Chapter Nine: Bring Me To Life
**How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb without a soul
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home**
Yugi felt quite recovered within a few hours, but his yami wouldn't hear of his getting up until the next day. Thus he lay, extremely bored, in Kaiba's bed, and couldn't help overhearing the hushed conversation Yami had with Bakura in the corner of the room.
"You know," Yugi said gently when Bakura had left, "just 'cause I died doesn't mean I've gone deaf. Is it true?"
"About Ryou?" Yami asked cagily. "Well, yes. Terrible thing to happen, but I'm sure we can come up with something - "
Yugi sighed. "You know what I mean."
"Oh, /that/. Yes. Well. It has to happen sooner or later, doesn't it?"
"I guess. It's just - so awful." Yugi shuddered and turned his mind to other problems. "I have to see Joey, we have to talk."
"I don't know where he is," Yami pointed out. "And I don't want to leave - "
"I'm fine now, Yami. I just - I want to talk to Joey. Is that too much to ask?"
Yami sighed and went to the door. "Kaiba, would you find Joey for us, please?"
Yugi heard Kaiba mutter something about not being a slave, but because Yami said nothing else, he figured that Kaiba had gone in search of the blond.
* * *
Kaiba found Mai first. She was glaring pointedly at the floor, and raised her head when she heard the High Priest approaching. "Kaiba. Hi. Yugi - ?"
"He's fine," Kaiba snapped. He wasn't in a very good mood. He hated being ordered around by anyone, especially that spirit.
"That doesn't make sense," Mai told him. "The spell - "
"It is a very long story and I don't feel like explaining anything. I just want - oh, I don't know what I want. Have you seen Joey?"
Mai shrugged and refused to meet his eyes. "He was in the throne room. But, um, then he...well, he left."
"Where did he go?"
"Er. Away from me."
Kaiba cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What's going on with you two, anyway? Weren't you together?"
"Months ago, yes. I, well, I hit him, and he ran off. Very upset. Why won't anyone tell me what happened to Yugi?"
Kaiba sighed. "Go down the hall, take two lefts and a right, third door on the left. The pharaoh's in a bad mood, but Yugi will tell you whatever you want to know."
Mai smiled and hugged him quickly, then ran off, shouting over her shoulder, "Thank you, Kaiba!" The CEO stared after her, completely bewildered.
* * *
Bakura found Ryou huddled up in a corner, half-asleep. "Hey," the spirit said softly, kneeling beside his other half.
"I'm so tired," Ryou moaned.
"I know. I was talking to the pharaoh - he thinks there must be a way to undo this."
Ryou laughed bitterly. "What does Yami know? A priestess of Nephthys said - what did she say? That it's long past stopping now. I think she'd know."
"Zahara?" Bakura asked without thinking. "She's crazy."
"You know her?"
"Apparently so." Bakura ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Ryou. Have you noticed that we're still connected, even though there is no Ring?"
Ryou was not listening. "You know, I used to think it would be nice to go back in time. Turns out it can be murder."
"/Ryou-chan/. You're not listening to me."
"I'm sorry! I'm exhausted, I can't concentrate." Ryou moaned and pressed his hand to his forehead. "It hurts so much."
Bakura sighed and awkwardly patted his hikari on the head. "It will be okay. As I was saying, I've got an idea."
Ryou made a noncommittal noise.
"Because it's really just your body that's being affected by Sathaugula, right? Not your mind? And yet it's your mind that's hurting you, because it's the part of you that really needs sleep."
Ryou looked up, confusion and hope shining in his dark eyes. "True..."
"So I was thinking. Remember how I used to take over your body all the time? No, don't answer that, we're not talking about that. I think that, since we both have bodies now, maybe we could, you know, switch. Or something. Then you could use /my/ body to sleep, and you'd feel better when we changed back."
Ryou knew he shouldn't say it, but he couldn't help it. "Is there any way to make the change permanent?"
"What, and let me die for you?" Bakura shook his head, apparently amused. "No. Dreadful sorry, but no. Even if it were possible - no."
The prospect of sleeping made this seem far less painful than it would have been if Ryou had still been miserable. "Whatever. Let's try it."
**Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Now that I know what I'm without
You can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life**
Mokuba, meanwhile, was ridiculously bored.
The palace was awash with rumors. First, that the pharaoh had died, and that was why he'd suddenly disappeared. Then someone suggested that perhaps the High Priest had died, and the pharaoh was communing with his spirit. Following that, a handmaiden decided that the High Priest had been murdered, and the pharaoh was searching for the killer.
Amid the conversation, Mokuba picked up on a bit of gossip that interested him. Apparently, there was some kind of plague in Upper Egypt. No one seemed clear on what this plague was, only that people were dying by the hundreds. He suspected that none of this was true.
However, you never know what's truth until you see it for yourself...
Thus, Mokuba decided to find out what was happening in Upper Egypt. Since there was no way Seto would let him go by himself, he delegated the mission to an acolyte who seemed eager to know what was going on.
"I will return anon," the acolyte said importantly, and hurried off to prepare for the trip.
The worrying thing was that it would take weeks for the acolyte to return from Upper Egypt, and Mokuba wasn't sure how much time they had left.
* * *
Malik woke the next morning to find his arms covered in bloody scratches.
He stalked off to find Bakura and warn him that his cat was out of control and in danger of being drowned by a very irritated blond assassin.
When he found his friend, he was considerably startled by the peaceful, contented look in Bakura's eyes.
"Rana hates me," Malik announced.
Bakura blinked. "Wait, who?"
"Rana. Your cat." Malik peered closer at his friend. "Are you okay? You look different."
"What? Oh, um, that." The inexplicably nervous Bakura stepped backward. "I just, you know, I've been thinking about things."
"Things," Malik said flatly.
Shizu sailed past them, pointedly ignoring Bakura. She did, however, pause beside the blond. "Malik, dear. Remember what I said last night?"
"How could I forget?"
"I need an answer, Ishtar."
"Later."
Shizu continued on her way, leaving the two young men to stand around acting normal - though neither of them were.
When Malik finally muttered something and hurried off, Ryou sighed in relief. He'd been worried that someone would notice the switch - but apparently, he and his yami looked a lot more different than he'd thought.
Or perhaps they looked exactly the same...
Ryou wasn't in any mood for thinking about that. He just wanted to sleep some more.
**Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
Frozen inside without your touch, without your love
Darling, only you are the life among the dead**
The next person Ryou ran into was Mai. She, of course, immediately knew that he wasn't really her boyfriend.
"No one tells me anything," she said finally. "Where's Bakura?"
Ryou shrugged. "Suffering in my body, I suppose."
Mai stared at him, and walked off without speaking again.
* * *
Bakura, meanwhile, found an empty room and collapsed in it.
Gods, he hadn't really expected it to be this awful. He had trouble walking on Ryou's weak legs, his eyes hurt from lack of sleep, and he'd accidentally run into someone and could already see dark bruises on his/Ryou's arms.
"My Ryou..." he whispered. It hurt to even think of his hikari suffering like this.
It hurt more to think that Ryou might die.
~There must be a way out of this...~
But there wasn't, was there? It would end here, in Egypt, where it had begun.
~I wish I could remember what happens next.~
* * *
Malik caught up with Shizu somewhere in the vicinity of Kaiba's rooms. She was apparently looking for the High Priest.
"I don't know how you can ask me to do this," Malik hissed. "He's my best friend. My /only/ friend. He trusts me."
"That's the best part," Shizu said, raising her eyebrows. "What use is betrayal if it doesn't hurt him?"
"I can't do it."
"Then you'll die. Come on, Malik. He'd betray you in a heartbeat if he thought - "
"He wouldn't."
Shizu smiled, those dark indigo eyes cold and calculating. "I would. And he's like me."
"He's not like you."
"You're blind, Ishtar. By the time you wake up, it will be too late for you. Too late for us all."
Malik hesitated for only an instant. "I'll do it, then. I won't like it - but I'll do it."
"I knew you would."
Neither of them noticed the small, dark-haired priest watching from a shadowed doorway.
**All this time, I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark, but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything
Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul
Don't let me die here, there must be something more
Bring me to life**
As soon as Yami fell asleep, Yugi snuck out of Kaiba's room.
He really did feel fine, and it wasn't helping to be shut up all the time, and that was the rational he would be giving to his other half later, when Yami inevitably figured out exactly what Yugi had been up to.
Yugi found Ryou wandering aimlessly, his dark eyes happier than they'd been for awhile. After having the switching-minds thing explained to him, Yugi agreed that it was a very interesting concept, and certainly a place to start in searching for a cure.
Neither of them wanted to think that there might not be a cure.
Joey had never shown up, so Ryou agreed to help Yugi search for him. It took them a few hours, but they finally located the blond, sitting in a storeroom, staring determinedly at nothing.
"Joey," Yugi said. The blond lifted his head, dark eyes unreadable. "I have to talk to you."
"Sure," Joey said dully. "Maybe I'll try to kill you again, wouldn't that be nice? Mai hates me. You - "
"I don't hate you," Yugi said firmly. "I could never hate you. You're my best friend. It was an accident. I understand. What are you afraid of?"
Ryou, at this point, thoughtfully backed away and wandered off in search of something else to do.
**Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
Bring me to life**
~~
A/N: *moans* There is simply no excuse for the lateness (or shortness) of this chapter. However, I will give you a few: I've had the flu for three weeks, missed three tests that I had to retake, written five chapters of my original fic, and oh! the Writer's Block has struck again.
Sorry if this was incoherent. I wrote it in a single night when I realized that I hadn't updated in ages. However, hurrah for Bakura/Ryou friendshippy goodness.
Anyhow I was rereading Let Go, and I found this line in chapter eight, which is Ryou's POV. "I don't have magic powers. I can't turn back time." Whoa! Foreshadowing from before I knew there would be a sequel! o.O
Next Chapter: Taking Over Me. The Great Snogging Chapter. Mai teaches Bakura to swim, Shizu seduces Joey, and there is very little plot, but all the frantic shippers finally get what they want.
By the way, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, and whatever else you may celebrate, enjoy it. You're all excellent. Hugs and snugs.
**How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb without a soul
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home**
Yugi felt quite recovered within a few hours, but his yami wouldn't hear of his getting up until the next day. Thus he lay, extremely bored, in Kaiba's bed, and couldn't help overhearing the hushed conversation Yami had with Bakura in the corner of the room.
"You know," Yugi said gently when Bakura had left, "just 'cause I died doesn't mean I've gone deaf. Is it true?"
"About Ryou?" Yami asked cagily. "Well, yes. Terrible thing to happen, but I'm sure we can come up with something - "
Yugi sighed. "You know what I mean."
"Oh, /that/. Yes. Well. It has to happen sooner or later, doesn't it?"
"I guess. It's just - so awful." Yugi shuddered and turned his mind to other problems. "I have to see Joey, we have to talk."
"I don't know where he is," Yami pointed out. "And I don't want to leave - "
"I'm fine now, Yami. I just - I want to talk to Joey. Is that too much to ask?"
Yami sighed and went to the door. "Kaiba, would you find Joey for us, please?"
Yugi heard Kaiba mutter something about not being a slave, but because Yami said nothing else, he figured that Kaiba had gone in search of the blond.
* * *
Kaiba found Mai first. She was glaring pointedly at the floor, and raised her head when she heard the High Priest approaching. "Kaiba. Hi. Yugi - ?"
"He's fine," Kaiba snapped. He wasn't in a very good mood. He hated being ordered around by anyone, especially that spirit.
"That doesn't make sense," Mai told him. "The spell - "
"It is a very long story and I don't feel like explaining anything. I just want - oh, I don't know what I want. Have you seen Joey?"
Mai shrugged and refused to meet his eyes. "He was in the throne room. But, um, then he...well, he left."
"Where did he go?"
"Er. Away from me."
Kaiba cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What's going on with you two, anyway? Weren't you together?"
"Months ago, yes. I, well, I hit him, and he ran off. Very upset. Why won't anyone tell me what happened to Yugi?"
Kaiba sighed. "Go down the hall, take two lefts and a right, third door on the left. The pharaoh's in a bad mood, but Yugi will tell you whatever you want to know."
Mai smiled and hugged him quickly, then ran off, shouting over her shoulder, "Thank you, Kaiba!" The CEO stared after her, completely bewildered.
* * *
Bakura found Ryou huddled up in a corner, half-asleep. "Hey," the spirit said softly, kneeling beside his other half.
"I'm so tired," Ryou moaned.
"I know. I was talking to the pharaoh - he thinks there must be a way to undo this."
Ryou laughed bitterly. "What does Yami know? A priestess of Nephthys said - what did she say? That it's long past stopping now. I think she'd know."
"Zahara?" Bakura asked without thinking. "She's crazy."
"You know her?"
"Apparently so." Bakura ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Ryou. Have you noticed that we're still connected, even though there is no Ring?"
Ryou was not listening. "You know, I used to think it would be nice to go back in time. Turns out it can be murder."
"/Ryou-chan/. You're not listening to me."
"I'm sorry! I'm exhausted, I can't concentrate." Ryou moaned and pressed his hand to his forehead. "It hurts so much."
Bakura sighed and awkwardly patted his hikari on the head. "It will be okay. As I was saying, I've got an idea."
Ryou made a noncommittal noise.
"Because it's really just your body that's being affected by Sathaugula, right? Not your mind? And yet it's your mind that's hurting you, because it's the part of you that really needs sleep."
Ryou looked up, confusion and hope shining in his dark eyes. "True..."
"So I was thinking. Remember how I used to take over your body all the time? No, don't answer that, we're not talking about that. I think that, since we both have bodies now, maybe we could, you know, switch. Or something. Then you could use /my/ body to sleep, and you'd feel better when we changed back."
Ryou knew he shouldn't say it, but he couldn't help it. "Is there any way to make the change permanent?"
"What, and let me die for you?" Bakura shook his head, apparently amused. "No. Dreadful sorry, but no. Even if it were possible - no."
The prospect of sleeping made this seem far less painful than it would have been if Ryou had still been miserable. "Whatever. Let's try it."
**Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Now that I know what I'm without
You can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life**
Mokuba, meanwhile, was ridiculously bored.
The palace was awash with rumors. First, that the pharaoh had died, and that was why he'd suddenly disappeared. Then someone suggested that perhaps the High Priest had died, and the pharaoh was communing with his spirit. Following that, a handmaiden decided that the High Priest had been murdered, and the pharaoh was searching for the killer.
Amid the conversation, Mokuba picked up on a bit of gossip that interested him. Apparently, there was some kind of plague in Upper Egypt. No one seemed clear on what this plague was, only that people were dying by the hundreds. He suspected that none of this was true.
However, you never know what's truth until you see it for yourself...
Thus, Mokuba decided to find out what was happening in Upper Egypt. Since there was no way Seto would let him go by himself, he delegated the mission to an acolyte who seemed eager to know what was going on.
"I will return anon," the acolyte said importantly, and hurried off to prepare for the trip.
The worrying thing was that it would take weeks for the acolyte to return from Upper Egypt, and Mokuba wasn't sure how much time they had left.
* * *
Malik woke the next morning to find his arms covered in bloody scratches.
He stalked off to find Bakura and warn him that his cat was out of control and in danger of being drowned by a very irritated blond assassin.
When he found his friend, he was considerably startled by the peaceful, contented look in Bakura's eyes.
"Rana hates me," Malik announced.
Bakura blinked. "Wait, who?"
"Rana. Your cat." Malik peered closer at his friend. "Are you okay? You look different."
"What? Oh, um, that." The inexplicably nervous Bakura stepped backward. "I just, you know, I've been thinking about things."
"Things," Malik said flatly.
Shizu sailed past them, pointedly ignoring Bakura. She did, however, pause beside the blond. "Malik, dear. Remember what I said last night?"
"How could I forget?"
"I need an answer, Ishtar."
"Later."
Shizu continued on her way, leaving the two young men to stand around acting normal - though neither of them were.
When Malik finally muttered something and hurried off, Ryou sighed in relief. He'd been worried that someone would notice the switch - but apparently, he and his yami looked a lot more different than he'd thought.
Or perhaps they looked exactly the same...
Ryou wasn't in any mood for thinking about that. He just wanted to sleep some more.
**Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
Frozen inside without your touch, without your love
Darling, only you are the life among the dead**
The next person Ryou ran into was Mai. She, of course, immediately knew that he wasn't really her boyfriend.
"No one tells me anything," she said finally. "Where's Bakura?"
Ryou shrugged. "Suffering in my body, I suppose."
Mai stared at him, and walked off without speaking again.
* * *
Bakura, meanwhile, found an empty room and collapsed in it.
Gods, he hadn't really expected it to be this awful. He had trouble walking on Ryou's weak legs, his eyes hurt from lack of sleep, and he'd accidentally run into someone and could already see dark bruises on his/Ryou's arms.
"My Ryou..." he whispered. It hurt to even think of his hikari suffering like this.
It hurt more to think that Ryou might die.
~There must be a way out of this...~
But there wasn't, was there? It would end here, in Egypt, where it had begun.
~I wish I could remember what happens next.~
* * *
Malik caught up with Shizu somewhere in the vicinity of Kaiba's rooms. She was apparently looking for the High Priest.
"I don't know how you can ask me to do this," Malik hissed. "He's my best friend. My /only/ friend. He trusts me."
"That's the best part," Shizu said, raising her eyebrows. "What use is betrayal if it doesn't hurt him?"
"I can't do it."
"Then you'll die. Come on, Malik. He'd betray you in a heartbeat if he thought - "
"He wouldn't."
Shizu smiled, those dark indigo eyes cold and calculating. "I would. And he's like me."
"He's not like you."
"You're blind, Ishtar. By the time you wake up, it will be too late for you. Too late for us all."
Malik hesitated for only an instant. "I'll do it, then. I won't like it - but I'll do it."
"I knew you would."
Neither of them noticed the small, dark-haired priest watching from a shadowed doorway.
**All this time, I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark, but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything
Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul
Don't let me die here, there must be something more
Bring me to life**
As soon as Yami fell asleep, Yugi snuck out of Kaiba's room.
He really did feel fine, and it wasn't helping to be shut up all the time, and that was the rational he would be giving to his other half later, when Yami inevitably figured out exactly what Yugi had been up to.
Yugi found Ryou wandering aimlessly, his dark eyes happier than they'd been for awhile. After having the switching-minds thing explained to him, Yugi agreed that it was a very interesting concept, and certainly a place to start in searching for a cure.
Neither of them wanted to think that there might not be a cure.
Joey had never shown up, so Ryou agreed to help Yugi search for him. It took them a few hours, but they finally located the blond, sitting in a storeroom, staring determinedly at nothing.
"Joey," Yugi said. The blond lifted his head, dark eyes unreadable. "I have to talk to you."
"Sure," Joey said dully. "Maybe I'll try to kill you again, wouldn't that be nice? Mai hates me. You - "
"I don't hate you," Yugi said firmly. "I could never hate you. You're my best friend. It was an accident. I understand. What are you afraid of?"
Ryou, at this point, thoughtfully backed away and wandered off in search of something else to do.
**Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
Bring me to life**
~~
A/N: *moans* There is simply no excuse for the lateness (or shortness) of this chapter. However, I will give you a few: I've had the flu for three weeks, missed three tests that I had to retake, written five chapters of my original fic, and oh! the Writer's Block has struck again.
Sorry if this was incoherent. I wrote it in a single night when I realized that I hadn't updated in ages. However, hurrah for Bakura/Ryou friendshippy goodness.
Anyhow I was rereading Let Go, and I found this line in chapter eight, which is Ryou's POV. "I don't have magic powers. I can't turn back time." Whoa! Foreshadowing from before I knew there would be a sequel! o.O
Next Chapter: Taking Over Me. The Great Snogging Chapter. Mai teaches Bakura to swim, Shizu seduces Joey, and there is very little plot, but all the frantic shippers finally get what they want.
By the way, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, and whatever else you may celebrate, enjoy it. You're all excellent. Hugs and snugs.