Title: Freedom Through Inferno
Fandom: YuGiOh
Date: 8/13/2006
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me. Don't steal the other stuff.
Author's Notes: The first part of this chapter (written 8/13/2006 and edited 12/30/2011) has not changed. There will be another note before the second half explaining what I've done.

Chapter 9: The Other Side

Ryou was Not Happy.

He had been unhappy in the cage, yes, but once he'd been pulled back out, the situation worsened.

Dragged around on a new leash that, despite its expensive look, was extremely uncomfortable, the neko had been bathed, dressed, shouted at, and given a shot. Currently, he was following Father to meet the man in charge, the one with silver hair and a creepy voice.

The only good things about the day had been Father's reluctance to beat him and his new pants. Cut in a similar manner to his old ones, they were the same color as his eyes, deep green, but with silver thread and trim. Unfortunately, it was the only garment he was allowed to wear.

What is with this guy? Why'd he buy me? Does he really have the others? Oh, I hope they're okay…but if he has them, what happened to their creators?

"Here we are, sir!"

Ryou stopped obediently at Father's side and looked up, expecting to see his new 'master'. To his surprise, there was no one there.

Ummm…is he talking to a door?

"You have treated and dressed it in accordance with my orders?"

"Grr…" the young neko was unable silence his nervous growl. He instantly regretted it when Father jerked the leash tight in anger.

"No! Bad! I don't want him upset with me and I won't have your silly little-"

"Doctor." The disembodied voice sounded amused. "Has he ever been familiarized with cameras, televisions, intercoms, and other remote technology?"

"Er…"

"I thought not. That is an oversight that must be remedied but not right now. The door is unlocked. Enter."

"Yes sir."

The room behind the door was enormous, at least double the length of a football field. Decorated mainly in red satin, ebony wood, and gold trim, it was plush and expensive, definitely a show of wealth for other humans.

But Ryou wasn't human and as Father advanced towards the far end of the hall where the other man sat in a particularly ornate chair, he found the room both interesting and disturbing.

It smells…odd in here. Like old blood and dead trees. Is that from the wood? No, I don't think so. And the blood is new; it doesn't smell like death so whatever happened wasn't fatal, but…

As his nose worked on overdrive, so did his eyes. They darted around the room, delving into shadows and deep spaces almost nervously.

Why isn't there anything alive in here? No bugs, no mice, no plants…even Father kept a few plants down in the lab. And what's with those cages? A sense of dread manifested in the pit of his stomach at the sight of them. Thankfully, these were larger than the ones in the lab but Ryou had a sneaking suspicion they were about as uncomfortable.

Evenly spaced along the back wall of the room (behind the master's 'throne') were five large square cages. Each of the end ones were customized; one in shades of tan, the other in deep black and gold; but empty and two more were in the process of being altered. The one off to the right (next to the black/gold cage) was in silvers and greens while the one on the left (next to the tan cage) was oddly nondescript in brown and gold with a touch of turquoise. In fact, the only reason Ryou knew it was being used at all was because it had an occupant.

Poor guy. I wonder how long he's been in there? Is the silver and green cage for me? Who are the other ones for? A surge of hope tempered by horror flared within. Yugi and Malik? Could they possibly…?

Then the figure in the other cage shifted, sending a scent to Ryou's delicately sniffing nose.

He froze.

"Ryou! Come!"

He barely even heard the order, taking a cautious step sideways instead to where he'd have a better view of the soon to be revealed occupant.

"Ryou! I'm so sorry sir, he's usually-"

"Let him go."

"Sir?"

"I put our test subject in there to see how my newest acquisition would respond. Let him go."

"Yes sir."

"Mrnh?"

Surprised by his sudden freedom, the boy advanced on the cage again, stopping about halfway along to sniff the air.

It's impossible. And why would he be in a cage? Besides, it doesn't smell exactly like him. There are similarities but there's also something else…

Fearfully, he moved forward until he was crouching about two feet from the occupied cage.

The figure inside didn't notice him.

"Mrowr?"

It jerked and groaned, moving a heavily bandaged hand to cover its equally heavily bandaged head. The hand stopped at the last minute and returned to its original spot, seemingly reluctant to touch the bound ears.

"G'way Pegasus. 'M not…"

"Mrow!"

"Malik?"

Two sleepy honey colored eyes met Ryou's horrified gaze as the person turned over, still lying down, to face the front of his cage.

"Ryou? Is that you?" the figure was unable to stumble upwards because of the confining bandages but the neko could scent his happiness at the reunion and sadness at its circumstances.

"My God."

Ryou didn't turn to look at Father but the horror in his voice startled him.

"Jounouchi Katsuya. What happened to you?"

xx

Title: Freedom Through Inferno
Fandom: YuGiOh
Date: 12/29/2011
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me. Don't steal the other stuff.
Author's Notes: I am officially retiring from the YuGiOh fandom, for my own reasons. Some of you might think I did so in 2006, but I always intended to come back and finish my YGO stories according to the original outline. Now, I no longer feel the need to do so, mostly because the original storylines were ridiculously long, over-complicated, and (worst of all) trite. I realized I'd seen all of them before, and several of my first ideas (stories from 2003-2005 outlined for over 3 chapters) shared the same basic plot. Therefore, I am finishing off Freedom Through Inferno and Confined Anomalies with an addendum and an epilogue to each final chapter. Unfortunately, since no new chapter will be added, no alerts will be sent out. Originally I intended to personally notify everyone on the alert list but ffnet informs me that my account could be suspended if I do so.

I'm glad so many of you enjoyed my stories, and thank all of you for reviewing and supporting me for so long. I hope this ending is satisfying and I'm sorry it took so long to finish it.

Chapter 9.2: New Beginnings

It took a long moment for Jou's eyes to focus well enough to make out who was talking to him and, when he did, he snarled. It was a deep, inhuman sound and made the doctor back up instinctively. Ryou stayed where he was, stuck staring in horror.

"This is all your fault, you-!" Jou cut off with an agonized yelp, clutching at his neck with bandaged hands.

"Now, now." Pegasus's cultured voice emanated from behind them, where he was wielding what was apparently the controller for Jou's electroshock collar. "Your training is far enough along that you shouldn't be speaking like that."

Jou pulled back with a look of weary resentment, retreating as far back into the cage as he could before lying down with his back to the room.

"That's better." Pegasus smirked and dropped the controller into his pocket."Mr. Kaiba, please show our newest guest to his accommodations."

A tall brunette man with angular features appeared as if from nowhere and took the leash from Father.

"Heel."

The man took off without looking back, expecting the cat-boy to follow. After a wary glance at Pegasus and Father, Ryou obeyed. He was led to the cage he'd noticed before –the one decorated in green and silver- and directed inside. The leash was unhooked and Kaiba ushered him inside, closing and locking the door behind him.

For a long moment, Ryou crouched there at the door, staring at the shadowy interior nervously. There wasn't anything there but it just felt wrong. Slowly, he moved around the edges of the cage, sniffing the corners and eyeing the bars. It took a while but eventually he finished inspecting the entire thing and sat down against the back wall to watch the room. While he'd been distracted, everyone had left and judging by the low, even breaths coming from the other cage, Jou had fallen asleep. With a low sigh, he drew his legs up to his chest and folded his arms around them, then rested his forehead on his knees. He hoped Bakura and Marik were okay.

A low rustle startled him into jerking his head up. He was positive he'd been alone and hadn't heard the footsteps of someone entering so what…?

There was still no one there but a small, folded piece of paper lay on the floor inside the cage. When Ryou picked it up and unfolded it he read:

Soon. Be ready.

After inspecting it from every angle, Ryou was unable to pick up any other clues. Still, whatever he was supposed to be waiting for had to be better than this. He'd stay vigilant, and be ready when the time came.

When it came, he wasn't ready for it.

In the space of about five seconds, the night went from cold and dark to an inferno, bright as the sun and seemingly twice as hot. Thankfully, his cage popped open of its own accord so he staggered out, coughing and yowling quietly. Among the flames and debris, he caught sight of a figure leading Jou out and followed. It was a nightmarish journey of thick smoke that burned his eyes and nose, flying embers, leaping flames, and debris falling all around.

Finally, he staggered out into the cool night air and urgent hands grabbed him and pulled him forward, out of the building and onto cool grass. He looked up, blinking ash and fire-blindness from his eyes, and caught sight of something he thought he'd never see again.

"Malik? Yugi?"

"Ryou!"

"Hey buddy."

His friends were the ones holding him up and leading him away from the flames. They looked different than when he'd last seen them-older and thinner- but there was no mistake. At their tentative smiles, he reached forward and pulled them both in for a tight hug.

"I missed you."

They returned the hug just as hard.

"Yeah, yeah. Save the sap-fest for when we're safe!" A familiar sharp bark drew his attention to Marik and Bakura, standing next to a huge black van with Yami, Jou, and, surprisingly, Kaiba.

Ryou took one last look at the burning building that was meant to be his prison and turned away, running towards the car, and freedom, with his oldest and newest friends.

The first fire had destroyed his home and life, but this one was awarding him an opportunity for something much better.

Epilogue 1:

Two days and 150 miles later, Ryou finally figured out what had happened at Pegasus' facility. It turned out that Kaiba had been working with Yami and Jou the whole time- he'd managed to get into Pegasus's good graces and acquired the access codes to all of the cages and cells. He was the one who had dropped the note in Ryou's cage, opened all of the doors during the fire, and hidden the van out of sight. He was also the one who had led Jou, and by extension Ryou, out. May months earlier, Yugi and Malik had managed to find a way to slip in and out of their cages while keeping Pegasus and his scientists in the dark about their intelligence- they had been the ones to plant the explosives that started the fires. Yami had taught them how to make the explosives and figured out where they should be planted to be the most destructive.

The entire plot had been in motion long before Ryou even arrived; it was only stalled because of Jou's condition. Kaiba had finally given them the go-ahead two days before Ryou's arrival and they'd been waiting for an opportunity which had been provided by the trio's arrival.

Epilogue 2:

A week later, Ryou, Yugi, and Malik were settled in to a small apartment hundreds of miles from Pegasus's facility, along with Jou and Yami. All of them were trying to fly under the radar to avoid Pegausus's goons (there had been surprisingly few casualties in the fire) and the authorities investigating the fire. Marik and Bakura were bouncing in and out looking for mercenary work and, quite possibly, robbing the neighbors blind. Since the food and money really were necessary, everyone else was willing to turn a blind eye. Kaiba was hard at work delivering data on Pegasus's illegal activities to the authorities, and trying to right all of the wrongs that had been done by KC over the years. Pegasus had been captured by the authorities, although not yet convicted. The only loose end was Father, who had vanished along with much of the classified information from Pegasus's labs. However, he didn't have any reason (or resources) to follow them so he wasn't an issue. Bakura and Marik were talking about going 'bounty hunter' and tracking him down, but everyone else was willing to move on with their lives

The future was bright and they would face it together.

Fin.

Author's Note B: Yes, I feel like this is a cop-out chapter but the other ideas were not going to work out. I cycled between having Ryou be responsible for everyone's escape, going through several months of all of them working together, or making an entire second part to the story following the rest of the crew setting up the escape plan. None of them really felt like they fit, so I figured I would leave most of it up to your imagination.

Also, yes, I am totally incapable of finishing stories without using corny, cliche'd final sentences/messages. So sue me. It's uplifting.

I hope you enjoyed it! Sorry it took so long.