A/N: (stares in horror) I haven't done disclaimers! I Haven't Done Disclaimers! (hrows herself at hopefully forgiving reader) Le Grovel de Terreur!
Official Disclaimer: No one here is mine. Not even Sarah, despite the fact her creator complimented me on how In Character she was. (preens and struts)
Come What May
Chapter Two
Yami shrieked in denial.
Yuugi screamed at the darkness that seemed to abruptly flood his mind.
Pegasus giggled at the resistance of his little sacrifice.
And the door flew open.
A figure stood there, silhouetted in shadow. Her head was lowered in absolute rage, and her gloved hands shook as they held a katana. Affected by the ominous torchlight, the sword, too, glowed red in a whisper of foreshadowing and doom. Slowly, she raised her head, and across the room, Pegasus saw crimson eyes flash with fire.
"…Die, you sicko."
She stepped forward, still shaking in fury, but moving as smoothly as a black panther. In this manner, she glided across the floor, overturning or leaping over the various objects in her way.
"Pegasus. I heard everything. How dare you assume you have the right to control our lives? I hadn't done anything to you. Neither had Yuugi." She paused for a moment, and pretended to look thoughtful. "Would this be because you lack anything resembling a brain, or because you have no heart? Perhaps all you need is courage?"
She grinned, a nasty, lip-splitting grin that traveled its crazy way across her face. Her eyes flashed again, and the bracer on her arm began to glow butter-soft yellow.
Pegasus' eyes widened as he took in her appearance. Her hair was disheveled, her pants were torn, and she had a nasty bruise below her left eye. "S-Sarah? How did you…?"
"Get in?" she finished. "Well, I could tell you that a mystical fairy granted my wish to be where Yuugi was. I could tell you that I snuck in through your heating ducts. However, what I think I'll tell you instead is that I infiltrated your stupid castle, beat up your guards, and then made your main goon let me in."
Pegasus twitched, then rapidly pulled the lever that automatically summoned his personal henchmen.
The clanging echoed throughout the hall, causing the torches to vibrate in their stands. Pegasus giggled some more and turned expectantly to the door.
There was a dramatic pause.
The door stayed shut. Unknown to all but Sarah, the giant remained slumped in his chair, a red welt forming on the back of his head.
Red-eyed Sarah now stalked towards the white-haired menace who had been lost to heartbroken insanity. But there was no mercy in her red eyes as she crept ever closer. Finally, after all this time, she had caught up with the man who was responsible for the current torment of her life. Her mind raced behind her smirk as she tried to figure out how to defeat Pegasus. Should she slice his head off? Or perhaps just his hands? The angelically winged dragon on her sword seemed to glow with bloodthirsty agreement for either one.
She knew for sure, though, that she would never be abused again. She would never be bullied or menaced into doing something she didn't want to. This event with her so-called family was just being recreated with Pegasus. Why couldn't it just go away and leave her alone? Why not?
Her tongue slid out unconsciously, wetting her lips in anticipation. Oh, yes. Pegasus would pay…
"Sarah! Sarah, please! Be careful!"
Wha-? Yuugi? Yuugi was here!
Suddenly, the world washed back into real colours. There was no ultimate good or evil, and everyone deserved a second chance. That was how she had gotten to where she was, after all. She blinked and shook the red haze from her mind. She still longed to defeat Pegasus, but first she had to rescue Yuugi.
He didn't look very comfortable, after all.
And how long had he been lying there while she had reveled in morbid thoughts? 'Too long,' was her immediate reply. 'Yuugi doesn't deserve to be tied up in the first place! He never did!' She switched direction and headed over to the bound duellist.
Suddenly, a red business suit loomed in front of her, and a fist whisked through the air towards her head. She watched it approach in seeming slow motion, and then her ninjitsu skills activated and she did a mid-air summersault backwards. She landed half a step behinds where she had previously stood, then ducked and swept her right leg out and up. It was a risky move, but it worked all the time. Her opponents never saw it coming.
And Pegasus dodged.
"You forget, my dear, about my Eye! It predicts all your movements! It is therefore impossible to defeat!"
In retaliation, Sarah launched a devastating stream of punches at the smug face, secretly buying time. She noted with dismay that Pegasus – that jerk – was easily dodging all of them, and smirking as he did so!
Well, that couldn't be fair.
She back flipped again when Pegasus decided to go on the offensive.
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Yuugi stared intently around the statues that surrounded him, trying desperately to keep track of who had the upper hand in the fight. He didn't approve of fighting to begin with, but he admitted to himself that he'd rather have a fight than to die.
He stared some more. It was almost as if he were watching a card game, between a challenger and a champion. Sarah was a very good fighter, after all. But Pegasus seemed to have the advantage. He could predict movements and was fast enough to somehow avoid her lightning-quick attacks.
"Come on, Sarah!"
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Yami's crimson eyes tracked the duel between the two opponents. There was no doubt, no matter how much he wished otherwise, that Sarah was on the losing side. Despite the sheer power he could sense radiating from her, it was untapped and wild, and she could only rely on her mere mortal strength – considerable though it may be – against a man who could channel the immense power of the Ancients.
And his aibou was still in danger. This gnawed at his very essence, the fact that he was unable to guard his precious against the dangers of the physical and spiritual world. Wasn't there anything he could do?
Wait.
There was… But did he dare?
He watched the fight with renewed interest. Sarah's strategy was sound, but most importantly, he began to analyze her character itself. She was fighting for herself, true enough, in order to banish the impossible demons from her past. Foremost, though, he saw she was also fighting for Yuugi. Underlying tension for his aibou lay rampaging just beneath her surface, and fuelled the strength behind punches and kicks that should have lost their strength long before now.
He nodded, still confined uselessly in his golden prison. She had the golden bracer on her arm, which also throbbed with ancient power. That would make this easier.
Smirking, he reached out and lent his power to the brave fighter who continuously lashed out in the dimly lit hallway. Useless? He thought not.
Now, if only it could be enough to defeat the menace that was Pegasus
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Pegasus smirked as he Saw the punch that the girl was about to deliver. He dodged to the left and then ducked, missing the leg that seemingly flew out of nowhere. He grinned. It was true that this brave little future sacrifice had lasted longer than he'd ever imagined, but she would begin tiring any minute now…
Any minute. He Knew this, just as he Knew that she would throw her ninja stars at him.
He dodged them in rapid succession.
Suddenly, her mind became clouded with the golden, overlaid presence of another. It was faintly reminiscent of Yuugi-boy, but it was startlingly different, reeking of old, powerful blood-magic. It was enough to confuse him and miss Seeing the punch aimed right between his eyes.
"Ow!"
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Sarah stared in shock as she actually managed to land a punch. She watched in shock as Pegasus stumbled back and landed on the floor, completely off balance. Shaking, he brought up his hand to cover his nose gingerly.
"Ow… I dink you broke by nose!"
She brought back her hand in shock and stared at it. For a second there, the punch had seemed almost…magical. What could it have been?
She shook off her temporary confusion as easily as she shook off the sweat that poured down her face after that session. She swiveled on her heel, and then rushed over to where Yuugi was still laying on the cool slab of rock. She picked up her katana once more and brought it high overhead. The dragon on the blade glowed incandescently for a fraction of a second and the light bounded around the room. It banished the menacing shadows as the heroic act was committed to the room's memory forever.
Then the moment was gone, and Sarah brought her katana down with enough force to slice Yuugi's chains cleanly in two. His arms remained in their upright position for a while, as if stunned at the freedom they had suddenly been given.
The trapped legs were next, and the chains broke cleanly as if they had been given life to fly away from the legs they had unwillingly been holding. Then, Sarah sheathed her katana and offered a gloved hand to Yuugi as a gentle support.
He smiled upwards, oh so gently, and took it. He slowly stood and let his legs re-accustom themselves to holding his weight. It was the perfect moment … except. Except there was something missing. A critical part of himself still called out to him from close by…
Yami! He wrenched away from Sarah's supportive position, and stumbled across the room to where his Puzzle still lay, glowing faintly. It was with a great sigh of relief that he slipped the burden back over his head, embracing the weight with his entire being.
{Yami? Are you ok?}
{{Aibou! I should be asking the same thing. Are you injured?}}
{Ask me about that later. We still have to worry about Pegasus.}
Ominous darkness suddenly surrounded Yuugi's mind as Yami growled in anger. {{Pegasus… We shall destroy him.}}
{No! We can't destroy him! He's human! He's alive!}
{{He hurt you!}}
{…} Yuugi had no answer to that. Still, he found he didn't need one. Slowly, ahead of him, Pegasus was staggering to feet.
{{Aibou. Allow me.}}
The seductive call of the dark was soothing to the little hikari, who gratefully sunk into the bed in his soul room, secure in the knowledge that he was now safe from everything. In his place, Yami no Yuugi stared out of slanted, crimson eyes at the recovering man. "Pegasus. You challenged me to a duel, and now you have cheated in trying to harm me. You should be disqualified from your own game. How does that strike you?"
Pegasus glared, blood still streaming down to soil his previously crisp, white shirt. "You brat! How dare you defy me?" Suddenly, he calmed down, lost again in whatever world he called reality. "No matter. I shall pretend this incident never happened, and that way I shall defeat you in my own game when you reach the top. And then, oh, then, my beloved…" he trailed off, crooning nonsense to himself. He sunk back down onto the ground, rocking back and forth and hugging his knees.
"My beloved, my darling, my one and only, oh, soon, it shall be soon. We shall be together forever and always, my darling beloved…"
Sarah had marched out, back ramrod straight, at the first sign that Pegasus had crumpled. Yami, however, spared a sympathetic glance at the already defeated man, before predicting the future in his own way.
"You're wrong, Pegasus. As long as we duel with honour and trust, we shall win this tournament."
With those fateful words, he, too, turned the tired body and headed out the door, to where Sarah stood waiting for him in the shadows.
"Come, Sarah. We should return to the camp. Already we have been away for too long, and I would not wish to worry our other friends."
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Back at the camp, only Jou and Honda remained awake, sharing dirty jokes about the two absent members. Anzu and Ryou slept on soundly, burrowed as deeply as they could be in their insufficient sleeping bags.
In the middle of the circle, the campfire burned steadily, illuminating the immediate area. However, it still managed to cast an odd light on the Ring, which lay openly on Ryou's chest.
There, it glowed blood red.
Ryou's face scrunched up in his sleep and he shifted, turning his body over to lay on his stomach. The Ring vanished from sight, then, and all that could be seen was Ryou's silver hair, made brilliant by the moonlight.
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TBC
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A/N: I blink in confusion. That wasn't supposed to be creepy. And where did Ryou come from? Blink. Blink. Perhaps it's ominous foreshadowing for the soon to be upcoming canon scene where Bakura takes over and makes Yami duel him for the chibified friends? …Yes. That's it.
Still! Cute little happy epilogue is next! No angst there! I promise!
BTW, I totally apologize for the crappy fight scene. I'm no good at writing action. Le pout of les Feelings de Inadequacy.