Author's Notes:
Hey! It's here…and there isn't much to say here…
Disclaimer: I own noting.
It's strange how much mere words can affect a person.
Ryou admitting that he's able to recall souls (a forbidden technique amongst Angels) had definitely put a knife through the group of friends, and he was excluded from all parts of the wedding preparations.
Luckily, or perhaps unluckily for the Angel Prince, he had a war on his hands. With his father wavering in and out of consciousness as he is, it has been left to the prince to fight a war he didn't want.
Yet, he will not let such thoughts deter him. As an angel, Ryou had a duty to the rest of his kind. And for this reason and this reason alone, Ryou sits now, listening as another war general drones on about his "brilliant" and "foolproof" strategy to win the war.
Ryou had wanted to call a truce and sign a peace treaty, but things had gone much too far to stop the snowball now. These people had killed his mother, his sister; they had killed his aunt, uncle, cousins, grandparents. Whoever killed his family, whether alone or with help, will go down.
But was a war with the demons worth it? The demons could easily annihilate their forces, as they were built to destroy everything and anything in sight. As an angel would never fight back for fear of becoming evil, they were hopeless without help. The angels could always call in allies, but most creatures that could've been considered allies had left soon after the castle had burnt to the ground. With good reason too, as Ryou's father, the king, had treated other species as inferiors in every way, believing the angel race to be superior. As soon as the king was announced mortally wounded, any "ally" of the angels had fled and cut off all connections with the empire.
This left the kingdom without any capable or willing fighters. And as the demons press onwards, it is becoming crucial for the angels to make an offensive move. Defense was just not good enough
"-and if we wait them out long enough, the demons will have to give in!" The general has the reasoning of a child. The plan is so basic and so flawed that Ryou's brain hurts just thinking about it. Every general had the same idea. Wait it out and fight only when necessary. The demons would surely give in and become bored with the angels. And then everything would return to normal.
"I see your point," Ryou starts speculatively, "and I see where you are coming from. But my father did not wage war to simply sit by idly and let our kingdom be destroyed by some power hungry demons." Ryou stops, watching the general impassively. He waits for the man to say something, but when no answer comes, the prince dismisses the man.
The room waits in silence as another general strolls in confidently. The room remains silent, unimpressed by this new man. Everyone knows what needs to happen, the question is, who's going to be the brave one to say it?
"I know you're gonna like this one, your highness. You see, I say we put up a magical blockade around the Angel Kingdom-"
Had it been appropriate, Ryou would have bashed his head against his throne.
~.~
"Mai's favorite color was amethyst, right?" Yugi asks as he hangs another set of drapes.
"Yeah," Joey confirms with a smile, "She used ta say your eyes were her favorite things."
"Yeah," Yugi muses fondly.
Malik watches as the two waxes nostalgically about their deceased friend, recalling happy memories and sharing favorite experiences between the two. The Egyptian smiles, thinking over his own time spent with his best friend, who had seemingly died the day he got involved with a demon.
So much had changed since Ryou and Bakura had met. Ryou had become darker, more interested in the forbidden magics. And Malik, he was left to watch as his friend became something different, something unrecognizable to his very own friend.
But what truly worried Malik was how much he hadn't known—doesn't know—about his friend. Ryou didn't know the typical magics that he and the others had grown up learning. No, Ryou knows the forbidden magics; he knows the secrets, the very things angels are taught to keep away from. He wanted his old friend back, even if that meant removing Bakura from the picture or going back to living in seclusion.
"Hey, Malik!" The angel snaps out of his thoughts. "Sorry, I've been calling you for a while now. Um, where do you think this should go?" Yugi asks. Scanning the room critically, Malik pauses, a small smile forming on his lips. He didn't need Ryou; he had other friends too.
"Right over there between those bouquets of azaleas." Malik directs. Yugi nods, moving the mini gazebo between the two (awkwardly spaced) bouquets with a simple spell. Malik stares at the two bouquets again. Who were the idiots who put them there? Why were they randomly spaced so far apart?
"You should surround it with the flowers." Malik states, watching 'it' carefully.
Yugi cocks an eyebrow at his friend, a silent question on what "it" actually is.
"Sorry, I mean the gazebo." Malik expands, pointing to the white contraption.
"You gonna help us or sit on your lazy behind all day?" Joey asks with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it."
~.~
Rebecca could feel the spell fading, cracks of her old self shining through her Mai façade. She is no longer as tall as the deceased blonde, and she can feel her chest shrinking back to its normal, unimpressive size. She could also see the ringlets starting to disappear from her hair, replaced by it's short, messy self. Even her vision is starting to deteriorate.
"I'm surprised you've been so compliant." The girl quips, not bothering to even face the woman following her.
"You obviously know something. I'm simply taking the opportunity to further my own knowledge." Rebecca snaps.
"Of course."
Rebecca grumbles under her breath, annoyed with the younger girl. Rebecca, being barely a teen herself and already a advisor, invariably gets irritated when someone younger and possibly smarter comes along.
"Here," the girl gently pushes the door, and it swings open with a creak. It's a child's bedroom, and embarrassingly, it resembles her own room (not that she'd ever tell anybody, especially this snotty brat).
The walls are a homely maize, reminding her of the first rays of sunshine at dawn. A miniscule bed sits in the uppermost left corner of the square room with butterfly sheets tucked neatly under the mattress. A few toys are strewn around the room, most of which used to train young witches' and wizards' magic. A little white desk resides in the back corner, diagonal from the bed. Paper and crayons are strewn across its surface.
"Sit anywhere you'd like." The girl offers, sitting on her neatly made bed. Rebecca grimaces, remembering her own room and the bed she usually leaves to the servants (generally half-n-half's) to make.
The blonde looks around the small room before taking a seat in a corner, leaning against the conjoining walls.
"So…" Rebecca drawls awkwardly, staring at the plush pink carpet. She runs her fingers through the pink fluff, waiting for the other girl to say something.
"My name's Anna."
Rebecca doesn't respond. She doesn't even look up from the carpet, simply waiting for the child to continue.
"My dad's a demon."
"I know." Her response is curt, but neither thinks anything of it.
"Then why did you trust me?" Anna asks with a shrug.
"I had a hunch and acted on it." Rebecca could no longer see the girl sitting on her bed since the spell has worn off fully now, shrinking her down to her normal, diminutive size. She must've done it wrong then, since her original glasses and clothes had yet to return.
"I see. I assume you intend to 'take us down'." The last term is so uncharacteristic of her that Anna is forced to use air quotes.
"You aren't stupid."
"Neither are you. Why should I let you walk out of here alive?"
"You aren't one of them. Why should you help them? You'll probably be abandoned afterwards."
"They're my family!" The girl shrieks indignantly. Her placid demeanor is cracking, much to Rebecca's satisfaction
"But you're not one of them." Rebecca points out the obvious, when the girl quiets down. "Your father only cares about power; he'll dispose of you once he gets it."
"It's cute how you think you know who I am and who my family is. I'm impervious to such tactics." Anna quickly hops off the bed in anger. She moves to the nightstand beside her bed and pulls out a small vial of clear liquid.
"What are you, psychic?"
"I am Anna." Her fingers work diligently, pouring the vial into a silver syringe.
"I can see you."
"Good, it's not for you." Rebecca stops, staring at the maroon-haired girl before her in surprise. "You said it before, I'm not stupid."
"What are you going to do then?" Rebecca asks skeptically.
"I'm going to expose my father. But you should hurry back. The demons could kill the angels off at any moment, especially with the help of all the enemies the angels have made over their rule. The angels don't have that luxury. You need to end the war. Only then can we truly take down my dad, and his followers." The last sentence is enunciated carefully, as though she's trying to convey some hidden meaning.
"Thank you," and without delay, the girl takes off, rushing through unfamiliar halls in hopes of escaping the labyrinth that is the Rebellion's Headquarters.
~.~
"Okay, so we can't hold her up during the ceremony." Yugi admits, dropping the dummy the group has been practicing on. "What about that spell?" He asks speculatively.
"It only works on objects." Malik huffs in frustration, arms crossed as he sits on the ground.
"We can try it on angels." Yugi replies hopefully.
"It doesn't work on people and the spell that does is illegal" Joey finally butts into the conversation. He doesn't look at his friends though, absorbed in playing with the orchids, running his fingers through their vines.
"We could ask Ryou?" Yugi offers. An awkward silence falls over the room at the mention of the Prince.
"Possession, that's a serious spell. He'd have to be really good at magic to accomplish such a feat. And we all know he isn't." Now Malik is staring resolutely at the ground, arms crossed and face set in an angry pout.
"We don't know that. All we know is that he doesn't know the basic spells." Yugi defends. He tries to meet his friends' eyes, but none of them are willing to look at him.
"It is the only way to properly do this wedding." Joey finally comes around. And now the two are staring at Malik, waiting for him to conform.
"He's not gonna be able to do it." Malik grumbles, getting to his feet. "But if you really want to try, go ahead. Who knows, the failure might knock some sense into your heads!" His sarcasm stings like venom and his eyes narrow into slits. "Good day." And he's gone.
~.~
"This isn't going to be easy." Ryou mumbles, placing candles around the room in accordance with the book.
"Don't you think this is taking it a bit far?" Joey asks, watching his friend work through wide eyes. The boy is combining two already extremely dangerous spells to unknown effects.
"You're asking for possession. I can't do that. Possessing dead bodies is highly dangerous. Instead, I'm going to recall the soul and see if I can momentarily reunite it with the body." Ryou explains. Once his little circle is done, he grabs a vat of ashes and pours them around the infinity sign.
"I didn't know the spell was this complicated." Joey comments, looking over to the cowering mass known as Yugi in the far corner.
"Recalling her soul isn't. But I am reuniting the soul and body. I'm not god, I'm not even 100 percent sure this will work" Finishing his infinity symbol, he looks to where Joey is standing, Mai's body lying beside him.
"Place her on the symbol." Ryou commands.
"Which one?" Joey asks, hoisting the body into his arms.
"Center of the infinity one." The whitenette clarifies. Joey nods, carefully placing the girl into the strange symbol before returning to Yugi.
"You won't get banished, will you?" Yugi questions worriedly.
"Eh, only if the council finds out," there's a long, uncertain pause before the Prince continues, "or if someone on the higher plane does."
No one says anything as Ryou shoos his friends out of the room. The door closes softly behind them as muttering in some foreign language silently drifts through the door.
~.~
Pre-wedding jitters are nothing compared to what Joey is feeling as he stands on the gazebo waiting, for his soon-to-be-wife. The turnout had been small, but that's to be expected of an illegitimate wedding. Still it, some are willing to overlook it for the sake of honoring a fallen comrade.
Malik stands behind him, shuffling every now and then. Ryou is somewhere behind the scenes working his voodoo magic. Serenity waits in the back, both the Flower Girl and the Maid of Honor. Yugi is probably standing somewhere behind her, having the honor of walking Mai down the aisle. Not a single person sat in the pews; all were standing.
"You'll be fine as long as Ryou doesn't screw this up." Malik drawls. There's no compassion in his voice.
"You need ta chill on the whole Ryou thing. So he knows a couple-a illegal spells. He's still a good person and our friend."
"Yeah, yeah," Malik dismisses with a wave of his hand.
When the opening strains of Here Comes the Bride start to play, Serenity walks in throwing purple and white petunias. Yugi walks in behind her with a corpse at his side. The woman walks confidently, as though her fragile bones won't break off at any moment. She wears an elegant white gown with a purple flower corset.
"Wow." Joey mouths as he watches the woman glide into the room.
"I give him credit." Malik mumbles. Eventually, Mai makes it onto the gazebo, standing next to Joey. She doesn't say anything; she doesn't even meet his eyes. Strangely enough, Joey is okay with that. It's scary to see someone that you know is dead walk around alive again.
"We don't have a presider." Malik murmurs, waiting to the side.
"We don't need one. Here." And in the most awkward way humanly (or angel-y) possible, Joey shoves a ring onto Mai's finger, wincing as it breaks under his strength.
"Joey it's a wedding, show a little decorum." Yugi yells from his seat. "If you want me to, I'll preside!"
"With a dead person. Guys, what's happening to us?" Malik asks exasperatedly.
Yugi shrugs, watching as Mai attempts to put the ring on Joey's fingers with only nine...eight...seven….six fingers.
"You may kiss the bride!" Malik screams, as though this whole thing's a joke and not an attempt to honor a fallen friend.
"I'm not kissin' her." Joey declares, jaw tight. He turns to the Egyptian with a glare, waiting for him to challenge him. But all Malik does is laugh.
"Guys!" Yugi yells, trying to get the other's attention.
"I mean, if you want to give her the ideal wedding, you ought ta kiss her." Malik retorts.
Joey opens his mouth to say something snarky in reply. But instead of words, a strange wave of disappointment washes over him. He had wanted to marry Mai to fulfill her promise, not for love. He didn't truly love anyone yet. Would kissing her here—now—be right? Maybe they shouldn't have had the wedding, especially if it requires illegal spells and the group's tenuous friendship to fray even more.
"I love you, Mai, but as a sister." His fingers run across her cold cheeks as the girl tries harder to turn away from him. She isn't the same woman he knew. She's just a shell with a soul possessing it.
Turning her head towards him slowly, Joey smiles. "This was really dumb." Following that, he pulls her into a tight hug, running his fingers through her hair. Her body is cold, fragile in his arms, like a parent holding their child for the first time. It's the last time he's going to be able to hold her like this, the last time he'll see any semblance of life in his friend.
"Goodbye, Mai." Joey is sniffling now, hurriedly wiping tears from his eyes as he stares into the lifeless eyes of his friends. Even when she was daydreaming, her eyes never looked so glassy. But now, they could be like a doll's, displaying no emotion whatsoever.
Suddenly, Mai drops to the ground with a thud, followed by another thump from somewhere in the background. The boys look between themselves before deciding to go to where that other thud is heard, where Ryou is.
"He probably over exerted himself," Yugi infers, running behind his faster friends.
He was right.
Author's Notes:
Sorry for how rushed everything seems and this chapter is in general. On the bright side, something important happens next chapter. I'd consider it the climax. So, until then…
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