Long time no see! I didn't abandon this story permanently, because my dear Yugi keeps asking about next chapters like at least once per week ;) I am very, very grateful to You, my dear, skillful friend Yugi for taking care of this chapter and turned it readable! :) Let me know if You wait there for the rest of the story, any comment will be very welcome! Enjoy! :)
10. Admit you dared to hope
Diabound started sniffing the air again as if he wanted to get acquainted with Yugi's and Yami's scents, but then, abruptly, he lifted his snake-shaped tail and wrapped it protectively around Bakura. The King of Thieves seemed content to experience the monster's loyalty. Yugi shook his head in amusement, but quickly shivered when Diabound casted him a deep look as if he had seen the tiny movement from that great height. The young boy felt that the enormous ka vibrated with massive power, and his muscles instantly tensed. It was something that Bakura quickly noticed.
"I'll briefly tell you how things work here." he said. "People are not equal. Some are way more special than others. Having an exceptional soul makes you able to yield a ka that will follow and reflect your abilities; a powerful god-typed ka."
"Sooooo…" began Yugi, trying to keep up, never taking his eyes off Diabound's huge silouette. "…according to what you say, those creatures, ka as you name them, are connected to every human?"
"Basically, yes. The Duel Monster cards show that quite nicely. Among all the weaklings and the ordinary creatures, there are some rare, powerful ones. In ancient Egypt they were called god-typed ka and they were connected to special people – charismatic, skillful, unique human beings. Only they would be the owners of such unusual beasts. And yes, I just sneakily described myself!" Bakura smiled but it resembled a predator's greeting, full of teeth. "Diabound's a god-type and he's pretty strong, but even a god-typed ka isn't a match for an actual god's ka. And that brings us to the real reason why I needed your precious Pharaoh here." The King of Thieves pointed at Yami. "I don't appreciate your company and would rather see you gutted than keep hanging out with you, but I want to use your special ability and so I have to tolerate you. Normal people are connected to just one ka, but Pharaohs could have even three of them. I want you to call them out! Let's see what a cute army we can form in order to tear Ammut into pieces!"
Bakura laughed and Yami felt a strong need to refuse just because it was Bakura telling him what to do. The King of Thieves' manners greatly disgusted him and Yami was almost ready to forget the depressed and worried looks he had noticed slipping under that madman's mask before. But could he really do that? Bakura was ready to use and sacrifice anything and anyone in order to save Ryou, and Yami couldn't blame him for that. Would he have behaved any better if it was Yugi the one who needed to be saved?
The tricolor haired boy shivered at the very thought of losing his partner and immediately pushed it away. No matter how badly and deeply he hated Bakura, he wanted to help Ryou, but… That was crazy! He couldn't even remember his own name, so how would he be able to summon a monster, not to mention three of them at once? He didn't know where to begin or what to do, but recalling Bakura's joke about the Sleeping Beauty card's effect assured him that he would never again ask for any help or advice from that deceitful bastard.
Yugi caught his doubtful look and took a step closer, sporting an encouraging smile. He placed his hand on Yami's shoulder, probably unaware of the warm sensation that the Pharaoh felt deep inside. It was such a strange and yet enjoyable sensation for the Pharaoh to experience Yugi's solid body against his own. He never thought that it would be possible but suddenly his little partner was right there and he could touch him whenever he wanted. Yami's longing echoed in his heart with such power that he could barely focus on Yugi's words.
"I am sure you can do this!" the little boy was saying. Words kept escaping Yugi's lips but it took Yami quite some time to gather himself enough to pay attention to the words' full meaning. "Don't hesitate, let's give it a try. We have to get Ryou back and your ka seem to be the most powerful ones! Bakura wouldn't drag us here if he thought his plan wouldn't work. He believes in you. I believe in you, too."
Yami was moved. Encouraged, he nodded and put his right hand on his chest. He pressed his fingers to the point of his heart, just like Bakura had previously done. With his eyes closed and his mind blank, he stood still for some moments, but nothing happened. Should he think of the monsters he was about to summon? He'd never done such a thing before! His nails lightly cut his skin and some blood appeared. His mind had just registered the pain when he felt Yugi's fingers tangling lightly with his own ones, but he refused to open his eyes and get distracted by his little host's eyes.
"Don't hurt yourself." Yami heard his partner's soft voice, almost whispered into his ear. "Those monsters are part of your soul. They will hear your call and come. I know you can summon them."
Yami allowed himself to release the tension, and freed his mind. His wandering thoughts sunk into the darkness and for some time nothing happened. Discouraged, he tightened his grip on Yugi's fingers and as if that was the signal his heart was waiting for, suddenly all things found their place. The misty shadows behind his closed eyes were teared off by a lightning blast and Yami felt a powerful storm coming. A painful moan left his lips and his heart started beating extremely fast, but he knew he couldn't stop this now.
Something inside Yami called the monsters out. It sounded like an ancient song with no words coming from the depths of his soul, and he felt as if all the beasts recognized it and responded to it. Some kind of inner power pulled them closer, dragging them out of nowhere and forcing them to appear in this dead world. The pressure was getting stronger with every passing second and the Pharaoh felt as if his head was about to explode in the process. He screamed as if his body was about to fall into pieces and his soul to be shattered. As he was about to reach his limit, the Duat's sky cracked open and, with a furious battle cry, three familiar shapes formed in front of him. The air smelled like a thunderstorm; it was resonating and vibrating with divine might.
"You did it! Look!" exclaimed Yugi, supporting him and staring at the sky with obvious bewilderment.
Yami breathed hard, shaken and exhausted, feeling that Yugi's arm that was wrapped around his waist was the only thing that kept him standing upright. His head was fill with nothing but pain, but he slowly turned around to see the monsters he had successfully summoned.
Obelisk the Tormentor.
Slifer the Sky Dragon.
The Winged Dragon of Ra.
My ka, he thought with a tired smile, feeling the bond between him and the monsters. Shouldn't that have been obvious since the very beginning? Those cards were always meant to be his, because the monsters truly belonged to him. He lifted his hand and all three beasts bowed before him. The connection was so apparent that it was almost tangible. The Pharaoh's strength was slowly returning to him as if the monsters were giving back what they had taken. It was a pleasant feeling but nothing could compare to the warmth Yugi's enchanted look brought to his aching heart.
"They are amazing!" said the boy with sparkling eyes, taking in the ka's every movement.
Diabound resonated with his inner power, but he was nothing in compare to Obelisk, Slifer and Ra. Yugi felt their enormous might, the touch of divinity radiating all over them and filling the suffocating Duat's air with that freshness that came right after a thunderstorm. It was then that he recalled what Bakura had said about the ka's origins and almost gasped. The Gods belonged to Yami. They were part of his soul. They reflected his spirit's strength, royalty and nobleness, and Yugi for sure hadn't seen anything that beautiful and stirring in his entire life.
"You are amazing." He whispered with pensiveness, and then immediately blushed, because Yami's look made him realize that the other stood close enough to hear everything. "No, no! I mean…"
"I know what you meant." replied Yami with a soft smile. "And thank you."
Yugi was moved by that soft smile. He felt it warming his very soul and, suddenly, he felt guilty. He selfishly wanted to catch that moment for all eternity. No. More than that, he wanted to be in Yami's arms, to feel his presence, to have those crimson eyes looking at him with such warmness and affection forever. He wanted it so much but they weren't there for him. They weren't part of a wonderland that could make his dreams come true. That wasn't the time and place for him to be selfish. To be selfish meant to forget Ryou. How could he forget about Ryou?
As if burnt by that thought, he released his grip and stepped away from Yami once he was sure that the other boy was fine enough to stay upright with no support. Needing a distraction, he turned to Bakura, who was petting the snake-headed tail of Diabound, but raised his dark eyes when he heard his name being called.
"Bakura! Tell me, do I have my own ka too?" Yugi asked and even the King of Thieves looked surprised for a second.
"I am not sure." the white haired boy admit hesitantly. "You don't really belong to our belief system, but maybe…"
"Can we check it somehow? I am here and I want to help too!" Yugi's determination was apparent in his voice.
"You can simply try to summon your…" started Bakura again.
"Tell me how to do that!" said Yugi fiercely and Yami smiled a little. His cute little Yugi was probably the one and only person in the world who could interrupt the great King of Thieves and not be killed in response.
"Okay, okay." replied Bakura with his wild wide smile of a predator. "It's quite easy and painless. Place your right hand on your heart and close your eyes. Let your ears be filled with your heartbeat, let your eyes be covered by darkness. Let your mind be drowned in it and set all your thoughts free. Focus on your heartbeat and you'll hear the song of your soul, a wordless melody that flows through your spirit's core. Capture it and sing it deep within you. Its calling will reach your ka if there's one dwelling inside you. You'll feel its reply and, lured by your calling, it'll be summoned to this world."
Yugi stood still listening carefully to all of Bakura's instructions with eagerness. Yami wished him the best as he thought that the whole process of summoning his ka would have been way easier for him too if he had got the same instructions, but in the end he decided that even the pain he had felt was better than asking Bakura for help.
In the meantime, Yugi thought that the way Bakura had described the process sounded really poetic. He would have never guessed that Bakura could say something even half that lyrical. The young boy was now sure that deep inside the King of Thieves there was a tiny romantic part, but then he realized that… Well, that the King of Thieves had given him step by step instructions to do something. Even if they sounded all epic and high-flown, they were exactly what Yugi had to do.
He closed his eyes and instantly darkness surrounded him, but he didn't feel lost. He felt safe there and Yugi didn't need much time to follow the music and learn it by heart. It all seemed so familiar somehow, and without hesitation he followed the song Bakura had mention. The melody took him deep down, through his veins and across his heart which was beating like a tribal drum, giving a fiery rhythm to the song. It was then that he discovered he wasn't alone anymore – the song had attracted something from in between the shadows and was drawing it closer and closer.
Yugi heard Bakura's and Yami's voices echoing somewhere around him, as if they were casted from a huge distance. The dialogue very slowly became louder and the words audible as Yugi started leaving his inner darkness in order to be back to the Duat's grim reality.
"It's worse than I thought." Bakura was talking with clear aversion. "He should have stayed in the real world."
"Don't you dare blame him." Now it was Yami's voice that Yugi could hear, hissing at the other boy angrily; an obvious warning in his voice. "It was you who dragged us here."
"No. I dragged you here. A powerful dead man with three god-type ka to serve him. It was your mental link and the strength of your bond that dragged him down here with us. It's you who unnecessarily endangered him and no matter how badly the boy wants to prove himself helpful, there's no use for him here." Bakura growled in a low tone. "You're neither stupid nor blind, are you? How can this little fluff be any help?"
Worried, Yugi finally came back to his senses enough to open his eyes, but he quickly discovered that his vision was covered by brown fur. He wrapped his hands around the fluffy thing, effectively getting it out of his face in order to see the whole creature's shape and immediately he exclaimed both with surprise and joy.
"Kuriboh!"
"Yes. I thought it might be a puppy or a rabbit in your case, but this is even worse!" Bakura's voice was soaked with contempt.
An angry Yami was about to say something in defense of his partner, indignant by Bakura's sharp words and filled with a strong need to protect his partner, but Yugi was faster than him. The young boy's face was beaming with a strange grin.
"One of Kuriboh's greatest weapons is that he's easily underestimated. He might be cute and fluffy, but it was exactly this that helped me fool a lot of duelists in the past. And he led me straight to victory sometimes too." Yugi petted the monster and then released it, letting it flow around him and chirp with clear amusement. "He may be tiny, but his spirit is great!" He added proudly, and Bakura laughed with a low growl in the undertones of his voice, clearly seeing another tiny thing with a great spirit other than the one Yugi saw.
"Okay, you won. Get that little fluff of yours and prepare it to win the battle then."
Not waiting for a response, he moved towards the huge wooden door, getting serious again.
"This is our battleground. The Hall of the Two Maats is there, and Ammut awaits." Bakura gave them a dark look behind his shoulder. "This will be nothing like any duel you've experienced, and she's nothing like any other duelist you fought before. Pain and blood are real here, and death will be real, too. Remember that and never let your guard down."
The gate in front of them was high and heavy, big enough even for Obelisk to pass. Its surface was covered with carved images of the Judgement. Among them, Yugi spotted a depiction of a monstrous Ammut sitting beside the scale and waiting for the heart weighting results. The illustration was terrifying and he had to restrain himself from wondering how hard it would be to defeat the real thing. Instead, he took a better look of the whole gate. It seemed like Diabound or even Yami's ka would have troubles opening it, but Bakura just stepped closer, pushed it with no visible effort and the door opened widely. Again, Bakura didn't waste any time waiting for them or even asking them to follow him in. He boldly walked in as if it was any other door and it was then that Yugi remembered Bakura had been there before. That passage was familiar to him. He knew what was on the other side of that door.
And somehow he had left that place unharmed. Even if that was completely against the Duat's rules, he succeeded by cheating his own fate. He did it once, so for sure he had an idea how to do it again, thought Yugi with hope and faith.
Yugi almost jumped when he felt Yami's arm wrapping around his waist, protectively. The younger boy looked at his companion, but he couldn't catch the other's crimson eyes. The Pharaoh was piercing the dark corridor with a focused, worried look, ready to fight anytime and Yugi found himself touched by his gentleness. They entered the door together, and all ka followed them. One thought gave Yugi strength to take each new step. They had reached their destination. Ryou was so close now and all was about to end soon!
Bakura was ahead of them. His footsteps echoed in the high halls, his pace quite quick and steady, as if it was nothing extraordinary for him to walk those ancient passages. Yugi shivered and Yami tightened his grip almost unwittingly. An unearthly coldness seemed to sip into Yugi's bones, chilling him to the core, so he was more than happy to have Yami beside him, and allowed himself to lean on there just a bit. He felt as if everything was possible as long as the older boy was by his side, and all situations were half as scary when Yami was there with him.
As they kept walking, Yugi noticed that the walls on both sides were incredibly high, covered with long hieroglyphic inscriptions, and the ceiling was completely lost in the shadows above their heads. There were strange pictures of some animal-headed men appearing on the walls from time to time, and even if they were just carvings, Yugi felt as if their black painted eyes never let them out of their sight. Recalling his grandpa's tales, the boy came to the conclusion that they had to be the Duat's judges assisting in the heart weighting, and – oh, Yugi felt as if he was being judged by those eyes as he walked.
His grandpa's teachings made everything seem so strange yet so familiar. It was as if all stories could come true; like he had stepped into a dark fairytale. Yugi wanted to ask so many questions, but he was afraid to raise his voice in that place. He remained silent, trying to be as brave as Bakura, who seemingly wasn't afraid of anything in there and walked by all the judges' depictions with no hesitation, paying no attention to their still, evaluative stares.
Slowly a warm light started to brighten up the passage. The narrow corridor opened up to a high hall supported by two rows of painted columns. Yugi had to squint his eyes a bit, because suddenly it became too bright for him to see as they entered the room. There were so many torches burning fiercely. His eyes needed some time to adjust and he almost missed the way Bakura suddenly froze on the spot. Instinctively, Yugi's amethyst eyes tracked Bakura's line of sight.
Yami's breath broke in a terrified gasp. He caught Yugi urgently, turned him around and pressed the younger boy's face to his chest, hard, but it was already too late. Yugi had seen what lay ahead of them and his huge eyes had immediately filled with tears of disbelief, pain and broken hopes.
Ryou was there, only some steps away from them but he could very much have been thousands of kilometers away. He was lying on the stairs leading to a podium where a great golden scale was placed and his body was such a grotesque sight to be seen. The boy's breastbone was cut open in half, his white ribs were pushed to the sides and a deep hollow space yawned there in his chest. His dark brown eyes, usually so warm and full of passion, were now dully staring into space. His long white hair was covered in blood and red splatters were to be seen all around the lifeless body. The torches' flames were the only thing moving in that dreadfully motionless scene.
A terrible cry raised from deep inside Yugi's chest, filling his soul with despair and sorrow. The image of his friend's death felt like a physical blow striking his body. Even Yami's embrace couldn't change it or ease his suffering.
They had come too late to rescue Ryou… All hope was gone and it hit Yugi with such a force that left him open to pain. He wanted to move, do something, but Yami held him tightly, not allowing him to reach or even look at his friend's dead body again. The Pharaoh was quiet, knowing that all words would be empty and senseless now. What words of comfort could he offer in the face of death and defeat? Nothing mattered more than the painful impact of their failure. They had lost the battle they didn't even have a chance to fight.
Even though Yami wasn't as close to Ryou as his little host was, he felt the loss of the young boy. Yugi kept sobbing his heart out, frantically repeating Ryou's name as if that would get him back from the depths of the death, his grip on the Pharaoh's clothes tight enough to turn his knuckles white. But Yugi was the only one mourning. Yami tensed seeing Bakura slowly turning his face to him – and coming to meet the face of a grinning madman. A low, dangerous laughter escaped the white haired boy's lips as his eyes shone with a malicious black spark.
"He's alive." The King of Thieves said with a certainty that made Yami question his sanity. "His ka is still here." Added Bakura, and the Pharaoh raised his head to check his claim.
It was only then that Yami noticed a huge white and blue creature floating above Ryou's body. It looked like a thin, delicate dragon. Yami had never seen such a monster before, but his first impression was that the beast was ethereal; it looked so fragile and unreal. Just then the creature turned its eyes, which resembled a set of beautiful white crystals, towards them and cried with the voice of a siren.
Bakura's words and the voice of the mysterious ka reassured Yami enough to let his partner out of his arms. Yugi used his sleeves to wipe the tears off his face, and the Pharaoh loved the spark of rebirthing hope that filled those amethyst eyes once again.
"But the most important proof is the scale itself." continued Bakura, pointing at the golden scale.
On its first platter there was an ostrich feather and on the second there was a heart. Thin streams of blood were dripping from it down on the floor, but Bakura had his eyes fixed upon the organ with a wide, crazy smile.
"Take a closer look." He said and just then Yami finally noticed with a pang of overwhelming relief what gave Bakura that crazy smile.
Ryou's heart placed on the scale's platter was still beating.