Chapter 4:
Title: Shadow Wars Inc.
Author: Fairyfae
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: SetoxYami
Genre: Action, Romance
Spoilers: None of which I am aware.
Warning: Cussing, blood, gore (mostly not to the main characters), squick (whats squick, I don't know if my story has this but I thought I should throw it in just in case), Semi-nudity and sexual imagery…kinda.
Disclaimer: Me no own...TT (Snuggles Seto plushie)
Summary: Memories long since forgotten have reemerged to haunt Seto. The world is suffering random and unimaginable attacks. Seto suspects his company is involved in weapons dealing and a Pharaoh is brought back to life for a limited time to stop a supernatural disaster and to save his undeclared love
Chapter 4:
He wondered how modern man had managed to change the smell of death. That hospitals smell of death is as true today as it was in ancient Egypt. Only now, instead of death smelling dry and dusty, death smelled wet and acrid, a strange mix of man-made chemicals and god-made blood. The room was so sterile. It almost seemed that the sterilization process eliminated not just the bacterial and viral invaders, but all forms of vitality that may have otherwise existed in the stark surroundings. Even the room's single small dingy window looked out onto the barren industrial roof of the next-door building.
The nurse on duty had offered him something from the cafeteria, an offering he promptly refused. He was a pharaoh. He had standards. His slaves had eaten better than did the sick and ailing here. Yugi, Joey, and Mokuba were on the way with food and clothing, no questions asked. Well, really, they never stopped asking questions until Yami told them he was in the hospital with a badly wounded Kaiba. Then they were all business, scrambling to help a man who never admitted, out loud, that he was their friend…rushing to cross oceans, flying to see a big brother that comprised everything in one young boys world.
Riiiing. Riiiing.
Elegant fingers reached over to lift the receiver. In a tired, subdued voice, "Yami here."
"We're at the airport now Yami. I'm calling from the company limo," the tears in Mokuba's voice seemed to flow down the connection, "Is he alright? Tell me he's still alright. He's stable now right? Right? Please Yami, can I talk to him?"
Yami took a steadying breath in an effort to keep his own tension from communicating itself to the worried sibling, "Mokuba, slow down. Your brother is fine. He's resting now so you can't talk to him. His condition has stabilized. Don't worry. I am here and I won't let anything happen to your big brother."
A sob broke on the other side of the line, "I…I know Yami. I know you won't let anything happen. But…but I just found out that someone tried to kill him earlier. And I can't…I can't…He didn't tell me Yami. I don't know how you're back from wherever you went, but I am so glad you're with him. He'll tell you things. Please….," if Yami had been next to him, he would have been soaked in the deluge of tears that followed the outpouring of words.
So tired, he thought as he raised his hand and rubbed his forehead, Mokuba's pain adding to the weight that seemed determined to drag his heart down into his feet. Yami heard low sounds in the background, probably Joey and Yugi, trying to calm Mokuba down. If Bakura was in the car, for once he exhibited the good sense to remain quiet.
Trying to project his usual confidence to Mokuba, Yami stated, "I know this is impossible, but try not to worry. Your brother is strong. You know that. He is already on his way to getting better. I'll see you soon. Remember…try to be strong…like your brother. Goodbye Mokuba. See you soon"
He heard shaky breaths, "Alright Yami. I'll try." Sob, "Bye." The phone line went dead. He replaced the receiver, his hand returning to its previous occupation.
Beep. Click. Beep. Click. Beep. Click.
His finger tapped the bedside table's faux wood surface, next to the phone, his rhythm countering the steady beat of the heart-monitor. His other hand straightened the thin cotton gown that was currently his only form of attire as he shifted uncomfortably in the plastic torture devise that passed for a chair.
Once more, he thanked the gods for maps that mark hospital locations and high-tech navigation systems. Yami snorted quietly, eyes still sad. Leave it to Kaiba to travel in style. Thankfully, the staff wasted no time questioning him when the Escalade made its reckless appearance at the emergency entrance. Instead, they rushed to remove the scantily clad, obviously pained CEO from his arms, a difficult task seeing that Yami's fingers refused to relinquish their hold. That dealt with, they looked at his own blood stained lab coat and immediately bustled him into an examination room. Finding nothing wrong with him, they bustled more until he was in the embarrassingly thin piece of cotton crap he was wearing at the moment. He almost wished he had not left his tunic back at the…well THERE…and it had been soaked in bodily fluids…even more than the coat he borrowed from what was left of …he thought it must have once been a 'her.'
Needless to say, Kaiba would need a new vehicle. If Kaiba's own blood had not ruined the seats, the twisted remnants of the driver's body and Yami's own…eclectic…driving skills had totaled it. Yami justified his lack of skill in that he could have done better if he had been willing to place Kaiba anywhere else in the car other than across his lap. It is very hard to drive with the dieing form of a loved one cutting off the circulation in your legs. Yami did pause long enough in his mad dash to the hospital to throw the unknown boy in the back seat. The child, the only other living creature in the room he had appeared in, seemed broken to him, soulless…trapped. Yami knew how it felt to be trapped.
The next hour did not bear revisiting. Needless to say, Yami informed the staff of their new patient's identity and in an instant the emergency wing was filled with more lawyers than doctors, every single one constantly reminding Yami that he was under no obligation at this point to say anything to anyone. Lucky for them, Yami was politically savvy or someone might have ended up in the Shadow Realm.
Yami stared at the unnaturally slack face of his dragon, peaceful in it's drug-induced repose. His heart ached to the steady beat of past images, images that mercilessly replayed the moments in which he had almost lost his dragon to deaths clutches, his pain magnified by his guilt. Kaiba's death would have been his fault. He knew before he arrived that Kaiba was in a dangerous situation and he knew that creatures from the shadow realm were involved. He should have been on the alert but he never even considered the possibility that he could be under attack from more than one creature. He had allowed himself to be cocky…and distracted.
Further, because of his carelessness, one of his talismans had burned out. He could no longer use the magician's box. He visualized himself as he was hours, almost a full day ago, perched on his sarcophagus, talisman of the magician's box dangling from his fingers, the other talismans secured in a pouch tied around his waist.
Yami's smile flirted with the firelight as he contemplated his options for getting out of his 'final resting place.' A chuckle escaped him as he remembered the bargain Bakura agreed to in order to gain a body. The pesky thief was now Kaiba's charge. If he could switch places with Bakura that would get him close to Kaiba and it would get Bakura out of his hair. What was it his light used to say? He would be killing two birds with one stone? The ex-pharaoh's mirth increased as he visualized Bakura's head on a vulture's body, an arrow piercing the vulture's heart. After all, tombs were Bakura's specialty. Let him get out of there without getting damaged.
Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, almost as if his heart had stopped. He fell backwards off his perch, impacting the stone floor hard. His hand moved and made a clutching motion over his chest as he struggled to breath. He felt as if he was running a marathon, one on which his life depended. As he had once felt his dragon's proximity, he felt now his dragon's panic. Kaiba was in trouble. Reaching out with his otherworldly senses, he encountered the presence of shadow magic; specifically, the creeping evil of a rampant shadow monster
"KAIBA!" the name ricocheted off the tomb walls as Yami reached deep into himself. He felt the shadow magic, the source that was animating his now breathing body. It wisped and curled around inside like smoke in a crowded bar: elusive, caressing and yet impossible to grasp. He drew on the magic, like one would draw on breath, sucking the curling mass to the desired location. It glided from his heart, down his arm and into the talisman clasped tightly in his hand. Suddenly, he felt his head spin and a box appeared in front of him. He stood fearlessly as he felt his body pulled into the floating object.
Yami stood in stunned wonder. The inside of the box seemed to be a universe in itself, filled with darkness, stars, and the colorful swirls of different galaxies. He drifted gracefully into his mystifying surroundings, peace encompassing his mind. As he drifted he became aware of a door, one not unlike the door he had glided away from. On his journey towards the new door, he briefly glimpsed a massive creature moving in a direction opposite his own. He had just reached his destination when the breath got knocked out of his body.
Yami felt a blush warm his checks as his mind returned to the moment of his greatest distraction. He relived the feeling of impacting bodies as he remembered being jettisoned from the box.
Inhaling deeply, Yami found his nose buried in a man's chest…a young, sweaty, well-built man's chest. The musky scent of wood smoke and sweat captured his senses. The man's shirt was soaked with perspiration and Yami's eyes could not help but focus on the perfectly erect nipple visible through the now transparent shirt. He knew this body. He watched it almost everyday from the pool of all-seeing. It took all his will power not to dart out his tongue and caress the tempting peak in front of him.
Yami 's distraction increased as he became aware of long, strong limbs wrapping around his body. Instantly his since of touch heightened. He was aware of every inch of skin, the cool air brushing over his bared legs and bottom, the bunched tunic at his waist, the warm tingling caused by calloused fingertips running down his back. Closing his eyes, Yami reveled in the feel of heat as hands tightly grasped, dimpling his bottom and inadvertently grinding half-erect manhoods against each other. He allowed himself to be caught up in the burning ache caused by having held his breath too long and the numbness in his brain as his arms lifted his body, allowing him to stare into shocked, glassy blue eyes.
Yami snapped back to the present as he was forced to adjust his gown yet again. At least the baggy material was good for hiding some things. A slight hitch in the EKG focused his attention back on Kaiba. He watched as Seto winced in his sleep, body tossing slightly to the side as if trying to throw something off. Yami's crinckled brow mirrored the distress he saw in the others sleeping expression. Yami dipped a rag into a dish of cool water laying on the nightstand. Gently, he soothed Kaiba's brow until the prone figure settled back into a restful sleep. Tenderly, he bent down and, with his lips, caught a single stray bead of water that had trailed down to catch in the fold off Kaiba's eye. Assured of his patient's well-being, his mind returned to the images of the past, the images that would probably haunt him for millennia to come.
Yami felt the unexpected jerk of his body as he was wrenched around, only to look over a broad shoulder and see a nightmare beast rending his fleshy shield. Without thought, his body reacted. His hand rocketed towards the beast as he forcefully poured power into the talisman clenched in his fist. His head swam with nauseating force, as the box appeared, the beast now trapped inside. Heart jumping erratically, Yami clutched the body on top of him until a crash jerked him out of his senseless stupor.
He looked up and was immediately captivated by the horror of his grotesque surroundings. Yami's mind bulked as it began to register the smells that permeated the room, the stench of drying corpses and opened intestines. Body parts were strewn everywhere. Sunlight poured into the room in a cheerful mockery of the scene in front of him. Still alert to danger, Yami continued to scan the room to detect the source of the noise. In front of him where the box had deposited its contents lay the remaining parts of a sarcophagus lid, one large section of which lay on top of a boy, the only other intact person baring himself and his protector. Yami slowly became aware of a warm stickiness that was coating his hands. He lifted them to his face and saw rivulets of red run in abstract patterns across his palm and down his wrist.
"Gods! Seto! Seto answer me!" Yami slid out from under the body that lay, a still weight on top of him. If possible, his blood ran even colder as he gazed upon the ragged, torn flesh of his dragons back. "Setoooooooo……
Beep. Click. Beep. Click. Beep. Click.