Fate: Ehehhe...well, when I said 'weekend', I meant, y'know, my long weekend. Which ends today. So, uh, here's the update.
Disclaimer: We're tired. We're not going to fight for it. You do that.
&
"What do you mean?" Ryou asks softly, looking up at me. For a moment I can't see him, only long red hair and gold-gray eyes and freckled cheekbones, but then he snaps back to being white and silver and platinum and pale. My head is spinning, confused and tortured in the wake of that brilliant smile the mirror of its predecessor's--bright and starry and oh-so-malicious, even if he can't see it...
"She smiled like that, when I first met her," I muse aloud.
"She?" Ryou inquires softly. "You had girl hosts too?"
I nod, closing my eyes briefly as the three females parade across my mind's eye.
"You didn't turn into a girl?" Ryou inquires. At any other time, this would have provoked an indignant screech and an immediate couch-cushion fight, since he would have followed it up with some form of insult. Which, of course, I would normally counter. But now the words simply fall sick and flat between us.
"I only changed relative to their age, since time was immaterial for me. All other physical aspects stayed the same," I specify.
Again, this could have been the start of a cushion fight that ended in the most physically compromising fashion...in an alternate reality where I wasn't mentally making a list of where all the knives were and considering how best to temporarily get them completely out of my access.
"Yami," Ryou prompts, his eyes flicking to the clock on the wall.
I blink, then avert my eyes from his face. "I know."
Ryou shifts slightly, uncrossing his legs from under him and allowing the feeling back into my feet. I resolutely ignore the trickling, fiery sensation washing up through my ankles and open my mouth.
...
I woke up screaming, raving for blood, snatching wildly at the knives under my clothing and flailing at everything around me. I distantly heard a shriek as I hit something which fell away with a splash of something warm, then all was silent except for the pounding of my blood in my ears and my own hysteria.
I blindly crashed into things, sometimes falling through them, my eyes closed tightly in a futile effort to arrest the pattern of gold hoops and glaring eyes dancing on my eyelids.
I don't think I knew I'd been knocked unconscious until I woke up again with a blinding pain behind my eyes.
My lids drifted apart, revealing a blurry reddish shape crouching over me. I felt the pressure of someone kneeling on my chest, forcing the Ring to bite into my chest and shocking me back into reality. Equally awakening was the screaming in my head.
//Don't you dare go back to sleep, don't you fucking dare!//
/How did you learn how to speak like that so quickly?/ was my dazed reply.
//Is there another way to get through to you?// the figure hissed. //You're a spirit. You speak no earthly tongue, fiend, and all who lift their voices in your presence have their souls eaten.//
I blinked hazily. The red figure began to consolidate into a person with long red hair gripping something in their left fist.
//Don't just bat your eyes at me, spirit!// was the furious reaction. //I can exorcise you if I must, by using the power in this cursed necklace! I am the worthy one, as all others who tried to wear it were eaten by darkness! I deserve to hold it, and I will master it and you!//
The blurriness was fading from my vision, allowing me to see that it was a young woman kneeling on my chest, with sections of her red hair tied up in hanks around her face. The item in her left hand was a spear, held inexpertly near the blade and pressing into my throat.
I tried to lift my arms and felt pain pricking up from my collarbone. Warm blood streaked down my neck as the woman snarled, //It's no use reaching for your weapons, spirit. I stripped you of them while you lay defenseless in your stupor, and while you are in this sacred room, you can do no magic against me.//
Her finality and temerity to rob me while defenseless collectively galled me into action. /Oh?/ I asked, searching in my mind for the sensation of having as much body weight as air. /Can't I?/
The feeling caught and held--
The woman crashed to the floor, falling through my insubstantial form. Her ungainly descent snapped the spear shaft as she fell clumsily on it. I scuttled back, away, and to my feet. I forced my body to regain mass, stumbled slightly, and reeled forwards into a table. My weapons were fortuitously lying upon it, and I snatched at them and slung the belt that held them across my shoulder.
The woman dragged herself to a kneeling position and glared up at me, clutching the piece of spear that held the blade defensively. //Foul creature,// she spat. //I will not speak to you and sell my soul, much though you try and provoke me.//
/I don't want your soul,/ I returned. /I want the rest of these,/ I snapped, briefly pulling the Ring away from my chest. /All others who have worn it were pretenders to its power and unworthy to control me,/ I goaded her.
Her face twisted into ugly rage. //I am worthy.// She stood up and took a step towards me, brandishing the spearhead. //There are more sacred talismans with power?// she asked breathlessly.
/Seven,/ I told her, watching for her reaction. /I want them all./
//I want them!// she retorted. //I deserve power after this dismal life. Little incantations to heal a sick pet, a few stitches to close a moderate wound, any of that can be done by a simple healer. I have the capacity for greatness and that greatness will never be reached while I'm stuck here in servitude to this horrid tribe! I am a prisoner of war, forced to exploit my powers for these heathens. The power belongs to me!//
/Do you want them destroyed?/ I asked, slightly maniacally.
I want to kill things...I want life to be crushed in my hands...I want to be GOD...
Her eyes narrow. //Yes,// she says, her assent a hiss.
I extend my left hand to her, palm up. /I want what you want, and I will kill without remorse./
Her hand darted out and seized mine. //Spirit, bow to my will,// she ordered.
I laughed. Laughed and laughed and laughed until the anger on her face had fallen to fear and confusion. /An exchange of names and your wishes will be my command,/ I gasped out between bouts of tearing, near-hysterical laughter. /But I will never bow to your will when it is not mine as well. Remember this...?/
//Aya,// she said, her nails biting into the back of my hand as she interlaced our fingers.
"Sell your soul to me, Aya," I taunted her aloud. "Bakura is my name...Bakura the thief untouched even by a pharaoh's wrath."
Her eyes narrowed. //You speak a language long dead.//
"I am long dead," I replied. "You understand me?"
//Perfectly.//
"Say my name, Aya. Say it and seal it," I order her, my fingers digging into her skin as well.
She lifted her chin defiantly, then raised her eyes to mine and stared directly at me. They were mismatched — one gold-brown and one grey. "Your will as my will, Bakura. Slay my captors and bring me power," she said haltingly, her feeble command over my tongue not hiding the mad lust for ultimate control.
"Your soul is mine, Aya," I told her mockingly. "Even though I don't want it. I'd give you my heart, but it's not there for me to give away," I lie flippantly. "And my own soul belongs to the great Lady of Judgment and her trinket to keep me in line."
"But it's not your Lady who's wearing this 'trinket', and your heart is never yours to give," Aya responded, a cruel smile lighting her face with an unholy glow. "I'll take either as collateral from the person who owns it."
"Do I owe you a debt already?" I asked.
Aya's lips curl to show her teeth. "You may."
A shout came from outside, followed by a man poking his head into the room from a door to the left of Aya.
Rage crossed Aya's face as she whirled to face the intruder. She held out one hand angrily in a banishing motion. The man shook his head stubbornly and seemed to be about to take a step into the room.
//YOU WILL NOT ENTER!// Aya screamed, both in voice and mind. She flicked the wrist of her already-outflung hand angrily, sending shadows to envelop the man. They wrapped around his face and limbs, dragging him to the floor and beginning to dissolve him.
"What did you do?" I asked, wondering how this woman knew more about this cursed Ring than I did.
"Nothing more than to inflict what any pretenders would bring upon themselves," Aya replied casually.
I laughed again. "You have no idea what real pretenders must face."
"I may yet," Aya said slyly. "And I may yet not. But I think we have a while before I know, am I right?"
I nodded.
"Then free me from this prison. I have yet to be outside these walls since my capture," Aya said, heading for the door. She stopped and extended a hand back to me without looking. "Coming, thief?"
"That's only one of my titles," I replied with a small smile.
"Tell me another," Aya said as she drew me outside and down a street.
A woman charged at us, raising a basket and flinging it at Aya with an angry yell.
I didn't think, merely acted and summoned a creature unseen on the material plane since the days of Yami.
"Demon-tamer," I answered as the Man-Eater Bug rose above us. "I learned to summon demons from the priests who tried to stop me in my endeavors."
"Demon-tamer," Aya purred as the Bug masticated the woman who had threatened us. "Anything else?"
I flicked one of my knives out and balanced it between my knuckles, loading the gaps between my other hand's fingers with raven's feet. "Murderer was a common one," I replied, turning sideways and glancing up and down the street. /Down./
Aya ducked as a crossbow quarrel whistled through where she and I had been. Aya growled and gripped her makeshift dagger angrily, spiderwalking back off the path and angling herself to lunge at her attacker.
"I was called hot-tempered," I continued, flicking a raven's foot into the throat of the man before she got too close. She straightened and glowered at me. "I was also called cold-blooded," I remarked. "Odd, that."
"Stop taking my kills," Aya said through clenched teeth.
I smirked. "I am a thief. Come take them back from me."
//Down.//
I hit the dirt as Aya leapt clear over me and tackled another man to the ground. She drove the spearhead straight into his eye, then went again for his throat and heart, stabbing wildly as blood sprayed over her.
"That man is dead," I said idly.
"I...don't...care..." Aya replied tensely. She jammed the blade in one last time, then jerked it free and rose to her feet. "I want to slaughter them all. They don't kidnap and enslave a mystic without getting at least a little payback."
"That's where my Man-Eater Bug comes in," I reminded her, waving the beast forwards through the streets. Another scream that was abruptly cut off signified that some unsuspecting civilian had met a grisly end.
I could but smile.
"We're home free, you realize," I told her. "You can go."
"I wanted to see this place in flames," Aya said disconsolately. "Can't you summon a demon to do that?"
I felt my mouth curve into a smile as I searched inside, drunk on the new power that I'd discovered in me. "Yes, I can..."
I passed my hand along a row of wooden houses, fire trickling in a wake from my fingers. I brushed past everything flammable, touching and poking at random items as I went by. Aya held my other hand and guided me out as my sight began to blur red again, with purplish-black hovering in my peripheral vision. She caught me as I fell...
"This is becoming a habit," Aya said, her hair falling in sticky clumps across her bloodstained face.
"It is." She pulled me to my feet and I looked at the rubble behind us.
"You're useful to me, Bakura," Aya said decisively as she tugged me away across the plains. "But that doesn't mean I'll turn a blind eye to you. One false move to me and you'll be back in the spirit world."
"I'm not your puppet," I hissed, memories of being moves to kill as if on strings racing through me in sick waves.
Aya laughed. "Aren't you?"
I whirled and grabbed at her neck, her laughter washing over me as she skipped back out of the way. "Touchy, aren't you, my little pet?"
"I'm not yours," I retorted. "You're mine!"
"Sure, pet," Aya said smoothly, walking up beside me and draping an arm across my shoulders. "Of course. I sold my soul, didn't I?"
We traveled across the endless stretches of green stuff that Aya called 'grass', following her vague directions in search of her former home. After an interminable time traveling, we finally happened upon a gate surrounded by guards.
"This is it," Aya said, satisfaction in her voice. "I know this is it. I was only four when I left, but I'd know this place anywhere."
"What about them?" I asked, nodding towards the guards.
"What about them?" Aya parroted carelessly. "I'm their lost mystic. They'll love to have me back. Having a mystic bound by birth to your city is always a prize."
"You're not bound to anything but me."
"Oh, I am, am I?" Aya replied archly. She strode ahead of me over to the guards, her hair flying out in a rippling dark banner behind her. She spoke to the men at the gate. They didn't reply. She spoke again, more impatiently. She sighed and put a hand on the knife hidden at the back of her belt, opening her mouth to speak again--
One of the guards put out a hand and pushed her hard in the chest, sending her reeling back towards me. She fell clumsily at my feet, then leapt up once more and snapped out her weapon, advancing with her free hand held out. //Bakura!//
/What?/ I answered.
//This...this isn't...these aren't my people,// Aya stammered. //My city has been conquered.//
/And?/ I inquired.
//And what?// Aya screamed angrily. //They've killed everything of mine in the years I've been gone!//
/Then why don't you do the same for them?/ I pointed out.
Aya screamed again, this time aloud, flinging her arms out helplessly and falling to her knees in front of the guards. //I can't! I just can't!//
This was very disconcerting. Aya wasn't the type to collapse screaming when defeated. After gods knew how long it'd been traveling with her and living in her mind, I felt I could safely say that. And it wasn't a show for the guards, because the worst of it was all in our minds.
/Get up./
Silence.
/Aya, get up!/
Aya shook her head mutely. One of the guards sighed impatiently and stepped forwards, raising a spear not unlike Aya's original weapon of choice.
/That is it! AYA!/ I screamed. /You're useless!/
//...I know...//
I stared at her blankly for a second--
Then the world went red.
I gaped at the spear sticking through my chest, then angrily forced myself to brief insubstantiality, wrenched myself free of the spear, and jerked it out of the offending guard's hands. I promptly whirled and sliced at the head of the guard going after Aya, then jerked my redheaded host to her feet and ran for the gate.
"Aya!" I yelled at her as we screeched to a halt in front of the gate, my closing wound spraying blood. "Aya, talk to me!"
"I always dreamed of coming back here and ruling," Aya said haltingly. "I always wanted to rule, you know. And with your mystic power, it would be so much easier. But now...now..."
"Now we have to kill them all first," I said carelessly, scanning the gate and running over the incantations in my mind. "Ookazi!"
A gout of fire burst out and melted the metal, opening a path for us and obliterating the guards on the other side.
Aya's hazy eyes cleared slightly with their screams. "Make them suffer."
"Do you think they're wealthy?" I inquired as I summoned my Man-Eater Bug with the mental equivalent of a practiced flick of the wrist.
"Would you like to rob them, pet?" Aya asked.
Normally I would have spazzed at hearing the loathed nickname, but her use of it obliquely reassured me. "Blind."
Aya's knuckles were whitening from her grip on her broken-off spearhead. "Good," she hissed. She raised her free hand to her neck and pulled a necklace off, one-handedly untangling it from the Ring and holding it in front of her. "Above all else, I am the mystic bound to this city, and I will defend it even when it is lost," Aya said, sounding as if she were speaking to herself rather than to me. The lumpy bits of clay and rock strung together began to glow faintly as she whirled them around, then began emitting sparks.
"One massacre, coming up," I said, raising another monster to the physical plane to do my bidding.
"Can I learn to summon demons like that?" Aya asked distractedly as her sparking beads emitted a jet of light that turned a charging horde of men into ashes.
"Probably," I replied. "I learned by having priests cast them at me one too many times. I'm in your mind, you should be able to manage it."
Aya closed her eyes, her beads sparking and glowing in her limp hands. I could feel her opening the door of my soul room and searching inside, but I wasn't sure that we could afford to stand there and wait for her to figure it out. I grabbed her hand and towed her body along the streets, searching for somewhere from where we could base our attack. Some treasure wouldn't be amiss, either...
We raced through the rapidly deteriorating city, my demons surrounding us and savaging anyone who dared approach. //Pet?//
/Aya?/ I asked, backing into a building corner and ascending a flight of stairs backwards.
//I've got it!// Aya's eyes finally opened and she regained her balance neatly. She began whirling her beads again, gold sparks flying in every direction possible. The Ring began tossing and glowing equally brightly on her chest. "Endgame!"
"Oh, no," I whispered as the air grew purple-black and heavy. "Not--"
"Exodia," Aya said softly, and flung her hands out, narrowly missing hitting me.
The world went dark.
I woke up buried in rubble and covered in bruises. "Pet?"
/Aya,/ I croaked, not wanting to move my mouth. /Ow./
One of the rocks was moved off me, then another. "Silly pet. Why don't you just go invisible or whatever it is that you do?"
I thought about it. My head hurt. "Mrrr...no."
Aya giggled. She sounded almost drunk on power. "Pet, don't you understand?"
"What?"
"We're the only two people alive in this entire city. I have my rule! People will come to see the devastation for miles, and we'll make them ours! I am the ruling mystic at last!" I was dragged roughly to my feet. "I've got everything I want!" I barely had a glimpse of Aya's wild, gloating grin before she turned abruptly pale and collapsed onto me, knocking us both over.
It wasn't long before Aya recovered and set about reconstructing her city, summoning demons and recruiting locals to do the work until she was well on her way to ruling a healthy city.
It also wasn't long until I woke up with a horrible sense of foreboding, and also with a sense that someone was standing over me and had been watching me as I slept.
"Kaisei," I whispered. "Not again."
"Loathing, love, and...?" Kaisei asked, eyebrows raised as he brought me to my feet.
"She's more human than any of the others," I found myself admitting.
Kaisei laughed. "Only you could say that about her. Your standards of humanity amuse me," he said as he drew me out of my room and into Aya's.
"Pet? What's--?" Aya broke off, staring at Kaisei. "What real pretenders may face," she whispered, repeating words spoken three years previously.
"Potential pretender who may have desecrated the purity of the Millennium Ring, I now put you on trial. If you are truly the one destined to wear the Ring, as you may well be owing to the fact that you have not been incinerated upon your wearing of this sacred item, you will be granted eternal life and a wealth of power. However, you still may be a pretender and unworthy to continue life. If you are thus, then this servant of Seshat will terminate you immediately following your Judgment," Kaisei said softly, looking at me. "Are you ready to be put on trial?"
Aya raised her chin defiantly, the clumsy beads that had brought down a city glinting. "Try me, as queen and reigning mystic Aya."
Black smoke came from her mouth.
"Will you seal her destiny?" Kaisei asked me.
Fight it...fight it..."If she is a pretender, let her die by my hands," I said automatically.
How weak can I get? The smoke from my mouth was insignificant compared to Aya's.
"I'm not real?" Aya gasped as the knife appeared in my hand.
"No," I said as I stabbed her.
Aya's hands convulsively closed around my arms. "...love you, Bakura." She kissed me, leaving blood on my lips, then died with a mocking smile on her face and her customary anger in her half-lidded eyes.
"But...but...you can't!" I stammered, stumbling back from her body. I tripped over nothing as my limbs began fizzling away. "I was so close..." I said to Kaisei.
He nodded gravely. "And you will just keep getting closer...but this is one magic you will never conquer."
"Why?" I demanded.
Blackness.
...
Ryou is staring at me. "You can destroy everything just like that by summoning Exodia?"
I nod. "More or less."
He sighs and crawls back onto my lap, offering comfort that none of the others could give by mere presence. "So did you like her?"
"I don't know." I confess. "At times I hated her, at times I liked her...but she always kept me confused and...and kind of helpless. I thought I had something with her, but she turned around and changed it every chance she got. She wasn't like Zane...and when she told me she loved me I wondered if Zane had ever loved me either, or if it had been just one long nothing."
"I'm not one long nothing, am I?" Ryou asks.
"No," I reply. "But since nothing comes in many guises, you could be and I just don't know it when I see it."
"Did you ever see it again?" Ryou inquires.
"I don't think I—well, maybe. Maybe I did," I tell him. "Maybe."
%
Fluffy: Ra! We fixed the him-her slipup in the last chapter.
Akiko680: Ehhehe. Sorry about the late update.
Wingleader Sora Jade: We are the queens of creepiness.
Angel Yami-ko: Really? *blinkblink* But there are so many better ones....*feels flattered*
PanDora: Isn't that always the way. *shrug*
Saturn Imp: Meh, sadness is underrated.
Panda X. Bear: Wow, long review. ^^ Thank you so much! And I'll try and update faster, I swear!
MeeLee: The stuff with the present tense verbs is Bakura talking to Ryou, the stuff with perfect verbs is Bakura doing the flashback-narration thingie. Sorry for the confusion!
BishounenzAngel: Hiya! Thanks for reviewing!
Dark Millenia: Yeah, I'm kinda wishing that too. ^^;;
cool: Thankies!
Aithril the Elf-Maiden: Thanks! *goes on a sugar-high*
Ice-Spirit Phoenix: Creepy is good!
Dark-necrophhia666: *runs screaming from the Puppets*
Yami hitokiri: Pity Bakura! Yes!
Starzpen: *sweatdrop* Thank you!
higashikaze: *watches Bakura go hide and sulk in a corner* ....?
r: You're not rude, I like constructive criticism. Yeah, I was very meh-ish about how Zane turned out, and I'm kinda glad someone else was too. ^^ I tried to do better with Aya, but I backed myself into a bit of the corner with the plotstyle. Ah well. Thanks for reviewing!
BakaNeko-Chan: Yay! More sugar!
happy yaoi lover: Ut semper!
Star Girl11: As always!
yukoma: Uh...yeah. *sweatdrops*
R Amethyst: . He would have died. Messily. At the hands of a pissy redhead.
Liviana: I keep doing that! #$%@#$!!
SweetMisery: *gets all hopeful-like*
Sailor Comet: If he gets resurrected, you and Bakura can fight over him, ne?
Duel: Well. This seems quite popular. But, of course, it can only get better! *whips out the Review Stick of Doom* Riiiiiiiight?