FicWad

“Rem? But…I thought you were dead! You died when you killed Watari and Ryuzaki!”
Rem was sitting in a crumpled heap on the floor, bound by chains around her wrists and ankles, covered in wounds that dripped thick, viscous sand.
“I…recognize your voice…and you know…about…them…are you…Ryuk?”
Slowly, Rem raised her head, and Sidoh and Zellogi screamed with horror they’d never felt before as shinigami. Death was one thing, but they’d never even considered the idea that something like this could happen to a shinigami.
Rem had never had an eye on the side of her head that was covered in bandages. The other eye had been yellow, with a feline slit for a pupil. Now, Rem had only an empty socket, bordered by a thick crust of caked-on sand.
“Who are you? Can’t…see...”
Ryuk was frozen in shock for a few seconds. He was tempted to do just what the two shinigami behind him wanted to do; run away, as fast and far as he could. But he had to know…
“What’s going on? What happened to you?”
“I can’t believe…y-you got in,” Rem croaked, smiling slightly. Suddenly, her expression turned to one of acute horror.
“Get out of h-here. He’s… coming.”
“Who? Who’s coming, Rem?”
“Can’t explain…no time…run!”
“Why? Just tell me what’s going on.”
“No. He’s g-going to come back any s-second now…to…kill…me. He’ll kill you…he’ll kill you, too…”
“Who, Rem? What are you talking about?”
“Leave…NOW!” Rem shrieked. She couldn’t work up much volume in the hoarse whisper her voice had become, but the intensity in her words was loud and clear. “HE’S…COMING! He’ll…kill…you…ALL! He’s c-coming NOW! SAVE YOURSELVES!”
Sidoh bolted toward the other side of the room, heading straight for the hole in the wall, and Zellogi was right behind him.
“COME ON, RYUK! RUN!” he shouted.
But Ryuk didn’t even hear him. He’d seen more unexplained things today than he’d seen before in his whole life, and Rem knew something, even if that something was only what had happened to her. He’d risked who knows what, coming into this tower, and he was not leaving without at least one answer. An answer that was right in front of him…if he could only get Rem to talk…
“Rem, I am not leaving until you tell me What’s. Going. On.”
“No…it’s not safe here. You must leave, now!”
“I told you, I’m not leaving.”
Rem shuddered in frustration.
“Then you’ll …die… with me!”
Ryuk growled sullenly, equally frustrated. Impatiently, he shifted his weight slightly to the right while taking a small step-and heard something clink underneath his foot.
He stepped back and took a look at the object on the floor. It was a key.
The connection between the key and the chains sprang into Ryuk’s brain with no effort at all. He grinned widely at his incredible luck, and the incredible stupidity of whoever had left the key on the floor.
He grabbed the key and sprang at the chains, unlocking each one quickly with a satisfying “snap”.
“What…what are you doing?” Rem whispered.
“Ryuk, quit fooling around! We have to get out of here!” Zellogi yelled. He’d paused at the entrance to the passage out, and was flapping anxiously as he waited for Ryuk, wings already extended. Sidoh was long gone…when he wanted to move fast, he could book it like nobody’s business.
Ryuk unlocked the last chain as he said, “You obviously won’t tell me anything while you’re here, so I guess I’m just going to have to take you with me. Can you fly? Oh…guess not. Ouch,” he said as he glanced at Rem’s back, which was covered by a large plate of metal attached to her with several screws.
“Another thing to ask her about later,” he thought as he half-carried, half-dragged Rem across the long, cathedral-like room.
“Hey, Zellogi, give me a hand flying her back up, will ya?” he asked as he unfurled his wings.
The thought of touching the nightmarish spectre of a shinigami was too much for Zellogi. He shuddered in disgust and shook his head violently.
“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” Ryuk grumbled as he slung Rem over his back and took off up the hole.
They flew back through the tunnel, through the room with the death notes, down the hall and out the large window, finally escaping from the tower. In the distance, Ryuk could see the speck that was probably Sidoh, headed back to where they’d been hanging out before. Ryuk set a course in the same direction, flying behind Zellogi, a bit slower than usual because of the little extra bit of weight.
“Hey, Rem,” he said, suddenly smug, “Why didn’t you think of dematerializing your way out of those chains? Would’ve been easier than waiting to be rescued.”
Rem hissed angrily. “You…think…I…didn’t…try….that?!”
“It didn’t work?” said Ryuk, slightly taken aback. “Oh.”
Another thing to add to his growing list of things that Rem had better explain, seeing as he’d bothered to bust her out.
Gukku and Deridovely were waiting right where he’d left them.
“Whaddya know, you’re back, and you’re not dead!” said Deridovely.
“Find anything good, Ryuk?” asked Gukku.
Ryuk slid Rem off his back and onto the ground. Gukku and Deridovely stared, open-mouthed and speechless.
Rem moved her sightless head around, as though she was trying vainly to see her surroundings. Experimentally, she flexed her limbs, and rubbed at her wrist in wonder.
“I’m…free?” she breathed, a smile stealing over her face. “Is this really happening?” She sighed happily. “Thank you,” she said to the space next to Ryuk’s head. But once again, the bliss on her face was washed away by terror.
“Oh, no!” she cried. “What have I done?”
“What have you done? Huh?” said Ryuk, confused.
Rem groaned miserably. “I’m so sorry…I never should have let you free me…”
“Why?”
“Can’t you guess? He wanted to kill me, without anyone knowing. It’ll be obvious that someone freed me, and once he finds me, he’ll kill whoever did it. I’m so sorry…”
“EEEEK! What do we do!?” shrieked Sidoh.
“It’s too late to put me back,” said Rem. “We left moments before he was going to come down and finish me. I have no doubt he already knows I’m gone.”
Zellogi and Sidoh glared at Ryuk murderously. “This is all your stupid fault, Ryuk! Thanks to you, and your stupid idea, we’re all going to die!” Zellogi growled.
“You have to hide me,” said Rem. “Your only hope is to hide me, and when he comes looking, you must deny that you even knew of my existence.”
“Fine by me!” said Gukku. “Here, stuff her down this hole!”
He pushed aside a sizeable rock to reveal a moderately large pit, where he’d stashed the few winnings he’d earned in centuries of gambling. Sidoh and Zellogi grabbed Rem and unceremoniously dumped her in. Gukku started to push the rock back into place, but Ryuk stopped him just before he could finish.
“Hold on a second, Gukku,” he said. “All right, Rem. I went to all the trouble of getting you out of that tower, and look how much danger it’s put me in. I think the least you could do to make it up to me would be to tell me what happened.”
Rem tilted her head skyward in his direction, contemplating. After a long pause, she started to speak.
“I thought I was going to die that day, when I wrote down Watari and Ryuzaki’s names. How I wish that I had. But instead…”
All five shinigami sat transfixed as she told them everything.
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