Chapter Two
Sorry this took so long to get out; weekend trips to Palmdale are fun, but they tend to prevent one from updating.
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Joey leaned heavily on to Tristan as he caught his breath. "I gotta get outta here, man... I gotta escape. Somehow. If I don't, I'll go crazy..." he spoke in a broken fragment of his normal voice; his tone was shakey and unsure of itself. Tristan noticed with a slight gasp that Joey didn't even make eye-contact with anyone.
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Ryou glanced back at Malik, after having watched Joey's attempt at escape from captivity, feeling more and more uneasy by the second. "M-Malik... I wanna go home... Let's go home..." he tugged at Malik's shirt in the innocent manner of a child, because that's what he felt like right now- a child lost and separated from the one he held most dear. All Ryou wanted was to be safe in his lover's arms, nice and warm underneath the covers of his own bed. Right now, however, he couldn't curl up in his lover's lap as he so wanted to, and as he knew Malik wanted to.
"I wanna go home too Ry. I want to go home and see Marik and just... see him."
Ryou looked up at him as the taller sighed, "Why didn't they take Bakura and Marik?"
Malik shrugged, "They weren't home at the time, remember? We were the only ones home; they hadn't gotten back from grocery shopping yet. Ra watch over them both; I know if they'd been home, they would have killed that Nigiru prick in a second."
The British boy nodded as he sniffed slightly. "I almost wish they were here with us... that they'd have been taken too. Just so I could fall asleep listening to Bakura's heart like I always do."
"Marik always thinks of a different way to say he loves me every night. It's not even late enough to go sleep and I already miss it." Malik said, frowning a bit as he kept his eye on Pegasus. He didn't trust the man one bit, nor did he believe that the man had a heart of any kind.
A sigh escaped Ryou's lips, and he looped Malik's arm around his shoulders. "It's just you and me now Malik... Just you and me."
The Egyptian let out a long sigh as he closed his eyes. "We'll find a way out Ry... Somehow, someway, we'll find a way out." He mutterted quietly, kicking at the ground with his shoes. "We'll escape."
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Pegasus seemed to have heard the blonde middle-easterner, and he waltzed back over to Malik. "Escape, shall you? Oh, no, we can't have that. No, no, we can't have that at all."
Malik glared, "And what do you mean by that? Once you're done fucking us up, aren't you going to let us loose in society and watch your creations wreak havoc?"
Pegasus laughed dryly and shook his head. "Dear, no. Once you've been taken into the C.A.R.L. laboratories, you're here for good. You can never leave." His eyes fell on Ryou. "You can never leave. And you, my little angel. I've had my eye on you for some time now. Sweet, darling little Ryou Bakura. So pure and innocent, so beautiful and intelligent. I have something very special in mind for you... Yes, indeed, very special. Very special... You, my sweet Ryou Bakura... You may never leave. I shall keep you here as my own secret treasure until the day I die."
Malik parted his lips to speak in protest, but a harsh, unnatural glare from Ryou cut him off.
"I am not a treasure for you to keep! I am not a servant, a doll to be tossed about as you please! My body might be in your grasp, you incompetent fiend... but there is not a chance in hell you will ever have my heart. You can gaze into my eyes and touch my body as much as you like, but all you will see in my eyes is love for another person, and all you will feel when you touch me is cold emptiness."
The youngest of the Ishtars stared at Ryou in shock; he didn't ever suspect that Ryou had a defiant bone in his body. But in this instance, Malik was glad that Ryou had finally stood up for himself. He turned a spiteful eye to Pegasus. "You hear that, Pegasus? You may have our bodies in your presence... but our hearts and souls are not even in this building!"
Pegasus laughed, running a hand through his platinum silver hair. "Oh, no, no, no. That will all change. You'll see, Ryou Bakura. I can give you everything and even more than your current special someone can. I've got all the money in the world, my dear boy! Anything you could ever want, I could supply for you!"
Ryou stared at Pegasus in disgust. "You pig! How can you say that you can buy my affection with your insignificant finance? You could give me all the money and the world, and it would mean absolutely nothing to me, because my heart belongs to someone else. Love is not something you can purchase!"
A slow confident smirk crossed Pegasus' face, and he chuckled; that low, maniacle chuckle that everyone had grown to hate so intensely. "We'll see, Ryou Bakura... We'll see. For now, I'll assign you all to your cells." He turned to face the group, all of whom were feeling slightly protective of Ryou, if even just because no one felt that Pegasus had the right to stake claim on an already taken heart. "Now! All of you shall be escorted to your different cells. You will all be in the same area of the building; wouldn't want you to not become friends... because once you've Changed, the people here are the only ones you will have contact with from now on."
Malik hissed angrily at Pegasus as he and Ryou followed the others out and into a large hallway. He glanced back occasionally to make sure Pegasus wasn't stalking Ryou with those insane honey eyes. Malik had taken it upon himself to protect his best friend until Bakura and Marik would come help them out. But until then, he would be Ryou's shoulder to cry on when times got rough, his rock and strength to the best of his ability and stamina.
There was nothing he wouldn't do for his best friend, as the two were ushered into a cell between the rambunctious boy from before, Joey, and the two girls they had seen earlier. Malik watched the girls, Mai and Téa if he was correct, as they slinked inside the cell. To his left, Malik could hear Joey talking to someone, and if he had heard properly before, the boy named Duke said that Joey had a little sister.
"This cell is disgusting! How can they expect me to live in here when the beds aren't even cleaned?! This is absolutely horrid!"
All of the new occupants of C.A.R.L. automatically knew who the voice belonged to. A sigh emitted from one of the cells containing people who had already been taken to the laboratories.
"There isn't anything we can do to change the living conditions; you might as well get used to it."
Joey's voice was heard next, "She's not gonna wanna listen to ya, Yugi. I know ya mean well but it's not worth the effort."
Yugi stood up and walked over to the front of the cell, resting his hands on the bars. He glanced towards the cell beside his, the one that held Mai and Téa. "I know you don't want to be in here. But none of us do. Fighting the system the way you are isn't going to get you anywhere."
Mai humphed and set her package down, then reluctantly lowered her slim body to sit on the plastic. "Well, then how do you suggest we--"
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The door that led to the cells opened, and in walked Pegasus, with who appeared to be his number one henchman, Nigiru, trailing behind him. "How do you all like your cells? Comfy, aren't they?" The grin the older man wore was sickeningly false and far too sweet to be sincere. He clapped his hands together and chuckled slightly, but no one else found any humour in the situation.
Tristan growled from his shared cell with Duke. "You're one very twisted man, Pegasus J. Crawford. One day you'll die because of what you've done, and what you're doing now. I'll make sure you burn in the pits of Ninth Hell for all your wrongdoings!"
Pegasus didn't seem to hear Tristan, and so the boy continued.
"One way or another, Pegasus, one way or another you will pay!"
Finally, Pegasus responded. "Hmm, well, I'm not too worried. There's not a chance you'll escape or be able to harm me in any way whatsoever during the night."
"Why's that?" Duke asked, standing up beside Tristan.
"He turns off the oxygen in all the building except for where we are and where he and his cronies stay." Joey responded for Pegasus. He stood up in his cell and walked over to the front. "Unless we wanna die, Dukey, there's no way we can get out."
"That's right, Joey Wheeler. There is no escape. None at all. Unless," Pegasus said with a melodramatic sigh, shrugging his shoulders with fake sadness, "Unless you consider death your escape! But, we wouldn't want that, now would we?"
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Joey's anger at Pegasus resurfaced as a sudden well of fury exploding into his chest. His body shook with rage as he suddenly lept at the bars and shook them violently; the other bars of other cells rattled from his exerted force. The people in the other cells shrank back at the teen's look of pure hatred. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! WE'RE NOT A BUNCH OF MOTHERFUCKING DOLLS FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH! WE'RE NOT A BUNCH OF ANIMALS! WE'RE FUCKING HUMAN BEINGS!"
"JOEY!" A girl's voice, who everyone else guessed was Serenity, the blonde's younger sister, shouted. "Joey, please stop! Please, big brother!" Serenity ran up beside her brother and pulled at his tense arms, placing her delicate hand atop his bulging muscles. "Please Joey! Calm down!" She tugged at his sleeve until he faced her, his eyes alive with fury and his fists still shaking. "Joey, please." Tears welled up in Serenity's soft hazel eyes, and she clung to Joey's waist, burrying her face into his chest. "Please..."
With a long sigh, Joey slowly uncurled his fingers and lowered his arms to wrap around Serenity's shoulders, guilt rising in his chest for being a bad example for his little sister. He bent down to whisper in Serenity's ear, "I have a plan, Sis. Your big brother's gonna get us outta here, I swear it."
Serenity looked up at Joey, her hazel eyes shining with hope and trust. A smile lit her face, and she released her brother. "I'll do whatever you want me to. Anything at all."
"Good," Joey grinned, straightening himself out.
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"Aww! What a Kodak moment!" Came a drawling voice, causing everyone to cringe at the reminder that Pegasus was still present. "I think you two, Mr. and Miss Wheeler, will be our star experiments!"
"'Our star experiments,'" Tristan muttered in mockery of Pegasus. "What the hell; can't you allow any positive emotions to exist without making fun of them?"
The older man frowned slightly and strolled over to Tristan. "Aww, what's the matter, Mr. Taylor? Can't you take a joke?"
"A joke?! That's what all this is to you? A joke?! Taking us from our homes as if we had committed some kind of horrible sin, and then inprisoning us like common criminals?!"
Duke growled slightly from where he was sitting nearest the back wall. "Pegasus is a fucking freak, Tristan. Don't waste your time or concern on him."
Pegasus grinned psychotically, "Such a brash young man."
"Got a problem with that?" Duke shrugged, closing his eyes as he gently rubbed his injured shoulder.
The grin turned sinister. "As a matter of fact, young man, I do."
"Tough shit."
"Excuse me?"
"I said tough shit, Pegasus."
A slight snarl emitted from the university graduate, "I'll have lots of fun with you. Yes, indeed. Lots of fun."
Duke shrugged, "I'd like to see you try, old man."
"You're so sure of yourself." Pegasus noted. "Are you sure that's so safe?" He approached the cell that held Duke slowly. "Very sure of yourself indeed."
The dice master arched an eyebrow, "You're not intimidating me."
A slight frown crossed Pegasus' face, "We'll see, Mr. Devlin, we'll see." Once again, Pegasus turned to face all of his captives. "Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted... Those of you who have already been here know how things here at C.A.R.L. are run. However, you newcomers do not, and therefore you shall be informed of the method in which ordinances are put into action.
"You get three meals a day. Lights go out at precisely eleven-thirty P.M., and wake up calls are given at seven in the morning. During the day, you are not to leave your cell unless instructed to do so by an official worker here at the laboratories. If you are found wandering the halls when you do not have permission, there will be a punishment. I'm quite sure that none of you enjoy punishments, except for maybe one of you," Pegasus' eyes lingered momentarily on Joey's figure that shook with rage, "so I recommend you do not attempt to escape.
"As previously mentioned, we will be monitoring every miniscule detail of your personalities in order to determine which animal suits you best.
"That covers the basics; you will all be informed of the other... rules tomorrow at breakfast. Have a good night's sleep, dearies!" With that, Pegasus smiled disgustingly and waved to the prisoners before he strolled out of the large yet dingy room. The door closed behind him.
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All was silent for a few minutes, until a soft cry emitted from the cell between Joey and Mai. Serenity and Yugi stood up and walked towards the front of their cells, trying to peer into the cell from which the cry had come.
"Who is that?" Serenity asked, concern prominent in her voice.
Malik sighed and pulled Ryou tight against his chest, trying desperately to provide even a fraction of the comfort Bakura could to the younger boy. "Ryou -"
The British boy looked up at Malik through teary eyes, "How can he act as if this whole thing is a game, Malik? He's screwing with people's lives! Destroying everything! And he doesn't even care!"
Joey sighed. "No, he doesn't. He doesn't give two shits about what he's doin'. The lousy bastard..."
Serenity frowned and crawled over to her brother, "Don't worry, big brother. You said you have a plan, remember?"
"A plan?" Téa chirped up, her sea-blue eyes hopeful. "A plan for what?"
"To get the fuck out of here before he has the chance to do his little experiments on us." Joey said, closing his honey-coloured eyes as he sank to the floor, locking his hands together. "You guys, I don' know about the majority of ya, but lemme tell ya something I know."
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Ryou sniffed slightly, as Tristan sent Duke a curious look. Yugi glanced at the person sharing his cell, a young girl who went by the name Ishizu¹. She was sitting off to the side, her long, dark hair falling around her shoulders. Her deep cerulean eyes focused on the stone slab of floor infront of her. Malik, unaware that his sister was sharing a cell just a few spaces away, let out a sigh, rubbing Ryou's back. Serenity sat back on her knees and watched her brother with trusting eyes. And, all alone in a smaller cell by himself, sat the younger brother of the world-reknown Seto Kaiba; Mokuba.
Joey took the silence as a way of asking him to speak, and so with a long sigh he began his story.
"I was the first one they brought here. Me and my sister. While they were assembling our packages, I overheard Pegasus talkin' to one of his right hand men. He's not the first one to try some crazy-ass experiment, and we're not the first ones to suffer 'cause of it. Las' time they tried to pull shit like this, all'a the people experimented on died for one reason or another. An' the assholes who were conductin' the experiment didn't even give the people that died a proper funeral or even anythin' similar to it. They jus' threw the disfigured bodies outside inta the dirt. Later, the police got word of what was goin' on, but by the time they got to the place it was way too late. The head honcho had already hung himself off'a the side of the buildin'."
Serenity looked at Joey fearfully, her hands wrapping around her shoulders in a self-embrace. "That's horrible... Completely horrible..."
Joey frowned and pulled his sister into his arms for a hug, "It gets worse. After the cops found the bodies, the faces were so disfigured that no one could identify anyone. Not only that, but the arms and legs had all sortsa crap fused inta them. Animal fur and snake skins, any an' every human- animal deformity ya could ever dream up. Those freaks totally destroyed those people's lives, without any cares, either!"
Duke narrowed his eyes, "Fucking bastards... So is that what Pegasus plans to do to us?"
Only Serenity could see the solemn nod that was the response. "Unless we're all havin' the same crazy dream I am."
Mai rolled her eyes after hearing Joey's story, and rested her chin atop her interlaced fingers. "That's insane. Purely insane! That man is sick!"
For the first time, Ryou spoke up. His voice was filled shakey, yet filled with a deep sorrow and unexpressible anger. "Tell us something we don't already know."
Malik blinked at Ryou for a moment; ever since the boy had been separated from Bakura, his whole personality seemed to have changed. He sighed and held Ryou closer, relieved that he was still found trustworthy."This whole thing is one big fuck-up by humanity... It makes you wonder where the hell society is headed when it allows shit like this to go down. What kind of deranged philosophy does this Pegasus follow? What does he want to achieve by doing this, save for messing up a bunch of people?"
Ishizu made her presence known at his point, as she recognized her brother's voice. "Malik! Malik, it's me, Ishizu!"
Amethyst eyes widened, "Sister! You're here too?!"
She stood and ran towards the bars, her long, off-white dress flowing behind her slim figure. Dark locks of silken hair fell infront of brightened blue eyes, "I was one of the first ones they brought here. I'm so sorry they dragged you here as well..."
Malik shook his head, even though he knew Ishizu couldn't see the gesture, "You didn't intend for it to happen, Ishizu."
Joey reluctantly interrupted the reunion with a slight sigh as he hugged his own sister. "There's somethin' else I hafta tell ya'll... About what I found out."
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1 - No, I don't support the Yugi or Yami x Ishizu pairing. I just needed a way to bring her into the story. I'm sorry about sticking Mokuba in a cell all by himself, but I didn't plan on bringing him into the story. It just sort of happened ;
YuGiOh is © Kazuki Takahashi and other people. I do not claim to own anything or anyone except the plot. If you have used or have seen a plot like this used before, I apologize. I do not intend to copy other people's ideas. I don't check the YuGiOh section that much anymore so I don't know all of what's in there.
Sorry this took so long to get out; weekend trips to Palmdale are fun, but they tend to prevent one from updating.
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Joey leaned heavily on to Tristan as he caught his breath. "I gotta get outta here, man... I gotta escape. Somehow. If I don't, I'll go crazy..." he spoke in a broken fragment of his normal voice; his tone was shakey and unsure of itself. Tristan noticed with a slight gasp that Joey didn't even make eye-contact with anyone.
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Ryou glanced back at Malik, after having watched Joey's attempt at escape from captivity, feeling more and more uneasy by the second. "M-Malik... I wanna go home... Let's go home..." he tugged at Malik's shirt in the innocent manner of a child, because that's what he felt like right now- a child lost and separated from the one he held most dear. All Ryou wanted was to be safe in his lover's arms, nice and warm underneath the covers of his own bed. Right now, however, he couldn't curl up in his lover's lap as he so wanted to, and as he knew Malik wanted to.
"I wanna go home too Ry. I want to go home and see Marik and just... see him."
Ryou looked up at him as the taller sighed, "Why didn't they take Bakura and Marik?"
Malik shrugged, "They weren't home at the time, remember? We were the only ones home; they hadn't gotten back from grocery shopping yet. Ra watch over them both; I know if they'd been home, they would have killed that Nigiru prick in a second."
The British boy nodded as he sniffed slightly. "I almost wish they were here with us... that they'd have been taken too. Just so I could fall asleep listening to Bakura's heart like I always do."
"Marik always thinks of a different way to say he loves me every night. It's not even late enough to go sleep and I already miss it." Malik said, frowning a bit as he kept his eye on Pegasus. He didn't trust the man one bit, nor did he believe that the man had a heart of any kind.
A sigh escaped Ryou's lips, and he looped Malik's arm around his shoulders. "It's just you and me now Malik... Just you and me."
The Egyptian let out a long sigh as he closed his eyes. "We'll find a way out Ry... Somehow, someway, we'll find a way out." He mutterted quietly, kicking at the ground with his shoes. "We'll escape."
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Pegasus seemed to have heard the blonde middle-easterner, and he waltzed back over to Malik. "Escape, shall you? Oh, no, we can't have that. No, no, we can't have that at all."
Malik glared, "And what do you mean by that? Once you're done fucking us up, aren't you going to let us loose in society and watch your creations wreak havoc?"
Pegasus laughed dryly and shook his head. "Dear, no. Once you've been taken into the C.A.R.L. laboratories, you're here for good. You can never leave." His eyes fell on Ryou. "You can never leave. And you, my little angel. I've had my eye on you for some time now. Sweet, darling little Ryou Bakura. So pure and innocent, so beautiful and intelligent. I have something very special in mind for you... Yes, indeed, very special. Very special... You, my sweet Ryou Bakura... You may never leave. I shall keep you here as my own secret treasure until the day I die."
Malik parted his lips to speak in protest, but a harsh, unnatural glare from Ryou cut him off.
"I am not a treasure for you to keep! I am not a servant, a doll to be tossed about as you please! My body might be in your grasp, you incompetent fiend... but there is not a chance in hell you will ever have my heart. You can gaze into my eyes and touch my body as much as you like, but all you will see in my eyes is love for another person, and all you will feel when you touch me is cold emptiness."
The youngest of the Ishtars stared at Ryou in shock; he didn't ever suspect that Ryou had a defiant bone in his body. But in this instance, Malik was glad that Ryou had finally stood up for himself. He turned a spiteful eye to Pegasus. "You hear that, Pegasus? You may have our bodies in your presence... but our hearts and souls are not even in this building!"
Pegasus laughed, running a hand through his platinum silver hair. "Oh, no, no, no. That will all change. You'll see, Ryou Bakura. I can give you everything and even more than your current special someone can. I've got all the money in the world, my dear boy! Anything you could ever want, I could supply for you!"
Ryou stared at Pegasus in disgust. "You pig! How can you say that you can buy my affection with your insignificant finance? You could give me all the money and the world, and it would mean absolutely nothing to me, because my heart belongs to someone else. Love is not something you can purchase!"
A slow confident smirk crossed Pegasus' face, and he chuckled; that low, maniacle chuckle that everyone had grown to hate so intensely. "We'll see, Ryou Bakura... We'll see. For now, I'll assign you all to your cells." He turned to face the group, all of whom were feeling slightly protective of Ryou, if even just because no one felt that Pegasus had the right to stake claim on an already taken heart. "Now! All of you shall be escorted to your different cells. You will all be in the same area of the building; wouldn't want you to not become friends... because once you've Changed, the people here are the only ones you will have contact with from now on."
Malik hissed angrily at Pegasus as he and Ryou followed the others out and into a large hallway. He glanced back occasionally to make sure Pegasus wasn't stalking Ryou with those insane honey eyes. Malik had taken it upon himself to protect his best friend until Bakura and Marik would come help them out. But until then, he would be Ryou's shoulder to cry on when times got rough, his rock and strength to the best of his ability and stamina.
There was nothing he wouldn't do for his best friend, as the two were ushered into a cell between the rambunctious boy from before, Joey, and the two girls they had seen earlier. Malik watched the girls, Mai and Téa if he was correct, as they slinked inside the cell. To his left, Malik could hear Joey talking to someone, and if he had heard properly before, the boy named Duke said that Joey had a little sister.
"This cell is disgusting! How can they expect me to live in here when the beds aren't even cleaned?! This is absolutely horrid!"
All of the new occupants of C.A.R.L. automatically knew who the voice belonged to. A sigh emitted from one of the cells containing people who had already been taken to the laboratories.
"There isn't anything we can do to change the living conditions; you might as well get used to it."
Joey's voice was heard next, "She's not gonna wanna listen to ya, Yugi. I know ya mean well but it's not worth the effort."
Yugi stood up and walked over to the front of the cell, resting his hands on the bars. He glanced towards the cell beside his, the one that held Mai and Téa. "I know you don't want to be in here. But none of us do. Fighting the system the way you are isn't going to get you anywhere."
Mai humphed and set her package down, then reluctantly lowered her slim body to sit on the plastic. "Well, then how do you suggest we--"
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The door that led to the cells opened, and in walked Pegasus, with who appeared to be his number one henchman, Nigiru, trailing behind him. "How do you all like your cells? Comfy, aren't they?" The grin the older man wore was sickeningly false and far too sweet to be sincere. He clapped his hands together and chuckled slightly, but no one else found any humour in the situation.
Tristan growled from his shared cell with Duke. "You're one very twisted man, Pegasus J. Crawford. One day you'll die because of what you've done, and what you're doing now. I'll make sure you burn in the pits of Ninth Hell for all your wrongdoings!"
Pegasus didn't seem to hear Tristan, and so the boy continued.
"One way or another, Pegasus, one way or another you will pay!"
Finally, Pegasus responded. "Hmm, well, I'm not too worried. There's not a chance you'll escape or be able to harm me in any way whatsoever during the night."
"Why's that?" Duke asked, standing up beside Tristan.
"He turns off the oxygen in all the building except for where we are and where he and his cronies stay." Joey responded for Pegasus. He stood up in his cell and walked over to the front. "Unless we wanna die, Dukey, there's no way we can get out."
"That's right, Joey Wheeler. There is no escape. None at all. Unless," Pegasus said with a melodramatic sigh, shrugging his shoulders with fake sadness, "Unless you consider death your escape! But, we wouldn't want that, now would we?"
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Joey's anger at Pegasus resurfaced as a sudden well of fury exploding into his chest. His body shook with rage as he suddenly lept at the bars and shook them violently; the other bars of other cells rattled from his exerted force. The people in the other cells shrank back at the teen's look of pure hatred. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! WE'RE NOT A BUNCH OF MOTHERFUCKING DOLLS FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH! WE'RE NOT A BUNCH OF ANIMALS! WE'RE FUCKING HUMAN BEINGS!"
"JOEY!" A girl's voice, who everyone else guessed was Serenity, the blonde's younger sister, shouted. "Joey, please stop! Please, big brother!" Serenity ran up beside her brother and pulled at his tense arms, placing her delicate hand atop his bulging muscles. "Please Joey! Calm down!" She tugged at his sleeve until he faced her, his eyes alive with fury and his fists still shaking. "Joey, please." Tears welled up in Serenity's soft hazel eyes, and she clung to Joey's waist, burrying her face into his chest. "Please..."
With a long sigh, Joey slowly uncurled his fingers and lowered his arms to wrap around Serenity's shoulders, guilt rising in his chest for being a bad example for his little sister. He bent down to whisper in Serenity's ear, "I have a plan, Sis. Your big brother's gonna get us outta here, I swear it."
Serenity looked up at Joey, her hazel eyes shining with hope and trust. A smile lit her face, and she released her brother. "I'll do whatever you want me to. Anything at all."
"Good," Joey grinned, straightening himself out.
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"Aww! What a Kodak moment!" Came a drawling voice, causing everyone to cringe at the reminder that Pegasus was still present. "I think you two, Mr. and Miss Wheeler, will be our star experiments!"
"'Our star experiments,'" Tristan muttered in mockery of Pegasus. "What the hell; can't you allow any positive emotions to exist without making fun of them?"
The older man frowned slightly and strolled over to Tristan. "Aww, what's the matter, Mr. Taylor? Can't you take a joke?"
"A joke?! That's what all this is to you? A joke?! Taking us from our homes as if we had committed some kind of horrible sin, and then inprisoning us like common criminals?!"
Duke growled slightly from where he was sitting nearest the back wall. "Pegasus is a fucking freak, Tristan. Don't waste your time or concern on him."
Pegasus grinned psychotically, "Such a brash young man."
"Got a problem with that?" Duke shrugged, closing his eyes as he gently rubbed his injured shoulder.
The grin turned sinister. "As a matter of fact, young man, I do."
"Tough shit."
"Excuse me?"
"I said tough shit, Pegasus."
A slight snarl emitted from the university graduate, "I'll have lots of fun with you. Yes, indeed. Lots of fun."
Duke shrugged, "I'd like to see you try, old man."
"You're so sure of yourself." Pegasus noted. "Are you sure that's so safe?" He approached the cell that held Duke slowly. "Very sure of yourself indeed."
The dice master arched an eyebrow, "You're not intimidating me."
A slight frown crossed Pegasus' face, "We'll see, Mr. Devlin, we'll see." Once again, Pegasus turned to face all of his captives. "Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted... Those of you who have already been here know how things here at C.A.R.L. are run. However, you newcomers do not, and therefore you shall be informed of the method in which ordinances are put into action.
"You get three meals a day. Lights go out at precisely eleven-thirty P.M., and wake up calls are given at seven in the morning. During the day, you are not to leave your cell unless instructed to do so by an official worker here at the laboratories. If you are found wandering the halls when you do not have permission, there will be a punishment. I'm quite sure that none of you enjoy punishments, except for maybe one of you," Pegasus' eyes lingered momentarily on Joey's figure that shook with rage, "so I recommend you do not attempt to escape.
"As previously mentioned, we will be monitoring every miniscule detail of your personalities in order to determine which animal suits you best.
"That covers the basics; you will all be informed of the other... rules tomorrow at breakfast. Have a good night's sleep, dearies!" With that, Pegasus smiled disgustingly and waved to the prisoners before he strolled out of the large yet dingy room. The door closed behind him.
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All was silent for a few minutes, until a soft cry emitted from the cell between Joey and Mai. Serenity and Yugi stood up and walked towards the front of their cells, trying to peer into the cell from which the cry had come.
"Who is that?" Serenity asked, concern prominent in her voice.
Malik sighed and pulled Ryou tight against his chest, trying desperately to provide even a fraction of the comfort Bakura could to the younger boy. "Ryou -"
The British boy looked up at Malik through teary eyes, "How can he act as if this whole thing is a game, Malik? He's screwing with people's lives! Destroying everything! And he doesn't even care!"
Joey sighed. "No, he doesn't. He doesn't give two shits about what he's doin'. The lousy bastard..."
Serenity frowned and crawled over to her brother, "Don't worry, big brother. You said you have a plan, remember?"
"A plan?" Téa chirped up, her sea-blue eyes hopeful. "A plan for what?"
"To get the fuck out of here before he has the chance to do his little experiments on us." Joey said, closing his honey-coloured eyes as he sank to the floor, locking his hands together. "You guys, I don' know about the majority of ya, but lemme tell ya something I know."
.
Ryou sniffed slightly, as Tristan sent Duke a curious look. Yugi glanced at the person sharing his cell, a young girl who went by the name Ishizu¹. She was sitting off to the side, her long, dark hair falling around her shoulders. Her deep cerulean eyes focused on the stone slab of floor infront of her. Malik, unaware that his sister was sharing a cell just a few spaces away, let out a sigh, rubbing Ryou's back. Serenity sat back on her knees and watched her brother with trusting eyes. And, all alone in a smaller cell by himself, sat the younger brother of the world-reknown Seto Kaiba; Mokuba.
Joey took the silence as a way of asking him to speak, and so with a long sigh he began his story.
"I was the first one they brought here. Me and my sister. While they were assembling our packages, I overheard Pegasus talkin' to one of his right hand men. He's not the first one to try some crazy-ass experiment, and we're not the first ones to suffer 'cause of it. Las' time they tried to pull shit like this, all'a the people experimented on died for one reason or another. An' the assholes who were conductin' the experiment didn't even give the people that died a proper funeral or even anythin' similar to it. They jus' threw the disfigured bodies outside inta the dirt. Later, the police got word of what was goin' on, but by the time they got to the place it was way too late. The head honcho had already hung himself off'a the side of the buildin'."
Serenity looked at Joey fearfully, her hands wrapping around her shoulders in a self-embrace. "That's horrible... Completely horrible..."
Joey frowned and pulled his sister into his arms for a hug, "It gets worse. After the cops found the bodies, the faces were so disfigured that no one could identify anyone. Not only that, but the arms and legs had all sortsa crap fused inta them. Animal fur and snake skins, any an' every human- animal deformity ya could ever dream up. Those freaks totally destroyed those people's lives, without any cares, either!"
Duke narrowed his eyes, "Fucking bastards... So is that what Pegasus plans to do to us?"
Only Serenity could see the solemn nod that was the response. "Unless we're all havin' the same crazy dream I am."
Mai rolled her eyes after hearing Joey's story, and rested her chin atop her interlaced fingers. "That's insane. Purely insane! That man is sick!"
For the first time, Ryou spoke up. His voice was filled shakey, yet filled with a deep sorrow and unexpressible anger. "Tell us something we don't already know."
Malik blinked at Ryou for a moment; ever since the boy had been separated from Bakura, his whole personality seemed to have changed. He sighed and held Ryou closer, relieved that he was still found trustworthy."This whole thing is one big fuck-up by humanity... It makes you wonder where the hell society is headed when it allows shit like this to go down. What kind of deranged philosophy does this Pegasus follow? What does he want to achieve by doing this, save for messing up a bunch of people?"
Ishizu made her presence known at his point, as she recognized her brother's voice. "Malik! Malik, it's me, Ishizu!"
Amethyst eyes widened, "Sister! You're here too?!"
She stood and ran towards the bars, her long, off-white dress flowing behind her slim figure. Dark locks of silken hair fell infront of brightened blue eyes, "I was one of the first ones they brought here. I'm so sorry they dragged you here as well..."
Malik shook his head, even though he knew Ishizu couldn't see the gesture, "You didn't intend for it to happen, Ishizu."
Joey reluctantly interrupted the reunion with a slight sigh as he hugged his own sister. "There's somethin' else I hafta tell ya'll... About what I found out."
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1 - No, I don't support the Yugi or Yami x Ishizu pairing. I just needed a way to bring her into the story. I'm sorry about sticking Mokuba in a cell all by himself, but I didn't plan on bringing him into the story. It just sort of happened ;
YuGiOh is © Kazuki Takahashi and other people. I do not claim to own anything or anyone except the plot. If you have used or have seen a plot like this used before, I apologize. I do not intend to copy other people's ideas. I don't check the YuGiOh section that much anymore so I don't know all of what's in there.