Twill: Well… I wouldn't say I updated super fast, but certainly faster than usual. I'm updating this one again instead of 'Wonderland' or 'Through the Glass Window'
Bakura: Like they care. Just get on with it.
Twill: Hush! - pokes him- Yami's POV makes a comeback in this chapter. I had a request and it worked nicely, so you get to go inside the Pharaoh's head again. Um, other than that, I guess I have nothing else to say! Enjoy!
Bakura: Twill does not own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of its plots, characters, etc. She likes to think she does, but really doesn't.
---no thoughts in this chapter---
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Dragon of Gold: The Cost of Freedom
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-Malik's POV-
I definitely was not looking into a friendly face. Ra reached out his hands and took hold of each wrist. I was too dumbfounded to do anything. Just looking at him seemed to make me unable to move. I couldn't stop staring at his teeth.
"Hello, master." The last word was sneered. He obviously didn't see me in a commanding position anymore. "Fancy meeting you out here." Slowly, Ra pulled me closer. I offered very little resistance.
He took at long look at me before moving us both off the sidewalk. As we traveled, birds and other animals would suddenly fall silent, as if they knew what he was. I stumbled along beside him, wrists still trapped in his grip and rod completely useless. I could hear him breathing, deep, dry breaths.
When he finally stopped, it was in an alley. Forcefully Ra pushed me up against the back of a building and grinned.
"So, little Malik, what have you to say?" Both of my wrists were transferred to one of his hands, above my head. The other traced a pattern on my cheek.
I stared at him blankly, still unable to get over the teeth. "What do you mean?"
"You gave me away, sold me to some fool talking about destiny and hearts of monsters that haven't breathed the same air as humans in thousands of years. And I thought I was your favorite…" Ra drew away from, releasing me from his grip. A hand raised, and then I was sprawled on the rocky ground, face aflame with pain.
I reached up to touch the spot where he had hit me. Even the slightest touch made it throb in pain. My jaw felt strangely numb.
"How could I keep you? The Pharaoh was supposed to get you, helped me get away from the darkness…" I sat up and rested my back against the wall, looking up at him sullenly. How could my favorite card do this to me? Why was he so angry?
"Well, you didn't seem too upset to me. And I don't think you ever even thought about getting me back."
"The Pharaoh-"
"Isn't as all-mighty as he's led everyone to believe." Ra's smile grew bitter. "When has he ever given you a choice about what you can and cannot do? It's always his way or nothing. You either join him or he crushes your mind." As if to emphasize his point, Ra flexed the fingers on one hand. His golden eyes gazed into mine. "I thought you were better than that."
I struggled to my feet, bringing the rod to my chest in some gesture of defense. "He helps people. He helped me." If this was how my chosen card treated me, then I was beginning to feel good about giving him to the Pharaoh. "And as for you… you don't belong here."
Squeezing my eyes shut, I thrust the rod out in front of me and concentrated. I may not have had the power used to banish Ra from Bakura the first time, but I hoped I could simply send his new body to the Shadow Realm. I felt the build up of power and then something pushed me back against the wall and began to crush my throat. I opened my eyes.
Ra was holding me by my throat, shaking his head. "You don't get it. Your little toys have no power all alone anymore, not against me."
I clutched at his hand at my throat desperately, unable to breathe. Finally, I uncapped the hidden dagger in the rod and slashed at his arm. With a growl of pain and anger, Ra let go. Coughing, I desperately inhaled.
"That was not a smart move, Malik." Ra reached for me again, but I countered with the dagger. He was at least vulnerable to this.
I slashed at him wildly, managing to cut him several time. Each one seemed no more than a small scratch and enraged him even more. In the end, I was no match for his brute strength. He managed to slap the rod away, and dragged me up by the hair, cringing in pain.
"I know you've been admiring my teeth, Malik. Shall I show you what they can do, first hand?"
Ra leaned forward, slowly, licking his lips. Then, with a twisted grin, his teeth ripped into my right shoulder. The last thing I was aware of was his look of pleasure as I screamed.
-Bakura's POV-
My chest was burning, freezing, burning. It felt as if I had fallen on something sharp and it was lodged just below my heart, in the center of my torso. Burning, freezing, burning. I tried to move, tried to get it out, make it stop, but my arms wouldn't respond. I couldn't even feel them. Burning, freezing, burning.
Hot light broke into the darkness. The world spun before my eyes and I heard a far away moan of pain. The wall…I could see the wall. But it wouldn't stay still. It was spinning around, shimmering and twisting. Somewhere, my stomach gave a wrench and something hot passed through my lips. The pain in my chest grew more intense.
Gradually, the wall stopped spinning. I spent a long time, just staring at it. Nothing else was working. I could see and I could feel, a little, but everything else was dark and silent. What was going on? What had just happened?
As though happening to another body, I began to feel the smallest fingers of pain in my head. It throbbed distantly, in time to my heartbeat. Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, I listened to my heart and stared at the wall. My chest didn't feel too bad anymore. But my headache was starting to get worse.
I tried to figure out why I was on the floor, pain flowing through every inch of me that I could feel. What had I been doing last? I could remember seeing Ryou. His eyes, though, seemed haunted. That wasn't Ryou. Who was it? Who dared to look like my hikari? Who are you!
Voices, the merest whispers of white noise, rumbled somewhere to my left, or straight ahead as I was on my left side. I wondered if I could move my eyes. They didn't seem to want to do anything but stare at the wall. The voices were beginning to separate and become clear. I didn't recognize one of them, a smooth talker. The other, was it Ryou? Was he here? I tried desperately to look, but nothing would move.
What else could I remember? After seeing not-Ryou, I had left with… with Marik. We talked, laughed, like always. It was comfortable with Marik. I never needed to watch what I said or explain myself. No one else made me that at ease. Except, perhaps, my hikari. After Marik, things became hazy. I vaguely remembered my house, no, Ryou's house, but something was wrong with it. And then I was falling and it was hard to breathe…
-Yami's POV-
The sand had continued to rise, making many of my memory passages cramped to navigate. And then, just as suddenly as it had all began, there had been no change in several hours. It would not go away, no matter what I tried, but it did not get any worse. Yugi's soul room, also, never suffered from a torrent of sand.
I had been navigating my mind, hoping to find the source of the mess. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Most doors remained locked, most passages darkened. Those hidden places that I had uncovered during Battle City offered no clue. I was beginning to feel frustrated.
Even though I sported the title of 'King of Games,' I felt I would be unable to solve this puzzle if nothing else happened. I also hoped I wouldn't have to share my mental space with several tons of desert.
Something shifted beneath my feet. I had just enough time to look down before the sand began to move, throwing me off my feet and into the rush. I was carried along with it, struggling to keep near the surface. My eyes stung but I forced them open, to see where I was being carried. The river of sand swept down until it rushed into a wall and vanished. And I was headed there.
I tried to find something to hold onto so that I wouldn't be swept into the void the sand was heading to. Nothing presented itself. Preparing for the worst, I readied myself to separate from Yugi into my own form. Just as I was about to rush through the opening, the movement stopped and I ended up hitting the very solid wall. The sand was gone and I had a very painful headache.
I stood slowly, rubbing my head where it had hit, resting a hand against the offending wall. It didn't feel any different than the other stone passages within my mind. I turned to look at it and was surprised to find the sennen eye staring back at me. I was confused. This would mean sennen magic was at work, but I had done nothing.
Who else possessed sennen magic and could enter my mind?
-Bakura's POV-
The voices were getting closer now. The smooth talker was saying something about light. It tasted good. They had another item. The rod. Who had the rod? Malik. Why were they talking about him? Ryou said something about Malik being hurt. Why did he sound so happy?
It stopped being hard to breathe after awhile. And then I was… where was I? Home? I was home. The desert, all golden and clear and hot, that was home. I was there, and Marik, and someone else. I couldn't remember who. We were talking, and that nice, comfortable feeling was there. And then… and then cold. Pain. Something happened. My chest began to hurt again.
Someone turned me over and my chest and head both protested. Things spun again, but not as long. I looked up at the ceiling now, and my hikari who was in the way. Ryou was smiling, but it wasn't the nice smile he usually has. His eyes… This wasn't Ryou. It was the other thing, the thing that looked like him. It was smiling, but seemed to be having trouble. Half of the smile was warm, the other wicked. My eyes closed.
Freezing, burning, freezing. Everything decided it wanted to hurt. I wanted to run, to scream, make it stop, but I couldn't. I couldn't save myself from the pain. I was trapped, trapped by the ring that held my soul. So long as that not-Ryou held my item, I couldn't do anything. I hated feeling useless, hated being unable to do anything. I couldn't save myself, couldn't save Marik who was somewhere nearby. I couldn't help Malik, wherever he was, hurt. But the thing that bothered me the most was that I couldn't save Ryou.
I wanted to. I wanted to reach out, beyond the pain, and banish the thing that wasn't him to the darkness. I was the darkness and I could destroy the thing when it got there. Then Ryou would be saved, and I would be free, and Marik and Malik would be fine. But my body wouldn't respond. It was like every limb was held down. The pain on my chest was holding me down. I needed to get out from under it.
It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself, wishing and wanting and whining. I was the all powerful spirit of the ring! I was going to collect all seven items and rule the world! And most of all, I was going to beat the damn Pharaoh and laugh in his face!
Struggling, I twisted back and forth. I didn't care about the pain, the burning and freezing, anymore. I loved pain, thrived on it. I would use it to my advantage; use it to push me forward harder. My eyes opened again and saw the world clearly. No spinning, no false hikari, just the house that was mine. I could look around at the wall from earlier and the one on the other side of the hall. My shoulders began to move.
I jerked and yanked against the weight that held me down. My fingers began to tingle, then twitch, then clench themselves into fists. I was not going to be held down by something as pathetic as ropes or whatever held me. My arms were mine again. I pushed up, pushed against the thing on my chest. It strained for a moment, and then gave way. The weight slid to the side and I was free. Only then did I realize what I had been fighting.
Beside me sat the ring. It no longer appeared as golden and magnificent as it usually did. It seemed lifeless, just the carbon copy that it really was. What was even stranger was that it was no longer hanging from my neck. The cord was broken and the ring was completely separated from my person. But I was still here. I was still fully formed and functioning. It shouldn't be possible, but it was.
I reached for the ring, and it shattered.
-Malik's POV-
I woke to find myself in Ryou's living room, thrown carelessly on the sofa. My shoulder was sending small stabbing pains shooting through my right arm and I gritted my teeth. I definitely was not going to stare at Ra's mouth again.
Someone had bound the bite carelessly with old bandages. Small rusty smudges were present even in places where my injury wouldn't bleed out. I wondered who's blood was on these. And then I remembered Ryou. This was probably his, though how fresh was another question.
I could hear talking coming from the next room. It sounded like Ra and Ryou, discussing some sort of plan. Yami had warned us that Ryou was not himself, and this seemed to confirm it. I tried to sit up and had to fight back a yelp of pain. My shoulder was worse off than I had thought.
Ra must have heard my gasp for he suddenly appeared in the door. When his eyes met mine, he flashed a feral grin. "Hello, master."
"Hi." I couldn't keep the sarcasm from my voice. He had sounded like I should be thrilled to see him.
Ryou's head poked in and he, too, smiled at me. But something was off. The smile wasn't quite uniform on his features. I watched wearily as they both stepped fully into the room.
"I'm very glad you could come and visit me," Ryou whispered, eerie smile still marring his normally cheerful features.
"Like I had a choice. What do you want from me?"
Ryou tilted his head slightly, and drew a blade from his pocket. It most likely belonged to Bakura, unless Ryou was using kitchen cutlery as weaponry. The smile suddenly became even, twisted and dark.
"I want you to bleed."
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Twill: Oooh, Ryou's all evil. – shivers – It's kind of cool. Anyway, I want to see if anyone can figure out why the sennen eye was in Yami's soul room and/or where the sand came from. The first person to get it will be written into the story!
Bakura: Read and review so she'll update faster