Author's Note: And here is chapter 5!
Shadows of Anarchy
Ryou felt a vague tightness in his chest and throat, and his vision dimmed around the edges, causing him to faintly wonder if this was what it was like to have a panic attack. He stared up at the monster, feeling like he was about to pass out as memory after unpleasant memory hit him, one after the other.
Diabound*, the half humanoid, half snake monster that had been the Spirit of the Ring's Ka** when he had been alive was partially wrapped around the column, both the vaguely human half and the snake head on the monster's tail were looking at the white-haired teen calmly. That was disconcerting enough, but the play of flickering shadows across the duel spirit/monster added a whole other intimidation factor to the creature.
The vaguely humanoid monster was a mostly chalk-white color and had a very well-developed musculature, the snake part blending seamlessly into it. Diabound's head looked rather like a pharaoh's mask, all smooth, frozen features, with exception of the – was that hair? – protruding from the sides of the creature's (his?) head. Two large white wings were slightly spread out from the monster's back, and there were matching, much smaller wings on the Duel Monster's hips.
It might not look as threatening as some of the other duel monsters', but the whitette knew better than most exactly how powerful and dangerous Diabound was. He was especially aware of the monster's ability…He shuddered at the memory of what Yugi had told him that his "darker half" had used that ability to do.
Ryou looked at Diabound, a sinking suspicion beginning to rise in the pit of his stomach. The memory of the shadow he had seen before passing out entered his mind, as his burgeoning suspicion that the shadow had looked a lot like Diabound's outline was proven correct, now that the monster itself was more or less right in front of him. Ryou wondered if this was what it was like to approach a nervous breakdown…
A choked off gasp reached his ears, originating from somewhere behind him, and with a sinking feeling the whitette slowly turned until he was standing sideways so that he could see behind him and still keep an eye on Diabound.
Sure enough, Molly was standing at the entrance to the hallway that led to the lounge, staring with shocked horror at the duel monster wrapped around the stone column, and Ryou felt the beginnings of a powerful headache stir behind his eyes. He winced, something telling him that this would probably take some explaining with a chance that things could go south rather quickly, and he hesitantly smiled as he cleared his throat and spoke up, breaking the tense silence that had begun to settle in, "Um, Molly, this is Diabound…I would much appreciate it if neither of you tried to kill each other…please?"
The blonde woman appeared not to hear him, instead she pulled out that wand that he'd seen her use when she'd been flinging fireballs at the trolls and pointed it at the unmoving Diabound with trembling hands. Looking closer he could see that Molly's eyes were dilated and she was obviously having trouble focusing, sure signs of intense head-pain if he ever saw any.
Come to think of it, he realized, Molly probably shouldn't be handling anything remotely magical at the moment. The only problem was that he didn't know how to stop her or get the wand away from her without running the risk of getting himself set on fire.
Ryou sighed, oh well, it wasn't like he was unused to narrowly escaping death, he thought wryly as he slowly sidestepped towards Molly, not dumb enough to risk taking one eye off the so far unthreatening monster. He carefully reached out and grabbed hold of the wand just above where Molly grasped it as soon as he got within arms-reach, saying as he did so, "Now, let's just calm down - !" He cut himself off and jumped back when the tip of the wand began sparking dangerously, holding his hands up in the universal sign to indicate surrender as he took a few steps back.
Her migraine pounding through her head, Molly had trouble just keeping from dropping her blasting rod and calling up the power needed to start charging the damned thing. For some reason, it was a lot harder for her to call power here – wherever here actually was – and she feared that she might actually have to do an entire ritual in order to cast something simple like a locator spell if using her blasting rod was giving her this much trouble.
For the moment, however, she was focused on the large monster-thing wrapped around the column that looked like it could snap both her and Bakura like toothpicks. Her arms trembled, causing the wizard's tool she was holding to waver, and her vision became spotted for a minute before it cleared. Bakura said something, but what riveted Molly's attention was the hand that grabbed hold of her blasting rod a moment later.
The second that the other woman's hand touched the blasting rod, the magic that Molly had been gathering to launch at the weird, half-snake thing went haywire, the blasting rod sparking warningly. The apprentice gaped at the blasting rod, too stunned to really process what was going on, but she definitely noticed when the blasting rod began emitting a low humming sound that made her think of the sound that laser weapons in the movies made right before they exploded…
She followed the white-haired woman's example and dropped the blasting rod before she jumped back. Time seemed to slow down as the magical tool fell to the ground…and then things returned to normal right before the magic that she had been building up in the wand discharged.
Harry is going to so mad at me, was the only thought that she had time for before the magic exploded out of the blasting rod in a brilliant explosion of blinding light and flickering heat.
There was screaming, but she heard it only distantly as she was thrown backwards, landing hard on her back and rolling several times before coming to a stop on her side. It took her several long minutes to realize that the screaming was coming from her as her lungs began to tighten and the second wave of heat washed over her.
It caused her skin to sting and tighten, and it vaguely occurred to Molly that heat as intense as the explosion seemed to be should have been a lot hotter. What she was feeling was, at most, something that she could compare to a bad sunburn, which was painful but not life threatening. From what Harry had told her about burns, she should count herself lucky that she wasn't experiencing what he had experienced.
She stopped screaming, having run out of air just as the light from the explosion began dying down, to the relief of her scorched retinas, and she gasped, refilling her lungs with precious air even though the warm air was distinctly uncomfortable going down her throat. A myriad of rainbow colored spots danced in front of her eyes, causing her head to swim in dizziness as she lay on her side, partially curled into the fetal position.
Spots still swirled in front of her eyes, preventing her from seeing anything, even her own hand in front of her face, and all of her senses seemed to have gone on vacation. Heck, she could only vaguely feel the stone floor that she was laying on!
A few minutes later, however, she became aware of a hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her back and forth, and she distantly heard Bakura's voice asking if she was alright. It sounded like the other woman was shouting from the other end of a tunnel, but Molly guessed that the explosion must have messed with her ears as well as her other senses.
It took a moment, but she managed to mumble – or maybe she shouted, who knew? – "I'm okay…explosion messed with my ears, and my eyes…Can't see anything…" She vaguely felt Bakura pull her into a sitting position, and then attempt to help her stand up, but just then all her senses which had deserted her came rushing back. Sound roared into her ears, making everything seem magnified by a hundred, from the sound of her and Bakura breathing to the crackling of cooling stone. Her skin became incredibly sensitive, tingling and stinging from where Bakura had a grip on her arms in order to support her. The sensory overload was too much for her, and she gratefully welcomed the darkness in exchange for the whirling spots that dominated her vision.
Ryou had been thrown back by the sudden explosion, though he avoided the brunt of the impact since he had already been backing away when the wand had begun sparking.
Still, his ears were ringing and there were spots in his eyes by the end of it. He lightly tapped the side of his head, trying to get rid of the bloody ringing in his ears, and he blinked furiously to try and remove the bright spots in his vision. He shook his head slightly, registering that he was sitting on the floor of the mausoleum (yes, seeing Diabound had jogged his memory, making him want to smack himself for not recognizing the scenery sooner. He had had a duel featuring that very card only a week ago!), though thankfully his head injury hadn't been reopened.
From the looks of things, however, Molly hadn't been nearly as fortunate, having gotten hit point blank by the magical explosion.
Ryou pushed himself to his feet, coughing because of the large fog of dust that was drifting around the entrance hall, and he stumbled over to where Molly was lying on her side. To his relief, it quickly became evident that she was alive and didn't seem to have trouble breathing. He knelt down next to the blonde woman and carefully put his hand on her shoulder, rocking her back and forth as he asked, "Are you alright? You were pretty close to the blast…" He trailed off as he remembered Diabound.
The whitette looked over towards the column that Diabound had been wrapped around, blinking at the enormous cloud of dust that surrounded it, and then it hit him (thankfully not literally). The magic wand had been aimed at the monster, so explosion or not, the majority of the energy must have gone towards Diabound, which explained why both he and Molly were still alive.
As the dust cleared, it quickly became apparent that the duel monster was likewise unharmed, thus proving Ryou's theory that the monster was more durable than it had any real right to be. Also, Diabound didn't seem to be very inclined to retaliating for the unintended attack. If anything, the monster gave the impression of being amused by the explosion…was the humanoid head looking at him in concern?
The duelist chose to pretend he hadn't seen that expression. It seemed easier on his sanity that way.
Just then, Molly spoke – well, sort of shouted, actually – and told him that the explosion had messed up her hearing and her sight. He couldn't really say he was surprised, as his own ears were still ringing but the spots had thankfully faded away.
He pulled the blonde into a sitting position, trying to help her to stand up, only he ended up supporting her entire wait as she fell unconscious. He sighed, muttering some rather kind words directed towards whoever had arranged the troll attack and the fireball that had caused them to be transported to the bloody Mausoleum of the Emperor of all places, and hefted Molly up so that he was holding her bridal style (he was rather grateful that he had put on some muscle since he was 16).
Ryou debated whether he should take the unconscious woman to the washroom or back to the lounge, but then he finally shrugged and decided on the lounge. If anything, Molly definitely needed somewhere comfortable to lie down.
With one last look towards the immobile Diabound, he set off at a brisk trot towards the lounge.
And he had a sinking suspicion that once Molly came to, things were going to get very complicated…
*Look on Yu-Gi-Oh wiki, there's pictures
**Spirit creatures created from a person's soul (fans should know this)
Author's Note: Hey all, I'm being swamped by plot bunnies and I've starting writing a Yu-Gi-Oh GX/Dresden Files fic, so updates might be a little slower than they have been. Sorry! Blame the plot bunnies! Please read and review! As always, constructive criticism is welcome!