Disclaimer: Yugi-oh is the property of Kazuki Takahashi, who is a genius.
This is the third part of the Chrysalis series. You will enjoy this more if you read Chrysalis and Emergence first. You will get lost!
Authoress looks at scheduled plot and the amount of things that haven't been accomplished and sighs. She hefts her chubby and ever growing story and walks into the land of the muses. Okay muses, the story needs to go on a diet. We need to hurry it up. It's scheduled for 20 chapters and we're heading for an overtime. Any suggestions. Muses hold up list of probable casualties. Eww. That many huh? Muses hold up list of plot revisions. A freak traffic accident involving a fish kills the bad guy…ummm…alright. Seto and Jo get home by…the Shadow Realm gets annexed by New York and they put in a subway station?...well…okay, but it's a scary subway station. Bakura rescues Ryou by practicing tantric sex with a passing yogi?...hmmm…I'm not seeing it. Oh, its not a yogi; it's Yogi, the Bear….Still not seeing it, but I'll do it…How about Yami and Yugi…Oh…well…yes, I see…Domino City gets wiped out by a falling meteor that turns everyone into tomatoes and a passing Italian chef dices everyone into a fine puree and opens a five star restaurant. Well, that does solve the entire plot problem…Authoress looks at her story, then looks at the revisions. I really need new muses… Anyone got any I can rent…
Ps. Yes, my wrist went bad again, so things have slowed down :(It's taken me three weeks just to type this section, now three fingers on my left hand are numb and I'm back in the brace. I'll try to keep updating on the first week of the month. Sorry of the slowdown.
Psyche
Chapter Fifteen: Lovers
OCs
Ahmose: (Egyptian for: The moon is born) Yami's son back in Egypt.
E'on: Jonouchi's Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Jame: Kaiba's obsessive-compulsively organized secretary who wants to be fired.
Kallon: The Dark Sage and one of the three rulers of the Shadow Realm, though he tries hard not to be.
Kisara: The only female Blue Eyes White Dragon. (Not really an OC)
Koori: (Japanese for: Ice) The largest male Blue Eyes White Dragon.
Ledowr: The Magician of Black Chaos, also one of the three rulers of the Shadow Realm, and is trying even harder not to be.He is also Yuai's husband.
Pepi: Yami's third wife back in Egypt. She is Ahmose's mother, which will be covered later.
Shimo: (Japanese for: Frost) The other male Blue Eyes White Dragon.
Yuai: Yugi's girlfriend, sort of..., one of three rulers of the Shadow Realm. Though she's been slacking lately. She is married to Ledowr.
Yugi and Yami
Yami flipped a page, trying not to disturb his still sleeping aibou. He hadn't realized when he pulled Yugi back to bed that he'd be pinned beneath his little light for… he looked over at the clock… seven hours and twenty nine… make that thirty minutes. He had plotted opening gambits for Duel Monsters, thought over his upcoming oral report in history class, and was now rereading an ancient, tattered copy of Duelist Monthly that he'd found behind the bedside stand. After reading the not so thrilling victory of Weevile Underwood and his bugs over a small time duelist from Murdo, North Dakota, who looked like someone had accidentally smacked him a few too many times on the head with a iron frying pan causing him to be a true flat top, he yawned.
He boredly dropped the magazine and looked longingly at the shelves of books that were mocking him from across the room. They'd been taunting him all day, nearly shouting their glee that he couldn't reach even the smallest, slimmest, most insignificant copy of Dueling for Fun and Profit, by Mia Valantina. He wanted that book. He wanted to see what this Mia Valantina had to say, and if by any chance Mai Valentine either had the world's worst pen name, or was soon to rip the hair out of some scheming, wanna-be. He was betting on someone going bald himself, but until he reached that book… Futilely, he stretched his hand towards it. Since his arm hadn't grow the requisite five feet, the book stayed safely out of reach.
Yugi. Please little one, just move a bit. He wiggled experimentally, but like the rest of that day's experiments in shifting his hikari, it failed. Yugi just latched on more tightly, nearly burrowing into his chest. Aibou…he stretched out for the bookcase again…I just want…stretch, only another four and a half feet…that…the book jeered at him…book. With a dispirited sigh, he let his arm flop limply to the side of the bed.
The books silently blew raspberries at him. He was sure the book Zen of Dueling mooned him. The slim volume of Power of Dueling by one S. Kaiba, sneered. Monster Mastery giggled.
He snarled back, whispering threateningly, "Just you wait. He can't sleep forever, and then I'll get you."
The Art of Dueling by S. Hadi, sniffed disapprovingly.
"Honda…" Yugi snuffled softly against his throat. "Tell Jo no more marshmallows. 'm full."
"Yugi. Wake up, aibou." Yami wiggled again, only to be clung to even harder. He was sure he was going to have bruises. "Aibou, it's time to get up."
"N..no. I don' wanna. I' fell on d' groun.." Yugi's face squished against Yami's neck. "N' more sssss'mmmmooorrrrsssssss."
His light's semi-coherent mumblings reminded Yami that he hadn't managed to get breakfast. His stomach whined piteously. "Yugi, my light, please, LET ME GO!"
He instantly felt bad, as Yugi shrieked in fear and slammed himself against the wall. His wide amethyst eyes darting around, terrified and confused.
"Oh, aibou. I'm sorry." Yami reached out and pulled his light into his arms. "It's all right."
"Yami, what ha-pened?" Yugi quivered against him. His voice cracking in fear. "Is it here? Is it?"
"No, little one. Nothing is here." Yami rocked him gently. "I'm sorry aibou. I am so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you."
Yugi nodded, rubbing his face against his chest. "It's okay, Yami. I…I just had…a bad dream."
"About s'mores?"
Yugi shook his head and looked up at him. "You…you're okay, right?" His small hands trembled as he started to look for wounds on his yami.
"I'm fine, love." Yami caught his hands and pulled him closer. "No one is going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt me. I promise."
"Ryou…" Yugi shook his head, but Yami cut him off with a soft kiss.
"Enough." Yami kissed him again, more forcefully. "Ryou will be fine. You do NOT have to worry about him."
"But…"
Yami sighed. "No. No but. Ryou will be fine and we will find the person who is trying to harm our friends and make sure he never tries it again." Yami left out some of the gorier details of the plan. As much as he tended to… disagree with Marik's…excesses…after discovering that whoever was doing this had drawn in Kaiba and Yuai, threatened Mokuba, very possibly had a part in Jonouchi's death, as well as harming Ryou, he was willing to not only go along with those excesses, he had a few ideas of his own. He hadn't been stuck in the shadowy half life of the Puzzle for five millennia without getting a hang for those excesses himself. The only real difference between him and the others was really superficial. A bit of charm, a half remembered feeling of empathy, a worn, frayed thread of self control, and a faded, tattered scrap of emotion that Yugi had managed to patch back into love. However, threaten Yugi, harm his friends, manage to truly anger him and the threadbare reality of those remnants became obvious. Marik, with less then two decades of experience was little more than a novice. Give him time, maybe a thousand years of hanging out with the blasted ground cracking beneath his feet, while lost souls shrieked insanely in his ears and he'd get the hang of being truly excessive. What was getting a few hieroglyphics carved in your back compared to thousands of years of living in the capital of gibbering insanity with the only company being your most hated enemy? "Hush, Yugi. All will be well."
Yugi looked up at him, trying to smile bravely. It was a good try, so Yami kissed him.
"You shouldn't worry so much aibou." He nuzzled Yugi's hair, feeling his little one start hiccupping in small sobs.
He suddenly remembered something Bakura once told him. They had been sitting on a picnic table outside of school, waiting for their lights. Earlier, Bakura had talked him into going down to the poorer side of town for a bit of fun. He'd remembered Jonouchi's former gang mates that had been so pleasant to him, and they had spent a lovely afternoon showing those morons the uses their stun guns could really be put to. Bakura had, after the festivities, gotten into a bit of a brawl with a passing Volvo and had looked a bit bloody and tattered, though nothing as bad as what the Volvo looked like. Ryou, however, had taken one look at his yami and burst into hysterical tears.
"He's been watery all week." Bakura had grumbled, jumping down off his perch on the table top. "I swear to Ma'at, he's really a girl in a boy's body. I'm going have to fuck him silly if I want any quiet."
"I don't suppose you've tried comforting him." Yami remembered rolling his eyes at the thief.
Bakura had snorted. "Tried that. Didn't work. Sometimes you've just got to fuck your hikari till their eyes cross." He'd sauntered over to his light, "Don't expect to see him at school tomorrow."
"Well, I've tried everything else…" Yami muttered, half annoyed that he was reduced to taking the thief's advice.
-Lemon deleted for FF. net-
Yuai
She hadn't changed. Thank all the good spirits, she hadn't changed. After five thousand years of being able to do nothing but watch, he had been worried that when he finally got her back, she would be hurt, broken, changed. She wasn't. She hadn't. Her memory was a bit spotty. She had wobbled uncertainly those first few days back, shifting from child like fascination, to traumatized teen, to his confident , laughing Yuai, who matched him snide joke for snide joke and cuddled in his arms purring like a kitten.
"Are you listening to me?" She halted her pacing and stood glaring at him. She'd been off on some rant about her former body and her mortal friends, pacing around the castle's solar, blatantly avoiding the entire court she was supposed to be listening to.
"Did you say anything worth listening to?" He grinned, treasuring the look of fury that flickered across her face. He'd watched over her soulless body for too long, watching for any tiny reaction, to not appreciate the vivid emotions that now showed so plainly.
"Jerk." She whirled away, pacing across the room. Her dress glittering and swishing behind her.
Kallon looked up from the scroll he was reading and arched an inquisitive eyebrow at him. Kallon wasn't fooled. He knew. He dragged him out of that room, away from Yuai's still form too many times.
Ledowr smirked in return and went back to watching her worry.
"How the hell is my body walking around and talking when I'm not in it?" She paced from one end of the solar to the other, biting her lip and frowning. "It's my body!"
Kallon nodded, "Yes, dearest. It is your body. It shouldn't be walking around without you."
Yuai, still nibbling on her lip, nodded and continued her pacing. "That's what I thought."
"Maybe it got possessed." Ryou, who was sitting quietly looking out the window, suggested. "It had the Millennium Eye. Maybe it got possessed by that."
She frowned slightly. "Can an item possess a body?"
Ryou nodded. "Sure. Bakura possessed me a lot."
Ledowr grinned, "Is possessed really the appropriate word? How about fu…"
Ryou blushed and Yuai twirled to glare.
"You…" She marched over to him. "You are…" She hissed softly.
He grinned, loving that she was standing there, hissing at him like a small, fluffy kuribo. "Yes?"
"I'm trying to find a comparison that wouldn't insult pond slime."
He laughed and stretched in his chair, making the move as sexually provocative as possible. She narrowed her eyes and whisked away again, this time pretending to ignore him. He grinned watching her. She was more aware of him then any other person in the room. He knew it. She knew it. After being together for so many millennia, it was the pretence that counted though. He was close to the edge of truly annoying her, so he readjusted himself and pulled his mind into focus. A hard feat, when all he really wanted was to just watch her, listen to her talk to him, smile at him, growl, play, laugh…
"Let's just assume, just for the moment, your old body is walking around without you." He gave a martyred sigh, as if joining the conversation was a punishment he was only enduring for her sake. He looked over at Kallon. "Was it alive when you left."
Kallon shook his head. "I must admit, I did not check."
"Okay, so it could have been alive." Yuai grimaced. "That's a bit creepy."
"Oh, you get used to it after awhile." Ryou shrugged. "My body's been alive without me now and again. They keep working for a couple days, even if no one's in them."
Yuai blinked. "Why was your body…"
Ryou blushed redder then before. Ledowr wondered where the kid stored all that color. For a small, nearly alabaster teen, he could certainly turn an amazing shade of brilliant red.
She shook her head. "I have a feeling I don't want to know."
Ledowr smirked, "I do."
She barely flicked a glance at him. He was getting closer to that invisible line of annoyance. Kallon was now giving him pointed looks. Okay, okay. I get the message. "Seriously." He waved a hand toward Ryou. "I am interested. It might give us a clue. I don't think we need a blow by blow of his sex life, but the mechanics of getting in and out of a human body might be relevant."
Ryou looked thoughtful. "I really didn't do it myself. Bakura did it for me. He would just pull me out of my soul room and we'd leave. When it was time to go back, we would just be back in the corridor between our soul rooms and I'd wake up."
"How did if feel?" Kallon tapped his finger on the arm of his chair.
"It didn't feel like anything. We just went away and then we'd come back." Ryou shrugged.
"That is defiantly different from my experience. Every time was painful." Yuai went back to pacing.
Kallon pursed his lips and looked over at the white haired hikari. "I take it Bakura didn't do this too often."
"No," Ryou shook his head. "Only when he really wanted me to see something."
"His yami has probably been shielding him." Kallon sighed. "It most likely felt the same, but the thief took the pain for his light."
"You mean…it hurt…" Soft, chocolate brown eyes widened, and tears threatened, as the hikari realized. "Oh. Oh, Yami…"
"But we have no proof. At least until Bakura gets his albino ass over here." Ledowr slumped further in his chair.
"Do you think he will?" Tears still edged Ryou's voice.
Yuai went over to her friend and hugged him. "He's probably just busy tripping over the dead bodies between you and him. He'll be here soon."
Angelic brown eyes narrowed dangerously. "He had better not be tripping over any dead bodies. He had better be behaving himself. I warned him the last time that if he ever…"
Yuai stepped back, looking startled. "Last time? Ah…it was a joke Ryou."
"I think I liked it better when he was blushing." Ledowr arched an eyebrow. "Doe-y eyed in love to accessory to mass murder in .05 seconds. Impressive."
"Okay, so we have at least gained the knowledge that a human body does survive, at least a small amount of time without its soul." Kallon bravely tried to drag things back on course, but Yuai was now warily watching the white haired light from behind her husband's chair and Ledowr was looking a tad…overprotective. Kallon grinned. The things you show my friend, when you don't realize your doing it… "Which gives someone the opportunity to have possessed the cast off body. Now, why would someone do that?"
Yuai frowned. "I seemed…I mean it, it seemed to be following Bakura around. Could it have been after him? Or maybe Ryou?"
"It said my yami needed to be distracted. That he got to be a bother." Ryou tipped his head, trying to think. "It also mentioned Kaiba. It said, "Say hello to Kaiba for me."
"Interesting." Kallon frowned thoughtfully. "But why is it doing this? With young, Jonouchi and Kiaba, I believed all the attacks were focusing on them. However, if it still needs a distraction…"
"Mokuba?" Yuai gasped. "It's after Mokie."
"But why?" Ledowr shook his head. "If it wanted a mind slave, Kaiba…" he halted, his eyes flicking towards Ryou. "Well, it wasn't like he was in the best shape when he got here."
"True, but we are now speculating. There is no proof it is after young Mokuba." Kallon waved his hand dismissively. "It could just as easily be after Jonouchi's sister Serenity. Without Jonouchi or Kaiba there to protect her, she is just as vulnerable as the child. Probably more so since the pharaoh isn't well acquainted with her."
"Well, let's go spy on it then." Yuai walked to the door. "After all, we've got a handy birdbath of sight. Might as well use it and figure out what's going on."
Kallon got to his feet and walked toward the door. "It's not a birdbath. It's a mirror."
Yuai looped her arm through is and gently steered him down the hall towards the room where the birdbath of sight was kept.
"It was once the prized possession of an elfin queen. She kept it in her garden." Kallon sounded sulky.
"Yes, in her garden. I'm sure the birds appreciated that." Yuai's voice soothed with a hint of laughter.
Ledowr grinned as Kallon's voice floated plaintively back to him. "Why does nobody believe me?"
Bakura and Mokuba
Bakura shrugged his pack over his shoulder, checked to make sure the kid wasn't freaking out too badly and tromped into the swirling shadows. He wasn't entirely sure where to begin looking for his hikari, but he wasn't worried. Ryou was his light, the other half of his soul. They would naturally gravitate toward each other. A trick that helped many times in the past when one fool or another would try to "save" Ryou from him.
"Whoa, this is too cool. Can you teach me how to get here by myself?" Mokuba was rubber necking around like a geeky tourist.
"Sure. It's not hard." Bakura shrugged casually, but inwardly gloated over the look on Kaib… oh yeah…the priest was dead, or good as. Well, it would still piss off the pharaoh. Maybe he could give group lessons and get all the pharaoh's little hangers-on to start popping in and out of the Shadows.
"Coolness." Mokuba grinned, still looking around. It was kind of… well…honestly…scary here. He learned in the first five seconds in the Shadow Realm not to look at his feet. Looking down, was the same as looking straight ahead. A mass of coiling shadows receding off into some unimaginable distance. But otherwise, it was cool, a bit bland, maybe bordering on dull, but the whole magic thing added a certain spice to the otherwise yawn inspiring landscape.
"Kid, I told you not to fall behind or I'd leave you." Bakura called.
Mokuba looked around and found that the thief had gained a respectable lead. He jogged quickly to catch up. "Where do you think Ryou and big brother are?"
The yami shrugged and kept stomping forward. "Someplace."
"Should we split up and search for them?" Mokuba eyed a wisp of shadow uncertainly.
"No point."
"Yeah, the lack of anything like landmarks might cause a problem." The kid narrowed his eyes and started thinking hard, as he tagged along at the thief's heels.
Bakura thanked a few gods for the moment of silence. While he was willing to drag the brat along with him, if for nothing else then he'd have someone to throw at hungry monsters, he didn't need a running monolog. The border that they were crossing through was relatively safe, few if any monsters got this close to the mortal realm, but as soon as they got deeper into the shadows, he'd need to keep alert or little Mokuba's trip to the Shadow was going to be excruciatingly brief.
"Can you sense Ryou?" Mokuba asked, ruining Bakura's moment.
"No."
Silence wrapped around them again. The shadows twirled into spirals and pillars. Their plodding feet fell silently to the shadow floor. The only sound was Mokuba's soft breath and the soft brush of cloth against cloth.
"You know. This place is boring." Mokuba sounded disappointed.
"I've thought that too." A strong, silky voice murmured close by.
Bakura froze. It had been millennia since he last heard that voice, but he hadn't forgotten. "Mahaado." He whirled around, searching for the priest. "Where the fuck are you asshole."
"Time has not improved your temper or vocabulary." A dark shape slid out of the shadows and the black and purple Dark Magician came into view, grinning at the thief. "Enjoying the Ring yet?"
"Fucking bastard." Bakura glared at the dark haired creature. "You didn't tell me it would suck my soul out and trap me forever with only that shit-faced pharaoh."
The priest snickered, "You didn't ask." He turned and bowed gracefully to Mokuba. "Greetings. You must be Mokuba. I've seen you many times recently."
"Wait a second. What the fuck do you mean, I didn't ask?" Bakura vaguely wished he could grow fangs, just so he could tear the priest's throat out with them. "You condemn me to an eternal hell, and I didn't ask?"
Mahaado arched his eyebrows and smirked. "If you remember, I did warn you the Ring was evil, but you ignored me and then we got busy." The smirk grew. "It is not my fault I was too busy dying to gasp out, "Oh, by the way, thanks for taking the Ring. It's a bit cursed. I really appreciate your sacrificing your immortal soul, and saving me from spending the next few thousand years stuck inside of it. I'm leaving now to do what I've always dreamed, study magic without pesky interruptions, become a powerful magician, and find a home where it's cool and green. Ta.""
Mokuba watched Bakura actually start snarling and growling. He was sure that foam was starting to form on the edges of his lips. He stepped forward, "Hi… uh, nice to meet you. I don't suppose you've seen my brother. Yami says he looks just like…"
"Seth." The Dark Magician nodded. "Yes, I've seen him. He's fine, as are young Jonouchi and Ryou."
That snapped Bakura out of his fantasy of chewing the priest's limbs off. "Ryou?"
Mahaado ignored him. "I was sent to take you to them." He waved back where he came from and a large white figure suddenly loomed in the dancing shadows.
Mokuba gasped. One of his brother's dragons sinuously moved closer, causing the darkness to melt away. "Blue Eyes."
The dragon bowed its head, looking at him out of one sapphire eye.
Mahaado stepped over, next to the dragon, which crouched down, "If you will, she will take us to where everyone is."
The thief eyed the dragon warily. He never liked dragons. It was probably those weird dreams he kept having of Slypher chasing him through amusement parks where the rides kept saying he was too short to ride. He blamed it on Yugi and Ryou's penchant for watching old Disney flicks on rainy days. He also blamed the pharaoh, but then, he blamed the pharaoh for most everything, so he barely counted that.
The dragon cooed softly as Mokuba settled on her back. The priest swung up behind him and the dragon stood again.
"Hey, aren't you forgetting me?" Bakura reluctantly slogged forward, closer to the overly white, overly clawed, armored and toothed beast.
Mahaado started smirking again. "Forget you? Never."
It took Bakura less then five seconds to fervently wish they had forgotten him, as the dragon pounced forward, snatched him up in a hind claw and whooshed into the shadowy sky like a meteor. "You fucking freak… when I…. aaahhhhggg… that's a mountain… watch the fuck out….Mahaado, I swear, I'll figure out how to trap you in the Rod with Marik, you bastard, and you get to …. Shit! We're heading for that treeeeeee…"
Review and tell me where to find new muses…
FF. net
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