hall, the first thing he'd said throughout the entire exchange.
"If he wants to act like an animal, he can be muzzled like one," the woman said dismissively. "I'll leave it to your judgment."
"Like… hell!" Rally gasped, lurching to his feet and stumbling in the general direction of their tormentor. With a snort of purest contempt, she simply stepped to the side and allowed gravity to bring the flailing boy down again. Instinct sent Aki darting forward just in time to catch him. "Let me go, Aki-san!"
"Hush, Rally. You can't win… not now, anyway," she soothed, adding the last part in a whisper that she hoped was low enough not to be overheard.
"Can't win at all," Rally whispered, burying his head in her neck. "Not gonna live like this...!"
"Don't think like that. Duelists don't give up," Aki told him. I will not let Rally give up. I… I don't want to give up on the possibility that I might not have to do this by myself.
"Break it up, you two," grunted the muscle man as he physically separated them. "You can walk on your own, or…"
"We'll walk," Aki answered for both of them, noting that the woman, Katherine, had already disappeared somewhere else. Should I be relieved that she's gone, or insulted that we're not worth enough of her time to fire off a parting insult or two?
"Keh. Both of you better keep your teeth to yourselves, or I think I will drag the two of you naked to the compound. Now… hands," he instructed as he started uncoiling a length of rope from his belt.
Aki blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"You think I trust the two that the two of you have the brains not to run away? Not that it would do you any good. Here, you won't find too many people willing to take in a useless kid… especially you, brat. You've already been collared by Security, which makes you both a troublemaker and too stupid or slow to get away, as far as these people are concerned. So… hands," he repeated. Rally glared something murderous, but even he realized that it was better to keep his mouth shut as he thrust his hands out in front of him abruptly enough that Aki almost thought he'd tried to punch their captor, despite the fact that the man was easily three times Rally's size. The thug must have noticed it too, because he tied Rally's hands a good deal tighter than Aki thought was necessary. Her suspicions were confirmed when he moved on to her own wrists. While the ropes were too snug for her to slip out of, she didn't feel any of the pain that Rally hadn't quite been able to keep off his face. "Okay, now keep up, brats. Sooner we get off this piece of floating scrap metal…" he grumbled as he tugged the lead rope they'd both been tied to, dragging them out of their cell and off into the unknown.
AN: Y'know, I feel a bit stupid for not realizing this earlier… but I finally figured out that Aki's dub name, Akiza, is kinda a mishmash of her first and last name in the original. Which leaves me to wonder… is all of the pain 4Kids puts us through with their crappy translations really born solely from the need to make things more 'kid friendly'? Or is some of it simply the result of hiring translators that have no idea what they're doing? (Because really, if they wanted to Americanize the name, why not go with Alice, or Alisa, or even Acacia? The last one's not nearly as common, but it's also, if I recall correctly, a type of tree, hence going with the 'plant' theme of Aki's deck. Akiza doesn't even really sound like a name, IMO.) Sorry, I am a dork, but…. Ugh, it just drives me bonkers! (headdesk)
Sorry about the tangent. About the chapter… I was always planning on Rally ending up in this mess with Aki, mostly to give Yusei and the rest of Team Satisfaction a reason to be in the right place at the right time… but my muse decided to take another bit of cannon and throw it out the window. Gleefully, at that… you should be grateful you can't hear her cackling madly in the background. Guess now I'll have to think of another way for the boys to get involved. (Yup, that's right, Kiryu's still in the picture. According to my timeline, there should be at least another six to nine months before things with the team go nuclear.)
Questions? Criticism? Desire to burn Katherine at the stake? Leave me a review and let me know!