A/N: No, Algebra II has not managed to kill me! (Yet…) There has to be an easier way to graduate from high school. But anyways! I've been rather busy, mostly because of school, but also because I'm working on an idea that my sister came up with. She had a dream with a few random YGO characters scattered about, formed a rough plot from it, told me about it, and we both got our own ideas for it. So, we're each going to write our own versions and compare them once we're done. Fun stuff. Now, on to the long-awaited (or not) Chapter 4!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 4

The lord of the Black Lands was not happy. Now, all things considered, his majesty wasn't exactly the happiest of campers on a regular basis to begin with. But now, with the gift for his son stolen and the thief that had stolen the gift nowhere to be found, the Demon Lord was royally ticked off.

He had been so ticked off, in fact, that it had taken one of his aides an entire three hours of dodging various projectiles and working his way past the shouts of anger to suggest to his majesty that maybe they could hire a professional to hunt down the thief. Someone who knew how an expert thief's mind worked, and someone who was an exceptionally good tracker.

The Demon Lord had turned this over and over in his mind, considering all the pros and cons of such an action, and then had finally told his aides to find the most skilled bounty hunter in the land. Today, that bounty hunter had been found. He was well-known to many, and had a reputation of being both ruthless and deadly. It was often said that no one he tracked had ever escaped his grasp. He had been found residing in a city to the south, and was being escorted to the Demon Lord's palace as quickly as was possible.

His majesty sat on his throne surrounded by several advisors and aides as he waited for the bounty hunter to come forth, imagining how wonderful it would be to have that pesky thief out of his hair. He had dealt with the white-haired demon before; Bakura had humiliated the Demon Lord several times, but that was only when his majesty had been visiting other parts of his country. Never had the thief dared to come into the palace in the capital city, but the fact that he had done so and gotten away with it was the most humiliating thing of all.

In fact, the actual gift wasn't what his majesty was worried about the most. It was living with the fact that a mere petty thief had gotten the best of him, a member of the royal family! Therefore, it was of the greatest importance to get the gift back, get rid of the thief, and have his reputation (as well as his ego) restored. A malicious grin twisted itself onto the lord's face as he envisioned all the methods of torture he could inflict on the thief if he happened to be brought back alive.

The thoughts were suddenly forced into the back of his mind as a black-cloaked figure gained the Demon Lord's attention. The stranger strode into the front hall, his feet somehow silent on the smooth stone floor, and his face hidden beneath a midnight-colored hood. Somehow, the stranger's very presence covered the lord's skin in goosebumps.

"You called for one who can track down an expert thief," said a hard, menacing voice from somewhere beneath the hood. His majesty blinked, noting that the bounty hunter somehow managed to stand perfectly still, without any evidence that he was even breathing.

"Well?" the bounty hunter snapped, suddenly impatient.

"Yes," the Demon Lord said curtly, rather put off by the bounty hunter's superior air. He was also put off by the fact that the bounty hunter had refused to bow as he had entered the main hall. "There is a special item that I want you to retrieve from this thief. I believe you might know him. Sources tell me that his name is Bakura."

There was a moment of silence from the bounty hunter. "Yes," he finally said with a hint of irritation in his voice. "I know him."

"This item must come back to me unharmed, for it is of the utmost importance," the Demon Lord continued. "And I want the thief brought to me, dead or alive."

The bounty hunter stayed completely silent for a full minute, during which the Demon Lord began to grow slightly nervous. He squinted slightly at the bounty hunter, trying to see any indication that he had even been heard. He couldn't even see the stranger's eyes, and that made him even more nervous.

"I will pay you handsomely for the completed job," he said, trying to get the deal closed so that he would be able to get as far away as possible from this strange demon. "Four hundred thousand gold pieces will be your reward for bringing me the item and the thief."

The voice emerged from the cloaked figure again, "One million gold pieces." The Demon Lord's eyes bulged out in shock as his mouth dropped open. Then, his face reddened with visible rage.

"That's absurd!" he nearly shouted, standing up halfway from his throne.

"You will take it on my terms, or we have nothing else to discuss," the bounty hunter replied immediately. "And I'm quite sure that your son will be very disappointed at not having his angel to play with on his coming-of-age birthday night, now, won't he?"

The Demon Lord's eyes widened even more, and he paled visibly. Only his most trusted aides and officials knew what the gift actually was, and he had several assurances (financial or otherwise) that none of them would let the information out. How had this stranger known?

"You will either take it, or I will leave," the bounty hunter said in a hollow stone voice, the threat painfully clear. The lord's eyes darted around for a few bare seconds, and then the bounty hunter began to turn to leave. Not seeing any other way to get his precious item back, and regain his pride, the Demon Lord nodded reluctantly as he sat back down heavily.

"One million gold pieces," he repeated in a defeated voice.

A fanged smile appeared from under the shadows that the hood cast on the figure's face. "Perfect," the unnerving voice said, then the bounty hunter turned and, like a shadow, disappeared from the hall.

Blood was all that he could see around him. Blood on the walls of houses, blood splattered all over the ground, blood on his small hands… His mother's blood. She told him to run, she told them to stay away, she told him to run again and again until she finally fell. Run, run, run. He ran. Escape from it, make it go away, make it stop, please make it stop. Anything to make it stop, anything to make them stop screaming, anything to make the blood go away. Red everywhere, screams everywhere, keep running and don't stop, don't ever stop.

Run, run to the river. Escape across the river. Cold, cold, the water is so very cold. Cold and red, red and cold. The river is red. Swim, swim across the cold red river, find a way to escape. Across the river, out of the water, run and keep running. The blood won't go away. There is still blood on the ground, blood on the trees, blood on his hands. Nothing washes it away. There is always blood on his hands.

"Go away…"

Ryou jerked awake suddenly, his dark dreams shattering into nothing. He stared blankly at the gray ceiling of the cave for a moment, wondering why he had woken so suddenly. Then, the angel jumped slightly as he heard it again. Ryou rolled over on to his side, wincing as he was forced to move his injured wing. Beside him, still asleep, was Bakura. The demon was murmuring something unintelligible, his head shaking back and forth.

Leaning closer to the demon, Ryou touched his shoulder gently. The demon jerked at the touch, and the murmuring became louder, though Ryou still couldn't make out what Bakura was saying. The demon's body shuddered momentarily, his hands balling into fists.

"No…" he muttered. "Go away…"

"Bakura?" Ryou began to shake the demon's shoulder, but he didn't respond. All he did was keep murmuring as the knuckles on his fisted hands began to turn white. Ryou shook harder.

"Bakura, wake up!" The black-winged creature's body suddenly began shaking violently, as if he was shivering from some kind of cold. His hands began to beat at the air, trying to ward off something that Ryou could not see.

"Bakura, please wake up!"

"Go away!" The demon shouted as he abruptly shot up into a sitting position, his breath heavy and his eyes wide. He stared at a fixed point on the cavern floor for a bare second, then his eyes darted to the angel sitting next to him. Something resembling fear began to cloud his hard garnet eyes as the horrifying images of his dream flashed through his mind.

This angel… This white-winged creature was bringing all the memories back. All the feelings, all the pain, everything was once again festering inside his soul. Everything that he had tried to block out in order to keep his sanity was once again threatening to consume him.

"Bakura, are you all right?" The angel pushed himself up into a sitting position, eyes questioning and concerned. The demon simply stared back with wide eyes, but jumped suddenly as Ryou moved towards him.

"Stay away!" Bakura said hoarsely. He backed himself up until he was against the opposite wall of the cave. "Stay away…"

Ryou stared at the demon with confusion and concern mixed in his soft green eyes. A helpless feeling that Bakura had been getting more and more whenever he looked into those eyes came back full force, and his mind reacted just as intensely.

/The angel, that's the reason. He's making everything come back. He's making me feel. This can't happen, it's not supposed to happen. He doesn't mean anything. Yes, that's right. He means nothing. Nothing at all. Everything means nothing to me./

"It means nothing," the demon breathed, speaking out loud without realizing it. "Nothing at all." Ryou frowned. What was the demon talking about?

"Excuse me, but…" Ryou trailed off as the dark blood eyes turned on him, the fear gone and replaced with nothing but endless, cold darkness.

"You mean nothing," he said with as much conviction as he could muster. "You are simply a prize, something that I have taken away from another owner to be sold to the highest bidder. You mean nothing."

There. It was said, it was done. The angel was exactly what he said; a prize, a treasure, an object. He meant nothing. Rebuild the cold stone walls around himself, block out everything else, and it would all be just fine. No cracks, no memories, no feelings, no pain. Just the way it ought to be.

So why didn't he believe it?

Bakura quickly stood and left the cave, setting himself down amongst the tangled brush where no one could see him from outside the cave and where Ryou couldn't see him from the inside.

Ryou found that his vision was suddenly blurred with tears. Was that all that he was to the demon? Just some prize, some valuable jewel stolen from a lord's treasury to be sold at a high price?

"Just a prize…" Ryou whispered to himself heartbrokenly, "… that means nothing at all."

Was he wrong when he had thought that there was some kind of human emotion remaining within the demon? Ryou laid himself back down on the ground and curled up again, and letting the hot, salty tears begin to escape his eyes. He tried for a few moments to wipe them away, but they kept coming in torrents down his cheeks, and he finally gave up and let himself cry.

"Yes, I was wrong," Ryou eventually murmured in a choked whisper, feeling darkness beginning to cloud his mind and his soul. "I'm completely alone."

All the comfort that Ryou had gotten from Bakura being there was suddenly gone, and he was all alone. There was no one, no one and nothing to take away the sharp pain of being completely and utterly alone anymore. The angel began to drift away into despair while Bakura stared at the night sky and listened to the silence, trying to keep away the thoughts and feelings that were slowly creeping past his defenses.

A/N: Whew! Late night at the office. It is… Eleven twenty-two! Heh, not as late as it could be, but still rather late for me on a school night. . You didn't hear me say that, all right? Anyways, I actually have most of the next chapter already laid out, so it shouldn't take as long as this one did. Hopefully, anyway. Please review!

P.S. Any guesses as to who the bounty hunter is? He is a YGO character, he's not an OC.