KITG: here you go my readers. Another chapter. And I must confess, this one was the hardest I have ever had to write. I have deleted it twice. For some reason this one has not flowed from my mind like the others. I really had to throttle this one out. But I hope you like it nonetheless.
Yami: I' sure they will KITG. Now where's my Aibou?
KITG: Don't panic Yami he's over there.
Yugi: question. Don't the readers find it confusing how you switch from Yami to Atemu?
KITG: well I hope not as he is one and the same. I am trying to show that he is trying to shed to name Yami. As he feels it is a link to the bad times in his life. The darkness. Atemu is who he truly his. So I hope readers are not confused. Gomen if you were.
Chapter 7.
Yugi pushed the engine to its limits as he rode down the destroyed streets. The dark tide whipped behind him, trying to bring him down. He heard Atemu screaming in his mind to answer, but he was too busy trying not to crash, he raced past derelict cars, rust rippling the once bright paintwork. Here and there skeletons sat behind the wheel, as if going to work, mirroring the moment they died. Some had perished without even knowing what hit them. Alive one second. Then erased from time from that second on. Only the skeletal remains a reminder to a person no one would likely remember. Their family and friends more likely met the same fate. The bike slewed left and right, avoiding broken traffic signals, the innards now plain to see as the wires moved at his passing. The colored glass long since fallen to the ground, broken and covered with the dust of the dead. He found himself going over the rubble that was once the town center. The fountain edges cracked, the water long since fallen to the dead ground, tainted by the dark tide. He saw the sun sink lover in the sky, but it was not the bright glow, now the black clouds forever covering the sky made the sun look like a dead giant, sinking to it's death below the horizon. Even as he rode, trying to out run the dark tide so he could cut round and make it back to the base, he felt the air become oppressive, the smell of ozone heightening as the night storms threatened. You did not want to be caught out at night, the storms were fierce, renting the sky and ground in two as the lightning showed its sorrow, and the thunder voicing its rage. With one such cry the heavens opened over Yugi and the Dark Magician, they continued on in the blinding rain. So it came to no surprise when he didn't see one of the monsters waiting for him to come round the corner, the black oily skin making it invisible on this dark relic of a city. He slammed on the brakes, he felt the back of the bike slew out as it fishtailed. He crashed to the ground, sliding with the bike as he heard the Dark magician call his name. He rolled over and over, the world spinning in blazing pain as he came to rest against what once was a lamppost. He was vaguely aware of the bike rolling over and over. Then the explosion as his bike followed the rest of the people. He looked down to his leg, saw it bent at a wrong angle.
"bugger"
"Yugi!" The Dark Magician was by his side holding him up with a gentle hand in the small of his back.
"Well old friend. This isn't good. You should go" Yugi felt resigned do his fate. With no transport, and his leg like this…..he couldn't see a way out. But he knew the barrier would hold. And when his life ended the puzzle half he held would return to the other….to Atemu.
"No."
"Dark Magician"
"No Yugi. I will never leave you. You are too important to me and to us all. You are my master, my friend. And more importantly, like a little brother as Atemu was before you. You showed us your pure, forgiving heart. You saw us not as dark monsters to wield as you saw fit, you saw we had feelings. And respected them. Treating every single card I your deck, weak or strong as friends. I will not abandon you now. As you would never abandon any of us." The Dark magician locked his dark blue eyes on amethyst. And Yugi sighed.
"very well old friend. But what do you suggest? They are coming"
The Dark Magician did not reply. Instead he gently picked Yugi up and began to float away. He moved fast, down dark alleys as the Dark Tide searched for them. They came to a corner of a street, and Yugi's eyes opened in shock. There before them was his Grandfathers game shop. The lower levels had been destroyed, some walls open, here and there Yugi could see cards. The Dark magician took them inside, the interior a shadow of it's former self. Glass cases smashed, old board gamed trodden into the dust that covered everything. They went into what was left of the living room. It was all moldy furniture, and destroyed walls. The stairs to the second floor were gone. Ripped from the wall no doubt by the dark tide years ago. The Dark Magician jumped up to the second floor. And Yugi was surprised to see it was untouched. It radiated calm and peace. He was laid down in his old room, the posters still fresh as if caught in time.
"how can this be?" from the Dark Magician's tone of voice, he was just as shocked.
"I don't know old friend, but if they have not touched it so far, I don't think they can." The Dark Magician kneeled beside Yugi holding his leg in his hand. Yugi knew what was coming, he had to set it. He gripped the bed and nodded to his old friend. With a jerk and yell of pain, it was done. The Dark Magician found some wood to use as splints.
"Sorry master" he said, sorry to have to cause Yugi pain.
"Dark Magician, don't start…" Yugi tried his best to glare, he knew the Dark Magician was feeling bad. He would always go back to calling him master when he thought he had failed Yugi. But the Glare came off as a pained expression making the dark magician's head droop. Yugi sighed and placed a grubby hand on the Dark Magician's shoulder giving it a squeeze in reassurance. "don't worry old friend. Now I had better answer Atemu, think he's about to have a heart attack if I don't" he closed his eyes and opened the newly reformed link to Atemu. He felt such peace to be able to do this.
"Atemu?"
"Yugi! Thank Ra. What happened? Where are you?"
"Calm down love, did Joey and the rest make it back ok?"
"Yes, Joey and Seto are going mad. They want to come and get you. As do I. But Dogan won't let us leave. But tell us where you are. He won't stop me" Atemu had fierce determination in his voice.
"No! you must not go out now. It's too dangerous. I'm fine""Don't lie to me Hikari. I can feel you're in pain" Atemu felt Yugi mentally Sigh.
" My leg is broken. The Dark Magician is with me. We're home. At the game store. The lower levels are destroyed. But upstairs is like we never left it. And I don't know why. Oh hang on" Yugi came back to the present with the Dark Magician's voice.
"I feel some strong power here Yugi" he was looking down the hallway. At what used to be his ji-chan's study. He kept all his archeology finds there.
"Give me a hand" The Dark Magician helped Yugi to stand. They walked or rather hobbled to the Room. Yugi tentively opened the Door, apprehensive, and a more than a little sad as he beheld the room. It was like his room. Tapped in time just how his Ji-chan had left it. His notebook open as he was studying his last find. Yugi approached it. He remembered his Ji-chans excited face as he brought it home. He said it was the Orb of Ra. It was made of pure gold, forms of Ra and his sons. He looked at he form of the Three Gods on its surface. The guardians of the Son of Ra. They would come when needed.
"It is from that Yugi. It reminds me of Atemu" Now that The Dark Magician mentioned it, it did feel like Atemu.
"perhaps it is his. I mean Ji-can said it was given to each Pharaoh as they came to the throne." He approached it, placing his hand on it, he snatched it back quickly.
"what is it?"
"It's warm" he picked it up, it was about the size of a football. It filled him with peace. He yawned.
"I think you should sleep." The Dark Magician picked him up and carried him back to his bed. And gently laid him back down..
"I had better make sure they aren't planning to come and get us till morning." The Dark magician sat beside the bed. Resting his back against it. From the look on his face he was talking to the Dark Magician Girl. But Yugi didn't have the strength to summon them back to this plane. Inside the barrio they could come and go as they pleased. The barrier powering them itself. But here, with the dark tide choking the air and magical energy. He couldn't call them. He smiled at the grimace of the dark Magician, she must be chewing his ear out.
"Atemu, you're are not coming to get me now. Come in the morning. The storm is too strong"
"I don't like it."
"Neither do I. But you have to lump it. I'll be here. And I think I have found something that belongs to you" Yugi yawned, his consciousness leaving him as he drifted off in to blissful slumber, knowing the Dark Magician would keep watch.
The Dark Magician watched as Yugi's eyes closed, he listened to the dark Magician Girl, she twittered on. He "Hummm'ed" in the right places as she continued. But he shut that off as a new sound reached his ears. He quietly rose from the floor and went to the ruin of the stairs, he looked down seeing a dark tide monster scrabbling about. He made a gasp as the creature turned and growled low. His outrage at what he saw before him. He turned back making sure Yugi was asleep, then watched as the creature moved in what used to be the kitchen and out into the back garden. He hoped to the Gods, and to Ra that Yugi would never behold what he had just seen. The creature, once human. His back bent as if broken, the face dripping with black tide, but the face could never be hidden. Or it had been the form of Sogoku Moto. Yugi's Ji-Chan…….
KITG: sorry if that seemed short. But I needed it to fill while I worked on Atemu's reaching to Joey coming back without Yugi.
Joey: I left him cries
Atemu: there ws nothing you could do. I'm not mad. But I'm going to kill dogan runs off with a frying pan
KITG: Oh dear. Well read and review and I'll see you next time. Ja ne.