Ryou paced back and forth through his living room, waiting as Kaiba's personal doctor attempted to patch up Bakura. 'I can't believe he's back.' Somehow his yami had escaped the Shadow Realm, but at what price? The boy shuddered as he thought of the Thief's deplorable state. He was thin, bloody, and by the looks of it completely broken inside and out. Ryou felt sick remembering the horrible gash running across Bakura's face. That mark didn't seem like the kind that happened by accident. Someone had done that to him, but who would have the power to maim the Thief King himself?
"Excuse me, Mr. Bakura was it?"
Ryou jumped at the name, relaxing when he realized that he was being addressed by his family name and not that of the Spirit. "Y-yeah. That's me. I..."
"Follow me if you please. You can see your friend now." Leaping to his feet Ryou followed the angular, blonde woman up the stairs and into his bedroom, though at the moment it looked more like the Domino Hospital ICU than anything else. Bakura was lying very still in the center of the Brit's bed, the formerly messy sheets tucked neatly about him. Around the bed stood an assortment of medical machinary. He was hooked to a heart monitor as well as an I.V. Little sensors were stuck all over the tombrobber's emaciated chest.
"Is he going to be alright?" Gently the boy placed his palm upon Bakura's cold forehead.
The doctor cracked a reassuring smile before using her index finger to readjust the spectacles on her nose. "I can't see why not. He was bleeding rather severely, but once I stopped the blood and put him on some pain reliever, your friend's stablized quite nicely."
Ryou's gaze shifted from the doctor back to his yami's bandaged face. "Th-thank you. Really, if you hadn't come I don't know what I'd have done!"
The woman shook her head and laughed softly. "Don't worry about it kid. This is my job. I've been working for Mr. Kaiba nearly eight years, and I do as I'm told. Anyway I'm going to go now. Keep an eye on him through the night, and make sure he's kept very warm. Oh, and if he wakes up and is strong enough to drink, give him one of these." Digging through her oversized briefcase, she pulled out a large bottle of pills and pressed them into the Brit's waiting hand. "I'll be on my way now. Please call if anything comes up." With another smile and a slight bow the doctor exited the room leaving Ryou alone with his yami.
Not wanting to wake Bakura, the boy knelt quietly at the foot of his bed. Yami and Yugi had gone home by now, and all that could be heard was the sound of the tombrobber's raspy breathing. Ryou once more began to wonder what had befallen the formerly powerful darkness.
Who had strength enough to put Bakura into such a state? After all, he'd escaped the Shadow Realm several times before but never at this expense. It was almost as if he'd been trapped by something other than darkness, and whatever this something was it would stop at nothing to keep the Thief King within it's grasp.
"Ry..ou.."
The Brit gasped sharply as Bakura's eyes crept open. With a throaty groan he tried to sit up but fell back uselessly onto the bed.
"Yami, don't get up! You're injured." Rising to his feet, the light began to tuck the sheets back around the other's quaking form. Bakura would have none of this however and thrashed about wildly until Ryou was forced to hold him down by the shoulders. Blood leaked through the bandages on the Spirit's chest as he struggled, staining the gauze a bright crimson.
"Where is he? DAMNIT! WHERE IS HE?" The Thief's eyes darted about the room feverishly as his cracked and shaking voice grated Ryou's eardrums.
"Where's who? Bakura, what are you talking about?" The Brit was starting to panic. His yami had always been a bit insane, but he wasn't downright dellusional! "STOP IT! There's no one here but us! Whoever you're talking about, they're probably still in the Shadow Realm!"
The tombrobber's voice broke off abruptly as his head sank back into the pillows. The side of his face not completely swathed in bandages trembled slightly. "So he didn't make it."
Ryou shook his head and tenderly brushed the hair from his yami's eyes. "Shhh... it's alright now. He's gone. No one's going to hurt you."
But Bakura wasn't listening. Instead he just stared blankly at the ceiling, allowing the pain to seep back into his body after his brief exertion. He didn't see why he should really care. Sure he had made a promise, but since when did the King of Thieves bother keeping promises? 'I'm free. That's all that matters.'
The wide-eyed hikari breathed a sigh of relief as his darkness finally began to relax. Whatever terror had gripped Bakura was over. Ryou fished around in his pocket for the pills the doctor had given him, but the tombrobber was already nearly unconscious. Before he slipped back into sleep however, the weary spirit glanced over at the Sennen Ring draped innocently across the nightstand. In the dying light of the window it gleamed almost gently. Even in his sorry state, this struck Bakura as strange. How could something be so beautiful and so deadly at the same time?
'Mariku...'
Yami stared dully at the television, half willing for it to explode or at least do something more interesting than project that horrid gameshow. He wasn't even sure what it what the contestants were talking about other than that it had something to do with the hostess's breasts, which were unnaturally large anyway.
"Yami?"
"What is it aibou?"
Yugi was surprised by how moody the former Pharaoh had been since Bakura's reappearance. Sure they had hated eachother, but Ryou seemed happy to have the Thief back, and Yami did care quite a bit about Ryou. Then again, perhaps that was part of the problem. Was it possible that Atemu was jealous of the other spirit? "Um... there's a phone call for you. It's Malik."
This imediately took Yami off guard. Despite his antics at Battle City, Malik had been on good terms with the Yugi-tachi. He'd been angered when he heard about Bakura's banishment but upon learning what the tombrobber had done to Ryou had promptly changed his mind. Still, it wasn't every day that the violet-eyed boy would call all the way from Egypt.
"Yami here." There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before Malik answered.
"Hey. How've you been."
"I suppose I can't really complain. What brings you to call me?"
The former Pharaoh spoke politely enough, but Malik seemed to sense his bad mood and got right to the point. "I had a strange dream last night. It was about my... my yami."
It was Yami's turn to pause. "About Marik? What do you mean?"
"I mean it hadhim in it! At least I think it was him. At firstI thought it was me. I mean I thought I was seeing myself during the Initiation, but then I... I mean he... raised his head... and it wasn't me... but it wasn't him either... I mean it was him but..."
"Malik, are you alright?" The boy sounded as if he were about to cry. Either way he was very flustered. Yami had to get him to calm down. "Don't try to make sense of it just yet. Tell me exactly what happened, and I'll try to help you."
The violet-eyed hikari took a deep breath to steady himself before continuing. "It was strange. I was in my old home, the Tomb of the Unknown Pharaoh I mean. I knew it was a dream, but for some reason I was still afraid. You see there was this funny breathing sound, and I followed it... and there was so much blood. You have no idea! I... no he... was bleeding all over the place. And then he screamed, Marik not me, and he was begging for Father to stop, but he never did... and then he saw me and pleaded with me instead! And..."
Once again Malik was forced to stop as the emotions proved too much for him. Yami was beginning to feel uneasy. He waited a moment before pressing his friend to continue. "Then what happened Malik? Come on, it'll be okay."
"...and I didn't do anything. I just watched him being tortured because... because he's evil and I hate him and there was just so much blood! But I almost wish I would have Yami because it only got worse. Father was so angry at me... NO NOT ME, MARIKU! Well he was so angry, and he said he had to be punished. So when he was done carving Marik's back he climbed up on top of him and... he was a child you see and cou-couldn't protect himself...Yami, he was crying. HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO CRY!"
Hearing to the Egyptian's breathless sobs, the spirit realized he probably wouldn't be able to get much more out of Malik unless they were face to face. Besides, with all these strange events occuring it would probably be wise to bring the Ishtars to Domino City. At least that way if something happened Yami would be able to protect them. 'But from what?'
"Listen to me Malik. Have you told Rishid and Ishizu about your dream."
"Yes... well kind of. They don't really know what it was about. I mean I kind of..."
"Well I want you to tell them everything. Then you need to come to Japan as soon as possible. It's short notice I'm sure, but please just come. I'll explain it all when you get here."
"Yami?" The darkness cringed at the panic in his former nemisis's voice. "He's coming back, isn't he? That's why you want me to come, so that when he does get out you'll be able to help me! PLEASE YAMI! HE CAN'T COME BACK!"
Yami's thoughts flashed back to Bakura. Was it possible. Could Mariku possibly escape the Shadow Realm in the same manner as Bakura? Either way, the former pharaoh felt certain that Malik's dream and the Thief King's return were somehow connected.
"I will explain everything later Malik. Please, just get to Domino."
"...stop...pl-please stop..." Begging was not something the young spirit was used to. It didn't suit his nature. Still, this wasn't the first time he'd been forced to plead for mercy. Before he was banished the Darkness had practically groveled at his hikari's feet, had offered him powers beyond even that of the Pharaoh, but it hadn't worked then either.
"Pleading will get you nowhere, Marik."
The tears of the wicked will oft go unheeded.
He screamed as his tormentor's hot breath whistled unpleasantly across the back of his neck. "RA! STOP! PLEASE JUST STOP!" The spirit's naked body heaved as the creature pressed deeper inside. He was already engulfed in physical pain. Why did he now have to suffer the agony of that horrible voice? It brought to life his past, his future, the very fabric of his soul. "L-leave me alone!"
"Why can't you accept it? No ones around to hear your screams, and if the were..."
When the demon weeps, no one will hear.
"St-st...AHHH!" Another shriek was torn from his lips as the Darkness felt a sudden warmth engulf his mutilated passage. He began to struggle, sweat-drenched body twisting into unimaginable forms in hopes of eluding further agony. He bit his lip so as no to cry, but already tears were flowing silently down his cheeks.
"...and if they were...they wouldn't care..."
Looking into the eyes of the monster, do we see the heart of a child?
"YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME MARIKU! I AM BEYOND DARKNESS, BEYOND HATRED! YOU WILL SUBMIT TO MY POWER OR CRUMBLE AT MY FEET!" The creature grabbed Yami Marik by the chin, forcing him to look back into the face of his host's father, the man he'd killed six years ago.
No innocence lost. It was never there at all.
There was nothing he could do but scream, scream as he stared up into his captor's eyes, eyes redder than fire and even more devoid of life than his own. Eyes that were so grotesquely inhuman that one felt they did not belong to the elder Ishtar at all.
Who dares to listen?
'Where are you Bakura? You promised.' Despite his precarious situation, Mariku almost laughed. What did promises mean to the Thief King, and to himself for that matter? 'I should have forseen Bakura's betrayal.' At one time the malignant spirit would have lusted for revenge, but he no longer had the drive. Fear was the only thing that registered in his mind now, fear of pain, of sorrow, of that nameless thing more terrible than darkness and hatred combined.
Gallant oaths shatter, breaking the darkness.
The urge to laugh left him, and full realization finally struck. Mariku was alone, alone in a place so dark no one would ever hear him crying.
Help me! Help me, please!
-TOT (Thankyou to all Reviewers)