Sixteen's Story: Part 2

I have no idea how long I was out for. There’s no way of keeping track of the time here. All I know is that when I came around the other Yugi was sicker than before and my chest hurt.

I tried reaching down the link for my other self, recognising the pain of having my other self torn from my heart and praying I was wrong. Unfortunately I wasn’t. I couldn’t feel the comforting, protective embrace of my darker self. Which meant he wouldn’t be able to reach me either. Or use the link to locate me.

Still he’ll find a way to come and get me. He’s Yami. He doesn’t lose and this was just a game of Hide and Seek, albeit one with huge stakes. Yami had won games with greater prizes than just my safety before. I have faith in my other self. He won’t abandon me.

I have to wonder if the Pharaoh’s got some way of keeping tabs on what we’re doing, because it wasn’t long after I woke up that he somehow came through the door. Not the door frame. The door.

Glowering at him had no effect. In fact all it did was amuse him. The Pharaoh moved further into the room, looking between the pair of us and chuckling. Not a mirthful sound, more one of vicious amusement. He introduced me to the mage Yugi, and vice versa. Apparently I’m not Yugi anymore. I’m ‘Sixteen.’ At least according to the Pharaoh.

When he started draining something from the other Yugi, a pained whimper escaping Fifteen as light drained from him to the Pharaoh, I couldn’t stand aside. I tried to pull him away from the other Yugi, only for contact with the Pharaoh to turn the spell on me.

There was a sharp pain as part of my soul tore away and the light I’d only ever willingly shared with one other person was pulled into the Pharaoh. He shoved me away as I was reeling from the spell’s actions and took a little more from Fifteen, finally stopping when the other Yugi almost passed out.

Then he made a snide comment about me ‘waiting my turn’ and stalked out of the room. Once again going through the door quite literally.

It took a while for both of us to pull ourselves together. I recovered long before Fifteen, as he recommended I call him, if only to prevent confusion. It took Fifteen much longer to recover than me, partly because the Pharaoh had taken so much more from him and partly, he explained, because while my soul was already recovering his had stopped healing a while back. The Pharaoh had been taking too much from him for too long and it wouldn’t be much longer before he was gone completely.  

I tried to reassure him. If he just hung on a little longer, his Yami would be here and then we’d both get away. After all there was no way a real Yami would ever abandon his light.

Fifteen’s response was a bitter chuckle. I had been lucky when I had been taken. My Yami was alive. Fifteen’s Yami had gotten into a battle of magicks with the Pharaoh and been destroyed while trying to prevent the kidnapping.

There wasn’t much I could say to that. If anything I envied his fortitude for hanging on this long without the hope of his Yami coming to rescue him. When I asked him what had kept him going, Fifteen just smiled at me sadly and said I’d understand later.

Instead of letting me dwell on it, he offered to tell me stories about himself and the previous Yugis who had dwelt in the cell. It was, he explained, part of a promise he had made to Fourteen. That if he didn’t make it out, he would pass their stories on to the next Yugi to come along. It was a way of making sure none of them were forgotten. Almost all of them had secretly hoped that their Yami was still looking and they had wanted to be able to give their other selves some closure. Even if they couldn’t return themselves.

I promised Fifteen the same. It was the least I could do.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 28

The monster stepped towards her and Oneesan ripped out the drips before turning and running down the corridor. The minotaur followed, picking up speed as it ran after her. Luckily for Oneesan it did not corner as well as she did, even injured as she was, allowing her to gain ground as it crashed into the walls and pillars at every junction.

“Damn it.” Oneesan snarled as she had to duck behind a different nurse’s station to catch her breath, her side aching from both the bruising Imoto-chan had gained earlier and the exertion as she took great, heaving breaths. “Can’t... Keep...Running...”

It was a good job she had decided that because the monster had decided that it had had enough of going around things and was just going to go through them. It ripped the nurse’s station in two with its huge axe, leaving Oneesan with little to no time to get to her feet and escape.

Left with no choice but to try and fight for her life against a gigantic foe, the Pharaoh blasted it with magic. It staggered backwards, bellowing in pain, but before Oneesan could move, there were shouts from down the corridor and she had to duck behind the remains of the station as the security arrived and put several rounds in the creature.

They seemed to go through the monster, causing enraged cussing to erupt from the men, even as it turned its focus on them. Its prey was cornered after all, it had time for sport.

Oneesan shut the link between herself and her little sister as the monster charged down the corridor and struck at the men. Imoto-chan did not need to hear or see what was happening and she could not bring herself to inflict it on the lighter half of her soul.

She launched herself out of hiding and drew on the power of the item around her neck, feeling an odd disconnect as the dark and dangerous powers of the Puzzle tried to draw strength from a mind that was not entirely coherent. Without a single command the magic seemed to know what she wanted and the Dark Magician appeared at her side, real enough for the men to see him and realise who she was.

“Move!” Oneesan ordered as her most trusted monster built up for an attack.

The men were not foolish. Those who knew the game, knew that the Dark Magician packed a punch. While those who did not saw a man building up a ball of energy and did not want to see what would happen if they were hit by it. The moment they were out of the way the magician struck, its attack striking the beast directly.

The creature exploded into fragments, or rather an image of it did, leaving behind a man in a robe not unlike the ones she had dealt with earlier.

Before she could get any answers from the barely conscious mook, who was being taken into custody, a sharp, agonising pain struck as something stabbed her from behind and her whole world tumbled into darkness.

When she awoke again, it was after the weirdest dream she had ever had, one which involved time travellers, two other ‘Queens of Games’ and a man named Paradox. It was also to find both Jou and her grandfather were at her bedside, waiting for her to wake up.

“Yuge!” Jou looked relieved, barely restraining himself from hugging her, “Thank Kami.”

“What happened?” Oneesan asked, nudging Imoto-chan and wondering who had put the Puzzle back on them.

“According to security someone stabbed you while you were distracted by the huge monster.” Jou stated matter of factly. “One of the ‘ShadowSword’ lot.”

“That explains a lot.” The spirit of the Puzzle winced as she tried to sit up, the action pulling on her wounds. Sugoroku pushed her back onto the bed, a gentle but worried smile on his face as he ruffled her hair, obviously worried about her, but being careful not to aggravate her injuries.

“I do wish you had warned me you were getting mixed up with that lot.” The elderly man sighed, “I’ve run afoul of them before.”

“You have?” Oneesan and Jou both blinked at him, confusion obvious.

“Is there anyone you haven’t run up against?” Jou asked the man who treated him like a grandson.

“When you get to my age you find you’ve made a great deal of friends but even more enemies.” Sugoroku replied. “Now, both of you settle down and listen. I suppose I had better explain what I know...”

Light Amongst Shadows Part 27

‘Are you alright, Imoto-chan?’ Oneesan sent the moment she was certain the thief had left the corridor and, most likely, the premises.

“Yes, no,”The spirit of the Puzzle felt the mental equivalent of a shrug from her little sister, “I don’t understand her.”

‘No one does.’The Pharaoh replied with a small, rueful smile, ‘If we did life would be so much easier.’ Though she was still fuming over Bakura’s threat to her little sister, she could not deny that the thief was complicated. And she owed the woman a debt. If it had not been for the thief, Imoto-chan would still be shattered and either the city would have still been in darkness or she would be dead. Either were unfortunately viable options.

“Yen for your thoughts?” Yugi asked once she had calmed a bit, sending the mental equivalent of a smile and a hug over the link to her elder sister.

‘It’s nothing.’ Oneesan replied, feeling the exhaustion that had claimed Yugi earlier beginning to settle in again, trying to drag her off to sleep, ‘It’s not important, not at the moment.’

“If you need to talk, I’m here, okay?” Yugi offered as Oneesan let her slip into control and she started drifting off. “You don’t have to be alone with your troubles.”

‘Thank you.’Yugi could sense that Oneesan felt a little reassured at that as that helped her feel better as, unable to fight her body’s exhaustion any longer, she slipped into sleep.

When she awoke again, it was dark and she was all alone. The Puzzle was not with her and her friends had either not been allowed in or had been sent home. She was hooked up to a couple of drips, one of which she was pretty sure contained painkillers since she could not manage to bring her train of thoughts to any sort of sensible station. The other one was a deep red, which suggested it was a blood bag.

Confused as to what had happened while she had been ‘lost’ but unsurprised that she required both bags considering what she did remember, she looked around the room, trying to work out where her Puzzle was. The item was out of reach on the table across the room and while she knew she should stay in bed, something was telling her she would need it and soon.

She slipped out of the less than comfortable hospital bed, still confused as to why something was screaming at her to grab the Puzzle and keep it close, and wobbled carefully across the room. The moment she slipped the chain over her head Oneesan took control.

The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle glanced around warily. Having sensed Imoto-chan’s nervousness, she was not about to leave her little sister in control until she understood what had caused it.

It was not an easy thing to work out, not with the drugs pumping through their shared system and dulling their senses and reflexes. Before too long she realised what it was that had set her little sister off. The Shadows curling under the door frame were growing steadily as she heard something stalking the corridors.

“Do you think they sent something to finish the job?” Yugi asked her elder sister, worried as the Pharaoh moved the stands with the bags to a place that allowed her to hide behind the door.

It was not outside the realm of possibility. Between her and Bakura, everyone who had been at the main base of operations had been dealt with on a more or less permanent basis. However the rest of the mooks, and there had been quite a few, had still been at large when the injuries had finally overtaken them.

She was willing to silently wait it out and ambush it when it entered the room. Though she disliked the idea, she was fully aware that in her drugged and weakened state it was highly unlikely that she would survive a frontal assault and she did not want to get her Imoto-chan killed.

However when a nurse screamed and the creature, whatever it was, let out a monstrous bellow and charged towards something, Oneesan could not wait, she exited the room swiftly and threw a blast of Shadow magic at the huge minotaur like creature. It stumbled, causing it to fall and tumble into the nurse’s station.

“Wha...?” The nurse demanded.

“Run!” Oneesan snarled at her, warily watching the creature who was getting to his feet and watching her with a mixture of caution and hunting instinct. As much as she had hoped Imoto-chan was wrong, it was obvious she was the creature’s prey and she had just leapt into the open.

Light Amongst Shadows Part 26

Bakura watched from a distance as the ambulance men loaded the Pharaoh’s host into the back of their vehicle. She had been careful to erase any sign of the Pharaoh’s rampage after she had broken the seal. There should, if she had done her job correctly, be nothing to lead the authorities to the spirit of the Puzzle and her young host. There was nothing she could do about the fact that it looked like a magical ritual had taken place, but at least now it looked like whatever they had been trying to do had backfired and killed them all, freeing the city at the same time.

Working out which hospital the Pharaoh was going to from the look of the ambulance and the crests on the ambulance drivers’ uniforms, Bakura headed after it. She was not stupid enough to assume that all of the morons had all left town, willingly or not. It would be just her luck to go through all of this to ensure the Pharaoh’s name stayed clear, only for one of the mooks to get lucky, find her and finish her off.

Not that part of her did not want to do that herself. The Millennium Puzzle was only up for grabs if Yugi lost a Shadow Game with it as the prize or died. The only thing stopping Bakura’s Zorc merged self from ending the threat that was the Pharaoh, was the fact that she needed the Pharaoh’s name to unseal the Shadows and the demons within.

And the Pharaoh’s name only existed in the memories that were sealed away within the mind of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. She had tried sealing a part of herself into the Puzzle and carefully hunting for the hidden memories while the Pharaoh was distracted, but that had not worked. She had been searching for six months and still she had found nothing.

She needed the Pharaoh alive and the Puzzle whole. If she killed the Pharaoh’s little sister, neither of those would be possible until the girl reincarnated. It was one of the myriad of reasons she had healed the girl when she had rescued her from the mooks. She needed Yugi alive. Not only because of the Puzzle, the Pharaoh’s memories and the name she had sought after for over three thousand years. But because she owed Yugi a great debt, both in this life and Yugi’s past one, and she refused to go without repaying it.

The ambulance did not take very long to reach the hospital and it offloaded swiftly before shooting off to collect another patient. Bakura slipped in behind the Accident and Emergency team who took charge of Yugi next, following them swiftly and silently, making sure no one else was following.

Obviously Kaiba’s money and influence only went so far when the entire hospital was working under triage conditions, as the Pharaoh’s runt was left in the corridor between Accident and Emergency and the outside world. Insensate to the world around her, Yugi was oblivious as Bakura approached, still cloaked in Diabound’s power. The Puzzle however, flashed in response to Bakura’s presence, even if its wielder was unable to do anything about it.

The two sides of Bakura fought for control for a moment, before Bakura felt her rage multiply and the sane part of her mind was pushed aside by the hatred that had been festering for over three thousand years and the demon who had become a part of her soul.

The darkness radiating from the demon in Bakura’s body caused the girl to force herself to the surface, even if she really should be sleeping. Yugi looked at her blearily, confusion obvious as she tried to get her bearings.

“Ba...Bakura?” She asked weakly before letting out a surprised squeak that was cut off midway through.

“You dare die now,” The pissed off part of Bakura snarled, hands wrapped around Yugi’s throat tightly enough that the girl’s next breath came out as a painful sounding rasp, but no other sound passed her lips, “You dare die now, when I’m so close to breaking free, and I’ll destroy everything you hold dear.”

“Ba...” Yugi choked as Bakura’s grip tightened further, cutting off her airways completely, fear obvious as she tried to raise weakened limbs to defend herself from the thief only for black chains of Shadow magic to appear and bind them to the bed.

“Only I get to kill you. Got it? Not some mooks from some worthless splinter group.” The demon snarled at the girl, who nodded frantically, unable to do much else but humour the crazed thief before her and pray Bakura let her breathe some time soon. “Good.”

With that she released Yugi. The girl took in deep, heaving breaths, trying to make up for the air Bakura had denied her even as the bonds vanished and she tried to push herself away from the thief. She hit the railings on the side of the bed and stopped, still gasping for air.

Frightened amethyst purple eyes flashed ruby red and Oneesan glowered at the thief as she pushed herself sitting. “Get away from us.” Oneesan snarled, raising her hand, aiming to blast their sometimes ally down the corridor.

“I was just leaving anyway.” Bakura smirked at her, “I’m done here.” She started down the corridor, ignoring the daggers Oneesan was glaring at her back, then paused and looked back over her shoulder, “Oh, if you want to know who those losers were, try researching the ShadowSwords. They’re not as secret as they’d like to believe.” With that Bakura left, leaving Oneesan to lay back and settle her little sister’s mind.