/ Blah / = any hikari
// Blah // = any yami
"My dear Anzu..." Yami whispered as he stumbled through the long passages, one hand trailing the wall lest he trip. The bloody knife was still in his shoulder and the crimson liquor flowed more freely. All over he ached but the pain in his heart was freshest and most piercing. He had lost his love all over again, nothing could heal him. "I will destroy this place..." he murmured, "destroy it and be done with it all..."
// Aibou? //
/ Yami? / the darkness smiled, he had not seen Yuugi's smiling face in a long time. / Are you all right? I can feel pain, is it serious? /
// I'm all right, better then I have been...I should be out in any moment. // How long had it been since he had heard his aibou's thoughts? Days? Weeks? // Stay clear of the castle, Aibou, I want you to be safe. //
/ What's going to happen to the castle? /
// I am obliterating it. // There was a pause and Yami could feel his hikari's rushing emotions.
/ Be careful, Yami. / And it was over.
Summoning the last of his power Yami focused it into one thing. Total obliteration.
"We need to get away from the castle." Yuugi said shortly, beckoning the others to follow as he walked away.
"Why?" Asked Tea. She was still upset over everything that had happened so far and was watching over Bakura. The silvery-haired youth seemed to be resting peacefully.
"Yami is going to destroy it." The freshman brushed a hand across his forehead, he felt sick, ready to just lay down and sleep away the next millennium. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Joey's smiling face.
"Lemme give ya a hand." He said kneeling down, back to Yuugi.
"Aren't I a tad to old for this?" Yuugi muttered, eyes closing halfway.
"Jus' get on, yer about ready to keel ov-" the exhausted youth had fallen forward onto Joey's strong back. "Tristan, get Bakura, 'kay?"
"Uh, sure." Tea helped lift the sleeping boy onto her friend's back. Mai just watched.
"Are we going to go now? The castled looking a mite unstable..." indeed the walls were beginning to crumble, the turrets falling into dust, the ground began to shake.
"Yami!" Tea shouted, seeing the form stumble through the gaping doorway. "He'll be crushed!" She yelled, starting forward. Mai grabbed her arm.
"Would he want you to die for him?" Tea gazed into the purple depths, not answering. The experienced duelist gave her a shake. "Would he?" She asked again, Tea shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Let's go!" She shouted dragging Mai towards the tree line where the others waited. The brown-haired girl kneeled on the ground staring into the debris. A heart-wrenching scream tore from her throat and she struck the ground with her fists, sobs shaking her body. "Yami!" She hiccupped, "Yami..."
"Son of Ra...Pharaoh...Yugioh..." Cold, numbing cold ran over the still body of darkness as the words drifted through the endless void of time and space. "Come to me..." it whispered, begging, pleading. "...come...follow..."
"I will come..." Yami gasped, gripping dust in his fist. "...follow..." Pain! Flooding through his body, wrenching stabs of white lightning.
"I am sorry my love! I can not let you leave this world!"
"...Anzu..." A bloody, crimson eye half opened, peering at the space around. The broken stone and gravel were still there but everything around it was dark. Save for one shaft of golden light. In it stood Anzu, a shining scepter grasped in one slender hand.
"Resist my love." Yami's mind struggled to understand. "Do not cross the river, the river of death. Live! Live for me! Live for Yuugi!"
"...Live?" The light shone brighter.
"You have to want it! Want it Yugioh! Desire it like nothing you have before! Hunger for it!" She winced but the light shone on. "I, I can't hold on much longer! Please!"
"I, I want it..." Yami whispered, half sitting up. "Anzu, my dearest! I want it!" The light disappeared as quickly as it had flared. Only her voice was left.
"Cherish it...my love, my one, my Yugioh...."
"Yami! Yami, where are you?" Night had fallen and Joey, Tristan, Mai and Tea were searching feverishly for the darkness' body. Tea had dug through the rock until her hands bled only to find nothing. Yuugi and Bakura were still out cold but soon, Joey decided, they would need medical attention.
"What about the ones we still have here wid us?" He asked quietly, stopping every one in their tracks. "Yuug' and Bakura are in real bad shape. Doesn't any body else t'ink we should get dem some help?"
"...but..." Tea started.
"Joey's right." Said Tristan, backing up his friend. "Yami would want us to help them first."
"...but...he could still be alive!" Tea yelled, her digging becoming more frantic. "We can't just leave him-uh!" Her hand struck something sharp. "It's, it's the puzzle!" She shouted, holding up the ancient relic. "He must be here!" Soon enough she found the ring, but Yami's body had not appeared. "He, he must be..." she sobbed. "He must, he must, he must!" Joey held her quivering shoulders helping her up.
"Help Yuugi, he would have wanted that." Suddenly the rocks started to shift, the dust rose and the shattered glass jingled like wind chimes in the breeze. "What da?" Joey started, shielding Tea as the rubble to their left exploded and Yami's upper body erupted through it. His clothing was torn and bloody, crimson gashes lined his visible chest and red liquid seeped from everywhere. He slumped over, murmuring.
"I will...live...for you...My love...my Anzu..." Silence prevailed until a ship's horn echoed across the island.
"Da ship...guys, da ship! We can still make it! We need ta get Yami back inta da puzzle."
"How?" Tristan asked, holding it up to the light and watching it shimmer.
"Give...it..." Yami whispered hoarsely. He clutched at it with bloody fingers and his body glowed light blue. He smiled and slowly faded into nothingness.
"Put it on Yuugi." Tea said strongly when everyone hesitated, "we gotta go!" She dashed into the woods leaving everyone to dash after her. The rushing wind dried the still flowing tears and Tea glowed with happiness.
It had been days since they had returned and neither Yuugi nor Bakura had woke. They slept in clean, white hospital beds with the sheets pulled up to their necks, Sennen items atop the pristine wasteland. Yuugi's Grandfather thought that they were both trying to repair the damage to their yamis and that it would take a lot of extra energy neither of them had. In Bakura's case it was wasted effort. His yami would never be coming back. The others continued on with their normal lives as much as they could but none of them wanted to stray far from the hospital.
"They'll wake up today." Joey said every morning, and every afternoon was the same. No change.
It was a week when Yuugi's eyes fluttered open for the first time in what seemed like years. But then it was only for a second. The next two days though, he improved in leaps and bounds, up and about within four.
Bakura slept as though dead. He grew paler by the day until it seemed he was transparent and his chest would barely rise and fall. Yuugi consulted his still tired yami and relayed his message back to the rest from his vantage point in the bed next the white-haired youth.
// He is searching and as he searches he becomes farther and farther away. // Yami told them.
/ Why? /
// The shadow realm is a big place. //
/ But who is he searching for Yami? /
// His aibou. //
SY: Can you say sequel?
Whole cast: *Jaw drops* What!?
SY: Well, I thought long and hard about it, that's why this took so long, and decided that I'd like to write a sequel. *Shoos them all away*
DM: *coming back* But...why?
SY: 'Cause I can! Do I need another?
CG: *Following* Another would be nice...
SY: I don't know, I like torturing people?
DM/CG: Oo; That's mean...
SY: Okay, here's an alternate: Bakura wakes up, his yami is "mysteriously" back and everything is happy again.
DM: And that was?
SY: What I would write if not this sequel.
CG: Oh...then, I guess the sequel would be better...
SY: I thought so.
