Sasami: Here before you is my latest ficcu. It's a result of a random plot bunnie, care of my muse Ko-gal Sasami, and the second one-shot I have posted here. Yeaness!
Nijuu: It's about time you put up something new besides updates.
Sasami: Hai, hai. *^^
Nijuu: Disclaimer then!
If we owned Yuugiou, do you think Lisa Ortiz [Shizuka's voice actress] would be allowed anywhere near the set? *shudder* o.O
Sasami: No joke…gak! On with the story then!
Warning: Mild shounen-ai content, almost nonexistent. This is supposed to be a prequel, if you will, to the actual series…my explanation for some things, so I don't want to hear about people being OOC.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Within the Darkness
~*Anime Girl Sasami*~
***
Within the darkness, the pharaoh rubbed his eyes with irritation. Three millennia in the dark, and someone had the audacity to blind him in the moment he could see once more. It had been so vivid, such warm light penetrating the velvet blackness his eyes had long since become accustomed to. The warmth had been replaced with the familiar cold obscurity of night and a throbbing in his head, much the same as staring at the sun with sleep-leaden eyes. If given the opportunity, he would kill whoever had so disturbed him. The pharaoh growled at the other presence he sensed in the bleakness that surrounded him.
"Stop shielding your eyes Pharaoh, and perhaps you will find that the light is not as imposing as you think." An anonymous voice floated through the void, familiar and comforting. The pharaoh was reminded vaguely of sunrise over pyramids and the sound of a river after the rain as the voice spoke again. "Why do you hide from the light? I did not expect one with such cowardice to seek refuge here."
The pharaoh stood up and stared directly at the light. Cowardice? He would not be insulted so inside his own soul. "Who are you that offends me within my own mind?" Shadows stirred beside the pharaoh, rising to meet his call. The transgression would not go unpunished.
"Your savior, redeemer, liberator, knight in shining armor if you will, Pharaoh." The intruder remained hidden in shadows, an immense, though significantly less painful, light emanating from the being. "And I suggest for your own benefit, that you dismiss your shadows, or I will do so in your stead." As if to substantiate his threat, the being took a step toward the pharaoh.
"What is your purpose here?" As the figure slunk from the shadows, the radiating light dimmed once more and the shadows withdrew. The intruder, he as it was, slipped gradually into view stealing the attention of the other occupant of the emptiness. Ethereal and delicate with an aura of strength encompassing him tangibly. Gold and scarlet and ebony tresses shining against the curtain of black and invisible depths in which they stood. Bloodstone eyes gazed intently upon the slightly shorter mirror of himself.
"To save you. To pull you from the depths of this void, and save you." Returning the look of the pharaoh with an intensified heat, the shadow child approached without hesitation, invading personal space with his presence.
"Who are you?" The pharaoh stood his ground against the young man's appeal, finding the attraction to a being so alike in appearance vaguely arrogant. Nevertheless, here was this creature before him, challenging and fascinating and eerily beautiful and looking much like the rightful inhabitant of the void.
"Have I not told you already? We are your savior. The one who completed the Sennen Puzzle, and the one who reconstructed your soul." Both parties stood unmoving in the corporeal darkness, neither closing the gap between them, fighting the waves of persuasion that flowed between them.
"The puzzle?" he breathed. "But you are merely a child." He knew the statement was false. There was no possible way that the specter that stood before him was a mere child. No child held themselves with such grace, such confidence, such allure.
"No more a child than yourself my Pharaoh. Appearances mean little compared to heart, ability, and age." The man advanced upon the pharaoh again, hips swaying seductively, intentions apparent with every step. "You are not but three years our senior."
"How is that possible? I have been here for millennia."
"When did you die Pharaoh? How old were you when those who sought your power destroyed you?" Another step. "Twenty?" Closer. "Twenty-one?" Closer still, until the man was nearly flush against the spirit, separated only by the matching puzzles that hung from their necks. "I am no child, Pharaoh." The spirit of the puzzle could feel the man's breath upon his lips, warm and pleasant. His savior walked slender fingers up the back of the spirit's neck and into the ebony and scarlet of his hair. "Not by age. Not by law." The phantom brushed his lips softly against the pharaoh's as he spoke. "Not by life.
"We are not so different, you and I." Untangling his hands from the hair of the faintly flushed spirit, the radiant young man took a step backward, turning from the ancient king. "We were both betrayed by those thought trustworthy. Kings among fools." He sneered at some personal knowledge. "The only true distinction between us is that you actually died, and you were never forced to request it."
"What do you mean, request it? Do you mean to tell me you have?" The blood ran cold in the pharaoh's veins. Just the thought that this ghostly double could have wanted an end to life forced a pain, thought long forgotten, to overwhelm his senses.
"No. I tried to steal it. No one willingly gives death when you ask. He simply tried to take what they would not give us at my prompting." The pharaoh grabbed the specter's wrists, and not finding what he sought stared into the boundless amethyst eyes of his doppelganger [1].
"You deceive me." Relief. It was so illogical, and yet it seemed appropriate. There was fear in the back of the pharaoh's mind: fear that the first contact he had with something living in three millennia was tainted with death, fear that he might lose the only connection to life he had seen in ages, fear that his otherworldly twin would disappear. His beautiful and haunting and disturbing twin that held the pharaoh in lust for more than just life.
"We are not so foolish. Pain is not something we enjoy." The phantom stated unemotionally, pulling his hands roughly away and turning from the older spirit. "It was simply an escape mechanism for us. We did not yet know of you." It was clear that the young man did not intend to further elaborate on the topic, and so the pair stood in strained silence as a melody of nothingness faded further into the black.
"How is it that my life is such a critical factor, and who is the we you speak of?" the pharaoh asked faintly, breaking the silence after an indeterminable length of time. The other man remained facing away from the spirit, into the curtain of darkness before him.
"We are simply who stands before you."
"Must you speak in riddles? There stands before me only one being!" The spirit's frustration was building and the shadows reacted to the anger that had begun to pump through his veins. Swirling and dancing their way up his body, they wrapped around him in a loving embrace, intertwining themselves through his fingers and ignoring his command to stop.
"Indeed. Only I stand before you. Only I demand that you set aside your shadowed allies. However, I alone did not save you. We saved you." Peering over his shoulder at the pharaoh, the apparition spoke his existence into the velvet blackness. Airs of haughtiness and stubborn pride and lust radiated from him, a kindred spirit to the nothingness and its inhabitant.
"Who then is the other you speak of?"
"My consciousness. I am his subconscious, the vessel that contains his darkness; or rather, I am what is left of his darkness. All that has not been sacrificed to you, in order to sustain your existence, stands before you. I stand before you, as he remains unaware of your presence." Fingers laced corporally around the darkness emblazoned in every crevice of their subsistent space, manipulating the intangible void to suit his purpose. Even still, the pharaoh pressed on.
"Sustain my existence? Explain yourself." The young man turned finally to face the puzzle spirit, sitting down in the silken darkness, supported as if in a chair. How long had it been since he himself had sat, since he had rested since entering the deep prison. In three millennia no doubt. Experimentally, he mimicked his doppelganger, settling down into the darkness as well.
"My consciousness is unstable. For the past eighteen years, he has been forced to contain the turmoil of a life he was apparently meant to share with another; however, neither of us were aware of this until you stumbled into our mind.
"You are the embodiment of all his dark desires, and I am what remains." The shorter man paused briefly, as though composing himself, though he betrayed no hint of frustration. "To uphold your existence, he had to offer his darkness to you, to be your complete opposite." Slow hushed words faded through the uninviting void, wrapping around the pharaoh as the intruder gazed at him through half-lidded amethyst.
"Ra! You speak in enigmas and half-thoughts! Give me a straightforward explanation!" Rage built within him, the shadows reeling at a feverish pace, rushing the man seated mere feet from the spirit of the dark prison. It was not entirely the will of the pharaoh, yet he did not withdraw the attack; within the darkness, the shadows often acted of their own volition.
Crossing his leather-clad legs casually, resting a slender ankle atop his knee, the oddly phosphorescent apparition upheld a delicate hand. It took only a fraction of a second before the pharaoh realized the purpose in the action: the shadows had ceased their furious onslaught, some still before the regal gesture while others dissipated into the surrounding darkness.
"Of course." He continued indifferently, allowing his hand to drape across the arm of his invisible seat. "To be more specific at the risk of sounding clichéd, opposites attract. You are destined to complete each other, this I am sure of; to that end, he must be the light to your darkness. But it comes with a price dear pharaoh."
"What are you suggesting?"
"That as we are yours, you are our savior, or rather his. We pulled you from the abyss of your soul, in order for you to save him from the darkness you personify." The pharaoh's phantasm rose from his shadow swathed chair to approach the seated pharaoh. Far too close. Invading personal space. The younger man leaned down, hand pinned on top of the spirit's, to whisper his explanation, as though it were a secret meant for them alone, as though others lingered within the darkness. "Perhaps that is an unclear explanation. Your life, your acceptance of his darkness, saves him from the perils of his desires. You complete his soul, taking his darkness so he may rediscover his light, but he will take something from you as well." Shivers ran down the dark spirit's spine as whispered words and heated breath danced along his face. Fingers stroked fingers eagerly and lips sought the warmth of skin untouched in millennia.
"So in the end, I am but a guardian." The pharaoh reflected to himself as he missed the final words, breathing in another mouthful of the darkness that had and continued to be the force behind his life. With it came a breath of something sweet, sensual, and light, featherlike against his ear, his face, and his lips. Muted radiance and lustfully passionate touch melted into one as he exhaled into the shadows, into the interminable nothingness that was his soul and prison. "What evidence do you hold to support such claims?" the pharaoh pressed on breathlessly.
"I am no oracle, and I cannot see beyond what stands before me. What your purpose is will be for you to determine, not us. Though I have an idea which course you will choose, I hold no proof for you. Whether or not you believe me is your decision Pharaoh."
Small warm hands cupped the pharaoh's face, forced him to focus on the heliotrope brilliance of the eyes of another. Sight. Taste. Touch. It had been long that he desired the company of another; the contact of skin on skin; never mind that this other man was a foreigner to him, it was the sensations it caused that were the focus of the pharaoh. Opening his eyes slowly, unaware when they had closed, the pharaoh discovered that the once amethyst eyes of the phantom were swirling with crimson, much like his own.
"What choice do I have then but to trust you?" he whispered, pressing his forehead against the stranger's. It was exploitation of his apparent desires, plain and simple, and the pharaoh found that he did not care. There was something comforting about the touch that screamed remember me through one's mind. Honeysuckle soft lips silenced the words and thoughts of the prisoner. "Beautiful…"
"Perhaps you will not find me so beautiful when you discover each other." Pulling away from the spirit gently, the ghostly man stood upright, looking down upon the flushed and panting pharaoh. Sadness lingered behind his passion-darkened eyes.
"Come again." It meant more than just explain; it was a plea to return the warmth of human touch that the pharaoh had almost forgotten. There was a stretch of silence and an almost inaudible sigh from the other man. He turned away from the pharaoh once more, busying himself with the heavy atmosphere.
"He has offered me for you to live, sacrificing part of what completes him, but…" he trailed off; his voice strained with ache and something much like sardonic triumph. "I will take your memory in order for him to live. Consider it retribution for your presence; after all, your life means my death. I may not be able to protect him forever, as that will be your duty, however, I can still protect him from you. He needs you, and any recollections of the past that you retain will hinder you from guarding him properly. There is more for you here than meets the eye pharaoh." There was a change in him, a tone dripping with menace and disgust that had not been apparent before. Bitter and regretful and ominous.
"Perhaps there is, but I still cannot understand your riddles." Slow words. Careful. Calculated quickly in response to the sudden alteration in the apparition's emotional state.
"You will understand far more when the time comes. He is significantly more innocent than me, but he will know you. Be warned pharaoh," White teeth sharply contrasted the darkness surrounding the specter, enveloping him slowly, as he shot a disquieting grin over his shoulder. "The deeper you go, the more difficult it will be to let go; the more you learn, the less you will recall. It is my parting gift that you each become the other's future, with no past to reconcile with."
"What purpose does stealing my memories serve?" It was cosmic really that the other would come to steal from him as a gift, not that the memories were important for any particular reason, simply that they established his identity. Disconcerting and unfathomable. How could one, who ceased to exist, remove a memory?
"Consider my warning pharaoh. Time will reveal all your uncertainties, but until then, I must depart." The illuminating presence faded slowly from view as he strode deeper into the indistinguishable abyss, disappearing within the darkness.
"Will you leave me here without answers once more?" the pharaoh called after him. Somewhere in the chasm of darkness echoed the indistinct squeal of hinges on a door, rusted by the desperate passage of time [2]. A faint light remained there in his soul, but only shadows answered his call…
~*Owari*~
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Authoress Notes:
[1] I wrote this with the thought that Yuugi, a teenager and therefore prone to angst as it is, with extreme amounts of pressure to succeed in combination with abuse might find comfort in the thought of suicide. It seems to be a common thought process, so I leave his failed method to your imagination.
[2] This is in reference to the maze of doors and stairways in Yami no Yuugi's soul room. It is supposed to be the first of the many doors. Since past secrets are supposedly hidden inside, I determined that a door and/or staircase would appear each time Yuugi and Yami no Yuugi became closer per the retribution from Yuugi's subconscious.
* * *
Sasami: So there it be. *grin* Review please!!! Thankies to the muses: Yami no YuugiPlushie, Yami no Bakura-samaPlushie, and Ko-gal Sasami [mou hitori no boku].
Nijuu: Shouldn't I be your mou hitori no boku? o.O
Sasami: If you were one of my personalities and not my yami, then yes.
Mata ne!