Chapter 13: Not Through Yet
The two Spear Dragons carrying Bakura and Marik finally dropped their burdens in an endless wasteland of ice and snow, where to the west, you could see where the world ended.
Marik spat out a mouthful of snow and looked up as to yell a string of curse words at the retreating Dragons flying off into the distance.
Unlike his friend, Bakura didn't even try to get up from the ground. He merely stared down at the cold white snow next to his nose, looking as if he was at a funeral.
'I should've freed Yami when I had the chance,' the white-haired thief thought, as the image of Yami chained up and crying as he granted Kaiba's second wish replayed in his mind, 'Then he'd be with Yugi and happy and Kaiba would never have been able to use him to take over the world…'
"It's all my fault," Bakura whispered mostly to himself.
"There's blame to share, Bakura," Marik said in response to his statement, "Don't go beating yourself up…we've got to think of a way back to the palace!"
"What's the use?" asked Bakura hopelessly, "We're only thieves…what can we do against a sorcerer?"
"We'll improvise, as we always have," replied Marik, "Kaiba may be a sorcerer, but that doesn't mean we can't beat him."
"But we don't have magic or anything to help us get back," sighed Bakura.
"We don't need no stinking magic," Marik told him, his eyes lighting up at the sight of something in the sky, "We got Yugi!"
Bakura's head jerked up and, true to Marik's words, there was the Magic Carpet flying toward them.
"Yugi!" Bakura smiled as he pulled himself off of the ground, "What are you doing here?"
Yugi flew over to the albino and gave him a hug: then he gestured to the two to hurry up.
"I'm sorry, too, Yugi," Bakura replied, "Now c'mon, Marik…let's go save Ryou and your girlfriend, shall we?"
"We shall!" Marik grinned as he jumped onto Yugi with Bakura and they flew off into the east, back toward the palace.
"Ryou, bring me more wine," sneered Kaiba from his new throne adorned with Blue Eyes White Dragons, the Millennium Puzzle laying innocently on his left arm.
Ryou would've disobeyed were it not for the enchanted puppet strings controlling all of his movements: he lifted up the pitcher he was holding and poured it into Kaiba's goblet.
"Hey, Kaiba," Yami called in an icy tone, who was chained to the wall, "Mind bringing some rum along for me? I need a distraction from my heartache."
"Shut up, Genie," snapped Pegasus from his perch near the Genie, holding the keys in his claw, "We wouldn't get you it if we had any, we got rid of it all."
"But…but…" Yami stammered in shock, "But why's the rum gone?"
"SHUT UP!" Pegasus whacked Yami painfully in the head with the ring of keys.
Kaiba drank his wine before turning to smirk at Ryou again. "More, slave."
Ryou felt his blood boil as he was forced to pour more wine into his glass. "I am not a slave, and especially not one to you! You're just lucky I can't move on my own!"
"Who's lucky in that?" inquired Kaiba, "With you as a puppet, you have a purpose…that's all that's keeping you from being sent to the Shadow Realm like your father and Princess Takara."
He held up two Duel Monster cards, one with an image of a terrified Solomon, the other with a crying Kara.
"I swear, Kaiba," Ryou snarled, "You will regret what you did to them!"
"Regret? How can I?" Kaiba asked quietly, "For the first time in my life, I'll be able to do something right…"
Pegasus flew over, leaving the key to Yami's shackles just out of the Genie's reach on the perch, and landed on Kaiba's shoulder. "Are you going to start that ceremony yet or what?"
"I am," Kaiba replied.
A large, moldy-looking book appeared in the sorcerer's lap, and it opened by itself to a particular page.
"But I will need a sacrifice," Kaiba stated as his eyes scanned the page.
He looked at Ryou, before raising his Millennium Rod. It glowed, and a purple darkness started to surround Ryou…to consume him…
Then a golden light shone around the Prince, banishing the darkness away.
"The Millennium Ring is very protective of you," Kaiba murmured, "I see I'll need to find another way…"
Kaiba turned his back on the Prince, going over to Yami. "Genie, I wish for you to bring my little brother back from the dead."
Yami stood up shakily, his scarlet eyes expressionless. "Sorry, dude, I can't do that."
"What do you mean you can't?" demanded Kaiba, his face going dangerously white, "I'm your master: I command you!"
"There are certain things a Genie can't do," Yami replied in a quite mellow tone.
As he explicated the rules of his magic to the furious Kaiba, Ryou looked up toward the ceiling.
'Oh please, Gods,' he made a silent prayer, 'Wherever Ali…I mean, Bakura is…let him and his friend be alright…and help him find a way back to me…'
Then, to Ryou's shock, his eyes registered the sight of the two thieves sitting in one of the high windows of the palace, waving down at him.
He would've shouted out their names in joy and relief, but Bakura put his finger to his mouth to silence him and then gestured to the Millennium Puzzle on the arm of Kaiba's throne.
Ryou understood. 'Bakura wants to get the Puzzle away from Kaiba…but Kaiba's only away from it because he's so concerned about bringing his brother back from the dead…obviously, that's very important to him…more important than watching over the Puzzle, anyway…'
The Prince smiled at Bakura significantly to tell him he had a plan.
"Kaiba," Ryou spoke suddenly in the sorcerer's direction, "If you want this brother of yours so badly, why don't you just sacrifice me to bring him back?"
Bakura was horrified: he would've yelled, "No, Ryou, don't!" but Marik covered his mouth and shook his head fervently. Kaiba looked at Ryou in disbelief.
"What did you say?" he whispered.
"Why don't you sacrifice me?" Ryou repeated himself, "I can allow you to take control of me…that's how the Millennium Items work…only by will on both parts can a Millennium Item take control of another."
"Why would you do that?" asked Kaiba, his eyes narrowing.
"If you release my father and Kara from the Shadow Realm," said Ryou, "Then I'll help you bring your brother back."
Kaiba stared at Ryou as if he had never seen anything like him before. Ryou felt awful for using the sorcerer's feelings against him, but he told himself that once Bakura got the Puzzle back and his father and Kara were safe, he would help Kaiba get his brother back.
"Deal," Kaiba replied, unable to hide his true thankfulness.
He raised the Millennium Rod and pointed it in the Crown Prince's direction.
'Please, Bakura, hurry,' was Ryou's last thought before his eyes went blank and his mind was taken over.
"Begin the ceremony," whispered Kaiba.
And that was the two thieves' signal to get to work.
They climbed down from the window and headed in opposite direction: while Marik went over to try and free Yami from his chains, Bakura snuck over toward the Puzzle.
Bakura dashed out of sight behind the Blue Eyes throne as Kaiba started to read the ancient incantation. Then, being careful not to make any noise as to make Kaiba turn around, his hand reached out to grab the Puzzle…
"KAIBA!" shrieked Pegasus, "THE PUZZLE-"
Yami had been freed from his chains in just enough time to shoot a shot of red magic in Pegasus's direction, but the parrot's yell had been enough to make Kaiba turn around.
The sorcerer's sapphire eyes narrowed in unadulterated rage.
"YOU!"
Bakura felt himself being slammed against the wall with a burst of blue magic; Ryou's eyes went back to normal and he fell to his knees, holding his head; Marik and Yami yelled, "No!"
"How many times to I have to kill you, thief?" roared Kaiba.
"Ha!" Bakura laughed like a dog bark, "Haven't you ever heard that a thief has nine lives?"
"Well, I'll just have to count down the rest of those lives!" Kaiba sneered, before shooting a whole ensemble of magic blasts trying to hit Bakura.
"Leave him alone!" Ryou screamed, pushing Kaiba so that his blasts were thrown away from Bakura and into the ceiling.
Kaiba whirled around to look at the Prince, his eyes widened insanely with vehemence.
"You know, you're almost as annoying as that thief," he hissed, "You've gotten in my way for the last time…it's time for you to be put in your place, you filthy little liar!"
"Kaiba, I was going to-" Ryou started, but Kaiba aimed his Millennium Rod in his direction and shot a blast of blue magic at him.
The Prince found himself trapped behind rounded glass walls, and a second later, he felt a line of sand drip onto his head from a hole in the ceiling.
He was trapped inside a large hourglass.
"Ryou!" shouted Bakura.
"Your time's running out, Thief Bakura," growled Kaiba, "Your and your Prince's end are near."