A/N: Hi you two, sorry for the two-week break... my bad...
Muse: --poking Yutaan-- I don't believe that you have ever once updated a fic on time.
--sob-- I'm sorry! But here - as a reward, this chapter is extra-long! And it has PLOT. Yay plot! It also hints at things to come - namely, the first section of the chapter, which deals with a mysteeeeerioous group of people who will be important later on. But I won't give it away yet, nuuuuu... you'll have to wait for Part Two for that... after all, right now Yugi is much to lost and puppy-eyed to leave all by his lonesome.
Speaking fo which... let's go!
Chapter Seven: Renaissance
A bell clanged. It echoed emptily over the multitudes, drawing itself out until it was thin and cracked. When it faded, there were rustling sounds, that of hundreds of people, dark-cloaked and faces covered, sinking to the floor, bowing their heads so deeply that their hidden mouths kissed the floor. Not a single sliver of skin showed; no one dared breathe out of place; all eyes were locked on the stone tiles.
Yet, as cold as the enormous room was, the ceiling so high one couldn't see it, as weirdly as the candle-flames flickered and the incense steadily smoldered, as chilled and lifeless as one would expect the room to be, there was an essence of joy somewhere. You could see it in the bend of the arms and legs, in the arched backs, and hear it in the words the people whispered, foreign but clear.
A sudden shower of light erupted from the glassy pool in the center of the room, throwing droplets of water high into the air. They froze there, still and silent in a huge fan of water, shining in the dim light. Then they fell like soft rain; the people raising their faces to it, removing the coverings from their faces and catching it on their tongues and eyelashes.
The people drank from the air, feeling the goddess's hands on their cheeks and cold lips, and her kiss on their foreheads; they let the water slide down inside of them and fill them with a cool, flowing contentment.
One woman began to sing, wordless melodies draping the air. Others joined her, yet her song was the clearest and most beautiful of any of them. The message was simple, and the water rippled in the air to hear it:
"Tefenet, goddess of dew and rain… we thank thee."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"Yugi, wake up."
"I don't wanna go to school. Mmf."
Seto whacked Yugi across the top of the head; the smaller boy sprang up. "Ha, thought that'd do it. They must really let you sleep in where you're from."
Yugi rubbed his eyes, trying to get a sense of reality back. He reached for his Puzzle, but was too sore to put it on. He glanced outside and moaned. "Seto, are you crazy? It's still dark out." He pulled the blanket back up against the surprisingly cold air.
The older boy yanked it away. "Of course it's dark. We can't go wandering all over in the sun. I almost passed out from yesterday, walking around in the heat like that. Now come on, if we want to look for your friends we have to do it before sunrise. By that time we'll have to head back."
"Okay, okay…." Yugi sat up and scratched his head and yawned. He was hungry again. "When do we eat, Kaib - Seto?"
"In the middle of the day." Seto tossed back his brown hair and pulled Yugi up by his wrist. "Let's go." He bullied Yugi into his clothes and out through the tent flap, into the cold air, over the sand dunes. Yugi glanced around.
"Suppose we get lost?"
"Just look for our mountain. Or the palace, it isn't far," Seto said easily, loping along cross the sand as if he'd been living here his whole life. "We just gotta watch out for the Shadow-Beasts."
Yugi stopped dead. "The what?"
"Shadow-Beasts. Oh, you know - the things that come out of the Shadow Realm? Like sorcerers, and monsters? Big animals. Things like that. They're dangerous."
Yugi stared ahead for a moment, looking for any signs of a person. There were none. "YOU MEAN MY FRIENDS COULD'VE BEEN EATEN?!"
"Not if they're halfway competent fighters."
"They're not! We all suck at fighting! Except maybe Joey."
"Too bad for you guys. I wish I'd been at your camp, sounds easy."
Yugi ran after Seto, jogging to keep up with the long strides. After a short while, he said, "Seto… I want you to listen to me. And I know that it'll seem crazy, but just hear me out, okay?"
"Sure." Seto scanned the horizon with dark blue eyes.
"Okay. I think I'm from the future, or some kind of different future with the same people, or some of the same people, and where there are people inside of different items and things, but something happened to change that when… wait, where I live in a place where you live and -" Yugi stopped. He was confusing himself. "Okay, see, there was this lady, who said she would help a spirit- no, wait - a friend of mine go home, and he was from ancient, Egypt, see, except that he lost his memory and then he got stuck inside my necklace - no, my game - no, the present my Grandpa gave me, and that's Solomon - I mean he's my grandpa - Solomon, not my friend - I mean, uh -" Yugi had thoroughly bewildered both of them. Seto was staring at him and giving little shuffles of his feet to put distance between them. "Uh, right - how's this… I remember you from my own life, but something seems to have happened to screw me up. So, I think you're the CEO of KaibaCorp and a jealous kickass duelist who really loves his little brother. What do you think you are?"
There was a long silence. Yugi glanced over and stopped in alarm.
Seto's entire face had gone pale, and his body had stiffened. His eyes had glazed over and he was staring at Yugi as though he were a ghost. He couldn't speak for several moments, then finally got out, "How do you know about my little brother?"
"I -" Yugi tried to sort it out. "Um - well, how I remember it, your brother tagged along after you a lot. And he was… energetic… and talkative… his name's Mokuba."
Seto gave a start. "Mokuba," he said softly, and sat down on the ground, knuckles to his forehead. He spoke slowly. "Yes… that was his name…."
"Was?"
"He's dead, Yugi. He died when he was three years old. The Cult killed him."
"The -" Ping, went Yugi's brain. "The Cult? You mean the Yashamaat? They still exist?! You mean they're still around?!"
"Of course." Seto looked up. He didn't seem to be looking at Yugi, though. "Yugi, I remember it - I remember women screaming, and it was so hot… so much smoke and fire… I couldn't breathe… Mokuba was holding onto one of my hands, and my mother was holding the other… and then there was fire everywhere, on top of me even… everything was burning…." Seto looked down again. "I don't really know what happened afterwards… just that I woke up tied next to Solomon, and he said it was okay, and that everything was going to be fine. And when I asked where my mom and brother were, he stopped for a minute… and then he said… that they were dead."
"But…." Yugi looked down at the hunched person in front of him, head bowed, shoulders quivering. This was Seto Kaiba? "Why was your home being burned? What did you do wrong?"
Seto took a deep breath and looked up, swatting the hair out of his face. His eyes were still glassy. "Because we were the Resistance."
Yugi looked confused.
"We - my village - we were the last community free from the Yashamaat." He looked down again. After a moment, he gave a short laugh. "Yeah, look at me… worrying about things that happened years and years ago…." He stood up briskly, slapped his hands together, and said, "We have to find your friends, huh? Let's go… they probably would've headed away from the sun, so that'd be," he jerked his thumb, "in that direction." He sniffed. Started walking. Yugi hurried after, wisely keeping his mouth shut.
"So, what do they look like? Males or females? C'mon, details," Seto said. Yugi noted the catch in his voice and started babbling like an idiot.
"Tea's a girl, pretty tall, with long legs and straight brown hair cut short and she has big blue eyes and light skin like mine and she's wearing a pink vest but she might have taken it off so under that is a white shirt and a blue skirt and she's really sweet but she has a temper so watch out if she slaps you; Joey's a guy, and he's skinny and has blonde hair and he probably won't be too happy to see you so let me calm him down when we find him…." and all that crap. Seto said "yeah" and "Uh-huh" a few times, but Yugi knew that he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to everyone's descriptions.
They seemed to have been walking for hours when Seto abruptly glanced over to the east and said, "We'll have to turn around. We're already going to be walking in the sun; you'll get even more burned as it is." He made an about-face and started back in the direction they had just come. Yugi sighed and gazed unhappily over the smooth, unmarred sand, swept clean by wind.
Except for over there….
Yugi forgot about Seto and ran as fast as he could over the sandy hills, coming to a halt at the churned spot. He could see footprints! Sneaker footprints! "SETO! I found something!" Seto was beside him in an instant. "Look, they were here!"
Seto frowned. "That's strange… the wind should have brushed these away. They've been here too long for anything else."
"How long ago?"
"Maybe yesterday afternoon. From the looks of it -" he gestured to the different-sized prints. "- They were all together. C'mon, we better follow these; they'll be half-dead by now." So saying, he started in pursuit. Yugi happily trotted after him.
Finally! His friends would be okay, and maybe they could help him convince Solomon he wasn't crazy, and of course Zanebia would be glad for new helpers, and Joey would never believe that Kaiba was now - Yugi chuckled - nice. He wished he'd brought some water, they'd be thirsty.
Seto's brow furrowed the more he followed the trail, though. "Yugi, this can't be right… Listen, stay here for a second, I'm going to go off for a bit."
"Why?" Yugi asked, but was enjoying his balloon-like feeling of happiness too much to argue. Seto didn't answer, but hurried off to the side. Yugi could see him looking around on the ground for something, sweeping at the sand with his hands, going in wider and wider circles and getting smaller the farther away he went.
Seto dug away with his fingernails. The sand was soft and too warm for early morning. And it was too loosely packed - his fingers scraped against something. He dug it out; it glinted in the sun. It was a small silver trinket, carved into a round shape and with opale qur gi Aat inscribed into it. He closed his hand over it and angrily tossed it away. Brushing more sand away, he found what he was looking for: the sets of hoof-prints pressed into the packed sand, with earth sprinkled over them; so that was why there had been no wind to sweep away the footprints, the Cult had been using it all to cover their tracks….
Seto bolted up and returned to the trail, grabbing Yugi by the arm and dragging him along behind.
"Seto?! What's wrong?" Yugi exclaimed, jarred out of his good mood.
"They were being tracked by the Yashamaat," Seto panted. "I found tracks; they're from yesterday. If your friends aren't caught already, they'll be soon - we have to find them." He spared any more breath for running.
Yugi felt his happy balloon pop. His empty stomach had closed up like a rock. "Will the Cult hurt them?"
Seto barked a laugh. "Tell you what, if they're still alive, I'll personally take on the Cult myself."
"They're DEAD?!"
"Probably. Keep running."
Yugi felt the hot sun on his shoulder blades, and the cold of Seto's hand. The tracks they were following were whipping past his eyes, so fast they looked like thin lines of sand….
They can't kill Joey! I won't let anyone kill them!Seto suddenly swore in frustration, let him drop and knelt down, pointing. "Look." The footprints had been completely covered with hoof-prints, and there were several scraps of black cloth. Yugi felt his heart drop into his rocklike stomach.
"What's -?" Seto picked something off the ground and started scrubbing sand off it. Yugi caught a glimpse of pink buttons and a small screen. He snatched it.
"This is Tea's! It's her cell phone. She dropped it."
Seto didn't bother to ask what a cell phone was. The kid looked like he had just found his friends shot full of arrows. He patted his back awkwardly. "Ah… look… they could be fine… we're just jumping to conclusions…."
Yugi raised his face. It was wet. "B - But you said… that they…."
"To verson with what I said," Seto interrupted fiercely. "Just keep believing they're all right. Don't give a crap what I said." He jerked Yugi to his feet. "We're going back to camp. We're going to talk to Shadowwalker." With that, they started back, the sun slicing onto the sides of their faces. Seto noted that Yugi was clutching the phone-thing like it was some priceless relic.
He slid one hand inside of his tunic and formed a fist around the little amber stone his brother had given him. He closed his eyes and remembered that awful night: the almost-sweet smell of burning wood, the shrieking as buildings collapsed… how he had thought that everything seemed so planned, executed in perfect control… the way he had cried for hours all through the night, as the Yashamaat led the long line of prisoners over the desert… and how he had promised that nobody would ever be killed by the Cult again.
Yeah right, THAT sure had worked.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"So the Cult had already found them?" Solomon asked. The two had come back in a bad way: Seto had looked like he was ready to attack something, and Yugi looked like he was about to burst into tears.
"Yeah." Seto slammed a pickaxe so hard into the wall of stone that cracks spread from it a meter out in all directions. He examined the small chunk of pyrite he'd unearthed and smashed it again. "The kid needs food and water; don't make him work, okay? And I have to talk to Shadowwalker if he's strong enough today."
"You want to ask him if he can see them?"
"Yeah. If anybody could find them, it'd be Shadowwalker." Seto glanced at Zanebia, digging a little bit away. "But what if they're already… what'll we do with Yugi? Keep him here? You know, I don't think he's nuts."
"Why not, what do you think instead?" Solomon sifted through the small chunks of rock with his fingers.
"I don't know. But he knew about… my… my brother. His name. The way he acted. Solomon, I don't know what it is about him, but… he might be like Shadowwalker, do you think?" Seto wiped the sweat out of his eyes.
"That'd be a direct miracle, Seto. I don't think anybody can be like Shadowwalker."
"I have to see him."
"…Hey, do you think this stuff is real gold?"
"Hah! Who cares?"
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Yugi traced the shapes of the buttons on the phone. For a second, he almost felt like heaving it away, out of the tent, but didn't. Suddenly inspired, he dialed his home number. There was a long silence. Nothing. Of course, his home didn't exist.
Yugi rubbed his thumb over the front of the Puzzle, then broke off one of the pieces, the biggest one. The Eye of Horus glared at him mockingly. It almost looked like it was real, like the pupil wasn't made of gold at all. It seemed to follow him. He jammed it back in.
Yugi sighed, then, feeling like an idiot, tentatively reached out his mind, touching the faint consciousness the Item possessed. "Yami?" he asked in his head. "Are you in there?" Once again, silence, and then a little shove at his mind, like the Puzzle was closing a hand around it and pushing. He muttered and tossed the Puzzle back down. "Dumb thing. I need help here!" he proclaimed shrilly. The gold gleamed innocently up. "Fine." He crawled backwards out of the tent. "I'm going to… do something," he said lamely.
His stomach didn't even hurt for food anymore. As he walked over to the workers, hacking away at the mountain, he found himself imagining a scene: three people walking, limping along slowly, and suddenly there's a thundering sound, a huge cloud of dust, and a huge battalion gallops towards them, riders' black cloaks swirling in the wind. The three people start to run, but the men shoot them full of arrows and drag them off. The end.
Ack. He needed something to do.
Yugi didn't even ask Zanebia anything. He grabbed a tool from the stash and started beating away at the rock like it was pebbles. Why the heck were they looking for tombs, there were NO TOMBS HERE!
Joey. Bang, he hit the rock. Tristan. Bang. Tea. Bang. Bakura. Bang. Yami. Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang…. He settled into a rhythm. This was good work for being mindless. You couldn't think when you were attacking chunks of stone.
Zanebia scrutinized him with bright eyes, one green, one brown. "You know, if you keep at it like that, you'll exhaust yourself before an hour's over," she said.
"I don't care," Yugi gruntingly replied, swinging his axe. The phone pressed against his waist, where he'd stashed it underneath his belt. He fingered it occasionally, as his body became more and more tired.
He began to feel empty. Maybe a little better. Maybe he'd rest soon.
Maybe he'd go over and sit by Shadowwalker's tent, it had the most shade.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Seto drew back the tent flap. "Shadowwalker?" he called softly. "Are you here?"
"Yes, Seto. Come in." The old man turned to the sound of his voice. The bandana was untied, and Seto could clearly see the long, whiteish cut running from Shadow-walker's cheek, across his eyes, and all the way to the top of his forehead. With it off, he looked younger, the gray-streaked black hair still thick, with the lines of age no longer so prominent. He looks - hardly older then me, Seto realized with a start.
"You seem -" Seto blurted, then paused, blushing, "- younger."
Shadowwalker laughed, still an old man's laugh, and ran his wrinkled hands over his cheeks. "Why thank you. Now, you came to se me about those companions of the little Mutou boy?"
"Yes," Seto said, unsurprised. "Are they alive?"
Shadowwalker concentrated, then slowly shook his head. "I cannot tell. Perhaps. I can sense… some sort of conflict over them. Some need for them. I don't believe that they're dead, not at the moment…."
"Where are they? At a camp?"
"…No." Shadowwalker suddenly seemed in pain, closing his blank, disfigured eyes and hunching over, running his fingers down his scar. "They're… with the Yash."
Seto drew breath. "The king?"
"I think so."
Seto sat back on his heels and rubbed his temples. "Then, if they're still all right, they won't be soon." He felt horrible. Really, he did. He couldn't imagine any worse place to be than with the leader of the Yashamaat. "So… what do we do?" Seto answered his own question, "Pray."
Shadowwalker scoffed. "I wholeheartedly agree with you – but it's also best to have a plan."
"Yes… maybe I could go scout out the palace…?"
Shadowwalker laughed chokingly. "Trust me - it's not worth the trouble. But, what shall we do?"
"…I have no idea." Seto rubbed the back of his neck. "I suppose I can try to get counsel with the king or something… try to see if I can find them…." He sighed. "And Yugi… what do we do with him?"
"He'll be all right here," Shadowwalker counseled. "We can take care of him. He'll be fine as long as we tell people that he's just from this camp."
"Think they'll believe that?"
"Why shouldn't they?"
"All right." Seto got up and bowed. "Thanks. I'll go find him." He left.
Shadowwalker waited for a moment, then turned his blank face and said softly, "You can come in, you know."
Yugi crawled in through the tent flap. "Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop -"
"That's all right." Shadowwalker lay back down with a groan. "Tell me, why are you in here?"
"I wanted to ask you… if you think I can go home?"
Shadowwalker's blind, slate-blue eyes rested on him. A bony hand waved around in a hopeless sort of gesture. "Little Mutou boy," he murmured, "what makes you think I know where you come from at all?"
"I don't know. But I think you do." Yugi waited; Shadowwalker said nothing. The flickering candles formed strange shadows on the insides of the tent, making Shadow-walker's silhouette seem looming, and dark. "Can you help me?"
"I don't think so. Not right now." Shadowwalker turned over with a loud snap, the old, fragile body looking tired. "You have to be specific if you want me to see anything," the old man said, his voice dry and breezy as a desert zephyr. "Otherwise I have no idea what you're talking about. After all… I'm… not a mind reader…."
Yugi frowned. He'd heard that before, where? "Shadowwalker?" he said quietly, but there were only the sounds of sleep. Yugi silently got up and walked out of the tent. The sun smacked him in the face.
He took deep mouthfuls of hot air and went to find Solomon. He wanted to work some more.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"Hummh?" Yugi blinked around at the darkness. There was a soft, warm weight on him… what was that? He untangled himself from the sleeping skin and sat up gingerly. Zanebia was fast asleep on his stomach. He smiled. Aww, weren't little kids so cute? Especially when they were worn out with working all day and then you raced with them until they fell asleep nearly anywhere.
He carefully lay back down, so he wouldn't wake her up, and looked lazily out into the camp. He could see the older folks gathered around the fire, like yesterday, conversing with each other. He caught his name a few times, and realized they were talking about what to do with him. He could see Seto's off-white tunic, stained golden with firelight, and Shadowwalker's wrapped face.
Yugi listened harder, and could make out snatches of the conversation.
"I say he stays here… good worker…."
"Do you know what will happen if… illegally? The Yash will have… heads on... platter…."
"Oh, he's nice enough… shy though. Where… friends of his?"
"They… found by the Cult. They're at the palace."
"Well, too bad… that. But if Yash finds him… kill all of us, and those three too -"
"No, he won't."
Everyone jumped, including Yugi, making Zanebia mumble in protest. Shadowwalker had stood up quickly, so quickly he'd lost his balance. "No, he won't," Shadowwalker repeated. "Not until he gets what he wants. He wouldn't dare kill them.… I know what he would do…." He sat back down on his knees, and began rocking back and forth very slowly.
The people around him leaned forward to help. "Shadowwalker, are you al-" The old man jerked suddenly, falling onto his side, and began to twitch violently. Hands darted down, but before they touched him, he screamed - high, shrill, a strange wordless sound. Then he was on his knees again, staring into the darkness, his hands fluttering toward the fire. The cloth slipped down to the man's chin. Images danced in the blank eyes like they were windows to another place.
There was a loud hissing sound, like water being poured on a flame, and then the fire - flickering yellow and red - turned a bright, vivid white. It spit out small sparks, but when they landed on people, they didn't seem to burn.
Yugi wriggled out from underneath Zanebia and slid belly-down closer to the fire. The light was harsh and glaring, but it wasn't hot. He could get close to the circle of people, outlined in black by the fire. He felt Seto grab him gently by the lapel and pull him into the group.
"Shadowwalker's tales," he whispered with awe in his voice. "I didn't think I'd live long enough to hear one of these."
"I didn't think I'd live long enough to hear two, ehh," Solomon said into Yugi's other ear.
A/N: And so now we know something of Shadowwalker's strange nature, of about how the world has turned out with the Yashamaat as the rulers. --does a happy dance-- I love revealing plot. It feels lovely.
About Seto - yes, he's rather OOC, but a huge idea of "Consequence" is examining how a situation would have changed if a certain decision had been made, or if a certain person had never met another - almost anything, really. This idea will become more prominent later, but for now, it's mostly being applied to this situation. Seto didn't grow up under the rule of his stepfather in this new world, alone; he grew up in a way that showed him that everyone around him shared that same pain. I could only assume that would make him different than how we normally know him. --smile-- But feel free to bash if you think I was abusing the character.
"Opale qur gi Aat" means "life/live for the God" and is a verse froma standard prayer to the Cult-master; "verson" means "hell".
Thank you for reading, please review! Critique is welcome as well. --happy dance--