Title: A Persistent Shadow (Chapter 20)
Pairing: Ryou Bakura x Yami Bakura, possible others
Rating: M
Summary: The Pharaoh uses a spell to force Yami Bakura out of Ryou's body, but unfortunately for Ryou it doesn't work quite as well as intended.
A/N: Just another quick chapter to end the weekend...
It took Ryou and Marik the entire rest of the day and several trips back and forth between the apartment and the museum, but they finally got the ritual set up in the back room. After that, Ryou had collapsed in his bed, feeling exhausted.
The spirit had already been there waiting, as usual. Ryou had crawled on top of him with more reluctance than ever before, still feeling upset about what he'd said earlier. Ryou had lain there, unable to sleep, forced to think about what he'd been avoiding for the past several hours – the spirit's apparent indifference toward him.
It hurt. It hurt far more than Ryou had thought it should. He realized that whatever he had been pretending before, he had assumed some small amount of... of affection on the spirit's part. Not a lot, maybe, but he'd almost been taking it for granted that there was something in the spirit's willingness to hug and kiss him all the time, that he wasn't completely disliked. The spirit's presence became painful in a whole new way; Ryou couldn't relax into his arms for more than a few seconds without the knowledge of how empty it all was making him stiffen up again.
His discomfort grew as he lay there, tired but wide awake, fearful that the spirit would say something nasty about his feelings, about how weak he was for even caring about what other people thought of him.
But the spirit didn't say anything one way or the other, simply holding onto him the way he always did, though he seemed to be brooding more than usual. When Ryou became so anxious that he started shaking, the spirit absently rubbed his back in the same calming way he had countless times before.
It almost made Ryou feel even worse, but eventually he grew so tired that he couldn't help but fall into a fitful sleep.
He had a nightmare for the first time since the spirit had started cuddling him to sleep. In it, the spirit loomed over him, tearing him apart for ever believing he'd been cared about. The mocking laughter rang in his ears even after he woke up.
Ryou stumbled out of the room in his pajamas, still feeling exhausted after the not particularly restful night's sleep he'd gotten. He ran into Marik on the way to the bathroom and saw that he was already dressed.
"I'm going to head out. Meet me at the museum?" Marik said.
"Yeah," Ryou said, yawning. "See you there." He went to shower and get dressed, refusing to look at the spirit as he did so.
The spirit was as silent as he was, which Ryou started to find strange after a while. He began to wonder why the spirit wasn't making mean comments, feeling more confused than afraid of the idea at that point. Ryou was more down than he'd been in a long time; surely it was the perfect time for a swift kick?
Unless the spirit was lying about not caring about him, it occurred to Ryou as he chewed on some toast. He glanced at the spirit's face, finding a scowl there. "Did you want something, Landlord?"
Ryou turned back to his breakfast, frowning. The spirit lied all the time. Why should Ryou assume he was telling the truth about this?
"I have no reason to lie," the spirit told him.
Ryou thought about that as he walked to the museum. The first thing he came up with was that the spirit didn't need a reason, he hid things instinctively. The next was that he might consider it weak to be caught caring about someone. He'd berated Ryou for it enough times.
"You're making up excuses," the spirit said.
Maybe I am, Ryou admitted. It didn't effect the little boost to his mood, however. He walked to the room where he and Marik had set up the ritual, feeling more energetic despite his lack of sleep.
Ryou walked to the corner of the room, avoiding stepping on any of the Duel Monsters cards laid out in a circle around the floor. They'd used double-sided tape to stick the cards in place, but it didn't hurt to be careful. The artifacts were sitting in clear display cases around the room. They were trying to disguise the arrangement so the Pharaoh wouldn't see what was going on, and Marik had said that the cases wouldn't interfere with the ritual, as long as the artifacts themselves were positioned correctly.
Hopefully the Pharaoh wouldn't be looking closely enough to notice an odd blue bowl made out of modern modeling clay in the midst of the rest of the artifacts.
Ryou took several canvas painter's tarps from the table in the corner, then started spreading them out over the floor on top of the cards, making sure not to knock them out of place as he did so. When he was finished, the room looked like any other half-completed exhibit.
Marik walked in just as Ryou finished putting the final tarp over the cards. He was carrying a cardboard box, which he put down on the table in the corner. He surveyed the room. "Looks good."
"Where'd you go?" Ryou asked, wondering how he'd managed to get there before Marik despite leaving later.
"I went to your apartment," Marik said.
Ryou didn't know what he'd expected the answer to that question to be, but that was not it. "Huh? Why?"
"Because he refuses to give up on his foolish idea," the spirit said, looking inside the box.
"What?" Ryou asked, joining the others by the box. He glanced at the contents, seeing a clear plastic box containing several figurines resembling Ryou and his friends, sans Marik, since he'd made the figures before they'd ever met. "Hey!" Ryou said. "You can't take that!"
"I'm not taking it, I'm bringing it to you," Marik said. "So that you have the option of trying the spell, even if you don't intend to do it," he added, sounding like he thought Ryou was crazy not to. He held out a piece of paper. "Here are the specific instructions."
"Thanks... I'll think about it," Ryou said, taking the paper and looking it over. Aside from the small cut on his left hand, it really didn't look very difficult. Marik hadn't been exaggerating when he said it wouldn't take more than half an hour to attempt, if that. He put the paper in his pocket, turning back to the plastic box. "Wait, so you just... went into my apartment? I thought the police were still watching over it," he said, starting to worry about his other belongings.
"Actually, the detective let me in," Marik replied. "I said you were getting homesick, and I thought you should have something familiar around."
Ryou cringed. The detective had already seemed to think of him as a child, and he doubted this would help his impression any. He picked up the plastic box and opened it, removing the small figures. "How much does it need to look like him?" Ryou asked, wondering what would happen if he used Yugi's figure, or even Téa's.
"It doesn't need to look like him at all, really," Marik said, sounding happy Ryou was thinking about the spell. "His body should turn out the same either way."
Don't do it, Landlord.
Ryou put the plastic box back inside the cardboard one, placing the figures on top of it. He looked at the spirit. Why not? If it doesn't work, nothing happens, he thought. The possibility of the spell not working still pained him, but he was starting to think it might be better to just do it and find out for certain. Don't you want a new body?
Of course I want a new body, the spirit said. Which is why I don't want you wasting time on ineffective nonsense.
Ryou shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something to Marik, but was distracted by a crashing noise just outside the room. "What was that?"
"I don't know," Marik said.
The two ran out the door, stopping when they saw Shadi gripping the wall with one hand, looking like he could barely remain standing. The picture he'd knocked off the wall lay on the floor next to him. Ryou boggled at the large, black hole in his chest, wondering how he was even standing at all. After a few seconds, Ryou noticed that the man seemed to be fading in and out, going back and forth between his normal solid state and a sort of transparent one, like the spirit's.
"W-what happened?" Ryou asked, running over to him. Marik wasn't far behind him.
"The darkness," Shadi said. He let go of the wall to reach into his robes, legs giving out immediately after the attempt. Ryou and Marik held him up. Shadi retrieved the scale from his robes, handing it to Marik. "I can't protect it anymore. It's your duty now."
Marik looked ambivalent about this, but he took the scale, anyway. "Yeah."
Shadi nodded, then looked at Ryou. "Help him," he said, voice sounding like it was coming from a long distance away.
"I will," Ryou said.
Shadi appeared satisfied with this. "Don't let him have the scale," he said, voice fading out entirely toward the end. His form faded once more, then disappeared entirely, leaving Ryou and Marik holding thin air.
Ryou felt shocked. "Is... is he...?"
"Gone," Marik confirmed, closing his eyes for a moment.
"Good riddance," the spirit said.
Marik held the scale up, looking it over. "I'm not sure how easy it'll be to protect this thing from the Pharaoh..."
Ryou watched the scale move around without becoming unbalanced. "Maybe we don't need to," he said, a plan forming in his head.
"What?" Marik asked in complete disbelief. "We can't let him have it."
Ryou shook his head. "No, I mean... we've been trying to figure out a way to get him into the right position. What if we used it as bait?"
"You mean..." Marik walked back inside the room, Ryou and the spirit trailing after him. He put it down on a display case right next to the glass mirror. He looked around frantically. "We're all set up, right?"
"Yeah," Ryou said. "Do you think he'll come today?"
"If he's been seeking it today, he should be here within moments," the spirit said.
Ryou's eyes widened as he realized the spirit was right. "We are done, right?" he asked Marik. "Where should we be?"
"Over here," Marik said, sitting behind the base of a large display case at the back.
Ryou knelt down next to him, pulling the spirit down as well.
"Really, it's not like he'll be able to see me," the spirit said.
"We shouldn't leave anything to chance," Ryou said.
The spirit grumbled, but stopped protesting. The three sat there in oppressive silence.
"How are we going to know he's in position?" Ryou whispered.
"Er..." Marik turned around, opening the back of the case to reveal the storage space inside. He poked open several holes Ryou knew were normally used for running cables into the case when needed. It gave them each a good view of the area the Pharaoh would be standing in.
They stared at the glass and the scale, waiting tensely. Marik took out the words of the spell and read them over silently.
As the minutes passed, Ryou started to wonder if the Pharaoh would really show up that day. He'd taken months to get the eye, after all. Then the scale creaked, one side slowly sliding downward, despite no one being anywhere near it. Ryou heard footsteps in the hallway, growing closer.
Marik sat up straight, clearly prepared to start speaking the spell.
'Yugi' walked into the room, a bag slung over his arm and the Millennium Ring held out in front of him. He caught sight of the scale and shoved the ring back in his bag. The scale thumped against the top of the case as he walked over to it and finally picked it up.
Marik started speaking the words of spell, and a whirlwind of energy flew around 'Yugi', who stood rooted to the spot. He looked toward them, the terrifying expression on his face making Ryou glad they currently had a barrier between them. Energy started crackling around the room like black lightning.
Did that happen before? Ryou thought, not wanting to distract Marik by saying it out loud.
No, the spirit said. But then, it didn't work properly before, did it?
Marik finished saying the spell, and the three watched as the whirlwind continued, Yugi's body jerked in front of the glass like he was have some kind of seizure standing up. The glass turned completely black.
The storm died down, and Yugi collapsed on the floor, appearing to be unconscious. Ryou rushed over to him, relieved to find that he was still breathing.
Marik was right behind him. "Is he okay?"
"I think so," Ryou said. "I was really tired after I went through that, and I was okay afterwards..."
"Get away from him, Landlord," the spirit said.
Ryou blinked at him. "What? Why?" he asked, unnerved by the almost alarmed tone of the spirit's voice.
Marik pulled him back. "Look," he said, pointing at the scale, which was still severely unbalanced. He backed away, nearly running into the glass. "I don't thi..." Marik choked, falling over unconscious.
"Marik? Marik!" Ryou said, catching his friend as he fell. The cause was immediately apparent – small dark tendrils of smoke extended from the blackened glass, reaching toward the scale and Yugi's bag. One of them was crawling over Marik's back. Ryou scrambled to pull Marik away, setting him out of the way of the smoke.
"You need to get out of here right now," the spirit said, grabbing his arm when he turned to go back to Yugi.
Ryou shook him off. "I can't just leave him," he said, running back to his friend. He grabbed the scale and threw it to the far corner of the room. Some of the tendrils of smoke changed direction, moving to the new location. Ryou pulled Yugi a few more feet away to buy more time, then struggled to pull the bag off him.
"Landlord!"
Ryou turned to see dark tendrils speeding at him, only to be blocked by the spirit standing in front of him. The spirit collapsed right afterward.
Ryou stared at him in shock. "S-spirit?" The tendrils of smoke snapped at him, and this time Ryou was far too slow to get out of the way before they hit.
Ryou fell to the ground, the world fading around him.
He awoke what felt like it could have been anywhere from several seconds to several years later, body resting on... sand? Huh? Where am I? Ryou sat up, looking at his surroundings. He quickly realized that the place was familiar. It can't be, he thought, standing up to get a better look.
But it only confirmed what Ryou already knew. He was standing in the village he'd seen in the vision all those months ago, without another soul in sight.
