Chapter 18: Pegasus' Story

What's going on? Marik thought in a panic before he heard laughter just like he had heard in his nightmare.

"So glad to see you're awake, let's see how long it takes Bakura to wake up," the voice from his nightmare said. Marik took a quick look to the side of him, and saw through the other wall of bars that Bakura was still asleep in a little ball on the other cell floor.

"Show yourself!" Marik cried.

"As you wish," the voice said right before Pegasus J. Crawford emerged from the shadows. "Surprised?" he said with a smile, "You shouldn't be, especially after your 'pet' warned you that I knew what he was."

"What did you do?" Marik asked fiercely, which looked pretty funny, considering he was wearing red pajamas striped with violet.

"Me? I'm simply preventing you two from doing me any harm."

"How did we get down here?"

"Well, did you notice that your dinner tasted a bit, funny?"

Marik's eyes widened, "You drugged us?"

"Kind of," Pegasus said with an evil smile.

"But, but Bakura's out too. You-you're a witch?"

Pegasus got angry, his smile replaced by a snarl, "I'm not a witch!" he screamed, "A witch is a girl! I am a wizard, get it right!"

"Okay, okay! Whatever, it doesn't matter, just let us go!"

"First of all, it does matter, and second of all, why should I free you if you're just going to take my Millennium Item and leave?"

'He has a point,' his mind decided to put in.

Shut up!

"Then what are you going to do?" Marik asked, "Just leave us here?"

"Oh heavens no, there is a reason I captured you two, but I think we should wait for your friend to wake up before we get to that."

There was a silence, then Marik asked, "How did you get the Millennium Eye anyway?"

"Like I said, I'll explain everything once your friend wakes up, I have a feeling you'll both want to know some things. For now," Pegasus held up his hand which started glowing a faint yellow, "Go to sleep." The glowing that came from his hand shot at Marik's face and made him crumple to the floor.

Bakura's eyes slowly opened. When his eyes were open, he couldn't see anything, it was like when you first wake up and it takes your eyes a second or two to adjust again. When he finally could see something, he thought that he was still dreaming, he was trapped in a cage. No, not a cage, a cell, in a dungeon… His ears perked up and he lifted his head. He looked about him. The first thing he noticed was that it was very dark, with only dim candles being the light source. Even thought he couldn't see the sun, he knew it was daytime, it was kind of instinctive to vampires to know when the sun was out.

The second thing Bakura noticed was Marik crumpled on the floor in a pile. A jolt went through Bakura, making him stand up and run over to him. Only, the bars were in his way, so he meowed to try and wake him up. It seemed to work, Marik's head shifted slightly, and then he lifted his head. "Bakura, you're awake…" He sat up again, and looked around. He couldn't see Pegasus, but he heard footsteps gradually getting louder and louder, until Pegasus appeared before them again. "Hello again, good to see you both awake."

Marik glared at him, and Bakura got into a defensive position and said, "What's going on?"

"That's right, you weren't awake when Marik was, allow me to fill you in," Pegasus grabbed a chair that was leaning against one of the stone walls and sat down, "You both are in my dungeon."

"Why?" Bakura asked.

"Patience Bakura, before we get to that, I think I should tell you a little more about my Millennium Eye." He moved the hair that always covered his face, showing the two young adults the reason they had come to this island in the first place. He looked at Marik, "Remember when I told you I got the idea for Duelmonsters when I went to Egypt?"

"Yes…" Marik said, waiting for him to get on with it.

"Well, you see, I hadn't went to Egypt with the idea to create a card game inside my head, I had went there because of my wife - Cyndia."

Bakura's eyes widened, The blue door, with the "C" on it… "You're wife died… didn't she?" Bakura asked.

Pegasus took a deep breath, "Yes… I met her fourteen years ago… My father was immensely wealthy, he managed casinos in Las Vegas. At night, he would take my hand and attend fancy social functions…

"That's when I met her. Cyndia, the daughter of my father's wealthy friend… We were instantly drawn to each other, and we always talked about our dreams. I was going to become a famous painter and travel around the world, we swore to spend the rest of our lives together…

"But soon after I turned seventeen, Cyndia got sick… and left this world. No longer could I hear the sweet melody that was her voice, no longer would I be able to see her glorious smile, no longer could we laugh and hold hands…" Pegasus looked down, too sad to continue talking. Marik and Bakura may have not been the most sentimental people in the world, but they still knew that losing someone important to you was hard, even if they've never experienced it.

Eventually, Pegasus looked up, "For months I stared at the white canvas of my heart… The next thing I knew, I was in Egypt. I had become interested in the ancient Egyptian beliefs about life after death… the idea that souls in this world live eternally in the world to come, and if there was even the slightest chance that I could see Cyndia again… I would take it. So I came to Necropolis… a city of the dead, with ruins of the ancient Pharaohs' tombs…It was as if the yellow-brown desert was a reflection of my heart… But not even there did I see anything that could fill my blank canvas…

"Then something happened. There was this boy who was running away from something, and he bumped into me. He had a very distressed look on his face, and he looked behind him in a scared manner, and then he paled at the sight of something. I looked ahead, and I saw many people dressed in black chasing the man, saying things like, 'Stay there thief!' It was then I noticed he had a peculiar looking item in his hand; a golden circlet encasing a golden triangle with the Millennium eye symbol on it, and five pointer-like things came out of the circle." Bakura's eyes widened, it was his Millennium Ring. "The man tried to run again, but he tripped, and he started begging, 'Please let me go… You can have it back!' he said, but the men kicked him and forced him to stand. I stepped forward, saying to let the man go and that I would pay for the item, I offered all of the money I had, but the men just stared at me with scorn.

"Then, a boy appeared in between the men in black, or was it a man? I wasn't so sure… He was in white robes with a white turban, and he looked peculiar, because he was wearing a golden ankh attached to a string around his neck-at that time I didn't know that was the Millennium Ankh because it didn't have the Eye symbol, but I digress-and when he stared at me, there was a mysterious light in his eyes… and suddenly the desert seemed very cold… I never found out his name.

" 'If you wish to stay, do not flaunt your wealth…" the boy with the Ankh said, 'not in this land… That man stole artifacts from a sacred place… we only punished him for the act of theft. The value of the Ring is irrelevant… but if we tried to measure it in terms of gold, no amount would be enough. Are you a traveler?' he asked. I stayed quiet.

" 'This village,' he began again, 'Kul Elna, was created by grave robbers. It is called the grave robber village… thieves like him are not uncommon…' Grave robber village? I had thought, those words had shocked me, I didn't think there was such a thing.

" 'It is not a place for someone like you to visit.' he said sternly, 'You must leave at once! The thing you want to see is not here… This is not a place where the sadness of losing a loved one is healed…' I was amazed, that boy had read my mind! But soon, they took the thief away. His words stayed with me, so I followed them, in secret…

"They entered a house of sun-dried brick… but it led to a place I couldn't have imagined from the outside… It was a hidden underground temple, it had many pillars with hieroglyphics and other pictures carved on them, and the place was huge. I could have spent all day there looking around, but they placed that thief on a pedestal, in front of the mysterious boy and this stone slab with all of these golden items inside. Later, I found out that those were all of the Millennium Items, only the Rod, the Necklace, and the Puzzle were missing, and of course the Ankh that the boy wore around his neck…" Pegasus' story was seriously starting to piss Bakura off, what did any of this have to do with why they were locked in cages?

"Anyway," Pegasus continued, not noticing Bakura's anger, "The thief was begging for his life, 'Don't kill me!' he said, 'I'm sorry I stole it!'

" 'I do not intend to condemn you for stealing the Millennium Ring,' the mysterious boy said, 'The issue is whether you are a chosen one… will the Ring itself accept you as its bearer?' The thief had no idea what the boy was talking about, but the boy just said, 'Put on the Ring! Then the answer will make itself known…' the men in black put the ring on the neck of the thief. It was an awful sight, the Ring started to glow, and the pointers stuck themselves into his skin…And then fire burst out of his eyes and mouth, and he died instantly, vomiting flames…!" Pegasus paused, remembering the horrid scene again, " 'The Millennium Items test the souls of those who possess them,' the boy said, 'Those who are not worthy will be burned alive, body and soul…'

" 'When will the chosen ones appear?' a man in black asked, 'Until we find suitable hosts, we cannot find the missing Millennium Items…'

" 'The Millennium Items are drawn to each other,' the boy said, 'If I had to liken it to something, the seven Millennium Items are like pieces of a puzzle. When the time comes, they will be united…' the boy put the Ring back in it's rightful encasing, 'in the Wishing Tablet… The thing that can grant anyone one wish, so long as you gather the Millennium Items and put them back - before us...'" Marik and Bakura were both surprised to hear this. They had thought they just had to gather the Millennium Items to get the wish, but apparently, they had to put them in a tablet? "I don't know why," Pegasus continued, despite his guests many questions, "but those words seemed much more sinister than they sounded, they sent a shiver up my spine, and it was then I decided to leave, but someone found me and grabbed me roughly…

" 'What are you doing here!' it was more of a surprised statement than a question, and then he started chanting some language I didn't understand. I cried out, 'Let go of me!' but was ignored.

" 'I thought I told you to leave this village…" the boy said in subdued anger, 'You saw something you shouldn't have seen… the only way to leave this holy place is to be chosen as the bearer of a Millennium Item…'

"I really didn't want to burn like the thief did, and I cried out, 'Please spare me! I won't tell anybody what I saw here!' The boy ignored me, and instead took out the Millennium Eye from the stone tablet, 'You will be tested by this Millennium Eye…' he said, 'To see if you are worthy to be its host.' At that time, I had no idea what the Millennium Eye was, but he told me, 'If you are deemed worthy, we will open the door to the other world… and you will see your beloved once more!' His words shocked me, they were very hard to believe, but then he said, 'Also, if you are deemed worthy, then you will get magical powers, strong enough to resurrect your dead wife, and keep her in this world longer.' After he had said this… this promise that I would be able to hold Cyndia again… I took the test of the Millennium Eye. I shoved the Eye into my eye socket, it caused immense pain and suffering, and I just wanted it to end… but then, a miracle happened.

"I saw a light, all around me… And there was a door… and then I saw her… my beloved, my Cyndia…" Pegasus stopped talking, and then resumed a minute later, "Our reunion only lasted a moment… and the Millennium Eye accepted me. I thanked the boy, and then left immediately to go back home, and to resurrect Cyndia."

Pegasus inhaled and exhaled, then he looked at his prisoners. Neither Bakura or Marik spoke for a moment, but then the ever-curious Bakura had to ask, "Wait, didn't Cyndia have a funeral and was buried? Then how did you get her out of the ground without anyone noticing…?"

"Ah," Pegasus smiled softly, "Well, along with the Eye, the boy gave me something else. A little book, with simple wizard spells in it. Surprisingly, it was in a language I could read, even though I've never seen it before. Another power of the Millennium Items I suppose… Anyway, in that book, there was a simple spell for replacing objects, so I walked up to her grave, and replaced her body inside the coffin with a dress of hers. Then I carried her back home, bridal style, so that if anyone saw, they would just think we were young lovers, which, we would have been…" Pegasus let the sentence die out, and then began again, "However, the boy tricked me. He said that the Millennium Eye would give me magical powers to resurrect my dead wife, but he never told me what the price would be. It was only until later that I had found out. After I had searched through the simple spells, and then searched through other spell books, that I found out the only way to resurrect someone was to give them your life…

"Obviously, this wasn't a good solution. I wanted Cyndia back so that I could see her again, so that we could laugh like we used to… I began to get depressed again, and I constantly blamed everyone… But, slowly, I started to heal. I was able to talk to people again, and I was able to go out in the world, and to put Cyndia to the side of my mind. Although, I never forgot about her… I never stopped searching for a different spell, I never gave up the hope that there was another way to resurrect her, another way to get her back to the world, without killing myself in the process…" Pegasus stopped talking, and then Marik asked something he'd been wanting to ask since the story began.

"… Um, I'm sorry about your wife… but what does that have to do with you locking us up?"

Pegasus looked up at him with a glint in his eye (the normal one), "I'm glad you asked!" he said happily, like he hadn't just relived the death of his wife and then some, "Just wait right here for a few moments, and I'll explain why you're locked up," he stood up and did a little wave with closed eyes and an open-mouthed smile before walking up the stone steps. When the footsteps died off, Bakura slipped through the bars leading into Marik's cage. "I think I can unlock the door with my claws," he whispered, "hold me up." Marik picked Bakura up and put him up to the lock. Bakura stuck one of his claws in there and unlocked the door in a matter of two seconds. Marik stared in awe, Bakura smirked, "They don't call me the Thief King for nothing." They pushed the door open and started walking up the stone steps. "Okay," Marik whispered, "We're out, now what?"

"I say we get the hell out of this crazy place, forget the Eye for now, we can come back to it later."

"But we're here now, we might as well get it!" Marik argued, he hadn't come all this way for nothing.

"Then what do you suggest?" Bakura turned to Marik. Marik thought about it.

"Well," he said slowly, stalling for time, "We could hide somewhere on the island, then come back at night and steal the Eye from Pegasus, do you think you could get past the high-tech security that no doubt is applied to his castle?"

"With ease," Bakura responded without a moments hesitation.

"Okay, good, then we'll come back to-" Marik's words were cut short by a tuxedo-man shouting, "Hey!" at them.

"How much you wanna bet Pegasus told them if they see us to attack?" Bakura asked.

"A hundred. Run!" they turned the other way and ran like their lives depended on it. Well, more like Marik ran like his life depended on it, Bakura just kept up.

They ran through the hallways, and many other guards chased after them, but they eventually made it outside, to a closed gate and a ton of guards waiting for them. Hell! they both thought. They stopped running, and watched as they became surrounded. Marik put up a fighting stance, and Bakura looked ready to pounce. "Remember our bet?" Marik asked Bakura with a smirk.

"Of course," came Bakura's reply

"Time to see who wins!" he said before he ran forward and punched a guy, knocking him out cold. Bakura was slightly surprised to see that Marik was that strong, but he had to put it aside as he had his own guards to deal with. He jumped up and started clawing a guard in the face. The man tried frantically to get Bakura detached from his face, and others tried to pull him off as well, but Bakura only got off when the man got to the ground. Then he ran and did the same thing to another poor, under-paid sap.

Marik, meanwhile, was punching and kicking left and right. At one point, he jumped up and kicked two people in the face at the same time, and then did a back flip off their faces and landed on top of another guy and then punched the person closest to him. And during that time, he found the time to smirk and be thankful for his fighting skills. Then he remembered that he had the Millennium Rod on his person, and he took out the knife kept inside it, but quickly sheathed it again when he remembered his promise to Ryou. He still used the Rod though, just as more of a bat than a knife.

It was during this-Bakura clawing people's faces and making them pass out from loss of blood and Marik hitting people right in the jaw with his Millennium Rod-that one guard came outside with a taser. Pegasus had warned him not to hit the cat with it because the cat was a vampire and the taser would do absolutely nothing, and the guard had learned that whatever Pegasus said, you better just do it, or else. No, the guard did not believe in vampires-none of the guards did-but he knew that if he hit the cat with it, Pegasus would yell at him and blah-de-blah-de-blah so he ran up to Marik, while dodging everyone else, and hit him right in the gut.

Marik felt the electrifying shock go through his body and he dropped the Rod and fell to his knees in pain. He pressed his hand against where he had been shocked, but then, he felt a new kind of pain. Apparently, some of the guards had knives or swords or some other sharp object, and he had stabbed Marik right in the stomach. A new wave of pain came over Marik and he collapsed fully to the floor now, grinding his teeth so he wouldn't cry out from how much he was hurting. The world started to go black, showing nothing but darkness, until he finally couldn't hear anything anymore.

Bakura had seen the whole thing while he had been clawing one guy in the face, and now he was on the ground staring at Marik with total shock. Marik was on the ground, bleeding… Bakura felt sad, more than that, he felt like something had hurt him as well, as if someone had personally stabbed him in the gut. It shocked him so profusely, that for a moment, everything seemed to stand still. Everything was still, and all he could think was how he could have let this happen. How could ha have let Marik get hurt like that? How could he have been so careless… He felt pain like he had never felt before, and like he never wanted to feel again. Then he got pissed. He snarled and let out an impressive cry that was somewhere in between a cat and a human, and it made the guards pause for a second to think about the hellish kind of sound a cute, white, fluffy, adorable, little kitten had made. And during their thinking about it, they felt fear, and when Bakura glared at the guards, there appeared to literally be fire in them, a fire so violent and deadly that you didn't dare cross it. The guards his deathly anger gaze fell upon dropped their weapons and ran for it like a horrible beast was chasing after them, which wasn't too far off from the truth. The other guards wondered why they had run off like that, but then Bakura started attacking, this time out for blood. He thrashed left and right, up and down, he looked like a lion, or maybe even an albino dragon with how he moved. All of his actions were carefully executed so that he always hurt someone whichever way he went-he had forgotten to count by now, and he didn't really care if he had killed or only maimed. Forget bloody self-control, they had hurt Marik… Marik! That act was unforgivable, he barely even heard Pegasus say, "Be careful! That boy is a Blood Pack!" to his men. But he had heard, and now he felt a horrible foreboding sensation, he had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, something even worse than Marik lying on the floor bleeding like he was right now…(1)

And that was definitely not a good feeling.

Bakura was still in his super-pissed-off mode, when he felt something shock him in the stomach when he had jumped up trying to claw a man's eye out. He dropped to the ground like a stone, and he tried to stand, but then he felt the shock appear on his back. He looked up and briefly saw Pegasus with his hand glowing. I guess magical glowing hands equals tasers for vampires.

Bakura snarled once more before everything blacked out again.

Bakura awoke back in the cage again. He jumped up right away, and looked around. He saw Marik in the cell he was in before. Bleeding; looking pale; his face was slack, giving him the impression that he was sleeping, which meant he was really unconscious. Bakura's heart felt heavy, and he tried to get to him, but Pegasus must have magically put the bars closer together or something because he couldn't get through. And the worst part was that he knew if he could just drink Marik's blood, then he would be fine. He would be healed, like there had never been a wound there in the first place. And he couldn't, because of the fucking metal bars in his way. He still reached forward, trying to see that if maybe he could just get a drop of blood on his hand and lick it, then Marik could be healed that way… Maybe then it would be okay…

No, he knew that wouldn't work, he just knew. He had to actually touch Marik's body for the healing to actually work. He felt hopelessness settle into his stomach, making him feel like he'd rather be dead than to see Marik like this… He'd rather him be the one lying on the ground bleeding rather than Marik… "Come one Marik!" he said, his voice full of desperation, but the anger covered it up, "You can't die! Not yet! We haven't collected all of the Millennium Items!" Bakura's mind frantically searched for more reasons Marik couldn't die yet, "I haven't killed your father! You haven't gotten over your fear of heights yet! You can't die! If you die I'll…" it was then that Bakura realized he really did have to find a better threat than 'I'll kill you,' and his mind came up with one, "If you die, I'll never forgive you!" He could feel his eyes start to water, and his disgruntled mind had the bravery to wonder, Can cats cry?

He stopped trying to reach for Marik when he heard Pegasus say, "Don't worry Bakura, I did a simple spell so that the bleeding would slow down, he'll still die, slowly and painfully," Bakura growled a warning, "but he won't die until a few hours later. I'll let you heal him if you want. Do you want to heal him Bakura?" Bakura just stared at him. "I'll take that as a yes. Just a hint though, you can't heal him in cat form," Pegasus' hand glowed yellow again and the bars seemed to just disappear. Bakura wasted no time going through them, and then he turned back into his human form and kneeled before Marik. He licked his lips, and found that his mouth was suddenly dry, and then through all of his worry and shock of seeing Marik in this condition, he smelled the blood. The delicious scent that was Marik's blood-that was Marik-hit him like a grand piano to his head. The smell was overwhelmingly tantalizing, satisfying, he wanted it, he wanted it badly, and not just because it was blood and he was a vampire, no. He wanted it so badly because he knew that Marik would be healed by it, that it was Marik he was drinking and not some other random person. He wanted it because it was Marik's blood, he wanted it simply because it was Marik. If it had been anyone else, he wasn't sure if he would have tried to heal them. Bakura knelt down and - keeping up the vampire stereotype - bit him on the neck and began to drink. He wasn't sure how badly Marik had been injured, or how much he had to drink, so he put his hand on Marik's stomach so he could feel when the wound healed. Even through all this, he still managed to enjoy the taste, the delicious liquid, the life-giving substance… And he even enjoyed his hand on Marik's firm, muscular stomach…(1)

He felt Marik's wound heal up. He tore his mouth away from Marik's neck and looked at him. He still looked pale, but at least he wasn't bleeding anymore. Bakura put his ear to Marik's chest to hear his heartbeat. It was slow and faint, but it was there. Bakura ground his teeth together, and he turned to Pegasus. "You," he growled, "You did this! How dare you!" he screeched the last part while he got up and threw himself at the bars, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to get through them.

"Now now Bakura, do be reasonable," Pegasus said, "I didn't do this, my guards did, and I wouldn't have had to do any of this if you hadn't tried to steal my Millennium Eye."

"First of all," Bakura began, not even attempting to hide his fury, "you told the guards to hurt Marik, so yes, you did this, and second, you could have just thrown us off the bloody island!"

"Would that have stopped you from coming back?" Pegasus' calm reply came. Bakura growled, "Of course it wouldn't have," Pegasus continued, "you would have just kept coming back, besides, I have a plan for you Bakura, a sort of deal if you will."

"Deal?" Bakura asked.

"Yes," Pegasus said before he raised his hand and made the bars disappear again. Bakura would have ran forward, if he could've moved his body at that time, but Pegasus had put an immobile spell on him. "Here's the deal," Pegasus said, "You resurrect Cyndia, and we let Marik live." A guard pointed a gun at Marik's still unconscious figure. Bakura stared at the gun with horror while Pegasus laughed maniacally.

(1): I know, it's a big, long, intimidating paragraph which is hard to read, but I couldn't find a good cut off...

Sigh, you know what sucks about writing? You already know what's going to happen, so all the suspense is gone… Well, Hoped you liked this, I have a lot planned for the next chapter, if I can fit it all into one chapter... :P

~~~{REVIEW REPLIES}~~~~

That's What Cheese Said: Lol, glad I made you dance! And what did you tell your mom? If my mom saw me dancing inside my room, she'd figure I was listening to musical songs again… XD
Lol, so you'd jump on Pegasus and try to rip his eye out? You probably would get killed… And yeah, he dreams about Bakura, haven't we all? And, I've wanted 'Kura-kitty to play with string for such a long time… I'm glad I finally got him to, and yeah, PUSS AND BOOTS!
I'm glad Pegasus is in character, I was worried about that… XD And don't worry, Pegasus won't hurt 'Kura-kitty, as long as he does what Pegasus wants.
Oh, and the inventors of matches and lighters did purposely make them so you couldn't operate them, they didn't want you to burn down your school =) And make you stop flaying yourself.

Bec: Yes, stuff is happening =) Lol, I kind of just bypassed their big fight, because, I don't know, compared for what I have planned later on… it didn't seem that important. Plus, I suck at writing action. :P Pegasus (to me at least) always seemed like a nice person who just never got over his dead wife and was trying with all his power to see her again.
I didn't know Kemo's name, so I made some up. If I had knows his name, I would have put that. And I love 'Kura-kitty. XD