Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ A battle for Freedom ❯ Ribbons and Blood ( Chapter 10 )

!!!!Warning!!!!

This chapter can be considered rather violent, but considering it's the only one, I don't feel the need to rise the rating of the story. It's like when people rise their rate to R and the only thing R rated in it is when a character says the F word once. -_-;. Anyway, this chapter contains; Blood, slight hinting to bondage (but Yugioh already hints towards that by the way Yami dresses with the collar). So now you're warned so if I get any reviews scolding me for writing this chapter, bogger off! You should just read the warning. It's what? Posted only twice. So please don;t waist my time. Thank you and I hope you enjoy. Suggestion are welcomed as well and I am aware of my lack of spelling abilities, but thank you all for rating it for me so that I can improve.

Chapter Ten

Ribbons and Blood

Yami and Yugi walked into the living room and placed themselves in the center. Despite the fact that it may be a good idea to bring Bukura with them, Yami refused to take the risk of his dark side running lose in an already chaotic mind. Slowly them began clearing their minds of everything and felt the Shadow Realm embrace them like a mother's arms. The moment they opened their eyes, they found themselves in what appeared to be ancient Egypt. At far from they Naffinni lay leaning against a pillar wear a very see-threw Egyptian gown for a pharaohs wife.

"You shouldn't have come," She replied sadly. "There's no really anything you can do,"

"Where's Kari's door?" Yugi asked. Naffinni pointed to a heavy looking door covered with chains and spikes. "that's her door?"

"It didn't always look like that," Naffinni answered as she strode over to it. "But when Pegasus force open the darkness in her heart that had been locked away. It changed everything," She opened the door as if it was nothing.

Yami gasped in horror. The place appeared almost identical to his own, however the structure was giving away as if it had all been made of sand. Naffini covered hand mouth as tears started to form in her eyes.

"It's as if everything is dying," Yami whispered.

"It is dying Yami,"Naffinni whimpered softly. "There use to be life here but now nothing remains,"

"You said you saw Kari," Yugi quickly turned to the matter at hand.

"Yes, but you can't go the way I went," Naffinni said. "The pathway collapsed just as I left,"

"Then we may not find it in time," Yami finished Naffinni's unspoken line. Yugi looked devastated at those words. Were they truly too late? Just as his heart began to sink there was a tiny yip.

"Wha? A puppy?" Yugi questioned as a small brown and white husky started to lick his face.

"Hello again Jewel," Naffinni greeted the animal as it began to yip at them. "Jewel was Kari's childhood pet. She meant the world for her,"

"Do you suppose that she can show us to Kari?" Yami instantly questioned as Naffinni gave him a half hearted look.

"I suppose, however she may only show us the younger memory of Kari,"

"But she can show us where Kari is!" Yugi cried out as hope once again enter his heart. There still was a chance. "Come on Jewel. Show us where Kari is,"

The whelp gave several excited barks and ran off with the three in tow. They went up and down stairs, turn and twisted around corner, there were even times when they barely managed to cross the path as it crumple under their feet. Then suddenly Jewel just stopped in her tracks looking confused.

"What is it girl?" Yugi asked feeling like they were in some sort of bad cross over of Lassie and Labyrinth.

Jewel merely looked at him and barks, when there was a distant jingle of a bell. Jewel's tail began wagging maddly as she quickly ran up so steps in a sort of slow motion. Standing in awe the group of three watched the dog age until she was full grown, then their eyes ventured up the stair to see a little girl standing on the edge hold a silver dinning bell in her hand. She appeared to be only six years old wearing a sort of white flimsy nightgown with no sleeves, her feet blusters and bare with old blood caked on them, and her face covered with loneliness and fear. Jewel stopped right next to her where the girl absent-mindly patted her furry head, but the bright green eyes remained fixed on the intruders.

"Kari?" Yami asked calmly as not to scare her. She nodded. "I'm Yami and this is Yugi. You know Nafinni?"

"Yes, I know Naffinni," She answered in a small voice. "She lives it the warm place. Why are you here?"

"We are here to help you, sweetie," Naffinni answered kindly and the little Kari descended the stairs, Jewel remained behind. "Or rather the older you,"

"I know who you mean," She giggled softly. "The one that always forgets to close the doors. She's funny! She tripped once down the stairs,"

"Do you know where she is?" Yugi asked as the girl turned towards him. Her expression changed quickly from a merry child to one that seemed to have seen more then it ever should have.

"She's where the other is," She crouched down and ideally drew circled in the dust that had gathered on the floor. "A man came and forced her to show him where the other was. She was crying for him to stop but he didn't,"

"The other?" Naffinni looked confused.

"The one that's out now. She's always mad. She blames Kari for everything, even if Kari knows it's not her fault. She always makes Kari cry,"

"You mean her dark self," Yugi asked only to have the girl nodded.

"Oh well, it's too late to lock the door again. Now Kari's trapped there. I'll show,"

And thus the group was pulled off on another journey around the decaying labyrinth of memories. Pictures, voices of people whom Kari knew appeared or could be heard as they pasted the different doors. Some where happy and adorable, other were dark and hateful, several of those pictures were smashed. The worst of it all were the inner thoughts of Kari herself.

"Then again, You have always done the most dumbest things possible. Running away from two homes now, going to the school when you should have been in bed sleeping. Heck, you even kept secrets from your friends," A voice sneered.

"Who's that?" Yugi asked. Kari turned her head to answer him.

"It's the other,"

"It's my fault! It's my entire fault! He set the trap and I fell for it. My monster has won and so has the demon in me!" "It's all my fault," It was now their Kari voice that spoke from the catacombs. "It's my fault Daisy and Mommy and Daddy are gone," "I can't go back! They'll hate me!" She sounded like she was crying. "I'll lose everyone I care about," "I wish I were dead!"

"Is this really what her thought have been like?" Yami asked Naffinni.

"I don't know," Naffinni admitted. "She stopped speaking to me after the nightmares began,"

"Kari is a big girl," The memory spoke absently. "Kari can handle things on her Kari. Mustn't get others involved. Kari's secrets are Kari's. Only Kari needs to know,"

"Who told you that," Yugi asked.

"Kari told Kari," Kari smiled sadly at them. "After she finished the necklace and met nice lady from the warm place with the sand. After she met man from past and present,"

"Who is this man, Kira?" Naffinni gently nudged the girl. She stopped in front of a rather barren looking door.

"Kira never say," She answered. "This is it. The door where the other belongs. Bye,"

"Wait!" Yugi called, but before the words so much as left his lips, the memory flickered and died. "What do we do now,"

"Enter carefully," Naffinni answered. "The ribbons I spoke of before are alive. If they scene that you are trying to remove her from their grasp they tighten..."

"Cutting into her flesh and straggling her," Yami finished. "Here goes nothing,"

Yami cautiously pushed the door open so that some light may enter the tiny room, but no matter how wide the door opened, the light was murdered before it reached past the doorway. Naffinni muttered some Egyptian spell words and an orb of light formed in her hands. Once they were sure them could enter the room and see what would lay before them, the group of three entered the room. The door swung closed the moment they were completely inside and the smell of fresh blood filled the air. Yugi gagged on it almost immediately. Then someone started to clap. Each clash of the pair of hands was drawn out leaving it mocking and sinister. A light flicker on and Naffinni screamed in horror. It was worse then they thought. Kari was suspended in the air, her arms bent in strange angles, the white ribbons were stained with blood as they tightened around her chest, waist, legs, arms, and neck. It was obvious that she was nude, but the ribbons covered her completely, but what Yami and Yugi were gazing upon wasn't the girl tortured before them, but the one who was sitting like a queen on the bed behind her.

"Well done, boys," A cruel grin covered her face. "Well done. You were a little slower then I thought but you showed up never the lest,"

"Yami Kari," Yugi snarled. He stepped forward. No one was allowed to hurt his friend. "Let Kari go!"

"Careful!" Yami Kari sneered back as she quickly pulled on one of the ribbons. Instantly they all tighten around the broken girl and she spat up blood. "The ribbons are rather... possessive,"

"Stop it!" Naffinni stepped forward now and the ribbons tighten more.

"AHH!" Kari cried weakly as the ribbon around her neck cut deeper into her. "STOP! PLEASE!"

"Naffinni! Yugi!" Yami cried out and both stopped advancing. Yami Kari however started to grin.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now look at what you've done," She mocked softly as if she were speaking to idiotic dogs. "She's bleeding all over again," she then turned on Kari. "How does it feel, girl? To be bond and bleeding? Do you like the pain?"

"You're sick!" Yugi yelled and the mad girl turned to face him given a almost violent pull on the ribbons so that they jerked lose for a second and then slapped ever tighter back in place. Blood splattered for one of the many chest wounder and tainted some of Yami Kari's face.

"You're killing her, little boy!," She snarled angrly. This wasn't going the way it should.

"Why are you doing this?" Naffinni asked. "What has she done?"

"Why? WHY!?!" Yami Kari all but screamed in rage. "I'll tell you why! Sixteen years I have been lock down here suppressed and bond in her pathetic attempts to destroy me and denies my being! I hate her! I want her dead!"

"You realize," Yami interrupted. "That if the original soul dies, then so does the body,"

"What are you saying?" Yami Kari looked disbelieving at him.

"All that you are doing, all that you are trying to gain, will be for nothing," Yami smirk. "You will die with Kari and Naffinni will have to wait for the next reincarnation,"

"You're lying," Yami Kari screamed and torn one of the ribbons. Kari gasped for air as the ribbon around her neck squeezed at her throat so that she couldn't properly breath. Blood was slowly dripping for her mouth and her eyes, it wasn't a lot but it was still there. "Liar! Max won't have lied about this he..." The truth occurred to her then. "I'll kill him once I gain full control of this body. I swear I'll kill him!" She torn at the ribbons, until the only two that remain were wrapped around her neck and chest. The distoyed ribbons had cut so deeply into Kari's body that the remain on as a sort of second skin. "But first to kill you!"

"No!" Yugi quickly tackled the insane girl to the ground wail Yami and Naffinni quickly ripped the last two ribbons that held the girl bond and rushed her out. Yami then quickly turned and torn Yugi off the girl as the ribbons came back to life and started to entangle the other girl.

"NO!" Yami Kari screeched. "No! I was so close! No!"

"Yami, shut the door!" Naffinni screamed as she studied Kari's limp form. Silence filled the air once the door shut soundly and locked.

"Well?" Yugi gasped for air.

Naffini released a heart wrenching sob. "We're too late. She's not breathing,"

Back in the real world, Kari Matochi, was lying in the emmergancy ward. A tube had been inserted threw her nose to force feed her oxygen wail two tubes had been inserted into her arm, one of blood, the other to insure she gained fluids. A young Nurse by the name of Mayua was checking her progesses.

"Poor thing," She whisper. "I wounder what..."

She never finished her words as the girl suddenly hacked up blood which splattered the poor woman's face and clothes, before the alarm went off. Her heart was failing once again.

"There has to be something we came do!" Yugi cried looked at Yami and Naffinni. Gaining no answer he kicked the wall angrly. "It's not fair! We got so close and..."

"There is one more thing we can do," Naffini answered as she placed her hands on Yugi's shoulders. "But first we must get her to my side of the mind,"