Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ If only for one moment, I could be like you... ❯ Realization ( Chapter 22 )

Marik smirked down at the practically immobile merboy beneath him. "I did it, because something like you doesn't belong out there among humans, you belong in a tank, for all to gaze upon, not out getting ruined." Ryou stared dumbly. "You don't understand!" He said shoving at the glass once more. "I came only to see what humans were like..."

Marik opened the tank and pulled Ryou up by his chin. "Well you've seen them. You're my merboy now. Do you honestly think that that Seto guy would love you if he knew you were what you were?" Ryou paused and looked at Marik with fearful eyes. "Of course he would...wouldn't he?" Marik laughed. "Yes every human would be thrilled beyond compare to find that their lover was part FISH. Of course he wouldn't love you! If he knew what you were, he'd cast you out of his life." Ryou gasped. "You're lying!"

Marik hefted Ryou up, and tossed him in the tank before he had much chance to struggle. "Then I'll bring him here and you'll see for yourself. I'll make you a deal. If he still loves you despite your being a merman, I'll let you go back with him, and never bother you again. But, if he doesn't love you, you belong to me body soul and mind." Ryou glared. "I don't have to make a deal with you!" He said splashing water at Marik. "No, you don't, but if you do not, you'll just be mine with no chance of escape."

Ryou sighed. "Fine, I believe in Seto. He loves me for who I am...not what." He said softly. Marik smirked. "Fine, I'll just call him, and have him come over tomorrow evening." Ryou nodded huffing and sank into the tank with his arms crossed. "I hope I'm not wrong Seto..." he whispered, hating the way Marik would look at him and chuckle every so often.

~~~~~

The hours passed slowly, and the more Ryou thought on it, the more nervous he grew. "Seto loves me..." he would utter to himself to encourage himself not to back down from the odds Marik had set against him. He was bluffing! He had to be bluffing; surely humans were not so shallow as to pick mates merely on appearance, especially when he was capable of appearing no different! Merfolk certainly weren't shallow. Sure looks are what attract males to females, or other males...but in the end it's personality and heart magnetism that keeps them firmly in love, and life-mated.

Marik smiled and looked at Ryou in the tank. "Feeling unnerved? It's not too late to save yourself the heartache." He said smugly, causing Ryou to glare at him from his position on the edge of the sunken ship. "Leave me alone!" He shouted loudly, filling the room with a resounding angry screech as the sound waves hit the surface of the water. Marik listened for a moment. "So, when underwater, once your shouts reach the surface...you sound like a mere whale or dolphin..." he said scratching down a few notes. He'd heard Ryou when the shout had reached the glass nearest him, but when the shout had broken the surface of the water, which took considerably longer, the sound waves had been battered and disassembled into mere orcan* music.

"Interesting..." he mumbled, checking the underwater microphones, finding the same result. "It seems that only when a living person hears you...that it's not garbled orca-speak." He said writing down his miraculous finding. "So, the possibility that all recorded whale and dolphin song might not all be merely those species alone, but it might also be the mingled conversation of merfolk. Ryou squeaked. "No! I'm...I'm the ONLY one!" he squeaked, shaking his head.

"Oh please. Do you honestly expect me to believe you?" Marik said putting a hand on his hip and waving a finger at Ryou. "I not only know there are more of you, but I'm willing to bet your from somewhere not far from here at all." Ryou shook his head more. "No! Really, there is only me!" He whimpered softly. If the others found out the humans had seen him as a merperson...he didn't even know how horrid the consequences were. But to have been seen, and to direct humans to the OTHERS would bring the wrath of the ocean god upon him. Ryou gasped. `Oh Neptune! What have I done!? Forgive me please!' He thought shaking his head, wide-eyed as the realization struck with blinding force.

Ryou felt his heart slash in two...Even if Seto did love him, and Marik let him go...he'd go after the others. Ryou sank to the dirt in his tank and shook his head more. "No..." He closed his eyes and just lay there, in the muddy sandy bottom of the tank for a long while. "No...matter what happens...I will...endanger my family...my friends." Ryou looked up and shed a tear, which rolled softly down his soft creamy cheek, before dropping off his chin and becoming an opaline pearl, which rested in the sandy bottom of the tank.

~~~~~

Ryou sighed the day had since passed and he'd made a choice... "M-Marik..." he said softly, swimming to the glass bottom of the tank and pressing his hands against it looking around for the sandy haired man. He looked at the large monitor in the empty room. It pictured a lavish room with plush red carpeting, and fine furniture. "Seto..." Ryou said softly. The monitor showed Marik and Seto conversing. Seto looked angry beyond comparison, and Marik looked smug as always. They walked off screen, and Ryou heard the doors open. "No..." he shook his head, and swam into the small sunken ship.

Marik smirked as he led Seto into his lab. "He's right this way. If I'm lying, you can kill me where I stand." He said smugly, leading Seto to the tank. Seto snorted in disapproval. "Looks like an empty tank to me." He snarled. "Now...Where's Ryou, before I lose my temper?" Marik examined the tank for a moment. "Ahh, he's in the sunken ship." He said noting the fins just barely visible. "Ryou, come on out, your lover is here." Ryou sniffled and shook his head, hidden from view. "Marik...I...I cant!" He said softly, filling the room with mournful orcan as it broke the wave's surface.

Seto rolled his eyes. "If you're done playing this annoying game of voice tricks, I would like to take Ryou home now." He said glaring at Marik. Marik sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's a bad time to chicken out of our bet now Ryou...don't make me use force." He said calmly. Ryou lowered his gaze to the floor. "Seto...I'm so sorry I didn't tell you..." he said slowly emerging from the sunken ship, and swimming to the side of the glass, looking near tears. "Please Seto...don't hate me...Don't..."

Seto stared in shock. "What trickery is this?!" He said grabbing Marik by the throat. "No tricks Kaiba, this is your lover's true form. Look at his fins, you'll notice that there's a still a slight marking from the injury where his `leg' injury was...and surely you can recognize his body features from the waist up. This...THIS is your lover, in his truest form. Ryou is not human at all, he's a Merman."

Seto stared, as Ryou looked at him, hoping beyond hope that Marik was wrong...that Seto still loved him, and that he'd be able to save the others somehow. Seto's shock died down after a few minutes staring, before a new look graced his features.

"You...you horrible little wretch!" he hissed, icy hatred filling his tones. Ryou felt flames in his chest and mind as the bond they'd formed by mating quite literally burned with Seto's hatred, severing itself as he spoke, ripping Ryou's soul and heart to shreds. "You lied to me! Deceived me!" Ryou shook his head. "Seto you don't understand! I never meant to! Please!" He pleaded tears beginning to well in his eyes. "Please! I love you, don't turn me away..." Seto laughed an frozen cruel laugh. "Love? What would some CREATURE know about love...you're not human...you're not capable of love...or honesty." Ryou gasped in pain as his chest filled with white-hot pain, hugging himself he whimpered lightly. "Seto please! I'm sorry I never told you! Please say you love me for who I am! Please I beg you!"

Seto glared at Ryou for a few moments, before his gaze softened to an unreadable indifferent face. "I don't love you. I hate you." He said after a few moments. Ryou gasped and whined loudly, in indescribable pain, as the last strings of the bond burst within him, leaving him alone, hated...and abandoned. "Do whatever you want with that...THING." Seto growled softly, leaving Ryou and Marik to each other.

Marik blinked a bit, watching Ryou huddle to himself, before two small pearls fell to the bottom of the tank. He almost felt sorry for the soft creature. "I warned you that this would be the reaction." He said shaking his head. Ryou looked at Marik with the eyes of a broken soul...shattered and completely undone. "Marik...please...you...have me. Do not go after my people..." he said somberly. "I will not resist you...do whatever you wish, just...promise to me that you will leave the others alone...and I will be whatever you wish me to be."

Marik smirked a bit. "Another deal, is that what you're asking for? You're trading yourself completely, into slavery of sorts, so that I wont go hunting down more merfolk? Is that it?" Ryou nodded, looking away, as another pearl hit the bottom of the tank, tinkling against the glass as it fell. "A lifetime of servitude, with no will or mind of your own?" Ryou nodded again, sniffling. "Just...leave the rest of my people alone..."

"Fine then, agreed. I'll not hunt your `people' down but in exchange, you're mine. No fighting me, no arguing...complete and total obedience." Ryou shuddered and covered his face with his hands. Shame...shame and hurt. At least the gods would be satisfied, his family and friends safe. He'd done the right thing. Marik smirked and put his hands on his hips. "Well slave? Stop your sobbing and swim to the top of your tank. We have a lot to do, and I'm ready to get things moving." He said firmly.