Tenshi no Kokoro
Disclaimer: refer to first chapter
Summary: Chimera has been defeated and the Angel has emerged. But now the Angel seeks only to destroy evil. Seto and Ryuuji, aided by a reborn Marik, must overcome it to find their lover. S/R/R, YY/YB, YM/R
Warnings: not much fluff in this chapter, I'm afraid. I'm concentrating more on Yami and Anubis this chapter, so there may not be as much Seto, Ryou or Ryuuji. I mean, sure, they're easily the best characters in YGO, but you gotta give the Pharaoh and the Tomb Robber some credit, right?
Responses to Reviews and Author's Notes:
Elle-Fate2x1-2: yes, I feel sorry for Marik too! But there's no time to be sad for him at the moment! Yami's in danger!
lilmatchgirl007: hmm....maybe the Angel should try and kill Marik! Then again, he's under orders not to. Yami does seem more the dominant type, doesn't he? Well, change is sometimes a good thing!
Ril: Ryuuji/Angel...maybe I should put that in the summary...' just kidding. Yes, bad bad Marik! And Yami.....well, your putting him to sleep idea was pretty interesting, though I had something else in mind..but your one worked better!
andromeda90: I think it's time for Chimera to rise and take control of their lives, ne?
Maruken: welcome back! I was wondering where you went... anyway, I thought you might have enjoyed the police thing! Angel=Yami Bakura. Interesting...Bug dude is going to be more 'powerful' in a sense in this part...
ENJOY!
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Chapter Six: The New Chimera
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Anubis paced the apartment worriedly, wondering why Yami wasn't home yet. He had finished work early, after all, and they had plans for tonight. Yami wasn't one to break promises without good reason – let alone no reasons at all – so Anubis was worried about him.
Give him ten more minutes, a voice inside his head reasoned. Ten more minutes and if he doesn't show – then you can panic.
Another voice in his head joined in.
He's a grown man, you dolt, it said exasperatedly. He can take care of himself. What's there to panic about?
The first voice was back again.
But you never know . . . with all those attacks going on and you guys without your powers . . . something might happen.
They sounded oddly like Kaiba and Otogi for some strange reason. Anubis shook his head to clear it. He must be pretty screwed if he was hearing their voices inside his head. It was either that or –
"F!" he yelled. "What are you guys doing inside my mind?"
We wanted to talk, Otogi's voice sighed in exasperation. Hiei sensed some sort of power release just then and he said that Yami disappeared.
"Talk?" Anubis asked, not realising the full situation. Then it hit him. "WHAT?! Yami's disappeared? How do you know?"
Kaiba's voice was a touch impatient. That's a very pointless question.
"Whatever," the albino said, brushing that aside. "Now what?"
You should come over, Otogi suggested. We're suspecting some Otherworldly intervention. You can't do much on your own.
But don't panic, Kaiba ordered. Like I said, Yami's a grown man. He knows how to keep his head, so you should too. Just get here quickly.
"Ugh, all right."
He grabbed his jacket and keys, muttering to himself. Keep his head? Easier said than done. He was fully aware of their situation. Yami was defenceless against any Otherworld powers now. If something weren't done quickly enough, he would be most likely dead.
Stop thinking so negative, Otogi reprimanded.
"Get outta my head, Otogi," Anubis growled. "I'm coming, okay?"
The only problem now was who in the Otherworld had they pissed off so badly that they would seek Yami for revenge? He snorted disdainfully. There were too many to count and it would probably take forever to narrow down the possibilities. They didn't have forever. They had as much as Yami could take.
Which, compared to his demonic life, was very little.
Don't worry, we'll take care of the tracking.
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"D-Destroy them?"
"Yes destroy them! Didn't you hear me the first time?"
"B-But . . . Yami-sama . . ."
"I said kill them," Yami hissed dangerously. "I don't care if they're your pets, or your lovers or anything. They have no place here. It's either their life, or yours. Choose wisely, Haga."
Yami's eyes shot open. His whole form was trembling and drenched in sweat, but he couldn't move. He strained his neck to look down at the rest of him, finding himself in chains and not in very good shape either. His arms looked almost as if the circulation had been cut off from them and his legs were numb of feeling. He felt as if his whole body was pressing down into the cold, damp ground he was lying on, as if an unseen pressure was forcing him down.
Where am I? The last thing I remember was walking home . . .
He groaned as he tried to lift his head again, fighting against the pressure.
"Welcome, all mighty Pharaoh Atemu," a nasal, dry voice wheezed. "Or, is it now just plain Yami?"
A small male figure came into looming into view. The guy had grass green hair and horn-rimmed glasses that covered most of his sneering face. His breathing seemed laboured, but that was probably only because he seemed to have a perpetually blocked nose. Yami took a moment to try and recognise him.
"Your name is . . .?"
"Haga," his captor supplied with a sneer. "Insector Haga."
"Insector Haga . . ." his eyes widened in recognition.
"Glad to know you've finally remembered me, Pharaoh," Haga drawled sarcastically, ruined by his nasal voice. "I would have thought someone like me didn't deserve for an almighty Pharaoh like you to remember."
"What do you want?" Yami demanded.
Haga clucked his tongue disapprovingly.
"You're in no position to start demanding anything, Yami. As you can see, you're the one in chains. The only one giving the orders around here is me."
Yami recalled a distant time, several thousands of years ago, when he had first started Chimera. Being the Pharaoh figure he was, Yami had ordered many of his underlings to kill off things that meant the most to them as a sign of their loyalty. Insector Haga – as implied by his name – was extraordinarily fond of insects. It was just his misfortune that Yami hated them.
By killing off his precious collection of insects, Haga had sealed the deal and sold his soul to the devil – or, in this case, Yami. He became a dark creature – a parasite demon – and he was treated like all underlings had been. Badly.
"You should see just how pathetic you look right now," Haga mused. "Once such a fearless and ruthless leader, now in chains at the feet of one of your lowliest subjects. Tell me, how does it feel?"
Judging from the heaviness of the atmosphere, Yami deduced that they were in the Otherworld. For mortals and other normal beings, the Otherworld was much too dense for them to exist properly. The force of gravity was much stronger here than in the real world. It would be near impossible to stand up here, let alone escape. Yami cursed silently.
Haga, obviously not enjoying being ignored, kicked him in the ribs.
"I asked a question!" he yelled. "Answer it!"
"Is it revenge you want?" Yami asked quietly.
"Nani?" Haga growled.
"Revenge," Yami repeated. "You captured me for revenge, didn't you? Did you want revenge for all those precious insects I made you kill? It's not a great loss, Haga. Don't be so childish."
This was, of course, just to goad him. But he did want to know. He had committed so many foul acts during the course of his reign that he wasn't even sure what people came for when they wanted revenge.
"What would you know about great losses?" Haga shrieked, kicking him again. "You were a heartless bastard!" Another kick was delivered. "My insects – the ones you made me kill – they were my life's work! I loved them! But you wouldn't know anything about love, would you Yami? You're just a heartless, emotionless and ruthless bastard!"
Every sentence, or statement, was punctuated with a harsh kick to his ribs. Yami, being in a weakened state with no powers, could only bear it. Each kick rammed into his ribcage, knocking the wind out of him. The last kick cracked a rib and he groaned.
"Yes, feel the pain," Haga hissed. "I can do much more."
He raised his face upwards and laughed, shrieking at the top of his lungs.
"Long live the New Chimera!"
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"Hiei! Any news?"
The short, black-haired teen frowned in concentration. He spread out his conscience and swept over the entire physical plane, searching for any signs of Yami's presence. When that didn't work, he tried the first level of the Otherworld, then the next and then the next.
"What's he doing?" Jounouchi asked.
"Tracking down Yami," Kurama said softly. "It's his special power. He can search for one mind among billions and pinpoint their exact location."
"But Yami doesn't have any powers," Yugi pointed out. "How can he -?"
"Essentially, it's your life force that is being tracked down," Kurama explained. "When Hiei searches, he looks for a single mind, a life force, among the billions and billions in both worlds. For us Chosen, our minds appear to be a blue light and the more powerful we are, the brighter the light is. Yami, on the other hand, is a human now, without any powers. His mind should be a white one."
"Pale red, actually," Hiei corrected, eyes still focused.
"Pale red?"
"He was a demonic being," the other replied. "That memory still stains his mind now, because he has not, in all essence, become fully human. There is still a part of him that remembers being a demon and that's what makes his, and the other members of Chimera, a pale red."
"Human minds are white," Kurama explained to a baffled Yugi and Jounouchi. "We Chosen are blue. A demon's mind is red – for blood, you understand."
"What about the Gods? And Gaea?"
"The Gods are inconceivable to anyone. Their presence is too overwhelming to be expressed in any colour. As for Gaea – we cannot identify his mind personally because none of us have ever been in direct contact with him."
Hiei growled angrily and stood up. Kurama, Yugi and Jounouchi looked at him worriedly, wondering what was wrong. He stalked over to the door and yanked it open, slamming it behind him as he exited. The others followed him outside.
He went straight down the corridor from the drawing room of the Kaiba Mansion and upstairs, still not speaking a single word. Kurama had worked with him for several years now and had only seen him so angry and frustrated in few very severe cases. This must have been one of them.
"Kaiba!" he barked, wrenching the study door open.
"Nanda, Hiei?" Seto snapped.
The CEO was sitting at his desk, shuffling through papers and working on his computer. Ryou and Ryuuji were on one of the couches, the albino asleep. The three of them had erected a reinforced barrier around the Angel in Ryou's subconscious; the effort leaving Ryou drained. He leaned against Ryuuji's shoulder, asleep, while the game creator had one arm around his shoulders and the other typing on a laptop on his lap.
"We need to use the system."
"Can't you find him?"
"He's too deep into the Otherworld for me to find him!" Hiei snarled. "Unless you can find a way for me to penetrate Cerberus' barrier."
"What?"
"You heard me, Otogi." Hiei rounded on Ryuuji. "Yami's been taken down past the sixth level of the Otherworld and into the realm of Cerberus. He's at the gates of Hell itself. If we don't track him down fast, we're going to lose him."
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Screams echoed through the oppressing chambers as the sound of whips cracking grew louder. Yami was dragged by two huge figures towards the screams, his whole body feeling heavy. The effort to stand was a serious one, and the sweat drenched his body as he moved.
"AH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Who's that screaming . . .?
The chamber didn't have a door, but an archway led into it. The large figure of a blonde, ragged looking man was suspended above the ground by shackles around his wrist, which were hanging from a chain from the ceiling. He was stripped almost bare except for the loincloth and blood was running freely from his wounds.
The one with the whip was a stout, purple-haired demon with slightly pointed teeth and a wild expression on his face. Each time he brought the whip down with a sharp crack, he would release a roar that sounded much like a dinosaur. The roars were actually laughter, but the uncanny resemblance to that of the extinct reptiles was unnerving.
"Haga!" the demon crowed. "What do you think?"
He motioned gleefully to his half-dead victim, who was slipping in and out of consciousness. A pool of blood accumulated underneath his feet from the whiplashes and cuts into his flesh. Haga smirked.
"Beautiful, Ryuzaki," he complimented. "Make him scream."
Ryuzaki . . . Yami thought. Dinosaur Ryuzaki . . .
He was dragged away again, no longer even putting in the effort to walk by himself. It was too hard. He let himself be physically towed away from the chamber to their destination, thoughts wandering.
How did two incompetent demon novices become so powerful? Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki had both been his subordinates at one point, when Chimera was still strong. But he had thought that the cult had disbanded after the Angel appeared inside the Otherworld.
"Do you approve of the facilities, Yami-sama?" Haga asked him mockingly. "I know you haven't seen them all yet, but I'll be happy to show you the rest of them. After all, the New Chimera must exceed the first!"
He gloated openly, clapping his hands with childish excitement. They moved further down the corridor, Yami growing increasingly weary and his breath more laboured with each passing step. He wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Not only was the darkness overpowering here, it provided such a dense shield against all probing powers that was he was sure even Hiei could not penetrate.
But you guys have to find me . . . otherwise it may be too late. Chimera has been resurrected and it seems more bloodthirsty than before.
I can't . . . hold on . . . much longer . . .
. . . Anubis . . .
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The said albino had just arrived at the Kaiba Mansion, out of breath. He had run all the way up three flights of stairs to get to the study, not even bothering to wait for the butler to show him in. He barged inside and six pairs of eyes swivelled around to stare at him.
"You're here."
"How's the search going?" Anubis demanded. "Have you found him?"
They exchanged worried looks, reluctant to speak. The one who broke the silence surprised them all, voice quiet and tired.
"He's at the Gates of Hell."
Ryuuji jumped as Ryou raised himself from his position on his shoulder. The albino looked at them all tiredly, a tired expression in his pale eyes. Anubis looked at his reincarnation, mouthing wordlessly as Ryou stood up and half-staggered over to him.
"Ryou . . . maybe you shouldn't move," Seto said concernedly.
"Iie, Seto, daijoubu." Ryou reached out and touched Anubis' cheek. "Yami has been taken to the Gates of Hell by the New Chimera. You must go to him."
"The Gates of Hell?" Anubis breathed.
"We must go immediately."
"Dame, Ryou," Seto said suddenly, stepping forward. "You're staying."
Ryou turned to look at him, hand dropping from Anubis' cheek. His blue eyes were sad. The CEO looked firm and unwavering in his decision.
"Don't stop me, Seto."
"You're too weak. You're not going."
"I agree." Ryuuji stood. "We can only contain the Angel for so long. What happens when it takes over again? We can't afford to risk it running amok."
Anubis felt the floor tremble ever so slightly and the temperature rose. Ryou was shaking, fists clenched. These points did not escape his two partners, but they stood their ground. Worry for him overrode anything else at the moment. And he did look weaker than usual, almost fragile.
"He will protect me."
"We don't know that for sure, do we?"
"I know. Trust me – he will protect me because if he doesn't, then he won't have a physical body. He will protect me."
There was a note of finality in his voice, a quiet but firm tone. He would not accept anymore arguments. Anubis cleared his throat in the stony silence that followed his last statement.
"Let's go."
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End Chapter Six
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Author's Notes:
Well . . . Ryou stole a little of the spotlight towards the end, didn't he? I tried not to! I swear I did! He just appeared! (Cries hysterically) I was unaware!
Now that that's over and done with . . . I think I might write the next chapter to 'By Moonlight' now!
REVIEW!
Relinquished