Reviewers:
*hoards reviews greedily* I love these things. n_n; Thanks for all of them, especially to my repeat reviewers, Kagahime, Marissa, and Sailor Comet. n_n; Heck, thanks just for reading this story. o_o; JudyNFran: They're dead? I thought that was just one of those common fan devices used to give Ryou yet more angst, and I wanted to do something a little different. o_o; Oh well. Like I said, anything I write is probably going to be a little different from cannon, since, well, I'm only familiar with the dub and I only have the first translated volume of the manga, aside from what I've found out online. ._.;;
I'm glad everyone liked Ryou's touché. n_n; And we finally get to see Yami Bakura in this chapter, and Yugi makes a brief appearance as well. There's something I'm not quite sure about, though - the tomb-robber back in ancient Egypt really was named 'Bakura' too, wasn't he, and Ryou's like his decendant and/or reincarnation? Or am I confused? o_o; Either way, I'm going assume both are true for the purposes of this story, but I'd like to know if I'm misguided. @_@
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Ryou surprisingly had no trouble sleeping, despite the fact it was the middle of the day. Depression always had a way of making him tired.
He slept for what felt like ages, memories of the previous day juxtaposed with strange Egyptian imagery, of gleaming pyramids and monumental cities, where the stone was still white and free of cracking and crumbling, of a Sphinx that had a nose and the stylized beard of the pharaohs, of necropolises and tombs and the endless treasures that he knew lay within them, he just had to dig in the right place, corrupt enough of his fellow slaves and builders...
The sound of his alarm awoke him, and he shook his head, blinking blearily. He was plagued with the kind of backwards exhaustion that came only from sleeping too long. He sat up, stretching his shoulders, rolling his neck and feeling the reassuring weight hanging - wait a minute.
Ryou looked down with a faint sense of dread.
Sure enough, there was the ring, hanging around his neck as though it'd been there all night. He blinked. Maybe it had been.
His memory of last night was sketchy, ethereal, and it seemed so off-the-wall that he was starting to dismiss the encounter as a dream. Yes, that would make sense. That would explain why the ring was still around his neck, and not downstairs like it should have been. Besides, rings couldn't talk.
Ryou smiled slightly, relaxing. Just a dream conjured up by his overtaxed mind.
But then... what had defeated the seniors so easily?
Ryou didn't know how to fight. He was painfully non-confrontational. Did that really happen, either? His mind seemed fogged, and he was having trouble separating what was memory and what was a dream.
He tried to put it all out of his mind as he got ready for school. A Friday... Unlike most students, he actually dreaded the weekends. Going to school gave him something to do, made him feel somewhat useful, even if he was just another face in the crowd, another grade point average in the computers.
On top of that, the weekend meant he would be alone with that ring.
Angora weaved around his feet, mewing plaintively. At least she didn't seem as disturbed by him as she had before. If only he could say the same for himself...
Once again, he had been well out of the house when he remembered he was still wearing the ring. He smacked his forehead. It seemed to fit him so well, be so comfortable around his neck, that it was quite easy to forget it was there and all. How could he feel so at ease around something that was driving him mad?
You're not going insane, Ryou informed himself curtly as he tucked the ring beneath his shirt, Stress just makes for vivid nightmares and bad memory. The ring is not haunted, and there are no demons or anything trying to possess you. Really, you've just turned seventeen, you're far too old to be having such wild, childish fantasies.
Setting himself straight, he continued on his way with a slightly clearer head.
And yet, for a brief moment, he thought he heard that faint laughter again...
He glanced over, just in time to spot a short kid being hefted up victoriously by his friends, as though he'd just won the world championship. Ryou knew of Yugi Muuto - it was hard not to, since he had become known throughout the high school for his dueling skills, not to mention his unique hair and diminutive stature.
But it wasn't Yugi's hair that had caught his eye and suddenly captured his attention - it was the flash of gold around the short boy's neck. On a chain hung an inverted, gold pyramid that bore a stylized eye...
The exact same eye that his ring had.
But it was more than that - the recognition of the eye struck a cord deep within his soul. Somehow, he instinctively knew that what Yugi wore was related to his ring. And like the ring, it was far more than a mere piece of metal. Or pieces, rather. It was a puzzle, afterall.
Ryou blinked. How did he know that? It was too far away to tell it was anything but a little pyramid. And didn't he just get done reminding himself that the ring was nothing but a trinket?
But these questions were quiet, muted, forced to the recesses of his mind. Without realizing it, he had stood up, and was now walking towards the crowd forming around Yugi and his friends. What was he doing? He didn't have anything to say to Yugi, who already had plenty of people talking to him. Why did he want to get a closer look at that pyramid - puzzle - whatever it was so badly?
As had happened yesterday, though, his body was no longer his. Control had been swept away from him swiftly and easily as a rug pulled out from beneath his feet, and now he was sprawled out on his mental floor. He started to panic, but he felt as though he had been stuffed into a metaphorical corner, helpless and trapped. Before he knew it, he was standing directly behind Yugi, watching him modestly, shyly accepting all the praise.
However, when the short boy turned around to face Ryou, a spark of inexplicable familiarity passed between them. Familiarity... and contempt. Not from Yugi, though, from something - someone - that lurked behind his eyes.
They were both silent for a moment, and two schoolboys stood in quiet confusion as two far more ancient enemies made eye-contact for the first time in thousands of years.
The taller boy spoke first. "Congratulations," he smiled a smug, somehow threatening smile. The part of Ryou that was trapped in the corner listened in disbelief. That voice...
"U-um..." Yugi faltered for a moment, before he managed to smile sheepishly, "Thanks, uh... sorry, what's your name?"
"You can call me..." the low voice that didn't belong to him almost purred, "...Bakura."
An indiscernible look crossed Yugi's face, like he was listening to himself. Something about Ryou's last name seemed to make him - or was it someone else? - uneasy. But he quickly shook it off, "Well then, thanks, Bakura."
"That's an interesting trinket you have there," Ryou's hand lifted to his chin, and a knuckle was set against it thoughtfully, "Where did you get it?"
"Oh, my puzzle?" Yugi looked down and lifted the small pyramid up, "My grandpa gave it to me. He said it came from ancient Egypt! It took me forever to put together, but I really like it..." the short boy continued on, but Ryou - or rather, the voice - had stopped listening.
"Egypt, you say?" The voice echoed, as though it wasn't already perfectly aware of that, "How intriguing." Ryou's face was smirking at some private humor that not even he was aware of.
"Yeah, weird, huh?" Yugi was still smiling that innocent, naive smile, and part of Ryou felt disgusted. Did the boy have any other facial expressions?
The puzzle was so close, too. He could have touched it. All he had to do was reach out, snatch it, and with a twist of his hand he could quickly choke or break the neck of this minuscule boy with the thick chain, and take the puzzle without a fight before -
Terror gave Ryou's true mind the strength only the desperate have, and he willed his slowly lifting hand back down to his side, pinning his wrist down with his other hand for good measure.
"Ex... excuse me..." he mumbled, backtracking shakily before turning and speeding out of the lunchroom, away from the puzzle, away from Yugi, away from anyone else he, the ring, the voice, whatever it was, could possibly hurt. He could feel all of the odd stares at his back, but he was too scared to care.
However, running was incredibly difficult when someone else was trying to take back control of your lower extremities.
Foolish boy! Haven't you that learned you can't fight me?
The mental battle for each of Ryou's legs resulted in neither of them working properly, and he soon tumbled onto the hard, cold floor of the empty hall. He winced, but he managed to scramble to his feet, yanking the ring out from beneath his shirt and clutching it with white knuckles.
"What are you?!" He demanded of it with a voice that threatened to break into a shriek, the pendulums jingling furiously as his hands shook. Ryou tried to catch his breath, staring down at the ring with wide, almost frantic eyes, looking for some sort of answer in the metal. His breath was robbed from him entirely as he finally noticed something in the polished surface.
His reflection stared up at him. That wasn't unusual, except -
His reflection was sneering at him.
Cold terror shot down Ryou's spine. Eyes which should have been brown were nearly red. Hair that should've been soft and layered was wild and pointed.
You haven't figured it out yet, have you?
The reflection's lips curled back to reveal glistening fangs.
I am you.
Ryou took in the sight with disbelief, "N-no, it was just a dream, this is just a nightmare!"
It wasn't a dream, child. Just look behind you if you want the proof.
Ryou almost didn't dare to do anything this ring said, but his body was being turned around for him before he could react. And there, looming over him, was... him.
It was him right down to his current uniform, but all of the soft, harmless lines that made up Ryou's person became hard and sharp. In every way that Ryou looked innocent and harmless, this figure looked sinister and deadly. He was even taller, somehow, and he stared down at Ryou with a wicked grin.
"Speechless, are you?" the dark version of Ryou tilted his head, amused. Ryou stumbled as he tried to back away, looking around desperately for someone to help him. A teacher was coming down the hall in the opposite direction. He started towards her, about to call out her name, when cold, dead hands clamped down over his mouth and shoulder.
Ryou made a muffled sound and struggled, but one of his flailing arms passed through where the spirit's chest should have been - and felt only frozen air.
The teacher walked by him, offering only a slight, friendly smile to Ryou as she passed.
"No one's going to help you, weakling," the spirit hissed in his ear, "Afterall... you're the only one that can see me."
Horrified and confused, Ryou managed to spin around to face the spirit. Now he noticed that his tormentor was definitely translucent, almost dream-like. But those hands sure felt real enough...
"It's all in your head, my little vessel." The spirit of the ring responded to Ryou's thoughts, "I can manipulate your every sense. You can see, feel, and hear anything I please, because you're nothing but a useless, incomplete body." The spirit took a step forward, calmly folding his arms. "And you're mine."
Ryou couldn't bite back the soft whimper of fear that rose from his throat. He wanted nothing more than to run back home and throw himself into bed, and hope that maybe, somehow, that would wake him up, and end this nightmare. The spirit just smirked and strode forward, until he actually stepped into Ryou's body with a cold wash of air.
This nightmare is only beginning, boy...