Yami's koi: mwahahaha… an update! And to think… I got reviews! Yay! I'm so happy!
Nefertiri: but tired… and hot. Take that how you will, but seriously. It's fucking boiling in this loft, and we have the fan on…
Yami's koi: okay… oddball. Well, here's the… is it the twelfth, or the eleventh chapter now? Aw, who cares, I'll tell in the morning. Thank you so much for the reviews… and here's the chapter! The song this time around is… Um… Dunno… Aw, I'll just leave it for this chap, eh?
Bakura's eyes darted over to Ryou. His light looked shocked, scared and tearful, his body automatically trying to make itself look smaller, insignificant. This… no way, this must be a dream…
But it wasn't. Ryou loved him? In… the way Bakura did to him? Did he want to be with him, forever?
Before Bakura could ask, however, Set bellowed with laughter.
"Why the tears, Ryou? Aren't you happy that he finally knows? So that now he can finally desert you, just like you always thought!" He cackled, obviously finding delight in the poor hikari's distress. "Don't worry… I was alone for many thousands of years, and look! I've turned out all right, haven't I?"
He was silenced, however, by a sword in his gut.
"You bastard," Bakura growled, twisting his curved blade around, feeling the blade snag on various innards. "Getting off on seeing other people in pain… no wonder the Gods fucking hated you!" He spat, releasing Set from his knife's torture. He pushed him backwards into a wall, and Bakura turned slowly to his hikari. In one fluid movement, he vaulted over the tablet, and stood silently before Ryou.
Ryou avoided meeting with Bakura's eyes; thinking that his yami would probably hate him… maybe even hurt him. But then… that wouldn't be the Bakura he had fallen in love with, lost all because of something Set had said. No wonder he hadn't said anything. The risks were too high.
Bakura sighed, brushing snowy locks from Ryou's eyes. The hand he used for this then tilted up his hikari's chin, gently persuading him to look up. Ryou blinked up at his yami, so many emotions running through his mind. Would Bakura hate him? Would he disown him? What did he possibly want from Ryou?
"Is he telling the truth, Ryou?" Bakura asked softly, trying to contain himself. He tried not to allow any emotion to show through his eyes, but he didn't mind keeping their now alive mind link.
Ryou almost bowed his head again, but was stopped by the hand on his jaw line.
"Ryou…"
Ryou sighed at the sound of his name being said like that, and stared directly into Bakura's eyes, showing him everything that he felt – fear, shame, guilt, love, apprehension…
"Yes… I love you, 'Kura." Ryou said quietly, his eyes filling with tears.
Bakura sighed, stroking his hikari's cheek. That was a relief… yet, it wasn't like he had panicked. No, he hadn't been worrying that Set was just finding an excuse to kill them… No, not at all!
"Good. Because I love you too."
And with that, Bakura leaned down slightly and captured Ryou's soft, warm lips with his own. His tongue caressed his hikari's lips and, in an instant, they parted, and Bakura plundered the sweet cavern. His moist, warm tongue stroked against Ryou's, and so began a passionate dance. Their tongues massaged each other, and, just as quickly as the kiss had begun, Bakura ended it, reluctantly.
He placed a kiss on Ryou's trembling lips, smiling. "I'm sorry that's had to be cut short… but there's something I must deal with." Ryou nodded, touching his lips, an innocent blush adorning his features. Bakura grinned and turned, facing Set.
"In a way, it's a good thing I released you all those years ago," Bakura snarled, his heart still racing from the kiss, "Because today is the greatest day of my life." He gripped his swords, choosing his traditional fighting method.
Set's face had transformed from being mildly sadistic, into a horrific display of anger and evil. The bandages hardly could stretch that far, and fresh tears were beginning to appear in the browning cotton.
"You're a bastard, Bakura," Set growled, pacing around the Tomb Robber. Bakura didn't move, trusting his ears to tell him where Set was. In his anger, Set upturned the stone tablet. In an instant, Bakura jumped to face his opponent, swords at the ready. Set merely bore his teeth, in a sadistic smile.
"Edgy, Tomb Robber?"
Bakura merely smirked, flicking his hair back. "No. Just on my guard." His eyes narrowed for a moment. "Yami, Yugi, have some sense. Take out your weapons and get ready to fight." Bakura glanced at his still blushing hikari, smiling widely. "Take these, Ryou." He said softly, throwing him his Uzi's. Ryou caught them, hardly able to contain his joy.
Bakura loved him! It was all he could do to not start dancing around the Tomb, killing Set as he went. Instead, Ryou gave one giggle, before drawing his guns and positioning them at the outnumbered, but still quite lethal God.
Yugi felt truly happy for Ryou, but he simply wished that something like that between him and Yami could transpire. He tried to push it from his mind, producing his own weapons, like Bakura said.
Yami felt a small wave of bitterness cross over from Yugi's side of the link to his own, and frowned as he aimed his own pistol. What was all of that about? He would have to question his hikari later…
… If they survived this.
Set nodded to Yugi, an evil look passing over his face. "Do you know what Diaha means, boy?" He asked, in his hoarse, ancient voice that contained malice, no matter what.
Yami glanced at his hikari, knowing that Yugi wouldn't know what it meant at all... Ancient Egyptian, sadly, had never been taught to the poor boy, and so it was fortunate that Yami was there. ((It means 'Duel Start.')) He whispered to him via the mind link. Yugi's eyes narrowed and nodded.
"Duel Start."
Set would have quirked an eyebrow… had he any.
"You're quite clever, for a modern boy… tell me, Yugi…" Yugi's frown increased when he heard his own voice being said by Set. It sounded so chilling… and he did not like it. "… Do you love me?"
Yugi nudged his gun slightly, gesturing to it. "In a word… no. Generally, if you capture my best friend, it means I hate you. So… I'm sorry, but things won't work out between us. Sorry if you were hoping we could be friends. But the answer is no."
It was a dangerous game, Yugi knew, to mock an Ancient Egyptian God… but it had to be said. He didn't want the same to happen to him… Ryou still looked shaky, beneath his now happy, loved exterior. And, as Yugi was convinced that Yami did not love him… the results from Set being a malicious, sadistic bastard would not be pleasant.
Set's cold, harsh eyes seemed to pierce through Yugi's soul. "Ignorant mortal," He hissed, "You should be bowing at my feet, or begging for mercy!"
Yugi rolled his eyes, deciding against answering back. He didn't want to make this battle even more dangerous than what it was going to. In fact, he was barely listening to the God speak, which was also, seemingly, an offence. However, as Yugi had completely switched off to Set's voice, he didn't hear the various threats that were hurled his way.
"Hmmm…" Yugi muttered, "So what was it you were saying about 'Diaha'?"
Set's eyes glistened, the darkness within them growing immensely.
"DIAHA!"
Seto and Jou
"Predicted flight time to Tokyo from America: ten hours. Actual time: seven hours and forty-five minutes," Seto muttered, unbuckling his seatbelt. "It still wasn't good enough," He barked at the pilot, who had just emerged from the cockpit.
"Hey! We had a deal!"
Seto gave him a wry look. "Yeah. And I changed my mind. See you." He said abruptly, rising and taking himself out into the warm air of where he called his home. Jou followed, throwing the captain a 'Don't trust him, he's my lover,' look.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Jou cried a few minutes later, as the two waited for their luggage. Jou was almost dancing on the spot, unable to keep still. He wanted to know what had happened to his friends… and if Yami and Yugi had complied with Seto's request.
"Sure. That will make the luggage come sooner," Seto muttered under his breath. Just from the corner of his eye, he noticed a large black suitcase, followed by a banana yellow one, both with KC printed in relief on them.
They seemed to take an age to get to the frantic couple, and, dragging them away, Kaiba opened his car door and got in the front seat. Jou hardly had time to put his belt on before they drove out of the airport car park, desperate to get back to Domino.
Seto wasn't one for disobeying the law, but did, on the odd occasion, jump through red traffic lights. And because he was one of the richest young men in the world, no one ever charged him. That was fortunate, as today was no excuse. He even crossed two lanes just to dodge an apparently 'Sunday Driver', which made Jou yelp when they almost collided.
The sound of car horns blared at them as they drove on.
Yami, Yugi, Bakura, Ryou and Set
Problem was, no one moved. Bakura sighed.
"Fine, I'll be the one to put you out of your misery," He growled, disappointed at everyone else's lack of courage. If Set wanted a one-on-one battle, then why didn't he say so?
"Just you and me, Bakura?" Set asked, husky voice shining with amusement. "Why won't any of your so-called friends help you out? Is that really what friendship is? Well, I'm truly glad that I never had any when I was alive…"
It was then that Bakura realised something. "Bollucks," He muttered. "The word resurrection brought a spark of recognition to mind…" He paused, almost laughing at his own cheesy rhyme, "… You aren't in your solid form." Bakura observed, grinning to himself insanely. Here he was, facing off against Set (again), and smirking like an idiot knowing he was about to die. This would not be an easy battle.
"Okay, frozen Mutou's? I'll definitely need your help with this. Ryou… you keep near me." Bakura ordered quickly, noting that Yami was still wide-eyed and quite silent.
"Use whatever help you feel, but it won't help you." Set cackled, his insane laugh causing the hairs on the back of Bakura's neck to rise slightly. "You will all die!"
Yugi rolled his eyes. "Like we haven't heard that one before, jerk," He muttered, before producing his knife and throwing it through the air. It connected with Set's gut, with a sickening squelch.
Set stared down at the protruding handle, and then at Yugi.
"Ow!" He exclaimed, as if the move had been foul play. Bakura tried very hard to conceal his laughter… But in the end, failed.
"Oh, I'm sorry… But you did declare the Duel had begun, and I'm not sure what that means to you, but it generally translates that we should begin killing you." Bakura explained, then shivered as he felt a light finger tracing his left side. He knew that kind of gentle touch to be Ryou's, and for a moment wondered vaguely why it hurt.
"Who… what did this to you, Kura?" He asked curiously, as if the Duel meant nothing to him. Which, in all reality, it didn't.
Yami growled behind them. "Save it!" He screamed, darting in front of the distracted Bakura to use his gun as a shield, deflecting the sword Set had hurled at them. He let it fall to the floor, refusing to touch anything with Set's decaying insides on them. The Tomb Robber gasped, falling back into his normal killing stance.
"You're gonna pay for that…" He snarled quietly, in Egyptian, "I don't know why you're so fucking corrupt… but I think it has something to do with the Millennium Items we hold."
Ryou and Yugi raised eyebrows at this, but shrugged when they heard the all-too-familiar Egyptian word for Millennium Items. At Battle City it had become a daily word to use, and they had taken great joy in scaring their yami's using it.
Set's browning teeth revealed themselves, half of the bandages peeling away.
"Correct… I see that you have a brain after all, Bakura…"
Bakura shrugged. "Just because I have a brain doesn't mean I have to use it. But every super-villain has wanted the Items, for one reason or another. It's becoming too obvious… and all-too easy to defend them."
Set begged to differ at that. "Ahh, but you are forgetting… If the yami is killed, the hikari will live on. But if the hikari dies, the yami dies with him. I was going to kill my prisoner--" He shot a very evil, oddly hungry look at Ryou as he said this, "—Had my plans not been ruined. I was not planning on having you all find me… and for that, you shall die."
He created a whirling spirit of energy behind him, a cloud of blood-red air that seemed to form a human. Who it was they couldn't tell, but Bakura immediately knew he would end up having to summon something to banish it. The Millennium Puzzle was already emitting a lot of energy, and Bakura could predict what Monster would emerge from the Pyramid-shaped Item.
"Okay… Ryou, Yugi, I promise that we won't let a…" Bakura paused when he realised what he was saying… in his own language. He smiled and repeated himself, carrying on, "… Let anything hurt you, just stay back, okay? And… a spike scraped my side," He added, just for Ryou's benefit. Bakura hadn't even noticed that blood was dripping from it, so he turned and ripped Yami's shirt off of him and used it as a makeshift bandage. "And that's for the shirt you owe me," He said to Yami, the Game King scowling. He'd liked that shirt.
Bakura turned back to face the red spirit behind Set… and was somewhat startled to see it staring right at him. Instead of asking why it was doing that, Bakura sighed. He'd caused all of this… who would have thought that even five thousand years after an untimely retirement, Tomb Robbing could come back to haunt you?
"Well, I can see that we will get nowhere with that kind of talk," Set declared woodenly, as if bored, "So I think I will make the… well, best move so far."
Bakura and Yami tensed, ready to fight… but then the red being took more of a humanly form. The red was actually a long, trailing cape, with broad arms at the bottom. It didn't cover up the thing's face, but there was nothing but an empty space there – a black shadow, obscuring everything that should have been there. Bakura doubted he would have wanted to see his face anyway… he'd been scared enough the first time. The being didn't have hands, either, but he knew that those weren't needed… not for the kind of damage that it could do to you.
Then, with chains curling around its arms, the being began to move towards the group. Yami stood, transfixed… until Bakura brought him down to the ground.
"You idiot!" He hissed, again falling back into their own language. "That thing can only kill us on contact if we let him!"
Yami sat up, disbelieving. Bakura shrugged arrogantly.
"Fine. Just don't expect me to say I told you so at your funeral, Pharaoh," He growled, keeping Ryou and Yugi to the ground.
Yami gave him a quizzical look… and immediately understood what Bakura had meant.
The reason why the spirit did not need hands to kill… was because as soon as he had walked through Yami, he felt his energy draining away… and quickly. Head spinning, he fell to the ground, groaning as he heard the words 'I told you so,' from Bakura.
"Shit," Yami cursed, as he flattened his entire body up against the ground, "Hikari, don't sit up. Ryou… well, I guess you know already."
"Bakura, how the fuck are we supposed to kill that thing?" Yugi asked on a hiss, only so snappy because he was fearing for his life. Bakura shot him an optimistic look.
"It can be done," Was all that he said, before standing and racing around the ruins of the stone tablet. He darted past the advancing ghost, trying his best to ignore Ryou's scream. Using his Millennium Ring, he aimed a blast at the walls. They shook and burst open, and Bakura ran through the gap. With the spirit and Set following him closely, Ryou was immediately up and running after the love of his life.
With a short nod exchanged, Yami and Yugi did the same. They raced past various tombs… until they saw Ryou, standing in front of a vast pit. They could see nothing of the bottom… Yugi glanced at his friend's face, seeing it was really pale… he was going to faint.
Dragging his friend away, Yugi whispered comforting words into his ear, whilst Yami worked out a way of getting across. The Eye of Horus gleamed on his forehead, and then he grinned.
"Bakura probably jumped this in his hurry, but we can walk across." He declared, walking to the edge, and taking another step forwards. Yugi was just about ready to run and save him… but Yami had not fallen. The Pharaoh offered his hand to the scared hikari's. "Come on. We'll never find Bakura at this rate."
Ryou took a hesitant step onto what seemed to be an invisible platform… and after that, he was racing off again, with his two friends in hot pursuit.
Bakura
'If this doesn't work, Ryou will be having your cock for all the wrong reasons,' Bakura thought to himself, panicking slightly as he darted past slightly dormant mummies, speeding through trapped chambers. For the main part, however, he went about untroubled, racing through what seemed to be endless amounts of chambers.
'And it's like those bloody ancient cartoons! They just keep running past the same thing, over and over: clock, door, flowerpot, clock, door, flowerpot, clock, door…' Bakura amused himself for a moment, shaking his head at his own antics… and almost missed his turn.
"FUCK!" He exclaimed, skidding to a halt before hurtling down another corridor. His left arm seemed to be stinging, but he didn't check to see why.
He could hear wind rushing past his ears, but knew that some of it would be from the bloody ghost… and also from St, but he was more concerned about the spirit.
How was it that he managed to kill the Brother Semerkhet before? Every memory from Egypt was either patchy or logically wrong anyway, but this was really bugging him.
He couldn't remember getting any scars from the ghost: that was for sure. This was because the spirit of Semerkhet was… well, a cursed ghost. The reason why he was Set's ally was simple: he had the ability to kill upon prolonged contact. After more than a second, Bakura knew, you would be dead.
All that he could recall was a sword. It wasn't one of his own… which was unusual. Bakura remembered something about a room with a lot of levels, a bridge, and some stone pillars. He was trying to get up as high as possible, so that he could either escape and therefore get Ryou out of danger (the others didn't matter as much anymore), or to get back to that room. Whichever way it went, Bakura was gonna get hurt.
Well… pain was a part of his Job Description.
Jou and Seto
"The rush hour. The fucking rush hour." Seto cried, furious. His fingers were drumming on the steering wheel impatiently, and honked his horn for the fifth time in the past ten minutes. He wasn't the only one, but it was giving Jou a headache.
"At this rate, we'll never get to 'em in time, Seto! I know what Yug's like… he's gonna go down dere soon, and I'm bettin it ain't pretty for the poor guy…"
It took Seto a moment to actually translate what Jou had just said due to his impatience.
"Well if he has, he's an idiot," Seto said, once he'd understood his love, "But if Yami's gone down there too… Well, I can only hope that they had sense and took food down with them… and a gun… because down there, who knows what's going on."
Jou nodded absently. "Mmmm… I'm kinda hopin that Yug has more sense, but da Pharaoh… well, I'm kinda wary about him."
Seto moved the car forwards very slightly before replying. "So… you doubt him, too?"
Jou shrugged, leaning his head out of the window. Rain splashed onto his forehead and golden locks, calming his nausea some. "Sometimes. But he's always pulled through. So, ya know… maybe they're okay."
Seto shook his head, moving again as the traffic slowly thinned. "Well…. Let's just see if they're actually at the cabin first, Jou… THEN we can jump to conclusions about their magic shit…"
Even though Jou was sick at that very moment, his dinner cascading from his mouth down onto the slippery concrete, he smiled. Even in a big crisis, Seto was still his usual, stand-offish self.
And he loved it.
Bakura
Bakura slammed through what he somehow knew would be a concealed door, hearing the chains of Brother Semerkhet gradually getting louder. Bakura released an insane laugh – if only he had the guts to be what he used to be, then he would be able to release Diabound, his ancient but loyal creature of darkness. That way, he would be able to cover a much greater amount of land in a shorter space of time… and wouldn't have to worry about being caught up by a ghostly being who could kill on contact.
Oh well. If this didn't work out, then there was always the next life.
Bakura almost didn't make it across a vast pit – but managed to grab the other side and pull himself up, taking only a very small pause before racing off again, determined to find out how he would go about killing Set and Brother Semerkhet.
And then, Bakura's heart stopped. He stopped running, his mind lost about the chase.
He was in a vast room… but it hadn't been the one he was searching for. Enormous stone slabs were mounted up against the walls; some even engraved onto the floor Bakura stood on. They were all Monsters from the Ancient Shadow Games he had once played… and the details on the slabs were amazing. A Harpy Lady that the Thief had once won had every single one of her feathers carved into the stone slab, her body as curvy and as realistic as an actual Harpy Lady.
"Wow," Bakura breathed, unable to speak coherently. This room as just so amazing… he silently thanked the Gods that he had lived in the Egyptian Times, and not some other boring, lame location that would have given him some shit job to do, such as being in an Army.
Still, had that time been that of the Romans, at least he would be able to laugh at Yami for wearing plants in his hair.
Before he could think of anything else, however, Brother Semerkhet – as well as Set himself – entered through one of the slabs. Bakura braced himself, awe fading immediately.
"Well, well, well… you've managed to find this room from your own accord this time, I see…" Set purred, tone low and deadly. "At least that's one surprise I didn't anticipate. But looking around me… and at the ceiling, too… I can see that you stole many people's lives during your time of survival. What would little Ryou have to say if he saw this room?"
Bakura didn't even consider freezing, but instead fell into a lying down position as Brother Semerkhet floated past, red cloak flapping around him.
"Well, he wouldn't be impressed, but I'm sure he knows that I've changed for the better now."
"If you had changed for the better, you wouldn't have lasted it this far in my Tombs this time around," Set bellowed, his laughter shaking the slabs resting against the wall. Bakura gritted his teeth, and stood when Semerkhet was as far away from him as possible. He had spotted Diabound, and was willing to race over there.
"STOP HIM!" Set cried out, in Egyptian. Mummies and Duel Monsters alike seemed to emerge from slabs, the floor and walls, blocking Bakura from his path. And, swiftly moving through this crowd was Brother Semerkhet.
Before he would ever allow himself to get caught by one of Set's demons, Bakura moved quickly. From within his bag, he brought out his old rope with an iron hook on the end of it… and slung it at the nearest slab that he could reach. He yanked on it, in an odd, calm way, and it soon fell with a deafening crack, creating a vast hole in the floor.
Bakura then pulled his rope back, aiming and repeating the action on several other stone slabs, almost grimacing for all of the prizes he had never been able to claim. More mummies and Monsters of evil fell down into the vast pits, but Bakura paused.
He couldn't hear any crashes below of them falling to the ground beneath them. Surely they would have hit something?
Bakura dodged past Brother Semerkhet, past Set's clutches, and headed towards the other end of the room, where there was a door. He reached it, lunging his arm out to wrench the massive thing open… and was immediately thankful that he hadn't just ran blindly into the room, if it could be called that.
It contained spikes pointing directly at the entrance, scarab beetles on the floor and what appeared to be a very poisonous, very pissed off snake. Bakura slammed the door shut, and made to race back to the other way out of the room… it was only what seemed to be miles away, not that far… but then! Something happened.
The floor had been weakened by Bakura's previous attempts to kill – or, at least maim – his enemies. With a loud gasp, Bakura felt the floor beneath him breaking, and ran for all that he was worth. However, as soon as he got three meters from the trapped room, the floor fell from beneath his feet.
With a loud cry, Bakura managed to grab onto the ledge above, his fingers curling around on the square slabs above. His second hand pushed itself upwards to meet with the other, grabbing the broken floor for all he was worth.
Bakura was about to pull himself up, when something very doomed, very obvious happened.
Brother Semerkhet's ghostly red cape came fluttering into Bakura's view, as well as Set's disfigured, half-bandaged face. Set gave him a very ugly grin.
"Well, Bakura? What will you choose to do? Will you risk letting Semerkhet here kill you when you pull up onto the ledge… or will you plunge yourself to your own death, knowing what it will do to poor little Ryou?" He asked, daring to tread on Bakura's fingers. Bakura released a quiet groan, but didn't relax his grip any. If his fingers broke, then they broke. But he was not about to let himself fall into somewhere so deadly, so unfamiliar that it would kill him. His wide, chocolate brown eyes stared up in horror at the cackling, insane God, desperately trying to think of a way out of this.
"What will it be, Bakura? Allow Brother Semerkhet to kill you… Or kill yourself by falling into that Tomb down there?" Set repeated, voice alive with vindictive glee, "Either way, you will die!"
'Oh, shit,' Bakura thought desperately, feeling his fingers slip slightly as Set's foot lifted from the aching digits.
'What the fuck… will I do?'
Seto and Jou
They had finally managed to escape the bustling traffic that occurred on a daily basis, and were now speeding down a vast motorway. Seto was really giving his car some hell, pounding on the horn whenever he got stuck behind a driver going less than seventy miles per hour. It was all Jou could do to grab onto his seatbelt nervously.
But by God, whenever he tried to talk to Seto, all he got was a moment's worth of glare: a silent command for him to shut up. Conclusively, Jou was bored. He had played on the games on his phone, Seto's phone, and even the games on his lover's laptop. Jou also went on the Internet, but found nothing on there of great interest. He couldn't listen to music, because Seto told him that it distracted him whilst he drove, he couldn't play on a game with sound… Man.
So instead, Jou turned his attention to watching illuminated Service Stations zoom past, passing cars and trees, shown by the light of street lamps. All in all, it was a pretty shitty trip. But as he stared at the passing objects, he couldn't help but wonder what Yugi was doing… and, more importantly, where he was.
If he had dared to travel into one of the caves… then who knew where he would have gone? Those archaeologists had been totally professional, armed with a great amount of equipment to help them if they ever needed to bail out. And when they were reported missing for more than two weeks…
Why the fuck had the government not even thought of blocking off the beach? Who cares if the place loses tourists? Doesn't a bunch of human lives mean more than just a few million yen!
"Puppy."
Jou jumped slightly, turning to face his lover. His icy blue eyes were still fixed on the road, but when the blonde swirled around, he carried on.
"Try calling the Cabin. If you get the answer phone, then try one of their mobiles. Use my cell if you need to," He added, knowing that his beloved rarely ever had money on his phone to call out.
Jou typed in the numbers on Seto's phone, and pressed 'call.' He was doing as Seto said – calling the cabin first, then trying one of their cells before panicking.
"Come on, come on… pick up…" Jou muttered. After a few rings, the answer phone came on.
"Yug! You there, buddy? Yug, pick up, please, it's an emergency! Yami? C'mon, jus' pick up, man!" Jou cried, in despair. He reluctantly hung up, and tried ringing Yugi's cell.
Again, he got the Voice Mail message.
"YUG! C'MON, PAL, PLEASE TELL ME YOU HAVEN'T GONE INTO THOSE CAVES!" Jou screamed desperately, causing Seto to swerve dangerously across three lanes in surprise.
More car horns blared at them as they drove on.
Yugi, Yami and Ryou
"Ryou, we don't know where they're going, this is stupid, we should turn back already…"
"No! I'm not going to let Semerkhet and Set kill the love of my life!"
"But we're just going around in circles!" Yugi argued, panting as a stitch in his side hindered his speed somewhat. "Come on, Ryou, let's turn back."
"I SAID NO! LOOK, YOU GIES TURN BACK, BUT I'M NOT ABOUT TO LET BAKURA JUST DIE!"
Yugi sighed, knowing he would never get his point across. Ryou was clearly panicking, but there was little else he could do. He would be going insane if Yami's life was endangered in the way that Bakura's probably was being at the moment.
Ryou turned a corner then, following the small amount of rubble spread on the floor. He felt something swipe at him from the side, but just gritted his teeth and ran on, dismissing his friends' pleas as foolishness. They would understand one day, he reasoned – or more like, promised – himself, they would understand when they finally got together.
Trying not to feel bad about screaming at his friends like that, Ryou sped on. Deep down, he knew that this was a bad idea… But a thought that came sweeping across from Bakura's side of the link chilled his blood.
((Holy shit… Should I bother risking it with Semerkhet… BOLLUCKS! I… I'm gonna fall if I don't act soon…))
Ryou's eyes widened, and he wiped blood away from his side as it freely bled. He skidded past room after endless room, following the trail of destruction that he was certain would lead to Bakura… eventually.
And then, the rubble ended. With a heavily beating heart, Ryou proudly knew that he had found the place, smugly grinning to the panting friends behind him.
Ryou placed a hand on the wall to support himself, seeing that the floor seemed cracked and unstable… and saw Set and Semerkhet, both glaring mercilessly down a…
"BAKURA!"
Before Yugi could stop his friend, Ryou launched towards the two evil shadows, producing his weapons from out of nowhere.
"Where is he!"
Set gestured to the hole cruelly, applying more pressure on Bakura's cracking, slipping fingers. "See for yourself."
Ryou stared down at the flushed, panicked face of his yami, and didn't know how he managed to keep in his scream of terror. That hole… seemed so fucking big… If Bakura fell, then he would almost definitely die.
"Kura?"
Bakura gave his hikari his usual loveable grin.
"I love you."
And with that, he wrenched his fingers from underneath Set's foot, flinging his arms back as he began to fall.
At least when he died, he would be happy that Ryou loved him in return.
Yami's koi: In a perfect world, I would never write something so teasing to you readers.
Nefertiri: In a perfect world, your readers would still be here.
Yami's koi: yeah, um… about that wait… Well, I'm sorry. But I didn't want to write a load of crap and think it was great, and then release it, like, three days after I published the last chap… ehe? Reasonable?
Nefertiri: well, considering what you've been writing recently…
Yami's koi: don't answer me, Teary. Anyway, I owe my thanks to several bands for the ideas for this chapter… But most of all, the commiseration's must go to myself. (Grins.) Lol, joke. Please review me, and let me know how I can improve! It shall all contribute to making the next few chapters even better! Um, okay… I know you ain't listening… Never mind. I just hope you enjoyed this chapter enough to review me! Until I next write, Luvvies! Ja ne!