"You don't stand a ghost of a chance in a duel against me, even with my lighter half to help you." Malik smirked cruelly at the spirit of the Millennium Ring and Marik's transparent spirit.

"You forget that I know your deck and your strategies!" Marik shouted back, confident of their success.

"And you forget that I saw his duel with Yugi earlier," Malik sneered back. "Besides, I have an advantage you didn't foresee."

"What's he talking about?" Bakura hissed, narrowing his eyes at his partner.

"How am I supposed to know!" Marik snapped back in irritation.

Malik chuckled as thick dark fog swirled around their Shadow Game, sealing them in from the outside world and the fierce winds that otherwise might have knocked them off the blimp.

"You're both fools." He laughed scornfully. "You especially." He was looking directly at Bakura.

"We'll see about that when I send you to the Shadow Realm," Bakura scoffed, crossing his arms in an arrogant pose.

"At least I know when my other half has gone missing, but you don't even seem to notice!"

"What?!" Bakura exclaimed amidst demented laughter from his opponent.

"Come on out," Malik murmured, coaxing the pale spirit of Bakura's host out from the shelter of his cape. Ryou timidly peeked out from behind him, rightfully frightened of the shadowy atmosphere pregnant with violence.

"Yadonushi." Bakura didn't say the word so much as breathe it. He seemed frozen in shock and fury, his eyes fixed on his hikari's face.

"That's right, Bakura. Your host has defected in order to aid me in annihilating you both once and for all."

"This is your fault!" Marik turned to face Bakura as he accused him. "If you'd done your part properly, he wouldn't be turning against us!"

"Oh, right, because you have perfect control over your other half!" Bakura spat back, turning away from Malik and Ryou. He couldn't even bear to look at him, and Ryou would be lying if he said he didn't feel guilty. He and Bakura had been together for so long, it was hard not to feel attached to him.

"That's not fair!" Marik felt genuinely insulted and started getting all worked up. "He's the darker half, just like you! You and I both know that the darker half is always stronger, so you should have been able to keep him from betraying us!"

Bakura turned his eyes towards his host again, and his expression was so fearsomely furious that Ryou shrank back, slinking into the shadowy gap between Malik's back and his purple cape.

"You don't have anything to worry about," Malik discretely whispered to him. "I'll protect you from him."

"Thank you." Ryou's voice was scarcely audible. He was too afraid of Bakura to speak up. Yes, he'd wanted to be first in Bakura's eyes and heart and priorities, but some part of him had understood that would never happen. Even so, it had taken much persuasion and much courage for him to betray the spirit that had already betrayed him.

"If you send me to the Shadow Realm, then he will be too," Bakura said pointedly, looking at Malik as he referred to Ryou. "You're no better than I am."

"Actually, he's taken shelter inside my soul. It's a bit of a tight squeeze, but we fit nicely." He smirked as he saw Bakura trying to bite back his anger at Malik's implications. "It looks like I'm actually kinder to him than either of you!"

"How dare you—"

"You've both only ever used him as a pawn," Malik interrupted with an egoistic air. "I have treated him with kindness. I care for him more than you ever could. Maybe if you'd treated him like a person instead of a tool, he wouldn't have left you for me."

"That's rich coming from you!" Marik shouted back, but Bakura remained silent. He was trying to maintain his self-control, but it was hard when Malik was dead set on making him explode.

"Ryou and I are tired of being imprisoned by you," Malik continued, Ryou still cowering out of sight. "We're done with your tyranny and cold, heartless ways." He looked over his shoulder and lifted his billowing cape a little. "Isn't that right, Ry-chan?"

"Don't call him that!" Bakura yelled, finally losing his temper. "Don't you dare call him that!"

"At least I call him by his real name!"

Ryou squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped his arms around his head as they continued to shout at one another, and finally resumed their duel. Bakura was so off-kilter that he couldn't possibly have won. Before he knew it, the duel was finished.

"It's over, Ryou."

Round brown eyes blinked open hesitantly and looked up to see a gentle smile on Malik's face.

"Come, let's enjoy our victory."