A Change in Routine
"So, when would you like to do this?"
"Wait for the next shipment of slaves to arrive; if we do it then and anything goes wrong they'll assume that one of them did it."
"I must say, my boy, this plan is simply marvelous. On the off chance that they do realize that this is a murder attempt, they'll never suspect it was us."
"That is the reason we're doing it like this, you fool."
"Yes, and since you're here to stay, we'll be able to pull more stunts like this from right under the rulers' noses."
"I'm well aware of that, now I have things to attend to. We meet here in two days at the same time."
"You two are dismissed."
Two of the men walked out of the kitchen, large smirks painting their faces as they snuck back to their rooms as the sun began to rise into the sky.
"There may be a fifth one of us."
"Oh?"
"I do believe he'll be a valuable asset to us, but only if we can get him in deep enough."
"I'll leave it to you then."
The remaining two nodded at each other before making their leave, knowing that the Human Rebellion was well on its way to victory.
For the humans, adjusting to living with the demons wasn't as hard as they had thought it would be. Over the first few weeks, their daily lives became a routine.
First they woke up their respective masters.
"Hey! Get the fuck up!" Bakura snarled as he walked into Ryou's room. Roughly shaking the lord awake, he glared down at him when sleepy eyes blinked up at him, a deep blush on his face. "Get a move on it." He yanked the lord out of bed and dropped him on the floor, before making his way to the bathroom.
Next they prepared a bath for their lord and washed him.
"Let me go, asshole!" Malik shrieked at Marik, as he was dragged into the bath water.
"Why?" Marik purred, "You're my attendant, I expect you to wash me."
"You have two hands! Do it yourself!"
Marik's tail snaked between the two of them and wrapped itself firmly around Malik's wrist. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the fun way. So, what'll it be?"
Malik groaned, "The easy way."
"Damn." Marik grumbled, as his tail released Malik and slithered back to its original position.
After that, they were expected to lay out clothes and dress the lords.
Yuugi rummaged through the closet, before pulling out a silk shirt. After a little more searching he managed to find the leather pants Lord Atem was so fond of.
"So, what will I be wearing today, little one?" Yami asked as he walked into the room.
"The usual." Yuugi mumbled as he scoured through the lord's closet before pulling out a pair of black boots.
Later they escorted their lords to breakfast.
"Feed yourself!" Malik screeched at Marik as he threw a plate at the demon's head.
Marik grinned as he ducked out of the plate's path and made his tail slither over to Bakura. With a quick motion, the appendage coiled around the human's waist and yanked him into Marik's arms.
"Damnit! What the hell is wrong with—" Bakura was cut off when Marik shoved his fingers into the other male's mouth.
"Ryou, I will never understand how you found such an amazing cocksucker."
"Marik, let him go!" Ryou screeched as he turned to the left to stare in horror.
"Hey, Yami is yours good at this too? I would check myself but he's all the way at the other end of the table."
"Marik, behave yourself." Yami stated in between the bites of breakfast Yuugi fed him.
"Marik!" Ryou cried again.
"Don't patronize me, little bro—Oomph!" Marik grunted as Bakura slugged him hard and escaped the clutches of his tail.
"Fucker." he snarled to himself.
"Yes I am." Marik snickered. "Now come here, Malik, I want to play with you."
"Piss off!"
From there the six of them would all separate to do their daily duties; they became used to their routines and learned to embrace them. However, one day shortly after the new shipment of slaves arrived, this routine was broken.
Bakura grumbled to himself as he stormed into Ryou's room to wake the male up. Throwing the door open he prepared to scream at the male to wake up when he was slammed into the wall.
An angry snarl filled his ears as his oxygen supply was cut off by an iron grip clutching his throat. The distinctive sounds of sex filled the room and his eyes widen at the sight of Ryou roughly taking it from Yami. Sliding his eyes to the left he saw his attacker to be an unclothed Marik.
He didn't move. The best way to handle an enraged and horny demon was to remain still. Sudden movements may provoke them into attacking, while stillness showed that you were harmless.
After a few more minutes of imitating a statue, he heard Yami let out a throaty growl and remove himself from Ryou. Seconds later, Marik had appeared behind Ryou and resumed what Yami had been doing. Bakura had to turn his head away as Yami approached him, the sight of Marik and Ryou fucking being too brutal for him to watch, and shortly after he averted his gaze Ryou let out a loud scream and a loud 'BANG!' filled the room.
The bed had broken.
He could still hear the two of them going at it.
"You should go join Yuugi and Malik, let them know not to worry about waking and bathing us. Have them collect our clothes for you, and then come back to wash and dress us. We should be finished by then." Yami murmured into his ear.
Bakura turned around to snap that he wasn't about to deal with all three of them in one sitting, but the smoldering look in Yami's eyes caused him to break eye contact and leave the room.
The sound of Marik letting out a monstrous roar echoed off the corridor walls, and solidified the thought racing through Bakura's mind.
'This is going to be one fucked day.'
They were sitting around the dining table and Yuugi was marveling at the chandelier once more.
"No matter how many times I see it, it always looks just as pretty as the first time." Yuugi smiled at the chandelier before a small wave of coughs racked through his body.
The chandelier was enormous; it was larger than the round table in the conference room which seated over twenty people. If it were to fall it is possible that everyone in the room would be fatally injured, and there were several located around the palace. Each was monitored regularly to make sure such a disaster never occurred.
The thing that set this brand of chandelier apart from thousands of others was that it was made from a special type of crystal; one that always emitted a light source of its own. Currently, it a bright red was being radiated from the chandeliers, causing the reflective stone walls to appear as if they were coated in a thin layer of blood.
"Why does it change colours?" Malik inquired.
CRASH! Everyone whipped around to regard the disturbance.
One of the human slaves who were bringing a platter of some unidentifiable sludge to the table had suddenly dropped it and began throwing up. They could hear the sounds of several other slaves in the kitchen throwing up, others were simply moaning in pain.
A few seconds later a brunette with purple streaks in his hair burst out of the kitchen. "Lord Bakura, it's terrible! All of the humans in the kitchen are ill!" he cried.
"There must be a disease sweeping through the humans." Yami stated as Yuugi began coughing again. "We'll have to quarantine those who have been contaminat—"
"Lord Bakura!" A man with blue hair and large yellow glasses burst into the dining hall. "All the humans in the garden have collapsed!"
"What?" Ryou cried as he stared at the head gardener. "Haga, are you certain?"
"Yes, milord."
"Ryuuzaki, are you positive that all of the humans and only the humans are ill?"
"Yes, Lord Bakura."
"It's not possible for all of the humans to become ill at once." Yami cried.
As if on cue, Yuugi began letting out deep wheezing coughs as he tried to gasp for breath.
Seconds later another person darted into the room. "Katsuya!" Ryou cried as he helped the man as he began coughing, blood trailing between the cracks of his fingers as he covered his mouth.
"Ryou, everyone in the human's quarter is sick! If they're not vomiting, they're coughing, and if they're not coughing they're barely moving!" he managed to get out between coughs.
"Jou, are you okay?" Yuugi yelped as he hopped to his feet and began to make his way over to Jounouchi, only to be stopped by Yami.
"Why is this happening?" Ryou questioned as he grabbed Katsuya and gently maneuvered him to lie on his back. "Don't worry, Katsuya, I'll take care if you."
"Is it just me, or does this food taste funny?" Malik asked as he swallowed a mouthful of eggs.
With narrowed eyes, Marik leaned over to Malik and took a bite of the human food on his plate before spitting it back out. "Food poisoning." he stated. "There's something spoiled that's in the humans' meal. If they all ate it for breakfast, they would all become sick."
"Since when can you detect food poisoning just from the taste of food?" Yuugi asked looking at Malik confused.
"The eggs just taste off." Malik frowned as he put more in his mouth before spitting it back out. "Nevermind, I know what the problem is. They have no salt."
"Wow, you have a sharp tongue there." Bakura smirked at Malik.
"Oh, shut up."
"Nevertheless, if this is food poisoning, it's not contagious so there really won't be a need to quarantine anyone. We'll just have to let the sickness run its course." Yami declared, watching Yuugi from the corner of his eye as the boy began coughing once more.
"Yes, but what'll we do about slaves until then?" Marik questioned.
"We'll just have to do without." Ryou said as he picked up Jounouchi with his tail.
"But I want to have slaves!" Marik whined.
"Marik, behave yourself! One day without any humans to boss around won't kill you." Yami snarled.
"That's what you think." he muttered under his breath.
Ryou rolled his eyes as he walked out of the dining hall and into the stone corridor that lead to the servants' quarter. Looking up in surprise he blinked as another of the large chandeliers began fluctuating colours as if it were unable to decide between red and purple. Glancing back into the dining hall he noticed that the chandelier was emitting a red light with a purple tint.
'Weird.' He thought as he continued on his way of dropping Jounouchi off in his room.
As Yami had stated the sickness that had been plaguing the humans eventually began to thin out. Almost every one of them had gone back to working, and those who hadn't were the one who had been bedridden before the incident. Everyone would have gone back to their daily routine, except for one thing.
All of the demons in the castle we're becoming ill.
No one was sure why, at first they had thought it was because of food poisoning, but it was soon discovered that all the demonic meals were being prepared properly with good ingredients.
After the realization that it wasn't food poisoning they had thought it was just a small illness circling its way through the palace, but then demons began dying. One after another, demons began dying. At first it had been such a small number of deaths and they'd been so spaced out that nobody had been able to make a connection, but once they did realize that the disease was causing deaths, they began to quarantine demons.
But that seemed to be having no effect. Demons were still dying and the rulers of the lands were stuck trying to create a solution to the problem.
"Well, Yami, what do you think is causing this?" Ryou murmured into the male's chest.
"I'm not sure, situations like this rarely occur. Marik, what are you doing?"
"Thinking." Marik grumbled as he began to pace back in forth in the large room.
The three of them had gathered in his room, one that had been previously covered in blood, but had been thoroughly cleaned at Ryou's insistence. The violet light the chandelier was emitting was reflecting off the stone that made up most of the castle.
For a few minutes, no sounds were heard except for when Ryou shifted as he cuddled with Yami and as Yami rearranged them on the bed.
"You know," Ryou began, "I can only think of one thing that we all have access to that could be the cause of the sudden outbreak of this illness… but it wouldn't explain why the humans haven't been affected."
"Hey, you!" a male called out as he stared down at a small human male as he passed through the hall.
"Yes, sir?" he replied meekly, head bowed to his superior as he awaited his orders.
"Go give this to the lords, they're currently in Lord Ishtar's room. Don't keep them waiting, they're thirsty."
"Yes, sir." As gracefully as he could, the human accepted the tray of glasses the male handed to him.
With quick but quiet steps he made his way down the hall in and rushed to Lord Ishtar's room. Making his way through the palace, he easily navigated himself through the twists and turns of the corridors. In his haste, he never noticed the figure slip out and around him, as he approached the door; leaving their position that allowed them to eavesdrop on the conversation happening behind the closed doors. Firmly he rapped his knuckles on the door twice.
"Enter." The deep menacing voice of Lord Ishtar was heard.
"My lords," he stated. "I was told to bring this to you." Keeping his head bowed he made his way over to the lords and offered them each a glass.
Ryou gave the human a gentle smile and calmly took the glass from the human, examining it carefully he brought it to his lips and was about to take a sip when Bakura burst through the door.
"Don't drink it, you fool!" he screamed as he knocked the glass out of his hand. "There poisoned!"
"What?" the three lords cried in unison.
"I saw some guy pouring something weird in them. He emptied a whole vial in each of them and had someone else to deliver them. That kind of screams poisoning to me." Bakura growled as he tiptoed his way around the shattered glass and water on the floor.
"Indeed it does. But, if you knew that they were poisoned, why didn't you burst in here earlier." Yami inquired as he placed he glass down on the bedside table beside him.
"Because I barely know my way around Marik's domain, and that guy is fast. I lost track of him after two halls and had to guess my way here."
"Oh, Bakura, if you spent more time with me, you wouldn't have to guess you're way to my room." Marik purred.
"You wish." he sneered at the demon.
"Yes, yes I do."
"Lord Bakura, I brought the item you requested." Eyes snapped over to acknowledge the demon standing in the doorway.
"Ah, thank you very much, Seto. If you'd please, toss it over here."
Nodding, Seto gently threw the vial over to Ryou who caught it. "What's that?" Bakura asked.
"It's a poison indicator. If it's in the presence of poison, it turns red." After saying this Ryou poured a few drops of the indicator into the puddle on the floor and into Marik and Yami's glasses.
It only took a few minutes for them to get their answer.
The water turned blood red.
"I do believe," Yami spoke, "that a slave from the recent shipment is trying to kill us."
TBC
I'm sorry about the long wait. I tried to get this out as soon as I could, but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped it would. My plans never seem to… speaking of plans, I plan to have at least two more chapters of this up by September 10th.
Anyways, I know that this isn't my best work, but I'm sick of looking at this chapter so it's going up as it is. I really hope that you enjoyed the chapter and that it was worht the wait!
