Title: Sunrise

Author: Moonlight Reflection

Notes: I'm sorry it took me this long to get this story done, but on the upside this is the last chapter with the exception of an epilogue that is already complete. :)

And an apology for the lack of POV shifts in the last chapter… my usual section breaks all ended up becoming symbols that pleasantly decided not to show. Hopefully the new one doesn't get completely decimated too….

Many, many thanks to Nalan-san for beta-ing this. :D

"You can come in if you like. They're already gone."

The Black Magician frowned but obeyed, sliding into the room where Shaadii sat at an empty table, drinking tea. There was another chair with a filled cup, but the mage ignored it in favor of standing. He did, however, take a moment to set down a small white seal in such a way that Yuki would be drinking the tea if only he could bend his head down.

You are calm. It was an accusation, not an observation.

Shaadii would have shrugged, except he was calm. "Aren't I always?"

There was that time with the wild geese.

"You promised never to bring that up again."

I have been known to break my promises, the Black Magician said simply before his eyes seemed to sharpen and the topic quickly changed from Shaadii's humiliation to a more pertinent subject. It was too early, don't you think? He has only just recovered. If you could consider that recovery.

"You knew what I was going to do."

I did, but that was because you assured me that it was necessary. Now that they are gone, we can be more frank. It doesn't matter anymore anyway – they're gone and it's not as if I could run after them and tell them to come back. Although I should.

"You're much too close to him, Mahaado," Shaadii replied calmly, ignoring the mage's flinch at the use of his name. "Much too close to realize that he isn't a little boy anymore, although you act like he still is."

I know he is old enough to take care of himself, but what he went through was-

"-enough for him to know what has to be done," the Egyptian finished quietly.

And how can you be sure that it isn't too much for him to handle? the Black Magician asked sharply.

"He was and is our pharaoh, Mahaado. He knows how to handle responsibility. Why, do you think I put too much faith in him?"

You give him too much of something, but it is not faith. Nor is it fair.

"The world is not fair," Shaadii reminded him.

I hate it when you talk like that.

"You hate it because it's true."

xxxXxxx

"I don't like this."

"I doubt very much that Yami no Malik cares about whether or not you like it, Jyounouchi."

The blond glared but did not reply, and Kaiba did not pursue the matter any longer either. He had more important things to worry about anyway, such as the corridor which split into two that was currently before him. He could have sworn that it had not been there the last time, but there was no point in worrying about such things anyway.

At least, that's what he told himself in order to ignore the fact that he didn't know what to do. And since he was the all mighty leader, it was up to him to make the decision. If it had been something that could be justified if he asked someone else, then he would have snapped up the opportunity within a heartbeat. But nobody knew more than he did, and he currently knew nothing.

Damn it.

"Do you think he's noticed us?" Anzu asked worriedly. She tried to keep her voice low, but it was audible and it was a distraction that he did not want to deal with.

"Probably not. I mean, he hasn't sent anything after us yet, right?" Honda replied, and Kaiba couldn't help but grit his teeth slightly at the conversation. It was a distraction. He did not like distractions. He did not want them around.

"But that doesn't always mean anything. I mean, remember that time when-"

Why can't they just shut up for a moment?

"Hey, why are we stopped here anyway? What's going on, Kaiba?" Jyounouchi's obnoxiously loud voice asked. Kaiba did his best to ignore it though as he ran through all the detailed maps that he had spent so many nights studying. But he still couldn't figure out where this hallway was, or where its two paths led to.

"Is there something wrong, Kaiba-kun?" Anzu's voice was more compassionate, but it wasn't helping.

"Yeah, what's the hold up?" Jyounouchi again. Didn't he ever shut up?

They could split up. It was a choice that he was reluctant to take, seeing that there were only five of them. It would be best for them to stay together, but then which corridor should they take? What would happen if they went down the wrong one and all ended up dead, or if both were equally important? What then?

They shouldn't split up though.

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

"You're not going to find this place on any of your maps, Kaiba." The brunet whirled around and found himself looking into Yami's calm red eyes. The others had fallen silent at the sudden words, but Kaiba's eyes merely narrowed as he waited for the former pharaoh to elaborate. "He probably created it."

Honda opened his mouth to ask exactly what the spirit meant by 'created' but Kaiba cut him off. How Yami no Malik had managed to make a hallway in this maze-like building was a meaningless detail, and he didn't care one way or another. "Then which one do we take?"

"You have to take both. He wants something. He wants specific people in specific places."

Kaiba was starting to feel rather angry, although he wasn't sure why, "Then if we listen to you, we'll just be walking into some trap!"

"He'll keep splitting the hallways to get what he wants."

"Well I don't know what the hell he wants anyway, so what does it matter?!"

"Keep your voice down, Kaiba. No one here is deaf."

Kaiba's mouth opened and, as if he was suddenly thinking better of it, snapped shut. After a moment of glaring in which nothing changed, he threw up his arms in exasperation. "Fine! What do you propose in this case?!"

Yami frowned but didn't say anything, and Anzu took advantage of the silence to try and talk some sense into the 'leader', "He's just trying to help…."

"And I'm listening," he snapped.

His listening didn't matter much to the pharaoh though. In fact, it didn't matter at all, for the sudden moment of lucidity had vanished as abruptly as it had come, and now Yami was off in his own little world.

Again.

Kaiba's lips pursed, and finally he shook his head. You have to calm down, he told himself repeatedly. You have to calm down. As much as he didn't like it, Yami was probably right. That, combined with what he knew of Yami no Malik, made him believe that splitting up probably was the best road to take.

"Fine," he growled. "You three will go down the right corridor and I'll go down the other. You," he glared at the pharaoh, "can do whatever you please."

"Kaiba-kun," Anzu stated firmly, careful not to let any of her exasperation slip into her words. "You can't go by yourself."

The brunet just snorted and walked away, reflecting as he did so.

There was a time that he would not have listened to the pharaoh. A part of him wasn't sure if that time was completely gone yet. But now, there wasn't any time to waste. He didn't have any idea about what to do, and Yami did. That was enough for him, no matter how much he might dislike it, and now all he could really say was that whatever happened… happened.

xxxXxxx

There sometimes comes a choice, where one has to choose between saving the world or saving a single person… a person that he or she cares deeply for.

Ideally, the world seems to be rather more important than a single person. After all, the lives of many versus simply one life seems like a mathematical dream. Of course that one person cannot compare to all those innocent people who shall perish if the protagonist chooses to be self-centered. Of course nobody could be that important.

But at the same time, what was the point of caring about the world when that one person you could not live without is threatened? Why worry about people you are never going to know and never wanted to know when that person who makes your life worth living is gone? What did they matter to you, when they mean absolutely nothing?

It's a selfish thought, it's a selfish decision. And when faced with it theoretically, of course the good of the many outweighs just one.

Reality though, is always different. To lose a person who you care for, to lose a person who made you feel like a person who actually deserved to live… could one really choose to condemn themselves to such a miserable existence?

Some people thought that of all humans, Kaiba Seto would be the one who could proudly proclaim that he did not need anybody in order to live his life to the absolute 'fullest'. And then prove it. But obviously, considering his current predicament, he was showing otherwise.

He had seen what happened to people who lost everyone. It had happened to himself for a while, after Mokuba's death. And he knew, without an iota of doubt, that he did not ever want to be that person again.

The worst thing about it all was that this wasn't his… well, worst problem.

Now, Kaiba had a whole score of problems, starting with the before-mentioned and rather urgent world-wide crisis started by a psychopath with hair like a sunflower. Then there was that small problem of predicaments of the conscience. But right now, his most important task was simply to stay alive.

Unfortunately, that was a little more difficult than it sounded, especially since his other problems were somewhat interconnected with his current situation. Because the person he cared for, the person for whom he was willing to give up the rest of the world for without even batting an eye, was also the person who was trying to kill him at the moment.

It was practically a soap opera. All that was missing was the audience applause.

xxxXxxx

Granted, it hadn't been Otogi's choice when he had fired the gun as soon as Kaiba had entered the room, wounding the brunet with such impeccable aim that there was no way it was human. And it hadn't really been his fault when he had, on a built-in auto pilot mode, attacked his raven-haired lover before he really had an opportunity to analyze the situation. But his brain had simply pointed out the existence of a gun that was dedicated to ending his life, and so he reacted.

Perhaps it would have been better if he had done what he was best known for – namely locking away all those petty emotions and focusing on the big picture. But he was human despite his best attempts at being otherwise, and he allowed his feelings to get in the way.

Kaiba wasn't the type of person to let things get in the way – he preferred to knock over everything in his path in order to reach the goal. It didn't matter how something was achieved as long as it was achieved, and it didn't matter who was hurt in the short run when others would benefit in the long haul. He had lived by that Machiavellian pragmatism for most of his life and it had gotten him to where he was now, but when it finally mattered the most, he could not allow himself to let go of his need to protect.

Duck. Dodge. Never attack, just block and get out of the way.

He couldn't just hurt him.

"Why don't you just attack?"

The voice was so twisted, so unlike the person he knew. And the face was so perfectly devoid of expression that it no longer looked human. And those words he had heard so many times before when he and Otogi had sparred. He'd let Otogi win, of course… the raven-haired man often professed vehement annoyance at the 'kid glove' treatment but there would always be a warm smile even as the complaints still floated in the air. Otogi liked winning, as did Kaiba, and he was willing to let his lover win at a couple small things as long as he kept the overall lead.

But to the question he did not answer, preferring instead to just step out of the way. It wasn't as easy at it looked… Otogi was quick and graceful, and he used it to his advantage. Kaiba could not go on too much longer this way, but at this point there was no way to just turn and run.

"Do you not want to hurt him? Do you not understand that it is the only way you'll be able to win?" Yami no Malik laughed, his words melting into his puppet's monotone voice and becoming something truly haunting in nature. "You can't keep running, Seto. Sooner or later you'll have to face me, and then are you just going to stand there and let me finish you off?"

"What do you want me to do then?"

From his sanctuary, hidden away from the bloodshed happening around him, Yami no Malik started ever so slightly. This hadn't been expected… not completely anyway. He had, at best, expected the brunet to try and talk his way out of a confrontation, but he hadn't expected such a calm question. It seemed so very out of character for Kaiba… but at the same time, it was just like him.

The blond let a slow smile. "Well, if you are going to be so cooperative right now, I would like you to die."

The reaction, again, caused a certain amount of surprise for the psychotic dictator when the brunet chose to simply laugh at the threat on his life, as if it was nothing more than a child's game.

"Please," Seto spat out with no little spite. "If you weren't even powerful enough to get the dog to kill the pharaoh's brat all those years ago, what on earth makes you think that you'd be able to get him to kill me? Or has the power and glory of taking over the world from a few inept hands caused you to become so dense, besides going completely psychotic?"

"I've gotten this far, haven't I?"

"I wouldn't call that very far. It's been how many years, and yet you're still dealing with us."

"You forget though, Seto. The person who controlled your… friend was my host, not myself. And even he won out in the end, although Jyounouchi did ultimately break free. But we are talking about two completely different scenarios. Considering what your dear lover has gone through, I would be rather surprised if he could even hear you speaking right now. And even if he was, what difference would it make now? He can't do anything. By the time he wakes up – if he wakes up, and that is a completely different story."

Seto raised an eyebrow. He wondered if Yami no Malik could see him right now – it was something he often wondered about but never exactly asked about. Sometimes he was certain that the other man could, but since he didn't like the idea, there was often a healthy dose of skepticism joining his resolution. But if he could see, what was the blond looking at right now? Was he smiling quietly about Seto's rather battered state, or the skepticism that he was just waiting to crush? It was hard to tell, which was precisely why he kept wondering about it.

A part of him was starting to wonder how he could have been stubborn enough to go at this alone. Perhaps if one of the others were here, they would be able to take Ryuuji out in a way that he couldn't.

Except… well, he didn't really want them to do that. He didn't want his raven-haired koi to get hurt, even at the expense of his life and general sanity. Because without that smirk and decidedly loud and annoying personality, he wasn't sure how much farther he would be able to go without completely losing it.

After Mokuba had died, he'd had a mission – revenge. But revenge can only last so long with such little favorable results, and if he had not been able found somebody else to live through, he might have gone the same way as the pharaoh.

Such a thought scared him more than a little, although he was much too prideful to admit it. But seeing the pharaoh – the vegetable pharaoh – had reminded him how perilously close he had come to becoming the same exact thing.

"You're not going to survive if you don't fight back."

"Since when was that any concern of yours?"

He could hear the wolfish smile behind the words, "Oh, it's not. But if you go, he's bound to go rather quickly too, right? So if you're not fighting in order to save him, you might as well not bother. Because no matter what happens, I'm getting rid of both of you. So do whatever you like, Kaiba Seto. He won't be coming out of this alive, even if you tried."

Yami no Malik was right, much to his general annoyance. But that still didn't mean he had to admit it.

"Huh. You really thought this through, hmm?"

"Of course."

"You really shouldn't have bothered."

A slight frown, "What is that supposed to mean."

"For you?" he smirked as he stepped aside. "Absolutely nothing."

The shot that rang out in the emptiness that followed did not stop until it was buried into flesh.

xxxXxxx

Honda wasn't quite sure how he had ended up here, especially when he considered Yami's almost unshakeable belief that Kaiba would be whisked away before anybody could blink. Yet here he was, and what a predicament it was.

He had expected this… considering Yami no Malik, it would have been stupid to think of anything less. Still seeing it rather than just imagining it was a rather big difference – about the same difference between reality and mental illness – so it was a general wonder that he had been able to so calmly shoot one of his friends in the hand.

Kaiba had known he was there. Honda didn't know how the brunet knew, but Kaiba had calmly stepped out of the way right when he was ready. And before he, Otogi, or Yami no Malik could really take in the information, the former CEO was already rushing at the raven-haired man, kicking the weapon away and with no little flair, knocking Otogi out as well.

Honda blinked.

"Cutting it kind of close, huh?" he asked dryly, after a rather obscenely long pause.

Kaiba just shrugged slightly as he leaned down to pick Otogi up, turning to face brown eyes evenly. Honda wasn't sure how he managed to do that with the wound in his shoulder, but Kaiba didn't seem all too concerned about whatever pain he might be feeling at the moment.

"You have good aim."

There was a silence as Honda was suddenly torn between throwing something at the brunet, shooting himself, or doing both of the above. "That's it? That's all you can say after I just shot your boyfriend?"

"Somebody had to do it, and it wasn't going to be me."

The urge to throw something was becoming much stronger, "Well, why not? It is your boyfriend after all. Besides, how did you know I was going to do anything? I could have let you die! I could have killed him! What do you think of that, huh?"

He might have been acting a bit… out of character, but his usually never-ending supply of patience had quickly run drive when being faced with Kaiba's exasperating calm.

Blue eyes stared at him.

"You have good aim," Kaiba repeated before walking out of the room.

Honda glared at him for a moment, but after a few seconds he quickly followed his 'leader'. After all, what other choice did he have? What could he hope to accomplish on his own? No, the best solution was to try and help as much as he could, and hope for the very best. It was what he had been doing for so long, and although the results were rarely good, there really wasn't much else to do.

For he could scream and throw things and curse as much as he wanted to, but it wouldn't bring anybody back. It wouldn't bring back his family or Ryou, it wouldn't bring back Yuugi or his other friends… it wouldn't accomplish anything. And although he wanted to do nothing else then break down, it was necessary to just let the despair grow quietly, and to not allow it to interfere with his duties..

He wasn't the kind of person who wanted revenge. Revenge was momentarily satisfying, but that was it – just one moment. It wasn't enough to make it worthwhile. So he just did what he was told, without any actual goal in view.

It was odd though, wandering throughout life without a real purpose. There didn't even seem to be any duty towards Ryou, no desperate need to do something about his death.

There just… wasn't really anything now.

Honda didn't understand it. He had ceased to wonder about it. But that was not anything new, for most people would have been able to tell that he had reached the point where as a person, Honda Hiroto had long ago ceased to exist….

xxxXxxx

Sometimes, Mazaki Anzu wanted nothing more than to give up.

She never did, but it would have been so much easier if she had. Then she wouldn't have to deal with any of this shit, although she was polite enough not to use such language even when she was currently being attacked by more monsters than she could count. That was a different story though, and it was one of those things better left un-dwelled upon.

Or something like that. After all, it was kind of pointless to keep wishing for things when you knew you couldn't get them. Not to mention the fact that it was obscenely depressing, and it wasn't like she needed any more depressing things in life.

It was starting to get better, although that wasn't exactly difficult. When one is the cheerleader for a group of people who no longer care about anything but survival, any glimmer of life beyond such a concept could be deemed better. Because such things showed that there was still thought, still humanity.

The group that was saving humanity no longer had any of that to show.

So ironic. So ironic that they fought to save something that they did not possess, so ironic that the person who could save them had seemed stripped of such a quality for longer than she cared to remember.

But at the same time, Yami no Yuugi was the only person who seemed to think they could succeed.

Anzu didn't. She was the optimist, but no matter how optimistic she was, there was no way she could believe in any success rate when all they had met was failure. Jyounouchi was too busy blaming himself for something he could never have prevented, and Honda just didn't care anymore. Kaiba cared for only one thing, and who knew what Otogi cared for after everything that happened.

He never said that he believed he would dispel the darkness. He didn't even give a hint of it. But there was something about his demeanor, perhaps a slight return of that confident swagger that had so accompanied him while he was still the great and mighty game king. It wasn't much, and it wouldn't have been noticeable if Anzu had not been there at his 'awakening'. If one chose to call it that, which she didn't.

It was a curse.

She wanted this to end. She wanted all of this to end so badly that sometimes, she wondered why she didn't just end it all on her own. But it was the easy way out, or at least that was what she told herself so that she wouldn't feel like a complete coward.

But why did she even care anymore?

Why did she care about anything, when everything she cared for left without a trace? Why did she bother when her care seemed like nothing more than a curse. She had cared for Yuugi, and now he was gone. She had cared for her ideals, but now they seemed so silly and pale in comparison to the battle they were participating in. She had cared for her friends, but they seemed like ghosts that flitted in and out, ready to disappear at any moment. Everything that had kept her going was gone; everything that she had once found important had ceased to exist.

Was that why she did nothing when Yami turned and walked away? He was the last person she cared for – the last person she could curse with her love. And she knew that if she let him go to wherever he planned on going, he would go the same way as everyone else.

Yet she did nothing. She did nothing because there was nothing she could do, and she did nothing because there was no longer any point.

And it was at that moment when she fell to her knees and cried.

Or at least that was what she would have done if she had still cared.

xxxXxxx

"Save me the rhetoric, pharaoh. You don't sound that good when you're not screaming."

When there was no response, he realized without a doubt that this wasn't the timid creature that he had tormented so long. But it wasn't the game king either, for he had always been quick to rise to the challenge of taunts. Yami no Malik smirked. No matter. Either way, the pharaoh was still the pharaoh, and the guilt of what had happened weighed heavily on him.

Only a couple of words….

"I'm going to stop you."

The words were so quiet, and the creature could not help but laugh. "You delude yourself, but that's nothing new."

Yami shook his head, and a part of the other being began to feel rather… disconcerted. Things were not exactly going to plan, assuming that he ever had one. First he had been too distracted by Kaiba to realize that somebody might have followed him, and he had lost his best chance to get rid of his greatest enemy ever.

Because, well… Kaiba was his greatest enemy. Not this broken boy. Not… the only person who really had any reasonable chance of getting rid of him.

Perhaps he was more than a little disconcerted.

"So. You think you'll be able to stop me? You weren't even able to save your precious host, or have you forgotten that already?"

He had expected a flinch, at least. At most, he had expected a complete collapse. Somewhere in the middle, he believed that Yami would at least stop for a moment – just long enough for him to get the cap off the Sennen Rod and slice through the pale skin. He certainly had not expected the once-pharaoh to just give him a look that confirmed the pharaoh's place as somewhere between the living and dead.

"I didn't forget. I'm not going to."

This was a problem. This was a really, really big problem, although he wasn't about to admit it.

"What do you plan on doing exactly? You're useless, pharaoh. You're a shell. You don't understand your Sennen Item to its fullest extent anymore – you don't know anything. Why should you even bother when you won't be able to change anything?"

And Yami simply replied, "I'm going to seal you."

Yami no Malik recovered himself with a rather commendable composure, "Oh really?"

"Yes."

Sarcasm was decidedly lost on the spirit, for Yami really didn't care anymore what the other person thought. He had a mission, a goal. A promise that he would fulfill because Yuugi had told him to do so. It didn't matter, what happened to him. It didn't matter if he spent the rest of eternity in hell, or if he had to spend excruciating years living with the consequences. Yuugi said they needed him, something he had known for quite a while. He had never been able to act on it, but now he had to. He had spent too long not doing so, and countless people had suffered for his inabilities.

He couldn't bring any of them back. But by fulfilling his promise, it was his best chance of silencing them forever. It was a selfish thought indeed, but what else could he do? How much longer should he let himself be destroyed, and in the process destroy everyone else?

Yami no Malik could see it. He knew Yami no Malik could see it, and so he wasn't really surprised when in a desperate but decidedly futile move, the Egyptian had used the powers of the Sennen Rod on him.

It was an oddly familiar feeling, like his mind was drifting and his worries were gone. It was so tempting to just surrender, but Yuugi's words kept pounding in his mind. They needed him. He had let them all down for too long – he had to make it up to them. It didn't matter what happened to him as long as he managed it, although this time, he knew it was a blessing if he managed to succeed.

Like… like killing two birds with one stone. He could save them all, and he could save himself through his own destruction. The darkness required it. The darkness would not be satisfied with just one life – it had to have one that would make up for the others that it was denied of. That's what this was all about, wasn't it? Yami no Malik was really just a pawn. A powerful pawn, yes, but his purpose was to serve the darkness, not the other way around. Certainly the darkness had given the creature its power in order to fulfill his duties, but it expected something in return. It expected the world, it expected billions of lives to feed on.

And in order to seal it away forever, he had to give himself up. He wasn't the billions of people that the darkness had hoped for, but it wasn't all-powerful yet and it would accept him as a consolation prize. Neither he nor Yami no Malik would ever be able to escape, but really that was okay. He didn't expect to escape, and as long as the Egyptian didn't either, he would have succeeded.

Yami no Malik understood all of this, and he was trying to stop him. The fogginess seemed to grow… tighter, almost, as if it was trying to squeeze out all the coherency that he might have left. Trying to destroy whatever rational thoughts he had left, or perhaps it was not that rational in the first place. Perhaps it was all just wishful thinking, perhaps it was all idealism. Perhaps… he couldn't be sure anymore.

The Sennen Puzzle glowed brightly, its light a familiar warmth that caused him to shudder. It had been so long but now it was all coming back to him – the sharp pain of lucidity that he had been able to avoid when he was in his detached, disassociated state. He had to get rid of it quickly or it would bury him alive again, and then he would have failed.

He couldn't fail again.

"Stop it," Yami no Malik hissed, but by that point, it was just words. It was just… nothing. It didn't matter – none of it did, when compared to his pain. He couldn't even understand it anymore, but he knew that he had to escape.

"No."

Was he really trying to save the world? Or was he simply trying to break free of this world, and the saving the world part was just a part of it that he couldn't avoid?

The words were so desperate, so unlike Yami no Malik. But when he was desperate, when anyone was desperate, he or she would resort to anything in order to stay alive. "You're just killing yourself!"

And it was lovely, wasn't it?

The light was becoming unbearable, blinding and so hot that it seemed to rip through his entire body. It was pathetically easy, really. He just had to have the right mind. After all, it was hard to sacrifice yourself when you still wanted to live.

Yami didn't want to live anymore. He hadn't wanted to live in a really long time, and when the others had brought him out of his foggy haze, he was simply more certain of that fact.

Who cared if it was cowardly? He didn't. He didn't care what people thought about his attitude, and he doubted they would care if they could only be released from the darkness that had for so long threatened to devour their world. He couldn't really do anything about the darkness within themselves but this, at least, he could do.

Yami no Malik was screaming, he realized with detachment. But it stopped shortly as the darkness took back its greatest creature, and soon the darkness would overwhelm the light of the Sennen Puzzle and take him as well. It needed to be appeased, after all. And even though the light was strong, he was not. It wouldn't be too difficult to take him, especially when he was just looking forward to it.

The darkness was growling, and he gave it a bemused smile. If it was going to take him, it might as well hurry about its business. There was only so long he could maintain himself, and if he died, then it would be going back empty-handed. Certainly not something it wanted, was it?

A scowl, but it got the message. Within seconds his lower body was gone, and the darkness was quickly gaining as it moved up his torso with startling speed.

Oddly enough, the light was never diminished as he was devoured. The Sennen Puzzle continued to glow even when the neck its chain rested around disappeared forever, even when those wine-red eyes ceased to exist.

And when the pharaoh was completely gone, as surely as a dream upon waking, the puzzle fell to the ground, shattering upon impact and spilling gold pieces that continued to glow faintly across the floor. Until finally… finally the light died.

xxxXxxx

There was a great deal of screaming involved, and it was decidedly painful to witness, but nobody could have expressed any great sadness when the monsters that had been attacking them suddenly chose to pull a disappearing act. The guards, if there had ever been any, were also gone, leaving Jyounouchi and Anzu standing by themselves with confused expressions on their face.

Jyounouchi turned to look at Anzu, but it was obvious that she had no idea what was going. Somehow he doubted that Yami no Malik had had a sudden change of heart and decided to stop attacking them, but if the psychopath had, he wasn't about to complain.

It took him a rather long amount of time to realize that something was wrong in the scenario, and it took him even longer to realize exactly what that thing was.

"Where's Yami?"

Maybe he shouldn't have asked. Anzu just slowly turned to look at him, her large blue eyes haunted. Their eyes locked for a few minutes, and then he turned away because he couldn't stand to look at it anymore.

"Jyounouchi! Anzu!"

Grateful for the distraction, he turned and saw Honda waving at them from the hallway. Behind him stood Kaiba, and his eyes widened slightly when he realized that the brunet was not alone.

Which, in a way, really wasn't fair.

That was the first thought that ran through his mind, and although he tried to force it out as quickly as he could, it wouldn't leave. Because unless the former CEO was holding a corpse in his arms – very doubtful, all things considered – then… it really wasn't fair.

A part of him didn't even understand the sudden anger in the words. But the rest of him just allowed it to flow over because it didn't want to pretend otherwise.

It wasn't fair that he had lost everyone. It wasn't fair that Anzu and Honda had lost everyone. And then for Kaiba to still have that one person who could keep him from completely losing it....

It wasn't fair.

"We have to get out of here! The whole place is falling apart!"

Well, of course it was. That much was obvious, especially with the falling rocks, collapsing walls, and a sudden exponential growth in dust particles. But all he could do was stand there as the words continued to run through his mind.

It wasn't fair.

He might have continued to stand there forever if Anzu hadn't tugged on his arm. Her eyes seemed to reflect his, but she at least could keep herself from letting the thought shut her down.

"We have to go."

Go where?

There was a certain numbness now. It was fairly apparent that Yami no Malik was gone – how else to explain the disappearance of the shadow monsters? But now what? What was he going to do? Where was he going to go to? Why should he even bother leaving, when he could stay here and… do nothing?

His legs started to move, but his mind had yet to catch up. It was still wondering, perhaps selfishly, why he should even bother. Even when he broke into a run to catch up with the others, it was still back in the wreckage, never to emerge again.

xxxXxxx

The pyramid broke, and then he fell.

Malik Ishtal blinked as the glass collapsed, and he seemed to shrug slightly when the ground disappeared and he fell into the darkness.

Ah, it looked like the pharaoh had finally beaten his other self. Took him long enough, really.

He'd always wondered about what would happen at this point. His thoughts had never come up with any good conclusions, but he had wondered and as he fell, he imagined that perhaps nothing would happen. It was quite possible that he would keep falling.

There was no anger, no emotion accompanying such a morbid thought. He couldn't be angry because he deserved this, and he couldn't be secretly pleased because it had been so long that he was perfectly fine sitting back and just waiting. He had done it for so long – what was wrong with doing it for a couple more centuries? It wasn't that big a deal. Lost in your thoughts, time could go by extremely quickly or at a snail's pace if you allowed it to.

He wasn't sure how long he had fallen when suddenly he stopped. It was not a very gentle stop – instead, it felt like somebody had grabbed his arm and pulled him up, creating a sensation that felt rather like his shoulder was being dislocated.

Malik opened his mouth to chew out the person who had done it, but he stopped mid-word when he got a good look at that person.

"… neesan?"

She smiled, and he wasn't at all surprised when another arm reached down to grab his free hand, this one much more muscular and accompanied by another familiar face.

He didn't say anything else as Isis and Rishid pulled him up. He didn't let his face say anything either.

But he supposed that if he allowed himself to be honest, the only emotion that he felt was… happiness.

xxxXxxx

They ran, forcing their way through the crumbling building and the confused guards, the monsters who shrieked as they disappeared and the horrors destroyed. Nobody stopped to marvel over the fact that they had won – the only thing on their lives was to escape through the hell that had haunted them for so long.

There was no choice but to go outside, for the portable gateway had been destroyed along with everything else in the complex. It was fairly straightforward though, and when they reached the heavy iron doors that seemed to be standard in evil headquarters, Seto didn't really expect what happened next to ever be able to happen again.

Odd, wasn't it though? He should have known it would have been there, waiting for them, when they finally pushed the doors open.

Distantly, he could hear Anzu crying as the sunlight washed over their tired faces for the first time in… ages. He also knew without looking that Honda and Jyounouchi were probably doing the same thing, although he doubted if they would ever admit it or do it in such a blubbering fashion.

And a part of him thought that perhaps he should join them.

Maybe… maybe if it had been earlier, he might have. Or maybe if it had been later, he might have. But for now, he could only blink into the blinding light as his arms unconsciously tightened around Ryuuji's comatose body.

Without another word, he took a step, and then another. And with each step his pace quickened despite the weight which wasn't really weight, for the problems that had truly been weighing him down for so long had finally slipped away and lay forgotten in the ruins behind him.

It didn't matter to him what happened now. It didn't matter what people chose to do or what not to do because he didn't care anymore. It was over, for him, and in that single moment he had ceased to care for anything except a single person.

So with those thoughts in mind, Kaiba Seto strode in the direction of the light of the new day, and finally left everything else behind.

Ah. Epilogue shall be up in a week or so, along with any ending notes.