Going On

Disclaimer - Nope, don't own them, just borrowing them.

Author's Notes - Thanks go out to lady_wolf5, who has been keeping me working at my writing when the rest of my world seems to be deliberately screwing me over and taking away my will to do just about anything. Thanks hun, you're the greatest!

As well, just to let all of my dear reviewers know, I am on AIM . . . generally all damn day if I'm at the computer. And I'm always open to chatting : ) My AIM ID is MarikOnyx . . . feel free to look me up anytime.

With that said, here's the next chapter!


Chapter 10 – Confrontation


Yugi scampered down the stairs, his mind still trying to figure out where Yami could have gone. It hadn’t been a dream! It couldn’t have been . . . not for Yami to have said what he did. Somehow their link was still working on some level, and it had connected them when they had both been asleep. But where could Yami have been sleeping? He wasn’t in any of the bedrooms . . . those were the first places Yugi had checked, so where was he?

He slid across the tiled expanse of the front foyer into the den, examining the room minutely. Yami wasn’t on any of the couches, or in any of the chairs. There was a noise behind him, from the sounds of it in the direction of Seto’s office. Could Yami have gone in there?

Walking out of the den quickly, he headed for the wooden double doors, and froze when a figure stepped out of the office, cradling the Millennium Rod in pale hands. He nearly called out, thinking it to be Yami before it hit him . . . Yami had golden skin now. Amethyst eyes widened, and he staggered backwards in horror and fear as the figure turned to him, blood-red eyes meeting his as a sadistic smirk crossed the pale features.

“Ah . . . there you are, little Yugi,” Kage murmured. “And here I thought I was going to have search this whole mansion for you.” He stepped forward, and Yugi scrambled backwards, trying to keep the distance between them from narrowing. “What’s wrong, my aibou?” Kage said, his smirk widening into a feral grin as he stalked forward on stiff legs. “Where’s that idiot Pharaoh? Still unable to get past his little hang-ups to protect you?”

“Go to hell!” Yugi snapped, his hands balling into fists at his sides. Why was Kage here? Where were Bakura and Yami? He hoped they arrived soon . . . because if Kage got any closer, he was going to scream. This was his nightmare made flesh, a fiend born of his own love, and he couldn’t bear to be any nearer to him than he already was. But he was running out of room to back up, and unless he made a run for the door, he would soon be cornered. He froze as the Millennium Rod arose, golden light flickering up and down its length as the Eye of Horus appeared on Kage’s forehead.

“If you will not come with me willingly, I can always use this,” Kage said evilly, narrowing his eyes as Yugi shook his head in panic, the amethyst eyes closing to shut out the sight. “Remember what happened the last time you closed your eyes to shut me out?” he asked. Yugi sobbed, fear flashing through him. He remembered all right . . . Kage had raped him. “It can happen again, little one . . . you should never take your eyes off the tiger.” Amethyst eyes shot open at the nearness of Kage’s voice. It was a single, momentary mistake . . . but Kage took advantage.

Yugi screamed as he was thrown into his soul room, the door locked tight against him as he once again became a prisoner in his own body. But this time, he couldn’t block out the world outside . . . he had a front row seat to watching his body follow Kage’s directions.

“That’s better,” Kage whispered, running one pale hand down Yugi’s cheek in a cold caress that made Yugi shudder within his soul room, even as his body simply stood there. “Such a beautiful young man you’ve become, aibou . . . have you learned anything in the past two years that will please me more than you did the last time?”

“Get . . . your hands . . . off of him!” Yami snarled from the hallway. Yugi heaved a sigh of relief in his soul room, watching as if a movie was unfolding before him as Kage turned away from his mind-controlled body to face the former Pharaoh arrogantly.

“Ahh . . . my overly weaker self,” Kage said, tapping the Rod against one slim leg as he stood before the still body of Yugi, examining his other self absently. “You’ve looked better . . . had any good nightmares lately?”

“Only you, you son of a bitch,” Yami snapped, striding forward. He froze when Kage raised the Rod, freeing the hidden dagger from its sheath and stepping back behind Yugi’s frozen body, laying the blade gently at his exposed throat.

“Now, now, Pharaoh,” Kage murmured, pressing the blade lightly into the skin until a small amount of blood welled from under it. “You wouldn’t want me to do anything . . . hasty, would you?” Yami snarled at him, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. Kage had the upper hand, and he knew it. He couldn’t risk his sadistic shadow hurting his beloved . . . but it was killing him to stand there and simply do nothing.

“Yami!” Bakura shouted. He leapt over the railing to land at Yami’s side, starting forward only to be held back by one tan arm across his path.

“We cannot touch him,” Yami murmured harshly. “He has Yugi.” Crimson eyes glanced upwards to where the others stood in shock. “Stay there . . . do not come down here,” he called. “We do not want to give him any more targets.” Kage chuckled, backing towards the door with Yugi following docilely in front of him.

“That’s right, Pharaoh,” he murmured. “But you can’t protect them all . . . and once again, you’ve failed to protect your aibou.” Bakura was startled when Yami stepped forward cautiously, holding his hands out to his sides to show he was unarmed.

“Take me,” he offered. “Leave Yugi, and take me. I will do whatever you wish . . . but leave Yugi out of this.” He felt Bakura staring at him in shock, but he didn’t turn to address the thief. If it spared Yugi this horror, then Kage could do whatever he wanted to him . . . but he would not sit idly by and watch his darkness take his aibou, not again.

Outside the door, waiting beside it, Malik shifted uneasily. This wasn’t supposed to happen . . . Kage was supposed to go in, get the Rod, and get back out. He should have figured Kage had more on his agenda than he’d let on. But could he really sit back and allow this to happen? This was wrecking all of his careful plans, and neither he nor Marik were happy about that. And now Yami was offering himself in Yugi’s place . . . was he nuts!? He was the only chance they had of stopping Kage! Bakura had apparently had the same thought.

“Yami,” he growled warningly, stepping forward to put a restraining hand on one shoulder. “We can rescue Yugi . . . but we can’t do anything if he has you.” Yami shrugged his hand off, turning to glance back at the thief solemnly. Bakura was astounded by the calm assurance in those garnet eyes . . . when had Yami regained the sense of self that he had lost? Looking deeper, something he’d never been able to do with Yami before, he saw it was a mask. Yami was still torn inside, still bleeding in his soul . . . but that determination to protect was there in full force. Nothing he said was going to stop Yami from this. Not if it risked Yugi. He sighed and bowed his head, acquiescing to the silent request that he not involve himself. It was the only thing he could do right now . . . and his respect and care for Yami only grew with that realization. The Pharaoh really would do anything to protect those he cared about.

Kage was still backing towards the door, the grin on his face only widening at the silent struggle going on. He couldn’t lose this game . . . Yami would come after him for Yugi, and then he would have them both. His weaker self didn’t even know about Malik yet – he had the upper hand, and he knew it. Keeping Yugi carefully in front of him, the knife pressed lightly against the boy’s throat, he reached behind him to open the door, feeling with his hand for the knob before pulling it open, stepping around the thick wood with Yugi pressed against him.

Yugi watched it all in horror from his soul room, seeing the pain in his other that Kage wouldn’t notice. The fact that Yami had offered to take his place astonished him, and horrified him. He pressed his hands desperately against the mirror to the outside world, wishing there were some way to regain control of his body. He couldn’t let this happen . . . he knew, like Kage, that if he was taken now, Yami would not be far behind. His other wouldn’t leave him in Kage’s hands . . . which was the entire trap. If Yami came after them, Kage would have him too, and then they were all doomed. But there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it being trapped in his own mind, and silent crystal tears made their way down his pale face as he watched Yami step forward again.

“You know it is truly me that you want to break, Kage,” Yami murmured, watching his shadow back through the door through narrowed crimson eyes. His mind raced, trying to think of someway to stop Kage from taking his aibou. Physical attacks would not work . . . he had to resort to mental games, and he wasn’t exactly in the best condition for those. But they were his only option at the moment. “You have had your fun with Yugi . . . you have broken what we could have had, and left him with scars that will never heal. You have done your damage . . . but you have left me whole, Kage. Take me instead. You will not find me so easy to break.” Kage chuckled coldly, blood-eyes narrowing in derision as he glared at his lighter self.

“Please, Pharaoh . . . do you honestly take me for a fool? You are even more broken than your aibou . . . if you weren’t, you would have been by his side, and the little one would not have had to go looking for you. You can’t bear to be near him . . . because you enjoyed every minute of what I – what WE – did to them all the last time.” He heard the quiet gasps from up above, and glanced upwards with a smirk before returning his gaze to the Pharaoh, who had frozen, the blood leaving his face as Kage revealed something he’d never wanted known. “You didn’t tell them, did you?” he said cheerfully. “They don’t know how much you enjoyed what was done to them . . . every minute of pleasure you got out of their pain.”

“NO!” Yami shouted, his hands clenching into fists at his side. “I didn’t enjoy it . . . not in the way you make it seem.” He shook his head slightly, crimson eyes closing tightly to block out the pain that flickered through him as his most horrible secret was revealed to his friends. There was also the tiny corner of him that resonated with what Kage had said. It was true . . . he was broken. If he had only stayed with Yugi, even having to keep his distance, this would not be happening. He felt Bakura come up beside him, and flinched slightly away from the pale thief, unwilling to have anyone near him at the moment. He was disgusted with himself, and the hatred he felt for his dark surged nearly out of control beneath the surface, but that was nothing compared to the dark despair that was threatening to swallow him whole at the thought of how his friends might feel about him now that they knew that horrible fact.

Yugi sobbed, pressing his hands desperately against the mirror, wanting to go to Yami and comfort his dark. He had seen the damage Kage’s comment had made, even if Kage himself had not yet realized it. Now his love was bleeding from wounds that had been left to fester in his heart for far too long, and he could never tell him how much it wasn’t his fault. After the dream that they had shared, it only made his inability to do so even more horrible.

“Yami,” he whispered. “Don’t do this to yourself.”

“Just let him go, Kage,” Yami whispered, his voice almost too low for anyone to hear. “You have done the damage you sought to do . . . take me in his place and be gone.” Kage laughed slightly, stepping over the edge of the door and outside the boundaries of the house.

“Oh, but there is so much more damage in leaving you here to imagine what I will be doing to him . . . and in facing the collapse of everything you hold dear, mighty Pharaoh. And that thought I like more than having you at my whim.”

Malik watched Kage back out the door, and internally debated what he was going to do. Marik was screaming at him from his soul room to stop this and protect Yugi . . . but if he did so, he would lose his only chance at gaining Kage’s trust to the point where he could help Yami destroy him. At the same time, however, he could not idly sit by and allow Kage to take the smaller man . . . not if he wanted a chance to prove himself to his own hikari later on. Sighing, he summoned a knife into his hand, and spun on one heel, striking for Kage’s vulnerable, upraised arm.

Kage had been wary, however, and dragged Yugi outside even as he flung himself away from the attack, pulling the motionless body with him.

“I knew you had to be up to something when you wouldn’t banish your weaker self,” he snarled, pressing Yugi against his body as he glared at the violet eyed Egyptian angrily. “Why did you suddenly decide to side with the Pharaoh?” Behind him, Yami stood poised at the door, startled by the turn of events, but not allowing it to shift his focus from retrieving Yugi.

“Because I have my own amends to make and my own demons to face,” Malik snarled before launching himself at the Pharaoh’s shadow, just as Yami did the same. Kage snarled, flinging Yugi’s inert body at Malik as he turned to face the more dangerous adversary . . . his enraged other self.

Malik barely caught the slim figure, cradling the body automatically to his chest as he watched the two tri-haired men go down in a flurry of limbs, the vision of Yami’s enraged face burned into his vision. He had never seen the Pharaoh so angry . . . nor so bent on total destruction. Even against him, Yami had held back . . . this, then, was the true Pharaoh, the one who would give his life to protect those he cared for.

“Pharaoh!” he snapped. The crimson eyes flickered to him for a single moment . . . long enough for him to throw his dagger to an upraised tan hand. He watched the long fingers curl around the hilt, snatching the weapon out of thin air before snapping it around to block a strike from the Rod.

“Too slow, my darkness,” Yami murmured coldly, pressing back as the blades locked, glaring down into the blood-red eyes of his shadow as they battled silently for control. “You have lost your edge.”

“You, Pharaoh, never had one,” Kage growled in reply, eyes narrowing as the control wavered between them. “Your one weakness was also your greatest strength . . . and I have broken both.”

“You may have broken me . . .” Yami snarled back, “But you will never . . . break . . . Yugi . . . again!” He grunted as a knee impacted with his sternum, bending over the blow and losing what little control he had taken. He barely managed to escape the follow up swipe with the Millennium Rod, which still managed to open a nasty gash along his side. Swearing under his breath in Egyptian, he launched himself at Kage, only to spin on one heel and take the shadow by surprise when he was no longer directly in front, but off to one side.

Kage hissed as the keen edged knife Yami was wielding opened the skin along his ribs like cloth, but smirked when he caught Yami behind one knee with his foot, taking the Pharaoh to the ground. His weaker self rolled, getting out from under the downward blow of steel before coming back to his feet, tensed and ready, but favoring his injured side.

They circled each other warily, striking out to test the others defenses occasionally, trying to find the one weakness that they could exploit against each other. It was no use . . . they were too evenly matched, both skilled with the blades in their hands.

“Give up, my weaker self,” Kage murmured invitingly, almost conversationally as they watched each other for an opening in the others defenses. “Cease this foolishness. It’s hopeless anyway, to try to regain what was lost. They will never trust you again . . . our aibou fears your very presence, and they are disgusted by your pleasures. Come with me . . . join with me, become one with me, and I will give you peace.” Yami shook his head at the invitation, somehow not surprised that Kage was attempting this particular mind game.

“Do not fool yourself into believing I would fall for that, Kage,” he replied coldly, rolling his shoulders slightly to relieve the tension settling there more firmly with each passing moment. “Whatever comes of what is left of my life, joining you could only bring a worse pain . . . the pain of giving up. And I do not give up . . . not when it comes to protecting my friends. No matter what they may think of me, they are still friends, and still worthy of my life, if I have to give it for them.” He spied Bakura out of the corner of his eye, and smiled slightly as he maneuvered Kage into turning his back to the approaching thief.

Suddenly, he feinted a move to his right, forcing Kage into action as he spun on one foot to strike at the other side, the one that his dark had left unprotected. Kage had read the move, however, and had the Millennium Rod back into position to block, but Yami wasn’t overly concerned. As long as he kept his shadow’s attention upon him, Bakura could get closer and possibly end this before he tired. And he was getting tired, as much as he hid it well. The knife was beginning to grow awkward in his grasp, and he could feel his legs beginning to shake with the strain. He had not gotten nearly enough sleep in the last few days for this confrontation, and the stress of meeting with the others, as well as his confrontation with Yugi, had left him far more drained than he wished to admit to.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to get the chance he needed. Kage suddenly moved, surprising him when the shadow ducked low and brought the blade in at thigh level. Preoccupied with blocking the blade, he didn’t catch the leg sweep until it was too late, and he suddenly found himself on his back, Kage kneeling on his chest with the Rod’s long blade resting against his throat.

“Come a step closer, thief, and the Pharaoh dies,” Kage snarled over his shoulder. Bakura froze, his eyes hardening to angry red-brown flints as he glared at the Pharaoh’s darkness. Blood red eyes turned back to the prone form of Yami, a smirk crossing the sadistic features. “Did you honestly think I didn’t know he was there, Pharaoh? I’m not that stupid,” he chuckled. “What to do with you? So foolish, and yet still hopeful about things turning out alright in the end. I think, perhaps, it is time you truly learned who is the master and who is the slave.” He glanced over at Bakura, his gaze then roaming to Yugi, limp and lifeless in Malik’s arms. “Say goodbye, little Pharaoh . . . it is time for your lessons to begin.”

Yami’s eyes widened, and he began to struggle desperately as the shadows began to wrap around him and his darkness. He had a single moment to meet Bakura’s eyes as the thief ran toward them . . . and then the world went dark. His last conscious memory was of Bakura’s shout of denial . . . and Yugi screaming his name.


*-------*-------*--------*-------*


“YAMI!” Yugi screamed, finding himself suddenly back in control of his body just as Kage and his love disappeared into a swirl of purple mist and black shadows. “NO!” He managed to wriggle out of Malik’s grip, dashing past Bakura to fall to his knees in the spot that Yami had lay not moments before. “YAMI!” He slammed his fists into the ground, feeling the cool air against the dampness of his tears as he sobbed frantically, clawing at the ground as if he could dig his love back up from wherever Kage had taken him.

It was several moments before he realized that Bakura had a hold of his wrists, keeping him from doing more damage to himself as blood dripped from torn fingernails and the fragile pads of his fingers.

“Yugi, stop!” Bakura growled again, adding a shake to get the point across. “He’s gone! There’s nothing we can do now . . . not like that!” He winced as darkened amethyst eyes rose to meet his, the pain in them nearly unbearable when combined with his own sense of failure at having lost the Pharaoh.

“Kage . . . will kill him,” he whispered, his voice broken as he stared up at Bakura. He was surprised when Bakura shook his head, but then the thief’s next words slammed a dagger into his heart.

“Not kill him,” Bakura murmured. “Not just yet. Yami has to learn his ‘lesson’ first.” Amethyst eyes widened in horrified understanding before Yugi starting shivering, shaking his head and moaning in denial.

“Yami . . .” he moaned. He didn’t feel Bakura pick him up, nor was he even aware of being carried back up the stairs to his room by the thief. Whispered murmurs arose for a moment before his door closed, and his bed sank under someone’s added weight, but he didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore . . . nothing.

“Yami,” he whispered, and into the silence of his mind, he wept for his dark.


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