Summary of Chapter One: Taking off shortly after Yugi's duel with Yami Bakura/Bakura in the Battle City Arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime – Season Two, Episodes 33-36, I believe – Yugi informs Ryou that the spirit within his Millennium Ring saved him at the end of their duel. All of the commotion of how he became so badly hurt, where he was and how he got there as well as why the evil spirit inside his Ring had saved him sent Ryou into mental overload. So in addition to being physically wounded and drained, this sent the poor boy into a catatonic state during which his mind/soul was sent into the Millennium Ring, by the Ring itself. Why? That is still unknown, but we do know two things. That the Ring seems to have a will and mind of its own that may or may not be separate from Yami Bakura and whatever is in control of the Ring's inner workings and darker magic is seriously twisted.
Chapter Two
It felt like hours had passed, though in the warped reality of the Millennium Ring in was more than likely Ryou had only been running for ten minutes top; however, that didn't change the fact that by the time he had reached the lit torches once more he was exhausted. Mentally, the Ring seemed to have a tendency of draining those that entered it – at least that was true for Ryou and he imagined anyone.
'Maybe that's why the other's seem to think the spirit in the Ring is always so bad, maybe it's because he's always so tired and cranky?' The boy thought to himself as he wondered whether or not a spirit could become mentally or physically drained – in the real world or within the Ring.
Taking only a few moments to catch his breath, the sliver haired teen began walking through the now-lit, ancient hallway of the Millennium Ring, examining the walls for any semblance of a door. Despite the last two doors being actual and obvious doors, he recalled the last demand of the Ring he had made, 'The next door I come to in the light better be where you want me to be or I'm sitting in the buggery dark!' Ryou didn't put it past the Ring to make the door as inconspicuous as possible.
Running his hands along the wall that the doors had all previously been on, the British teen continually examined every inch and minute detail contained on each wall of the winding corridor.
Eventually, after again what seemed like hours, Ryou found a door; it was a door like any other he had come across while within the mysterious Millennium item. Examining the door, once he had arrived to face it, he ran his fingers along the detailed and intricate carvings in the stone of it and its frame.
Ryou wondered what had possessed him to stop and admire these strange Egyptian symbols he didn't have the knowledge to decipher. He frowned and furrowed his brow, trying to remember if the other two doors he had seen this trip into the Ring had shared these same symbols or if they even had hieroglyphs to begin with.
'I really hope this is the right door…' He thought nervously as he finally built up the courage to pull on the handle into the room.
A surge of white-light eradiated from the now open door and into the hallway as Ryou was forced to shield his eyes.
Once he was in the room the door closed behind him and the brightness of the room had dissipated completely. Ryou was standing in darkness – a darkness he didn't even think was possible after being in the shadows of the main corridor of the Ring.
He shuttered against the cold darkness.
"Hello?" The platinum blonde said meekly into the room, though there was no response.
'God, I hope I'm supposed to be here…' He thought to himself.
"Hello?" He said a bit louder this time, cupping his hands around his lips. This time he was responded to with a series of echoes. Though these echoes were not his own…
The disturbing magic of the Millennium Ring mutated the boys timid tones into a cacophony of low growls, high screeches, maniacal laughs, tortured moans and all sordid manner of things in between – all repeating the same greeting in a twisted and malicious way. "Hello. Hello. Hello."
"I guess that answers that question…" Ryou muttered to himself as he dropped his head and shuttered at the unwelcoming welcome.
Just then he began to hear faint mews. Raising his head with a start, his eyes wide with surprise, he saw a few circular lights shining from an unknown source where the ceiling of a normal place would be – in the middle of the light closest the teen was a single black cat, grooming it's left paw.
Ryou smiled lightly at the sight, he had always held a special place for cats in his mind, but then he remembered where he was…
"Hello." He said blankly to the cat, half expecting it to answer him; though it simply looked up from its grooming at the boy.
"Am I supposed to be here?" Ryou continued.
The cat got up from its sitting position at the center of the light and began to walk away, into the next circle of light shining down from the would-be ceiling.
"Am I supposed to follow you?" The pale, silver haired boy asked as the gap between he and the cat grew slightly. The cat simply flicked its tail, which Ryou took to be a yes.
Shrugging, he took cautious steps forward into the room and under the first circular light.
Despite there being a somewhat significant gap between each circular light, the black cat seemed to jump from the end of one light to the beginning of the next, completely skipping past the blackness between. Ryou found this odd only for a moment; it was the Millennium Ring, after all, and weirder things had happened there.
After a few lights into the dark expanse of whatever 'room' the Ring decided this would serve as this time, Ryou found himself having to quicken his pace to keep the black cat in his line of sight. The gap between each light seemed to get greater and greater and of course Ryou could not simply transport to the next light as the cat appeared to do.
"Hey!" Ryou shouted after the cat, beginning to run, "Wait I can't keep up!"
The cat turned to gaze at the boy over its shoulder for only a moment before continuing out of the last light and into the darkness – or wherever the cat disappeared to.
Frowning, Ryou continued on at a slow and sluggish pace, figuring he no longer had a reason to run after the vanished creature of the Ring's creation. After a while, once he had reached the end of the long trail of lit circles, he stood at the center of the last beam of light. Looking around into the darkness surrounding him he realized that the lights he had already passed through were gone… He was trapped far into this dark and damned place.
"Ugh, what now…" He muttered to himself under his breath.
"Meow." The cat sounded from within the darkness, echoing all around the teen.
He jumped and twisted around to see where the sound was coming from, but it was no use; the echoes completely threw his sense of hearing off.
"Meow." The creature let out once more; though this time there was no echo, well not counting the remaining echoes from the animal's first utterance.
Ryou twisted around on his heels, slightly afraid of what the beast could be or turn into at any minute.
The cat was sitting at the edge of the last lit light where Ryou was standing nervously. "Hello." He wiggled his fingers in a greeting to the cat before him.
It tilted its head slightly to the left in reply, flicking it tail from side to side slightly.
A few moments of this awkward and intensely silent staring contest passed.
"So what now?" Ryou asked.
"Meow."
"I mean where am I? Er, we? Are we going somewhere else?"
The black cat rose from its sitting position and turned to exit the beam of light once more.
Ryou sighed but didn't speak. Once the cat had exited the light, he took a few steps forward himself, closing his eyes, unsure of what he would find on the other side – if anything – he crossed the border beyond the ray of light.
Opening his eyes, timidly, Ryou saw that he was in a new room entirely. The walls and floor we stone just like the main corridor and there were lit torches spaced evenly out across the walls at a height just above eye level. A bit of a distance away the teen could make out what looked like a person lying on the ground; the black cat sitting beside the individual, flicking its tail as usual.
Ryou blinked nervously as he examined the peculiar sight, taking the first steps on his journey toward the two inhabitants of this section of the Millennium Ring.
As he got closer to where the cat and the other person were he shuttered as if a cold breeze had just blown over him. This unknown individual looked eerily similar to Ryou, himself; though that wasn't much to go off of considering the multitude of Ryou 'copies' the Ring seemed to make for its twisted experiments or demonstrations or whatever one wanted to refer to them as.
The British teen got closer yet and realized the person at the center of the room was unconscious, or sleeping… He got a nervous shiver and felt a strong urge to leave the room; glancing around him he saw no doors and began to panic slightly.
"Fear not, Bearer." A light and airy voice echoed from all directions within the ancient, stone room.
Ryou jumped and looked around the room quickly. "W-who is that?" He called out.
"I have no name," the feminine voice echoed over the last fading echoes of its first statement. "but am known by many."
'Riddles…?' Ryou thought. "Is there one that I would know?" He asked meekly.
"Meow." The cat mewed from a distance away, still beside the Ryou-lookalike.
"Wait, you're the cat?"
"No," the sweet voice echoed all around the boy, "the cat is me." It corrected.
"Is there a difference?" Ryou wondered genuinely though there was no answer. "Why am I here?"
"Your body struggles."
"How so?"
"After the abuse you suffered at the hands of this one," the cat glanced over at the individual lying unconscious beside it, 'and the other Bearer, you're too weak to remain in the physical world. So I called you here."
"You mean you kidnapped me…" Ryou muttered under the echoes around him. "And this one? Who is that one?"
"This is the spirit I have claimed, but that is beside the point. You sought refuge just as you have before and I admitted you." The voice corrected tenderly.
Ryou sighed, unwilling to continue the inquiry regarding the spirit the voice spoke of. "I still don't understand what you are."
"I am next to nothing and yet I am everything."
"Why so many riddles?" Ryou asked with agitation growing in his voice.
"You used to like my riddles."
"What are you talking about?" The pale boy snapped. "You're not making any sense."
"Meow."
"Ugh." Ryou threw his hands up in the air in defeat.
"Your body needed time to recover from the transgressions made against it; your mind was in the way and wanted a place to retreat to." The voice echoed softly throughout the room, ringing in Ryou's ears.
"So I am in the Millennium Ring?"
"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answers?"
The boy's eyes narrowed on the cat, which was licking its paw once more. Letting his annoyance drop long enough to contemplate the new information that he was being presented, he responded, "So you're saying that one is the spirit in the Ring? That must mean you're the Ring…?"
A moment passed as the cat continued to lick its paws.
"This one would perhaps argue that I am simply here and that he is in fact the Ring. It has been a long and gruesome three centuries for him and they have warped his mind." The tender voice sounded all around the room, sounding remorseful for the spirit.
"Do you know what he's put me through?"
"Do you know what he's prevented you from going through?"
Ryou scoffed, "I don't really want to talk about this."
A few moments passed befor a response was made. "As I said, you have nothing to fear, Bearer."
Then the cat got up and brushed against the spirit, before vanishing into thin air.
The individual across the room gasped for air as if coming up from a deep depth of the ocean. His resounds of anguish pierced through the ancient stone chamber of the Ring, writhing around on the floor in pain. The spirit grasped and clutched at his body as if he had been put through the worst form of torture.
Ryou jumped and took a step back, not sure what to do or say or even if he should. He glanced around the room, nervously searching for a door, a door that would lead him out of there, to anywhere but there – the spirit in the Ring was a bad person to meet even on a good day, according to his friends in the real world.
While the teen didn't have any type of medical training, he could tell that the spirit was beginning to hyperventilate from breathing so rapidly in his state of panicked pain.
Ryou timidly and quietly approached the spirit lying on the ground and knelt down beside him. He was shaking and holding himself while coughing up blood. 'What on Earth did Yugi and his Puzzle's spirit do to him…?' The boy wondered in a terrified manner.
"A-are you o-okay…?" He asked sounding pretty frightened.
The spirit didn't answer, just shook against the floor as if having a seizure.
The young teen pulled his handkerchief out from his back pocket and wiped the blood from the spirit's mouth and used his sleeve to wipe the sweat forming on his forehead. Ryou began to get teary eyed. Whether or not it was due to the striking resemblance he shared with the afflicted individual or the realization that were his Millennium Ring's spirit not to have swapped him places during his duel with Yugi, this could have been him. No, he would have been dead; Ryou shuttered, 'There's no way I would have survived something like this… The spirit might not even live…' He thought to himself, frowning.
As the spirit began to shake more violently, Ryou's expression of fright grew on his face. He had no idea what to do, but reacted as only he knew how; the pale teen pulled the alternate version of himself into his arms and held him tightly in his embrace in an attempt to soothe his overloaded mind and comfort his taxed body.
"Wha-" The spirit sounded in confusion though unable to complete his question out of exhaustion and pain.
"Sh, we'll talk when you're better…" Ryou instructed. 'I have a lot to get sorted with you…' He thought to himself sternly.
Time wasn't something the Ring seemed to trouble itself with because when Ryou awoke after falling asleep with the spirit in his arms he had absolutely no idea how long it had been. There were no clocks, no sundials, no windows, nothing – not even a 'sense of time' – there was simply no way to tell the time.
Upon awaking, the teen sat up, rubbing his back where he had slept awkwardly on the cold stone floor for who knows how long. The spirit wasn't beside him where the boy last knew him to be, so he looked around the dimly lit room for him.
Nothing.
"Hello?" He let out meekly.
"What are you doing here?" A low, menacing voice growled.
"What are you doing here?" Ryou asked trying to sound cool and natural.
"I live here." The voice, the teen could only imagine belonged to the spirit, snapped. "What are you doing here?"
"I, uh, I'm sorry, I don't really know…" The boy admitted, scanning the area for any sign of the spirit while also examining his reported home – not much to look at…
There was no answer.
"You, uh seemed pretty poor off last I-" Ryou started before being cut off.
"Get out."
The silver haired teen blinked, taken aback by the lack of hospitality; then he remembered where he was and who he was supposedly talking to. "Trust me, I would very much like to; alas, I don't know the way out."
"Just wake up." The voice snapped, clearly agitated more than usual at this point. "Pull yourself out of here and back to the real world. Get out."
"You think I'm here by choice?" Ryou said in disbelief, restraining a sarcastic laugh.
"I don't care why you're here, get out."
"I already told you, I can't."
"The Bearer is here by my doing." The same feminine and motherly voice from before cooed.
The spirit moved out of the shadows, smirking, "you mean the Host."
"He is unwell in the physical realm because of your doings and he will remain here until his body is well enough for him to retake it."
"Then I will leave."
"As you've no doubt already tried, you know that is impossible, at the moment." The tender voice informed in a somewhat gloating manner.
The three remained silent for a bit. Ryou awkwardly staring toward the spirit and quickly looking away each time the spirit looked toward him.
"I think it's gone." Ryou finally whispered across the room referring to the mysterious voice.
The spirit scowled and stalked off into the shadows.
"Wait!" Ryou called out after him. "I don't understand what is going on at all!" He pleaded. "Please don't go…" He muttered sadly.
"Leave me alone." The spirit's voice sounded from the shadows.
Ryou simply stood there, in the center of the room, speechless. He shrank down into a kneeling position and just sat there, unsure of how to feel about this or what to do or say…
"But I don't want to be alone, I'm always alone…" He whispered to himself.
Notes: I'm not really sure what to say about it, I'm just writing it. But you're thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, etc., are always welcome.
-If you recall, I said this would contain some thiefshipping but I would like to say now that that will probably be quite a while away, though I hope if you're reading this for that you'll continue with me, anyway :)
-I don't think I have anything of major importance to say… Other than a quick shout out, I hope it's okay I'm doing this but Dlbn's own fanfic, 'Lollipops and Chainsaws', is sooooo freaking good 3 I'm addicted to it hehe