AN - Gah, damn the business. No excuses today . . . but thank you so much. I've received so much stuff to feed my ego with, I'm positively glowing.
Ah yes, and if any of you like industrial music, and you haven't heard of the band 'orgy', then you're living in a hole, or you are much to immersed in popular ickiness - -;;
Anywho, onward!
Song of the Chapter: "Saving Faces" Orgy
"There was a boy . . .
A very strange, enchanted boy.
They say he wandered very far,
--very far--
over land and sea . . .
A little shy, and sad of eye
but very wise, was he.
And then one day,
one magic day, he passed my way.
While we spoke of many things,
fools and kings,
this he said to me:
'The greatest thing you'll ever learn
is just to love . . . and be loved in return'"
- Massive Attack & David Bowie, "Nature Boy"
"Wow . . . it's lovely!"
"Huh? What the hell are you talkin' about Anzu?"
"You always had creepy tastes."
The boys stared pointedly.
". . . What's that supposed to mean?!" Yuugi's voice squeaked up abruptly, noticing the pause.
"I don't see what's so creepy about it." The single girl huffed.
"Uhh . . . it's old . . . "
"Geez, that old shack doesn't even look like it has running water!"
Their laughing and good-natured teasing earned them a scowling glare from the single female among their group. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at their increased rate of snickers.
A man they had hardly met despite three hours of traveling came up by the frustrated girl, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry." He said, with a nervous smile "I can see it too. I'm surprised you can . . . "
"Oh thank the gods." She sighed after a moment "I thought I was going crazy. It IS a lovely castle though."
"Yes . . . yes it is."
-----
"How cool is this?!"
"Awesome!"
Two gangling figures pranced, without realizing it, around a scarcely-lit garden—one of Hogwarts' finest. Preferring the garden paths as their approach up to the castle (as Jou had come across a nasty incident involving ponds, leeches, and insufferable rich CEOs the year prior, and had been horrified of still water ever since), the odd group had been hiking from the quaint little village of Hogsmeade for the previous half-hour or so.
However, they were by no means suffering the distance. Unbounded and endless energy from being couped up in various compartments for a majority of their past 24 hours left Anzu, Jou, and Honda especially anxious for a little movement.
Professor Lupin—that was all that any of them knew him as—had opened the barrier without much mishap. An owl had swooped down over them, dropping a sealed parchment envelope in the older man's hands, which simply read "At Hogwarts' Front Gates". The transformation had been nearly instantaneous--an incredible shuddering and smoothing of the semi-unusual landscape--into something that only two of them had seen before.
"Woah." Jou's face was illuminated in an eerie green light, staring at the faintly glowing, minute form of a rather pretty girl decked in green. She giggled and fluttered her wings prettily as the glow intensified slightly, as if it were her way of blushing under the handsome boy's close scrutiny.
"Heya." He said suavely.
"She's a garden fairy." Lupin spoke up as Yuugi, Anzu, and himself walked up in anticipation to whatever foolish performances he would participate at that moment. The older man offered a faint smile as the little winged creature huffed in a squeak and stuck her tongue out rudely. "She can't talk back."
Her high-pitched squeaking became louder in protest.
"Well," he offered, looking a bit wary for all of her rising violent tendencies "not in a way we would really understand."
"Eh."
Jou wasn't really listening to the logical explanation. He was slowly backing away as the fairy tossed her head and screamed her cute (but increasingly irritating) little screams as her hair became wildly tangled and face hidden. She flew off in a rage, to join a few other multicolored lights mulling about the canopy of a nearby tree.
"Hey, are you guys coming or what?" Honda's voice echoed from the top of the hill above them.
Glancing at each other, Yuugi and Anzu shared a momentary look of understanding and sighed simultaneously before dragging themselves up the grassy hill with overlarge steps.
Honda waited with his arms crossed until they came closer, then kept the pace along side his companions as they neared the castle.
"It seems so much larger as we get closer." Jou spoke up in awe.
"It'll seem even larger once you get inside of it." Yuugi promised.
As they approached the sunset-crowned building, scattered remains of the student body came into view as little clusters of dully reflecting black robes. They talked, they smiled, they worked on homework. Just like any other high-school.
"Sorta like Domino, isn't it?" Jou noted with a pinch of awe to his voice.
Anzu raised her finely-plucked eyebrows, peering hidden glances to the students around her as they spotted quizzical stares toward the groups slightly outlandish appearances. "I . . . guess."
"Here we are." Lupin's voice came unexpectedly, with the air of presentation.
His thin figure clad in faded green looked even slighter in light of the massive, mahogany doorframe that had been carefully carved sometime long ago. Even Jou was humbled, for all his height, below the entrance to the ancient elegance that was the castle.
The proceeded inside silently.
-----
Even though they stung, even though it seemed out of place, it was the only expression he could grasp in all of his irresistible emptiness.
His eyes threatened to spill over—he tried not to move his face from it's position, wary of the threat.
"It's a silly expression."
"A useless perception."
Alucard and his Yami, always the wariest voices of logic and reason in his life. He turned to them--
Still smiling.
There they were, stopped for no apparent reason on a rocky slope overlooking a dampened green field which was slightly overgrown. A relatively pretty picture, as the moisture and mist faded the horizon of trees in layers of gray. Shades of it everywhere, everywhere.
The Yami shifted, setting a foot on a naturally-created step on the hill. He was imposing, with that long dark coat dancing in the stray tendrils of wind that swirled about the trio of mismatched fugitives.
Ryou's teeth were still uncovered, glinting and glittering through the mist gathered around the foot of the hill. His cheeks were cramping, giving him the impression that a knife was twisting through his jaw. He continued to smile, aware that it would hurt so much more if he halted the gesture.
"Hikari?"
"What is it?" his voice still sounded hoarse—he was still unused to using it without screaming or straining. A deep revulsion in the pit of his stomach crept up every time he spoke, wondering if he would always remain this way.
He turned back to face his Yami, as his cheeks flushed to compensate the wind that no longer thrashed against his face from this direction. Mirror-like eyes were slipping into that familiar brooding gesture.
"What is it?" he repeated.
"Have you always wondered . . . why is it that you are immune to the Shadow Realm? Even as a Hikari."
The unruly, near-dreadlocked head turned away thoughtfully. "Even the Pharoh's Hikari was useless in the Shadowy depths."
Ryou cocked his head to the side with raised eyebrows.
"Isn't that thought a bit . . . tardy?" he asked, along with a slightly dry tone.
Bakura chuckled without humor. His head was still turned away, surveying the layers of mist cascading over the deep emerald hills on the horizon.
"If you hadn't noticed already, we have not had a great deal of time to think such thoughts in these past few years."
"No . . . I suppose not." Ryou returned quietly, examining the toe of his leather shoe. It was showing it's signs of wear as scratchy scuffs had been accumulated over the length of their journey until that point. So many, in fact, that it just looked like one large gray spot between the raindrops and his toe.
Alucard, who had been generally ignorable, suddenly jumped up to the top of the mound of weather-worn rocks the size of cattle heads. The enigmatic something-beyond-a-vampire managed to jump each step with an eerie allowing of the air to wave through his blood-shade cloak like a torn flag.
The two halves of the pondering soul looked up in astonishment. They could spot his shining, yet matted ebony hair spray about his shoulders as he visibly fingered it with leather-bound spindly hands.
"We're nearly there."
Yami Bakura nodded promptly.
"Quite close now."
"Where are we going?"
The Yami jumped up to the side of their mismatched companion without answering his hikari's question. Worried slightly about being left behind, Ryou stumbled up to their side . . . his question still lingering in the moist breeze.
-----
The group moved quickly, lead by a stern-looking woman whose rapid pace had been inlaid with a certain sense of slight anxiety. Their feet stuttered along the polished marble steps noisily as they heaved their own travel-worn bodies and minds up the steps.
Lupin stayed behind with a thoughtful expression marring his drained face. Yuugi's eyebrows furrowed as he dropped back past Anzu to keep steps along side the older man.
"What is this?" he asked seriously.
"I'm not really sure." The once-professor looked around as if an answer would pop out of one of the moving portraits "It's not like the Headmaster to call a meeting so abruptly without good reason . . . or emergency."
Yuugi swallowed, suddenly sensing dread in his own face.
"So, you have no idea what this could be about?"
"No, I don't." his mouth set in a strained line "Minerva would have told us what this was about if she had deemed it safe to mention outside of the Headmaster's office. So I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
This explanation did nothing to aid Yuugi's growing nerves, however.
Yami? he questioned openly. He nearly slapped himself for not thinking of asking him sooner.
The Hikari didn't notice the wince in Anzu's step as he called out to the other half of his soul. Nor her quick, quizzical look back to his concentrating face.
:--Yuugi?!: the mindvoice was loud, as if the Yami was strained mentally, angry, or nervous. Yuugi winced at the unexpected 'volume'.
Where are you? he asked.
:If you're around, then you should be coming here.:
Violet eyes glanced up at the witch heading the pack with her demanding steps up a (now) pivoting staircase.
Probably. I can sense the emotional strain of the woman guiding us . . . has anything bad happened while I was away?
:Well . . .: The darker half seemed slightly hesitant. : . . . not to her I suppose . . . I honestly do not understand what has her so riled up.:
Yuugi swallowed.
. . . Why am I getting the feeling you're not telling me everything, Yami?
There was no immediate reply.
"Candy corn!" came a woman's voice sounding crispily.
"OOOH! Where?!" Jou said immediately. He was ignored for the most part.
Honda dove back as a stone gargoyle twitched, and finally walked aside of a narrow doorway. Bewildered, the brunette boy stared at the doorway with wide eyes.
Lupin smiled kindly, and offered a hand to the boy, which he took while remaining with an absent look.
Anzu sighed and shook her head exasperatedly.
"Come along!" the woman professor snapped to the rest of the group. She whirled around in a flurry of emerald-green velvet robes and disappeared through the darkened doorway with an ominous air of morbid insight to come.
Lupin's head was raised and his eyes glancing down over his nose when he exchanged an identical look of anticipation with Yuugi.
They stepped through the doorway side-by-side.
Yuugi craned his neck to examine the environment of a spiraling staircase. The lighting was dimmed compared with the outside corridor in which they had been just walking, and rather than the cool green from before, the staircase had walls painted a deep glossy red. The candles that burned down twirls of iron, fastened to the sides, reflected in the paint as gently glowing, shapeless orbs, and Yuugi found himself oddly transfixed at the manifestations.
He frowned. Whatever his darkness was elusively hiding from his probing mind had him worried. Yami's emotions could not be hidden, even as the King of Games, from his hikari, and those emotions were enough to put anyone on edge. Confusion, anger, dread, and a slight sense of revulsion.
Yuugi, lost in thought, absently wiped his nose with a finger and stared at his shoes.
Even Honda and Jou had been successfully shushed as they climbed up the carpeted stairs, a shade darker than the walls. The only sounds noticeable through the group were the hasty shuffling of feet over the steps, and somehow, unsettled breaths that were slightly gasping--not from overexertion, but from nervousness.
The silence was deafening. It elevated the tension between them like the tightening of a rubber band . . . so close to snapping.
Another door opened at the transfiguration professor's touch; Yuugi's head swerved up in a flurry of oddly-shaped hair. He stepped into the room.
Faces turned toward him with stony attention, their lips set into thin lines and foreheads wrinkled in thought and a wispy sense of vulnerability. He wouldn't have noticed the last feature if he had not sensed it already in his own face—and had it not been on the very tip of his consciousness.
The room was warmly lit and circular in shape; almost comforting, unlike the mood from his last visit. He swallowed, feeling a sudden chill despite the nearby braziers, unburdened by any sense of coolness in the room.
Yami was oddly silent.
Yuugi mentally sent out to him, not gaining any more reassurance in the few moments he had spent in Headmaster Dumbledore's office. Yami, what . . . ?
:Hikari . . .:
The thought crept up to him with another empty chill. He disregarded the movements of nervousness behind him, the complete stillness as they forgot to breathe, and a quick intake of breath that was as close to a gasp as Anzu would ever allow herself.
He turned, dreading, and came upon pale, violet eyes. Violent souls, twisted behind a finely chiseled face that he knew all to well.
The man smirked.
"Ah, so the little pharaoh graces us with his presence at last." He tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing and picked himself from leaning on a sturdy mahoghany desk. The smirk deepened at Yuugi's shocked expression.
To give himself credit, Yuugi would have considered himself terrified for a split moment. Somehow, he gained control of himself with a mere blink and schooled his expression into Yami's impenetrable coldness.
"Malik, what are you doing here?"
The man tilted his head back lazily. A smile still quirked his lips; a clever one that warranted attention. So many had suffered from that smile, and beyond that smile . . .
Let us hope that a darkness of his own will not rise again. Yuugi wished silently to himself. His arms hung stiffly.
"Hmm, well I would claim many positions, many purposes. I don't really feel like repeating myself."
Yuugi's head jerked to an unreadable headmaster.
"Mr. Ishtar, it appears, is here to substitute temporarily for Ms. Ishtar, who was hired for the place of Ancient Runes professor." Dumbledore said gravely. "He has kindly appeared without hesitation."
Large purple eyes turned back to the unexpected visitor.
"My sister is on her honeymoon."
"Isis couldn't be the only reason you're here." Yami spoke up from the shadows. His glare was pure venom toward the bleach-blonde Egyptian.
Malik laughed with the full force of his smooth, deep voice bubbling up from his throat.
"Another point for the pharaoh!" he cackled.
"Why are you here, then?" Yuugi interjected.
You've disappeared for the past three years . . . why are you here, Malik?
It was a question on the minds of everyone aware in that room. Lupin and Dumbledore tried to mask their concern with impassiveness, glancing at each other with confusion dug deep.
They watched as Malik was taken aback by the question, and his smile slowly faded and closed, his eyelashes brushing each other. It was a sort of question that he should have anticipated, but somehow could not immediately piece together a worthy explanation in regards to it. The sharp lie he had subconsciously created for that question died in his throat before it even started. The thought scattered like the shattered remains of a glass vase dropped on a tile floor.
He bowed his head, shielding the sudden pained look that crossed his face from the prying onlookers.
Such a change as this was so immediate that Yuugi felt his stomach tighten unsurely. Yet it was an inquiry that needed to be intoned, and he held the suspicion and his head high as he faced him. Even crossed his arms for good measure, as the neatly pressed sleeves of his suit rubbed roughly on his wrists.
He hadn't seen Malik for three years.
After the Battle City debacle, the first thing Yuugi and his Yami vowed was to keep an eye on Malik Ishtar. It was something set by default through the treachery they and their friends had endured throughout the tournament
The boy, the empty shell, seemed particularly broken and distant afterward. His eyes held a sort of mistiness deep in it's shadows, in the hollows of nothing more than a boy who had truly lost himself. His yami had risen inside of him at a very young age, and he had grown so accustomed to it's presence that in a sense, he was his yami.
Yuugi remembered that haunting look—he would always remember it, etched in his memory.
Anzu had later explained that Yuugi himself had reflected that same preoccupation of distance from reality, when his yami had almost killed Seto Kaiba. However, even weeks after the initial loss, Malik was still unexplainably lost inside of himself. He functioned; ate and slept, but was not truly living in a sense that he hadn't spoken a word to anyone.
Yuugi had come to check on the hikari one day, when Isis was off on an expedition, bringing along an old friend Ryou Bakura because they were heading out to tea. He found it almost inhumane of Malik's older, scholarly sister to leave him alone like she did so completely, but it was simply Isis' way of dealing with stressful situations. She just completely cut off from him. As the two of them were politely let inside the Ishtar apartment that gorgeous Wednesday afternoon, Malik said nothing. He didn't even look at them as they walked through the doorway.
The blonde had stayed comatose and walking despite Yuugi's questioning, refusing to make eye contact as he nervously sat on a decorative blue couch, which was of a sort of furniture that held only a distant beauty and no sense of comfort. The boy was dressed in faded jeans and a shirt that was mis-buttoned one down.
'Are you eating?' Yuugi had tried, '/Are you bored?/'. '/You know to come to us if you're having any problems . . . right?'.
He had remained silent, head bowed with uncombed hair blocking a view of his eyes.
Yuugi remembered clearly, staring at Malik, quite near to tears at this rapid change in the boy. Guilt had swept over him like low tide and it was all he could do to swallow the lump in his throat, and it was becoming nearly painful.
Then Ryou shifted next to him.
The shyest boy, the strongest boy behind hesitant countenance, who had overcome so much more than Yuugi could have ever dared. He still lived with a yami who would stop at nothing to achieve his own means, and Ryou was much to shy to gain much companionship besides his uncaring darker side. Here he was, staring at Malik with something akin to companionship that he had never expressed before, a feeling of understanding.
It was quite possibly the most unexpected gesture Yuugi could have ever predicted.
Ryou walked forward and sat on his haunches in front of the distant blonde, staring. Oddly enough, in close proximity, there was a change in the broken boy.
Malik looked up, focusing on the pale boy's face.
With delicate aristocratic fingers, Ryou reached out, brushing unruly blonde hair from the boys' focusing eyes. A tender gesture.
'Are you alright?' for once, Ryou's quiet voice had not faltered.
Malik's eyes had grown large and his facial expression became very precarious. Suddenly, he melted.
' . . . No . . . '
And Malik Ishtar had fallen, sobbing into Ryou's arms while the ordinarily shy boy had held him and comforted him as if he were a lost child. It was as if Yuugi never existed. For them, they were only aware of each other.
So such the events played out within the next few months. Malik would only speak to Ryou, and Ryou would only speak of the conversations with Malik. Yuugi was confused, but aware that it was good enough that the eccentric Egyptian had at least begun talking again. Vaguely, he wondered as Yami was certain about, that because Ryou held evilness within his delicate shell, the influence of Yami Bakura on the preoccupied Malik was not the best of situations. However, there was no conspiracy, just understanding between the two of them. Yami Bakura was never involved. To them, it was Ryou and Malik; the first friends either of them knew.
Then, Ryou Bakura had disappeared one day. Kidnapped, murdered, it was difficult to say.
Yuugi and the others grieved for his loss, although they all held the hope that Ryou wasn't dead or otherwise lost to them forever. Malik on the other hand, after receiving the news, had surrendered even further into himself than he had when his yami had been cast away.
They had done everything they could to bring him out again, to see him smile again. Nothing helped.
And then Malik himself had disappeared one night; the only evidence of his departure was an absent coat and a breeze-filled pair of curtains in his lofty bedroom. His once-prized motorcycle had been left untouched.
Yuugi went over his last experiences with Malik in his head rapidly as he stared at the now-frowning boy . . . no, man, rather. Here he was, as he had been, a conceited, mysterious bastard without manners or emotions. Or at least, he tried to be.
"Well?" Yuugi said finally, after seconds of silence.
Malik's eyes flashed.
"I don't believe that is any of your business." He hissed, and rapidly turned his head to the headmaster.
Dumbledore looked at them both with a warning glance. Still, he went on as if nothing of any importance had gone between the two of them. He coughed, and smiled faintly.
"I am terribly sorry if this meeting is inconvenient, but I'm afraid the ceremonies must take place as soon as possible." The old man explained, stroking his beard thoughtfully "I assume you have brought the items?"
"Of course." Malik spoke though a haze of self-assuredness.
Yami and Yuugi exchanged looks.
Pulling out three particular gold items, Malik stared at them with something akin to dislike. Scales. Ankh. Rod.
"What are they doing here?!" Honda cried out.
Yami spoke up.
"It is time . . . to discover the true owners of the items."
Jou frowned.
"I thought we went through that already--"
"No," Yami suddenly felt the weight of his millenia behind his voice "not really."
Anzu, Jou, and Honda looked at each other dubiously.
It was the female of the group who spoke up.
"So . . . why are we here?"
Shinigami – I love how you're very excited about it all. Truly, I did take your suggestions to heart! (coughs and looks at mongrel chappie) Heehee!
crystal-chan – David Bowie is t3h kewlest! lol I love that song so much still. I'm glad you like the touch—I just hope I remember to put in the song every time!
Tramontana Keeper - Heehee, Malik with explinations is always better though, right? At least I hope so! (wink) I'm really glad people still like this . . . I've been working on it so long.
onlyHAUNTED – Update again! Woo! I hope you like this chapter as much as the last, even though it got REALLY corny at the end. Meh . . . so you've seen hellsing? (grins) Mmm, Alucard . . .
The Inspector – Waiiiiii (huggles) Ah, I know what you mean . . . my other fic is TOTALLY R/B, and I still won't usually give a fic the time of day in the YGO section unless it's R/B. However, I might just be doing something a little bit different this time . . . and it's going to be very odd and different, I'll assure you. I really really hope this hasn't scared you away! (nervous look) I'll do anything to keep you enjoying this fic.
RBMIfan – Wow! Thank you so much!!! That really made me feel good : ) Sorry about the OOC-ness in this chapter, as far as Malik is concerned. But I had to put in something weird!!! What can I say, lol Hope you're still there . . . ouch. Yeah, definitely did not have a soon update o.o
Windswift – Yaay! Sense is good : ) Hahahahahaha, yeah, boys are so weird. I don't know what to do with them anymore . . . (sigh). Dun dun dunnnn, so much intrigue, I can't explain it all at once. You'll have to read more (winkwinknudgenudge).
Kina-chan – You called it my dear! Mmm, such loveliness and fluffiness in store . . . (cackles)
Starring Lady G – YES FOR SPIFFILICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! Coolest un-word EVAR. 3 Spiffilicious . . . woooooo!!! Heehee : ) Thanks!
Usagi Yuy1 – I'm glad everyone is liking Alucard. I just thought he was such an awesome character . . . haha, that's me, stealing everyone's characters. What can I say? They're just too cool. Hungry for Malik? More Malik served!
IMPROVED Uber Rei Model 06 – haha, you remind me so much of myself : ) Sorry about the wait . . . damn uber-horrible case of writer's block. Eep!
InsanityRoseSparkles – Ooh! Questions questions . . . hmm possibly and yes (wink) Yaay! I'm glad I'm getting the idea of Malik right . . . I have issues with that sometimes.
Sugaricing – Well, I'll just have to get Seto into there sometime, hmm? (wink) I wuv wuvving Ryou, heehee!
Bakagami101 – (grin) (huggles) I'm glad you like it! And I'm glad you don't think it's too bizarre . . . heehee!
AN - Eh, not the best chapter I've ever completed. I used very few metaphors, and more than anything, this is a lot of high-carb, literary filler. This is the worst case of writers block I have ever had in my life, so naturally, things are bound to be a bit spotty. I also don't have a beta, so I'm just winging it here.
Is this story becoming overly dramatic? I really can't tell. It just seems to me like . . . a lot of is happening. lol oh well . . .
Otherwise:
I love rain. Boys are stupid . My life is crazy.
giggle