Chapter 17:
"Marik, do you think I'm fat?"
By now both Egyptians were dressed in their new attire which was the mirror image of Ryou and Bakura's clothes. A black shirt with white words and jeans, and although it was ordinary clothing to Marik, Malik was ecstatic that they were in high fashion once again. But of course, they were not left to dress themselves, no, they had fluttery girls and Terry in the dressing rooms with them trying to put on their socks for them. Which was a bit embarrassing seeing as how Marik had a bit of a fear of socks.
As they were finally done and walking out of the building along with Terry and Cody who were following behind, Malik asked his question again, thinking that his other half didn't hear him. Marik rolled his eyes and turned away.
"C'mon, Malik… Why do you have to ask me these things, huh? Ask someone who cares."
"Marik, I'm serious!" He whined, "I think I've gained like a pound or two… Or maybe it's just the lighting…"
"Whatever you've gained, you probably lost it during that 50 mile walk through the desert we took. You look fine to me."
Malik's eyes lit up as he attached himself to Marik's arm, "Really? Marik, you're so nice!"
"Don't worry, it's a phase. I'll grow out of it."
"Oh, Malik! Marik!" A familiar voice called from over on the opposite side of the street. They looked over at Ryou who was waving wildly and Bakura who just kind of blinked.
"Ah… Hi, Ryou!" Malik called, trotting over. Marik simply walked over without saying much and leaned against the wall of the building that Bakura was leaning on and they stood by each other, contently.
Ryou looked both boys over quickly, "You look great, we match!"
"Yeah, we do!"
They struck a pose.
"Alright, you two, cut it out." Marik interjected into their sparkle-sparkle mode and frowned, looking at both Ryou and Bakura, "You've gotta tell us how you kept from being captured by Yami, Bakura. How long have you been here?"
"Uh, about a week." Bakura nodded, "When Yami and Yugi first went crazy, it was my idea to come to Egypt."
Ryou pursed his lips together and folded his arms, "Oh and what an idea it was… It was an awful suggestion, the sun was so hot! And then there were vultures circling me! I had no suntan lotion and my backside is now a bright red! I honestly can't see what you three like about this place…"
Bakura stuck his tongue out, "You don't know what you're talking about. This place rocks on water."
"There is no water…"
"Anyways. After that, we got picked up by Cody and he brought us here. They treat us like Gods, I swear." He whispered to Marik, "It's like we're celebrities or something."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I bet it's because I'm so hot."
"Ha." Malik smirked, "No, it isn't, it's because you're valuable to Yami. You're the ring holders, Yami's been looking all over for you."
"Oh. Um, about that…" Ryou began but was interrupted by Terry who came flouncing over along with Cody who was chewing bubblegum rather nosily.
"There you all are!" Terry smiled putting two arms around Marik and Malik, who coughed nervously, "We have a surprise for our newest guests!"
"… Surprise?" Malik asked.
"That's right. Follow me!" He ran off ahead and the rest followed slowly, unsure of what he was going to do.
On the way to wherever they were going, the people on the streets looked over and blinked then whispered behind their hands. Marik noticed that this sort of thing happened often when he and his hikari were out in front of these people. They starred like deer caught in headlights. Soon, there was another large building and a podium in front of it. Terry went bounding up and cleared his throat as more of the BAYAMS people gathered around, wondering what was going on.
"Hey, Cody," Marik whispered, "What's going on?"
The older man looked at him and smiled, happily popping his chewing gum, "(pop) I think he's gonna tell everyone (pop) about yous guys. Ya know, they don't know that you're (pop pop) the Marik and Malik."
The boys looked at each other, puzzled, "Since when did we have a 'the' in front of our names?"
"(pop pop)"
"Ahem. Citizens of the BAYAMS organization. It pleases me to inform you today that we have now obtained two more pieces of the puzzle! As you know, Pharaoh Yami has been searching high and low for the ring holders as well as the rod holders. And as of today we now have possession of both! Give a warm BAYAMS welcome to the escape artists, Marik and Patt- Malik Ishtar!" Terry threw his arms up in the air as he motioned towards the two tanned boys on the ground, and the crowd yelled and hooted with applause.
Marik grinned.
Malik was pointing to Terry, mouth agape, "H-He almost called me Patty…!"
"Tonight, we celebrate in their honor! For now Yami does not control everything! As long as we have these four, he will never own the world's future!"
The crowds threw up streamers and such and carried Ryou, Marik, Malik and Bakura off towards the back of the building and Cody followed, popping his gum. Before the boys knew it, they were showed to four high seats behind a long table, loaded with all kinds of food, overlooking the stone courtyard which was where the citizens were dancing like crazy and stuffing their faces with food and wine. Terry finally came back to where they were and sat in the middle, Marik and Malik to his right and Ryou and Bakura to his left. Cody popped his gum as he sat next to Malik.
"(pop pop)"
"This is weird." Malik scratched his head, "Who makes this much of a fuss over people who they've never even met?"
Marik elbowed him, "You're such an ingrate. Lighten up."
"But we don't even own the rods anymore, what's to celebrate?"
"Huh?" Ryou looked over at his friend, "What do you mean you don't own the rods anymore?"
"I mean, Yami took them." Malik frowned then scowled at his yami, "Because Marik had this big impulse to go out and kick his butt even though Tristan said it was dangerous and that we should wait!"
"What the hell would waiting do? You read Mokuba's letter, they're all in a jail cell under Yami's stinky castle! I'm glad we didn't stick around at our house." Marik looked back to Bakura's direction, "Now that we're here, we'll just go to Domino and take away their puzzles, using the rings."
Bakura coughed, gently nudging his hikari, "You should tell them, now, don't you think?"
Ryou whimpered, "B-But I don't want to tell them, 'Kura… M-Maybe you should…"
"Pheh. No, thanks."
Marik and Malik looked at each other before turning back to the boys, "Tell us what?"
Ryou looked, pleadingly at his yami who turned away pretending to have a sudden interest in the ground. He sighed and muttered, "Uh… We… don't have the rings…"
"WHAT?" Marik shouted.
Ryou began to cry, "Please, don't be mad…!"
Malik blinked, "… Um. Anyone got a plan B?"
Everyone sweat dropped and Terry looked over at the boys who looked very troubled, as if someone had stepped on their toe. He smiled and motioned to a few of the serving girls to stuff them with red wine. Of course, Ryou tried to resist, seeing as how it was his self-appointed duty not to get wasted in any way. But he soon succumbed to the ambience of the party and they were all soon enraptured, under the spell of the alcohol and a very large male dancer named Shlomo.
In the cells of the palace in Domino City, four boys were sitting in their dusty little cell, sighing and devoid of all ideas on how to get out of this predicament. They'd been there since early afternoon when Mokuba returned in the arms of two pissed off guards and the men left with grins on their faces, satisfied that they knew about the young boy's escape hole and had fixed it. It was now black outside as Mokuba looked up through the bars, trying to pull on them.
"Grr… This just isn't fair! How am I supposed to get out of here, now?" He kicked the wall, which was very hard, and so his toes were now red and pulsing with pain, "Dammit!"
"Mokuba!" Kaiba glared at him.
"… Sorry, Seto. I don't mean to curse, but, you know… If I don't get out of here soon, I'll never save Heidi. Soon, Yami's going to do something awful to her and I'm not able to do anything about it."
Joey nodded, "Heidi, Heidi, Heidi… That's all you say. But who is this Heidi anyway?"
"She's one of Yami's prisoners!"
"Well… so are we." He shrugged.
"Joey, how can you be so selfish! You have no idea what kind of things Yami's done to her, for heaven's sake, he cut off her thumb! And she's due for another slashing tonight and there's nothing I can do about it!"
"I just sayin that maybe we should be more or less worried about what's going to happen to us. I mean, how long do you think Yami's gonna keep us down here, just sitting around. Sooner or later, he's bound to do something to us, and when he does, that Heidi girl won't be worth a hill of beans when it's your life that's in danger."
Mokuba's eye twitched and he let out a breath, counting backwards from ten, silently.
Kaiba nodded to Joey, "Now he sees why I can't stand you."
"Shut up, Kaiba…!"
Tristan looked up from Otogi to Mokuba who had finished his counting and was now sitting in a corner next to his knitting supplies. "Mokuba… I have an idea. If you want to try it, that is, it might be able to get one of us out of here."
"Ah…" He looked up, "Sure, anything!"
The guard that had been standing at attention in front of their cell had woken up from his slight nap and glared at the boys who had shaken his from his dream. Tristan noticed this and leaned into Mokuba's ear, "We're going to need your knitting talents one more time…"
"AAAAHHHHH!"
Yugi shut the door, hurriedly, behind him as he exited the corridor and sped walked down the hall, away from the screams of his ex-General. It was now one minute past midnight and Yami was busy, so Yugi took it upon himself to go and order her second finger cut off. This time her right index finger was being sawed off, slowly. Yugi had nothing against the sight of blood or gore or anything else along those lines. He, himself, had been involved in many things like that in the past twenty or so days. The only difference was that Heidi was someone he actually kind of liked. She always obeyed and was always bringing him Cheetoes, Fritos, and Doritos. There were a few times he'd heard her making jokes about him and his Yami behind their backs, but that sort of thing was expected when you were running something this large.
He sighed as he reached another door. The scream still echoed out and he leaned his head on the wall to block some of it out. Yugi wanted this to stop, but there was no way Yami would allow it, he being so set on having things his way. So, Yugi was set on the fact that if he wanted Heidi to go back to being their general again and having at least a few fingers left, the rings and both Marik and Malik were going to have to be found. That was one of the reasons he was so ecstatic when he and Yami learned their whereabouts would probably be on the back of a bathroom door.
As the last of the screams stopped and turned, quietly to sobs, Yugi relaxed. Heidi's had if rough for the past day or so, since Yami's needed to release some of his anxiety. He soon realized that if he kept sending his guards and underlings to the Shadow Realm, he'd have no one left. So he turned his rage to the very reason and source of it. Heidi was toyed with by the Pharaoh most of the time, including whippings, spankings, frequent haircuts so that she was nearly bald, being fed elephant droppings with a large spoon and, covering her bloody nub, where her thumb was cut off with a little pouch of salt that was placed there for an extra amount of pain and suffering. Yami tried everything he could think of and most of the time he winged it with the torture sessions and sang to her in his high, squeaky voice, songs of the 50's.
Yugi sighed, "Gosh, I don't know how that girl endures this… What a trooper…"
"P-Pharaoh Yugi…!" A distant voice called, sounding a bit distraught and panicked. Yugi turned around and saw one of his servants come over to him, panting.
"What is it?"
"… Um… Y-Your lordship, we have just received a call from the Happy Chicken facility…"
"Oh, really? It was probably Flyswatter, right? (The boy nodded) Did he say where that organization is?"
The boy fidgeted with the zipper on his uniform, muttering and finally he squeaked out, "N-No… You see, three of their inmates stole the door that it was on. Flyswatter informed me that they are on the loose in Happy Chicken and they can't seem to find them… Things aren't going well with their search and if the do not find them soon, Flyswatter fears they will destroy the door and all hopes of finding the boys and millennium items…"
Yugi's eyes were ten times their normal size which caused him to tip over and fall to the floor. The boy scrambled to help him up and once Yugi was in a upright position again, he squealed, running around in circles, "Oh, NO! This isn't good! How are we going to tell Yami? He's been on edge for days now and this is what's going to throw him over! Oh Ra… Ugh… You!" He pointed to the boy.
He stuttered, "Y-Yes, sir…?"
"You have to tell Yami what happened!"
"HUH? B-But, Pharaoh Yugi, p-please…!"
"Hmm. No, that's not a good idea, either. If you told him what happened, he'd just kill you and then what use would you be?"
"…!"
Yugi sighed, frowning, "I suppose I'll have to be the one… Where is my yami, anyway?"
"Ah, out in the pond, in the backyard. I-I do believe he's having a bath."
"Oh. Fine then, I'm off. But you're coming too!" He grabbed the boy by the ear and off they went down the stairs until they were out in the night on the fresh, green grass. Both boys ventured all the way to the large area behind the castle. Mostly there was just a large area of grass and a few acres of trees behind that. A statue of Yugi was in the corner, being used as a clothesline and in the center of everything was a pond about the size of a small house, the water a clear blue, sprinkled over with snow-white lily petals. In it, Yami was relaxing, naked, surrounded by a few naked girls who were bathing him with large sunflowers.
The boy behind Yugi blushed a fierce red and hid his face behind his Pharaoh's large, spiky hair, "U-Um… Pharaoh Y-Yugi…"
"Quiet, you." Yugi ordered, harshly, "You're going to make things worse. If you keep quiet, maybe he wont see you and you can live."
"…"
They walked up to the pond's edge and Yugi took in a deep breath. He smiled at his yami so that he looked adorably like a chibi, "Yami…! I have something to tell you."
Yami opened one of his eyes, starring at his hikari and moved his head so that one of the girls could wash behind his ears, "What is it, Yugi? Can't you see I'm busy here?"
"Well, yeah. But there's something you need to know-"
"Wait, did Heidi get her index finger cut off yet?"
"Yes, Yami, she did."
"Did you have someone put the salt pack on her second finger?"
"Yes, Yami, I did."
He leaned back and sighed, contently, "Good."
"… Yami, Flyswatter called just a while ago."
Yami opened both eyes now as he looked up at Yugi and grinned, "Heh heh… Wonderful! I bet he knows the location of those idiots, by now! When is he leaving for their hideout?"
Yugi coughed, "Well, he's not… leaving, exactly."
"…" He tilted his head, "What do you mean he's not leaving?"
"Um… three of their inmates stole the door with the location on the back of it and they're having a bit of trouble finding the men. They don't want the door destroyed seeing as how that was the only copy of the location they had, but it seems unavoidable if it says out of their reach for much longer."
"…………… WWWWHHHHHAAAAAATTTTTT?" He roared, scaring the bathing girls as they were shuffling to the other side of the pond to cower in fear. Yugi shut his eyes and braced himself for what was about to happen and the servant boy, standing behind him, had long since wet his pants.