Gruzzee's e-mail: shibachu aol. com (remove the spaces)
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Marik knelt down in front of yet another cage the occupant, a little girl with black feather wings, huddled as far away from him as possible staring at him with wide eyes as she pulled her blanket closer.
"Its okay I not going to hurt you," he said sweetly (A.N: well as sweet as a guy can get) as he started to melt the lock on her cage door, he broke the accursed thing off, opening the door for her to crawl out, she didn't though, she stayed where she was; Marik tried to reach in and pick her up out of the cage but as he got close she bit at his hand. He pulled back and turned to look at Ryou who was consoling a little boy who had broken into tears on his shoulder.
"Ryou I've got another problem child," he said, they'd already freed what seemed like thirty children from cages, the first one he'd done had shocked him good, considering he'd never seen his 'father's' latest 'improvement'; set aside the fact that the scaled child had looked almost exactly like Ryou and had now taken to following him around. Ryou slowly removed the crying boy from his chest and handed him to Marik, before kneeling down to see who this one was; he reached in and stroked the side of her face gently, she felt the touch and started to open her mouth to bite him
-- Please don't, I need that hand -- He called she closed her mouth and looked at him curiously
--See we won't hurt you we are going to rescue you -- he said again she slowly uncurled, still looking at him, and she started to pat around with her hands like she was looking for something
'Oh no,' Ryou thought as he watched
-- You can't see us can you? -- She shook her head her eyes were still wide open
"I'm right here, just reach forward," he said directing her with his voice. She reached towards him and he met her half way pulling her towards him he looked into her eyes both where blue whether they were normally like that or not, he didn't know.
--we'll be back for you just wait right here -- he told her as Marik shuffled off to break more locks there were only a few left after hers but what confused him was, what were all of these children doing here all in one place? And where was Yami they hadn't seen him yet they thought he would have been in here since the first child they had freed had been crying up a storm and making one heck of a racket. They continued on breaking locks open for children some of which where like the little girl except half blind like Ryou. Marik finally broke the last lock after a while; the child stumbled out falling to his knees in front of Marik. Suddenly, they started to hear screaming coming from beyond the door at the other end of the room Ryou and Marik looked back on all of the cages they had opened all of the demons, angels and dragons had come out and were all huddled in groups with each other. Marik went to the door they had come through and melted it slightly so that anyone trying to come in wouldn't be able to; the screaming had stopped Ryou had his ear against the door listening for anything. Marik walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder
"Can you hear anything?" Marik asked
"No, but I know someone is on the other side," Ryou said
"Let's go get who ever it is they might be in trouble," Marik said, opening the door slightly looking inside
"What is it?"
"Nothing it's just a hallway an empty hallway," Marik replied swinging the door open. Another cry came from behind the door at the other end they looked at each other before they started to run towards the door which slid open as they approached it they gasped in unison at the sight before them.
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Yugi sat there cradling Yami's almost dead body, crying, Mai was kneeling next to them she started sniffling as tears welled up in her eyes she slowly wrapped her arms around Yugi and Yami as tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"Yami please don't die Yugi would be so sad," she said sadly; little did she notice that her palms were starting to glow white. Yami suddenly gasped his once limp body gone rigid and his eyes were open again Yugi looked down as Yami started taking in huge breaths of air
"Yami?" Yami's teeth were gritted in pain as his back arched Yugi set Yami back down on the floor afraid he was hurting him but Mai kept a hold of him as Yami's eyes widened till they were as big as possible.
"Mai..." he started to tell her to let him go but he noticed her hands were glowing and so was Yami and he slowly backed away from them as Yami started to writhe in what seemed to be pain and the glow steadily grew till it lit the small area under the balcony where they were sitting. Yugi heard a hum as a door opened in the side of the arena and looked up from the unknowing healer to see Marik and Ryou standing there staring open mouthed at the scene.
In Ryou's eyes the scene was horrible, but to Marik it was a good sign, Yami was lying in what looked like a puddle of blood that was slowly running towards the center of the bowl of an arena, a naked dragon girl was holding onto him, and a white light was starting to radiate from them both. even though Yami looked like he was in pain Marik knew he wasn't it was just his body thinking it was hurting his mind was actually happy that the pain was being taken away, he'd had this same thing done to him on a more minor scale. Ryou started to move forward but Marik held out an arm to stop him
"No don't interrupt," he said simply
"Just watch," Marik said looking over the scene he realized Yugi was sitting next to them with a blade and a broken collar next to him.
Yugi still sat there staring at them he watched as the cuts on Yami's sides where healing over and so was the hole where the dagger had gone through, it was like watching a flower bloom and wilt in seconds, and all that was left were very light scars on his skin. The light slowly started to die down and Yami's body went limp again as Mai drew back with tear streaks staining her face.
"Yami?" she said as Yugi crawled forward. He pulled Yami close to him his breathing seemed to have evened out; he put his head to Yami's chest, and listened, his heart beat was beating strong again. Yugi grinned wide enough to show a few of his pointed teeth and hugged Yami tighter Yami grunted and Yugi leaned up letting him go a little bit when he looked into those red eyes. Yami smiled a little bit
"Did you miss me," he said quietly, sitting up Yugi buried his head in his shoulder nodding and crying a little. Yami put his arms around him holding him close
"Its okay it's all over we can go home," Yami looked up at Mai who was sitting there looking confused
"Well who might you be?" he asked looking her over she was quite pretty to him no wonder Yugi was fond of her
"Mai," she replied
"you make Yugi happy," she said Yami looked up to the door where Marik and Ryou stood smiling at them until he noticed Ryou had someone, who almost blended into his hair, peeking at him from behind him.
"Bakura?" he said realizing who it was Ryou looked over his shoulder suddenly, Bakura squeaked as he came nose to nose with his look-a-like, whose wide reddish eyes in turn scared Ryou back.
"Your name is Bakura?" he nodded in response
"I was scared," Bakura said clinging onto Ryou quickly
"Its okay I'm right here," Ryou said patting him on the back. Marik walked into the arena he knelt down next to Mai before he stared to cover her with one of his wings pulling her closer to him she looked up at him curiously He smiled kindly at her.
"What a touching reunion!" they heard someone yell from the balcony the entire group looked up Yugi's eyes went huge. There, standing at the edge of the balcony, was Malik; bloody and scratched up, his neck was bent at such an angle that it was obviously broken, and his entire body was twitching. He had on a huge lopsided grin
"You won't even live to tell about it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" that laugh at the end had a robotic sound to it
"What do you mean?" Yami shouted standing up with Yugi still in his arms
"You have one hour before this entire building explodes taking you with it," with another evil robotic cackle Malik collapsed in a crumpled heap atop the balcony. They all looked at each other and then towards the door where Ryou was still standing with Bakura, and heard a few screams from down the hallway where some of the children had been listening. Yami was the first to move he darted towards the door and down the hall way with Marik, Mai, Ryou, and Bakura following close behind. Yami stopped in the door way to see all the children he'd seen in cages, grouped together throughout the room scared out of their wits. Marik ran up behind Yami holding Mai wrapped in his own wings he ran across the room and busted the door open
"Everybody, follow me," he bellowed gaining all the children's attention. They all noticed the door was now open and started to gather around Marik; Ryou saw the little blind girl still sitting there groping for someone to lead her, he picked her up quickly telling her
-- I'm here now -- she clung onto him as Ryou and the rest of the small group made their way out the door.
"What's going on?" Mai squeaked from Marik's arms
"we're getting out of here," he replied looking over his shoulder to see if all of the children were behind him he burst through a door and into another hallway this place was like a never ending maze he didn't know how much time they had left either.
"Yami, what are we going to do?" Yugi said pulling on Yami's shirt sleeve
"I don't know Yugi, I have yet to see a way out that all of us could use," he replied suddenly everyone stopped Yami looked up over the heads of all of the others to see an open door; he slowly made his way through the mass of panicking angels, demons, and dragons.
"Marik what's going on?" he asked/shouted over the noise
"I found a way out," he said turning only slightly from his work he was knelt next to a window melting it away, with a big smile, he punched out the metal that was covering it.
"See," he looked out the window they were on the second floor but he didn't give a care it was low enough Ryou stood next to him looking out the window Marik turned to him but Ryou beat him to the punch
"Nooo, you can't possibly be thinking of leaving through there,"
"You've got it," he said crawling through the window and sitting hanging onto the edge
"Hand me two of the kids I'm going to start taking them down," Ryou obeyed putting down the blind angel he'd been holding and started to hand him the others. Ryou watched as Marik jumped off of the building over and over as quickly as possible carrying two and maybe three of the kids each time he quickly handed him the last two a demon and an angel that had unnaturally fluffy wings, and he jumped off.
As he jumped Ryou heard a loud click behind him he turned to see Yami and Yugi standing there facing an entire small group of guards holding rifles all aimed at them. Yami stood there too shocked to move the guard closest to them readied his gun to shoot and another deadly click was heard Ryou heard Marik scrambling back onto the window ledge behind him in one quick movement the guard with a gun pointed at Ryou suddenly pointed and fired at the window, the blind girl screamed then whimpering started trying to crawl away as she felt someone grab onto her, the shot had missed it's target by inches making a small hole in the wall next to him. All hell broke loose in the room as soon as she screamed, Ryou, in a fit of anger over the fact that they had shot at the man who was trying to help a blind child, dove at the man in front of him grabbing the gun and wrestling with him. At the same time Yami tackled the two standing in front of him as Yugi went flying back towards Marik who was still struggling to calm the blind girl as the other two took on the guards
"Calm down I'm just trying to help," Marik said as the small child shrieked in fear. Yugi took over from there he took the child into his arms and started speaking softly to her
"It's okay we're good guys, we won't hurt you, just trust us, please," he said as Marik grabbed Bakura to take him down to the rest of the kids. Ryou finally knocked the guard out and rushed over to Yugi who was still holding onto the girl
--It's okay I'm here -- he told her she knew his voice and that he was the only one who could speak like that she immediately reached out for him He held onto her telling Yugi to go wait for Marik he suddenly became very aware that a counter had started over the intercom
"Fifteen."
"Fourteen."
"Thirteen."
Yami looked up from the guy he'd just knocked out listening
'Oh Ra,' he thought, Yami knew what that counter meant, they were out of time. Marik landed at the window
"Take her and Yami and beat it Yugi and I will be right behind you" Ryou said shoving Yami towards him and handing him the girl.
"Seven."
"Six."
"Five."
"Four."
Marik dove off the widow ledge one last time Ryou looked down from the window as Marik led the small crowd yelling
"Come on, run this way!!" as he kept flying over the crowd.
"Three."
Ryou stepped out onto the ledge with Yugi both of them gulping as they spread their wings to fly.
"Two."
They both jumped flapping their wings trying to get away and follow Marik who had stopped far away looking back to see if they were following.
"One!"
A loud rumble signaled the explosives going off inside the building the windows all burst outwards as columns of fire erupted from the inside. the building was on fire as a cloud black smoke engulfed the building another boom came from the inside as a second set of explosives went off sending out a shockwave from the building. Marik watched helplessly as Ryou and Yugi were surround by thick black smoke and sent tumbling through the air as they were hit with the shockwave.
"Noooo!" Marik shouted he dropped down enough to where he could drop Yami and the girl and sped towards the building.
"Yugi! Ryou!" he screamed landing and searching franticly for the two angels he heard a cry come from ahead of him he walked forward to see Yugi laying with Ryou curled up next to him Yugi was crying out in pain both of them were covered in dirt and coughing from the smoke and debris flying around.
"Yami!" Yugi coughed Marik ran up to him he carefully started to pick Yugi up when the angel let out a scream as Marik moved his legs his wings started flapping in defense trying to push the source of pain away, he gently laid him back down, and started to look him over for anything broken or damaged unfortunately he found what was wrong; sometime in the fall Yugi had managed to break his ankle. Marik moved over to Ryou, who was still lying unnaturally still, as he got closer he heard a broken sentence mumbled into his head
-- Stay... Away... -- Marik stopped he didn't understand why Ryou would tell him to leave him alone
-- 'Meltdown'... -- Marik finally understood he remembered hearing Ryou tell Yami what a 'meltdown' was. He turned to help Yugi who had started trying to take in larger breaths to make the pain go away
"Yugi it's me Marik it's going to be all right," he said trying to rip strips off of Yugi shirt to wrap around his ankle in a makeshift splint; Yugi looked up at him with wide watery eyes.
"Can't breathe," he gasped; the black smoke was getting worse; Ryou started to move around behind him Marik picked Yugi up as quickly as he could, trying to ignore his cries; he helped Ryou lean against him and started walking out of the smoke with Ryou limping along next to him. Yami came running up to him with the entire crowd following behind him, Marik gently laid Yugi down in front of Yami who immediately started to try to calm him down and get him to lay still; Ryou sat down hard, holding his head, when Bakura came rushing over to him, holding onto him
"Thanks Bakura," he cooed almost falling asleep against Bakura's cool scales. Mai ran up to Marik, holding onto his pant's leg
"What's wrong Mai?" he asked kindly as he looked over the rest of the children; who had sat down and were asking each other questions like:
"What's this?" and picking up a dead leaf, or
"What is that?" and pointing at the descending moon.
"Scared," she said Marik noticed she had donned a white blanket like the rest of the kids he knelt down and picked her up
"Would you like it if I took you flying with me," he said she nodded never having flown before
"Yami!" he called, trying to get his attention. Marik saw Yami's spiked hair appear out of a small group he approached them leaning down to whisper in his ear since Yugi was asleep with his head on his lap
"Take care of them for me for a little bit; I'm going to get some help," Yami nodded, understanding. Marik stood up and walked away from the crowd still holding Mai
"ready?" she nodded again Marik crouched down spreading his wings above his head and in one swift stroke he launched them into the gray/pink morning sky Mai gripped tighter as he rose her violet eyes widening as the landscape spread out before her only thought was
'This world is huge,' before Marik, with one powerful wing beat after another propelled them towards a bunch of slowly fading lights, a city.
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Gruzzee: wow!
Cazi: you've got an over active imagination aibou.
Gruzzee: yeah I know but at least they all made it out alive I just couldn't bring myself to kill anyone (well except Malik)
Cazi: I guess that's nice. Now all the readers who just read this go a head and click that little review but I know you want to just please remember if ya got any complaints about my aibou's grammar e-mail her and just in case you missed it her e-mail is at the top of this chapter. Bye-bye for now