"Did you see the looks on their faces?!"

Bakura smiled. "When?" he asked. "When I appeared, when you appeared, when we laughed at them-?"

"When we laughed at them," Marik said. "I made myself watch after you told them we weren't interested in playing a card game - which wasn't easy, I was laughing so hard, but it was so worth it to see that moment when they figured out what we were going to do…!" He gave a very undignified, yet somehow weirdly endearing, squeal of delight.

Marik was over his blood-mess issue (for now, at least), and they were walking back to Ryou's place so Marik could get his motorcycle. Things hadn't gone anywhere nearly as they would have liked, but there had been some priceless moments…and Bakura was relieved to hear that Marik felt the same way.

"If you found it that enjoyable, then there's no question that you walk in Darkness," Bakura said.

"Did you doubt me?" Marik asked, mildly offended.

"I must confess that I did," Bakura admitted, "especially when you started whining about bloodstains. But if instilling the fear of death in innocent people makes you laugh - especially people who would call themselves your friends - then I suppose it doesn't matter how stupidly vain you are; you belong with me."

"Well, if Zorc himself says it, it's gospel," Marik said, and Bakura couldn't tell how much of that statement was in jest. "I'm proud to have won the Dark One's approval."

Bakura chuckled, then sobered. "There is still the problem of what exactly living with the Darkness will mean for you," he said warningly. "If you can't handle getting blood on your hands - or any other part of your being or property - that severely limits your options."

"The only reason you think that is because you grew up in ancient Egypt," Marik said dismissively. "There are lots of bloodless ways to hurt people nowadays."

"I…suppose that's true," Bakura admitted. "I personally just don't really see the point unless I get to feel blood run between my fingers."

"Wow," Marik said, his tone weirdly impressed. "That's pretty hardcore."

"Will it bother you if I go off on my own for it?" Bakura asked.

"Not at all!" Marik assured him as they turned the corner and Ryou's place came into view. "You do your thing. Just as long as the mess you make isn't my problem."

Bakura rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of which…" Marik strolled purposefully inside, and Bakura knew he was going to wash all the blood off - probably spend an hour trying to scrub the bloodstains out of his clothes. The ancient spirit walked inside after him, a great deal more content with the sticky mess he carried. In fact, he sat down in the living room just so he could gaze at the blood on his knife.

It was coagulating, solid but not dry. And it was Yugi's blood. That stupid boy…a champion for Light if ever there was one, all purity and innocence. Utterly disgusting. And now, Bakura had managed to inflict an actual injury on him. Sure, he wasn't dead, but spilling some of his blood was better than none. This blood…it would be a waste to wash it off, as though it had belonged to just anybody. No - Yugi Moto wasn't just anybody. He was about as far from "just anybody" as a person could be.

Bakura brought the knife to his mouth and ran his tongue along one side of the blade, wiping off some of the sticky globules. He half expected to be able to taste the Light that filled that boy, as though he was so full of it that it would leak out with his very lifeblood. But no…no. Though the person the blood had come from was about as far from "just anybody" as a person could be, the blood itself tasted exactly the same. There was nothing special about it.

And somehow, that made it even more delicious.

~X~

"I'm fine," Yugi told the doctor for the fifth time since he'd hung up the phone, resisting the man's pleas that he return to his room and rest. "I've dealt with much worse."

"But the muscle damage-"

"Look, it's patched up, isn't it?" Yugi exclaimed. "It's cleaned and sewn shut and bandaged. I'm fine! What I need is to see my friends!"

"Yugi!"

As if on cue, Tea and Joey ran up to meet him. Seeing this, the doctor gave up and left to help less troublesome patients.

"Are you alright?" Tea asked breathlessly.

"I'm fine," Yugi reassured her. He looked between her and Joey. "Tristan?"

Joey shook his head. "They won't tell us anything," he grumbled.

Yugi sighed. Then, abruptly, he turned and punched the wall with his good hand.

"How can this be happening?" he cried.

"I was about to ask you!" Joey exclaimed. "We figured if anyone knew what was going on, it would be you, Yug."

Yugi shook his head. "I'm as confused as you are," he told them. "I thought this was supposed to be over. The Millennium Items were buried under a mile of rubble, and the evil spirit of the Ring…he's supposed to be gone! We saw him be destroyed!"

"And that angel lady told us there wasn't gonna be any more bad guys," Joey added angrily. "Once the Pharaoh lost a Duel and moved on or whatever, we were all supposed to be able to live happily ever after!"

"I guess it was naïve to think it would be that easy," Yugi sighed. He looked between his friends. "I called Ishizu. She said she knew that Marik had dug up the Millennium Items and even about the evil spirit of the Ring, but she'd had no idea what they would try to do."

"She knew?" Tea exclaimed. "She knew, and she didn't tell us?"

"I guess she figured it wasn't any of our business anymore," Yugi said. "She only found out about a week ago, when she got a letter from Marik. A handwritten one - it could have been in the mail as long as three weeks before it got to her, which lines up with pretty much exactly with when Marik flew here from Egypt."

"Wait, Marik flew out here a month ago?" Joey asked. "She didn't even think to tell us that much? He was supposed to be our friend! Supposed to be…" He scowled.

"I don't know," Yugi said tiredly. "Maybe he used the Millennium Rod on her so she wouldn't think to tell us. Or maybe she just wanted to leave us alone, figured he'd contact us himself if he felt like it."

"Well, he sure did that," Joey growled.

"She's on her way here now," Yugi told his friends, "says she has something that might be able to help us sort this out. In the meantime, we need to keep ourselves safe."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Joey asked.

Yugi couldn't help smiling, relieved he hadn't been the only one to be slow to apply common sense. "The police," he said.

Joey and Tea stared at him as though he'd spoken a foreign language.

"The last time we tried to get the police involved in this stuff, they were all working for the bad guy, remember?" Tea pointed out at last.

"Bakura and Marik aren't Dartz," Yugi said. "And they aren't using magic to fight - Bakura cut me, and Marik stabbed Tristan. I think that's more than enough to warrant getting the police involved."

"I don't wanna have to count on someone else to handle this," Joey objected. "We've handled bigger baddies than this on our own!"

Yugi glanced meaningfully at his injured arm. "Things are different this time."

"They're always different this time!" Joey retorted.

"It's different in that this time they're using actual blades instead of playing a card game!" Tea interjected.

"A very important and meaningful card game!" Joey exclaimed.

"No, Joey, she's right," Yugi said; "Duel Monsters really is just a game. It's based off an ancient form of battle, which is why a lot of our enemies have used it, but on its own, it's harmless. And if our enemies don't feel like using it this time around, it's useless."

"Alright, so they wanna do it old-school?" Joey sneered. "Fine! I can play old-school too!"

"Yeah, until Marik uses that Millennium Rod to turn you into a mindless slave who tries to chain Yugi to an anchor and drown him," Tea said pointedly.

"I broke free of that creep's magic once, I can do it again!" Joey shouted.

"No, Joey," Yugi said again. "This is exactly the problem: They have magic, but we don't. They have two Millennium Items between them. It's like Ishizu said to me when I talked to her just now: No amount of experience fighting magic helps if you don't have any of your own to use against it. We might as well let the people whose job it is to protect us handle this until Ishizu gets here."

"I wonder what she's bringing?" Tea wondered out loud.

"I…don't know," Yugi said. "Huh." He thought. "Maybe some of the Millennium Items. From the way she talked about it, it sounded like Marik dug up all of them."

"I didn't need a Millennium Item to knock that white-haired freak into a wall," Joey grumbled.

"You surprised him, Joey," Tea stated. "If he'd seen you coming, he would have knocked you halfway across the city with that Millennium Ring."

"I've never seen Bakura use that Millennium Ring to do anything since Duelist Kingdom," Joey argued. "And even that was coupled with Duel Monsters."

"Actually, that makes it more dangerous," Yugi said, much to Joey's dismay. "We don't know what that Item does. Bakura didn't flaunt it in our faces like Pegasus and Marik did with theirs."

"Or like Dartz did with that Orichalcos thing," Tea added. "Come to think of it…Bakura's really the only person we've ever fought who didn't spell out his entire plan for us from the get-go."

Yugi nodded. "He's smart," he said. "Three thousand years of plotting probably doesn't hurt."

"But is that really the same Bakura we defeated six years ago?" Joey asked. "I mean…it can't be! We saw him get wiped out! With the Pharaoh gone too, he should be ancient history!"

"You saw it too, Joey," Yugi said grimly. "He gave our friend time to tell us he was sorry for luring us into that trap before he took over. That's not our Bakura. I don't know how the evil spirit of the Ring is back, but he is." Again, he gestured to his wounded arm. "I don't need magic to feel it."

"Maybe…but our Bakura's still in there," Tea said thoughtfully. "The evil spirit let him talk, so he's in there."

"Maybe we should go to his place," Joey suggested.

"Maybe we should tell the police to go to his place," Yugi corrected sternly. "Until we get some magic of our own, we need to play it safe and stay here. If the way they were acting is any indication, there's a strong chance that they might come back to finish us off. We need to lie low, unless we want to end up like Tristan…or worse."

~X~

Bakura stared out a window as the sun set, bored, while he waited for Marik. Two injuries, one fatality tops - and the likelihood that Marik had managed to deliver a killing blow was not good. Just as those children had forgotten about conflict before Duel Monsters, so had he forgotten about how good humans were at fighting for their lives. Sure, he'd managed to spill some of Yugi's blood, but the more he thought about what they'd done that day, the more he concluded that things had not gone well at all. The question was, was it worth trying to finish what they'd started? They no longer had the element of surprise on their side, and while magic had its uses, humans could make enormous nuisances of themselves.

And speaking of humans who were nuisances…

"Bakura," Marik called as he came in.

"Hello, Marik," Bakura said, "are you feeling pretty enough yet?"

"Eh, barely," Marik replied without even the tiniest trace of irony. "I can live with this for now." He sat down - well, really, he sort of flounced down onto the sofa, taking up as much space as his limbs could cover. Bakura had seen a lot of strange mortals throughout the centuries, but Marik was still completely baffling to him. Odd how someone who seemed on some level to have so much in common with Bakura could still be so headache-inducingly…weird. "So," Marik asked, "what do we do now?"

"I was just starting to contemplate that myself," Bakura replied. "I'd like to stay here and try to finish off Yugi and his friends, but that won't be easy now…it might not be worth bothering with, at least for the time being. In the meantime, we could try to set up a permanent hideout…or I suppose we could just drive across the country, stealing from and murdering random people along the way."

"Ooh, a road trip!" Marik sat up, a light in his eyes. "That sounds like fun!"

Bakura gave a very, very tired sigh. Yes. Very headache-inducingly weird.

"What do you think your sister will do now?" Bakura asked. "Assuming, of course, that Yugi contacted her…"

"I have absolutely no idea," Marik said cheerfully. "That's the beauty of it: What can she do? I can't think of anything!"

"Then you'd better think harder," Bakura growled, "or maybe you just need to think, period. You of all people should know that your sister is highly resourceful." He frowned as something occurred to him. "Did you tell her that you dug up the other Millennium Items in that letter you sent her?" he demanded abruptly.

Marik shrank back at his sudden harshness. "I…might have…?" he said timidly.

"Ugh," Bakura groaned, rubbing his temples as another headache started to build up. Seriously, how could one mere mortal give him this much of a headache? "Wonderful. She's probably tracked them down by now - she's single-minded like that, I noticed. And if Yugi contacted her, she might bring some of them to use against us."

"Don't you think that's a little paranoid?" Marik asked. "I mean, Ishizu just wants all this stuff to be stashed away somewhere so no one can use it." A hint of bitterness laced the young Egyptian's words, and Bakura wondered at it but didn't comment. "Even if she does come here, I can't really see her carrying the Millennium Items to lead a battle against us," Marik went on. "She doesn't like fighting…and she loves me too much."

Definitely some bitterness in there. "Would you rather she not love you?" Bakura found himself asking curiously, wondering why the hell he was even acting like he cared.

Marik sighed and looked at the floor. "It would make everything a lot easier," he said softly, almost more to himself than to his companion. "I mean-"

Whatever Marik was about to say was cut off by the abrupt sound of sirens blaring outside. Marik turned and looked, his face a show of pure confusion. "What the…?"

Bakura sighed. "I should have expected this," he said. "Today has really not been my day in terms of expecting things of people."

"What is all that?" Marik asked.

Bakura smirked. "Yugi and his friends called the police on us."

"The police?" Marik repeated, as though the word were from a foreign language. "Well that's kind of low, isn't it? I mean, since when do they ask the police for help?"

"Marik, we cornered the four of them in a dark alley, I gave Yugi a gash on his arm, and you stabbed his friend in the shoulder with an enormous metal stake," Bakura said matter-of-factly; "the police have every reason to get involved. Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't get here sooner."

"But how? Why are they here?" Marik asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"Because we let Yugi and his friends know that Ryou is with us, and this is where Ryou lives," Bakura explained, his patience waning yet again. "It's really very easy to figure out." He stood up. "Time to go," he told his partner in crime. "I hope your motorcycle is still relatively out of the way?"

"Yes…" Marik said slowly. "But…I've never had to ride through a group of police."

Bakura smirked. "Don't worry," he reassured Marik, "I can get rid of any obstacles that might present themselves." He reached up and gave the golden ornament that hung from his neck a loving stroke.

~o~

The most unfortunate part of their situation, at least as far as Bakura was concerned, was that he had to actually ride with Marik this time, rather than making it Ryou's problem. The rest? Laughable. But he had to personally, consciously ride a bloody motorcycle, and that was a nuisance like nothing else.

For Marik, it was completely different. The police cars crowding the street, lights flashing, sirens wailing; the men with their uniforms and their guns, some ready to start shouting demands, others preparing to break down the door…It was actually quite an intimidating spectacle to him. The last time he'd had to deal with a crowd like this, Ishizu had hired them, and they had been at her command. Now? Those guns were dangerous.

"I bloody hate guns," Bakura grumbled from behind Marik as they climbed onto the motorcycle. "Bloody cheating bastards. Too easy, too impersonal…anyone can fight with a bloody gun. An idiot could use a gun. Stupid humans, always trying to make everything too easy…"

"Bakura, could you keep it down?" Marik muttered.

It took every ounce of self-control Bakura had not to burst out into laughter that would have been perfectly audible to everyone within a mile radius. "You're asking me to keep quiet?" he managed through the chuckles he tried to keep as low as possible. "You're about to make a huge bloody racket that I couldn't hope to rival."

"I know," Marik said softly, "but…"

Bakura waited. "But what?" he asked when Marik showed no signs that he was going to finish his sentence.

"Bakura, I'm…" Marik shifted uncomfortably in his seat and turned around to meet Bakura's eyes. "I'm…"

"…scared," Bakura finished for him. Those violet eyes were wide with childlike terror, and now that he mentioned it, Bakura noticed that Marik's hands were gripping the handlebars a bit too tightly, probably to keep them from shaking. "You're scared. Of what?"

"Guns," Marik admitted. "I mean…not guns in general. It's just…well, it's like you said, it's so easy to shoot someone. I've never had to dodge bullets before…"

Bakura sighed and shifted a bit closer, holding Marik a little more tightly to help keep him steady - no other reason, of course. "Marik," he murmured in the frightened human's ear, "I told you, I can get rid of any obstacles they can throw at us. Just trust me, and you'll be safe." He hesitated before adding, "I promise."

Marik reached to start up the engine…and then, to Bakura's exasperation, he hesitated again.

"Prove it," the scared little child challenged him.

But in response to that, Bakura smiled. "I thought you'd never ask," he hissed. He closed his eyes and took a moment to focus. His Ring started to glow…

…and then one of the police cars outside blew up.

Fire and metal rained down on the men who had looked so menacing with their fancy guns just moments ago. They scattered, crying out, confused and disoriented beyond hope.

"Whoa!" Marik exclaimed, his expression lighting up almost as brilliantly as the car. "That was awesome!"

"Drive out there and I'll show you what else I can do," Bakura told him, grinning wickedly.

"Yes!" Marik started that damn noisy engine and kicked it straight into high gear. The result was an honest-to-Zorc launch out of the side alley they'd been parked in, and for a moment, they truly were flying. Bakura smiled and focused on the shapes and people below him, then sent a pulse out from the Ring that tossed everyone and everything remotely close to being in their path halfway down either side of the street, as though an invisible meteor had struck in the middle of the crowd.

Marik whooped and laughed. It wasn't usually Bakura's style to show off like that, but he found himself getting weirdly caught up in Marik's enthusiasm. There really was something to be said for making a spectacle every now and then…watching humans scream and scatter like ants beneath his feet was exhilarating, he couldn't deny it. It must have been the Zorc in him.

It certainly couldn't have been that he was sharing merriment with a human. No, that had nothing to do with it at all.

~o~

They rode, straight as an arrow, out of Domino City, just like the day Marik had first bought the damn motorcycle. For the first time, Bakura rode himself, without letting Ryou out of the Ring. The noise was still annoying, but it got more bearable over time, the wind and engine sort of blending together into a constant white noise that could be tuned out. Bakura hoped this didn't mean his body was going deaf.

The other difference from a month ago is that they had absolutely no idea what to do now.

Sure, their plans had been in the fledgeling stages (at most) the first time they'd left the city limits, but now they weren't even sure what they were going to work towards. Marik, however, turned out to be a person of habit, as he went straight to their little makeshift campsite without even asking Bakura about it. Bakura didn't object; it was probably one of the better options at the moment.

"So," Marik said as he turned off his machine and the blissful silence of the night returned to fill the air, "now what?"

"I don't know," Bakura admitted, dismounting. "This does change things. We probably shouldn't stay here for too long, actually - if law enforcement in general has gotten involved, our old hiding-in-plain-sight, cloak-and-dagger style won't work anymore."

"So we're fugitives now?" Marik asked, his tone indecipherable. "Official criminals?"

"I suppose you could say that," Bakura replied.

Bakura wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it was not for Marik's face to split into a huge grin.

"Finally!" Marik exclaimed. "Haha, this is so exciting!"

Bakura stared at Marik. And stared. And stared some more. He stared for a full two minutes, until Marik's grin finally faltered slightly.

"Marik," he slowly said at last, "what the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

"Eh?" Marik responded, surprised. "What do you mean? I thought we were evil and stuff. Does that count?"

"No," Bakura sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing temples. "For us? No, that's not something wrong, it's simply the term that describes who we are and how we go about our lives - it would be more wrong to try to deny it. But you're…I can't say you aren't evil, if how much you enjoyed terrorizing Yugi and his friends is any indication, but I am starting to wonder if you're also completely bloody mad."

"For being proud to be a criminal?" Marik asked, still confused. "Why shouldn't I be? If we're going to make people afraid, we need to get recognition. I mean, how can we scare people if people don't know there's something to be scared of?"

Bakura's headache doubled - not because what Marik was saying was stupid, but because it actually made complete and total sense. One second, he's an idiot; the next second, he's insane; and the second after that, he's actually effectively evil, Bakura thought. How the bloody hell am I supposed to maintain my own sanity around this child? To walk in Darkness is to dance with madness, it's true, but I've managed to walk the line…but Marik isn't walking it, he jumping from one side to the other, sometimes landing on it and sometimes not, like he's constantly playing a game of moral and intellectual hopscotch! Zorc help me…

"You okay, Bakura?" Marik questioned, frowning. "Did I…did I do something wrong?"

And now he's acting like he cares what I think! Bakura squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing his temples even harder.

Maybe you shouldn't try to understand it, a gentle voice suggested. Maybe some people just can't be understood.

Oh, shut the bloody hell up, Bakura growled at Ryou.

I'm…just trying to help…Ryou said timidly.

Don't, Bakura snapped. Do not ever try to help. Anytime you help, something goes wrong.

But I did everything you said! the young man exclaimed. It's not my fault they fought their way out! Please don't blame me…

Bakura rolled his eyes behind his closed lids. I don't blame you, don't worry, he told the child. I underestimated them, that was on me. I'm not going to punish you for my mistake - I'm a monster, not a narcissist.

Thanks, the boy whimpered before retreating back into the Ring.

"Bakura?" The pale figure had gone still, frozen in a half-hunched position with his hands at his temples and his eyes shut tightly, and Marik had no idea what he'd done to put him in such a state. Bakura always seemed unshakable, cold and calculating and prepared - he got angry, yes, but he never cracked. Seeing him like this was actually kind of scary.

When the dark spirit didn't respond to the sound of his name, Marik hesitantly reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "Bakura?" he asked again, softly. "I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I'm sorry. Please say something."

At last, Bakura took an audible breath. "You are the most impossibly baffling person I've ever had the misfortune to run across in the over three thousand years I've been walking this earth," he growled.

Marik nearly collapsed with relief. He wasn't oblivious to the fact that Bakura had just insulted him, but at least that frightening moment where Bakura didn't seem himself was over.

"I'd rather deal with Yugi," Bakura continued under his breath. "At least I know what to expect of that boy." He took another deep breath and straightened, his hands returning to his sides, and he opened his eyes. Before Marik could say anything, Bakura blinked as he realized exactly what position they were in, then shot a deadly glare at Marik. His lip curled in disgust, and he jerked away from the hand that was still resting on his shoulder. "Don't touch me, mortal," he spat. "I don't need your pity."

"Sorry," Marik mumbled.

Bakura sighed heavily. Being an immortal spirit, he didn't need sleep like humans did, but tonight, Marik had done what the world could not: He'd worn Bakura out. Bakura met Marik's violet eyes…so dark in the wan moonlight, though they were almost lavender in the day, like his own had been in his first life…

"I'm going to sleep," he told his impossible partner. "Please at least try not to bother me until I wake up."

"Okay," Marik said, somehow having enough sense not to question this.

And with that, Bakura lay down on the grassy hill, and actually, genuinely fell asleep, for the first time in years.

Marik walked a safe distance away and sat down. He didn't feel tired tonight - everything had happened all at once today, and he couldn't relax. In particular, he remembered launching out from the hidden alley by Ryou's place and Bakura using the Millennium Ring to throw everyone out of the way. The memory made him smile. That was power, right there - the kind of power he'd once imagined the great Pharaoh to wield, the power he'd once thought he was seeking for himself. But Bakura already had it. He didn't need the Egyptian Gods or some great hero's ancient magic - his own magic was more than enough.

Everything I ever wanted was in the Darkness all along, Marik thought, slightly amused at himself.

He started to let his mind wander, reflecting on everything, and it occurred to him that people generally didn't think evil people considered themselves to be evil. People always try to justify what they do, so that they can pretend to themselves that they're doing the right thing. His father, for instance, carving up his back with a red-hot knife with no sympathy or explanation. Or the people who had chosen to sacrifice the people of Kuhl-Elna to create the Millennium Items. For the greater good, they'd say, for something bigger than the people they're hurting. But Marik knew that was stupid. Good? What good was good? There was no 'good' - even those who side with the Light hurt people.

People don't call themselves evil because they think being evil is something to be ashamed of, something to avoid. Marik wasn't ashamed. He owned what he was and was proud of it. The sight of Yugi and his friends having the fear of imminent death instilled in them was a beautiful thing in his eyes; seeing the fire and chaos and people getting hurt when he and Bakura had plowed through the police made him smile, made him laugh, made him happy. In his heart, he believed that nothing and no one deserved to know love, or peace, or happiness; other people's fear, pain, and suffering was something he relished (as long as he didn't get covered in bloodstains, at least). That was what people called 'evil', so that was what he was. And why should he be ashamed, when even people who feel bad about hurting other people do it anyway? Even the Lightest of the Light find excuses for hurting others. He and Bakura were living (sort of) examples of that.

No…he was proud to be evil. He would spend the rest of his life showing people what it meant to suffer, as they and those like them had made him and Bakura suffer, and the thought excited him. Darkness was the only true way of things - in the end, all Light fades away into the Darkness, whether the death of Light would mean the death of Darkness as well or not. Maybe the two forces couldn't exist without each other after the end, but when eventually one of them won, it would be the Darkness. If nothing else, Marik would be on the winning side.