More Nosgoth related stuff to follow before the setting changes again. I'm trying my damnedest to make this all flow and understandable for everyone not familiar with the Legacy of Kain. Not sure how I'm doing o@

Yu-Gi-Oh! characters and everything related is (c) Kazuki Takahashi
Legacy of Kain characters and everything related is (c) Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights.




"Bakura!" Sarah gasped as she finally moved to the fallen spirit. She kneeled and felt his shallow breath on her hand but still checked for a pulse regardless. "Oh, wake up please," she said softly as she brushed hair from his face. "We can't stay here, he's probably sent vampires after us by now." With a grunt the woman moved his still frame off the pillar. She looped her arms under his and began the slow process of dragging him towards the exit. "Getting through the gate will be fun," she muttered. Once through the massive stone doors the figure she dragged began to stir. "Bakura?"

"Wha, where?" The voice was softer, kinder.
"Ryou!" the woman exclaimed as she set him down. "Ryou, are you alright, do you know what happened?" She shuffled around to look at him and placed a hand on his forehead.
"I'm alright. Why are you here? Where is here?" he asked as he looked around.
"Um, long story short Bakura dragged us to another world on a mission which is spiraling out of control and we have to get out of here because someone is very upset with us," the woman answered as she helped the dazed teen to his feet.
"Al-alright. So... where to?" he asked meekly, not knowing what to make of anything.
"I have no idea, but we can't stay here," she sighed.

As the woman lead him out of the Sanctuary, she filled him in on everything that had happened and what Bakura planed to do. She refused to tell Ryou anything she didn't want Bakura knowing, he could easily get it from Ryou if he tried.
"I want to go home now," Ryou whimpered once the two had emerged from the Sanctuary. Before them stood an armored beast, eyes burning a fiery red. It's right hand had been replaced by a club, the other only bore three fingers; feet held two toes apiece. A gaping maw let long fangs glint in the overcast light. The beast hissed and lowered itself into an attack position. It growled and then charged the two, dust was kicked up by it's cloven feet.
"Run! Just run!" Sarah screamed as she shoved Ryou forward. The teen didn't need any further convincing, he was bolting over the dusty landscape in no time flat. The woman faltered and tripped, she cursed her poor reflexes as she grabbed what she had hoped to snag without falling. She got to her feet just in time to miss a stomp from the lumbering vampire. It swung the club hand at her, hitting home on her hip. The woman yelled and rammed the spear head she had claimed into the vampire's open maw. The beast staggered back and tried to remove the bane from his throat. Limping forward, the woman climbed atop a rock and jumped onto the mad vampire. She drove the spear further down his throat, the point eventually coming out the beast's back.
"Die, bastard!" she shrieked as the creature stumbled and fell backwards, taking her with it. She hissed as a claw swipe caught her in the side. She rolled to the side as the vampire howled one last time before growing silent. The woman coughed and gritted her teeth against the pain from her hip and side. She clutched the open wound and cursed loudly at the dead vampire. "Fuck, this hurts," she hissed through clenched teeth.
"Oh! Oh I am so sorry this happened," Ryou cried as he ran back to where the woman sat bleeding.
"I chose to attack it, would have been better to outrun," she said with a thin smile.
"Should we take the spear with us?" Ryou asked as he turned back to the dead vampire.
"Yes, but don't pull it out. We need to cut it's head off first, otherwise the vampire will heal itself and come back to life. I don't think I can stand another attack so soon."
"Worry about that later. How are you?" the teen turned doe eyes back to the woman. "Let me see the wound, I want to know how bad it is."
"Pretty damn bad if there's this much blood," Sarah grunted as she moved her hand and lifted the hem of her shirt slightly. Ryou flinched and looked away momentarily before turning back. Slowly he extended a hand and touched the edge of the wound. The woman recoiled and bit her lip at the action.
"Sorry," Ryou murmured as he touched lightly again. "It's long but not too deep. Just less than an inch, not pretty but you're not in danger of losing your innards. I'm just worried about blood lose..." the teen said softly as he met the woman's eyes.
"I'm worried about other vampires catching scent. We need to move, Ryou. Crush the Dumahim's skull with a rock then grab the spear. We need to head to the Abyss," Sarah pointed a trembling blood-stained finger towards a narrow pass. Ryou nodded and reluctantly hefted a large rock up, he dropped it on the corpse's face and cringed at the sickening snapping and popping the rock caused. For good measure, he picked the rock up and dropped it twice more before pulling the spear out of the mushy remains. "I was worried the rock would break it, I guess it was in just right so it wouldn't be damaged," he mused as he shook gore off the tip. He gasped sharply when he turned to see the woman standing. "Careful! That wound can't take you stressing it!" he exclaimed as he rushed in to support her on her weak side. He handed the spear to her for support on the other.
"Thanks," she grunted. "I'm probably bleeding on you though."
"That's the least of my worries, Sarah. I need you, I can't do anything alone. Not here," the teen replied.
"And I'm that helpful?" she chuckled.
Ryou gave a slight smile in return. "By the way, what is the Abyss?"
"Waterfalls and a whirlpool at the bottom. Safest place to be. I could use the water to clean the wound, I know there's dirt in it."
"The fact a vampire made the wound doesn't mean anything, does it?" he asked softly.
"I'm not going to go fangy on you if that's what you mean. To become a Nosgothic vampire you have to die first, your soul needs to be released and then shoved back into your body by another vampire. As far as I know, only Kain can do this."
"Ah, the one who attacked Bakura?"
"Yeah, him. Speaking of that, why isn't Bakura around now? Not that I'm complaining, did Kain really do that big a number on him?"
"Well my chest is still stinging from whatever hit me there, so yes I assume."
"Can we move a bit faster, please? I don't know how long it takes a vampire to move and I'd like to be near the water so we have another line of defense," the woman prompted.
"But the bleeding will quicken."
"If I draw a vampire we're in no better shape," she grunted as she tried to egg him on.

Peculiar surroundings indeed. It reminded me of the Shadow Realm but somehow it was different. I was near powerless here, I had been successfully cut off from my host and the Ring. How remained a mystery. I couldn't do a thing but wander around aimlessly in the cold, twisted parody of the waking world. I was not alone, creatures lurked this plane and they were intent on claiming me. Sluagh, scavengers of the underworld. They eat lost souls and at this moment, I am a lost soul. Fear is not something that comes easily to me, right now though I am terrified. Should one claim me it's all over. A creature such as this would come in handy, but its feral mind would make it dumb and of no use to me. So this is what I am reduced to, then? Fleeing for my soul from a beast that intends to devour me. It is making those disgusting slurping sounds behind me. Every time I glance over my shoulder I see the bright yellow-green glow of it's eyes. The ugly bastard has no neck, the head is connected directly to his shoulders, it's wide round shape holds a tangled mane of hair. Teeth are forever bared in a vicious snarl. It gimped after me, swinging ape-like arms from side to side with each gallop-like lurch it made. My attention was divided, I almost missed the second one. I was mere inches from running into the cretin when I saw it. The beast made a clumsy lunge at me, I ducked and kicked it's feet out from under it. Two more joined in pursuit, one was larger than the others and lumbered around on all four legs rather than two. Thus it was faster, it's bulk told me it was also stronger. I had no weapon against them and no idea how much power they held, my only choice was to hop atop a rock and glare at them. And glare at them I did.

"Ryou, relax. We aren't going to dive in," the woman reassured the teen. He was peering over the edge of the platform they stood atop, gazing down at the swirling and glowing waters.
"Why does it scream and moan?" he asked as he finally backed up.
"Not exactly sure, it is creepy but the vampires fear it too. We'll be fine out here. If push comes to shove we jump into the water back by the rope bridge. Water's fine, cleaned me up without doing anything so don't worry," the woman grunted as she checked where Ryou had tied his over shirt around her wound.
"Hasn't done anything yet, you mean." He sat next to her and let his gaze drift to the cliffs around them. "I wanted to ask you something..." he began slowly. "The first time we met, you kept playing with Bakura. Why? No one I know would even think of doing that yet you don't seem to mind him."
"I see him as a challenge, don't let him get to me and he has no power over me," she shrugged. "And the two of you are part of one whole, I'm not going to let him chase me away from befriending you."
"Sometimes he talks to me," Ryou said as he leaned back on his elbows to look at the sky. "He said shortly after you went home last time that he suspected you might have... feelings for one of us. Maybe both." The teen refused to look at the woman as he spoke.
"Funny, I never figured you to be the type to ask something like that," she laughed. "He's right though, I won't lie. But, don't make too much of it. You two live in your world and I live in mine. Right now we're stuck in Nosgoth and have better things to worry about. I don't bite and I'm not going to get clingy or anything. Relax," she softened her tone.
"So which--never mind. We aren't going to stay here forever, are we?" he questioned.
"No, let me rest. I'm sore and the bleeding is finally slowing. There's a human settlement we could try and get to, in these cliffs to be exact. But we sure as hell aren't going over them if I can help it."
"Then how, go around...?"
"Kind of, did you see that door that was in the pass we came through?"
"Yeah, I think."
"It's a gate of sorts. A warp gate, providing our destination's gate has been activated we can get to it," the woman paused. "Ryou, we have to go now."
"Why?"
"I'm getting dizzy, if we don't make it before then you might be on your own," she grunted as she tried to get to her feet. The other teen gave her a worried look as he helped her up.
"On my own? Don't talk like that, please," he pleaded.
"Sorry, but I'm not sugar coating it. I'm in pain, have a slice in my side and far from home. Ryou, I'm scared to death, and you know what makes it worse? There is no medical care here like what you and I are used to. Our best hope is little hope at all," she said as she leaned against him.
"Yeah, well at least you're not alone," he gave a weak smile as they slowly made their way to the gate room.

"Oh! Would you smelly beasts just go away already!" Bakura snarled at the sluagh. He wanted to throw a rock at them but found himself unable to grab it. He could get a hold on it, but it was as if it were melded to the cliff. "Once I get out of here I'm finding Raziel and getting home as fast as I can. I'll worry about Kain when I have no other plans," the Spirit muttered. He sighed and decided to scale the cliff he was on, find a means to return to the Material Realm and hunt down Ryou and Sarah. "At least they can't return without me, likewise... I can't return without them..." The Spirit stopped once he reached a higher cliff, before him was another of the strange blue storms like he had seen in the Sanctuary and just outside of it, he had ignored all the others not knowing what they were, but now after finding them elsewhere he began to pay more attention to it.

Bakura circled the localized storm carefully, it was about three feet wide and almost as tall as him. The blue matter that made it up swirled around like a hurricane, never moving from where it sat. Experimentally he put a hand into the mists, he neither felt nothing nor did the storm show any differences. With a frown he stepped into the center of it, it glowed brighter and it's rotation quickened as the strange howl it made became louder and faster. The Spirit furrowed his brow as he blocked out the sluagh noises below, instead he focused solely on the strange phenomenon he was in the middle of. While stripped of his powers he still had the ability to sense other magic, a grin touched his features when he grasped the concept of the storm.
"So, it's not uncommon to be a being that can pass between realms, this is a conduit between the worlds. I may have the means to better find my soul stealer," he chuckled. "I wonder how this works..." The Spirit closed his eyes and poured all his will power into placing himself back into the Material Realm. There was a feeling of vertigo as his surroundings rippled around him, though he couldn't see it he did feel it. The numbness of nothing eventually was replaced by the chill of stale air, the familiar smoky scent of Nosgoth returned and affirmed for him that he was indeed back, exhausted the Spirit flopped to the ground only to find something even more puzzling, he did not feel Ryou's repressed self within him. He picked a hand up and flexed his fingers, all real and all solid. He brought the same hand up to his chest, the absence of the Ring further confused him. "If I didn't return to Ryou... where am I and who am I?" he mumbled as he situated himself into a seated position. "Clothing is the same as what he wore, but this is impossible," he scowled. "This damned land is just full of surprises," he half laughed, half growled. Movement at the bottom of the cliff caught his attention. "Didn't get far, now did we?" he thought aloud as he recognized them. "Oh splendid, someone's wounded," he spat when he took note of the slow movements and close proximity. Still dizzy, but not about to let it stop him, the Spirit of the Ring got to his feet and tried to get their attention.

"That's... impossible," Ryou squinted as he looked up the cliff. "Is my hair that unruly?" he asked the woman.
"No, that changes when he takes over. That's his hair, the face also changes a bit too. Tell him to get his ass down here so we can get to the Citadel," Sarah groaned. Ryou nodded and yelled up to his other half.
"You come up here!" Bakura yelled back.
"Oh for the love of," Sarah said under her breath. "Bakura! Get your pale ass down here and join us. We aren't going to get anywhere if I'm unable to anything," she yelled. The action hurt her more than anything and she hissed before collapsing against Ryou in a fit of whimpers. The taller teen buckled a bit under her weight and slid to the ground feeling it would be better for her to lay down for a bit. "You're going to get carried through that door. I'll make him help, he'll have to if we ever want to get out of here."

The Spirit hissed as he began to make his descent. "I am not owned," he repeated to himself several times.

"You will pay dearly for this, the both of you," Bakura snarled as he helped set Sarah on the rune at the base of the gate. The door to the chamber had been hard to move, it like the Sanctuary doors were ridiculously thick. The woman grunted with the effort it took to sit, she inhaled sharply and her left hand instinctively raced to her wound. She remained that way for a moment, waving off Ryou when he stooped down. She shook her head and looked up at the gate.
"Well?" Bakura prompted in an agitated tone.
"Give me a moment, got to get my mind cleared and on the task at hand," Sarah replied. She sighed and fixated on the rune beneath her, how to activate it she wondered. As if it heard her mental question, it lit up. It's soft green glow was met with a hum and the blue glow from the interior of the arch. Another rune glowed above it.
"Doesn't look to be of much use to--"
"Knock it off already," the woman snapped at the Spirit. "Must you be so critical? I'll get it, now just shut the hell up."
"Aren't we the cranky one."
"Bakura, she was hurt by one of the vampires. She killed it but not before it got her," Ryou said softly.
The woman's face was etched with determination and pain as the gate shimmered and showed an image much like the room they were in, with one difference. The image on the far wall held a different symbol, with a grunt from Sarah it changed to show yet another room identical to theirs save for the symbol. She did this several times until she reached one that looked like a building with a stylized insect of some kind above it. "That's the one," she gasped. "The human city, now hurry," she prompted as the two hefted her up and passed through. Only the slightest feeling of dislocation hit them before they crossed through to the other side. Within moments the gate's image vanished and it returned to a state of inactivity.
"Well I certainly hope this is the right one," Bakura growled.
"Why?" Ryou asked as he sat the woman down.
"She's passed out on us."
"Get help!" Ryou barked. "She needs medical attention!"
"Calm down!" Bakura snapped as he backhanded his other self. "Help me get her out of this room and we can find some."