Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen Angel, Risen Demon ❯ Bakura's Revelations ( Chapter 4 )

Priestess: I'm sorry about how short and sucky the last chapter was, but it was too suspenseful a cliffie to resist. Anyway, I updated two chapters in one day! I'm so good to you ungrateful, unreviewing (mostly) slimebags...

(Notices two reviewers for each site) O.o I take that back! I take that back!

Trivia_game (I love your stories!), Rayemars (I always preferred Bakura too...), Rowan Girl (I'm sorry to say this means Rulers of the Heavens is postponed until further notice), Michew (10 out of 10? You're too kind!), Pikpik246 (Not much to say here...), andromeda90 (you're very giggly today, aren't you?), and any reviewers I could have missed due to having the story on three different sites: you are not ungrateful slimebgs!

The rest of you are.

Warnings: Suicide (As you've already noticed), insanity (well, duh, there was a chapter named for it!), bashing (you'll see...Isis goes warrior! No, she isn't the bashed one), possible lemon later on

Any other info: I'm going to have some italicized stuff at the beginning of each chapter. Basically a flashback from some time or another. Just to shed some light on stuff, such as Atemu's insanity and Bakura's death.

***

Atemu was in a sort of daze as he entered the Turtle Game Shop. Tears streamed freely from his garnet eyes, and the mixture of dirt and dried blood was still on his hand with bits of gold still encrusted in it. He didn't remember the walk back, or what had happened to Ryou. He didn't hear whatever it was that Sugaroku (Grandpa Mutou) said. All he could think of was the pieces of the shattered Millennium Ring lying in pools of rain and blood.

As soon as he entered the bedroom, he separated-still in his stupor-from Yugi. Somehow they were both physical. He had seen Shadi switch between spirit and physical form, but never quite figured out how he did it.

"Atemu? What happened?" cried Yugi.

"Bakura," Atemu replied dully. "He committed suicide."

"Oh..." said Yugi, not fully understanding.

Suddenly very tired, Atemu sunk dejectedly into the chair by the window and gazed outside.

Slowly, the clouds started shifting. An image formed against the sky. A smirking, leering image of a white-haired man with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans.

"Bakura..." Atemu murmured, but his lips refused to form the words. He didn't even notice this. He tried to reach for the image, but his fingers wouldn't lift. So he watched the image, and didn't move even when Yugi called his name.

In fact, he didn't move for six months.

***

Atemu stared, stunned, at the face which had haunted his dreams for so long. Glancing around, he realized with a start that he was in a sunny meadow.

At last, he shut his eyes. Shaking his head, he whispered mournfully, "Another hallucination...just another hallucination...oh, why won't you just go away?!"

Bakura gripped him by the wrist and jerked him around so they were facing each other again and said sharply, "Atemu! I'm not a hallucination."

Atemu felt his breathing quicken, acutely aware of the pressure on his wrists and the fact that this was the first time Bakura had called him by his name. "But-you-the Ring-I saw. Weren't you...Aren't you..."

"Dead?" Bakura interrupted. Atemu nodded, and was surprised to see Bakura smiling blissfully. Not a smirk, not a fraud, but a true smile. "Yes, I'm dead. With my family at last."

Atemu whispered, "Your...family?"

Bakura nodded, still smiling. "They accepted me, Atemu. The entire village...when I died, their souls were set free as well. It isn't paradise as it appears in legend, but it is our paradise. The village was recreated, all ninety-nine people free to visit any time or place they like. All my failures, all my misgivings, they forgave them all! They love me, Atemu. After all this time, I had forgotten what that feels like. You can't possibly know how wonderful it is.

I saw my mom. She's still so beautiful and kind. My father never cared about me, but now he does. The villagers see me as a god and a hero. My parents are so proud of me, you should hear my father! It's our own paradise, Atemu, it really is. There is no hatred or anguish or disease or poverty. All the children idolize me, Atemu. The adults call me the true child of Kuru Eruna. One man who pushed me aside in a line once actually fell on his knees and begged for my forgiveness. The adults call me King of Thieves, but the kids and my mothers call me Bakura because I asked them to.

The things I consider failures and betrayal, they do not. They can find some wonderful quality in everything. I even saw Teannyia, if only for a few moments."

Atemu was surprised. "Teannyia? Was she...your sister?"

Bakura shook his head. "No. But I did have three sisters-Sheba, Neferi, and Haru-and two brothers named Touzu and Raul. Teannyia was...well, we never married..."

Atemu was filled with inexplicable disappointment. "Your girlfriend?"

Bakura's eyes were wistful. "She was a foreign princess attacked by bandits. I rescued her because the bandits had something I wanted, but I nearly died killing them. She nursed me back to health. It wasn't dating, just an affair. Actually, if it weren't for her, Ryou wouldn't have been born. He's my descendent as well as my reincarnation, you know."

"Umm..." was Atemu's brilliant reply. But Bakura didn't seem to hear.

"She said my child had grown safely and had many children-which I knew already, of course. She said that-that it was alright that I loved another. That she didn't resent me, and that it was perfectly understandable. She said the fact that I remained loyal to her memory for millenniums...that it wasn't until weeks after I died that I realized...she said that was more than she could ever ask for."

Atemu nodded sharply, turning away again, not understanding why his throat was tightening and despair was filling his heart.

"Well...I'm glad to hear that death suits you...even the worst enemies deserve peace in the end."

He hadn't gone half a step when he was spun back to face Bakura.

"Yes, I suppose they do. And do you know what else even enemies deserve? For the listener to hear five out of six words instead of three."

"Huh?"

Bakura sighed and shook his head. "Did you hear a word I was just saying?"

"Of course I did!"

"Not every word. Or did you not hear me mention that I was in love with someone else. Or maybe what I meant by 'betrayal'? Did you even consider that? Or did you just hear half of it?"

"Well, what could it possibly have to do with me?" Atemu challenged, trying to push away a thought rising to the surface. It couldn't be...could it?

Bakura rolled his eyes and muttered something about how did such a brainless imbecile manage to rule all Egypt.

"Hey!"

Ignoring him, Bakura stared Atemu in the eyes and said, "Maybe doing will work better than saying."

Before Atemu could react, much less resist, Bakura had pulled him forward and pressed their mouths firmly together.

***

Kisara gulped the cup of water gratefully. Having come from the dessert, she put high value on water. Thus far, Priest Seth-um...Seto-and his little brother Mokuba had been so kind as to give her any water.

She sat gracefully, her slim legs crossed, her light hair flowing over her short white dress, her tilted-up chin as she sipped the water exposing a long lithe neck.

Kaiba watched as she drank the water, just thinking. True, he had to beat Atemu, but at the moment Kisara was more important. Besides, he doubted a bath and a walk would be enough to pull Atemu from the abyss his mind had sunk into.

But it was a start.

***

Atemu held perfectly still as Bakura kissed him, vaguely realizing he had wrapped his arms around him and vise versa. He felt dazed, stunned, and didn't fight as he once would have. His mouth was already open, and he didn't resist as he felt the wet muscle slip between his parted lips.

Even as he relished the unique sandalwood oil taste of every crevice of Atemu's mouth, Bakura was puzzled, somewhere in his mind, by Atemu's willingness. The Atemu he knew would have been infuriated, not to mention disgusted. But it was Atemu, he would have known if it wasn't. He was dead, after all, and wouldn't be tricked by a replica. Well, he wouldn't have stopped now anyway.

Neither was sure how long they stayed there, their arms twined around each other, kissing so hard most people would have died of air loss by now. Neither required air, since Bakura was dead and Atemu was a spirit. It could have been a twinkling or a year, but a tingling running through him made him pull away-albeit begrudgingly-with a scowl.

Atemu moaned his protest, flushed and sweating slightly. "Why," he demanded forcefully, "did you stop?"

"I...have to leave..."

"What? No!" Atemu cried, and saw to his dismay that Bakura's outline was lightening. The meadow was ebbing as well. "You can't," he begged, even as Bakura slipped through his grasp and stepped away. "I've waited six months, you can't just leave..."

"I have to, Atemu," replied Bakura softly as he and the meadow continued to fade. "Besides," he added with just a touch of his old smirk. "If you ever need me, all you have to do is beg."

He gave Atemu a final kiss between the eyebrows, light as a sigh because of his vanishing form, before he disappeared entirely.

"'All you have to do is beg'...I swear, if he wasn't dead, I would kill him," he muttered indignantly, for a moment sounding remarkably like his old self.

Then the moment faded, and he sighed as he gazed around at the buildings.

Then, suddenly, he started laughing.

His deep warm laugh sounded husky and guttural. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed. But despite this, he laughed all the same. Like with the tight smile, it transformed his face. His lips felt stretched, his throat dry, but his mirth remained true.

Bakura loved him! And he had seemed so happy! Atemu could have sung! Actually, he did.

***

Yugi cautiously opened the door just a crack. "Are you sure about this?" he inquired for the millionth time, gazing imploringly at his friends.

"Yugi, Atemu is our friend just like you are," snapped Anzu.

"Yeah, now open the door or I will," agreed Katsuya.

Before either of them could, though, the door swung open.

"Yugi!" cried Sugaroku Mutou. "You aren't going to believe this! It's Atemu!"

"What happened to him?" cried Yugi, panicked. "Did he hurt himself? Is he dead?"

"No, no, quite the contrary," replied Grandpa Mutou, beaming. "He's...I can hardly believe it...well, just come see for yourself. And your friends are here too! Terrific! Well, come on in!"

"I didn't believe it myself," he confided in a hushed voice as he urged them forward into the room. "But...you'd think nothing happened to him at all! Is that good?"

"Well..." replied Yugi cautiously. While he was no longer truly innocent, he didn't have much knowledge about insanity, despite first-hand experience. The last six months had been harder for him than anyone else-except perhaps Atemu himself.

So naturally he was surprised when Atemu was sweeping, looking almost normal, singing to himself in Egyptian and smiling widely.

"Atemu!" he cried.

Atemu glanced up, and for a moment he didn't seem to recognize him. This lasted for about a moment, and he smiled cordially. "Aibou." He paused at then smiled at and named Anzu, Katsuya, and Honda. "Long time, no see," he said calmly, as if discussing the weather. "How have you been? Any of you up for a quick duel?"

Yugi couldn't resist. Half-laughing, half-crying, he sprinted forward and embraced Atemu; finally freeing six months' worth of tears.

***

Kaiba glanced up impatiently as the doorbell rung. A thought crossed his mind-if it had rung, he wouldn't have heard it.

Shaking his head, he bent back over his work. He had more important things to worry about.

Kaibaka! Open the door-now!

Kaiba gasped-not just because he had heard a voice in his head, but because he knew that voice.

That deep, gruff voice belonging to a...well, if you could call him a man...who he knew for a fact was dead.

Now he could hear fists banging at the front door. This was impossible! Unless...

His doors swung open, and a familiar accented male voice snapped, "Never heard of a doorbell? We know you heard it, we did the spell."

Kaiba gasped in disbelief: he couldn't be seeing what he was seeing.

The man who had snapped he knew fairly well, a tall tanned man: skinny but powerful, with silky blonde hair and extraordinary light purple eyes and the smell of spices; wearing a white hooded tank top, skintight black pants, combat boots, and much too much gold to look cool-but he looked cool anyway. Malik Ishtar.

The woman next to him he knew as well: slim and regal and graceful, with calm sapphire eyes and flawless tan skin and long strait hair, wearing a simple but elegant gown of white silk and less jewelry than her brother. Isis Ishtar.

But it was the man next to her who made his heart feel like he would die at any moment. He was dressed much like Malik, though he had a black unhooded tank and a long cape, and he looked quite like Malik though he was an inch taller. His hair was wild and spiky, with slightly bluer eyes which disturbingly lacked pupils. He was the one who had communicated with him mentally, and whom Kaiba had personally watched die (due 65% to him). Mariku.

And from the look on all three faces, something was very wrong.

Again.