SW: Hey ya'll!
Yugi: SoWhatever has an important question!
SW: Yeah! So I was just PMed by noveljoy inviting me to go and post stories on a new website called noveljoy .com, do you think I should do it? I wouldn't stop posting on here of course, I would just be doing it on two websites.
Ryou: She's considering it but isn't sure if she wants to. What do you guys think?
Thank you to JapanT'sTheName (Hehe, your reviews always make me happy so you don't have to worry about me liking them or not, even if you were mean in them, you just seem like you would put it so nicely! And no you aren't being obnoxious, but I can't answer your question ;) Glad you liked the plot twist!), samaurai (Yeah, I know. It's so sad! Hopefully I'll let things get better soon.), snow-kim (I love it when you ask questions! You'll find out about Mahad, Malik, and Bakura's mother in this chapter), Goshikku Hime wa Yami-san (Who isn't happy for Isis? :P And yeah, Malik…No spoilers!), and takininja13 (I feel bad to Malik in that situation…I feel sorry for him too!) for reviewing!
Enjoy!
Two weeks later
Ryou fell to his knees before the grave, cradling a bouquet of white lilies. He swallowed back tears and sighed, reaching down to trace the name written in stone. Bakura placed a hand on Ryou's shoulder. The boy jerked and looked up, having forgotten the man was there, before dropping the flowers to latch onto Bakura. Bakura took a step back to steady himself and slowly wrapped his arms around Ryou, not sure how to be a comforter. He took Ryou's chin in his hand and pulled him into a quick kiss. The man bent over and placed the dropped flowers on top of the grave. "We have to go to the hospital."
Nodding his head slowly, Ryou stepped away from Bakura and looked over his shoulder at Akefia, blowing him a kiss before following his love out of the graveyard.
They walked into the hospital room and Ryou bit his lip at the scene. Marik had his head resting on the bed, his body sitting in a chair. He was facing them and the two could see the bags under his eyes. The cause of his condition was lying on the bed, attached to an IV and a heart monitor with tubes coming out of his nose to help him breathe. Ryou shivered and Bakura wrapped his arm around the boy to guide him to the chair next to Marik. The man jolted awake and looked at the two new entrances with dull eyes, "Oh, hello. Isis just left to go get some coffee, she'll be back any minute." The monotone voice sent shivers down Ryou's spine and he turned from the defeated man to stare at Malik.
Even after two weeks, there were still bruises scattered across his skin. His tan had faded into a milky pallor and there was a bandage wrapped around his head, hiding his limp hair, and another around his left arm. The cast on his leg was raised up over the bed by a sling and Ryou knew there was still a bandage around his chest to make sure the ribs could heal properly. "Please wake up, Malik."
Isis walked into the room, carrying a small paper cup filled with steaming coffee, with Mahad trailing along after her. "Hello, you two. I'm happy you came."
Ryou immediately stood up and moved out of the chair, letting Isis sit down with a sigh. Mahad followed behind Isis protectively. After he had gotten over the shock that Isis had announced her pregnancy, she was only two weeks along, he refused to leave Isis' side. Especially when she confirmed that she had never "done it", as Bakura put it, with Pegasus, so it was for sure Mahad's child. However she had been able to get pregnant when she rarely ever saw Mahad, Ryou wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Looking over as Yami, Yugi, and Mana each walked in with somber expressions, he smiled lightly at them before turning back to Malik. "I hate this. I wish he would just wake up."
"Don't we all." Isis licked her lips and reached out to hold Malik's hand. "I just don't understand why he's still in a coma. The doctors say all the scans are reading as normal. It's as if he doesn't want to wake up."
Marik stood up abruptly and leaned over the bed. "Is that true, Malik?" He bent down and put his nose in front of Malik's. "Do you not want to see us?"
Suddenly, Marik collapsed and everyone rushed forward to get him off of Malik. "Marik! What the hell?" Bakura gripped his shoulders and pulled him off, but the man didn't respond.
Mahad lifted Marik's chin, ignoring the grunts Bakura made as he held up the limp body, and peeled open an eyelid. "He's gone into his soul room." He let the lid fall close and gestured to the bed. "We might as well lay him down."
"Why would he do that?" Yami moved forward to help Bakura move Marik next to Malik on the bed.
"I doubt it was voluntary. He wouldn't have wanted to risk hurting Malik."
Yugi came over and wrapped an arm around Yami. "Maybe it's like our mind links. You did say the shadows have a mind of their own."
Marik almost fell forward as he landed in the hallway between his and Malik's rooms. He caught himself in time and looked around in surprise. Scowling and mumbling under his breath about psychotic shadows, he walked over to the purple door on the left and roughly opened it.
But the sands of Egypt were gone. Marik looked around in shock before he realized that they weren't actually gone, but it was night. That would explain the cold chill in the room and the shivering body on the bed. The wall before that was completely black was gone, but the darkness of a starless night replaced it.
"I don't want to. I don't want to! Stop it! Father, no! Please! Marik!" Malik's voice carried throughout the room, and Marik watched as Malik's shivering got worse. Realizing that the soul room was replaying that night two weeks ago, he walked over the bed and reached over to pull the sheet away from Malik's body.
He was curled up into the fetal position, his head hidden in his knees. The scars on his back that were new and scabbed before had faded, and he appeared to have no physical injuries, but was sweating and shaking as Malik's and his father's voices repeated over and over.
"Malik. Wake up." The man in question shook his head and covered his ears in a feeble attempt to block out the voices. "Damn it, Malik! Everyone's worried about you!"
"I called for you." The deadened voice echoed in the room, and the screaming faded into the background. Marik winced but let Malik speak. "I called for you so many times and you never answered. I am so scared, Marik."
Marik scowled and sat down on the bed, answering Malik's unspoken question in a cold voice. "You don't have to see your father ever again."
Shivering again, Malik grasped blindly for the sheet that had pulled off him before giving up on his attempt to hide underneath them. "I'm scared."
"You're in a coma, Malik. You need to wake up." Malik shook his head and Marik sighed in frustration. They sat in silence for moment before Marik started talking again. "Yugi killed Dartz, you know. And there was enough information at the warehouse that the police were able to connect Pegasus to all the gang work he did, so he's in custody and Isis filed for divorce. She's getting one hell of a payoff to keep the whole thing quiet, so you don't need to worry about money or anything." As if he realized he was babbling, Marik clamped his mouth shut, not willing to say another word unless Malik contributed something.
"That's good…"
Marik's mouth twitched in an attempt to hold back a smirk before he gave out one last bit of information. "Oh yeah, and Isis is pregnant."
"What?!" Malik jolted up and looked at Marik in shock, and failed to notice the room brightened to a dull gray, the color before dawn.
Leaning back and staring at the ceiling, he shrugged as if he didn't know Malik was hanging on his every word. "Yeah, apparently she and Mahad did it two weeks ago and now they're gonna have a kid. I'm betting it was at the prison." He cackled. "If my one experience was any insight, I'd say they did it every Saturday, so it was only a matter of time." Yelping lightly as Malik smacked him lightly on the head, he smirked over at his lover. "Does that mean you'll come back to the world of the living?"
Malik's mood dampened considerably. "I don't know, Marik…It'll be so hard…"
Scoffing lightly, Marik turned his head to look at the ceiling again. "Screw your old man. You shouldn't let him rule you like this. It's exactly what he would've wanted. You cowering in a corner, scared, and too weak to stand up and keep on living."
"I'm not weak!"
Sure, he had just been shoved off the bed and his butt was sore from the fall, but at least he was getting a lively response. Marik was already seeing changes in Malik's soul room, it was becoming lighter and the sky started to burn red with a desert sunrise. "Then prove it. Wake up, Malik."
Malik calmed down again and Marik had to raise an eyebrow at the sudden mood swings the boy was having. "B-But what if I…"
"If you what? You couldn't do something wrong if you tried, Malik. Now wake up." Marik genuinely smiled when Malik nodded, before lying back on the bed and closing his eyes, before fading from the soul room completely.
Marik took one last look around the room, the sunrise brought magnificent light to the room, and the wall that had previously been black was now painted to match the rest of the walls, and was covered in empty shelves, ready to hold new memories.
He smirked at just what kind of memories he could have Malik saving forever in his mind, before he too left for the real world.
"Malik! You're awake!" He winced as Ryou wrapped him in a hug, but made no protest. He looked around the room cautiously as Marik slowly woke up next to him.
As soon as Ryou moved away, Isis replaced him, gripping him tightly with no intention of letting go. "You had us all very worried."
Mahad chuckled lightly and placed a hand on Isis' shoulder. "I believe you're choking him."
She released him and Malik sucked in a huge breath of air, causing everyone else to laugh. They were still laughing when doctors came rushing into the room. "Impossible! How could he have just woken up!" They checked his vitals and fussed over him, much to Malik's annoyance, before they finally relented. "We think he should stay for one more night, just to do a couple tests."
Malik groaned and let his head fall back against the pillow and Marik smirked. "I'm almost positive all his vitals are fine, so there isn't a need to do those tests. Plus," he wrapped an arm around Malik, "I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to stay. He's been gone for two weeks and we'd all like him home."
The doctors, all three of them, huffed but relented and went to go get the release papers.
"Two weeks?!" Malik looked wide-eyed around the room. "I was gone for that long?"
Yugi nodded and smiled sadly at his friend. "You sure have missed a lot." Yami reached down to hold onto Yugi's hand, rubbing his thumb over the top of it.
"Your grandpa's funeral!" He tried to sit up, but Marik's shoulders held him down, and as he felt the shot of pain from moving his stomach too much, he was kind of thankful. "Oh Yugi, I'm so sorry I missed it."
The smile brightened a little, trying to reassure Malik, but he saw that it didn't reach his eyes. "It's okay, you can come visit him with me sometime."
Nodding his head, he looked around the room, taking in everyone, but noticed one person missing. "Where's Akefia?"
Ryou winced and turned into Bakura, who wrapped his arms around the boy and glared at Malik for bringing it up. Guessing what happened, his stomach dropped and he looked around the room trying to find someone who reassured him that his guess was wrong. "No…please don't tell me..."
"Akefia died in the warehouse." Bakura said bluntly and without emotion, but everyone knew that he was clamping it down inside him, not wanting to show weakness. "We buried him last week."
"Oh, Ryou…I'm so sorry."
Ryou turned around, but didn't move out of Bakura's embrace, leaning into the man's chest. "It's okay. I'm okay. Really. You can see his-his grave when you go see Grandpa's, they're b-buried in the same place."
But Malik knew Ryou wasn't okay. He heard the slight stutter that Ryou still had when talking about Akefia's death, and he was beating himself up for not being there for his friend when he needed him.
"Well," Mahad smiled as he signed off a paper on a clipboard one of the nurses had handed to him. "everything is settled. Malik, you can come home with Isis, Mana, and I."
He brightened considerably at the thought of living with his sister again and smiled at the room, before frowning at his leg. "How am I supposed to walk with this?"
Marik chuckled as Isis helped him move the black cast out of the sling and Mahad rolled over a wheelchair. "You're not."
Eyeing the wheelchair and pouting lightly, Malik looked over to Marik, trying not to worry over the dark shadows he saw under the man's eyes. "Oh, hell no."
SW: Yo dudes! What's hanging, dogs?
Bakura: Never say that again. Ever.
SW: Chillax bro, no need to snap man.
Yugi: *stage whisper to Yami* I think she's lost it.
Yami: *stage whisper back* Well, she does kind of talk to us in her head.
Malik: I didn't die!
Review, my peeps! It's what all the cool people do! (Oh, and I'm fried out 'cause I started a new story! Check it out, it's radical! [OMR I'm a ninja turtle!])