Author’s Note:

            Hello all, Mystic Shadow here. In case anyone missed it, this is a Yu-Gi-Oh/Harry Potter crossover. After reading AlantisB’s Egyptian Sorcery and White Angel’s The New Students I thought I’d try my hand at it. By the way, if you’re simply looking for an archive of a Yu-Gi-Oh/Harry Potter crossovers, Stella Wind has bunches linked, both in her bio and in her favorites list. Plus she’s written a pretty good one herself.

            Which brings me to my next point. Mastery of Darkness, like The Warlock, is yaoi. Which  means (as most of you probably know), boy sees boy, boy likes boy, boy drags boy into bed. I’m not responsible or liable for anyone who comes out irreversibly mentally damaged by reading this story even though they hate yaoi. (Which is why I think flames are so stupid. You read through 40,000 words on a subject matter you hate, then you send someone an e-mail about it? Does that seem slightly masochistic to anyone besides me?) Main paring here is Yami/Yugi, though there might or might not be mentions of Ryou/Bakura. Whether or not Malik or Kaiba will show up at all is presently undecided

             Anyway… I think that’s about it. Oh, and please review. My other stories have always been, if not cannon, then straight from that series. I’d like to hear how I did on a crossover. Uncertain author shamelessly begging for reassurance.  Besides, if nothing else, you can point out everything I did wrong and laugh as you watch me try to fix it.

            Enjoy!

                             

Mastery of Darkness

Chapter One: Winds of the Future

 

 

 

He could not sleep.

Though twilight was past and true dark had long since fallen, he was still restless. Curled in his lover’s strong arms, his eyes stared at his bedrooms ceiling, watching the contrasting play of moonlight and shadows. Outside the city was quiet. Not asleep, no, a city so large could never sleep, but quiet. Serene. Peaceful. As if the soul of the city was resting, pausing and gathering it’s self for the coming of a new dawn.

It was long past time when the last movie got out. It was past the time when the bars closed, sending their weary and inebriated customers on their way. It was past the time the last of the drunks stumbled home to their empty lives to collapse in their homes.

All others could sleep, loosing themselves to the black oblivion of intoxication if nothing else, so why couldn’t he?

With a soft sigh he pushed the covers back. He gently untangled himself from his lover’s sleeping body, pausing a moment to admire the features, normally so hard and guarded in the day, softened at night. Careful not to wake his sleeping partner, he slipped from the bed. He crossed the room as silently as he could, padding softly toward his window. Cautiously unlatching the glass, he pushed the window open slowly, trying to avoid a loud squeak. Once open he clambered up onto the windowsill and inhaled the fresh night air.

He had always loved the night, even as a child, before his beloved darkness came to him. Something about the world at night, the soft shadows that turned sharp edges into softer blurs. He had never understood how other children could be afraid of the dark.  He loved the sun, lived in it, reveled in it, tilted his face to catch the smiling warmth, but the dark… In darkness there was comfort, there was softness, there was security.

It was no wonder he had been drawn to darkness’s favored son.

He leaned out a bit farther, carefully swinging his legs up and over the windowsill, so his feet dangled in the night. The fit was a bit tighter then it had been when he’d still been a child seeking refuge from the world, but with a couple shifts and twists he found a comfortable position. He smiled wryly. Then again, it wasn’t that surprising. He really hadn’t grown all that much taller, after all.

A cool breeze caressed his bare skin and he heard the faintest whisper behind him, then he was once again wrapped in his lover’s arms. With a sigh he leaned back into his yami’s bare chest. He should have known his yami would not sleep long without his presence. In the past months they had grown used to sleeping together. Bodies tangled in the dark, comfort from each other only a touch away, a guard against the loneliness and remnants of a past that could bring nightmares forth into the present.

A soft shimmer of concern touched his mind. /Aibou?/

/Yes, Yami?/

/What troubles you this night, little one?/

He relaxed further into his love’s embrace. /I don’t know./ He tentatively tried to identify the feeling of unease which had fueled his strange, fey mood and kept him awake through the long hours of the night. /It feels… It feels like something is coming./

Silence fell while Yami contemplated what is other half was saying. /Danger?/

/I don’t know. It kind of feels like before Battle City, but not. It’s as different from Battle City as it is the same. I know that doesn’t make any sense but that’s what it feels like. I hate this!/ Frustration echoed through the link.

Yami pulled his light even deeper into his arms as he considered what his aibou was saying. They had both learned to trust Yugi’s instincts. While he could not see the events or paths the way Ryou could, he could feel when the threads of destiny shifted. If his light said something was coming, something would come.

/Change./

/What was that?/

/The wind, it heralds change. Whatever is coming, it’s going to be big and it’s going to change things./

Yami could not explain the strange mood of his light, but he thoroughly disapproved of the fear that had crept into his voice. Moving abruptly, he picked up his light and carried him to their bed.

/Yami!/

/Brooding about what hasn’t yet happened is even more useless then brooding about what has already passed./

Yugi pouted. /And ignoring it will help?/

/I’m not ignoring anything./ He dropped his hikari on their bed, then followed him down. /But I’ve got something much more interesting to do then worrying about possible dangers in the future./ He nipped his hikari’s ear, then moved down along the satiny skin of his neck.

/Ya-Yami!  This is serious!/

There was a smirk in his darker half’s reply. /I’m very serious./ Yami smiled as he found the particularly sensitive spot on Yugi’s neck and his light gasped and sighed in that especially enticing way of his. /If there is danger in the future, we will face it as we always have, together. I will not allow anyone to cause you harm./

Yugi vaguely felt like he should be protesting more but his yami’s next action completely destroyed all his concentration. He gave up his struggle for coherency with no regrets. As his yami had said, they would face the future together.

Later, lying together as the first rays of dawn’s soft light began to spill across the sky, Yugi snuggled closer in his yami’s protective embrace. /Yami?/

/Yes, little one?/

Yugi whispered, /It feels like a storm./

/A storm?/

/Yes, a storm. But it doesn’t feel like rain/

/Then what does the storm feel like?/

Yugi shifted, the tilted his head as if listening to some unknown call. /Fire. The storm feels of fire./

It had been two days since Yugi was kept awake all night by the mysterious sensation of forthcoming change. In those two days nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever had happened and he had returned to his usual, cheerful self. As Yugi finished putting away the dishes he reflected that he could have begun to think he was imagining things except for the niggling feeling of unease he sometimes felt.

/Ne, Yami?/

/Yes, Yugi?/

/You don’t think I overreacted, do you? I mean, nothing has happened since then./

/Aibou, I don’t know exactly what you felt, but I do know that it was very real. Your ‘feelings’ always seem to have a way of coming true./

/It’s too bad Ryou’s not here. He’s good at card reading. I’m glad he got to go on vacation but it would have been nice if he were here!/

Yugi’s puzzle glowed and then he felt a hand on his shoulder as his other took physical form. /We really need to get you a proper teacher someday. I can train you in the basics of many magic’s, but I never had any skill at divination./

/We could ask Ryou…/

/Hmph. The Tomb Robber couldn’t teach you anything./

/Ryou, not Bakura!/

Amused patience. /Aibou, who exactly did you think taught Ryou all he knows? Bakura may be a sneaking thief but, much as I hate to admit it, he’s good at reading the cards for fortunes. But Bakura’s and Ryou’s prediction abilities are different then yours. Ryou’s abilities are very strong, but they are also fairly normal. Your abilities, little one, are not./

He turned around and looked at Yami. /How do you know? We don’t even really know exactly why I can tell these things sometimes!/

/I may not be seer-skilled but I know the basics of divination. It was expected that I learn a bit about all magic’s, even ones I had no skill in. What you do isn’t what the seers did./

Yugi sighed and rested his head against his yami’s chest. “What is it about me that means that nothing is ever normal?”

“Because you’re you, Yugi.” Yami replied tenderly. “You’re special, and beautiful and innocent. Oh,” he added offhandly “And according to Isis you’re fated to save the world.”

Yugi blinked. “Oh, yes. Well, you can’t forget about that.”

“Are you done with your chores? You promised Jou and the other’s that you’d be meeting them for that movie at 1:00.”

“Ack! What time is it?”

Yami glanced at the clock and laconically replied. “12:48.”

“Ahh! Come on, we need to go!” Alarmed at the prospect of being late he grabbed Yami’s wrist then dragged him through the door. He didn’t even pause to shout his “Bye Grandpa!” as he headed down the sidewalk at full speed.

They were halfway to the movie theater when Yami abruptly stopped dead. Yugi, being smaller and more slender, stopped with him.

“Yami? What’s wrong?”

Yami didn’t answer, he simply stood there, eyes unfocused, frozen.

Yugi was beginning to get worried. “Yami? Yami!”

Yami once again ignored Yugi’s frantic questions. Yugi began to really get worried when he saw the faint outline of the Eye of Horus on Yami’s forehead, just barely glowing. It suddenly seemed to pulse brighter for a second, then disappeared.

/Aibou?/

/Yami!/ Yugi almost knocked Yami over with the force of his hug. /What happened? One moment we were running along, the next moment you were so still. Then your Eye started glowing and I couldn’t get a response!/

/Shushh. I am sorry, little one. I could not hear anything you were saying./

/But what happened?/

/I do not know, exactly. It felt like something was trying to catch my attention, then something… attacked… me, though I’m not sure if attack is really the world. I was able to fight it off easily enough but I’m not sure exactly what happened./

/What if this is related t the strange feeling’s I’ve been having?/

/Then I guess our wait will be over, won’t it?/ “Come on” Yami said, reverting to normal speech, “You don’t want to be late.”

By the time they were a block away from the movie theater Yugi was getting really worried. Only 10 minutes had passed and it seemed like each attack was a little bit stronger. As Yami had said “It no longer feels as if something has tried to catch my attention. It feels like something is actively trying to find me.”

“Aibou, I will return to the puzzle if you have no strong objections. It will better allow me to understand what exactly is happening.”

“Okay, Yami.” Yugi bit his lip worriedly. “Just be careful, okay? You said it didn’t really feel like an attack but that might change.”

Yami brushed a kiss across Yugi’s lips, then disappeared back into the puzzle. /I will./

           

By the time they were halfway through the movie Yugi had begun to relax. By the time the movie had finished even Yami had lowered his guard slightly. Now that Yugi was walking home, both were feeling safer and hoping that whatever strange force of magic had so abruptly entered their lives, had left the same way. Consequently, they were completely unprepared for the blast of magic that echoed through Yami’s mind and sent Yugi to his knees. As soon as the first wave of magic ebbed, another one crashed into them. Yami’s voice was tense. /Let me take over!/

/Do it!/ Yugi gladly ceded control of his body to one who could handle this battle.

Yami quickly erected both mental and physical shields against the foreign magic. It was strong, but strength was not the problem. Yami could tell that he was easily more powerful then the magic and it’s caster, whoever that was, but he was not sure how to combat it. The magic certainly wasn’t shadow based and it was nothing like anything he’d encountered before. It had a complex structure, and seemed to flow around his shields, (which supported his earlier theory that it wasn’t precisely an attack, as an attack would merely have dissipated against his raised defenses) winding about him, but not touching. Not yet.

/Yami, look!/

He blinked as a construct appeared before him. The center was a whirlpool of shadow, the outside was firmly edged in what appeared to be stark black metal. It was obviously a gateway of sorts, though he had no clue where it led. As the spell around him grew tighter, he heard a chant scorch against his mental barriers.

“I summon one of Midnight’s children. I summon the Shadow’s favored son. I call upon the Dark Prince, the Night Avatar, the Heir to the Shadow Throne. I call for the one of  Power untold, unmatched, unheralded. Let him come, let him be bound. By runes and blood and sacrifice may this one be swayed to my will. Slave, I summon thee. Thy Master calls. Spirit of Darkness Eternal, COME!”

His eyes widened in disbelief. ‘It couldn’t be…’

He had no time to complete his thought as the magic surrounding him snapped taut. Like a rubber band stretched to far, it hurled him to the obsidian shimmers of the gateway. As he passed through, he suddenly realized the one weakness that had been exploited by this spell. And why his shield, which had been configured against a direct attack, had not stopped this one.

He was Spirit.

True, he was an immortal spirit, an elemental who had once been human. He was not bound by most of the rules that normally hampered one such as him. But he was still a spirit, and any spirit, even the Spirit of Darkness itself, could be summoned if the right combination of circumstances were brought into play.

Which triggered his next thought. ‘Someone dares to attempt to summon me?!’

That realization had him going back over the Words of Summoning, and as he remembered the call that had crossed his barriers blood-rage flared in eyes of crimson fury. ‘Slave? My Master?’ Him. Who was Pharaoh and God to mortals. Who had such powers that men trembled at his fury and women wept at his gaze. They dared?

Another thought entered his consciousness. The summoner was attempting not just to summon him, but also to bind him. He was already bound to his light, his love. His Hikari, who kept him sane and whole and gave hope and life to his world. They would attempt to break that bond, to bind his will to another. They would take away his bond with Yugi if they could. A cold rage hotter then a thousand suns flared through his veins, rage which he funneled into icy fury.

As the darkness of the gateway collapsed upon itself, it’s job complete, one last thought struck the Spirit of Darkness it had transported to another world.

They shall learn the price of summoning what they cannot control.

           

 

 

 

 

 

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