Fate: Still with us? Hurrah!
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[9] In Which Shadi Nearly Gains A Sex Toy
I don't understand...
Bakura was sprawled on his back, exhausted from his mental and physical breakdown. I don't understand anything anymore. I used to be so certain that if I didn't know what was going on, I could hate it, but now I can't hate...I can't think...I can't do anything anymore. It's all just so wrong, and I'm the one who made it that way.
Ryou couldn't have done it. It had to be me. Had to be. I said I'd kill the person who did this to me – to Ryou – but what am I supposed to do? I didn't even know what I was doing. I still don't know. It's like swearing I'll kill the first person to touch Ryou but then it's me...
He's mine...he's always been mine...but what do I do when I want even more? I don't want a mockery of him, I don't want what he'd be if we were one person all the time, I want the other half of myself. I want...
He was distracted from these thoughts of self-loathing by the sound of sandals on the floor.
Bakura promptly rolled over, sat up, and scooted back a few feet, arranging a disdainful sneer on his face as he did so.
He stopped mid-scramble as he got a good look at the person standing there.
Shadi.
Holding up the Millennium Scales.
Oh shit!
Bakura promptly did what any tomb robber who wanted to live beyond the next five minutes would do. He looked around for the nearest exit. Finding none, he dove for cover under the desk and snatched up his deck, flicking through the cards with the speed borne of fear for one's life.
Clink.
The Scales had been set down in front of him. Bakura's eyes widened as he put the card he wanted between his teeth, shoved away the deck, and yanked out his knife, pressing back against the wall. Seshat, lady, don't kill me, Ma'at, don't kill me, Ma'at, don't kill me, Seshat, you like me, don't you? Set, do you like me? Ma'at, don't kill me... He took the card in his right hand and brandished the knife with his left as Shadi knelt down in front of him.
"If you don't want Doma the Angel of Silence nicking off your head, you'll back up and take those Scales with you!" Bakura snarled.
Shadi merely raised his eyebrows and picked up the Millennium Ankh from around his neck instead.
Bakura barely had time to think Oh shit! again before there was a resounding click and he lost contact with the outside world.
[-]
Yami was pacing in front of the door to the stairs wordlessly. Three pairs of eyes were on him as he did so.
He finally looked up. "Will you stop that staring?!"
"Sorry, man," Jounouchi apologized. "We just don't have much else to do. I mean, Bakura goes crackers, we go racing up here, then some dude in a turban goes running down there with these freaky metal things banging into the walls. So until we can go check out what's going on down there, you're it as far as entertainment goes."
"Shadi was a fool to go down there," Aset said as Yami growled softly and resumed pacing. "He always forgets that he's probably the least welcome of all the Item holders. The thief's probably still panicked, and if he does anything with his magic, he could send us all straight to hell what with the unbalance that's been created. Has he been doing any magic lately?"
"Not that I've seen, but his hikari has," Yami said.
Isis slumped against one of the decay cases. "The power he'd discovered is addictive. It's not meant for us, but we can't get away. The darkness wants us just as much as we want it, and it just gets worse and worse..."
Aset looked over at Isis, then reached over and pulled her unresisting hikari in for a hug. "It'll be all right," she said softly. "It's not your fault."
"What's wrong?" Jounouchi asked.
Isis twisted to look at them. "It happened to us. Right after I got my Item back from you, my pharaoh," she said quietly. "That's why we're moving fast. We delayed it too long last time, and I...nearly died."
"Oooh," Jounouchi said. "Not good."
"No," Isis replied. "Not one bit." She tugged free from Aset's grasp, turned around fully, and leaned back into her yami. "But I think Shadi will be able to help you. He saved our lives. I'll wager the Tauk that he can pull it off again."
"Oi!" Aset complained.
"Aset? Do you only hear every other word? It's a bet I'm guaranteed to win, you tit."
"...oh." Aset thought about this for a minute.
"I'm your hikari. I don't make bets without knowing how they're going to come out," Isis retorted.
"Mmm. Point," Aset agreed. "Well, Shadi's certainly taking his sweet time. Didn't even kiss me hello."
"Er. Aset, I'm his girlfriend," Isis reminded her gently.
"Yes, well, you're my girlfriend too, so I suppose we're all connected. I wonder if this now automatically makes us hooking up with Kaisei and Eisei?" Aset mused.
"Hurrah for harems," Isis announced.
Jounouchi and Yami no Yuugi stared. Finally Jounouchi managed to say, "Can I get in on this Millennium Wossname thing? It sounds like a lot of fun."
Yami bit back a snicker as memories of the last night came rushing into focus. "Indeed it is. Isis, you wouldn't happen to have an exhibit for Hathor, would you?"
Isis raised her eyebrows. "Indeed. She's not your patroness, is she?"
"Now she is," Yami said fervently.
"Well, you can run that by her emissary. He'll be by sometime," Isis said with a sigh. "Exhibit fifteen. Down that way, hook a right. When do you need more Motrin?"
Yami squeaked royally and scuttled from the group.
"Eisei's here?" Aset inquired.
"Has to be. Shadi was wearing the Ankh," Isis replied.
"You think he's done yet?" Jounouchi asked, poking at the door. "This is getting boring."
"Mmm," Aset agreed. "Let's go have wild monkey sex in the fifteenth exhibit," she suggested.
"Um. Yami's there," Jounouchi reminded them before Aset and Isis could do more about this suggestion than start snogging. The two girls both paused, blinked at each other, then sighed and returned to their former positions. Jounouchi threw his hands up. "Hey, hey, not to dissuade you from the free love thing."
"Free love?" Yami asked, returning.
"Look! Exhibit fifteen's empty!" Aset exclaimed, poking Isis.
"Shadi's not back?" Yami inquired.
"No, he's here. He's just invisible," Jounouchi said sarcastically. "He is bloody taking forever."
"He's probably tormenting the hell out of that thief," Aset mused.
"I just hope he doesn't blow the place up doing it," Isis said coolly. "I just cleaned up this morning. Malik saw fit to – oh, never mind." After remembering that Yami was in the crowd she was addressing, Isis cut herself off.
"I don't think I want to know," Yami said, turning almost in front of her nose and starting to pace away.
Aset took one arm away from Isis's waist and grabbed his shoulder. "What the hell is that?"
Yami peered over his shoulder and down at her grandly. "What's what?"
Aset rose to her feet. "Hold still." She reached under the collar of his shirt, startling a yelp out of him.
"Watch the hands, priestess!"
"If I was going to flirt with anyone, it'd be with the girl squished between us," Aset replied waspishly. "You should know that, you had my Tauk for a while." Isis turned a funny shade of pinkish-green. "Oh, don't be such wimps, the pair of you. Ah! Got it," she added, fishing out her prize and patting Yami's shoulder. She eyed the object in her palm critically. "I don't know how you missed having this thing shoved down your shirt. Must've been all those buckles. How did you come across this? I don't believe it was given to you," Aset added, holding out the Millennium Eye with a closed expression.
Yami's eyes widened. "That's the Millennium Eye!" he exclaimed.
Jounouchi skittered back away from the sphere. "That thing gives me the creeps!"
Yami glowered at the Eye. "That thing keeps popping up in the most random places."
Aset raised her eyes. "So you don't know how it got there? I did think it was rather an odd place to keep it, but..."
Yami looked indignant. "Of course I don't know how it got there." He took the Eye and examined it from several lights. "What on Earth is it doing here?"
Isis slid out from between the two yamis. "My pharaoh, if you'll allow me..." She held out her hand for the Eye.
"Here, but what are you going to do?" Yami asked.
Isis smiled without much humor in the expression. "See if I can find who took it. The Tauk sees the future, but maybe the future is revealing. Yami?" She turned to the gold-robed girl and held out the Eye.
"Right-oh," Aset said. She touched the Eye as well, then both shut their eyes as the Tauk began to glow.
ripping it out of –
if i stuff it down his shirt i can –
blood lick it off –
should i cut out an eye to –
should i risk it –
i don't want to fight another yami –
you're holding that –
that's MINE!
The two both opened their eyes simultaneously and dropped the golden sphere.
/Should we tell the pharaoh?/ Isis asked.
Aset smiled. Let's not. We can deal with the thief on our own. For all we know, the Eye may yet accept him. The yami in it lies dormant, as do the powers.
/Fine by me./
"Well?" Yami asked.
The two girls looked at each other, then Isis bent and picked up the Eye, tossing and catching it languidly. "If the future's to be trusted, it won't be long until you have an answer."
[-]
Shadi was standing in a corridor with two doors.
There are two souls in this body as well, he noted. There seems to be quite a few of these people in this town. At least now I know I got the right one.
He looked back and forth between the doors, and finally settled for going right.
He turned the knob and pushed the door open gently –
– and jerked back as a pale hand curled around the edge of the door and pulled it back.
Shadi carefully surveyed the occupant, masking his confusion as he did so.
The boy was slender and delicately boned, with a definite feminine beauty. Pale hair hung down around his shoulders and large dark eyes met his squarely. The boy was wearing dark blue jeans and a loose green shirt over a tighter gray one. A golden ring hung with five feathery points and with a pyramid strung in the center was dangling from a leather cord around his neck. Barefoot, he was about a head shorter than Shadi himself.
His mouth curled into an almost predatory smile, seductive in its heralding of danger. The boy looked up at him lazily through dark lashes and stood away from the door, murmuring, "Please come in...Shadi..."
Shadi warily stepped through the door, eyes flickering around for traps of any kind.
"There's no danger to you, except from me directly," the boy breathed, giggling slightly. "I can never have too many suitors, you know..."
Shadi ignored the boy's unsettling comment and looked around.
The room was shadowy but not dark, with splashes of luminous silver and white giving a light, airy touch. The corners were cluttered with photographs in frames, broken bookshelves spilling their contents to the floor, and the occasional knife or other deadly weapon. There was a stereo system lining one wall with the cords spread haphazardly over the floor and CDs stacked next to it. In the final corner was a pile of sheets and other soft things, all a shade of reddish-black that emulated blood.
The boy had wandered over to this nest and flopped back on it, arms behind his head, watching Shadi through half-lidded eyes. "Care to join me?" he inquired softly.
The words were silkily hypnotizing, making Shadi consider stepping towards the boy. He broke away from the silver-haired boy's gaze and looked around the room once more, noting even more than ever that there were torture tools scattered throughout the area. There was no sign of innocence here, only lust and hunger and madness.
I must have found the yami's room...
He sighed and turned to leave –
– and found the door gone.
He whirled back to the boy, who rolled over slightly and lounged back into the sheets sensuously. It gave the illusion that he was drowning in blood.
"Let me out," Shadi commanded.
The boy sighed. "Won't you reconsider? I get..." He turned his head to look at Shadi again, the smile making his face demonic. "...so lonely."
Shadi curtly turned away. "Free me, little one."
The boy jumped out of the bed and sashayed over to him, sliding an arm around his waist and drawing him to the wall where the door once was. "Do come back and visit," the boy said, sketching a semblance of a door with his free hand and pushing it open.
Shadi tore himself violently from the boy's clutches and shot out the door.
Now to look at the hikari...
He turned back for one last disgusted, horrified look, almost reflexively.
The boy smiled and waved. "Just so you know..." he added. "I'm Ryou, hikari no Bakura."
For a second, all was silent.
"By Ra..." Shadi finally breathed. I thought Isis had been crazy...this one's totally warped!
Ryou giggled and closed the door. "Bye-bye now."
Shadi's eyes widened and he spun away again, feeling ill. He swallowed hard, then began pushing at the other door, his thoughts whirling. If that's the hikari, then what's the yami become? His pushing intensified into pounding, then full-body shoves. Why won't it open? he wondered, backing up for another run at the door.
The sound of locks clicking back didn't deter his steps until he was about two inches from the door, at which point his momentum took over.
Oh bugger.
Shadi crashed through the now-easily-opened door and landed with his nose a few inches from a pair of bare feet.
The toenails were sharpened.
"So now you're at my mercy, eh?" a voice from about five and a half feet upward said mockingly.
Shadi rolled to his feet and dusted himself off grandly as the voice continued. "So what took you so long to get in here? You didn't start hammering at the door for a while. You stop in to see Ryou?"
Shadi finally looked at the boy addressing him.
The basic physical shape was the same as the other one. Slender, pale, about a head shorter than he was, and tousled silver hair. The eyes were also large and long-lashed, but slanted and reddish. The teeth were sharp and bared in a silent snarl. The boy's fingernails were also pared into points. He had several taped-up injuries, some of them half-hidden under torn jeans and a somewhat lacerated black shirt, over which also hung a Millennium Ring.
"What are you doing here?" the boy snapped.
"I came because of what has happened to your hikari," Shadi said.
The boy stiffened. "You stay away from my hikari." The order was almost a growl.
"He likes to attach himself bodily to people, but I'll try my best," Shadi said lightly.
He was completely unprepared for being tackled by this small, dainty-looking boy, despite the toughness he'd exuded.
"You don't touch my hikari. No one's going to take him away from me again! No one!" the boy screamed into his face, eyes blazing red.
Shadi blinked. "As you wish, little one."
The boy stood up in one jerky motion, glowering down at him. "Tell me what you're doing here and then get out."
"I wished to go to the root of the problem," Shadi said. "I've dealt with something similar already, but the circumstances were very different. I wanted to meet you each on your own terms." He slowly sat up, tilting his head back to meet the boy's eyes.
The boy backed up a pace, still watching him warily as Shadi climbed to his feet. "What'd you bring the Scales for?"
So you're afraid of these Scales, little one. No worthy person should be, but you are anyway, Shadi noted. What have you done that is so worthy of this fear? Almost unconsciously, he looked around.
Heaps of what looked like the most valuable items from tombs were stacked by the walls, some in rough sacks. A nest of blankets not unlike the one in Ryou's room was in a narrow recess set in the far wall. One or two torches burned, dumping smoke into the air and giving the room a murky air.
Shadi swiveled to his left, seeing metal glint in the mediocre light, and beheld a huge rack of knives, swords, crossbows, whips, chains, machine guns, and pretty much any other kind of weapon invented that could kill effectively. They were all immaculately cleaned and cared for. He craned his head to the left and saw a plethora of locks on the door.
"If you're so curious, there's traps too," the boy said. "I'm a tomb robber. I know how to set good traps. And how to avoid them."
"You're the tomb robber," Shadi repeated. "This explains your fear of me." And Isis totally neglected to tell me that, too. Bugger.
"Damn straight I am," the boy replied coldly. "You'd have found out anyhow, so you might as well know while you're at my mercy. I'm surprised you didn't know already."
"I'm Bakura, the other half of him," he snapped, pointing at the door and, Shadi assumed, to the room on the other side of the hallway beyond it. "Yami no Bakura. And according to all of those idiots out there, I'm insane." Bakura laughed raggedly, the sound completely unlike Ryou's breathy, inhuman giggle. "So you'll want to get out now."
"I think that despite your transgressions, I want to help you," Shadi said thoughtfully. /Right?/
Bugger that! Weigh his heart now, and the hikari will go back to normal with him gone,the yami in the Scales, Kaisei, piped up. Being Ma'at's emissary tended to make him Scales-happy.
Why don't you make him a puppet? He's not bad looking, and no one will miss him like they did that girl, the yami in the Ankh retorted. Eisei, of course. Being Hathor's own tool gave him an eye for cute people.
Judge him!
Turn him into a puppet!
Go on, judge him! You know you want to!
But puppets are more fun!
Ammit and Anubis would be happy, not to mention Ma'at.
You're a priest of Ma'at! Don't make our hikari do your work for you. Make Ma'at happy yourself. Turn the tomb robber into a puppet!
/Oh, shut up, the pair of you. I said I was going to help him, not kill him. Were either of you listening to what Isis told me?/ Shadi asked crankily.
No,Kaisei said cheerfully. What's up?
/Remember what happened once? It's earlier on than it was for her, but it's still happening./
There was a resounding and somewhat shocked silence inside his head. /The Ankh's getting plenty of use right now and we do not need a tomb robber as a sex toy, pretty though he may be. I'm not weighing this one's heart and risking killing the hikari needlessly, either. Are we clear?/
...
...
/Good./
"Having yami trouble?" Bakura asked mockingly. "We're not a nice group, you know."
Do I ever, Shadi thought. "I thank you for meeting me."
"Does this mean you're getting out of my mind?"
"Yes."
"Good. Out," Bakura snapped.
Shadi inclined his head again and drew on the power of the Ankh once more.
Can we please –
/No! Dammit, Eisei!/
All right...
Shadi blinked, trying to orient himself, as did the boy crouched under the desk in front of him. Shadi picked up the Scales and backed away before Bakura remembered that he was holding Doma the Angel of Silence and a knife. He was halfway up the stairs when there was a loud thump from under the desk as Bakura tried to stand up and hit the underside squarely. Shadi schooled his features to blankness as Bakura cursed loudly and extensively, and then continued on upward.
He emerged in a room filled with Egyptian exhibits. He recognized the pharaoh, Isis Ishtar, and her yami, but the fourth boy – a blonde – was unknown to him.
"Are you Shadi?" the blonde asked. "Isis's been talking about you. We all have, actually. General consensus is that you're an idiot, but not a bad boyfriend. I'm Jounouchi, by the way. Where's Bakura?"
"Here." The tomb robber elbowed past Shadi and stalked into the room, discreetly holding his head. The blonde Jounouchi looked at Bakura sharply. "What'd you do this time? Concussion?"
"I don't know," Bakura snapped.
Jounouchi sighed and pointed to a table. "Sit still."
Shadi watched in amazement as Bakura looked slightly cowed and complied. However, when the blonde boy turned his gaze to him, he saw it to be one that would have made the most hardened criminal back down. "Anything wrong with you?"
"No," Shadi said. Good lord. Eyes of steel.
The expression died a quick and painless death. "Cool. So, you got ideas for us?"
"I don't know much," Shadi confessed. "I acted on instinct last time."
Jounouchi shrugged. "Well, that's just peachy. We can all talk about what we know and then do something about it. Sound good?"
"I want to know who – " the pharaoh began petulantly.
Isis shot him a blank but speaking look. "Not now, my pharaoh."
Aset sighed and rearranged herself on the table. "Well, Shadi, you probably went tearing down there to go poke through that kid's head, so what'd you find?"
Fluffy: Er. This chapter was much shorter originally. Don't know how it got so long. Buh?
Gyakutenno Megami: heart eyes
Kitten: Here's the next installment, dunno about the rest.
Luke and Kaial Skywolf: Thanks, because Bakura won't say anything nice anytime soon.
Sailor Comet: Hurrah for shoujo ai.
Melissa: waves Nice to see you again!
yukoma: I like writing cliffhangers. They're fun.
Little Brat Yami Bakura: Sorry this took so long. Carpal tunnel's a wrist thingie. It's painful on and off. Today's an 'off' day. Thanks for the cookie pokes Bakura
Dawn: Yepyep there's more. Maybe five chapters at least.
Milk: Sorry about not following through on the 'soon' bit, but it's more! And Malik may waltz in for a bit next chapter.
firedraygon97: Oh yes, he's messed up. And lovin' every minute.
a very angry person: Oo Rabid people! Meeeeeeeeep! goes running off into the sunset
Chaos Chibi Mage: Fweeheehee! Plushie goodness!
Funeral-Angel: Thank you! Here's some more ficcage.
Sky-Pirate-Tat: Interesting, eh? Hmmm...
Saturn Imp: Madness and insanity just happened! Bwahahaha
Celtic Guardian Princess: Wow! Cookies and pixi stix! Whips and straightjackets! First aid kit of DOOOOOOOOM! Playthings! Haircare products! faints
Cherry: Yami powah!
higashikaze: Really? Wowness! Here's the next chapter!
S. A. Bonasi: confidential whisper Fate's aversive to affection, so I write all the shounen ai. Glad you like! And power to the evilness!
The Future Ruler of the Cosmos: Nifteh.
Alyssa-Anime-Angel: Look! Bakura pity!
FukaiMori: Uh...I hope you haven't died reading this...that's not a good thing...that's a very bad thing...would you like a frying pan?
Duel: See? You lot are good at this. Keep it up.