Author's note: ehehehe...yeah, I know this took a while. My laptop was in tech support for almost a month...but here it is. Serafinamoon, thank you for the reviews. Yeah, this whole section has a lot of character-torture, and Yuugi most of all...;;; and yep, Yuugi is in trouble now, no one knows where he is so they can't come to save him. Hope you like this chapter!
Chapter 8--Inspection
No daylight reached the slaves of division 24 the next morning. Even had there been a window, Dark World's veiled sun would have shed little light. The Darklings did not mind this; they were creatures of the night.
Yuugi, on the other hand, would have appreciated a little sunlight. Scat carefully shook him awake, and he sat up slowly, happy to note that his back didn't hurt as much today. If he had been a normal human, he probably would have started bleeding again just from that movement, but with his Guardian body, his back had already begun to scab over; the slaves had used some torn-up pieces of cloth to bind his thin shirt to his back, so that had helped stop the bleeding as well.
"Inspection today," whispered Krin, coming over. "The Lieutenant's been checking all the bases, an' it's our turn to get looked over."
Yuugi looked worried. "I just hope he won't notice me..."
Brell snorted. "How could he not? Your hair's not cut, you don't have a proper number, and if he's already looking for you, he'll be able to pick you out. I say you don't have a chance."
Datch hugged his knees to his chest, thinking. "Well...we still don't have anything to write with, but maybe we could put your number on your face in blood. Your arm's already fine, and once it scars you just have to keep dirt on the scars so you can read it." He quickly bit his index finger until it bled, then painted 741 on Yuugi's cheek. "There...that'll do for now."
The slaves sat in a loose circle, talking; there was little else for them to do until the overseers came to get them. None of them thought of how cold they were, or how tired they were. They were so used to being cold, tired, hungry, and in near-constant pain that it seemed normal to them.
"Wonder what we'll be on today..." Krin muttered idly, making patterns in the dirt on the floor with her finger.
Scat shrugged. "Maybe we'll see Whir today...she could prob'ly get some coal or something so we can put your number on better. Whir's good at that--she can even write some letters."
Yuugi sat across from her, trying not to move too much. "So, none of you knows how to write? How come you can speak English?"
This point had been bothering him for a while; the only way he knew to cope with an unescapable (at least temporarily) disaster was to not think about it too much. Yuugi knew that if he really thought about what was happening, he wouldn't be able to keep going.
Scat nodded. "We can't write 'cause we never learned. I can't read too good either, but sometimes I know the letters. We can speak English 'cause we hear it all the time, so you pick it up pretty fast. I dunno why they all talk English, though. Actually they don't call it that, they call it human-talk. I guess a lot of places talk that, or something."
Datch padded over, poking Scat's shoulder. "I think they're comin' now..."
Datch was right; booted feet tramped down the narrow corridor, and the padlock on the cell door clicked with the turning of a key. A Chaos Army soldier walked in. He looked fairly human; Yuugi wasn't sure what World he might come from.
"24, follow me. Inspection." Without even glancing behind to see if the slaves were following, the soldier walked back down the corridor. The slaves got up and walked silently after him; resistance never entered their minds. They knew the fate of the disobedient all too well.
Yuugi looked around as he followed the slaves down the corridor. All of the walls were rough stone at first, but as the passage began to rise, the walls became smoother and better-lit. Finally, they took a pulley-operated lift platform up to a higher floor, where all the walls were harsh, smooth steel.
The slaves pattered quietly through the cold, silent hallways. Chaos troops occasionally crossed their path, heading from place to place without emotion or comment. Apparently, the Lieutenant was inspecting the entire base, and everyone was on edge. The apprehension was almost palpable as division 24 was herded into the main hall, where other slave divisions and troops were already standing.
The hall was a large room with a high ceiling. Like the rest of the base, its walls were flat, unadorned steel; the Overlord cared nothing for beauty. The purpose of Chaos architecture was to showcase power and inspire fear, not to impress with wonder.
Scat and Datch shoved Yuugi behind them, hoping the Lieutenant would have too much else to look at to inspect them closely. They didn't know why the Lieutenant might be interested in Yuugi, but they knew that if he was caught, it would mean death.
At one end of the hall stood two steel double doors, locked shut by two thick steel bars. Yuugi was just thinking that he was sick of looking at all this steel when two Chaos troops, one humanoid with paper-white skin and one reptillian, lifted the parallel bars from the entrance. The doors swung open.
A collective shiver seemed to run through the waiting Chaos troops as a dark figure strode in, black cape swirling around him. The Lieutant surveyed the room with a piercing, dark-violet gaze. These were dangerous eyes, eyes of complete fervor and determination to serve their master well. The Lieutenant strode up and down lines of troops, looking into their faces, saying nothing. The Chaos army tried hard not to look nervous or flinch under that gaze; not all succeeded.
Having finished his inspection of the troops, the Lieutenant turned his cold eyes on the Chaos slaves, the primary workforce of the army. The pitiful state of malnourished and filthy adults and children seemed to have no effect on him; he looked without a stirring of pity. He passed several divisions without comment before coming to 24.
Lieutenant Gash's eye glanced dispassionately over the children he knew only as numbers, seeing nothing amiss. Yuugi shrank back behind Datch, praying that the Lieutenant would somehow not see him; he knew that to meet those eyes was death for him. The Lieutenant wouldn't bother to look at slaves carefully...they meant nothing to him...he wouldn't be seen....
Suddenly, the Lieutenant stopped. At that instant, Yuugi looked up, and met the Gash's eye. He must have seen me... Yuugi thought hopelessly. There was no way the Lieutenant hadn't seen Yuugi; Gash had looked right at him.
The Lieutenant paused for a moment, expression unreadable; his eyes were so dark they were almost black. Then, however, he looked up and walked away. Yuugi breathed a mental sigh of relief; the Lieutenant must not have seen him after all.
Gash strode to another, smaller doorway, ready to inspect the base itself now that he had finished with its occupants. The Chaos army began filing off, various groups going to their own sections of the base. Their soft whispers faded as they moved away from the hall. Other troops herded the slaves off to their assigned tasks. The inspection was over for now; it was time to get back to work.
As Gash waited to leave, one of the Chaos troops walked up to him. It was a human woman, her face carefully expressionless. She had gotten the thankless job of reporting something to the Lieutenant, and she was determined to complete it without being reprimanded...or worse.
Handng something to the Lieutenant, the woman spoke. "Sir, this was found on one of the slaves when they were captured. It emits an aura we don't recognize, and we thought it best to show it to you directly."
Yuugi looked back, curious, and stopped dead. He would know the object in the Lieutenant's hands anywhere--The Millennium Puzzle! The Lieutenant surely knew about Yami, but would he know of or recognize the Puzzle?
The Lieutenant gazed pensively at the golden pyramid. He frowned, turning it over in his hands as he considered it. Finally, he looked up.
"I will inspect this myself. Return to your post."
The woman bowed and walked off. Scat nudged Yuugi and tugged his hand. "C'mon--we have to keep a low profile."
Yuugi followed her out of the hall, wondering what would become of his trapped friend.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Yami woke up slowly, lying on the stone floor of his soul room. It was a labryinth of dank stone corridors and endless doors, twisting in different directions in defiance of gravity, each one opening onto a new passage to get lost in. The whole space, however large it was (Yami had never seen all of it, as far as he knew), was filled with traps and pitfalls for any intruder, and unfortunately Yami himself on occasion.
It was no surprise that Yami hated staying in his soul room; he had already been trapped in the Millennium Puzzle for about 3000 years, and he didn't want to spend any more time than he had to stuck in a cold, dark maze, especially since it was a continual reminder of the darkness of his past, and maybe his soul. Yami didn't know for sure, but he suspected this was the true significance of the soul room: it reflected the owner's soul.
Considering all this, it was understandable that Yami was less than happy to be trapped in the Millennium Puzzle. He didn't know what had happened, but he guessed that his power--and the Puzzle's power--had been locked off or sealed somehow. Meaning that he was trapped, helpless, and completely useless to anyone.
"Less than happy" was putting it lightly.
"DAMN IT!" the frustrated spirit shouted to no one. He had learned to swear from listening to Joey and Tristan, and this seemed like a good time to put that into practice. After all...there was nothing else he could do but wait.
Yami hated to wait.
-o-o-o-o-o-
I hate this.
I hate this, I hate this, I HATE THIS!
I hate being trapped. I've been trapped for 3000 years--enough for anyone. Enough for a whole damn CIVILIZATION.
I hate being helpless. Being at someone else's mercy is shameful--a sign of weakness. I never lose, and I AM NOT WEAK. I am not weak and I never will be. NEVER.
I hate losing. I never lose--never. No matter how hard it gets, no matter how impossible it may be, I ALWAYS WIN. Always. No one beats me--ever. No matter what. I don't want to be trapped here, because it means that someone beat me, I lost and they won, I couldn't stop them.
I hate being useless. Yuugi saved me when he completed the Millennium Puzzle, and if I spent all my life trying, I could never repay him for that. I need to be useful--if I can't help Yuugi, what can I do? I can't do anything on my own; if Yuugi doesn't need my help, I have no reason to exist. I have to be useful. I have to be able to help, because if I can't, then I'm nothing but a parasite, and I will never be that. NEVER.
But that's what I am...isn't it? Yuugi doesn't really need my help. So I helped him beat Pegasus--he never would have met Pegasus if it hadn't been for me. So I helped him against the Chaos Army when we first met them--we never would have known about other Worlds if we hadn't gone to Duelist Kingdom. It's my fault we're in this mess. And what am I doing about it?
Nothing. Because there's nothing I can do.
I HATE THIS!