Chapter Nine: The Final Gathering
Malik's eyes opened slowly. He could tell from the unnatural half-light exactly where he was. The unseen world, Tel Aran Rhiod, The World of Dreams-any of hundreds of names. He hadn't been here in what seemed like forever, not since his sole had been ripped in two. Not since he had lost everything. Looking over at the Pharaoh with lurid eyes, Malik's shoulders shuddered with each breath.
Standing before them were two creatures from the time of Faeries. Proud and fierce, with gleaming eyes that made vocalization unnecessary. These were the two chosen to awaken their spirits. The two before them had been chosen to awaken the long dead souls of Faery long before time began.
Malik's eyes were locked on one of the two strange beings. Mot because it was more magnificent than the other, but because his soul was called to it. His life was bound to it's. Woven together so surely that it could never be separated, save in death. The creature Malik's gaze was fixed on was the great Dragon.
He had been called many things. Death Carrier, The Angel of Death, Fury, Vengeance, Anger. No one ever knowing his true name. The great serpent's scales glowed a black darker than anything anyone could imagine, gathering in all the pale light around him. His spirit had lived as long as the Earth had, he had wrestled Ra daily, misnamed a god by the Pagans of ancient Egypt, watched his kin be hunted like animals, then passed out of existence with what remained of his kind. And in all this time he had never been fulfilled. It was the curse layed upon Dragons when Man was created.
"Forever bound to me, gaze locked eye to eye."
"Fleeing not to the horizen,"
"Come my soul, and complete my heart."
"For without another I shall never know my part."
"Come now to me, my life, my breath,"
"For when one departs, the other shall face his death."
A dragon's life thread is unique to any other. It is woven with a separate soul from the point of it's birth and they are parted only in death. The great black snake had waited centuries for it's soul to be complete, and it now was. With a flap of his enormous wings, the dragon threw back his horned head and reared up on his hind legs, issuing a booming cough that seemed to contain everything that needed to be said.
Malik slowly stood. The fluid, dancelike movements of the dragon beckoned Malik forward. From the glistening horns on his massive head to the smooth black claws and muscle lined flanks all the way to the serpentine tail, the dragon was a perfect sculpture, and Malik had never seen anything so beautiful. He walked shakily toward the ancient beast. As he settled down on his feet again, the dragon turned a large red eye on Malik, and locked his gaze there.
Screaming, Malik fell to his knees. He had seen a flash of the dragon's life. Again it happened, again. Clutching his head in both hands, Malik sat there with his elbows on his knees, and tears smearing his face for what seemed like hours. Jerkily, he turned his head toward the great creature. He was now that creature and it was him. There souls had been bound.
Malik mumbled something inaudible to any but the dragon. Trying hard to stay conscious he said, in speech almost to slurred to be understood the one word which the great dragon had waited eons to hear. His name.
"..orith..."
Yami stood in a mix between shock and interest. He didn't really care what happened to Malik. After all, the younger Egyptian was of slave blood. Up until Malik screamed, the Pharaoh had been watching the other creature. Expecting Malik to walk up to it at any moment. He was sure that his soul had been bound to the dragon. It had to be, the dragon was a creature for those with the hearts of kings and heroes, and Yami knew that he qualified as both.
Just as he was about to walk over to the dragon, a soft stir of the air made him turn his head. Looming before him was a gryffon. With the head, wings, and feet of an eagle along with the body of a lion, the gryffon mesmerized him. Flapping it's wings slowly, the moonlight reflected off the fur of the wondrous creature. Each wisp of feather was coriographed perfectly.
Turning his head the proud animal opened it's beak to emit a shrill, pleading, cry, as if to say: "Come see how glorious I am. I was summoned by you. I am Glory, come pay your respects." With the closing of the metallic looking beak, Yami's heart sank. If this creature was meant for him, that meant that the Dragon had chosen a slave to be it's rider. That was impossible! There was no way that Malik could be of more honor or nobility than a Pharaoh! This was an outrage, and one that could not be remedied. Yami knew this. The spirit knew that he couldn't alter fate, and anger grew inside of him as the impact of what had happened sat in.
Isis stared straight ahead as she traveled through oblivion. The apearance of Shadi had only confirmed her earlier suspicions. The barrier was breaking again, it had only happened once before, before Arthur had thought up civil law, before Greek fire had been lost. In the time of transition between the ages of magic and men, there had been a woman named Pandora. Her foolishness had lead to a breach of good and evil, and the same breach was about to be made again.
Shadi looked silently toward Isis, his strikingly blue eyes taking in her every feature. As she turned her eyes to meet his, the guardian immediately looked away. He didn't have a romantic interest in Isis, but rather a psychological one. After the mellinium items had found their owners, Shadi had had no cause to continue guarding the tombs. It turned out that psychology was his profession of choice, and Isis was an interesting specimen.
It did not phase either of them when they entered the portal to the unseen world. Stepping through, Isis took in her surroundings. They were in a desert, but somewhere in southern Africa, not Egypt. The sky was a swirling mass of black and grey clouds that seemed distant from the Earth. Not in physical distance, but spiritually, and the air was so taught and full of tension that Isis feared the place would rip in two.
"This is where the pattern of time is thinnest, where chaos fights with all it's force to break through. You are smart, so I need not tell you that it soon will." Shadi's heavily accented voice seemed almost muted by the silence. "They come."
Isis turned around to see two gigantic shapes hurling themselves toward her at top speed. When she turned back around, Isis was surprised to find that Shadi was gone. About three feet away from where he stood, a white haired man stumbled into the unseen world, looking both surprised and ready for whatever might happen.
Bakura's eyes darted madly. He knew that he had to be here, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do. His other self wasn't as composed as he was, practically crying. The air in this place had an odd feel to it, and the tomb robber wasn't soothed by the fact that Yami and Marik were speeding toward him. Isis was ther as well, and would side with Marik in a heartbeat should a conflict arise. Despite all this, the tomb robber stayed, because of a sense of duty and honor that few thieves possess. His father had honored those traits, and perhaps that is why he had retained them.
Tea yawned and sat up in her bed. She couldn't seem to get to sleep. For some reason she felt watched. Slowly, the door to her room creaked open, and all Tea could do was sit there as a man dressed in white robes glided through the doorway. Something about him was vaguely familiar, but the girl could place her finger on it.
"I am sorry milady, but there is no time to explain." Shadi whispered as her grabbed the terrified girl's hand and ushered her through a void in the air.
Malik's body slumped as he held to the horns of the great dragon for dear life. He looked over at the Pharaoh, who had apparently not been through the same ritual that he had. Ra, his head hurt. Malik barely noticed that Orith was descending, and at first, his vision was so blurred he could hardly recognize his sister.
Isis stood in shock for a moment before running up and half hugging, half catching her brother as he slid off the great dragon. After she released him, Isis absorbed the whole of the scene. The dragon, the gryffon, the tomb robber, and her little brother. She was elated to see him, and he her, if less enthusiastic.
Isis' lips twitched downward momentarily at the expression on Malik's face. It was joyful, pained, sad, and horrified all in one. She hated seeing him like this, and it was all she could do not to cry. Smiling once again Isis spoke.
"Little brother, do not be sad. Do not be frightened. I am here and you are here and that is all that matters."
Bakura wanted to cry. Never having a real family, these things always made him remember what he had missed, what made people human, and what distanced him from humanity. All he had ever wanted was love, and a family--- things that the Egyptian could never find. Bakura had searched for five thousand years, and whether he dug up a peasant's tombstone or searched through a king's mosoleum, there was never anything there to comfort him. The gold had helped feed him and the jewelry had kept a shirt on his back, but the robber was never quite quick enough to grab the spirit, and caring that rose from the turned Earth.
Marik shut his eyes against the burning sensation behind them. He couldn't let anyone see him cry, not even his sister. He had loved her more than his own life. Isis had been the only family the man had ever really had, excluding the deceased Rishid. When she had left on that plane, the straws that were left of his life had burned. Malik hadn't wanted to live any longer, but something had always kept him alive. At the moment his sister met him, Malik knew that God had kept him alive to show him that not all was lost, and now he was free of all that tied him to life.
Tea felt like her heart was about to stop. Was she dreaming? Who was this man? He had said something about Pandora's box and her being the one to close it, but none of it made any sense to her. Perhaps she was simply going crazy. Her circular thoughts came to an abrupt halt as she was suddenly transported from the endless and suffocating blackness into a desert plain. The air felt like it was about to erupt with electricity. The first thing that she noticed was Bakura's white hair. While she was still trying to figure out why he was there, Tea's eyes fell on Malik. She had been eager to see him ever since that night at Ryou's, she had been worried.
Just as she was about to run over to the young Egyptian, to try and comfort him, a noise from behind altered her attention. Malik was holding to the shoulder of some monstrous creature just to keep standing, and his eyes were that horrifying pool of lavender that she had seen before.
The noise sounded like a huge canvas being ripped, and it ingulfed everything. There was no longer touch or taste or smell, and sight was barely needed. There was nothing but the noise, so loud that it gave every thing an odd silence to it. It swallowed the wind, and made every thing seem to be part of a curtain of solid gray mist. Just as the wail of the banshees had reached the point of madness it stopped.
Everything was silent, every breath was a thunderstorm. Out of the dust that was brought about by the screeching, slowly materialized seven shapes. Before Tea could run from them, they had surrounded her completely. Through the clearing dust, she could make out an openmouthed Malik and the outline of Yami's strange mount. Out of the abyss, Shadi's strange voice screamed.
"Rally defender's of hope! Defend your lives and annihilate these spirits of Abbadon!!!" Followed by a shrill war screech.
Malik's eyes opened slowly. He could tell from the unnatural half-light exactly where he was. The unseen world, Tel Aran Rhiod, The World of Dreams-any of hundreds of names. He hadn't been here in what seemed like forever, not since his sole had been ripped in two. Not since he had lost everything. Looking over at the Pharaoh with lurid eyes, Malik's shoulders shuddered with each breath.
Standing before them were two creatures from the time of Faeries. Proud and fierce, with gleaming eyes that made vocalization unnecessary. These were the two chosen to awaken their spirits. The two before them had been chosen to awaken the long dead souls of Faery long before time began.
Malik's eyes were locked on one of the two strange beings. Mot because it was more magnificent than the other, but because his soul was called to it. His life was bound to it's. Woven together so surely that it could never be separated, save in death. The creature Malik's gaze was fixed on was the great Dragon.
He had been called many things. Death Carrier, The Angel of Death, Fury, Vengeance, Anger. No one ever knowing his true name. The great serpent's scales glowed a black darker than anything anyone could imagine, gathering in all the pale light around him. His spirit had lived as long as the Earth had, he had wrestled Ra daily, misnamed a god by the Pagans of ancient Egypt, watched his kin be hunted like animals, then passed out of existence with what remained of his kind. And in all this time he had never been fulfilled. It was the curse layed upon Dragons when Man was created.
"Forever bound to me, gaze locked eye to eye."
"Fleeing not to the horizen,"
"Come my soul, and complete my heart."
"For without another I shall never know my part."
"Come now to me, my life, my breath,"
"For when one departs, the other shall face his death."
A dragon's life thread is unique to any other. It is woven with a separate soul from the point of it's birth and they are parted only in death. The great black snake had waited centuries for it's soul to be complete, and it now was. With a flap of his enormous wings, the dragon threw back his horned head and reared up on his hind legs, issuing a booming cough that seemed to contain everything that needed to be said.
Malik slowly stood. The fluid, dancelike movements of the dragon beckoned Malik forward. From the glistening horns on his massive head to the smooth black claws and muscle lined flanks all the way to the serpentine tail, the dragon was a perfect sculpture, and Malik had never seen anything so beautiful. He walked shakily toward the ancient beast. As he settled down on his feet again, the dragon turned a large red eye on Malik, and locked his gaze there.
Screaming, Malik fell to his knees. He had seen a flash of the dragon's life. Again it happened, again. Clutching his head in both hands, Malik sat there with his elbows on his knees, and tears smearing his face for what seemed like hours. Jerkily, he turned his head toward the great creature. He was now that creature and it was him. There souls had been bound.
Malik mumbled something inaudible to any but the dragon. Trying hard to stay conscious he said, in speech almost to slurred to be understood the one word which the great dragon had waited eons to hear. His name.
"..orith..."
Yami stood in a mix between shock and interest. He didn't really care what happened to Malik. After all, the younger Egyptian was of slave blood. Up until Malik screamed, the Pharaoh had been watching the other creature. Expecting Malik to walk up to it at any moment. He was sure that his soul had been bound to the dragon. It had to be, the dragon was a creature for those with the hearts of kings and heroes, and Yami knew that he qualified as both.
Just as he was about to walk over to the dragon, a soft stir of the air made him turn his head. Looming before him was a gryffon. With the head, wings, and feet of an eagle along with the body of a lion, the gryffon mesmerized him. Flapping it's wings slowly, the moonlight reflected off the fur of the wondrous creature. Each wisp of feather was coriographed perfectly.
Turning his head the proud animal opened it's beak to emit a shrill, pleading, cry, as if to say: "Come see how glorious I am. I was summoned by you. I am Glory, come pay your respects." With the closing of the metallic looking beak, Yami's heart sank. If this creature was meant for him, that meant that the Dragon had chosen a slave to be it's rider. That was impossible! There was no way that Malik could be of more honor or nobility than a Pharaoh! This was an outrage, and one that could not be remedied. Yami knew this. The spirit knew that he couldn't alter fate, and anger grew inside of him as the impact of what had happened sat in.
Isis stared straight ahead as she traveled through oblivion. The apearance of Shadi had only confirmed her earlier suspicions. The barrier was breaking again, it had only happened once before, before Arthur had thought up civil law, before Greek fire had been lost. In the time of transition between the ages of magic and men, there had been a woman named Pandora. Her foolishness had lead to a breach of good and evil, and the same breach was about to be made again.
Shadi looked silently toward Isis, his strikingly blue eyes taking in her every feature. As she turned her eyes to meet his, the guardian immediately looked away. He didn't have a romantic interest in Isis, but rather a psychological one. After the mellinium items had found their owners, Shadi had had no cause to continue guarding the tombs. It turned out that psychology was his profession of choice, and Isis was an interesting specimen.
It did not phase either of them when they entered the portal to the unseen world. Stepping through, Isis took in her surroundings. They were in a desert, but somewhere in southern Africa, not Egypt. The sky was a swirling mass of black and grey clouds that seemed distant from the Earth. Not in physical distance, but spiritually, and the air was so taught and full of tension that Isis feared the place would rip in two.
"This is where the pattern of time is thinnest, where chaos fights with all it's force to break through. You are smart, so I need not tell you that it soon will." Shadi's heavily accented voice seemed almost muted by the silence. "They come."
Isis turned around to see two gigantic shapes hurling themselves toward her at top speed. When she turned back around, Isis was surprised to find that Shadi was gone. About three feet away from where he stood, a white haired man stumbled into the unseen world, looking both surprised and ready for whatever might happen.
Bakura's eyes darted madly. He knew that he had to be here, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do. His other self wasn't as composed as he was, practically crying. The air in this place had an odd feel to it, and the tomb robber wasn't soothed by the fact that Yami and Marik were speeding toward him. Isis was ther as well, and would side with Marik in a heartbeat should a conflict arise. Despite all this, the tomb robber stayed, because of a sense of duty and honor that few thieves possess. His father had honored those traits, and perhaps that is why he had retained them.
Tea yawned and sat up in her bed. She couldn't seem to get to sleep. For some reason she felt watched. Slowly, the door to her room creaked open, and all Tea could do was sit there as a man dressed in white robes glided through the doorway. Something about him was vaguely familiar, but the girl could place her finger on it.
"I am sorry milady, but there is no time to explain." Shadi whispered as her grabbed the terrified girl's hand and ushered her through a void in the air.
Malik's body slumped as he held to the horns of the great dragon for dear life. He looked over at the Pharaoh, who had apparently not been through the same ritual that he had. Ra, his head hurt. Malik barely noticed that Orith was descending, and at first, his vision was so blurred he could hardly recognize his sister.
Isis stood in shock for a moment before running up and half hugging, half catching her brother as he slid off the great dragon. After she released him, Isis absorbed the whole of the scene. The dragon, the gryffon, the tomb robber, and her little brother. She was elated to see him, and he her, if less enthusiastic.
Isis' lips twitched downward momentarily at the expression on Malik's face. It was joyful, pained, sad, and horrified all in one. She hated seeing him like this, and it was all she could do not to cry. Smiling once again Isis spoke.
"Little brother, do not be sad. Do not be frightened. I am here and you are here and that is all that matters."
Bakura wanted to cry. Never having a real family, these things always made him remember what he had missed, what made people human, and what distanced him from humanity. All he had ever wanted was love, and a family--- things that the Egyptian could never find. Bakura had searched for five thousand years, and whether he dug up a peasant's tombstone or searched through a king's mosoleum, there was never anything there to comfort him. The gold had helped feed him and the jewelry had kept a shirt on his back, but the robber was never quite quick enough to grab the spirit, and caring that rose from the turned Earth.
Marik shut his eyes against the burning sensation behind them. He couldn't let anyone see him cry, not even his sister. He had loved her more than his own life. Isis had been the only family the man had ever really had, excluding the deceased Rishid. When she had left on that plane, the straws that were left of his life had burned. Malik hadn't wanted to live any longer, but something had always kept him alive. At the moment his sister met him, Malik knew that God had kept him alive to show him that not all was lost, and now he was free of all that tied him to life.
Tea felt like her heart was about to stop. Was she dreaming? Who was this man? He had said something about Pandora's box and her being the one to close it, but none of it made any sense to her. Perhaps she was simply going crazy. Her circular thoughts came to an abrupt halt as she was suddenly transported from the endless and suffocating blackness into a desert plain. The air felt like it was about to erupt with electricity. The first thing that she noticed was Bakura's white hair. While she was still trying to figure out why he was there, Tea's eyes fell on Malik. She had been eager to see him ever since that night at Ryou's, she had been worried.
Just as she was about to run over to the young Egyptian, to try and comfort him, a noise from behind altered her attention. Malik was holding to the shoulder of some monstrous creature just to keep standing, and his eyes were that horrifying pool of lavender that she had seen before.
The noise sounded like a huge canvas being ripped, and it ingulfed everything. There was no longer touch or taste or smell, and sight was barely needed. There was nothing but the noise, so loud that it gave every thing an odd silence to it. It swallowed the wind, and made every thing seem to be part of a curtain of solid gray mist. Just as the wail of the banshees had reached the point of madness it stopped.
Everything was silent, every breath was a thunderstorm. Out of the dust that was brought about by the screeching, slowly materialized seven shapes. Before Tea could run from them, they had surrounded her completely. Through the clearing dust, she could make out an openmouthed Malik and the outline of Yami's strange mount. Out of the abyss, Shadi's strange voice screamed.
"Rally defender's of hope! Defend your lives and annihilate these spirits of Abbadon!!!" Followed by a shrill war screech.