(I should try writing a disclaimer sometime. not this time o_O)
The group sat back down in the living room, a few on chairs and on the floor. Marik put Bakura down into an armchair that was handy and stood at one side, while Yami stood on the other side just in case Bakura was still a bit strange or even completely psychotic when he awoke. Those three made up a sort of corner while the other eight made a sort of semicircle to the right of them.
They sat for a minute or two in silence before Ryou sort of voiced the new primary concern. "Will he still be like... He was, when he wakes up?"
A murmur of unsure answers spread across the group. Yami crossed his arms and looked like he was thinking.
"Have any of you ever seen a symbol such as what was on the tomb robber's arm, ever before?" Yami asked. It was useless; each person shook their heads. He went back to thinking, as did everyone else.
Seto had been pacing a bit, and finally he sat down, next to Chikara, and sighed. "If we don't know what caused this, we should be very careful from now on," he said, a bit quietly, "whatever it was could have only been after him, but it could very we-"
He cut off mid-sentence, drawing in breath quickly with a slight flinch, and leaned sharply forward over his arm, groaning in pain but trying not to scream. Everyone was watching this time as a picture of a cobra curled around his arm, then began to glow in a golden hue.
Slipping off his seat and kneeling on the floor, he let out a scream which got everyone not only watching but also standing, ready for just about anything.
The glow died down a bit and Seto got up slowly, shaking and breathing heavily, keeping his head down. Then he looked up, all the shaking ceasing, and ran toward the first person in his line of sight, which just happened to be the still unconscious Bakura.
Marik stepped in his way, trying to block him and ended up getting tackled, falling back and hitting his head on the arm of Bakura's chair. Seto then started kicking Marik's mostly unprotected stomach and chest, making a noise that sounded like growling.
Yami grabbed him by the back of the collar, trying to pull him away and only managing to get kicked and punched at as Seto flailed around wildly.
"Don't just stand there gawking!" He said, roughly dropping Seto to the ground. He expected him to go straight back for him but instead he spun and ran at Joey, who was standing near the door to the kitchen. He stood there shocked, but just as Seto was about to ram into him elbow-first, he stepped out of the way, and Seto ran into and through the not-quite closed door of the kitchen.
"That was NOT cool!" he said, pulling the door closed before the now mostly insane person on the other side could figure out he had missed and run back in. Clicking the lock closed, he turned and looked at the others, leaning on the door and panting a little.
"This is ridiculous!" Scowled Yami, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever is happening is occurring much too quickly for any of us to understand what is going on. First the tomb robber and now Kaiba. This is making no sense at all."
He raised his crimson purple eyes towards Malik and caught the other's gaze. Malik puts his hands up defensively and shook his head. "You've got to be kidding me! I have nothing to do with this and I'm just as clueless are you all are!"
Marik groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head in agony. "Besides, if it was either of us, it would have been obvious-OW! Damn it... I think my skull is cracked..."
Most of the group jumped when they heard the kitchen door being rammed into.
"Uh... guys? Can you all stop pointing fingers for a second here? I think Kaiba wants out." Joey said uneasily, taking a few steps away from the door.
Téa brought her clasped hands to her face worriedly, side-glancing around. "Maybe whoever is doing this is taking us down one by one... saving the best for last."
All present eyes were directed to Marik as he stood up. He raised his gaze and was met with the stares of all the conscious people in the room. "Don't look at me like that! You crazy mortals keep making up all these Ra damned assumptions while you do not even know what the bloody hell is going on around here!"
Chikara sat back on the couch, slowly fixing her gaze to Bakura firstly and to the locked kitchen from time to time. Joey looked at her nervously. "Hey there! You're not going to go insane on us too, are you!?"
She remained silent, shifting her gaze back to each place with her face in an expression of puzzlement. 'Bakura... Seto...'
Yugi took a glance at what Chikara was looking at and turned his attention back to her. "Chikara? Is something wrong? Do you know something?"
"Oh, this is just great!" Whined Joey, getting into a panic. "First we got Bakura over here trying to kill people, then we got the older Kaiba trying to kill Marik over there and little miss psycho is probably gonna go crazy on us too!"
Something suddenly came to Chikara's mind, mumbling she said: "Bakura... tomb robber... Seto... high pr-AHHH!" She clenched her head and shut her eyes tightly. It felt as if her mind was being shocked constantly and the pain was getting worse. "Gods damn it all!"
The group looked at her fearfully, preparing themselves in case she was to be cursed as well. Chikara opened her eyes slightly, looking at the coffee table in front of her and the shocking had disappeared, but a pounding headache stayed behind. Yami cautiously approached her and grabbed her arms firmly, searching for any serpent marking. "... There's nothing."
Most of them breathed a heavy sigh of relief, now knowing that they were somewhat spared of another odd occurrence. Yami released his grip on Chikara's arms and looked down at her. "What happened?"
Chikara shook her head, then winced immensely. "I... don't know... I was just thinking of something... can I get some pain killers please? This headache... is killing me..."
Ryou spoke up, after taking a cautious glance at his darker half. "There's a bottle in the bathroom, I'll go get it."
"Get some for me while you're at it... after hitting my head twice in less than... I suppose fifteen minutes..." grumbled Marik as he rubbed the back of his head again.
"O... kay then. I'll just bring the bottle..." Ryou said, then he walked off down one hallway.
Marik sighed slowly and spoke to Malik through their link. // We have another problem... //
Malik, trying not to look too suspicious, looked down at the carpet. / What now? /
His darker half sighed again, running his fingers through his hair then wincing when he hit the tender bruised spot. // Something is going on in Chikara's head and my guess is that her darker half has something to do with it... you barely heard what she was getting at... muttering about the rich boy and the tomb robber... I think she was about to find something out when her own yami stopped her. Her yami knows something we don't and we're going to have to probe around her head to find out... //
Malik was about to reply when he saw Ryou enter the room out of the corner of his eye; shutting off the telepathic link with his own yami.
"Okay…" Ryou said, shaking out a few pills from the bottle he was holding and handing them to Chikara, then doing the same for Marik and dropping the bottle on the table. Both took the aspirin gladly and swallowed it dry. By this time everyone was at least attempting to calm down and things were quiet, except for the noises coming from the kitchen, which became less and less frequent and finally stopped entirely.
Chikara looked back at the door one more time, still holding her head. "Maybe we should check on him... He's... Being really quiet."
Joey, who was still standing at least a bit by the door, shook his head. "And take the chance of letting him out and having to do all that again? No way."
No one seemed to disagree with him, either, and no one moved to open the door. Chikara went back to staring at the table and waiting for the medicine to kick in. It was really annoying, that it was taking so long.
Bakura started to shift in his seat slightly, and all eyes turned to him, wondering if he would still be in the same state mentally.
"Holy-" he said, suddenly leaning forward and clutching his head, followed by a string of words that were definitely not holy. Everyone jumped. They were all nervous about what he would do once he looked up.
And then he /did/ look up, squinting at all of them, then pulling the bottle of aspirin off the table and downing a little more than he really should have and muttering under his breath as everyone continued staring at him, relieved.
"At this rate we'll run out of aspirin," Tristan said. He'd been kind of quiet the whole time and everyone just looked at him funny when he said that.
Bakura stood up and went walking towards the kitchen, noticing the door was locked. Yami walked over to him and pulled him aside.
"I wouldn't go in there yet... There were other developments while you were... Out," he said, quietly enough so the other two wouldn't hear.
"Such as..?" Bakura asked, crossing his arms.
"Kaiba had an episode like yours... Went strangely insane and tried to hurt some of us. We locked him in the kitchen," Yami paused for a moment, letting the words sink in and then continued, "I wanted to ask you, while I have the chance... Have you ever seen any marks such as what is on your arm? He had it as well... Appearing just before he started attacking everything in reach."
Bakura stopped and thought for a moment, looking serious. "I think.... I've seen it somewhere, but I can't quite remember." He traced the path of the snake up his arm. It was still there, but it was black now, like a tattoo, and didn't hurt to touch. The design looked so familiar, it was practically on the tip of his tongue. But there was nothing.
Meanwhile there was a slight tired knocking on the other side of the kitchen door. This time there was a voice behind it, though.
"What the hell is going on? Let me out /right/ now."
~
Badru was sitting in Kanaye's bedroom, on his desk chair, continuing to watch through the mirror. The revenge thing was fun for a while, but it got sort of boring after a few tries. He thought maybe he would finish later.
He still wasn't sure, though, what had happened to Seth. He knew he was there-- All of them were there. That kid hadn't been him, but it was close enough. It had made Badru feel better and that was all that mattered to him.
But, he was still bored. He got up and looked around the room. A pretty simple, normal room. He stood in the middle, looking at the door and slowly spinning in a clockwise direction.
"Door, end table, bed, end table - damn how many of those does he need... wall.. window... table... Hmm... What's that?" he said. He walked up to it and looked. It was like another mirror, but not a very good one. It was square and grayish, not very reflective. How long had he been in his own looking glass? Was this what mirrors were reduced to today?
He looked at the rim, a plane black edge. It was more like a box, really. At the bottom were buttons with writing on them that looked vaguely familiar but not enough. He poked one. Nothing. So he poked another. And another. And another. And with a strange zapping sound, the TV came to life.
Badru blinked. This was definitely weird. There were people inside the box. He laughed a little, and unlike most people would if put in his situation, he caught on right away, watching the action on the screen and mostly laughing at it. Then he wandered out of the room, looking at the rest of the house and looking at things.
The room he walked out into was pretty much tiny and empty. But the door next to it led into another room that seemed to house two people. He opened drawers and closets and rummaged through them without shame. In the dresser drawers there was only underwear, clothes and useless items, but in the closet, other than the clothes and shoes, he found a small case with weapons-- Two handguns, which he had never seen before, and a very nice hunting knife.
Sticking the knife in his pocket, he looked through the boxes on the top shelf of the closet. Inside one of them were official looking papers he could not read and pictures of him.
What were people doing with those? He shuffled around some more, looking at the unfamiliar settings, clothes and other people and realized that it wasn't him, but the person, whoever it was, that he was within. Why did they look exactly the same? He stuck a few of the papers in his pocket to figure out later and put the box back where it belonged.
Just then there were noises from the other side of the hallway door. Badru snuck quickly out of the room he was in, shutting the door quietly and going back to where he had begun, hiding the things he had taken in the bottom of a drawer and letting his presence recede. The real boy that belonged in that body awoke much later, feeling dizzy and confused. He was on his bed instead of the chair, the TV was on, and the mirror was its normal reflective self again.
No amount of staring or touching on Kanaye's part made the mirror change again. For some reason, he wished it would. Maybe next time. Or maybe someone had slipped something in his soda. Hey, it's been known to happen.
~
Seto was let back into the living room but kept getting suspicious looks from most of the others.
"Kaiba," Said Yami as he pointed to one sleeve of Seto's trench coat. "Lift up your sleeve."
Seto gave Yami an unconvinced look but rolled up the sleeve, revealing the identical marking as on Bakura's arm. Yami sighed, rubbing the side of his face in frustration. "This is making no sense at all."
Yugi glanced around at the group, getting an idea. "Hey Ryou. Would it be alright if a few of us stayed overnight? I think the best idea would be to keep an eye on Kaiba and Bakura in case something else goes wrong."
Ryou bit his bottom lip nervously, shifting uncomfortably from his seat. "I suppose so… but the way things look now, we're going to have to take shifts and we'll have to be on full alert in case the same thing happens to someone else…"
Joey put his hands up. "Oh no. I'm not stayin here, that's for sure. It's bad enough that Kaiba looks like he wants to kill me… I don't NEED him actually tryin to kill me. Besides… my dad'll kill me if I'm not home on time, ya know? Sorry to be a downer and all… I don't think he'll kill me literally…"
"Yea, that goes the same for me too, guys." Cut-in Tristan, scratching the back of his head. "My mom doesn't want me to be mugged… or something crazy like that. She's the really overprotective type of mom."
Téa spoke up. "… Looks like I'm not the only one. I got dance practice tomorrow morning and I wish I could stay to try to help. I really do, but I have a recital coming up soon and I can't miss any extra rehearsals."
"It's alright, you guys." Yugi said. "I guess we'll meet up tomorrow then. How about around lunch time in the park?"
The three nodded. Joey actually answered in words. "Sounds good to me, Yug. See ya tomorrow."
They said their goodbyes and left Ryou's house quietly, closing the door behind him.
"Well, I suppose you all should get comfortable if you're staying. What about you, Malik?" asked Ryou.
Malik took a glance at his yami, receiving a quick and almost unnoticeable nod from him. "Yea, we're staying."
For the remainder of the evening, the smaller group sat around silently, some watching television, some reading and only a few just staring off into space of something important. When it approached ten o'clock, sleeping quarters were set up. Yugi phoned his grandfather, just to let him know he was staying the night and Seto phoned one of his staff members to let Mokuba know that he could stay over at his friend's house for the morning.
"Okay. This is going to be a tight fit because of the amount of people. The empty rooms upstairs are my dad's room and a guest room we've had for years. Yugi and Yami can sleep up in my dad's room and Malik and Marik can bunk in the guest room. Chikara and Seto can stay down here, if they like or I'll find some cots or something and that leave my yami to sleep in my room." Explained Ryou. "Now, for the night watch schedule-"
"We'll take it." Marik said, cutting Ryou mid-sentence. "Malik and I can handle the night."
Yami glanced at Marik, raising an eyebrow. "Well thank you… but we should split up the times so at least everyone has some rest. There's four pairs of us so each group will get at least two hours watch."
"Yami and I will take the first shift." Declared Malik.
"… Alright, then I suppose it is settled." Yami said, giving the two an uncertain look.
Everyone else went to their designated sleeping accommodation except for Malik, Marik, Seto and Chikara. The four sat in silence for a few moments, not looking at each other.
"So…" Malik started. "If you two are tired, you may as well-"
Chikara sat in an arm chair silently, one elbow propped up on the arm of the chair and one hand covering her face as she looked down at the rug. "I'm not tired."
"That answers my question then…" Finished Malik, uneasy from the sudden change in mood.
Marik nodded towards the stairs, signaling for his hikari to leave. // Speak to the pharaoh about this…as ungrateful as he is… //
/ You can argue with him later, yami. / Answered Malik as he got up and left the room.
He walked up the stairs, and glanced around, looking for the room that Yugi and his yami were staying in. He found them and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Called out Yami as he looked back from the window, then he furrowed his eyebrows. "Oh… it's just you Malik…"
Malik wanted to roll his eyes at that statement but just shook his head slowly. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone."
Yami glanced towards the rest of the bedroom. "Yugi's getting a drink. Make it quick."
"Alright. My yami noticed something really weird. Weirder than what happened to Bakura and Kaiba. Chikara was about to figure something out but then something stopped her. My yami thinks it's her own yami that's preventing her from finding anything about these odd events. We only took the first shift to see if we could figure anything out. But if he can't, you're going to have to do it, then probably Bakura. If all else fails, we're going to have to get-" Malik paused, lowering his voice to almost an angry growl. "We'll have to get Shadi…"
Yami stood silently for a moment, letting the words bleed into his thoughts. "I suppose that is logical… but would it not be best to summon Shadi sooner than to make all the suspicion?"
Malik's hatred for Shadi rose slightly. "… You do whatever you want. Make sure you get the second shift, even if Yugi isn't awake."
"Alright then…" Yami answered.
Malik walked back down the stairs and entered the living room, seeing that neither Seto nor Chikara had left the living room. "You know, you two can go share the bed upstairs. You don't have to sleep down here."
Seto hung his trench coat on the coat stand in the front hall and sat back down, opening his laptop. "It's too early to be even tired."
"O… kay then. What about you, Chikara? Are you going to sleep upstairs?" Malik asked.
"… I'll go up later." Chikara answered quietly.
Malik shrugged and sat down on the couch, looking around uncomfortably.
// You know, the only possible way for us to find anything out is that we're going to have to force her yami to say anything… meaning, Shadi is going to do it. // Noted Marik as he crossed his arms.
His hikari sighed. / I know… stop reminding me. /
(And that's chapter 2. We have a reader! Yay! ^_^)
The group sat back down in the living room, a few on chairs and on the floor. Marik put Bakura down into an armchair that was handy and stood at one side, while Yami stood on the other side just in case Bakura was still a bit strange or even completely psychotic when he awoke. Those three made up a sort of corner while the other eight made a sort of semicircle to the right of them.
They sat for a minute or two in silence before Ryou sort of voiced the new primary concern. "Will he still be like... He was, when he wakes up?"
A murmur of unsure answers spread across the group. Yami crossed his arms and looked like he was thinking.
"Have any of you ever seen a symbol such as what was on the tomb robber's arm, ever before?" Yami asked. It was useless; each person shook their heads. He went back to thinking, as did everyone else.
Seto had been pacing a bit, and finally he sat down, next to Chikara, and sighed. "If we don't know what caused this, we should be very careful from now on," he said, a bit quietly, "whatever it was could have only been after him, but it could very we-"
He cut off mid-sentence, drawing in breath quickly with a slight flinch, and leaned sharply forward over his arm, groaning in pain but trying not to scream. Everyone was watching this time as a picture of a cobra curled around his arm, then began to glow in a golden hue.
Slipping off his seat and kneeling on the floor, he let out a scream which got everyone not only watching but also standing, ready for just about anything.
The glow died down a bit and Seto got up slowly, shaking and breathing heavily, keeping his head down. Then he looked up, all the shaking ceasing, and ran toward the first person in his line of sight, which just happened to be the still unconscious Bakura.
Marik stepped in his way, trying to block him and ended up getting tackled, falling back and hitting his head on the arm of Bakura's chair. Seto then started kicking Marik's mostly unprotected stomach and chest, making a noise that sounded like growling.
Yami grabbed him by the back of the collar, trying to pull him away and only managing to get kicked and punched at as Seto flailed around wildly.
"Don't just stand there gawking!" He said, roughly dropping Seto to the ground. He expected him to go straight back for him but instead he spun and ran at Joey, who was standing near the door to the kitchen. He stood there shocked, but just as Seto was about to ram into him elbow-first, he stepped out of the way, and Seto ran into and through the not-quite closed door of the kitchen.
"That was NOT cool!" he said, pulling the door closed before the now mostly insane person on the other side could figure out he had missed and run back in. Clicking the lock closed, he turned and looked at the others, leaning on the door and panting a little.
"This is ridiculous!" Scowled Yami, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever is happening is occurring much too quickly for any of us to understand what is going on. First the tomb robber and now Kaiba. This is making no sense at all."
He raised his crimson purple eyes towards Malik and caught the other's gaze. Malik puts his hands up defensively and shook his head. "You've got to be kidding me! I have nothing to do with this and I'm just as clueless are you all are!"
Marik groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head in agony. "Besides, if it was either of us, it would have been obvious-OW! Damn it... I think my skull is cracked..."
Most of the group jumped when they heard the kitchen door being rammed into.
"Uh... guys? Can you all stop pointing fingers for a second here? I think Kaiba wants out." Joey said uneasily, taking a few steps away from the door.
Téa brought her clasped hands to her face worriedly, side-glancing around. "Maybe whoever is doing this is taking us down one by one... saving the best for last."
All present eyes were directed to Marik as he stood up. He raised his gaze and was met with the stares of all the conscious people in the room. "Don't look at me like that! You crazy mortals keep making up all these Ra damned assumptions while you do not even know what the bloody hell is going on around here!"
Chikara sat back on the couch, slowly fixing her gaze to Bakura firstly and to the locked kitchen from time to time. Joey looked at her nervously. "Hey there! You're not going to go insane on us too, are you!?"
She remained silent, shifting her gaze back to each place with her face in an expression of puzzlement. 'Bakura... Seto...'
Yugi took a glance at what Chikara was looking at and turned his attention back to her. "Chikara? Is something wrong? Do you know something?"
"Oh, this is just great!" Whined Joey, getting into a panic. "First we got Bakura over here trying to kill people, then we got the older Kaiba trying to kill Marik over there and little miss psycho is probably gonna go crazy on us too!"
Something suddenly came to Chikara's mind, mumbling she said: "Bakura... tomb robber... Seto... high pr-AHHH!" She clenched her head and shut her eyes tightly. It felt as if her mind was being shocked constantly and the pain was getting worse. "Gods damn it all!"
The group looked at her fearfully, preparing themselves in case she was to be cursed as well. Chikara opened her eyes slightly, looking at the coffee table in front of her and the shocking had disappeared, but a pounding headache stayed behind. Yami cautiously approached her and grabbed her arms firmly, searching for any serpent marking. "... There's nothing."
Most of them breathed a heavy sigh of relief, now knowing that they were somewhat spared of another odd occurrence. Yami released his grip on Chikara's arms and looked down at her. "What happened?"
Chikara shook her head, then winced immensely. "I... don't know... I was just thinking of something... can I get some pain killers please? This headache... is killing me..."
Ryou spoke up, after taking a cautious glance at his darker half. "There's a bottle in the bathroom, I'll go get it."
"Get some for me while you're at it... after hitting my head twice in less than... I suppose fifteen minutes..." grumbled Marik as he rubbed the back of his head again.
"O... kay then. I'll just bring the bottle..." Ryou said, then he walked off down one hallway.
Marik sighed slowly and spoke to Malik through their link. // We have another problem... //
Malik, trying not to look too suspicious, looked down at the carpet. / What now? /
His darker half sighed again, running his fingers through his hair then wincing when he hit the tender bruised spot. // Something is going on in Chikara's head and my guess is that her darker half has something to do with it... you barely heard what she was getting at... muttering about the rich boy and the tomb robber... I think she was about to find something out when her own yami stopped her. Her yami knows something we don't and we're going to have to probe around her head to find out... //
Malik was about to reply when he saw Ryou enter the room out of the corner of his eye; shutting off the telepathic link with his own yami.
"Okay…" Ryou said, shaking out a few pills from the bottle he was holding and handing them to Chikara, then doing the same for Marik and dropping the bottle on the table. Both took the aspirin gladly and swallowed it dry. By this time everyone was at least attempting to calm down and things were quiet, except for the noises coming from the kitchen, which became less and less frequent and finally stopped entirely.
Chikara looked back at the door one more time, still holding her head. "Maybe we should check on him... He's... Being really quiet."
Joey, who was still standing at least a bit by the door, shook his head. "And take the chance of letting him out and having to do all that again? No way."
No one seemed to disagree with him, either, and no one moved to open the door. Chikara went back to staring at the table and waiting for the medicine to kick in. It was really annoying, that it was taking so long.
Bakura started to shift in his seat slightly, and all eyes turned to him, wondering if he would still be in the same state mentally.
"Holy-" he said, suddenly leaning forward and clutching his head, followed by a string of words that were definitely not holy. Everyone jumped. They were all nervous about what he would do once he looked up.
And then he /did/ look up, squinting at all of them, then pulling the bottle of aspirin off the table and downing a little more than he really should have and muttering under his breath as everyone continued staring at him, relieved.
"At this rate we'll run out of aspirin," Tristan said. He'd been kind of quiet the whole time and everyone just looked at him funny when he said that.
Bakura stood up and went walking towards the kitchen, noticing the door was locked. Yami walked over to him and pulled him aside.
"I wouldn't go in there yet... There were other developments while you were... Out," he said, quietly enough so the other two wouldn't hear.
"Such as..?" Bakura asked, crossing his arms.
"Kaiba had an episode like yours... Went strangely insane and tried to hurt some of us. We locked him in the kitchen," Yami paused for a moment, letting the words sink in and then continued, "I wanted to ask you, while I have the chance... Have you ever seen any marks such as what is on your arm? He had it as well... Appearing just before he started attacking everything in reach."
Bakura stopped and thought for a moment, looking serious. "I think.... I've seen it somewhere, but I can't quite remember." He traced the path of the snake up his arm. It was still there, but it was black now, like a tattoo, and didn't hurt to touch. The design looked so familiar, it was practically on the tip of his tongue. But there was nothing.
Meanwhile there was a slight tired knocking on the other side of the kitchen door. This time there was a voice behind it, though.
"What the hell is going on? Let me out /right/ now."
~
Badru was sitting in Kanaye's bedroom, on his desk chair, continuing to watch through the mirror. The revenge thing was fun for a while, but it got sort of boring after a few tries. He thought maybe he would finish later.
He still wasn't sure, though, what had happened to Seth. He knew he was there-- All of them were there. That kid hadn't been him, but it was close enough. It had made Badru feel better and that was all that mattered to him.
But, he was still bored. He got up and looked around the room. A pretty simple, normal room. He stood in the middle, looking at the door and slowly spinning in a clockwise direction.
"Door, end table, bed, end table - damn how many of those does he need... wall.. window... table... Hmm... What's that?" he said. He walked up to it and looked. It was like another mirror, but not a very good one. It was square and grayish, not very reflective. How long had he been in his own looking glass? Was this what mirrors were reduced to today?
He looked at the rim, a plane black edge. It was more like a box, really. At the bottom were buttons with writing on them that looked vaguely familiar but not enough. He poked one. Nothing. So he poked another. And another. And another. And with a strange zapping sound, the TV came to life.
Badru blinked. This was definitely weird. There were people inside the box. He laughed a little, and unlike most people would if put in his situation, he caught on right away, watching the action on the screen and mostly laughing at it. Then he wandered out of the room, looking at the rest of the house and looking at things.
The room he walked out into was pretty much tiny and empty. But the door next to it led into another room that seemed to house two people. He opened drawers and closets and rummaged through them without shame. In the dresser drawers there was only underwear, clothes and useless items, but in the closet, other than the clothes and shoes, he found a small case with weapons-- Two handguns, which he had never seen before, and a very nice hunting knife.
Sticking the knife in his pocket, he looked through the boxes on the top shelf of the closet. Inside one of them were official looking papers he could not read and pictures of him.
What were people doing with those? He shuffled around some more, looking at the unfamiliar settings, clothes and other people and realized that it wasn't him, but the person, whoever it was, that he was within. Why did they look exactly the same? He stuck a few of the papers in his pocket to figure out later and put the box back where it belonged.
Just then there were noises from the other side of the hallway door. Badru snuck quickly out of the room he was in, shutting the door quietly and going back to where he had begun, hiding the things he had taken in the bottom of a drawer and letting his presence recede. The real boy that belonged in that body awoke much later, feeling dizzy and confused. He was on his bed instead of the chair, the TV was on, and the mirror was its normal reflective self again.
No amount of staring or touching on Kanaye's part made the mirror change again. For some reason, he wished it would. Maybe next time. Or maybe someone had slipped something in his soda. Hey, it's been known to happen.
~
Seto was let back into the living room but kept getting suspicious looks from most of the others.
"Kaiba," Said Yami as he pointed to one sleeve of Seto's trench coat. "Lift up your sleeve."
Seto gave Yami an unconvinced look but rolled up the sleeve, revealing the identical marking as on Bakura's arm. Yami sighed, rubbing the side of his face in frustration. "This is making no sense at all."
Yugi glanced around at the group, getting an idea. "Hey Ryou. Would it be alright if a few of us stayed overnight? I think the best idea would be to keep an eye on Kaiba and Bakura in case something else goes wrong."
Ryou bit his bottom lip nervously, shifting uncomfortably from his seat. "I suppose so… but the way things look now, we're going to have to take shifts and we'll have to be on full alert in case the same thing happens to someone else…"
Joey put his hands up. "Oh no. I'm not stayin here, that's for sure. It's bad enough that Kaiba looks like he wants to kill me… I don't NEED him actually tryin to kill me. Besides… my dad'll kill me if I'm not home on time, ya know? Sorry to be a downer and all… I don't think he'll kill me literally…"
"Yea, that goes the same for me too, guys." Cut-in Tristan, scratching the back of his head. "My mom doesn't want me to be mugged… or something crazy like that. She's the really overprotective type of mom."
Téa spoke up. "… Looks like I'm not the only one. I got dance practice tomorrow morning and I wish I could stay to try to help. I really do, but I have a recital coming up soon and I can't miss any extra rehearsals."
"It's alright, you guys." Yugi said. "I guess we'll meet up tomorrow then. How about around lunch time in the park?"
The three nodded. Joey actually answered in words. "Sounds good to me, Yug. See ya tomorrow."
They said their goodbyes and left Ryou's house quietly, closing the door behind him.
"Well, I suppose you all should get comfortable if you're staying. What about you, Malik?" asked Ryou.
Malik took a glance at his yami, receiving a quick and almost unnoticeable nod from him. "Yea, we're staying."
For the remainder of the evening, the smaller group sat around silently, some watching television, some reading and only a few just staring off into space of something important. When it approached ten o'clock, sleeping quarters were set up. Yugi phoned his grandfather, just to let him know he was staying the night and Seto phoned one of his staff members to let Mokuba know that he could stay over at his friend's house for the morning.
"Okay. This is going to be a tight fit because of the amount of people. The empty rooms upstairs are my dad's room and a guest room we've had for years. Yugi and Yami can sleep up in my dad's room and Malik and Marik can bunk in the guest room. Chikara and Seto can stay down here, if they like or I'll find some cots or something and that leave my yami to sleep in my room." Explained Ryou. "Now, for the night watch schedule-"
"We'll take it." Marik said, cutting Ryou mid-sentence. "Malik and I can handle the night."
Yami glanced at Marik, raising an eyebrow. "Well thank you… but we should split up the times so at least everyone has some rest. There's four pairs of us so each group will get at least two hours watch."
"Yami and I will take the first shift." Declared Malik.
"… Alright, then I suppose it is settled." Yami said, giving the two an uncertain look.
Everyone else went to their designated sleeping accommodation except for Malik, Marik, Seto and Chikara. The four sat in silence for a few moments, not looking at each other.
"So…" Malik started. "If you two are tired, you may as well-"
Chikara sat in an arm chair silently, one elbow propped up on the arm of the chair and one hand covering her face as she looked down at the rug. "I'm not tired."
"That answers my question then…" Finished Malik, uneasy from the sudden change in mood.
Marik nodded towards the stairs, signaling for his hikari to leave. // Speak to the pharaoh about this…as ungrateful as he is… //
/ You can argue with him later, yami. / Answered Malik as he got up and left the room.
He walked up the stairs, and glanced around, looking for the room that Yugi and his yami were staying in. He found them and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Called out Yami as he looked back from the window, then he furrowed his eyebrows. "Oh… it's just you Malik…"
Malik wanted to roll his eyes at that statement but just shook his head slowly. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone."
Yami glanced towards the rest of the bedroom. "Yugi's getting a drink. Make it quick."
"Alright. My yami noticed something really weird. Weirder than what happened to Bakura and Kaiba. Chikara was about to figure something out but then something stopped her. My yami thinks it's her own yami that's preventing her from finding anything about these odd events. We only took the first shift to see if we could figure anything out. But if he can't, you're going to have to do it, then probably Bakura. If all else fails, we're going to have to get-" Malik paused, lowering his voice to almost an angry growl. "We'll have to get Shadi…"
Yami stood silently for a moment, letting the words bleed into his thoughts. "I suppose that is logical… but would it not be best to summon Shadi sooner than to make all the suspicion?"
Malik's hatred for Shadi rose slightly. "… You do whatever you want. Make sure you get the second shift, even if Yugi isn't awake."
"Alright then…" Yami answered.
Malik walked back down the stairs and entered the living room, seeing that neither Seto nor Chikara had left the living room. "You know, you two can go share the bed upstairs. You don't have to sleep down here."
Seto hung his trench coat on the coat stand in the front hall and sat back down, opening his laptop. "It's too early to be even tired."
"O… kay then. What about you, Chikara? Are you going to sleep upstairs?" Malik asked.
"… I'll go up later." Chikara answered quietly.
Malik shrugged and sat down on the couch, looking around uncomfortably.
// You know, the only possible way for us to find anything out is that we're going to have to force her yami to say anything… meaning, Shadi is going to do it. // Noted Marik as he crossed his arms.
His hikari sighed. / I know… stop reminding me. /
(And that's chapter 2. We have a reader! Yay! ^_^)