Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Mirrors and Memories Past ❯ Of Dreams, Doves and Roses ( Chapter 3 )

Darkness claimed him mercilessly, and he felt the strangest falling sensation he had ever experienced in his entire life. The silence that surrounded him was suffocating; it pressed in around him causing his throat to burn and his body to ache. He felt his mind, his very soul slipping from his grasp. `No!' a picture of Ryou's laughing face appeared in the darkness that shrouded his mind and Bakura screamed again. `No! Please Ra, No! Don't take me away from him. He needs me.' The picture in his mind's eye changed to one of a screaming, bleeding Ryou. He lay on the ground, sobbing, surrounded by five older teens.

"Get up! Get up you little whore." The tallest of the teen, a brunette, kicked Ryou's inert body.

"Worthless scum!" Bakura growled; he remembered those guys. He had saved Ryou from them before, a lone time ago. He had taught those hooligans such a lesson that they'd never forget, but obviously they had. A problem Bakura was about to rectify.

"Please, just leave me alone. What have I ever done to you?" Ryou curled up into a little ball, making himself a small a target as possible.

"What have you done? What haven't you done?!" The brunette kicked Ryou again, drawing yet another growl from the watching spirit. "You, My little slut, tried to sic that psycho friend of yours on us. He killed my younger brother and damn near killed me. You need to pay for what you've done." The older teen pulled a shinny object from his pocket and threw it from his left hand to his right. The boys that had crowded around Ryou fell utter silent. Ryou, relatively intrigued by the lack of noise from the surrounding crowd, opened one of his eyes slightly to find the brunette's face dangerously close to his. "Hi." The blue-eyed boy smiled wickedly when Ryou tried to back away. To keep him from getting too far, the other boy straddled his hips.

"Come on Seto, show him who's boss." The other boys gathered around the two boys.

Bakura was stunned into speechlessness. Kaiba was…going to hurt Ryou. `He's going to hurt my hikari! But why?' Bakura had very little time to think, however, because just as he was asking himself this very sensible question, Kaiba began to raise his knife. The spirit ran forward, pulling his own silver, rune-covered dagger from his sleeve and threw it into the crowd. There were two strangled screams and the crowd broke swiftly as Bakura finally reached the screen.

`Please be alright. Ra, don't let it be too late.' Bakura pulled the wounded and unconscious Kaiba off of the whimpering Ryou. Bakura brushed Ryou's slightly blood splattered, silver hair from his eyes. Ryou cringed at the touch of Bakura hand at a deep purple bruise. "Hikari?" Bakura's voice was as gentle as his hands as he began to stroked Ryou's hair. Ryou stiffened where he lay, his heart beating in his throat. He didn't just here what he thought he did, did he? No one called him that but…Ryou opened his eyes slowly to find his own chocolate brown eyes staring back at him.

"Y…Yami?" Ryou could hardly hear himself over the furious beat of his racing heart. Bakura smiled, the hard lines of hatred and worry disappearing, leaving the most beautiful sight Ryou had seen since… "But, but Yami, you're dead." Ryou shook his head in disbelief, sliver tears cascading down his pale cheeks. "You…you're dead. You can't be here." Ryou sobbed bitterly. "Why won't it stop? Why can't…why won't it stop haunting me?!' Bakura swooped down and the sobbing teen, enveloping Ryou in his arms.

"Shh. Hikari, I am here. I'm not dead." Ryou shook in Bakura's arms, crystalline tears streaming down his face and onto Bakura.

"No, you're dead. I watched you die!" Bakura shook his head almost in shame, but he didn't quite know why he would, or should, be ashamed.

"Hikari, answer me this; can a dead person do this?" Bakura cupped Ryou's face in his hands, gently pushing a piece of unruly hair from Ryou's eyes. Their eyes locked, and Bakura saw indecision and denial in the other's eyes. "I am here Hikari, don't be afraid. I love you." Bakura leaned toward the silent boy in his lap and gently placed his lips over Ryou's.

Ryou gasped, his eyes becoming wide with shock. He threw his hands against Bakura's chest and toppled out of the spirit's embrace. Ryou jumped to his feet, looking as if he had been physically struck.

"No Yami. No, dead people can't do that." Bakura looked up at his light expectantly, waiting for him to go on. He could tell where this was going; Ryou would notice his mistake and fall back into his awaiting arms, ready and wanting to be held by his yami. "Dead people can't love." Ryou shook his head sadly. "As much as I want this to be, it is not." He lowered his gaze only to raise it again to meet Bakura's eyes with a defiant look. "You're not real. You're just a figment of my imagination." With that Ryou turned away, leaving a very shocked Bakura sitting on the ground.

The darkness began to swirl again, pulling him down, back into the abyss for whence he came, with the last picture in front of his eyes, his hikari walking away into an obscure mist. `No! Please stop! Hikari don't leave me! Don't stop believing in me…'

* * *

"No!" Bakura sat up, his breath heaving. His eyes shot about taking in his surroundings. He was in his room. `How the hell did I end up here? The last thing I remember, I was in the street in front of the high school.' Ryou's voice came to him from his memories `you're not real. You're just figment of my imagination.' `That's it!' It must have been a dream; Ryou would have never said that! Bakura jumped to his feet, intent upon searching for his light, and winced. Pain shot through his body, taking his breath away.

`My wrists.' He turned his palms up, scrutinizing the ten cuts along both of his forearms and his wrists. Bakura felt suddenly dizzy and moved quickly to slump down onto the edge of the bed. He put both hands to his head. "Uhh. That was irrational of me. This is totally that last time pain is the answer. Next time I hit the narcotics." Bakura shook his head slowly to clear his blurred vision. He got up from the bed, more slowly this time and headed time and headed toward the bathroom. He walked sluggishly to the bathroom, holding his hands pressed firmly to his temples, intent on taking something to stop the pain. When he reached his destination, he flipped on the light and froze in horror.

The white silk shower curtains were soaked in scarlet blood, which dripped down the black tiled wall and into the marble tub. `By Ra! What's going on?' Pills and white powder littered the floor and counter, while several random vials of a milky white liquid were tossed haphazardly into the sink. "What the hell?" `Who got into my stash? No one knows I had these?' He walked carefully into the bathroom, trying not to step on a discarded blade or used needle as he moved toward the tub. Bakura gasped in disbelief as he moved to gaze at himself in the shattered remains of what should have been his sixth century, full-body mirror. (A.N. I just wanted to let it be known that I'm not sure that the sixth century is the right one, but it sounded right…:scratches head and shrugs: Oh well.)

Bloody hand prints covered the frame of the should-be mirror and a dagger, his silver dagger, protruded from the stomach of his reflection. Bakura stared in shock at the nearly illegibly note that hung from the mirror, suspended by the bloody dagger.

To my friends,

If you are reading this letter than you are surely wondering why Yami no Bakura is laying dead on his bedroom floor. I killed him; it's entirely my fault. Don't look at me that way Yugi, I didn't mean too. I loved him with all my heart, and I still do. It hurts too much to remain here now; so I am leaving. And no, I won't be coming back. I cannot live without my yami, so I won't. You have my many thanks for being here for me over the years, but this is not something you, or anyone else, can fix. Good-bye my friends, may we meet again in eternal bliss.

Forever yours,

Ryou

Bakura's heart stopped. Ryou was going to commit suicide, over him. He had to stop this. It was insane! The spirit grasped the handle of his dagger and wrenched it from the mirror. `I may need this later.' He swore to himself that if he found his hikari dead, he would be next. Bakura looked around the room for signs of his light…why hadn't he noticed it before? There were bloody footprints leading out of the bathroom and over the cream colored carpet of his room. He followed the footprints down the stairs, across the white tiled kitchen floor, and out into the rain-soaked garden. The trail ended at the edge of the porch replaced by a relatively deep trench cut through the mud of the yard. The mud was thick and sticky but the spirit sloshed right into it, following Ryou's tiny footprints, leading him right into the woods behind the house.

Bakura ran as the rain fell in torrents, slashing at his face and his exposed chest. It should have hurt, but Bakura felt nothing but escalating fear for Ryou safety. `I can't lose him! Not now! I have to get to him before it's too late.' He stumbled and tripped over a nearby tree root, falling face first onto the muddy earth. Bakura coughed, spitting out mouthfuls of mud and wiping what he could from his eyes.

`Disgusting!' Bakura jumped up and shook the mud from his hair. He threw his thoroughly mud-caked hair over his shoulder the best he could. The rain plastered his hair to his chest, shoulders, and face, as if mocking him as he looked toward the heavens. Bakura smirked in spite of himself.

"How fitting. Even the heavens cry tears of anguish at the impending loss of my unworldly angel." Thunder shook the ground at his words and a blast of lighting split the sky, striking the forest several miles away with such enmity that hot, white sparks flooded the sky. In the midst of all this commotion, something flashed on the ground near his foot.

Bakura bent down slowly, examining the lucent object. The lifted the glittering, silver band gently in his fingers and wiped away the mud. It was the ring he had given to Ryou. He clenched the ring in his fist and then, standing up, pocketed it. `I must return this to you, Hikari.'

Coming to a wide fork in the path, Bakura looked first left, than right all the while searching for some sign of Ryou. The left path, which lead out of the forest, was clear and bright; however, to his right the path lay dark, darker than he had ever seen the forest. Broken branches hung from the rain and mud splattered trees where it looked as if there had been a scuffle. The mud was shot all over the trees and low shrubs, and the path was walked by only by one set of footprints. `He went that way, I just know it! But I wonder what happened to that other set of footprints.' Bakura tore down the right path as fast as he could, he needed to find his light before it was too late. The spirit ran for a long while down the mud slick path before he found his way blocked by a slightly smoldering tree.

"Ah, so this is where the lightning struck." Bakura looked to move around the tree but found his way blocked yet again, this time by a very thorny bush and the roots of the tree. `ÇáÚäå!' He silently cursed in his ancient language. (A.N. That means `damn it' in Arabic. I did research. ^. ~) He would use his powers to remove the obstacle, but that would waste the last of his energy, and he needed what little he had left. The spirit gave a dissatisfied grimace and dropped to his knees in the mud. It had been a long time since he had been this dirty.

He sunk his hands into the soupy earth, digging the mud away from the trunk of the tree. He dug deep into the ground around the trunk and a hole began to form. The hole became steadily larger as the rain poured from the sky in torrents. He looked up into the sky allowing the rain to slash at his face, causing him to wince slightly and close his eyes. "You couldn't make this any harder could you?" Bakura spoke to the sky, his voice dripping with sarcasm. If possible, the rain became harder, almost blinding. The spirit shook his head and smiled in spite of himself, how could he have asked such a stupid question? He continued digging, as a lead weight settled into the pit of his stomach. `I must find you, Ryou. I can't let you do this. If you are dead when I find you, I swear I will follow, for it will be entirely my fault.' Bakura dug faster and finally broke through the other side of the tree. Crawling through a hole just big enough for him to fit through, the spirit wriggled out from under the tree, muttering and cursing as he went. His shirt, torn down the back from where it had snagged on a branch, hung open, exposing the ivory skin of his chest and back.

When Bakura finally crawled away from the tree and was able to stand again, he was not only covered in mud from head to booted foot but he also felt blood dripping down his back from the new wound that adorned his broad shoulder blades. He looked down at himself and growled in disgust. `So this is why I gave up tomb raiding. I despise being dirty. Memo to me, as soon as I find Ryou and take care of whatever was following him, shower…and shower good.' He shook his head in scorn and walked on, he really wanted this done; he felt extremely dirty.

A scream rang through the trees and Bakura stopped dead in his tracks, his blood turning to ice in his veins. "Ryou!" Cold fear and white, hot fury coursed though the spirit's body as he began to run, out of the forest and into the clearing from whence the scream had come, the adrenaline giving him unfathomable energy.

A house stood in the clearing, tiny and quaint with its white picket fence and scattered rose bushes; but Bakura saw things about the house one would have taken for poor house keeping if one didn't know better.

The gate hung, broken, on its hinges and the door was ajar. Bakura heard the scream again only this time it was accompanied by harsh, sadistic laughter all emanating from the house.

* * *

Ryou backed away from the door slowly shaking in fear, tears brimming the edges of his chocolate brown eyes. His rain soaked, white shirt hung, torn and blood splattered, from his pale shoulders.

"You're scared now aren't you? Without your psycho friend here to protect you, there is no one to stop me from taking exactly what I want from you." Seto advanced on the smaller teen, his fierce ice-blue eyes sparkling with a mixture of hatred and lust. Ryou went stiff when his back hit solid wall; there was no where left to run. Ryou looked up into the intense sapphire gaze of Seto Kaiba and quivered slightly.

"P…please Kaiba, don't do this. Haven't I suffered enough at your hands? My Yami is dead anyway, please just let me die in peace." This was not the answer Seto wanted to hear. He cornered Ryou, raising himself to his full height, which was several inches taller than the silvery-haired boy. His hand struck the side of Ryou's face just as lighting cut the sky outside the window. Ryou hit the adjacent wall and fell to the floor with a sickening thud.

"You little whore! How dare you say such things to me! Don't you know who I am? I am Seto Kaiba, and your new master." Seto let out a harsh bark of laughter as he grabbed Ryou and dragged him to his feet by his chin. He lifted the younger boy's chin so that he would look into his eyes.

"Please, please just leave me alone." Ryou sobbed, making the brunette laugh again. Kaiba let go of Ryou's chin and captured him in his arms.

"Oh no. I can't just let an angel like yourself fall from on high without…" he smiled wickedly and licked his lips in a very suggestive manner. "…One last taste of heaven." Ryou's screams were drowned by Kaiba's laughter and swallowed by his possessive lips. He tried to push the brunette away but Seto held him tightly to his lithe body, dominating him. The older teen pinned Ryou too the wall, forcing his way into Ryou's mouth. As Seto glided his tongue along the inside of Ryou's mouth he moved to slide is hands under the remains of the boy's shirt. He slid his hands over Ryou's pale chest and found his supple nipples and ran them in-between his finger tips. `This is wrong! Someone stop him! Yami, please don't let him do this to me!' Ryou moaned into his captor's open mouth and Kaiba chuckled, pulling away.

"You like that? Like being dominated? Just like the little bitch you are." Seto lowered his mouth again; claiming Ryou's with a ferocity the likes of which Ryou had never experienced. His hands moved down the boy's sleek, almost feminine, body to the front of his mud caked jeans. Seto began to stroke Ryou through his pants roughly, feeling the boys growing erection. Ryou let out a strangled moan, throwing his head back, his hips arching up to meet Kaiba's stroking hand of their accord. When the brunette's tongue entered his mouth again, Ryou was ready. He bit down hard, drawing blood from the other teen's tongue. Seto reeled back, his hands covering his mouth as a slight trickle of blood slid from between his fingers.

"You little bitch! You bit me!"

"You're invading where you're not wanted. Get the hell away from me you stuck up prick! My yami just died and you don't even have the common courtesy to let me die in peace!" Before Ryou as able stop himself, he had said far more than he had wanted to. Seto raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the younger teen.

"Not wanted am I?" He threw Ryou to the floor and straddled his hips, pinning him to the floor with both his hands upon the other boy's chest. "We'll just see how unwanted my attention is." Kaiba tore the rest of Ryou's shirt away exposing his pale ivory chest. He traced his hands up and down the boy's chest, smiling wickedly. He kissed Ryou's neck harshly, biting and licking the exposed flesh. Ryou whimpered slightly at the sensations rushing through his body and thrashed franticly under Seto, he knew where this would go and he didn't want that to happen. It had nearly gone `there' before. Bakura had come to save him that time, but Ryou doubted his yami would be coming to save him. "Quit struggling you little slut, you're not going anywhere. I'm going to take exactly what I want and you're going to give it to me…" Seto paused and, looking into Ryou eyes, he saw the one thing that made this all worth while, fear. Relentless, pure, tangible fear. He bent again, running his tongue down the other's neck, over his chest and abdomen and finally to the top of his pants. "…Whether you want to or not."

"NO! Stop! Somebody help me!" Ryou sobbed, thrashing against the hands that were now at his waist, the hands that were about to expose him to Seto… "GOD HELP ME!"

"Get off him Kaiba." A harsh, extremely pissed voice echoed through the cottage. Ryou's eyes shot to the door; he couldn't believe his eyes, was that really him…or just another figment of his imagination. Seto head whipped around and, upon seeing Bakura outlined in the doorframe, smiled.

"Why isn't this a surprise, but aren't you supposed to be dead Bakura?" Ryou, who had been squirming franticly under his captor, turned his head away, closing his eyes against the tears that threatened to overwhelm him at the sound of his yami's name. Seto was right…Bakura was dead, and he couldn't possibly be here to help his hikari. "A little too dead to be giving me orders, or saying what I can or cannot do with my sex toys." Bakura's eyes narrowed as the brunette turned his back on the spirit and placed both his hands on either side of Ryou's now averted face, leaning down to kiss the boy.

Seto hit the adjacent wall with a loud crack. His hands clutched his chest, as he gasped for breath that would not come. His lungs burned at the lack of oxygen and he coughed, trying to get more air than his collapsed lung would allow. (A.N. He's going to have bigger problems than a collapsed lung when Bakura is done with him. That's for sure.) When he finally got his wind back and was able to look up to see what the hell hit him, he saw a seriously infuriated Bakura standing where he, just moments ago, had sat. Bakura was practically glowing with fury

"No Kaiba, I am not dead, I am very much alive as you can see; but I am sure you will happily take my place in the underworld." Bakura advanced on the brunette, fire and death burning in his eyes, when something caught his pant leg unexpectedly. Bakura turned slowly to look down his hikari, love softening the hatred in his eyes.

"Y…Yami? I…is that really you?" Bakura turned and knelt down before his frightened light. His voice was deliberately soft so not to scare Ryou further.

"Yes Hikari, it is I, and I do believe I am truly myself." Bakura smiled, cupping Ryou's pale cheek in his equally pale hand.

Ryou fell into his yami's arms sobbing, joy, confusion, and fright mixing into one. Bakura held the sobbing, shaking boy gently, basking in the warm glow of his light and the realization that he had not gotten there too late.

"Oh Bakura, I thought you were dead! I thought I'd never see you again, I thought…I thought…" Bakura put a finger to Ryou's lips.

"Shh, Hikari, silence is golden. Just to have you in my arms again is enough for me." Bakura pulled the still sobbing, but thankfully silent, boy into his lap and cradled him there. "And it is painfully obvious you thought I was dead; when I find my dagger sheathed up to it's hilt in my sixth century mirror and the ring I gave to you lying, discarded, in the middle of a forest path." Ryou gasped, clutching at his left hand in shock. "Do not worry, Hikari. I said I found it." He pulled the silver band from his pocket and placed it on his light's finger. "There you are, mine again. Feel better?" Ryou smiled through the tears and nodded, nestling his head into the crook of his, very alive, yami's neck.

"How touching. I'm sorry to brake up this little reunion, but I'm afraid you are mistaken. That little prostitute is mine; so if you would kindly give him back to me, I would be obliged not to hurt you." Bakura stiffened at the derogatory term flung in his light's direction. He carefully stood; Ryou still safely cradled in his arms.

"If you will excuse me Hikari, I have unfinished business with Mr. Kaiba." Bakura set Ryou onto a nearby counter and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "This will take but a moment, and than we will resume where we left off." He smiled at Ryou, who smiled back adoration shinning in his eyes. The spirit turned to Seto, the fires of hatred burning in his eyes again. "This will be the last time you will EVER call my hikari anything like that!"

"What? Prostitute, slut, whore, hooker, slave, bitch, toy…which one specifically?" Bakura advanced on Seto, his movements slow, fluid, and deliberately cat-like. He moved as if he was hunting, to kill. His eyes, nearly slits now, were fixed on the teen, no longer chocolate brown but white, his power rising to the surface in his fury. His voice echoed eerily as he spoke, slowly as if to draw out his opponents inevitable demise.

"Don't push me Kaiba."

"Why not? What could a puss like you do to me?"

"I worn you Kaiba, if you push me, your death will not be as fast and as relatively painless as I plan it to be."

"Ooh tough guy, hiding behind idle threats." Seto pulled his knife from his pocket and threw it from his left hand to his right. "If you're so hot, why don't you just come and get me."

"My pleasure." A mighty gust of wind flared from behind the spirit, pinning Seto to the wall opposite. Bakura watched the brunette's struggle and laughed, harsh and biting, doing nearly as much damage with his voice as he would with his dagger. "Something the matter Kaiba? You look frustrated. What, never fight a demon before?" Bakura stopped directly in front of the struggling teen and drew his dagger, agonizingly slowly, from his sleeve.

"You bastard! You're using some sort of magic so I can't fight back! Coward!"

"Oh!" Bakura's brow furrowed, his voice dripping in mockery and sarcasm. "Now Kaiba, that truly hurt me. Just rip my heart out why don't you?"

"Fight me like a man, you fucking puss, and I will." The spirit shook his head slowly, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk. Now Kaiba, such language does not suit. You should be using vocabulary that raises you I.Q. not diminishes it." His tone of voice, that which one would use on a spoiled child, served only to aggravate Seto more.

"Coward! You spineless, tactless, gutless coward! Fight me like a man!"

"But I'm a demon remember? And besides, I am fighting you; you're just not fighting back, that's all. You spend too much of your energy on you useless verbal assault, trying to rip my heart out with words instead of your blade. Here let me show you how it's done." Bakura placed his silver, rune covered blade between his teeth and proceeded to tear the front of the brunette's shirt open. This being done, he grasped the ruby-studded hilt of his dagger and drew it from his mouth slowly, running his tongue acrossed the surface of the blade, making a show out of the whole thing. "Now," He said in a very who's-laughing-now voice, " to rip someone's heart out, one must first make an incision above the heart." He plunged his dagger, hilt deep, into Seto's chest just above the first rib. The brunette let out a howl of pain as his life's blood came gushing from the wound and onto Bakura's pure ivory flesh. "Yes just like that." He pulled his dagger out and turned to Ryou, licking the crimson blood from his blade. "Are you enjoying this Hikari?" Ryou nodded quickly, a smile playing on his bruised lips and lust lightly shinning in his chocolate brown eyes as he watched his yami absently lick the blood off his dagger. "Are you taking notes?" Another small nod. "Good, because there may be a quiz at the end of the lesson." Bakura laughed sadistically, turning back to Kaiba. "Now three more incisions are necessary before the process to be completed. One on the left side…" Bakura sunk the blade in again and Kaiba shrieked in pain. "Another on the right." Another scream, another cut. "And one final incision just below the heart." Bakura placed the dagger to Seto's chest and was about to plunge it in when he looked up into the pain-glazed blue eyes of the brunette. There eyes locked, and too this day Bakura could not tell whether it was the look in his eyes, the pain or the blood loss that did it but, Kaiba screamed one last time and slumped down the wall, dead.

Bakura's brows furrowed again in indignation. "Damn, killed him too soon, I was hoping to rip his heart out while he was still screaming." The spirit shagged. "Oh well." He turned to Ryou again and lifted him from the counter and slowly took the knife from his yami's lips. "Thank you, Hikari." A coy smile danced playfully on Ryou's faced as he brought the dagger to his lips letting his tongue slide out to tease the tip of the blade. Shocked flashed in Bakura's eyes momentarily, but was quickly replaced by a strong glint of desire. `Has he any idea how sexy that was?' He swallowed against the large lump in his throat and cleared it loudly. "I suppose we should get rid of that." The spirit jerked his head at Kaiba's lifeless body. Ryou looked down and shuttered involuntarily; Bakura seeing this, smiled indulgently. "Maybe I should rephrase myself. I should take care of that. You wait here." Bakura set Ryou on the ground and turned to dispose of that body. The dagger clattered from the boy's hands and he grasped Bakura around the waist.

"No don't Yami." Leave it please. Just stay with me." Bakura turned in Ryou's grasp.

"We can't just leave him here. What if someone finds him?" Ryou moved so his body was pressed against that of his yami.

"Let them find the body. I don't care. I just…just can't let you go." Ryou pressed his face into Bakura's chest, hugging him tightly. Bakura smiled soothingly and nodded.

"Alright. Alright Hikari. I won't leave…" He collected Ryou into his arms, "…without you." Bakura stepped over Kaiba's body, picked his dagger up off of the floor, and moved to the door, Ryou cradled safely in his arms. He stepped from the dark interior of the house and into the bright sunshine.

The clouds had begun to abate, giving way to azure skies. Bakura felt a sincere sense of contentment flow over him. Everything was going to be alright. His hikari was safely in his arms again, he had given Kaiba what he so rightly deserved, and he could now go home and clean up. He would feel doubly better once he got the caked mud and dried blood off of his body.

"Look Bakura, a rainbow!" The spirit looked back over his shoulder at the rather large rainbow that hovered over the little cottage in the middle of the clearing. Bakura froze as he saw something white and fluffy ascend from one of the house's scattered rosebushes.

The spirit's eyes followed the bird as it flew over the rainbow toward them, like an ambassador of peace from another land. The dove flew gracefully over their heads and dropped what it had clutched in its beak. Ryou held out his free hand and a delicate white rosebud fell into his palm. He closed his hand around the premature flower and brought his fist to his chest. The two boys looked at each other in silence for what seemed like an eternity, when finally Ryou's voice came, a shallow breathy whisper. "What happen Bakura?" Ryou asked, seeming a little more than scared. The spirit smiled lifting his hand to grasp Ryou's hand.

"A new begging, as in every end, Hikari. A new beginning…" Bakura opened Ryou's hand, revealing an elegant white rose in full bloom.