Chapter 6: Shadow's Madness
Normal POV
"Shadow." Atem greeted coldly after he got over the initial shock of seeing Yugi with black eyes.
"You!" Shadow snarled in his own voice no longer needing to use Yugi's since Atem clearly was not fooled. Shadow lunged at Atem and threw both himself and Atem to the ground while wrapping his fingers around Atem's throat. Atem grabbed Shadow's arms and tried to pull him off, but claws were suddenly sinking into his flesh allowing Shadow to have a stronger hold on Atem's neck.
"You just had show up and play the knight in shining armor, didn't you?" Shadow spat. "It won't even matter in the end, you being here is just breaking him more." Atem paled and Shadow laughed. "That's right, you're hurting him by being here, you're-" Shadow suddenly stopped as Atems pain started making itself known. Shadow leaned closer and inhaled deeply, tasting the flavors of Atem's pain that were so similar to Yugi's except not as strong or as deep. His black eyes now seemed as if they were glowing.
"Ahh..." He sighed blissfully. "Your pain is delicious, almost as good as your brat's, you both have so much pain in you, and you both have the cause for that pain: you leaving." Atem inhaled sharply and his grip on Shadow loosened slightly. Shadow closed his eyes and smile as threads of darkness started to swirl around him, then his eyes snapped open and the threads began to seek out Atem's pain by entering his mind. Shadow leaned down until his forehead touched the floor and rested next to Atem's. "Show me your pain, every detail, from beginning to end, I want to see all of it." Shadow whispered into Atem's ear.
Atem began struggling when the first of his most painful memories was replayed in his mind. As the darkness plucked more at Atem's memories, his struggles ceased and his hands fell to his sides.
The door suddenly slammed against the wall as Bakura and Marik burst in; they had felt that something was wrong the moment Malik had let them in the house. Bakura ran to Shadow and tackled him to the side, while Marik quickly rushed over to Atem. Ryou and Malik stood in the doorway as they watched Marik run to Atem and Bakura restrain the thing masquerading as their friend.
Marik placed his hand over Atem's eyes and spoke in a language that only himself and Malik could understand. "Eliberare!" A gold light appeared and then the threads of darkness that had been dancing around in Atem's mind snapped back and returned to Shadow.
"What did you do!?" Shadow snarled, but Marik just ignored him as he helped Atem sit up. Atem looked around the room blankly, then placed a hand to his forehead and tried to erase the memories that had been roughly pulled forward for him to watch all over again.
Marik then walked over to Shadow and looked down at him sadly. "I'm sorry Yugi, we will get Shadow out, but for now, I infrana!" Another gold light appeared around Shadow, but instead of fading like it did with Atem, it kept glowing dimly around him.
"What have you done?!" Shadow shrieked when he realized that he couldn't move. "Tell me what you did!"
"I restrained you." Marik said simply as Bakura quietly got up and off Shadow.
"Atem?" Ryou asked quietly. Bakura and Marik turned around to see Atem in the same position as before with Ryou and Malik kneeling in front of him. "Are you ok?"
"What did he do to you?" Malik asked. Atem look up, but before he could answer, Shadow began to laugh.
"Really?" Shadow gasped out. "That's all it took? I mean, I knew that you were weaker than your Hikari, but that was just too easy. Do you know how much I had to show him before he broke? Even years before I came close to gaining a form, I couldn't break the little brat. In the end it only took one image, just one, for him to break and oh, if I were to tell you what image that was, the pain you would feel. But, if I were to tell you when I showed it to him, I bet that you would go as mad as he did." Shadow began laughing hysterically after that.
Atem glared hatefully at Shadow even though his eyes were filled with pain from what he was told.
"Wait," Ryou gasped, "did he just say that he's already caused Yugi to begin to go mad?"
Shadow's laughter slowly died out as he began to listen to what they were saying when they all looked at him fearfully, he wanted to know what they were planning to do.
"Then we must get to him now." Marik said grimly. "Before it's too late."
"We can't." Atem replied hopelessly, "I was blocked out of his mind and attacked when I tried to go further, even if all of us were to enter through our link, we still wouldn't be strong enough."
"I don't think that it's strength that we need." Malik said quietly. Everyone looked at him questioningly and Shadow was worried that kid had figured out some kind of strategy.
"What are you going to do? Ask the little Hikari to let you in?" Shadow sneered.
"Yes." Malik said simply.
"What!?" Shadow laughed, wondering if the kid had lost his mind. "Oh, ok. Go right ahead, I'm sure he'll be able to hear you." He said sarcastically and rolled his eyes.
"He will," Malik said confidently, "because he wants to."
"No he doesn't." Shadow shook in uncontrollable laughter. "That kid's gone past insane, he doesn't even know what he wants unless it's his precious Yami. If it doesn't involve his pharaoh, then he just watches emotionlessly, knowing he can't do anything. He truly feels as if he collapsed, broken, shattered. He feels lost, alone, helpless, and useless. He-"
"Fara Zgomot!" Malik snapped, in annoyance and anger, and everyone's eyes widened as a blinding light flashed around Shadow and he stopped talking. "Amorti!" Another flash and Shadow was unconscious.
"You should have done that sooner." Marik said proudly with a smirk while Atem, Ryou, and Bakura stared in awed shock. Malik was even more powerful than Marik.
"As I was saying," Malik said satisfied, "we can ask Yugi if we can enter his mind."
"How?" Atem asked.
"By asking the same way I silenced Shadow." Malik said. "He won't know exactly what I'm saying, but with Marik's help we can convince his subconscious that we want to help and are not a threat. It won't matter what kind of barriers Shadow has put up, he's not in full control as long as Yugi is alive."
"And as soon as we're there, Bakura and I can find him." Ryou said excitedly.
"It will be up to you, pharaoh, to do the rest." Bakura said. "You heard what Shadow said, the only thing Yugi seems to react to right now is you, nothing else."
"Alright." Atem said and looked at Shadow. "Let's go."
The other four nodded and closed their eyes and formed a connection with Atem. Atem focused on the consciousness of his other half and pulled the other four along with him through his link, towards their friend.
Meanwhile in Yugi's mind
A dark figure surrounded by thick threads of darkness stood in front of another that was chained up to a wall. The one chained to the wall stared off vacantly as the one facing him whispered in his ear.
"Did you see that?" The dark figure whispered harshly. "They don't want you back, they're happy without you. He's happy without you, the one you love, he doesn't care about you, he never did. Didn't you hear him? He wants you gone. What did he say again? Oh, yeah. You're a nuisance Mou Hitori No Boku." The figure said softly, using the voice of another.
"No," the chained figure gasped out, "Please. Stop."
"Why are you still here?" The dark one continued and made his soft voice turn to one of disgust. "Go away, I don't want to see your face again."
The chained figure's eyes flared with pain and exceptance, then went completely blank and the figure became limp and unresponsive as his eyes closed.
"YES!" The dark one shouted in triumph and madness as his voice returned to normal. "Did you see that pharaoh?! Huh?! Did you see?! I BROKE him! Try saving him now that I've taken everything from him! I broke him, I broke him, I broke him." He sang almost childishly.
The dark figure jumped up and down clapping as he repeated sang the same thing over and over and over again.
creepy right? :)
The language in italics is Romanian, because I thought that it looked pretty
Eliberare - Release
I infrana - Restrain him
Fara Zgomot - Be silent
Amorti - Sleep