Author's Note: I warned you guys to read Coming Forth By Day. If you haven't, then don't blame me if this chapter does not make any sense to you.
Over YonderBy Pearl of the Dark Age
September 4, 2006
Chapter 12Amelda took one look, clasped his hand over his mouth, and ran out of the room. Anzu swayed on the spot, sat down upon the cold, tile floor, and drew her knees to her chest. Yugi started to cry silently, sitting beside his girlfriend, wrapping his arm around her, and resting his head on her shoulder. Seto was speechless. If he cared at all, he didn't show it. Crystal buried her face in Jonouchi's chest, sobbing quietly. Shizuka hugged Honda, and Rebecca hugged Ryuji, each looking for solace. Every guy was ashen-faced.
Marik stood in the back corner like a sentinel. An expression of sorrow creased his features, but he had already done his crying. His sister and brother were standing by the table upon which the body of Ryou Bakura lay. "There was nothing I could do," Ishizu informed with a heavy heart.
"It's not your fault, Ishizu," Pegasus said consolingly. "We were all there."
"Perhaps we should give his friends time alone while we retrieve Bakura's personal possessions," Rishid suggested. "In our haste, we left everything behind."
"That's a good idea," Marik agreed. Ishizu bowed to the group of mourning friends and departed with Rishid, Marik, and Pegasus.
A moment later, Seto left stone-faced without an explanation. For a long time, no one spoke. After an hour of silence, Yugi said, "I can't believe my friend is dead."
"Yeah," Jonouchi agreed heavily. "It's not like he went to the Shadow Realm and we could rescue him somehow. He's gone… forever."
Everyone else agreed in stunned silence.
As the Ishtars and Pegasus approached the alluvial fan again, they all gasped in disbelief. Bakura's things were there, but so was someone else. Ishizu slammed her foot on the brakes - again, jumped out of the jeep before it came to a complete stop, and ran flat-out to the stranger dressed in bleached linens and a turban. "Get away from here!" she cried savagely. She reached the stranger before he had a chance to respond, turned him around, and smacked him as hard as she could.
Pharaoh Atem fell to the ground – his golden bangs askew. The turban fell off, revealing his multi-colored, spiky hair. "I'm sorry!" he apologized. "I was just looking for something to eat!"
Ryou Bakura stood in a vast, endless, swirling ocean of pearly-white clouds. It stretched to the horizons that encompassed him and presumably beyond. However, his feet felt solid ground as if the torrential clouds were merely opaque fog from a fog-machine. The sky above was unlike anything seen on Earth. It was a deep, violet-blue studded with stars that glinted like diamonds. Ryou could not believe such a place was real. He could not even remember how he got here.
He glanced from side to side, feeling suddenly alone. "If this is Heaven, where is everybody?" he asked aloud.
"Ha!" a familiar voice cackled behind him. "You think they'd let someone like me into Heaven?"
Ryou spun around. "YAMI!" he cried ecstatically and glomped the white-haired counterpart.
"I… can't… breathe…" Bakura gasped. "Get… off… wench!"
Ryou replied by squeezing harder – he was too thrilled to have found his yami at last to let go now. Bakura's eyes bulged out dangerously, and the only sound made was an escaping hiss of air. When Ryou was satisfied, he let go, and Bakura remained in the "squeezed" shape.
Yami no Bakura took a couple minutes to recover. He inhaled a deep breath before rounding on Ryou as if to yell and hit him, but stopped dead, staring into the shining, innocent face. He had to admit it that he was glad Bastet had kept her promise and delivered his hikari. "What took you so long?" he asked.
Ryou blinked. "Were you expecting me?" he inquired. No reply. "If you're here, then that must mean that I'm in Hell," Ryou mused aloud with a thoughtful finger on his bottom lip. "I didn't think I would end up here."
"You think this is Hell?" Bakura asked, eyes bugging out maniacally. "Ha ha ha ha ha! You are so stupid!"
"Well, forgive me," Ryou said defensively with a touch of sarcasm, catching his yami by surprise, "but this is the first time that I've died!"
Bakura chuckled under his breath. "You're right. That's true." He smiled a little more sanely, but his eyes looked just as insane as Ryou remembered. "Welcome to the Afterlife! What you see around you is the threshold," Bakura explained. "No one enters Heaven or Hell directly, so this is the waiting area or judging area - purgatory if you will. Call it whatever you like. For all I know, Heaven and Hell could be the same place. No one knows what either of them truly look like."
Ryou studied his yami quizzically. "So, you didn't make it into Hell, either?" he asked skeptically.
Bakura laughed insanely again. "Ha ha ha ha ha! There is no way Heaven would accept me, and the Devil is too afraid to take me! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Are we stuck here?" Ryou asked. "Where is here, again?"
"This is the threshold," Bakura repeated. "It looks different to each passing soul. However the soul envisions the afterlife, that is how the threshold looks."
"Wow!" Ryou breathed, his eyes shining. "I didn't know you had this in you, Yami," he said in awe, gazing at their surroundings.
Bakura winced. "You are the one who imagined this place, twit!" He shuddered. "You think I would like this?" He glared at the sparkling sky. "It's ugly! What you need is some carnage! Some broken, bloody bones and guts strewn about… Maybe a little fire over here and over there…" And he went into a raving rant about the destruction of the world.
"Uh, Yami," Ryou spoke up. It was as if he had pressed a pause button. Yami no Bakura was frozen in a mid wild gesture - his face contorted maniacally. Only his eyes moved onto Ryou, like a creepy doll in a horror flick. Ryou continued, "You aren't going to do anything that I don't approve. No more carnage – it's bad."
For a whole minute there was no movement or change in expression on Yami's part. Then, he stood up straight, his face neutralized, strode over to stand right in front of his hikari, and stated flatly, "You are insane."
Ryou decided to change the subject. "How did you imagine the threshold, then?"
"Oh, you know," Bakura replied dismissively, "the whole Hall of Judgment thing… Apparently my heart does weigh more than a feather." He shrugged apathetically.
"I knew you had a heart!" Ryou cried excitedly.
"Don't get the wrong idea, mortal!" Bakura returned savagely. "I didn't pass the first trial."
"Then how is it that you are here if you were eaten by Ammut?" Ryou queried, remembering his Egyptology. "You should have been wiped out of existence."
"Only half of me was eaten," Bakura answered. "Bastet saved my other half."
Ryou blinked. "Which half was eaten?" he asked curiously, wondering if there was a difference.
"The good half!" Bakura wailed, half mad. "The darkest and most powerful part of me… gone!" He sniffed.
"Does this mean you're not evil anymore?"
"Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Bakura cacophonously laughed. "Of course not! I'm still the big bad wolf!" His eyes gleamed.
Ryou's concern was evident on his face. He sighed resignedly. "Then why did Bastet save you?" he inquired, completely lost.
Bakura stopped laughing. "I don't know," he answered seriously. "Now that I'm not a god anymore, their ways don't make sense to me." He put his hand on chin in mock thought. "All I know is that I get another chance to take over the world again!"
"Not again…" Ryou replied. "How are you going to do it this time?"
"RELIGION!" Bakura said enthusiastically – his clenched fist held before him emphatically. "I shall convert the masses to my religion, and dominate over their weak minds! I shall rule the world as a god!"
"Which religion?"
"I don't know," Bakura replied. "I haven't made it up, yet."
A large drop of anime sweat appeared by Ryou's temple. He rubbed the bridge of his nose gingerly. "You are the insane one, Yami," he stated flatly. "I can't understand why the cat-goddess would do this."
"Because she likes to have fun," a rumbling purr said from behind. Ryou spun around to face a horse-sized, black cat with glowing amber eyes. Bastet grinned at him, revealing her gleaming white sharp teeth.
Yami no Bakura grabbed Ryou and moved him behind himself. "I know he looks like a mouse, Highness," he said, "but you can't eat him."
Bastet laughed derisively. "I wasn't going to, blanched stuff! You should be careful challenging a god like that. You are mortal now – remember? You and your hikari will carry out my wishes according to our agreement." She licked her claws as if to say, "or else…"
The End.
To be continued in the sequel, Return to the East Bank, which is also the sequel to my other fic, Coming Forth By Day. If you haven't read that yet, I suggest you do.
Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, and favorited this story!