Damn him. Damn him. Damn him. What is it about Marik that I can't shake from my soul? We hardly even knew each other, but whenever he's near me I forget that fact. Something about us feels like always was and the second he wrapped his arms around me, I collapsed into his hold.

I shouldn't do it. I should stand and face him. I should scream at him for being a bastard. I couldn't speak. I was too busy sucking in the scent of him and feeling like this has always been. Marik muttered my name but I wouldn't answer him. I'd been holding myself together best I could all this time, but now I've finally collapsed inside and I don't have the strength to fake okay anymore.

"Bakura…"

"Six months," I finally hissed into his chest. "I stole half a million dollars, but you didn't care. It was like losing the money was worth not having to deal with me."

"No. No, Bakura. I just found out. I've been off the grid."

"Where?"

"Ghana. A small town. They were going to build a gold mine in their backyard and it was going to make the land unlivable. I had a way to stop it but it involved a lot of time and negotiating." Marik pressed his forehead against mine. His skin was burning hot, as if his brain was short circuiting. "The night you called, I was flying out to Accra. I wanted to change the flight. Not doing so was the hardest thing I've done since I was a child, but I couldn't abandon those people… I couldn't."

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want to tell you. I couldn't tell you. Hey Bakura, I know you're eager to go kill the Pharaoh again, but actually I've decided to go rescue a village instead so I'll call you as soon as I'm back in Egypt. Bye." Marik have a bitter laugh. "You would have sneered at me, and called me weak, and broke my heart. I couldn't stand it, so… I avoided it."

I had to laugh then. For a former criminal genius, Marik was an idiot. I dragged him back to the couch, still too overwhelmed to stand in my own, and we crashed onto the cushions together. Marik ended up straddled over my lap, but I wasn't going to complain about the position if he didn't.

Holy shit? I'm trying to imagine Marik taking on an entire government to save a single village- save them from being destroyed by gold that would be worn by the privileged of the world with no consideration of the human cost. Holy shit…

All this time I've been barely keeping my shit together, but Marik … Marik became a savior. An angel of justice. The sort of person I would have wanted to become if I'd stopped and thought about it instead getting ploughed over in my own anger and pain. The exact sort of person I would have wanted to be if I'd ever felt like I had a choice, but instead I took the Ring and lost all my choices.

"Bakura?" A faint wash of mauve won over Marik's face despite his complexion. "I can't read the look on your face."

Because it was amazement. It was pride. It was reverence. I couldn't say any of that though, all I could do was look up at him and try to process what Marik had done. What he'd become since the last time I saw him. But he must have mistook my awe-induced silence as some sort of bad sign because tears filled his eyes and spilled down his cheeks, and he spoke in a soft rush of words.

"Bakura… Bakura… when you died, I died. When you died, I died. But I'd already made my choice in Battle City to live and I couldn't go back on that. The experience changed me too much. I needed a reason to keep going, though, so I took all the money I had from the Ghouls and I started projects to help people. I built schools and clinics- with my own hands." Marik gave a sobby laugh and wiped tears away from his nostrils. "I funded them, but I physically helped build them, too. Digging wells, setting up irrigation systems, keeping Western influence from capitalizing on people's pain? It's the only thing that made me happy. It was the only way to fill the hours without you."

I cupped Marik's face with my hands, still staring at him in silent wonder.

"Funny," Marik muttered. "I don't remember your hands ever being warm."

"Marik," my voice cracked when I tried to whisper his name.

"It was never the Pharaoh. It was the system. The entire system is bad, so that's what I'm fighting now."

"I'm barely figuring out how to be a person. But you? Even after everything you went through," I whispered, refusing to let go of his face, "And all the horrible things you put others through… you still managed to become-"

"A lame ass do-gooder?" Marik gave a nervous laugh.

I brought our faces closer together. "Incredible. Marik, you're incredible."

"Are you really not going to tease me about getting so soft?"

"That first night, I didn't care if you wanted to destroy the world or save it. I just wanted you to take me with you."

He placed his hands over mine. "I'm sorry."