Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Vampire Hunter D.

Whew...I was worried I wouldn't be able to get this on here in time, but here is the next chapter as promised!

Thank you Aldedron, Hellsyion, and ardent reader, your words continue to give me inspiration to keep going, even with all of the essays that I have to put up with this semester (and to ardent reader, if I can manage more back-story to aid you and others with less knowledge on a specific portion of the story, I will try).

Have a Happy Halloween! Enjoy!

Chapter Sixteen: Darkness

Bakura groaned as he regained consciousness. He hated this feeling, this queasy, mystified emotion, wondering where he was and how he got there. It was something he had experienced so often, and he'd had just about enough of it. As soon as he could see where he was, he was going to take a swing at whoever had hit him, and be damned that they were on some boat in the middle of the ocean. The problem with this, however, was that he was not regaining his sight.

Blinking in the darkness, he waited for what seemed like eons for the speckles of light to form, but nothing happened. Each second that went by produced a higher form of panic, and as he swung his hand in front of his face, seeing nothing, it only grew. Rubbing at his eyes he was just shy of hyperventilating when he realized that there was a change in his sight. It was still dark, but shadows were forming, and when he turned his gaze to another point in the room, he saw a small outline of light almost like a square eclipse. Feeling around and touching nothing more than a few wooden boxes, he turned his attention to a sound coming from the corner just opposite to where he had lain. A soft sigh followed by a sniffle, as if someone was trying to refrain from weeping any louder than necessary.

"Hello?" Bakura offered to the owner of the sounds, "D-kun?"

The sound stopped, followed by a new noise of quick rustlings. Bakura blindly picked his way over to the sound, tripping and walking into several piles of boxes along the way. When his hand touched the cold metal of the side of the ship he stood, hoping that he may see more than muted blackness and promptly smacked his head against the ceiling, making it throb. Maybe throb harder, as he had not paid much attention to his own plight after waking; best to just forget that vile feeling. Rubbing his head with the hand that had found a metal wall, he outstretched his other arm, hoping to find either the person who was with him, or another wall. That way he could at least huddle into a corner while he thought on the strangeness of the noise, and the delirium that he recalled he had been in just before the painful blow to his head. What he had not expected was someone grabbing at the back of his shirt and pulling him down into a sitting position with a force that pained his backside upon landing. Whipping around to try and see who it was he saw a dark figure outlined in the remnants of what he wanted to call light. Grabbing at the arm, he felt the wet sleeve, but the voice that followed seemed normal enough.

"Bakura-sama," the child began, and immediately Bakura pulled the boy into a hug.

"Oh, thank goodness," Bakura whispered, holding him close, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," D replied, obviously embarrassed, even in the gloom, "I should be asking you if you are okay, he hit you pretty hard."

Bakura frowned. "Who hit me?" he asked.

"Kaiba…" D paused, as if wondering if it were alright to refer to someone this way, "he did. We were watching that big tower of his fall down and all of the sudden he was there and he hit you with a hammer. A HUGE HAMMER AT THAT," he snarled, his disgust unhidden, "I don't know where he got it, but he could have killed you!"

"Calm down D-kun," Bakura replied, rubbing the boy's back and wondering to himself how he was even alive. "Where are we? Or better yet, why are we here? Where is everyone?"

"After Kaiba attacked you, he went off on this tirade of how it was your fault that all of this had happened and that they should throw the both of us off of the boat. We were barely out of the harbor. Jounochi-san grabbed him and took him inside. Everyone but Yugi-san and I followed them. We stayed outside with you. We were out there long enough that Yugi-san said he couldn't even see the land anymore. I didn't tell him if I could or couldn't." The boy pulled out of Bakura's embrace, but remained near him, continuing in a rush, "That was when Mokuba appeared and asked us what was going on. He had heard the commotion, but felt it was safer to get us out of there, and if someone had fallen into the water he figured someone would have came and got him. We told him what happened and he raced into the cabin. Yugi-san went in with him, I think to ask him for a first-aid kit or something, but he didn't come back for a long time, and when he did, it was with everyone, and by that time you had stopped bleeding. I promise I didn't drink any of it," he added hurriedly.

"Don't worry about that," Bakura said, feeling the back of his head. It felt sticky and matted from the blood, but he could not feel any cut on his scalp. It just felt like a bad bruise. He frowned again, wondering how it was even possible, and added, "Go on."

"I remember there had been yelling in the cabin, but I really wasn't paying attention."

"You should have," his left hand piped up, having been silently watching as the whole night passed by.

"Shush," Bakura snapped, "I didn't ask you."

"Touchy…" the boy's left hand replied, but its tone was somewhat shocked and it remained silent for the remainder of the conversation.

"I was just worried about you," D continued, his voice tinged with as much admiration as concern, "All of the sudden two of the men, I think they are Nakano and Kato, picked you up and Yugi-san took my hand. Mokuba and Kaiba were glaring at me, and I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. When we were inside I saw Jounochi-san on the couch, holding a towel to his side. It was red. I think whatever happened started a fight and he got hurt." The boy allowed the news to sink in, and when Bakura nodded, not giving away any emotion, he resumed. "Yugi-san quickly told me what was going to happen. They would allow us to stay only if we remained locked down in storage. Basically we are in the cargo hold with the food and our belongings. It's bigger than I expected for a boat like this, but like Mokuba said, they weren't rich for nothing."

"I take it that everyone else agreed?" Bakura asked, sighing.

"Considering they were seriously debating throwing us over until Jounochi-san and Yugi-san tried to stop them?"

"Yugi told you this?" The man's blood was boiling. Throw them overboard when they had done nothing to warrant it? He knew all of these people, had even had a sort of camaraderie with Nakano. Their change of heart was ridiculous.

"He didn't have much time to tell me, or much of a choice at the pace we were going, but considering the look I was getting from Anzu-chan I think that there were more sympathetic people on board, but the Kaiba brothers can sail this thing and well, no one else can. Not to mention how they dealt with Jounochi-san."

"Ah…" was all the young man had to say.

"Amami wasn't one of them though," D added quietly. Bakura jerked in surprise at this. "I think that since she now knows what I am…well, kind of. I doubt they know the extent but regardless, her faith in me is shot. I'm just like the ones who killed her mother and hurt her father, after all." The boy bowed his head and Bakura could think of nothing to do but pull him back into a hug. "She actually said that. 'You liar! You are just like those people who hurt my mommy!'"

"But you aren't," Bakura stated.

"I'm hungry…" D said, pushing him away again, "That just proves I am. I just saw one of your friends wounded up there, and I got really hungry. And I know we don't have enough, Bakura-sama, I might as well just…"

"Stop it," Bakura warned, "I didn't risk my life for you so you could throw it away by giving these people what they want." D stared at him in the darkness, his shock unseen by the speaker. "If it comes to it, which it probably will, you will drink my blood."

"But—!"

"But nothing. It won't be a decent amount in the least but you'll have something. They left us down here with the food, right?" the boy nodded, "And our backpacks, so obviously they don't see us as that much of a threat. They will leave us alone until land or something, and then most likely kick us off at that point. That's fine with me. Let them drown in their sorrows, forget their loyalties to us, it doesn't matter. All that matters to me is that you live."

"But Yugi-san and Jounochi-san?"

"Mark my words, on this boat they will either die for defending us too hard, or bend to the will of the two brothers. Mokuba's loyalty has always been to Kaiba. I'm not surprised he turned on us; and I won't be surprised if the others follow. That's how it goes when people don't understand something, find it dangerous, and then become in control of the situation. I won't blame anyone for wanting to save themselves, but I won't abandon you or give up my life just so they breathe a little easier while they run."

"But wouldn't it be easier for you if—"

"D-kun, remember, I've been experimented on, they won't trust me any longer if Kaiba has a say. He's probably livid that we were right in the first place. Not to mention," Bakura shifted and pulled the boy close again, "I don't usually like taking the easy route. Sometimes you have to sacrifice what you want or believe in for others, especially if they mean a lot to you."

"Is that why you think they'll turn on you?"

"Yugi-kun has a family to protect, so it's either them or us. There will be no compromise with Kaiba."

"But I'm sure that Kaiba would forgive you if you denounced me. You're persuasive, why don't you? I'm not worth destroying your life." D wanted to leave the man's embrace, feeling stupid, childish, and useless in his arms; but he could not. There was comfort and whether he wanted to admit it or not, he needed it.

"Maybe I believe you're worth it," Bakura said, staring into the dark abyss, wondering if it was day or night in the world above, "I didn't promise that I would stay beside you to go off and betray you what…a few minutes later?"

"Try several hours later," the child snorted, but he seemed to be relaxing.

"Well, several hours later, then," Bakura replied, smiling. "I take it that it is morning then?"

"No clue. Probably, but I doubt the sun is up. Yugi said he would try to sneak down here to see how we were doing when everyone is asleep."

"Sneak down here? How's he going to pull that off?"

"I'm not a mind reader," the boy said mockingly, "That's magic. I'm purely a science experiment gone right."

"Well, I'll just pull a few rabbits out of my backpack, and we will have a feast the likes no one else aboard has seen in years. Then I shall perform a dance that will tell us whether it will leak on the left side of the boat and when we will next get to shower."

"You're dumb."

"Smarty pants."

"This is fact."

They both chuckled at that but said no more, waiting for when Yugi would come to tell them what was happening above. In the darkness, time seemed not to pass for Bakura, all he knew as that exhaustion was overtaking his want for information. His head ached less and less as time went by; and by the time his eyelids slipped shut, unable to fight sleep any longer, he would not even have thought he had bumped his head. D rested against the young man, finding similarities in this situation to when they had first arrived in Domino. Then Kaiba had also been a main factor in whether they lived or died. However, now they had nowhere to run if things became bad for them. His left hand noted the boy's restlessness as the child drifted off to sleep, and muttered to himself about the insanity that had forced its way into their lives. He only hoped that the lunatic that D had followed would protect them; after all, the parasite did live in the kid's left hand. Not much he could do if the child did not think to use him. Not that it was only a matter of time before they were found again anyway.

He was running again, and it was bigger this time.

D raced into the void, not knowing if it would be his salvation or his doom. What if it just circled around? It was his dream, but somehow it felt different. Like he did not have a choice in how anything went.

What would have been invisible stairs to most led the boy up higher and higher. He worried that it had been a fool mistake. The thing behind him was massive. It could probably grab him if it got under him. He did not want to look around, could not look around, and then he began to plummet. He screamed, clawing at the air, at nothing. It was freezing, like the water that he knew was under him as he lay sleeping, and as he fell further he could feel that sickening pressure, that draining of his will to move, and he could not help but scream again. It felt as if it would last forever, and that at the end of forever would be the hand of that monster, and it would eat him, body and soul.

He willed himself to awaken, and that was when his descent began to slow. D looked around confused as things began to take form. Rocks began to form an entrance, sand piled and became the ground that D landed on, feet first and perfectly balanced. He spun around to see if the monster had followed, however there was nothing but the usual dark swirls. The boy turned back around to face the entrance that seemed to lead into an even darker room. He idly wondered if that was even possible, but entered anyway, sure that the creature would at the very least not find him there.

Inside, although impossibly dark, he could see the walls that were now rubble as they held the ceiling in a precarious position. There were carvings, some he would assume legible, but the language that required them had been lost in time. In the middle of the dilapidated tomb (of this he was sure) lay what was once something important. How he knew this, he did not know, as he could not even discern why it would be important. It was just a pile of rocks.

"What are you doing here?" a disembodied voice inquired, and D jumped, his attention snapping to the entrance where a horrific yet familiar pair of red eyes hovered. The dark mass surrounding them soon became a body, an androgynous one it seemed.

"It's you again," D said, ignoring the question and imposing his own, "how did you know that I was here?"

"I have eyes, you know," the being said, mockingly irritated.

"I'm well aware of that," the boy replied, already weary of this conversation. He wondered if this dream would be even less productive than the first one that he had partaken in on that odd night where Bakura had said such peculiar things.

"Well, it is fascinating seeing you again, I will admit," the genderless creature considered, "It still does not answer my question."

"Would it help you to know that I do not know?" D asked, shaking his head.

"Ah, so you are 'dreaming', as you put it last time?"

"I believe so," he replied shortly.

"Hey, there's no need for attitude, I'm not the one intruding."

"It is my dream, so you are." D crossed his arms, his bravery returning. This child-creature was nothing like the thing that had been chasing him, and he was tired of being pushed around and played with.

"But don't you see you silly thing, that this is no dream? That the 'dream' you had where we first spoke was not a dream either? Don't tell me you talked yourself into believing that. Not with what you've felt." Its hand waved to the churning darkness outside.

"Then tell me where I am."

"You are in my home, as I said before."

"I am in no mood," D began darkly, "for games. Just tell me where I am."

The creature blinked, apparently stunned. "I'm not playing a game with you. That would be too dangerous!"

"Whatever. Just be more specific then. Where is your home, and don't you dare say here."

"But it is," it replied, tittering, "Where I live is where this resides, unreachable to most mortals, save the foolish and the strong; not to mention usually only with help."

D pondered this. "So you are telling me that this is not a dream, that I am somehow being teleported somewhere that feels like it has no beginning and no end, and that I should not even be privy to it?"

"Oh, something like that, yes," the being said, smiling its wide and disconcerting smile.

"But how?"

"That's what I want to know as well. I mean, I very much wish to talk to you about more matters than simply, 'How'd I get here this time?' We rarely have time for one another, you know? And I do get so lonely," the creature laughed harder, "but I suppose until you figure it out, you'll never know." D frowned, not amused, and the being shrugged as if the boy had not gotten the joke. "Listen, kiddo, I'll give you some advice. You'll be coming here, really coming here soon, I would guess. Then we can have a nice talk. For now though, you just can't handle this place. I can see it draining you. Look for the boy who wanders this darkness alone. He will teach you the strength necessary."

"What boy?" D asked, perplexed, "You mentioned him before, the last time we spoke, but I have never seen another boy here."

"But you have seen him…haven't you?" the creature posed, smiling yet again.

"No!" D snapped, "I would not have told you that I had never seen him if I had!"

"Tsk…you need some manners. Do you even know who you are speaking to?"

"Let me guess," he replied, sighing, "You are something I apparently want you to be?"

"I can be," the creature said, "but only if we are friendly. Otherwise I might not want you back here."

"What if I preferred not to come back?"

It cackled. "Dear child, I don't think you have that choice. You wouldn't be here in the first place if you knew how to stay away."

"So what are you really?" D asked, frowning. Before the creature could answer though, a loud sob reverberated through the cavern to their right. The creature looked down at its claws and D watched in awe as they morphed into tanned, weather-beaten although lovely human hands. Once again it was wrapped in a tan robe with a cowl to match, but now it loomed over him. No longer could those freakish red eyes be seen.

"He calls for me," it said wistfully. "But I think it best that I do not go. It is not safe to see him again, not yet. You are so lucky."

"Who? Is he a friend of yours?"

"He is everything. My route to your world and onward."

"He is the darkness?"

"Go to him, would you?" The thing faced him, and for a moment he saw something indescribable in its eyes. "If you truly haven't met him, go now. He is your only hope as much as he is mine. And you will never find someone else so self sacrificing." It paused, and then chuckled, "Then again, maybe you have?"

D did not know what to do with this request. For all he knew, these dreams could be from the madness he had endured just recently. What if it was right though? What if it was not a dream? The pressure and chill on his heart was intensifying. He felt that he would only last a few more moments before he was doomed. The creature he had been running from may have its dinner yet. He did not get the chance to confirm or refuse the demand though, as the creature had disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, which left D alone with a crying "darkness". He shook his head, and moved forward, hoping that this dream would end soon. Why couldn't he have nice dreams that helped him during the difficult times?

The further he went into the tomb, the less pained his heart felt, the less his body ached. It was like he was leaving the area where the monsters lurked, and going back to the realm of men. He did not see the crying thing until the very last room, which had a doorway that was covered by cloths that seemed to lead outside. Or whatever could count for 'outside' in this strange world.

The adolescent was bowing, or appearing to at any rate. Its scabbed knees supported his lower body on the hard stone floor as it leaned forward, face hidden as its forehead pressed against the ground and its arms covered its head. It let out another sob, and began speaking in a language D did not understand. The young boy stood there for some time watching this display, feeling some compassion but not knowing what to do.

"It is okay" he began, not able to think of anything else. The teen stopped its crying, but continued to breathe laboriously. "Um…" He wondered what Bakura would have done in a situation like this and tried to emulate his empathy, "The monster isn't here anymore, it's okay. You don't have to cry?"

"Monster?" A clipped and harsh, yet somehow familiar voice came from the kneeling teenager, and D took a step back, "but don't you know that I'm the monster?"

"I…what?" D blinked. Surely they could not mean that. It looked no more like a monster than well, a stuffed teddy bear. In fact, even though older, he looked less threatening than D himself.

"They all died," the boy before him wept, "and I couldn't do anything…"

D was frozen, shaken by what the person before him had said. It was as if it had taken the words from his soul and said them with the same agony he felt. Shaking the feeling away and not quite being able to, he continued, "I don't think it was your fault…and it doesn't make you a monster."

"How would you know!" it barked at him, "I can't do anything right! I tried to make the ones who killed them pay, I tried! I tried!" It howled, clutching at its face, "but I was the monster, I was the one who needed to die, and I was all alone, no one would miss me, no one will miss me. I'm worthless…"

"No, you're not," D said, still standing in the same spot, uncomfortable with the situation, "someone cares about you. Don't give up. You aren't a monster. Now who killed who?"

"Does somebody care about you?" the young man asked, still not showing its face.

"Yes, yes there is someone." The boy did not even have to pause.

"Would you live for them? Even if you never got to see them again? Even if it meant damning yourself?"

"I…" D began, and violently wished he would wake up and leave this strange dreamlike state, "I'm already damned."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I would, because I know that's what he wants."

"Is that so?"The teen replied, "I suppose you are right. That's all that matters."

"Yeah…live your life for the people who care about you if you don't want to live for yourself."

One hand slid lower and D saw the eye it had covered was a faded purple. "Do you live for yourself?"

"I…" D did not know how to begin to reply. He did not need to worry much on it though, as a strange hiss came from below them and the floor began cracking beneath his feet. He gasped as the figure before him disappeared, and realized he had been too preoccupied to ask him his name. Was that really "the darkness"? What did that even mean? The boy had looked no different than he, just in different garb.

He began to fall again.

"D-kun!"

The voice he heard sounded so far away, and he was falling so far down, back into that evil abyss that would steal his life from him, that not-quite-dream world. He looked at his hands, trying to pull himself back into reality, but instead of finding an annoying and well-known face on his palm he found a smooth surface. It felt like the parasite within his hand was no longer there, or had never been there in the first place. He slapped at his left hand with his right, as if this would make a difference in the absence.

"Stop shouting D-kun! It's okay, I'm here…"

Shouting? Was he shouting? He remembered crying out as he had begun his descent. Who was calling to him? He wanted to see their face. D begged the darkness surrounding him that it was not the monster that chased him, with its thousand voices tricking him in some way. He reached out for anything and instead of continuing to fall into the cold darkness that had followed the collapse of the tomb; he was lifted gently and held to something warm and familiar, with a familiar thumping that almost sounded—

—like a heartbeat. D opened his eyes to see Bakura looking down at him, worry etched into his countenance. He was not in a tomb or a dark swirling nowhere, but on a boat in his friend's protective embrace. Pushing away from the man, he tried to regain his composure. He could feel sweat beading on his forehead. Rubbing it off forcefully, he glanced back in the young man's direction. The concerned look was still there, and he motioned for him to sit back down. The child did so, intrigued with the idea that his friend might have been able to see him when others like him would not.

"Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?" Bakura began.

"I'm fine," D replied, "I did. It was nothing, don't worry about it. I didn't wake anyone else up did I?"

Bakura looked up at the metallic ceiling. "Not that I know of. Are you sure you are all right?"

"Yes, it was just a ridiculous dream. I'm sorry for waking you up."

"It's okay. Did you want to sleep more?"

D shook his head. "No. You should though. I'll wake you up if Yugi comes down here."

Bakura looked at him for a while, as if searching for something. Not finding it, he nodded. "I won't sleep much longer."

"Bakura-sama?" D asked, as Bakura resituated himself against the wall, "Do you miss your other half?"

The young man paused. "I said that a while ago, didn't I…" he looked down and mused, "I suppose it's stupid and again, I still hate myself for saying so, but I do. I doubt he'd have gotten us into this kind of a mess. He was arrogant, but viciously intelligent."

"Would you ever want him back?"

"I…no, it would be impossible. Don't worry about that kind of stuff. It's old news. What brought it up anyway?" Bakura tilted his head in inquiry.

D shrugged. "Nothing in particular, just popped into my head."

Bakura smiled. "Well, like I said, don't worry about that. If you do get tired, you can go to sleep, though."

"I know, Bakura-sama. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, or good morning, depending," he chuckled before settling into a swift slumber. D watched him for a time before standing again. Moving to the other side of the room he found their backpacks, which had been thrown down there with them as if they were tainted because they were theirs. Opening his, he pulled out the leather bound journal, and a pen. He looked back at Bakura who lay sleeping and sighed. He wanted to tell him about the dream that had not much felt like a dream, but he had so much on his plate already, D could not bring himself to. So after reading the first page and feeling soothed by the words, he turned to the second page and began to write a detailed description of his dream before he forgot it. Maybe he would tell Bakura later, maybe he would have him read it, or maybe if he had another dream, he could piece their meanings together, and figure out what was going on, and why he was dreaming those things. He even made a note of appreciation for his tagalong companion, finding comfort in knowing he was there, even if he could not stand it. Afterward, he went back to where Bakura slept, rested his head on the man's shoulder, and joined him in his doze, finding this particular darkness very warm and reassuring.