The Return

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

My beta's computer has imploded once again, and I'm lazy, so this is the unbetaed version of this chapter. The edited one will be posted as soon as that is possible.

As for chapter 18, I can't finish writing it until I have the script and blocking from episode 97. And because that is one of the few YGO episodes I don't have on tape, the chapter will depend on the caprice of KidsWB and Cartoon Network.

Amane isn't evil, just lonely.
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When Ryou woke up a few minutes later, he was back in his soul room. That was odd, but he supposed that he'd spent so much time in there recently that he just automatically returned when he fell asleep.

That's kind of pathetic, Ryou thought to himself as he st up up at the dark ceiling. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position.

Ryou didn't move for a while after that; he just stared blankly at the floor and blinked once in a while. Eventually he realized that his arm no longer hurt.

Are you alive? Ryou asked. There was no reply.

Ryou remained sitting for almost a minute longer, but finally he pushed himself onto his feet and walked towards the door.

It opened easily enough--there were no locks--and across the mindcorridor, Ryou could see the spirit's door clearly. So his other's room was still there.at hat had to mean something. Ryou didn't know what, but it had to mean something.

Stepping out into the corridor still took a lot of effort, but Ryou was so sick of his soul room that he was almost glad to leave it behind.

The spirit's door was cracked open, and when he pushed it slid inward easily.

The last time this had happened, it had been a trap. Ryou kept his hand on the cold stone of the door and debated.

Eventually he decided that, since the spirit hadn't killed him or otherwise the last time he'd been caught out in there, it probably wouldn't do so the second time either. He shoved the door open as wide as possible to let some of the strange light of the mindcorridor into the room, and stepped inside.

Ryou stayed along the eof tof the light until it rat, at, and once that happened he turned around and tried to find the flicker that had marked the partition he'd crossed last time.

He realized that someone was shouting. It was far away, but it sounded like Joey.

Ryou frowned and tried to focus on the sound, only to find himself slipping back into control of his body.

Ow.

"--let me at him!"

His arm hurt.

"All right, I think it's time to talk to Kaiba about getting Bakura back into the hospital as soon as possible."

Ryou was fine with that.

"Yeah, Tristan's right. Let's get some help for Bakura."

That was . . . Yugi? Oh, good. He might have judged wrongly about the other Yugi, but he still trusted the real one more.

Tristan and Téa said a few more things, but Ryou was tired and didn't care. He was about to return to the spirit's room when he heard Yugi gasp.

"Hold on, guys!"

Joey's voice was more quizzical than Ryou felt. "What's wrong, Yugi?"

"It's gone. Bakura's Millennium Ring."

. . . What?

"I don't get it, guys--he had it around his neck until the end of the duel. It disappeared."

So it had been . . . oh, crap.

Tristan muttered something about how the Ring came and went. Ryou was more awake by now (adrenaline would do that), but he was still distracted.

If the Ring was gone. . . . The last time he'd kept it off, it had nearly killed him. And he'd been healthy then--as bad as his injuries felt now, it would probably overtake him a lot sooner.

He had to find it. He had to find it now, before the side effects of the separation kicked in. As soon as they left. . . .

Ryou evened out his breathing a little more, pretending to still be asleep. He waited for the sound of the door clanging shut.

It came soon enough, but before Ryou could force himself to open his eyes and roll off the bed, he heard the scrape of a chair sliding across the floor.

What? Had someone stayed behind? Why. . . . Well, okay, they were probably afraid he was going to go into a coma or something. Considering how much his arm was throbbing when he simply lay still . . . if he looked as bad as he felt, Ryou couldn't blame them. Only he did, because he needed to find that damned Ring before it was too late.

. . . Until they left, he might as well look for the spirit. It could give him an idea where to look for the Ring. It would yell at him first for losing it, but as long as it helped him get the blasted thing back. . . .

Ryou pushed himself away from the pain in his arm and back into his mind, only faintly hearing Téa's giggle before he made his way back into the spirit's soul room. He didn't notice the strange pitch to her voice.

Hey, Ryou called. Are you here?

There was still no answer.

He called several more times as he was wandering in the large open area in front of the door, but no one replied. There weren't even any echoes, which was made more sense than it probably should have.

The flicker didn't seem to be there either, so Ryou finally picked an opening in the wall that looked familiar and went through it. The spirit would have to notice what he was doing eventually. Right?

. . . Hopefully the spirit would notice before Ryou got himself irreparably lost. He knew now that he could return to his body from inside here, and he never got hungry or thirsty while he was in his mind, but it didn't change the fact that he was willingly walking into a maze.

Ryou made sure to keis his hand against the wall, and he only took left turns when possible.

tyletyle='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>How strange. . . . It didn't get darker the further in that Ryou went, like he'd expected it to. Instead, there was just enough light coming from somewhere for him to be able to see, once his eyes had adjusted.

It probably helped that the walls had opened further and then disappeared somewhere. He couldn't remember when he'd stopped touching them, but his hand was hanging by his side now.

Ryou thought about looking behind them to see how far away the walls had gone, but he knew that if he looked back and there were no walls at all it would be disturbing, so he just kept walking forward.

There was something important that he'd meant to do, or that he'd been doing, or . . . something . . . but Ryou couldn't remember what it was. And the more he tried to remember the more indistinct it became.

Eventually he quit trying. Ryou shrugged and figured that he would get to it once he woke up.

He was still walking when he noticed someone standing further down the path. After he got a few steps closer Ryou recognized her, and he immediately began to smile and walk faster.

"Hi," he said pleasantly when he reached her; but Amane only crossed her arms over her chest and sulked up at him.

"I'm mad at you," she informed him. "You won't come play with me."

Ryou crouched down slightly to look her in the eyes. "I'm sorry," he told her honestly. "But I can't. Not yet."

Amane was still pouting at him, but it was fading. "Why not?"

Ryou reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Because I like being alive," he said quietly. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to catch you." He held out his hand. "But I'm here now, for a little while."

Amane looked at him for a few moments, but finally she unfolded her arms and sadly took his hand. Ryou straightened, and she tugged him off the path and into the grass. He followed, keeping his footsteps short so that he was in paith ith her.

"You don't write to me anymore," Amane whispered. "You don't talk to me. Nobody talks to me. I don't like it."

Ryou sighed. "I know. I'm sorry," he said again. "But . . . Father found those letters. He gets worried now if he sees me writing them."

Amane's hand tightened around his as they came nearer to a lake, but she didn't say anything. She just looked down at the ground.

"I guess it's okay," she told him aft whi while. "I didn't know what you were saying sometimes in them. You use too many big words, Ryou."

He sighed faintly. "Ah. Sorry about that."

Amane huffed. "Don't 'pologize so much. It makes you sound like a pansy."

"Amane, don't use words like that!" he admonished.

Amane blew a raspberry and giggled, stomping her feet to leave imprints in the damp dirt surrounding the lake. Ryou rolled his eyes. "Who taught you that word, anyway?" he grumbled.

"You know," she replied easily, and Ryou got a heavy feeling in his stomach.

They continued to walk along the edge of the lake, and eventually they spotted another figure standing further ahead. He was staring out at the water, watching the sunlight glint off the ripples in the middle, and one of his hands was tucked into his pocket.

Ryou stopped walking. Amane's hand slipped out of his as she began to trot forward.

"Come back here," he called to her, but she only waved for him over her shoulder. Ryou took a couple steps forward before stopping again. "Amane!"

Once she reached the other boy, Amane tugged on his free arm until he took her hand. Then she began walking into the lake, and pulled on him until he followed.

"No!" Ryou shouted, and he began running. But by the time he reached the spot, the two of them were already deep into the lake. Amane's bright hair floated on top of the dark liquid briefly, and then it disappeared. She had sunk beneath the surface.

Ryou stood at the edge of the lake, his hands clenched into fists.

"Give her back!" he yelled. "Ian!"

The boy turned and looked back at him, but the liquid was already up to his neck, and he kept allowing himself to be pulled forward. He watched Ryou until he sank beneath the surface as well.

"NO!" Ryou shouted again. He sank onto one knee and doubled over slightly, his fists clenching tighter as he reflexively jerked his arms up. The blood lapped into the hollow of the dirt made by his knee and started to soak into his jeans.

Then Ryou let his arms drop back down, and he stared at the dark liquid bleakly. There was a faint ripple in the blood where the boy and girl had sunk beneath, but no air bubbles broke the surface.

There was a chuckle behind him, and Ryou tensed.

"It's so easy to get inside," said a voice that was deep and evil and completely unfamiliar to Ryou, "when there's so much hate to follow."

Ryou unclenched his hands slowly. Then he leaned forward and dipped them in the lake.

There was a clang of metal, and something sharp pressed against his neck. "Still such an open wound," the voice chuckled as its blade cut a thin, sharp line across the nape of his neck. Ryou bit his lip at the pain, but he still tensed his legs and cupped his hands below the dark liquid.

Just a few seconds, please, he thought. Then he shoved himself onto his feet--ignoring the way the knife sliced across the skin of his neck--and spun around, flinging the blood at the person's face. He caught a blur of blond and purple and black, and then he ran.

Ryou heard a faint growl behind him, and then there was nothing but the sound of his feet hitting the ground.

His sneakers were just the normal kind, not running shoes, and that counted against him. So did the terrain; the dirt was blood-soaked and sucked os shs shoes with each step. The grass was gone.

Ryou kept his eyes on the ground as he ran. He was a little afraid of tripping over the bones, but it was the organs and the pieces of flesh that scared him the most--if he slipped on those, he would die. He had no idea how near or far behind him the stranger was, but he knew it was chasing him, and if he fell he would never get back onto his feet before it reached him.

He ran for nearly a minute, but he never saw the path, or the walls, or the spirit's soul room. Just blood and bodies. The ground was still dragging at his shoes and making it harder to move.

And he hadn't stretched before this. That was really, really going to cost him. Even if he didn't fall, Ryou wasn't sure how long he was going to be able to keep going before he got a stitch in his side.

He saw the feet approximately less than a second before he was caught by the person they were attached to.

Ryou didn't bother to look up. He didn't need to. He sank onto his knees again and closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around his other's leg.

The spirit snarled and wrenched on his good arm, shoving Ryou behind him. One of his hands landed on something slippery and bleeding, and Ryou squeezed his eyes shut tighter.

There was a squelch from the ground as his other took a step forward. "Mine," he hissed. "Get out."

The only reply was a dark chuckle, and it was so close. . . . Ryou shuddered and pulled his legs closer to his body.

"But his pain makes him so easy to take," the stranger said, his voice oozing promises that made Ryou's instincts scream for him to start running again. "His pain and his hatred are so . . . exciting. . . ."

"Get out!" the spirit yelled, and then there was a flash of light so bright that Ryou could see it through his eyelids.

There was another growl, but he didn't know which one of them it came from. Then it was quiet.

Ryou realized that the panting he heard was his own, and wondered how far he'd run in this nightmare place.

Then there were hands on his shoulders, and the spirit yanked Ryou onto his feet and shook him hard. It made his neck hurt more.

"You little idiot!" The spirit shook him again, and Ryou opened his eyes. His other's lips were thinned bwithwith anger, and he looked completely ready to kill Ryou himself. "What the hell were you thinking, letting him in here?!"

Ryou looked down at the spirit's chest, and saw the Ring lying there. The gold still gleamed faintly.

Then Ryou let his knees buckle underneath him, and he sagged in the spirit's grip. Please take ut out of here, he said dully.

The spirit's fingers tightened around his shoulders for a moment. Then they loosened. It swore, damned Ryou's soul to Ereshkigal again, turned him around, and began shoving him forward and to the left. Ryou closed his eyes and didn't open them until he felt himself walking on stone instead of sodden dirt.

His other half pushed thr through the maze that hid the secrets of its soul room, and Ryou walked mechanically and waited for his heartbeat to slow down again.

The spirit took its hand off of Ryou's back once they reached the open area in front of the door to its soul room. The door was still wide open, and Ryou kept walking, ready to get out. But as soon as he was inside the light that spilled through the doorway, the spirit grabbed his left arm, right over his bandages.

"Unh!" Ryou cried as the pain suddenly returned, but the spirit only tightened his grip and yanked him back a step. He gathered Ryou's hair in a lopsided ponytail and pulled it away his neck.

Ryou bit his lip hard to distract himself, and stood still.

". . . hn. You won't bleed to death; it could have been worse." His other lifted the ponytail a little higher, and eyed the wound critically. Then he let go you'you's injured arm and used that hand to rip off the chunk of dead skin that the stranger's knife had sliced away from Ryou's neck.

Ryou's legs threatened to collapse again, this time not deliberately, so the spirit caught him by the left arm. Only this time it grabbed his elbow, before taking a step closer and coming up flush behind him.

Ryou broke the skin of his lip and stopped biting it with a hiss. He locked his knees in place so they wouldn't buckle.

His other half chuckled under his breath at that. He pushed the hair over Ryou's shoulder, and for a few moments he simply ran his fingers through it, undoing the tangles that had deped ped during the course of the day and the last few minutes. Ryou swallowed once, but held still. He didn't have much of a choice--the spirit's grip on his elbow was tight despite the mild actions of its other hand.

Then the spirit twisted a few strands of Ryou's hair around his fingers before placing his mouth against the edge of the cut.

He ran his tongue slowly and roughly along the line, but he stopped before he reached the large tear. Instead, he moved down and licked away the thin trail of blood that was dribbling from the spot.

Ryou shivered violently. The spirit chuckled again--he could feel it against his skin better than he could hear it.

The spirit pressed a kiss to the vertebra below the cut, and tugged lightly on the strands around his fingers. Ryou bent his head.

With a noise that bordered on approval, his other half slid his fingers through Ryou's hair one last time before pushing it almost gently over the teenager's right shoulder. He shifted just enough to press another kiss to the exposed corner of Ryou's jawbone.

"Hey!"

Ryou jerked his head up in surprise, and saw a blur of blond and white before he winced at the sharp pang in his neck. The spirit shoved him to the side and took a half step in front of him, and Ryou had to look over its shoulder at the second stranger in his mind.

. . . ?

Ryou blinked. "Na--?"

"What do you want, Marik?" the spirit interrupted.

Ryou blinked again.

"You have to help me," the other teenager said. His voice was different than Ryou remembered.

"No," the spirit replied.

Marik's hands clenched. "My other personality . . . he took over. If I don't--he's going to go after Odion! You al'>have to help me!"

His other smirked. "No," he repeated.

Marik's expression was turning violent, but he kept grasping at straws. "Look," he said a moment later, "he's trying to kill the pharaoh. Who would you prefer to get the Puzzle from: King Yami, or my evil side?"

The spirit stilled at that, and stared at Marik. Then he started snickering.

"'King Yami'?" he repeated, before laughing out-right. Marik frowned at him in perplexity. Ryou stared at him as well, and took a small step to the side.

[Well, Seth-Peribsen. . . . I suppose you're still 'dark,' heh heh,] Ryou overheard him say before he laughed again.

The spirit got control of himself quickly, though, and managed to look at Marik with a straight face again. He moved back and leaned an arm on Ryou's shoulder, effectively turning the teenager into a piece of furniture. "Why should I help you?" he asked with amusement. "I could just as easily take the Rod from him, if he's only half of yourself. You have nothing left to bargain with."

"I took control of Téa and had her take the Millennium Ring," Marik told him. "I can make her return it to you."

"You left my Ring in the hands of the girl," the spirit said flatly. "That will certainly make it difficult to get back. It's not like I can just overpower her."

Marik clenched his fists tightly at the mocking sarcasm. The spirit's smirk widened marginally.

Then Marik's hands loosened. The blond paused, clenched them again, and then grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head. He turned around.

At first Ryou didn't understand what he was seeing. Beside him, the spirit stilled again, but this time it didn't laugh.

[Those creatures. . . .]

"My family. . . ." Malik's voice was rough until he swallowed. "My family passpassed down the secrets of the pharaoh's power and the ancient scriptures for centuries. Help me, and I'll tell you what they are."

The spirit moved away from Ryou and took a step forward. At that, Marik jerked around again and wrenched his shirt back over his head. The look he gave the spirit was vicious; the blond looked cornered, angry and ashamed of what he'd had to bargain with.

Ryou almost pitied him.

"Help me," he repeated. "I won't tell you anything until then."

The spirit's smirk had twisted to a sneer. "You don't even know his name, and you're trying to haggle with information." After a pause, though, he snorted. "Well--it's something. Tell me what you want and I'll see if it's worth the effort."

"I want you to use the Shadow Realm to kill him. I . . . want my body back."

For some reason, Marik's voice had lapsed on that last sentence. The spirit raised an eyebrow and folded his arms over his chest, but Ryou couldn't tell what he was thinking--he'd cut the teenager off from his thoughts again.

"I see," his other finally said with a new smirk. He unfolded his arms and shoved Ryou in the shoulder. "Get out," the spirit told him, before directing its attention back to Marik. "Give me my Ring and more details, and I'll 'get your body back' for you."

"We have to hurry," Marik said. "It's going to go after Odion."

The spirit waved a hand casually. "Yeah, y" He loe looked over at Ryou. "I told you to get out!"

Ryou walked to the door. He took a wide path around Marik as he did so. The other teenager glanced as him briefly as he went past, but Ryou was staring straight forward and didn't see what expression, if any, Marik had in his eyes.

He didn't bother to shut the door when he entered his own soul room. He just walked around it to the side where the hinges attached to the frame--the best place to remain unseen--and slumped against the wall.

He could hear the voices speaking just across the hall, but the words were made indistinct by the difference.

Ryou pulled his legs up to his chest and draped his arms over them. The blood on his hands hadn't fully dried yet, and the blood that had soaked into his jeans made them cling irritatingly to his legs; and there was dirt and bits of flesh crusted on his pants as well. He ignored it all.

A few minutes later, almost as an afterthought, the door to Ryou's soul room was slammed shut.


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