I apologize for the choppy formatting, and the lack of spell check. I am typing this story out on two computers, and it's going to be extremely interesting to see how good the story will be after I merge the two into one. There are not two versions of this story, but later chapters I need to figure out how to weave together. I know that the last chapter was a violent one, and I apologize if I offend anybody. I am trying to explore different angles of this story, and presenting Yami as a struggling, flawed individual who I can relate is infinitely rewarding. I am so grateful to each one of you kind folks who reviewed this, and tolerated this so far. This has been therapy from God, and the distraction I need from my daily life thus far. There have been a few of you who have made some extremely perceptive comments on a few of my other fics that address the issues of spirituality.
I thank you all for being brave enough to be honest with your oppinions, and to post them, or to email me and ask me what you want to know. To answer one question, I am balantly, committedly Christian, and I absolutely believe in the power of forgiveness because I have experienced it for myself. I have no other evidence to offer besides my own experience.
To answer one more question, I have no experience as a professional writer, but just a deep love for the written word and the hope that I may write
professionally one day. I have taken quite a beating this year, but I have recieved the wake-up call to do something with my life besides just
get through it. If any of you are going through that grinding experience now, or find yourselves in situations where you can relate to this story,
my humble prayer is that you find strength and peace through it, and healing on the way out. I am slowly muddling my way through the process myself, and
am more than willing to offer my humble support to anybody who needs it.
Also...concerning the appearance of Kaiba, and Bakura...I actually started a chapter where Yami and Seto meet in the real world, and it was so
horrible that it was deleted. The Seth in this story is a completely different character from Seto Kaiba, even if he is the reincarnation in the manga.
I haven't even attempted to write Bakura, (yet!) because I don't really know enough about him to come up with a story.
If somebody really wants me to write a fic, they are free to request it. I am always looking for ideas. I am also interested in somebody being a beta
reader, if they have the inclination, once I get my Internet back at my apartment...argh.
Finally, on a closing note...there is definitely forthcoming chapters between Yami and Yugi, with lots of angst, and suffering and a bit of humor.
I have no idea when, how, or if this story will end, but I can only promise that it will be a meaningful ending,but not necessarily a happy one.
And, no, that is not a dark hint that I have an intention of stopping this story.
Yami's eyes narrowed in disbelieving scorn, as he slowly shook his head.
"You torment me again with this promise? When you know how it angers me so? Why is it that you shudder at the thought of my retribution, but you repeatedly
ruminate over every old pain you have leached from my thoughts?" The Puzzle turned to ice, and Yami could feel its defenses curling up into frigid,
fortified intention, as its next words slowly ripped off the scarred over flesh that Yami so bitterly resented.
"You cast yourself as being the noble, unwilling sacrifice. For the last few thousand years, I have put up with your tortured thoughts, and I have been
forced to drink in your anguish in unyielding swallows, lest it consume you and you fall away into insanity, or darkness, my king. And, yes, my king,
you are such a long suffering victim, who has bleated so long over the lack of his choices that you sound like a lost lamb surrounded by wolves. My king.
did you ever consider the horrible fate that I have been bound to? You lament over your loss of freedom so bitterly taken by your own choices. My king,
before you seek to punish me further, consider the fact that I had no choice in this at all." Yami's jaw dropped open at the revelation that was so unexpectedly
vomited over his sacred truths, and he recoiled at the horrible possibility that the Puzzle-whom he considered to be nothing more than a prison, could have
been as wounded as he.
Yami gulped, as he slowly lowered his hands, and called back the fire that radiated from his finger tips. The silence that came forth from the golden walls
said far more than he ever wanted to know, as the Puzzle drank in the miserable silence, with a satisfaction that it concealed by a cloak of feigned despair.
It knew that compassion for undeserved suffering was far more easy to manipulate in Yami than provoking his anger, and it made a concerted effort to restrain
its glee at seeing Yami's face shift from cold suspicion to the unwilling acknowledgement that the Puzzle may have suffered along with him...at his own hands,
as well.
"I was not aware of that...possibility." Yami muttered relunctantly. "You never spoke of this before." The Puzzle would have smirked in triumph had it the lips to do so, as it carefully weighed the right words to garner the most pity. "You never allowed yourself to consider the possibility before, my king."
Yami stiffened, as he felt the reverberating emotions of bizzarre relief, and unmistakeable malice rippling through him. His instincts flinched in harsh,
sudden warning, and he restrained the rising fire that he summoned without thought to his fingers. He was not sure if it would be more advantagious to
openly challenge the Puzzle, or to continue the charade of his compassion until he had more of an idea where this fresh manipulation was going. He opted for
the second choice, as he steeled his face to conceal the rage. Forced compassion was indeed something he was never good at portraying convincingly.
He suddenly felt very, very lucky that he had maintained the distancing scorn for those long years. It was far better for him to allow a bit of it to
slough off now. He crossed both arms in a show of impatience, as he drew himself up to his full, less than formidable height. He cursed whichever god
decided it would be so wonderous to make him so aggrivatingly short, but the irritation gave rise to even more convincing distain.
"You will forgive me if I did not entertain the possibility when you had me believe the lie that Isis tried to kill me, my father beat me, and that I
had absolutely no hope of escaping this place. Were our situations reversed,what exactly would your reaction be?" Yami waited for the answer curiously.
The Puzzle did not deem it necessary to reply, yet again. Yami found for once, he did not deem it necessary, either. As for the promise of deliverance,
Yami grimaced with the realization that he could nothing more than wait for that as well.
The golden pieces felt vaguely warm again, and they shimmered in expectation, as Yugi sat at his desk, cupping the last two pieces with a grin.
The Puzzle sat at the center of the desk, almost completed, the missing spaces where the pieces would go gaping like hungry mouths as Yugi gently slid
the next to the last piece in with an expecting hush. After so many nights of fiddling with the thing, Yugi felt more relieved than anything else to
finally have something else to divert his attention.
And, inside the Puzzle, Yami was struck by the sudden, unexplainable expectation that he sensed from the Puzzle's depths. Yami also felt the eerie, gentling tug against his spirit, and recalled vaguely the same sensation when Isis called him out of the Puzzle. But Isis was dead, and the Puzzle itself had never exercised power enough to free him, or at least place him "outside" its walls. Yami was certain that the horrible thing would have used that power against him long ago. Clearly, this kind summoning was coming from some other source than the Puzzle, and Yami did not trouble himself to speculate what that might be.
Yugi was startled to feel the Puzzle's slight movement, and was rewarded with the oddest feeling of a cat purring in pleasure as he carefully slid in the
last piece. Yugi nearly fell from the overwhelming tidal wave of rapture that almost threatened his sanity, as he gave the Puzzle a crooked, drunken grin,
swayed, and promptly, silently fainted.
Yugi missed the rush of wind, the hissing gold and the spirit and flesh and essence of the universe emptying itself into one golden shower of starlight
as it filled the room, rising to the ceiling, casually bouncing away, and then swirling into bright oblivion. The shadows slurked back to their darkness,
eagerly, revealing Yami's upright form, with both hands on his hips, and mouth open to deliver a profound speech about the Puzzle's wanton disregard, and
his regal refusal for any mercy.
It was an amusing sight to see the Pharoah's shock, as he spun in wide-eyed confusion at the strange surroundings. Yami's eyes bulged with flummoxed realization
as he saw the familiar bed, the strange glass box in the corner...and then his eyes fell upon the swooned form that lay serenely as a stone lamb
sprawled as if he had fallen. Carefully, Yami crouched closer for a better view, drinking in the strange crown of spikes that the slumbering young man
sported, noted the soft contours of his gently rounded face, the complete lack of threat from him, and the overwhelming resemblance he had to Yami.
It was the same boy that had appeared in his strange delusion. But Yami could tell, just from the strange, fresh inocence, and the dizzying aftermath
of being in the Puzzle one moment and finding himself standing out here. It was as different as being in a dark room then venturing out into the sunlight.
Yami's shock turned to concern as he saw the young boy groan. Yami lurched backwards as he saw the eyelids flutter, but the boy only groaned and rolled over,
his face pinched. Yami stared down at the boy,concern and fear warring over his face, and eyes narrowing to see the Puzzle clenched in the small
hands. "What is the meaning of all this?" Yami barked in helpless confusion to the Puzzle. "Do you mean to tell me that this child was the means of my
deliverance?!"
The Puzzle's only answer was a sinister chuckle of satisfaction, as it radiated gold, swathed over the child's body in a perverse covering. Yami watched in anguish as the child screamed, and instinctively writhed against the pain of his very being being sucked into the Puzzle's depths, leaving the small body flung aside as if it were worthless trash. It was then the Puzzle decided to answer Yami's question with a soft sneer.
"If this dear child was the means of your deliverance, he certainly will not be now, my king." Yami's jaw fell open in disbelief at such balant cruelty.
"He is an innocent child! What could you possibly gain by subjecting a complete stranger to your wrath? Are you so weakened that you can no longer fight against anything that has no chance against you?"
"My king, I am aware of my new limitations. Recall how I was witness to your brutal retribution against your former high priest Seth. The taint of his blood will never be cleansed from my bricks."
It was the sickening glaze that fell over the reddening eyes that alarmed the Puzzle. It was the shifting in his features, melting from concern and compassion to smug, hungry, corrupted curiosity. Yami smirked, eerily, as he crossed his arms, and turned casually to the Puzzle with the amused question:
"And it is a great act of wisdom to provoke me further by dragging an inocent into this? Do you sincerely believe that you will forstall my retaliation by holding a hostage against me?"
Yami allowed the smirk to grace his lips as he straightened in anticipation of the Puzzle's suddenly jarring uncertainty. "As you so astutely pointed out,if you believe me to be a depraved monster, should I not rejoice at the chance to subject an inocent target to my own power, so that I may see the result?"
Yami tilted his head, his face haloed in the waning light, his preditory eyes giving the boy a scathing, passing glance as he slid to stare at the Puzzle.
"Or, maybe..." he began in a hiss, "you would prefer to bear witness to another one of my depraved acts? Seth once told me that killing was more pleasurable
if you knew you could awe the audience into the spell of watching another bleed so helplessly. To be so free of the regards of confining morality. To act
savagely with wanton disregard of the sacred. To consume the anguish until you're too sated to feel it yourself. Do you know how cleansing it felt to avenge
myself against Seth? I never felt so free." His voice trailed off as he felt the Puzzle recoiling in paralyzed horror. The cursed thing had no regard for the
inocent child still slumbering on obliviously, but to see the Pharaoh so eager to snuff out that life only confirmed the nagging truth that Yami corrupted
was far more of a monster than any creation the Puzzle could ever hope to mimic.
Yami hunched over the sleeping child,offered the Puzzle a coy grin, as he waved a hand in mocking invitation. "You wish to watch my second kill? Tell me.
Does it amuse you, or is this your sad attempt to live vicariously?" The Puzzle did not answer for a long moment, then offered up the rather shaking challenge.
"My king, if you kill this boy, you will truly be the monster you once tried so hard to restrain." Yami's smirk only grew, shifted into a teasing pout.
"And why would I restrain myself when I just told you how glorious this feels? You know, there was a time that I was once as inocent as this one laying before
me. When I bled as a victim, and cried like the innocent do. Doing this allows me to severe that last tie to that time that I loathed to live through.
This is necessary, do you see that?" Yami's voice was almost tender, as he swept a caressing hand over the sleeping boy's forehead.
"If you wish for mercy, then think of all the horror this boy will be spared from. The years he won't have to bear, the pain he'll escape."
Yami raised his hand, summoned the fire, arched one eyebrow in coy amusement as the flames roared forth from his splayed hands. With an enchanted, dazzled smile, he arched the churning inferno into a blazing dance of bueatiful pain, the gold and the red glittering from his scars and ordiments, and eyes. He flung arms wide in a perverse immitation of welcome as he beckoned the consuming flames to spread like wings and engulf the sleeping boy. There was a brilliant flare of light, as the Puzzle shrank back from the heat and the shadows that crept along its walls, longing for more, and lapping at Yami's corruption like starving dogs. Indeed, the sacrifice of the inocent seemed to burn as a perverse offering on the altars of intiquity, as flesh slowly turned to ash. There was no cry, no desperate scream of pain against the torture, nothing. The Puzzle sensed nothing of the boy's passing and was too blinded by the wall of flames to sense anything more than Yami's sick satisfaction. The flames were so vast now,that they concealed any view of him anyway.
-
Yami shivered in revulsion, and gasped to see the wall of flame, effectively falling as a curtain between him and the Puzzle just as he planned. He was
trembling so much from the exhaustion of maintaining the illusion for that long that he almost dropped the precious bundle he cradled protectively in his
arms. With a grunting heave, he hefted the sleeping boy higher in his arms, and forced himself onward through the spiraling darkness of the coridors, back
to the one place of refuge he might be able to shelter himself and this poor victim until he gained the strength to end the Puzzle's existance once and for
all. His head ached with so many troubled thoughts...how to spirit this boy back to his own world, how the child got ahold of the Puzzle, what would the
retaliation be when the Puzzle discovered Yami's deception...He shook his head with a weary sigh. It was too much to think about now, and he was feeling
the cloying exhaustion lapping at his heels. He set the boy down carefully, hesitantly placed a hand over the cool forehead, and could sense nothing
amiss with him but the effects of the sleeping spell. Yami sighed again, in relief,as he braced himself and gathered the boy in his arms to continue his way.
With a prayer for strength, Yami closed his eyes and envisioned the peaceful room where he had found the boy, hoping that it was enough. He felt the bizzare
softness of carpet beneith his sandal, the refreshing coolness again, and he opened eyes to find himself encompassed by the pale white walls of the boy's room
With infinite care, Yami staggered forward, and carefully lay the boy down on the bed, leaving his hands over the shoulder, savoring and missing the solid
feel of human skin. His mouth twisted in bittersweet memory at his own childhood, as he arranged the thick blue quilt around the small body. He paused to
examine the boy for any injury he might have missed. There was not even a singed hair on his head. Yami templed a hand across his forehead, calling forth
any memories of the horror and any aftermath that might linger, and was relieved to feel the pain to be slight compared to most. With a moment to brace
himself, Yami called the pain back to his own core, and grimaced as he felt it reverberating through his fingers, and into his soul. It was almost too much.
Yami nearly fell to his knees, and used the last of his rapidly wanning strength to stay upright as he wearily trudged back to the Puzzle. With one last
glance to the boy, he whispered, "May you be spared."
Yami saw no use in lingering and prolonging his delay, and he had too little energy left to do any more for him anyway. Yami closed his eyes and emerged again into the golden bricks again. He gently lowered himself into a prone position, drew the cloak over his aching shoulders, and shivered in the dark. A single tear slid down one cheek as he tormented himself with the horrible thought of how very little of his corruption was an act of deception any more.
