Chapter 38
Yugi sat by Yami's side, half dozing, half caught in restless doubt.
They needed to find a way out of the room, before the other Yami caught on to what they were doing. And there were still too many questions, almost as many as before.
On a sudden impulse, Yugi leaned over and shook Yami awake. Yami awoke very slowly; too slowly. Yugi glanced at him, worry and fear piercing the happiness of being reunited. What was wrong with him? How could this have happened? If this was really Yami, then something had gone horribly wrong. Yami wasn't like this...
Stop it, Yugi told himself. We've already made it clear that this is Yami, because he has memories that the other doesn't seem to recall... And finding out what happened to him is just part of this whole identity thing, not part of who Yami really is. Wait. Does that make sense?..........
Yugi groaned and put his hands to his head. They needed more time. Yami's doppleganger had probably taken over half the city by now. They needed to find a way out of this prison, and fast.
Yami was dropping back off to sleep. Yugi grabbed his arm, holding it firmly to keep his former partner from slipping back into the darkness.
It's cruel... All he wants is peace.
But then, so does his darker counterpart.
Or so he says, Yugi reminded himself, struggling with the task of simeltaneously supporting Yami's weight and formulating a plan to escape. His eyes searched the area around them, wildly. There had to be some way out!
His frantic gaze landed on the chain, embedded in the wall. His heart sank. There was no way he was going to be able to pull that out...
Letting his hand drop to the floor, he hit the memory shard with his wrist. It skittered a few feet away, and Yugi grabbed it before it disappeared in the shadows. In doing so, he pierced his hand on the sharp point. "Gah...."
As the blood dribbled darkly from the wound, Yugi's escape plan came into focus.
Staring upwards, Yugi looked at the place where the chain met the wall. Getting to his knees, and leaning over the recumbant Yami, he slowly raised the shard in his right hand. Aiming as well as he could in the shifting darkness, he brought the point of the obsidian sliver down hard, right where the metal met stone.
The shard rebounded off the hard surface, with a clear, unnatural ringing sound. Yami moved his head slightly, senses disturbed by the loud intrusion. Yugi bent down and shook him again. "Yami," he said, desperately, "I need you to concentrate on our memories together. Now."
Yami mumbled something unintelligable and dragged himself, painfully, into a semi-crouch. He looked at Yugi, blearily. He was still weak, Yugi realized. Recall may be easier for him now, but he still has holes in his memory, and the shadows are sapping his strength...
Like they are mine, he thought, panic flooding his chest. They had to get out.
"Yami, please!! Listen! You have to think, to remember. I need the connection to get us out of here." He stared, pleadingly, into Yami's bewildered face. It was like trying to explain algebra to a child. Yugi couldn't believe this was happening; roles had definitely been switched, and it wasn't making his job any easier.
"Look, Yami. I'm going to try and seperate you from this room. But the only way I can do that is if the bond between you and I is stronger than that of your other self..." Yami's eyes had begun to wander. Yugi panicked. "Yami!!" Yami's movements were slow and reluctant. He turned to face his would-be saviour; would-be, if he would just cooperate!
Yugi gritted his teeth. There had to be some way of getting Yami to understand what he was saying.
In his frusteration, his hand was clenched on the floor, coating his fingers with the strange, exotic grittiness of the sandy surface. His skin tingled on contact, but he didn't notice, so intent was he on getting Yami to pay attention. This was proving to be one of the most difficult tasks he had come across so far; at least with the darker Yami, he could be angry and impatient to whatever degree he wanted. But he couldn't afford to hurt his friend again, and the restraints were putting a limit on the time they had left to get out.
"Yami," he tried again, gently. He lifted Yami's thin wrist off the floor so that his hand hung suspended in the air. "Do you remember... this?" And, quickly, Yugi raised his own hand and gave Yami a high-five.
Yami jerked back, but his eyes had been flooded with light during that brief encounter. Yugi's hopes flared again. "You remember?" he exclaimed, searching his former partner's face. "How about-"-Yugi raised his voice, "'It's time to Duel!!'"
He watched in delight as Yami lifted his head to stare straight into Yugi's face, violet swirling with the effort of regaining a long-buried memory. But he remembered, and it was surfacing...
It was quite some time before either of them noticed that the brightness of the shard had grown immensely.
Yugi held it by the middle, clasping Yami's hand with his free one. Yami turned around to watch Yugi implement their escape, the chain rustling metallically behind him, concentrating as hard as his mind would allow on keeping the shard alive. And as the memories deepened in meaning and context, solidifying, he began to feel the shape of a sphere forming in his hands...
The shard threw shafts of brilliance into the shadows, which deepened in protestation. it would only be a matter of time until the other Yami was alerted to their actions, but the walls of the prison were thick, and they still had a few precious moments to spare.
Yugi raised the sliver above his head, squinting as the light rebounded off the metal of the chain and into his eyes; then, aiming for the place where the stone wall met the metal base of the chain, brought the point down hard.
Half the light was dimmed as the shard embedded itself partway into the wall, jutting out from beside the remains of the metal base. Yugi released it and gasped; it had gone through the solid stone as if the wall were nothing but marshmallow filling...
The chain that had connected Yami to the wall clattered to the floor, one end no longer attatched to an immovable object. But nether of the two were paying attention to that, as a far more amazing thing was happening before their eyes.
The shard, still stuck point-first in the wall, kept radiating light... And cracks of it were beginning to spread out around it in an ever growing radius, the stone now being dissected into a million points of fractured lightning. The fractures, from hairline cracks, were widening, splitting the wall open, releasing shadows into oblivion...
The floor shook slightly, and Yugi grabbed Yami's trembling shoulder and dragged him further away from the toppling wall. Chips of stone began to fly off its surface, and pelted the ground near their feet like mini hailstones. Yami clenched the globe to his chest, staring in avid fascination at the streaming light. Yugi looked down and saw it. "What's that and where did you get it from?!" he asked in astonishment, tearing his gaze from the wall. Yami didn't answer him.
That golden boy...
Flash.
A large room, of some sort. Water, maybe?
Flash.
The light was the same, and yet somehow not the same. This light was younger... But it was the gold quality...
"Yami?" Yugi said, worriedly. He wondered if the shard was having some sort of adverse effect on his friend's already precarious physical stability. Yami was swaying slightly, eyes wide as if in amazement, but at the same time unseeing. His hands were clenched around the black globe, which, as Yugi now saw, was covered in sharp, slender symbols.
He was just about to ask again where Yami had gotten it from when an excruciatingly loud wrenching noise juttered through his head. Turning, frightened and awed, Yugi watched as the cracks emmnating from the shard imbedded in the stone finally connected with eachother, momentarily turning the wall into a gigantic, lightning crossed jigsaw puzzle.
We solved it, Yugi thought contentedly, despite the shuddering floor and the inaudible screams of the shadows around them. Yami clenched his arm, the chain still trailing from his collar; Yugi noticed that the globe seemed to have disappeared in the confusion. It wasn't gone... Just out of sight, he knew.
With barely a whisper, the shard flashed once with the tremendous force of a sudden revelation... and the wall disappeared for a moment under the burst of light that now filled the room.
When the light dissapated, the wall was no longer there.
Yugi sat by Yami's side, half dozing, half caught in restless doubt.
They needed to find a way out of the room, before the other Yami caught on to what they were doing. And there were still too many questions, almost as many as before.
On a sudden impulse, Yugi leaned over and shook Yami awake. Yami awoke very slowly; too slowly. Yugi glanced at him, worry and fear piercing the happiness of being reunited. What was wrong with him? How could this have happened? If this was really Yami, then something had gone horribly wrong. Yami wasn't like this...
Stop it, Yugi told himself. We've already made it clear that this is Yami, because he has memories that the other doesn't seem to recall... And finding out what happened to him is just part of this whole identity thing, not part of who Yami really is. Wait. Does that make sense?..........
Yugi groaned and put his hands to his head. They needed more time. Yami's doppleganger had probably taken over half the city by now. They needed to find a way out of this prison, and fast.
Yami was dropping back off to sleep. Yugi grabbed his arm, holding it firmly to keep his former partner from slipping back into the darkness.
It's cruel... All he wants is peace.
But then, so does his darker counterpart.
Or so he says, Yugi reminded himself, struggling with the task of simeltaneously supporting Yami's weight and formulating a plan to escape. His eyes searched the area around them, wildly. There had to be some way out!
His frantic gaze landed on the chain, embedded in the wall. His heart sank. There was no way he was going to be able to pull that out...
Letting his hand drop to the floor, he hit the memory shard with his wrist. It skittered a few feet away, and Yugi grabbed it before it disappeared in the shadows. In doing so, he pierced his hand on the sharp point. "Gah...."
As the blood dribbled darkly from the wound, Yugi's escape plan came into focus.
Staring upwards, Yugi looked at the place where the chain met the wall. Getting to his knees, and leaning over the recumbant Yami, he slowly raised the shard in his right hand. Aiming as well as he could in the shifting darkness, he brought the point of the obsidian sliver down hard, right where the metal met stone.
The shard rebounded off the hard surface, with a clear, unnatural ringing sound. Yami moved his head slightly, senses disturbed by the loud intrusion. Yugi bent down and shook him again. "Yami," he said, desperately, "I need you to concentrate on our memories together. Now."
Yami mumbled something unintelligable and dragged himself, painfully, into a semi-crouch. He looked at Yugi, blearily. He was still weak, Yugi realized. Recall may be easier for him now, but he still has holes in his memory, and the shadows are sapping his strength...
Like they are mine, he thought, panic flooding his chest. They had to get out.
"Yami, please!! Listen! You have to think, to remember. I need the connection to get us out of here." He stared, pleadingly, into Yami's bewildered face. It was like trying to explain algebra to a child. Yugi couldn't believe this was happening; roles had definitely been switched, and it wasn't making his job any easier.
"Look, Yami. I'm going to try and seperate you from this room. But the only way I can do that is if the bond between you and I is stronger than that of your other self..." Yami's eyes had begun to wander. Yugi panicked. "Yami!!" Yami's movements were slow and reluctant. He turned to face his would-be saviour; would-be, if he would just cooperate!
Yugi gritted his teeth. There had to be some way of getting Yami to understand what he was saying.
In his frusteration, his hand was clenched on the floor, coating his fingers with the strange, exotic grittiness of the sandy surface. His skin tingled on contact, but he didn't notice, so intent was he on getting Yami to pay attention. This was proving to be one of the most difficult tasks he had come across so far; at least with the darker Yami, he could be angry and impatient to whatever degree he wanted. But he couldn't afford to hurt his friend again, and the restraints were putting a limit on the time they had left to get out.
"Yami," he tried again, gently. He lifted Yami's thin wrist off the floor so that his hand hung suspended in the air. "Do you remember... this?" And, quickly, Yugi raised his own hand and gave Yami a high-five.
Yami jerked back, but his eyes had been flooded with light during that brief encounter. Yugi's hopes flared again. "You remember?" he exclaimed, searching his former partner's face. "How about-"-Yugi raised his voice, "'It's time to Duel!!'"
He watched in delight as Yami lifted his head to stare straight into Yugi's face, violet swirling with the effort of regaining a long-buried memory. But he remembered, and it was surfacing...
It was quite some time before either of them noticed that the brightness of the shard had grown immensely.
Yugi held it by the middle, clasping Yami's hand with his free one. Yami turned around to watch Yugi implement their escape, the chain rustling metallically behind him, concentrating as hard as his mind would allow on keeping the shard alive. And as the memories deepened in meaning and context, solidifying, he began to feel the shape of a sphere forming in his hands...
The shard threw shafts of brilliance into the shadows, which deepened in protestation. it would only be a matter of time until the other Yami was alerted to their actions, but the walls of the prison were thick, and they still had a few precious moments to spare.
Yugi raised the sliver above his head, squinting as the light rebounded off the metal of the chain and into his eyes; then, aiming for the place where the stone wall met the metal base of the chain, brought the point down hard.
Half the light was dimmed as the shard embedded itself partway into the wall, jutting out from beside the remains of the metal base. Yugi released it and gasped; it had gone through the solid stone as if the wall were nothing but marshmallow filling...
The chain that had connected Yami to the wall clattered to the floor, one end no longer attatched to an immovable object. But nether of the two were paying attention to that, as a far more amazing thing was happening before their eyes.
The shard, still stuck point-first in the wall, kept radiating light... And cracks of it were beginning to spread out around it in an ever growing radius, the stone now being dissected into a million points of fractured lightning. The fractures, from hairline cracks, were widening, splitting the wall open, releasing shadows into oblivion...
The floor shook slightly, and Yugi grabbed Yami's trembling shoulder and dragged him further away from the toppling wall. Chips of stone began to fly off its surface, and pelted the ground near their feet like mini hailstones. Yami clenched the globe to his chest, staring in avid fascination at the streaming light. Yugi looked down and saw it. "What's that and where did you get it from?!" he asked in astonishment, tearing his gaze from the wall. Yami didn't answer him.
That golden boy...
Flash.
A large room, of some sort. Water, maybe?
Flash.
The light was the same, and yet somehow not the same. This light was younger... But it was the gold quality...
"Yami?" Yugi said, worriedly. He wondered if the shard was having some sort of adverse effect on his friend's already precarious physical stability. Yami was swaying slightly, eyes wide as if in amazement, but at the same time unseeing. His hands were clenched around the black globe, which, as Yugi now saw, was covered in sharp, slender symbols.
He was just about to ask again where Yami had gotten it from when an excruciatingly loud wrenching noise juttered through his head. Turning, frightened and awed, Yugi watched as the cracks emmnating from the shard imbedded in the stone finally connected with eachother, momentarily turning the wall into a gigantic, lightning crossed jigsaw puzzle.
We solved it, Yugi thought contentedly, despite the shuddering floor and the inaudible screams of the shadows around them. Yami clenched his arm, the chain still trailing from his collar; Yugi noticed that the globe seemed to have disappeared in the confusion. It wasn't gone... Just out of sight, he knew.
With barely a whisper, the shard flashed once with the tremendous force of a sudden revelation... and the wall disappeared for a moment under the burst of light that now filled the room.
When the light dissapated, the wall was no longer there.