I'll Cover You Reprise

Title: I'll Cover You ~Reprise~

By: KuroSakura-chan

Summary: Things had been going well. Kaiba Corp. basically ran itself, Mokuba had plenty of friends, and Seto had Bakura. And then, one night, it all changed.

Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Genre: Angst, Drama, Romance,

Couples: Seto/Bakura,

Warnings: Yaoi,

Disclaimer: I do not own YGO.
…
-Bakura-

I'm glad I chose a seedy motel to house me during this. Otherwise, my screams might have alerted someone who would call the authorities. It'd be difficult to explain this whole splitting thing. After all, it isn't normal for a person to split from another.

Then again, few things in Domino are normal. After all, there are two three-thousand year-old spirits wandering around with their own bodies, as well as Marik, a creation of Malik's anger and sorrow. So I don't think that we all qualify as normal.

Not that it particularly matters at this point in time, since I've bitten through my lip in failed attempts to keep my howls of pain quiet. I can feel my skin stretching and tearing as it tries to make enough skin to become two people. The Ring is throwing its magic at the problem, helping to heal the tearing skin, and thus make more. If it weren't for the Ring, this process would probably kill me.

I've been brutally tortured before, but this pain eclipses all I've ever felt before. So much so that I pass out before the splitting is complete.

I wake once, very drowsy, and see Akefia sitting beside me, watching the T.V. I feel a brief bit of panic at seeing this, but with the haze I'm thinking through, I don't know why. He glances over at me, and I try to say something, but I'm being pulled back into the depths of sleep. He watches me drift off, and the last thing I see is a smirk on his sun-tanned face. Now how is it fair that he gets to be tan...?

The next time I wake, I'm immediately on edge. Akefia isn't in the room. There is, however, a note beside me.

Most of it is drivel about how strange this time is, and is written in hieroglyphics. The important part, however, is written in Japanese.

/I am going to retrieve Set./

I don't know how he learned Japanese, but at the moment, that's not my problem. They're all in danger. Mokuba, Ryou, Seto...I have to get back to Domino before he does.

I open my link with Ryou, originally closed so he couldn't feel any pain and panic, so I can warn him and the others. Except the first thing I feel is Ryou's heightened emotions of panic and worry. He is worrying for me, and panicking because...Oh, Ra, no.

Akefia is already there.

I must've slept for quite awhile if he managed to get back to Domino already. I have to hurry back to Domino...

I focus on the Ring; the actual Ring back around Ryou's neck. All the hikaris have the actual Items, since we yamis don't need to have them to tap into their power. It always looks like the yamis have them, though, to protect our hikaris. The Ring responds to my mental brush, and Ryou realizes I'm tapping into it.

I feel his joy fill our link, but I ignore that for what I need to do. I hate transporting myself like this, but it's necessary at the moment. I take a deep breath and let go of my consciousness, allowing my body to fade so I can return to the Ring. Once back there, I focus on my consciousness again, reforming my body beside Ryou.

The whole precess is actually complete in about the blink of an eye, but it eats energy like nothing else. Ryou gasps as my legs give out under me, but Marik catches me before I can hi the ground. I let myself collect a bit of energy, ignoring the looks and questions being thrown at me, then push myself out of Marik's grasp. I stalk over to where Seto is standing at the head of the stairs, Akefia a few steps below him.

I put myself between the two, and find myself annoyed that Akefia is a few inches taller than I am. That isn't the problem at hand, of course, but I'm having trouble concentrating.

Which is apparently obvious by Akefia's laugh.

“You are still injured.” He says in stilting Japanese. So, he's still having trouble speaking. “You should not be up.”

“Don't speak to me like you care.” I hiss, glaring death at him. “I won't let you near Seto.”

Akefia frowns and glances at Seto, then back at me. His eyes then look over at Ryou, and I growl in warning. Immediately, his eyes are back on me. “I don't believe this...You really have developed a...” Akefia pauses, frowning. He can't think of the Japanese equivalent of whatever he wants to say, apparently. So he motions to his chest, where his heart is, and where my knife should be, if I could just find the energy to place it there.

“Of course Bakura has a heart!” Ryou declares, coming down to stand beside me, though my warning glare keeps him behind me.

“That's hardly true.” A deep voice from the group behind me says. “Look, Seto, he's brought the actual Tomb Robber back. How is that appropriate?” I hadn't realized that the Pharaoh is here.

“No one asked your opinion, Pharaoh.” Seto's angry voice makes me feel wonderful. I wish I could explain...

“He has developed one. He didn't have one originally. Zorc took part of me to create him, and a heart was conveniently left out. But, being around you-” Akefia motions to Ryou. “and Set-”

“Seto.” I growl, cutting him off.

“Seto,” Akefia amends. “has given him one. I suppose I had no reason to come back after all.”

“You...You came back to do what? Protect us from Bakura?” Ryou asks tentatively. Akefia nods. “Then yeah, you have no reason to be here. Bakura is like my big brother now that Zorc is taken care of, and though he'll probably never say it, he loves Seto more than anything.”

I manage to fight down anything that might be called a blush, but my anger flares as the Pharaoh snorts. Before I can do anything that would probably end in myself getting mind-crushed, Yugi steps in.

“Yami, that's enough! You have no reason to act this way, just because you're jealous! I'm sorry, everyone. I'm going to take him home.” Yugi says, dragging the Pharaoh past me. He gives me a smile before glaring at the resisting Pharaoh. A part of me is proud of Yugi while another is perturbed.

Of course, all of me is annoyed as my vision goes blurry before everything goes dark.

A/N: Hm, I was planning to finish this fic with this chapter, but my fic-writing personality insists on making it five chapters, and says that that was a good place to end it. R&R, please!

Next chapter:
-Seto-