The Mokuba parts were an afterthought. Feel free to tell me to delete them. I was considering it before I posted, then I thought "Oh stuff it and leave them." It shows, doesn't it?
AND I GOT REVIEWS!!! ::Happy dance:: Thanks are at the bottom. I'm considering handing out cookies because I'm in such a good mood. And for when you get to it, if you are one of those people who still cannot find a dictionary, "facetious" means that someone's trying to be funny at an inappropriate time.
Chapter Three: Burning with Anger
By Susan('s Shadow)
He was falling, taunts and bellows in his ears. Cold wrapped round him, lacing it's way through him, putting lead in his limbs.
"Idiot!" screeched a voice in his ear. "You'll never be a knight if you can't even manage to control yourself!"
"What have I told you! NEVER drop the weapon! That's the only thing that will keep you alive!"
"Joseph! We've had this discussion before! If you feel someone is bullying your sister then you can't just wade in and start a brawl!"
"Too SLOW! Imbecile! Do you want to DIE!?!"
"You're rubbish! You might as well be out in the desert because you'd do a hell of a lot more good out there than you would as a knight!"
Giggles and snickers, taunts and insults, bellowed instructions that he hadn't been able to obey. Everything from back home that had ever brought him out in a blush or a cold sweat. Every negative emotion sweeping over him in a black tidal wave, threatening to sweep him away...
"You said that you want to protect your sister Joey. If you work harder you might be able to pull it off. But there are very few people who think you can do it. In fact, I for one know that some of Serenity's teacher's have told her not to expect miracles."
That little incident, those words, had made him furious back then, even as he'd flushed. He'd wanted to take off, run away from the harsh words, but he'd stayed. He wasn't a little kid who ran from everything that hurt. He wasn't one of the other students, who accepted criticism with a bowed head. He was Joey, boneheaded, stupid, glutton for punishment. The fact that he could hold his own against people with twice his experience was just a galling fact that everyone tried to ignore and gloss over.
And the thought of people saying that to Serenity made his blood boil even now.
"I'm sorry Joey, we can't send you out. You're a danger to yourself and others. Your control is sloppy at best. If you lost your temper..."
Well, guess what, he was losing his temper. And the idiot who had reminded him of all that was gonna get it in a big way.
The ball of anger in his heart was little white-hot ball of flames, just waiting to be released.
The wait was over.
"Is it just me, or is it getting hotter in here?" Mai asked, fanning herself.
Everyone gave her a strange look, as though to ask what relevance that had to the current situation.
She scowled back. Harpies could tell changes of temperature - even if the change was only a few degrees. She'd once seen two males - drunk males at that, a disgrace to their mistresses - stood on a frozen river at midnight, arguing over two degrees. But the temperature in the building had dropped when the shadows had claimed the two men (who were still on the wooden floor), and was now rising quickly. Not something that should happen.
"I'm serious!" she snapped. "Shadow's don't usually make it hotter - "
And then the man at Joey's feet ('Yami,' she reminded herself.) leapt back with a yelp.
"What's wrong?" Téa asked, moving to him faster than Mai realised humans could go. She was still a touch green, but apart from that, she looked as normal as human's ever could. And then she screamed, pointing at Joey.
"What is it - ?" everyone demanded, moving forwards, apart from Yugi, who's head bobbed and weaved as he tried to see.
"Wow," Mai summed up, even as she backed up. Fire and harpies didn't mix. The fact that flames were lapping Joey's body like a dog licking it's master wasn't going to make her move closer to him. They passed over his clothes without burning them, but they were still hot - if the burn on Tristan's palm from where he'd reached out to touch them was any evidence.
"What's happening to them?" Yugi asked.
"What the hell is he?" was Yami's question.
"Joey? Isn't it obvious?" Tristan demanded.
"Not him," Yami said calmly, waving the soldier away. "Bakura."
Again, people turned back to the mostly-ignored man, only to gasp. The flames were apparently scorching the flesh off his hands, but he still hadn't moved. His fingers were digging through Joey's shoulders harder than ever, but there was something - A sort of tint in what was left of the whites of his eyes, the sort that left streaks on your vision if you looked at them for more than a few seconds. And a faint hint of red at the corners, like a tear that was about to drip down his cheeks.
"What's happening?" Yugi repeated.
"I have a feeling we're going to find out," Yami answered, steering Téa behind the bar, and forcing her to sit on the floor, before returning for his brother. "And am I the only one who thinks that we should get out of the way before anything happens?"
Mai gave the man an appreciative look. "You should've been a harpy kiddo. You would've been great."
His grin was crooked as he lowered his brother to the ground and made room for Tristan. "Is that a compliment?"
Although neither realised it, Mokuba Kaiba was echoing Yugi's sentiment. His brother ran on clockwork - well, almost - and when he wasn't in a place he'd told his brother he'd be, and when he wasn't anywhere else, well, he was understandably worried. Someone had to look after Seto, and as far as he was concerned, the people who were supposed to weren't doing a very good job. Especially if they'd let Seto go missing. He'd been looking for his big brother for hours, and so far there'd been no sign of him!
...It was lonely when Seto wasn't there.
Mokuba stopped in the middle of a corridor and frowned, trying to remember exactly what Seto had said when Mokuba had taken him breakfast. He'd half-laughed, half-groaned, but he'd eaten it. He didn't usually unless Mokuba brought it to him. If Mokuba didn't feed him, he'd probably just go without eating until evening, which just proved how stupid Seto's staff were.
They'd sat together on Seto's bed, and his big brother had been in that fuzzy not-awake state where he smiled all the time and laughed a lot. They were going to have fun today, just messing around, maybe going on into the woods or something. But as always, the stupid castle had come up with something to stop that happening, to take Seto away once again.
One of Seto's bodyguards had poked his head around the door and gabbled at Seto, and his big brother had got annoyed. He'd started an argument, which ended in Seto getting up, using some bad words that he'd made Mokuba promise never to use, then he'd got dressed, and told Mokuba that some important people ("people" hadn't been the actual word he'd used, and Seto had received a smack with a pillow for using it) had arrived and he was going to have to deal with them.
But how long could a dumb meeting take? That was the reason Mokuba was now wandering around the castle in a fruitless search, because it had gone dinner time and he wanted Seto to come get some lunch. But if he was still in his meetings, then he'd probably have something delivered to the throne room for his guests -
Of course! Seto was in the throne room! Why hadn't he remembered before?
Smiling to himself, the raven haired boy trotted through the maze that people were trying to pass off as a home. It wasn't, but Seto didn't complain about it so Mokuba wasn't going to either! Neither of them liked it, but they had responsibilities that they had to stick to.
But right now, Mokuba's responsibility was to his brother, and making sure that he wasn't going to be ill again. Bad things had happened the last time Seto got ill, and that was in a place where people knew how to deal with dragons! If the Blue Eyes came calling in a place like this...
Well. He wouldn't want to be around for the results.
He was still fighting. Not very much, and not very well, but he was still struggling a little.
[Does this really make you feel better?] the voice wanted to know. [Does futile struggling make you think you're going to escape?]
It was a perfectly valid point. There was no way in hell or out of it that he could escape the darkness that even now was choking him.
He sagged, slumping forwards. The voice purred approvingly, holding him closer, supporting him gently.
[Good enough Bakura... Playing possum as opposed to a surrender. If it makes you feel better... Or had you forgotten that I know better than you know yourself?]
Bakura groaned out loud as he realised that his trick had been discovered.
[You did. I'm... hurt. I didn't think you could forget about me that easily.]
"I wish I could," he growled, trying to keep his mouth closed.
Another grim chuckle. [I'll bet you do. Feel free to; I'll be reminding you soon enough.]
He couldn't escape. There was no way... A tear slipped down his cheek, to be brushed away by a tendril of shadow.
The next tear was caught - and dropped with a squawk. Bakura blinked at it fuzzily, trying to realise what was so special about it. It wasn't until he saw the colour - gold-washed water, like a candle flame seen through a droplet of water - that he realised. It wasn't his, it wasn't a part of the darkness. It's slight luminescence was the one thing that was protecting it.
Bakura reached out, and the next tear splattered on his hand. He flinched - they were hot - but didn't move his hand. More followed, building up a handful of pale, flickering, liquid gold. Building up an impromptu reserve of power he would be able to use as soon as he added one special ingredient.
Bakura pulled his other hand out of the darkness' slackening grasp, then wiped a tear off his cheek. He stared at the little red droplet with a mix of annoyance and hysterical amusement, before flicking it into his other hand.
[Oh no...] was all the voice said, before Bakura lashed out.
Mokuba had been wrong he'd compared this place to a maze. A maze made sense! A maze you could find your way out of eventually. But this place? Worse than a rabbit warren. Worse than anything. All cold and boring and horrible and lonely -
But at least today wasn't as silent as all the other days. Today people were rushing around, shouting and talking, oblivious to the short cloudy-eyed boy walking around. If he closed his eyes, he could almost think that he was back home with all his old friends. The corridors had that warm, ice-and-fire scent of a place had that been given a good scrubbing with dragon flame, like the campground back home...
Wait a minute. This was a castle. There were no dragons for miles, thanks to a lot of people yelling at the brothers. How would dragon flame get here?
Mokuba snapped out of his daydreams, and sprinted down the corridor.
Joey hadn't even realised he was crying. He just knew that he so angry he could kill someone.
That was where the flames had come from. The flames that were wrapping around him, chasing away the cold and darkness. The flames that were gathering around his hands, blasting away from him...
When the youngest of the Kaiba's rounded the corner, he had to swallow a startled gasp. People were swarming over the corridor, but even the mass of bodies couldn't cover it.
Mokuba had only seen the result of an attack once, and that had been once too many. But when it was over... everything had looked like this. Charred, blackened. Deep gouges and trails of water marking where ice had been before it melted. Any combustible stuff had gone up like the smoke that was still hovering just below the ceiling, making the sheltered castle dwellers cough and splutter.
Only one thought was flashing through his head as he watched the people batting at smouldering rugs and furniture and wall hangings - tapestries, Seto had called them. Which lead to a very worrying point. Where. Was. His. Brother?
Bakura ignored the explosion above him, except to harness the light from the explosion to help him. Instead of the pale gold, the light grew until he was holding two palmfuls of liquid sunlight. Then with a laugh, he threw the light up, increasing it's power until it was blinding even to him, shrivelling away the darkness...
Ishizu had a lot to do. She wanted to check on her king, wanted to check on the "guests." What she both did not want to, but had to do, was supervise the clearing up of some unspecified attack. Pegasus had been spectacularly unhelpful when it came to details of what had happened.
'Oh, just Kaiba-boy getting in touch with his... inner dragon?' he had offered with a smile. He had been facetious and he knew it. Ishizu could have arranged for some terrible things to happen to him for obstructing her, but she'd had a vision and wasn't in the mood for it.
The vision had been about the morning's incident, but it hadn't been clear. Blue flames tinged with white, icy flames that scorched the throne room. That was all. Nothing specific. MOST annoying.
And now there was a scuffle breaking at the end of the corridor, voices - raised anyway - growing louder as the seconds passed.
Most were the loud strident tones of the men and women she was directing. She understood their words, and none of them were complementary. The other voice was younger, and it's words weren't in the language the workers understood. Ishizu's honey- brown skin paled when she realised who it was, and she mentally smacked herself for not thinking of it sooner.
His majesty's little brother would be worried sick. And, from personal experience, she knew that worried younger brothers were a force to be reckoned with.
Mai hadn't ducked. She stood, leaning on the bar, smirking at Yami. He stood, staring at her for a long moment, as though to ask 'How suicidal do you think I am?'
Mai's grin answered for her: 'Very.'
And the man, unable to resist a challenge, jumped back over to stand next to her.
'Men are so cute when they're trying to be brave. Stupid, but cute with it.'
She picked up two clean glasses. Yami gave her a wary look, but picked up a bottle and poured her a drink. Nodding him a toast, ignoring the other girl's hissed instructions for the two of them to "stop being so stupid and get down before they were hurt," she mumbled a few choice words into her glass. Yami, his face pale but determined - he wasn't going to be the first to crack, the first to dive down behind the bar - poured himself a drink, one considerably larger than Mai's, and drained the whole thing in one go. That's how worried he was.
Mai, for her part, was watching Joey and the healer. Joey's flames were chasing themselves over him, but starting to converge on his hands. She had a feeling that she knew what was going to happen, and it worried her a little. But what worried her more was the healer. He'd closed his mouth - he wasn't screaming any more ('Is that a good sign or a bad sign? Why did they not tell me humans could use shadow magic?'), and the darkness was bleeding out of his eyes instead of in. But there was still a lot of it covering him like a veil, and it worried her. Fire Knights were well documented; anyone who wanted to know about them could find information in seconds. But humans... there were too many, and they were all too varied. They were wild cards, unpredictable at best.
A dangerous unknown at worst. One that she was going to have to deal with very, very soon.
Mokuba was scared. He'd come down the corridor - a small black haired missile that had accidentally smacked into the legs of a worker, throwing him over. Mokuba had tried to apologise, but the man had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and started yelling.
Mokuba blinked at him, trying to understand what he was saying, but the alien language - difficult at the best of times, even when his brother was translating in his ear - was impossible when it was spoken so fast.
"Where's my brother?" he asked, in the language of his old clan. Seto had been teaching him this new one, but it was slow going. Seto may have infinite patience and Mokuba may have been willing to learn, but it just wasn't sticking.
If it was possible, the man's eyes bugged out even further, and he gave Mokuba a shake and yelled even louder.
The boy was getting annoyed now, and that was over-riding any fear he'd felt at being swung around and gabbled at. "Put me down!" he ordered. "I'll tell Seto and then you're gonna be in big trouble mister so PUT ME DOWN!!!"
The last part was punctuated by the boy lashing out with his foot and connecting solidly with the arm that was holding him. Which wasn't such a smart idea, as he realised on his way to a solid connection with the floor.
But in the seconds before he added his brains to the mess that was the corridor - exaggerate? What does that mean? - strong hands caught him and set him on his feet. One of those hands remained on his shoulder, and there was more gabbling overhead, this time in a woman's voice. But it was a nice voice, and the gabble was quiet and firm. Apparently the lady was sticking up for him.
The guy who'd grabbed him, now cradling his arm, looked mad, then guilty, then down right scared as the voice went on, and when it stopped, he hunkered down to Mokuba's level and said something that he didn't understand. Before he could say so, the woman murmured "He's apologising. Say thank you." in his own language. The woman was an angel in disguise. Had to be.
He tried to say it in words the man would understand, but judging by the laughter he hadn't succeeded. The woman snapped something, and everyone jumped away, returning to what they were doing. The hand on his shoulder tugged, and Mokuba followed it.
When they were out of the way, the woman crouched down next to him. (A small part of him noted the fact that his new guardian angel was pretty. It was quickly overwhelmed by the rest of his brain, which insisted that girls were yucky.) "You want to see your brother don't you?" she asked. She spoke falteringly, as though the words were unfamiliar to her. Seto spoke like that sometimes, usually when he was in a hurry.
Remembering the fiasco of a few minutes ago, he simply nodded, hoping his face spoke for him as it usually did. Judging by the way the woman sighed, rubbing her bright blue eyes, it did. She offered him her hand, and started to lead him away.
"We do not know what," she explained. "But something has happened to your brother."
Mokuba's heart froze in his chest. Last time someone had said something like that...
The last time someone had said something like that, both brothers had nearly died.
Yami was scared. Anyone in their right mind would be. But who ever said he was in his right mind? Not him, that's for certain. If he was, he wouldn't be hitting the Liquid Moon while every instinct he had was screaming at him to Get the hell out of the way before something happened!
But if that woman - that woman with the wings, who seemed to know everything, and understood at least part of what was going on - could stand here, daring him to stay, watching him with those violet eyes so similar to his and his brother's, well, so could he.
"I must be mad," he mumbled into his drink. "That's the only explanation."
"You're a human, and you're male. Intelligence, sanity and common sense aren't something we expect of you."
He looked at her sideways, a crooked grin on his face. "Then how do you account for yourself?"
"I'm a harpy. Human's never understand us."
"You're not worried?"
She froze, the glass a few millimetres from her lips. "Only a fool wouldn't be, considering that we have enough shadow magic to kill us all and fire power to erase even the ashes of this place off the map." She took a sip of her drink, not looking at him. "And I'm talking about the city, not the shop."
He blinked for a moment, trying to comprehend that. He turned to stare at the flame-covered boy, then turned back quickly.
"Hell," was all he said on the subject, draining his fifth glass.
Mai smiled. "Something like that."
He turned to her, tense as a frightened cat. He gripped the side of the bar, his back straight, every muscle taut. If there was a way that he could have got the three people behind the bar out of town in the next few minutes, he would have. As it was, he wanted them where he could keep an eye on them.
The winged woman wasn't much better. Oh, her pose was relaxed, leaning her hip and elbow against the bar, watching the flames with the appearance of mild curiosity, but looking closer, she had her arms folded tightly, her face was beaded with sweat, and she was apparently biting through her bottom lip.
"Ten says nothing happens." Tristan mumbled.
"Twenty." everyone else chorused.
Yami was watching his glass. The alcohol was evaporating out of it, floating above him in a haze of steam. "Tristan? I'd take back that bet before you lose your wages for the next three months."
"What are you talking about Ya - "
And that's when everything exploded.
LOVE AND HUGS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! (not like that.) But anyway, I would like to thank and hug QK, Ashley, Hyper-chan (who really did get a hug because she was in the wrong place when I was reading my reviews :D), and Koriaena. You are all fantastic, and I love you all. I said that didn't I?
Can I just say "Oops..."? I get a review requesting (demanding?) more Mai/Joey, and start spreading hints of Mai/ - well, not finishing that. If I'm lucky, no one noticed ::shifty eyes::
I need to write some more on the North/South divide. MAI AND JOEY CANNOT BE FRIENDS. ::Deep spooky voice:: It is FORBIDDEN!!!! ::returns to normal voice:: I'm not portraying it well, am I?
And the incident with the two guys arguing over two degrees DID HAPPEN!!!! My dad and some friends were absolutely wasted, and one said it was -20, someone else said it was -18. Hence it being stuck in here.
For those who wish to yell at me in-between updates, you could always check my livejournal. I created it for that reason you know! The address is acholoe[dot]bravejournal[dot]com. Got to go type there once I'm done here.
Did anyone read my other fic FOR SALE? ::shameless plug:: One of my rare humour fics. Enjoy it while it lasts. I don't write them often. I think that's it for today, so I'll see you all later. Bye!