Chapter 28: Fare Thy Well
Kyle, Brian, Bill, and Yami batted away at the darkness, trying to see a little further a head, but failing. They had been walking for what felt like an eternity, of course Yami disagreed heavily to this; he did spend five thousand years in a puzzle and that is only a pin-head compared to forever. They had experienced more than their share of shadow creatures, and were at the point that they were as common as squirrels, and just as easy to kill.
"Did you see that last one? One shot! Didn't even touch me!" Bill said, beaming at his latest victory. Brian and Kyle looked at each other, shrugging, and deciding not to tell him about the giant black knife-like object pointing out of his back.
"Yes, that may be, but there are thousands more lurking in the shadows. You may have defeated a few, but they could kill us with shear numbers… we must find the others." Yami said, his puzzle growing stronger with light, as he walked. The others said nothing to this, and kept up with his pace.
~ ~ ~
"This job is tedious." TombRobber said, twiddling with a sharp knife he pulled out of the shadow realm (where he got it you can us your imagination), using it to clean his nails while he kept one foot on Joey's crumpled form, ignoring Marik's slow breathing on the floor. His ring was lighting a small sphere shaped light ball around him, as was Marik's rod, and Kakra's sword had when she sliced away at the darkness.
TombRobber sucked on his index finger a moment, slicing into the flesh and causing a drip of blood to start to pour, and took it out of his mouth again, looking down at the Egyptian Tomb Keeper casually, like they were two normal people about to talk at a bus stop, not in a black world with monsters around every corner, and three murderers lurking. They were two, of course, so they had nothing to fear.
"How would you like to play a game?" Marik lifted himself off the floor slowly, holding his head dizzily for a moment, and muttering something like 'bitch', as he made the world slow down.
"…What kind of game?" The ancient thief smiled, showing some very white and jagged teeth and his eyes bright and shinning.
"Not a shadow game, just a bet between friends." Marik laughed, a deep chuckling cackle, mostly at the word 'friends'.
"Alright, why not? What are we betting with? Our lives? Victims?" The white haired teen shook his head.
"No, No. Just for the benefit of the win." Marik raised his eyebrow.
"That is unlike you…usually you like to get something when you win."
"Well, maybe I'm having a change of heart…" Both teens snickered.
"What's the game?" Marik asked, standing on his feet, and crossing his arms patiently with ears open.
"Well, the game goes-" Abruptly he fell, legs suddenly unable to hold his weight, and his head slammed against the floor painfully. Marik started with disbelief down at the sudden appearance of another white haired boy, pinning TombRobber's hands down with both his hands, and sitting on his mid-section, with browns eyes staring into brown eyes.
"I've come to settle the score." Said Bakura very seriously, staring his double straight in the eyes showing no fear. TombRobber was taken off guard, and staring at him stunned on the floor, slowly nodding and noticing the great pressure being applied to his wrists. Marik didn't move, he watched with interest. TombRobber looked angrily at him, eyes flashing at his not so weak half and Marik.
"Well? Get him off me Marik!" Marik looked, purple eyes mocking, and shook his head.
"You were the one complaining of having nothing to do…I do not interfere with your business." And with that, he sat down, in Indian position, and watched the game unravel.
"Now listen to me, Spirit." TombRobber turned back to Bakura, irritated, and snarled.
"What do you want?!"
"Play a game with me. If you win, you can have all of the ring and my body and soul," TombRobber grinned.
"And if you should win?"
"If I win, you then give me the entire ring, and you free Malik." TombRobber thought about it, eyes looking up above his head, and at the sudden change of expression on Marik's face. After a moment, he grinned and nodded.
"You've got yourself a deal."
~ ~ ~
"You've been out numbered! Let go of her or feel our wrath!" Secacah said, pressing the knife into Kakra's skin, causing some blood to slowly drip down the blade and slip down her skin. Kakra's golden eyes widened, and she clenched her teeth, rage flaring, as she looked at Ann straight in the face.
"Damn you." Calendae beamed, looking at the faces of the crowd, grin widening. She turned to Ann, full of pride her eyes sparkled like rays of sunlight, and turned to Kakra triumphantly.
"You have lost. Kakra, give up!"
"HI GUYS!" A new voice suddenly shouted into the air, and everyone turned to four boys standing on a hill side to the right of the crowd. Bill, Brian, Yami, and Kyle were standing on the top of it, looking down at the scene occurring, Bill waving to everyone, and Kyle, Brian, and Yami gawking. All the daydreams looked up at them.
"HI BILL!" They all shouted in response. Ann hung there looking every confused as they slowly came down the side of the hill, Bill in the lead and running, then Yami just walking, then Kyle and Brian looking perplexed by the crowd.
"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through, make way!" The group shifted restlessly, some people grumbled, annoyed, and finally the four were in the front of the scene looking at Kakra and Ann.
"What is this?! Does this look like a welcoming committee to you?!" Ann said angrily. Bill blinked.
"No, it just looks like you need a spot of help…"
"I think I got enough, Bill." Bill looked around at all the female faces glaring at him, making the four of them huddle together; it is not smart to be in an angry mob of women. Bill ignored that comment, looked at Kakra, now starting to sweat, and eyes darting.
"You know, they can kill you in here…if they did, you'd be a vegetable." Kakra glowered at him, fingers twitching, and a little more than nervous.
"Think about it…you'd never see TombRobber again…" Every single daydream groaned at the sound of that, startling all the people born in reality except Ann. Okay, so they were mostly everything she wasn't.
The woman with the gun, Ann thought her name was Kalle, snorted with annoyance.
"Somebody shut him up." Another woman stepped forward, with flaming crimson eyes and raven black hair, spreading out her fingers, and flicking them in odd ways.
"With pleasure." Suddenly ropes sprung from smoke and wrapped quickly around Bill, acting like a boa constrictor, and rapping his mid-section, to his shoulders, to his feet, and tied a quadruple knot behind his ankles. Another twist of the thumb and he had a large red cloth stuffed in his mouth and tied around the back of his head. The women then carefully took one finger and pushed him a little, making him flop to the floor with a small thud, before wiping her hands off on her knees.
"There, now, please continue." Ann looked at Yami just staring in shock. Now, a little embarrassed, she spoke.
"Um, excuse me…" All eyes of many hues adverted respectfully to her, and about half the crowd started kneeling, making Ann blush.
"Oh due cut it out…everybody stand up." People started rising.
"Okay, I'm only going to say this once, Kakra, let go of me and get out…we'll fight out there, one on one, fair and square…deal?" Kakra seemed unbelieving a moment, but that fact changed as she saw Ann's face reflected she was completely serious, and she slowly took her sword down, as the jet-black knife, and Ann signaled Secacah to put the knife down, and she obeyed.
When Ann gestured, everyone backed off, and created a path, surprising not only herself, but her friends. She could tell from the look on Yami's face he was impressed, and told two of her best warriors to escort Kakra to the door and come back, make sure she leaves through the daydream door, _and_ the mind door. And with that the three were off, leaving Ann to deal with the crowd.
"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say," She began, nervously looking over the stern faces flocking around her so closely.
"I know I should be grateful, I'm which, I can not repay you, and I might suppose this may even be good-bye." She glanced at the direction Kakra had left in.
"But, it's been fun guys. Thanks for everything…"
"We thank you. You gave us life inside your mind…" the women with the bow said loudly to be heard. That was sort of an odd thing to hear coming from a person, and Ann wasn't quite sure how to react.
"We can help you, on the out-side, with some techniquess…" The magician said, flicking some raven-hair out of her pale face. Ann smiled, but shook her head.
"No, I'm sorry, you only know what I know or what I've made up, and that wouldn't help me on the outside." Bill squirmed on the ground, rolling into her feet and trying to talk through the gag.
"Um…I think you can ungag him not…" The magician smiled, and pulled her sleeves back.
"Certainly, allow me…" She twisted her middle finger about her index, causing the ropes and gag to puff into a ball of smoke, leaving Bill blinking and hauling himself to his feet in moments.
"You've _got_ to teach me how to do that!" The girls ignored that comment.
"What did you want to say?" Ann asked.
"Oh, that, well…Ammon said, when he needed me to make the house, that magic was very simple for us. Usually, you'd need a lot of supplies if you were in your original world, but we're in a different reality, and we can basically just wish for something." Ann stared at him for a bit.
"Are you telling me that I didn't have to run around, get sent to the hospital, run around some more, all because you didn't tell me this?! I could kill you right now." Bill grinned.
"You'll have to kill me later…no, you couldn't before because you've always believed all of this was real off the bat, in our world, in this world, that none of it was ever made up. Personally, you have more power than me…lucky son of a-"
"Get on with it, Bill."
"Oh, yeah, well, I had to figure out that the place was real before I would wish for anything. If you want something enough, you can get it. Basically you did it when Kaiba's building was down the street from where we where that day after the hospital, you just didn't know about it. Or even when the door wasn't holding and Yami and Kaiba couldn't hold it, you actually sealed it shut. Get the picture?" Ann nodded, even though that was easier said that actually done. Bill seemed to notice this.
"Don't worry, you'll know how when it comes to it…come on, we better get this over with…" He started to the door, Yami, Brian, and Kyle following. Calendae held her back a moment with the rest of the crowd.
"Ann, I can't help you in that fight, so you know." Ann nodded.
"And another thing…I'm not sure I'll be around after it…and I wanted to say that…"
"You don't need to say anything." Ann told her, feeling herself getting misty, good-byes were always over-rated. Calendae suddenly threw her arms around her and squeezed. Ann froze for a moment, and let herself give in by hugging back.
"I'm going to miss you."
"Don't worry about it; I know you'll find a way around the rules…" Ann told her, and smiled.
"And now, I have to do the equivalent of saving a world…funny isn't it? When you actually have to do something like that it is a lot harder than how it sounds… see you later, Calendae…I hope…I don't know what I hope… and as for the rest of you, wish me luck will yeah?" The smiled and waved, bidding them what she hoped wasn't a finally fare-well, and slowly turned to the big gapping white door way, leaving for the former reality.
BookDragon: "I'm going to finish this really, really soon, maybe two weeks. Not another month…as for right now, check out www.perfectduel.com. They got these awesome Yu-gi-oh (which I don't own) music videos!
Bill: "Review please!"