The Age of Shadows

4

Unlike Marik, Bakura, and most people, they can't all walk through the shadows relatively safe from danger. Shadows won't attack just anyone without a reasons usually, but Yūgi is a marked man, as are Ryou and Joey and Tea. Wanted by Zork, ruler of the kingdom once called Earth for their rebellion against the shadows. Yugi, for fighting their uprising with the Pharaoh. Ryou for reading prohibited books on magic and spells, using his knowledge of the occult to try and reverse the shadows. Joey and Tea, guilty by association. So they crawl through the light were the shadows cannot see, concealed behind armour and bandanas. They hug the crumbling walls of derelict buildings and sneak trough city passageways known to Marik, ones he used to move the rare hunters around Battle City.

The airports are still running, but barely. Old, run-down planes leaving infrequently with horrible delays due to inclement weather, piloted by amateurs. And of course they can't just get on a plane and go, not when the bounty on their heads is so big. So they hope against hope that Seto Kaiba, previous CEO of a billion dollar company, will be able to help.

They arrive at the old KaibaCorp HQ, the glass walls smashed in and letters KC bent and hovering above them, waiting for a gust of wind to throw them to the ground. Ryou, the only one Kaiba doesn't have any issue with, is the one to lead them through. The old reception hall full of debris seems eerily quiet. They tentatively approach the desk, ringing the rusty little bell in the corner. They're surprised it still works. From the back corridor emerges Mokuba Kaiba, now 17, wearing a white suit and pink collared shit, around his neck sitting a well-knotted tie. His hair is shorter now, brushed and styled nicely. Nobody else has looked like him in a long time, since nobody has anybody to impress. How can they, when their society has been destroyed? So why is he still dressed like a businessman from before the shadows came?

"Oh, it's you guys," he observes, his voice deeper now. "What are you doing here? Did anyone follow you?" He looks beyond the smashes walls into the streets for anyone tracking the fugitives.

"No, I made sure of that," Ryou tells him. "Listen, we need a plane. We need to get to Egypt and if the shadows see us, we're doomed,"

"I can help you with fake documents," Mokuba states. "But a plane will get noticed. Zork has people at every airport in every country and the shadows roam the atmosphere looking for anything suspicious, anything to guard their realm,"

Ryou sighs. "I thought as much,"

"Besides," Mokuba continues, spreading himself across the desk. He looks at Bakura briefly, an unspoken understanding between the two. In truth, Mokuba has always liked Bakura, but the crush is one-sided. "There's no way you'll even get into Egypt without being surrounded by shadows. That's where the densest population of Zork's informants are, and the highest concentration of shadow magic. No, that's impossible. I can't get you a plane,"

Yugi's chest deflates as the hope spills out with his deep exhale. His body slumps onto an old office chair with ripped cushioning and one wonky wheel. He breathes deeply and heavily, forcing so much air into his lungs they sting and cramp like the sides are tearing. How many litres of oxygen can lungs hold again? He wonders, realising this is his own fucked up form of mindfulness. He'd been taught to do mindfulness once, with a school councillor after his parents died. It had felt really stupid, but now he realises it's forcing him to think clearly about what's actually happening, rather than about his failure and the pharaoh. "What do we do now?" He asks, honestly willing to take any suggestion no matter how outlandish or egregious. Yes, it's gotten that desperate.

"I know exactly what to do, it's simple really," Bakura's voice is low and growling, and Marik is reminded of Battle City. He looks at Bakura and sees not this adult man surviving an apocalypse, but the sadistic child he remembers from then. "I'm going to convince Zork to let us go,"

Bakura refuses to tell anyone his plan. Anyone, even as they await nightfall in the KaibaCorp HQ. Looking around, Yugi realises he still hasn't seen Seto Kaiba. Nobody else seems worried - do they know something he doesn't? They're all quiet, Marik especially who's trapped in a loop of experiencing conflicting feelings about Bakura, ones from Battle City he'd forgotten and have now resurfaced. And new ones, more dangerous and possessive ones. He keeps staring at Bakura who pretends not to notice, and keeps stoking the small fire erected in the centre of the glass-walled hub. Marik can't figure out his plan no matter how deep he thinks, how engrossed he becomes in analysing the mind of this brilliant strategist and his long-con that, for all intensive purposes actually worked.

When Nightfall lands there echoes the first screaming of the damned. Ghostly figures rise from the beneath concrete streets, mangled monsters swoop through stale night air thick with warp gates producing ectoplasmic shadow creatures. Bakura suddenly stands, gripping the gun in his holster. "Where are you going?!" Marik asks when he walks towards the door.

"Don't follow me!" Bakura hisses, but too late. They're beyond the safety of the building now and the creatures converge upon them. "Fuck!"

The translucent form of a spirit grips Bakura's arm with it long talons, dragging him back with it to the warp gate. "Bakura!" Marik calls, chasing after him as he disappears into the black. Marik pulls out his gun, hands shaking as he aims it at the huge sheet of black that drapes across the atmosphere.

He can't shoot. He can't see Bakura, what if he hits him by accident?

So he does the next best thing. Charges into the warp gate, reaching forward in the darkness desperately to find Bakura. Trying to grip an arm, leg, something to find him. Eventually he feels a wrist in his grasp, but can't see who it belongs to. He calls out, but his voice is muffled as if underwater, and they're too deep in this thick abyss to pull the person to safely. Yes, this is how Marik Ishtar dies.

Until the darkness fades away, and they've been warped somewhere else. Somewhere new, that smells like sulphur and exists cramped inside a cavern of obsidian. Red steam rises between cracks in the floor. Before him Bakura lies sprawled on the rock, bleeding through his armour. "You stupid fuck..." Bakura growls. "I knew what I was doing, you could have ruined this!"

"Ruined what, what's going on?!"

"What a good question,"

The voice is terrifying. It's terrifying for its volume and how it creeps into your ears like a wriggling parasite. Marik gulps, eyes widening in shock and realisation. Bakura sighs, tensing his shoulders and curling in on himself. "I'm here to beg Zork for a favour,"

The shadows before them morph into a gelatinous form of Zork, like one mimicked and formed from a slime card. Bakura kneels before him, teeth gritting in anger. "I wondered when you'd come crawling back. What is it you want this time?"

Marik frowns. This time?

"I want you to allow myself and,.. the Pharaoh's hikari, to travel to Egypt,"

"The Pharaoh is dead. Gone. Defeated. Why should I let you revive him?"

"I'm not asking you to do that. Just grant us safe passage without your shadow demons following us," Bakura suddenly stands, staring intensely at Zorc. "I'll offer you whatever you want in return. Just name your price,"

Meanwhile, Yugi and the gang lounge around the KC HQ, only the lower floors Mokuba permitted them access to. Joey glares at the regal paintings hung of Kaiba's childhood awards. "Dammit, they should be back by now!"

"I agree - how long can we really wait?" Tea asks worriedly. Yugi watches them both. Joey fuelled by anger and Tea fear.

"Guys, I'm sure it's fine," Yugi assures, placing his hand on Joey's and squeezing it slightly for support. He looks up at his boyfriend, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. He sighs, feeling Joey's warmth comfort his anxieties. He wants to reassure everyone, but knows he isn't the most qualified to do so. "Hey Ryou?"

"Yeah?" Ryou looks up from a reference book on Ancient Egyptian engineering techniques plucked from the downstairs KaibaCorp Library.

"Whatever Bakura did in the past, can we trust him?"

"Yes," Ryou answer's immediately. "I spent years with Bakura in that ring. He didn't want a world ruled by shadows. He never wanted any of this,"

"I believe you," Yugi agrees. Ryou is right, this was never Bakura's plan. It was Zork's. And besides, how can he get his revenge on the Pharaoh if he's been forced into the afterlife?