R
Non-Yaoi
It's approximately six months after Yami was 'assaulted' by Kresha and he still struggles to maintain his mental stability. But a chain of events quickly begins which makes him believe that the Universe has set out to destroy him.
It is important that you have read 'Submission' before you start this fic, which is, coincidently, the sequel. The rating for that fiction is probably borderline but no one has complained as of yet so feel free to read it unless you are overly sensitive.
I deal with emotions mostly but it is going to get pretty graphic and intense in later chapters, hence me raising the rating. For this chapter and the next few PG-13 should suffice, but the language will get courser and the events more brutal as time goes on. This fiction will likely never qualify as an NC-17, but I do not want it to be stripped off the site or offend young readers, so I take these precautions. I also learned the first time as 'Submission' was removed for being an NC-17.
If you are overly sensitive or are going to attempt to take this piece off the site, then please hit 'back' now and save us both some trouble. Otherwise, welcome to 'Domination' and I hope you find this piece to be better than its predecessor. I strive to improve so in all respects the sequel should be better than the prequel.
This fiction is taxing on both my time and mind so updates will not be as regular as I would like them to be. I make each chapter at least 7 pages long so as to give a significant amount of text to read and to, hopefully, capture and maintain your interest. My special thanks go to the reviewers of this piece and of 'Submission', who inspired me to make a continuation. But high praise goes to Ayod Botla who has become my personal angel over the last few months. Beta-reader, friend, resource centre and idea-rebounder, her feedback has been invaluable and this fic would likely not exist if it were not for her involvement. A fellow fanfiction writer on ff.net, she has helped me to raise the standard of this piece to something that I did not think was possible. My thanks to her once again. **** Chapter 1He bolted awake with a startled shout, all consuming darkness covering both himself and his surroundings like a thick blanket. The corners of his eyes were prickling and his lungs felt like someone had filled them with ice before pouring something molten into them. Blinking itself was a deadly action as the scenes replayed themselves still, the waking world doing nothing to ease him. Muscles pumped full of adrenalin trembled and urged him to move, to escape the attacker that stalked him in the dreamscape.
For once not giving a damn about whether his motions awoke Yugi or not, which in the back of his mind where rational thought remained he knew he had, Yami untangled himself from everything that seemed to suddenly cover him and abandoned the tent.
Hissing when the blisteringly cold night air chilled at his sweat-slicked skin, he heard nothing but his own ragged breathing as he sought to put as much distance between the others and himself. Making his way to the inviting darkness of the trees a few metres ahead of him, he restricted himself to staying on the outskirts of the gloom and sank against a thick trunk, knees weak and eyes wide as he struggled to regain control.
Eyes closed as he tried to calm his body and mind, he only sensed Yugi's cautious approach through the Puzzle, his sixth sense picking up on the other teen's presence on a level that was deeper than sound and sight. Yugi was always careful immediately after a nightmare; a few rather negative responses to a touch or word that came too early had taught him tact.
"You haven't been this bad in a while," his Hikari stated softly as he came around the tree and knelt in the ground a few feet in front of his Dark. "Are you alright?"
Crimson eyes blinked as he seemingly took in his surroundings for the first time, an amused snort escaping him when he saw that Yugi was dirtying his favourite blue pyjamas. "I'm fine. You should get back to bed."
"I wanted to make sure you were alright. You going to come back with me?" The question was posed with a little fear in his tone; he didn't want his yami to stay out for the rest of the night alone, in the woods.
Yami answered with a question of his own. "Are the others awake?"
Yugi fell unusually quiet for a few seconds before answering softly. "No. No, they're all asleep. I'm the only one who knows you're out here."
The Dark of the pair sighed softly before using the trunk behind him to shove himself up onto his feet. "Then I shall return with you."
The walk back to the tent took longer than necessary, a silence that was slightly uncomfortable hanging in the air between them that both were grateful to have broken by the rustling of blankets and sleeping bags when they re-entered the tent and settled down again. From the way Yami remained sitting, his hands resting in his lap, it was obvious that he had no false hopes of getting any more sleep tonight.
Eyes unconsciously drifting to the bite-scar on the other's shoulder, Yugi knotted his hands in his own blanket uncomfortably before daring to ask his next question. It was not Yami's reaction that he feared; it was the response that might come in answer to the question that he bitterly dreaded.
"What brought it on tonight?"
It had become a subconscious sign that Yami probably wasn't aware of himself, one that meant that he felt uncomfortable, afraid or threatened. Only Joey and Yugi actually knew what he was thinking or feeling when a hand went to the scar on the soft flesh at the juncture between shoulder and neck, fingers working into the skin firmly as the muscles twitched.
"I don't know. It was... More intense than the last few have been. Dreams aren't always just dreams, and I'm beginning to wonder if this is some kind of an omen. I don't know, I probably sound ridiculous saying that out loud," he shrugged with a small smile tugging at his lips, his hands dropping to his lap before his eyes joined them.
"Maybe it's because of the new Duelling Championship. We're going to have to submit tomorrow, maybe that brought it on," Yugi suggested quietly, wracking his mind for a possible reason for his Dark to have a nightmare so terrifying that it had caused him to bolt in the middle of the night.
Yami stared at his hands in his lap in silence as his mind turned that over in his mind. He had begun toying with his deck in his Soul Room as soon as his mind was equipped enough to handle it but he had found that the damage done to him by Kresha so many months ago was deeper than he had thought it could be.
He had taken pride and a certain degree of comfort in his title as 'Game King'. The title protected him to an extent; if someone he cared about was in trouble, he could duel them or challenge them at their own game, win and walk away with no-one getting hurt. But after not being able to duel Kresha and having to do something much worse to ensure his Hikari's safety, he was beginning to see how vulnerable he really was, title or not.
'What does it matter if I'm the best player in the world at a game of cards if I can't even play the game of life?'
This seed of doubt had slowly grown to the degree that he stopped having faith in his own abilities, and as a result his deck had stopped obeying him. His doubts had caused him to lose faith in the Heart of the Cards so his deck often chose to ignore him. His title had become worthless.
This also left him in a bad position when it came to Yugi. His purpose for existing in this time was to guide and protect him. If he could not battle for his safety, something that he had only ever done through duelling for him, how could he keep him safe? A Duelling Tournament was unsafe at the moment; he felt frail enough internally to know that that a quick defeat could destroy what little he had left in his spirit.
Yami worked hard to preserve an image of normalcy, hiding the despair the buffeted against his Soul Room walls like waves. Yugi had an idea of his true state but was mostly ignorant and Joey was still as perceptive as ever. Bakura… Yami had no idea where he stood with the platinum-haired thief at the moment, but he had a slightly uncomfortable feeling in his gut that he would be needing his help to survive the next few days if the nightmares where to keep coming.
"Yami?" Yugi prompted at having his querying statement unanswered. Snapping out of his self-indulged musings, Yami bit the inside of his lip in a moment of hesitation before answering in a firm voice, his tone leaving no room for argument.
"I'm not entering the competition Aibou."
Eye wide with surprise, Yugi frowned a little before asking, "Why? You're always eager to show your skills."
Yami opened his mouth for a second before closing it again and lowering his head slightly. "I don't think I can. I won't stop you from entering, Little Light, but I do not wish to be involved."
Nodding a little as he accepted the answer, Yugi parted his lips with another question on his tongue before falling silent, actually seeing how weary and distressed Yami was. "I won't enter without you so I won't enter either. It's all right. I can keep up with school for once!"
Yami made a slight sound of mirth, a deep noise rumbling from his chest and throat. His eyes were still lowered as a torrent of thoughts and feelings wrestled for domination in his being. Guilt was winning out. Guilt that he was too weak enough in spirit to insist that he not duel, and as a result keep Yugi away from the one thing he truly excelled at.
"Are you going to be alright awake on your own?" Yugi asked softly, genuinely, not wanting to go back to sleep when the other half of his soul may have needed his presence and likely comfort.
Yami shook his head smiling warmly now; touched by his Hikari's concern despite the restriction he had just put on him. "No, you need to get a few more hours sleep. I may read until I'm tired and then see if I can sleep peacefully as well."
That was an outright lie and he knew it. He wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, not now, not when the memories that his mind had been working so hard on burying had been wrenched back up to the forefront of his mind. It was hard to resist the urge to go outside and stalk through the trees for a few hours, maybe climb a few and take a look around at the peace in the world that he was being deprived of.
Maybe he could go to Ryou's tent and ask if Bakura felt up to a scrap at this time?
Likely not. He'd stare at the tents' walls listening to his Aibou's breathing, methodical and soothing, until his mind got bored and he succumbed to sleep. If he was lucky that was.
Yugi had settled back down now, violet eyes open to barely noticeable slits as he monitored his yami before they rolled and he slipped back into dreaming. Yami made a point of remaining cool and composed whilst he was being watched under that intense gaze, waiting until he was sure that he was entirely alone before bringing his knees to his chin and clamping his eyes shut against the pain and the memories.
It was going to be a long night.
****
Morning was painful to say the least. Awake all night, Yami was positive that the whites of his eyes were now the same colour as the crimson rings about his pupils. They itched and burned continuously as his head throbbed from sleep deprivation.
He had forgotten how bad insomnia was, and adding to that equation stress and misery, he was in for Hell over the next few days. And a bloody camping trip wasn't the place for a breakdown so he needed to keep all of this bottled up until he and Yugi got home and he could talk it all through, something that he had promised to start doing when something was bothering him.
Everyone was swimming now save for himself. His muscles didn't savour the idea of forcing limbs to hold his head above the surface and his mind didn't like the idea of being as physically cold on the outside as he felt on the inside. Instead he sat on the pier with his feet barely skimming the cool surface, ripples bringing the water up to meet his toes when someone made a particularly big splash in the centre of the pond.
He had been thinking all morning, trying to think of what he could do to maintain his sanity until the end of this trip. He had to stay for Yugi's sake; he wasn't entering the tournament because of him so he couldn't force him to cut the trip short. It had been planned for months and he would be damned if he allowed his own failings to ruin it for everyone else. Sighing in frustration as his mind then returned to where it had been an hour ago, he chose to close his tired eyes for a few moments.
A ripple of cold water up against the soul of his foot indicating that someone had approached him was his only warning before they grabbed him by the ankles and jerked him down into the pond.
Fear. Blinding. Surrounded by murky water so that everything was blurred and his gasp of surprise meant that there wasn't enough air in his lungs to sustain him for long. The grip on his ankles had released at the very least, but the hands had roved up him as the other person moved, fingers curling about his upper arms firmly.
Yami panicked outright and jerked against the other's touch violently, inadvertently inhaling and instantly beginning to choke. Instinctual gasps made it worse and his vision began to speckle at the edges. The hands released him when strength left his muscles and he felt himself beginning to drift with the water. Vision going black entirely now, he thought nor felt anything before finally falling into that blissful void.
****
Something heavy was on his chest and his throat felt awful when the black fog finally receded from his mind. Feeling the pressure press down violently against his sore ribs, Yami instantly felt a swell run up through his throat and found himself choking on water again. Coughs wracked his form and he felt himself being turned gently onto his side, a hand on his hip and shoulder holding him in place as he attempted to get a reasonable breath into his lungs.
//Yami ?! Are you alright?//
Wincing as Yugi's voice drummed around his skull, Yami coughed in response and shuddered against the hand that started running up and down his spine methodically. Soon the spots of red left his eyes and he didn't feel light-headed anymore, sending a wave of reassurance back to his Aibou before cracking his stinging eyes open.
Someone murmured something and he was moved back onto his back, his head lolling limply with the action as his muscles refused to operate with the minimal amount of oxygen they currently possessed. Yami discovered that it had been Bakura who had been rubbing his spine and holding him still whilst he brought up most of the lake, Joey sitting behind the pale teen and Yugi standing behind them both looking concerned.
"Yami, I'm so sorry for that. I didn't think you'd… It was a joke," Honda was saying earnestly, apologizing profusely for his earlier actions. Yami was not quite in the frame of mind to be able to forgive him or indeed think coherently at all just yet.
A chill settling over his skin Yami shivered slightly but froze when he felt a slight touch on his right forearm. Eyes flickering down he nearly retched when he saw that someone had stripped him of his jacket at some point, slender fingers touching the angry scar running up the length of the soft flesh of his forearm. Following the arm up, he met Anzu's eyes and swallowed heavily.
She was staring at him with a mixture of confusion and concern, utterly bewildered by what she was seeing. Glancing over her shoulder Yami groaned internally when he saw Honda following her stare down before meeting his eyes.
Clenching his hands into fists, he demanded that screaming muscles move him to sit up before he rose to unsteady feet. His head swam and his vision dipped around him nearly causing him to collapse back to the ground again. An arm around his waist kept him upright though and Yami looked to the owner to thank Joey.
Brows darting into his hairline when he saw that Bakura had beaten the blond to it this time, Yami nodded as much as his head would allow all the same. Bakura nodded back stiffly before glaring at Anzu and Honda, bending down and collecting Yami against his chest. Weak as he was, Yami still stiffened against the other, muscles trembling as they were held tight too soon after being deprived of oxygen.
"Wait! Bakura! You can't move him! He nearly died for God's sake!" Anzu exclaimed loudly as she moved in front of them, standing with her hands firmly placed on her hips. Honda was at her side in an instant agreeing loudly.
Joey, Yugi and Ryou had obviously noticed the exchange between the two spirits and had wisely stayed back, allowing whatever was happening to happen. But when they saw the verbal assault that Bakura was about to receive they quickly moved to his side.
"It's alright Anzu; Bakura's just going to take him back into the tent. Yami needs to stay warm," Yugi assured, a cold feeling in his gut as he saw her eyes flickering back to his scarred forearms again. Blue eyes met violet in a seeking gaze but he only shook his head firmly. He knew how important it was to Yami to keep his previous actions a secret but that seemed to have gotten harder now that they had seen for the first time.
"I'll go with him and make sure he has enough blankets," Honda offered although it was apparent that he really wanted to question Yami about the scars. His eyes, although he was attempting some restraint, kept flickering to them as if of their own will.
"I can take care of the Pharaoh perfectly well. I don't need you mortals interfering," Bakura sneered before stepping around the pair and continuing at a brisk pace towards the tents. Yami brought a hand up to clench on the thief's shoulder as the urge to retch swelled through him again, his mind finally catching up with what had happened.
He sounds of arguing between Anzu and Honda against the other teens soon faded away and Bakura crouched into the tent that he and Ryou shared, laying Yami down on one of the sleeping mats carefully before turning his back on him and rummaging around for blankets.
"What happened?" Yami croaked when Bakura had produced a blanket, the soft material draping over his body as the spirit tucked it around him with a surprising amount of care.
"Honda acting like a twit as usual. Thought it would be funny to yank you under water; he didn't count on you trying to breath it. You weren't breathing when we got you out, scared the Hell out of us," Bakura replied gruffly as he rolled up a discarded jumped and slid it beneath Yami's head.
"We had to get your jacket off you to get your heart going. Your Puzzle didn't seem to be doing a very good job of keeping you alive. It might've done but it was knee-jerk to make your lips any other colour than blue."
"They saw then," Yami said flatly, staring at the material ceiling and suddenly feeling very tired.
Sitting on his heels now Bakura remained quiet for a few moments before nodding. It was a curious relationship between them; they would insult and attack each other at any given chance but they would also talk about things so secret and dark that they were bonding on some level.
Yami knew that neither Joey nor Yugi could hear most of what he said to Bakura. Bakura just seemed to have the mentality to deal with it. The discussion between them concerning Yami's attempt at suicide was the only one to have taken place at all. Bakura was the only one who knew how badly he had wanted to die and he was the only one who had been able to help him in the way that he had needed.
"We're going to have to sort this out. You never really recovered and we both know that you never will, not completely, but you're slipping again."
Yami nodded slightly, still not looking at the other. "I know."
"Some self-defence lessons would make you feel more secure in yourself. Meditation's worth a try," Bakura suggested with a slight shrug. He felt empathy for the other teen and the fact that they used to be enemies did not deter him in the slightest from wanting to help. He was the only one who had witnessed what Yami had gone through, had felt what Yami had through the trapped memories in the Puzzle, and as a result felt driven to help him in any way possible.
Yami snorted slightly with mirth at the latter suggestion. "You know how to meditate?"
Glowering at him, Bakura's reply was somewhat testy. "Yes. I didn't have much else to do in that damn Ring. If I hadn't I would have gone as insane as Malik."
"I didn't meditate and I'm not insane," Yami countered reasonably, strangely finding that he was quite enjoying this.
"Yeah, well you were perfecting your gaming skills weren't you? Game King and all that crap."
Pained, Yami closed his eyes against that and the silence that hung between them was almost palatable. Understanding took a few moments to dawn but when it finally came Bakura sighed heavily and placed a firm hand on Yami's shoulder.
"One thing at a time. First we deal with you staying sane for us then we can move onto faith. I'm not an expert but it'll have to do."
Inhaling as if to steel his resolve, Yami nodded his assent and finally met Bakura's gaze. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Ever. To anyone. I'd hate for them to know that I'm going soft."
"And I'd hate for them to know that I'm weak," came the bitter reply.
Bakura raised a slender brow and replied coolly, "We're at a stalemate then, wouldn't you say?"
"Fantastic."
"I agree. Utterly delightful. Now, sleep and we can talk in a few hours. I'll keep the vultures away from you when they get by the Mutt, your Hikari and my personal twerp."
****
Please review and tell me your thoughts. I do not need ideas as I have over half of this series planned in intricate detail, but feel free to drop suggestions or other thoughts. I you feel a tremendous desire to flame me, then please do so but give evidence and just cause. Thanks.