AC: (grins) Hi there... long time no see, ne? Sorry about that. School and writers block attacked me...
MK: I don't think the readers want your excuses... just get on with it.
Disclaimer: MK and myself (Anime Crazed) do not own Yugioh. Kazuki Takahashi does. And we don't own anything that resembles anothers work either.
Warnings: Yes, there is shounen-ai (boyxboy) relations in this fic (and in this chapter too!) So if you don't like that sort of thing. Don't read. You've been warned.
The six gods looked at the destroyed room, the tension was so thick that you could almost cut it with a knife.
"At least we're all okay and the only thing that's been destroyed was the throne room…" Marik said, trying to ease the tension, looking at the two living and three spirit gods. Sprit-Yugi floated over to Ryou and slapped him hard across the face.
"Why did you go and put Jonouchi's life in danger? You didn't have the right to hurt him just to get what we wanted! It was horrible! You…you monster!" he yelled angrily, shocking everyone.
Ryou lifted a hand slowly to his stinging cheek, "I did it because Seto needed to be stopped. Did you have any other suggestions or plans that would have worked as effectively? Did you!"
Yugi looked away, "I didn't think so," Ryou murmured icily as he stormed off.
"Ryou! Wait!" Bakura called, moving to go after Ryou but Yami grabbed his shoulder.
"I think he needs to be alone for now."
"Yeah," Malik agreed, tucking a strand of see-through platinum blonde hair behind an ear, "I'd say he feels pretty awful about what happened just now."
"And I'd say Yugi didn't help him either," Marik said, tossing Yugi a look.
"I don't care, he had to do it. I don't think any less of him for it. I'll bet if one of us came up with the idea, we would have done it too. Even you Yugi," Bakura said, shrugging out of Yami's grasp, "I'm going after him."
Bakura left the throne room, the remaining four gods looked guiltily at each other, feeling somewhat remorseful of what they had done.
(The Intertwining of Souls)
Bakura found Ryou's spirit not that far from the throne room, silvery tears making their way down his face. His right cheek a rosy pink from where Yugi had slapped him.
"Ryou…" Bakura reached a hand tentatively out to brush a few strands of silvery hair from Ryou's eyes, but his hand just passed through the teenage ghost. He looked up with a sad smile.
"I'm a spirit remember?"
Bakura sat down next to the god of Earth.
"We're still magically connected right?"
Ryou nodded, "Because Yugi tied out spirits together I suppose we'd be magically connected…why?"
Bakura closed his blue eyes and Ryou followed suit. Soon, they were in Bakura's mind, the water gently slapping against the little island that had recently been created to allow room for Ryou's spirit.
(The Intertwining of Souls)
"Yugi's right," Ryou whispered to himself, he failed to notice someone sit next to him.
"No he's not. He's just upset because he knew it had to be done."
Ryou shook his head, "He's right. I am a monster. I shouldn't have gone that far. Jonouchi could have died because I was so blind and reckless!" he yelled, standing up.
"You did what needed to be done that no one else could do. Besides, Jonouchi will make a full recovery after having Yugi heal him."
Ryou looked into Bakura's eyes.
"I'm horrible, I would have stopped at nothing to destroy Seto! Thi…this immense power… at my normal magical capacity I wouldn't have done that. The power was controlling me. I don't want this form any more!" Ryou stood angrily, waiting to see what Bakura would do.
Bakura stood, "No one blames you for what happened back there. No one. It's not your fault. And it wasn't the power that was controlling you back there, nor when you were fighting your clone. It was your emotions. You were fighting to protect your loved ones. You were fighting to protect this dimension and all others in the world."
"But still…"
Ryou was cut off when felt Bakura tenderly pressing his lips against his own.
Bakura smiled gently, "I don't care. If I had the power to do it, I gladly would have done it to protect you."
The two Elementals stood in a clam silence, enjoying each other's company.
(The Intertwining of Souls)
"So…" Malik said, breaking the apprehensive silence in the throne room, "Just how long are Yugi, Ryou and myself able to stay as spirits before we go back to heaven or wherever it is that we gods go when we die?"
"Well…" Yugi began, smoothing out his feathers gently, "Indefinitely. That is, until Yami, Bakura and Marik leave the living realm. It's because I've tied our spirits to our significant others, its not as difficult to appear as a spirit because of our closeness with the living realm."
"If that's the case, why don't all people just tie their spirits to their loved ones so they can still be around?" Marik asked.
"Entwining a persons spirits with another is a very complicated process. Powerful magic must be used and it has to be done very carefully and very precisely. If it goes wrong, who knows what could happen. When I tied our spirits to Yami, Bakura and Marik's, I had to, essentially, get rid of half of their soul," everyone's eyes widened, "It's not as bad as it sounds. We gods sort of have a history of being the other half of our lover's souls anyway. Remember? I was, more or less, giving each of us a complete soul. In our relationships, it's more than just love that bonds us. There's a spiritual connection too… something that bonds us together like no other. I know we all feel it. We are soul mates, in the very real sense. One cannot live without the other. We balance each other out. We each have magicks that can't exist without the other. Fire can't really exist without Air and the living portion of the Earth element can't exist without Water and there can't be any Darkness if there isn't Light. That's why I could link our spirits so easily. They should be linked anyway."
"I'm a little confused," Yami said, scratching his head.
"What I think Yugi's trying to say is that we should only be three people. You and Yugi are, in essence two halves of one soul, meaning you should be one whole person. Not two separate people, which is why he was able to link our souls together," Malik told Yami who nodded in understanding.
Ryou and Bakura entered the throne room, Bakura's arms around Ryou's shoulders.
"Another thing I'll have to explain," Yugi said, holding up a hand, "When we meditate we go inside our minds, right? Well… our minds are going to be a little different from now on. When I tied our spirits, I had to split our minds too."
"So that's why my mind was an ocean with a little island on it… I figured it was because Ryou and I were connected somehow."
"Umm… not quite. Your minds were still as one at that stage. By now they should have separated. I'm not sure how it will look, but they will be completely separate. I guess the only way we will know is if we check it out."
(The Intertwining of Souls)
Yugi appeared in Yami's mind and looked around. Moments later, Yami materialised next to him. Yami glanced at his new surroundings.
"Well, this definitely is an improvement."
Yami's mind was now one big room. One that wasn't too bright nor too dark. Contrary to having sperate minds, Yami and Yugi shared one, which was faultlessly balanced.
"This is perfect, Hikari. How can I ever repay you for what you've done for me?"
Yugi stood on his tiptoes and gently kissed Yami on the nose.
"You don't have to repay me. You would have done the same thing for me."
"I'll find someway, my selfless little Hikari. I'll find someway," Yami whispered as he lent down and captured Yugi's lips in a soft kiss.
(The Intertwining of Souls)
Both Malik and Marik opened their eyes. Blinking, they readjusted to the dull light in the hall that they were standing in.
"How interesting," Marik stated, walking over to a door with a curvy symbol on it, "It feels like you, Malik."
"Huh?" Malik said, walking over, "What do you mean by feels like me?"
Marik shrugged and pushed open the door.
The room was neat and tidy even though there were winds buffeting the room. In a small ornament similar to a birdbath in the middle of the room, a fire was burning brightly.
"I'll take it that this is your room."
"Yeah… I wonder what yours is like," Malik said, leaving his room and crossing the hall to Marik's.
"Mine has a flame on it," Marik said, tracing the little bronze symbol with a finger before pushing the door open.
Marik's room was also neat and tidy and set up identically to Malik's. The bed was on the left side of the room with a desk and chair on the back wall opposite to the door. Next to the desk was a bookcase and on the red feature wall was a very large hearth with flames crackling merrily, a light breeze gently making them burn brighter.
"Looks good," Malik said.
A thought suddenly hit Marik.
"I'm going to have to charge you rent you know."
"How can I pay you? In case you've forgotten, I'm dead. I wont have any money."
"I never mentioned money did I?" Marik said, snaking his arms around Malik's waist.
Malik pouted, "Get your mind out of the gutter, Flame boy."
Marik leaned forward. "I quite like that nick-name…now how about one for you…Windy."
"Sounds good, I like it," Malik purred, the flames in the heath making the room pleasantly warm.
"Glad you like it, though, I also like Snuggle Kitten. I've noticed you purr sometimes."
"That's not too bad either," Malik smiled as he snuggled into Marik's chest as they sat on the bed watching the flames.
Marik nuzzled Malik's neck and Malik smirked.
"Meow," he said enjoying the others warmth as Marik planted a kiss on his shoulder.
(The Intertwining of Souls)
Bakura and Ryou stepped onto white sand just in front of the door. The small beach stretched along the left wall and came out a few metres from the wall. A few palm trees were scattered along it, a hammock tied between two and a desk underneath another, as well as a bookcase. Azure blue water filled the rest of the room, waves gently crashing against the beach. Bakura looked around before diving beneath the surface.
Under water the ocean was calm and serene, multitudes of plants and marine animals flourished. Swimming around the small grotto, Bakura realised there was a bed and desk here too. Turning around and swimming outside of the small cavern, he came to a beautiful undersea garden. Smiling at it, he headed towards the surface where he knew Ryou was waiting patiently.
Ryou was staring at the waves blankly. He was broken out of his trance when Bakura splashed to the surface, stepping onto the sand next to him.
"How about we check your room out?"
"Sure," Ryou said with a bright smile, entwining his hand with Bakura's.
Ryou pushed the door open and the two teens stepped into the rainforest that was Ryou's room.
"Wow," he breathed, spinning around to look at all of the plants in his room.
Following a small track covered with fallen leaves and lined with varying flowers, the two came to a waterfall, "It's so pretty!"
Looking around his small forestry bedroom, Ryou noted that he had a wooden desk situated under a large tree as well as a nicely sized patch of moss for which Ryou could sleep on. One tree was shaped like a bookcase, which had a few books sitting on a shelf. Taking a few more moments to wander around the forest, he returned to the waterfall but couldn't see Bakura anywhere.
Where'd he disappear to? Couldn't have gone too far…"Bakura… are you here?" Ryou asked aloud.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm here," he said with a smile, "It's really odd…I could actually hear you in my head…I think I could also hear your thoughts too… something about me disappearing or something."
Ryou blinked at him? How did he know that?
"I guess it's because now you live inside my head I can read your thoughts," Bakura smirked, How very interesting
"It will not be interesting! How am I going to keep my thoughts to myself?"
Bakura looked at Ryou.
Damn… this mind reading thing won't be as fun as I thought it would be…You know…it could be fun. This way people won't know what we're saying…
Bakura's eyes lit up Have I told you just how much I love you? Bakura thought cornering Ryou against a tree, their lips meeting in a heated kiss.
(The Intertwining of Souls)
Slowly three pairs of eyes opened simultaneously.
"Well…how was it?" Yugi asked, "I hope it's not too inconvenient…"
"Not in the slightest," Marik said.
"I did notice that we can now hear each others thoughts…" Ryou said with a blush as he heard Bakura whisper something to him in his mind.
"Ah yes… I'm not sure how that works… I guess we will find out eventually."
"Enough stuffing around," Yami said suddenly, "We need to get this place cleaned up and organised for the coronation. In case you've forgotten, this dimension is now without a king. King Seto didn't have any heirs or leave a will. It means we have to choose someone now."
"But we can't just go and pick some random person from the streets," Malik said seriously, "We need to think about this thoroughly."
The six gods sat down in a circle and began thinking of possibly candidates to take over the rulership of the dimension.
I really do hope that this chapter was worth the wait...Really I do! Thank you to all the lovely people who left a review! (Hands over Yugioh plushies) Love you all! Ja ne!