Welcome Back To Me

Bakura’s POV

Hungry. So…damn……hungry. And tired. Enough.

No more.

The cell felt more cold tonight than it has in the past two years of my captivity.

I’ve never been so cold.

Anubis stood over me. My whole body trembling in the cold night. My body ached. My right eye opened weakly to look Anubis in the face.

He looked down at me with a satisfied smile. Two of his guards left me alone with him…that is, after they had fixed their clothes to look like they did when they entered my cell.

“Look at you, Bakura. Shivering. Like a child left in the cold. Or…are you finally prepared to admit that you are afraid of me?”

Afraid of him? Yes.

Prepared to admit it? No. NEVER!

Nothing scares me. Not even death anymore.

Two years of living under Yami’s strict hand. Two years of him raping me. Two years of Anubis taking me against my will, sometimes with two or more soldiers.

Two years of starvation and daily beatings.

Enough.

No more.

Take me home, Marik.

Please.

Take me to the Underworld.

Relieve my pain.

Take it all away.

“Are you prepared to ask me to end your life?”

I coughed harshly. I still had that disgusting taste of Anubis in my mouth. My body still covered with my last orgasm when Anubis and his guards took me one-by-one. Anubis took me last.

So dirty.

I laid on my side, paying more attention to my breathing than I have ever done before.

“Are you afraid of me?”

I let out a staggered breath. “I fear no mortal,” I whispered.

I’ve lived through it all. Beating. Being forced. Whippings. Starvation. Humiliation.

Anubis glared at me. He was expecting me to plead for my life, wasn’t he? He wanted me to beg, ‘Please don’t kill me! Let me live this wretched life longer!’

I won’t beg.

Never.

Hurt me, hit me, beat me, whip me. I will never beg.

Anubis stood over my body and laugh. “We went to go dig up your lover.”

My heart leapt into my throat. “What?!”

“We went to your lover’s grave and we dug up his bones.”

Anubis has no shred of decency! Then again, I knew that a long time ago before I was captured. I’ve known that since I was five year old, a little child learning the art of escape.

“We’re bringing him back to Cairo. We will need him.”

“Leave Marik alone! He’s dead!”

Anubis kneeled beside me. “As you will be..Bakura..Osiris…Itemri.”

Anubis wrapped his hands around my throat and squeezed tightly.

I reached for him trying to free myself, but I was too weak.

This is it.

Death by Strangulation.

Fine.

I let my hands fall to my sides helplessly. I could feel Anubis crushing my windpipe as he strangled me.

I could feel my heart slow….my limbs were turning numb.

My eyes rolled back and I could see Marik standing there with a sad look on his face.

Finally…..I lost consciousness. I blinked and I found myself standing up.

I saw Marik standing beside me. He stroked my cheek sadly. “I’m sorry, Bakura.”

I looked down and saw Anubis throw my lifeless body on the ground and spit on me!

“Son of a bitch!” I run to kick Anubis and my foot goes right through him!

Marik stood shaking his head. “You are dead, Bakura.”

I looked down at my naked body covered in my own release. My eyes had rolled into the back of my head. I laid limp on the cell floor. Alone. Forgotten. Murdered.

I was dead.

Marik cupped my cheek in his hands. “Welcome back to me, Itemri.

I can now hold you for eternity.”

I wrapped my arms around Marik tightly.

Finally I get to hold my loved one for eternity! “I never want to leave you again, Ishtar! Marik, just hold me! Please!”

I held my lover against my arms. Two years I have longed to hold him in my arms again! It took a painful death to be reunited for him, but that did not matter.

I had my lover back in my arms.

Marik stroked my cheek. “Let’s go to the Underworld together, Itemri.”

*****************************

Yami sat on his throne as they dragged in the corpse of the blond thief. Seth suppressed a cringe as Anubis tied the decaying corpse to a pillar.

“Now, Anubis, give me the other thief. Bring Bakura up here.”

Anubis grinned. “My Pharaoh, I have killed him in his cell this afternoon.”

Yami brushed back a blond lock of hair. “Pity I did not get a chance to see his moment of death. But, I will get to see his second death. Seth, give me the Millennium Rod and the Millennium Ring.”

Seth gave him the Millennium Rod and the Ring.

“Anubis, bring me the second corpse,” Yami ordered.

Bakura’s corpse was brought into the throne room and tied to the pillar beside Marik’s corpse.

Yami opened a book. Beside Seth, Aria held onto Seth’s robe.

The ten year old girl watched with tear-filled eyes as her father’s lifeless body was tied to the pillar and slumped forward motionless.

Seth turned to Yami. “What are you planning?”

Yami smiled. “I need each Millennium Item to house a spirit to power the item. Without a spirit inhabiting the item, the item is useless to me. We need to return their souls to their dead bodies. Then, their souls will be trapped within their items. Through their items, they will be able to access the Shadow Realm.”

Seth felt Aria shift closer to him and grip onto him tightly.

Yami opened up a scroll.

“Powers of Light

Powers of Dark

Shadows of Night

Shadow Powers strong and might!

Take the souls from Osiris’ hands

Bring them back from undead lands.

Return the souls to these lifeless shells.

Listen, Osiris, to these enchanted spells!

********************

In the Underworld…..

Marik and Bakura were wrapped in each other’s arms by the Nile. They had finally found each other.

Suddenly…something felt wrong.

Bakura’s touch went right through Marik. Bakura reached for Marik. “Marik! Don’t leave me again!

*****************

Yami shielded his eyes as a bright light filled the room. Aria heard a piercing cries of agony as the light dimmed. Aria saw her father’ lifeless corpse come to life!

Aria screamed in fear and hid behind Seto. “Make my daddy stop screaming!”

“GODS! PAIN!” Marik screamed as his decaying body came to life.

“MARIK! OSIRIS! TAKE ME BACK!” Bakura screamed.

Yami grinned, holding the Millennium Rod in his hands.

“Marik Ishtar, soul be gone!

To the Millennium Rod, your spirit will bond

Destroy the Rod, destroy your soul.

Immortal spirit, time shall take no toll!

Marik let out a piercing scream of pain and a bright light flashed. A ball of energy went into the Rod and the corpse fell limp.

Aria shrieked. “NO! DADDY!” Aria ran to her father.

“Daddy! Daddy!”

Bakura panted heavily as a tear fell down his eye. “Goodbye, my daughter……we’ll meet….in…..another…..life.”

Yami gripped the Millennium Ring and read from the scroll.

Bakura Itemri, Heart of Black

Into the Ring and don’t look back!

Seal your soul in this item gold

And your soul in an eternity of cold!

Bakura threw back his head in a cry of agony. Aria gripped onto her father tightly, crying. “Daddy, I love you!”

Bakura’s soul was sealed in the Ring. His body fell forward, limp…..he had died a second time.

Aria’s brown eyes filled with tears as she tried to shake her father awake. Seth approached her slowly and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Your father is dead, Aria. Crying, my dear, will not bring him back.”

Aria rubbed her father’s hair. “Sleep, daddy, sleep. I love you, daddy,” she cried. “Even if I have to wait one thousand years to see you again, it will be worth the wait. I love you, father.”

Yami put the Ring around his neck and laughed. “I have the Puzzle, Ring, the Rod and the Eye! Three more items and I will be unstoppable!”

Aria whimpered. “Sleep, daddy, sleep.”

Yami pointed to Anubis. “Anubis, throw the bodies away! Toss them in the desert where the dogs can feast on them!”

Aria gasped. “No, Anubis! Please! I don’t want my father’s body desecrated!”

“I already desecrated his body, Aria! And I enjoyed every minute of it!”

Seth held onto Aria as Anubis untied the corpses. Aria fell to her knees before him.

“Please, my dear Seth, please don’t let Anubis throw my father’s body to the birds and the dogs! I love my father!”

Seth hung his head low and bit his lip. “I cannot do anything, Aria. I am sorry.”

Aria watched in horror as her father’s lifeless body was dragged out of the throne room. Aria turned to Seth, tears in her eyes. “Seth, I need to return to your harem. I need to see Aten.”

Seth escorted her to the harem. Aten was holding Rayna’s two year old son in his arms. Aria fell to her knees before him.

“Aten, our fathers have been taken outside of Cairo! Yami is dumping them in the desert to be food for animals!”

Aten raised an eyebrow. “But my father is dead! My father has been dead for two years. I killed him!”

Aria shook her head. “No! Yami dug up his body and brought him back! Then he sealed their souls inside of two Millennium Items

That he has!”

Aten handed the child to another girl. “I can’t let my father be food for animals, Seth!” Aten and Aria dropped to their knees in front of the High Priest.

“High Priest Seth, we know what we ask of you is wrong, but please….we cannot let animals pick at our fathers’ bones!” Aten pleaded.

“Please, my dear Seth! I don’t want my daddy chewed by a buzzard! If you never grant any other request of mine, please…..I request that I be allowed to bury my father.”

Seth looked into the brown orbs that he could never deny had a hold on him.

*********************

Seth, Aria, and Aten rode out of the palace. Aten grabbed a flower from the royal gardens. They watched from afar as Anubis dragged the bodies of Marik and Bakura through the streets of Cairo. Aten tried to suppress his crying as people spat on Marik’s body, throwing garbage on his body.

Anubis raised his fists in triumph. “HERE LIES THE VICIOUS KING OF THIEVES!

Aria watched in horror as people spat on Bakura’s body and laughing at the corpse. People kicked the body viciously. Some people poured garbage and waste on Bakura’s corpse.

Aria sobbed. “My poor father.”

Seth, Aria, and Aten followed Anubis to the desert. Anubis abandoned the bodies in the desert.

The trio waited until Anubis and his soldiers had left. Aria and Aten rode up to the corpses of their fathers and kneeled before them.

“My father…I am sorry,” Aten sobbed.

“Daddy, I love you,” Aria wailed.

Seth pitied the two children. The difficult task of burying their fathers rested on the two ten year olds.

Aria and Aten dug a hole for their fathers’ grave. They put them both into the pit. Aria put Bakura on his side facing Marik. Aten faced his father towards Bakura.

Aten and Aria made their fathers hold each other’s hands. Aria kissed a part of her father’s cheek that was not covered in mud.

Aten rubbed his father’s hair.

The two children crawled out of the hole and covered the hole with sand. Aten put the single flower on the grave.

“I love you, father.”

Aria kneeled in front of the grave, sobbing. “My daddy! I love you, daddy!”

Aten wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her hair softly. “Sorry, Aria.”

“That pharaoh! I’m going to get him for this! For killing my father, he will pay dearly….or my name isn’t Aria Kanika Itemri!”