Fading Colors

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or its characters. I only own my OC's, and the fanfic. I'm not getting any money out of this. Just for entertainment purposes.

Author's Note:

Ugh, this story requires a lot of thought on how the all characters' emotions work (I blame myself for making them so complicated…)! And I am no psychologist…

And if you're confused about Dusk… You should be. xD Also, I apologize in advance, this chapter and the last weren't that interesting, with all the explaining. Sorry about that. ^^'

I just thought I'd say this, but if I ever owned Yu-Gi-Oh!... Well, let's just say, that would be horrible for all of us. xD I just noticed that I put the disclaimer up in every chapter and never really notice it...

Chapter 9- Why?

-R-

To tell you the truth, I was terrified. That crying I heard somehow had shook me to my inner core, and I felt insecure enough as it was, just hearing that. But a new voice… It scared me to no end. I shivered, but slowly turned around along with Yami to see who the two people were.

Well, I knew one. The familiar figure was leaning against a wall far away from Yami and I, still wearing the neon green hoodie and mask. It was so hard to tell how Dusk's expression was though, since his entire face was blocked from view. But I think he seemed a bit bored, the way he just casually leaned against the wall, and kind of just stared up at the ceiling in an uninterested manner. "'Sup." He muttered, his weird accent clearly heard by the rest of us. It was so unique that I was tempted to ask him if he made up his own language that sounded close to that tone he always had. xD

The other figure stood closer to Yami and I, the owner of the new voice. But for some reason, one look at her told me that she wasn't an enemy of mine. The figure was a fairly tall female, with tanned skin. She wore a simple Egyptian style white dress with only a few designs. Her silky black hair fell a little past her shoulders. The kind, yet mysterious blue eyes of hers gazed at me before flickering towards Yami. Around her neck, a gold necklace… With the same symbol as all the Millennium Items had. This woman was a wielder of a Millennium Item.

That means that there are three Millennium Items in this room… Unless…?

I looked back at Dusk, who was still having a staring contest with the ceiling. Not that I could tell who would be the winner. The ceiling didn't really blink, and Dusk… I couldn't see him blink with that mask on his face. So there really wouldn't be a winner unless Dusk took off his mask… He didn't seem to be wearing any gold, like all the Millennium Items seemed to be, so I'm pretty sure he didn't have one.

"Allow me to introduce myself," The woman spoke, earning my attention once more. "My name is Ishizu. It's a real honor to meet you, Pharaoh," And she slightly bowed, before looking at me. The bow seemed to make Yami feel a little uncomfortable. "As it is meeting you." She turned back to look at Dusk. "Do you want to pay your respects to the Pharaoh, Little King?"

Dusk let out an irritated sigh, and broke his gaze away from the ceiling to look at Ishizu. "It's not him this time… I was afraid he'd tear that one guy over there to pieces." Dusk motioned towards Yami. "And he told me to tell you that he hates that nickname. I would have thought you would notice the change." Then he strolled over so that he stood closer to the rest of us.

Yami of course didn't seem to be too delighted at the thought of being torn apart, but the two of us both were confused. Dusk seemed to be referring to someone else other than himself in a way that I might refer to Roxy or Yami to Yugi. Did that mean he had another spirit too? But how could that be, if he didn't have a Millennium Item?

Ishizu nodded. "I just wanted to see your reaction. So should I call you Niu?"

Dusk winced as if she had stabbed a knife through his heart. "I don't really deserve to keep that name. Just call me uh… 'You', 'him', 'that guy over there', or whatever else you can think of. That'll work." This earned him an amused look from Ishizu, and confused looks from Yami and I. Dusk, if you wanted one word to sum him up: Weird. I mean, he wears a mask all the time; apparently hates his 'real' name (Not sure if Niu is his real name...); and he is so freakishly tall! Makes me feel like an ant. xD"Ah, I almost forgot. Hey, Re- I mean, Roxy." He shook his head, looking a little hurt for some reason. "Haha, I was going to call you Rexy. Silly me."

"Its fine…" I laughed. If he was going to say Rox before, it might have turned into Rex. xD But one thing kind of bothered me. It was as if he purposely changed from whatever he was going to call me to Roxy. Nah, I'm probably just worrying too much…

Dusk turned towards Yami, and bent forward, bowing. "Sorry for being disrespectful, earlier by not addressing you, Pharaoh." His head was hanging down in shame and guilt. "I shouldn't be allowed to live."

This shocked Yami and I further. For one, Dusk somehow knew who Yami was. And he seemed to be really upset for not 'paying his respects' or whatever. "No, no, it's fine," Yami shook his head. "There's no need to be so formal, any of you."

Dusk started to chuckle, and soon burst out laughing. He soon was lying on the floor, pounding his fists against the tiles and kicking his feet up and down. Yami and I sweat dropped, while Ishizu smiled a little. Dusk finally calmed down, and stood up, wiping a tear from his eye. He looked very amused. And I was very confused. This guy is just plain... Weird.

Before he spoke, he cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, but it takes much more than something as simple as that to make me think that I deserve to be killed. There's another reason." Dusk paused. "After all, I did be-" He stopped when Ishizu gave him a slight glare. Dusk sighed, annoyed. "Alright, I won't tell the poor guy! Though he does deserve to know… Oh, I almost forgot what I was doing here. Ishizu, just one simple question from both me and uh, 'Little King'. When should I uh, tell…?" Dusk looked really nervous now, shuffling his feet, and shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Whenever you feel it's the right time," Ishizu's glare completely disappeared, and she seemed to pity Dusk. "But not yet. Just be patient and wait a while."

"Thanks, that's all I really came for… See you guys," Dusk looked like he was going to turn to walk back up the stairs, and out of the room, but he stopped, staring at something. "Ishizu, I thought that he told you to take that down and reduce it to rubble." Dusk motioned towards the 'crying tablet', looking angry.

"I took a lot of trouble into putting that up, and I'm not going to take it down or destroy it. Sorry." Ishizu said, her voice kind yet firm. Her eyes showed that she was definitely not going to listen to Dusk.

Dusk glared at the tablet once more, and turned towards Ishizu. The air around him seemed to tense. "If you aren't going to smash that thing to dust, I suggest you return it back to Egypt, where it should stay hidden under the sand for eternity. Or I'll stop by and take care of it myself." He and Ishizu glared with defiance at each other. I was starting to feel uncomfortable at the tension building up in the room. Dusk finally sighed and broke eye contact. "Well, I'm going, thanks, Ishizu, for everything.

"One last bit of advice to the both of you, Pharaoh and Re- I mean Roxy! Ugh, sorry, I'm not so good with names." Dusk muttered to himself, about 'old habits dying hard', and then continued. "Stay away from me for the time being. It's not safe to be around me. Ciao, I'm going to go and hack a few computers. Good day to the rest of you." He waved his hand slightly, and disappeared up the steps in a blur, leaving Yami and I to wonder why he thought of himself as dangerous. I personally was more curious about the computer hacking. I mean, learning how to hack into computers would be so cool! Not to mention useful… Another thing too, I was suprised that Dusk simply dropped the subject like that. He's a weirdo.

"… Well, I'm sorry for another delay in talking to the two of you." Ishizu apologized. "But, 'that guy over there' needed my help first." She tried to lighten the mood a little, calling Dusk by that name he told her to use. "He's on the run, after all."

More questions seemed to pop up, but I refrained from asking them. It looked like Ishizu had something to say to us, and I didn't want to interrupt her after Dusk kind of did.

"As I said before, my name is Ishizu." She reintroduced herself, and decided to talk to us for a bit. Though she didn't really tell us anything we didn't already guess from looking at the tablets or we already knew.

Well, until I brought a subject up. "I guess my Hourglass isn't that unique, since your Millennium Necklace can look into the past and future as well." I guess I was a tad bit disappointed when she told us that, after all, I had believed that the Hourglass' powers were one of a kind.

"Ah, there's something your Hourglass can do that the Necklace can't though," Ishizu shook her head, making me a little happier. But she was probably just saying that to cheer me up… "It can capture the user's memories into objects. Like you did to that tablet." Ishizu motioned towards the 'crying' tablet.

I glanced back towards the tablet, feeling my mood plummet once more. If she hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten about it, that tablet… "So I trapped one of my memories in there?"

"One of the more tragic ones, yes," Ishizu nodded. "That's why everyone had so much trouble putting it up. If someone touched it with their bare hands, they would relive that memory. And even if they don't have direct contact and they're close enough, they can hear crying…"

"Do you mind me asking who is crying?" Yami asked.

"...The person who carved the tablet." Ishizu replied, though she seemed hesitant with the answer.

And that sentence made me feel relieved. I couldn't carve anything, even if my life depended on it. I've tried wood, stone, soap (Ok, please don't ask…), and a mirror (Seriously, don't ask…), failing miserably at each. There was no way that I could etch onto the tablet like that.

Ishizu decided to drop the topic. "When the two of you return home, you'll find an invitation to go to a tournament. Please attend it." Then she paused. "Both of you have important roles to play in it. And, you," She pointed at me, making me blink. "Need to collect the five of them."

"Five of what?" I blinked, utterly confused. Gees, I expected to actually understand more, not be more perplexed.

"You'll know when you recover your memories." Ishizu replied. "Use your Bird's Eye." And with that, she left in a flash, leaving me even more confused and an awkward silence hanging in the air.

"… So did you learn anything new?" I asked. "Cause I know I learned that nothing's ever simple, even if people give you explanations. Sometimes you just end up even more baffled then before." Basically, like math. Some teachers go and have this long, fancy explanation, but by the end of it, not only did you not learn anything, you're completely puzzled on whether you've been doing the problems right for the past few minutes.

"Not really," Yami chuckled. "Though I do have to admit, the tournament she mentioned might be important."

"I guess…" I remembered that Ishizu told me to 'recover' my memories… Wait! The Bird's Eye contains my memory! Stupid me, I forgot! I fished it out of my pocket, not really sure of what to do. Well, I didn't really have to do anything. All I did was hold it in my hand, and then think 'I want to remember.' Even though I didn't really want to remember… I mean, there must be a reason I locked them away… But I didn't have time to stop it. The Bird's Eye illuminated even dimmer than a small candle flame, but it had a huge reaction on me.

Reds, blues, yellows, greens, and other colors danced at the corners of my eyes, clouding my vision, blinding me. And then it came. Waves of pictures, pieces of conversations, sounds, scenes… Some of the things I had forgotten. It seemed like eternity piecing everything together, watching my past unfold in front of me. Some memories were happy… Others weren't as much.

The images, the memories. They stopped flashing before me. It had only passed maybe a second, that eternity, but I saw everything… At least, from the two pieces I had of the Bird's Eye. I felt my grip on the Bird's Eye weaken, and it slipped out of my hand, clattering onto the floor. There was sudden a flood of emotions, and I felt weak. No, not only weak… I suddenly deeply regretted remembering what I purposely pushed away. There was a reason for keeping those memories away from me… A very good reason. But, it's easier to remember than forget… I couldn't undo that now.

I leaned against Yami's shoulder. I felt him tense from surprise, but that quickly disappeared when he saw my face. "R… Are you alright?"

My lips had formed a frown; my hands were clenched; my legs shaking like a leaf in the wind. Eyes were glistened with unshed tears. Tears. It was just a second ago that I found out, I had actually cried before. At least twice. And now would make a third.

I opened my mouth to speak, and this time I didn't even try to lie or hide my emotions. "N-No…" When I squeezed my eyes shut, one tear fell, one turned into two, and soon became had a whole trickle. More like a flowing river. "It's just not fair… Why? Why couldn't I have just forgotten? Why did I want to remember? Did I really kill all of those people? Why couldn't I have just died and stayed dead? Why did I have to keep my soul trapped in the Hourglass? Why do I have to do this all over again? I don't… I don't… I don't want to have to kill you, Yami. I don't. It's not fair." I could just imagine the look on Yami's face. He was probably surprised, and maybe even scared. It's not like it's every day that someone tells you they don't want to kill you.

I opened my eyes, with tears still falling from them, but I just couldn't meet Yami's gaze. I felt horrible, broken, upset, and more than anything, guilty. This time, I wrapped my arms around Yami's waist, burying my face in his chest, and started to sob uncontrollably. My words were muffled by the smooth cloth when I tried to speak, and turned into unrecognizable sounds.

But it was the same exact word I kept saying, over and over again: Why?

Author's Notes:

Uh… Yeah, very depressing. The next chapter's more on R's 'past'. Or at least what she remembers. But don't worry, it'll get happier in the next chapter. ^^ And to all you fans out there who want to scream at her for killing Yami/Atem, she didn't. Or at least I hope so. o.O It's pretty confusing… Just wait until the next chapter, a lot of things get cleared up. ^^ And yes, R thinks of Dusk as a weird guy... xD I mean, he's not your average person you see wandering around...

Anyway, I'm super busy, so I'm sorry if this is rushed. Thanks for reading, and as always, reviews are appreciated. And yeah, I keep changing my summary because I can never come up with a good one. -_- Anyways, any questions, ask, and if I can answer them without giving anything away, I will. 'Cause, at this point in the season, it does get pretty confusing. :/