Chapter Six: Haunted
Bakura liked to think that he was an intelligent person.
Unfortunately, that belief was completely wrong in relation to reading women's feelings.
He did not notice the steel in Shizu's eyes, didn't notice the ultra- relaxed posture as she leaned against the wall in their bedroom. He grinned quite happily, in fact.
"Shizu, hi! I was looking for you!"
"What a coincidence," she said dryly. "/I/ was looking for /you/. Word among the slaves is that you don't love me anymore."
"Of course I do," he said, still far too cheerful. He had just been to see Yami, and not only had he evaded capture, but they had had a long talk about chess. Kaiba had been there, but that didn't matter. The point was that Bakura was happy. All was well in the land of Egypt - no shadow monsters, no fire or water from the sky. Everything was fine.
Except for Mai. But he was trying not to think about that.
Unfortunately, Shizu didn't know about Yami, and was already suspicious.
"You /cheater/!" she screeched. He winced.
"What? I haven't..."
"You're in love with that /handmaiden/! Princes do /not/ fall for handmaidens!"
"I haven't...?"
She was obviously overreacting. She would get over it.
"I've got a plan," Shizu snapped. "You won't like it."
"No, I won't." He stared at her. "I love /you/. I do. Really."
I do. Really.
The worst /possible/ thing he could have said.
She threw a pillow at him and swore viciously in Egyptian. He ran away.
* * *
Upon realizing that Ryou was very serious about his condition, Mai and Yugi agreed that she would take him to find Bakura, while Yugi informed his Yami about it. They separated. Yugi was relieved; Mai felt an awful ache in her chest at the thought of losing him.
Mai and Ryou ran into Mokuba, who whisked Ryou away to talk to some other healers. Mai began to follow them, then thought better of it.
She told herself that she most definitely was not looking for Bakura. She was mad at him. She couldn't /feel/ the anger, but as soon as Kaiba got the spell off, she would be furious. He had been /kissing/ that girl yesterday, and that was cheating...
She managed to get completely lost, and found that she didn't care. Alone, she was safe with her thoughts. Alone, she wouldn't be kissing anyone.
She was just starting to adjust to being alone when Joey staggered out of the armory.
She caught his arm to keep them both upright. "You okay?" she asked.
"How can you ask that?" he replied. "You just - I mean...you shouldn't kiss people like that."
She blinked, then realized that he must know about the kiss she had shared with Yugi. "Oh - it meant nothing."
He resolutely stared at a spot several inches to her right. "Oh, thanks. That's reassuring."
"Look, the spell - "
"I don't care about the spell!" He glanced down and noticed at the same time Mai did that her hand was still resting on his forearm. He shook it off. "What I care about is that - "
"Look!" she yelled. "Okay, you're upset. I get that. But /there is nothing between us/. Okay, Joey? Not me and you, not me and Yugi. Most /definitely/ not me and Yugi. I kissed him because I was going crazy, not doing it, and we didn't get very far, and Ryou - "
"Wait, you kissed /Yugi/?"
Mai nodded slowly, trying to catch his eyes, but he refused to look at her. "I had to. Joey, look, I know how you feel, but what about Bakura and Tea? If anything happened with us, I mean, what would they think?"
"There isn't an us," he said softly. "I can accept that. But you - and Yugi - "
"It isn't real! It just feels that way! But it's not!" He started to walk away and she ran after him. "You listen to me, Joey Wheeler! I'm not in love with..."
She couldn't say the name.
The spell sprang into action and closed off her vocal cords. She /wanted/ to say that she didn't love Yugi, but the thought now hovering at the top of her mind was that she /did/, of course she did, why was she trying to say something so stupid?
And while she struggled to finish her sentence, Joey turned a corner and vanished.
Mai stood there for a few minutes until she beat the spell back far enough to realize that, in all probability, things were probably a lot worse now than they had been before.
**Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
I know you're still there**
Ryou spent the day talking to the healers. Well, actually, just Mokuba. The other healers confirmed that he was ill, but refused to be tainted by contact with him. They could sense that it was otherworldly in origin.
And they couldn't fix it.
Ryou managed to avoid the nobles that evening, and, exhausted, found an out- of-the-way corner to curl up in.
He couldn't sleep.
That was the second symptom, wasn't it? Harder and harder to sleep at night...then the visions. There weren't any visions yet, but he was so tired, and couldn't fall asleep.
So tired...
The demon had said it would take a few days, but it had started almost immediately. Why?
It took Ryou an hour to discover the answer, and he didn't like it. The demon had said something about going back five thousand years. "Didn't know you had it in you." Maybe...maybe the illness worked faster if you used more of Sathaugula's power? That almost had to be it.
How long did he have to live? No more than a week, surely. He was too tired to try any calculations.
Insomnia...not a pleasant disease.
But better than what the demon had said was in store.
* * *
The third day dawned bright and clear.
That was not necessarily a good thing.
"The light - it burns," Kaiba moaned, shielding his eyes.
"Were we really up all night?" Yami asked brightly. "Just playing games? Wow."
Kaiba slumped against the wall and yawned. King of Games. What an appropriate title. Yami had won three games of chess, five of checkers, and, as soon as they'd had cards made out of thin sheets of wood, every single card game that either of them knew. Not to mention that he had never lost a single game of Solitaire.
"When we get back," Kaiba said, "I am going to introduce you to the wide world of video games. You will never beat me at Dynasty Warriors."
Yami snickered. "Oh, really? And which character do you play? That insane guy with the claws? 'Was the enemy camp...pretty?'"
Mokuba poked his head into the room. "Oh, I know that quote. It's hilarious. No, Seto plays the girl with the chakrams."
"Chakrams are cool," Kaiba said defensively. "And how do you know about Dynasty Warriors, pharaoh?"
Yami grinned brightly. "We rented it last year. I personally prefer the spears and swords."
Kaiba muttered something about "phallic objects" and dropped the subject. He staggered to his feet. "I have to go bully the priests for that counter- spell. See you later."
* * *
Yugi wandered aimlessly through the castle and eventually ran into Mai doing the same thing.
"Yesterday," they began at the same time.
"Horrible?" Yugi suggested.
Mai nodded emphatically. "Dreadful."
"Never again."
"No, never."
Neither of them was particularly surprised when she bent down and kissed him, hard.
He didn't try to kiss back, but allowed her to nudge him up against the wall, and didn't make any move to resist. He could tell that she wanted this, and understood how awful it must be for her, and at least if he cooperated she wouldn't do this anymore...hopefully...
This time, they heard the footsteps coming and sprang apart. Joey walked around the corner to find Yugi staring innocently at the ceiling and Mai brushing a speck of imaginary dirt off of her skirt.
"Yug'," he said, without any sort of emotion leaking into his voice. "Can I talk to you?"
"Sure," Yugi said. "Haven't seen you since the first day here, have I?"
"No." Joey shot a quick glance at Mai, then headed off. Yugi ran to catch up with them.
Mai sighed and crossed her arms. Alone again.
**Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down**
Bakura found Malik overlooking the Nile, and nervously went to stand beside his friend.
"It's deep," he said.
"Sure is," Malik agreed. "Allergies kicked in yet?"
Bakura resisted the urge to touch the hilt of his sword. "No. I think you were wrong."
They were silent for a moment; then Malik grinned. "You know, I could tell you the plan, if you really wanted to know."
"The plan," Bakura said distantly. Shizu had a plan. She'd even said he wouldn't like it. Just like Malik.
"See, it involves using your brother. As an ally. And I knew you'd hate that - but Shizu's going to kill me, you know she hates me, and if we - "
"I'm not hearing anything I don't like," Bakura noted. "I know Shizu doesn't like you. I suspect that she doesn't like me half so well as she pretends. She's mad at me."
Malik blinked, filed this information away, and continued, "The plan is, we tell your brother everything, he storms the catacombs, slaughters all the rebels, and we'll be rewarded by having our outlaw status revoked. Takes care of a lot of problems. The only hard part is getting the pharaoh to trust us without having us executed..."
Executed.
'Love spells. Irreversible. Breakable only by death...'
Death alone.
For one brief moment, Bakura understood the entire plan. But he had to be sure.
"Good plan, really cunning, they'll never expect it, have to go!"
Malik watched his friend dash off for the palace. He hadn't explained the best part, though...
The part where, just when they'd been royally pardoned, they assassinated the pharaoh.
Just like they'd planned all along.
**Hunting you, I can smell you - alive
Your heart pounding in my head
Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me
Watching me**
Bakura, head aching desperately from fear, found his way to the room he shared (albeit unwillingly) with Shizu. She was there, sitting cross-legged on the pallet, smiling innocently.
"Please," he said. "No more cunning plans. No more evil plans. No more plans of any sort! I've had enough!"
She pouted prettily. "But this one is so good!"
He sighed, tried to keep his voice steady. "What?"
"Well," she said, in a low voice with a touch of pride, "I've decided that we have to get the magic back from the love spell. The only way to do that...is to break it."
"You know a counter-spell?" he asked dully.
Her laugh was musical, and, in a scary way, a lot like Mai's. "Of course not. There is none."
The suspicion that had been lingering since - well, since he'd returned to Egypt, really - clarified itself. "You're going to kill Mai?" he asked.
She blinked. "No, of course not. She's useful."
"But..."
He only /looked/ stupid, at that moment. Really, he'd figured out her plan back at the Nile - well, most of it. And, despite the fact that he really strongly disliked Yugi, despite the fact that he really wanted Mai back the way she had been, he could deny it no longer.
He was not a sadistic creep.
And...dammit...those self-absorbed...those.../people/...
They were his friends.
In a way.
Not /really/.
"Don't do it!" he cried. "You can't just murder an innocent slave!"
She winked. "Watch me. Now, dear, I knew you wouldn't approve - you've been so /weird/ lately - so I took the liberty of sending out our two finest assassins. I mean, besides you and Malik."
/How/ could she look so innocent and idiotic?
Without arguing, without even bothering to scream a curse, Bakura turned on his heel and ran desperately from the room.
* * *
Joey was no longer even sure where they were, just that they were alone, for the first time since they'd ended up in Egypt.
"So, you kissed her," he said.
"I'm sorry."
"Even though you know I love her."
"Joey, I'm sorry."
"Even though - "
"Joey!" Yugi yelled. This was such a rare occurence that it actually made Joey shut up. "I said I was sorry! It just happened! I don't like her that way!"
"You could have done what /everyone we know/ has been telling you to do for /three days now/ and /stayed away from her/!" Joey was being irrational, and he knew it, and he didn't really care anymore. "I mean, Yug', you're my best friend! How could you - "
"I'm not the one cheating on my girlfriend!"
They were so engrossed in their argument that they completely failed to notice that two dark-robed figures were blocking their way until they ran into them.
"Awk," Yugi said, and took several steps backward. Joey joined him, drawing his sword almost instinctively.
"What do you want?"
Though the figures' faces were shrouded in shadow by their hoods, he swore he could see one smirk. "The small one. He is the object of a love spell."
"No kidding," Joey said.
"We are here to break it."
Yugi took a hesitant step forward, his violet eyes suddenly shining with relief. "You have a counter-spell?"
"Yes," said the other person. "One that has worked since the creation of such spells. The only one."
There was something very wrong with that, but Joey was hard-put to find it. "So, do your little spell, and be done with it."
Yugi, though remarkably innocent for a boy his age, was not quite as dense as his friend. "But shouldn't it be done on Mai, not me?"
One dark robe twitched aside, one hand touched the hilt of a copper sword. "We don't kill women."
Click. The pieces slid into place. Yugi stepped backward and to the side, staring from Joey to the men in confusion and fear.
Joey raised the point of his sword, hoping that he wasn't trembling as badly as he thought he was. "If you want to kill him, you have to go through me."
The assassin took a step forward, then another, leaving his partner to guard the passageway. "You cannot hope to fight me."
Joey kept his sword up, wondering if he could kill this man if it became necessary. "I'm a guard for a reason."
Step. "You cannot hope to outrun me."
"I'll have you know I'm on the track team!" A lie. Joey hated sports that involved running.
Step. "I know these hallways far better than you."
Joey considered this. Well, that was a lie that was just too big to say. He had no idea where they were. "The pharaoh likes us. He would - "
Step sideways.
And in one horrible moment, Joey realized that the assassin had not been walking toward /him/ at all.
Yugi barely had time to voice a surprised shriek before the assassin grabbed him and thrust him forward, hard, onto the outstretched point of Joey's sword.
Joey knew then, dreadfully, irrevocably, and unforgettably, how it felt to kill a living being.
Yugi stumbled backward, the sword sliding out of his chest, covered to the hilt in blood. Then, his eyes registering only shock, he crumpled to the ground. Joey stood where he was, nerveless fingers clenched around the sword, too horrified to move.
The assassins laughed and glided away. They did not care that Joey sagged to his knees, the sword clattering to the floor. They did not care how many lives they had shattered. Their swords were clean, their own lives safe from Shizu's wrath, and the ultimate plans could continue.
Another effortless victory for the rebels.
**Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down**
Mai felt it immediately, the hot weight that had been on her for almost three days now vanishing suddenly. She felt alive. And free. In control, for the first time since the spell had hit her. It was gone.
/Gone/.
The moments of elation quickly died as she realized. ~Oh...the spell is off me...~
Yugi...
She leaned against the wall, feeling quite unable to stand up on her own. She didn't know how long it was, but soon felt hands gripping her shoulders. "Mai - are you - "
"The spell is off me," she said dully. "Kaiba, please, tell me you found a cure..."
"Oh, no," she heard him say. "Mai - I'm going to check on Yugi. I'll be back. Stay here, don't move..."
He ran off, and she sank to the floor, shaking all over by now. Kaiba hadn't found the cure. There was only one other way to break the spell.
~Maybe one of the other priests found the counter, and performed it without telling him,~ she thought wildly.
Maybe.
But that part of herself that insisted on being stupidly realistic knew, without a doubt, that if the spell was off her, it was already too late.
~~
A/N: Augh, yes, I'm evil, I know! Don't storm my house! Not all is as it seems! I have a cunning plan! Don't stop reading! Don't hate me!
Dynasty Warriors is an excellent game for PlayStation 2. Play it. See if you can figure out which characters they were talking about.
Next Chapter: Tourniquet. Five gossiping handmaidens, four brutal murders, three sadistic priests, two unexpected kidnappings, one misuse of Sathaugula, and a partridge in a pear tree.
No, no partridge really. Sorry. But, in the spirit of not being the sadistic, angsty person Phoenix has accused me of being, there will be these lines: "A feather duster made by a Norwegian! It's all starting to...make sense..." and "ALL MY FRIENDS TURNED INTO GIANT WEDGES OF CHEESE AND FLOATED AWAY!" Neither of those quotes is mine; the first is from Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the second is by my friend Rela, who was trying to mentally scar another friend. It did not work. However, it has provided years of amusement.
I have decided that two stories do not a happy DarkMage make. Yes, this will become a trilogy. With...a prequel. It is like LotR only without the Silmarillion.
Speaking of LotR, one month to "Return of the King" and I am a happy fan.
The prequel is Necessary. The threequel is...not. Wah, I'm hopeless.
The Bakura/Malik duel was just on...wah. So sad. I wuv Bakura. Just in case anyone was in doubt.
Oh! One more quick thing! Rei Mayonaka asked how long it took me to write the chapter summary poem last time...only a few minutes, actually. This was probably the easiest chapter to write because I already knew exactly what was going to happen. I had difficulty with the last two lines of the poem, though...the first time I wrote it, they didn't rhyme.
Bakura liked to think that he was an intelligent person.
Unfortunately, that belief was completely wrong in relation to reading women's feelings.
He did not notice the steel in Shizu's eyes, didn't notice the ultra- relaxed posture as she leaned against the wall in their bedroom. He grinned quite happily, in fact.
"Shizu, hi! I was looking for you!"
"What a coincidence," she said dryly. "/I/ was looking for /you/. Word among the slaves is that you don't love me anymore."
"Of course I do," he said, still far too cheerful. He had just been to see Yami, and not only had he evaded capture, but they had had a long talk about chess. Kaiba had been there, but that didn't matter. The point was that Bakura was happy. All was well in the land of Egypt - no shadow monsters, no fire or water from the sky. Everything was fine.
Except for Mai. But he was trying not to think about that.
Unfortunately, Shizu didn't know about Yami, and was already suspicious.
"You /cheater/!" she screeched. He winced.
"What? I haven't..."
"You're in love with that /handmaiden/! Princes do /not/ fall for handmaidens!"
"I haven't...?"
She was obviously overreacting. She would get over it.
"I've got a plan," Shizu snapped. "You won't like it."
"No, I won't." He stared at her. "I love /you/. I do. Really."
I do. Really.
The worst /possible/ thing he could have said.
She threw a pillow at him and swore viciously in Egyptian. He ran away.
* * *
Upon realizing that Ryou was very serious about his condition, Mai and Yugi agreed that she would take him to find Bakura, while Yugi informed his Yami about it. They separated. Yugi was relieved; Mai felt an awful ache in her chest at the thought of losing him.
Mai and Ryou ran into Mokuba, who whisked Ryou away to talk to some other healers. Mai began to follow them, then thought better of it.
She told herself that she most definitely was not looking for Bakura. She was mad at him. She couldn't /feel/ the anger, but as soon as Kaiba got the spell off, she would be furious. He had been /kissing/ that girl yesterday, and that was cheating...
She managed to get completely lost, and found that she didn't care. Alone, she was safe with her thoughts. Alone, she wouldn't be kissing anyone.
She was just starting to adjust to being alone when Joey staggered out of the armory.
She caught his arm to keep them both upright. "You okay?" she asked.
"How can you ask that?" he replied. "You just - I mean...you shouldn't kiss people like that."
She blinked, then realized that he must know about the kiss she had shared with Yugi. "Oh - it meant nothing."
He resolutely stared at a spot several inches to her right. "Oh, thanks. That's reassuring."
"Look, the spell - "
"I don't care about the spell!" He glanced down and noticed at the same time Mai did that her hand was still resting on his forearm. He shook it off. "What I care about is that - "
"Look!" she yelled. "Okay, you're upset. I get that. But /there is nothing between us/. Okay, Joey? Not me and you, not me and Yugi. Most /definitely/ not me and Yugi. I kissed him because I was going crazy, not doing it, and we didn't get very far, and Ryou - "
"Wait, you kissed /Yugi/?"
Mai nodded slowly, trying to catch his eyes, but he refused to look at her. "I had to. Joey, look, I know how you feel, but what about Bakura and Tea? If anything happened with us, I mean, what would they think?"
"There isn't an us," he said softly. "I can accept that. But you - and Yugi - "
"It isn't real! It just feels that way! But it's not!" He started to walk away and she ran after him. "You listen to me, Joey Wheeler! I'm not in love with..."
She couldn't say the name.
The spell sprang into action and closed off her vocal cords. She /wanted/ to say that she didn't love Yugi, but the thought now hovering at the top of her mind was that she /did/, of course she did, why was she trying to say something so stupid?
And while she struggled to finish her sentence, Joey turned a corner and vanished.
Mai stood there for a few minutes until she beat the spell back far enough to realize that, in all probability, things were probably a lot worse now than they had been before.
**Long lost words whisper slowly to me
Still can't find what keeps me here
When all this time I've been so hollow inside
I know you're still there**
Ryou spent the day talking to the healers. Well, actually, just Mokuba. The other healers confirmed that he was ill, but refused to be tainted by contact with him. They could sense that it was otherworldly in origin.
And they couldn't fix it.
Ryou managed to avoid the nobles that evening, and, exhausted, found an out- of-the-way corner to curl up in.
He couldn't sleep.
That was the second symptom, wasn't it? Harder and harder to sleep at night...then the visions. There weren't any visions yet, but he was so tired, and couldn't fall asleep.
So tired...
The demon had said it would take a few days, but it had started almost immediately. Why?
It took Ryou an hour to discover the answer, and he didn't like it. The demon had said something about going back five thousand years. "Didn't know you had it in you." Maybe...maybe the illness worked faster if you used more of Sathaugula's power? That almost had to be it.
How long did he have to live? No more than a week, surely. He was too tired to try any calculations.
Insomnia...not a pleasant disease.
But better than what the demon had said was in store.
* * *
The third day dawned bright and clear.
That was not necessarily a good thing.
"The light - it burns," Kaiba moaned, shielding his eyes.
"Were we really up all night?" Yami asked brightly. "Just playing games? Wow."
Kaiba slumped against the wall and yawned. King of Games. What an appropriate title. Yami had won three games of chess, five of checkers, and, as soon as they'd had cards made out of thin sheets of wood, every single card game that either of them knew. Not to mention that he had never lost a single game of Solitaire.
"When we get back," Kaiba said, "I am going to introduce you to the wide world of video games. You will never beat me at Dynasty Warriors."
Yami snickered. "Oh, really? And which character do you play? That insane guy with the claws? 'Was the enemy camp...pretty?'"
Mokuba poked his head into the room. "Oh, I know that quote. It's hilarious. No, Seto plays the girl with the chakrams."
"Chakrams are cool," Kaiba said defensively. "And how do you know about Dynasty Warriors, pharaoh?"
Yami grinned brightly. "We rented it last year. I personally prefer the spears and swords."
Kaiba muttered something about "phallic objects" and dropped the subject. He staggered to his feet. "I have to go bully the priests for that counter- spell. See you later."
* * *
Yugi wandered aimlessly through the castle and eventually ran into Mai doing the same thing.
"Yesterday," they began at the same time.
"Horrible?" Yugi suggested.
Mai nodded emphatically. "Dreadful."
"Never again."
"No, never."
Neither of them was particularly surprised when she bent down and kissed him, hard.
He didn't try to kiss back, but allowed her to nudge him up against the wall, and didn't make any move to resist. He could tell that she wanted this, and understood how awful it must be for her, and at least if he cooperated she wouldn't do this anymore...hopefully...
This time, they heard the footsteps coming and sprang apart. Joey walked around the corner to find Yugi staring innocently at the ceiling and Mai brushing a speck of imaginary dirt off of her skirt.
"Yug'," he said, without any sort of emotion leaking into his voice. "Can I talk to you?"
"Sure," Yugi said. "Haven't seen you since the first day here, have I?"
"No." Joey shot a quick glance at Mai, then headed off. Yugi ran to catch up with them.
Mai sighed and crossed her arms. Alone again.
**Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down**
Bakura found Malik overlooking the Nile, and nervously went to stand beside his friend.
"It's deep," he said.
"Sure is," Malik agreed. "Allergies kicked in yet?"
Bakura resisted the urge to touch the hilt of his sword. "No. I think you were wrong."
They were silent for a moment; then Malik grinned. "You know, I could tell you the plan, if you really wanted to know."
"The plan," Bakura said distantly. Shizu had a plan. She'd even said he wouldn't like it. Just like Malik.
"See, it involves using your brother. As an ally. And I knew you'd hate that - but Shizu's going to kill me, you know she hates me, and if we - "
"I'm not hearing anything I don't like," Bakura noted. "I know Shizu doesn't like you. I suspect that she doesn't like me half so well as she pretends. She's mad at me."
Malik blinked, filed this information away, and continued, "The plan is, we tell your brother everything, he storms the catacombs, slaughters all the rebels, and we'll be rewarded by having our outlaw status revoked. Takes care of a lot of problems. The only hard part is getting the pharaoh to trust us without having us executed..."
Executed.
'Love spells. Irreversible. Breakable only by death...'
Death alone.
For one brief moment, Bakura understood the entire plan. But he had to be sure.
"Good plan, really cunning, they'll never expect it, have to go!"
Malik watched his friend dash off for the palace. He hadn't explained the best part, though...
The part where, just when they'd been royally pardoned, they assassinated the pharaoh.
Just like they'd planned all along.
**Hunting you, I can smell you - alive
Your heart pounding in my head
Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Saving me, raping me
Watching me**
Bakura, head aching desperately from fear, found his way to the room he shared (albeit unwillingly) with Shizu. She was there, sitting cross-legged on the pallet, smiling innocently.
"Please," he said. "No more cunning plans. No more evil plans. No more plans of any sort! I've had enough!"
She pouted prettily. "But this one is so good!"
He sighed, tried to keep his voice steady. "What?"
"Well," she said, in a low voice with a touch of pride, "I've decided that we have to get the magic back from the love spell. The only way to do that...is to break it."
"You know a counter-spell?" he asked dully.
Her laugh was musical, and, in a scary way, a lot like Mai's. "Of course not. There is none."
The suspicion that had been lingering since - well, since he'd returned to Egypt, really - clarified itself. "You're going to kill Mai?" he asked.
She blinked. "No, of course not. She's useful."
"But..."
He only /looked/ stupid, at that moment. Really, he'd figured out her plan back at the Nile - well, most of it. And, despite the fact that he really strongly disliked Yugi, despite the fact that he really wanted Mai back the way she had been, he could deny it no longer.
He was not a sadistic creep.
And...dammit...those self-absorbed...those.../people/...
They were his friends.
In a way.
Not /really/.
"Don't do it!" he cried. "You can't just murder an innocent slave!"
She winked. "Watch me. Now, dear, I knew you wouldn't approve - you've been so /weird/ lately - so I took the liberty of sending out our two finest assassins. I mean, besides you and Malik."
/How/ could she look so innocent and idiotic?
Without arguing, without even bothering to scream a curse, Bakura turned on his heel and ran desperately from the room.
* * *
Joey was no longer even sure where they were, just that they were alone, for the first time since they'd ended up in Egypt.
"So, you kissed her," he said.
"I'm sorry."
"Even though you know I love her."
"Joey, I'm sorry."
"Even though - "
"Joey!" Yugi yelled. This was such a rare occurence that it actually made Joey shut up. "I said I was sorry! It just happened! I don't like her that way!"
"You could have done what /everyone we know/ has been telling you to do for /three days now/ and /stayed away from her/!" Joey was being irrational, and he knew it, and he didn't really care anymore. "I mean, Yug', you're my best friend! How could you - "
"I'm not the one cheating on my girlfriend!"
They were so engrossed in their argument that they completely failed to notice that two dark-robed figures were blocking their way until they ran into them.
"Awk," Yugi said, and took several steps backward. Joey joined him, drawing his sword almost instinctively.
"What do you want?"
Though the figures' faces were shrouded in shadow by their hoods, he swore he could see one smirk. "The small one. He is the object of a love spell."
"No kidding," Joey said.
"We are here to break it."
Yugi took a hesitant step forward, his violet eyes suddenly shining with relief. "You have a counter-spell?"
"Yes," said the other person. "One that has worked since the creation of such spells. The only one."
There was something very wrong with that, but Joey was hard-put to find it. "So, do your little spell, and be done with it."
Yugi, though remarkably innocent for a boy his age, was not quite as dense as his friend. "But shouldn't it be done on Mai, not me?"
One dark robe twitched aside, one hand touched the hilt of a copper sword. "We don't kill women."
Click. The pieces slid into place. Yugi stepped backward and to the side, staring from Joey to the men in confusion and fear.
Joey raised the point of his sword, hoping that he wasn't trembling as badly as he thought he was. "If you want to kill him, you have to go through me."
The assassin took a step forward, then another, leaving his partner to guard the passageway. "You cannot hope to fight me."
Joey kept his sword up, wondering if he could kill this man if it became necessary. "I'm a guard for a reason."
Step. "You cannot hope to outrun me."
"I'll have you know I'm on the track team!" A lie. Joey hated sports that involved running.
Step. "I know these hallways far better than you."
Joey considered this. Well, that was a lie that was just too big to say. He had no idea where they were. "The pharaoh likes us. He would - "
Step sideways.
And in one horrible moment, Joey realized that the assassin had not been walking toward /him/ at all.
Yugi barely had time to voice a surprised shriek before the assassin grabbed him and thrust him forward, hard, onto the outstretched point of Joey's sword.
Joey knew then, dreadfully, irrevocably, and unforgettably, how it felt to kill a living being.
Yugi stumbled backward, the sword sliding out of his chest, covered to the hilt in blood. Then, his eyes registering only shock, he crumpled to the ground. Joey stood where he was, nerveless fingers clenched around the sword, too horrified to move.
The assassins laughed and glided away. They did not care that Joey sagged to his knees, the sword clattering to the floor. They did not care how many lives they had shattered. Their swords were clean, their own lives safe from Shizu's wrath, and the ultimate plans could continue.
Another effortless victory for the rebels.
**Watching me, wanting me
I can feel you pull me down
Fearing you, loving you
I won't let you pull me down**
Mai felt it immediately, the hot weight that had been on her for almost three days now vanishing suddenly. She felt alive. And free. In control, for the first time since the spell had hit her. It was gone.
/Gone/.
The moments of elation quickly died as she realized. ~Oh...the spell is off me...~
Yugi...
She leaned against the wall, feeling quite unable to stand up on her own. She didn't know how long it was, but soon felt hands gripping her shoulders. "Mai - are you - "
"The spell is off me," she said dully. "Kaiba, please, tell me you found a cure..."
"Oh, no," she heard him say. "Mai - I'm going to check on Yugi. I'll be back. Stay here, don't move..."
He ran off, and she sank to the floor, shaking all over by now. Kaiba hadn't found the cure. There was only one other way to break the spell.
~Maybe one of the other priests found the counter, and performed it without telling him,~ she thought wildly.
Maybe.
But that part of herself that insisted on being stupidly realistic knew, without a doubt, that if the spell was off her, it was already too late.
~~
A/N: Augh, yes, I'm evil, I know! Don't storm my house! Not all is as it seems! I have a cunning plan! Don't stop reading! Don't hate me!
Dynasty Warriors is an excellent game for PlayStation 2. Play it. See if you can figure out which characters they were talking about.
Next Chapter: Tourniquet. Five gossiping handmaidens, four brutal murders, three sadistic priests, two unexpected kidnappings, one misuse of Sathaugula, and a partridge in a pear tree.
No, no partridge really. Sorry. But, in the spirit of not being the sadistic, angsty person Phoenix has accused me of being, there will be these lines: "A feather duster made by a Norwegian! It's all starting to...make sense..." and "ALL MY FRIENDS TURNED INTO GIANT WEDGES OF CHEESE AND FLOATED AWAY!" Neither of those quotes is mine; the first is from Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the second is by my friend Rela, who was trying to mentally scar another friend. It did not work. However, it has provided years of amusement.
I have decided that two stories do not a happy DarkMage make. Yes, this will become a trilogy. With...a prequel. It is like LotR only without the Silmarillion.
Speaking of LotR, one month to "Return of the King" and I am a happy fan.
The prequel is Necessary. The threequel is...not. Wah, I'm hopeless.
The Bakura/Malik duel was just on...wah. So sad. I wuv Bakura. Just in case anyone was in doubt.
Oh! One more quick thing! Rei Mayonaka asked how long it took me to write the chapter summary poem last time...only a few minutes, actually. This was probably the easiest chapter to write because I already knew exactly what was going to happen. I had difficulty with the last two lines of the poem, though...the first time I wrote it, they didn't rhyme.