Chapter 7: Home Sweet Home
"Ryou isn't here?" Bakura all but yelled.
Flinching slightly, Malik answered meekly, "No."
"And how convenient that Marik isn't either!" Of course he was being sarcastic, though his voice revealed little amusement. Some time after Yami had left, Ryou had also taken his leave, but when a substantial amount of time had passed with still no Ryou, Malik began to worry, thus initiating Bakura's fury.
"I'm sure they're around here somewhere, Bakura," Malik said, trying to calm him down. "Ryou wouldn't have just left us alone."
"I think you're forgetting one small detail," he tapped his fingers together, "Ryou wouldn't be able to do anything if it was Marik who stole him again."
"Again?"
Could things get any more complicated? "Yes, again. What started this who mess seems to be starting again."
"Maybe it's destiny then. What if we're just overreacting?" He opened another door only to find it empty as well.
Bakura snorted skeptically. "There's no such thing as overreacting when you're dealing with Marik, and as much as destiny goes, I try my best to avoid it."
Malik almost wanted to laugh. "You've can't avoid destiny, Bakura. That's the whole point of it. It's inescapable."
Bakura stopped then, facing Malik with a grave yet calculating stare. Touching the fresh scar, he said, "Let's hope for your sake that's not true."
When Bakura resumed his search, sulk-mode once again initiated, Malik decided to change the subject. "Marik stole Ryou in the past?"
"Of course he did. I would've thought you would've guessed that much by now."
"Well I knew they were acquainted-"
"They were much more than "acquainted". When we left them that evening after you finally woke up, Ryou still had yet to acknowledge his true feelings for Marik, or at least act upon them... But by how Marik's acting now, I'd guess that they either never officially were together, or something horrible happened to split them apart... Right now, it seems like the latter."
"Well then maybe we shouldn't worry. If Marik cared about Ryou, then he wouldn't hurt him, right?" He closed another door.
Bakura smirked. "There are two things wrong with that statement: The "If" part, and the fact that Marik likes to kill the closest thing to him if something doesn't go his way... In which case, Ryou might as well be dead." He let out an exasperated breath. "What were we thinking? How could we leave those two alone! Ryou is only 16, and Marik would be what, like 20? 21?"
Marik arched a brow. "Funny, I didn't think you to be one who quivelled over such meager discrepancies."
"I don't quivel. I just get pissed off."
"Obviously," Malik muttered. "They're obviously not here. What if we're wasting our time?"
"I don't want to second-guess myself later." Opening another door, he was about to close it when something familiar caught his eye. Walking slowly into the room, Malik followed him quietly until Bakura stopped right next to the bed. "Oh my Ra..."
Malik tried to look around him. "What is it?"
Grabbing something off of the bed, Bakura turned and showed it to Malik. "I don't think we're overreacting, do you?"
Malik eyes were now as wide as saucers as he clearly recognized the pair of pants in Bakura's hand. As he looked around the room, he suddenly noticed that wasn't the only discarded article. A shirt was crumpled on the floor next to two wayward socks and...Malik gulped, boxers.
"Okay..." Malik swallowed hard. "Now I'm starting to worry..."
Ryou rolled over and pulled the blankets over his face to block out the brightness overhead. It was only then that he realized the linen wasn't the softest he'd ever used, and more importantly, someone must've raised the thermostat because it was currently warm...
A little too warm.
Sitting up, Ryou rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the bright surroundings, but the blanket fell down, revealing his exposed chest.
"Hm?" He was surprised. He usually slept with a shirt on. Lifting the blanket, his eyes widened.
He most definitely slept with boxers on.
Suddenly looking around, Ryou realized he wasn't home at all. He was...to be blunt, in the middle of nowhere. Actually, as he looked around, the rising sand slopes and familiar temperature gave him this odd feeling of déjà vu.
But that was preposterous; how could he, one minute, be in his room, and the next-
"Oh my god..." It was suddenly clear. "Marik."
Ryou wasn't feeling so good again as he pulled the blanket around him and held a hand to his mouth. Here he was, in Egypt, all alone, and naked.
Perfect.
"Excuse me," a quiet voice said, breaking Ryou from his thoughts.
Turning, Ryou set his sight upon a young girl with jet-black hair dressed in bright silks. Upon first glance, he almost thought her to be Isis, but further inspection revealed soft brown eyes, much like his own.
"Are you lost?" she asked.
"Um, actually-"
"Amazing!" She came closer to him and looked at his hair. "It's white. And your skin... so pale." Straightening up, she shook her head decisively. "You're most definitely not from around here."
Ryou nodded.
"But you're lucky. You match Grandmother's description. Surely you must be hungry... Won't you follow me?"
For one moment, Ryou looked behind him at the vast expanse of empty desert. He hadn't thought he had come alone; maybe Marik had just left to scope out the land. Either way, Marik was nowhere to be found, and for now, that might be a blessing.
He decided to follow the girl.
Kaiba sat alone in his temporary office twirling the enchanting blue gem around his middle finger. How odd that his research would've brought him back to Egypt once again, he was almost starting to get fond of the place.
Shaking that thought from his mind, he pressed the All-Call button on his desk.
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?" A voice spoke from a nearby speaker.
"Do I have any recent messages?" he inquired simply, no enthusiasm tinting his voice. He hadn't expected any, but he found it custom to ask, especially when he had nothing else to do.
Funny, that itself was a lie.
Kaiba was always doing something, whether it be some kind of research, scheduling business meetings, or attending them. He was always busy. Maybe it was just that rarely, he wanted to feel like he had some small bit of a life and had nothing else to care about... That maybe once, just once, there would be a message that didn't have to do with some kind of research, scheduling business meetings, or attending them.
"You have three new messages this morning, Sir. Would you like me to forward them to you?"
Kaiba sighed and sat back in his expensive leather seat. "Very well." Anger edged his voice as usual, whether he meant to or not.
The secretary ushered a quick "As you wish" and a click was heard before the Automated Playback Machine picked up.
"Welcome," the machine said. "Voice Recognition is required to proceed."
"Seto Kaiba," he answered clearly.
"Accepted. You have three new messages. Would you me to play them all?"
"First, tell me the subject of each."
"1 of 3 is from commercial Kaiba Corp. systems. 2 of 3 is from commercial Kaiba Corp. systems. 3 of 3 is from a Mr. Yugi Motou. Would you like me to play any of these messages?"
Kaiba almost said no when that last part finally registered. "Yugi Mutou?"
"Playing Message... Please Stand By..."
Okay. Kaiba hadn't meant to do that. It was the story of his life though; you can invest all the money in the world into something and it still ends up being a lemon. But, he was still curious... Yugi Mutou? As in the one that occasionally became possessed by a certain scarlet-eyed Pharaoh? ...Interesting.
"Message 3 of 3:" the computerized voice cut and another, more familiar began. "Kaiba, hi, it's me. I'm sorry to call; I know you probably don't want to hear from me. Oh, by the way, it's Yami. I think I've finally figured out how to use the phone."
Kaiba almost felt like smiling at this. Almost is the keyword there.
"Anyway," his calm voice continued, "Yugi told me what you were doing." There was a pause here. "Egypt? Alone? You should've at least called someone to go along with you. Yugi said it's not healthy to get absorbed in your work, and I agree," he sighed. "Don't you think you can live without a simple jewel? There are far better things to search for in life. At any rate, I know you probably don't want to talk to me, so at least call Yugi and convince him that you're fine. Or, as I'm sure you'd more so prefer, at least have one of your secretaries call him." Again, a pause. "Regardless of what you believe... I do worry about you. Goodbye."
The machine spoke once more, "End of message," and then was silent.
Kaiba stared at the speaker for a few moments before letting out a very surprised "Hm." Yami rarely, very rarely, called him. Actually, that was probably the first time. They weren't inclined to speaking to one another, for obvious reasons, so the message came as a rather big surprise. Maybe it wouldn't have surprised him so much had not Yami said one particular thing...
"I do worry about you." Not we.
"There you go, Ryou," the girl smiled a little too nicely, "So how do you like it?"
Ryou looked down and raised a brow. "It looks like women's clothing."
"I assure you, it's not. It's what all boys your age wore...in ancient times."
"But it's a skirt," Ryou whined.
"It's not a skirt," the girl said defensively. "It's a sarong."
Ryou really couldn't tell the difference. A thin white blouse now covered his upper-half, and a knee-length sarong just barely covered his legs. At least the sandals would guard his feet from the hot sand, and the veil, well, he was a little confused about that.
"I know, I know," she said quickly, "You're wondering about the veil. I just thought it would be better if you wore it so people would be so inclined to stare. You don't quite look like you're from this world."
"Thanks...I think. Beside, people have seen white-haired boys before."
She looked at him as thought he was insane. "...Sure they have... Listen, I think you'd better come see my grandmother now. It'll clear some things up."
"Well," What other choice did he have? "All right. Can you at least tell me your name?"
"Of course," she curtseyed politely, "My name is Meera."
"I've been expecting you, child," the old woman said as Ryou entered the small tent, Meera in tow.
That kind of creeped him out. "You have?"
"Of course. We were informed of your coming arrival many years ago."
"By whom?"
The old woman smiled much like her granddaughter. "I think you know who."
...Sure she didn't mean-
"Marik, of course," Meera answered.
Ryou was now slightly confused, not to mention slightly nervous. "You know Marik?"
"Everyone here knows Marik."
That didn't surprise him. "Then can you please help me get out of here before Marik finds me?" That was the last thing he needed.
"Help you escape?" The old woman repeated unbelievingly. "Why would we do that? While you're here, you belong to Master Marik. Meera, I trust you blindfolded him on the way over…?"
"I did," she nodded.
Ryou's tentativeness was growing. "I was wondering about that."
"Well, we can't have you knowing the location of our new hideout without Master Marik's permission, now can we?"
Master Marik? Since when did this happen? "I...I suppose not." That seemed to be the logical answer at the time, though nothing seemed very logical at all. "So Marik's not... He's not lost?"
"Lost? Of course he isn't. He's just scooping out the land." Go figure. "We've been waiting for his arrival now for 5,000 years."(1)
"But why?" Ryou suddenly interrupted. "Marik's evil, and mean, and rude, not to mention intrusive-"
"Not to us, my dear," the woman chuckled. "To our people, he's a hero."
Ryou's mind was reeling. A hero? Since when did people like Marik become heroes?
"I suppose it's important that you know something," Meera cut him from his thoughts. "Marik gave us all a home a long time ago. Without him, our people would've died out."
"Died out?"
"Yes. After you died and both the Thief King and Shadow-Dealer mysteriously disappeared, High Priest Seth turned against the Pharaoh and raised his own army to scan the sands and find them. When that proved to be futile, he went to the next best thing- Marik's hidden lair. It was said to be in an unreachable place somewhere in Egypt, but no one, save for those who lived there, and Marik himself, could ever find it. I'm sure Marik has already told you this, but you are a reincarnation of the healer that lived long ago."
"Healer?"
"Yes. Haven't you wondered why you're so fair-skinned? And your hair as well, it lacks any pigment at all." She pointed momentarily toward the sky. "When Ra created healers, he wanted them to be pure... of everything. That is why healers are noted for their fair complexions and very light hair color."
"But what about Bakura? He wasn't-"
"Ah, ah, ah," she waved her finger at him. Be careful what you say."
"What?" Ryou was slightly skeptical. "Bakura was a healer?"
"Not all develop their powers as early as you did, but yes, he was a healer indeed. Male healers lose their powers if they become impure," she smirked, "For whatever reason that may be, while women are noted to never lose them."
Ryou frowned. "Yes, I know that... Did I lose my power then?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"You'll have to take that up with Marik. I'm not obliged to say anything more..." Her expression showed some worry. "What I'm wondering though is why you haven't told Marik about your family."
Ryou looked greatly shocked for a moment before the rustling of a cloth caused him to turn. A young servant boy stood breathless.
"Master Marik has returned."
"What good timing," Meera clapped. "Let's go see him, Ryou." And before Ryou could and surely would've protested, Meera grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him outside.
Once again Ryou's eyes had to adjust, and when they did, well, Ryou rubbed them just to make sure what he was seeing was real. "What year is it?"
Meera grinned. "Don't be fooled by what you see. It is indeed still your time."
But it most assuredly didn't look like it. Building structures and the architecture displayed were the kinds Ryou had only read about, never seen, and the ones he had seen were crumbling and only remnants of a past long forgotten. And the people, they were all dressed similarly to Ryou as well, ancient garb worn as though that was how it should be.
"Is this the boy?" a dark voice suddenly said, and Ryou recognized the violet robe as something Marik would wear. A hood covered their face revealing nothing but dark shadows and on that hood was a very familiar symbol...
A golden eye.
"It's him," another, dressed the same, said.
Grabbing Ryou by the arm, they quickly bound his wrists and pulled him toward the center of the crowd that was quickly growing.
Meera could only watch as it happened. "...Oh dear."
Ryou stumbled. One of the robed men had pulled him by the rope that also encircled his wrists tightly, and shoved him forward. Such an action caused him to stumble and fall... right at Marik's feet.
"What's this?" Marik raised a brow and looked at the fallen person.
"It's the boy you requested, Master Marik."
"Oh?" he titled his head and grinned darkly as Ryou struggled to sit up. Apart from what anyone else would say, trying to complete that task with fastened wrists was anything but easy. "So it is."
Ryou faced him with the angriest look he could muster, which wasn't too menacing considering the given situation. "Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't bring you anywhere. You did, or at least that ring you were wearing did."
"The ring?" Ryou looked at his hand and gasped. "You stole it!" He frowned at Marik. "Give it back."
Grinning ominously, he asked, "What will you do for it?"
Ryou looked at him with the unspoken words of "That's not fair".
"Stop it right now, Marik!" Meera suddenly appeared and stomped a foot. "You're being crueler that usual." She helped Ryou to stand. "Just give him the ring."
Marik's grin vanished as he finally relinquished the ring to its rightful owner. "So I see you haven't changed."
"Likewise," she glared.
Both stared at each other before Meera finally broke into a laugh. "Okay, okay. You win. It's great to see you again."
Marik couldn't help but smirk. "The location of the hideout is nice. Malik will be furious. I love it. Though, I never expected you to be here."
She shrugged. "Well, I guess they just needed someone to keep all the memories for you while you were gone. Though I must say, being reborn isn't very fun. Sometimes you just want to rest in peace."
"Well," he looked at Ryou for a moment, "I'm starting to see that being reborn doesn't always go as planned." Sighing, he faced his two nearby followers with a deadly glower. "You got him dirty."
Both bowed simultaneously. "Forgive us, Master Marik."
"Just don't let it happen again, or say goodbye to not only your life, but this realm."
"Of course Master Marik."
"Well I can't do much with a dirty slave-"
"Slave?" Ryou said quickly.
Marik simply ignored him. "So take him to my chambers. Meera-"
"Don't worry," she bowed, "The bath will be ready very soon."
"Good."
"The two robed followers began to lead him away; nevertheless, Ryou still protested, "But Marik-"
Marik's expression was amusing. "Ryou, something you'll learn while you're here is that there are no buts, because here..." he smirked enigmatically, "My rule is absolute."
oooTBCooo
(1)- Please don't get confused here. They have not returned to the past! It's Meera who has been reincarnated or what have you who is the only "survivor" from those years. The people there are all the old people's descendants.
Aw my gursh. Sorry for the delay. Major computer problems occurred that are now fixed. I've had this chapter ready for my beta-reader to read forever and then my comp crashed and I thought I had lost all of my saved files. Talk about extreme terror. All is well though...except for Ryou it seems…hehehe.
AmethystRoze
