Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Fallen Angel, Risen Demon ❯ Fallen Angel, Risen Demon Part II ( Chapter 8 )

Bakura: How dare you? How dare you?

Priestess: Don't mind him. He's just upset. Seems to think the angst ruined the entire fanfiction, even though it is an angst. I mean, it was originally just supposed to be this tragic suicidefic which I wrote just because I had been listening to too many Evanescence songs due to lack of better things to do. Seriously, listening to your Fallen CD for three hours strait can do strange things to a person.

Atemu: It did ruin the fanfiction. Isn't it enough that you put me with Bakura in the first place?

Bakura: Hey, what's that supposed to mean?

Priestess: While they continue their insult match, I think I should go on with the fanfiction. Oh, and ignore Ryou bawling his eyes out.

Ryou: (sob) I'm so unloved!

Priestess: (sighs and sprays Ryou with special little container of "Essence of Kuru Eruna's blood and Necrophadisu's trickery" that turns his despair and self-hate into fury and desire for revenge) There! Now go...kill somebody, or something.

Ryou: (runs off cackling like a maniac) Yugi, you will pay!

Priestess: (groans) What have I done?

Well, I'm going to skip the italicized stuff and replace it with cast commentary. I already did enough, in my opinion. I might change my mind later, but for now...

***

Bakura wept profusely into the fresh, crisp grass. The flowers tried to comfort him, but he couldn't be pleased even by them. He wanted Atemu!

Death never used to be this complicated, he reflected ruefully as he turned onto his back.

Heck, life never used to be this complicated!

He gazed at the sky and let himself continue thinking, thinking thoughts he hadn't thought of since he had died.

Black holes.

The talking box-television?-had been talking about it a few days before his death. It said they warp the fabric of the universe and suck everything into them. It said that they had terrible destructive power.

Some people said he had a black heart, if he had any heart at all. Atemu had said both of these things, and one man had claimed his heart was a 'black hole.' Strangely, he couldn't get this out of his mind. Well, not that strange. There was a perfectly sensible reason:

It was true. His heart had indeed been a black hole. There was nothing where it should have been, just a swirling darkness which sucks in all light and never released it. Never.

It didn't just suck in light, really. It sucked in sanity. It sucked in everything, everything, everything but all-consuming hatred. That was the life he lived-every step seeped in pain and hatred.

But life was over. The black hole was gone. His pain and his hatred were things of the past. If he was going to end up suffering either way, why did he even die? He didn't have to suffer anymore.

This decided, he got to his feet. The Pharaoh could do as he wished. His life and suffering were over. He didn't need Atemu's love, not when he had his family again. He didn't need Atemu. He didn't need eternity.

***

Yugi gasped in dismay when he entered the room.

"Atemu!" he cried, rushing to his sobbing yami's side. "Is something wrong?" His mind was racing. What had happened? Was he having a relapse? Had yesterday just been a one-time thing?

Atemu turned his head up, gazing tearfully at his little hikari. "Oh Yugi," he sobbed. "I've made a terrible mistake."

***

Ryou snarled in outrage as he wiped his injuries. Usually he would feel pleased after cutting himself, but now he just felt furious. Well, it was better than the overwhelming despair he had been experiencing when he started.

He couldn't believe this...Yugi would pay...he didn't know how, he didn't know when. But Yugi would pay.

Yugi listened in a stunned silence. He couldn't think of a thing to say, and even if he could it would have been too heartless to speak at a time like this. Not to mention he wouldn't be heard over Atemu's wild sobbing.

At last, he said softly, "I know it hurts, but you did the right thing. You said it yourself, the Spirit of the Millennium Ring was incapable of feeling anything but hatred. At least now he can finally rest in peace."

If truth be told, inwardly he was outraged. Infuriated. That such a dreadful man could have such an effect on his yami...Yugi loved Atemu. He had for quite a long time, and if was terrible to see him in such anguish. Then he suddenly realized something with a sharp pang of guilt.

"If the six of you met early in the morning...then that means...Bakura was telling the truth!" He leapt to his feet. "I'm sorry, Atemu, but we'll have to continue this discussion later! Try to get some rest, all right?"

Without waiting for a reply, Yugi rushed out to find Ryou and apologize.

And he never came back.

***

For a long time, Atemu lay curled up in a corner. He wanted to die...he wanted peace...he wanted everything to end...he wanted death.

Then, somewhere inside the wilderness of emptiness which had developed in the past months, the spark of his old self flamed back to life. It told him to get up, take another bath, and get some rest. It told him Bakura was dead and gone. It told him to get over it.

He hated it. He hated that spark of his old self. He hated it, because it was the reason Bakura hated him again. If it weren't for it, he could have been happy. If it weren't for it, Bakura would still have been there. If it weren't for it, he could have lain there and died and been with Bakura.

But the spark burned insistently, commanding the lost mindless child to obey it. That was what it felt like. He was the helpless mad child. It was the master forcing him to do what he didn't wish to.

The yami had a yami. And that yami was himself.

At last he grumbled, "All right, all right," and arose. His entire body ached and felt stiff. Had Yugi not smashed to pieces then burnt to ashes then buried the chair he had been sitting on for six months, he would have liked to sit again...perhaps six years this time.

But it wasn't there, and there was nowhere else to sit. Anyway, he couldn't get rid of that spark of himself. For all that it had been dead two days ago, yesterday it had returned with a vengeance. It wouldn't let him spend eternity mourning. It wanted him to wash off the dust and let the heat of the water coax it into growth. It wanted him to be the Pharaoh again.

He didn't want to be the Pharaoh anymore.

He wasn't the Pharaoh anymore.

He didn't know who he wanted to be.

He didn't know who he was.

***

"Aw, you're leaving?" inquired Kaiba with obviously false regret. "Too bad."

"It is over, Kaiba," said Isis sharply. "You may not have seen it, but it is true. Bakura will not forgive the Pharaoh. He isn't returning. He will never return. We have no reason to remain here."

"Well, isn't that a shame? Bye!"

Isis gazed at him long and hard. "It is over for Bakura, Malik, Mariku, and I. Not for you, nor for the Pharaoh. You can deny your destiny no more. Atemu can't help you. You must save the world now, Kaiba. You must find the one who summoned the darkness, you must defeat it. You're on your own now-just like you wanted."

With that, she turned and left.

***

Grumbling, Atemu turned the faucets high and stripped. He thought of his bath the day before. It had felt wonderful, true, as had the subsequent experience. But what had it resulted in?

More suffering.

The little spark of his previous self taunted him, derided him. It called him a coward and a quitter, just as Kaiba had. It told him that Bakura was dead, just like he'd always wanted, and that he was pining over nothing.

It was right, it was right. But that didn't help. He didn't want to be the Pharaoh. He wasn't the Pharaoh. He didn't want to be the men Bakura had so despised. Bakura had once called kings pitiful-and he was right. So right. He didn't know what he was or wanted to be, but the Pharaoh was the answer to neither.

Bakura had been granted death. Bakura had been permitted to die. Bakura was at peace. Bakura wasn't pining over him. He was happy and peaceful. He might return to Teannyia, now that he had nothing left to hinder him.

It had been Atemu hindering him. Now Bakura was at peace. Now he was freed from eternity.

But Atemu wasn't free. How, oh how he now wished that he had lost that duel against Yugi and went into the afterlife. How perfect that would have been! He wouldn't have been stupid enough to say what he had said had he been in the afterlife. He had seen its effect on Bakura.

He scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, but nothing could wash away the pain. Memories came with a price. Truly, he was more miserable now than ever. Dear Usire, why couldn't he die?

What if he had lost? The Millennium Items would have been buried, and he would have been in the afterlife.

And Bakura...he would have remained in the Millennium Ring, under two tons of stone. Knowing him, he might have been found in a few millenniums and there would have been nothing Atemu could do about it.

But Atemu would have been dead, so it wouldn't matter.

***

"All right, this is weird...in the manga, Atemu loses the battle and the Millennium Items get buried and he goes to the afterlife and they don't even mention what happens to Bakura. But Yugi lost, so Atemu remained in this time and Ryou found the Millennium Ring somehow. So what's happening here doesn't exactly follow the manga..."

"Pri-Seto?"

Kaiba glanced up to see Kisara, who-seeing she had his attention-continued, "Please, Seto, you've been up reading and researching all night and most of the morning. Shouldn't you get some rest?"

Seto shook his head and put down the book. "I've read every single one, and still it doesn't add up," he griped. "It doesn't answer all of my questions. I must have missed something! But what? What?"

***

"Atemu?"

Atemu yawned and stretched, rubbing his eyes sleepily and peering through an exhaustion-haze at Sugaroku. Yugi's grandpa certainly seemed very upset about something..."What is it?"

"Yugi didn't show up at school this morning, and he didn't come home all night."

All Atemu's senses went on immediate alert as Sugaroku continued, "I was wondering if you had seen him, or might know where he had went which was taking him such a time."

Atemu shut his eyes and tried to think. "Ryou...he's at Ryou's house...but Ryou's wouldn't be home..."

The spark of himself glimmered, and this time he didn't fight. "I'm going to investigate."

***

Atemu crouched by the door and pushed it open cautiously, listening. Hearing nothing, he entered on tip-toe and glanced around the kitchen. It seemed fairly normal.

He glanced around. Upon certainty that the house was empty, he started exploring.

***

Certain there was nothing on the first or second floor, he entered the basement. It was dark and dusty and foul-smelling, and he pinched his nose as he flicked on the light.

It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the brilliance which filled the room, but as soon as they did he wished they hadn't.

Lying there in the center of the room was Yugi, his neck slashed open.