Nobody Lives Happily Ever After

Nobody Lives Happily Ever After
By Evil Mj


Disclaimer: I don't own Yugi-oh, or anything related to it.

Warning- actually this chapter is pretty tame by my standards, weird but tame

SOOOO....can you believe I updated in days, not months..shockers!

Dragonmer mer Yamidragon - thanks chicky for the editing !! Sorry about Tris, couldn't help myself

Lady Elfskye - *blushes* sorry about the long absense....life got in the way. Promises to do better
Draconyx - Thanks!! I just love gore...I suppose that should worry me. NAH
Kat- Well, thanks!! I hope that you enjoy the ending..such as it is, only one chapter left to go after this one.

Enjoy

~*~*~**~*~

Chapter Nineteen

The air around the ruins seemed to pulse with magnetic charge, Tristan could feel the hair on his arms rising as an unnatural wind seemed to pick up and howl around them like a wounded animal. He was sure that Bakura’s eyes were glowing as he regarded them all.

“Wait.” Tristan yelled over the sound of the wind. “I thought you said that we all had to be present for this to work. Where’s Tea?” An ugly look crossed over Bakura’s face and he turned towards Ryou.

“Bring her.” He commanded, causing Ryou to jump. He quickly ran to the door at the back of the abandoned building and lead out Tea. She was still securely shackled at the wrists and the ankles, a thick chain looped through each cuff so that she had to shuffle slowly to walk. Her expression was unreadable, almost normal as she emerged from the dark.

“Aww….look it. Were all together again. Isn’t this fun. Maybe later we can play cards and braid each others hair.” She cooed mockingly, winking at Mai and Isis.

“Shut up, bitch, before I gag you.” Bakura snarled before turning his attention back to the task at hand. Tea giggled, her eyes darting around at the group before her.

“Tristan, come forward. It is time to open the door to the shadow realm. For this we will need your blood.” Tristan walked forward and held his arm over the huge bowl that had been placed on the dais, his expression stony.

“Go ahead Bakura, take what you will.”

Bakura raised an eye brown, his expression mocking.

“Perhaps another time, for now your blood will do fine.” He began to speak in a sing song voice, his words foreign he the took the knife from Tristan’s hand and drew it across the proffered arm. Tristan hissed sharply at the initial bite of the blade, it was cold and seemed to go right down to the bone.

As his blood trickled into the bowl he could feel his heart starting to beat faster, panic making him pant and gasp for breath.

he could hear himself scream, although his mouth never opened to free the words in his mind. He looked up to Bakura, his eyes beseeching, belying the words he could not free.

Bakura held his gaze, his grip on Tristan’s arm like iron, unwilling to release him. “It has to be this way Tristan. Remember, you agreed to this, you agreed to give yourself if required.”

Tristan moaned from the pit of his soul and tried to free his arm, but his strength disappeared as if it had drained into the bowl with his life’s blood. His vision began to shrink and darken as if he was looking down a long tunnel, his hearing muffled. Around him his friends watched, unaware of his panic, standing frozen like statues watching him slowly slip away.

And then he was gone.

*~*~*~*~*~

Joey could feel his heart beating faster, the quick beats that pound in your chest when you experience something frightening, horribly frightening. But he was not afraid. He looked around at each of his friends and realized that they must be feeling the same way as their expressions began to change and mirror his own.

His body began to tingle with electric charge, every nerve alive and raw as if a single touch would cause an unbearable sensation. The wind buffeted his body and whipped at his clothes, tearing and grasping like an unseen hand.

Suddenly the fear was replaced with longing, the most deep and painful feeling he had ever experienced, it made him want to clutch at his heart and cry out. He wanted him so bad, so bad that it consumed him. Violet eyes that looked deep into his own, knowing his secrets, his equal, his other half. Such need, such desire…he wanted it so badly. He turned to Kaiba and then realized that these feelings did not belong to him at all, and from the look of horror that crossed Seto’s face he must have realized that he was open for all to scrutinize. Joey couldn’t tear his gaze from his nemesis; the truth was beyond anything ever imagined, the self loathing, the all consuming desire, the perversity of his need.

Suddenly, like the shifting of the wind his thoughts and emotions changed direction, now he could feel sadness and loss. Longing for something he once had but could never have again, despite the fact that he could see it, touch it. A love that was so strong it would never die. Tears streamed down his face as he turned to Mai.

She tried to downcast her eyes but could not and he longed to go and take her in his arms but found himself held fast, unable to move. He could feel the shame and remorse for letting her marriage fall apart, and for the first time he realized how much she blamed herself, and how much she had always needed him. It was like a knife in his heart. Her chin trembled at the emotions that were brought up from the most hidden part of her soul. He would always love her, and for the first time in years he began to accept how much damage he had caused, regret like a worm eating at his gut.

He watched Mai’s expression change from sorrow to shock as the focus once again changed. This time the emotion was torn and confused, pulled between the love of two men and the desire to do what was right. He watched Mai as the realization her, her expression both accusatory and hurt. She looked toward Isis and he knew that at that moment they were all experiencing the secrets that no one wanted to share. He looked at Seto and was shaken at the look of pure naked hatred that crossed his face.

Suddenly he felt like he was being turned inside out, exposed and vulnerable. All eyes were on him, studying him as all his fears, desires were bared. He turned again towards Mai and for the first time felt relief as he saw understanding slowly replace the look of anger and hurt. Her eyes softened and she gave him a tremulous smile as she realized the depth of his emotion and love for her.

Rage, pure strong rage. He despised the weakness of his mortal body, the limitations imposed on him. He wanted nothing more than power, the ability to rule those around him and to take all that he desired. Nothing would stand in his way. And as quickly as it started he felt self loathing, hatred of his weakness, the inability to stand up against the one person who he felt the most emotion. Somewhere between love and hate, he felt lost, something was missing, something he needed more than anything else in the world. He wanted his soul back, his lover and his jailer.

The madness was the worst, the all consuming rage, the hatred. He could feel himself itching, the need to hurt those around him, to feed from their pain. He felt cheated, a future that he deserved had been denied him by those around him and they didn’t care. Selfish, gluttonous, not one of them appreciated what they had, and he wanted nothing more than to take everything from them and watch them suffer as he destroyed them. He locked eyes with Tea and realized from the satisfied grin on her faced that she was nothing like the others. She did not feel shame or embarrassment, she relished in the ability to share he innermost feelings with those around her, knowing the horror they were experiencing right now.

The wind suddenly stopped and there ere enfolded in darkness, no sound reached their ears as if they had been transported into unknown dimension. He tried to see the others but the chilling darkness prevented this and he realized that at this moment each one of them was facing their respective tasks. From the somewhere in the distance he could hear Bakura chanting again.

“Joey.” He could hear Ryou’s voice in his mind, soft and gentle. “You have to see past the dark. You have to find Yugi.”

Tentatively Joey began to walk and then realized that although he was moving freely, he could not see or feel his body. He could move through time and space unfettered by the bonds of his corporeal form. He could sense the presence of the others in the group, still tied to him, protecting him, urging him forward, and reminding him of his task. He realized then that if his attention wavered from what he was doing even a moment then he would be lost to the shadow realm forever. It was then that his search began in earnest.

~*~*~*~*~*

It had been so long. He could not ascertain if it had been a second or a lifetime but he could no longer remember who he was or had been. There was something, every now and again he was treated to a glimpse of a former life. Faces would dance in and out of his memory, almost close enough to touch, so familiar to him, and yet he could not speak their names.

Then the dark would come and he could feel the torment all over again. Reliving the moment when he ended his life. He could hear their voices in his mind urging him to play his card, to destroy his enemy. Then he could hear their screams as he destroyed them all. He knew they must be dead because they weren’t with him any more, he felt despair all over again and wanted to weep but was not allowed. He could feel, oh Gods he could feel…..

Then he saw something in the dark, he feared it was the demons again, faceless monsters that tore at his flesh and feasted on his soul. It was such agony, made worse by the fact that he had to face the torment each night alone…always alone. He peered from his private nightmare to the presence before him.

“Yug?” The voice was soft and familiar. He struggled to pull away, fearful that this was just another way to torment him, a new game for the evil. He whimpered and tried to move away.

“Yugi, it’s me, it’s Joey. I’ve come to take you home.”

The pathetic creature before Joey could only be described as a shadow of his former friend. He looked like one of the denizens of the shadow realm, grey and lifeless, his skin shrunken against bone, his expression wary and defeated. Joey struggled against the despair that radiated off his former friend, it tried to suck him in, its touch both chilling and seductive in its nature.

“Yug, we have to you outta here. You can’t stay here any longer.” Yugi regarded him, his eyes no longer the vibrant violet Joey remembered, they were now a cloudy grey, dark circles made them seem to recede deep within his skull.

“You sound like someone I once knew. But I won’t fall for that one again. You won’t fool me.” He clutched at a piece of the broken puzzle that once hung from his neck. “You just want the puzzle, they all want the secrets of my puzzle, but I never gave them up.”

Joey knelt down before his friend and reached out his hand. “Yug, you have to trust me, you have to trust us to help you. Let us help you. Let us bring you home.” Yugi looked up at him, naked desire on his face.

“Home….I want to go home…please.” He whimpered, tears streaming down his face. “Are you really going to take me home?” He reached out and touched Joeys’ face tentatively like a small child.

Joey could feel the presence of Isis and Mai, their love and strength working through him.

He wrapped him arm around the skeletal form and bit back the waiver in his own voice.

“Yeah, Yug, I’m gonna take you home.”

~*~*~*~*~*

“Seto, I told you a time would come when you would be required to give something of yourself.” Bakura’s gravely voice filled the air. Seto regard him coolly.

“What do you need, I’m not afraid.” Regal as ever Seto refused to let this thief try to scare him. Bakura would always be beneath him.

“Such bravado in the face of the unknown. How proud we all are.” Bakura ridiculed. “How brave will you be when you have to give up half your soul.” Seto’s perfect façade began to falter at the realization of Bakura’s comments.

“Half my soul?” He repeated, unsure of what he was hearing.

“Yes Kaiba, half your soul. When Yugi was sent to the Shadow Realm his connection to Yami was broken and his own soul was ripped apart in the process, his mortal essence died and he was left a wraith in the supernatural realm. For him to return he is going to need to a soul…your soul.” Seto blanched and clenched his fists, the thought of being unable to control his own destiny made him beyond furious.

“So be it.” He snarled his acquiescence. Bakura smiled and reached out his hand, placing it over Seto’s heart.

He began to recite the ceremony that he had spent years memorizing and studying. The power of the incantation traveled through his body, into his arm like a bolt of lightening. Seto screamed, his voice raw with both the emotion and the pain of the violation of his spiritual being. He had never felt such loss, such emptiness; he could not control his emotions and struggled to keep from weeping like a child. The heat that centred around Bakura’s touch was white hot and seared him, marring his flesh and marking him. His sacrifice forever etched on his flesh.

“Oh Gods, Bakura, stop.” He pleaded, his precious control now gone; he felt shame at having reduced himself to this pathetic wretch, begging for mercy. He was Seto Kaiba, he begged no one. He heard Bakura’s voice reach its crescendo and all the pain stopped with a single word.

“NOW.”

A blast of light and a sound that rocked the very foundation of the structure that they were standing on, and they were all returned to where they had begun.

Isis and Mai were holding on to Seto, holding him upright, too weak to stand. His shirt ripped open, Bakura’s handprint burned onto his chest, his breath came in ragged wheezes as he struggled to retain his strength. He felt so different, no longer bereft and suffering as when Bakura tore his soul in two, now he felt complete and strong. No longer alone.

He raised his head to look at those before him and gasped in shock. Joey was kneeling on the ground, his arms around the naked form of a slight teen. He was thin and almost skeletal in appearance, but Seto would recognize his form anywhere.

“Yugi” He breathed, his heart pounding with the recognition.

Nearby, Tristan lay on the ground, unmoving, Tea sat beside him, her face in her hands, weeping.

~*~*~*

I suppose you are wondering what that last line means......
Cliffee time ....BWAHAHHAHAH !!!