Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Blue Ice ❯ Ablaze ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: Plain and simple. I do not own Yu Gi Oh.

A/N: I will not insult your intelligence by apologizing for how long it has taken me to complete this story. I wrote myself into a corner, and it took me awhile to figure out how to get out of it. I did, finally, and wrote this chapter right away. I was hoping this chapter would be the last, but considering this scene turned out to be ten pages long, I thought it best to put the lemon... ahem, near lemon with link to the full one, in the next chapter. I think it will be written more quickly than this one, seeing as how I have no corners to escape from. So, until then!

^_^

~ Ocean

Blue Ice

By Ocean

Chapter Four: Ablaze

Chaos.

Controlled chaos.

That was the only way to describe what was happening. Those who were still alive in the confines of the ice rink enclosure were those who were outside the rink itself at the moment the horror struck. The Shadows had not extended themselves beyond the boundaries of the ice, halting their advance and turning their anger inwards, back into the metaphorical enclosure created by the ice rink's walls. Yami had barely been able to salvage enough control to halt the Shadows' advance any further.

Yuugi flung himself into the enclosure, going unnoticed as the survivors of the Shadows' strike stared in awe at the cyclone that had appeared on the ice. Blue and violet danced their way along black currents of air, constantly in motion, continuously swirling and moving and rushing and howling with the fury of the heavens. The wind created by this movement attacked everyone in the enclosure, whipping hair and clothing violently around their occupants.

Yuugi collided with the side of the rink, having to use it as a brace to pull himself along to the opening that would allow him to go out onto the ice. His eyes were squinted against the abrasive wind, watering with the shear force of air and stinging from its bite. His hair snapped along his face with the vigor of a whip, stinging his skin as it tried to divert him from his task. But Yuugi wasn't about to be deterred by such trivialities as discomfort or effort.

One of the survivors, an elderly woman who had just undergone the horrible experience of watching her grandchildren die, was momentarily brought out of her shock as Yuugi accidentally bumped into her as he pulled himself along the rink's edge. Her eyes widened as she watched the young man make his way ever closer to the evil that had stolen her precious grandchildren, and her protective nature took hold as she reached out and grabbed Yuugi's shoulder with all her strength, pulling him away from the rink.

"Gracious, my child! Why are you trying to throw your life away by going near that thing?" she asked, desperately trying to convince Yuugi to preserve the invaluable gift that was his life.

Yuugi turned irritated eyes to her, at first seeing her as nothing more than another obstacle that was keeping him from Yami. The concern of the woman's voice, however, was able to break through the urgency in his mind, alerting him to the fact that not everyone knew Yami, or would want to protect him to the extent that he did. He put his hand on top of the old woman's, gently removing the wrinkled appendage from his shoulder.

"I understand your concern," he said gently, though there was a finality in his voice that frightened the woman. "But you don't understand. My life is in there. If I don't go, I'm as good as dead anyway."

"Foolish, foolish child," the woman said, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes as she clenched her hands to her breast and watched Yuugi reattach himself to the wall of the rink and continue to pull his away along.

The howls were increasing in intensity. Yuugi paused in his effort, furrowing his brows as he turned his head towards the ice and listened, trying to determine if the heart-wrenching screams were coming from Yami in his effort to regain control, or perhaps from one of the survivors finally coming to terms with what had happened, or-

Yuugi blinked his amazement as he lifted his head to the Shadows, astonishment draping his features as he focused all of his attention onto the turbulent mass of smoke. His mouth fell open as he realized that there was a pattern to the Shadows movements, a crazy sense to the seemingly random twists and turns and dips and swirls. They were searching, reaching, straining, almost panicky in their motion. Panicky. The Shadows were actually... panicking. They were scared.

And they were the ones making all the noise.

The Shadows continued their dance over the ice, obstructing the view of all the bodies contained within their chilly embrace. Yuugi searched desperately for any sign of Yami, for the first time cursing the pharaoh's love of black clothing as it made him blend in almost seemingly with the Shadows. The silver luster of a belt, the flickering glimpse of a golden lock of hair, the vibrant glow of his luminescent eyes, anything that would help Yuugi determine that Yami was still alive, still reachable...

Still capable of being saved.

Yuugi jumped in his skin when he felt a large body run past him, the man flailing his arms wildly as he ran to the opening that would let him onto the ice. He heard some woman shout, "Kane! No!" as the man continued to run, ignoring the warning from his wife, the wind battling his hair, and the sudden turn of the Shadows as they moved to meet him at the rink's entrance.

The man growled as he reached the opening in the wall, hatred and grief in his eyes as his cheeks were stained red with his tears. He rose his fist and shook it in the direction of the ice, presumably too consumed with his sorrow to notice or care about the approaching Shadows. Yuugi turned his eyes to follow the direction of the fist, trying to determine what it was the man had seen that had enraged him into action.

"That bastard killed our daughter!" the man roared as he pointed to Yami's faint outline. The man was even more angered by Yami's posture, seeing his bent over form and hands clamped in his hair, eyes clenched and mouth open in a painful grimace as signs of remorse rather than desperation. Remorse that was far too late in coming. Remorse that would not bring his daughter back to life, nothing could, and the man found he desperately needed someone to blame. The only survivor on the ice that his daughter had been skating on just moments before was the perfect target.

Yuugi's scream caught in his throat, unable to alert the man to the utter futility of his actions. He did not turn away when the Shadows met the man at the rink's opening, made no sound of disgust or horror as the Shadows plunged themselves into the man's eyes and mouth, no sigh of sadness as the man dropped at the edge of the ice, his vacant eyes shedding their final tears as his soul was banished into the confines of the Shadows.

Yet another life, another soul that would latch on to Yami's conscious and spend eternity torturing his soul and threatening his sanity. Another burden to be added to the ever growing load on Yami's shoulders, pushing and encroaching and doing everything in its power to destroy the one that supported its oppressive weight.

Yuugi couldn't help but consider these thoughts, couldn't help but realize that with that man's death, another grain of sand would try to tarnish the terrible and beautiful and vibrant spirit of the pharaoh. Of course, he felt sorrow for all who had perished, for those who witnessed the horror, and for those who would have to live on. But if he let his concern for these people consume him, he would be overwhelmed by feelings of guilt and remorse, lost within the darkest emotions of the human heart, and buried in a far off place that would not allow him to ever feel Yami's touch again.

Yuugi's resolve strengthened, and in this moment he found the courage to face the one force he had never had to directly encounter.

"Shadows!" he shouted, his anger and fear propelling his voice through the howls of the entity whose attention he desired. He straightened his posture after he spoke, narrowed his eyes and hardened his gaze as he prepared himself to face down the terrific force. He brought his hand to rest on the puzzle, curling his fingers around the cold, unforgiving surface, reminding himself that to get to Yami, he had to pass through the Shadows first... and survive.

Not a simple task by any measure.

Yuugi gritted his teeth as the Shadows' motion ceased a bit of its insanity, the hues of blue and violet slowing their ascent of the black smoke mountain that was ever climbing the make-shift walls of the ice rink. Though now mostly solitary in motion, they pulsated in near hypnotic waves, reminiscent of an ocean's curl as the wind blows over its surface in a harsh caress.

Yuugi took a firm step towards the rink, inching his way closer, bringing himself within the realm of the Shadows awareness. He peered through the darkness that hovered over the ice again, finding that he needed constant reassurance that Yami indeed was hidden within the swirling, colliding, angry mass. Catching a glimpse of a golden bang, Yuugi once again addressed the Shadows, urgency on the edge of his voice.

"Shadows!" he called again, a nervous and jittery energy pooling itself in his stomach. Yuugi felt a warmness at his hip, faintly realizing that the puzzle had a soft, golden haze that appeared to permeate from between the miniscule cracks the numerous pieces created.

The waves of color shifted at Yuugi's voice, ceasing their wave-like motion, halting as if to consider the vague pull of a long lost memory. They almost seemed... confused. Lost. Flustered. Frustrated. Uneasy. Lacking of all the confidence, the intimidation, the authority and the grace one would expect to find when encountering the awesome force.

"... calls us?"

The sound was no more than a whisper in Yuugi's mind. The whisper of a thousand and one voices, raspy with age and disuse, raw with intensity and barely contained power. Yuugi had to force himself to stand strong against the intrusion in his mind, his natural instinct wanting to reel back and erect a steel wall around the intimacy that was being invaded. But he knew that he needed to speak to the Shadows, and that the only way to do that was to leave himself completely vulnerable to them, to allow them to communicate with him in the same, obtrusive manner in which they communicated with Yami.

"Me," Yuugi answered, his voice softer now that he had the Shadows attention, though no less forceful.

The blue shading that decorated the Shadows drew itself away from its violet brother, pulling itself into the semblance of a sphere. "Not... Pharaoh who... Who calls?" the Shadows repeated, their confusion more obvious to Yuugi now then it had been before.

"No, I'm not Pharaoh," Yuugi clarified as he took another step towards the body that now blocked the entrance onto the ice. He paused a moment as the Shadows flared, the violet and blue streaks flashing in an utter brilliance matched only by the fury of the sun. His fingers curled more tightly around the puzzle, unconsciously removing the golden artifact from his belt and holding it in front of his chest. "I'm Yuugi." A pause as the Shadows did not respond. "I solved the Sennen Puzzle."

This statement attracted the Shadows attention, giving Yuugi a distinction he had not held before, making him less than Pharaoh, but more than the average mortal. The Shadows, now finding someone they could communicate with, instantly turned their questions and queries to the mind that was completely open to them.

"Where is he?" they hissed. "Won't... respond he won't... dark... lost within... Nowhere to be found..." In an urgent attempt to get their point across, all color contained within the Shadows joined into one swirling, pulsating mass in front of Yuugi. "Sudden passing, instant loss, confusing unsound not solid no base no reason where is he?!"

Yuugi clenched his eyes and ground his teeth as the Shadows poured their anger and confusion and uncertainty and fear and worry into his mind all at once, not knowing how to separate their emotions, never having to do so in the past. They did not understand that Yuugi did not have Yami's capability to sort through the many voices that spoke at once, almost destroying the one being that could aid them in their desperate time of need.

Gripping the wall of the ice rink with such intensity as to turn his knuckles white, Yuugi heaved in a shuddering breath as he tried to recover from the Shadows' assault. Slowly, ever so slowly, his mind was able to sort through the jumbled voices and hear the message the Shadows were trying to send. They couldn't reach Yami either, their efforts just as much in vain as his own were. Yami's mind was lost, hidden, captured, restrained within the solitary void of whatever had influenced his breakdown. Yuugi chewed his bottom lip in nervousness as he began to understand how the Shadows had broken free.

"What happened?" Yuugi asked, attempting to focus the Shadows thoughts, solidify their voice so they could help him determine how to find Yami. The Shadows either did not understand or were unwilling to forgo their rage for they did not answer, only repeated their urgent question, demanding to know where the Pharaoh was hidden.

Yuugi took another step towards the rink, finally reaching the partition in the wall that would allow him onto the ice, that would allow him to reach for his aibou and pull him from the turbulent darkness. The hues of the Shadows rushed to meet Yuugi, their confusion and uncertainty fueling their erratic actions, not allowing them to reason that Yuugi, being the Chosen One, could aid them in their search. That he would aid them, was as lost and distraught as they were with Yami's sudden disappearance. They hovered on the brink of realization, reaching, searching, clawing, never quite grasping.

"I can see him," Yuugi told the Shadows as he peered through the black fog on the ice. "Can you not see him? Can you not sense he's on the ice, that you are the ones who are entrapping him in this abysmal prison?"

The Shadows hesitated, their color pulsing brightly as they listened to the Chosen One, as they tried to clear the confusion that was their thoughts and work with him. The black smoke shifted, parting as a crowd will for a formal precession, various streams of clarity revealing snippets of horrifying images on the ice. Bodies covered the once bluish haze of the solid surface, tainting its purity with the stench of death and the adhesive kiss of blood.

Keeping his mind focused, Yuugi pointedly ignored the bodies being revealed to him on the ice, knowing that he would have to be the one to alert the Shadows to Yami's presence.

"There!" Yuugi shouted, pointing to the only sign of life on the ice. The Shadows immediately halted, freezing themselves in place, consolidating their actions as they revealed to Yuugi the heaving form of Yami. Yuugi's heart lurched at the sight, the pain Yami was enduring obvious to him, the gleam of his skin as sweat glittered his skin illuminating him in an other worldly sheen.

Without thinking, without caring, Yuugi ran onto the ice, ignoring the body the Shadows pulled from his path, ignoring the fact that his feet did not slip on the sleek surface of frozen water, not noticing that the Shadows had carelessly flung the ring of bodies that surrounded Yami to the opposite side of the rink without care or regard as to the disrespectfulness of their actions.

Yuugi had to force himself not to leap into Yami's arms and squeeze the breath out of him, to pin him down and nuzzle his cheek and vow to never, ever let him go, or leave his side, or ever part from him in any manner ever again. He grit his teeth as he watched Yami struggle against whatever demon it was that was attacking him, cursed in his native tongue at whatever enemy had chosen to try and exact its vengeance. His eyes roved over Yami's form quickly, trying to identify anything that might be out of place, anything that might give him a clue on how to bring his love back from the brink of destruction.

Feeling a sudden chill, Yuugi hesitantly turned his attention away from Yami and to the Shadows, his eyes widening as, hidden within a coil of blue and violet smoke, the object the Shadows were holding was dropped carefully into his hand. Yuugi blinked slowly as he examined the item, noting that the liquid contained in the syringe had been completely dispelled, the injector having been plunged fully within the cylinder of the syringe.

"You recognize this?" Yuugi asked the Shadows, holding the syringe in front of him as though he were showing it to a child. "You've seen this before?"

"Hurt," the Shadows growled, the depth of their blackness falling even further from the light. They howled in rage, entwining themselves around the bodies of the two who had injured the Pharaoh, lifting them high off the ice, and shredding them in their anger.

Yuugi closed his eyes at the image, understanding that the Shadows had destroyed the bodies of those who had injected the drug into Yami. He felt his stomach churn as the sound of something solid hitting the ice reached his ears, the final cry of those who were wronged being silenced in the thick and suffocating embrace of the Shadows. Clenching his hand around the syringe, Yuugi opened his now blazing, hardened eyes.

"We can't wait," he whispered to himself as he watched Yami stumble to his knees, twin tears caressing his cheeks as he released a cry that almost rang of defeat, so close to sounding like a surrender that tears began to form in Yuugi's eyes. Yami was hurting so much, his body shaking with such force that Yuugi feared he would tear himself apart. "If we wait, I'll loose him. No. No, I won't loose him. I won't!

"Shadows! You must listen to me! You must purge the drug from his system! Please, you have to!" Yuugi begged the Shadows, his own body shivering with the force of his fear and urgency.

The Shadows considered his plea, focusing their random thoughts on Yuugi, using him as their anchor against the chaos in their mind. "... How do we do this?" they asked quietly, waiting, anxiously waiting for instructions. In their moment of freedom they had discovered their need for the Pharaoh's control, their dependency on him to keep their thoughts in order, to keep them whole and sane and in control of their actions.

They were beginning to understand that Pharaoh did not control them because he wanted to, but because he had to in order to keep them alive. At the rate with which they were consuming their energy, the rate of the unraveling of their sanity, they would loose all sense of their consciousness, cease to be sentient, and would once again be at the mercy of any who sought to control them.

Yuugi tossed the syringe back into the swirling mass of color that was the Shadows. "You must remove this substance from his bloodstream. From every cell in his body. All of it. There is no other way."

The Shadows coiled around the syringe, a blue arm of smoke extending its way into the cylinder, detecting small traces of the drug that clung to the syringe, invisible as a fingerprint on glass. Instantly they new its smell, its feel, its flavor and texture, instantly knew the chemical that threatened their very existence. But there was a problem.

"How should it be?"

Without hesitation Yuugi knelt to the ice, beside one of the unfortunate souls that had been caught in the Shadows rage, and drew his hand along the blade of a skate, slicing deep into the soft flesh of his palm. He did not flinch as the cold blade of steel bit into his hand hungrily, parting his skin and drawing forth the life blood that was welled beneath.

Yuugi stood, raising his hand in front of him, staring at the crimson liquid that so reminded him of his Yami's exquisite, pulsating, living eyes as it began to paint his hand in a long, single stroke of an artist's brush. He turned back to the colorful sphere that he had designated as the Shadows and raised his palm, the cut facing forward for all to bear witness to.

"Like this."

The Shadows, in turn, did not hesitate as they reached for Yuugi's hand, reached for the cut and plunged themselves into the blood that was slowly leaking from the abrasion. Yuugi did wince at this, pain shooting from his hand and up his arm as the Shadows memorized everything that made Yuugi a distinct and unique individual. By this one act, Yuugi had handed the Shadows all the knowledge they would ever need about the human race, everything that made a mortal mortal, every method that could be used to destroy them.

But he didn't care. With this knowledge, the Shadows would be able to save Yami. That was the only thought that went through his mind as the Shadows pulled themselves from his hand and began to circle the defeated form of the pharaoh. The blackness tore itself from the edges of the ice, molding itself around the blue and violet hues that comprised its consciousness, gathering the energy needed for the task ahead.

"Hold him."

Yuugi hesitated a moment, only for the reason that if the Shadows wanted him to restrain Yami, then what they were about to do was going to be excruciatingly painful. Clenching his hands momentarily, Yuugi strode forward to Yami's back, leaning down and putting his full weight on Yami, encircling his shoulders with his arms and resting his head against the back of his neck.

"I'm ready," he whispered.

No sooner had he uttered the words the Shadows plunged themselves down Yami's throat, all evidence of their existence disappearing completely as they slammed Yami's body back into Yuugi, nearly knocking them both onto the ice. Yami released a feral scream as he thrashed against Yuugi's protective embrace, unable to free his arms from the constricting hold as Yuugi fought to keep him contained. Yami's 'fight-or-flight' instinct was just as affected by the drug as his mind had been, misfiring as he felt both an insane urge to lash out and a near maddening desire to flee, to run, to hide, to curl himself into a shadowed corner and conceal his image from any who might seek it.

Yuugi squeezed Yami for all his worth, surprising himself that he was able to somewhat contain Yami's struggles, the Pharaoh having always been remarkably strong and agile, as though he were a puma in human form. He cursed to himself at one point when Yami threw his weight backwards, knocking Yuugi off balance, consequently forcing him to loosen his grip, and then lurched forward in a buy for freedom. Yuugi was able to recover and fling himself at Yami's legs, pulling them from beneath him with the aid of the skates on his feet and climbing onto his back, straddling Yami's waist and gripping his wrists painfully tight and pinning him fully on the ice. Yuugi buried his face in Yami's hair, loosing his battle with his emotions as he choked on a sob and prayed to every deity he knew of for Yami's torment to end as soon as possible.

Yami continued to struggle, to curse, to shake and shiver and thrash, his face pressed into the hard and biting surface of the ice as the Shadows permeated the very core of his being, seeking out the elusive drug that sought to hide as it anonymously influenced Yami's actions. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity to Yuugi, Yami's motions began to still, the frantic nature of his struggles subduing into a more quiet writhing, that of one who is uncomfortable and doesn't know what to do with themselves to relieve their discomfort.

Yuugi loosened his grip on Yami's wrists, rubbing his thumb lightly over what would surely be bruised skin in the morning, trying to offer what little comfort and reassurance he could. He moved his lips to Yami's ear, soothing the continuous litany of strained moans and confused whimpers with soft words and even softer breathes against his ear. Yami continued to slowly toss his head from side to side, trying to turn away from the pain and confusion, trying to turn towards the smooth and even road of sanity that was slowly being paved for him.

Suddenly Yami's body arched off the ice until he was on all fours, Yuugi barely being able to balance himself on his back. Yami started coughing violently, eventually vomiting from the shear force of the action. The drug that had been in Yami's body was dispelled in this manner, and Yami fell forward onto his forearms, barely able to support both his weight and Yuugi's. Yuugi put a hand to Yami's forehead and thread his fingers back through his hair, slick and matted with sweat. Yami's frame shuddered occasionally and his breath came in ragged gasps, the only signs that Yami was alive as he made no motion to acknowledge Yuugi.

The Shadows forced Yami to raise his head one last time, his eyes glowing with his inherent power, the puzzle around Yuugi's waist gleaming as it aided the Shadows in their final act of the day.

"Smx," Yami said, his voice laced with that of the Shadows, low, strained, all encompassing.

The puzzle's light intensified into a blinding flash that lasted but a moment, as though it had taken a snapshot of the horror and destruction the Shadows had caused, so it could remember exactly why they needed to be kept in their prison.

Yuugi, however, was not allowed to forget. He was unaffected by the Shadows spell, his memory remaining untouched by the puzzle as his attention was focused on his Yami, his body hunching forward as he fell unconscious. Yuugi caught him before he fell, and cradled the limp body to his chest, holding him close, balancing Yami's head on his lap as he brushed his fingers across his eyes and cheeks and silksoft lips that were lax and parted. His hands continued their caress along Yami's long and slender arms, sliding beneath the skintight shirt to tickle the skin of Yami's chest and stomach, to coax it into remembering his touch, to not forget what it was that Yami needed to return to.

He ignored the screams as those who had initially survived the Shadows' outburst were once again violated, waking from the spell that removed all memory of Yami and Yuugi and the Shadows' presence, removed from them the memory of their loved one's death, leaving them to experience the pain for the first time all over again.

Yuugi rocked Yami gently, not hearing the frantic calls or the pounding footsteps as people rushed onto the ice to hold their love's broken and empty body in a similar fashion that he held Yami. He was dismissed as nothing more then another distraught victim of the horrible, terrible, unexplainable event that had taken place.

His Yami was okay.

The Shadows had saved him.

Yami was okay.

Absolutely nothing else mattered.

Yami was okay.

And now, so was Yuugi.

Smx - Forget