Has been edited to the best of my ability, so please enjoy it as much as I have writing it, I will update again soon.
Warnings: Rated R. Male/Male Fic. Coarse Language, adult themes, sexual themes, violence and gore.
Chapter 20: Shoe Box.
Ishizu's vision filled with a white ceiling and she stared at it for a moment until she took in a breath she started to fall and landed on a plush couch in her hotel room. Her chest heaved with the rush of adrenalin, her hands in a death grip on the back and side of the couch. Fear had her frozen in place. She stared making sure It didn't follow her the same way she had escaped it. RUN! She knew it would follow. GET UP! Her mind screamed, her body still locked up.
"Ishizu!" Her name called by a disjointed voice someplace far away. A gentle warm touch to her shoulder gave her a start and she pulled away from it to see her brother. "What happened?" looking just as alarmed as she and he also glanced up at the ceiling from where she had fallen and back down at her.
"We have to go," She whimpered out, forcing herself off the couch onto her feet and stumbled forward a little. Malik reached for her and kept her stable. "We have to go now! Get the Ring and whatever you think you are going to need, we aren't coming back." She gave him a shove towards the rooms.
"That bad?" He asked stepping away from her. Ishizu nodded her head and without another word, he rushed towards his room.
Ishizu ran to her own room grabbed her large bag and moved about the space shoving things into it that she thought she might need or could help them. "Malik now!" She called out walking back into the living space and as Malik exited his bedroom with a bag slung over his shoulder and the shoe box clutched to his chest. A loud knocking came at their door and it's so hard that the wood creaked and cracked under the powerful hits.
"I know you're in their Priestess." It pounded on the door. "Open up and let's talk."
"No," Malik gasped backing away and shaking his head his eyes wide the realization of what she had been running from hit him.
"Malik," Ishizu grabbed his shoulders and shook him a little until he turned terrified eyes onto her instead of the door and what's behind it. "I need you now, just hold it together until we get out of here." Malik numbly nodded his head visibly shaking.
"Bakura?" He looked about as if lost, they didn't have time for one of his breakdowns.
"He's in your arms." She tapped the slightly crushed shoe box of broken millennium items and moved to the window and flung it open. No hesitation Malik ducked out onto the fire escape.
Ishizu followed right after her brother who's already descending the stairs ahead of her. The door shattered into pieces flying across the room like deadly darts piecing walls and furniture. Ishizu slammed the window closed, pressed her hand to the glass and muttered a small spell. Yami flew at her, the barrier glowed white on impact and rippled like a pebble dropped into a pound. The ripples reverse back in and with a burst of light, Yami is thrown backwards hitting the couch making both the thing and furniture tumbling over. Yami slowly rose to his feet glancing up and grinning ominously at her.
"Come on!" Malik called up at her almost down to the street and for a split second, she glanced down and then up Yami was inches from the glass. She held back her scream and the urge to stumble backwards. "There is nowhere for you to run Priestess." He snarled.
"I'm not running, just getting some distance." It took effort to keep her voice from trembling. She descended swiftly and once her feet touched the ground she glanced up, the small landing and window were both empty. "Go!" She started running and Malik followed as they neared the street, Yami's three lackeys moved into their path. Ishizu slowed down to a stop.
"We are going to wait…" Not letting the girl finish Malik grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her towards a door that sat ajar between two large dumpsters on their right. Malik with a swift twist of the handle and his shoulder, burst open and Ishizu was being pulled along in a run through a full kitchen of chefs and the aroma of pleasant steaming cooking foods. "Come here!" her arm is grabbed and she's yanked from her brother's hold and she's spun about. She grabbed a pot on a stove and threw it into the blonde's face. He screamed rearing back, letting her go to cover his face.
She turned running after her brother who waited by an exit. She ignored all the cooks yelling at them to get out. The other two passed the blonde. Ishizu and Malik burst into a makeshift sitting area and into a market packed with people and hawkers calling out their deals on their goods.
At some point, they let go of hands and Malik a few steps ahead of her and the lackeys right on her heels. "Come here you bitch!" the words followed by pain as the ends of her hair were grabbed and yanked though not enough to slow her down. She ran out the doorway and in her momentum of turning right as Malik had done. A body slammed hard into her forcing her into the brick wall and cried out as his crushing weight bared against her, constricting her breathing and when darkness crept into her vision. The weight vanished and Ishizu gasped in air as she fell to the ground. A hand in her long dark hair clutched tightly forcing her to rise up on her knees and her head painfully pulled back and the blonde's face twisted up in pure anger struck her hard enough to send her back to the dirty cold floor.
She rose up on weak shaking legs only to cry out once more as a kick to her side had her rolling and clutching her body. "Enough Joey! Geez, it'll heal," The only girl in the group scowled. Ishizu through gasping agonised breaths and watery vision watched a tall brunette in a struggle to get Joey away from her.
Ishizu whimpered in pain and protest as she is once again pulled to her feet.
"Or just get rich boy to buy you another face!" the brunette started laughing uproariously at his own joke.
"I told you we broke up!" Joey's words only caused the one holding her to laugh harder. Joey came at them until the girl of the group stepped in physically yelling at them to stop. It's Malik falling through sheets of plastic that hung like curtains and landing hard face first onto the ground that had her complete attention. Malik belly crawled, his lip bleeding and nose bleeding. That thing watched him for a moment before walking forward and sat upon his back. Malik's struggles to throw him off seemed useless as It laughed in amusement.
"Long time no see Malik," Yami grabbed her brother's hair yanked it backwards and leaned down and licked his cheek. Malik froze as he is. "You know I could really get into siblings. I do have a thing for Priestesses."
"Stop that!" She tried to pull free the grip they had on her only tightened. "What do you want with us?" Ishizu called out disgust and anger railed up within her.
"To rekindle that special night we had together," Yami lent forward a sinister grin on his face as he leaned down enough for his lips to ghost the edges of Malik's right ear. "Remember darling." Yami then whispered in Malik's ear while staring at her. Tears rolled down her brother's face as he spoke only to her brother.
"Get off him you swine!" Ishizu yelled. "Whatever you want you can take it from me!" It took effort to keep her voice from shaking. Yami looked at her as he moved back to a sitting position when a dark purple mist seeped in from all around them. The sounds of rocks clunking together as what looked like tombstones shot up out of the ground everywhere followed by shin-high grass.
"Yami what is this?" the shriek of the girl as disjointed moans came from beneath their feet got so loud that it forced everyone to cover their ears.
Silence, but for the wind that blew through the grass and made the dark purple mist dance like water.
Undead arms shot up out of the ground everywhere the girl screamed as those arms and hands in all stages of decomposing started latching onto their feet, ankles and legs. "Cute Bakura!" Yami called out as those hands grabbed him. He laughed as he used his own powers and incinerated the hands on his body, only those hands rematerialized right back and doubled in number.
Yami pulled himself up only to be grabbed onto in a new place and pulled down. Ishizu screamed as something cold and slimy brushed against a part of her leg that she couldn't see due to the mist.
"Is that all you got?" Joey laughed as he jumped about stomping on hands in random places.
"I want to go home!" the girl sobbed, Ishizu stumbled back a little. Her heart racing as she could feel the sharp pricks of dark magic and a lot of it. Bakura. She scanned the grass in the breaks in the mist for the shoe box and couldn't see it.
"Yami help me!" Joey screamed terrified as he is slowly pulled down into a wide mouth of nothing but darkness. She saw Joey fighting, crying and screaming for his life to be saved as hands engulfed and pulled him down into nothingness, the ground closed up silencing his cries.
The guy holding her started screaming and his arms wrapped around her tightly in a hug. Ishizu fought to get him off her. She felt the coldness on her skin and she couldn't hold in her own scream as those rotting hands latched onto her as well as him and started pulling them down as if they were in quicksand.
The girl of the group just sobbed and screamed, running only a few feet before falling over and vanishing. "Why don't you come out and face me you coward!" Yami spat angrily and he fought against the unrelenting hands as he began to sink into the ground. Malik had already vanished into that darkness that had opened up under them both "You owe me!" Yami fought against the hands desperately trying to get them off him, right up until the ground swallowed him up.
Ishizu rained in her panic and stopped fighting despite the fear rushing through her body and her heart pounding against her chest as she is still dragged down into that void of darkness. She hoped that Bakura didn't mistake Malik or her for the enemy. She scrunched her eyes tightly closed and clutched onto the hope that Malik and her would make it out.
Ishizu didn't hold back the cry as warm hands touched her shoulders. "Sister," she instantly reacted and threw herself into his arms and held on. "Bakura saved us." He said soothingly rubbing her back.
"We have to go," Malik whispered and it is when she pulled away the stench of the alleyway and the noise of the street rushed in all at once. She glanced about to see the three lackeys lay unmoving on the ground around her and It lay on the ground and his rear end sticking up in the air.
They leaned on each other as they hastily limped away.
Marik gave Ryou the space he needed until it got to the point that the sun began to set and he became worried that he hadn't emerged from the bathroom in what seemed like hours. He knocked softly on the closed door and when no answer came he slowly opened the door and poked his head in and saw Ryou lying on the floor.
Not getting any reaction from Ryou that his presence isn't wanted he stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He lay on the floor. The sight of tears running over the bridge of Ryou's noise and onto the bathmat. It became a new thing he started to really dislike and that is seeing Ryou cry. "Penny for your thoughts?"
Ryou looked at him and Marik's inside twisted up wishing he could do more. "I can't feel anything but that void, right here." unbridled tears his shaky voice a whisper as both his fists tightened while holding them against his chest. "How horrible am I to not have protected my other half and to have allowed all this to happen." The duty and weight of a Host are heavy and fraught with many dangers. "The worst part," Ryou lowered his voice more, glancing over Marik's shoulder to the door for a moment. "He's… He's lying I feel it. The story he told of Bakura killing Yami, seemed off." Ryou reached out and gripped Marik's hand. "A duel! If Bakura were to kill Yami it would have been done with his hands… not through some game."
"Do you think Yugi did something to Bakura?" Most would find it hard to believe that the puzzle host and the righteous bastard could harm anyone. Marik knew first-hand of what those two were capable of. Ryou stared at him not saying anything, properly didn't wish to say anything in case it would send him into a blind rage and kill Yugi. "I can still beat it out of him," Marik offered truthfully with a grin.
"Have half a mind to let you," Ryou smiled slightly. Marik's head instantly played out the torture of Yugi Mutou in his head. A half-naked Yugi strapped down to a kitchen chair in the middle of the laundry room in the building's basement. So no one could hear Yugi's screams or the tools. Yugi thrashed about in his tight bounds screaming, bleeding from various places on his body. Begging for Marik to stop that he didn't know anything. Marik would allow Ryou to give Yugi sips of water and to catch his breath before he would start again. The more intense the pain the more those unbridled truths followed.
"Have I successfully corrupted a Host? My dreams are now fulfilled."
"No," Ryou laughed a little and it felt like a weight had lifted off Marik's shoulders.
"Do you honestly think Yami and Yugi had something to do with Bakura's disappearance? Perhaps do you think they had something to do with what happened to you?" Marik asked, despite all the nights in bed talking Ryou had never once pointed a finger or blamed anyone for what happened to them.
"I don't know," Ryou muttered with a deep frown. "I feel something is off when Yugi is near and even more so when he speaks. The one person important to me and I can't remember a damn single detail of that night." Frustration etched his voice and often did when Ryou spoke of his memories or there lack of.
"Give it time it'll all come back and when it does we'll deal with it together." Marik would, no matter what the outcome he'd be there for Ryou until he was no longer needed.
"How much more time?!" Ryou practically begged so fed up with his fractured mind. "Am I supposed to live out the rest of my life like this?" Marik wanted to tell him yes, that they would make some incredible new memories together and this moment and all the pain would fade.
"It won't last forever." And it couldn't, right? Surely Ryou had to get some parts of himself back and if he had anything to do with it Yugi would be spilling everything before the night is over. "And when it all comes back, we'll deal with it together." Marik would stand by his side until the very end no matter the outcome.
"Thank you," Ryou whispered the words as he slid a little closer and pressed his lips to Marik's in a soft chaste kiss until it became heated. He threaded his fingers into long white hair and pulled Ryou closer. A twist of bodies and Ryou lay on top of him as fingers that shook with eagerness undoing buttons, zippers and tugging at clothes.
"Bakura!" Ryou gasped sitting up and staring at the door. He rose to his feet gracefully and seemed frozen on the spot. Between Marik's hazy mind that took a moment longer to clear and by that time Ryou ran from the bathroom.
"Shit! Ryou?" Marik called rushing after him while straightening up his clothing and running a hand through his hair. Yugi stood in the living area wide-eyed and watching.
"Bakura!" Ryou threw himself at the front door and ripped it open as if the darker half would be there waiting to be invited in. Has the strain or stress of everything that has happened sent the other off the deep end?
"Bakura's dead," Yugi blurted out.
"Ryou," Marik gently touched his shoulder and Ryou didn't respond at all so he asked anyway. "What's going on?"
"I-" Ryou stood in the empty hallway that is lined with closed apartment doors. "I think I'm losing my mind." He ran a shaking hand through his hair and paused. He turned his head and let his hand fall to his side as he stared down the hallway. "Bakura," Ryou muttered waving his hand almost franticly for Marik to come and see. He did, stopping so close to Ryou that he could feel the other's body heat and glanced down the hallway in the same direction.
There Bakura himself stood at the top of the stairs just staring right back at them. "Bakura!" Ryou started to sprint towards his dark half calling his name as if he'd disappear any second. He didn't even react to his name being called by his own Host.
Marik started to follow and with each step, a sadness grew within that now Bakura had been found and he'd no longer have Ryou. For what Host would abandon their darker half for someone else's dark half, especially for someone like him. It had been a nice dream of having Ryou at his side, now his life would return to what it had once been of loneliness. So Marik isn't in a hurry to return to his old life.
"No!" Ryou cried out in panic as Bakura started to descend the stairs. Ryou running so fast that he couldn't slow himself down. He grabbed the railing of the stairs to stop himself and froze at the top for a second. "Marik come quickly!" Ryou shouted as he too followed Bakura down.
On the stairs, he had not been prepared to see his former Host or his Host's sister. Both siblings struggled greatly with each step. "Ishizu!" Malik gasped as she collapsed where she stood and Malik had to stop her from falling down the stairs.
"What happened?" Marik asked as he rushed to Ishizu's side. He checked her breathing and pulse and found she's only unconscious, He then lifted her effortlessly into his arms. Malik shook his head and took a few steps down as if he were ready to run at any second. "Malik!" He snapped trying to get his former Host to talk.
"Yami and his friends attacked us – she used too much of her powers to get us away from him." Malik shook his head clutching a shoe box to his chest. "It wasn't my idea to come here!" He shouted up at Marik, his voice filled with anger and fear. "We had no choice." Malik he noted had minor scraps, cuts and bleeding as if he had been roughed up.
"It's ok," Marik tried to soften his voice and it hurt somewhat that Malik wouldn't look at him. "Let's get you all inside." He wouldn't turn them away since they had come here seeking help or refuge. "Ryou, bring him with you." Marik walked up the stairs and waited for them with encouragement Ryou got Malik up those stairs and walked down the hallway together Marik leading the way. "Malik, I just saw Bakura." Ryou asked.
"He saved us," Malik spoke his head down and eyes on the floor.
"Bakura saved you?!" Ryou stopped him by stepping in front of him both hands on his shoulders. "Where is he?" The lack of answering or even looking at him, Ryou shook Malik a little. "Where is Bakura?!"
"Here." Malik opened his arms a little and stared down at the shoe box in his arms. Ryou's hands fell back to his sides.
"It's true, everything he said is true," Ryou's voice croaked and his eyes filled with tears. "Where is he?" Malik opened his arms and the shoe box fell forward a little the soft sounds of metal clinking together and they all knew that the remanets of the Ring resided in that box.
"The Ring is broken." Malik sounded so sad and he pulled the box back to his chest and held it tightly. "I've taken good care of Bakura." He reassured adding. "He saved us from Yami tonight."
"Please," Ryou's voice croaked as he held out his hands for the box. Malik pulled away as if refusing to let it go for only a moment. He took in a deep breath and reluctantly handed it over.
Once in Ryou's hands, he pulled off the lid and sure enough the broken bits of gold glinted as if new in the poor lighting of the hallway. "No," Ryou collapsed to his knees the tears fell free.
"I'm so sorry Ryou. It was given to me like this."
TBC.