Chapter 14:
Bella blinked, eyes blurry and words halted, as the man she had come to think of as her invincible savior collapsed to his knees, forcing her to release the death grip she had on his legs. For the first time since rocketing into the room, she saw the tacky red substance that saturated the clothing on the left side of her adoptive father's body, the material clinging to his bent, shaking form. Slowly, she took in the tight, pained expression twisting the face brought so close to her own by her father's kneeling posture. She saw the torn shirtsleeve bound with a bloody bandage and the sweat-beaded forehead. She screamed.
"Daddy!"
Panicked, she looked frantically around the room, scanning for enemies. Instantly, her gaze zeroed in on the bloody blade hanging from Yami's hip. Feelings of betrayal marred her usually innocent expression as she launched herself without thought or fear at the man who had called himself her father's friend. Recklessly, she battered Yami's abdomen and lower chest with her tiny fists, tears flowing freely.
"You're a bad, bad man! I hate you! Hate you, hate you, hate you! How could you do this! How could you hurt my daddy! You said he was a good man! You said you loved him! You said we should love him too! How could you do this to him, you..you butthead. You stupid meanie! You butthead, butthead, butthead!"
Yami stood stunned as the girl pounded and cursed him. Even Bakura stood frozen at the child's violent if ineffectual outburst.
"Bella." Seto's calm voice broke through the young child's hysterics, as he demanded, "Stop it this instant."
Turning away from Yami, Bella threw herself onto her hero's chest, clutching him with all the might her fragile body could muster. "But..but" Tears continued to pour down her face as Seto gently stroked her hair. He searched his memory for the methods he used to calm Mokuba after their mother and father's deaths.
Seto bent his head so it rested against the small, soft cheek. Whispering softly in her ear, he attempted to sooth her. "You have no reason to be mad at Yami. He was helping me. He was the one who bandaged my wound."
Removing her nose from Seto's shirt she sniffed and asked in a meek voice, "He did?"
Gently Seto nodded before resting his forehead against her red hair. Shyly, Bella slid a tentative gaze at Yami, "You did?"
Yami knelt beside the girl and looked her straight in the eye, "I always try to protect him little one. I am glad to see that I have someone with whom to share my duties now."
Snuggling her cheek against Seto's chest she gave a small nod.
Yami's expression was serious as he addressed her comments upon entering. "You said the bad man had your brother again?"
Bella's eyes widened as Yami reminded her of her original purpose. Quickly she pushed away from Seto's chest allowing her father's head to descend to his folded knees, torso flat against his thighs and head turned to watch the interaction between the girl and his one-time lover.
Despite extreme nausea and dizziness, Seto tried to focus as he leveled his slitted eyes on the young girl looking down at him, her brow wrinkled in concern. Yami managed to miss the brachial artery, but the Shadow Realm had not allowed Yami to go easy when carrying out the die's verdict. The cut was deep and Seto lost a lot of blood before the bandages staunched the flow. What he needed was a lot of fluids and bed rest, not too mention a large number of stitches. One look at Bella's frantic face, however, banished the possibility of sleep from his mind. His tired body would just have to deal. The battles of the day were not yet over.
Seto struggled to speak in a clear voice, one that would defy his slouched posture. "Bella, I need you to tell us what happened in as precise a way as possible, okay."
Bottom lip quivering as the little girl attempted to stem her tears, "Okay daddy." The little girl plopped down on her own knees only to lay her whole upper body across Seto's lightly heaving back in an effort to give and take reassurance. Face tilted to look at the back of her father's head, she spoke. "The bad man in the picture, the one that gave me to Mr. Sho, came to get us at the mansion. Seth saw him killing the security guards you left to keep us safe and he said we had to hide. Seth said all the house peoples were gone and no one was with us in the house so we had to hide your brother since you had been so good to us so we dragged him down the stairs and hid him in the closet. Ummm…we put him in the corner and covered him up with a whole bunch of stuff. Then..then" Bella started to cry again.
Seto looked at Yami, eyes pleading for help. Yami leaned over and took the young girl from Seto's back, rocking her back and forth in his own lap to calm her, "Its okay Bella but you need to tell us more. We have to know what's going on so we can save your brother."
Bella looked up at Yami, "You are going to save him?"
Yami gave her a reassuring smile, "Of course child. You ask such silly things. I already told you once that we protect what is ours. Your brother is one of ours, so we will retrieve and avenge him at any cost."
"Retrieve?" Sniffling.
Yami clarified, "We'll get him back."
"Oh. Okay." Bella looked down as if in shame, "The door blew up and Seth shoved me in the closet. He wouldn't let me stay with him. I wanted to but he wouldn't let me. I didn't mean to leave him, really, but he said it would be easier for you to save one of us then to save all of us?"
"Your brother is as smart as his new father. You should believe in him. What happened next?" Yami continued to rock the girl.
Lip quivering, "The evil man took him. He kept asking him where we were and Seth kept telling him that daddy hid us all in different places to keep us safe. Then…then the man got really mad and I think he started breaking things. I don't know. I just heard a bunch of breaking stuff. I don't know how long I stayed in the closet but I stayed until it had been quiet for a long time."
Bella looked over at Seto whose face was turned towards her, his check still resting on his kneeling knees so that Bella had to look down to meet his eyes. "Daddy?"
"Yes, Bella. I'm listening. I'm just a little dizzy right now, okay."
"Ummm…kay. Daddy?"
"Yes Bella."
The young girl left Yami's lap to scrunch down in front of her father, her nose touching Seto's and her butt in Yami's face. "I'm sorry but I couldn't put your brother back to bed by myself. He's too big for me. I dragged him into your desk room though so he could sleep on the pretty o'rent carpet."
Using his good arm to shakily push himself up he reassured her, "That's good. You did good." Much to Yami's relief, Bella sat up also.
Suddenly, the shattering of glass and the inhuman screech of a monster destroyed the illusion of safe haven. Instinctively, the young men threw themselves to the floor, arms moving to protect head and neck as deadly glass projectiles filled the air. In his dive to safety, Yami carefully covered Bella's stunned form with his own body. The office plunged further into darkness as the heartrending noise exploded one light bulb after another in a shower of sparks. The awful noise escalated to a volume that nearly made Yami's ears bleed moments before talons sank deep into his shoulders. An angry yell was wrenched from his lips, as he reared up blindly striking out and successfully dislodging one foot.
"Pharaoh! Down! Now!" Bakura ordered as his fist cleared Yami's face by mere millimeters, his spiked fingers viciously rending gapping holes into the flying monster's pasty white flesh. Struggling, Seto pushed up enough with his good arm to stare at Bakura as he repeatedly punched the harpy, it's body now pinned to the ground by the young man's weight, blood too dark to be human gushing in starts and spurts to stain Bakura's skin and clothes. Yami had been pushed to the side during the battle and was shaking, dazed into temporary immobility. Yami's body was actually glowing with a strange light, his eyes redder than Seto had ever seen them. If he didn't know better, he would say that Yami's eyes had no pupils to break up the pure crimson of his irises. Bella was desperately trying to crawl over to Seto's prone figure as another screech tore the air. Seto scrambled to sharpen his injury-dulled wits as another harpy invaded his office, wings throwing another rain of deadly glass projectiles inward. "Bakura!" Seto yelled moments before the creature sank talons into Bakura's white mane, yanking the kicking, snarling figure into the air.
"Nooooo!" A high-pitched child's scream rang out in terror. Head pivoting in the direction of the noise, Seto saw the injured harpy recover enough strength to grab the girl and fly out the window.
"No! Damn it!" Furious, Seto forced his injured body up, launching himself haphazardly out of the office window after the departing fiend. Desperately, he grasped onto the harpy's struggling frame as the creature flew up the short distance to the roof. Below him he could hear Bella's frightened screams. Looking down, he saw her flailing limbs as she hung, miles above the street in her captor's grip. Seto's arms trembled in weakness but he refused to let go as they were carried towards the roof. Just as they became even with it's surface Bella bit down hard on the clawed foot holding her.
"Bella! No!" Screaming in anger and pain, the harpy dropped its prey. Desperate, Seto released his grip, falling after Bella's wailing form.
"Bella! Seto!"
For a fraction of a second, Seto saw Seth and Mr. Hatahori standing at the edge of the roof, one looking on in pain and the other in pleasure as gravity exerted its control over his body. Sound and sight were soon irrelevant as the rushing air brought tears to his eyes and deafened him with it's howling. His blurry vision registered his decent past the broken window of his office, the inhumanly glowing face of his lover starring at him. Vaguely, he contemplated the irony of the situation. He wondered if he was destined to share the same death as his adoptive father. Was this what Gozoboro felt when he committed suicide so many years ago?
Suddenly, his plunge towards the pavement was halted as his movement through the air changed from vertical to horizontal. It took his mind a few moments to register that he was now seated on something warm and…scaly. He started when small arms wrapped around him to clasp tightly onto the front of his shirt, bunching the material in clasped fists. Hesitantly, he looked back to see Bella pressed snuggly against his back. Looking down, he saw that he was seated on a golden dragon…the guardian of the fortress. Lazily, the giant form wheeled in the air, turning back towards Seto's decimated office. Upon arrival, it gracefully settled onto its haunches and lowered its head in a signal that its two passengers should disembark. Still somewhat stunned, Seto rolled off the dragon's back and sank to his knees on the baby blue carpet. He heard Bella land behind him moments before he felt her clinging form again. Looking around, he noted the absence of both Yami and Bakura. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he gagged at the massacre. He spun and buried the young girls face in his chest, adrenalin giving him more strength then he should have at that moment.
"Bella, I want you to close your eyes and cover them with your left hand okay?"
"But daddy?"
"Just do it!" Seto said with more force than he intended. Trembling the girl complied. To worn to fix his mistake, he grasped the girls right hand in his own and ordered in a softer voice, "Follow me."
Passengers duly delivered, the dragon took to the skies again, this time rising to the building's roof. Watching its ascent, Seto knew to where his two companions had gone. They had gone to the roof to face the enemy head on. He would be damned if they were going to do it without him.
Stumbling, Seto led Bella past the crudely beheaded figure of one well-aerated harpy, the multiple stab-wounds to the body revealing it to be the monster that had dropped him and Bella. The foolish creature must have returned to try and harm the others. Seto couldn't help the small, malicious pleasure that rose in him at the sight of a fallen enemy. The charred remains of the second harpy lay crumpled next to the door as if the body had been kicked away from the threshold by the departing figures of Bakura and Yami.
Seto led Bella out of the room and over to his secretary's desk. Gently, he guided her underneath its polished surface before instructing her to open her eyes. Bella lowered her hand, her gaze practically clinging onto the crouched man before her, "Daddy?"
"Everything is going to be okay but I need you to stay here okay. I need you to be brave since I have to leave you for a while. Stay here and be safe so I can go help the others save Seth. Can you do that for me?"
Hesitantly, Bella nodded her head, her small body shrinking further into the dark corners underneath the desk.
Feeling only a slight twinge of guilt for leaving the girl on her own, Seto stumbled towards the stairs, his need to get to the roof a driving force propelling him onward. All he could think was that Yami was fighting that insane asshole and he might need his help. Each step upward was excruciating, his body protesting with waves of nausea and vertigo. In addition to his half-healed back and newly injured arm, his body was a horrific masterpiece of cuts and scrapes. His iron will, however, would not give into his body's demand for respite. As such, the hand on his good arm intermittently grasped the handrail, pulling the limp muscles in his legs upward one step at a time. Time and time again, Seto fell to one knee, adding more bruising to the already damaged flesh. By the time Seto reached the door to the roof, he wondered if his muscles had turned to liquid under his skin due to the constant battering. Opening the door, he was again enveloped by madness, the scene in front of him to fantastical for even the most devote believer of the supernatural to accept. Seto barely had the strength to twitch at Bakura's yelled proclamation, "You suicidal idiot! What are you doing up here!"
OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO
Yami gasped, breath frozen in a flash of pain. Bakura's headlong charge dislodged him from the harpy, but in the process, its talons ripped ragged groves into his shoulder. Finger's moved to cautiously probe his torn flesh thereby coating his hand with blood. Lowering his wet digits until they hovered in front of his face, he stared appalled. The liquid on his fingers was dark, to dark to be human. Shock settled in and Yami became trapped in his own thoughts, forgetting friend and foe alike. Gradually, he became aware of the power accompanied by blood lust now coursing through his veins. Whereas moments before he had a purpose, a cause…now he wanted only to revel in power, to exalt in the destruction of anyone that interrupted his revelry. Power distracted him from pain allowing him to drift in a haze and ignore the nagging feeling tugging at the back of his mind. Suddenly, he could hear a voice, melodious but muffled. Although distinctly feminine, he couldn't recognize the voice's owner. Annoyed, he released a low, animalistic growl. Nonetheless, he strained to listen to the faint irritant.
"One more word of warning. If you fail to prevent the breaking of the barrier, you will lose yourself forever. The shadow magic will overwhelm your soul and you will truly become a monster. Do not fail."
The power in Yami cajoled him, told him that he should scoff at the ignorant words. Whoever the woman was, she was a fool. With this kind of power, what use was a soul? If he just let the power consume him, he would be a god and gods could take the souls of others. They had no need of their own. He felt the magic shift within his body, changing the shape and appearance of his current form. Looking down, he saw an intricate, mystical design weaving across his skin, his nails he saw lengthen and harden into deadly weapons. Rolling his tongue in his mouth, he felt his eyeteeth stretch into razor-shape points.
Growling louder, he attempted to block out another voice in his head, this one he recognized as his own, a fact that angered him even more.
"I would have to be tied to Seto Kaiba, right? He is the one I must protect."
The power continued to whisper seductive and venomous lies to the paralyzed pharaoh. Seto Kaiba? Who the hell was he and why the fuck did he have to protect him. As a god, humans had duties to serve him, not the other way around. If the man were worth an ounce of gold, he would be powerful enough to protect himself.
Despite his mind's protestations, his heart and soul continued to send messages, determined to fight against the flood of shadow magic now trying to devour them. Their last attempt, managed to penetrate the bloodthirsty stupor into which the pharaoh had fallen. The last, tired, slurred voice struck a cord, enhancing the pharaoh's pain anf longing to a point he couldn't ignore. The shadow magic's insistent prodding, it's tempting promises of power in return for relinquishing his soul, were pushed to the side by resurrected memories of the best and worst time in his existence.
"Tell me you love me again. Tell me you'll stay with me forever. Lie to me. Please. Just once. Tell me you'll stay with me my beautiful liar… Mine… My very own beautiful liar."
"Seto." The name passed his lips in a reverent whisper. How could he ever forget his dragon? How could he forget his desire to protect and shield him? How could he forget his love? Gravely, Yami admitted to himself that his time was running out, both to stop the disaster that threatening to destroy the mortal world and to indulge in the presence of his dragon. The barrier was so weak now that the shadow magic was threatening to overtake his soul. Ruthlessly, Yami dug his own fingers into his wound, sharply and painfully bringing him back to the present. The intricate tattoo decorating his skin began to fade, but it didn't disappear, the slight changes in appearance a testament to his internal battle.
"God Damn it you Stupid Fucking Pharaoh. This is no time for your futile beauty sleep! Get your royal ass over here and get this bitch off of me!" Yami focused on the thrashing figure of Bakura, the man who had possibly saved his own life moments before. Currently, the harpy was cackling gleefully as she smashed the thief's dangling body repeatedly against the door. Drawing conservatively on the power that had almost consumed him, he forced his body into action. He picked up the torch he dropped in the earlier excitement and approached the entangled pair. "Stupid scrawny-ass, man-hating whore! It's not my fault you couldn't get any if you were stripped naked in the midst of a hundred horny sailors!"
Ignoring Bakura's vulgarities, Yami ripped a hole in the harpy's back before shoving the torch inside her. Screaming, the creature dropped Bakura and tried to turn on the pharaoh only to be held in place by her recently relinquished burden. Yami forced magic into the flame to insure that it would catch and burn the creature to death.
Bakura cackled as he kicked the fallen, writhing figure to the side. "Burn baby burn."
Looking around the room, Yami snapped at Bakura, "Where's Bella…and Seto!"
Bakura just looked at him as if he was insane, "My gods! Didn't you see the suicidal stunt your priest just pulled? Look out the window. If you're lucky there won't be any bodies on the ground…yet." Bakura watched the pharaoh rush to the broken window to frantically study the ground. Not a second later, the falling figure of a small girl followed by a young man passed the window. In the next moment, smoke and bright light filled the air and a golden dragon took up most of the previously empty space in the room. "What the fuck!" Bakura yelled while plastering himself to the wall. It was then that he noticed the changes in the pharaoh's appearance, that he registered the presence of a shadow monster called without the talismans, "Ah, Hell. What next!"
Yami pointed out the window while issuing commands, "Guardian! Catch and protect that male and female. Bring them back to this room and then return to my side." Instantly, the monster moved to obey.
As the dragon dipped down below the window ledge, the wounded harpy sailed in to take its place. Bakura watched as inhuman fury twisted the pharaoh's face into a monstrous parody of its natural expression. Mercilessly, blood red eyes locked the flying fiend into place long enough for one claw tipped hand to firmly grasp a shoulder while the other wrenched the head of the struggling thing's body. Bakura moved into an offensive position as the blood soaked young man turned to face him. He was into carnage but this was out-of-control. Slowly, a dark parody of the child-kings voice hit Bakura like a sledgehammer to the gut, causing his internals to twist and knot in objection, "Don't fight me. I may not be able to stop myself from killing you. I know only that I must protect him now. That is all."
As the pharaoh strode towards the door, Bakura scrambled to get out of the way, but never one to be intimated, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Where are you going?"
A solid red gaze, no pupils, gnawed at his courage as the pharaoh stopped in front of him. "I am going to destroy his enemies. That is my task. Accompany me at your own risk."
Frightened but undeterred, Bakura managed to snarl, "I was going to. I don't need your permission."
With no further comment, Yami swept out the door, never once looking behind him to see if the other followed.