Hello all my lovely readers. It's finally summer XD. I hope you're all having as great a time as I have (my holday start in just a week).
And, as every summer, I'm taking a break. But this time it's only for a month. I'll be back to August.
So I really hope you'll appreciate this chapter and wait for me to update the next. It's really not a long chappie, but I'll make up to you with a long one next time.
See you all in August
Circle
"So… you believe young Atemu is a saint?" Dr Lou asked, seemingly not at all surprised.
"The dream they share must be the history written in this book," Bakura said, holding up the book. "I haven't read it through yet, but we believe all our answers are in here."
Lou looked at the picture on the frame. "She really is a beauty," he mumbled.
Anzu frowned in confusion. "Excuse me for saying it… but you don't seem very surprised by all this," she said.
Lou gave a nonchalant smile and sat down in a chair beside the window. "Not really. I guessed half of the truth the moment I saw young Atemu's face. It is princess Yuniko's face."
"You… know much about the princess?" Jono asked, his eyes leaving the annoying shining spot in the doc's chest.
"Of cause I do. I'm born in Scotland," the doc said with pride in his voice. "There is one Scottish clan, the most nationally known one, who is keeping a treasure given to their clan from the princess herself… our queen as she was at that moment. No one knows exactly what it is, but according to it's colour it is a ruby, not much bigger than a pearl."
"Have you seen it?"
"Once. I can not say I was old at that time, but I can still remember it."
"Hey!" Jono suddenly exclaimed, sounding somewhat insulted. "Why didn't you tell us this when we were here yesterday?"
"You never asked," Lou answered simply. "And I must say I wasn't 100 percent certain either. Your research has really helped me out a lot. Now that I know young Mr Atemu is the Battle Princess… I may also know why he is in this state."
"So you know the story?" Anzu asked eagerly.
"Is it true she was killed by her brother?"
Everyone looked at Yami, who was slightly unable to hide his distress.
Lou returned his gaze, his eyes unreadable. "No one knows," he answered lowly. "The told story that has been passed down for generations may have changed during the years. After all, it happened a long time ago. The told story comes from the people of Scotland who did not witness the princess's fate or life at all. It is completely build up after rumours and gossip. The Scottish people hold the Battle Princess sacred because of what happened the night of her wedding."
The doctor was silent for some time, seemingly deep in thought, before he continued with a voice veiled by something that could be nostalgia. "Dressed in white she exited the house of God to rescue the people from monsters covering the sky. Like an angel she shone and cleared the sky from evil, washing waves of light over the people, covering the darkening evening sky in gold. At church's doorstep stood God's most beloved daughter, a saint among humans, our beloved saviour…"
Anzu was somehow the only one who thought the story to be overly prising the Battle Princess. She couldn't stop herself from giving Yugi a doubtful look. "So practically, the Scottish publication thought of the princess as the new Messiah?"
Lou smiled bitterly. "And do you know how he ended?"
Anzu flinched, feeling slightly ashamed for her comment, and nodded.
"I am only telling you what the story says. When the Battle Princess died Scotland fell into chaos. Corrupted earls, greedy lords, turned down suitors, power-hungry clans… all of them at once reached for the throne and the kingdom. And with no monarch, most soldiers gone, killed in the last battle, and the castle's inhabits grieving the loss of their queen too much to be able to take back the control… those were Scotland's hardest, bitterest… and now forgotten times."
"Forgotten?" Honda asked lowly.
Lou closed his eyes, a troubled expression crossing his features. "The one who at last put Scotland at peace was the church, led by a young priest whose name is buried in time. The priest claimed the kingdom to be led by the church and then managed to put a king with strong authority on the throne, who of cause obeyed under the laws of the church. But… The Battle Princess had only been queen for less than a year. I can tell the church was not pleased with a lonely woman on the throne. The priests wanted a king. And after the chaos the pope decided it was the Battle Princess who had caused the chaos and choose to eliminate her. That is what the gossip says at least."
"But why is the story about the Battle Princess denied?" Bakura asked. "And even if she was only queen for a short time it shouldn't be enough to cause such chaos you're speaking of."
"Well, if you listen to gossip, and believe in it, the high priest of the Scottish church was a suitor of the queen's, but he was turned down. Some say even the pope wanted her to spend a night in his bed, but she refused. You know, the usual stuff."
"So it wasn't because she was a woman?" Honda asked.
"That is a possibility I suppose," Anzu said. "But then why is Elizabeth I well known in history? She was queen 100 years before the Battle Princess."
"So, what do you believe happened? We can sit here and guess for all eternity, but you know more of the story than we do, obviously."
Lou gave Jono a strange glance. "My guess is that she was nothing special. That rumours and gossip has gone overboard and made up a story about a saint raised in Scotland."
"Don't lie!" Everyone turned to Yami, whose expression was one of anger. "You're lying," he said, his voice hard. "History like this isn't wiped out and lied about, and they are certainly not forgotten. You stat that everything is gossip you don't believe in, but that's a lie as well. You believe in the story… even stronger than any of us."
Yami and Lou were unaware of it, but the rest could clearly see a bond that tied the two of them together. There was a silent battle for dominance going on between their gazes no one dared to interfere.
It seemed like Lou had lost the battle when he lowered his gaze, breaking the bond. "Maybe are you right… I can not tell you. What you want to know is if your brother will ever wake up, is it not?"
"That's right. That's why we're trying to find the truth. And I know you're sitting on it."
Lou sighed deeply. "May it be I know the history better than you… but you are digging in a tomb of someone whose heart is too deep to ever find the bottom, let alone a way back. So great is the depth of the Battle Princess's heart."
"Have you talked to her in person?" Bakura asked out of nowhere.
"She lived more than 400 years ago. Does that answer your question? Or do you believe me to be immortal?"
Bakura looked at him for a moment, before he shook his head in denial.
"This isn't leading anywhere," Jono said frustrated. "We haven't become any smarter of all this fighting. If it's not solving anything, you might as well put your fight aside. You are all forgetting what's most important right now."
Jono's scolding came by surprise to all of them… except for Lou, who hid his smile behind his hand. If only the blond knew what was going on inside the doctor's head.
"What's most important right now is finding out the truth… the rest we can take when it comes."
'You loved her this much, Joey? You haven't changed at all. Still… you are the one carrying the truth with you around your neck. As does all the ones who died with my daughter's blood still in their possession.'
Yami, knowing that Jono was right, lowered his head in defeat. "Okay… I'm sorry doc. I… don't know what came over me."
"Worry," Lou answered with a smile. "And love."
Smiling in understanding Yami went over to his younger brother's side, placing a hand Yugi's forehead.
She turned around, surprise showing on her face. "Brother?"
"Come," he called. "Let us leave. Come home with me."
She turned around, looking at the majestic white castle towering over the kingdom like an eternal guardian. She hesitated for a long while before her head started to fall. "I wish that I could cry. Then maybe I would be able to laugh again." Her voice was low, almost as defeated. "I wish that I could go with you. With all my heart I wish I could."
When she faced him again her face was pained, and she smiled sadly. "But this is my home, brother. I can not leave. Not for anything… or anyone. Not even you."
"Sister…" The pain in his chest grew stronger, a knot of fear in his stomach weighting him down.
"No… I can not leave. Forgive me, my brother. But my fate and time has already captured me in its fist. This is a moment when not even the doom's day can stop what has already been predicted. Just like not even God can change what already has been."
"My sister… why are you denying me?" his voice was only a whisper, which was carried away by the wind.
"I love you, brother," she whispered, face now only filled with sadness, yet there were no tears. "But this is all I can do. Because there is nothing else left. You had to leave me… now I stand alone. You can not save me… Nobody can."
Yami jumped back and withdrew his hand as if he had been burnt.
"Yami?"
He looked up into Anzu's worried eyes. The world was spinning, his head felt like it was going to explode.
"Yami, what's happening?"
He couldn't make out who was calling. "I can't reach him anymore," he whispered, a lonely tear escaping his eye before he fell into the soft darkness of unconsciousness.
"YAMI!"
"Fuck!" Bakura cursed loudly.
Lou calmly leant over the motionless body of Yami's. "It's okay, he just fainted," he reassured the others.
"How can you tell?" Honda asked.
"Well, there is a slight difference from a Dreamer and a fainted person. You see it if you open their eyes. A fainting is the body's escape when the brain becomes overloaded, a temporary shutdown of the mind to work down information. The Dreamers' minds are still working in their dreams."
Jono sat down, sighing in relief. "Damn, he scared me."
"Anzu, did you hear what he said?" Honda asked the brunette girl.
"It was just a mumble, but I think he said something about not being able to reach somebody anymore."
Lou stood and rested his gaze on Yugi's still form. "I believe he somehow managed to make contact with his brother," he said, some kind of uncertainty in his voice, as if it was only a guess. "I noticed a flash in Mr Atemu's eyes, but it was very brief so I can't say for sure."
"What I can't understand," Bakura started, moving his gaze over to his brother and the other two. "If Yugi is indeed the Battle Princess of the past, why would Ryou and the others join him in Yugi's dream, and not Yami?"
Lou bit his lip, eyes searching into himself for an answer. "The princess's brother died two or three years before she disappeared. He died even before the king."
A memory clicked in Bakura's brain. A second of wide-open green eyes.
"Father…"
"Then we're right," he said lowly, mostly to himself. The others stared at him. "They have already lived through the moment of the king's death," the white-haired man exclaimed.
"How can you tell?"
"Because… we were all here. It was soon after Dr. Lou told us… they are all girls. Don't you remember, that fleeting moment when Yugi opened his eyes?"
"Yes, he did mumble something that sounded like 'father'," Anzu said, remembering the event.
"Then the moment of the Battle Princess's death is perhaps not too far away," Lou sighed.
Bakura understood first, and his face turned white as a sheet. "And then… Yugi'll die too," he said.
The others threw startled looks at each other.
"T-there must be something… Anything we can do!" Jono said, panic rising in his voice.
"We haven't gone through all this trouble only for him to die on us," Anzu yelled.
"And what about Seto and the other two?"
"If Yugi dies… Ryou will follow him."
The quiet mumble came from a very still Bakura. Everybody silenced, looking at him puzzled.
"Ever since they were young, since their meeting, Yugi has been Ryou's strongest lifeline. Maybe even in their dream, all of them have grown dependant on the princess. Ryouko wrote it in her diary as well. After her death the kingdom fell apart, and so did her friends."
"Yes," Lou said lowly. "Time is unstoppable. And not even God can change what already has happened."
Yami opened his eyes as the doctor ended his sentence. "But we must do something," he said, and nobody was surprised he was awake.
"What can we do?" Honda asked.
"…Hope."
Everyone turned to Jono, who had a realizing light in his eyes. "The poem reflects to Hope. We can still hope Yugi'll be alright. Maybe all he needs… is our support."
"Where have your brain been the latest 17 years?" Honda asked.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Just what I said."
"Guys, this isn't the right time to quarrel."
"Hope… there must be something else we can do," Bakura said, frustration growing in his voice.
"Like what? It's not like we can join Yugi in his dream and tell him to wake up because he will die if he don't," Honda said.
"The Battle Princess knew she would die."
The friends stared at a death serious Dr Lou.
"What… do you mean?"
"You will understand once you have read the book. In the last battle, the Battle Princess left the white castle forever. Because they must fail, because I must victory. May God show mercy. Those were her last words. She knew she would die. And if that is true, young Mr Atemu is now alive to die as well."
Cold shivers ran down everyone's spine. Of cause they all knew they would die a day or another… but to know how to die… none of them wanted to know that.
"It's not true. It's not fair!" Yami said, tears starting to fall down his cheeks. "We haven't done all this just to let him die. Yugi has always been so alive. Why can't it stay that way?"
Bakura hugged himself tightly as he fought his tears. Yugi was the light of Ryou's life, and those two together were the lights of his. If both of them were lost, Bakura knew he would fall into the darkness called loneliness. Yami was right. It wasn't fair.
"I think we have missed a small detail," Jono suddenly said, making everyone slowly look up at him. "Didn't… that old lady Karin have the crucifix of the Battle Princess's? What if that is the key to everything? To hers and Yugi's and all the others' lives?"
Yami dried his eyes along with Anzu and Bakura. "Then we'll go there immediately."
Lou stared after the friends as they left before he turned to the sleeping Yugi. "My dear. Soon it will be over for good. A thousand years has passed since your first birth. Now you will have to put and end to the history, the legend, in this form. But will the cross really be enough? Will you be strong enough, my daughter?"
"Nothing can stop the flow of time," a familiar voice said from the door.
"Shouldn't you be at the bookstore, waiting to give them the cross?"
"I placed it on the desk with a note. You should know how much it hurts to hold it, even in its present state."
Lou was quiet as he watched the Dreamers. "Do you think the cross will be enough? Will this evil circle see its end at last?"
"Let us hope, my friend. That silver cross holds the sprits of both the former Battle Princesses. With his soul in it as well, Dracul's sin brought upon us must be destroyed."