So, its been a while. My excuse? No computer, no floor. New desk now, so I've got my comp set up, and I've got half a floor. Yaaay, half a floor. Stupid exploding water heater, grumble grumble.
Thank you so much, to those who reviewed my last chapter. Reading over the reviews got me my motivation back, so I could write this chapter you now see before you… If you're still there, and haven't decided that I'd been run over by and angry polar bear riding a moose and wearing a Mounty hat while waving a Canadian flag… and a beaver.
Affy-Bakura they sure are! And you think that was weird… toned down version of Lasher. My spell correct hates me. And you do not!
Earthluva Yes, for they are all powerful… lol, I had to include some allusions to Lasher, and trust me, I toned it down. A lot. And I thank you. Epically.
Onsheka Thank you so much, on all counts. I'm glad to hear you like my OCs, I'm always afraid of turning people away with too much OC ness.
BakushippingxForever I know, eh? I had to resist pushing it too far, what with the rating and all. By soon, you mean… eventually? Lol, anyway here it is.
Ani Yeah, I didn't want to go too sour, what with the rating and all, but there is space for imagination. It was a long night, we'll say. There will be more of the YamiYugi, despite certain developments in this chap.
Apprentice Writer Yes, Some people do indeed. I can certainly vouch for that. And thank you.
SkaleFlapper15 It sure was, get your mind out of the gutter! Never mind that I deliberately made it come across that way… *cough my bad cough* … did you review twice to one chapter? I was like O.o for a second while doing these. And yeah, Oh crap applies well to anyone but Bakura. MUAHAHAHAHAHA covers it better in his case, lol.
Vampires-and-Wearwolves I appreciate you letting me know! I'm glad I succeeded in making the characters true to themselves, and in making my own entertaining. All answers will come in time
Onward, to what you're all here to see! Duuum Dum Dum Dum DAAAAAAAAAA! The Chapter! *Flashing crazy lights and slowly rising platform with epic drumbeats*
Chapter 12
Yugi and Mark walked down the line of the buffet, grabbing food haphazardly.
"I don't see them, do you see them?" Yugi asked Mark, after a fifth scan of the dining room.
"No, I'm kinda worried. They came down ahead of us." Mark frowned at his soup, as if blaming it for his problems.
"Maybe they ate fast, figured something out, and had to go right away?" Yugi speculated.
"Doubt they ate that fast. We were only a few minutes behind them." Mark took his turn looking out over the tables, hoping he'd simply missed them. Unlikely; the huge pile of silver white hair sitting next to a black chrome dome were not hard to pick out of a crowd, and the place wasn't really crowded.
They sat down with their food, and a waiter came around to offer drinks. "Just a coffee. Very strong, very black. And hey, did you see a bald black guy and a pale guy with white hair in here?" Mark asked the waiter, while Yugi started picking through his food. His Grandpa always told him he ate like a bird.
"No, I can't say I… then again, I did see a man by the first description run out into the rain after someone with white hair. Honestly, I thought the pale person was the dark one's girlfriend."
Mark looked worried. "Did either of them seem… upset? Afraid?"
"Well, I thought they were fighting. The black guy did appear upset as he left, almost frantic."
"You noticed that, and you still thought Ryou was a girl?" Yugi asked incredulously.
Mark smiled. "Sorry, but your friend does look kinda… girl-ish."
"We have to go after them!" Yugi proclaimed, leaping up from the table.
"I know. I think I can follow them. I hope Andrew thought of this." Mark said as he pushed his own chair back, looked longingly at his plate, and shoved a dinner roll in his mouth. Both of them walked to the door, and looked out into the gale.
"We have to find them in that?" Yugi asked doubtfully.
Mark swallowed forcefully. "Yep. I think I should be able to, though."
He took off an ever-present glove, and laid his hand on the door handle. "Just Andrew." he muttered. His eyes lit up.
"Yup, he definitely came through here, and he was worried. Running. Maybe you should wait here, I want to find him fast, and you're legs are… um… their short. Stubby, even" He finished bluntly.
"You should have help. What if my legs were longer?" Yugi asked quite seriously.
"If you can manage that in the next three sec…onds… Ok, how the F*** did you do that?" Mark asked the now taller, though still a bit short, Yugi.
"Irrelevant. Lets find Bakura." Yami said, in a voice distinctly lower than before.
Mark nodded, and they both ran into the rain, Mark following a phantom only he could see. He renewed his vision by touching corners, silently thanking Andrew for remembering to leave a trail.
The rain poured down, and the thunder crashed. Yami was thankful; he'd always felt stronger when it rained. Mark, however, cursed the weather with every drop that obscured his vision. A car drove past through a puddle, soaking them both more thoroughly. Buildings loomed in their sight, and faded away, mere ghosts of their formal selves, lost in a haze of irrelevance. Neither noticed where they were going, knowing only that they must get there quickly. At last, Mark skidded to a stop. Yami ran headlong into him, and both went down, floundering in a deep puddle for a moment, pushing at each other, trying to get up.
"Why did you stop?" Yami demanded, nursing an injured pride.
"We're here." Mark replied, nodding to the boarded up husk of a building they had fallen in front of. Mark touched the planks over the door, and saw a glimmer of Bakura, then Andrew, slipping through. Mark wouldn't fit, he could see that much.
"You go. I'll try to rip these boards off." He said to Yami.
Yami nodded. "I will deal with Bakura. We have fought before, he and I."
Mark frowned. "I'll try to hurry."
The two shook hands, and Yami slid into the blackness for which he was named. Mark began the labour of pulling and ripping at thick beams excessively nailed to the wall.
"Dad, You're drunk, You've always been drunk, and you'll die drunk! Shut up and leave me alone!" Charlotte screamed, slamming her bedroom door shut. Fat lot of good that did; her old man had broken the doorframe months ago, hammering on it like he did.
As expected, he barged in, lower lip trembling with rage. "You'd never have.. When your mother was alive, you'd never, I got respect, damnit!"
"It was you and your poison that killed mom, don't you dare talk of her to me, you got her drinking, it was you, and don't think I don't know it!" She screamed back in his face. Painful memories, mom on the bathroom floor, don't think of it, blood on her head, blood on the bathtub rim, fell, but his fault, all his fault… remember the wine bottle roll across the floor, red poison mixing with mother's blood, already full of the stuff anyway…
His face flushed almost purple, and she stared back at him, cold eyes meeting his wet drooping ones. Hit me again, you bastard. Just try it.
He was going to do it, raising his hand to her, YOU DARE! She screamed within herself. She saw the color red, the rage swept through her, twisted inside her, struck him in all his tiny parts that make up his complex whole. Wild elation as his face drained of color. Joy when the blood ran in single dripping lines out of one nostril, out of his ear, the corners of his eyes. Satisfaction as he hits the floor.
The rage drains from her, as the reality of her circumstance sinks in. Can't have killed him, not possible.
Charlotte presses two fingers to his neck, feels for the beat of life that will undo this. Nothing. Stone cold dead daddy. Well, now what? Call an ambulance? No one will know she did it. After all, she didn't, she can't have. She hadn't touched him. He'd just died there, probably a stroke, probably from the drink. Just a coincidence that they were fighting, or maybe his anger set it off. Never mind that she knew it was her.
In this monumental moment, this turning point in her life, the other thing, the thing she'd been thinking about off and on all day, finally happened. It was the pale one, with white hair, standing in the corner of her room.
"Impressive" He said to her, his lips unmoving.
She looked at her father, tried to feel some sadness, some regret. She couldn't. He'd deserved it.
"You will help me? Help the innocent one?" The spirit asked her.
"What do you need me to do?" Charlotte asked coldly, never looking from her father. Daddy dearest.
Into her mind, a map, a feeling of direction, paths down city streets revealed to her, leading to an abandoned building in a bad part of town. Military, without doubt.
"Go there." The spirit said to her, dissolving his visible form, and to her he became as heat rising from pavement, a vague shimmer in the air, as he drifted away with intent.
Charlotte didn't miss a beat, and she didn't waste a tear over the corpse on the floor. His body filled the doorway, so she stepped on his back on the way out. Close the front door, lock it, snap, and she was on her way. It wasn't so far, after all.
Yami moved through the darkness with ease, his steps drowned out by the panting and tearing of wood coming from the doorway. There was still a faint trail of water on the floor, some puddles matching the shape of shoeprints. This was definitely the place. Yami followed the trail to a staircase, dangerously steep, that plunged deep into the earth. Familiar; so many temples set up this way.
In silence he made his way down, no idea what he would find at the bottom. It seemed an eternity. Faintly, he could hear steps far above him. Mark had likely gotten in. Good. Yami increased his pace; pride demanded that he confront Bakura alone. He came out of a dark passage at the end of the stairs, into a vast space. In the distance, he could see a circle well lit. A fission of memory passed through him; secret knowledge of the past. He tried to delve deeper into the knowledge, but failed. Senses on high alert, he looked for any sign of Bakura. As he drew closer to the torchlight circle, he saw someone with white hair at its centre. There he is.
Yami drew himself up to his most regal, walking forward with confidence to challenge a foe he had many times defeated. Something now quite right tugged at him, but he foolishly ignored it. The brilliant strategist forgot a key lesson. Never think you know exactly what your enemy is doing.
It wasn't until he was closer that he saw the problem. The white haired person at the core of the circle was chained. He was looking at Yamit with wide, innocent eyes, and he was shaking his head fiercely in negation. Near him, on one of the stone platforms that surrounded the circle, Andrew stared groggily, also heavily chained.
Yami came to a full stop. "Bakura, where are you? I challenge you to a duel! On your honour, you must face me!"
A cold whisper sounded in his ear. "Pharaoh, when will you learn? I have no honour."
A fabric pressed itself over Yami's mouth and nose, just as he gasped in shock. The body he inhabited swooned, the darkness was closing over the circle of light, swallowing it. Yami found himself in the puzzle, his soul room. Yugi was at the door.
"What's going on?" Yugi demanded.
"I have no idea. He used some sort of poison. We are helpless." Yami said as he let Yugi in, rage and frustration evident in his tone. Mind shuffle is no use when it is the body that won't work.
"It isn't you're fault." Yugi assured.
Yami shook his head in negation. Yugi was wrong.
Mark, storming down the stairs moments later, met the same fate as the other two before him. Now, only one remained. Yami, Mark, Andrew, all in their places, and held there. Only Andrew yet awake, pleading in his oh-so-reasonable manner to be set free.
Charlotte wound her way through the city streets, following a map in her head, soon to slip into the spider's web.
Shorter than I'd planned, but I wanted to get it out. I keep thinking the next one with be the climactic scene, but then there's always so much more rising action that needs to be in place first…
Until next time; I bid thee Aideu. *Rides off into the sunset on a moose holding a Canadian flag*