A.n.-Mm, I know ya'all are expecting Ryou-chan's p.o.v.... an' I really did start to try n' type it.... but I ended up with Ishtal's (Malik's Yami) p.o.v. Instead...I hope ya'all like it all the same. About two more chappies left...not counting the epilogue I'm thinking' of writing. I've decided on the ending to this fic already, but I'm going to leave ya guessen' a lil' longer^_~. I know...I'm evil...
And WOW! 116 REVIEWS??!?!?!??! Lol, ty all of you^_^when I first wrote this fic I never thought it would go this far...arigatou all of you!!:)I hope ya'all like this chapter as much as the ones before it!^_^_^_^
The clock is ticking down...two chapters left...*dun-dun-dun*^_~
Disclaimer-I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or this song "Walking On The Edge" by Scorpions
Dedication-AnimeQueen, BlackFire, Todokanunegai, Tohru, Renee The Rabid Squirrel, Moshi, Kako, Spirt Guardian, Sincere Angel, Jaguarkitty2006, Draggy, KaTyA, Miya-Miya, G.O.C, --NC--, Angel-Belle, Fire .Master .Skye, Crystaldraygon98, No Name, Alexk9, Asian Angel 12, StarKitty, and Vampire Huntress D. Arigatou Minna!!!^_^_^Your reviews really really meant a lot to me!!^_^_^_^_^_^
~Welcome to a trip
Into my hurt feelings
To the center of my soul
You better bring light
To find the house of meanings~
~In the labyrinth of yes or no
For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll lose the game like this~
I walked silently down the hallways of Ryou and Bakura's home. The feel of Shadow magic and the echoes of a past engraved forever in time riveted through the very air. Stifling out nearly every other sense.
I felt helpless, more or less. I won't deny that a majority of this mess belongs to me. Mess.... funny way to describe this I suppose.
Bakura has changed so much though, and yet to little from the way he was back...back in Ancient Egypt. Oh sure, he's still the same cutthroat, get-in-my-way-and-I'll-kill you sort of person. Sure he's still has that wicked sense of humor and is as dark as night where it counts. He wasn't an angel back then, he sure as hell isn't one now.... but there's a difference from then and now.
There was always this...un-satiable hunger in Bakura. This...drive behind everything he did. He desired power then, he loved messin' with anyone who thought they were high 'n mighty. Such as the Pharaoh for one. Why do you think he robbed all those tombs with me? It wasn't just the money or fame; it was the high of it all. Avoiding death at every turn, escaping the shackles of slavery that had bound us both once upon a time.
But even that isn't the entire story. He was always looking for something. Searching for something that even he didn't know about. Looking back I suppose I was searching for the same thing he was. What was it you ask? Our other halves. The same thing everyone wants really. Deep down there's not a single person in this world or any other that doesn't search for the other half of their soul.
Its engrained deep within, it's screaming inside of you for the blending bliss only your other can give. When he and I found the Sennen Ring and Rod we didn't know what exactly the Shadow Powers inside of the Items would do. Didn't know where it would lead us. Didn't give a damn really. That insatiable hunger in us drove us to use the Powers for our own strife. And in the end we were sealed inside the Items of Power that had drove us to such madness.
Ironic that.
The very thing that had brought us power unimaginable to most was our demise.
How poetic an end I suppose.
It doesn't really matter anymore though. Time has passed, staying for none. And I'm here, and everything--and I mean everything--has changed. That aching incompleteness has been filled.... filled so blissfully that everything else can go to hell and truthfully I won't give a damn. Selfish a thought perhaps that is, but ever so true.
I sighed, suddenly feeling as old as the years that had passed while I was locked in that infernal Rod weighing heavily over me. I stopped abruptly in front of Ryou's room. I ran my fingers lightly over the cold doorknob. Bakura didn't allow anyone to enter this room after Ryou sealed himself. No one was to enter it and the second anyone even stopped next to it he or she usually had a sharp object thrown at them.
When he'd been with Anzu he hadn't even allowed her to come near the room. Had put new locks on it that even I'd have trouble getting past all to keep her and everyone else out. I knew even then the truth. That he loved his Hikari more then anything and was angry, confused, depressed, and even...hurt by Ryou's leavening.
Funny that. No one would have ever believed anything could hurt Bakura. It's almost hard for me to believe, but then again the only reason I see how deep it runs is because I know exactly where it stems from. From a deeply buried secret from so long ago...so very long ago...from when Bakura and I first really meet up truly.
I meet up with him when I was around twelve years (he was the same) I was receiving one of more numerous punishments from one of the more hentai guards. My body had felt like it was on fire, every patch of skin screamed with an agony beyond mortal comprehension. I wanted to die; the revelation was a familiar one though. Ra hadn't been fond of me much back then anyway though, some how someway I always ended up living.
I was a slave; my mother had died when I was around three years of age. My father had hated me from the second I had appeared into this world. Angry about having yet another mouth to fed. He drank now and then, when he could get his hands on some form of liquor that is. In my early years I had learned to stay away from my father as often as possible--or risk a wrath worse then angry Imperial Guards.
I was a slave; I meant little or nothing to anyone in the world but one person. My mother. My loving, beautiful lavender-eyed mother. She'd been so very beautiful. Despite the harsh hours in the sun, the gruesome work and beatings when she defied anyone to save me from my blunders she was so lovely.
Her hair had been a deep golden blonde; none could best her beauty. No Empress no royalty in all of Egypt could match her loveliness in my eyes. She had comforted me when bad dreams and over come me, had held me close when I'd cried from when other children had teased me. She had never called me weak or pathetic or a dog or a bastard. She loved me more then anything. Other children my age and above always said that the man who called himself--reluctantly--was not my real father. I hadn't believed them, but looking back I know now it was true. I look nothing like that beast that called himself my father. And I'm Ra thankful for it.
As much as I loved my mother she too left me, left my like most did in a harsh world where you had to fight to survive in a life that wasn't really worth it. Her memory got me through most starving, pain filled nights. Her soft voice sung me a lullaby in my mind when I couldn't sleep. I loved her and I hated her for leaving me all alone.
On the anniversary of her death my father had drunk more then usual the night before and I had made the mistake of accidentally burning our dinner. I'll never forget that night. The way his eyes had been so wild and infuriated with a bitter tangible hatred. The feeling of his hands over my body as they inflicted pain unimaginable.
I loathed him. Loathed him more then anything, and deep down that hatred still burns a bright inextinguishable fire for what he did for me. He made me so weak that night. It was because of him that I was barely able to do any of the work they were having us doing. His fault that I was given thirty lashes and nearly rapped by one of the more hentai guards.
But then, if I hadn't I would have never meet Bakura. Would have never been saved from the hellish pit by him. Maybe it was fate, but it still hurt like hell...but in the end...I believe it was worth it if it lead me here.
~In the labyrinth of yes or no
For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll lose the game like this~
~Cause you, you're walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, don't you see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
The guard had just finished beating me with that five-tailed whip. My mind was scattered, numbed with pain and a deep well of hatred toward Gods that had damned me to this hell. Salty tears were running down my face, that sultry taste of my own blood was on my tongue. My breathing was coming in harsh burning gasps, silently I prayed for an end to it all.
Then he'd been there. I'd seen him standing in the shadows a look of complete fury washing over his face. His silver hair hung limply yet at the same time so prideful. Even with my disoriented vision I could see his cutthroat brown eyes that were narrowed in a cold calculation that had frozen my young blood. In his hand was clinched a small knife, and I noticed the red crisscrossed wounds of his chest. Wounds that could only be given from the whip that had been beating the tar out of me.
Blood was running in sticky rivers over my skin, blinding blows of pulsating pain still filled me...but I couldn't tear my eyes from him. His skin was like white silk, nearly the color his silver hair. I'd never seen anyone that looked like him before. Before I could blink he threw that had been clinched in his hand at me.
I remember how time seemed to slow as the blade flew towards me, fear tingled through me but also a spark of relief that perhaps I'd see my mother again in the after life. The knife made a deadly arc past me and I heard a surprised gasp before something heavy fell into the sand near me. A quick glance showed it to be the guard that had been torturing me in numerous ways for several hours--or maybe even days 'cause that's what it felt like.
I'd looked up to see him still standing there, eyeing me for a moment before walking over to me. I couldn't bring myself to speak, though my mind screamed countless questions. He said nothing either though. Simply picked me up gently, if not somewhat wobbly, and carried me out of there through several secret passageways. He set me down suddenly in a darkened corridor, his quick brown eyes darting about before settling once more on me.
He eyed me critically and I found myself shifting uncomfortably and forced to hide my pain as the movement jarred my wounds. I remember him asking my name in a voice that I felt compelled to answer back promptly. He'd nodded slowly and said my name once or twice.
{"Ishtal...Ishtal..."}
My name had rolled off his tongue slowly. The soft, halting way he said it caught my attention like no other. It was the first time in a very, very long time anyone had said my name like that. So devoided of hate and mocking intensity. Curiosity, innocence even had played in his tone. He'd told me his name quickly, the defensive way he said it caught my attention also. Bakura.... it seemed to fit him some how...just so...*him*. Everything about him seemed so new and amazing to me, like I had seen him before but couldn't recall.
That's when everything began. The wheels of destiny set themselves firmly in motion that very night.
Bakura had plans he wanted me in on. He wanted to escape. Live on his own and make his own way. Wanted freedom from the low title of *slave*. The simple idea both frightened and intrigued me. The possibility of freedom tugged an irrevocable cord within me. My mouth watered for the freedoms I knew would be presented.
The idea to rob the tombs of the Pharaohs that had ordained our enslavement and those before us came early on. We knew it would take bravery to defy the curses and skill to transpire all the traps that would be laid. We swore to be the best Tomb Robbers in all of Egypt. We began slowly. Using caves as our training ground whenever we could slip away without the Guards noticing our leave.
Bakura taught me all kinds of things. He had more knowledge of fighting then I, skills he passed on to me enough to defend myself against my father. One night in one of his drunken rages he'd come at me with a dagger, screaming that it was long past time that I got what I deserved. I'd punched him in the jaw and kicked him in the belly sending his strong frame of balance to the floor at an awkward angle.
He didn't move and when I'd checked on him I'd found the knife embedded in his chest. I felt little remorse for his death; he had hated me with a passion from the minute I was born. My mother had protected me as long as she could before *he* killed her. I knew he had, I wasn't a fool. She was avenged now though.
Not long after that I found the Guards had caught on to our constant disappearances. Apparently the other children that hadn't liked us one bit had told them of exploits. They'd found us. They'd attacked. And despite all our rigorous training we lost miserably. We were twelve years of age boys; they were four burly men in their late twenties. Lady Fate was not in our favor.
They'd beat us until we could barely move. That night was my final farewell to what little innocence I still had...I can still remember their slimy hands all over my body, there guttural sounds...and...
Ra, no....I.... I don't even want to *think* about that...I...I don't even wish to remember that moment...
I shook my head slightly and entered Ryou's bedroom, my breathing becoming shaky and my eyes clouding with tears at the remembrance. I shut the door behind me and stole a glance at the large mirror in Ryou's room. My shoulder-length wild blonde hair fell lightly around my slightly feminine features. My narrowed, tear-stricken lavender eyes were firm and jaded in appearance. My full lips were set in a familiar frown that seemed to darken my features often any more.
~Welcome to a trip
Into my emotions
To language of my heart
Your sailing on a river
That becomes an ocean
Which you can only cross with love~
~For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll the lose the game like this~
Before my very eyes that image seemed to falter to be replaced with a boy with longer shaggy blonde hair, wider more innocent eyes and more open features; dressed simply in a torn repeatedly patched shirt and pants with no shoes and a muddy face and hair.... I shook my head, feeling tears trying to squeeze their way out.
I swallowed the cry that rose in my throat and walked over to Bakura's Hikari. The very thing he was searching for back then. It had taken five thousand long years but here was the being he had wanted more then anything. The silver-haired Hikari was so very beautiful. His skin was like white silk, his silver hair was a few shades lighter then my old friend but just as softly beautiful.
His features were gentle and caring in appearance. The inner beauty of his soul shining bright and harsh through out his features. He was so innocent, so very innocent. But even the most pure have a line. A bright vibrant nearly invisible line that is the threshold of their patience. There's beyond any others.
Any other being would have fought back against Bakura in the beginning. When he had first received the Ring and the cruel treatment had begun any other would have fought back heedless of any damage the force behind their torment would receive. But not a Hikari, not one of the purest of the pure. Not the other half of a Yami's very soul.
Ryou loved Bakura and vice versa.
It was a selfless, harsh, undying, perfect, love that pounds into one deeper then the deepest abyss. It has no end, as it has no beginning. They've waited aching for the other for longer then one can imagine. How do I know? I've felt the same heart-throbbing emotion for my own Hikari.
Love and can pulsate into fear, that's what I first felt when the complete merge my soul with my Hikari's filled me. But then I saw what had been done to him...saw the scares on his back from his own *father*. Saw the history of the Pharaoh itched into his flesh mercilessly. And I hated him. I hated the Pharaoh with a vengeance born from so very long ago.
When I saw his father my heart leaped into my throat. Before me was the face of my own reincarnated father. I'd killed him again, laughed manically as his blood had ran in rivers from my blade. He had hurt me long ago, and now he had returned to harm my own Aibou. Unforgivable. A blasphemy of the highest accord.
When my Hikari saw what I'd done I thought he'd be happy...but he wasn't...he cried, cried rivers and swore vengeance against the Pharaoh who ordained it. I'd helped him; I'd have followed him to the ends of the Underworld to simply be there with him. Ironic that the suppose will of the Pharaoh who's will had ordained my Hikari's father die was Yugioh. The Pharaoh from Ancient Egypt, the King of Shadow Games. The one whom Bakura and I had hated with a passion of the deepest fire. The one who had imprisoned us within the Sennen Rod and Ring.
~Cause you, you're walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, you don't see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
~For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll lose the game like this~
Revenge can be such a trivial thing though. It rarely leads to happiness, true happiness. Often only a sultry bitterness. I'm not saying that Malik's father didn't get what he deserved. For harming my Aibou he got only a taste of the fate he should have had for *daring* to touch MY Hikari.
They mess with him they mess with me...you don't touch what belongs to me and me alone and expect to walk away unscathed--or walk away at all.
I returned my gaze to Ryou. A fallen angel just like my own Aibou. His inner light rivals any ones, his innocence rivals all. Even Yugioh's Hikari. Each of our Hikari's as the innocence of a child with the maturity of one of advanced years. A child yet not a child are they.
I sighed slightly and sat down on Ryou's bed next to him, giving in and brushing a stray strand of silver hair out of his eyes. Soft.... like the smoothest of silks. Like Bakura's in a way. I tilted my head slightly. They were so alike but so different at the same time. Bakura could be harsh as a sand storm, but he had a soft side deep down. A side once touched you linger for an eternity and longer still.
I love him, in my own way. Though not in the depth that I love my own Hikari, and maybe in his own way he loves me though not in that way anymore. His love his reserved for he one he believes hates him. Oh yes, I had heard their argument. Heard every word, it was hard not to with their yelling.
I must say I was surprised to hear Ryou yell in anger. But everyone has that point of rage. Perhaps when he awakens I can find Bakura and lock them into a room together until they both admit just how much they love each other. I doubt that would work really though. Bakura can be rather stubborn at times. What am I saying? Once he gets all tight-lipped you can't get him to open up no matter what.
Well, at least I can't...Ryou.... maybe he can. I don't know. It's hard to see things clearly anymore. Hard to make sense of everything and anything. I had tried to help them...I did...I saw what was happening when Bakura began courting Anzu. Saw the subtle darkening in Ryou's eyes though he tried so very hard to hide it.
I saw the pain that riveted through his gaze every time Anzu was with Bakura. And I did nothing...I stood by believing I shouldn't interfere that Bakura would see what was happening and then he'd leave Anzu and be with Ryou.... the one he truly loved, even though he had tried to hide it at first with a vibrant anger and hatred. I saw then that he loved him, and when he was with Anzu I saw it as well.
I waited too long to try and interfere again and Ryou.... Ryou did the one thing I thought impossible...Sealed himself inside of the Sennen Ring...so many months lost...such a long time that Bakura sat broken, numbly responding to Anzu's overtures. Ryou's leaving hurt him more then anyone could have done.... anyone.
Had it been anyone else Bakura could have gotten over it eventually, with time. But not Ryou...Never him...
When Anzu came to me one night while Malik was out with her "seduction"...I saw an opportunity. A blinding chance to end the sheared for what it was. To crack down the illusion with enough shock that perhaps Ryou would be in such shock he'd drop his guard enough for Bakura to enter it.
To do so it would have to be real though...Ryou could see and hear all that Bakura could. If Bakura knew that I was doing this to shake up Ryou then it wouldn't work. She came to me and played out a classic form of seduction that I found lacking in luster. But then, in my mind I was mainly thinking of Malik in her place and the things he would have done to tease me so perhaps I'm not being completely fair...I don't know.
Then the highlighting moment.... Bakura walked in on us. The look on his face...the betrayal...the hurt...it pained me really...to know that I, one of the few people on this Ra forsaken world he trusted, had hurt him.
But what was done was done and couldn't be changed. My plan failed really. It had rattled Ryou, it had to of, but it didn't drop his guard. The Ring had simply decided to force Ryou out as it was rejecting having him in their for so long. The Sennen Items all fed off of Shadow magic...something only us Yami's can channel as our Hikari's powers lay more or less in the light then the dark.
I closed my eyes painfully, feeling a few tears fighting themselves forward.
~Cause you, you're walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, you don't see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
~Walking on the edge
Baby your
Walking on the edge~
So many memories...so many follies embedded there. So many things I wouldn't change because they brought me here, to my Aibou...but so many actions of my life here I would change...if only to make things more lucid. But then again, life wasn't made to be simple. It never has been. Why though did Bakura and Ryou's have to be more difficult? Why did their lives fall into the path of painful love?
They love each other...I know they do...if only the could see it though. Why do things have to be so complicated? I don't know the answer to that really...some things I guess have to be that way...other wise life wouldn't really be worth living, would it? I sighed and ran a hand across Ryou's face and looked out the window.
The sun was rising; the start of a new day and new problems perhaps would arise with it. I didn't bother to rise from my perch next to Ryou's bed. I could feel that Bakura had left the house thus Ryou...probably to try and clear his head...his feelings...to sort them out I suppose. The only emotion Bakura has ever been comfortable expressing around others he's not deeply emotionally with is anger...he even has trouble showing other kinds of emotions to me back.... back then.... back when he and I were together.
That was a long time ago.... and though I'd love to leave here and hunt him down, drag him back here and lock him in here with Ryou to make them talk.... their being alone together last time didn't work well and besides.... Bakura would have wanted me to watch of Ryou why he wasn't here...make sure that he was safe though I doubt any one would attack him...
I stood up abruptly and quietly brought the chair from Ryou's desk next to the bed. Straddling the chair backwards I rested my head on my arms and watched each breath the silver-haired Hikari toke. I'd watch over him until Bakura returned.... and he would...
Right?
~You, your walkin' on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, you don't see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
~Walking on the edge
Baby your
Walking on the edge~
~You, your walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain~
A.n.-And we stop there^_^What didja all think? I hope ya'all liked it:)I know...not much Bakura/Ryou stuff, but I kinda felt that Ishtal needed to have his story told....to maybe clear up a few lingering questions in your mind that is....Two more chappies left after this......Review, onegai!^_^Your reviews motivate me y'know^_^. I hope this chappie wasn't too dull for ya also....
And WOW! 116 REVIEWS??!?!?!??! Lol, ty all of you^_^when I first wrote this fic I never thought it would go this far...arigatou all of you!!:)I hope ya'all like this chapter as much as the ones before it!^_^_^_^
The clock is ticking down...two chapters left...*dun-dun-dun*^_~
Disclaimer-I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or this song "Walking On The Edge" by Scorpions
Dedication-AnimeQueen, BlackFire, Todokanunegai, Tohru, Renee The Rabid Squirrel, Moshi, Kako, Spirt Guardian, Sincere Angel, Jaguarkitty2006, Draggy, KaTyA, Miya-Miya, G.O.C, --NC--, Angel-Belle, Fire .Master .Skye, Crystaldraygon98, No Name, Alexk9, Asian Angel 12, StarKitty, and Vampire Huntress D. Arigatou Minna!!!^_^_^Your reviews really really meant a lot to me!!^_^_^_^_^_^
~Welcome to a trip
Into my hurt feelings
To the center of my soul
You better bring light
To find the house of meanings~
~In the labyrinth of yes or no
For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll lose the game like this~
I walked silently down the hallways of Ryou and Bakura's home. The feel of Shadow magic and the echoes of a past engraved forever in time riveted through the very air. Stifling out nearly every other sense.
I felt helpless, more or less. I won't deny that a majority of this mess belongs to me. Mess.... funny way to describe this I suppose.
Bakura has changed so much though, and yet to little from the way he was back...back in Ancient Egypt. Oh sure, he's still the same cutthroat, get-in-my-way-and-I'll-kill you sort of person. Sure he's still has that wicked sense of humor and is as dark as night where it counts. He wasn't an angel back then, he sure as hell isn't one now.... but there's a difference from then and now.
There was always this...un-satiable hunger in Bakura. This...drive behind everything he did. He desired power then, he loved messin' with anyone who thought they were high 'n mighty. Such as the Pharaoh for one. Why do you think he robbed all those tombs with me? It wasn't just the money or fame; it was the high of it all. Avoiding death at every turn, escaping the shackles of slavery that had bound us both once upon a time.
But even that isn't the entire story. He was always looking for something. Searching for something that even he didn't know about. Looking back I suppose I was searching for the same thing he was. What was it you ask? Our other halves. The same thing everyone wants really. Deep down there's not a single person in this world or any other that doesn't search for the other half of their soul.
Its engrained deep within, it's screaming inside of you for the blending bliss only your other can give. When he and I found the Sennen Ring and Rod we didn't know what exactly the Shadow Powers inside of the Items would do. Didn't know where it would lead us. Didn't give a damn really. That insatiable hunger in us drove us to use the Powers for our own strife. And in the end we were sealed inside the Items of Power that had drove us to such madness.
Ironic that.
The very thing that had brought us power unimaginable to most was our demise.
How poetic an end I suppose.
It doesn't really matter anymore though. Time has passed, staying for none. And I'm here, and everything--and I mean everything--has changed. That aching incompleteness has been filled.... filled so blissfully that everything else can go to hell and truthfully I won't give a damn. Selfish a thought perhaps that is, but ever so true.
I sighed, suddenly feeling as old as the years that had passed while I was locked in that infernal Rod weighing heavily over me. I stopped abruptly in front of Ryou's room. I ran my fingers lightly over the cold doorknob. Bakura didn't allow anyone to enter this room after Ryou sealed himself. No one was to enter it and the second anyone even stopped next to it he or she usually had a sharp object thrown at them.
When he'd been with Anzu he hadn't even allowed her to come near the room. Had put new locks on it that even I'd have trouble getting past all to keep her and everyone else out. I knew even then the truth. That he loved his Hikari more then anything and was angry, confused, depressed, and even...hurt by Ryou's leavening.
Funny that. No one would have ever believed anything could hurt Bakura. It's almost hard for me to believe, but then again the only reason I see how deep it runs is because I know exactly where it stems from. From a deeply buried secret from so long ago...so very long ago...from when Bakura and I first really meet up truly.
I meet up with him when I was around twelve years (he was the same) I was receiving one of more numerous punishments from one of the more hentai guards. My body had felt like it was on fire, every patch of skin screamed with an agony beyond mortal comprehension. I wanted to die; the revelation was a familiar one though. Ra hadn't been fond of me much back then anyway though, some how someway I always ended up living.
I was a slave; my mother had died when I was around three years of age. My father had hated me from the second I had appeared into this world. Angry about having yet another mouth to fed. He drank now and then, when he could get his hands on some form of liquor that is. In my early years I had learned to stay away from my father as often as possible--or risk a wrath worse then angry Imperial Guards.
I was a slave; I meant little or nothing to anyone in the world but one person. My mother. My loving, beautiful lavender-eyed mother. She'd been so very beautiful. Despite the harsh hours in the sun, the gruesome work and beatings when she defied anyone to save me from my blunders she was so lovely.
Her hair had been a deep golden blonde; none could best her beauty. No Empress no royalty in all of Egypt could match her loveliness in my eyes. She had comforted me when bad dreams and over come me, had held me close when I'd cried from when other children had teased me. She had never called me weak or pathetic or a dog or a bastard. She loved me more then anything. Other children my age and above always said that the man who called himself--reluctantly--was not my real father. I hadn't believed them, but looking back I know now it was true. I look nothing like that beast that called himself my father. And I'm Ra thankful for it.
As much as I loved my mother she too left me, left my like most did in a harsh world where you had to fight to survive in a life that wasn't really worth it. Her memory got me through most starving, pain filled nights. Her soft voice sung me a lullaby in my mind when I couldn't sleep. I loved her and I hated her for leaving me all alone.
On the anniversary of her death my father had drunk more then usual the night before and I had made the mistake of accidentally burning our dinner. I'll never forget that night. The way his eyes had been so wild and infuriated with a bitter tangible hatred. The feeling of his hands over my body as they inflicted pain unimaginable.
I loathed him. Loathed him more then anything, and deep down that hatred still burns a bright inextinguishable fire for what he did for me. He made me so weak that night. It was because of him that I was barely able to do any of the work they were having us doing. His fault that I was given thirty lashes and nearly rapped by one of the more hentai guards.
But then, if I hadn't I would have never meet Bakura. Would have never been saved from the hellish pit by him. Maybe it was fate, but it still hurt like hell...but in the end...I believe it was worth it if it lead me here.
~In the labyrinth of yes or no
For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll lose the game like this~
~Cause you, you're walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, don't you see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
The guard had just finished beating me with that five-tailed whip. My mind was scattered, numbed with pain and a deep well of hatred toward Gods that had damned me to this hell. Salty tears were running down my face, that sultry taste of my own blood was on my tongue. My breathing was coming in harsh burning gasps, silently I prayed for an end to it all.
Then he'd been there. I'd seen him standing in the shadows a look of complete fury washing over his face. His silver hair hung limply yet at the same time so prideful. Even with my disoriented vision I could see his cutthroat brown eyes that were narrowed in a cold calculation that had frozen my young blood. In his hand was clinched a small knife, and I noticed the red crisscrossed wounds of his chest. Wounds that could only be given from the whip that had been beating the tar out of me.
Blood was running in sticky rivers over my skin, blinding blows of pulsating pain still filled me...but I couldn't tear my eyes from him. His skin was like white silk, nearly the color his silver hair. I'd never seen anyone that looked like him before. Before I could blink he threw that had been clinched in his hand at me.
I remember how time seemed to slow as the blade flew towards me, fear tingled through me but also a spark of relief that perhaps I'd see my mother again in the after life. The knife made a deadly arc past me and I heard a surprised gasp before something heavy fell into the sand near me. A quick glance showed it to be the guard that had been torturing me in numerous ways for several hours--or maybe even days 'cause that's what it felt like.
I'd looked up to see him still standing there, eyeing me for a moment before walking over to me. I couldn't bring myself to speak, though my mind screamed countless questions. He said nothing either though. Simply picked me up gently, if not somewhat wobbly, and carried me out of there through several secret passageways. He set me down suddenly in a darkened corridor, his quick brown eyes darting about before settling once more on me.
He eyed me critically and I found myself shifting uncomfortably and forced to hide my pain as the movement jarred my wounds. I remember him asking my name in a voice that I felt compelled to answer back promptly. He'd nodded slowly and said my name once or twice.
{"Ishtal...Ishtal..."}
My name had rolled off his tongue slowly. The soft, halting way he said it caught my attention like no other. It was the first time in a very, very long time anyone had said my name like that. So devoided of hate and mocking intensity. Curiosity, innocence even had played in his tone. He'd told me his name quickly, the defensive way he said it caught my attention also. Bakura.... it seemed to fit him some how...just so...*him*. Everything about him seemed so new and amazing to me, like I had seen him before but couldn't recall.
That's when everything began. The wheels of destiny set themselves firmly in motion that very night.
Bakura had plans he wanted me in on. He wanted to escape. Live on his own and make his own way. Wanted freedom from the low title of *slave*. The simple idea both frightened and intrigued me. The possibility of freedom tugged an irrevocable cord within me. My mouth watered for the freedoms I knew would be presented.
The idea to rob the tombs of the Pharaohs that had ordained our enslavement and those before us came early on. We knew it would take bravery to defy the curses and skill to transpire all the traps that would be laid. We swore to be the best Tomb Robbers in all of Egypt. We began slowly. Using caves as our training ground whenever we could slip away without the Guards noticing our leave.
Bakura taught me all kinds of things. He had more knowledge of fighting then I, skills he passed on to me enough to defend myself against my father. One night in one of his drunken rages he'd come at me with a dagger, screaming that it was long past time that I got what I deserved. I'd punched him in the jaw and kicked him in the belly sending his strong frame of balance to the floor at an awkward angle.
He didn't move and when I'd checked on him I'd found the knife embedded in his chest. I felt little remorse for his death; he had hated me with a passion from the minute I was born. My mother had protected me as long as she could before *he* killed her. I knew he had, I wasn't a fool. She was avenged now though.
Not long after that I found the Guards had caught on to our constant disappearances. Apparently the other children that hadn't liked us one bit had told them of exploits. They'd found us. They'd attacked. And despite all our rigorous training we lost miserably. We were twelve years of age boys; they were four burly men in their late twenties. Lady Fate was not in our favor.
They'd beat us until we could barely move. That night was my final farewell to what little innocence I still had...I can still remember their slimy hands all over my body, there guttural sounds...and...
Ra, no....I.... I don't even want to *think* about that...I...I don't even wish to remember that moment...
I shook my head slightly and entered Ryou's bedroom, my breathing becoming shaky and my eyes clouding with tears at the remembrance. I shut the door behind me and stole a glance at the large mirror in Ryou's room. My shoulder-length wild blonde hair fell lightly around my slightly feminine features. My narrowed, tear-stricken lavender eyes were firm and jaded in appearance. My full lips were set in a familiar frown that seemed to darken my features often any more.
~Welcome to a trip
Into my emotions
To language of my heart
Your sailing on a river
That becomes an ocean
Which you can only cross with love~
~For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll the lose the game like this~
Before my very eyes that image seemed to falter to be replaced with a boy with longer shaggy blonde hair, wider more innocent eyes and more open features; dressed simply in a torn repeatedly patched shirt and pants with no shoes and a muddy face and hair.... I shook my head, feeling tears trying to squeeze their way out.
I swallowed the cry that rose in my throat and walked over to Bakura's Hikari. The very thing he was searching for back then. It had taken five thousand long years but here was the being he had wanted more then anything. The silver-haired Hikari was so very beautiful. His skin was like white silk, his silver hair was a few shades lighter then my old friend but just as softly beautiful.
His features were gentle and caring in appearance. The inner beauty of his soul shining bright and harsh through out his features. He was so innocent, so very innocent. But even the most pure have a line. A bright vibrant nearly invisible line that is the threshold of their patience. There's beyond any others.
Any other being would have fought back against Bakura in the beginning. When he had first received the Ring and the cruel treatment had begun any other would have fought back heedless of any damage the force behind their torment would receive. But not a Hikari, not one of the purest of the pure. Not the other half of a Yami's very soul.
Ryou loved Bakura and vice versa.
It was a selfless, harsh, undying, perfect, love that pounds into one deeper then the deepest abyss. It has no end, as it has no beginning. They've waited aching for the other for longer then one can imagine. How do I know? I've felt the same heart-throbbing emotion for my own Hikari.
Love and can pulsate into fear, that's what I first felt when the complete merge my soul with my Hikari's filled me. But then I saw what had been done to him...saw the scares on his back from his own *father*. Saw the history of the Pharaoh itched into his flesh mercilessly. And I hated him. I hated the Pharaoh with a vengeance born from so very long ago.
When I saw his father my heart leaped into my throat. Before me was the face of my own reincarnated father. I'd killed him again, laughed manically as his blood had ran in rivers from my blade. He had hurt me long ago, and now he had returned to harm my own Aibou. Unforgivable. A blasphemy of the highest accord.
When my Hikari saw what I'd done I thought he'd be happy...but he wasn't...he cried, cried rivers and swore vengeance against the Pharaoh who ordained it. I'd helped him; I'd have followed him to the ends of the Underworld to simply be there with him. Ironic that the suppose will of the Pharaoh who's will had ordained my Hikari's father die was Yugioh. The Pharaoh from Ancient Egypt, the King of Shadow Games. The one whom Bakura and I had hated with a passion of the deepest fire. The one who had imprisoned us within the Sennen Rod and Ring.
~Cause you, you're walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, you don't see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
~For you, life is just like chess
If you don't make a move
You'll lose the game like this~
Revenge can be such a trivial thing though. It rarely leads to happiness, true happiness. Often only a sultry bitterness. I'm not saying that Malik's father didn't get what he deserved. For harming my Aibou he got only a taste of the fate he should have had for *daring* to touch MY Hikari.
They mess with him they mess with me...you don't touch what belongs to me and me alone and expect to walk away unscathed--or walk away at all.
I returned my gaze to Ryou. A fallen angel just like my own Aibou. His inner light rivals any ones, his innocence rivals all. Even Yugioh's Hikari. Each of our Hikari's as the innocence of a child with the maturity of one of advanced years. A child yet not a child are they.
I sighed slightly and sat down on Ryou's bed next to him, giving in and brushing a stray strand of silver hair out of his eyes. Soft.... like the smoothest of silks. Like Bakura's in a way. I tilted my head slightly. They were so alike but so different at the same time. Bakura could be harsh as a sand storm, but he had a soft side deep down. A side once touched you linger for an eternity and longer still.
I love him, in my own way. Though not in the depth that I love my own Hikari, and maybe in his own way he loves me though not in that way anymore. His love his reserved for he one he believes hates him. Oh yes, I had heard their argument. Heard every word, it was hard not to with their yelling.
I must say I was surprised to hear Ryou yell in anger. But everyone has that point of rage. Perhaps when he awakens I can find Bakura and lock them into a room together until they both admit just how much they love each other. I doubt that would work really though. Bakura can be rather stubborn at times. What am I saying? Once he gets all tight-lipped you can't get him to open up no matter what.
Well, at least I can't...Ryou.... maybe he can. I don't know. It's hard to see things clearly anymore. Hard to make sense of everything and anything. I had tried to help them...I did...I saw what was happening when Bakura began courting Anzu. Saw the subtle darkening in Ryou's eyes though he tried so very hard to hide it.
I saw the pain that riveted through his gaze every time Anzu was with Bakura. And I did nothing...I stood by believing I shouldn't interfere that Bakura would see what was happening and then he'd leave Anzu and be with Ryou.... the one he truly loved, even though he had tried to hide it at first with a vibrant anger and hatred. I saw then that he loved him, and when he was with Anzu I saw it as well.
I waited too long to try and interfere again and Ryou.... Ryou did the one thing I thought impossible...Sealed himself inside of the Sennen Ring...so many months lost...such a long time that Bakura sat broken, numbly responding to Anzu's overtures. Ryou's leaving hurt him more then anyone could have done.... anyone.
Had it been anyone else Bakura could have gotten over it eventually, with time. But not Ryou...Never him...
When Anzu came to me one night while Malik was out with her "seduction"...I saw an opportunity. A blinding chance to end the sheared for what it was. To crack down the illusion with enough shock that perhaps Ryou would be in such shock he'd drop his guard enough for Bakura to enter it.
To do so it would have to be real though...Ryou could see and hear all that Bakura could. If Bakura knew that I was doing this to shake up Ryou then it wouldn't work. She came to me and played out a classic form of seduction that I found lacking in luster. But then, in my mind I was mainly thinking of Malik in her place and the things he would have done to tease me so perhaps I'm not being completely fair...I don't know.
Then the highlighting moment.... Bakura walked in on us. The look on his face...the betrayal...the hurt...it pained me really...to know that I, one of the few people on this Ra forsaken world he trusted, had hurt him.
But what was done was done and couldn't be changed. My plan failed really. It had rattled Ryou, it had to of, but it didn't drop his guard. The Ring had simply decided to force Ryou out as it was rejecting having him in their for so long. The Sennen Items all fed off of Shadow magic...something only us Yami's can channel as our Hikari's powers lay more or less in the light then the dark.
I closed my eyes painfully, feeling a few tears fighting themselves forward.
~Cause you, you're walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, you don't see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
~Walking on the edge
Baby your
Walking on the edge~
So many memories...so many follies embedded there. So many things I wouldn't change because they brought me here, to my Aibou...but so many actions of my life here I would change...if only to make things more lucid. But then again, life wasn't made to be simple. It never has been. Why though did Bakura and Ryou's have to be more difficult? Why did their lives fall into the path of painful love?
They love each other...I know they do...if only the could see it though. Why do things have to be so complicated? I don't know the answer to that really...some things I guess have to be that way...other wise life wouldn't really be worth living, would it? I sighed and ran a hand across Ryou's face and looked out the window.
The sun was rising; the start of a new day and new problems perhaps would arise with it. I didn't bother to rise from my perch next to Ryou's bed. I could feel that Bakura had left the house thus Ryou...probably to try and clear his head...his feelings...to sort them out I suppose. The only emotion Bakura has ever been comfortable expressing around others he's not deeply emotionally with is anger...he even has trouble showing other kinds of emotions to me back.... back then.... back when he and I were together.
That was a long time ago.... and though I'd love to leave here and hunt him down, drag him back here and lock him in here with Ryou to make them talk.... their being alone together last time didn't work well and besides.... Bakura would have wanted me to watch of Ryou why he wasn't here...make sure that he was safe though I doubt any one would attack him...
I stood up abruptly and quietly brought the chair from Ryou's desk next to the bed. Straddling the chair backwards I rested my head on my arms and watched each breath the silver-haired Hikari toke. I'd watch over him until Bakura returned.... and he would...
Right?
~You, your walkin' on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain
You, you don't see the bridge
I've built for you, its just one step to start again~
~Walking on the edge
Baby your
Walking on the edge~
~You, your walking on the edge
You, you chose the way of love and pain~
A.n.-And we stop there^_^What didja all think? I hope ya'all liked it:)I know...not much Bakura/Ryou stuff, but I kinda felt that Ishtal needed to have his story told....to maybe clear up a few lingering questions in your mind that is....Two more chappies left after this......Review, onegai!^_^Your reviews motivate me y'know^_^. I hope this chappie wasn't too dull for ya also....