Disclaimer: My, this is getting tedious. I DON"T OWN IT!!!

"It wasn't really Noa's fault," Annie said as Gozaburo's true machinations were brought to light. "He knew where Seto's heart lay and was willing to let him go. It was his father who was obsessed with getting them together."

"That maybe true," her Grandmother observed. "But even he justified his actions with his love for his son."

"That's a pretty twisted way of showing your love for someone."

"Of course; but he didn't know any other way. I suppose you hate Gozaburo all the more now huh?" Her grandmother asked.

Annie gave the sagacious old women an incredulous look. "How could I not? His actions thus far have been unforgivable."

"Everyone deserves forgiveness if they are truly sorry."

"Not everyone Grandma," Annie responded with a shake of her head. "Forgiveness is too good for some people."

"But forgiveness isn't just about those being forgiven. Forgiveness is needed to soothe the soul of the one who does the forgiving as well."

"That's easy to say Grandma," Annie responded. "But it's not that easy to actually forgive someone. Especially when you are still filled with nothing but hatred."

The next photo was a mugshot. Malik's face stared defiantly back at them.

"Hatred only leaves you with two options," the old women explained. "You either have to seek vengeance or you have to allow yourself to forgive..."

XXX

Malik sipped at his drink and waited. Too long it seemed his life had been leading up to this moment, and he wanted to enjoy it. He wanted to engrave it into his memory and relive it again and again after it was done. He wanted to remember the moment he finally made that bastard pay.

Bakura had gotten back to him with the information he wanted much faster than he expected. Ryou's lover obviously had some connections, and the Egyptian was almost caught off-guard when the soldier handed him the slip of paper with Bonnal's home address on it. It seemed the man had retired from the military life shortly after the raid on Jenji. Little more than a month after he ruined Malik's life the bastard was back at home living the life of a normal civilian. Malik had heard that peace negotiations were being considered by both sides, but he hardly thought a rapist like Bonnal should be benefitting.

He'd arrived in Minutade only the afternoon before. It hadn't been that hard to get into the Eastern half of the country even though there was still fighting going on. Minutade was a small Songim controlled town with an almost halcyon tranquility to it. It was the kind of place rich people would love to take summer vacations in. But for Malik the town was permeated by a darkness, and from the moment he stepped off the bus, he could sense the man's hated presence.

He'd barely taken the time to reserve himself a hotel room before investigating the address Bakura had provided him.

It was dusk by the time he located the place and the falling darkness provided him the cover he needed to observe his prey unseen. When he first saw the man, he was almost sick in the bushes. He hated the fear that still coursed through him and he focused only on his anger, slowly allowing his trembling to stop. Peering cautiously through the window of the modest one-story house he was shocked to find that Bonnal did not live alone. His rapist, as it turned out, was a husband and father. It seemed the man was leading quite a normal life and that knowledge worked like acid on Malik's already bleeding wounds.

He was going to see justice done for what had been forced upon him.

He'd followed Bonnal to this bar last night, and he was certain the man would return again this evening. All he had to do was wait.

"Is this seat taken?"

Malik looked at the women who slid onto the bar stool beside him. She was in her early twenties, had dark hair and was wearing too much red lipstick, but Malik supposed most people would consider her attractive. He just wanted her to go away.

"Sorry to intrude," she apologized after placing her drink order with the bartender. "I just find it so depressing to come to these kind of places alone."

"Then don't."

She laughed at that. "Good advice kid. And I usually don't, it's only my boyfriend just dumped me and I really need to get drunk."

"Then start drinking," the bartender advised as he placed her drink down in front of her. Malik noticed it was some sort of fruit flavored cocktail; he hadn't been paying enough attention when she ordered it to catch the name.

"You must think I'm pretty pathetic huh?" She continued not noticing or not caring that Malik didn't really want to talk. "I bet a handsome guy like you has never been dumped in his life."

Malik's laughter was chillingly hollow. Dumped? No, he been beaten, raped, and used, but never dumped. He'd of had to of had an official boyfriend for that to have happened. He thought briefly of Marik, but he'd obviously read too much into their relationship.

The women seemed to notice the dark turn Malik's thoughts had taken as she quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. "Crap, I said something stupid again didn't I?"

Malik felt the answer was too obvious to bother pointing out. He glanced expectantly at the establishment's front entrance, but there was still no sign of Bonnal.

The women noticed his gaze. "Expecting someone?"

"Something like that," Malik smirked maliciously.

"Well you're lucky then. My boyfriend had the audacity to cheat on me after I stuck by his side for three damn years. Can you believe the nerve he has?"

The woman's drink was disappearing with an alacrity that gave a ring of truth to her decision to get drunk. "I mean Josh, that's the cheating scumbag's name by the way, didn't even have the decency to tell me himself. I had to hear it from someone who saw the two of them together."

She slammed her fist onto the table and took another long swig of her drink. Strangely Malik was finding her slightly more tolerable now that he could relate to her feeling of being told about the end of your relationship by proxy.

"I'm sorry you had to find out that way," the Egyptian offered sincerely.

"Oh that's not the end of it honey," the women smirked. "I wasn't about to make it that easy for him. If he was going to dump me he could at least be a man and do it to my face."

"You mean you confronted him about it?"

"Damn right I did!" The women raised a brow at Malik's shock. "I really loved Josh," she continued. "I wanted to hear it from him so that I'd know it was the truth."

The truth. Malik frowned a little as he thought of how Otogi had stoically informed him that Marik didn't want to see him anymore. He'd believed every word his former boss had told him and he'd never really questioned it before.

"Of course it was all true," that now familiar feminine voice tore through his thoughts. "He barely even tried to deny it."

Malik could hear the pain permeating her words and wondered why she had been foolish enough to subject herself to such a harsh reality. She should have just left him when she found out he was cheating.

"Do you regret it now?" Malik's question seemed to hang in the air.

"No," the women sighed at last. "I admit is was one of the most painful moments of my life listening to him tell me that he wanted to be with that other women. But I loved him, and there was no way I could have just walked away without hearing the truth directly from him."

She finished off her drink. "At least now I won't have to always wonder if it was all just some sort of misunderstanding."

The words struck at something deep inside of Malik. Was there a connection between her situation and his? Had he taken too much for granted; assumed too much was the truth? It felt like he was just on the verge of understanding when a biting laughter reached his ears and made the Egyptian cringe. He didn't even need to look to know Bonnal had arrived.

The women seemed to notice the change in her listener's demeanor as well. The irascible young man who had been simply putting up with her company until now was starting to tremble. Something was bothering him.

"Are you alight?" She asked cautiously.

Malik's unfocused lavender eyes flew to her face and for a moment him seemed disoriented, like he didn't recognize where he was. Then suddenly the turbid eyes hardened. "How would you like to do me a favor?"

XXX

Malik waited out back in the alley. He'd instructed the dark-haired women to ask Bonnal to help her with something and lead the man right into his trap. He hadn't told her what he planned to do- she probably figured he just wanted to have a private little chat with the man, and she'd gladly agreed. Now all he had to do was wait.

With each passing second Malik relived his nightmare. The personal hell he had been trapped in since that night was dancing before him in a phantasmagoria of horrific images. His pulse was pounding in his ears and it was hard to tell what was real anymore. Why him? Why had this had to happen to him?

Bonnal stepped unsuspectingly into the alley and when he heard the door click and lock behind him he was instantly on his guard. "That bitch," he hissed under his breath.

The sound of footsteps to his left caught his attention and he turned to see a figure step out of the shadows. For a moment he was worried, but then he saw it was just a teenager. Being ex-military, Bonnal knew he clearly had the advantage.

"Long time no see," Malik said as he stepped forward. He'd been imaging this moment for so long, he wanted everything to be perfect.

Bonnal's look was one of confusion. What the hell was going on? He was about to tell the kid to go to hell when it dawned on him that his buddies must be playing some sort of joke on him.

"Look kid," he said, talking down to the stranger. "I don't know what those guys put you up to, but it's not gonna work."

"That's where you're wrong," Malik snarled. "No one put me up to this, I'm here only for myself. Because this is what you deserve."

Bonnal suddenly felt a little uneasy. He realized that he was in a dark alley with a not so stable teenager and that there weren't any witnesses around. The music from inside the bar would compete with any noises out back.

"Who are you?"

Malik took a step closer and laughed. "Of course you wouldn't remember me would you? I was nothing to you, not even human. I was just something for you to use."

The toneless quality of the boy's voice disturbed the older man, but not nearly as much as the dead look to the lavender eyes. He'd seen that look too many times on the battlefield, and there was just no reasoning with it. He had to get out of here.

"Leaving so soon," Malik sneered as he saw his prey start to back away. "And here I thought we could have a friendly little chat."

"Look kid," the man remonstrated. "This isn't funny. Why don't you just go home and we can forget all about this ok?"

"Forget?" Malik's rage seemed to double. "Don't you think I've tried to forget? Every time I close my eyes there it is, every time someone gets too close it's there. I've tried and I've tried to run from it, but it just won't let me go!

"But that ends tonight. It ends here with you."

This kid was crazy. That was the one thought that ran through Bonnal's mind. If he didn't get out of here now there was no telling what the teen was capable of. He had a loving wife and a beautiful baby waiting for him at home and he wasn't going to allow this maniac to take that away from him!

Bonnal turned to run, but Malik drew the gun before he had the chance. The glint of metal in the light seeping in from the street stopped the ex-soldier in his tracks.

Malik knew he had the bastard's attention now. Looking deep into the man's black eyes, those eyes that had haunted him so incessantly, he suppressed a shudder of fear. "You really don't remember me do you?"

"No." Bonnal's voice was more placid now that he was at a clear disadvantage. "Should I?"

Malik kept his finger on the trigger. He'd taken the gun from Bakura before he left and when this was all over he knew there'd be no point in denying his crime was premeditated. He'd been wanting to do this for a long time.

"How about I give you a clue? I used to live in a town called Jenji. It was a nice town; quiet, peaceful and my life was pretty tranquil until one night when you and some of your friend's decided to pop in and pay us a little visit."

Understanding seemed to dawn on Bonnal's face and Malik reveled in the look of unease that came into Bonnal's eyes.

"Starting to remember now?" He sneered. "I get the feeling your list of atrocities is rather long though so let me make my identity perfectly clear to you."

"I'm a different man now," Bonnal interjected a little desperately.

Malik shoved the gun forward a little. "People like you don't change. Now then, I was talking."

Bonnal fell silent as fear started to take hold of him.

"I was home alone reading that night when you guys dragged me into my kitchen for what can only loosely be called an interrogation. You may recall that your team discovered the antique weapons my sister was holding onto for her job at the museum. Any of this sound familiar?"

"Yes," Bonnal stammered under his breath. He knew this boy now. Knew the righteousness of his anger and he couldn't look the Egyptian in the eye. Still, his survival instinct was too strong to just let the blond have his way. "I'm sorry."

Malik's eyes narrowed in hatred. "You're sorry," he scoffed. "You tortured and violated me for no reason and you're sorry? You seem to have missed your calling, you should have been a comedian!"

Bonnal swallowed nervously. All his training told him that he needed to defuse this gun-wielding teen who was literally a ticking time bomb.

"Look you need to calm down kid," he soothed. "We can talk about this. Just put the gun away."

"There's nothing to talk about," Malik vociferated. "Nothing you can say is going to make this alright."

What could he say. He had wronged this boy so badly, but did he have to die for that? Was there to be no redemption for him. Bonnal hadn't been himself during the war. Overworked, under constant pressure, sleep deprived, and told that everyone was against him. That everyone who wasn't fighting beside him was his enemy. It had all been too much and he had snapped. He had directed his anger at this one innocent person and he knew that was wrong, but was this the only option left?

"On your knees," Malik ordered. His voice had taken on a great sense of command since he had pulled out the gun. Hiding behind the weapon empowered him. As long as he could feel the steel in his hands he knew he was safe from this monster.

Bonnal had no choice but to obey. "Please don't do this," he pleaded. He didn't doubt this kid was going to kill him and he could no longer hold back his fear. "Please! I'm sorry about what I did, you have to believe me!"

"Shut up!" Malik snapped. "I don't have to believe anything you tell me. I'm the one who has the power now."

"You don't really want to do this," the man protested. "I'm a husband and father, don't punish my family for what I did."

"Shut up, just shut up." Malik's hand was starting to shake as he listened to his enemy's entreaties. Why should he care about the man's family? Bonnal hadn't given a damn about him when he raped him. He hadn't given one thought to the repercussions of his actions as he tore apart the skin on his back. Malik reminded himself that Bonnal deserved this.

"Please," Bonnal exhorted. He was desperate now. His whole body was trembling in fear as he felt the gun press against his temple. He knew he was babbling and could feel the tears running down his cheeks as he was faced with his own death "You don't have to do this. You don't have to be like me."

Malik's finger froze on the trigger.

"Please! I don't want to die," his victim whimpered.

Was this possible, Malik wondered. Was this blathering, crying, man the same man who had viscously attacked him? Bonnal looked like he was about to wet himself with fear and the image seemed so wrong when juxtaposed with the monster the Egyptian remembered. Where was the odious soldier who had vituperated him during his torture? The smug man who had decided it was his right to violate a young boy's body. Because all Malik saw here was a pathetic, frightened man, who was nothing more then a husk of the monster the teen remembered him to be.

Bonnal couldn't check his tears as he waited for the shot that would end his life. It was strange that he couldn't remember if bullets traveled faster than the speed of sound or not. Would he hear the sound of the shot that killed him or would he already be dead?

Bonnal never found the answer to his question that night. The next sound that reached his ears was Malik's crazed, inexorable laughter.

The Egyptian brought the hand not holding the gun to his forehead and ran it through his bangs as his body trembled not in fear, but in laughter. "You know what?" he managed to ask between fits.

Bonnal was too shocked to respond.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore." Malik felt as if he had never spoken truer words. "All this time I've let what you did control me, to dictate my life, and it just seems so funny now.

"I was convinced that you were someone to be feared, some sort of evil leviathan that lurked in the shadows, and really you're nothing more than a coward. A coward who tried to make himself feel like more of a man by raping a young boy."

Bonnal couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had he been spared after all?

"You're nothing more then a pathetic man who tried to take something away from your victims, and I stupidly let you. I let my fear, and shame control me and by doing that I let you control me. I let you win. But not anymore." The invective just seemed to flow out of Malik. He had come here to punish his attacker, to spit on the bloody corpse of the man who stole so much from him, but now he saw another way.

Maybe all he wanted was a chance to take back his power, the thing this man had stolen from him that night in his kitchen.

"You had no right to do what you did to me," Malik emphasized as he continued. "You took so much more than just my body that night, but I can see you now. You're not the monster I imagined you to be; you're just a pathetic man with base morals."

Malik spat at him and watched with a strange satisfaction as Bonnal didn't even bother to wipe the saliva from where it landed on his face. "I'm not afraid of you anymore," the Egyptian repeated. "I just feel sorry for you."

The gun that had almost killed him struck Bonnal across the face and knocked him out.

Malik let out a sigh of relief. He couldn't really explain the change that had seemingly come over him so suddenly, but he knew it had happened. He finally felt like he could put that night behind him. It wouldn't be easy, he knew that, and there would still be nights when he would wake up screaming, but he knew that it wasn't going to control him anymore. He was going to take back his life. He was going to move on and go after the things that he wanted.

"At least now I won't have to always wonder if it was all just some sort of misunderstanding."

The women's words from before popped into Malik's head as if to remind him what was important.

Marik.

Malik had walked away without ever hearing directly from the other Egyptian's mouth that whatever it was that they had was over. The old Malik would have never done that. He would have fought for what he wanted.

Malik made up his mind. He'd start by confronting Marik, and if what Otogi had said was true, than he would just go from there. He wasn't going to let anything stop him anymore.

Malik was feeling better than he had in a long time when he stepped out of the alley. Almost instantaneously, the headlights of several police cars centered on him and he heard an officer call out,

"Drop the gun and put your hands where I can see them."

XXX

Jail sucked. There was no other way to describe the monotony of being stuck in an austere cell with nothing to do for hours on end. Malik supposed he should at least be thankful he had the place to himself.

While he was being booked he learned that someone passing by had seen him holding Bonnal at gunpoint and had called the cops. He was being charged with gun possession and assault with a deadly weapon. In other words, it wasn't looking too good. Malik stared at the wall of his cell and smirked at the irony of being arrested just as he was ready to move on with his life.

There was no way to be certain how much time had passed, but it felt like hours to the blond. He was just getting ready to start picking at the dirt under his fingernails when the sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention. The officer halted outside of his cell and gave the Egyptian a scrutinizing look.

"You're a lucky kid," he scoffed. The guard, a corpulent man in his later years, didn't hide his disappointment very well. "It seems that Mr. Bonnal doesn't want to press charges for the assault."

"I didn't assault him," Malik lied. He wasn't about to let the system punish him for a blow to the head and a face full of saliva when he had let his rapist off easy.

"So he told us," the guard replied. "Seems it was all just a misunderstanding then."

Malik didn't take the bait and remained silent.

Annoyed by the teen's staid demeanor, the guard got in the last word much to his own satisfaction. "There is still the matter of the gun. You don't have a permit for that weapon, in fact it's not even registered to you."

"I was holding it for a friend," the Egyptian offered stoically.

"You'll still be fined."

That was fine with Malik. He wasn't innocent of the charges anyway. He almost laughed as he thought of the lecture Isis was likely to give him when his first phone call to her since he left was going to be from jail. She was gone to be quite pettish.

He wouldn't be arraigned till the morning, so there was nothing for him to do but try to get some sleep. Starting tomorrow he was going to get his life back. No more hiding, no more running away, and no more letting his hate consume him. He was tired of being angry all the time. Now he just wanted to be happy.

As he lay there in a semi-lucid state that wasn't quite wakefulness but lacked the peaceful qualities of sleep, he tried to forget about Bonnal. He was sure the man thought he was doing Malik a favor, maybe making up for his actions in some small way, by not pressing charges against him. Malik wasn't so naive though. It was much more likely the ex-soldier just didn't want it getting out that he had raped a teenage boy during the war.

"Whatever," Malik sighed around a yawn. He wasn't going to waste anymore time thinking about that bastard. There was only room in his thoughts for one person now, and he was going to do everything he could to make his dream a reality. He was going to go and fight for Marik.

It was ironic that Malik got the best night's sleep he'd had in a long time in a dank, cramped jail cell in a town where he knew no one but the man who had temporarily haunted his life.

A/n: So I'm sure a lot of you wanted to see Malik kill his rapist, but I wanted something a little more fitting and mature than that. Killing him wouldn't have solved or really even been much help to Malik's emotional problems, but this confrontation allows him to make the first steps towards moving on. I hope that it turned out just as satisfying as seeing him blow the guys brains out as seems to be a common solution to the rapist problem in fics (not that I'm criticizing authors who chose to conclude their plots this way, just saying that I don't think it would have worked well here, so don't get pissy and flame me please.) Anyway, feel free to let me know what you think.

Next Chapter: A night of terror and tragedy at the Kaiba Mansion