Hooray. More randomness from the halls of Hannah&Mari el-san, Inc. This one was fun, our writing skills are really picking up. Format's just a little bit different this time; each '--' marks a scene change.
Disclaimer: We don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!. If we did, I wouldn't have to write this annoying disclaimer every time I upload something.
--
Hannah
Marik moved closer to the prone form of Hannah, drawing the knife and grinning twistedly. Hannah sprang into action. She jumped up and put the spiky blonde-haired teen into a headlock, with little difficulty. Hooray for the element of surprise, she thought bitterly, now how long can I hold him? And what do we do now??
Marik let out a yell as soon as Hannah's arms encircled his neck, arms (with Rod-knife still clutched in hand) flailing wildly to keep his balance. It didn't work. He fell, with a very embarrassed Hannah landing on top of him, cracking his head sharply on the ground. He was down, but not out. Swarming to his feet, cloak billowing around him, Hannah struggling to keep hold of him, an enraged Marik lifted fingers to his temple. They came away bloody. He yelled in pain and rage, then simply... faded away.
Hannah dropped to the floor, bewildered, as--not for the first time--a sinister laugh echoed around the cold stone room. Bakura stood, waving the Millennium Ring tauntingly. "Remember me? I'm here, too," he whimpered, putting on big, shojo Ryou-eyes. "Marik was my illusion. To buy me some time," he snickered as his eyes narrowed again.
"Time," said the pharaoh, unexpectedly. "A very mysterious entity, indeed. For I am old, as old as the sands of Egypt, yet here I am with a teenager's body and a teenaged mind. Time can change things or solidify them, strengthen them or weaken them, pull them together or push them apart. Time heals all wounds, but in the process often creates more. It binds us more tightly than anything else in this universe or the next, yet is the easiest thing to waste, to break. Time is a lot like love," he continued, crimson eyes deepening with wisdom and shining with passion. "Both confusing, both wonderful, both mortally wounding if lost. To have is bliss, wondrous beyond imagination. When it's gone, there is nothing, nothing worth thought, worth sense, worth life. No time, no time... slipping away, unnoticed, unseen. Only our memories confirm what has gone before, but how can we rely on them? I am living proof of that..."
What was the point of that thought Yugi, it was pretty, but... rambling on about time and love aren't going to change much about our situation.
I heard that, aibou. Trust in me, the Pharaoh's voice was cool and confident in Yugi's mind, I've got a plan.
Maria Elena
Mari-el-san had managed to blur into the shadows once more, and was quietly sneaking around the edges of the room towards Bakura, since he was distracted by Hannah's crouching form. Having not heard the conversation between Yugi and Yami, she had decided to make up her own plan to save her friend. In other words, she was going to make it up as she went. "Don't worry, Hannah," she muttered to herself as she crept through the shadows.
Meanwhile, Bakura gave an evil laugh. "You see? You have spent yourselves fighting an illusion that couldn't even be hurt without disappearing! It is futile to keep fighting. You will lose, for I can see the darkness in all of you. Everyone turns to the darkness once in a while, to ask 'Why'? Well, good cannot always triumph, no matter what you all say! You have all turned to the darkness at one time or another, or what you see as the darkness, for truly that all depends on your point of view. No matter, however. All I want is to avenge the wrongs that have been done to me. That is all that anyone ever wants!"
"You're wrong." The voice came from Mari-el-san, still in the shadows. She stepped out. "I know that's not true. All I want is to undo the wrongs that I have done. I know people who have seen darkness, and gone back to the light. Darkness is naught to be afraid of, as long as you know where the light is."
"Really," said Bakura, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Well, aren't you special. Since you're so unafraid of darkness, you can be the first to be sacrificed to it."
"Wa-" cried Yami, too late to help. "No! This isn't the way it was supposed to be!" Yugi put a hand on his shoulder. Bakura shot a blast of shadows at the defenseless girl. Mari-el-san shielded herself with her arms at the last minute, but she was still blown backwards by the attack. Hannah hurried over to her friend's now-still body and touched her cold hand. "Wake up," she whispered, and the cried, "Wake up!" Tears began streaming down her face. "That's not the way it was supposed to be!" she sobbed.
--
Her fingers hurt. So did her head. And just about everything else. But she was alive. Mari-el-san wondered how that was possible. She was standing on the staircase, the last place she'd been in the real world. Above her was the door to the outside world. Below, no one knew. Mari-el-san put a hand on the wall to steady herself, then snatched it back as if it had been burned. Tentatively, she put it back on the wall. Again, her hand turned the color of the wall. Obviously, she couldn't return like this. Mari-el-san glanced down below and began to descend into the darkness.
Hannah
Back down in torture-land, Hannah was bewildered and bereaved. Why had Maria Elena's body disappeared the moment she'd touched it? She knew the situation had been dangerous, and so wasn't surprised her friend had been taken, but it stung all the same. "Baka Ereina-chan…you don't preach to your enemy unless you're about to win!" she murmured. "Or you have considerable experience in this kind of thing." She turned her eyes to her heroes, her bishounen, the couple with the tri-coloured hair. They glared at Bakura, eyes of ruby and amethyst glowing with their inner power.
"Aibou..." Yami muttered, "leave this to me." And he dashed forward, leaving Yugi standing alone.
"No! Pharaoh, come back! We're strongest together!" But the headstrong Pharaoh paid him no heed, stretching forward an arm with darkness gathering at his fingertips.
Bakura chuckled darkly, sinisterly. The Millennium Ring flashed, just once, and Yami was thrown completely across the room, rolling heavily along the floor until he skidded to a halt. He tried to rise, but only managed to lift his head and shoulders, leaning heavily on his elbows. He squinted, trying to sort out the multiple cackling Bakuras dancing across his addled vision. Yugi stood in shock for a moment, then dashed to his pharaoh's side. Or at least, tried to. Before he had gone three steps, the Millennium Ring flashed three times, and he dropped to the floor, facedown.
Dead.
The King of Games shook his head, clearing his vision and discarding the last remnants of Bakura's shadow magic. Then he saw his aibou. The other half of his soul, his necessary light, the yin to his yang. Dead. He could tell, not with his eyes but with his heart, his very soul crying out for its partner. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, unbidden and unstoppable.
"YUGI!"
Came his anguished cry, and, tears flying, sparkling as gems as they left his cheeks, he rushed to his partner's side while Bakura looked on. He gently but swiftly edged his hands underneath Yugi's chest and flipped him over. He pressed his cheek to his aibou's throat to check his pulse. "Barely flickering," he whispered, "the last throes. He's not breathing." He looked up at Hannah, eyes wild and face twisted with grief. "What do I do?!"
Hannah was stunned for a moment; was her hero really asking her for advice?! Then she snapped out of it, tilting her head upward as she tried to recall her schooling. "...Uh... the cells don't die for a long time after the body is dead... if we can restart his heart..." Then her eyes snapped forward, brown locking with crimson. "Yami! Do you know CPR?"
Yami, who had always been in the background during Yugi's health classes, nodded decisively. He turned back to his partner and began to administer the kiss of life (Sorry, couldn't resist calling it that P), hoping and acting fervently toward his hikari's recovery.
Bakura glared at the two with a look of disgust upon his pale visage, and sent a pulse of darkness toward them. Hannah leapt in front of them, the bolt glancing harmlessly off of her as her inner light did its job once again. She smirked and said, somewhat foolishly, "Ooh, what now, Baku-chan?" as worry about the teens behind her gnawed at the back of her mind. Yugi would recover, his darkness would bring him back from the brink... wouldn't he?
Maria Elena
Mari-el-san glared at her translucent hand, disliking being see-through. She soon forgot these woes, however, as she saw a shimmering form down a ways farther. As she walked up(or rather down) to the form, it was evident that it was on the borderline of staying in the regular world or becoming a spirit. The rather short teenage boy in question struggled for another moment and then fizzled out. Mari-el-san sighed and walked faster, sensing that the end of the stairs was near.
--
Yugi's corporeal body vanished under Yami's touch. "Aibou!" Yami cried, and then realized that he could feel his partner in his soul. Yami withdrew into his soul to see if he could find his partner.
Hannah, seeing Yami's kneeling, unresponsive form on the floor and no Yugi, guessed what had happened. Turning back to face Bakura, who had seen the entire scene, and after her rather foolish comment, had murder in his eyes, she wasn't sure what to do. Now what? she thought. I know I can defend against him, but look what happened to Yami when he tried to attack. I'm not sure what to do…
--
Mari-el-san reached the bottom of the stairs. Before her were three passageways stretching off in three different directions. The answer must have something to do with letting your heart guide you, she thought. Well, maybe I'll try it. Closing her eyes, she discarded one of the paths, knowing that she hadn't been down it. She was split between the two others, however. The signal from one was very faint, as if she didn't know what lay along it. Oh well, she thought, and decided to try the other path, the one that lay straight ahead. It does look important...
Bakura and Hannah were at a bit of a stalemate. The Millennium Ring would flash, but a pulse of Hannah's light would dispel the shadows immediately. Bakura was circling around the room, attempting to catch Hannah off balance, who was hard put to keep protecting Yami's body. She managed at first, but soon she began to tire of all Bakura's rapid attacks. She was also afraid to mount her own attack, which could decide which way the battle went. As her movements became more sluggish, her light began to fade until there was very little still protecting her from Bakura. Finally, she stumbled and Bakura, seeing an opportunity, sent two pulsating beads of darkness towards her. This was too much for her faltering spirit to take, and she was thrown across the room, cracking her head sharply on the wall. "That's two of you gone, then," said Bakura. He looked down at the Millennium Ring, relishing in its power.
"Well, not exactly," came a voice from the doorway.
Mari-el-san glided towards Bakura, noting the surprise on his face, and on Hannah's as she began to stir. "You came back," the white-haired teen whispered savagely, enraged that his spell hadn't worked properly. "You came back!" He sent darkness spiraling towards Mari-el-san. She dodged, and the darkness hit the door, splintering it into several pieces. Her own magic was gathering to attack Bakura, as was apparent from the flames that licked over her ghostly figure. The magical fire gathered into her palm, emerging as a blast of ghostly molten silver that slammed into Bakura, knocking him straight back, where he hit the wall.
Hannah shook her head to clear it, full of wonder at what she had just seen. She stuttered for a moment, then finally said, "You're magic's silver." Mari-el-san turned, realizing that her friend was still lying against the wall. The spectral girl extended a ghostly hand to help her friend up.
"I'm the Dark Magician." she said. "I don't envy light, nor do I covet it, but I am a part of it. The world is a shade of gray, or silver, as I see it. Neither dark nor light, as in all the stories. I think of myself as neither, therefore I am neither. But-" here she trailed off, surveying the room, "-I am loyal to light. Nothing comes from darkness. Nothing ever did, and nothing ever will. I take its name only for independence."
Hannah
"..." Hannah looked at her friend skeptically, then ignored the still-outstretched hand and got to her feet by herself. "Mari el-san, or whoever you are, I don't know who you're trying to kid (yourself, maybe?), but the Dark Magician is a male monster. Did you, perhaps, mean Dark Magician Girl?"
The spectre looked confused for a moment, then realized what she meant. "...Ah, I see. I am the Dark Magician, but the only way I could come to this world to help my king was by way of this girl's soul. I intercepted it as it tried to take its leave of this world and inhabited it, consuming its earthly body for power. I found one other soulless body and used it as well," the soul-in-a-soul explained. Seeing Hannah's look of utter disgust, the Dark Magician hastily spoke again. "Fear not," he admonished, "once I leave, all bodies will be returned and souls reinstated."
"Hm," Hannah replied thoughtfully, "Well… I'm still not entirely sure how you got here, but I'm sure glad you are. Welcome aboard, matey." She stuck out a hand, and the spectre readily took it, smiling and shaking it warmly. Hannah then turned her gaze to the once-again-incapacitated Bakura, still slumped against the wall. She smirked. "He's kinda cute… when he's not trying to blast your soul out," she said aloud; and knelt down beside him, gently stroking his albino hair.
The Dark Magician/Mari el-san looked up sharply. "Enjoy your reprieve while you can," he intoned, "a new enemy approaches."
--
Yami was silent. His body knelt on one knee, arms loosely crossed, hands clasping his own shoulders and forehead creased slightly in concentration. His soul was deep inside, in a sort of time-out-of-time within the Millennium Puzzle.
During Yugi's soul transfer from body to Puzzle, some outside force had interfered and unknowingly joggled up the works, throwing Yugi into exactly the wrong place. He was in the Labyrinth. Somewhere. Spirit-Yami closed his eyes and reached out with his heart, trying to locate his light in the puzzle of hallways, doors, and uncertainty. All around him was darkness, nothing but stone; walls, doors, and ambushes. A feeling of panic rushed into him. What if Yugi fell into a trap? What will become of him?! Then... there. A pinpoint of light, flickering wetly for unknown reasons, called to him. His feet began to move, directing him, eyes still closed, toward the source of this light. Sure enough, before long, he heard a soft sound... crying? His eyes snapped open and he ran around a final corner.
Yugi sat huddled in a shadowed corner, head resting on his folded arms, sobbing weakly. Yami's face softened as he walked softly toward the hopeless teen.
A tearstained face with shimmering bright purple eyes looked up at the sound of footsteps. Yami threw his arms around Yugi's shoulders, enfolding him in his warm embrace. The smaller teen hiccupped gently and returned the gesture desperately, new tears springing to his eyes.
"I thought... I'd never get out!" he whispered brokenly, "But... you found me..."
"Of course, aibou... I could never leave you." He tightened his hold on the boy and pressed his lips to the other's neck, sending reassurance through their mental link.
After some time of simply sitting like this, Yugi, sufficiently recovered from his near-death experience, suggested they get up now. Yami, a small blush creeping over his features, immediately complied. They held hands as they found their way, slowly but surely, back toward the door that led to the hallway between their soul rooms.
Once there, Yami was hesitant to leave.
"Go. I'll be fine," Yugi assured him.
"...All right. But I'll need everything we've got to help out there. I sense a strong evil approaching. Are you ready? Can you help me?"
"Always, my pharaoh." Yugi smiled, and the two moved closer. Yami finally closed the distance between their lips, and the two shared a kiss.
The Pharaoh, empowered, smiled as the two broke apart. Then his image dissolved as his soul took up residence in their shared body once more; back into time, back into danger.
--
Yami stood. Eyes burning with a new resolve, he asked, "What's the situation?" His eyes snapped to Hannah, who'd just stood up from her position beside Bakura. Then he saw the spectral girl, or rather, what lie inside her, and stopped dead, eyes wide in shock. "Mahado... Dark Magician!"
"Yes, it is I, my Pharaoh," intoned the spirit, kneeling an inch above the ground before his master. "I have traveled far; for I sensed your need of my power. And see -" he gestured toward the prone form of Bakura "- one evil has been vanquished. But I am sure you have sensed it as well, my lord; another, greater power approaches."
Yami was thoughtful for a moment, focusing on something outside the range of normal sight. "This aura..." he murmured, "Yugi and I agree. It's familiar, but I can't quite place it. It's not dark, not shadow power... but we sense another current of power beneath it, encompassing it fully, that is darker than even Bakura's." His forehead creased for a moment; he was obviously conversing with his light half. Then shock registered on his face, and he cried, "Oh! Dragons... it's Kaiba!"
Maria Elena
Mari-el-san gasped, realizing the terror behind Mahado's words. All bodies will be returned and all souls be reinstated...She stood up and paced around the room of her soul that she was trapped in. Trapped...she muttered.She banged on the door to the room, not even noticing what her soul was like in her desire to live, to ask Mahado what he had really meant. Reinstated...she thought worriedly. To restore to a previous state or condition. Does that mean...
"You're rather perceptive," said the Dark Magician, who had heard her call. He stepped into the room, his quiet footsteps echoing. Mari-el-san sank down against a wall. "I-I - "
"Time will tell," said Mahado. "There's no way out of this mess unless you find one. Besides, how do you know what'll happen?" Mari-el-san looked up at the rather wise spirit, the first glimmerings of tears at her own fate sparkling in her eyes. "Who knows all of their fate?" the Magician intoned. "Perhaps the gods know something that you do not. Think on the future, and perhaps you will realize more. Or perhaps you will not. Either way, I must go." Mahado left with a sweep of his cloak, leaving a rather depressed Mari-el-san in his wake.
--
The Dark Magician straightened up from his crouching position. The two others in the room looked at him, bewildered. He ignored their unspoken questions and simply said, "Kaiba." As if to answer him, a bolt of blue light slammed through the doorway, straight towards Yami, who was in front of him at the time. Mahado, sensing his Pharaoh was in danger, dove towards him with all the speed that he could muster. The blue fire rammed through the spirit(s) and kept going until it hit Yami, where it stopped its deadly dance.
"My lord...I am sorry...It was for naught. Pharaoh, forgive me. I could not save you." Mahado's voice faded as his spirit did as well. Mari-el-san saw her body come back into existence, and as it did, felt the faint beating of its heart. She knew that she had didn't have enough time left to return to the world, could feel the pain and torture that lay down both paths she was to choose from. "A crossroads," she murmured. "One doesn't always know all of one's fate..." Her eyes once more bright with unshed tears, she said, "Hannah. It was no coincidence that the Dark Magician chose my soul. He chose it because my soul isn't all light, or even mostly light, as yours is." She took the older girl's hand. "Time only can tell what will happen. All I know is that I will return once I have found the answers to my questions. Why I am dark? Why am I silver and not light? Why? I will come to terms with these questions and then come back. You'll see me again." As she spoke these last words, Mari-el-san felt her body take its last breath. "I go..." she whispered, almost inaudibly. "Hannah, you can do it alone...beat Kaiba." Hannah blinked, and the next second her friend was gone for the second time.
Yugi, just waking up, felt the absence of his partner's soul before he even opened his eyes to the terrible truth. "Yami?" he whispered. "Where are you?" He then remembered the blue light and all the rest that had happened. "He's gone…" the boy whispered to Hannah. "My partner's gone!" Hannah realized how lucky Yugi was to have survived, as she saw Yami's body lying just next to him. The Dark Magician had indeed returned Yugi's body as well, but Yugi had had longer to live than Mari-el-san had. She helped Yugi rise to his feet, and then the next second the door crashed down.
--
Mari-el-san was in the stairwell again. She saw a dark wall ahead of her. NO! she cried soundlessly. Hannah's on the other side of that wall! I have to get through. She beat at it until her hands were bloody, and then the scene changed. She was walking through a forest, but then she turned the corner and there was the same black wall. She beat at it again, and the scene changed once more. This time everywhere was dark. She tried walking but could get nowhere. Trapped, she thought. What do I do?
"Stop fighting," came a voice, when she had expected no answer. Yami was standing behind her. "Stop fighting it," he said. "You have to be looking for answers, not just panicking. Come." He took her hand so neither would lose the way, and began to walk into the darkness.
Hannah
Kaiba entered. His coattails swept out dramatically behind him as usual. His piercing blue eyes swept their trademark death-glare around the room. He had far too many belts on, as was the norm. But one thing wasn't just like normal, as he soon saw. His cold blue eyes narrowed, sensing something not-quite-right about this situation...then he realized what it was. This Yugi was far too short, and not nearly commanding enough. This was not the one he was supposed to fight. But what the hell, warming up was never a bad idea...
"It's time to duel," he said, a sadistic grin cranking its way onto his face. This was what the other Yugi always said; why not give it a shot?
Hannah's eyes widened in shock and bewilderment. "B-but," she stammered, "I don't have any cards! I don't even know how to play!"
Yugi's eyes darkened in sadness. "I haven't got my deck either," he said dejectedly, "and the other me's gone missing."
Kaiba was, by now, thoroughly annoyed. First, he had no rival. Secondly, these buffoons didn't have the most important weapon in the world: playing cards. "Now what, oh supreme ruler of darkness?" he asked sarcastically, turning to the seemingly empty air next to him.
Hannah and Yugi stared. "It's official," Hannah said as the CEO started arguing with nobody. "Kaiba's lost it."
Yugi nodded. "The stress of owning the most successful business in the world must finally have gotten to him. Hey Kaiba, are you okay?" He started moving toward the billionaire, holding his hands out disarmingly.
Kaiba stopped, gulped, and shuddered. His eyes turned dead black, he turned toward the two teens, and a sepulchral voice shook the room. "Foolish mortals," he intoned, as per the godly villain script. Powdered mortar fell from the stone ceiling. Hannah and Yugi promptly stopped worrying about Kaiba's welfare and started worrying about their own.
A Blue-Eyes White Dragon roar sounded from outside the room. Hannah looked through the door past a scowling Kaiba and saw a single bright blue eye staring through it, unable to get in. She watched in childlike fascination as the eye was removed, then the owner of said eye thrust its snout into the doorway, and she found herself mere feet away from the beast's slavering jaws and razor-sharp teeth. It roared again, its high-pitched keening growl shattering the air and dislodging a few blocks from the ceiling.
"Now, now," Kaiba petted the dragon on its quivering snout, "you'll have your feast soon enough, but we can't have you blazing them to cinders just yet." The new voice seemed wrong saying those words. Being so tender toward the beast. "I need to get something from them."
--
Mari el-san's quest for enlightenment was nowhere near this familiar. But it was just as bizarre, and just as dangerous.
She soon found this belief compounded as Yami once again pulled her out of the way of a rabid-looking beast and banished it with a blast of shadow magic.
"You need to be more cautious!" he hissed. "Next time we might not be so lucky, and I might not notice in time."
"Sorry," Maria Elena whined, "but I'm trying to think here! Isn't that what we're here for? To figure stuff out?"
"No. To find stuff out. So pay attention!" Yami's eyes blazed, annoyed that the girl had almost justified her apathy.
"Yessir." Yami was scary when he was mad. No point in being the one to get him that way. So Maria Elena looked. They were in a pitch-dark passageway, following a strip of glowing symbols that looked vaguely Egyptian. The hieroglyphs seemed to be floating in midair, so she assumed they were written on the wall. The air in the passage was cold and stale, it felt dead and she was sure they were in some sort of tomb. Yami was sure to have noticed this, too, and that was certainly why he was being so nervous and jumpy. After all, he'd already been dead once and being in the sort of place where it had happened couldn't be very good for his psyche.
Suddenly, out of the darkness ahead, a slit of light appeared, stretching from the floor to what must have been the ceiling above them. It widened, to about the width of a...a doorway. Yami's eyes brightened. "This is it," he said excitedly. "We must go through here."
Maria Elena looked. The doorway was filled with an almost blinding light, impossible to see through. "You want us to go through there? Who knows where it goes!"
"That's the point!" The Pharaoh's eyes had an almost manic glint to them, but his voice was reassuring, familiar. "An open door's an invitation. You've got to jump when the door's been opened!"
And with that, he ran forward a few paces and threw himself into the light. Maria Elena stopped. Stared. Smiled.
Ran.
And was there, falling endlessly through rings of time and sound, of light and darkness, white and black and over and under. Through the distortion of space/time, she could make out the silhouette of a teen with spiky, star-shaped hair flying spread-eagled below, or ahead, or perhaps above her. It was hard to tell in this environment. She made her body as aerodynamic as possible, while Yami used what remained of his cloak as drag, slowing himself down while she caught up. Soon they were flying, or falling, or drifting side-by-side. It didn't really matter. It was a wonderful, exhilarating experience. And not just because she had an uber-sexy teenaged boy beside her.
"Where are we going?" Maria Elena had to scream to be heard over the roar of noise, or whisper so she didn't disturb the silence.
"Wherever it takes us!" Yami shouted joyously. He didn't know how he had managed to be so precise in the way he'd said that. Perhaps it was the emotion involved. Perhaps it was his overwhelming confidence. Or maybe he just had enough experience in occult things that he wasn't affected.
Whatever the reason, it didn't change the fact that they then landed, rather hard, in the gardens in front of Kaiba's mansion.
