(Lilo: kay, it's hard to update when you have exams and final projects coming down on you in one flimsy week. Gah! Also, um, ah! Yes, thank you for all of you who reviewed! ^__^ also, somebody asked me to read their story but … there was no penname so I couldn't really do that … um, can you leave it this time? Ah, and I am glad that you guys actually like this story and still put up with mine not-so steady updating … (you know me ^___^) but I will most definitely finish the story before school ends (June – blah) … hopefully …. Gah, I am just trying to force my lazy ass to type more and more …
Marikue: ya, she finally finished all of her exams today!
Lilo: ahhhhhhhh *spaced out*
Marikue: *ehm* Never mind, Lilo doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Harry Potter!!! *Runs off while Lilo is still in a trance*
~Chapter 18
~The Need To Talk~
"What do you want?" Bakura annoyed. The pharaoh caught up to him when he was in 'Leaky Cauldron' and demanded to come along. Damn, there goes the 'like the old times'.
"We need to talk" Yami said in a low voice as they moved to the back of the bar where there was the passage to the Diagon Alley, earning glances and weird looks from the inhabitants of the pub.
"If it's what I think it is, then I don't want to talk about it" Bakura muttered darkly as he and Yami put their black hoods onto their heads, passed through the barrier and walked in a way that was making other people stay clearly out of their way. To Yami and Bakura, wearing silver and black was normal, with the hood lower than their eyes while to others, they looked like gangsters, stalking their next prey. Some wizards thought that they were Death Eaters while others though that it was Voldemort and his side kick himself because of the aura that the two emitted.
"It will break them" Yami said as he looked at Bakura with his piercing gaze while the other just stared ahead.
"Ryou would do anything to get rid of me" the white haired yami replied as his gaze fell onto Gringotts' building. Finally.
"You know that it's not true. He adores you, like an older brother" Yami tried to reason.
"Ya, the one who tries to kill him and is a lunatic" Bakura shot back, now turning his full glare onto Yami. People around them walked faster …
"And I was the one with no memory and the one who kept on dragging my little brother through Shadow Realm and then making him fight Shadow Monsters while I tried to remember who the hell I was! Isn't that lunatic?" Yami hissed back. No matter how much Bakura didn't want to admit it, Yami had a point. Their hikaris went through a lot and if they were to tell any other people, they would quickly end up in a hospital.
"They – they won't remember" Bakura finally said after a minute of silence as they slipped into the dark alley, blending in with the shadows and proceeding on their way to their destination. If one would've looked, all they would see would be shadows and not a single soul dared to enter such a place.
"Don't you think they would …?" Yami trailed off, his eyes lowering to the ground.
"No, and they won't even feel any pain" Bakura replied quietly as he touched the magic barrier of the bank.
"I hate my life" Yami muttered darkly, barely audible but Bakura still heard it.
"Hate them" he said in monotone.
"But they are our life, aren't they?" Yami gave a bitter laugh. A laugh that none had heard from him before, not ever. It was a laugh that was empty of emotion apart from bitterness, hater … anger. Bakura raised one single eyebrow and a secret smile came to his lips.
"They are, my friend, they are" he said but his voice was hollow. No, they made the most feared creatures whip, feel desperate, trapped. … and trapped they were with no way out, ever.
"Don't you think that they will suspect something?" Yami asked. "Yugi and Ryou …"
"No … I really hope not" Bakura said as he shook his head, his gleaming red eyes closing in the shadows that were created by the low hood.
"… and what use? If they do … we can't change it, can we?" Yami said, trying to sound hopeful but what was there to hope for when you knew that the prophesy was made, fate sealed. Shadii couldn't lock the items, no wonder why. But … even though they knew that some prophesy existed, some prophesy unknown to them that kept them in this world, waiting to be fulfilled, they couldn't change anything until the said prophesy was fulfilled. Fulfilled before the eclipse.
"No" a simple word. A simple word that made the pharaoh bend, as if in pain, clutching his stomach as something stirred in it. Something clenching, eating him from the inside out and yet he could do nothing against it.
"Just forget it" the old tomb robber said with a sigh, summoning tiny specks of Shadow Realm, knowing that they would calm the pharaoh down. The shadows, to most so depressing and foreboding, calmed their spirits, made them feel safe, wanted … not alone. Not many could understand it, but shadows always belonged to shadows and lay where the shadows once did.
"Right" Yami said, his back straight again, a determined look on his face. Eyes burning with dark crimson, hands clutched tightly into fists, the two opposites dissolved into the wall, passing through the barrier created by goblins as if there were none. Like shadows …
"Like knife in butter" Bakura joked as he and Yami slipped along the dark and moldy corridors of the ancient bank. They could see railway trucks here and there, and when they'd look down, there would be no bottom.
"Yes, but their magic, its weak but confusing! It's hard to sense anything …" Yami murmured but suddenly gasped. Bakura froze in his tracks.
"What is it?" Bakura asked in a whisper, trying to reach out with his senses but getting nothing alluring. What happened?
"Yugi woke up." Yami said with a grim face and Bakura's face fell.
"That was it?" he asked, shocked, his eyes bigger than saucepans.
"He does not approve our idea on breaking in" Yami looked at Bakura, wincing slightly at Yugi's tone inside of his head.
"Shut him off. We have other matters pressing" Bakura said sharply and Yami complied. After all, Bakura was right, they were here because of business …
"He won't be happy" Yami said as he and Bakura continued on their way.
"I know … anyways, should we go down?" Bakura asked, looked over the edge, trying to find the bottom. This part of the bank seemed fairly deserted. Nothing moving, everything is quiet …
"And how are we going to do that?" Yami quirked his eyebrows, trying to estimate the approximate time that would take to fall and the speed that they would be falling with … ah, he didn't like his 'estimations' at the very moment and they sounded more like suicide to him …
"Summon something with 'wings'" Bakura said jokingly.
"What if they detect shadowrealm. They did feel us the first time we showed up …" Yami said thoughtfully, trying to decide whether to listen to Bakura or not.
"Look, I am the pro tomb robber here and you are just sooo …. 'pharaohish'" Bakura shook his head. No, some things didn't change …
"What would you suggest?" Yami said, his ruby eyes burning with mirth.
"How about Ra? I am sure every living and dead would know that we are here and just leave us to our own business" Bakura replied sarcastically, flipping through his deck.
"I don't like you monsters" Yami said pointedly, observing the monster that Bakura just showed him. It looked more like an Apocalypse Knight than anything else and Yami thought better of it.
"Then what would you suggest?" Bakura asked, curious as to what the pharaoh would choose.
"Baby Dragon"
"Do you want to die?"
"A Thousand Dragon?"
"That thing can't fly, it's too fat"
"Scapegoat?"
"…" was all that Bakura could say as he sweatdropped. Those fluff balls were just … fur balls!
"Kidding!" Yami laughed as he showed Bakura a Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
"Fine, as long as it is not Dark Magician" Bakura said pointedly, trying to calm his nerves down. Thank god that Yami still had his sanity, because the ex-tomb robber wasn't planning on spending an eternity with a freak.
"Possible …" Yami trailed off but then burst out laughing at the shocked look that Bakura gave him. What was it with people and their reaction to jokes coming from a serious person?
"You are weirder" Bakura concluded, crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head to emphasis his point. Yami simply laughed as he began to summon his monster and then it happened. He felt the Spirit of the Red-eyes Black dragon came from the depth of where he and Bakura were planning to go and not from the inside of the card like it usually happened. Bakura noticed it too.
"This can only mean one thing" Bakura said, his expression serious.
"They got their hands on one of the summoning tablet!" Yami said worriedly as he climbed on top of his beast, closely followed by Bakura.
"GAAAAAAH" Bakura practically screamed as the Red-Eyes began to fly downwards. It seemed like the shadow monster had different understanding of 'take it easy' on speed limits … not that Bakura was complaining or anything, but right now, he didn't have 'time' to think about tablets! His mind was filled with do-not-let-go-or-you-die thoughts and they weren't very encouraging. After seemingly forever they finally made it to the bottom at the speed pf 100m/sec. The dragon seemed content, its job being done effectively but not painlessly …
"Smooth" Bakura said as Yami whipped the tears from his eyes. He was sure that a normal fall would've been slower than that. Maybe he should've trusted the tomb robber and his monsters in the first place … and maybe not.
"A corridor?" Yami asked, looking through the mists that surrounded them. True, there was a corridor and it was dark, very dark. At the entrance, there were weird look hieroglyphs of ancient Egyptian language that only the pharaohs were taught thousands of years ago and only the deceased pharaohs knew the language with the excepting of one tomb robber …
"Ah, I suppose they ripped it off some wall in the pyramid and managed to translate it" Bakura smirked, looking at Yami knowingly.
"Shadow Dungeon" Yami read what Bakura just did a couple of seconds ago. After reading the name, Yami gave his friend a knowing weird look.
"I guess they didn't realize that what we meant by it was actually 'Game Dungeon' "Bakura commented as he shook his head. Some people never learned …
"Come on! We aren't wasting our time in here! I want to get of here as quickly as possible with the tablet" Yami said as he rubbed his hands together while Bakura simply shook his head.
"Fine but you have to shut up" the white haired commanded, moving into the passage and right through the barrier which accepted him. Ah, so this time it felt like accepting him? Couldn't the stupid gate accept him back in Egypt? Such a moody thing …
"So, what do you think they did with the tablet" Yami asked as they walked in the dark. Actually, to Yami, it felt like he was the only one walking and that Bakura might've left him here alone because no sound could be heard coming from the tomb robber. "Bakura?" Yami asked again. Even though he 'was' a pharaoh, the game dungeon was never dark … in his rule …
"What?" Bakura asked and Yami sighed in relief.
"Thought that you were dead" the old pharaoh joked as he summoned his shadow powers and caught up with Bakura.
"Aw, afraid?" the white haired teen said mockingly, sensing the shadow magic as the pharaoh caught up. Unfortunately, he was not the only one…
"Merely curious and besides, if you die here then I won't have to pay for your funeral." Yami nudged Bakura in the ribs as they saw the exit to their endless walking.
"Who would've thought that a pharaoh was thinking about tomb robber's funeral arrangements" Bakura joked as he and Yami neared it.
"Do you want your leftovers to be sent into space or be placed into a pyramid?" Yami asked jokingly but suddenly stopped.
"There will be no leftovers' Bakura said in an emotionless tone. "and yours won't be there either" he added as they stood there in silence.
" Ah, screw it all" Yami waved his arm dismissively and they finally reached their destination. It was a brightly lit room (unlike the passageway) and it was surrounded in different Egyptian statues and other archeological items. However, in the middle, there stood a tablet that differed from anything else in the room. It's perfectly smooth surface reflected the light but it was not the same anymore. Cold rays of pale light made it stand as if surrounded by fog and in shadows, unlike other brightly lit objects in the room. All in all, it definitely did not belong in here.
"So, it's one of the missing four that Isis told us about." Yami pointed out upon a closer inspection.
"Hmm … one down, three more to go" Bakura replied dryly as he moved away from the tablet to investigate other objects in the room.
"Humph" Yami crossed his arms and was about to take his hood of when suddenly, subconscious, his arm paused in midair as he checked his surroundings once again. Something wasn't right …
"Don't take your hood off" came Bakura's voice from the other side of the room and as if on queue, a group of weird looking creatures the yamis saw a couple of days back came rushing out of the passage which Yami and Bakura took to get here, blocking all the possible means of escape or so they thought ….
"Do not move! Who in the devil's name are you?" one of the goblins rushed out in a quiet yet warming tone.
"We?" Bakura began as his voice went to -40C. The group of goblins gave a small shiver but kept their ground as more and more reinforcements came.
"Bastards" this was obviously one of the youngest goblins … inexperienced and unprepared for dealings with ancient spirits …
"No, we are not" Yami said calmly as his hand touched the tablet and the goblins bit back a gasp. The cloaked figure was not burn by it? Who were those two who managed to slip past their traps?
"Here you die!" the same young goblin exclaimed and launched an attack, producing a small glowing ball of dark energy and hurling at the one who was touching the tablet. Laugh. Laugh and fear filled the chambers as Yami caught the feeble attempt of shadow magic and placed it in his open palm while Bakura laughed and … the goblins were terrified.
"Make way!" somebody from the back suddenly screamed and the group of pointy-eared creatures parted, still in shock and fear.
"Leave the body of the living! You do not belong here!" an old voice could be heard.
"We would love to see you try and make us 'leave" Bakura smirked and caught that very same ball of energy that Yami just caught and tossed in his direction. By doing so, the two Egyptians earned another round of startled gasps and more backing off from their 'tiny' opponents. It was then that the two spirits saw a very, very old goblin with white beard and eyebrows come forward. The creature was holding a small staff and was obviously using it to support its tiny, aged body as it lifted its eyes up to look at those who caused them such disturbance and at those who managed to enter the dungeon of shadows.
"Do you work for Voldemort?" the creature asked as its blue eyes observed the laughing pair. Could it be …?
"Nope, not the Voldy dude!" Yami managed between amused chuckles. The situation, in reality, was not funny but that goblin sure was ….
"Then you must be …" the elder paused and the rest of his 'gang' held their breaths. "… memories?" he finished in a whisper but the word echoed in the chamber that suddenly became deadly quiet. Yami and Bakura were not amused anymore … no, now they were worried. Who the hell was that guy?
"Memories? I guess that you hit your head there pretty hard old man – or, uh, old dude?" Bakura blinked a couple of times, red eyes being the only part that could be seen under the hood.
"Then leave the world of the living and release the souls that you trap inside the body you manipulate" the elder's words hit the soft spot.
"You know nothing about it!" Yami hissed, his eyes turning into slits. The calmness of the funny looking 'elf' was starting to get on his nerves ... how the hell did he know?
"We have what we need" Bakura suddenly cut in as the ball of shadow energy from earlier got sucked right into his arm.
"Indeed" Yami replied but his voice was raspy, hateful. With one last heated glare sent to the elder whose eyebrows rose in confusion, the two yamis touched the tablet and then slowly disappeared from view, leaving nothing but shadows that soon disappeared as well.
"They are gone!" somebody screamed.
"And they took it" came another voice from the crowd.
"What do you recon master?" the closest goblin asked its leader.
"Send for Dumbledore …" the goblin began and turned around. "…tell him that we have much to discuss" and with that he walked off, leaving the others in complete and utter confusion.
~~~
"This IS torture!" Marik wailed as the stupid match refused to transform into a pointy needle. He spent the entire FIVE MINUTES trying to make it shiny and pointy and a possible torture tool but it just refused to listen to his weird mumbo-jumbo command and his 'stick' pointing!
"You are not concentrating hard enough!" Hermione scolded him. Actually, secretly, she was a little proud of him because in his first five minutes he made the match turn into a piece of metal. However, the thing was that his needle was 'gold' and it was dull.
"Grrrrrrr" Marik practically hissed. It was supposed to be sliver! Yes, pretty silver and then when you poke somebody's eye out it will turn into a pretty red colo-
"Wow! How did you manage to turn it into red?" Harry asked in awe as the piece of metal, once again, changed its color.
"I WANT IT SILVER!!!!" Marik screamed in desperation and fell back on his bed. This was not his day and this was definitely not his type of magic.
"Ok, calm down" Hermione instructed as she too blinked and stared at the needle. Sometimes, changing a color was harder than turning a needle into a match or so she believed.
"I am clam" Marik barked back as he rubbed his temples. Harry shifted a laugh which did not go unnoticed by the frustrated blonde.
"Not funny" snarled again and shut his eyes tight.
"Nah, it's just that you are getting mad at yourself when your dull needle changes color but you know, on my first try, it refused to budge at all and I think yours looks better than Hermione's did when she first tried it as all" Harry complimented the frustrated teen. In truth, Harry was amazed by the skill Marik possessed and it was his first try…
"But I want it silver and pointy!" Marik practically whimpered as he set up again. Nah, Harry was just saying that to make him feel better.
"Ok, ok" Hermione said as she too felt her headache coming on. She never ever thought that teaching could be this difficult and at the moment, she felt sorry for every teacher they've come across, even Snape!
"See, she will come up with something eventually" Harry told Marik cheerfully and opened his new transfiguration book … and now he wanted to go back to his first year at Hogwarts! God, how one earth was he supposed to turn a snake into a dragon?
"Yes, alright" Hermione said with a sigh and fixed Marik with one of her know-it-all looks. "What are you thinking of when you mutter the spell?" she asked calmly.
"How to turn the stupid thing into a pointy needle!" Marik said with exasperation.
"Anything else? Things that come across your mind while you are concentrating?" Hermione questioned with a raised eyebrow. What can possibly be wrong?
"Well, I think about what I can possibly do with it when I am done …" Marik trailed off with a thoughtful look. Poking those death eaters with a super duper long pointy needle that was silver while laughing and watching them twitch on the ground in pain as their eyeballs were slowly d-
"And what might that be?" Hermione asked once again. Could it be that Marik's use of the needle was somehow interfering with the spell?
"Well, I think about poking people's eyes out and watch the blood cover my long needle that I made while laughing and making more and more blo-" Marik never finished. The doors to their room burst open and two hooded figures strode in.
"Good Afternoon" Yami said as he took his hood off. He and Bakura were pissed, really pissed and Marik, being the one to know the two better than Harry and Hermione, kept his mouth shut.
"Hi" Hermione said in a low voice, her mind still being on Marik's way to use one tiny needle. Judging by Harry's face, he was thinking along the same lines.
"Is Shadii still hangs around with that piece of beef?" Bakura barked as he took the cloak off and folded it with care.
"Probably, why?" Marik replied carefully.
"Problems with Gringotts" Yami exclaimed and Hermione gasped.
"You got caught?" she exclaimed with her eyes as wide as saucepans.
"You actually tried?" Harry asked in awe. Wow, they were more than he gave them credit for.
"Rob Gringotts, yes. Get caught, sort of." Yami said as he shook his head.
"But see what we found!" Bakura suddenly exclaimed with glee, his mood doing 180 turn. From inside his pockets, he pulled out a curved dagger with Egyptian heliographic on it. He found it when he was looking around the vault they took the tablet from. Yami shook his head. He should've known that ex-tomb robbers don't go 'just' looking around …
"What do you mean, sort of???" Hermione exclaimed as she stood up, totally ignoring the silver dagger.
"Like…" Bakura began and in one fluid motion, the dagger was next to Hermione's throat. " … they came this close but there was no danger because…" Bakura pressed the dagger against the skin on her neck and she realized that the dagger was sheathed. "… their weapons could cause us no harm and we …" he took her hand and with it he made a grab for the dagger. "… disarmed them and …" with his now free arm, he grabbed her other arm and guided it so that it was pushing him back. "… we got tired of them and …" he took a step back and put in a confused face and looked around "… we disappeared."
"Oh, bravo" Marik said sarcastically as Harry and Yami glared at Bakura. Hermione … well, Hermione laughed.
"I need to talk to Bakura" Harry suddenly said and Bakura's eyebrows went up. Bakura shrugged and went outside, closely followed by Harry.
"Wonder what all that was about" Hermione muttered in confusion when her laughing fit finally came to a stop. Marik and Yami just shook their heads.
"Never mind, guys stuff" Marik told her in dismissive tone. " Anyways, what's with you and Shadii?" Marik asked Yami and shot Hermione apologetic look.
"We found one of the four missing tablets" Yami replied with a shrug.
"Huh?" Marik blinked. He didn't know that any tablets were missing … what the hell?
"Never mind, I forgot that Isis didn't want you to know…" Yami trailed off and sighed. No use telling him now.
"I am listening" Marik glared at Yami but could already tell that Yami had no intention in telling him and that his interest was in something completely different.
"Is that another one of your torture tools?" Yami asked causally and Hermione suddenly remembered the way Marik was talking about such violent and scandal way of bringing pain to the other. Why was he so cruel?
"No, actually, it's my match turning into a needle!" Marik's eyes lost their seriousness and that childish glint returned. "I've been trying to make it shiny and pointy for whole 30 minutes now!" he complained to the old pharaoh, as if by doing so his uh, dilemma, would be solved. No such luck because Yami never took magician courses … or so Marik thought.
"What were you saying?" Yami inquired and both Marik and Hermione did a double take. Yami knew that you actually had to say something?
"Um, pervorotoro" Marik said and both he and Hermione blinked as Yami burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Hermione fumed and crossed her arms over her chest. There was nothing funny about the spell or the fact that Marik couldn't accomplish a simple transformation.
"Well… to me it sounds like some child's nonsense but…" Yami trailed off as he took out his wand and transformed it into a staff. Hermione gasped, never knowing how her three new friends actually acquired the wands and observed the staff. It wasn't as plain as she thought it was at first, no. The handle was in ancient Egyptian heliographic and imitation of a snake was wrapped around the words. At the very top, she recognized the eye of Ra and some weird looking shapes around it …
"Oh, I have one too you know!" Marik waved his wand around but the thing with it was that he couldn't turn it back into the same staff! That was so not fair!
"It takes time and skill" the pharaoh lectured and Marik had the urge to knock all of his teeth out.
"I'd like to see you try and change this piece of crap into a needle!" Marik used the last of his defense.
"My pleasure" Yami's voice was like silk, smooth, collected. With one fluid motion, he brought the staff right above Marik's feeble attempt at transfiguration and closed his eyes. Dark light came from the eye and Hermione and Marik were both awestruck when they discovered that, once the light faded, a 'perfect' needle has replaced Marik's clumsy one.
"Wha – " both Marik and Hermione managed at the same time.
"My friend, I speak 7 languages, rule seven items, manage two realms, have en…. did you not think that this is a simple task for someone like me?" Yami questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Wow" Hermione stared at the perfectness of Yami's work and silently wondered which pharaoh he was.
~~~
When Bakura and Harry were out of the door and it was securely locked, Harry turned to Bakura and fixed him with a glare.
"What?" Bakura asked with amusement as to what the kid had to say.
"Don't toy" Harry said, his voice low and barely audible but Bakura heard.
"I wasn't toying, I was simply answering her question" he replied with a shrug but Harry didn't buy it.
"Tell me another story" Harry growled and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Why do you care anyways?" Bakura asked and suddenly an idea came to him. "Don't tell me that you like her!"
"Nah, I don't but she is like a sister to me and if you hurt her in any possible way, you will wish that you were never born or that Voldemort killed me earlier" Harry shook his head and leaned against the wall.
"Well, I am do not plan to hurt her because I really was just looking for a toy…" Bakura said in a carefree voice "But we know where we stand now and I won't touch her … a lot" he finished and laughed at Harry's reaction to his last words.
"Watch it dude" Harry shook his head disapprovingly.
"Anyways, are there any more chicks in your school?" Bakura asked and he could hear Ryou protesting in the background.
"Ya, a lot. I can even show you some" Harry, once again, replied with a smile and opened the door. At least now he set some things straight. All he had to do now was to figure out how to drag Sirius out of the hole he was in, understand the second meaning behind Bakura's words and demonstration of the 'bank robbing' and to find out how the hell did Yugi, Ryou and Marik managed to get these spirits in the first place… possession didn't occur in everyday life, heck, only in books were some people possessed by spirits that could not find rest …
(Lilo" ^_^ and even longer chapter! Ok, if you think that my 'guy-talk' was weird, I am open for suggestions. It's just that my best friend is a guy and well, he tells me practically everything and I hang out with his friends and all and they talk about things in front of me that they wouldn't normally talk about in front of other girls … and it's something like that: "ya, so, who did you sleep with yesterday? Oh, *insert name here*. Really? Ya … I heard she was good. Damn right…" o_0 … maybe it's just 'people' I hang out with or maybe not but I can't really think like a guy even though I've been around guys since I was born … weird, ne? -_-;; sometimes I wish I had a girl friend cuz whenever I try telling my best friend who I like he usually goes like "Do you know him?" and I shake my head and he tells me things that make me want to stay as far from the person as possible! X_X … ah, I got off topic. Anyways, my exams are OVER!!! YES!!! I am so happy!!!!!! ^_______^ yayayya!!! *does a happy dance*
Marikue: *sigh* ya, she was studying day and night! -_- anyways, R&R and plz don't shoot us or suffocate us with socks! Lilo just couldn't write cuz of her exams!
…