Warnings: Aside from a mentally scarred Ryou, none.

Length: 3,998 words.

Time Period: Same AU as the other Mari(k)onette oneshots, but set two days after Mari(k)onette: Yesterday Never Forgets and one day after Mari(k)onette: Today Never Ends.

It's not necessary to read them all in order, though it probably helps a little bit. If you wish to read all eight one-shots in the order in which they were written (the order that gives you the best story arc out of it), you can find all of them on my profile - use this order:

Mari(k)onette: Yesterday Never Forgets

Mari(k)onette: Today Never Ends

Mari(k)onette: Tomorrow Never Comes

Mari(k)onette: That Never Happened

Mari(k)onette: Loyalty Never Works

Mari(k)onette: Memory Never Dies

Mari(k)onette: Gambling Never Pays

Mari(k)onette: StopStart, PlayPause

Handicap: 'There are three rules that will apply to all fics this round:

1. I must state what one typical/logical path of the particular ship might be, or a common path if there is one (for instance, Mai is likely to be tortured or lose her memory if the pairing is Illusionshipping)... and then do the exact opposite.

2. All my stories in this round have to take place in one single AU created from a nightmarish combination of the two most crack AU ideas I have written down over the last four rounds. The stories must take place in the same AU, and need to reference each other somehow – the catch is that I currently don't know whether I will get my desired adopt pairings or not, and I can only write two of the fics at any one time (I have to do the first two before I can take on the third, and after that can only take one adopt pairing at a time.) The stories must be able to be read as individual one-shots.

3. The story must be written in an unusual POV and/or tense.'

Feedback: As always, concrit = good, flames = bad, everything in between = good.

POV Used: Third person, total omniscient, present tense - which switches between something along the lines of "He runs" and "He's running".

…A lot less confusing in practice than it sounds.

Pairing To Be Inverted: Eldritchshipping (Horakhty X Zorc) – these are NOT the sort of beings you can see sitting down to a nice cup of tea together. The typical way to go would be to avoid giving either character a personality, and making the ship one of those ones where you kind of talk about them being opposites, and then you talk about magnets without ever explaining how they work, and opposites attracting and all that – but if you've been reading the Mari(k)onette fics in the order they were written in, you'll know already that I gave them personalities, for better or worse...

I declare this fic to actually ship the characters, rather than dancing around the point like a leprechaun around a pot of gold. I will then proceed to wonder somewhat cluelessly why exactly writing this was so hard, XDD.

Mari(k)onette: Tomorrow Never Comes

It was a funny thing, really. Like some ridiculous pop–song that got stuck in your head, it went round and round and round and round and round and then realized that it was in fact in an elliptical orbit, which is not technically round, and was a little bit embarrassing for the idiot author who dared to write this heinously long sentence. The point is – ah, but there are no points on a curve. Not edges, anyway. Only dots, tiny little dots, and they are infinite in number.

And that was the most bizarre aspect of the matter. If you tried to think of it directly, it eluded you; if you tried to speak of it, it made you babble. It was very simple, in the same way Escher paintings are simple; twisted and confusing in exactly the same way. The more you looked at it, the less sense it made, until it all collapsed inwards on itself, threw you into the realm of incoherent rambling.

It was called 'Ryou', and it went something like this…

Yami: Marik

Howls no more

Hunts no more

Reaps no more

souls

-:-

It is time.

Time to break the First Puppet

Out of the time prison

in which

Pegasus kept it.

Begin.

Though it has no real beginning, the twisted tale's best part to start with is with a boy, shaking and pale, brown eyes swollen and puffy from what seems to be an age of crying. And he's sitting, right about here, hunched over in a plastic orange chair in the mental ward of the latest boarding school he's about to run away from, hands shaking in his lap.

"I–I just don't believe it. I didn't do it, and I can't be going mad." Now he's glancing up fearfully at the person facing him; "You're a doctor. Tell me I'm not going mad."

The psychiatrist is now sighing; that same dry sigh that says that this is (as it always is) a man who got perfect grades all his life. "Look, Ba–"

"Don't call me that." His eyes are going wide, bottom lip trembling in fear. He has a right to be afraid; he's been living through this same nightmare, again and again. It's been with different psychiatrists, different people who catch him, different schools, whatever – he's lost track of the number of alternate timelines he's gone through – but every single time, he always ends up being questioned right here, and the questions are always the same. "Y–you... You m–mustn't call me that. I–I don't like it."

"Okay, Ryo."

"Ryou. Y–you have to pronounce it right."

The doctor's shaking his head in disbelief. "All right, Ryou. What I wanted to say is that you are the prime suspect; you went into Ryuuzaki and Haga's bedroom two nights ago, when they died. The two ghosts on patrol saw you."

There's always two on patrol. Always two ridiculously different beings from each other, that always fall for each other. You can tell that they're in love; sometimes they even make out in the appointment room when they're called in as witnesses. Their love is unpredictable, that's why Ryou's always getting seen.

"Th–they did?" The boy's voice is quavering with all out fear; loop after loop he's been through now, and it's always the same. He can't remember anything about that one night beyond curling up under the covers, then his breathing deepening and slowing into the low purr of sleep – but whatever school he tries, whatever he's doing, he finds invariably that that one night always ends in disaster. And every time it all goes wrong, it's always in exactly the same way, and Ryou's always waking up after that final psychiatric appointment with the same acceptance letter in his hand, a choice of twelve schools to go to; it's his first day all over again. It's driving him crazy, having to live with the same damn friends (it doesn't matter which school he picks, it's always the same people who go there) saying exactly the same things and doing everything the same, round and round it goes–

"Yes, they saw you." The psychiatrist is now interrupting his thoughts, and Ryou's automatically panicking:

"B–but I didn't do anything! I swear I didn't, I–"

The man's voice is sharp, the gaze unwavering. "Then who did, Ryou? Answer me!"

"I–I don't know!"

"You do know!"

"I don't! I–I was asleep the h–whole ti–"

"Then why did your roommate see you sneak out that night?"

"L–liar!"

There is a long silence, and then the doctor's leaning close (as they always do), the glasses almost falling off his nose as he does so. "Come now, Ryou. If you confess, it will be so much easier for you."

The boy blinks slowly; "But... Doctor Tenma..."

"Yakou." A clinical smile, disguising the pain the psychiatrist is inwardly feeling at that name. "Call me Yakou. Please."

"Yakou..." A slight pause. "Yakou, I didn't do it, I honestly didn't do it, I swear–" Ryou stops, suddenly finding something interesting about his left sneaker. "That has a hole in it."

"Yes. Yes, it does."

The albino is chewing his lip at this recent discovery. "But… but… but it has a hole in it. Why does it have a hole in it?" This is something which didn't happen in the last fifteen loops, perhaps a sign that things will be different this time round. If can just remember that one night, he could do something in the next loop to prevent it. If he could just remember…

Not that there's much chance of that one happening.

The man chooses to begin running his hands through his green hair in just–barely–contained frustration. The two of them have been at it for the better part of two hours now, with a rather glaring lack of success; but he will get that confession in the end. "Okay, Ryou. We'll go and get some nice lunch now; and then we'll come back here, and you can tell me exactly what you did two nights ago."

"I didn't do anything", Ryou Bakura whispers to no–one in particular, though he is beginning to doubt his own words now; he's denied whatever he did that night fifteen times now, he's kept count somehow, and he's breaking. "I didn't do anything..."

It feels like a split second, but it's really been a good thirty minutes before the boy is to be found sitting at a table, staring at his plate. There's something about the shape of the lettuce that's making him worry; though it's really the ceiling he should be worrying about. He can feel that he's falling apart; bits of his sanity are flaking off, little by little. Bit by bit, he's going to go insane, insane, insane–

Suddenly, he's feeling a sick lurch deep in his stomach. The flakes of sanity painted over his ugly core fall off, faster and faster, and he's starting to hear the little pattering sound they make, like thousands of tiny beetles scuttling around in his head. There's an odd shadow flitting around, too; it's making minute dark spots in his vision; like polka dots, what a strange word 'polka' is–

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" Yakou is taking a healthy bite out of his own burger a few seconds later. "Mm–mmm!" Now he's pushing Ryou's plate towards the boy, who's simply staring at it with a disturbingly blank gaze. "Go on. Your turn."

But the boy is just shaking his head, looking up at the ceiling. Yakou blinks; then a sudden smile is catching the corner of his lip – this might just be the lead he's been hoping for! "What are you doing?"

Ryou can't hear him anymore; he's becoming utterly focused (or possibly unfocused) on the whiteness above him, its peeling paint showing little flecks of an ugly cream colour, threatening to break through and–

Break through!

And at long last, the pale boy is remembering the beginning of that night, when his eyes snapped open and he was floating at the ceiling and oh, god. He's looking right at Yakou, with a new sort of fear in his eyes. "The… the memories…"

"Yes?"

Yes, the memories. The memories were suppressed; and only now that he's going crazy are they threatening to break through, break through, that was the password the Shadows set. Ryou's cracked it, or maybe he's just cracked; regardless, now everything's dribbling into his head, and it's too much, overload, someone help–

Maybe the psychiatrist is saying something, but he's not aware of it. Reality's bleeding away, the colours fading. It's too hard to keep his body upright and remember now, the Millennium Item around his neck is just so heavy; too heavy. His chin hits his chest, his head hits the table a second later, his eyes rolling back in their sockets, soul cruelly ripped out of his body–

Had it been any other night, the First Puppet would have surely gone unnoticed as it went to make sure that the deaths of Ryuuzaki and Haga occurred. After all, the plan went smoothly every loop – the host's soul was kicked out of the puppet's body exactly ten minutes beforehand, to allow Yami to wiggle its fingers and make sure it could still move properly. Ryou, quite rightly confused on waking up floating above his own body, would normally leave the room in order to try and figure out what had happened to him (not that he ever did work it out before the night ended) – and so, if it had been any other night, the First Puppet would have found Marik without being seen by either patrols or Ryou, and thus escaped successfully.

But it was not, in fact, any other night – for the loop always dictated that during the night of the murders, two ridiculously different teachers who always fell for each other would manage to end up on the same patrol. This time round, it was Zorc and Horakhty, the Egyptian equivalent of angel and demon respectively – the two ghosts prowled the dark corridors together, watching and listening for any sign of Academy students staying late up at night.

The one difference for this loop was that Ryou saw the duo.

–he's falling, falling, falling, remembering and falling and oh look there's the guards.

He's walking through the door and seeing them, then following them down the corridor out of curiosity. He's noting that they make quite a contrast to each other; their names, as indicated by their nametags, are 'Zorc' and 'Horakhty' – and despite sharing the second and third letters in their names, they couldn't be more different. It's so obvious – Zorc's leaning forwards with his demon head held out aggressively, reptilian tail lashing behind, while Horakhty slumps in resignation some distance away, angel wings held close to its back as it sips from a bottle of some brownish–coloured liquid.

I really don't know why they put us on the same patrol, it (Horakhty had no real gender) is now thinking quietly at its companion; for whatever bizarre reason, Ryou's mind is hearing its thoughts with ease. After all we did to each other–

Yeah, yeah. All I know is that I got killed by a stupid plot device. Zorc's head is looking over his shoulder with some difficulty as he relays this back at Horakhty – the guy's hunched back and huge, ragged bat wings aren't making it so easy to see. No offense.

Horakhty's shrugging; as it has done many times before, and likely will do again. None taken. I stopped caring years ago.

Ryou's now watching this play out with interest – they evidently can't see him, even though they're ghosts. Well, semi–corporeal ghosts, but you get the idea.

And that's just it; he's watching the duo. He's floating there, listening to their words, much as one might do if viewing a movie. Therefore, he finds him supposing, it would be best to refer to all their actions as 'is's, instead of 'ings'…

The big guy emits a grunt. Me too.

Wait, did you ever care?

The demon growls softly at the touch of arrogance in that single sentence – and with a jerk, he stops walking, turning to face the angel who thinks itself above him. His red, unblinking eyes blaze angrily, as he stares Horakhty down; and Ryou shivers – ah, no, he remembers shivering – in fear.

You think you're special or something? Listen up: You're not the only one who's been alone and hated for however many thousands of years it's been now! You're not the only one who got replaced – it was Ma'at AND Tragoedia, remember! (1) You're not the only one who got toted out once or twice, then axed from the plot for no decent reason! And to think that I wouldn't care about any of that, and you somehow have the oh–so–special ability to? Sheeesh.

Horakhty's eyes narrow in anger at this atrocity, and it puts the bottle into a hidden pocket in its robe, perfect mouth stretched in a thin line. Ryou's shrinking away from the other two, as the creature unleashes the fury of its tongue: Huh, like you were ever alone! People actually cared about you; they looked and looked for you. I'm just that one monster at the end of it all! It's not like anyone cares about m–

Wrong, wrong, wrong! Dark tendrils gather around the demon, a faint brightness surrounding the angel in an automatic defense as he continues: I've always been alone, and they never cared about me; they just hated me. My birth was even regarded as a horrible accident, and the only guy who bothered looking for me was partially me! And as for no–one caring about you? Yeah, NO. Definitely not true. Here, a slight smile tugs at the corner of Zorc's lip; not that you can really see that, as the vast majority of his teeth tend to stick out of his mouth, mangling his words whenever he speaks out loud. I can vouch that someone cares about you.

The angel tenses at the oh–so–casual implication. Liar.

Say what you like. The demon turns and stalks off down the corridor, expression once again neutral.

With a snarl, Horakhty barrels into him, knocking the other spirit backwards in a wild flapping of golden wings. You don't care about what happened to you! You don't care about me! You never care about anything! That's your nature!

A mixture of shadows and sparks flicker around both of them, and Zorc opens one eye, snickering in the other's mind. Hey, you never asked me whether I actually cared or not. You mostly just killed me during that one battle.

Well, you stabbed me from behind as soon as the Pharaoh's back was turned.

Throwing the angel off its back, the larger creature stands, tall and dominating even with the hunched back. Come on, you know I'm right. You never asked me.

Horakhty growls quietly, not wanting to admit that one. But we're supposed to be opposites! That means that–

Yeah, but you aren't exactly perfect. Perfectionist, yes, perfect... no. So, if you're a little bit evil, then I have to be a little bit good to compensate.

A short silence, then Horakhty lowers its head, signifying defeat in the non–verbal battle. Point taken.

Zorc laughs, moving closer in the dark, the beautiful dark, his precious, glorious dark. It seems that we are each other's perfect halves, Horakhty. What the Greeks liked to call a 'platonic' relationship. A sharp intake from the angel tells Zorc that he's said it the right way; that he's managed to pull off a suitably sick, perverted grin – an amazing feat, considering his mouth issues. I'm surprised you forgot that since I'm mostly evil, lust falls into my side of affairs.

To his surprise, his companion actually looks a little smug. Trust me, I didn't forget about that one – I'm just not sure how we're going to manage it...

It's being dead serious, too; advancing on him, filling the wholesome dark with light. Zorc's backing away, Horakhty advancing. Oh, you are KIDDING me!

Ryou's gaping for a full six seconds, before his jaw finally closes with an abrupt snap.

What happened approximately thirty–two point three seconds later was all a bizarre miscalculation on Yami's part. If Horakhty hadn't caught Zorc right at that point, in that exact spot, then Yami: Bakura would have come out of his room behind them, and thus stayed out of sight the entire time. Instead, the reverse was true; as Horakhty attempts to untangle its wings from around Zorc's tail, it sees the albino slink out of his room in front of the duo, moving away from them down the corridor. Giving Zorc a poke, it points repeatedly at the boy.

What am I doing? , Ryou's fretting; and the other two must have heard him somehow – that single worried thought puts the two ghosts on high alert. Exchanging looks, they start to follow the boy with Ryou lagging behind, managing to trail him undetected all the way to Ryuuzaki and Haga's room.

Whoever said that before had a point... What do you think he's doing?, Horakhty wonders, watching Yami: Bakura's movements carefully. The pale teen stands in front of the door in his ridiculous striped pyjamas, expression perfectly blank as he tries the handle. Ryou's finding that part in particular creepy to watch – where he would have stumbled and staggered, this thing's moving with a high degree of efficiency, every motion robotically calculated.

Who knows?, Zorc growls back at his partner. It's not like it's any of our business.

A sudden spasm goes through the boy; then he stiffens, glancing over his shoulder. Two ghosts and one spirit slide sideways into the wall, each praying that he hasn't seen them. They hide there for what seems like an age; but when Zorc dares to peek out again, their suspect is gone into thin air; the door still closed.

Damn, he thinks at the angel, stepping out of the wall; that could have been interesting.

His companion yawns, stretching its wings right out on either side; He was probably just sleepwalking.

Pity. Zorc trudges off, and after a moment of uncertain glancing at the door that strange boy had been trying to get through, Horakhty follows, the two resuming the standard patrol pattern. Only Ryou stays a moment, he's managing to get a single look at the dead boys on the floor, and... and…

And himself; illuminated in the moonlight, helping some blonde guy through an open window. Then his own body is whirling on him, a horrible snarl across its features and an inhuman hissing in its voice; "What are you doing here? Out!"

Everything's going black, and something purrs in his head that he won't remember that night; it's not the right time. He goes to howl out that doing that was going to cause the loop to repeat, but it's too late, his conscious is sinking, mind going at snail speed. When he next wakes up, it's in a cold sweat, a horrible dream flitting in his head– ah, but it's gone, wiped clean from his memories for the time being…

And as for Horakhty and Zorc? Well, nothing else really happened that night. To be honest, it wasn't until the screaming began, and That One Nurse came running down the hall, yelling "They're dead! They're dead!" that they realized they had made a terrible mistake in choosing not to check in Ryuuzaki and Haga's room…

When Ryou wakes, he's staring at the floor, and Yakou's leaning close. "Now that we have had our most delicious lunch, I have two people I'd like you to meet."

The boy finds himself licking dry lips in nervousness; "Please. I... I didn't do anything. Stop it."

The psychiatrist laughs, steepling his fingers; "I'd be delighted to. All you have to do is admit that you killed Ryuuzaki and Haga. Or, that you know who did."

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!", he's howling out, then abruptly beginning to sob; "I... I... Don't!"

"Yes, you do know", Yakou's murmuring quietly, looking up at the sound of a polite cough. "Ah. Come in."

"Thish' sha one", the hulking demon's spitting out, floating through the doorway. "Huh, Sha'd knowwim anyshere."

The angel's gaze is sharp. "What he means to say is that this is the one we saw the night the boys died, while we were on patrol."

"Liars!", Ryou's shouting, but no–one's listening, Zorc's lecturing him about court orders or something – then as abruptly as it came, the anger is gone, and he's crumpling in on himself, crying and crying and praying that this couldn't have happened, it's not right, surely the loop won't go on forever, he can't take another one! "I... I didn't."

"You did", Yakou's growling into the boy's ear, lips rustling the snow white bangs. Then, turning to the ghosts; "Leave us, please. Tell the staff that Ryou Bakura and I will be having an overnight session." Yes, eight hours with this one, and he'll crack for sure...

The door is clicking shut now; and with that sharp sound, Ryou's literally jumping out of his body – then he's on the other side of the door, staring right at Zorc.

And this time, he's got no luck with getting back into the room he left.

That night, the duo are back on patrol again; Ryou floating along behind. The shifts only change once a week, after all, and it's not like the spirit has much else to do – something tells him that it'll be a few more hours at least before he's recieving his body back, if he does. The Shadow he now knows to be using it seems loathe to give it up; and there's no real point in trying to interfere.

As the three of them move down the silent, near–darkness of the musty corridors, lit only by flaming torches, Horakhty looks over at Zorc with some degree of affection. If it hadn't been for you and your lust, we wouldn't have caught the... He was the murderer, right?

The boy automatically goes to call out that it wasn't him; but he can't make a sound. Thinking things at the other two has no effect whatsoever – the puppet master has completely blocked him off from the outside world this time round. A silent howl forms on his lips, his frame racked with fear; what if he doesn't get back to his body? If he doesn't, he'll surely go insane, surely he'll break–

The demon shrugs a reply to his companion; Yes. I could see the darkness from his killing all over him.

One of Horakhty's elegant instantly eyebrows angles upwards; All over him? That seems to be more than the usual amount for killing.

It was all over the floor, too. Almost as if... Zorc stops, his huge mouth falling open. Horakhty. Do you remember the one who tried to command me in our final battle?

Of course. He was...

A horrible realization dawns on them both, and Ryou would be cheering if he'd been able to. They've figured it out, they've figured it out, and now it's going to be all right!

Thief King Bakura. Possessed by that thing, Yami. Zorc fills in grimly. And that young man we saw, that was Ryou Bakura. White hair, slim build, the lot. All he needed was a spray tan, a knife to the face, and maybe a few days without brushing his hair... Should have known that name was familiar.

Oh, no, no, no, no!, Horakhty wails – and that's about when the screaming from That One Nurse starts up again, when Ryou's suddenly opening his eyes despite having never closed them; realizing with a lurch of horror that he's back in his body; but not exactly in a room anymore.

Alarm bells ring all through the school, and the two ghosts collectively groan as the cries become decipherable:

"They're gone! They're gone!"

This time, the calls are coming from the mental ward...

The loop is over.

Now, First Puppet

Go forth and show

the world what

revenge is.

Begin.

Note:

1. Ma'at and Tragoedia are in my opinion two characters who took the place of Horakhty and Zorc respectively in the GX manga. I'm not a huge fan of GX, but I couldn't help but notice how similar their roles seemed to be (Zorc and Tragoedia both manipulate peeps in the manga, Horakhty and Ma'at are both combinations of ace monsters who are only seen for one duel) ... And am I the only one who thinks that they look somewhat similar to their non–GX counterparts?