A/N- This has bit more cursing and Malik becomes involved in all this (yes, I managed it!) And there's a lot more cursing than the last chapter. I swear my Yami made me do it! Oh wait*looks sheepish*I am an evil Yami…heh heh.
Chapter 2- Dreams
Reina's feet pounded as she turned another corner. The sound seemed to be the only thing keeping her grounded as the sun sank lower and the sky turned red.
Her heart still thudded and her mind was still sluggishly trying to process what had just happened.
She remembered the strange words that had burnt her throat. She remembered running; outside, to freedom, but everything else was a blur.
*I want to go HOME!* Reina thought as tears pricked at her eyes. She brushed them away angrily. She wouldn't cry yet.
Reina neared her building and saw three familiar figures adorning the steps. They seemed so normal in contrast to what had just happened. In fact she could almost forget it all as she watched Joey and Yugi discussing something that was probably pointless, as Tea watched them with an amusedlook.
Then Reina saw Yugi's necklace catch the sun and the whole thing reinvaded her consciousness.
Joey and Yugi broke off their discussion about the fire escape and Tea stood up looking worried.
'Reiny are you okay? You're bleeding! Where's your uniform?'
Reina turned as though to get it then stopped her eyes wide, 'NO! I'm fine!' she said sounding both angry and scared.
'Reiny you can tell me… us, anything. What happened?' Tea blocked Reina's way and folded her arms across her chest. Reina tried to push past her and Tea grabbed her arm.
'Let me go.'
'Reina.'
'No!' Reina shoved Tea back against the wall and ran into the building. When she reached her apartment she pounded on the door and found it was open.
'Mom?' she shouted. There was no answer but she hadn't really expected one. Her mother was probably sleeping off another hangover.
Reina sat on the edge of her bed and counted to ten before standing in front of her mirror. Her reflection looked as though it had been through Hell. There was blood all over her and the right side of her bottom lip had a small cut. Her reflection changed and a pair of icy eyes stared out of her own face. Reina wearily closed her eyes to try and block out the image but another one came unbidden, Ryou's eyes abruptly changing and holding her still.
She shuddered and went to the bathroom to drown all the memories she was fighting. She sank into the water clothes and all and didn't open her eyes for a few minutes. Finally she began to admire the pinkish tinge that the water had taken on. Reina realised it was her own blood and jumped out hastily to search for bandages to cover the drying mess on her hand.
Reina took off her shirt to change and heard something clink indistinctly by her feet. Reina looked down and a golden eye stared back at her surrounded by a golden circle and three outstretched hands. Reina dropped to her knees shaking and slowly picked it up.
*I dropped it,* she recalled slowly, *I remember, before I ran ...*
Reina stumbled into the kitchen the item still in her trembling hands and threw open the refrigerator.
*I'm going to get drunk,* She thought calmly, *So damn drunk that I won't remember a thing.*
She pulled out a beer and downed it in two gulps grimacing at the taste. She grabbed a second one and sat on her bed as the buzz moved through her body
*I remember the pain and then I remember Ryou - NO, Bakura, and he hurt me. Then he kissed me, then...*she tipped the bottle back, *No, that's not right, it was just Ryou and... I don't remember!*
The last statement was triumphant and she leaned back to finish the bottle and examine the object in her hands. After a few moments she shrugged and slipped it around her neck. The metal was surprisingly warm and it settled comfortably against her chest.
She giggled drunkenly as she remembered what she had first thought Ryou had wanted when he'd invited her over. She took a last sip and closed her eyes and when she opened them she was in another room. 'Oh shyt.'
There were abandoned children's toys all over the floor and a large map that included Japan, Egypt and whatever lay between those two points. She stepped closer and was disturbed to find that there was not a speck of English or Japanese on it anywhere. There was also a mirror half covered by a cloth. And in a dark cobwebby corner a picture caught her eye but someone had shattered the glass. It was a picture of her father.
Reina casually knocked the picture off the wall and tore the cloth off the mirror. Her own face stared back at her as well as a slightly older twin with icy eyes.
Reina whirled around to confront the woman who simply waved a hand making two chairs appear. Reina remained standing, 'Who the fuck are you?'
'You.' She said simply, 'I am your darkness and you will obey me.'
'Like Hell.' Reina spat slurring her words slightly, 'As a figment of my imagination I know that you couldn't even exist without me.'
'Foolish girl,' the woman said, 'I am Renata, High priestess of Nepthys and I can kill you where you stand.'
'No you can't. I'm just drunk and this is a bad dream.'
Renata's hand shot out scratching her nails across Reina's face as the other grabbed her wrist so hard it cracked. Reina screamed and the sound bounced back to them. 'I can hurt you.'
'You're just like Bakura.' Reina said, her voice trembling.
'Hah! That bastard isn't half of what I am. Neither is your stupid little friend. The Pharaoh.'
'Yugi?' Reina asked stupidly.
'Yes, your friend is stranger than you think. He is the Pharaoh who banished me to this existence! He denied me my own power! Well, I'm back to get what's mine.'
'You're crazy.'
'And you're stupid.'
Reina gave her the middle finger and cursed loudly when she saw the newest bruise on her wrist., 'Okay, so I'm having a very strange dream. You are still NOT REAL!'
Renata laughed and it was a chilling sound. 'I am real and I exist here because of your hate. Your anger. Your darkness.'
'Liar.'
'Wrong again! You have a hidden anger towards your mother, your friends, and,' she smiled, 'Your father.'
'Leave me alone! My father is dead so just shut-up!'
'But he wasn't when he left you. And your little friend is responsible for it. Yugi, the Pharaoh.'
'I said shut-up!'
Renata slapped her across the face and Reina crumpled to the ground. 'I will teach you to hate the Pharaoh. To fight him and destroy him and anyone else in our way!' Reina shook her head and Renata smiled at a sudden inspiration, 'Or you can have NO control and be used against your will as your friend Ryou is.'
Reina slowly realised what this would mean unless of course it really was a dream. She would end up killing Yugi and/or going insane.
'You can avenge your broken childhood.' Renata whispered, 'The Pharaoh took away your father.'
'Get away from me!' Reina screamed and the walls of the room slowly turned red. She curled up on the floor to rock back and forth and sob. 'I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't...'
'You don't have to,' a third voice said. Reina's heart took up residence in her throat. She looked up and saw a boy, his back was to her and he was pointing something at Renata.
Renata watched him calmly with raised eyebrows. 'You dare order me? I outrank you by a millennia. You should give up now and save everyone the trouble.'
'You broke your last Hikari. You will destroy this one.'
'And you won't? You will lose in the end.'
'I think not,' the boy said, 'We have similar goals unlike you two.
'I think that you don't want me to possess a body because I add a new set of problems to your plan. She will give me a power that you've never even dreamed of.' Renata said, placing her hands on her hips and smiling suggestively.
'Enough! You may be right but you are not keeping her!'
'Oh aren't I? Turn Malik Ishtar and look for yourself.'
Reina had been slowly edging closer to the arguing pair. Her heart, which had nearly returned to it's original habitat, began hammering wildly as she finally saw his face. He was surprisingly young with longish beige hair, tan skin, and startlingly purple eyes that seemed surprised to see her at all.
Malik stared into her eyes for a long time before Renata interrupted.
'You may as well point the millennium rod at her than at me. Either way, we BOTH die.'
'Bitch,' he murmured.
'We formed a connection from the moment she touched that metal. Not even death can break it and especially not you.'
'Can't you save me?' Reina asked pathetically, 'Can't you wake me up?
'That depends,' Malik said slowly holding a hand out to her, 'Because this is no dream. This is more real than you could ever imagine.' Reina stepped closer and he grabbed her already bruised and battered arm, pulling her forward. She screamed in horror and pulled away. His fingers had burned her skin.
Reina dissolved into tears again too weak to fight. 'Go on. Kill her.'
Renata said softly. 'We are just another problem.'
Reina looked from one to the other. Renata didn't care about her, the boy, Malik, had seemed to care but his hands had burned her proving his real intentions.
Malik turned on Renata who laughed, 'I knew you couldn't do it!'
Malik smiled dangerously. 'Reina,' he said softly keeping his back to her, 'come. Banish her, it is in your control.'
Renata's eyes blazed, 'You bastard! She cant!... Reina don't listen to him...'
Reina clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. Renata's voice could still be heard crashing around her skull. *You accepted me... YOUR hate. YOUR anger...*
'Get out.' Reina whispered. The other two stopped arguing to stare at her. 'Get out, get out, get out, GET OUT!'
At her last words the room shattered to be replaced by a desolate, endless dreamscape. Memories swirled around her for the rest of the night but clearest among them was Ryou's tear and blood streaked face begging her to help.
@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%
Malik:: *Standng in a corner, smiling and shaking his head* I knew that you
would drag me into this somehow.
YamiReina:: ^_^ of course darling how could I not!
All:: 0.o
Renata:: I for one am not very happy to see HIM involved in all this.
Malik:: Well, it's not like I'm happy to see you here you know!
Renata:: *flips him off and turns to her Hikari* well? Don't tell me you're happy to see him!
Reina:: heh heh. Well, not as such...
Renata:: You... little...traitor...
Ryou:: *glaring at Malik. Thinks aloud*Dammit. Now I really don't have a chance with her!
All:: Oooooh! Ryou's in love!
Ryou:: *blushes furiously and tries to disappear*
Bakura:: *sarcastically* You won't go anywhere. I've been trying to get rid of you for years.
Yugi and Joey:: Ahem, what about us? We're Reina's friends too and you've made us seem like real dorks.
Malik:: *menacing look* That is because you are you insignificant mortals.
~fighting erupts
YamiReina:: Settle down children. If you continue to bicker I will have to
write another chapter. *waves pen threateningly*
~random cricket chirps
YamiReina:: Good. *turns to audience* Please review or I will be forced to
watch Malik and Joey kill each other. PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Chapter 2- Dreams
Reina's feet pounded as she turned another corner. The sound seemed to be the only thing keeping her grounded as the sun sank lower and the sky turned red.
Her heart still thudded and her mind was still sluggishly trying to process what had just happened.
She remembered the strange words that had burnt her throat. She remembered running; outside, to freedom, but everything else was a blur.
*I want to go HOME!* Reina thought as tears pricked at her eyes. She brushed them away angrily. She wouldn't cry yet.
Reina neared her building and saw three familiar figures adorning the steps. They seemed so normal in contrast to what had just happened. In fact she could almost forget it all as she watched Joey and Yugi discussing something that was probably pointless, as Tea watched them with an amusedlook.
Then Reina saw Yugi's necklace catch the sun and the whole thing reinvaded her consciousness.
Joey and Yugi broke off their discussion about the fire escape and Tea stood up looking worried.
'Reiny are you okay? You're bleeding! Where's your uniform?'
Reina turned as though to get it then stopped her eyes wide, 'NO! I'm fine!' she said sounding both angry and scared.
'Reiny you can tell me… us, anything. What happened?' Tea blocked Reina's way and folded her arms across her chest. Reina tried to push past her and Tea grabbed her arm.
'Let me go.'
'Reina.'
'No!' Reina shoved Tea back against the wall and ran into the building. When she reached her apartment she pounded on the door and found it was open.
'Mom?' she shouted. There was no answer but she hadn't really expected one. Her mother was probably sleeping off another hangover.
Reina sat on the edge of her bed and counted to ten before standing in front of her mirror. Her reflection looked as though it had been through Hell. There was blood all over her and the right side of her bottom lip had a small cut. Her reflection changed and a pair of icy eyes stared out of her own face. Reina wearily closed her eyes to try and block out the image but another one came unbidden, Ryou's eyes abruptly changing and holding her still.
She shuddered and went to the bathroom to drown all the memories she was fighting. She sank into the water clothes and all and didn't open her eyes for a few minutes. Finally she began to admire the pinkish tinge that the water had taken on. Reina realised it was her own blood and jumped out hastily to search for bandages to cover the drying mess on her hand.
Reina took off her shirt to change and heard something clink indistinctly by her feet. Reina looked down and a golden eye stared back at her surrounded by a golden circle and three outstretched hands. Reina dropped to her knees shaking and slowly picked it up.
*I dropped it,* she recalled slowly, *I remember, before I ran ...*
Reina stumbled into the kitchen the item still in her trembling hands and threw open the refrigerator.
*I'm going to get drunk,* She thought calmly, *So damn drunk that I won't remember a thing.*
She pulled out a beer and downed it in two gulps grimacing at the taste. She grabbed a second one and sat on her bed as the buzz moved through her body
*I remember the pain and then I remember Ryou - NO, Bakura, and he hurt me. Then he kissed me, then...*she tipped the bottle back, *No, that's not right, it was just Ryou and... I don't remember!*
The last statement was triumphant and she leaned back to finish the bottle and examine the object in her hands. After a few moments she shrugged and slipped it around her neck. The metal was surprisingly warm and it settled comfortably against her chest.
She giggled drunkenly as she remembered what she had first thought Ryou had wanted when he'd invited her over. She took a last sip and closed her eyes and when she opened them she was in another room. 'Oh shyt.'
There were abandoned children's toys all over the floor and a large map that included Japan, Egypt and whatever lay between those two points. She stepped closer and was disturbed to find that there was not a speck of English or Japanese on it anywhere. There was also a mirror half covered by a cloth. And in a dark cobwebby corner a picture caught her eye but someone had shattered the glass. It was a picture of her father.
Reina casually knocked the picture off the wall and tore the cloth off the mirror. Her own face stared back at her as well as a slightly older twin with icy eyes.
Reina whirled around to confront the woman who simply waved a hand making two chairs appear. Reina remained standing, 'Who the fuck are you?'
'You.' She said simply, 'I am your darkness and you will obey me.'
'Like Hell.' Reina spat slurring her words slightly, 'As a figment of my imagination I know that you couldn't even exist without me.'
'Foolish girl,' the woman said, 'I am Renata, High priestess of Nepthys and I can kill you where you stand.'
'No you can't. I'm just drunk and this is a bad dream.'
Renata's hand shot out scratching her nails across Reina's face as the other grabbed her wrist so hard it cracked. Reina screamed and the sound bounced back to them. 'I can hurt you.'
'You're just like Bakura.' Reina said, her voice trembling.
'Hah! That bastard isn't half of what I am. Neither is your stupid little friend. The Pharaoh.'
'Yugi?' Reina asked stupidly.
'Yes, your friend is stranger than you think. He is the Pharaoh who banished me to this existence! He denied me my own power! Well, I'm back to get what's mine.'
'You're crazy.'
'And you're stupid.'
Reina gave her the middle finger and cursed loudly when she saw the newest bruise on her wrist., 'Okay, so I'm having a very strange dream. You are still NOT REAL!'
Renata laughed and it was a chilling sound. 'I am real and I exist here because of your hate. Your anger. Your darkness.'
'Liar.'
'Wrong again! You have a hidden anger towards your mother, your friends, and,' she smiled, 'Your father.'
'Leave me alone! My father is dead so just shut-up!'
'But he wasn't when he left you. And your little friend is responsible for it. Yugi, the Pharaoh.'
'I said shut-up!'
Renata slapped her across the face and Reina crumpled to the ground. 'I will teach you to hate the Pharaoh. To fight him and destroy him and anyone else in our way!' Reina shook her head and Renata smiled at a sudden inspiration, 'Or you can have NO control and be used against your will as your friend Ryou is.'
Reina slowly realised what this would mean unless of course it really was a dream. She would end up killing Yugi and/or going insane.
'You can avenge your broken childhood.' Renata whispered, 'The Pharaoh took away your father.'
'Get away from me!' Reina screamed and the walls of the room slowly turned red. She curled up on the floor to rock back and forth and sob. 'I don't want this, I don't want this, I don't...'
'You don't have to,' a third voice said. Reina's heart took up residence in her throat. She looked up and saw a boy, his back was to her and he was pointing something at Renata.
Renata watched him calmly with raised eyebrows. 'You dare order me? I outrank you by a millennia. You should give up now and save everyone the trouble.'
'You broke your last Hikari. You will destroy this one.'
'And you won't? You will lose in the end.'
'I think not,' the boy said, 'We have similar goals unlike you two.
'I think that you don't want me to possess a body because I add a new set of problems to your plan. She will give me a power that you've never even dreamed of.' Renata said, placing her hands on her hips and smiling suggestively.
'Enough! You may be right but you are not keeping her!'
'Oh aren't I? Turn Malik Ishtar and look for yourself.'
Reina had been slowly edging closer to the arguing pair. Her heart, which had nearly returned to it's original habitat, began hammering wildly as she finally saw his face. He was surprisingly young with longish beige hair, tan skin, and startlingly purple eyes that seemed surprised to see her at all.
Malik stared into her eyes for a long time before Renata interrupted.
'You may as well point the millennium rod at her than at me. Either way, we BOTH die.'
'Bitch,' he murmured.
'We formed a connection from the moment she touched that metal. Not even death can break it and especially not you.'
'Can't you save me?' Reina asked pathetically, 'Can't you wake me up?
'That depends,' Malik said slowly holding a hand out to her, 'Because this is no dream. This is more real than you could ever imagine.' Reina stepped closer and he grabbed her already bruised and battered arm, pulling her forward. She screamed in horror and pulled away. His fingers had burned her skin.
Reina dissolved into tears again too weak to fight. 'Go on. Kill her.'
Renata said softly. 'We are just another problem.'
Reina looked from one to the other. Renata didn't care about her, the boy, Malik, had seemed to care but his hands had burned her proving his real intentions.
Malik turned on Renata who laughed, 'I knew you couldn't do it!'
Malik smiled dangerously. 'Reina,' he said softly keeping his back to her, 'come. Banish her, it is in your control.'
Renata's eyes blazed, 'You bastard! She cant!... Reina don't listen to him...'
Reina clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. Renata's voice could still be heard crashing around her skull. *You accepted me... YOUR hate. YOUR anger...*
'Get out.' Reina whispered. The other two stopped arguing to stare at her. 'Get out, get out, get out, GET OUT!'
At her last words the room shattered to be replaced by a desolate, endless dreamscape. Memories swirled around her for the rest of the night but clearest among them was Ryou's tear and blood streaked face begging her to help.
@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%@$#%
Malik:: *Standng in a corner, smiling and shaking his head* I knew that you
would drag me into this somehow.
YamiReina:: ^_^ of course darling how could I not!
All:: 0.o
Renata:: I for one am not very happy to see HIM involved in all this.
Malik:: Well, it's not like I'm happy to see you here you know!
Renata:: *flips him off and turns to her Hikari* well? Don't tell me you're happy to see him!
Reina:: heh heh. Well, not as such...
Renata:: You... little...traitor...
Ryou:: *glaring at Malik. Thinks aloud*Dammit. Now I really don't have a chance with her!
All:: Oooooh! Ryou's in love!
Ryou:: *blushes furiously and tries to disappear*
Bakura:: *sarcastically* You won't go anywhere. I've been trying to get rid of you for years.
Yugi and Joey:: Ahem, what about us? We're Reina's friends too and you've made us seem like real dorks.
Malik:: *menacing look* That is because you are you insignificant mortals.
~fighting erupts
YamiReina:: Settle down children. If you continue to bicker I will have to
write another chapter. *waves pen threateningly*
~random cricket chirps
YamiReina:: Good. *turns to audience* Please review or I will be forced to
watch Malik and Joey kill each other. PLEASE REVIEW!!!