Blood trickled down from Bakura's nose. His face held a steady gaze, the same gaze he usually had when looking at Yami. He lifted one hand up and smeared the blood from his face. Yami just stood there; maybe he was shocked at what he did or maybe contemplating hitting Bakura again. You can never tell what a yami was thinking. Bakura took a threatening step forward and Yami took a casual step back.
The two were too busy to notice that Ryou had jerked. I looked in shock when a twisted smile came over Ryou's inert body. The yami's had moved out of the way of my bed so it was easy for me to reach him. I looked questioningly down at Ryou and was shocked witless when his eyes burst open. It scarred me. My surprise would've soon become joy if it weren't for the fact that the eyes glowed red.
Ryou grabbed at my neck before sitting up. "Another hikarii, had I known this place was full of them I would have come here a couple hundred years earlier." The voice was ruff and scratchy. I struggled. This couldn't be happening. How could this be happening? Ryou was forced to drop me to the floor because of Yami and Bakura. I fell to my knees and grabbed at my throat automatically. Gasping for air. I could hear people talking but couldn't make the words out.
Bakura
Yugi fell helplessly to the ground. Yami, who you'd think would've clued in just a little bit about past events, was now on the floor next to him giving his hikari comforting pats on the back. I looked Alef right in the eye. "Alef."
"Bakura, is that-", he looked down at Yami, "the Once-Pharaoh?" Alef asked mockingly.
Yami shot a glace at Alef before standing tall to meet his new foe.
"Oh what fun this will be. Is there any more hikari's about? As soon as I'm done with Ryou I think that one will be next." Alef's eyes darted to Yugi then to Yami. "Oh Bakura, did you think your friends would be safe, that one life force would be enough to satisfy my hunger. Hehe, isn't that the very same Pharaoh who imprisoned you in the first place? And now you're hehe his, friend."
"He is not my friend!" I glanced at Yami, who, out of all seriousness of the situation seemed to think what I said was amusing. He sobered up under my glare. I could tell Yami was still confused but he seemed to have the gist of what was happening.
Our attention seemed to have left Alef for valuable moments, which in the end cost us. Since we weren't paying attention to Alef he apparently had time to summon us all to the shadow realm. Looking up I could see that Alef was dressed in some type of ceremonial robe. Oh, that just does not bode well.
"Spirits of the past, meet your future!" Alef started his incredibly annoying laugh again. I would kill him solely to stop him laughing! Both me and Yami turned around to see what Alef was laughing at. Yami's hikari was trembling badly, and it wasn't because of the moments choking he had gone through. He was holding himself up by his hands, trying to take the weight of his body; he was literally struggling to survive. Ra, I forgot, a hikari's body can't survive long in the Shadow Realm. I turned to Alef who seemed to be doing fine. Duh, As long as a spirits entered the hikari's body the body will sustain. Turning my attention back to Yugi I found he wasn't there anymore. Yami was walking towards me; his Puzzle glowing softly but soon returned to normal. Yugi must be in his soul room.
When I was duelling Yami; he had somehow managed to switch the bodies of Ryou and myself. If he could pull a trick similar to that and pull Alef from Ryou's body then hopefully the separation will cause Alef to leave all of Ryou's life force in its proper place. That at least is my plan.
"Spirit! I don't know who are but I will stop you. Especially if your plans include the hikari's of this age."
Ra, Yami's about to give Alef a speech about righteousness. I cut him off. "Yami, shut up! I didn't include you to hear one of your speeches. I need you to remove Alef from Ryou's body."
"RemoveAlef from Ryou's body?" Yami looked at me questioningly. "How am I supposed to do that?"
Alef who had been quite and listening felt the urge to speak. "Yes Bakura, how exactly is the Once-Pharaoh suppose to do that."
Ignoring him I turned to Yami to try and explain my plan. "You did it to me when we duelled that last time so you can do it to him!"
Yami shook his head. "Bakura, I switched your spirits, I didn't remove you at all. Sorry, but I can't do what you ask."
Alef smiled at my failed plan. "Hear that Bakura, all your hopes and plans are lost. And time is running out."
"Running out. Bakura, what does he mean." Yami was finally cluing in.
Before I could answer Alef started talking. "It means that soon I will have a body… and Ryou will be no more!"
"Hmmm, I see. Bakura, how did Alef get here, I mean, did he come by an item perhaps?"
This came as a surprise, how could Yami not know. Didn't he imprison Alef himself? "He- he came in the Hamza."
"A Hamza! Does he still have it? I could imprison him back into it." Yami started searching Alef with his eyes. I joined the search.
Alef was getting annoyed. "Do you think I'd really be that easy to defeat!" Alef smiled. "I think not!" He took a step backwards and pulled out the Hamza. "Don't get overjoyed, you won't be able to get it from me." He held it out and a blinding light surrounded him, pushing him off the ground to create a floating effect.
"The Hamza!" Yami obviously wasn't the one who had imprisoned Alef then.
I found myself running to where he last was. But Alef was already well out of my reach. I knew time was running out, and the shadow realm should be wearing Ryou out too. That meant… that Ryou… I looked up to see Alef smiling brightly. "NO!" Alef was either really close to draining Ryou, or…
There has to be a way to save him. I turned to Yami who was running to catch up to me. "Yami, can you shoot an energy blast at Alef, powerful enough to make that bubble of his pop."
Catching on to what I meant Yami nodded his head. He picked up his Millennium Puzzle and sent the energy blast up. It smacked into Alef's protective shield. For a second I thought it had worked but it hadn't. Alef was now sending energy blasts of his own back down at us, causing us to scatter in order to prevent from being hit.
This was getting us nowhere; no good was coming from this at all. I looked up in time to see a blast heading straight for me. I dodged it but it had still hit off my shoulder. Alef was laughing hysterically; apparently he was having a good time. I grabbed at my shoulder as it continued to smoulder. Ra, did that ever hurt! I glanced at Yami ,who due to the flat no-scenery of the Shadow Realm had no place to hide. He shot an Energy blast at Alef, giving me enough time to recover.
Alef was surprised, but the Hamza seemed to be getting more powerful by the second. /Ryou./ Alef turned his attention to Yami and blasted another beam at the guy, who wasn't as lucky to dodge then turned his attention back at me.
Alef smiled brightly. "At last, we get to see you for the worthless friend you are. I'm going to have such fun hurting you Bakura!" Another blast hit me in the leg. I fell to the ground and could only look up helplessly as Alef prepared to shoot a final blast. /Sorry, I failed you hikari/
Laughing mechanically Alef started to glow brighter, he was concentrating a final attack. Just as the beam was about to be let loose he abruptly stopped. His face gave off the expression of utter shock. Alef's features became softer and more gentler. It was Ryou! Giving off a final sad smile he dropped the Hamza. I reached over and picked it up. I couldn't help but smile back at the turn of events. Maybe Ryou wasn't as weak as I had previously thought.
The smile vanished from Ryou's face. All the energy that was surrounding him stopped glowing and faded. Ryou clutched at his heart as his face took on a look of absolute pain. Without the energy to hold him up Ryou started to fall. I looked down in shock, I should've expected that but things were happening too fast.
I forced myself up and caught Ryou. He twisted and turned in my arms. I had to let him go. He was breathing hard in an imitation of Yugi's previous actions. I tried to force him into the Ring but something was wrong because he wasn't going. Realizing that it was because of Alef I looked over to Yami. He was just getting up. "Yami!" Yami looked at me. "Catch!" I threw the Hamza at him. "Quickly, there isn't much time!"
"Oh, there's plenty of time!" Alef had taken Ryou's body back and didn't hesitate to elbow the leg he had shot. Crying out in pain I instinctively grabbed at it in an attempt to quell the new ache that had started there. Alef left me to my pain and headed at Yami. "I suggest you just give that up, or suffer the consequences." Alef was seethingly mad.
Yami just smiled. "Oh really? I think it's time you return to your item, Spirit!" Yami held up the Hamza and pointed at Alef. "Spirit! Return!" Nothing happened. "Spirit, return!" Once again nothing happened. If Alef's spirit couldn't return to the Hamza then that could only mean… Oh Ra, Ryou's dead! I couldn't believe the way my gut twisted and body froze, the way my heart pounded in my ear drowning out all other sounds. But, waite, Ryou couldn't be dead, because then I would die to… so then, what's wrong. I'm obviously still alive.
Alef smiled. "Fool. I have won, I am victorio- gwa, gaw, gwa." Alef started to choke as he separated from Ryou. Ryou fell to the ground as Alef got sucked back into the Hamza. It was the first time I saw him not in the guise of my hikari, he was translucent and only there for a second. He almost didn't look quite right, was almost as if, but then I caught sight of Yami smiling victoriously and my brain returned to what was important. "That'll teach you to mess with a former Pharaoh."
I had expected my soul to return to normal; back to the way it felt before Alef had came. But it hadn't. Limping over to Ryou's still motionless body I pulled him closer. His body was no longer simply cold, it now felt like ice. He had dark rings under his eyes, and I really hoped he was breathing because I couldn't tell.
(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O) Draggy2