Sakakku

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Chapter 4

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Nice going, Wheeler.

Seto lifted a cool hand. The wide-eyed boy who had excitedly told him the news of Joey's escape scampered off, doubtless to gossip with others. Not much interesting happened around here; or anywhere, apparently.

He supposed he should be grateful; it saved him the trouble of having to travel to the palace. But while it was now harder for Marik and Bakura to lay their filthy hands on Wheeler, Seto had no idea where the mutt was. And something inside him said that it was more urgent now than ever. He had to find either Joey or Yami or Yugi (two people. I referred to Yami and Yugi as two people. The dreams are starting to affect my head), and quickly.

Seto pulled his cowl lower over his eyes and lifted the collar of his black trenchcoat. But what about Téa? She was still in the palace, placing her in a position of danger. He should get her out as quickly as possible… but it would take time! The palace was still a good two or three day's journey away, and every second he wasted the Rare Hunters would be combing the desert. Looking for Wheeler, or for Yugi.

He let out a low growl of frustration- how was he supposed to find either of them anyway? Angrily, he kicked up sand, and watched it swirl away. Some kids were playing with a ball nearby, laughing and shrieking. It was good to hear a happy sound.

Seto Kaiba had never believed in fate, or in destiny. In fact, he prided himself on that. But maybe just this once… he could trust in it. He could count on the fact that someone out there other than him was willing to fight, and willing to help Téa.

As for him, he had to go find a certain puppy dog.

xXx

Oases were few and far between. The only thing in this part of the desert was a rock. The smooth gray surface jutted partway out of the sand, and was home to a particularly fat lizard.

Ishizu had named him Bob. He reminded her of the custodian of the Domino Museum where she had once exhibited.

"Ishizu, you're not hot?" Shadi inquired softly, emerging from the hidden doorway in the shadow of the rock.

"No…" she muttered dreamily. She was sitting cross-legged in the sand under the steaming sun, ignoring the intense heat. All her attention was seemingly focused on Bob as he blinked lazily, but Shadi knew better. The glittering gold object, clutched dearly in her hands, betrayed her true intent. She was focused on the Millennium Necklace.

"Ishizu, you know as well as I that it won't work on command," he reminded her gently, as he did every day. "You must wait. It will show you a vision when the time is right." He extended a hand down in front of her eyes. She looked up slowly, as if surprised, then clasped it. She rose shakily, and a small sob escaped her lips. Immediately she jerked her hand away from Shadi's and clamped it over her mouth, eyes wide.

Shadi watched her desperately fight back tears for a while. She composed herself a little and lifted her hands to fasten the Millennium Necklace around her neck, but her fingers trembled and it fell to the sand. She made no move to pick it up.

So Shadi slowly bent down and scooped it up, moving behind her and fastening it around her slender neck himself, lifting her soft dark hair aside with care. "It's okay to cry," he whispered. He didn't know why he had said that to her. But it seemed right. And Ishizu sunk to her knees, sobbing softly, letting the tears drip to the steaming hot sand. Shadi stood protectively over her, scanning the horizon with empty blue eyes. He felt like he should kneel down with her… but it was so hard to know what to do, to know how to comfort her. So he let the warm breeze wash over him and listened to the small noises Ishizu was making… and then, unexplainably, a cold shiver washed over his body. Beside him, Ishizu rose to her feet quickly- he glanced at her and saw the golden light flashing over her Millennium Necklace.

xXx

"You okay, Ryou?"

Ryou had been lying on the floor of his room, but craned his neck to see Malik leaning in the doorway. "I'm fine," he said flatly.

Malik hesitated, looking at the prone body of the boy. "I didn't come see you last night… I thought you might want to be alone. Marik was really mad. I was afraid Bakura was too."

Ryou shrugged a little. Malik furrowed his elegant brows in concern. "Should I have come? I'm sorry… but you know, you're always welcome to come into my rooms if you need to talk."

"I wanted to be alone."

Malik bit his lip and took a few cautious steps toward Ryou. He sucked in his breath as he noticed the faint red mark on his cheek. "He hit you?"

Ryou sighed, almost inaudibly. "Yes…"

Malik lifted a hand to his own bruises slowly. They'd stopped stinging after a while but were still tender to the touch.

There was silence a moment, then Ryou continued. "But not as hard as he could have. He wasn't as angry as he should have been." With what seemed to be a great effort, the pale boy sat up and turned towards Malik. The blonde boy also walked over and sat across from Ryou, leaning in closely, as if the two were sharing a secret. In a way he felt that they were, and that if they spoke too loudly, Bakura and Marik would hear them.

"Bakura wasn't mad at me," Ryou said again, shuddering a bit as the words passed his lips. "As I was attacking his mind… there was something. A cloud of something even darker than Bakura around his body. And he almost felt relieved that I'd shattered that." He glanced up doubtfully at Malik. The purple-eyed boy was staring at him wide-eyed.

"You felt it too…" Malik breathed.

They locked eyes. "This isn't as it seems," Ryou whispered.

"Something else is at work," Malik agreed. "Something else took over our yamis."

"We can't fight it," Ryou said despairingly. "That's what we tried last time."

"Of course we can't fight it," Malik said, voice raising a little in tension, "-we don't even know what it is! It's some new kind of magic…"

A single tear fell from Ryou's eye. When it struck the floor, it seemed to send out ripples. Shadi and Ishizu felt these ripples, and Ishizu's vision of the two boys faded.

xXx

Ishizu quickly recapped the discussion between Ryou and Malik to Shadi. It had been the first vision from her Millennium Necklace in weeks, and it had been crystal clear. She'd almost felt as if she had been in the room with the two boys.

"So Ryou and Malik believe that some other force is controlling the actions of Bakura and Marik," Shadi said, staring past Ishizu and into space. They had moved into the coolness of Shadi's hidden home under the rocks in the desert.

"Oh, little brother," Ishizu whispered. "What has that demon done to you? Why are you still locked up?"

Shadi glanced swiftly at her. "That 'demon', as you call the yami Marik, may not be all he seems," he cautioned. "Is that not what your brother was just proposing?"

She didn't answer him. Ishizu simply lifted her head, almost regally, and stared into a black corner. Shadi's underground home was cool, and well provisioned, and certainly protected them from being discovered by Bakura and Marik; but it truly was a miserable place to be trapped in for a year.

In silence, the two sat for a long while. Shadi was lost in deep thought, but the few moments he glanced up at Ishizu her blue eyes were dark with anger. He wanted to caution her against giving into the unfound hate, but something held him back.

An idea that has been hovering at the back of his mind suddenly hit him, in perfect clarity. He sucked in a sharp breath and rose, beckoning to Ishizu, not wasting time with words. The two of them hurried down another flight of stairs, into the bowels of the earth, to Shadi's ancient library.

"I know exactly where it is," Shadi said, moving swiftly to the middle of the bookshelves. Ishizu stood uncertainly in the dark, until she decided to grab a torch from the brackets lining the hallway. The firelight from the hallway had been the only light in the room, so when she brought the torch into the library it seemed bright as day.

Across the room, a book fell heavily to the floor and Shadi dropped beside it, opening it up to nearly the end. Ishizu hurriedly sat next to him, bringing the torch close to the page.

"I can't read it!"

So annoyed was her tone that Shadi nearly grinned. "Does that frustrate you, Ishizu?" he asked seriously, though his voice held an air of almost playfullness.

She turned to glare at him, then at the paper. "Why can't I read it? What language is it?" she asked again, sounding very childlike in her defeat. She crossed her arms defiantly, torch bobbing dangerously.

"It's a forgotten language," Shadi said absently. "I can read it." He bent over the book, a long finger tracing the words. "This section here talks about the three Gods, Ishizu. Obelisk, Slifer, and Ra. Everything here you already know- you've heard the stories, you've studied the myths, you've heeded the warnings." He moved on to the next page. "Aaaah," he said softly. "Here lies the key to our understanding…"

"What?" Ishizu asked, impatient. He afforded her a smile despite the serious conditions, and as he turned obediently back to the book, her eyes lingered on his slender profile.

"The power of the three Gods will be much coveted," Shadi said, voice lowering to a near whisper. "Those who desire to control them will be ever motivated by greed. The closer they come to obtaining the power, the greater the desire shall grow. And once an individual… or a group…"

Bakura and Marik

"…control the power of the Three, they will be consumed by shadow."

Bakura and Marik. Not all they seem. A greater force is at work

A freezing gust of wind swept the library, fluttering the pages of the heavy volume Shadi was crouched over. He glanced up anxiously in time to see the wind sweep the fire of the torch out, and he and Ishizu were plunged into darkness. Just as quickly, a brilliant light emitted from the Millennium Necklace. In the sudden light, before Shadi had to fling a hand over his eyes, he saw that Ishizu's eyes had gone completely blank.

xXx Ishizu's vision:

Obelisk loomed over her, grinning eerily, his teeth flashing. Slifer wound his way overhead, bellowing, a horrid sound that sent shivers down her spine. Behind her, she felt the steamy, acidic breath of Ra.

She fought back a moan and an unexplainable urge to have Shadi by her side- he hadn't left her alone for a year and she suddenly felt unprotected. Gazing upwards slowly, her heart jumped to her throat.

Hovering, heads down, eyes closed, imprisoned in the circle Slifer traced in the sky, surrounded by his body, were Marik and Bakura. A strange aura surrounded them, an aura more easily felt than seen. She put a hand to her mouth then quickly spun right, hearing shouts.

She nearly cried out when she saw her brother, but his gaze was fixed to the sky, where his yami hovered dangerously. Beside Malik was Ryou, and a few steps behind them were all their friends. Yugi and Yami were clutching hands, the Pharaoh's crimson eyes flashing dangerously. Téa and Joey hovered behind them, looking scared but determined. Tristan stood next to Joey, fists clenched, and beside him Duke Devlin. Off to the other side of Duke stood Seto Kaiba, arms crossed, seemingly aloof- but his eyes held a menacing gleam.

Behind Joey, coming up to peer over his shoulder, were Mai Valentine and Serenity Wheeler. A hazy white cloud hovered over Serenity's eyes, but as Ishizu watched Joey lifted a hand and brushed it away.

And there were others, too, other figures just emerging from the shadows. Ishizu's eyes began to sting with tears as she recognized the unlikeliest of allies.

Ra roared suddenly, right behind her, and she screamed in terror. In the deafening sound, everything around her began to shatter, until only Yami was left, hovering in a sea of blackness. Then the Millennium Puzzle began to glow, much as her Necklace had, and every last bit was washed away in a sea of gold.

Slowly, things around her seemed to come into focus. The gold became sand, endless sand, with a burning sun and a thin line of blue sky. Far in the distance, three figures trudged towards her; slowly, slowly. From the looks of it, the figure in the middle was a boy, and he stumbled once in the sand. Immediately the men on either side of him hurried to grab his arm, and together they lifted him up and the three kept walking. The men were tall and broad, but that was all Ishizu could tell. But as she peered, a silver and gold figure appeared, hovering in the air over one of the men. He looked up suddenly, as if he could feel the presence of this ghostly woman.

Ishizu stared too, and the woman drifted closer. And all of a sudden Ishizu recognized her, and knew who one of the men was – and then her Necklace flashed again, and she knew who they all were, and she knew who they were looking for and what they hoped to find. And she flung her arms around herself as the vision shattered, and all of a sudden Shadi was holding her, and reassuring her.

They made their way upstairs, for the library had gone dark again. The scant light of the torches comforted Ishizu, and she sunk into a chair in their makeshift kitchen. Shadi pulled up a chair beside her, somehow managing to never remove his hand from her shoulder.

"What happened?" he asked softly.

She took a deep breath and told him all she had seen. "The first part wasn't so much a vision as… as a prediction, perhaps. But those three men- the two men and the boy- they are coming. They're coming here… they're looking for us."

"What do they want?" Shadi breathed.

"Answers. They are looking for the same answers we are. Because one of the men is the source of the troubles and the source of the questions."

"And will therefore be the source of the solution."

"Yes. We don't have answers for this man."

"Not yet. But perhaps his mere presence will act as a key. From what you have said, Ishizu… he brings strange allies."

"He brings a servant," she listed, licking her lips nervously. "And he brings the boy, though to what purpose I cannot guess. Also… none of them know she is there, though they can sense her presence, but the spirit of a woman travels with them."

Shadi's eyes flickered to meet Ishizu's. Softly, he whispered, "He will be grateful to hear this. I suppose our loved ones never truly leave us…"