Hey guys, new chap. Warning! very very mild sexual content (seriously so mild I probably don't need this warning, but I just wanted to be safe.)

Chapter 10

Marik sat in the waiting room at the police station nervously wringing his hands. Almost all of his friends had already been questioned and gone home. Yugi was now in the police detective's office telling his side of the story.

The good news was that the police caught most of the Rare Hunters. However, Arkana, and a few of his top minions escaped. Marik clenched his fists thinking about it. Arkana was still out there; still plotting. He could go after Marik's friends or family. No…no…he's not foolish enough to try the same ploy twice. But he still wondered what Arkana might have in store for him next. Arkana had clearly meant this to be his endgame, so it would take him some time to form a new plan. But then again, that all depended upon if Marik even made it out of the police station…

"I guess they'll want to talk to me next…" Marik said dreadfully as Yugi came back into the waiting room.

"Yeah…" Yugi answered. "So, since everyone else left, do you think I could get a ride home from you?"

"Sure, if they don't throw me in jail first."

Yugi couldn't help but let the confusion show on his face. "It's not going to be that bad."

"Maybe not for you..." It was pretty clear what he meant by that. Yugi had never been a criminal master mind. "They saved me for last," Marik lowered his voice as not to be overheard. "They must have found something out about my past."

"Oh…" Yugi sat down next to Marik and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't think any of us said anything that would get you in trouble."

"Those Rare Hunters they caught will."

Yugi frowned. He couldn't argue with that. "Yeah well, they can't exactly press charges…at least I don't think…"

Marik, looking less than reassured, turned away from Yugi and cast his eyes downward. "Yugi, there's something I've been wondering for a long time…"

"What is it?"

"After everything I did to you…didn't you ever want revenge?"

Yugi dropped his arm and thought for a moment. "When you were threatening my friends…I think, in that moment, I probably hated you more than I ever hated anybody. Of all the enemies I faced, you were the only one who ever used my friends against me. And when I saw that Joey had been brainwashed, I don't think I have ever been angrier than I was then."

Yugi paused and Marik let that all sink in. He wasn't sure what he was expecting. Of course Yugi hated him. He knew that. After all he'd done to Yugi, why should he expect anything different? But it was something else to actually hear Yugi say it.

"But…"

Marik looked up, surprised. Yugi hated him, what more was there to say?

"But… I don't think I ever wanted to hurt you. I just wanted you to stop. I wanted you to see what you were doing was wrong and why it was wrong. I guess what I really wanted was for you to change. And you did. You stopped going after me and my friends, you fought against your evil half and in the end, I don't think I could have defeated it without you. So, I guess I got what I wanted."

Marik half smiled for a bit, but that smile quickly disappeared. "I didn't change that much, Yugi. Back there, I had Arkana in my hands. I thought he'd succeeded in killing Molly and I wanted to kill him. I wanted to make sure he hurt as badly as I did."

"But you didn't."

"If Arkana hadn't gotten away from me, I would have."

A silence fell over them for a while. It was Marik who finally broke it. "Yugi, last night you said Atem was the strong one of the two of you. I think you're wrong. You're the strong one, Yugi. You have the strength to forgive your enemies. I don't think I'll ever be that strong."

"Thanks Marik," Yugi said, thinking this over. "For what it's worth, I think even if Arkana hadn't gotten away, you would have done the right thing."

"Marik Ishtar," The police officer called from his office.

"Sounds like it's my turn," Marik said, standing up. "You think you'll come visit me in prison?" He asked with a half-joking smile.

"I'll bring you a cake with a nail file inside," Yugi answered with a similar smile.

Minutes later, Marik was sitting across a table from a police detective in a dimly lit room. Whatever nerves that were calmed by his conversation with Yugi were now back.

"Relax son, you're not under arrest," the detective said, going through his legal files.

Normally, Marik would have bristled at being called 'son' but right now he was too relieved. "Really?"

"Of course not," The detective said, nonchalantly. "In fact, from the story your friends told, it sounds like you're the hero."

"No officer, I'm no hero."

"Why not?"

"Because, none of this would have happened if it weren't for me."

"So I've heard." The detective said, taking a paper out of a manila folder. "According to the colorful statements of your friend Mr. Wheeler, 'Arkana's just some creepy bastard who wanted to get back at Marik for some ancient history.' Why don't you tell us it was Arkana wanted to get back at you for?"

Marik took a breath before answering. "This is going to sound crazy but, a couple of years ago, I was participating in the Battle City Tournament. Back then, I had something of a rivalry with Yugi and I made a bargain with Arkana. If Arkana knocked Yugi out of the tournament, I would find his ex-fiancé for him. After Arkana lost the duel, he found out that I never had any intention of keeping my promise."

"That hardly seems like a reason to turn to kidnapping and attempted homicide."

"I had a lot of misplaced anger back then. I treated him horribly. I treated everyone horribly, even my own brother…" Marik ran his hand on face for a second to collect himself.

"If all of this happened years ago, why would he wait until now?"

"I don't know," Marik answered honestly. "Maybe he was taking time to collect the other people I'd wronged to help him. I really can't say why he waited so long."

The detective looked at him thoughtfully before continuing. "Alright, I have one more question for you. If Arkana was after you, why would he bother taking Miss. Dillon?"

"Arkana places a high value on romantic love. I could tell that as soon as I met him. During our duel, he told me that I don't deserve to have that. He thinks I took away his chance at reuniting with his lost love, so he tried to take Molly away from me."

[-]

After leaving the police station, Marik drove Yugi back to campus. He dropped Yugi off, at their dorm and went back on the road. This time he was heading to Molly's house. He hadn't gotten to the chance to talk to her since that morning. The police questioned her first and then took her straight to the hospital. He found out from Tea that her parents met her at the hospital and took her home.

As he parked in the driveway and looked at the house, he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at the normalcy of it all. He quickly dismissed these thoughts, though. He had more important things to worry about, like facing her parents.

He'd met them once before. It was on Halloween when he and all his friends went to the Red Tent to see Molly and Tea perform. But he that was back when they were just friends and her parents were so busy closing up for the season that they barely had time for an introduction.

Once at the door, he only hesitated a moment before ringing the doorbell. A tired-looking blonde woman answered the door. "Can I help you?" she asked, with some suspicion in her voice.

"I'm Marik…I was hoping I could talk to Molly," He answered.

Recognition passed over her face. "Oh, you are Marik. Come in, sweetie."

"Thank you." Marik was immediately uncomfortable upon entering the house. He could see from the expression on the woman's face that she'd heard all about today and what he'd supposedly done for her daughter. (And Molly never mentioned that her mother was the type to call perfect strangers "sweetie." What was that all about?)

"I'm Colleen, Molly's mom." She said holding out her hand.

He shook her hand and said "Nice to meet you." He was about to ask where Molly was but he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. He hoped it was Molly coming to end this awkward interaction. His hopes were dashed when he heard a male voice asking "Who was at the door?" Instead it was Molly's father. He wasn't sure how to react to Molly's father. From the way Molly talked about him, Marik was sure the man was nothing like his own father. But the man's alleged kindness did not change the fact that Marik had very little practice interacting with a normal father. Luckily, Molly's mother initiated the introduction for him.

"Tom, this is Marik, Molly's boyfriend." Molly's mother answered.

A soft smile came to the man's tired face as he stepped forward to shake Marik's hand. "So, you're the young man who saved my daughter."

"I guess I am," he answered, a bit uneasily.

Molly's mother moved to her husband, who put his arm around her. "We can't thank you enough for everything you did for her," she said.

Marik offered them a half smile, and hoped his discomfort wasn't coming across on his face. He didn't like the way they were looking at him. They were just so grateful. They looked at him like he was some kind of hero; like he was their daughter's knight in shining armor. Yet, if they knew what he really was, they'd never let him near her. "Can I see her now?" he asked. He just had to get out from under their admiring gaze.

"Yes, she's upstairs in her room," her father answered. He thanked them and slid past them toward the stair case.

Marik made his way up the stairs and as Molly's room came into view, he could see what appeared to be a big black fur rug piled up in front of her door. As he got closer, he realized it wasn't a rug; it was a dog. Oh great, now there's a beast at the threshold…he thought. So far today he'd faced a crazy magician, a deadly maze, and some utterly confused parents, all trying to get to her; and now this. Suddenly he felt some sympathy for those shining knights. Those poor guys must be constantly frustrated.

"He makes a poor guard dog." Marik mumbled as he watched the sleeping creature. Though it seemed he spoke too soon. The dog's ears immediately perked up upon hearing Marik's words. The dog stood up to its full, impressive size. It let out a few low barks, bounded forward, and landed its front paws on Marik's shoulders. Instead of proceeding to bite Marik's face off, as he fully expected, the dog sniffed him a few times and planted a big wet lick on Marik's eye. Ferocious…

"Mini, get down."

Molly! Finally! He could sort of see her over the dog's head.

"Mini, down," she commanded again. The dog got off of Marik's shoulders and went over to its owner. Molly stood in the doorway of her room. Her hair was wet and she was dressed like she was ready for bed despite it being only a little past 7. He didn't blame her though. She looked exhausted. "Sorry about that, she just loves making new friends. Come in," she said casually, as if absolutely nothing traumatic happened to her in the last 24 hours.

She turned to go into her room with her dog and Marik followed. She sat on the bed while Marik stood awkwardly by the door. She didn't say anything or do anything. She just mechanically ran her hand through the dog's fur with a blank expression on her face. He tried not to judge her odd behavior, but he was expecting some sort of reaction. He was expecting her to talk or cry or something. It wasn't like her to be so numb. "What happened at the hospital?" he asked, hoping to ease into the subject that was on both of their minds.

She sighed before answering. "Well, I had to get stitches for my leg. It'll probably scar but...whatever. Then they just gave me some oxygen and ran some tests."

Marik nodded and his eyes drifted to her legs. Her long, baggy pants covered her injuries. She had gauze wrapped around her hand as well. Thankfully, no blood showed through. He mentally chastised himself for being selfish. She was the one who was hurt. It shouldn't matter if blood made him uncomfortable. He let out a deep breath before continuing. "Listen…" he started, deciding to get right to the crux of the matter. "There are some things I need to explain about what happened…"

"Yugi said Arkana was after you." She said, looking up from her dog's face.

"Yeah..." he said, sitting down next to her. "What else did Yugi tell you?"

"Nothing…" she said suspiciously. "Why?"

"Molly…" he let out a breath and hesitated for moment before continuing, "I need to explain some things about Arkana and why he went after you."

"Okay…" she answered in anticipation.

"Arkana is an old dueling rival of mine." Marik could hardly believe that came out of his mouth. He came up here with every intention of telling her the truth, and yet here he was lying again. But the lie rolled off his tongue so easily he continued with it. "He wanted to settle our score, so he kidnapped you in order to force me to duel him again."

Molly looked at him, shocked. "So, he tried to kill me over a card game?" She said slowly and indignantly.

"It's more complicated than that." The words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them, and worse, he said them in a defensive tone he wished he could take back. Getting defensive was a dead giveaway that you were lying; he knew that. He wanted to slap himself twice: once for lying and once more for executing it so poorly. "I was at the Battle City Tournament in Domino a few years ago. At that tournament, I made a deal with him. If he dueled someone for me, I told him I'd help him find his ex-fiancé. He upheld his end of the bargain but, I never had any intention of upholding mine…and Arkana knew it."

Molly was quite for a moment. "Was her name Catharine?" She asked

"Yes…" Marik answered, surprised. "Did he talk about her?"

Molly nodded quietly. "At one point, he started to look at me weird. He even called me Catharine. Then he snapped out of it. It only lasted for a few seconds but it was so strange. For those few seconds, he thought I was Catharine."

Well this was certainly news to Marik. All through their duel, Arkana seemed so lucid. The man obviously knew what he was doing. But still, with this new information, he had to wonder. Could it be that Arkana was slowly losing his mind?

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"Sorry?" she cut him off. "Sorry for what? You fought Arkana for me. You saved me. I owe you-"

"No." It was his turn to cut her off. "You don't owe me anything. It was my fault that you were in that position in the first place. I…" Even though he was mid-sentence, Molly got up and led her dog out of the room. "What are you doing?" he asked when she closed the door again.

She answered by putting her lips on his. She sat back down on the bed. As they got deeper into the kiss, she began to lower herself onto the bed and Marik lowered himself on top of her. The logical part of his brain protested that this was neither the time nor the place but the rest of him wasn't listening. Every reasonable protest was thwarted by a new sensation. She's only doing it because she thinks she owes me. She started taking off his leather jacket. Her parents are right down stairs. She let his hands wander beneath her shirt and feel her smooth skin. Shouldn't I be remembering something about birth control? She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him closer. No sensible thought was able to reach him. Not until he felt her hands reach up the back of his shirt, dangerously close to his scars.

He broke the kiss, used one hand to remove her hands from his back, and used the other to push himself off of her. "I'm sorry, I can't," he whispered. It wasn't that he wasn't ready for this. He sometimes wondered how it would happen and when. But even in his fantasies it did not happen until he worked up the courage to tell her about his past. So, in a way, he wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to answer every painful question that would come from letting her see his scars.

"What's wrong?" She asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

"I just can't do this. Not tonight." He answered. He looked at her for a moment. She was just so blissfully unaware of the evils in his past or the terrible person he used to be. She was the only person in his life who never knew him at his worst. He didn't feel the same lingering guilt around her that he felt with the others. He didn't feel the constant need to prove himself worthy of the second chance he'd been given. She only knew him as he was now, and that was far too precious for him to give up yet.

He rolled off of her, giving her room to sit up. "Well, why not?" she asked. "Most guys would be like 'let's do this.'"

"Let's do this?" Marik half-scoffed half-laughed. "Well that's romantic."

She began to laugh too. "Yeah, looks like that's my move, though." She joked. "Worse, I'd be like 'Geronimo!'"

He laughed along with her, happy that she'd maintained her sense of humor. But the laughter soon died down. Once she knew the truth about him, he feared they would no longer have moments like this.

Turning serious again, he took her hand. "Molly, there's still a lot that I need to explain," he began. Though, he wasn't sure how to transition into …and I'm not ready to tell you any of it without sounding like a coward.

Thankfully, Molly spoke up before he did. "Yes, there's something I've been meaning to tell you too. You may have noticed that I don't talk about my brother much…"

Come to think of it, she didn't. And where was her brother anyway? Why wasn't he here comforting her? If anything like this happened to Marik's siblings, he'd swim back to Egypt if he had to.

"It's because he's not around anymore. He died when we were fourteen." She continued, her hand wandering up to the diamond she wore around her neck. "When I turned fifteen, my first birthday without him, my parents gave me this necklace. It's our birthstone and I wear it to remind myself of him…that's also when we got Mini."

Marik couldn't help but feel a little ashamed of himself. Here he was criticizing someone he'd never met who turned out to be dead. It did not help that he was at a loss for comforting words. What does one say when their girlfriend tells them her brother died five years ago? "I'm sorry…" was the best he could come up with.

"You don't have to keep apologizing," she said, offering him a half-smile. "None of this is your fault."

"No, it is."

"How? You never did anything like he did."

Marik had to stop a humorless laugh in his throat. How untrue that is… he thought bitterly.

"Marik, of all that 'explaining' you say needs to be done, can you at least tell me one thing?" She asked after a moment of quiet. Marik held his breathe, wondering what it might be. "You did win the duel, right?"

He felt an involuntary smile spread across his face. He would not mind telling this part of the story. He told her about the duel and Arkana's charade with the mystic box. He told her about the maze Arkana forced him through. He finished by telling her about his confrontation with Arkana in the control room.

When he finished his story, he could see that Molly was getting tired and, as she pointed out, so was he. They left her room and went to the front door to say goodbye, the dog following closely at Molly's heels.

"Did I thank you yet?" she asked when they got to the door.

"Not in words…" he answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I think you thanked me enough anyway."

"Well, thank you," she said, giving him one last kiss.

They said goodbye and Marik went out the door, but the dog got out before the door closed.

"Mini, come back!" she shouted, running out after it. She managed to catch it by the collar before it could get very far. Still, the dog sniffed the ground, jumped onto its hind legs, and barked into the darkness. "Mini, stop! Down!" she commanded, trying to keep hold of Mini's collar. The dog ceased its jumping, but continued to bark and growl threateningly. "Calm down, girl, what's gotten into you?"

Marik shot a glance at her and she glanced back. From the look on her face, he could tell they were both thinking the same thing. "It's probably nothing," he said, though neither of them believed it.

"Are you going to be okay driving back?" she asked, still trying to console her dog.

"Yes, I should be fine," he answered. They wouldn't attack again so soon, not with the police involved now.

"Alright…" she looked skeptical. "Let me know if you got back safe, okay?"

"Sure," he answered. He got on his bike and began driving away. He saw Molly go back in the house, safe. He wasn't worried about the rare hunters attacking her in her home. They were after him, and if he left, he knew they would follow him.

[-]

As he drove back, he was both surprised and a bit worried that he could find no signs that Rare Hunters followed him. His first concern was that they stayed at Molly's house. When he got back to campus, the first thing he did was call Molly, as he promised. To his relief, she was fine and no one seemed to be disturbing her home. She did tell him Mini kept barking at the front door for a good five minutes after he left, but stopped either because she got bored or because the perceived threat was gone. This calmed Marik's nerves some, but he was still worried. If the Rare Hunters weren't following him, or stalking Molly, where did they go?

After he hung up with Molly, he found a quiet corner of his dorm building, not an easy task on a Saturday night, and dialed again. He knew this was going to be a long call and he didn't want to be overheard. He'd missed his nightly calls to his siblings the last two nights and knew they must be worried. He didn't even bother checking to see if it was a reasonable hour in Cairo. He just needed to hear their voices.

"Hi Odion … Yes, I'm fine, kind of …Is Ishizu there? ... Good, there's a lot I need to tell you both."