Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ All Saints Night ❯ Web of Time ( Chapter 5 )

Unmei: *Massive sweatdropping*

Chiot: Hmm... Read this chapter carefully, foreshadowing abounds...

Ka: WSJ doesn't own YGO, just the Elementals. Time's apprentice belongs to Ebony Kuroneko-san.

Unmei: That probably just gave away his identity right there...

Ka: *Shrugs* I'm just reading the disclaimer as it says. It also says that one of the two nameless characters Yugi sees in the Web of Time belongs to High Crystal Guardian. Speaking of, where is my aibou?

Unmei: I think he's in counciling.

Ka: What?!

Unmei: He's tired of being known only as 'the tall Yugi'.

Ka: -_- Oy...

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All Saints' Night

Chapter 5 - Web of Time

"M'kay, let's go," Yugi said, taking a deep breath. He had no idea what was going to happen next, but hey! Enough less-then-normal things had happened to him in his life that he'd learned to cope with it.

Time gave him a smile and turned toward the brick wall at the end of the alley. "Right, now to get us to the Web of Time..." He concentrated, and the wall wavered before disappearing completely. In its place stood a tall door, gilded in brass and gold. Time stepped up to it and pressed a palm flat against it, causing it to swing smoothly inward. He stepped forward, and after one last backward glance at Yami, Yugi followed.

It had crossed Yugi's mind several times that maybe this was a trick, from someone in the Shadow Realm, but if it carried even a slim chance of helping his yami and friends, even Bakura, then he had to do it. Besides, it didn't feel like a trick. Time wasn't, couldn't be, human, but neither was he a demon or something from the Shadow Realm. He was something else, something Yugi had no name for...

Time and Yugi emerged from the door into a huge room, the walls and ceiling of which stretched upward and outward as far and farther then the eye could see. In the center of the room hung what looked like an enormous skein of thread, pulsating gently with a soft purple light. It hung from millions of strings, which shot away from it in every direction, anchoring to the walls, floor, and, presumably, the ceiling as well.

Yugi's eyes widened. "What is this?"

"This is the Web of Time," a soft male voice answered. Yugi turned to see a boy only a year or so older than his own sixteen. His skin was tanned as deep as Malik's, but his eyes were bright, pure blue and his hair was as stark white as Ryou's. Funny, he looked slightly familiar....

"Who are you?" Yugi asked, startled to notice that the door he and Time had come through was no longer there.

Time stepped over to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, face serious. "This is my apprentice, he is here simply to observe."

Yugi nodded uncertainly. "Um, okay... What am I supposed to do?"

The boy and Time exchanged a look. "Untangle it," Time said simply, gesturing at the ball of tangled threads.

Yugi's eyes widened. "You mean it's not supposed to be like that?"

Time shook his head slowly. "No. A woman by the name of Briar-Rose somehow found her way in and tangled it up. The threads are supposed to run in straight lines, connecting thousands of pasts to millions of futures. At times they may merge with or cross over another thread, but they should not be in a huge mess like this!"

"Everything's going wrong," the apprentice said quietly. "Even your own time and place are beginning to blur, and mine. Things are beginning to creep in at the edges. Time itself is mixing. Your Puzzle holds the power to unlock it all, and put things back rightly."

"It does?"

But the two of them said no more, and when Yugi turned back to look at them, both Time and the boy had disappeared, leaving him with a huge ball of tangled times. He stared at it, his mouth slightly ajar. It would take ages! How much time did he have?

"As much as needed, little Yugi," Time's voice rang through the void, though he was no where in sight. "No time at all passes here."

Yugi took another deep breath, and then set himself and stepped up to the ball, unsure of how to begin. Uncertainly he reached out to grasp a thread-

-Hearing cut off, walking down an endless silent row of shelves, filled with millions upon trillions of books, a heavy staff in his hand-

-Yugi gasped and immediately let go. Was this how it was going to be every time he tried to grab one of those threads?

"Yes," came Time's voice. "Each thread represents a destiny. A destiny that you must help set itself back onto the right track. You will not need to touch many, just ones that need extra help. Look, they respond to the presence of your Puzzle and already begin to weave their way back where they are supposed to be."

"But what has my Puzzle got to do with anything?" Yugi yelled into the void.

"It was forged in the powers of Lord Time himself," the boy this time. "Or did you ever stop and ask the Pharaoh just how it was he made the Items? Each has, in addition to Shadow Powers, the powers of the element under which the Priests of Fates Realm forged them. Fate, Time, Death, Passion, War, Hatred, and Desire. Each is a cataclysmic force in its own right, and stopping them would be like stopping the sun."

Yugi gasped. "Which is which? You just said that the Puzzle is Time-"

"Desire for the Millennium Eye, for above all its holder desires love. Fate for the Millennium Ring, for the poor innocent was fated to have it." Time again, and Yugi realized he was talking about Ryou and the other Holders. "Passion for the Millennium Ankh, for its Holder is passionate about what he must protect. Death for the Millennium Tauk, for it can see into the future, past death's hold. War for the Millennium Scales, for they were created to delay one. Hatred for the Millennium Rod, because its Holder shows no love. And Time for the Millennium Puzzle, because the Pharaoh stands immortal."

With that Time's voice faded away, and Yugi was again left alone. He swallowed hard, and looked up at the ball of lives. It suddenly seemed smaller, and even as he watched, another thread peeled itself away from the rest and retook its previous course across the room. Yugi squared his shoulders and stepped forward to grasp another thread, now somewhat more confident that he could do it. He reached for the first thread he saw and-

-A beating with no mercy, in the middle of the night. The feeling of being completely alone, with no one to care if he lived or died. A fleeting thought of suicide. Darkness, and cold-

-With a gasp Yugi realized that the thread he held was that of Ryou's destiny, and was tempted for a moment to keep ahold of it, to look forward to Ryou's adulthood, to see what would be. Already images of his friend's future were coming-

-Dark, but not the dark of blindness, instead the black of the Shadow Realm. A scream, and the sound of cursing. A feeling of fear, then of courage. The sound of a single gunshot-

-Yugi jerked back from the thin thread, his heart pounding. "What was it?" he whispered to no one in particular. "What was it trying to tell me? Or was it trying to warn me?"

"The future cannot be more then hinted at, little Yugi," Time's voice drifted to him. "You must take what you have and remember it. Heed it. It was a warning."

Yugi waited, but Time said no more. With a sigh Yugi got back to work.

-Diving behind a parked car already riddled with bullet holes, pausing to take just a quick rest, just a short one, the grip of the gun biting into a palm from being held so tightly-

-Yugi wiped his forehead on his sleeve and looked up to see that the thread he had just placed was the last. He stared in amazement. It was done. The web was as it was supposed to be.

"Well done, little Yugi,"

Yugi whirled to see Time and his apprentice standing behind him, their proud grins making it all worth it. "How long did it take?" he asked with a sudden pang of worry.

The apprentice grinned. "No fear Yugi, no time passes here, remember? But for the record, if there were seconds and minutes, it would have taken you a little over three days."

Yugi stared at him in shock. Three days?! "Really?"

Time nodded, allowing a rare smile onto his face. "Yes really. Now that time is as it should be, Kuroi is no longer still alive, and the spells he placed on your two friends will be wearing off. So I suggest that you get back there."

"Yami's all right?"

Time nodded as he led him back toward the big doors. "Yes, he is fine. You've been gone for less then a second, so be prepared!"

And with that they were gone.

Yugi stood in the alley, right where he'd been when Time had sliced time. Yami was in front of him, looking around in puzzlement. "Where's Kuroi? He was here only a moment ago..."

"Less then a second, I'd say," Yugi remarked, a wave of relief washing over him. "I-I guess things went back to the way they're supposed to be."

Yami gave him a long look, and opened his mouth to say something, when Bakura groaned. Yugi sighed in relief, and Yami shot him a look. "You can tell me later." the Pharaoh said before striding over to drop to one knee beside the tomb robber. "Bakura?"

Bakura groaned again, and his eyes fluttered open. "What happened Pharaoh?" he growled, sitting up on the hard ground and swiping a hand across his eyes.

Yami gave Yugi another half-amused look before answering his old nemesis. "I do not know, I-" He was interrupted as Ryou shifted slightly and moaned.

Ryou suddenly jerked completely awake, as well as upright, his dull eyes skittering about wildly. He let out a muffled cry, and Yami put a gentle hand over his mouth to quiet him. "You're safe Ryou," he assured the hikari. "Don't worry, you're back in our time, where you belong."

Ryou jerked away from him, causing Yugi to blink in surprise. "Ryou?"

"Y-You betrayed me!" Ryou accused, pointing an unsteady finger in the general direction of the Motos.

"Betrayed you? I just saved your life!" Yugi said incredulously, confirming Yami's suspicions that he had, indeed, done something.

"You left me!" Ryou yelled, tears in his eyes. A white aura began to form around him, lifting him off the ground as he flung his arms wide. "You left me alone with that monster! How could you do that, how could you watch me moan and wince the next morning, and pretend you didn't know? How could you do that and still dare to call yourself my friend?!"

Half-terrified and half-amazed, Yami grabbed Yugi and shielded his hikari behind him, backing up until Yugi felt the hard stone of the wall press into his shoulder blades. No longer was there a gold door there, just an impenetrable wall.

Ryou was levitating about two feet off the ground, and dimly Yugi was aware of Bakura calling to his aibou. "Ryou, stop!" There was a sickening crack, and Yugi tore his eyes away from his enraged friend to watch in horror as Bakura collided with the wall and fell, barely conscious.

"How could you!?!"

After a brilliant flash of white, all was dark.

()()()()()

WSJ: *Glares at three or four characters from other fics who refuse to leave her alone*

Unmei: ^^; Better them than me....

Chiot: Reviews, minna, they make SJ happy.

Chapter 6: Just what was it that Ryou did?! Can Bakura, who's pretty badly hurt, talk some sense into his hikari before he does something truly horrible?

God bless minna-san!