Note to the readers- Okay, this chapter is going to be quite angsty, and made even a little graphic at times. However, I need something cataclysmic in order to re-establish the bond. Enjoy, be scared, have suspense, and, above, all, enjoy. -A note to the readers
Seth heard the scream half way down the palace. He had currently been standing in the throne room, wondering where on earth the pharaoh and his Light could be, when the whole world seemed to come crashing to an immediate halt.
People began running about frantically, all in the same direction.
The Pharaoh's Royal Chambers.
Gasping for air, the high priest ran the entire length of the outer hall, slipping past fumbling servants and babbling guards. Nothing of what they were saying was coherent. At least, not that Seth could tell. The usual ten minute walk turned into a five minute run. If only he could move a little faster.
As if his prayer to Hathor had been answered, the royal oaken doors came into full view, surrounded by people.
He ran up to one of the guards that was trying to calm down a sobbing servant girl. "What happened," he questioned loudly over the commotion.
"I didn't do it," the girl sobbed. "I went in to put some linen away, and I…I…I almost ran into…." Her voice cracked, and she fell into another fit of sobs.
"You…you might want to go take a look, sire," the guard mumbled. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Seth finally noticed something, as he turned towards the door. No one…not anyone, was looking directly inside.
Gathering his wits about him, Seth stepped forward, intent on finding out just what happened.
A wall, it seemed, of white specked with red met his vision.
He gasped, covering his mouth when he realized just what he was looking at. He stifled a scream himself.
Yuugi's small body was hanging from the ceiling. Chains had been attached to the ornate ceiling, the young man's hands shackled to the ends. His head was hanging limply down, blood pooling down around him.
Seth almost wanted to cry as a drop of crimson liquid fell from the end of his toe to the floor.
Gods. He was covered in blood. Everywhere. Was he still alive? He certainly didn't look like it.
Stepping past the pools of blood that were still steaming, Seth reached up a tentative hand to the neck.
He was surprised and overjoyed all at once. The blood was still pumping, but weakly. He fought to find his voice. "Get the healers! Quickly! Guards, get him down!!!"
Those who were not weeping on the floor sped into action, scurrying for almost any excuse to get away from that room.
Seth looked around, noticing that some people had already released the contents of their stomachs from breakfast.
Wait…where was Yugioh? He looked over at the bed, finding it devoid of any people. Just…just a blood stained puzzle, broken in shards across the blankets.
Gods.
No…wait…there was more. Red? More of it?
The high priest walked to the far side of the bed, finding blood. Lots and lots of blood. Seth wanted to puke himself when he realized that there was enough of the vital fluid to fill three large bowls.
Yugioh had put up a fight. There were signs of the struggle everywhere. Blood on the walls, blood smeared across the floor. In fact…Seth followed it all the way to the balcony, where there were hand prints, making like they were clinging to the railing in one last desperate attempt to fight back.
The trail ended. The pharaoh was gone.
Moaning behind him snapped him back to attention. The healers were working furiously on Yuugi, and it appeared that he was barely beginning to wake up. "Get him out of here," Seth snapped. "He doesn't need to see all of this. Now!"
Twelve people helped to pick up Yuugi's limp form and they hurried out of there, relieved to be going and yet contorted with panic and despair.
Seth winced when he heard Yuugi cry out in pain.
~ * ~
The high priest walked vigorously back and forth, uncomprehending of what was truly going on at the moment. It all seemed so surreal. How could such a thing have happened? Why would they want to hurt Yuugi, of all people?
The bed in the small room he was in made a ruffling sound, alerting him that the occupant was slowly starting to come-to.
The healers and worked to heal Yuugi with all of their power, taking up the better part of the day and well into the night. The moon was up high now. Full, if he could still see it correctly.
He doubted he could see anything correctly any more.
"S…Seto?" Yuugi coughed as he tried to speak.
Seth frowned. "I'm here, Yuugi."
The young man struggled to sit up in the bed, looking lost. "Pharaoh." He turned his large violet eyes up to the priest. "Where pharaoh?"
He couldn't speak that much to them anymore now that the puzzle had been shattered. Seth shook his head sadly.
Yuugi appeared heart-broken. "Iie," he cracked. "Iie." He shook his head, his back beginning to heave with sobs. "Iie! Kare ga shitemoyoi de nai desu achira e imasu! Iie!" He screamed, hiding his head in his arms. (He can't be gone!)
He cried. Hard, desolate tears.
"Kare ga shitemoyoi de nai," he muttered feebly. (He can't be…)
Carefully, and with nimble hands, Seth laid out the broken pieces in front of him, cleaned of all traces of what happened to night before, and shining like new.
"Assemble," Seth said, hoping that he would understand.
Yuugi turned shining eyes over the pieces, looking at them like it was the first time he'd ever seen them.
Picking one up, he winced when it felt cold. Yami was…no. No, he was alright. And he would be found. He must!
With a renewed determination, Yuugi began to put the pieces back together, one by one by one. If he could assemble it in but a few minutes in that burning fire in the warehouse, then he could put it together here, too. He wasn't going to stop until it was complete.
~ * ~
Tekutet was silent as he stood next to the palace doors, the somber mood in the air tangible and crushing.
"What are you thinking about," Bebetu asked, absentmindedly cleaning the edge of his sword.
Tekutet shook his head. "No thinking. Just questions. I can't believe that someone would be able to do that to the pharaoh and the light all in one evening."
His partner scowled, kicking his foot against the stone floor. "If I could get out of here, I'd skin them alive."
"If you could find them," the guard retorted.
Bebetu frowned hard. "Only the gods know where the pharaoh is now…he could be anywhere you realize. Someone with the power to do so much harm…the power to move great distances as well."
"Let's hope otherwise," Tekutet said, silently thanking Isis that at least his family was still unharmed.
They turned their heads when a strange commotion sounded behind them. "Now who could be making trouble a this ungodly hour," Bebetu sneered, thirsty for some revengeful blood-shed.
"Sire…no!" someone shouted, pounding their way up the hall.
"I will only ask you to not argue with me once. I will not listen to this!"
Tekutet felt his jaw go momentarily slack when he saw just who was coming their way.
It couldn't be. So soon?
Yuugi came purposefully down the hall, the puzzle dangling from his neck, all reassembled and in one piece again. Seth was behind him, practically screeching at him to stop. "You need more time to heal!"
Yuugi whirled around, angered. "And give my darkness more time to die!? I'm going to find him, with or without help!"
Bebetu starred transfixed as Yuugi stomped past, sporting more still-healing scars on his body that an interrogated prisoner. If he was in pain, he was hiding it well. The puzzle was flashing menacingly as he went down the first flight of steps. It appeared that a horse was waiting for him below, with a stable-boy standing with it.
"You can't go out alone," Seth started again. "Especially at this time of night! Wait till morning, let a troop of soldiers go with you," he tried to reason.
"The guards will be better served here," Yuugi stated firmly. "With what I'll be dealing with, they would only get in the way."
He swiftly mounted the glimmering black stallion, a strange fire burning up his eyes. There was no reasoning with him at the moment.
"Hya!" Yuugi bellowed, giving the horse a firm kick to its stomach to make it go. It ran off with a hearty whinny as it headed down the steps, leaping down them four to five at a time.
Bebetu and Tekutet gazed onward at their retreating ruler, shocked. "Is…is…" Tekutet stuttered.
"Is he going to come back alive?" Seth asked. He shook his head sadly. "I have no idea."
~ * ~
Yuugi raced down the city streets, his head bent low and his determination fierce. He had to find Yami. There wasn't any way around it. He had to. He was the only one that could.
The puzzle could no longer tell where Yami's presence was, but Yuugi had the Shadows to guide him to wherever is his darkness was. And, if he was correct, it actually wasn't too far away. The scum that he was after was relatively close to the city, and if the images the Shadows were trying to send to him were accurate, it was an oasis that was not too far off.
By the gods, he had to be okay. If something happened…anything…Yuugi felt as if his heart would shatter just as the puzzle had.
The horse he was ridding was an Arabian. Small, lithe, and very, very fast. He could do this. He could find his darkness and save him.
…It was so strange. Never had he been the savior before. That was always Yami's job. He was the one that was always running around and saving not only him, but his friends as well.
Yuugi almost smiled when he thought about it. Yami had saved his friends so many times to win his trust and affections. It was all for him. It always had been.
People rushed to get out of the way of the swiftly-moving horse as he pelted their way, wanting more than anything to get the journey over with. If he could just get out of the city, he would only a couple of minutes left until he was where his darkness supposedly was being held.
Finally! The city gates whirred past, and he was out in the endless stretches of sands and sky.
A cold breeze whipped into his marred face, bruising his tender cheeks. The Egyptian nights truly were cold. Of course, he never realized before, being that his darkness was always with him…
Hold on, love, I'm on my way…
A palm tree came into view. The oasis! There it was! The horse bounded up next to it, stopping just short of entering the small grassy area completely.
There was nothing there. Absolutely nothing. What was he missing?
Another cold breeze blew past.
Uncover…
Yuugi turned his head around confused. Uncover? Uncover what?
Hiding…
His breath caught in is throat when he realized. The Shadows were trying to talk to him. They were trying to tell him what to do. Uncover…
Holding the puzzle in one hand, he charged the horse forth. Shatter and reveal…
Sparks and hooves crashed into an invisible barrier, shards of gray spraying around him.
It was there. It had just been covered by magic somehow, concealing a stone building in the middle of a convenient oasis.
He urged the horse to go in, using the puzzle as a light in the rather dark room that he was entering.
He wanted to puke. He had to. He wanted to scream, but his voice became suddenly frozen. He wanted to kill something, but his muscles simply wouldn't move. He wanted to die, but the Shadows stood firmly against it.
His darkness was here. This fact was, indeed, indisputable. However…it didn't mean that he was here.
He had been stripped naked, his skin gouged out in many areas. There wasn't a spot of skin on his body that wasn't covered in blood. But what was worse…
His neck was bound by a rope, hanging high up from the ceiling.
Too shocked to move, Yuugi couldn't tear his eyes away as the horse began to step closer. How had they done this to him? Did not he still have his powers? Where did all of his magic go?
The closer he got, the more he could see that the pharaoh's hands were not truly limp by his sides. It looked like they were resting against something…an invisible table suspended in the air right beside him.
Suddenly he saw it. The one wretched thing that had weakened his darkness. There was a spell-binding circle around his waist. It looked like gold spun in the air, and Yuugi knew from his duels that it weakened an opposing monster's attack points.
Every time he used energy, he became weaker.
The stallion walked right up next to the body, forcing Yuugi to look at it closely. Why was the horse doing this?!
In his anger, Yuugi grabbed at the gold writings and twisted at them with his bare hands, screaming. Taken from me again…for the last and final time.
It crumbled into nothingness before his very eyes.
One of the shards of gold went right through the rope, and the stallion steadied himself when the body tumbled onto his back, right onto Yuugi.
Allowing his tears to run down as they pleased, Yuugi brought the body up to cradle it, wiping away with infinite care the blood that was staining his darkness's face. Yami's mouth was partway open, a trickle of blood coming forth.
Yuugi placed his hand under the broken neck, supporting it with care. The blood still continued to pour out of numerous wounds.
Yuugi thought back to something he had read somewhere…what had it been?
The dead do not bleed.
Yami was bleeding…he was bleeding! He was alive! Was he?
Frantic, Yuugi placed an ear next to Yami's mouth, hearing the faint sounds of oxygen being breathed in and out.
His eyes widened. He felt the very weak pulse on the neck…and his bones felt rather in tact…
The rope hadn't caught him just right, so his neck didn't snap. If anything, he would have suffocated by morning…but he was alive! Alive!
Yuugi smiled, wanting to scream out with joy rather than in anguish.
The horse neighed quietly, slowly backing out of the room. The young man was suddenly brought back to attention. Yami's kidnappers were still here…
The Shadows became furious, lashing out at everything else in the room. Yuugi sat still, holding on to his beloved darkness. "I know you're hear," he hissed. "As much as I don't believe in killing, the Shadow Realm will not let you out of here alive."
The stallion turned sharply and left, running down the dunes of sand when a distant scream barely hit his ears.
Funny, Yuugi thought to himself. Grandpa always said that the Arabian horses he rode were so dingy. Must not have had the four thousand years of inbreeding, I suppose…
~ * ~
Hasina sat quietly on the palace steps, clutching a blanket close to her. The pharaoh stolen, the light gone…how much more could the city take? She had only meant to put the linens away that morning…she hadn't meant to cause any trouble.
She knew that it wasn't her fault what happened, but she still felt guilty being the one to find it. Not to mention traumatized.
There were noises in the streets. Looking, she saw that people were screaming about something, sounds of cheers or gasps or…something...drifted over her way.
A cloud of dust was being kicked up, steadily moving towards the palace steps. Could it be? So soon?
A head of spiky hair on a gallant black stallion charged up her way, Yuugi not even stopping up the large steps that led to the palace. In fact, she was quite surprise when she saw him plow right on through the doors, right into the main hall, still on horse-back. They skidded to a halt.
"Healers, quickly," Yuugi shouted. "Please, you must hurry!"
Hasina could see that the light no longer had on a cloak for the cold night air, but instead had the white material wrapped around another body in his arms, red seeping through here and there.
The pharaoh…
He'd brought him back after all.
The high priest came in bewildered. "He's…alive?" He was looking scrupulously at the blood-covered face.
"Barely," Yuugi choked. "He needs medical attention, quickly." There were tears streaming down his face.
Seth nodded, another dozen guards coming up to help get the pharaoh down off the horse as the green-clad healers raced up to meet them. Thank the gods that they still had magical abilities that could speed that healing process. In this instance, every second counted.
The young servant girl breathed out a sigh. They were back…and they were alive. Perhaps all would be well after all?
Yuugi got off the horse, giving it a large hug around the neck. "I want a good spot for him," he stated. "I've never seen a horse like this one. If he has no particular owner, I would like to keep him."
"I would be more than happy to give him to you, sire," a guard spoke up.
Yuugi smiled, falling to his knees in exhaustion. "Thank you, Bebetu."
Four or five people ran up to him, helping him to his feet. "We'll take you to your bedchambers, sire. They've been completely cleaned."
Yuugi shook his head tiredly. "Take me to my darkness," he asked, his eyes suddenly falling closed before he could catch them.
Seth nodded his head, following the healers who had already left with their cargo.
~ * ~
*squints* Please don't hurt me. Please? I can't help being a bit angst sometimes. If any of you read 'The Good Child,' you know what I mean. I promise though, nothing like this is going to happen again. It's all fluff scenes from here on out. Promise. Promise, really, I do!
