MM: Em-hotep!!!!!!! Prepare for the torture of characters other than Marik but still including Marik!
Marik: Ib-es kesen!!! Sen-odji!!!
MM: T'e, khenmes-ii!!! Curse me all you want; you won't get away!!!
Yami: Ahem. Since I dominate everything I will make the disclaimer!!! The Mystic Muses do not own Yugi-Oh, but do own this story. Enjoy, and seneb-ti till the end!!!
Chapter 6
Acid Rain Amour
The stars twinkled gently outside, threading seductively through the crawling tendrils of fog clogging the obsidian night. The street snoozed, deep in a land of rustling leaves and silken clouds. A lone crystal of rain rolled off an emerald leaf in its slumber, crashing past the window of a solitary home. Frowning, it blinked in at the specter upon the bed before melding with the pavement below.
Curled up beneath the bear-hide-thick comforters, Yugi Moto dangled somewhere between bliss and the bloodless fingers of the very early morning. A wisp of air sat upon his bed, contorted, ignoring the mumbles from Yugi's lips. Chin resting upon his fists, Yami's trembling shadow stared out at the all-seeing moon, begging for answers that his heart called for.
Where are you, Andromeda? Tell me, so that I can know where my soul is…
A page of a book swam back into his vision, a panorama of gurgling water and lazing sand, with the indigo sheets of night hugging the silver medallion of the moon.
Oh Thoth, king of the moon and all wisdom…help me now…
Glancing down, he sighed, eyes glaring straight through his transparent chest. Slowly, he lifted a palm and pressed it to that spot, remembering how Andromeda's hand had rested there, a ghostly kiss upon the midnight. Without Yugi's body, he couldn't even feel the usual lub-dub of a persistent heart. Only the ice cubes of air met his hand, clawing unknowingly at a wound already too vast to seal.
He sighed. Why do I still live? Dying doesn't seem like a horrible option. Why am I still alive after five thousand years, here to suffer more in this mortal realm?
The clock's hands quietly stole forward, grasping the sleeping time and shoving it into an eon-long pouch that led into nothing but darkness, kidnapping it for another day. The wheel of heaven ground toward dawn, and soon the droplet of crimson blood from an angel's heart surfaced above the slash of the horizon, casting its rusty arms toward the stars from whence it fell.
Fatigued, Yami probed Yugi's mind, drinking in the sweet blankness that blocked out the troubles of the little one's conscience.
"Yugi?"
Eye lashes fluttering, the boy peered out at the thin mirage sitting upon his bed, its tousled gold-and-red mane fusing into the intensity of the dawn light pouring into his chamber. The usual glow of regal power failed to illuminate the eon old visage wallowing deep within the shade.
"Yami, we've waited a day, and no further info came…I think we should just go to Battle City when it comes around," Yugi suggested, running a hand through his hair. "And it's not like Joey got any info on this, either."
Sighing, Yami sank into a puddle of morbid despair, curled up at the foot of the bed. His see-through shape wavered like a lily surrendering its petals to the maelstroms of sand.
"But…what if the others, aside from Joey, know something about her?" he asked.
"Then they would have told us!" Patting the spirit on the back, Yugi rubbed his eyes and headed toward the door. "If you really want to, we can call them now and get them all worried and distressed," he added, half cheerfully. As if the Shadow Realm had suddenly popped into existence, misty tendrils of night inched across his room, clammy hands grasped the boy's neck, reminding him once again of the strange message from that unknown kidnapper that lay beneath his pillow.
Shivering as the breeze clawed through the window and squeezed through his ethereal shape, the Pharaoh followed his body downstairs.
"Marik, lookie!" Andromeda cried out happily, dipping a toe into the pond as an offending fish flashed around her foot. Slipping both her feet into the rippling waters, she flipped through the wavelets, watching the fish scream for mercy and screech toward the other side of the pool.
"Yes, Andromeda, I do see the shark attempting to feast on your foot," he muttered drily "When did you turn so sadistic?" Quietly, he watched the rivers of sunlight flow from the midst of heaven, peeking between the leaves toward the fountain of life, battling the shades for a spot upon the nodding grass. Leaning against the tree, Marik dozed, mind slowly filtering out to skim the goings on of his Rare Hunters. He noted with blank amusement an ecstatic Derek blubbering to Rishid far in the distance, Strings meditating on a bench in a park in Domino, Lumus spying on Seto Kaiba, and Umbra…stealing from the fridge when he should be in Domino, too! Annoyed, Marik flicked his Millennium Rod and smirked in loving entertainment as his servant writhed on the kitchen floor, head slamming into the fridge door like a parachuting watermelon.
"Hmm…I didn't know that Umbra was so great at break dancing…" He waited till the last spasms faded away, then shoved the servant out of sight and out of mind. Slowly, his vision focused upon Andromeda's back, following the rocking of her spine as she hummed a random tune.
"Such a weakling, she is…" The beginnings of an enjoyable experiment formed in his mind, its sleazy arms threading through the millions of voices and images flooding his thoughts. "Let's see if you can resist me…"
Tramping through the haze and shutting off his links with the other Rare Hunters, he pulled upon the blank slate of Andromeda's mind. An elysian meadow flickered into being, rolling under the breath of the skies. Popcorn clouds rolled lazily across the sky, looking for a giant stomach to consume them. A willow dangled its nodding head over the trickling stream, snoozing as the brooks chirped out a constant lullaby. Fishes flailed along around the little rocky protrusions, winding their way downstream to a place that she had not yet dreamt up.
"Andry, dear, come here."
"Wait, Marik. You come here! These fishies are soooo adorable!" So saying, she dipped in a finger, letting the creatures settle between her fingers. She giggled softly, remembering the feel of Marik's hand through her hair. For some odd reason, it reminded her of agile fish, slithering between every obstacle.
Rolling his eyes, the Egyptian stroked his Millennium item, invading deeper into the meadows of her mind.
"What's with this girl and fishes?" The silver flicks of scaly bodies shivered under the mask of water, sending Andromeda into a laughing frenzy.
His foot touched upon the furry grass.
Everything held still as a statue for a moment, with the breeze sifting through the leaves and the grass tickling his boots for all they were worth.
With a sizzle, the colors dampened, its soft, feathery crowns shriveling to a toneless gray. His steps carried him forward, letting his front bathe in her sunshine and his back shiver in his own cold wake. Drops of darkness veiled the land, the sinewy fingers of ink dribbling into the distance. It touched the edge of the horizon and started up into the sky, a night come early in a land where night didn't exist. Defying gravity, it clung to the fabric of the heavens, lugging itself overhead, painting the world a deeper violet.
An invisible hand grasped the paintbrush and streaked quicker across the sky, enthralled by the wintry arms of the suddenly shivering air. Crinkling, its canvass howled with enough pain to crush an angel. As its last clouds vanished into a starless night, Marik smirked and raised his hands high, the golden object he held radiant with its own bloodthirsty might. The invisible artist poured his paint from above, and it rolled across oceans long banished and covered the last bird's cry. Screeching across the dome of blue, it crashed into the horizon, then overtook the land like a million scurrying ants, its army swelling the shadows of the mountains.
The glow of the Rod dimmed, and Marik smirked contently to himself. Reaching out, he cupped the drooping branches of the willow, ignoring its piteous sighs. He alone stood in his domain of gray, where no one screams and no one cries.
The flat fur of grass beneath him churned as if swung in a giant blender. The soil trembled and liquefied, grasping his heels and drinking him into its eternally dark embrace. Slowly, he sank through the gurgling grayness, to emerge back into his own colorful real world.
Bringing the faraway images of the girl by the pond back to the foremost part of his conscious mind, the Egyptian teen lifted the corners of his lips. Unnoticed, his brilliant eyes glowed, those violet vipers again churning through them with hatred and power.
"Come here, Andry."
Amused, Marik watched as she stood, joints stiffer than a plank of wood. Water trailed from her ankle, gleaming formidably like the light of a saber in the dawn. She put one foot in front of the other all the way over to him, stopping an inch from his chest with a slight wobble.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he surveyed the cardboard expression on her face with something akin to tender affection. "What's your name?"
She gazed up at him with maelstrom eyes. "Andromeda Academ."
His finger twisted itself into her silky locks. "Where are you now?"
"On Marik Ishtar's island."
Nodding lightly, he tugged her hair, sending pain flashing through her nerves like a million hissing dragons. She didn't twitch.
"Who am I?" The words left his lips, softer than the sigh of dawn, thinner a sizzle of steam as it leaves for the celestial realms. Mirth lurked beneath its surface.
"You are my master."
Zombie-like, Andromeda lifted a hand and rested it against his heart, the steady beating of it never registering in her legally dead brain.
Lub, dub, lub dub, lub dub…
A vague memory struggled to surface, a memory of another heart, another time, another boy…
With a crash, the waves of mind control pummeled her thoughts.
Andromeda floated, enmeshed in a world of golden lights, far from feeling her body, in a land beyond time. She reached out once or twice, searching for a feeling of a hand, a foot, a toe, a fingernail, but met with lulling melodies instead. Her name, identity, everything, drifted somewhere close, she knew, perhaps behind this cloud, or perhaps that distant figure. Shrugging, she nestled into the clouds. Suddenly, a voice spoke to her, lapping at her soul from every direction like words from heaven's oracle.
"Who do you love?"
Somewhere in the distance, a voice called out the answer, and to her surprise, it seemed somewhat like her own.
"I love Marik Ishtar."
Immediately confused, she sat up, a subtle sense of the mouth that belonged to her nudging at her mind. Her hands reached out blankly, trying to help her spirit grasp something unseen. It fell away from her control, an independent entity of its own. Quickly, the clouds rolled over, bulldozing her into their soft cushions. The confusion, the voices, and the strange words from her lips faded out of remembrance and forever out of mind.
Marik's hand covered her little one, its warmth enshrouding her coolness. His purposeful jab at her soul, allowing her that one moment of being able to sense her own vocal cords and lips, had shown him what he needed. His other hand grasped her upper arm, its pressure turning her hand white as a baby harp seal's coat. He could feel, through some deep well of his magic, the distant pain slashing her nerves, the veins burgeoning against themselves, the blood pounding their prisons and drilling its way into her tissues, drowning her skin as it pooled. Gently, he let go, watching the puddles of red underneath her skin struggle to congeal into a solid band of purple bruises.
Curious about whether she would regain control, he asked one more question.
"And what are you?"
A dreamy smile crept upon her lips.
"I am your slave."
MM: Okay, end of the short chapter. Sorry I wasn't able to write. School is bothersome at times, and I was losing my fanfiction writing incentive…
Marik: ZZZZZZZ…….
MM: Errrr….okay, I'll try to make the next one more interesting.
Yami: sulks in corner
MM: Anyway, have fun, everyone!!!!!!!!!