Authoress's Note: I'm back! I finally have some movement going on, and I need to get this one finished so I can start on my next one about The Dreamy Pegasus.
I still don't own "Yu-Gi-Oh!" All the old warnings still apply.
Okay everyone! This is the (hopefully) long-awaited chapter of the story. And there WILL be an epilogue, just so you know. Also, PEOPLE WHO LIKE BAKURA! I LIKE HIM TOO! WHEN YOU FINISH READING THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND ME WHEN I SAY, "NO!!!!" I STILL HAVE AN EPILOGUE!
Thank you all for sticking with me this far. I present the story.
The sunset was the color of fire, and the night was awakening with new strength and vitality. Leather-clad, mace-carrying figures stood against the sunset with an air of total superiority over the day. Two of them were white-haired, which was slightly pink in the light of the sun. Another was red-haired and fiery, and the third had auburn hair. Finally, eyes fell to a girl who could be no more than seven, the only one not leather-clad. She was wearing a lace dress.
A helicopter was coming at them, and the tall young man with the white hair looked upward. He waited for it to land, and the dark-eyed pilot looked at them. He dismissed him with a hand signal and put on the mufflers, motioning everyone toward the waiting bird of prey.
Bakura-who-was-really-Bakura was tense. He didn't like being around all of these people he didn't know; Yami Bakura let him be in control as long as he did everything his yami told him to do, for he couldn't let anyone know there were two of them. Of course, he knew they suspected it, but what could the Bakuras do about that aspect?
But why must we go alone? Bakura asked his darker side.
I don't want to involve the others in this. They will free the camps. We will go for the Queen herself. Why shouldn't we?
Maybe it is too difficult to do alone. She is powerful.
Yes, but I am also powerful… and I have you.
Bakura blushed, unaware of the dark form that flattened itself to the bottom of the helicopter.
Yami clung to the bottom of the helicopter, glad he was strong enough to accomplish such a feat, and felt the helicopter lurch into the air clumsily, the product of a flier who was less than perfect. He closed his eyes, slightly sickened, and knew he would survive the flight.
This helicopter is going to fly very high, Yami. I don't think our body can survive the lack of pressure! Yugi pleaded.
Aibou, it will be okay. I can manage this; one doesn't become Pharaoh because he is weak. He renewed his hold on the bottom of the craft. Besides, this is the only way we can do this.
How do you know where they are going?
I heard them talking.
Over all of that noise… how is that possible…?
It's a lot easier than you think it is, aibou.
Pegasus watched Bakura drift off to sleep beside him, his eyes shut tight, his form huddled against the wall. He could handle all the controls by himself, and someone had needed to sit in the passenger seat beside him so the weight would be distributed equally.
He let one of his hands brush against Bakura's face.
He looks like a perfect little angel…
Frightened, Pegasus took his hand back with a jolt. What am I thinking, touching him? Gods, what did I do that for?
Bakura was the only one Pegasus didn't want to read, and the touch made it almost impossible not to read the young teen. The Eye wanted so much to enter into the younger one's mind, and it had stepped in sometimes when Pegasus was tired, weary, or too weak to fight it; he wished the boy knew how to put up shields.
The vampire boy let out a small moan and opened his eyes until they were at half-mast. His position shifted, and there was a peculiar feverish tint to his pale cheeks. He curled into a fetal position and let out a low moan.
Pegasus's vision shifted so he could see the aura, which was the most ethical thing he could have done in that situation. It was dominated by a red-hued pain that throbbed in time with Bakura's slowing heart. He let out another low moan; Pegasus let his fingers brush the sweat off the boy's brow.
"Why didn't you tell me it hadn't happened yet?" he murmured, switching the plane into autopilot. He gathered the boy into his arms until the head was resting against his stomach. "Foolish child," he whispered.
He bit his wrist and lowered the bleeding thing to Bakura's lips. The boy kept them closed, his eyes open though not seeing anything. "Damn you, Bakura. You're going to have to drink if you want to stop the pain."
Bakura heard Pegasus speak somewhere nearby, and there was something wet and hot at his lips. He felt his teeth tingle and he smelled the blood, but he didn't know what he should do. Yami Bakura was yelling at him to stay awake, but Bakura was having a hard time with it. The pain was so complete that it hurt every time he breathed.
"Drink!" he heard Pegasus scream.
"Why?" he whispered. The word was muffled and he felt the blood come into his mouth. It was irresistible, and his lips locked around the wound. He swallowed the first draught of liquid and the pain lessened.
The one holding him was weakening when he shoved the wrist away. There was blood on his mouth, and he saw the wound heal as soon as his lips left it. Pegasus was gasping in pain. His fangs were extended and he was frightfully pale.
"I'm sorry," Bakura said.
"It's okay," Pegasus replied. "You should have told us."
"I didn't know," Bakura said. "Is it over?"
"No, not for a while…"
As if on some sickening cue that some unnamed authoress devised, another stabbing pain seared at Bakura's abdomen. Pegasus wrapped his arms around the younger boy, who clutched at Pegasus like a little kid.
"I'll be okay," Bakura said, pushing Pegasus away weakly. "Just fly this thing."
Wind whistled through the emptying castle. She had dismissed all of her minions but one, and her eyeless face gazed out at the water. Something that looked like a black tear ran down her painted cheek.
"It is almost finished." Her voice cut through the silence like a knife. "You have been good to me, child. In fact, I almost think of you as an equal. You alone are my heir out of all of these. It is you who must one day rise up and take over when I am gone."
The young man, barely seventeen, looked up at his queen from the spot where he kneeled on the windswept floor. He had beautiful, curly black hair that almost fell to his shoulders, and his eyes were a tormented, chaotic green. The hair whipped at his face in the harsh wind, and his eyes were at half-mast. His form shuddered as her clawed hand rested on his forehead.
"One so young should not be made to suffer," she told him. "You will be loyal to me even after I am gone, and that is your curse, young one. I will let you carry out my last instructions now, and then you must leave this place."
"My Queen, tell me what you wish of me now. As you speak, I obey."
She procured from her person a vial of blackish-green liquid; it swirled around in its container like Chaos about ready to be born. "Drink, Dreyen." She opened the vial and lowered it to his lips. He swallowed it. "You are my heir."
He fell back onto the floor and grasped at his stomach, trying to vomit and get the foreign poison out of him, but it spread so quickly he could do nothing. He felt something streak across his insides, and his face began to glow in tendrils. He let out one last breath and then was still, lying on the floor as if in sleep, no pulse or breath to show that life still remained inside him.
The Queen of Spades dragged the body toward the full window and looked down at the raging sea. With a final kiss, she threw the not-dead boy out and watched his form fall, her eyeless sockets seeing more than anyone could possibly imagine.
It landed somewhere around midnight on the land, and people scattered to get away from it. A solitary figure waited in the shadows around one of the larger buildings, his form concealed both by shadows and by the claret velvet cloak he wore over his form.
Bakura-who-was-really-Bakura looked around wearily, his vision blurring slightly as he saw what was going on around him, and he staggered for the door. Pegasus helped him out with a firm hand.
"I suppose this is goodbye." Gods, Bakura could listen to Pegasus talk for days…
"How did you know I would leave you here?" Bakura asked him.
Pegasus gathered his hair around his hand and lifted it away from the Millennium Eye. "I would not have known if we hadn't touched. No matter how great I shield, when I touch someone, it activates."
"I wish things had been different. I didn't want it to be this way. Doesn't it seem like there's something wrong with life as we know it? Like it is an illusion?" He felt his eyes beginning to tear. "Every time I close my eyes I remember something I don't want to remember. It's like I'm the Lady Amalthea in that book, The Last Unicorn."
The taller vampire smiled and ran his hand through the other's hair. "And who is your Prince Lir? Who is the one that tries to win your heart?"
"You," Bakura said, and without another word, their lips met. The surprised Pegasus's eyes widened for several seconds, but he slowly relaxed into the kiss.
Pegasus grasped Bakura to him tightly and drew his mouth back slowly. "Take care of yourself. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. Promise me you'll be alive when you come back."
Everyone I love dies… everyone I love dies… Urania, Cynthia… not you, Bakura… please not you… Pegasus thought to himself.
He watched Bakura go back in the helicopter and he saw it take off; a feeling of dread was building in his stomach, but then it passed like it had never been there. He turned to his waiting comrades; none of them knew the shadow was there but him, and no one could have known but him because the shadowy character was so powerful.
The cruel-eyed CEO stood on the roof of his mansion with a telescope. Briefly, he watched a comet streak in the sky, but then he turned to the moon. A face stared at him from the darkness behind him, flashing out of sight as soon as he turned to try to register that he had seen something out of the corner of his eye.
Midnight winds were whispering in his ear, and his coat billowed around him in the way it always did, even though it should have been billowing in a totally different direction. Sometimes, he thought the coat was possessed, and sometimes he felt something else in his mind when he was standing on the rooftop; he had felt the presence since he was a very young child and it comforted in times of need, but it also fed his desire for torture and death. Sometimes it made him black out only to discover he was in an entirely different place.
"It's too late to turn back now," he said to himself, his smooth vocal qualities melding the words into a melodic prayer that was not really a prayer even as he wished it was a prayer.
"It's too late to turn back now," a voice mimicked behind him. It was a girl's voice, and it seemed familiar. He saw a face in his mind for a split second, but the girl that called herself Fate had died several nights ago by his own hand. He hadn't wanted to kill her, but he had no choice. She knew too much about him.
He thought he saw the face again, so he turned around and faced the seemingly empty rooftop. Shadows lurked everywhere, seething and bubbling as the wind rose and fell. Some of them belonged to tall trees, and there were some that shouldn't have been there at all but were there.
Kaiba let out a low hiss when he saw the darkened figure hiding in the shadow of one of the larger trees. Seeing that she was discovered, she got to her feet and came toward him. He could see that the girl was wearing a cloak, but beneath that cloak was a bare leg that came out, and he could see uncovered breasts in the moonlight when she moved in just the right way.
It was Fate.
She grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him in the air, her lips twisted in a cruel smile, her eyes devoid of everything. It was like she was a ghost, a mere phantasm that had come to seek revenge on what had taken its life. Yet she was solid and very real to him, and nothing marred her almost perfect form that was concealed beneath the cloak. It was driving him mad, her body being so close to him.
As if sensing his desire, she drew her lips and pressed them against his. Her touch bruised his lips because it was so forceful and cruel, and she drew away from him. He felt himself fall back onto the roof and tasted blood.
"Damn you," he whispered.
"You will take me to the castle that rests upon the air."
"No."
"You need to be there for your brother, don't you? If I kill you, your brother will have no one to take care of him. You will have broken your promise."
That threat was the only thing substantial enough for Kaiba to back down. He looked at her warily. "What do you want me to do?"
"Just as I said, no strings attached. Bring me to the castle; you don't even have to stay and risk your life. Turn right back. And if you don't, you will die somehow. It is as simple as that. I mean, even if you are somehow beyond my power, it doesn't mean your brother cannot be destroyed."
Kaiba looked at her. "You may take my helicopter. Don't bother to return it."
"You would do that for me?"
"Yes."
She grabbed his collar and dragged him in until they were very, very close to each other. His cold blue eyes widened as he saw her up close; she looked like a ghost. He could almost see through her because her form was so thin, and her hands were very cold.
"I don't believe you, Seto Kaiba. You will be coming with me."
Soon…
The blue-haired vampire was someone Pegasus vaguely remembered from the night he was made; it could have been several years ago or it could have been many centuries ago that Pegasus was made a vampire. He didn't really know, but he didn't feel like he was several centuries old.
He walked out of the shadows with feline grace, almost like a king. His white hands were resting on his hood; he took it off with a simple gesture and gazed upon the would-be destroyers with something that might have been respect, but it also could have been superiority.
Pegasus bowed to the strange vampire that moved like a shadow, the very essence of the night flowing among all the vampires. He remembered for the second time an old saying he heard; vampires were stronger in groups than they were alone. It was something that had to do with the force that animated them; auras were strengthened by sympathetic auras.
"You have come to destroy the island," the vampire said softly.
A black velvet cloak against the night sky… the scorching Egyptian sun… a gloved hand reaching down from a carriage… a lock of curly dark brown hair falling into blue eyes that mirrored the heavens… his hand grasping the same gloved hand as her screams ripped through the air…
He stepped up to the blue-haired one. "We have come to liberate the occupants of this island from the authoritarian dictatorship of the one called the Queen of Spades. Her reign of terror will not see through this night."
"When you have liberated them, where will they go? There is no way on the island once the minions have been destroyed. They have all of their vessels under their control. If under attack, they have been ordered to destroy the only means of escape."
The blue-haired one extracted a gun from the folds of his cloak. His words were still hanging in the air. His eyes rested on Téa; they stayed there for quite some time.
The object of scrutiny self-consciously raked her fingers through her hair. "Well, it's a lot better than the endless dying that is happening here. Some of the people here are my friends, and I am going to free them from the dark shroud even if it takes my life!"
"Well said, Téa. Now let's go liberate your friends from the 'dark shroud.' Pray it does not take your life, for you don't have much to give."
She held her elongated fingernails against his back while he flew. There was a storm brewing on the horizon, and in the distance they could see the small form of another plane. Beyond that was a sinister shadow that was not a shadow, something not even the storms could hide from view.
It was the castle.
"So, what do we do once we get inside?" Kaiba asked her coolly. "I figure that while I'm in the area, I might as well do some damage."
Fate looked into his eyes. "Find whoever is inside and bring them away. If there is no one you can find, go to this ship and get out as soon as you can. I cannot walk away from my destiny; I want to take down only the ones I need to."
"What are you going to do?"
She was silent for quite some time before she evaded his answer. "Will you do as I say, backstabber?"
"Maybe – if you make it worth my while."
"By the time you arrive home, there will be no more empire to hide your operations from. You will be freer than the birds flying in the sky."
The helicopter knew it was being followed. Bakura saw the outline through the mirrors, and he was slightly frightened. If it was one of the Queen's machines of terror, he would be struck down as soon as he came in range.
If I don't hit the storm first…
Serpentine, the thought slithered through his mind. The storm was like a great mass of whirling dark energy, completely surrounding the dreadful castle that he could barely see from the outside. It shone with its own light from the inside; no wonder, for there was no way the sunlight could have come through.
It made him harden just to think about sunlight. Days ago, he took advantage of its warmth and thought nothing bad could happen to him. Now, though, his thoughts changed. He felt inside him a sickening dread of the rising sun, even as he knew he could withstand its merciless rays. In one moment, he had lost his love of sunlight and that love had been replaced by an incessant loathing.
He had been the first one awake, maybe an hour before sunset, on that night they left on their mission. Some strange urgency forced him to walk outside and take a walk in the park. There, he leaned against a rather large tree and stared at the sunset. He drank in the sight and in that moment there was nothing else that mattered.
Might as well have been his first sunset for how he had stared at it. The sky on one part of the horizon had darkened to a beautiful indigo-violet; the sky was a darkened blue until you reached the vicinity of the setting sun. There, he saw shades of pink, some that were almost red in color; they made beautiful colors on the clouds. Inside him, energy seemed to bubble and foam as the sun sank lower, a full cup instead of one that had only been halfway filled. The sun sank slowly like it knew he was there watching it as no mortal could see it, and it teased him with its magnificence and beauty. Then it sank below the horizon and there was red fire in the sky. It was then that he turned his back on the park and walked back, the moments embedded in his mind.
Perhaps he would never see the sunset again… never see the sun rise in the morning… never feel real food pass between his lips…
He was thinking of that sunset as he flew through the darkened sky. As if the churning darkness saw the sunset in his mind, it parted before him, a steady path open before him. He could see the castle clearly now; it floated above the water like doom.
And then he said farewell to sunlight and set out to be what he would become.
It was an hour since they had begun liberating the slaves, an hour since the boats had first been destroyed. The masses screamed with delight, rising against the armed men that held them, assisted by the darkened strangers they didn't know at all.
Téa found herself whispering Joey's name under her breath. He had often talked about rising against the masters before the one who called himself Midnight Blue. He would have been proud if he had seen her there, rallying the people with her speeches; she left the fighting to the others.
Once, she thought violence never solved anything.
That was before the Queen of Spades changed her life. The Queen taught her what fear meant and how you needed to see every day and night like it was the last one ever, and she had felt that urgency even more after people began to disappear.
Now, violence was the only thing that would liberate the oppressed. No one here could have their old lives back, of course, and everything that had been done to them could not be erased for good, but they deserved a second chance. Many of them had never done anything wrong. There were people here because they had spoken out of turn at a social gathering, children who had been ripped from their parents and brought here for laughing or breathing or something petty.
The men, women, and children stood before her now. She had herded them all into the largest house possible so they wouldn't be hurt. Even now, she could hear guns being fired at things the officers could not see; shadows that would pounce on them when they turned around to look for something that wasn't there. Screams ripped through the night from those unlucky enough to be caught outside.
Saffron opened the door to the outside and came in quickly. She was holding a guard; she went into a private room that wasn't occupied and gestured for Téa to follow her. The girl stared at the guard, not understanding, but she followed anyway.
"You're hungry," Saffron said softly. "I can see it in your eyes."
Hungry… yes, that was what was tearing at her insides. She thought she was getting cramps, which she was used to tuning out. She didn't believe in medication; when she could, she used acupuncture to soothe the cramps. She had never thought that she was feeling hunger at the moment. It was too strong for it to be hunger.
"I brought him for you."
Téa didn't understand what Saffron was talking about. The spicy vampire let out an exasperated sigh and tilted the entranced guard's neck to the side. The exposed vein glared out at Téa; she had to look away to keep herself in check. At last, she understood what Saffron meant.
"I don't like the idea of gnawing on someone's neck. I'm a vegetarian."
"A vampire who sucks on the 'blood' of plants; that's something I've never heard before." Saffron was obviously enjoying herself. Her mouth went to the man's neck and she bled him slightly, glancing at the girl. Then she threw him at her.
She looked at the blood Saffron had drawn; its smell was almost intoxicating. Ever so slowly, her human mind succumbed to the animal instincts and she was grasping the man in a death grip before she could control herself. She was aware of something in the air, a feeling that she knew at once as Peace, and the man was dead in her arms and Saffron was smiling at her and she was running out of the room and into the fray outside and there was so much blood and death and destruction…
Téa saw another guard, but he didn't see her…
He was down before he even knew what hit him.
Bakura was standing inside, unaware of the dark shape approaching him. A cold, clammy hand reached out and put itself over his mouth. Every single horror movie he had ever seen rushed back at him in those moments.
He screamed.
And screamed.
And screamed.
Violet eyes stared at him from the darkness. He stopped screaming and simply stared at their beauty. It was someone he knew, yes, but all of his memories seemed to leave him as soon as he looked into those eyes. He looked at the carefully sculpted hand pressed against his mouth and the nicely-shaped arms.
He remembered the boy. It was Yugi, only there was something different about him. He seemed crueler and released an aura of power. His eyes were narrower and he was taller, almost as tall as Bakura, and he held himself like a Pharaoh.
The white-haired angel put his hand on the hand of the ancient in the body of an innocent and slowly applied pressure, willing the unwanted hand away from his mouth. A look of understanding passed between them, both knowing what they wanted, both possessing the power to change what they wanted to change.
Both of them turned and looked at the doorway they needed to pass through, and, silently, they did so. The white-haired angel heard his dark side talking in his mind and the familiar numbing began. He was trying to take over. He wanted to destroy the evil for himself, but he was of the same darkness, wasn't he? Pale and beautiful, his dark half possessed all the qualities of both a demon and an angel, but he was supposed to be all of Bakura's demons summed up into one person. He was supposed to be the demon Bakura, and the light Bakura was supposed to be an angelic being totally devoid of sin. But what happened in situations like the present where good and evil blurred together until they were one and the same? What if there was darkness inside the light and light inside the darkness? Or what if they didn't exist at all….?
Over the tempest of his thoughts, he heard his darkness exclaim, yes, and then there was all of this emotion and thought flowing between them, and they might have been the same person but they weren't the same person. There was Yami Bakura and there was the real Bakura.
And he opened his eyes in his soul room and looked at the screen that played across one wall. It was a black-and-white vision of what Yami Bakura was seeing, all of the sounds muted, more like an old-fashioned film than what was happening in real life.
He saw himself turn to what was probably not Yugi. Yami Bakura broke out into a run, determined to get to the end of the hall. There was the faint sound of another airborne machine about ready to land.
Whether he was ready to or not, the final fight had begun.
They were liberated at last, and, as they stepped outside, a great cheer rose up among them. Small children picked up pieces of the bodies and danced around, singing songs and overjoyed to finally be free.
And the vampires were standing there and it was probably two hours before sunrise. Bakura had not come for them, and they were still here. All were tired as they stood in the almost lightened world.
"What if he doesn't come?"
"He will come," Pegasus said.
"Very well." Midnight Blue decided not to press the issue; Pegasus knew the odds were against his fledgling boy.
Bakura-who-was-not-really-Bakura let out a cry as soon as he saw the dark Queen. This was the one who had hurt his aibou – the word didn't want to come out, but it did. The mental torture that had been inflicted on the poor light had been the result of her plans. He would not be a vampire if it were not for this evil monstrosity that sat before him.
Her eyes were closed, but she seemed to know they were there.
"Welcome to my domain," she said casually. Her eyes were still closed; Bakura wondered what was wrong with them.
Though her voice emanated power, he could see the ashen appearance from her skin and the withdrawn, starved look to her present body. It was as if the power she used was eating her from the inside out; she was ravaging in beauty but old and withering. It was as if her power had left her.
She rose from the throne and the lids of her eyes came up and revealed… empty sockets. Bakura recoiled at the sight.
"What is wrong, angel?" she asked him sweetly. The wind was beginning to howl again. "I didn't mean to frighten you; after all, you have come to kill me. What good does a frightened assassin do against the Queen of Spades?"
He winced at her words. He searched for his light to make sure he was safe before he made his mood. The Ring, which he usually had cloaked, rippled into being. The Queen looked at him, feigning surprise, and he shoved her into the wall with the Ring's power. She lay crumpled for almost a minute before she got up unscathed. Though she had no eyes, he knew she was looking at him.
"Not bad, angel." She threw him into the wall with a burst of her own power, but she kept the pressure up instead of letting him fall. Composed, she walked toward him. She paid no attention to Not-Yugi and smiled at Bakura.
"You are a fine specimen. It's a shame that I didn't enslave you earlier if I had known how much fun you would be."
Another burst of pain seared his nervous system. He grasped his own magic with his mind and sent the pain back at her. She doubled over under the weight of what he was feeling, losing control of the bonds that held him against the wall. He slid down and kicked her. She fell to the ground. He raised his hand for another blow but someone caught his hand in midair. It was Not-Yugi. He looked at Bakura with understanding, almost like the Pharaoh knew what was going on in Bakura's mind at the moment. He relaxed his grip on Bakura's arm.
Her hand shot out and she grabbed Not-Yugi by the collar. With a show of might, she had thrown him all the way across the room and out a window. He was holding on by his fingertips now, the churning storm below him. She turned to Bakura with a drunken grin on her perfect face. "Now, where were we, my angel?"
She grabbed his arm and twisted until he felt pain. The next thing he knew, he was on his back doubled over in pain from where she had hit him in the stomach. His arm had been meant to distract him while she went for what he wanted. He understood that now. Bakura grabbed her arm when she tried to attack him next and beat her head against the floor; once, twice, a third time…
The Queen of Spades flipped him onto his back and smiled. There was blood running down her mouth and onto the high collar of her dress. The top of her head was dented; evidence of what he had done to her. The blood was coming out of her mouth with no sign of stopping. It fell onto his clothing and soaked through his shirt to his skin. It was black blood, the blood of something that had been dead for a long time, unlike the immortal elixir that flowed through his veins. He felt his skin repel the black poison; when his blood found it could not get rid of the foul poison against his chest, there was a searing pain in his chest. She laughed at him.
"To think that you, a mere child-angel, could defeat the Queen of Spades!" she exclaimed. He felt another searing pain coming from his chest; it was like nothing he had experienced before. It was all the times he had hit his light without warning. It was trust, love, hate – there was no end to what the pain was.
She drew her lips across his face and he screamed at the top of his lungs. Satisfied with herself, she turned away. Not-Yugi had lost his hold on the ledge and was falling. He thought about the maelstrom and wondered if anyone could survive it, but he knew there had to be a way for it to happen. He had survived holding onto the bottom of the plane coming through and he had the Millennium Puzzle. Wait, why was he so concerned about the one who had banished him thousands of years ago?
Her fingernails were digging into his skin. It didn't hurt as much as her blood, but it still made him wince. He arched his back in pain and let out a hiss. The darkness darkened around him, though he didn't know how it was possible because it was already almost black. Then he saw a light before him.
That conversation from long ago…
"Sometimes there must be a sacrifice for there to be new hope. Ever mindful of the sacrifice we must make, we strip away what we do not need and give it to those who do need it."
"I don't understand, Father."
"You will understand someday. I see great things ahead of you, my son."
The light before him took the form. He saw the golden light of Ra glaring at him; he knew the great God himself was watching him in that moment. Ra, the Sun, the one all had worshipped in his life even as they sought out Osiris in the darkness. Even has he had plundered the tombs…
He had always lived in the cover of darkness. But would – could – his light live without the sunlight? He was not in the room anymore, but standing before all of the Gods. They looked down at him with their painted faces. He saw Bast with her cat face standing next to her darker Sekhemet, Isis and Osiris sitting on the thrones below Ra.
As he thought about his decision, he felt others in the room. Many others, all like him, all counting on this one decision. For it was not a decision they could make. It could only be his. He felt a familiar presence. His light was standing in front of him.
"Whatever decision you make, I'm right behind you."
"Can you survive?"
The pale light nodded. "As long as I always remember that last sunrise."
Last sunrise…
He reached for his other and they grasped hands. Together, they turned toward the Council of the Gods.
"Immortals are always night walkers. We have taken advantage of our ability to walk in the day, so now it is time for there to be only night. I will sacrifice the sun so that others may live in the sun. We will sacrifice our days for our endless nights. I just ask for one more sunset for those of my blood who have not decided, who do not know what I am saying before you."
Against the glaring golden light, he saw Ra smile.
When he opened his eyes, there was still that golden light. The Queen of Spades had turned around. A strange girl was standing in the doorway. No, it wasn't a strange girl. It was Fate…
Her chest was glowing with a light. She was speaking words to the Queen, words that made the eyeless girl scream. He could hear the sighing structure and the walls were coming down. In a panic, he stood, greeted by an onslaught of pain. Fate held her hand out at the Queen and whispered the Ancient Words.
"Qui'dara montra everino moare mkuond oloiu, moreld o ewdk oweddl weot. Oui'kara montra everino monare mkuond louio!"
The burning light spread from Fate like the rays of Judgment coming to claim the sinful. The ground ruptured beneath her and he felt himself engulfed with light. It was like his body was coming apart. There were the screams of the Queen and an explosion and burning pain. He was burning! He ran through the light and tried to get away from the flames. There were rocks everywhere and there was that ripping sensation coming from everywhere. It was a thousand daylights! A fire so strong it rendered him helpless against its eternal flame…
The explosion ripped through the night sky with a ferocity that made the windows of the buildings shudder.
Vampire and human looked up at what was happening, and the shockwave spread throughout the entire world.
"Do you think Bakura was in that?" Téa asked him.
A piece of gold came hurtling at them from the explosion. The piece that called itself the Eye… The group stared at it. Pegasus doubled over and Téa ran to him. She put her arm around his back. They were crying together for what seemed forever; the predawn light dried their tears.
They stood. Pegasus picked the eye up and looked at the sky. A helicopter had landed on the island, the others told him. It was piloted by Seto Kaiba and he was going to take them all back home and send for boats to pick up the people on the island.
Pegasus was lead to the helicopter. He had not felt such grief since the night his Cynthia was taken from him.
"Kaiba-boy, what are you doing here?"
"I thought I was needed," he replied.
"What happened at the blast site?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. I didn't stick around long enough to find out."
A cold, wet Yugi was sitting in the passenger's seat. He was wrapped in a blanket and looked like he had been through several natural disasters.
"Hey," he said with a forlorn smile. They mirrored his look and murmured similar phrases.
For some reason, as they were flying, the vampires were engrossed in the rising sun. Little Yugi was resting his head on Midnight Blue's lap.
Sometimes life is like the world. There is light and there is darkness. People die that shouldn't die; many more people live who do not deserve to live. Some have guardian angels and some do not.
Rarely is the playing field ever level.
I wish I told him I love him, Pegasus thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
Maybe Bakura had known.
It's not like Pegasus was the only one who could read minds.