In a time where so much is unknown to mankind,
it is hard to believe that places beyond the here and now exist,
but they do,
places where wars are raged and battles are fought,
and people are killed,
they do exist, and I will tell you their stories...
A dangerous unity for some,
a desired unity for others,
but is this 'alliance' being forged for all the wrong reasons?
this is the start of things to come.
-B-l-a-c-k-e-d- -o-u-t-
Chapter six
((Careful, knives are sharp))
It had been exactly two days since the demon prince had found out about the plot to have himself dethroned. It had been exactly two days since his mother had told him to start looking for a bride.
And it had been two days since he had encountered the demon queen.
Looking back he regretted his choice of places to look for his motheror anyone who would helpit was far too obvious. Although the good thing (if you could call it that) was that no one else had been around, so no one else knew anything about the conversation.
Although it was hard to determine who it was 'good' for.
The demon prince stopped outside the door to catch his breath, he had sprinted most of the way to the throne room. He didn't know where else to go, there were people around him who were plotting to kill him and make it look like an accident. Once his breathing evened out a bit he entered the dark hall.
It was a long hall and the usual black drapes could be seen in the dark adorning the roof where the large support structures met it. At the end of the hall he could see four chairs, the first chair on the left was silver with black decorations, the next chair was the tallest of them all, it was gold and had intricately carved patterns adorning it's sides. The two chairs to the right decreased in height, making for a staircase effect.
The third chair from the right was his throne, the traditional position of the crown prince.
But probably the most abnormal thing about the room during this visit had been the presence of a second party, seated at the tallest throne in the room, the empress's throne.
The demon prince composed himself and walked towards the figure, but the closer he got the stronger the urge to turn and run in the opposite direction grew. However the prince kept his calm attitude and continued to head towards the figure at the throne.
"Prince Yami, what a surprise," the voice was very cold, and very feminine.
"My presence here is hardly something that should surprise you," Yami spoke in a fluent and reasonably dignified voice, it was the kind of voice that would have made his mother proud.
"True, but I wasn't expecting you to be here," the voice continued to subtly taunt the crown prince with their cold-but-respective voice.
"That hardly explains why you are sitting on my mother's throne," Yami paused momentarily for effect, "was it too hard for you to make it all the way to your throne, which happens to be mere centimeters away,"
"How disrespectful you are prince," the figure rose from their seated position, the deep purple cloak they wore fell casually around their feminine build, the hood blocked out any possible view of their eyes.
"I hardly think you should be calling me disrespectful," Yami retorted, the prince was exceedingly good when it came to verbal warfare.
"No, you are right, rude and spoilt are much more appropriate," the figure spat, they had dropped their respectful masquerade and had taken to a far more brutal approach.
"By calling me rude and spoilt you yourself are being rude, does that not make you a hypocrite?" Yami smirked at the wordless demon in front of him.
"Watch your back prince, you never know who'll be standing there with a knife," the figure walked deliberately slowly past Yami and continued down the long passage to the exit.
((Wartime personalities...))
Technically the demon queen had admitted to being involved with, if not murdering the late demon king. And by proving to the people that she was involved in or organized the murder, then she would be put to death as punishment, however that could have some very negative repercussions for the prince.
During his time Akunadin was known to hold grudges, and Yami very much doubted that his followers were any different. And should he get the one who is trying to reconstruct Akunadin's once great forces killed, then chances were the rest of them would come after his blood. And that was an undesirable outcome.
The prince was sitting in the library of the palace, he had decided to do a bit of research on the war, to see just how much he knew, and how much could be hidden. So far his efforts to unearth something incriminating had been fruitless, however brushing up his knowledge hadn't been a complete waste of time, the prince had found a few particularly interesting books.
The first was a complete documentation of almost all of the strategies that were used during the war, the second was a history of the royal line (he had liked this one because it was the only book he was mentioned in).
The third book he had found was about the people involved in the war, the prince had never heard of the title or the author, but whoever wrote it seemed to know a lot about the war. There was nothing terribly incriminating in the book but it was a very good read, the author had obviously done their homework, the book looked very closely at the personalities of the parties involved and at the role that each individual played in the power struggle.
The prince had started packing up his books when he heard two very familiar voices, not exactly the two people he really wanted to talk to right now. But no matter how great his efforts had been, the two demons got in before he could get out.
"Ah, prince Yami, what a surprise," the first mocked.
"And here we were expecting some old hag of a librarian," the second demon took a seat to Yami's left and the first claimed the spare seat to Yami's right.
"So, prince, how's life going, school is not too hard is it?" Ishtar Malik, seated at the prince's right, asked casually, he was wearing a white middrif topwith baggy black cargo pants.
"Actually I am kind of busy at the moment," Yami attempted to get rid of them, but his efforts again proved fruitless.
"Busy, with what? Don't tell me you actually study for school," Ishtar Marik taunted, probably the only thing that gave away the fact that he and Malik weren't clones of each other was that he was adorned in a different outfit. His outfit consisted of a black sleeveless shirt and loose fitting beige cargo pants.
"Not all of us dropped out of school Marik," Malik teased as he risked a quick glance at the prince's books. None of them seemed too interesting, they were all about the war, Malik was about to give up his visual search when he spotted something.
"It's not my fault-" Marik was cut of by his partner in crime who reached out and snatched up one of the prince's books.
"What do we have here? The original copy of 'Wartime personalities'," Malik eyed the book closely, the title was in indented gold printing and the book was covered in black leather hide.
"I didn't know the boogie man was an author," Marik stated carelessly after looking at the author's name.
"He isn't an author, some other demon wrote this, they just have the same name," Malik flipped through a few pages, he spotted some very interesting things, this was definitely something the demon queen would want to see. "You wouldn't mind if I borrowed this would you?"
"Not really," the prince replied off handedly, he was far more busy gathering up his books and getting away from the demonic duo.
"Why would you want to read a book written by the boogie man?" Marik complained as he followed Malik out of the library. The pair gained a look of disgust from one of the librarians on their way out.
Yami slowed his pace slightly, once he had the books he needed he left the library with all of the dignity he could muster. It was odd that Malik would want that book, the only thing of any interest that it contained was an analogy of the personalities possessed by the most influential figures in the war. And that shouldn't be any use to Malik, seeing as he was part of the war, he should already know most of what was published in the book.
The young prince decided that thinking should be left until later when he had some time to himself, after dinner.
((Kaiba Seto and Kujaku Mai!))
Bakura sat alone in one of the spare conference rooms the palace had to offer, it was relatively new and had been refurnished recently, but that wasn't why the demon warrior was there. He was there because it was quiet and very rarely was he granted the opportunity of sitting and simply thinking things through in silence.
"BAKURA!" a male voice yelled from outside the room.
"HAVE WE GOT NEWS FOR YOU!" a second voice shouted, before the warrior had a chance to vacate the room two twin like demons burst through the door.
"What now?" Bakura spat in annoyance.
"YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT WE JUST OVERHEARD!" the first demon shouted again.
"IT'S THE MOST UNLIKELY THING EVER!" the second continued the one sided shouting warfare.
"Stop shouting," Bakura complained, massaging his temples.
"You'll never guess what we overheard on our way here," the truth was they didn't actually overhear anything, they were actually told the information by their superior, but they were instructed to put on a big show.
"Spit it out then," the legendary warrior was quickly tiring of their antics.
"What do we get in return?" the second demon questioned, sounding rather like a salesperson.
"Nothing Marik, now tell me what ever it was that you overheard," Bakura struggled to resist the urge to strangle both of the demons in front of him.
"Come on, there has got to be something you have that we'd want," Marik inspected the room with his eyes, searching for something of any value.
"I know," Bakura said triumphantly, "how about... nothing," the warrior spat and returned to his former seat.
"That doesn't sound too valuable," Marik complained as his partner picked up the slack.
"I think there is something you have that we want..." Malik trailed off, he held out the book he had borrowed from the prince "I think you know who wrote this book, and I think you know where they are,"
"I have no idea where they are, and even if I did I'd never tell the likes of you!" Bakura spat in a disgusted manner.
"Let's do a deal, shall we? I'll tell you what I know, and you tell me what you know?" Malik attempted persuading the legendary warrior, and it worked.
"Very well," Bakura grunted, the demon warrior's eyes thoroughly inspected the room for signs of any other presences, when the room passed his inspection he began talking, "he's in the mortal realm, last I heard he was staying in some poor, dirty mortal city,"
"You must know more than that," Marik nagged.
"He's not exactly my favorite person to talk to," Bakura said, he was on full alert for any signs of movement coming form the corridor outside.
"The author, you're related to them, aren't you?" Malik smirked subtly, he was positive he had hit a sensitive nerve, and as fate would have it, he had.
"I'll die before I claim any sort of relation to that scum," Bakura growled.
"I suppose we should hold up our end of the deal shouldn't we?" Ishtar Malik said indifferently as he flicked a strand of his platinum blond hair out of his face.
"Well," Bakura spat impatiently.
"Have you heard the rumor about the warlord looking for a bride?" Malik asked slyly.
"Turns out it isn't a rumor after all," Marik answered his patner's question before Bakura got a chance to.
"He's picked a wife too," Malik continued.
"Who is it?" Bakura asked, if they warlord got married he could be put in serious jeopardy depending on who it was. If they were related to the prince, he was in serious trouble, but if they were related to Akunadin, or the demon queen, he was safe, for now.
"You sure you want to know?" Malik prolonged his answer.
"Yes I'm sure I want to know," the legendary warrior mimicked Malik's tone.
"It's Kujaku Mai!" Marik spat it in such a hurry that it took Bakura a moment to work out what the insane demon had said.
Bakura felt at that moment that only one word was capable of describing his current feelings,
'Crap...'
-B-l-a-c-k-e-d- -o-u-t-
Reviews:
mechante fille- glad you liked the idea of Yuugi with wings, and I don't think Bakura and Yami will be getting together anytime soon...
Kayrana- Nope! No cookie for you! And if you translate Yuugi from Japanese kanji I believe it does have two u's, but the stupid dub bunnies got rid of one because they can't spell!
Malikztiah- Glad you liked the chapter, and an interesting analogy of reading, I agree!
TK: Sorry about the long wait, I had a bit of a block, but I'm okay now! I've got a pretty good idea where I want to go with this story, and the holidays are comming up soon, giving me plenty of spare time to write! And this time I won't be benevolent, five reviews, then I update!
SK: R&R, no flames
TK: Later!