QoH: hullos people. been a while, i know… not havin a computer at home (that really works) is taking its toll... sighs ah well. to those of you wondering about those cameos of mine way back when (and what that word meant in the first place!)… first, the definition (which im getting directly from the Microsoft Encarta Dictionary, mind you it says its an italian word hehe cool)
Cameo- 1. carved stone: a semiprecious stone carved to give a raised design in one color against a background of another, especially a pale head against a darker background ( was this the definition you found Pooka? () youre right. it doesnt fit at all lol)
2. brief appearance by a famous actor: a single, brief appearance by a distinguished actor in a movie or play (or in my case, fanfiction lol)
now, after that lil bit of school (the horror! XD), I bet youre just a bit antsy to find out just WHO they were hehe well, back in C16: Troubled Reunion, a couple of guys broke up a certain catfight…
Security Guard, Darien Shields- remember my reference Sailor Moon in #18 with Usagi? its baacck…. hehe only this time im using the main male char from the english version
Orderly, Shawn Michaels- yes, the very same mentioned in the last chapter lol i hope i got his characterization ok… i don't watch much wrestling () he's getting a bit of international culture here (that doesnt include beating somebody senseless hehe), in case you were wondering
looks around innocently lol i think somebodys gonna spaz when they find out… lol hope you lot enjoy this i rather had fun writing the verbal sparring between Serenity and Yami B, to be honest…. :D the Bakura/Serenity convo is sweet, in my opinion… but what do i know? lol im just the writer
Chapter 20: Showdown, Part 1
Ugh… Serenity awoke slowly, her pounding head resting against something flat, hard, and a little gritty. This must be what a hangover feels like. To think people do this for fun… She sat up and rubbed her neck, sore from the awkward position in which she'd been laying on what turned out to be well-packed sand. What happened…?
"Ah, so you're awake at last, my lovely little hostage."
Oh, yeah, now I remember. Yippee… she thought unenthusiastically and grimaced, prying her fuzzy eyes open to glare as best she could up at the evil spirit in the flickering darkness of his chosen hideout, "I'm so thrilled. It's so much better to be out of all those wonderful nightmares. Now, I have the joy of stuck in reality with their creator."
"My, you are a cranky one when you first wake up, aren't you?" Yami Bakura grinned tauntingly from his perch atop what seemed to be a square rock the size of a small car, his teeth flashing in a feral sort of way.
"Not usually, but this," she flicked at the sturdy chain attached to her ankle and shot him a frosty glance, "is all a little too familiar for my tastes, thanks. Besides, with the headache I've got right now, you're lucky that's all you're 'forced to deal with.'"
"Is that so?" he queried mockingly and hopped off whatever it was he'd been sitting on, strolling to where she sat against the opposite wall, his movements as graceful and subtly dangerous as any predator she'd never wanted to meet. He leaned down so that his nose nearly touched hers and traced her jaw with the tip of his finger, making her want to retch all over his strange, tannish-white tunic outfit, "Shall I show you how truly 'lucky' I can be?"
"Sure…" Serenity seized the opportunity, supremely distasteful though it was, to grab hold of the leather cord that held the Ring. With a swiftness that surprised even her, she slid her hand up to grasp it tightly around his throat, jerking the surprised being down to her level, "Just as soon as the universe explodes and we're all just a mass burnt-out carbon molecules. I don't know what you were expecting and, frankly, I really don't give a holy hoot. I'm telling you now, though, that I'm not going to play the part of some helpless damsel in distress and sit here 'in awe of you and all your fearsome glory.' And while we're on the subject, why did you kidnap me to begin with?"
In an amazingly calm manner, despite the fact that she'd just done what she suspected no one else had, he peeled her fingers away from his neck and flung her back with sinful ease. Colliding with the rough wall, she winced inwardly, determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her in more pain. She took a deep breath and straightened herself against it proudly, watching him as he paced around with his mouth twitch like it was an entity unto itself, "Now what? You really find tossing me that funny, do you?"
Evidently, her continued defiance of him sent him over the edge of whatever plateau of sanity he had left and into a fit of deranged cackling that froze her to the very marrow, making her want to sink back into the wall to avoid his gaze. If ever there was a time I wish I was a chameleon, this would definitely be it. Yugi, Joey, how do you deal with this guy??
Once the incredibly disturbing laughter had run its course and he'd straightened up again, he leaned his hand against the wall and gazed down at her with something like admiration, or as close to it as the millennia-old tomb raider would probably ever come, "This truly is a surprise. All this time, I thought he was a total failure, and now, I find that I can't fault his taste in females."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Serenity shot him a weird look that plainly said that she believed him to have completely lost his sick and twisted little mind.
"My host, of course," he replied, as though he were of the opinion that she should be put in a special needs program.
Feeling blank as a wiped slate, she sat and blinked up at him, "Bakura? What do you mean?"
"Yes, Bakura," closing his eyes in an irritated sort of way, he sighed and wandered back over to the car-sized rock thing, "He's really quite taken with you, unfortunately. Didn't you know?"
She cocked a brow and crossed her arms in disbelief, "Yeah, sure."
The spirit smirked ironically and shrugged carelessly, "Well, why don't you ask him yourself?"
With that, he relinquished control to a fidgety and generally very uncomfortable Bakura, who seemed to find scuffing his shoe in a small figure eight to be a fascinating pastime. When she shifted restlessly in an effort to get his attention, his head jerked up and he stared at her as though he'd never seen another living being, much less a girl, before.
Serenity studied him thoughtfully, wondering aloud, "Was he right, Bakura?"
Panic flared in his widened eyes for a moment, then he dropped his head and fell back against the rock in abject defeat and shame. A whisper so soft one would probably have to be Superman to hear clearly drifted to her through the dust, "Yes."
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly in a vain attempt at giving herself a bit of time to think. When she opened them again, she saw him in the very same position, positively sagging against his only support. Sympathy washed over her like a tidal wave and made up her mind for her, "Bakura, could you come here for a minute?" When he looked around quickly, as if for some means of relative escape, she smiled a little, "It's all right, really. I'm not going to take your head off or anything."
He gave a weak laugh and trudged over in such a way that, to watch him, you'd think he was headed for the guillotine. When he'd slid down the wall beside her and locked his hands around his knees, probably to keep one of the two pairs of body parts from squirming uneccessarily, he kept his eyes on the ground and asked quietly, "What is it, Serenity?"
She tilted her head and tried to get a glimpse of his eyes, which were hidden by his pale hair at the moment. She shrugged mentally when that failed and sat back against the wall with her legs stretched out before her, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Several reasons..." Bakura was silent for a few seconds before he pulled his legs closer to himself and threaded his hands together, like he was curling in on himself for protection, "Yugi, and your feelings for him were the main things, though."
He has a point there. "But there were others." Serenity said, trying to get him to continue.
Shrugging a little, he kept avoiding eye contact by lifting his head to the now less than colorful ceilling, "There was also the whole Tea fiasco.... You had enough problems to deal with. You didn't need to have me added to the mix," he glared down at the Ring, "If I could, I'd send my yami to his beloved Shadow Realm right now for doing it himself."
"You've never been a problem!" she exclaimed, slightly offended that he'd ever believed she'd feel that way, "If anyone could have understood, it would have been me!"
Bakura smiled faintly and finally brought his gaze down to meet hers, "I know you would have. But, that's just it; I didn't want you to understand. If it had been up to me, you'd never have known at all."
She just sat there with quite a confused expression on her face, "Why?"
"Ah..." The tiny laugh returned for a moment, "my last reason. Good old-fashioned shyness, fear of rejection, take your pick. In blunt terms, I was too big of a coward to say anything, Yugi or no Yugi." She tried to protest again, but he waved her off gently and turned his eyes to across the shadowed room, "No, please, don't. Now that you know, I have to be completely honest, with you and myself. if had any courage whatsoever, wouldn't I be able to fight him? Even a little?"
"Bakura...." she laid her hand on his arm comfortingly, wanting to tell him that he had fought the evil being living within him. She'd seen it herself, that day when he'd scared off Tea and Naraku. Except for flinching almost imperceptively, he didn't seem to notice as he continued.
"You know, on occasion, I used to think Yugi a bit daft for not being able to see what was straight in front of him all this time. The truth about Tea," he glanced at her quickly, then returned his gaze to the faded hieroglyphs on the walls, "you." He was silent for a little bit, trying to find the words.
When he finally turned to face her, his expression seemed carefully restrained, but his dark eyes burned with an intensity she'd only seen once before from him. This time, however, they radiated something far from anger, "It took a while for me to realize I could hardly blame him when I felt the same for you. I know there's no hope for you and I, and yet, I still dream. I believe Yugi also knows deep, very deep, in his heart that Tea doesn't truly love him, even while he clings to each last shred of hope."
Serenity drew back and hugged away a shiver, "Why is it that two of the most important guys in my life have to go through such things alone?"
"Yugi's not alone," he pointed out, "He has Yami, and you. And once the rest of the gang finds out what Tea's done, I have no doubt they'll be right there, too."
She smiled a little at this notion, then looked back at him, "What about you, though?"
"Me? I'm used to being alone. The spirit of the Ring has seen to that." Bakura shrugged again and gave a smile that had a sharp edge of bitterness to it, "Even if, by some miracle, you could care for me, I'd never subject you to the danger of being in a relationship with me. He's simply too unpredictable, too powerful, and you mean far too much to me to ever try for it. I couldn't do that to anyone."
"So, what?" Serenity frowned, disturbed by the direction of this conversation, "Are you saying you'll just be alone forever, or something?"
He made an ironic face, gesturing around them, "Looks like it, doesn't it?"
"I think this is it, gentlemen!" Mai whispered hurriedly and nodded to the door that was just slightly ajar off to their right. General agreements came from all around, so Joey and Tristan used their shoulders to barge in, praying they'd picked the right room and wouldn't be scaring some poor heart patient literally to death. They, however, were the ones in for a surprise.
Like a mother lioness defending her injured cub, Dr. Tamahome stood before Tea and Naraku with her clipboard held up like a club, her back to a rather frightened Mrs. Gardener. Looking over their shoulders, she gave a huge, grinning sigh of relief, "At last, the calvary's here."
Her agressors spun around in shock at being interupted during such "important business matters." Tea, especially, seemed lost, seeing Joey, Tristan and Mai, as well as somebody she didn't know glaring at her. It couldn't have been any more obvious what she was thinking had someone painted it in neon on her forehead. What role should she play? Sweet and innocent? Bad girl? Good girl that got mixed up in something rotten through no will of her own?
"Can it, Tea. We know all about what ya been up to." Joey cut her off tightly, looking as if he'd like nothing better than to toss the two right out the window.
"Wh-what do you me-mean?" she stammered in her usual caught-with-her-hand-in-the-cookie-jar routine. Naraku was just standing around, entirely clueless. Obviously, Tea was the "brains" of the operation, if you could call it that.
Tristan ignored the question and skirted around them to reach doctor and patient, "Are you two ladies all right?"
"Yes, I think we're fine. I'm glad you got here when you did, however. I don't think I could have kept them at bay for any longer than that." Dr. Tamahome replied ruefully, "It was only a clipboard after all."
Naraku snorted, "That wasn't what was holding us off. You're a doctor here; somebody would notice if you went missing." Tea smacked him on the shoulder and hissed in his ear.
Mai put a hand on her hip, a bored look on her face, "Don't tell me you're still trying to get out of this, skank. We already know you're the reason she's in here in the first place. You, or you flunky here, set the fire a few months ago, didn't you?" It wasn't really a question; more like a statement of fact. If there'd ever been any question of her involvement in everything, the scene before them now spoke for itself.
"There would be no point in lying now, Tea. I've told them everything." Yami came out from behind them, looking a little better than he had in Yugi's room. Being reunited bodily with his hikari evidently let him recharge his magical batteries somewhat. Coming to stand beside Joey, he folded his arms and stared her down as if her were about to sentence her to death, "And just so you know, Yugi is going to be fine."
"Yeah," Joey growled and cracked his knuckles, "no thanks to you."
"Whoa, take it easy." .DJ grabbed hold of his collar before he could jump on them and pound them both senseless, then turned to Tea, "You really haven't changed a bit, have you?"
On the defensive now, she glared daggers at him, "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
Naraku answered her, tossing the newcomers a dirty look of his own, "It's Rodriguez, from grade school. The one who always played bodyguard to Motou."
"Heh," she smirked and gave her old classmate a scathing once-over, "no kidding? The little twerp with a big attitude?"
"That's rich," DJ returned with a sharp laugh, "coming from the girl who could've put Madonna to shame. You know, playing dress-up and pretending you're twenty-five when you're eight is cute for a while, but it gets real old, real fast. I see you never got that fact. You're as self-absorbed as ever, if not more so."
"You were friends in grade school?" Mai asked curiously, looking between him and Tea.
"Sort of," he replied dismissively, "Either way, Yugi was closer to her than me. He was sure he saw something in her, something better than I gave her credit for," he shook his head, eyeing the brunette with a look of ultimate disgust, "But even I never guessed she'd end up doing the stuff she has, and to Yugi, of all people, the one who'd always believed in her the most."
"Oh, it's all so touching, I may cry!" Tea gave a dramatic fake sob and turned to Naraku, "Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever heard?"
The gang leader made a face like he'd just eaten something incredibly sour, "Gut-wrenching."
"I'll give ya 'gut-wrenchin,' ya dirty lil' ratfink!" Joey roared and lunged out of DJ's grasp to tackle Naraku, pounding him with everything he had. Unfortunately, the older teen seemed to be far better than his cronies, because he managed to throw him off and give as good as he got.
"Hey!" Mai shouted, rushing in after her boyfriend in an effort to pull him away, "This isn't the time or place for that!" No one else moved, evidently frozen in extremely morbid fascination.
"Get out of my way!" Naraku rounded on her and snarled like a cornered rabies patient, swinging at her with a hard left that would've probably broken her jaw had it landed correctly.
Luckily, she was able to duck in time and only received a glancing blow across the cheek. That, however, was enough to send her sprawling next to Dr. Tamahome, who helped her up immediately.
Seeing this, Joey lost his head completely and charged at him like an oncoming freight train at full tilt, slamming his fist directly into his nose. Reeling back in disbelief and pain, he howled unintelligibly through the hands he'd clutched to his face. Probably a whine about how he'd broken it.
Mai stepped forward again, practically bringing a thundercloud with her in her fury, "Think that's bad? Well, then try this!" With that, she kicked him viciously in a place that made him drop like a load of concrete and curl into a fetal position, that howl turning high soprano in under a second. And even though he was their enemy, even though he deserved it (and worse), the other guys couldn't help but wince a little in sympathy as he lay there, whimpering pathetically. She, however, looked back and grinned widely at their expressions, lifting her favorite purple, high-heeled boot for their inspection, "They're rough to run in, but they make for a great weapon."
"Oh... my..." came a whisper from the bed. Mrs. Gardener, who hadn't made a peep the entire time they'd been there, was trying her best to get out of bed.
Dr. Tamahome put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back into it, "You really shouldn't move just yet, you know. At least that much. You've been in a coma for a while, and your muscles will have atrophied a bit. You have to give yourself a little more time to recover."
"Yes, I know, but I must thank these children for helping us out," she seemed very frustrated by her situation, frowning up at her physician. She turned back to them and noticed Tea was trying to edge her way out, "You will stop right there, daughter." For once in her life, Tea did just that; she froze on the spot. Of course, even the Pope himself probably would have, given the tone she'd used, the infamous "I am your mother and you are in such deep trouble, you'll never dig yourself out."
"You don't have to worry, Mrs. Gardener. She won't be going anywhere." Yami answered calmly, his observant gaze following even the nervous bead of sweat trickling down the side of her face, " On her own, that is."
QoH: eh… there was gonna be more here, but aside from the fact that ive already got about 3,500 words…. i wanted to make sure i got this up before I had to leave! closing times…. ugh. please review! last time I updated (and recently, mind you, but for another story. Enduring Love), it didnt get a single one…. sniffle granted its for a less well-known fandom (Peach Girl), but c'mon…. sighs ah well hope ya like. more comin very soon, i give you my word