He had known fear, and tragedy in his short time on Earth. He had been lied to, abused, and viciously forgotten by his mother during those murky, haunted years that he almost never spoke of before he was dumped off at his grandfather's where he had remained content, and safe ever since. But what he had experienced in these last trickling hours had almost broken him. Every wound ever inflicted on him had been wrenched open, and the pain renewed, as fresh as the time it happened. He saw his memories played out before his eyes, each one fractured, and mutilated, as if he were peering at them through the jagged shards of a broken mirror.
No wonder Yami had the capability of becoming a monster. How could anybody endure this hell and not become one with it? He was uncertain of the passage of time, there was nothing here to mark its passing but the broken memories, and they were part of the past, anyway. Weren't they?
He shivered, but not from cold, or even fear, but from the horrific sense of hungry expectation that was reverberating from the golden walls around him, growing in intensity. Yugi felt as if there was a brooding storm rising over the whole situation, and he cringed in worry for Yami's safety, but
smirked in elation to hear his fearless, cocky banter, and then the almost festive challenge that followed.
The whole thing was too disorienting to truly understand. Yugi had been in his bedroom, examining the Puzzle in the hopes of understanding anything that might help Yami. The moment he took the cold trinket and turned it over in his hands, he felt himself falling down, floating, swathed in golden light, as he felt himself sucked into the Puzzle's core, body and soul. He had been uncerimoniously dumped onto the brick floor that gleamed beneith his splayed fingers with malicious satisfaction, and he recoiled to feel the warmth that resembled human skin. It made him sick, as he hastily scrambled to his feet, before he heard the roaring darkness, and felt himself engulfed in a terrifying abyss.
There was absolutely nothing to describe it because there was nothing there to signify the difference between the darkness and the void around him.
He was falling, but no matter how much he twisted his limbs, or which direction he drifted, his splayed, seeking hands found nothing to anchor himself to.
So when he heard Yami's voice, frantic with worry, but so welcome, he nearly cried, and promptly swooned. The last he heard was the silken laughter of the Puzzle as he closed his eyes.
Yami shuddered in the echoing that thundered through his quaking heart, as he sought some precious reassurance that Yugi was even alive. There was nothing coming back through the mindlink but empty silence. Anguish and rage mingled in his core, brewing into toxic, helpless fury, as he bared his teeth, narrowed his eyes, and without any conscious thought, consumed the Puzzle with his fire until it should have melted into a sparkling puddle. What he never expected was the cruel retribution from the Puzzle. It slank away from the flames in lurching retreat, its defenses now crippled, and soon to be rendered useless.
It was the most brutal means of self-protection and vengence possible. With glee, the Puzzle vomited forth Yugi's crumpled form, in a shower of golden sparks, neatly deposited in the middle of the raging firestorm around him. There was no sound but the whispered hush of quiet, submissive flesh being turned to ash, as Yugi lay so still in the flames that were now dancing up the sleeves of his jacket. Yami screamed his name, clawed at hsi arm, lurched forward, and heaved the limp body high out of reach, as he hissed the command under his breath, and disolved the flames to shadows. Carefully, he lay Yugi down behind him, as he positioned himself as a shield between Yugi and the menacing pyramid that was now proudly flaunting its gold. Yami had no time to wonder what damage Yugi had already suffered.
"Damn you." He spat the words in a whispered snarl, as he drew himself up, his eyes storming over with helpless rage that he could not unleash, his fingers still glowing with the aftermath of a power he could not use, for fear of harm falling on Yugi.
Yami grunted in dismissal, but realized that he was the only thing between Yugi and the Puzzle's wrath. He was defenseless.
The Puzzle sat back, patiently waiting, as Yami risked a troubled glance behind him to assess the damage done to Yugi. Aside from singed hair, he looked as if he were enjoying a peaceful nap. But it almost broke Yami to even consider the possibility that Yugi might have died... there was still no answer through the mind link, and he could not sense any trace of his essence, anywhere.
Yami twisted back to face the Puzzle, as it glided back and forth, patiently, with the ease of a sated tiger, teasingly caressing Yami's defenses, and enjoying the flinch of disgust and the recoil of pain and fear as the caresses grew claws that cut, and bruised.
But the worst was yet to come.
Yami swallowed hard, prayed for strength, and hissed out the words.
" Would you consider my surrender a worthy trade for him?"
The Puzzle ceased its torment, in contemplation, as it ran scathing thoughts over Yami's tremoring frame, gave Yugi an appraising glance, and drank in the selfless concern that Yami had for him. To have this surrender so suddenly offered was a most unexpected boon, but it was not enough to satisfy.
"No, my king." The ominous answer was purred out as the Puzzle flared with joyless mirth at the sight of Yami. He was pale, and trembling, his concern for Yugi obvious and balant as he kept turning his agonized eyes over his shoulder, and keeping himself positioned between them.
Yami heard an astonished gasp of quiet suprise, heard his name breathed almost sluggishly through the mindlink, as Yugi stumbled to his knees.
"Yami? What is going on?! Are you alright?" Yami did not answer, but shook his head. Hope soared. Yugi seemed to be confused, but undamaged, otherwise. Maybe there was a way out of this after all...
Yami had no time to complete the thought when he saw the deadly intent of the Puzzle glowing bright and then arching into a searing volley of rabid fire that was aimed towards Yugi.
With a startled cry, Yami bolted between them, and took the brunt of the whole thing.
Yugi screamed, as he saw Yami lit with dazzling fire for a brief momemt, before he absorbed it. The flames faded, revealing Yami's body twisted in the aftermath of the onslaught.
Yami's eyes were screwed shut, impossibly tight, one hand raised in self defense, the other curled up helplessly beneith his lowered head. Yugi gaped to see the shuddering tremble that seemed to wrack the Pharoah's taunt, tensed frame to its core, and the quivering lips, and his pale, sweating features twisted in unbearable, blind pain.
To be so hideously exposed, and vulnerable was obviously distressing the Pharoah beyond his endurance.
It was agonizing paralysis, and vicious suspention over a yawning precipice. It was being violated until the Puzzle had teasingly reached Yami's breaking point, and then ruthlessly continuing until he shattered. It was feeling his mind break and his soul fragment and his body tortured.
Yami's whole body tensed against the rising pain, and Yugi watched with alarm as the Pharoah crumpled.
Yugi felt Yami's groping hand clench his sleeve, the terror lending strength to his curled fingers, as he desperately sought out an anchor to tether him firmly to the world around him, and not the dark malestrom that he sensed from the Puzzle. Indeed, it was mockingly lapping against his defenses, so smug, and so certain. Yami could feel the last of his strength and shields fraying dangerously.
Yugi watched as Yami's knuckles glowed white from the strain of keeping himself centered, the cost of keeping back the shadows clearly making itself known by the new scars winking scarlet at his throat, and the shaking that permiated from Yami's torpid body. "Yami?" Yugi stared in disbelief to see the once proud king slowly, achingly bow to the unbearable burden with an unwilling groan.
"Geeze, Yami, let me take some of that for you, please! I can't stand to see you like this!" Yugi cried only to see Yami clench his teeth even tighter, and resolutely shake his head in negation.
"No...Yugi. This is my burden, and my pain to bear. Please, just leave me be. I will be alright." He slowly ground out, shifting with a grimace, eyes sliding shut as he felt himself yielding, no matter how much his spirit resisted. It gave him a bit of grim satisfaction. At least the Puzzle was being forced to drag him down in this dark pit of suffering, piece by relinquished piece rather than the usual weeping surrender. He could feel the Puzzle's strength fraying from his resistance, and it gave him a bit of hope that he might be able to salvage something, or at least pay the Puzzle back wound per wound.
He missed the calculating cynism that brewed across Yugi's heart, and did not feel the bitter, twisting doubt that made itself known in Yugi's disbelieving scowl. It was a desperate attempt from the Puzzle to break him, and a clever one: keeping the young Pharoah distracted by the agony, while the Puzzle used the one person he trusted to penetrate his barriers. But, it was the harsh demand for an answer in Yugi's bitter tone that pierced his heart in his partner's vicious tirade.
"Tell me why I need to back away, Yami! Do you not trust me enough to let me help you, after all we've been through? Do you still think I'm too weak and unequal to do anything for you? Or, is the real reason behind all your dramatics just the fact that you can't stand the thought of being anything less than the conquering hero, once again?"
Yami could only stare up at him, in wounded, helpless disbelief. "Because you cannot help me, Yugi!" Yami's voice dropped into another groan, as his eyes fluttered shut, ending his retort for good.
Yugi strode over to him, his face twisted into a cynical, dismissing scowl. "I don't believe you, Yami." The quiet words brought tears to Yami's eyes, as he looked up at Yugi, silently imploring.
If anything, it only seemed to infurriate Yugi beyond his limits. And, under the Puzzle's gliding thoughts, Yugi only gave him a sneer in answer, and squinted in concentration as he poured it all out in one vicious blast across the mind link.
The attack was unexpected, which made it even more damaging. Yami reeled back as if Yugi had cut him off at the knees staggering, almost falling, his control decaying. Yami just cringed, and grunted, outwardly, but inwardly, he was stricken, and so very afraid. Yugi could shatter him, literally.
Yugi stared at Yami,mutely, and then his face grew hard. "I am sick of your manipulation, and lies, Yami! You keep blathering about how we're equals, and yet you keep lying to me about exactly what is hurting you so much. If you are really in so much pain, let me help you!"
Yami raised his hollow, disbelieving eyes at Yugi's cruel, misplaced doubt, the bewildered anguish bleeding up in savage preparation.
"You don't...understand...Yugi." He could barely force out the choked whisper. "If you tried to force my defenses now, it would break me. I beg you, don't do this! " His attempt to make Yugi see reason ended with Yugi's hand flung up in abrupt dismissal.
"If you have any faith, or belief in me left, Yugi...if you have any regard for me, please,...don't force me to bear anymore..." It was a soft,
broken plea, as Yami slowly propped himself up on hands and knees that were quivering far too much for any promise of rising.
Yugi only stared at him, his eyes darkening, and Yami stiffened when he felt the rage curtling across Yugi's increasingly brooding, malicious storming rage. Yami found himself swallowed completely up in one hungry,demanding agony that leeched the bastian of control that he had managed to hold onto. The fraying essence that fragmented against his core reverberated, and he felt each shard of the memories sharpened and ready to bare down on his vulnerable defenses. He shuddered when he felt the last of his nerves shatter in revulsion from the all consuming pain he could no longer fight, or conceal.
Yugi watched with dawning terror and awareness as Yami's whole body convulsed in instinctive anguish, and Yugi heard Yami's next breath exhaled between a groan of denial and a wailing cry.
It was the torture of the overflow that finally brought the poor king to collapse. Until that point, Yami had borne the odd but sickening sensation of balancing both the Puzzle's revenge on one side of his shields, and protecting Yugi with the other. With the horrible thoughts that Yugi kept bombarding up the mind link, Yami was too crippled to restrain anything else. And it was the breaking of it all that nearly killed him.
It felt like what Yami believed a lightening
bolt would feel like, quickening its burning through its core, lashing its way through his trembling control and unleashing itself when he could do
nothing more. Yami was too stunned to do anything else, and there was no other place for the pain to be vanquished to. Like a perverse volley,
it blazed its way through Yami's resistance, and flew back through the mind link to Yugi.
Yugi felt the whiplash of agony burn its way through his flesh, and he fell to his rear with a startled cry.
"Yami! Ow! Why did you do that to me?!" came Yugi's indignant squawk of seething pain. As quickly as the agony had ate its way through him, it was gone.
"I can't stop it!" Yami ground out, as he winced in growing agony. From the wrenching whimper, and the stiffening of Yami's spine, Yugi knew that the Pharoah had reabsorbed the pain to prevent Yugi from having to endure any more of it. Yami's head was bowed, his arms clasped and locked over his wrists under his chin, as he slithered down the wall, the sheen of sweat glittering from his forehead, and the brilliant tears slowly burned down his sallow cheeks.
It was the strange, soft hitch of his breaths and the shaking in his bowed shoulders that told Yugi Yami was choking back the scream.
"Yami? Why are you doing this? I can handle-" Yugi's rant was interrupted by Yami's bitter groan, as he crumbled..
"Because it hurts!"
Yami squealed the words, piercingly helpless, laced with sobs as he clawed uselessly at his temples in an attempt to deflect some of the suffering. It was futile. He had lost all control, then, as he collapsed into shuddering cries that left his words mangled with the tears, and only added to his pain in the effort to breathe...
"It hurts, Yugi! Can you not see that?!" The words were hurled at Yugi's feet, as Yami only bowed his head even deeper into himself, bawling as if he had lost everything.
Yugi inhaled a sharp breath, instantly dropped his next attack as he watched Yami broken, weeping and tortured, in sickening disbelief.
Had he done this?!
"Yugi, Stop, please, please, stop! I can't bear any more!"
