Yuki woke up with his face buried in the sand and immediately thought that heaven was ironically cruel; an entire life spent in the desert, and an afterlife starting in the sand. He muttered something about fate being evil and lifted his head, wondering what else the great beyond had in store for him.
Instead of gaining some perspective, he came face to face with the rug.
"You!" Yuki shouted, scrambling to his feet. He felt around his side and noticed that the wound had closed up again, though he had no idea how. He attributed it to divine magic and moved on, intending to discover what the rug was doing in his version of heaven.
In response, the rug jerked around wildly and pointed at Yuki with one of its tassels, clearly mimicking the panicked street rat.
"What's going on here?" Yuki questioned, frustrated. When the rug flashed him a few inappropriate hand signals, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to remember his last moments.
Caspian's lyrics flooded his memory and he could picture Tohma's horrid dancing. He remembered Tohma casting a spell at him and Shuichi screaming, but everything else was dark. He pinched harder and remembered feeling the same sensation that he'd felt when Tohma'd pushed him into the cave; freefalling.
His eyes snapped open and he started pacing along the sandy beach that he was on, racking his brain for an answer. Not that it mattered, seeing as he was dead, but the idea of spending the afterlife with the Rug Man was infuriating and he had to know what had happened. He closed his eyes again to block out the glaring sun glinting off of the water and continued pacing blindly. The rug dodged him at first, not wanting to cause an unnecessary altercation, but abandoned this course of action pretty quickly; if Yuki tripped over it, that was his problem.
"Damn…" Yuki muttered, kicking the sand as he walked. As he was about to find the reasoning for his new waking nightmare, his feet got tangled up in his favorite adversary and he face-planted back into the sand, cursing like a drunken sailor the entire time.
The carpet removed itself from the clutches of Yuki's flailing legs rather quickly and flicked some sand at the muttering street rat, telling itself that it could always fly away if he found a weapon.
"You just have to make a mess of everything, don't you?" Yuki asked the rug sarcastically. "Couldn't even let me have a decent death, you just had to get involved."
The rug shook its figurative head at Yuki and flipped him a tassel-influenced bird, wondering when the pissy street rat would figure out that he wasn't dead, just deported.
Yuki rolled over onto his back and stretched out in the warm sand. Falling into the rug had jogged his torn memory back into the present, and he could distinctly remember flying up towards a palace window and then everything getting suddenly soft and warm. The only conclusion that he could reach was that he must've smacked into the rug somehow, and the fall had, again, somehow, killed them both off. He had no idea how a fall had killed a magical carpet that could supposedly fly out of harm's way, but if it was alive, then it wouldn't have been in his personal slice of heaven.
"I didn't think you could die that easily." Yuki observed, inclining his head towards the rug.
The rug didn't respond immediately, and instead shook its head and flitted around the beach, trying to decide its next move. It knew that they needed to get back to Agrabah to, at the very least, rescue Ryuichi and Kuma. It had grown very attached to the brunet maniac and his stuffed rabbit, and it wanted to do its part to save them from the clutches of Tohma and Caspian. If they could get K, Shuichi, or Tatsuha out too, they'd be bonus points. It looked over at where Yuki was still flopped in the sand and sighed internally; this was going to take some work.
Lying in the sand and basking in the warm sun had put the street rat into a decidedly better mood. The more he thought about it, the happier he was. Now that he was dead, he didn't have to worry about finding food, escaping the guards, keeping Ryuichi away from the jewelry vendor, or maintaining his illicit double life.
"And I won't have to see him again…" Yuki muttered, his thoughts straying from his old street antics to what he'd just lost. "It's better this way."
He tried to move on, to ignore the pangs in his chest when he thought about Shuichi, but he couldn't. He'd figured that once he died, he'd leave all of his human emotions behind him, something easy like that, but that clearly wasn't the case. His heart still hurt from what had taken place with Shuichi, and he couldn't forget how devastated his lover had looked, even when he'd been determined to save him.
He groaned and flipped over, wondering if ostriches had something figured out. He buried his face into the sand, of the opinion that the dead didn't need oxygen. A minute later, and the burning in his lungs convinced him otherwise. He pulled his face out, sputtering and confused.
"What the hell!" Yuki cursed, sitting up and kicking a rock. When his toe felt like it was split into four different pieces, he screamed and threw a piece of driftwood. "I'M DEAD!"
The carpet stopped its plotting when it heard Yuki's roars and returned to the beach. There was a forest right next to the sandy expanse that it had wanted to explore while the street rat returned to reality, but that would have to wait. It could hear some very interesting sounds coming from the lofty trees, but Yuki's cursing needed immediate attention.
"This isn't fair!" Yuki yelled, falling back down onto his knees when he couldn't fathom the mysteries of the world anymore. "I'm dead, damn it all, I'M DEAD!"
"I'm dead!" something yelled back, the inflection hauntingly familiar to Yuki.
The street rat spun around, sure that he was losing his mind. He scanned the beach quickly, but there was nothing there that could talk. Beside him, the rug shrugged and gestured that it wasn't the one talking. Yuki turned away from the trees and looked out at the ocean, digging the heel of his palms in his forehead; nothing here made sense.
"I'm dead!" something said again, its tone sounding more impatient than before. "I'm dead, I'm dead!"
Yuki turned around slowly, terrified of what he might find. The voice sounded exactly like a strung-out Caspian. When he turned around to face the beach, it was again empty. He could hear some very strange rustling sounds coming from the tropical forest in front of him, but there was no sign of the crazed conure anywhere. He stepped forward slowly, waiting for the ambush.
"I'm DEAD." the voice said again, sounding very frustrated.
"I hear you!" Yuki shouted at the disembodied mimic, keeping an eye out for Caspian. The rug trailed along behind him, mildly curious, but starting to feel antsy about its friends stuck back in Agrabah.
Yuki's yell was answered by a multitude of parroty voices, some much more amused than others. Yuki stopped walking forward and froze, thoroughly confused. He stayed where he was until the rug started pushing him towards the trees, and he obliged numbly, his mind trying to check out for the day. He reached the trees without incident, though the cackling from within had intensified. He dug his feet into the grassy sand when he was right up to the edge, but the rug kept pushing, and he had no choice but to keep moving.
He stepped into the trees and immediately shielded his face, very accustomed to Caspian attacks. When nothing arrived on the scene to claw out his eyes or to eat his liver, he unclenched and lowered his hands.
He was in a well-lit clearing that was surrounded on all sides by large, tropical trees that were covered in flowers and vines. When he could make out what was sitting in the trees, and what was causing all of the racket, his stomach dropped into his feet.
The entire clearing was coated in green cheek conures.
"Caspian?" Yuki questioned, his eyes going fuzzy. He couldn't process the horror facing him.
A few of the birds informed Yuki that they were dead, but none of them whipped out a flamethrower or charged him kamikaze style. After he'd spent a few seconds unscathed, he relaxed his stance and wondered what sort of hell he'd wandered in to. He'd done some pretty terrible things in his life, but he was pretty damn sure that he'd never done anything bad enough to deserve an eternity of Caspian's cousins.
"This can't be right…" Yuki thought aloud, backing out of the clearing. The rug had apparently satisfied its morbid curiosity and was already back on the beach. "Maybe I'm not dead…"
"I'm dead!" one of the brighter parrots shouted at Yuki, ruffling up and pitching a piece of fruit at him. "I'm dead."
"You're gonna be!" Yuki yelled at the bird, shaking his fist.
As soon as he finished uttering his threat, the entire clearing went silent. Every single bird was staring fixedly at him, intent on defending their own if necessary. When Yuki didn't flee before their feathery glares, one of the larger birds hopped forward and sounded the alarm. Within seconds, all of the conures had mobilized and were chasing Yuki out of the trees with projectiles, horrible bird threats, and flesh wounds whenever they could close the distance.
"LEAVE ME ALONE! DEVIL BIRDS!" Yuki screeched, running for all he was worth towards the beach.
When he caught sight of the carpet, he belted towards it, the pissed off swarm of poultry following close behind.
"GO, GO, GO! FLY!" Yuki screamed, launching himself at the startled rug. When faced with death by Caspian clones or trusting the dreaded throw rug, he'd take the carpet any day. "MOVE IT MAN!"
As much as it hated Yuki, and as wonderful as it would've been to see him devoured by the bloodthirsty parrot mafia closing in on them, it needed the street rat to save Ryuichi and Kumagoro. It took off just in time, and only a few of the birds managed to sink their beaks into it. Yuki made quick work of them, his experience with Caspian-removal coming in handy.
"Well, where to?" Yuki asked the carpet after the last of the parrots had given up the chase. Facing his worst nightmare had almost entirely convinced him that he wasn't dead. After all, he'd never killed anyone, and he'd been stuck babysitting the village idiot for years. If anyone deserved a break, especially after what K and Tohma had done to him, it was him, and an island packed full of Caspian clones was not his idea of heaven.
The rug stayed its course, pointed straight for Agrabah, and didn't try to explain things to Yuki. It wasn't sure how he felt about going back, but at this point, he didn't have a choice. The sun setting behind them illuminated its path and spurred it on; much longer, and Ryuichi might not make it.
"Hey, come on, try to answer, where the hell are we going?" Yuki said to the rug, one of his eyes twitching.
He was slightly panicked to have his future in the tassels of the thing that hated him the most, but he saw no other option. They were much higher than usual, flying over the ocean with only a few tiny islands below them. He'd heard about such places, and assumed that they were far to the west. Yuki deduced that they were heading east due to the sun setting behind them, and a shudder ran down his spine; it was taking him back to Agrabah.
"No, no, no, that's a terrible idea!" Yuki yelled, flicking the rug for fear that doing more would get him catapulted off. "Turn around, stop!"
In response, the rug sped up and Yuki almost lost his balance. He flicked it a few more times in vain, wondering if he could jump off onto a building before they reached the palace. The last place he wanted to be was there, and he had no concerns for his cohorts. He was sure that Mika wouldn't kill Shuichi, Ryuichi was wily, and he'd disowned K the minute that he'd followed Caspian's orders.
"Don't be stupid, they don't need our help! Tohma's a pushover! Stop flying!" Yuki told the rug, slapping it for emphasis.
When its only response was again acceleration, Yuki started to think about its motives. He'd never really sensed its concern this much, and he was curious as to why it was so desperate to reach Agrabah. It had no real connection to the city, so it couldn't be that it was worried about Mika and Tohma doing something in that arena, and K was under their control and beyond its help.
"Wait…" Yuki started to say, thinking that he'd stumbled onto the right answer. "You're worried about Ryuichi aren't you?"
The rug slowed its pace and did its best effort at emulating a nod, too focused on the task at hand to pull any stunts with the despised street rat.
"He doesn't need us, he'll be-"
Before Yuki could even finish his off-hand remark, the rug bucked and tried to throw him, speeding up again before Yuki fully recovered.
"HEY!" Yuki yelled, holding onto the rug for dear life. "Not cool!"
The rug ignored Yuki's outburst and kept going, still concerned about its friends.
Yuki muttered to himself some more, but didn't say anything else to the rug. It was clearly upset, and he didn't want to get tossed into the ocean. He kept repeating in his head that everyone was going to be fine, but the twitchiness of the usually calm carpet was starting to put him on edge.
Tohma had seemed pretty flipped out, and he wasn't sure how far he'd go to exact his revenge. As far as he knew, Ryuichi had never really involved himself too much with the vizier, and that should protect him, but if Caspian had K at his beck on call, things could get ugly. The longer he thought about his friends back in Agrabah, the tighter his stomach felt.
He stayed quiet for a bit longer, not wanting to give the carpet the satisfaction of a victory. His thoughts ran races in his head, and he couldn't keep the images of Ryuichi or Shuichi in Tohma's hands out of his head. He'd have given almost anything to go back to his mode of self-assured denial, but there was no turning back now. In his emotional state, he wasn't himself, and his thoughts were taking control of him. Instead of being able to tell himself to calm down, or to move on, or to ignore the twinges of guilt stabbing him in the gut, he kept focusing on the negative.
As soon as the nagging worry had flared up, the voice in the back of his head had been telling him that it was all his fault anyway. If his complex hadn't been bad before, it was now, and the thought of more harm being dealt to Shuichi than he'd planned on was killing him on the inside. After all, he was the one that had left the dungeon with Tohma, he was the one that had lied to everyone about his royal origins, and he was the one that had gone out of his way to piss off Tohma and Caspian. If anything happened to the people that he came close to calling bosom companions, it was on him, and that was becoming more real to him by the second.
He jammed his fingers into his eyes to chase out the macabre scenes dancing across them, but it was no good. The more gruesome they became, the worse he felt, and he couldn't stop it from happening. All he could do was listen to the rug's instinct and try to save the ones he'd planned on dooming.
"OK…let's go." Yuki told the rug, steeling himself for their inevitable return. The rug flew on below him, cutting through the falling darkness.
Ok, I know that this chapter is shorter than usual, but I didn't want to split up the fiasco that is Tohma attempting to take over the world. Therefore, this one may be tiny, but the next one shall be large enough to choke a donkey, i.e. it has three or four full-lenght parts to it. Not that I would ever choke a donkey…
Moving on. I can't wait to start working on the next scene, finally get to do my ending, and neither can Poser bird, he's been clucking at me incessantly for the last half an hour, now of course that could be due to his successful Mountain Dew raid, but who knows…
Wow, must be National Ramble Until Your Fingers Go Numb Night (or early morning at this point…)…nothing else to say really, just hold onto your pants and get ready for the end, 'cause it's a comin'!
-hyper Amaya