Ying-Yang: *blinks* What for?
WSJ: *winces* Because I'll be in hiding. I swear, you guys are all going to be out for my blood when this chapter's done. All I can say is, trust me! Please! Trust me like you did when I killed off Kaiba in VotH, when Bakura was beat up in ASN, okay? Please? I really don't feel like writing underground because I have a mass of screaming fans after me. ^^;
Ryou: *sweatdrops* Okay, that cinches it, I'm out'a here! After all I've been through in this blasted trilogy, I don't trust you SJ!
Bakura: *grabs him by the back of the collar to keep him from running* Hold up aibou! If I have to go through this, you have to go through this...
Ryou: *pouts*
WSJ: *chuckles and hands Ryou a script* Actually, if anything, I'd think Bakura'd be the one running...
Jonathon: *storms in* WSJ!!!!!!!!!
WSJ: Eep! That's my cue to leave!!! *runs out the door with Jonathon chasing her, waving around a katana he got from Wufei*
Bakura: Um... WSJ doesn't own YGO. As if you hadn't figured that out by now...
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Sacrifice of Shadows
Chapter 9 -- Sacrifice of Shadows
Bakura kneeled next to his brother, tears of both anger and sorrow marking their paths down his face. "Briar-Rose..." he growled. "And Firas. I will avenge Jonathon, and Ryou too." He obviously had yet to notice his aibou standing over Briar-Rose's twitching form on the floor, standing silent witness to Bakura's greif.
Firas chuckled as he moved to whack Bakura across the back of the head with his staff. This was almost too easy. What the Dark Magician wasn't expecting, however, was for Bakura to catch the shaft as it flew toward him, twisting it out of Firas's hands and breaking it neatly into two over his knee. The electric magic in it pulsed once and then died.
The Dark Magician visibly flinched as Bakura rose and turned to face him, his face dark. Firas was also rather gratified to notice that Bakura was at least two or three inches taller then him.
And the Dark Magician saw pain in Bakura's eyes. Pain, and sorrow, and anger... And tears. And Firas felt something he never had before, and he never would again.
Firas, Elder of the Shadow Realm, one of the elite Council of Five, was scared.
He knew that Bakura would kill him.
Standing silent over the trembling Demon Monster, Bakura drew the Change of Heart from his deck. He released her, and she obeyed his unspoken command by disappearing into the Red Eyes Black Dragon. Joey stood quietly with Serenity, the demon monsters having fallen back when Ryou entered the room. He allowed the Change of Heart to take his Red Eyes, because he knew that this was something Bakura had to do himself.
"Red Eyes," Bakura commanded emotionlessly.
The Dragon responded with a roar, releasing his Molten Fireball Attack. Firas was gone without even a final scream.
With an almost inhuman yell, Briar-Rose was suddenly on her feet again, pushing past Ryou to stand in front of Bakura. "How dare you!" she yelled, a hysterical edge to her voice. "You filthy, Ra-forsaken tomb robber!" Somehow, dispite all the times Yami had called him that, Briar-Rose said it more insultingly. She still had her pistol in her hand, and was clenching it tightly.
Bakura opened his mouth to offer a retort, or to order the Red Eyes to attack, but he paused. If he destroyed Briar-Rose and they escaped, yes, they would be safe. But the Locking Rituals still wouldn't be done. Who knew who would be the next target. Yugi? Malik? Tea? Or worse, would the Shadow Realm, its edges unbound as they were, spill over into the Real World? Something had to be done. Bakura knew he had to be the one to do it.
He just wished that Ryou would understand, because he knew that his hikari wouldn't.
"A pure heart is something I do not have Briar-Rose," he said quietly. "You are right, I am a tomb robber. I am also a murderer, a cheater, a chronic lier, and many other things I would not mention in my aibou's presence." He had by now spotted Ryou out of the corner of his eye, the telepath's expression one of puzzlement. Joey and Serenity looked much the same way, and Bakura was not in a possition to see Pegasus.
"But you want to know something Briar-Rose? One day, I met a little boy, who showed me how wrong I was. He showed me that I was no better then a desert scorpian. And that realization scared me so much, that I tried to rid myself of him. I beat him to the point of death, many times. But when someone else tried to take him from me, I finally saw how much he meant to me."
Bakura felt a tear slide down his cheek, and saw that Ryou was blinking back tears of his own. Bakura smiled bitterly and continued. "He is light, he is hikari. He is the very purest of pures. And I will not have him hurt anymore. The Locking Rituals must be done. I say, so be it," he ignored the Wheelers' gasps of horror, thinking he meant Serenity. "I say again Briar-Rose, a pure heart I have not, but maybe, in this, I can atone for past wrongs."
Slowly, he spread his arms, and Ryou let out a cry when he realized, too late, what his other was doing. "Bakura!"
The ex-spirit looked over his shoulder, his eyes half-lidded, as Briar-Rose raised the gun at him. "Kimi no koto wa itsudemo mamoru, aibou*."
Then the gun fired, almost drowned out by Ryou's scream, and he was gone.
Briar-Rose crowed triumphantly as Bakura fell first to his knees, and then back onto the ground, his eyes wide, even in death, a bloody bullet wound evident over his mortal heart, now unbeating.
She heard a gentle sob behind her, and her smirk widened as she turned to face Ryou, whose aura was brighter then ever in his grief-strikenness. His eyes seemed even more blank then usual, and depression rolled off of him in waves. Even his usually-white glow looked a little shadowed into grey.
The preistess opened her mouth to say something, when Ryou cut her off, his face in shadow, and expressionless. "Quiet. I want none of your slick talk Briar-Rose. I'll kill you before you get the chance."
Muscle and sorrow braced against iron, and iron gave way, the shackles clattering to the stone floor.
Briar-Rose gasped. "B-but that's impossible!"
Ryou was glowing brightly now, and a sickly green mist hovered around the Millenium Ring, the curse in its visible form. Suddenly, in a burst of green and silver shards of light, the mist was thrown aside, allowing the pure golden light of the Ring to shine down on the now-terrified Briar-Rose.
"Briar-Rose," Ryou intoned, his voice emotionless, hollow, and dead-sounding, his face impassive. "Lady Fate has givin me jurisdiction over you. You are charged and guilty with murder, villianry and many other crimes I would not speak of in front of innocents. You are Fated," the capital letter was almost audible. "To be punished. And so I shall."
He held out a hand, palm toward the preistess. Briar-Rose tried to back up, and found she couldn't move. To the horror of the Wheelers and Pegasus, she began to implode in on herself, her eyes bulging and her mouth open in a silent scream.
Serenity stifled a scream of her own and hid her face in Joey's jacket. Even Joey himself had to look the other way at the rather grizzly sight.
A moment later all was silent. The demon monsters were gone. Briar-Rose was no where to be found, save the smoking, slightly crushed pistol that lay where she'd last stood. Ryou was on the ground, the glow around him all but gone. He was kneeling between Bakura and Jonathon, weeping quietly.
Slowly Joey and Serenity pulled away from each other. They looked at Pegasus, and then at Ryou. After a moment Joey stepped forward to crouch beside the white-haired telepath, who was all but laying across Bakura's chest, weeping into his shirt.
"Come on Ryou," Joey said softly. "Let's go home. We can't do anything more here. Briar-Rose is gone, so the curse must be too. Tea an' Tristan an' Isis will be worried about us."
Ryou sat up slowly, silent, but he nodded. He brushed his hair away from his face, and found it sticky with Bakura's blood. Joey stood up, and Serenity moved to his side, taking her big brother's hand in hers. Pegasus watched quietly, knowing this wasn't his place to intrude. Together they waited for Ryou to say his good-byes.
Still Ryou was silent, save for his quiet sobs, tears falling from his chocolate eyes. He ran his hand over Bakura's face, gently closing his partner's eyes. He sat still for a moment, then pulled the Ring over his head. Ryou ignored the gasps of the other three occupants of the room, and gently lifted Bakura's head, slipping the chain of the Ring around his neck. The Ring itself rested against his chest, covering the bloody bullet wound.
"You always did want it for your own," Ryou whispered to the man who had become a brother to him. "But you never figured out that it was yours all along."
The Wheelers stood quietly as the Shadow Realm dissolved around them, leaving Bakura, Jonathon, Pegasus, and the Ring behind in silent memorial. The next instant the three awoke in their own bodies, in their beds in Ryou's house. Morning sunlight was streaming through the windows, and the sounds of people moving around downstairs could be heard.
Ryou rolled over in his father's bed and encountered Bakura's still form, no longer breathing and quickly cooling.
Quietly, Ryou again began to weep.
~()~
*Kimi no koto wa itsudemo mamoru, aibou = I will always protect you, aibou.
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WSJ: *is long-gone*
Ying-Yang: *sweatdrop* Well all righty then... Reviews plaese, but no flames! Just trust Itsuji [boss] for once!
Chapter 10: Awakenings, meetings, and greivings.
God bless minna-san!