Chapter Four: Meant to Live
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Fumbling his confidence and wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments and failed attempts to fly, fly
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It wasn't a bad kiss, Mai noted clinically, later on. Ryou's lips were soft and warm, and he was surprisingly bold. He rested a hand gently on her hair and pulled her closer. It took a few seconds for her to recover, and then she shoved him away and shrieked, "What the hell, Ryou?"
"I wanted to see what it felt like," he said, smirking. She waved the brush threateningly in his direction.
"You know how I feel about that!"
"Apparently you are very receptive to that, Miss Valentine."
She squinted at him, saw the sardonic twist to his lips and the weird glow in his eyes. "What?"
"Where is the Millennium Eye?"
"It's at home, I don't - Ryou, what's going on?"
He waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, many things, many things. The problem is, you see, that without the Eye I cannot know what is truly happening in Egypt. It would be well if we knew, Miss Valentine. Surely you can agree with that?"
She said "What?" again, because there didn't seem to be anything else to say.
Ryou sighed in frustration and leaned against the closed door, arms folded across his chest. "The power is draining from the Millennium Items," he said, in the condescending tone generally used with children and the exceptionally stupid. "I must know why, and for that I need Isis and Shadi. Unfortunately, they will be...unwilling...to simply tell me what we need to know. We must have the Eye!"
"What's happened to you?" Mai whispered.
"The Puzzle is dead," he said simply. "That is all you need to know. Take us to your house, Miss Valentine. We will retrieve the Millennium Eye, and we will restore the Items. It must be done. As I carry the only remaining Egyptian spirit, it must be done by us."
"No, you don't," Mai said.
Ryou laughed coldly. "You refer to the pharaoh? He has no power without the Puzzle. He is, for the first time, mortal."
"I meant, you don't have a spirit anymore."
He cocked his head to the side. "What are you talking about?"
Mai fiddled with the brush. "Because...oh, God, Ryou, you were there, you know what happened! You've been a few bricks short of a load since we got back, but denial? That's a bit much." And kissing me is, too, she thought, but that particular discussion could probably wait until he was back to his usual polite self.
"You are referring to the time-traveling demon watch? But that was all a hallucination."
"Ryou, I have spent the last few weeks in a mental institution with people trying to convince me that what happened in Egypt was a hallucination. I don't need you doing it, too. Just wake up. He's not coming back."
"I could come back," Ryou said distantly. He tilted his head up and stared at the ceiling. "We could come back..."
When he looked at her again, there was something in his eyes that hadn't been there before. A darkness, a shadow.
"I'm back."
-
Joey hung up the phone and crossed the room to sit in a chair.
"How's Serenity?" Tea asked.
"She's fine. I told her I can't call again because they might have the phones tapped, and she called me paranoid."
Tea tapped her foot on the floor, then said timidly, "You don't think it's possible that the doctors were right?"
"Of course not! I'd know if I was crazy!"
Tea nodded and glanced at the digital clock on top of the TV. "My mother will be home in an hour. What are we going to do?"
Joey glanced over at Yami, who was sitting in a corner with the Puzzle in his lap. His eyes were glazed over, and he whispered to it in Egyptian.
"I don't know," Joey said. "I don't know. Things are so wrong..."
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Mokuba sat down at the back of the jet and slumped in his seat, glaring at his brother through narrowed eyes.
"I don't think it's right to abandon them, Seto."
Kaiba rolled his eyes and leaned into the cockpit. "We'll go to San Francisco for now, pilot."
"Seto - "
"I know, Mokuba." Kaiba pulled the cockpit door shut a bit harder than necessary. "You keep saying that. What do you want me to do?"
"Call them. Bring them with us."
"I don't know where they are."
"Then find them."
"It's not like we're friends - "
"It's not like we're enemies! Please, Seto."
Kaiba hesitated, his hand hovering near the door handle, and then he sat down and gazed coolly at Mokuba.
"You can't have everything you want."
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We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside, somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
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"You will take us to your house," Ryou said. "We will get the Millennium Eye."
Mai backed away, glancing around for help of any kind - but he was between her and the door, and the brush was the only sort-of weapon nearby. "Let me get Yami Yugi," she said gently. "He'll figure out what's wrong with you - "
"There is nothing wrong with me!" he shouted. "We will find your house ourselves, and you will not stop us!"
He wrenched the door open and ran.
Mai gaped after him for a moment, and then followed.
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Adyar stood outside the cell with his hands in his pockets, head bowed. His assistant hovered behind him.
The guard opened the door and stepped inside, gun held ready. There was a derisive laugh from within the cell. Adyar steeled himself and went in.
"Ah, Jalal," ex-President Ghobirah said. "It is a joy to see you."
"You too, Omar."
"They took my glasses. They think I will try to kill myself, and so evade justice. I did not murder him, Jalal."
"I don't think you did."
"You will be President?"
"Yes."
"Then you will pardon me?"
Adyar hesitated, then said, very carefully, "I do not think it is conducive to government affairs to pardon a man for a murder he may have committed."
Ghobirah laughed again, and waved a hand at the guard. "They think I did it. You do, too."
"I don't!"
"So friendship means nothing to you?"
"Friendship means everything."
"Will I be executed, Jalal?"
Adyar glanced back at his assistant, who was dutifully transcribing the conversation in hieratic. "Possibly."
"I am afraid of death."
"I think that everyone is afraid of death."
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Less than ten miles away, in an underground room lit by wavering candles, sat a man who was afraid of death.
"You will find the Millennium Items. You will bring them to me. I will be immortal."
There was no question in that voice, nor command. It was a simple statement of what would be.
The alternative was too horrible to consider.
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Dreaming about providence and whether mice and men have second tries
Maybe we've been living with our eyes half-open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken
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Yugi had just regained consciousness and was endeavoring to wring the story of what had happened out of Joey when Ryou clattered down the stairs, threw open the back door, and ran into the night.
"That was odd," Tea said.
A moment later, Mai dashed down the stairs, tripped over the last one, caught at the banister, and gasped, "Ryou's possessed by something scary and evil!"
Everyone stared.
Then Joey said, "What, again?"
-
Isis had not remained in contact with her brother after the affair in Battle City, and it was the work of several hours to locate him, living in an apartment building in one of the worse neighborhoods of Cairo.
Children played in the streets, dust-covered and laughing. They stared at the well-dressed woman picking her way along, then returned to their games. There were no adults; it was early in the afternoon, and they would all be working, trying to feed their families.
"Does Malik Ishtar live here?" Isis asked a man outside the address she had found.
He shrugged. "Dunno anyone by that name. Know everybody by sight, though."
"Malik's blond," Isis said, "with very pale eyes, and - "
"Oh, him," the man said dismissively. "Yeah, he's a weird one, off at all hours of day and night doing who-knows-what. I don't know why he lives here - he must be rich enough to stay someplace better. He's got education."
"Is he home now?"
"Nope. He ran off the day al-Othman died. I haven't seen him since." The man squinted at her. "Is he in trouble?"
"I hope not," Isis said. She thanked him and left, casting a backward glance at the building.
Odd, that Malik had vanished on the day of the Chief of Staff's murder...
Isis had to face the very real possibility that her brother had just become the prime suspect in al-Othman's death.
Next to the ex-President, of course.
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We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside, somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
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"What are we going to do?" Yugi asked, feeling a bit helpless. "The Puzzle is broken, Ryou's...possessed or something, and we're wanted. We have nowhere to go, and we can't trust anyone but each other."
Yami looked up from his scrutiny of the Puzzle. "There's no help for it. We'll have to find Ryou and go to Egypt."
"It's chaos there," Joey pointed out. "But, yeah, I guess it's safer than here."
"Ryou," Mai snapped impatiently. "We have to help Ryou!"
Tea nodded. "Right. Okay. I'll go to your grandfather's, Yugi, and get the plane fare for all of us. Joey, call Tristan and tell him what's happening. Yugi, go with Mai. Yami, keep trying to figure out the Millennium Items."
Joey stared at her. "I love you when you're forceful," he said.
"Are you sure you want to come with us?" Yugi asked. "It could be dangerous."
"It's always been dangerous, and Tristan and I have always been there for you guys. You can't keep us away." She smiled, then grabbed a coat. "Oh - and find out when the next plane leaves. We'll have to time it very carefully so we don't get caught."
Mai practically dragged Yugi out the door. Tea left a moment later. Joey sank onto the couch and picked up the Scale.
"I don't understand how all this happened," Yami said softly. "And the Puzzle - it just isn't there. I can't...hear it. I can't get into it. I don't...gods. If the Puzzle's magic is gone, then what am I?"
-
Atenna returned eventually to find the intruders gone. She slept on her Master's bed, and woke at the tinkle of glass someone on the first floor.
She padded to the stairs and peered down at the living room, where several men in dark clothes were methodically turning over the furniture, as if looking for something.
The cat yawned. Well, she would just have to treat them like she'd treated the last group who invaded her Master's territory.
She was extremely surprised when the first man she attacked, instead of screaming and cursing, plucked her off his leg and threw her into the wall. She slid to the floor with a yowl, and sprang back into the fight.
"Here, kitty kitty," one of them said, snatching her up and shoving her into a sack. "Kid loves this cat. Could be bait."
"I don't think he's here," someone else said.
"Doesn't matter. We can wait. He will be."
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We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life
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Omar Ghobirah, who had once been the President of Egypt, sat in the middle of his cell and tried to think.
It had happened so fast, too fast. He had been working, and then it was all a blur, but he had come to in his office covered in blood, and someone was screaming in the hall, and when he staggered out al-Othman was dying, shrieking over and over, "Omar! Omar! You have murdered me!"
But Ghobirah was certain...almost certain...that he hadn't.
And afterwards, the impeachment, the imprisonment...it was so surreal. It wasn't supposed to happen so fast.
He wished that Adyar had stayed longer.
Without human company, he was going insane.
If he wasn't insane already, having apparently forgotten committing a murder.
-
The white-haired boy stormed into the house, preoccupied, and didn't notice for a moment that the window beside the door was broken. Glass crunched under his feet. "Oh, what now?" he muttered, squinting into the dark living room.
It was as if a hurricane had torn the place apart. No piece of furniture was upright; the TV had been broken. There was a cat meowing somewhere nearby.
He wandered into the kitchen. Someone had raided the refrigerator; the contents were strewn about the floor. Ryou narrowly missed banging his head on a cupboard door.
He returned to the living room, biting his lip. Ordinary burglars? Or something worse? He considered leaving, then stopped.
He had to get the Eye. That meant knowing where Mai lived. There had to be an address book somewhere...
That cat was really annoying.
He found it in a sack under an upturned chair and let the cat out. It hissed and stared at something behind him.
Hands grabbed him, covered his mouth. Fingers twined in his hair and tugged sharply. "Be still, Ryou Bakura," someone whispered. "This won't take but a moment."
He struggled, of course, and he was vaguely aware that the cat was scratching people, and then someone took hold of his wrist and buckled a watch to it.
His captors let go.
He stood shakily, glaring at them. There weren't more than half a dozen, all staring at the watch. "What the hell?" he demanded. "I don't under - "
The intruders watched as the boy fell silent, eyes closing. One had the presence of mind to catch him when he collapsed.
"Unconscious?"
"Yeah."
"Better make sure. Could be faking."
One of them grabbed the cat and dropped it on Ryou's chest. He didn't react. "Good show. Easier than I thought it would be."
Atenna leapt to the floor and stared at them with luminous eyes, then made a dash for the door. An intruder caught her and held her at arm's length. "What do we do with the cat?"
"It's a cat. Leave it alone." The man reluctantly dropped Atenna, who looked around thoughtfully, then fled.
"Does he have the Ring?"
"Yeah, he's wearing it."
"And the Eye?"
They searched his pockets. "Nope."
"Damn. Kid must have a good hiding place."
"We'll find it. For now, let's just get the kid to Egypt. We can always come back. Not like we have to pay for our own tickets."
There was silence.
"Stop trying to be funny. You can't pull it off."
"Yeah, okay."
-
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live
We were meant to live
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Author's Notes: Okay, here's something I've (finally) noticed. People came into this trilogy with the excessively fluffy "Let Go." Which means you're all expecting more fluff, and I keep churning out angst. For this I am sorry.
However, what I think I should make clear is that while this is a trilogy, "Fallen" and "Behind the Eyes" are like two halves of one story, while "Let Go" is backstory. So while it is understandable that you are all thirsting for more romance and comedy and, in short, happiness, what you can expect is what you've been getting. Please don't run away screaming, because there /will/ be happy moments! There will be romance! There might even be the ever-elusive humor! But the angst will remain, and will continue getting worse right up until the end, which will be more or less happy, I hope.
So, um, I'm dreadfully sorry about the angst. Just stick with it, and I can promise a two- or three-chapter interlude of joy sooner or later.
That said, oh, my God, I hadn't realised how long it had been since I last updated. I am so sorry. I hope it was worth the wait.
Next Chapter: Fugitive. Mysterious factions in Egypt seek to influence the government, plans fall apart, and we learn just what a "mental catfight" is.
