A/N

Note: So we've got a Lady who's channeling Morpheus, Yami's oblivious, and Yuugi's a smartass with a big mouth. Oh dear, what've I created? This chapter's mostly Yuugi and Yami-centric. I'll be focusing on Bakura, Ryou and a few others in the next one. -grins-

Oh yeah, and FF(dot)net won't do the page breaks anymore. Bitch.

Enjoy and please review.

DARK PASSIONS

Chapter 15: Otherworldly

"Why are we still sitting here?" Yuugi muttered in Yami's direction, both of them watching the servant as she marched back down the hallway.

He slumped back against the couch and slid down until he was nearly horizontal. He crossed his arms and glared up at Yami, his gaze clearly saying 'I blame you'.

"We have already been over this," Yami sighed and shifted, jiggling Yuugi in the process. "It is a show of power. By sitting patiently, you prove that you have just as much power as she does."

"Oh, I'll give her power alright," Yuugi sneered, "She'll regret making me speak those fucking languages. No one controls me. No one."

Yami just sighed again and refrained from pointing out that Yuugi was sitting next to someone who spoke 'those fucking languages'. 'He never does care if he insults me,' Yami concluded while Yuugi eyed him strangely.

"Hey you, Yami," Yuugi snapped. "Stop sitting so straight-backed. I feel lousy enough as it is; don't make it worse."

Yami looked down, the first flashes of his own bad mood going through his eyes. Yuugi didn't notice. "How am I making your bad mood worse, Yuugi?"

"You're making me feel like I'm beneath you," Yuugi didn't catch the vampire's nuances. "You always do that. Right now, I feel like I'm a used tissue next to you, this tall, majestic pillar of power."

Yami closed his eyes and silently counted to ten in his head. Yuugi shifted guiltily around in his seat. Yami finally opened his mouth to respond but Yuugi interrupted.

"I'm pushing my own issues again, aren't I?" Yuugi looked up at the vampire through his bangs.

Yami had a moment in which he realized he was dominating the conversation. He then realized that whatever he said next would make or break the flimsy friendship he had with Yuugi. Another long moment passed between them in silence.

"I should spank you," Yami finally replied, a smirk on his lips as Yuugi looked up at him, surprised. He opened his mouth but nothing came out; for once, the human had no quick-witted reply handy.

Yami slowly slid down the seat until he was mirroring Yuugi, whose eyes got even bigger. He still didn't know what to say, and Yami knew he was enjoying having the upper hand entirely too much.

"What's the matter, Yuugi?" Yami's eyes glittered with suppressed mirth. "Cat got your tongue? Or would that vampire, in this case?"

Yuugi opened and closed his mouth a few times, cleared his throat, and didn't notice that his face had gone red. He settled for turning away from the vampire and staring at the other end of the long corridor they were sitting in.

Yami finally let a deep-throated chuckle out and reached over with one hand to turn Yuugi's face back to him. "Hasn't anyone ever told you it is rude not to face whom you're speaking to?"

To that, Yuugi had a comeback already on his lips, but when Yami turned him back, he'd brought his own face closer. The end result was that they were only inches apart.

Yami listened as Yuugi's heartbeat sped up and his breathing became shallower, his own breathing quickening. Maybe it was his imagination, but time seemed to slow down until all he could focus on was the human in front of him.

The sound of the servant's shoes clicking on the floor brought Yami abruptly back first and he moved back from Yuugi, who was blinking wildly. The servant came to an abrupt stop in front of them, her military background increasingly apparent.

"My lady will see you now," she said briskly. Without another word, she swiveled on her heel and began walking back down the corridor.

Yami just raised his eyebrows and stood up to follow when he noticed Yuugi still sitting on the couch stubbornly.

'We don't have time for this,' Yami frowned and quick as lightning, hooked his arm under Yuugi's elbow, dragging him to his feet. Yami threw an arm around Yuugi's shoulder and began walking forward, his inhuman strength forcing Yuugi to move along with him.

Yami managed to keep Yuugi moving all the way down the corridor before Yuugi shook himself loose with a dirty look and continued walking alone. They reached the end of the corridor and followed the servant through a set of old wooden doors into a dimly lit anteroom.

They hesitated near the doors and surveyed the room. Then a breathy, slightly hoarse voice called through the open doors at the other end. "Come in, my dears. Come in, come in."

"Said the Wicked Witch," Yuugi muttered just loud enough for Yami to elbow him in the side. The vampire took the lead and walked into the main room with all the arrogance that being Da'kana gave him, Yuugi on his heels. Neither jumped when the doors shut behind them suddenly, much more preoccupied with what was around them.

The room was dominated by a large, four-poster bed that was decorated with an elaborate bedspread and canopy, tassels hanging down from it and shading the occupant from sight. Underneath their feet was a thick, Arabic-looking rug with its own tassels on the ends; where it ended, it exposed a glossy, hardwood floor. Along one wall was a large window behind ceiling-to-floor curtains made out of red velvet that caught the light prettily. The entire room was a feast for the eyes.

Yami and Yuugi walked around to stand to one side of the bed, the vampire calmly watching the shifting figure in the shadow of the bed's canopy while the human began to fidget impatiently. Yami barely restrained from rolling his eyes at him. 'You'd think all this effort wasn't to help him with his own powers.'

"I am Lady Meredith. The Devil in the details, Sorceress of the night, Keeper of the old knowledge, Child of the moon, and Seeker of The One Way. I am Lady Meredith," she spoke slowly, in a deep voice.

"Poetic, aren't you?" Yuugi replied wryly. Yami quickly pushed him behind his back and squeezed Yuugi's wrist to stop him from saying anything else. Coincidently, it was the wrist with the Mark, and Yuugi suddenly began to feel a burning sensation. Yuugi stopped struggling against Yami in favor of nursing his arm.

Yami turned back to the Lady and bowed with his head, keeping his eyes on her the entire time. "I am Yami, prince of the Da'kana of this city. I have with me my Marked, Yuugi." He spoke formally; mirroring the formal introduction they'd been given. "Lady Meredith, how have I not heard of you before?"

"Frankly, I'd be surprised if you had," the Lady answered, dropping all airs and formality without warning. Yuugi was too busy rubbing his wrist to pay attention to what was going on. "I just got here a couple of weeks ago. You could say that I'm touring the Da'kana cities." She continued with a grin.

Yami raised an eyebrow. "Funny, a wizard by the name of Zed said that you'd been around for months."

"Well then," she shrugged and sipped her tea. "Guess he was exaggerating, wasn't he?"

Yami and Yuugi shared a look.

"And don't call me Lady Meredith. It's Merry," she added, scooting forward out of the shadow of the canopy and looking up at them from the bed. The light showed an aging, pixy-like face with dark brown curls waving every which way around her face. Her eyes were an even darker brown, and at passing glance, her pupils weren't visible, her eyes were so dark.

"Say, you're giving my neck a crick like that. Have a seat, why don't ya." Merry waved her hand, and he turned around to see a couch sliding across the floor toward the bed.

Yuugi looked up then and noticed the moving couch. "Well what do you know? We finally find someone who gives good hospitality. Though it is a bit late," he plopped down first on the couch and rubbed the spot next to him half-jokingly. "Come on, Yami. Get that stick out of your ass and sit down."

Yami inhaled and was about to reprimand Yuugi. Of course, it was only for appearance's sake; he was actually struggling not to laugh out loud at the human's informality. Yami didn't actually mind Yuugi's disregard for his status like he would from another vampire.

Merry leaned forward on her bed and moved more into the light, "Ooh, I like you, Yuugi. You're like a breath of fresh air after all the pompous pricks I've met."

Yuugi gave her a suspicious look. "Either I've missed Yami giving you my name or you've read my mind. I hope it's the first because if it's the second, I'm not ashamed to throw a hissy fit. I'm really sick of people reading my mind. I get enough of that with him," Yuugi looked over at Yami as he sat down beside him on the couch.

"It's my lucky day then; it was the first," Merry laughed again. "What can I do for you, gentlemen?"

There was silence for a bit. Neither Yuugi nor Yami had thought ahead this far. Yuugi finally spoke, "I don't know how to sugarcoat this so I'm just going to say it: I have some hotshot power – that I don't even want or need, frankly – and according to Yami here and Zed, if I don't figure out some way to control it, I'm going to be like some huge magnet attracting every power-hungry rat that gets a whiff of my AWESOME POWER."

"Somehow, I get the feeling that you don't really believe that," Merry looked at him, her gaze giving him the impression that she was looking into his soul through his eyes. "I think you're wondering what the hell you're doing here since, in your eyes, you don't need any help. In fact, you don't think you're in the least bit of danger. This – it must be – some elaborate trick."

Yuugi regarded her with suspicion for a moment, "Are you sure you're not reading my mind?"

"Quite," she replied simply and looked at Yami. "And what power is this?"

Yami answered quietly, "He has the power of Eclipse."

Merry's eyebrows disappeared into the dark tangle of hair on her head. She turned back to Yuugi, "Do you know what that means, boy?"

He crossed his arms and raised his own eyebrows back at her, "Apparently not."

Merry spared a moment to 'tsk' at Yami before settling herself back on the pillows. "It means, dear Yuugi, that Eclipse has given you his power. And you not even Da'k! How did this happen?"

Yami shook his head, "I do not know. He came with his power already; I only helped him unlock it."

"Can I break into this little morose discussion here for a moment?" Yuugi interjected. "Who exactly IS Eclipse?"

The Lady and vampire shared a look before Yami cleared his throat. "What you have to understand, Yuugi, is that Eclipse was not exactly good. Nor did he always have his power."

"So?" Yuugi prompted.

"Eclipse was once a High Priest in the time when I was still Da'sara-"

"And Pharaoh," Yuugi interjected, still slightly sore for not having been told.

"-Yes, and Pharaoh. He had a weakness, a greed for power. No, it was a lust. He lusted after power. Eclipse finally accumulated enough power to overtake the throne. And he did.-"

"He did more than that," Merry interrupted him this time. "Hell, Yuugi, Eclipse was such a badass that he had the empire in a war with itself for decades. When it got so bad that the people couldn't hold themselves up, let alone their ruler, he went for the throne-"

"And he would have had it, too. If certain powers had not been called and put into alliance," Yami jumped in again. "Eclipse went into the afterlife, and Osiris cast him into eternal hell, but not before he managed to send out one, last curse."

Yuugi shook himself out of the pictures their words had brought, "Curse?"

"His power was too big to take back apart into the things which made it, you understand?" Merry asked and Yuugi nodded. "Osiris will swallow it for a time but it will come back up periodically and be born back into this world."

"The strange thing about you having it, Yuugi," Yami continued, "is that you're Da'sara. Human. This power should seek someone strong, most likely Da'kana, to inflict the most damage to the ones who are in the living world.

"And it chose little, old me," Yuugi concluded, then blinked. "Oh, I'm just loving this."

Merry clapped her hands and broke the silence that had descended. "Now, who wants tea?"

xXx

Seto landed on the next building's roof top and turned to face the wind, searching for the unique smell of antiseptics and gauze that was the hospital. A first for him: being a vampire and healing at abnormal rates, he hadn't thought he'd need to pay any visits to the hospital ever. Another first: he was wrong.

But that wasn't what was bothering the vampire; going to find a hospital was the least of his problems right then. What was bothering him was that he'd felt it necessary to take the human along with him. No, not exactly. He'd picked up the unconscious singer and slung him over his shoulder before he knew what he was doing and now, he couldn't force himself to put the human down.

'Pathetic, really,' he told himself. 'Put the human down somewhere and the Council will have to prove it was you. If you're the one who brings him into the hospital, you might as well be shouting from the rooftops 'It was me!'.' He could see how levelheaded that sounded, how practical…Yet, he still couldn't put the human down. He just couldn't. 'Yeah,' he concluded, 'you're screwed.'

There.

He caught the smell somewhere to his left. He flexed his legs and lifted off the building, leaning his body in the direction of the next building's roof.

Seto misjudged the distance between buildings and landed slightly harder than he intended; the human he was carrying grunted painfully with the landing and he had a moment of panic where the vampire thought the singer had awoken.

But no, he had not. Seto gave a sigh of relief before he realized what he was doing. He straightened and gave himself a mental shake. 'None of that,' he told himself…then admonished himself for talking to himself. Then just gave up completely. Thankfully, the remaining trip to the hospital passed with little incident until he arrived at his destination.

He walked through the sliding glass doors and walked up to the receptionist at the desk, ignoring or not noticing the stares from the other patients waiting.

Lowering his head until he could see the startled woman through the glass, he spoke, "This hum- He needs your help. I do not know how hurt he is."

The receptionist gathered enough wits to put her glasses on and scramble together the necessary paperwork to admit the singer to the hospital. "Y-you will need to fill out these forms to his insurance, his medical coverage- if it's a different type of insurance, and you'll also have to state your relationship to this man so the appropriate form may be given for that, as well. I assume you are his boyfriend, Mister…?"

Seto growled and shifted until the singer was supported on his left arm. He swiped the rather thick stack of papers out of her hand and leaned forward, leaning his weight on his hand.

"I don't have TIME for this," Seto growled. "Do you know who I am?" His voice was rising and becoming clearer to the would-be patients listening behind them.

The receptionist shook her head warily and pushed her glasses up her nose. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't."

"I am Seto Kaiba," he continued, his voice carrying down the hall and into the staff lounge room where several receptionists and security guards were on a break. "CEO of Kaiba Corp and I demand a doctor attend to this human right away" –he narrowed his eyes at the receptionist- "or this establishment will see its way to hell as fast as I can get it there."

"Now, now, Mr. Kaiba," a nervous, male voice answered from behind him and Seto turned to see a doctor making his way down the hall toward him, a door marked 'STAFF' swinging shut behind him. "There's no reason to go to those extremes. If you'll just put him down on this cot here, I'll do all I can for your boyfriend."

"No, I will not," Seto growled but followed him down the hall with the singer still in his arms. "And he's not my boyfriend. Where are you leading me?"

"For an MRI scan for your boyf- the young man with you, Mr. Kaiba," the doctor called over his shoulder as he stopped in front of an elevator and turned to eye the singer. "By the looks of the bruising already appearing on his left temple, I'd say there's been some trauma to the head."

When Seto didn't have a ready response, the doctor nodded to himself and turned back toward the elevator as it dinged its arrival.

They rode the elevator in silence, both staring at opposite walls.

The silence became almost bearable until they reached the doors of the MRI ward.

"Put the young man down on this table here, Mr. Kaiba and we'll just step into the next room-" The doctor began pleasantly but Seto interrupted.

"What are you going to do? Why is he being left alone in this room?" Seto's voice became more heated as he went on, "He needs medical attention right this minute and it'll be your head if he doesn't get it!"

"Mr. Kaiba," the doctor remained calm, used to this sort of behavior, "Apparently you haven't been in a hospital often or you would understand that that machine is one that'll take an MRI scan of his brain. This will allow me to assess the damage, if any, done to his head and what may be done to remedy the problem."

He took a breath and waited for more questions from the CEO. None came. "Now, if you please, place him gently on the table. I'm asking you to trust me, Mr. Kaiba."

Seto hesitated, standing over the table and glancing back and forth between the doctor and the machine. In all his years, he'd trusted few humans. They had a habit of either betraying or dying on him. But something called to him now and nudged him into making his decision.

With a soft sigh, Seto placed the singer gently on the table and followed the doctor out of the room, glancing back only once as he went through the door.

xXx

"I did not think you would know so much about the Egypt of the past," Yami was watching Merry closely as she poured his tea. "Most of those in our world do not find the past necessary to live in the present."

"But it is necessary if you want to have a future," Merry rebutted, moving over to fill Yuugi's outstretched cup. "And I'm not like most. I don't like being the same as everyone else."

"Good for you," Yuugi raised his cup to her and followed the gesture by bringing the cup to his lips. The next moment, he cried out and would have dropped the cup of Merry hadn't been forewarned and levitated it off the ground.

"I'd assumed you wouldn't need the standard 'careful, it's hot,' wise as you are," Merry said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, excuse me if tea isn't my usual, uh…cup of tea," he finished lamely. Then remembered what he'd been going to say before, and frowned. "Merry, I've got something on my mind that maybe you can help me with."

"What's that, Yuugi?" Merry replied, her eyes glittering as she settling back against the pillows surrounding one of the canopy's posts.

"What the hell was with making me and Yami here speak those languages in the elevator? What kind of 'show of power' was that?" he asked, glancing at Yami at the end.

"Actually, no one forced me to speak," Yami broke in. Yuugi stopped talking and looked at him. Yami couldn't help but smirk. "I happen to speak 'those' languages."

Merry chortled. "What did you expect, Yuugi dearest? Here's a vampire who's been around for three thousand years or so…and you expected him to stick to one language? Lord, I don't even know what they spoke in Egypt in the past but it certainly wasn't what we're speaking now."

"Not my fault if I find that hard to swallow," Yuugi muttered before taking a more cautious sip of his tea. "Answer my question."

Merry grinned lazily. "Say please."

Yuugi gritted his teeth and glanced at Yami's carefully blank face, but got no help from him. "Please."

Merry sipped her own tea before carefully setting it on its saucer. "To be honest, I wasn't planning on doing anything of the sort. Your power, Yuugi, that I now know is the power of Eclipse, called to mine."

"Called?" Yuugi raised an eyebrow, determined to keep hold of his indignation even as he felt it slipping away, watching Merry's puzzlement.

"Yes, called. It woke my power up, for lack of a better word. And then it started sucking it away," she watched him, "calling it to yours. Like a magnet. Naturally, I fought back the only way that I could think of: confusion."

Yuugi opened and closed his jaw, at a loss for words again. "I…didn't do it on purpose," he finally managed.

"I know that now, meeting you," she replied grumpily, taking another sip of her tea. Then she seemed to remember Yami and turned her attention to him. "You've been quiet, prince Yami," she remarked, addressing him by name for the first time and using his title.

"Just Yami, Merry, thank you." For once, the vampire looked uncomfortable but he cleared his throat and smoothed his face over into his blank mask again. "The reason we came to you was that you were recommended to us by the wizard, Zed. He spoke highly of you, and we thought you would be able to help us."

"He spoke highly of me," Merry tried to brush it off as a small thing but Yuugi caught her blush before she turned away. Thankfully, he spared her with his teasing. 'Too easy,' he thought.

"You have witnessed firsthand the trouble that Yuugi's power will bring him. That is, unless he learns to control it," Yami continued. "Would you do us the honor of teaching him the control that he needs?"

Merry pursed her lips, her gaze switching back and forth between them as she thought. She didn't miss a chance to drink her tea, and she finished her cup before she'd made a decision.

Yuugi spent the time watching her to stave away boredom. He managed to hide his surprise when her face seemed to change in front of his eyes and grow older, more wrinkles appeared and her skin became paler, but her hair remained as bushy and brown as ever. He then remembered how Yami had told him that some vampires liked to put on a glamour to hide their true appearance.

When Yuugi had asked him why, Yami had replied, "Some are vain and do not want to look ugly. Some just want to show off their power. And some want you to underestimate them."

Looking at the older, but still striking Merry, Yuugi figured it was a combination of all three.

Finally, Merry sighed and shook her head. "Alright," she spoke gruffly. "I'll take you, Yuugi. Just 'cause your cute."

Yuugi felt tension go out of him that he hadn't even known was there and gave a small sigh of relief. He was surprised when he heard Yami echo him.

Yami started to thank her but Merry cut him off. "There are some things I've got to say up front, Yuugi. One is that this is not going to be an easy or quick thing. It's not one of those appointments at a hair salon where you walk in and an hour or two later walk out better looking. It's more like a hike up a mountain. It is hard work but you're still going up the whole time."

Yuugi swallowed and nodded, "How long are we talking about here?"

"About two years is my guess," Merry sighed.

"Two years?" Yuugi felt lightheaded. He slumped over on Yami's side of the couch. Yami didn't seem to mind; he shifted until he was holding Yuugi up with his shoulder.

"And that brings me my second point: I'm not going to be staying in this city the entire time. Like I said, I'm touring the Da'kana cities," Merry continued gently, aware of the effect of her words. "You would have to come with me for me to continue teaching you. You'd pay your own way by assisting in rituals, spells, and other fun things I'll be doing."

Yuugi got off Yami and cleared his throat. "Do I have time to…to make sure this is my final decision?"

Merry smiled at him, "Of course, dear. I'll be leaving this city in three days' time. Come to me then-"

She was abruptly cut off as her servant threw open the bedroom doors and rushed into the room.

"My lady," she bowed hastily, "Your crowd control expertise is needed at a night club in the Red District."

Merry straightened and put down her cup. "What's the name of this club?"

The servant bowed again. "Where's Your Head, my lady."

"Where is it?" Merry blinked. "Well, my head's where it's always been. On my neck, imagine that."

Yuugi perked up. "Where's Your Head? Ah fuck, I forgot: it opened tonight! No doubt Ryou's there with Bakura." –His eyes widened- "'Crowd control'? Don't tell me it's yet another bar-fight-turned-mob."

Merry raised an eyebrow. "I see you've had experience with those." She threw off the covers and got to her feet, brushing off invisible lint and dirt. She was only a couple of inches taller than Yuugi, and not as tall as Yami, but the way she carried herself made her seem taller than she was.

"Why don't you come with me then?" she asked them as her servant helped her into a black fur coat that reached to her knees. She stepped into black boots that disappeared until a long, grey skirt that reached her ankles. "Help me out, why don't you?"

Something finally hit Yami: "Did you say 'Bakura', Yuugi? The Bakura?"

Yuugi gave him an exasperated look. "Ignoring the fact that almost everyone in the red district knows Bakura, how many people do you know named 'Bakura'?"

Yami grinned at him, "I guess that name was more popular in a different time."

Merry was leaning against the door with a knowing smile. "So you coming?"

Yuugi marched passed her with a growing glower. "They better not have started another brawl. I barely kept the bartender from pressing charges last time. Bakura is such a bad influence…"

He continued walking down the hallway towards the servant who'd stopped at a pair of large, open windows. Yami and Merry stared at his back before Merry chuckled and closed the door behind them, fishing a key out of her coat's pocket to lock the door.

"Wouldn't you take offense to his ignoring you?" Yami asked, realizing that she, like him, reacted differently to Yuugi than most others of their world would.

Merry put her hands in her pockets as they walked side-by-side toward the impatient Yuugi and equally impatient servant, though she tried to hide it well.

"Would you?" Merry answered.

"No, I wouldn't," Yami was forced to admit. "But I don't know why."

'And therein lies your challenge," Merry replied. At his puzzled look, she added, "When you understand why it doesn't bother you, you'll solve quite a few things that are, shall we say, up in the air."

"You seem to know a lot about us after only one meeting," Yami observed, as they came within hearing of Yuugi's rant to the servant.

"I'm just good at reading people," she gave a shrug and walked through the window doors, Yami and Yuugi following. The servant gave another bow and closed the glass doors behind them.

Yuugi looked around them and noticed that they were standing on a circular balcony. "Why are we on a b-"

"Hush, dear," Merry chided, walking over to the railing of the balcony. Yami took a step forward and Yuugi saw the round gate that was built into it. The railing and gate were wrought iron and a dull, black color, curiously sucking in the moonlight instead of reflecting it.

Yami inhaled sharply and took another step forward toward the gate; both Yuugi and Merry noticed his sudden interest.

"Ah, Yami," Merry noticed. "I see you've seen one of these before."

"Seen? No. Heard of? Oh yes," Yami replied distractedly. "In all my many years, I did not think I would see one of these. Only a few very gifted and skilled sorceresses were thought to be able to make one of these."

"Why, thank you," Merry chuckled, "Now stand back, please."

She raised a hand to the top of the gate and swirled her hand around; Yuugi gaped as the fancy iron work seemingly melted and reformed into a spike pointing up. Merry passed a hand over the left side of the gate and it reformed too to form a spike pointing out from the middle. She did the same with the other side. Yuugi blinked; no, he wasn't hallucinating.

Merry backed away from the gate and raised her hands almost in prayer in front of her, but she kept her palms from touching. Gradually, they began to shine brighter and brighter. When Yuugi began wondering why they neighboring buildings hadn't come out to see what was going on, the light left Merry's hands and landed on the newly formed spikes, setting them aglow.

The next moment, distant thunder sounded and the entire gate began to glow a silvery, white color. Merry clapped her hands then and all the light sucked into the middle, filling the center of the gate with a light that almost looked touchable.

She lowered her hands and took a step back, turning towards the wide-eyed Yuugi and the fascinated Yami.

"Well?" She was slightly out of breath. "Shall we?"