Once again for fanfic100, using the prompt Middles.
This is how our two psychos met after being sealed away for 3000 years.
Just to remind you:
Akefia - Bakura
Runihura/Ru - Marik
Enjoy! There's notes at the end to explain some things X3
The Middle
When Marik was awakened, the first thing he felt was pain. Heart wrenching, unbearable, searing pain. Then pure hatred. Hatred at the cause of the pain, and the want, the need, to make someone pay for what happened. He had no recollection of why he was there, or how he came to be, only that when he awoke, he felt pain and hatred and later anger and the need for revenge.
And revenge began in the form of a golden rod and blood. He'd grabbed the item that had called to him, and fought to extiguish the cause of the pain and suffering he had awoken to. But once skin had been ripped from flesh, and the 'rational' side of him recovered from shock, he was once again pushed to the back of a small boy's mind, seeing nothing, feeling everything.
But that need, that want, that desire for revenge hadn't been quenched. There was still something, someone out there who had to pay for the pain and the hate and the anger. That someone had just as much to do with Marik as the boy's mind he dwelled in. He couldn't remember (how he wanted to remember) but he knew, he just knew that this person was to blame for his pain and the boy's.
So while shoved to the back of the boy's mind, he leaked his own feelings and thoughts to him, telling him what to do, urging him to seek out the one who had imprisoned them both. And the boy did so, not realising it was Marik who gave him all his plans and strategies. But with the loyal one by his side, Marik soon found out he couldn't gain control. It was only when the loyal one was knocked unconcious by Ra's fury that he was allowed freedom once more.
Once out, he cared nothing for the boy whose mind he'd dwelled in. He banished him and claimed the body for his own. He happily tortured those who faced him, watching with glee as the one responsible for his pain was forced to watch. Yes, he knew who it was the moment he'd lain eyes on him, the one who held the Millennium Puzzle. Once again, he didn't remember, but he knew, he just knew. He was the man who'd caused him so much pain. He didn't know what sort of pain, but he knew he was the cause.
The boy ended up turning on him, seeking the help of someone so familiar and yet so strange to him. He stopped at nothing to get what he wanted, and unfortunatly this person was in his way, and that ment defeating him. With each drop in life points, Marik felt stranger and stranger. He blamed it on the fact it was a shadow game which pretty much screwed up everything anyway, but when Ra attacked the his white haired opponent, the defiant look in his eyes as he faced banishment struck a chord somewhere in his heart, and he knew, just knew, that once upon a time, he'd loved that boy. He ignored it, however, and continued on with his revenge mission.
Yet after all his efforts, Marik still failed. He lost to the Pharaoh, and was banished to the shadows.
-
When Bakura was awakened, the first thing he felt was loneliness. A deep, deep loneliness that he simply wanted to get away from. It tugged it his heart but he didn't want to rectify it, but still he wanted to make people pay for it. Who could cause such loneliness? But, he felt content as well. However for himself he felt the need for revenge. He remembered being wronged, and being tortured. He remembered who had done it, but not why. There was also the feeling he was forgetting something, or someone.
He put all those feelings aside and hid himself within the darkness, biding his time and concocting his revenge. He might not ever find the one who imprisoned him, but Bakura wanted to be ready for that time if he ever did. Luckily, for him, the boy whose mind he resided in, whom he'd come to call his host, his landlord, came into contact with the item where his enemy was sealed. He felt the energy of that item, the Millennium Puzzle, and something happened that raised his own powers. It allowed his host to hear him, much to his own amusement and the boy's fear.
The first time Bakura lost, he was merely sent back into the Millennium Ring. He reformulated his plans and came up with another strategy. He coerced the boy, his host, into putting the Millennium Ring back on again, and he was able to see far more clearly and adjust his plans accordingly. He lay in wait, watching the world. He had another chance when he came upon his enemy's vessel was playing a game against someone who wanted the Puzzle. He faked that he'd changed, that he was the mortal's friend, and unbeknownst to his he sealed a part of his soul in a broken piece of the Puzzle, a back up in case his next plan failed.
He then found another boy with a Millennium item, and made a deal with him so that he could get it. All the boy was after was revenge, and had no need for the Rod once it was over. He failed on his side of the bargain, facing defeat at the hands of Osiris, but despite was everyone thought he wasn't gone. Bakura faced the dark side of the boy in a duel, still wanting, still needing that item. However, the person he faced he recognised. He was different, so different, but so similar at the same time. He told himself it couldn't be who he thought it was, and focused on his goal of obtaining the Millennium Rod.
Once again he lost, but the back-up plan came into play, and Bakura faced the Pharaoh, his enemy, in one more shadow game, this time with everything at stake. As he played, he couldn't help but correct everything in the game. His past self wasn't alone, he'd had a partner, a friend, a lover. He admitted Zorc had twisted his dreams and blatantly lied to him, but he couldn't stop now, not when he was so close to killing the Pharaoh and gaining what was rightfully his. After all, his family had been slaughtered to create the Millennium Items.
But the Pharaoh prevailed. Zorc was destroyed, and he was forced into the shadows.
-
Marik had been wandering around the shadows for a while now, not knowing how long he was there for time didn't exist in the realm he resided in. Sometimes he walked around, trying to find something that was different than the black-grey-purple haze that surrounded him. Sometimes he ran, trying to escape the non-existant things he thought were chasing him. Sometimes he just sat or lay down, taking calming breaths to try and figure a way to get out of the place that was driving him crazier. Most of the time, however, he screamed. Screamed in rage. Screamed in agony. Screamed in sorrow. Screamed for nothing. Screamed for everything.
Bakura was in a similar situation, not knowing how long he'd been in the shadows for, wandering around aimlessly. Unlike Marik, he felt more at home in the shadows, but that didn't mean the neverending hazy purple abyss wasn't driving him even more insane than he already was. He was convinced he was hearing voices. Or at least screams. He knew they were in his head, but they were still annoying.
The shadow realm was endless. One could walk for years, decades, and never end up anywhere. Bakura knew this, so it was surprising when he decided out of boredom to follow the screams, and they actually lead him somewhere.
Marik was sat down, hands clutching, pulling at his hair, screams of complete and utter despair tearing out of his throat. He was crying to, having had enough of the endlessness, the loneliness.
Bakura watched from a distance for a while, staring as the gears of his mind worked before they clicked into place, and he remembered. He walked closer, not making a sound against the non-existant floor. Once closer enough, he reached out, slowly, and touched Marik's shoulder. No, he wasn't Marik. He was Ru. Runihura.
The other prisoner looked up at once, shocked that something had actually touched him, physically touched him. He looked into the deep red eyes of someone so familiar, and he searched his brain for a name. Bakura came to him, but he knew, just knew, it wasn't right.
"Ru." Bakura breathed, unable to speak louder for fear of breaking the possible illusion.
"Akefia?" Marik whispered back, raising a hand to stroke the cheek where he knew a scar should be. "Oh Ra, is it really...?" He trailed off, watching Bakura fall to his knees before him, never letting his hand move from the blonde's shoulder.
"It's been... so long." Bakura cocked his head to the side a smiled a purely happy smile. "How could I not realise it was you?"
"I didn't know either." Marik replied. Niether spoke more than a whisper, their voices loud in the silence. "Fuck, come here." He tugged the other closer and embraced him fiercely, never wanting to let go, fearful that he would suddenly vanish and it was a trick played on him by the shadows.
Bakura clung on just as hard, murmuring ancient words into the other's ear. Words of love, of loyalty, of loneliness, of loss. He pulled back slightly only to force their lips together in a desperate kiss. If they were physical beings, blood would be flowing from their lips with how they tore at each other, tongue battling, teeth nipping and biting, anything to feel alive, to feel loved again.
-
Together, they worked out a way to get back to their hosts. It as unbearable to be parted and hidden but once their vessels realised they were back, they set about freeing them. Bakura knew Ryou was a kind hearted boy, and while his 'friends' thought that the spirit abused the boy, he didn't, he couldn't. Marik knew Malik was also kind, but he figured it was more about getting him out of his head than being nice and setting him free.
The contract that gave them their own forms ended upon the death of their 'better' halves. They would return to their items to await being awoken by their other selves recincarnations. So in truth, they weren't really free. They also had to give up their goals of obtaining the Millennium Items and killing the Pharaoh, now named Yami, once named Atemu. They agreed, and even received an apology from him.
"I'm sorry for sealing you." Yami had said. "I remember... everything I did as Pharaoh. I'm not proud of some of the things, and one of those was sealing you both out of nothing but spite."
Things grew into some form of normalcy. Marik lived with Malik and Isis, Bakura with Ryou. They were forced to attend school by their former hosts, but were amused when Yami was coerced into doing the same. They lived, they grew, they had their own lives but never strayed far from their other halves, their lives forever linked by the golden items given to them.
Ok, I've based this on the events of the manga. As much as I could anyways, since I haven't gotten up to Marik's appearance in the manga so for him I had to go off the anime and what I was told by friends. To me, the manga has less plotholes and makes more sense (for example, after Honda throws the Ring into the forest, how the fuck does Bakura get it back? Plothoooole).
Also went on my own fanon a bit. Since I'm not 100% sure why Bakura wanted the items, I wanted him to want them because he felt he had the right to them as his family was melted down to make the gold for the damn things.
Next and final chapter soon guys. Thanks for sticking with this ^^ Warning too: the next chapter will have a few OCs, since it takes place with the next owners of the .
R+R and get free cards!
