Characters: Yami no Yuugi & Yami no Bakura & Yami no Malik (Yamishipping)
Rating: PG, a little violence, mention of blood
Summary: A game can be played in several ways... and sometimes a game can't be won from the start.
Author's Notes: None.
I know something is wrong the moment I open my eyes... or at least, when I try to open my eyes. I feel a little woozy, sluggish, and the pounding headache is not a good sign. My limbs feel heavy, as if they're weighed down; I can barely move.
Pain. I feel pain. Slow, dull, throbbing, and it's not the aforementioned headache. I try to locate the pain: my arms, cramped, raised upwards in an uncomfortable, unnatural position. I wriggle my fingers and realize my hands are tied. What is going on? Whatever ties my hands together, it's cutting into my skin, and an annoyed sound escapes me.
"Is he awake?"
That voice. My headache intensifies, it's hard to think coherently. I rack my brain for memories, feverishly tracing back to whatever - or whoever - is responsible for all of this. I can't come up with a plausible explanation for my arms being tied above my head, for barely touching the ground, and hearing that voice I don't want to hear. A voice I'm not supposed to hear.
"Take your time, Pharaoh."
"Bakura," I say, my voice raspy. To my own surprise, someone (Bakura himself?) holds a glass of water to my lips and as he tilts it, I'm able to drink. I would rather not accept anything from the thief, but my body screams for hydration, and so I drink. The cold water refreshes my entire system. I attempt to open my eyes again, and this time, I succeed. This...is a strangely familiar environment. Dark, cloudy, strings of purple and dark blue, no real, solid form... this is the Shadow Realm. "Is this one of your dark RPG's?"
No answer. No more water. My mind is racing a mile a minute now. I can ignore the pain, and I focus to my surroundings. The Shadow Realm. This has to be a shadow game. But what kind? I don't see any kind of playing field. Is it a duel? No, I can't move my arms, I can't draw or play a card. But if this is truly the Shadow Realm, I can call my monsters into existence right here, I wouldn't be needing a duel disk.
"Bakura!" My voice is stronger, harsher. "Answer me!"
"I'm right here."
"What are you doing? What is going on?"
"My my, so many questions." He stands right in front of me, completely at ease, not hiding in his beloved shadows.
"Release me, thief," I hiss at him. "If this is your sick idea of a game..."
He reaches for me, his fingers on my face, and his thumb trails along my lips, still wet from the water I drank earlier. It's shocking how freely he touches me, and how... warm it feels. It's impossible, it's abnormal. I turn my head away from him.
"Tsk tsk, don't be shy."
I don't want to look at him. Now that my full conscious has returned, I wonder where Yuugi is. If I'm in the Shadow Realm, where is he? My partner, my aibou? Did something happen to him?
"I know what you're thinking." Bakura's voice is taunting me, the words dancing around my ears. I haven't gathered my bearings totally yet, and I feel weak and vulnerable. My worries about Yuugi and my friends increase. The thief managed to tear out their souls once already, what had he done this time? "Your precious friends are safe. Your precious vessel is safe."
"I do not believe you." I also don't believe myself. That finger on my lips, that touch... it was intimate and intimidating at the same time. What is it doing to me? "What have you done to them?"
He shrugs. He doesn't answer me. My mind takes me back to the first voice I heard, the voice I definitely heard, but... doesn't make any sense. "Is he awake?"
"You are not alone, are you?" Of course, the thief chooses silence, instead of answering me. I decide to look at him after all, if only to match his constant, scrutinizing glare. My arms are all but numb now, and my legs... if I stretch my toes, I can touch the ground, whatever ground it is, but just barely. My restraints aren't of the common kind, I'm afraid; this is magic at work. But if this is a game, it has to have rules. Every game has rules. There's an exit to every game, I just have to find it.
His silence drives me insane. It's not like him, to be silent. Usually, Bakura of Darkness talks about his plans, about his goals, about his hatred for me, about everything - but not silence. It starts to frighten me. There's a knot in my stomach tying itself over and over again. Something is wrong. The first voice... I'm detecting an ominous presence. The Shadow Realm isn't exclusively Bakura's turf. I dwelled here too, before Yuugi solved the Puzzle and called me back into the land of the living... sort of.
"Untie me!" I command. "Explain the rules of the game to me, or let me go!"
"You're not here to command," the first voice calls out to me, and tan, long fingers grab my chin, forcing my face upwards. "You're here to obey."
I gasp and heave, as total shock takes control of my body. Malik no yami no jinkaku is here. He is not supposed to be alive in the first place, but his fingers are digging into my skin, I can feel it, I can't pull away from the force he uses, tilting my head so I have no other choice but to look at him.
"Pretty pretty Pharaoh," he says, "do you still think this is a game?"
I do not know, I want to say, because if this is a game, it's one of the most vilest, twisted and weirdest I've ever encountered.
"Is it?"
"I do not know," I answer truthfully. What else can I say? My mind is running in circles. If he's here, where's the real Malik? Or the real Bakura, for that matter? In the Shadow Realm, our bodies are solid, physical. I turn my head away from him, but he forcefully turns it back, fingers digging into my skin harshly.
"You are hurting me..!"
"That's the point." Amused, of course. He likes to inflict pain, he likes to see others in pain. He has no connection to the darkness but the hatred and anger that gave birth to him, he's not a soul that transcended through millennia. My shadow powers should be able to overwhelm him, but I'm incapacitated and weak. My body isn't answering to me the way I want to, it reacts strongly to the touch, even if it's painful. I shiver.
"How does it feel, Pharaoh?" Bakura doesn't share Malik no yami no jinkaku's amusement, but he looks at me with... a different kind of pleasure. The pleasure of humiliating me, of course. I can't move, my body is in pain, and there's no game at stake; what am I supposed to do? To make matters worse, I have to trust his word that my friends are safe, that Yuugi is safe. The pain is bearable. Tolerable. As long as I'm the one suffering, and not my friends... but then my head is yanked upwards again, and it's painful, and I growl.
"He asked you a question," his voice so close to my ear, his breath washing over the right side of my face. I want to feel disgusted, yet I gasp uncontrollably, which amuses him even more.
"It feels unnatural," I answer. "This should not be happening. This cannot be happening."
"You have your own body now." Malik no yami no jinkaku puts his hand on my face. It's a surprisingly warm touch, considering where we are. "You should be enjoying it."
"That would require freedom of movement," I snap back, but my voice sounds strange to my own ears. I sound tired, exhausted even. My current position isn't helping matters. "You," I look at Malik of Darkness, "you are not even supposed to exist. And you," I look at Bakura, "you hatched some kind of evil scheme and..."
I cut myself off as Bakura reaches for me, and for a moment I think he's going to punch me. I close my eyes, mentally bracing myself for the hit - but it doesn't come. Instead, his fingers touch my neck, just above the choker. With a flick of his fingers, he unties it and the item falls on the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"You keep thinking this is all a game," Bakura says. He has closed the distance between us, standing so close to me that it almost scares me. "But you're already the winner. It's such a shame that you don't realize it."
"I..." I don't get it. A lot of things are a mystery to me; I don't even know my own name, and I have barely any memories. But one thing is clear to me: this shouldn't be happening. How in the world did they work together without tearing each other's throat out, how in the world have they constructed this game... or whatever it is... and catching me into their web? And to my horror, I realize that Malik of Darkness has been touching me the entire time, and I don't even turn away from him. My arm, my shoulder... despite the numbness, there's something running through my body that I can't describe. My body. As in, constructed by the Shadow Realm. I don't get it at all.
"Everything you feel here is real. Weren't you the one who always claimed that the Shadows reveal one's true feelings?"
"I..." I opened the Door of Darkness so many times. Whenever Yuugi or his friends, my friends, were in danger. I played Shadow Games with my life at stake, with the world at stake, and I didn't stop to give it a second thought. Is this some kind of punishment? What I feel, is real. I feel fear, I feel excitement. This isn't a game, and I'm already the winner? For whatever reason, they have constructed a physical body for me, only to immobilize me. What does this all mean?
He keeps touching me. Bakura dips lower with his fingers, at the hem of my shirt, tugging lightly. I try to squirm, but my body doesn't obey me. You should be enjoying it. Should I? I can't even feel my arms or my legs anymore. Yet I feel warmth, some kind of weird comfort, knowing that I'm not alone here. Bakura and Malik of Darkness... whatever they've done, whatever plan they thought up... I can fight them. I have powers of the shadows, I can use them as well... but just as the thought has crossed my mind, Malik grabs me and bites down on my lip, hard. The pain is shocking, sharp and bitter and angry at the same time, something I have never felt before.
"Let go of me!" I yell and a spatter of blood ends up on Bakura's cheek. Enthralled, Malik turns towards him, immediately licking it off. Why is the thief even allowing him to do that?
"Pretty Pharaoh is hurt," Malik mocks me, "look at all that blood! His perfection is tainted now, what a shame!"
"Monster," is my intelligent answer. Bakura grins at me. Then he pushes at Malik and turns towards me again. He reaches for me, but not for my face; higher, he makes the restraints around my wrists disappear. The entire strain on my body dissolves and I slump forward, straight into his arms. I think I hear Malik snort, but his reaction doesn't interest me. I try, with the last of my strength, to push myself away from Bakura, but to no avail. He lays me down on the floor, or whatever the 'ground' or 'floor' is in the Shadow Realm, his movement... tender..? He could've dropped me and just leave me here.
My arms start tingling right away, as the blood circulation resumes again. Bakura has his fingers on my right arm, and he makes these circular motions.
"What are you doing...?"
No answer. I shiver and I shudder at the same time. In the eerie silence, Malik of Darkness sits down on my other side and takes my left arm, mimicking Bakura's movements. I.. have no idea why they're doing this. I have no idea what has happened. My headache is mostly gone, fortunately, but I can't remember how I lost consciousness in the first place, how they transported me to the Shadow Realm, how they're blocking my own powers... and they keep touching me, hands everywhere, and not on my arms anymore. Bakura has moved up my shirt, exposing my stomach. I want to scream at him, at the top of my lungs, to keep his hands off of me...
... but I haven't been touched in millennia, and this... this is different. It's darkness, but it's not cold. It's strangely caring, yet distant. It's hurting, it's painful, yet comforting. My strength is returning, but I don't act upon it. Malik's harsh, pressing fingers don't bother me anymore. My vision is blurred as my shirt is pulled over my head, and Bakura discards the garment carelessly. I still want to ask 'Why?' but when I part my lips, the thief leans into me and kisses me. Roughly, and he's brutal enough to tug at the bite wound, but this time the pain isn't as intense as before. Bakura interrupts the kiss to look at Malik of Darkness, who simply shows his usual, deranged grin.
"I told you he'd get used to it quickly," he says in a triumphant manner.
Yuugi... aibou... forgive me, Gods forgive me, may I forgive myself... but I can't get away. I won't get away. Not from them. Not now. Maybe not ever. I can't move, I can't breathe, I can't live... without them. Darkness before me, Darkness behind me, Darkness next to me, Darkness everywhere and I surrender. I am a creature of Darkness, just like them. I have done things I have to atone for, I have been wandering these shadows for ages, this is my home. This is where I belong. With renewed strength, I move my arms, my hands reaching for the both of them. Bakura leads my hand to his chest, and I grab a fistful of his shirt. No Ring. No Puzzle. No Rod. It's just the three of us. Malik takes my hand and squeezes it, I'm not surprised by his strength.
I already lost my name, my soul and my body. In the shadows, I am the winner.