Spirit of the Dead
ElveNDestiNy
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! No copyright infringement intended.
Key:
-Yugi to Yami-
--Yami to Yugi—
Chapter 4: Inner Sanctum
Yugi woke instantly, wondering what had disturbed him from his sleep. To his horror, Yami was on the floor before him, huddled in fetal position in the corner of the chamber.
"Yami!" he cried and ran over to his dark half. His forehead was sheened with sweat and Yugi touched him before he could think about it. Immediately he drew his hand away; Yami was hot, almost burning. Yami looked up at him, wine-dark crimson eyes huge and unfocused. He tried to smile reassuringly up at his aibou, but he could tell it was not working. Everything seemed misty to him and the colors around him bled into one another.
"It's all right, Yugi," he started to say. The pain slammed into him again, hard, and he screamed, unable to control himself. He had a sudden vision of a golden sarcophagus, his likeness etched in fine detail, visage as cold as the electrum metal. Yugi gasped, sharing the visualization, and Yami tried to look at Yugi. A red haze obscured his vision, the pain was white-hot, almost numbing.
"YAMI!" Yugi cried. His dark half closed his eyes and his slender, lithe body became limp in his aibou's arms.
"Grandpa! Kaiba! Someone—help me!" Yugi yelled as loud as he could. He struggled to sustain Yami's weight; though Yami was slender, he was muscular and weighed more than he looked. He gasped again when he realized that Yami had weight and that his body looked real and solid. Yugi's surprise quickly turned to panic, though, when he realized that Yami's longer form was hard for him to handle and that he was slipping from his grasp, to the floor. What if his head hit the ground or something?
"KAIBA!" he yelled again, terrified for Yami. At last his former rival was there, helping him lower Yami gently to the floor.
"What happened?" Kaiba snapped out.
"Y-Yami…he just collapsed, I felt the pain…" Yugi stammered out, overwhelmed. "We have to do something to help him, he has this awful fever—"
"Pull yourself together, will you?" Kaiba retorted, the challenge in his voice making Yugi take some deep breaths and sit up straighter. "All right, I'm going to wake the others and get some water for Yami. Stay here with him." Kaiba left the room and Yugi felt tears come to his eyes as he looked at his yami. Then he cursed himself for being so weak.
He didn't wait for long, though. Grandpa came running in, and soon after, the rest of the crowd came flooding in through the door.
"What's wrong, Yugi? Kaiba came in and woke us, said there was something up with Yami." Tea said, eyes wide to see Yami lying prone on the ground.
"I don't know, I felt this incredible pain and woke up, but Yami was already like this, and he's burning up—feel his forehead, he has a fever!"
Ryou reached out before he remembered that no one could touch Yami, but his hand touched the burning forehead and he drew back in surprise, as much from the fact that he'd touched anything than from the fact that Yami had such a high fever.
"I can touch him, Yami has his own body. What's going on, Yugi?"
"I don't KNOW!" Yugi yelled, frustrated. "What if he's dying because they opened his tomb?"
A door slammed outside and Yugi quivered with shock. Two raised voices were yelling at each other in the hall.
"Who do you think you are, disturbing me in the middle of the night?"
"Listen up, I'll only say this once. Bring me a glass of cold water NOW." The voice was caustic, so cold it almost sounded cruel. It was Seto Kaiba, of course, sounding like his normal self. Somehow it vaguely reassured Yugi. The world was going to be all right after all, if Kaiba hadn't turned, well, nice or anything.
"I don't care if the world is ending or if you've just found a Van Gogh painting, I want that glass of water now, and you better bring it!" Tea looked at Yugi while he stared back, wincing at how loud Kaiba was. He could really yell when he felt like it.
The man muttered a string of insults in heavily accented English but left. Moments later, Kaiba opened the door and came in with a towel and cold water. Yugi's grandfather took it from him and quickly bathed Yami's face. A bit of blood had come out of the corner of his mouth and he was burning with fever.
"No reliable doctors here, and even if there were, we couldn't get there," Kaiba growled.
At the touch of the cold water, Yami let out a low moan, obviously in pain. His ruby eyes opened but he looked at them in confusion. A string of incomprehensible words poured out of his mouth. They stared blankly at him, and then at each other. If it was Egyptian, it certainly wasn't the Egyptian that was spoken in modern times.
-Yami!- Yugi pleaded. -Are you all right?-
"The tomb," Yami said slowly, as if the words came to him with difficulty. "We have to go there, they're doing something to it. It's hurting me and I have to stop the curse. I can feel it, someone else's died…I think it's that reporter we watched, Trevor or Terry or something."
At his words, Yugi paled and Joey put a steadying hand on his shoulder. As usual, Seto was one step ahead, dialing away on his cell phone.
"All right, quick change of plans," he said. "Yami, do you feel up to going out to the tomb?"
"Now?" Yugi protested. "He can't, the fever! And he's coughing blood! What if he dies?"
"Now is quite possibly the only time. Once daylight has returned, there'll be even more people, and you have to remember that more people are dying as we wait. Yami said so himself. Who knows what they'll do to the tomb, and what will happen to Yami because of it?" Kaiba stated calmly. He looked at Yami and bit his lip, as if he wanted to say something else.
"Yes, I can," Yami returned, seeming to feel a little better. Maybe it was that he was in the presence of Kaiba, who was, after all, still a rival, however much he might be helping them out right now.
"We've got the jeep-van thing. It has five seats, so not all of us can go. Yami goes, of course, and he'll need a seat now that he's like this," Kaiba said.
"I don't think he can return to his soul room," Yugi said, violet eyes huge with worry.
"…so Yugi, Yami, and myself will go, but the Egyptian driver will take up one seat, so there's only one see left." He looked at Yugi's grandpa and at Bakura. "Well?"
"You'll need me," Bakura said with a deadly smile. "I'm experienced, and after all, you don't want the old man hurt. It'd be a wonder if he can keep up." He smirked at Solomon and Yugi stepped forward, worried and thus angry enough that he seemed about ready to hit someone, especially since Bakura was provoking him.
"Fine, whatever," Kaiba said.
"Hey wait, I'm going with you, Yuge!" Joey protested
"No puppies allowed," Kaiba said with a smirk. He turned serious, though, when he looked at Yami. "And no time to waste, either."
"It's not fair that Bakura and Ryou only take up one seat," Joey said. Everyone glared at him until he held up his hands as if to ward them off.
"Look, we have no time for talking. Téa, Tristan, keep watching the news for anything and use the room phone to call my cell phone number if anything happens. They probably aren't continuing the excavation in the dark and unless they're switching teams, they must be tired. But security will be like you won't believe."
"You can get us in, though, right, Kaiba?" Yugi pressed.
"Don't bet on it."
Yugi tried to help Yami walk, but he was too short, and Yami too weak. Kaiba rolled his eyes at their attempts and looked at Bakura, who gave him an expression of disbelief.
"Help him yourself, rich boy."
"Whatever." Kaiba looked at Yami, who looked back with a stunned expression like a deer caught in headlights. "At least you can be sure I'm not going to drop you."
"Drop me?" The implication took a few minutes to sink in before Yami's furious denial rang out. "You're not going to be carrying me anywhere, Kaiba!"
It would have been funny to see Yami's rival willing to doing so much for him, if not for the seriousness of the situation. As it was, Joey had the inane thought that he should snap a couple of photos of this, to use if he ever needed to blackmail Kaiba later.
"Just shut up, will you? It's not like you can walk." Just then, another bolt of pain had Yami crumpling to the ground, only half conscious. Kaiba took the opportunity to scoop him up in his arms and tried hard not to think about what he was doing, or that Yami's head was leaning against his chest.
"…I can hear your heartbeat," Yami said, like he didn't know he said it out loud.
"WHAT?" Kaiba yelped, his voice changing interestingly in range. Furious color burned in his cheeks but after that surprised outburst Kaiba composed himself with some difficulty and stoically carried Yami the rest of the way outside. Yugi and Bakura followed with almost comical twin expressions of disbelief at the exchange they'd overheard.
"Seems like the Pharaoh has something for Kaiba," Bakura smirked. He looked at Yugi. "Just like the good old days, eh? At least Kaiba's wardrobe has improved since then, though I guess a trench coat isn't too different from his High Priest robes."
Yugi chose not to comment, whether from surprise at that new piece of information, or just because he didn't want Bakura to know he was getting on his nerves. At the jeep, Bakura climbed into the front seat and refused to get out even under Kaiba's threats. Kaiba didn't want to waste time so he conceded. Yugi hurried to open to the door and Kaiba unceremoniously dumped Yami in the middle seat, as if to say, see, you were an unwanted burden.
But the rough movement had Yami gritting his teeth in pain and the next moment, his eyes opened wide and blind at another wave of agony. Kaiba rushed into the car, guilt all over his face, but there was nothing he could do except hover protectively. Angry at himself and not taking too much time to think about why—whether because he'd caused Yami's pain or because he actually felt guilty having done so—Kaiba barked orders to the Egyptian driver as Yugi climbed in on the other side.
He grabbed his dark's hand, watching Yami's crimson eyes focus on him again, his face pale. "Yami…" Yugi whispered. –Let me share the pain?-
--No.-- Yami sent back faintly. His eyes fluttered shut and he fell into unconsciousness again.
Kaiba swore as Yami went limp and told the driver to drive faster. For a stuck up CEO prodigy, he had a big vocabulary of swear words. Bakura sat in the front passenger seat, impressed as Kaiba switched to French and continued cursing. There was no 'road' as they knew it; it was all rock and sand terrain, and the car bounced over what seemed like every single rock between the motel and the site of the excavation, eliciting sounds of pain from Yami.
--Yugi?--
He looked quickly at Yami, who had opened his eyes.
--Too many people will die. You have to stop it, no matter what.--
-Of course we will, Yami,- Yugi tried to reassure him, but sounding as though he rather needed some reassurance himself.
There was no more time for talk. The friends could see that up ahead there was a large ring of trucks and other vehicles.
"The reporters are still there and so is the security," Kaiba said, back to his usual expressionless manner. It was kind of a relief to see him normal again.
"How are we going to get in?" Yugi asked.
"Easily." The answer came from Bakura, who had been quiet and had sat in the passanger seat so they had completely forgotten he was there. The millennium ring around his neck glowed faintly, the shape distinct even under his shirt.
"I fail to see how this would be easy," Kaiba said sardonically, voice tinged with annoyance. His intense blue eyes fixed on Bakura. He was all right with Ryou, although Kaiba was scornful of his meekness. For some reason, Kaiba was dead set against Bakura. Something about the ring's spirit provoked the worst in Kaiba, kind of like one type of predator recognizing another when they were out to get the same prey.
In response, Bakura only opened the car door and stepped out. "Coming?" he asked Kaiba mockingly. Yugi saw the ice in Kaiba's eyes and thought about warning Bakura that teasing Kaiba wasn't all that smart. Then he looked at Bakura and decided that the spirit knew exactly what he was doing.
They got out of the jeep in plain sight and followed Bakura as he ducked under the yellow security tape with 'Do Not Cross' in big black letters. By all rights, there should have been a bunch of people trying to stop them right there. A couple of security guards in tan uniforms looked right past them as if they didn't exist.
"Creepy," Joey muttered. "What'd Bakura do?"
The white-haired spirit smiled fiendishly at the tall blond teenager, who recoiled. "Got ya," Joey said under his breath. "No questions asked. Nada."
Yugi almost screamed when he turned around and found Joey right behind him. "What are you doing here?"
"I tag-rode," Joey said with a proud smile. "That's what Jeeps are all about, aren't they? Why they're so popular for guerillas…just hang on, and you've got yourself a ride. Besides, I couldn't let you come alone, Yuge."
"Oh gods, not you," Kaiba growled when he saw Joey, but there was little he could do about it. Yami seemed to be feeling better, because he walked on his own now with only a little help from Yugi and Kaiba. It wasn't hard for them to find the direction of the main excavation entrance; light shone all around even though the sun had not yet risen.
Suddenly, a woman screamed. Bakura broke into a run and the others did as well for a few moments until they realized that Yami wasn't with them.
Yami was on the ground, doubled up with pain. Across the excavation site, they could still hear the woman's ear-splitting screams.
"What's wrong?" Yugi asked, echoed by the others. They formed a helpless circle around Yami's pained form.
Bakura reached down and roughly pulled Yami up to his knees.
"What the heck are you doing?" Joey growled. "You're hurting him!"
Bakura muttering some choice Kaiba-like insults that had Joey turning red with fury. "Fools! Don't stand around, help me! We have to carry him. I can't keep this up forever!" Whatever Shadow Realm magic Bakura was using to veil them was taking a toll on the tomb robber. His hair seemed to glow angrily with a platinum light of its own and it moved as if there were wind blowing on it.
They helped him until he was carrying Yami, piggyback style. He hissed when the millennium puzzle around Yami's neck got trapped between their bodies and the sharp edges dug into his back. Yami let out a gasp of pain. Yugi quickly grabbed the puzzle and switched it around so that it hung over Yami's shoulder, lopsidedly. Bakura staggered under the weight, being built on rather slender lines himself.
"Run for it," he said, leading the way.
-Yami?- Yugi asked as he ran.
--Yes, Yugi…?--
-We'll find a way to stop this, I promise. Just…just don't give up, all right?-
--I never do, aibou.-- And it was so true. Yami had never backed down from a fight. It was funny how their positions were reversed. It was always Yugi needing Yami, needing his protection, his strength, his assurance and self-confidence. Yet sometimes the teacher needed to learn from the student as well.
It was hard for them to break through the crowds of people. A woman that was on the excavation team was lying on the floor, hands cupping her head and covering her eyes. There was total chaos around her as people crowded in a tight circle.
Light blinded them as picture after picture was taken, and the sound of the reporters voices all blended together cacophonously. She was the one who had been screaming, but now her screams had subsided to moans. "I can't see," she said over and over. When one of the medics persuaded her to remove her hands from her eyes, Yugi caught a glimpse of the stark white. No pupils, no irises, nothing but white.
Tearing his eyes away from the horrifying scene, Yugi realized that Bakura had already disappeared down the entrance to the tomb. He hurried to catch up with them.
It was dark and arid underground. Up ahead, Bakura had brought out his ring, which was glowing white and casting flickering light around the passage. Yami's puzzle had responded and was also glowing around his neck.
Yugi was the last in the group, and when he ran towards the light he collided with something hard. The quick exhalation of air and Kaiba's chilly tones quickly told him what he had just run into.
"Sorry," he gasped, then realized that Kaiba still wasn't moving. "What's wrong? You're blocking the tunnel."
Kaiba didn't answer, so Yugi stepped forward again, thinking that he had left. He bumped into him again. Moving around in the half-light, Yugi grabbed Kaiba's hand and pushed him forward.
"Hurry up," Yugi said impatiently. "We're getting behind, and we don't want to be lost here. Yami…"
His voiced trailed off in surprise as he realized the arm beneath his hand was trembling slightly. Yugi would have thought it was merely his imagination, but the tensed muscles under his hand were definitely shaking.
"Uh…" he said, surprised. "Is there anything wrong, Kaiba?" Yugi tried to look around the tall form. "Is there anything wrong with Yami?" His voice rose slightly at the end due to his worry.
"Nothing's wrong with Yami," Kaiba said, his voice sounding rougher than normal.
Then what's wrong? Yugi thought, not sure if he should ask. In the end, Kaiba moved slowly forward, so Yugi went as well.
He stopped again a few minutes later as they came to the slightly opened doors of the tomb. The thick stone slab that covered the entrance was pivoted slightly so that there was a slight opening about two feet wide and two feet high. Bakura and Joey were trying to go through with Yami. For once, Yugi was happy that he was so small. Being short had its benefits, after all.
Joey and Yami finally through, Bakura disappeared quickly enough. The soft white glow of light from the other end of the opening confirmed that he was there, but the glow began to decrease.
"Bakura?" Yugi asked tremulously.
"Come on through. Joey and I are moving Yami further down. You'll be fine without light."
"Bakura!" Yugi protested, skin crawling as the light diminished even more, so that he could barely see Kaiba even though the young billionaire was right in front of him.
"You want to save Yami, don't you?" Bakura's words drifted back to them. "It's all right, it's a small tunnel and we'll be right in front of you anyway. Yami is slowing us down. It's harder to move him when we're crawling." Within moments, they were in near-complete darkness.
Why didn't we think to bring light? Yugi asked himself. It was too late for regrets, though.
"Kaiba, hurry up," he said. "The sooner we get through, the sooner we'll join them again.
Seto, however, wasn't moving anymore. "What the heck is wrong with you?" Yugi hissed, on edge. They were deep in the earth, without light…he vowed to do something horrible to Bakura as soon as they got out of this crazy trip.
"I…" Seto started.
"Hurry up, will you?" Yugi demanded, voice shrill. He winced at how he sounded. "You're blocking the way!"
"I'm claustrophobic…" he whispered.
Yugi almost didn't hear it. Then the words registered. "What?"
"My stepfather used to lock me up in the dark…"
"…" Yugi had no idea what to say. On one hand, he was completely surprised that Kaiba was being human for once, and sympathized with him. On the other hand, he wasn't about to be stuck down here without light while his yami was dying—or whatever happened to spirits when they were hurt. For goodness' sake, they were in Egypt, in some rural town somewhere—where the heck was El Minya, anyway—in a pharaoh's tomb, and the pharaoh just happened to be his yami, of all people!
And people were dying from this crazy curse of the pharaohs because they had entered Yami's tomb.
And so they were here, and their leader was none other than another spirit, who was a former tomb thief that was helping them probably because he still wanted the Millennium items for himself.
And in front of him, his yami's greatest rival, who was a billionaire and CEO of his own company, was refusing to go through the stupid tunnel because he was claustrophobic. Claustrophobic because his own stepfather had locked him in tight, dark, places. Kaiba? No way. He had to be dreaming.
And they were in complete darkness, who knows how deep below the surface of the earth, and if the excavation had disturbed the place enough to trigger a cave in or masses of swarming insects or…all the other scary things that had been in The Mummy, which Yugi was starting to think that he'd watched one two many times due to his excessive love of all things ancient Egyptian.
Yugi started to laugh uncontrollably.
"…Yugi?" Kaiba asked questioningly.
"I…don't b-believe this," he choked out between the laughter racking his body.
"Calm down, Yugi." Over the laughter, Yugi heard Kaiba's movements as he crawled into the tunnel on hands and knees. "Follow me."
To tired to laugh, Yugi gasped for air as he crawled behind Kaiba. "I thought you were claustrophobic?"
"I am." The disembodied voice was strained and hoarse. Yugi realized how hard it must be for Kaiba.
"Sorry. I wasn't laughing at you or anything. I just…it's all so unreal…"
"Yeah. But Yami needs us."
And that's the big deal, isn't it? Yugi thought. Yami needs Kaiba for once in his life and Kaiba for some odd reason is responding to it, almost as if he's worried for Yami, for real.
It was odd how he was thinking while doing this, as if to distract himself from images of rotting skeletons and bugs and the poisonous gas that he had read that sometimes developed over time in deep underground chambers. Yugi choked down another hysterical giggle. Time was suspended as they crawled through what seemed like an unending tunnel. They collided often with the walls, and in some parts the tunnel was even narrower. It was terrifying to be crawling in the darkness. Yugi could only imagine how much worse it was for Kaiba, who led the way. At least Bakura, Joey, and Yami had already been through here.
And stirred up the scarabs and spiders and cockroaches to attack us… Forcing the thought out of his mind, Yugi tried to concentrate, when all of a sudden, Kaiba let out a strangled shriek ahead. Normally, Yugi would have laughed at the notion of Kaiba screaming. All things considered now, though, screaming along with him seemed to be more a more appealing. Good idea, great idea.
"What is it?"
"…Nothing. A spider crawled over my hand."
Spider webs and bugs wouldn't be able to survive, would they?
Yugi cursed his overactive imagination. Remember the time in fifth grade, when he had almost been bitten by a black widow that had landed in his hair…
The earth seemed to press down on them. The tunnel was slanting down, meaning that they were going deeper and deeper into the earth. Just think of all the tons of dirt above them…if it came crashing down and they were buried alive. Or worse yet, if they were trapped down here but weren't immediately killed, so they just starved to death or died from lack of oxygen.
It was definitely getting harder to breath. He remembered all the stories of people trapped for weeks after an earthquake.
Sometime after what felt like an hour, Yugi started chanting to himself. Yami needs my help. Bakura's just down the tunnel. Yami needs my help…
Kaiba wasn't going to be the only one with claustrophobia when they got out of this. Provided that they got out of this alive. If they didn't die here, trapped.
Yugi wasn't about to start going down that path.
Finally, Kaiba stopped.
"What's wrong?" Yugi whispered, getting a sense of deja vu. He wasn't sure why he was whispering. Something about being in the dark and in a narrow tunnel just made you whisper.
"There's light ahead. I think we're near the end."
Yugi could have hugged him for the news. They increased their speed, wincing as the scraped elbows and knees were scraped yet again.
They crawled out into a lighted room.
"Bakura?" Kaiba said, sounding almost normal again.
"Over here. We just got here, too. Dragging Yami through the tunnel isn't all that easy." The tomb spirit was smiling almost beatifically.
Yugi saw the reason for his smile a moment later as he crawled through the end of the tunnel and sat there, too tired to move.
Gold, silver, jewels. The light glinted off of treasures all over the room. The stone walls had Egyptian art depicting a pharaoh that looked identical to Yami.
Bakura's eyes gleamed.
"We shouldn't get sidetracked here," Joey drawled as he looked at the former—or perhaps not—tomb robber.
Bakura turned to glare at him, and whatever his expression was, it completely freaked Joey out.
"They must have loved you, pharaoh. Look at all the treasure they left for you to use in the afterlife. Of course, your ka is still stuck here, like me," he said to Yami.
Yugi summoned up the last of his energy and walked over to Yami. His legs ached from being in the same cramped position.
"You okay, Yami?"
"It's bearable," Yami replied, looking at his hikari through half-opened eyes. It didn't sound very promising to Yugi.
"Quiet!" Bakura suddenly hissed.
They heard it now, a scrabbling sound. Someone else was in the chamber with them. Yugi realized that the glow of the gold was reflecting off not only Bakura's Millennium Ring, but also normal light.
"Over there!" They ran towards the sound just in time to see a man approach a stone sarcophagus.
The resemblance was unmistakable. It was James, Ryou's father.
"STOP!" Yugi shouted, just as the man who had discovered Yami's tomb shoved open the gold-molded casing of the sarcophagus and revealed the inner pure gold likeness of the pharaoh.
o -
Please review! I think this is one of my most heavily edited chapters from before (almost an exact year ago). Anyway, chapter 5 has been written and it's the first of the 'new' chapters, so to speak. I think this story will be around 10 chapters possibly, or that's how it's plotted out right now. Criticism, etc. is all welcome, but do comment please.
