Emerald-demoness: Okay, I really, really need more than one vote on whether the parings should be yaoi, or not. And if yaoi, whoxwho. So if you could please do me a huge favor and tell me what you think, it would be much appreciated. And now, on to the story!
Chapter Four
Ryou jerked awake, instinctively flinching away from his yami's touch. He looked at his surroundings and sarcastically thought 'Yeah, my soulroom is the perfect place to wake up after a nightmare. . .'
"You were having a nightmare" Ryou visibly bit back a comment at this "since you woke me up; I decided to wake you up." Bakura explained.
'So sorry my nightmare is such an inconvenience. . .' Ryou thought, still sarcastic.
"Ryou, you're projecting." Bakura told him.
"I don't really give a damn right now. If you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep." Ryou grumbled.
"Ryou?" Bakura started
"What?" Ryou asked him, irritably.
"What exactly did your father do to you?"
Ryou sighed. "There should be a black, untitled book laying around here somewhere. It holds my memories. Knock yourself out, just be quiet and leave me alone."
"You're a real bitch when you're tired, you know that?" Bakura commented.
"Bakura. Shut up, and let me sleep. I'll be less bitchy, as you put it, later." Ryou told him. He rolled over to sleep, only stirring at the occasional growl from Bakura.
_Time Skip _
Thankfully for Yugi, Ryou was in a better mood when he woke him up the next morning. They ate breakfast and waited for the others to get there.
When everyone but Tea, and Mokuba and Kaiba but that was expected, was there, Ryou started his explanation.
"I'm . . . not who you think I am. Okay, I am, but my personality isn't the same. You've . . . never really known me. You've known a part of me, but . . . Dammit! This is just confusing you."
'Just be blunt, Hikari.' He heard Bakura tell him through the link.
Ryou sighed before continuing. "When I was nine, I locked myself in part of my soul room. One of my 'personalities' took control in my place. I only came back out last night."
'I thought you said you didn't lock yourself in the soulroom.' Bakura commented, once again through the link.
'Well, technically, my other personalities are me, just not a constant part.' He told him.
"Wait, personalities? What do ya mean by that?" Joey asked.
"For some reason, some of my traits separated from me, long before I was nine. I know more have separated since I was nine too. From what I know, I should 'reabsorb' them when I'm ready too." Ryou explained.
"So what traits separated? And why did you lock yourself in your soulroom?" Tristan asked him.
"The traits that separated from me are; Sneak, Defiance, Innocence, Hope, Trust, Affection, and *sigh* Love. One of them decided that I needed a break and locked me in a 'side-soulroom'." Ryou answered.
"Sounds like all the good traits and some of the bad separated." Yugi commented.
"Considering all that was left was a cold-hearted, sarcastic, untrusting, pessimistic bastard was left behind, yeah, that sounds about right." Ryou said.
"You don't seem all that bad too me." Duke told him.
"I was using my father's words, so they may be a bit biased." Ryou commented. "Well, that, and I've reabsorbed Hope."
"So what is going on between you and your father? You don't seem too fond of him right now." Tristan asked.
Bakura took over and managed to say "His father is an abusive bastard-" before Ryou got control back.
"Bakura! I've told you at least three times now! You will not take over my body without asking!" Ryou said to what seemed, to everyone else, to be thin air. He waited a few seconds before saying-
"Dammit! Just use your shadow powers to let the others see you in spirit form! (A pause) I don't care it's tiring! I am not going to be your fucking messenger!" He continued telling the air.
"Fine, fine, just calm down." Bakura told him, gradually becoming visible to the others.
"Since when can Yamis do that?" Tristan asked. "They've always been able too, though Marik's Yami may have been an exception." Ryou said.
"Then why . . .?" Yugi trailed off as Ryou held up a hand to silence him.
"Yamis instinctually protect the Hikaris; even Marik's did in the beginning. Yamis can teach Hikaris to use shadow magic, but it's dangerous. Because it's dangerous for the Hikaris to learn, the Yamis usually tend to only use shadow magic when necessary." Ryou explained while Yami appeared in the same manner as Bakura.
"How do you know all this?" Duke asked him.
"Sneak looked into Spirit's memories regarding what he knew of shadow magic." Ryou explained, laughing nervously as Bakura shot him a dirty look and started muttering about memories being private.
"Since when has the thief protected you?" Yami asked skeptically.
"He's always protected me. Just, more like you protected Yugi at the beginning. We never got to bond like you two did; I think it has something to do with him only knowing about a part of me at the time." Ryou explained. Yami only nodded in acceptance.
Bakura suddenly looked up and said "By the way, Hikari, why are there gaps in you memories?" Everyone looked startled at this.
"Those are my memories of the 'splits' and the circumstances around them." Ryou told him. Everyone gave him a look telling him to explain.
"*Sigh*, I didn't have much to do while I was locked up but think and read. And talk to my other personalities." Bakura held up a hand to stop him at this point.
"I thought your split personalities were locked in their own rooms when they weren't out."
"My room was connected to all of theirs, so I could go see them, and if I let them, they could come see me. Anyway, I couldn't see what was happening with my own body, so I found out by asking the personalities that could, Innocence, Love, Affection, and Sneak. I mainly talked to Sneak since he wasn't as touchy-feely as Love and Affection.
While Sneak couldn't show me memories like Innocence could, and Innocence was out so often that I couldn't find the time to ask, he did eventually find me a little black scrap book with my memories in it where pictures should be. He gave it too me, and I could finally find out what was going on. This happened when I was twelve. It took me a year of constantly viewing my memories to see if I could find out what caused me to split my personalities off that I realized there were gaps in my memory. It didn't take long to figure out why they were there.
When I asked the other personalities why I was missing the memories of their creation, they all said the same thing. I wasn't ready. I wouldn't be ready until I reabsorbed them. I never truly understood until I reabsorbed Hope and got his memory of the split and meeting the others that came after him. . ." Ryou trailed off, a glazed look on his face.
"Ryou?" Yugi asked worriedly. "What happened? Why did you split with Hope?" He asked when Ryou looked up.
Ryou took a deep breath and tell his memory of the night he split with Hope, in a scarily monotonous voice.
Flashback
Ryou was eight, his father had just come home drunk again. He was taking a shower when his father stormed in and dragged him out by his hair. He was thrown down the stairs, breaking his arm on the way down.
"You worthless whore! This is all your fault! If it wasn't for you, my wife would be alive and well! But she's dead! All because of you!" His father continued yelling at him and beating him. Ryou was screaming that he was sorry, yelling apologies over and over, begging him to stop.
He fell silent, still shaking with sobs as his father continued to beat him. His father told him that no one would save him. Nobody cared. Not even his mother cared. Nobody.
Ryou felt something inside him snap, right before he passed out.
When Ryou stopped talking, he was surprised to find Yugi hugging him. He looked up to see Joey, Tristan, and Duke seething. Yami, Bakura, and Marik looked like they were scheming. Ishizu was pale and Odion looked sad. He smiled slightly and thought, 'My dysfunctional family. . .' and then, everything went black.
"Ryou!"