twinpharaohs | [Locked: April, Bakura/Malik] Dominion Trip!

Yami glances back to April for a moment, making sure none of the Shades behind them have tried to attack her. Then he says, in a whisper he's almost certain only she can hear, "We have two options. We can stand and fight, or create a distraction and run like Hell. I won't decide which without your input." He pauses. "Though I have to advise that the former will likely get us killed."

Returning his attention to the Crawler, he asks, a whimsical note in his voice, "Responsible for what, specifically? This ambush? I am fairly certain I had nothing to do with the planning of it."

"You entered here. Trapped Us here," the Crawler answers. "You are responsible."

"And if I'd let You roam free, my country and people would have been destroyed," Yami answers, all trace of humour gone from his voice. "Possibly the rest of the world. You're a cancer, Crawler. Don't think I don't recognize that."

The Crawler chuckles. "We never doubted it for a moment, Per-a'a. It does not change the fact that you broke your ancestor's pact."

April knows she can run fast, but Yami might not be recovered from the paralysis attack. She can fight well enough, just the shear numbers of Shades are a little disconcerting.

"What is best for your situation?" April was concerned for Yami.

Yami grimaces and keeps his voice low. "I was taught some basic self-defense and swordplay when I was a teenager, but I never had cause to use it; I relied on my friend Methos and the rest of Royal Guard for defense. Yugi has been practicing Tae Kwon Do for about a year now." He grimaces. "If it were just Yugi and I here we'd have about even odds of making it through alive if we fought."

He attempts to move his leg a little; it's still stiff and tingling, but it's getting better. "I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to run," he adds. "Leg's not fully recovered, and I don't precisely have a very long stride, given my height."

For the moment, he decides to ignore the Crawler's comment about a pact with one of his ancestors, though the thought is quite disturbing. It's hard for him to believe anyone in his family would've made a deal with such a dark force.

"I too only have basic self-defense and swordplay. I can run fast, but I do not want to leave you behind."

April considers her options. "Perhaps my other powers?"

Yami continues to survey the area, eyes flicking all over the place. The Shades are making this disturbing hissing noise, and he winces a little as he hears it.

"What have you got on hand?" he asks, quietly.

"Some psychic abilities. I could try to make it appear like we disappeared. If they have minds..."

"Oh, they have minds," Yami answers. "At least, the Crawler certainly does. And if he's mimicking the Darkness in Fable III like Yugi and I think he is, his mind is likely linked to those of the Shades. That just might work."

"Then here goes nothing..."

April knew it would cause a situation that would possibly put her in danger, but she had to close her eyes to do this. And slowly she extended her psychic gifts towards the Crawler.

It would sound a little like that old Star Wars joke, but April was basically implanting the information that 'these are not the people that you seek'. Making it seem like Yami and April had disappeared from sight.

Ahhh, the old Jedi Mind Trick. If she were here, one of the narration's other muses would be proud. The SHades start rubbernecking around, suddenly confused, and Yami takes the opportunity to rip a hole in the air with his light-sword. (Alas, it's not a lightsabre. That would've been awesome.)

"It worked," he tells April. "Come on, while they're distracted!" He grabs her hand and starts for the tear.

The Crawler lets out a roar of rage as it realizes what's happened. It takes a swipe at Yami, but misses. Then it screams, "Per-a'a! We have already exacted Our revenge on the sorcerer who performed the ritual! But you, who broke Narmer's pact, We will destroy even further than We did your Vizier! We will destroy you, Tepeysa-Yami!"

And on that note, they emerge in Dominion City proper; not in front of the Turtle Game Shop, as Yugi had originally intended, but in front of a rather large and lovely mansion. Yami glances around, eyes wide, then sighs, "Joy. We come out on the Kaiba Grounds." Then there's a flash of gold light from the Puzzle, and Yugi's standing in Yami's place, while Yami appears beside him, transluscent once more.

"That was exciting," Yugi notes, panting. "Let's not do that again. And let's also get going before Kaiba's Yugi-sense starts tingling." They start off towards the street on that note.

April was glad to be back in the real world. Though still wondered about the words that the Crawler had declared. Or the disappointment about their location from Yami.

"Does that happen a lot?"

"What? The Shadow Games ambushing me the moment I set foot in the Shadow Realm?" Yami asks. "Thankfully, no. Usually they're not so close at hand." He pushes a hand through his blond bangs, shaking his head. "It... worries me. What it said about Narmer..."

"I think your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather is the least of our problems," Yugi says quietly. "I'm more worried about what it said about Malik..."

April unfortunately didn't know who Narmer was, and only recalled a bit about Malik. "Should we address what it said?"

Yugi and Yami both nod, almost in unison. "Most of it is disconcerting," Yami said. "...Then again, I don't know why I thought it would be otherwise. We are talking about the Shadow Games, after all. They've pretty much always been out to destroy... Well. Not the world, but humanity, I suppose." He looks over at April. "If you have any questions about what went on in there, now's as good a time to ask as any."

"I really don't understand a thing about the Shadow Games. Or why those creatures were blaming you for their state. Any information you could provide to me would be nice."

Yami stops walking for a moment before beginning to pace back and forth a little.

"The Shadow Games..." he begins, trailing off before inhaling deeply and continuing, "They're... sort of a malevolent force, bent on destroying or corrupting humanity. They need people to use Their power. It makes Them stronger. They can... grant supernatural abilities to mortals. When I was alive—more specifically, when I was still a child—it was thought that the only people who had Shadow Powers were members of the royal family. Shortly before I became Pharaoh, we discovered otherwise. Eight people outside of the royal family manifested Shadow Powers.

"I knew then that Their influence was spreading, and quickly. I'd experienced the destruction They'd wrought first-hand: my best friend lost his father in one attack. My wife was orphaned during the same attack." He pauses. "That was before I married her, of course."

He resumes walking towards the Turtle Game Shop after a short silence. "As I said to the Crawler... the Shadow Games are a cancer. By the time I took the throne, it had spread far. My country and people were in danger. I vowed to find a way to end their influence. To... cut out the tumour, to return to the cancer metaphor."

A half-minute of silence later, he adds, "My efforts to do so are what killed me. I orchestrated the ritual that imprisoned the Shadow Games in that demi-plane we just visited. That's why They hate me, why They blame me... Why They wish to destroy me."

"I understand imprisoning bad things to another dimension. Clark had to banish The Scourge to a side-dimension, to protect me. And I am sure they still blame me."

"But why is their demi-plane so large? If it has been centuries since their last visits... they should be weak. Right?"

"Not just centuries. Millennia. As for the Shadow Realm, one of the reasons it's so large is because it's merged with the Spirit World. Malik figured that out shortly after he and Bakura came to Dominion. It's one of the reasons we can use it to travel from place to place quickly. Malik says geography in the Spirit World doesn't match up to geography in the real world, so it's a quick way to get places that are physically far apart from one another."

"The Shadow Powers, though," Yugi says, thoughtfully. "They travel in bloodlines. As long as people still manifest them, the Shadow Games have a way of drawing power. And with nine separate people manifesting them when Yami was alive, each of them with families... they'll have lots of descendants at this point."

Yami nods. "Including the Mutou family," he says, winking at Yugi. "Atanu probably manifested Shadow Powers when he was a teenager. After I died." He shrugs. "Bottom line, the Games had a way of drawing power, through the continued manifestation of their Powers in our bloodlines."

"Is there no way to prevent them from drawing power?" It sounded like a no-win situation to April.

Yami grimaces. "Not really. Keeping Them imprisoned is the only way to stop Them from spreading."

"It sounds so... hopeless." April fidgetted.

Yami smiles wryly and shakes his head. "It's not. That's part of the reason myself and the rest of the Millennium Spirits are back in the modern time. We're here to keep Them in check. So far, we've had only a few problems."

Yugi smiles for a moment also, but it fades quickly. "The Crawler said that They had already taken Their revenge against Malik. That's... kind of scaring me."

Yami arches an eyebrow. "Why...?"

"Because it could mean They've literally destroyed him," Yugi answers. "As in, killed Bakura."

Yami's eyes widen. "Oh shit..." He swallows, somehow looking paler than he already does. "I... really hope not..."

Catching the worry in both their voices, April gently touched their arm. "Is there any way to check on your friend?"

Yugi looks up at her. "Actually... you might be able to help us with that, April," he says, brightening somewhat. "Remember when we first met, you found out where Bakura was by using his copy of The Lord of the Rings? We could take you to see Bakura-san, his father."

Yami catches on to Yugi's idea and nods. "Would it be possible for you to find someone through a direct relative of theirs?" he asks.

((OOC: I actually have a thought for this bit... Bakura's a Seer. He gets visions the same way Doyle and Cordelia did in Angel: flashes of images and information, accompanied by intense pain and a hangover migraine, though without the same catch of needing to be half-demon. Since, in a way, he and April are both Clairvoyants, they might actually be able to speak directly to one another this time around. I can only say this is a possibility from Bakura's end, though. What about from April's end?))

"It should be. My visions tend to be clearer if I have a connection to the person in question."

((sounds good to me. gives her something to do to help))

Yugi beams at her. "Great! I was gonna take you to meet Grandpa first, but given the circumstances, we'll check on Bakura first." He stops, turning from the general southwestern direction they've been heading and instead veering back north. "Bakura's house is near the hospital, on the north end of town," he says. "When we're done, we head pretty much straight south to get to my place."

((OOC: That's the idea~! :D Also, I updated the map to show the location of Bakura's house and where April and Yugi/Yami came out of the Shadow Realm.

The journal I'll be using for Bakura is

twinviziers, just so you're forewarned :).))

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Explanation is WAY off from YGO! canon >.> But then, they are AU.

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