Actually, I re-wrote parts of it, because I thought it was actually too sappy -sweatdrops-
And you would not BELIEVE the amount I actually CUT-OUT of this chappy! Yup, twas too long!
Thankies to my wonderful reviews, I shall do RESPONSES!
Reponse to Reviews: yugirules: Glad yaz like it! I was trying to drop as many hints as possible about the orb being Yami without giving it completely away.
Ryoura: You try to make twists but drop hints?
Bayleef: I wasn't trying to make that a twist.
Ryoura: Ooo! an exception! ok!
Hope you like this chappy too and thankies for reviewing!
pagethereviewer: Yup! The point of that chappy was more to have character developement-
Ryoura: And for me to be adorably funny, apparently! XD
Yay! Peeps like your personality!
Ryoura: And I love the peeps! -glomps- Uh... about the villain? It was planned to be revealed by this chappy but... oh, read the end -sweatdrops- Thanks for reviewing!
cheeky-eyes: Oh, you don't know why he's called Pepper? Ryoura, would you care to explain?
Ryoura: Alrighty then! -ahem- In Soul Destruction: Chapter Eight - Yugi in Wonderland I began acting weird, once again, 927 words in, and started comparing opposites as Bakura said he was the dark and I was the light. the dialogue went EXACTLY like this!
"Yin and Yang, Dark and Light, Salt and Pepper... Hey! That's your new name!"
"What?"
"Pepper!"
Bayleef: O.O That was... freakishly precise...
Thanks for reviewing, and sorry Ryoura got so carried away...
Ryoura: -starts singing- Reach for the stars! Climb every mountain-
Okay thats enough from you...
Chicary: Yay! Steve got a moment in the spotlight! Goodie for him! -glomp- And I made him cool! Yay! Steve: AHHHH! Lemmiegolemmiegolemmiego!
Bayleef: ... Well, that didn't last long, did it?
Well, the Kuriboh sounds were a hint; from what I've heard, Yami's ka (or ba, I don't remember) is a Kuriboh, so you were half right! XD And ya, I didn't want a blowing up, in-your-face chappy... That?s the next one! Mwhahaha!
Ryoura: See Bayleef go crazy!
Yujhi: What did I do to deserve this...?
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
"This is talking"
"These are thoughts and mind-messages"
"Y...Yami?" Yugi breathed out, disbelief drenching his voice. His words silenced Ilia and Joe's argument, and even Bakura pulled his gaze from the ground and turned to Yugi, a light look of confusion on his face.
Yugi's mind was racing; Yami was here? He'd been with them all this time? Is that how he had helped Yugi earlier, when he was facing the Lost Souls? But then why had they never seen the orb of light prior to yesterday?
These questions and more raced into his mind, but just as quickly disappeared. What did he care about the how, what and why? Yami was here! He hadn't abandoned him! Lifting his hand slowly off the ground, Yugi reached out towards the glowing orb.
"No!" Yami's voice echoed in his mind, pained and sharp. Yugi's hand froze in mid-air, just centimetres above the orbs weakly glowing surface. "Don't..."
"Why Yami? What's wrong?" Yugi got to his knees and leant his hands on the floor at either side of the orb, staring at it intently. He knew Yami was finding communicating extremely difficult, so he focussed every one of his senses, physical and magical, on the orb before him. The world and people around him dissolved into darkness, ignored.
"Life force... weak..."
"Whose life force? Yours?" Yugi's eyes grew wide as a wave of understanding radiated from the orb. He instinctively reached towards it again, but it quickly repelled on touch, sending a small shot of pain through him and rolling a little further away. "Ow! Yami, what's going on?"
"Nearest life force..." Yami's voice seemed to be getting weak as he spoke; he was only speaking barely above a whisper now, and Yugi could hear exhaustion mixed with pain in his voice. ".. absorbed..."
"You absorb the nearest life force? Is that it?" Another wave, much weaker this time. Yugi shook his head. "Don't try to... talk," he said, at loss for a better word, "I understand now, don't waste your energy."
"Ryoura... Don't..."
"I know, I know," Yugi reassured quickly, trying to calm the spirit. "Don't interfere. I won't, I promise. Don't strain yourself." Letting his eyes slid closed, Yugi lowered his head and concentrated hard. He had to see Yami, looking at a little orb of light wasn't the same.
Slowly, carefully, he let his mind empty, his breathing steady and relaxed every muscle, his body drifting into a sort of sleep-like state. Then he raised his arms, feeling like they drifted through a warm wall of air into the cold, then lost every sense of physical feeling, separating his soul from his body.
He felt himself pulling out of his body, but didn't dare open his eyes, for fear of breaking his concentration. Once his soul was free of a physical vessel, he lost all feeling of the world around him; he didn't feel the cold of the room anymore, though he was conscious of everything, such as the floor he was kneeling on. Taking a deep breath, he allowed his eyes to open, and felt joy and heartache all at once at the sight of his darker half.
Yami's form lay on the floor before him, where the orb had once been, wearing the very same outfit Yugi had been him wear in his dream only a few nights ago; a white, sleeveless shirt, white pants and white shoes, but no silvery wings were on his back. His eyes were closed and his breathing slow, though hoarse.
But his skin was white, while the rest of his form grey, including his usual tri-coloured hair. Natural colours seemed to have deserted him; he was entirely coloured with different shades of pale grey.
"Ya-mi," Yugi choked out, blinking back the tears in his eyes. He crawled over to his darker half and stopped just beside him, looking down at his abnormally pale face. "H-How did this happen?" he muttered, his voice cracking with shock, "Y-your soul sh-ouldn't look like this... No soul should look like this... What's happening to you...? Yami?" He reached his hand out and touched the side of his other's face, receiving the same jolt of pain he had once he'd touched the orb.
Yami gasped lightly at the touch, then his face constricted in pain, and Yugi felt something warm hit against his outstretched arm and absorb into him. Yami had absorbed some of Yugi's life force on touch... but he had forced it out of himself and back to Yugi! Now he looked weaker then ever, the effort of forcing back Yugi's energy tolling on his own.
Shocked, Yugi reached forward again, but Yami sensed him this time and turned his head to the side. "No..." he croaked hoarsely, coughing lightly. Yugi blinked hard to keep tears from leaving his eyes, but he didn't move his hand towards or away from Yami.
"Yami..." Yugi said pleadingly, unable to stop his voice from shaking, "I can't stand to see you like this... I want to help..." he leant forward and placed his hand on the side of his Yami's face and shut his eyes in a wince as a small shock ran through him. The pain subsided quickly, but was replaced by a nauseating feeling of his life force being drained at a steady pace.
Yami shut his eyes, reluctantly absorbing energy from his hikari. "No..." he repeated again, but he was still to weak to fight back, and the amount of energy flowing into him, though small, seemed overwhelming to his soul. "Yugi... stop..."
Yugi shook his head weakly, noting how his energy was no longer draining out of him as quickly as before. Yami was beginning to limit the energy being transferred, creating a sort of barrier. A few seconds later, and Yugi seemed incapable of giving any more energy to his weakened Yami.
Desperately, he tried to force more energy out of himself, but Yami's hand raised up and held Yugi's wrist lightly. Looking at his Yami's face, Yugi tried in vain to hold back a sob as his darker half's eyes fluttered weakly open, their usual bright violet replaced my an ugly dark grey, which stood out among his pallid appearance. "No more..." he whispered softly, lifting Yugi's hand away from his face and turning his head to face him, eyes half-closed in exhaustion.
Yugi swallowed hard and nodded, shuddering slightly from weakness and shuffling a little closer to the spirit in front of him, blinking when his Yami smiled softly at him. His tired eyes looked into Yugi's with warmth, and he sighed lightly.
"I'm so proud of you, Yugi..." Yami's voice was calm and sincere, none of the previous pain of exhaustion he had been feeling sounding itself in his tone. "I've watched over you this entire time... every day since the Millennium Puzzle was solved by Yujhi... And I've seen how you've grown and learned to care for your hikari..." he smiled softly and let go of Yugi's wrist, which he had still been holding, and clasped his hand in Yugi's, "And even through all that, you managed to stay the same person... You're still my little brother, the Yugi I always knew and cared for..."
"Yami..." Yugi breathed, tightened his grip on Yami's hand and shutting his tear-filled eyes, but quickly opened them again when he felt a pull at his hand. Yami had rolled himself onto his side so he was facing Yugi and was trying to push himself off the ground. "Yami, don't-" Yugi began, but when Yami had pushed himself up slightly, leaning on his left arm, he lifted his right arm from the floor and held it out to Yugi. Yugi stared at Yami for a moment, who was still smiling warmly, then couldn't control his emotions anymore. Tears fell from his eyes and he threw his arms around Yami's torso, the taller boy wrapping his right arm around Yugi's shoulders and hugging him, still smiling.
"I've missed you so much Yami!" Yugi cried, his face buried in Yami's shoulder. Yami pulled himself up with some effort with his arm that was wrapped around Yugi, so he was sitting sideways. He placed his left hand on the back of Yugi's head and leaned his head on Yugi's, hugging him comfortingly as the younger one cried into his white shirt. "You don't know how hard it's been without you... I haven't had anyone to turn to since Yujhi left, and that Lost Soul was playing with my mind. I couldn't tell who was my enemy, and I couldn't stop that spirit from taking me over. I just... I'm just so..."
"Shh... I know Yugi, I know..." Yami hushed, stroking Yugi's hair and hugging him, "but I'm here now... and I'll help you defeat this new enemy. I won't leave you ever again... I promise..."
Yugi smiled into Yami's shirt and hugged the spirit tightly, whispering softly, "Thank you..."
The two spirits fell into a comfortable silence, Yami hugging Yugi to him, who returned the gesture with just as much affections as his older brother did.
"'How well the poet put it when he called his friend the half of his soul'," Yami thought to himself after a few minutes of silence, "'I felt that our two souls had been as one, living in two bodies, and life to me was fearful because I did not want to live with only half a soul'..."
Yami smiled down at Yugi, who seemed to have let himself relax for the first time in months, eyes shut and head leaning against Yami's shoulder. He seemed to feel safe in his Yami's presence. "Yugi... I don't remember who said those words, but they were words I lived by since the day we were separated...
"But whoever said it also believe that love overcame death... and I believed that too..." he hugged Yugi a little tighter, "Your my little brother Yugi, and I love you too much to let anything happen to you... I came back with a single mission; to help you fulfil your destiny and protect you from this...enemy..." he frowned and leaned his head on Yugi's, shutting his eyes, "I won't leave you ever again Yugi... We'll get through this together, and we'll save your friends, I promise..."
"What... is this?"
Steve gripped the Millennium Rod tightly in his left hand, his arms spread straight out beside him as if to catch the air, slowing his decent through his water-like surroundings. Below him he could see the darkness finally ended, a floor of grey sand blanketing the ground below him. But scattered all around the ground below him, as far as he could see in all directions, were figures that were too far away to see clearly, but looked sickeningly like people.
He had spread his arms to slow his fall from a gravity pull to a glide when he spotted the ground approaching, and the closer he came to the ground the worse he bgan to feel. Those figures were people! And they were chained to the ground!
"Get a hold of yourself Steve," he told himself, taking a deep breath and sighing, "They're not drowning, they're spirits... just like you are right now... Ah crud, why have I gotton myself into?" he thought, as if the strangeness of the situation had just occurred to him.
He was only a few metres above the souls now, and mentally begged the Millennium Rod to prevent him falling any further; he didn't want to get too close. Surprisingly, the Rod flashed golden for a second and his form stopped descending, floating about two metres above the bodies. "That's good..." he sighed to himself, looking around. People of all ages were floating in the dark waters, completely lifeless, wearing clothes from all different ages. It made him shiver, but Steve quickly forced himself to look around, focussing on the task at hand. No familiar faces from where he was right now.
He leant forward slightly and a soft glow emitted from the rod, moving him forward with a simple thought. "I'm getting the hang of thing," he thought after a few minutes, "but I'll never find the others just floating around..." he held the Rod vertically in front of him with both hands. Without a second thought, he willed it to help detect the Millennium magic of his friends, opening his mind to the sixth sense of magic. At first, nothing. Then, to his left, a ripple of magic. It was very like the waves he felt radiate from the Millennium Rod, but much weaker.
He turned and forced himself in the direction of the ripple, still using the Millennium Rod's powers to move faster then before. Unfortunately, he couldn't split his concentration like the others could, so every few minutes he had to stop and search for the magic to make sure he was going in the right direction. Frustrated after stopping for the fourth time, he forced himself forward stubbornly, "Come on guys... help me!"
"Yujhi..." Ryoura looked up suddenly, staring blankly forward, "Did you...?"
"Ya, I sensed it too," Yujhi nodded, sitting up on his bed. He shut his eyes tightly and focussed on the tiny wave of magic that had radiated from someone around them, trying to identify it. It was only a small wave, so they both had to focus hard to get any information from it.
"It's Millennium Magic, that's for sure," Ryoura said, but he didn't sound very happy with that discover. The last thing he remembered was the Millennium Items he and his friends had been in the hands of the spirit that had taken Yugi over. Examining the second wave of magic, he became confused. "But it's not the Puzzle... or the Ring... It's not the Necklace either... What-?"
He was cut short when Yujhi's had grabbed his arm quickly. He was not trying to move him, but his grip with tight. "Yujhi?" Ryoura looked back to see Yujhi shivering, eyes wide and terrified. "Yujhi, what's wrong?" he turned slightly so he was sitting sideways on the bed, facing Yujhi. When he didn't get a response, he held Yujhi's shoulders and shock him lightly. "Yujhi what is it?"
Yujhi's eyes focussed on Ryoura, and he gripped the taller boys forearms, "That's the Millennium Rod! It's Mark! He came back, and now he's after me again!"
"No, Yujhi, hold it," Ryoura said calmly, trying to prevent the shorter teen from panicking anymore, "It can't be him; he has no reason to come after you-"
"Yes he does! He wants to torture me!" Yujhi yelled, remembering all too well the taunting, jeering and teasing that had taken place during his repeated matches with Mark:
" Beg for mercy and I may end it quickly for you." Marks sinister voice hissed in his mind, "Go ahead. Beg me to kill you. I know you don't want to go any further" "You know you want me to end it..."
"Yujhi, snap out of it!" Ryoura yelled, forcing the teen to look at him. Seeing the fear in Yujhi's eyes, he calmed his voice again. "I don't think it's Mark... If it was, then I'd since the Ishtar connection straight away, I know it all to well..." He pulled Yujhi's hands away from his arms lightly, not breaking eye contact with his friend, "And if it somehow turns out to be Mark, I won't let him hurt you, ok?"
Yujhi swallowed hard and nodded weakly, though he was still shaking.
"Whoever this is may be our only chance to escape..." Ryoura muttered, letting go of Yujhi's hands and getting up off the bed. "You stay here, I'm going back to that weird water-place."
"What?" Yujhi blinked, looking up at him. "Your leaving me here alone?"
"I came here from that dimension, but you seemed to come straight frmo that place where you re-live your match with Mark," he stopped and looked back at Yujhi, "So chances are we'll go back to those places... I wouldn't risk it if I were you."
Yujhi thought of protesting, but when an image of Mark's monsters flashed through his mind, he quickly changed his mind. "Ok..."
Ryoura smiled at Yujhi and grinned, throwing on his weak 'motherly impersonation', "Don't get up to too much while I'm missing, darling!"
"I won't mommy..." Yujhi commented sarcastically, smiling weakly as Ryoura's form began to fade away, his mind pulling out of Yujhi's soul room and back to his own.
"Hello? Yugi?" Joe waved his hand in front of Yugi's face again, but still got no response. Bakura had gone back to ignoring the rest of the group, sitting quietly be Ryoura?s side and staring expectantly at the black pool of water ahead of him. Ilia was kneeling by Steve, making sure he was alright, while Joe was by Yugi. The Puzzle spirit had shut his eyes while kneeling by the blue orb and seemed to have fallen asleep right there.
"Crud it," Joe growled sitting back, "What's going on with him?"
"Forget him," Bakura muttered, not taking his eyes off the pool when Joe looked over at him, "he's pre-occupied. I don't know what he's doing, but he's oblivious to our existence right now."
Joe blinked blankly, "Meaning?"
"He doesn't know we exist."
"Oh," Joe scratched the back of his head and looked back at Yugi, then turned to see Ilia laying Steve down carefully. Growling, he threw his arms in the air. "Super! Now we've got two of 'em!"
"Hopefully, Steve won't take much longer..." Ilia whispered, frowning down at her boyfriend. She wouldn't admit it to Joe, be she was starting to get worried. Steve had been down there a long time. Was he ok? Had he found the others? Had something gone wrong and he was actually trapped there too? "Come on Steve," she whispered, biting her lip nervously, "You're the only one who can save them..."
Ryoura opened his eyes slowly to the world of dark water and frowned, placing his hand on his throat. He forgot about that; he couldn't breath here. It didn't harm him, but it was terrifying. "I feel like a corpse..." he thought, but a wave of magic to his left caught his attention, his mind blanking to all else. Looking over, he couldn't see more then a few metres away from himself, so he couldn't see the magic user.
Still, it was his only shot. Glancing at Yujhi's unconscious form beside him, he raised his hand on front on him. He couldn't call, as his voice was gone along with his ability to breath, so he would have to do the next best thing; create signals. "I don't have any real magic here..." he thought, narrowing his eyes, "So I'll just have to use what I can..."
He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth as a form of white light formed in his palm, it's energy torn from his very soul. It shone brightly in the dark surrounding, and emitted three powerful waves of magic before it disappeared completely, it's energy drained.
"That better be enough..." Ryoura thought, exhausted, and shut his eyes. His soul was in a weak state in this place; using to much energy would be fatal.
Steve was only a few dozen metres away when the first wave of magic struck him, causing him to raise his gaze and spoke the glow emitting from the energy Ryoura was using. With the Millennium Rod, he identified it's owner, and was darting through the water faster then ever. "Ryoura?" he called out, head darting back and forth. No response; why wasn't he calling back? His place may have been under water, but his speech hadn't been effected.
He began to slow as he travelled, looking back and forth, until he spotted qho he was looking for; Ryoura, and Yujhi was right next to him! "Finally, a little luck!" He thought, darting down towards his friends. He stopped right in front of Ryoura and was about to greet him, but froze. This was the closest he had been to any of the souls in this dimension, and for the first time, he realised just how lifeless they looked. Ryoura and Yujhi were both frightfully pale Yujhi seeming more so as his skin was a contrast to his black hair- and they weren't breathing at all. "Are... are they..." he thought fearfully. No, Ilia never said anything about the souls being dead, that probably wasn't even possible.
But they weren't breathing, or moving. Could they really be alive. Lifting a shakey hand, Steve placed it lightly on Ryoura's shoulder, moving back quickly when Ryoura's head jerked up and looked at him. "What the heck?" Steve exclaimed in fright, yelping when he bumped into another lifeless soul behind him. He quickly moved back towards Ryoura, "At least that one didn't wake up too."
Ryoura reached forward and grabbed Steve's wrist. He had an ice cold touch, sending shivers through Steve, but Ryoura didn't seem to notice. He was gesturing to Yujhi and himself, then looked at Steve quizzically. But the petrified Kaiba just pulled his wrist out of Ryoura's grip and moved away.
"What's going on Ryoura?" Steve asked shakily. Ryoura tilted his head in confusion, then pointed back at Yujhi then himself, looking at Steve then shrugging. "Why arn't you talking?" Steve almost yelled, afraid to get any closer to his friend, "Why aren't you breathing? What's going on?" Ryoura tapped his throat and shook his head -he couldn't talk?- then smiled weakly and shrugged. He then pointed down at the shackles around his and Yujhi's ankles and then at the Rod, looking at Steve questioningly.
"I use this?" Steve looked down at his Rod. Ryoura nodded and pointed at the ankles again, with a look that Steve just knew said, in complete Ryoura fashion, 'Hurry up now, haven't got all day'. He was still a little shaken by his friend being mute and... the only word for people who don't breath was dead, but he didn't want to use that term. "Worry about it later..." he thought, floating forward and holding his Millennium Rod out, pointing the head of it at the shackle around Ryoura's foot.
"Ok..." he whispered, closing his eyes. "Please, don?t give up on me now..." he thought, and as if to reassure him he felt an amount of magic move from his body to th Millennium Rod, focussing in the head of it. He added an extra amount, just to be sure it did it's job, then released his magic, heard the metal around Ryoura's foot explode and opened his eyes to see the chain and whatever remained dissolve. "Yes!" he cheered, punching the air.
But then a hand grabbed his foot and tugged him back. Looking back, Steve's eyes grew wide as he realised that one of the other souls had grabbed him, and a number of others were reaching out for him too! Pulled back by one, he was quickly coming into reaching distance of about for others.
Ryoura's fist met that of the man who was grabbed Steve and the spirit quickly let Steve go. Souls from all directions were reaching for him now, clawing through the water and flexing their fingers, reaching for him. "What's going on? Ah!" Steve yelled, hitting one of the hands away by swinging his Millennium Rod at it.
"They want you to free them too!"
"Ryoura?" he looked at his friend, shocked. He hadn't heard that with his ears, Ryoura's voice had echoed in his mind. "How...?"
"Get Yujhi free!" Ryoura's voice yelled at him, but his mouth hadn't moved, and he was trying desperately to defend Steve from the spirits that was reaching for him.
"R...Right!" Steve shook his head and turned to Yujhi, focussing his magic like he had before and preparing to launch it. Unfortunately, before he could, one of the spirits pulled themselves down through the water and wrapped their arms around Yujhi's legs, blocking the chain from view. One spirit behind Yujhi grabbed his shoulders and pulled the unconscious boy back, reaching towards Steve herself. "Ryoura, what do I do? They're blocking him from me!"
But Ryoura was suffering a similar situation to Yujhi; the spirits that could reach him had wrapped their arms around his shoulders, his arms, his torso, whatever way restricted his movement. He couldn't move anymore, trapped in a circle of spirits. "They're trying to make you free them!"
"Maybe if I do-"
"Don't!" Ryoura's mind yelled, and winced as one soul pulled hard on his arm. "Do you want to be the cause of more Lost Souls in the world? Their bodies are long gone! You'd just be setting their spirits lose on the world!"
Steve growled and turned around to face the spirits that had now encircled Yujhi, looking back and forth from Ryoura to Yujhi, then and pointed his Millennium Rod at the spirits. "Get away from my friends!" he yelled, releasing a bolt of magic that struck the spirits hard, but only their top-halves. He was careful to aim his magic away from their shackles, hitting them hard with Millennium Magic and forcing them away from his friends.
The man covering Yujhi's shackle was struck back. Steve launched an attack and struck the chain. It was destroyed instantly.
Yujhi's eyes shot open when Steve grabbed his wrist, staring fearfully around as Steve used the Millennium Rod to pull himself and Yujhi above the crowd of souls. He turned to help Ryoura, but the youngest teen had already kicked on of the male spirits in the face to launch himself upwards, and had grabbed Steve's arms to stay suspended a few meters above the crowd.
"What was for the waist-hugging you freak!" Ryoura yelled mentally down at the spirit he had kicked in the face, making a face at the spirit who Yujhi and Steve were sure was mentally cursing him.
"Let's get out of here!" Steve yelled, Yujhi nodding eagerly in agreement, and raised the Millennium Rod above his head, willing it to pull them to the surface and out of this spirit world.
"Yami?"
Yami smiled softly and pulled away from the smaller spirit, looking down at him. "You sensed correctly Yugi..."
Yugi looked up with shock. "Then...?" he began, a smile forming on his face.
"Yes," Yami nodded, placing his hand lightly over Yugi's eyes. "Go back to your body Yugi... Go greet your hikari..."
To Be Continued
Ryoura: Eww, why'd you put the 'waist-hugging' thing in?
Bayleef: I actually, dunno, I thought it was funny! XD
Ryoura: Bayleef be crazy, yupyup.
SHOOT! That Yugi and Yami stuff threw the chappy off completely! I don't really care, coz I loved it! -glomps- Promise there'll be more next chappy though!
Hope you guys enjoyed it, coz it's one of the few chappys I actually liked! Ending's a little skimpy, but I like the basic idea!
please review and slán slán til next time me lovely readers!
Bay Bay!
Bayleef
