Summary, Warnings, and Disclaimer: Should OOC-ness be worthy of a warning? Cuz if it is, then this chappie's dangerous.
/…/ Duo and Shin
[…] Ryou and Bakura
{…} Yugi and Yami
One a hikari, two is a yami.
::…:: flashback
"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people."
-Carl Gustave Jung
In the dead silence that followed his arrival, Shinigami Takai Maxwell raised the old-fashioned camera he held in one hand up to his eyes and smirked.
"Say cheese!"
Duo flinched and yelped as the light from the flashbulb struck his eyes, a protective hand reached his face just a little too late. "Shin!"
The aforementioned yami pouted, lowering the camera. "Hey, it was your idea!"
"Not to use an antique! I thought you'd grab something more like Wufei's camera! And where'd you find that piece of junk, anyway?"
"Up in the attic. And excuse me if I didn't have time to grab anything else! It's not like you warned me…" he complained, snorting.
"Not for lack of trying!" Duo sighed in exasperation. "You blocked the mindlink, remember?"
Shin blinked. "Oh, yeah…"
His hikari sighed again, before looking at the yami oddly. "Umm, Shin? What were you doing in the attic, any-… never mind. I'm… not sure I want to know."
Hearing a cough from behind, they both glanced back to see the others watching them with various expressions that ranged from amusement to the expected bewilderment on Quatre and Trowa's faces. Unless, of course, you included Bakura, who seemed on the verge of collapse as he held in laughter.
"Amusing as this is, don't you think you should perhaps introduce everyone?" Ryou inquired with a raised brow, gesturing towards the two pilots. "Apparently your other friends know, but these two seem a tad… confused."
Together they shrugged. "If you insist," Duo said, smirking. He bowed slightly, mentally filling in his yami at the same time. "Guys… and girls," he added, glancing at Isis, "may I have the dubious pleasure of introducing Shinigami Maxwell?"
They simply blinked, though Trowa at least seemed to be regaining his normal stoic mask. Sighing, the American walked over and grabbed their arms. He pulled them towards the living room, and everyone else followed. "Come on, sit, and we'll explain." He looked back through the doorway as a thought struck him. "Hey, Wufei? You might want to go download that video before they come out of shock. You know, just in case."
Rolling his eyes, the Chinese pilot sent him a sarcastic salute and walked up the stairs as Duo turned back to the crowded living room.
Quatre was watching his yami wide-eyed from the couch. "Um, I didn't know you had a brother, Duo…?"
"I don't."
The blonde lapsed back into uncertain silence, and Duo nudged Shin, dropping onto the arm of his chair. "I explained last time, now it's your turn."
The yami grinned. "I don't know why you have so much trouble with it; it's so simple." He turned to the others. "Ya see, we used to have this little problem with multiple personalities. Now we've got this slightly bigger problem with multiple bodies. I don't suppose there's any way ta fix that?" he asked, looking at Bakura.
The albino shook his head. "Once you're split, you stay split. Why would you even want to go back to a single body?"
Shin shrugged. "Simpler that way."
He cocked an eyebrow. "Good point, though personally I prefer not being stuck in Ryou's head."
A small noise drew their attention back to the couch, as Quatre dropped his head into his hands. "Would one of you please tell me what's going on?" he pleaded quietly, desperately.
Duo flinched, gazing guiltily at the small Arabian. "I… I'm sorry, Quatre, but… I don't entirely understand it myself."
Bakura sighed, watching the guilt flood over the American's face. Before, he'd thought the hikari to be like his younger self, but now… he wondered if this was what Malik would have been like, if he'd been raised by a normal family.
Someone he would have liked, maybe.
"May I?" he asked the boy, ignoring the odd looks he got from the rest of the Itemholders.
[Okay, who are you, and what did you do with my yami?]
[[Shut up, Ryou. I'm not allowed to be nice to someone I like?]]
[You are, it's just… well, it's a little unusual, wouldn't you say? Generally you take a lot longer to warm up to someone new.]
That one Bakura didn't really have an answer for. Instead, he smirked at Duo, who was nodding in relief. "All right, we'd best start at the beginning. Over five thousand years ago, in Egypt, seven Items were created to seal away the Shadow Games." Seeing Duo's blank look, he waved a hand. "More on that later. Anyway, the ceremony required two souls to be completed, one willing and one," he scowled, "unwilling. I still haven't forgiven you for that, pharaoh," he said, glaring at Yami.
"It needed an unwilling soul, tombrobber. And who better than a notorious criminal?" Yami shrugged, unrepentant. "It was Set's idea, anyway."
Bakura blinked. "Damn. I knew there was a reason I didn't like him."
"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Duo waved his hands, cutting off the argument. "You're telling me you were there." Around the room the other boys were equally skeptical.
Bakura nodded.
"Five thousand years ago."
The thief nodded again, for once serious.
The hikari leaned back against his yami, wide-eyed. "This is a really long story, isn't it?"
Bakura snorted, smirking wryly. "That's why I volunteered to explain. If we let the pharaoh do it, it'd take forever."
[Yami…]
[[Alright, alright…]]
"Anyway, during the ceremony, our souls were split in two, half being locked into an Item, and the other half going on to be reincarnated as our hikaris." He gestured towards Ryou.
"But that doesn't explain Duo." Bakura looked up to see the Chinese teenager had returned, and was standing in the doorway.
"No, it doesn't. But," he glanced at Duo, "you've got the Rod, right?"
The American blinked and pulled a cross from around his neck. As the mystified spirit watched, he slid the cross from his chain, and murmured something. The Itemholders jumped as the familiar winged scepter appeared in his hand.
Duo looked around, confused. "What's wrong?"
Ryou laughed, slightly nervously. "Nothing, we, ah… we just hadn't realized it could do that."
There was a moment of silence, before Heero spoke. "And that explains Shinigami how?"
The Itemholders glanced uncertainly at each other, not wanting to explain this part. Finally, Isis sighed. "The previous Master of the Rod was my brother, Malik. He had a yami as well. I would guess that one of its powers is to create a dual ego in its Holder."
Shin stirred, sitting up in his chair. "One of its powers? There something we need ta know about?"
"Each of the Items has a special power," Isis said. "Mine, the Tauk, is to See the past, present, and future." She smiled slightly. "Such as Seeing the Rod choose someone, a few years ago. Ryou and Bakura's Ring can find the other Items within a specific distance."
"That's how you found us, then?" Duo asked, and looked down at the scepter in his hands. "And the Rod's power is… what, exactly?"
"It controls minds."
Together, yami and hikari blanched. "Controls… minds?" Duo whispered, looking ill. Carefully, he set the Rod down on the small lamp stand next to his chair, sending it a distrustful look.
Yami no Yugi frowned. "You didn't know?"
Shinigami snorted. "Did we know? Of course we didn't fucking know! You think-" The rest of his words degenerated into unintelligible murmurs as Duo thrust his hand over the yami's mouth.
"I'd say he speaks for both of us," Duo said quietly, standing. He walked over to the living room's bay window and stood there, watching the street outside with an unreadable expression. It was a long moment before he spoke again. "Mind control… I suppose that explains why I stole something I would ordinarily never even have looked twice at."
With his back to the room, he didn't notice Bakura's little start of surprise, or the worried looks that flashed over the faces of the other Itemholders. Given that all attention in the room was focused on the hikari, it's quite likely no one else did either.
The silence stretched as Duo's audience tried to find a way to respond to his last statement. Finally, Quatre rose, crossing to his friend's side. "Duo, I… they've explained some of it, but… I still don't really understand…"
A cynical smirk appeared on the American's face. "Welcome to the club, Quatre." He sighed. "You know I was a pickpocket in the streets when I was a kid, right? Well, if the Rod's power really is mind control, then that must have been what made me steal the damn thing in the first place."
"Whoa, whoa, wait a second!" The two pilots turned as they heard the voice, and saw the younger albino watching Duo with disbelief. "Let me get this straight. You're a thief, and you like explosives?" He waited until Duo nodded warily before he turned to his own yami. "You never said you had a bloody twin!"
Bakura rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond as Quatre put his hand on the American's shoulder, tugging him away from the window and over to the couch. Ignoring the rising argument on the other side of the room, the blonde gently made his friend sit, and sank down next to him. "And the rest?"
"Shin and I… up until yesterday, I guess you would have called us dual personalities. Then, after the thing at school with the explosives, we got suspended for a bit. I was on my way here when I was mugged, and we… split."
"That was you, then, in the alley?"
Duo looked up into crimson-tinged brown eyes, startled. "No, that was me," Shin interrupted, grinning at their guests. The imagined cheer in his expression faded as his audience got a good look at the yami's fangs. "They hurt Duo."
Unconsciously the hikari brought his hand up to the fading bruises on his face as all eyes turned towards him.
"Alley?" Trowa asked curiously, finally brought out of his shell.
"The muggers, I would guess," Bakura said, the slightest of green tints underlying his smirk. "The cops are still trying to figure out what goes with whom."
"Ah." The green-eyed boy clammed up one more, curiosity satisfied for the moment, and Isis took a moment to study the companions of their latest colleague.
The two Asian kids had obviously already known about their friends' little misadventure, faces calm, but she would have expected more of a reaction from the two newcomers at finding out their sort-of friend had brutally murdered someone. The blonde merely blinked, settling back into the sofa, while the European didn't even betray that much of his feelings.
In truth, the kid was starting to creep her out. The closest she'd ever seen to his poker face was back when Kaiba was still trying his best to cream her Pharaoh. And even he would get angry, or verbally dissect those he was pissed at from the skin inwards. The boy in front of her was just… blank, like nothing affected him.
Shuddering, she glanced around the room. "If there aren't any other immediate questions, I would suggest we head back home. There have been enough surprises today for all of us, and I for one could use some time to clear my head. We can meet tomorrow or some other day and finish this conversation."
"There's school tomorrow, too," Yugi said, standing and stretching. "And I'm bombed," he finished with a yawn.
After that, things went relatively smoothly. The old tomb raider agreed to come over the next day and explain things a bit more, since both he and Duo were still on suspension. The Itemholders departed for their own home, none looking forward to explaining to Kon just where they had been for the last few hours.
And all praying that tomorrow would bring no more surprises.
A/N: sighs I'm not going to apologize for this one. Just let me leave you with a few hard-learned truths. School sucks. Parents suck. Mid-term grade reports suck. I had to keep myself from hugging my computer when I finally got allowed back on.
Things start slowing down a little with this chapter, too.
Review Responses:
Thx to: Aurora, Faith-Kitty and Jollie-Rancher, gundam06serenity, Kitty the Black Ice Cat, Kurai Kaiba, Shinigami's DestructiveAngel, Silver, Stormyronin, and sunddown205.
AlterEthereal: Thx! I've only run into three others, so I wanted to try my own.
And I hope the explanations were okay.
Hikaru: Well, yeah, sorta… what? Cliffies are fun! pouts Fine, I didn't do one this time, happy?
Kaori: chokes Damn, you just had to get that song stuck in my head, didn't you? And I wasn't that cruel, was I?
Shi-koi: Thx! And your fic might have been weird, but it was also the inspiration for at least three of my stories.
Skeren Dreamera: beams That's my favorite thing for people to say, that one of my fics made them like crossovers better.
Triste Nanashi: nods in understanding With me it's Skittles. My friends run when they see me with package in hand…
No cliffie this time… hmm, I'll have to do one next time to make up for it.
Tsurai Ryu: smirks Shin sends his regards, and a death threat if you ever call him that again… shrugs Don't know why, I thought it was cute…
Anyway, thx!
Think we can hit the 200 mark with this chappie? I'd cross my fingers, but that'd probably jinx it.
18 May 2004