(Hey, are only previous readers reading this stuff? Come on now! Review! smiles sweetlyit would make me so very happy! Oh! and thanks for reading anyway!) (As of 1/15/09 this chapter has been revised... And Mariku has been made meaner... ^_^)

Sekhmet


Hollow Destiny

By Embodiment of Sekhmet

Chapter Four: Jono

...Jono...

Yugi's eyes snapped open as he heard a startled yelp of pain. He shot up and stared at Mariku, who had his hands wrapped around someone's neck. A someone who looked very familiar...

"Joey! Mariku wait!" Yugi yelled getting up and rushing over. Mariku growled and glared at Yugi.

"I found this boy snooping around, he's a hunter!" Mariku snarled.
Joey tried desperately to get way, however he couldn't seem to move at all. He spotted Yugi and struggled more.

"Yugi! Get outta here! Dis guy's a vampire!" He yelled. Yugi frowned and grabbed Mariku's wrist.
"Let him go!" Yugi commanded. Mariku frowned and let Joey go. Joey stumbled backwards his hands holding his throat.
"Joey! What are you doing here!" Yugi asked glaring at his friend.
Joey frowned and dusted his school jacket off.

"I was looking for you!" He said glaring at Mariku.

"BULLSHIT!" Mariku roared.

"How did you know where to look for me?" Yugi asked ignoring Mariku's outburst.

Joey frowned and shook his head.

"I went to your house right when you were leaving and I followed yha."

"Why?"

"I thought you were bein' kidnapped." Joey explained.
Yugi frowned and glanced at Mariku. Mariku was fuming.

"Get out of here Joey..." Yugi said turning and walking over to the windowsill.

"He can't."

Yugi stopped halfway and turned. Mariku was still glaring at Joey as he crossed his arms.

"I can't let him leave knowing where we are, and if you're not going to let me kill him then he'll just have to stay with us." Mariku sneered. Joey visibly paled.

"But-" He started but Mariku started walking toward him. Joey immediately started backing up.

"Don't worry human, I won't bite..." Mariku hissed. He grabbed Joey roughly by the arm.

"Much..." He snapped and pushed him over to where Yugi was.
Joey stumbled but managed to stay on his feet.

"Now, tell me, boy..." He growled stalking over.

"Did you happen to bring any friends with you?"
Joey shook his head violently and whimpered, clearly afraid of Mariku.

"N-no s-sir..." He shuddered. Yugi watched him curiously and wondered why he was so afraid of Mariku. Mariku had already said he wasn't going to kill him so why be scared? His stomach rumbled and reminded Yugi he hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon.

"Mariku, I'm hungry..." He said turning toward the vampire. Mariku glanced at Yugi.

"And why the hell should I give a fuck about that?" Mariku hissed.

Yugi blinked.
"I was just telling you, you don't have to be so mean..." Yugi muttered sitting down. He looked over at Joey then back at Mariku.

"Aren't you hungry?" He asked.
Mariku grimaced, he wouldn't have been hungry right now if that brat wouldn't have made so much noise. Now he was hungry and pissed off.

"None of your business..." He snapped.
Yugi sighed and wondered what his grandfather was doing right now. He probably had discovered that Yugi was missing by now. Knowing him he was sick with worry, he probably had even found some way to contact his brother and- Wait, Yami was a vampire shouldn't he be able to find Yugi?

"Mariku?" Yugi said becoming slightly alarmed.

"What?" Mariku snapped.

Joey sat down beside Yugi, still watching Mariku's every move.

"My brother's a vampire... Could he find me?"

"What!" Mariku yelled snapping his head in Yugi's direction.

"Yami's a vampire!" Joey asked staring at Yugi.

Yugi nodded.

"How? Was he bitten?" Mariku asked. Yugi shook his head.

"I don't think so, when I was four he brainwashed my parents into thinking he was their son and that's how he became my brother. After my dad died mysteriously and my mom went insane, he started sneaking off in the middle of the night, and when he came back he smelt like blood..." Yugi paused. "Not to mention he knows all about "daylights" and vampires"
Mariku grimaced.

"Why would a vampire with the ability to shape shift and brainwash lower himself to the standards of mere mortals?" He pondered aloud. After a moment his eyes widened.

"Perhaps it has something to do with your odd abilities!"
Yugi blinked.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

Mariku nodded at the thought, beginning to pace around.
"You can revitalize and heal an injured person just by touching them, you merged your soul with that sword, and you have dreams of the past. Not only that, but you seem to be able to tell when something threatening is nearby."

"There's been rumor goin' round in da unda ground bout some sorta new breed of vampire dat doesn't need blood and has unnatural powers, maybe Yuge's one." Joey said suddenly. Mariku snorted.

"You're crazy if you believe that. Anything that doesn't drink blood isn't a vampire." Mariku spat.

"Hey I was just offerin' ideas!" Joey said indignantly.

"Your ideas are idiotic so just keep them in your head boy." Mariku replied.
Yugi giggled and Joey huffed. Mariku smirked at Yugi, his lavender eye's dancing with amusement as he decided to tease the boy.

"You could be an angel Yugi. You're beautiful enough to be one." Mariku offered snickering a little.

Yugi blushed a interesting shade of red making Joey laugh.

"I dunno, I think he's too cute to be an angel." Joey said smiling.

"I still not sure..." Mariku teased.
Yugi smiled and traced a pattern on the floor while continuing to blush. There must have been something in the dust that he was allergic to though, because his fingers tingled a little as he did so.

"I don't think I'm innocent enough to be an angel..." Yugi said.

Mariku frowned.

"Why have you been fucked before?"

Yugi's eyes widened and he glared at Mariku still blushing.

"What the hell? No!"

"Well then your still innocent." Mariku shrugged and Yugi was hit with how much the vampire was acting like a normal teenage boy. It was oddly comforting...

Joey chuckled.

"He's got a point Yuge."

Yugi covered his head with his hands.

"Oh, just shut up..." He muttered.

Mariku and Joey both burst out laughing. Laughter filling the room with a warm homily feeling. Yugi sighed and leaned up against the wall.

He was glad Mariku and Joey seemed to be getting along now even if it was just for a few minutes. He traced his fingers against the wall idlely, dipping into cracks and crevices and following them.

He was about to say something when he felt it...

He started shaking, whimpering, and sweating.

The feeling was terrible.
It was down in the pit of his stomach and seemed to grow with each passing second.

"M-mariku..." He shuttered wrapping his arms around himself. Mariku and Joey immediately stopped laughing.

"Game? What's wrong?" Mariku asked walking over to Yugi. Yugi grabbed onto Mariku legs and shook.

"Something's here..." He shuttered.
Mariku growled and glanced around his lavender eyes taking in every shadow, every sound, every movement.

Eventually his gaze settled on the window as he heard a strange noise coming from outside.
He grimaced as he heard something hiss and rattle. Joey heard it and paled.

"Either dats a snake, or some typa demon." He said edging his way over to Mariku and Yugi.
"Close, it's a snake demon." Mariku said still staring at the window.
Joey blinked.

"But I was told dat they don't exist anymore."

"That's almost accurate, you see a long time ago they were all killed out after the Tomb Robber attained the ability to command them so that he wouldn't be more powerful then the Pharaoh."

"I've hear about dat snake, wasn't its name Diabo or something like that?"

"It's Diabound, you idiot. It's extremely dangerous, and it only listens to the Tomb Robber."

"Does dat mean dat Diabound's outside?" Joey asked beginning to panic.

Mariku shook his head.

"No, I, believe it or not have seen and heard Diabound before and that doesn't sound like Diabound."

"But den wha-"

There was a loud hiss as a long shadow burst into the room through the window. It was at lest ten feet long, had the shape of a snake, glowing green eyes and looked like a black shadow.
"Holy shit!" Joey exclaimed jumping up and running over to Mariku. Mariku snorted.

"Coward..." He muttered.

The shadow curled up and reared its head, poised to strike.
Mariku smirked.

"Apparently we're in her nest."
Joey stared at him.

"That thing has a gender!" Joey asked.

"Of course it does you pansy! Most demons have genders. You can tell this ones female by the fact that she's poised to strike and she doesn't have a hood."

"A what?"

Mariku rolled his eyes.

"Ever seen a King Cobra?"

"Yeah..."

"Have you ever seen when they rear up how their necks seem to flare out?"

"Uh-huh."

"That's what I'm talking about."

"Oh."

"Yes, 'Oh!' I feel like I'm babysitting infants here! Get off my leg!" The vampire snapped shaking Yugi off of him. When that was done he glanced thoughtfully at the shadow.

"She's also pretty young, maybe only a hundred years or so." Mariku noted.

"She wants us to leave..." Yugi muttered. He had stopped shaking a while ago, the strange feeling had left him has he listened to Mariku and Joey talk. Even though he really had a hard time understanding want they were talking about.

"Well we can't. We have no where else to go." Mariku spat. The snake's eye narrowed.

"She's not happy..." Yugi said standing and edging behind Mariku. He couldn't explain his sudden urge to cling to Mariku like a safety blanket, but he knew that it probably had something to do with the fear...

Mariku smirked.

"She should know that I'm thousands of years her senior and I could kick her ass if I wanted too."

The snake hissed and lowered it's head. Yugi frowned.

"Yeah, you can kick her butt, but what about me and Joey? She could kill us in an instant if she wanted to!" Yugi said.

"Hey, let's head on ova tah Ryou's house. He lives near here and I don't think he'd mind the company." Joey said glancing nervously at the snake.
Mariku grimaced.

"Must we include another mortal in this!" Mariku complained glaring at the blond-haired boy.
"That's a good idea Joey! We'll be safe there." Yugi said glancing up at Mariku. Mariku stared down at him for a moment irritation clear in his eyes before he sigh and nodded.

"Fine, we take our leave now..."


Diaos shifted from his perch on the edge of a roof of a tall skyscraper when he heard someone approach. He snapped his head in the direction of the intruder and bared his fangs, expecting a fight, but what met his gaze wasn't what he expected.

A tall young man with long raven colored hair held up in a ponytail, with emerald colored eyes glared at him. He wore black jeans, and a black tank-top with a red vest over it. Around his neck he wore a pendant that was in the shape of a clowns face and dangling from one ear was a single die.

Tattooed on the right side of his face was a black streak which resembled a black tear trail which fell from his right eye.

He smirked at Diaos.

"I didn't expect to find anyone up here, let alone someone like you..." He purred silkily walking over near Diaos.

Diaos smirked.

This boy seemed to be as stupid as he was beautiful. He would be perfect...

"And what ever do you mean by that boy?" Diaos hissed in an amused tone. He leaned closer and the boy smirked again.

"You bounty hunting scum are all the same. You smell just as bad as you act." He said twirling one of his bangs around his finger with an amused tone. He tossed his bang away with a chuckle.

Diaos frowned.

"Who are you?" He asked his eyes skimming down the boy's frame. The boy chuckled again his green eyes glittering.

"My current name is Duke Devlin, however I'm much better know in the underworld as Ryuuji Otogi..." He said his eyes narrowing at the evil one beside him.

Diaos stared at the boy in confusion.

"But Otogi was sealed away by the Honda family a century after he was created, and that was at least a millennium ago."

The boy hissed and growled at Diaos, his eyes changing shape to those of a cats, the dark slit glowing madly.

"Don't you ever mention that name in my presence again!" He snarled lashing out and hitting Diaos across the face with enough power to send him stumbling backwards. After a few minutes he regained his composure and his eyes slid back to normal. He sighed and turned to look at the sky.

"I barely escaped the prison they put me in..." He muttered. Then he smirked.

"Sixteen years ago I pulled myself from the darkness of my prison, I was battered and weary, I barely had enough energy to sustain a spirit form let alone a solid one. I was about to return to my eternal prison when I stumbled upon a young woman giving birth..." He snickered.

"I possessed one of the twins she gave birth to and thus attained the human body you see before you." He finished his story and turned.

"Now I'm on my quest for revenge against the foul creatures that sent me to my prison. Only to discover that they were very few of them left, and those who were left had sensed my return and scattered across the globe." His eyes turned cat like has he smirked.

"But I have discovered them... I've killed most of them off but a few have alluded me." He muttered.

"I have a job for you bounty hunter, if you want it."

Diaos glared at him. He touched his cheek and hissed.

"Forget it!" He snapped.

The boy smiled.
"I apologize, I forgot you are a professional business man like myself, I understand the rules. Name your price hunter..."
Diaos smirked.

"I want the cat's eye crystal you held so dear in your last life... and..." Diaos ran his eyes greedily down the boy's slim figure.

"You said you had a twin?"

The boy's eyes narrowed.

"A twin sister, she and I look exactly alike..."
Diaos smiled evilly.

"I want her then." He said.

The boy hissed lightly but after a moment he fliped his hair and snorted.

"Done. Now here's what I want you to do for me." The boy smirked.

"Go to small city named Vrista, somewhere inside resides the last of the bastards that trapped me in their prison. Their names are Kiyoko and Tyro Honda though they most likely have changed their names; they also have a daughter name Aria. I want you to kill them." He said.
Diaos nodded.

"Consider it as good as done."


Joey glanced behind him.

"She's still following us..." He said glancing over at Mariku and Yugi. Yugi shivered and leaned into Mariku as they kept walking toward Ryou's house. Mariku nodded.

"Not surprising, she probably senses power and merely wants to explore what's the cause of it..." Mariku growled and glared at Joey.

"I thought you said this Ryou's house wasn't far from here!" He snapped.

Joey frowned and crossed his arms.

"Keep your pants on vampy, we're almost dere." He snapped.
Mariku grinned.

"It seems someone's grown a backbone in the short time we've been together Game, how much pressure do you think it'll take before it snaps?" He asked Yugi.

Yugi rolled his eyes and sighed.

"At lest he's not quaking in fear like he was before..." Yugi muttered glancing at Joey.

Joey was nervously casting glances at the demon snake that slithered behind them.

"He's not very bright, and he trusts people too easily..." Mariku muttered. Yugi nodded in agreement and pointed to a tall pale blue house down the street.

"That's Ryou's place!" He called as he started running toward it. Joey and Mariku tagged behind as he red-lined it to the front door.
He immediately knocked and hoped Ryou was home.

The door opened a crack and a pair of frightened brown eyes peaked out.

"Yes?" A soft voice asked.

"Ryou! It's Yugi! Can I come in?" Yugi asked.

Ryou's eyes widened and he threw the door open and jumped on Yugi, nearly making Yugi fall on his back from the bear hug Ryou was giving him.

"Oh my god! Yugi you're alive! I was so worried when I heard the news!" Ryou exclaimed.

Yugi blushed and tried to push Ryou off of him.

"What news Ryou?" Joey asked coming up behind Yugi. Ryou blinked and looked up at Joey. He was about to answer when he was roughly ripped away from Yugi and shoved inside his house.
He glanced up to see a tall lean man with blazing purple eyes standing beside Yugi.
Yugi glanced up at Mariku, silently thanking him for getting Ryou off of him, and walked inside.

"Let's talk inside..." He said turning around and grabbing Mariku's wrist along with Joey's and pulling them inside. As soon as they were inside Yugi apologized for his behavior.

"You mean you didn't hear about what happened to your house Yugi?" Ryou asked bringing them all into his living room.
Yugi and Joey flopped down onto the couch while Mariku stood behind the couch, hovering over them.

"No what happened?" Yugi asked.
Mariku snorted.

"Let me guess, it was destroyed in a raging inferno that came out of nowhere." He said in a bored monotone.

Ryou blinked at him and nodded sadly.

"They also found the remains of your grandpa Yugi..." He muttered quietly.

Yugi's eyes widened.

"What?"

"Your grandpa was killed in the fire. Yami called me earlier this morning and asked me if I had seen you or Joey lately, after I told him I hadn't he told me about your grandpa... I'm really sorry Yugi... I know what it's like to lose a someone..."

Yugi didn't reply. It was as if he was frozen, he just sat there staring at Ryou with a blank expression plastered on his face.

Joey glanced at him.
"Yuge? Are you okay?" Joey asked reaching forward to comfort his ailing friend. His hand was quickly slapped away by Mariku. Joey glared and cradled his hand.

"What the hell was that for!" He yelled.

Mariku growled before turning and pokingYugi's shoulder.

Yugi immediately snapped out of his trace and tilted his head back so he could look up at Mariku.

"You warned me what would happen... I should have left a note or called to tell him not to go back to the house! I-I-I could have prevented his death!" Yugi exclaimed as crystalline tears pour down his cheeks from his saddened eyes.
Mariku shook his head.

"You could have done nothing. Your tears will not bring him back Game. There is no sense in crying." Mariku said coldly pressing his hand firmly to Yugi's shoulder almost as if he was sucking the sorrow directly from him.

Yugi whimpered and reached up to cover Mariku's hands with his own. The tan creature flinched and sneered. After a second or two he pulled his hand away and crossed his arms.

Yugi appreciated the small bit of comfort Mariku offered even though Yugi longed to just curl up in a ball and sob his heart out.

Grandpa... Poor Grandpa...

"Yugi? Who is this?" Ryou asked gazing at Mariku with an odd look.

Yugi smiled sadly and looked over at Ryou.

"This is Mariku he..." Yugi looked back up at Mariku.

"Saved me from the fire..." Yugi muttered.

A sudden wave of tiredness wash over Yugi as he felt Mariku hands move slightly through his hair. His eyes had a strange glow to them and he was muttering something under his breath. Yugi's eyes slid closed and he slumped back.
'Sleep little Game there is something I must discuss with your friends in private...' Mariku's voice echoed through his mind as Yugi fell into the realm of sleep.

And he dreamed...

He dreamed of two children.
Brother and sister.
One with green eyes, the other with blue.
Both with hair as pale as snow.
Tan skin, like the brown sand they played in.
Then they were separated.
The boy was screaming her name as she burned in their village.
...Rinae...


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