Oceans Apart on Doomsday, the Sequel
(If you prefer the vague and ambiguous ending to a happier one, don't bother reading this chapter. It's not sunshine and daisies happy, but it provides a bit of closure.)
The Sahara winds roared in a seemingly never-ending sand storm, tearing across the landscape of northern Africa. It filled every crevice it could find, creating mounds of gold in the cauterized craters left by the morning's meteor shower.
"This is pointless Gardner. You don't even know where to look!"
Tea tuned out Kaiba's angry shouts; the winds made it difficult to hear, and he didn't need a response anyways.
Yugi's soft and concerned voice next to her wasn't as easy to ignore.
"Tea, maybe we should try something else. We can barely see out here, and the winds are just getting worse."
Tea listened, but kept walking forward, shielding her eyes against the wind.
"I know, but what else can we try? Kaiba traced the phone call to this area, and I don't think he could have gone too far after it cut off."
Yugi was silent for a moment, then said "Tea… what if we don't find him?"
She stumbled a bit in the sand, but aside from that kept her pace. "We will. We have to. At least… at least to know if he's alive or not. I need to know for sure."
From the corner of her eye she could see Yugi fall back, his shorter stride leaving him behind her.
She paused and turned to look at him, and his face was drawn and pensive.
"Why? Why is this so important to you?"
His tone was neither accusing nor jealous. He simply didn't understand.
Tea thought for a moment, wracking her brain for an answer; because truthfully, she didn't know why it mattered so much – why it was so important that she find Marik Ishtar.
"I… guess... he just… doesn't deserve to die, that's all."
Yugi stared levelly at her, his eyes red from the sand, saying "My grandpa didn't deserve to die either."
Tea gasped, stung as her own words came back to her.
"Oh, Yugi, I'm sorry… I didn't mean – "
"No, Tea, it's alright. I wasn't trying to make it sound like… it's just… there are so many people we know and care about who didn't deserve what happened to them. I guess what I don't understand is… what sets Marik apart from them?"
Looking down at the sandy ground under her feet, Tea thought. What did set him apart? Why was she so obsessed with making sure he was alright?
With a shrug she started "He's so different from anyone we've ever known Yugi. His whole life has been full of pain and darkness, and it seems like he's just… become used to it. He said something to me on the phone – that he didn't think he deserved the happiness he had in his life now – and I just can't let that go! No one deserves to be sad all their life. It… breaks my heart to think that after finally getting his life turned around, he has to lose it all because of some freak disaster. He and his family barely had any time to be happy, and I won't stand for that."
She lifted her head to see Yugi watching her with a small smile, and as their eyes met he came forward and tightly grasped her hand.
"Always fighting for others… okay Tea, we'll keep looking."
Tea smiled and nodded shakily, rubbing at the sand that had stuck to the tracks of her tears.
She didn't say anymore, but there was so much more to say.
Yugi didn't know the extent of her conversation with Marik.
He didn't know that Marik had professed love to Tea.
And that the more she thought about, the more she felt she could love him in return.
She had been afraid to face him after the events of Battle City – not because of what he had done (he was a changed man now) but because of what he saw inside her mind and inside her heart.
Her will was weaker than Joey's. She hadn't been able to drive him out. He had latched on to the negative feelings harbored inside her – jealously, anger, … selfishness – and had been able to convince her in her mind that she could not fight. That she was useless. That she was not worth the effort to save.
Her mind knew that these were not true… her heart was not as easily convinced.
She had always been prey to her heart.
But then he called, and worried about her safety, and told her he loved her… despite all he had seen inside her, he loved her.
And she needed to know why – to know what it was he saw. To know how he couldn't despise her.
She hid her follies so well she thought; her friends seemed unaware that she had faults at all.
Yugi seemed to think she was an angel.
She couldn't bring herself to accept such praise.
But if Marik, who had spent so long inside her mind, could love her enough to spend what could have been his last minutes alive to tell her so, then perhaps he could see something she couldn't.
And so she trudged on, aching to find the strange young man and sort out her heart in the process.
"Hey… what's that up there?"
Tea was roused from her thoughts at Yugi's question, and jerked her head to see what the young man was pointing at.
About a hundred feet or so ahead of them was a structure, small and low and hard to see through the sand; Tea couldn't be sure she wasn't hallucinating.
Nevertheless, she quickened her pace and headed for the dark shape in the distance, Yugi jogging to keep up with her.
As they got closer, certain details were becoming clearer – the structure was stone and circular and looked like ruins, but whether that was because of age or due to the meteors they couldn't be sure.
And there was something else by the structure; something huddled against the side.
It looked to be nothing more than a bundle of cloth, but then it moved, and Tea's breath caught in her throat.
A person!
"Hello!"
The sand stuck in her throat as she yelled, and for a split second she wondered if it was really safe to call out to strangers in the desert, but the thought didn't last long - she had more important things to worry about.
The figure stirred and lifted its head, which was wrapped in cloth to keep out the sand, with only a thin opening around the eyes.
Whoever it was stayed still for a moment watching the newcomers, but suddenly stood, casting aside a worn blanket which was quickly lost in the sand.
Tea barely had a moment to register how familiar that frame and those khaki cargos were before the person pulled the shawl from their face, revealing sandy blonde hair that blew about in the wind around the dark face of Marik Ishtar.
He stood there, frozen, and Tea found she couldn't move either.
Even the desert wind seemed stilled.
As the sand cleared from view, Tea could clearly see the shock and disbelief etched across his face, but her own expression was quite different.
Her sand-scratched eyes stung as tears washed over them and ran down her cheeks, shining like gold in the orange glow of the lowering sun as her lips quirked into a smile.
She laughed then; as inappropriate as such a sound was for such a day in history, she actually laughed, loud and bright.
Marik jumped as the sound reached his ears, prompting him out of his stupor as he took a few tentative steps forward.
"You-you're real! You're not a mirage!"
She laughed again, but it was subdued by the sound of his broken, hoarse voice.
With her smile faltering she started towards him, slowly, her feet dragging in the mounds of sand before her, and he took a few steps as well, mirroring her movements.
With each step she gained more confidence, her excitement growing; soon she was running towards him, tripping through the sand, and he was running towards her as well.
Before she knew it she had reached him, and he caught her about the waist as they collided, stumbling backwards as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Their lips were chapped and her mouth was dry and all she could taste was sand, but she kissed him hard and long, pouring all of her emotions into the action, and his arms around her were so tight she was sure he would snap her in two with much more.
*Author's Note:
And… that's where I'm gonna end it for now.
It took me forever to even be satisfied with this much of the sequel chapter.
And I'm on hiatus from June 2013 to December 2014, so… any feedback or requests for more are not gonna do any good until that time is up.
Of course you're more than welcome to leave the feedback now and just be patient until I get back. :3