I sat on the couch of my former enemy and stared at my hands. Hands that I don't have to share with my other half. Hands that are mine alone. They're the color of toasted pecans and large, but too smooth, like baby hands. I still liked them. I liked the thought of them, of having hands of my own, of never having to fight for control again.

The Pharaoh's former vessel made one phone call and then another. He looked at us, turning his head towards the thief. "Ryou's on his way."

The thief didn't respond. He curled into a tighter ball with his knees tucked into his chest and his head down. I don't blame him after what happened during the Tribunal. He sat on the floor, in the shadows, away from everyone else.

Yugi turned to me. He fidgeted with the phone before speaking. "Um, I'm sorry, but Marik – erm, your other Marik – he can't make it."

I note how he said "can't make it" like Marik's missing a get together. Mine and the other two's surprise birthday party – which I guess that's what this was since we were reborn – and damn if it wasn't a surprise. I wasn't surprised, however, to hear that Marik didn't want anything to do with me. Besides, fuck him – I had my own hands now.

The thief, on the other hand, raised his head from his knees. "What do you mean Marik's not coming?"

Yugi jumped at the thief's tone and turned back to look at him. "Well, I mean, he doesn't live in Japan like the rest of us. Honestly, he sounded nervous. I'm sure the thought of his other self brings back bad memories." He spun back towards me, raising his hands up as if to protect himself and using his phone as a shield. "N-no offense, it's just that—"

"I know," I said.

The thief clenched his teeth, but then spoke again. "Did you tell him I was back?"

"I told him all of you were back."

"That selfish prick." The thief bolted to his feet and marched towards Yugi.

The Pharaoh intercepted, placing his body between Yugi and the thief. "You're not going near him, Bakura."

The thief shot the Pharaoh a look that I knew well – pure hatred, pure rage. I liked my lips at the sight of it, fond memories. The thief kept his gaze targeted at the Pharaoh, but spoke to the vessel, enunciating each word with control to mask the fury. "Yugi, may I borrow your phone, please."

Yugi pushed between the two resurrected spirits. "It's okay. Here Bakura."

They still called him Bakura, even with the dark skin, short hair, and scar on this cheek. I snorted at their ignorance.

The thief hit re-dial and walked into the next room. Muffled bickering echoed to the living room. At the same moment, the thief's former vessel opened the door and stepped inside, flushed and panting as if he'd been running. "Got here – as soon as I could."

"Hi Ryou." Yugi smiled. "Uh . . the other you is on the phone . . . with Marik?" Yugi raised the pitch of his voice, turning the sentence into a question he wasn't really asking.

Ryou nodded, unsurprised. His eyes darted to the Pharaoh, still standing next to Yugi, and then his gaze landed on me. He smiled. He smiled at me like he meant it and that made me frown. People didn't smile at me, especially someone nice like Ryou Bakura. I never met him, not properly, but I saw bits of his mind when Marik used him during Battle City. His smile lit up his face, completely different from when the thief used his body. That smile transformed him from attractive to stunning and I couldn't turn away or breathe. I've only known looks of fear, helpless rage, contempt, revulsion. I couldn't understand why Ryou would smile at me, but it made me squirm against the cream colored damask upholstery of the sofa.

"So?" Ryou bit his lower lip and thought for a moment. ""Does anyone know how this happened? I mean, how you guys came back?"

I laughed and pointed at the Pharaoh. "He failed his Judgment at the Tribunal."

"I did not," the Pharaoh said, sullen.

I snorted. "Yes. You. Did. The thief's heart balanced against the feather of Ma'at. He was meant for Aaru, but then they put Pharaoh Atem's ib on the scale and it sank. He started whining that the sorrow of losing all his friends here was too much of a burden on his heart."

"That's the truth," the Pharaoh insisted. "My heart was heavy with grief, so the gods sent us back."

That made the Pharaoh's vessel smile, but the thief's former host held a straight face. "Why not just you? Why couldn't my other half move on?"

I answered before the Pharaoh could speak. "Pharaoh needs to live longer to figure out how to uphold Ma'at." I look directly at Atem. "You never could, you know. Not without him." I point to the Pharaoh's vessel, Yugi. "But Ma'at refused to send him alone, so here we are. Not that I mind. I was next in line to be judged and I was getting ready to see if I could devour Ammit before she could devour me."

Ryou laughed. "I just imagined you belly flopping on top of Ammit and biting into her."

I laughed with him. It was a ridiculous scenario, but I couldn't get it out of my head, and the more I thought of it, the funnier it was. For a moment the mysteries of the universe were a joke for us to laugh about. I'd laughed plenty of times before, but that was the first time I'd ever shared a laugh with another human being. It thrilled me. It unwound the vice of anger always clamped so tight around my chest and head and jaws, but the Pharaoh ruined it with his frown.

Ryou stopped and covered his mouth with a delicate, porcelain hand. He stared at the ground when he noticed the shocked, somewhat horrified stare on Yugi's face and the stern disappointment on the Pharaoh's expression.

Ryou apologized. "I'm sorry. I guess it's not polite to joke about the gods."

I wanted to yell at Ryou, demand he retract his apology. He didn't do anything wrong, only make a joke. It was funny. The Pharaoh just needed to pull the sarcophagus out of his ass and enjoy the life the gods forced on us.

The Pharaoh glared at me as if he could hear my thoughts. "And what are you going to do now that we're back? I won't allow you to hurt anyone."

What was I going to do? I hadn't made it that far yet. I was still enjoying the feeling of having my own body, of being able to think without another consciousness in my brain interfering. Hurt people? All I wanted to do was sit on the sofa and collect my thoughts while I stared on my new hands. At my most ambitious I'd make a crack about what spices would go well with Ammit sashimi because I bet I could get Ryou to laugh again with a comment like that, and that thought held my attention more than drawing blood.

But the old, always-there anger bubbled up from the back of my mind. The Pharaoh had no right to question me, not after his heart sank below that feather, but he still thought himself the hero and me and the thief were villains for him to vanquish. Fuck him.

"Let's be clear. You may be the reason I'm back, but you won't get any gratitude from me, nor will you command me like one of your servants. I hate you. I was created to hate you, remember? I don't know about anyone else, but as far as you're concerned, you better stay away from me if you don't want to be hurt."

The Pharaoh bristled. His idiot friends worshiped the ground he walked on and he wasn't accustomed to being told what for. He opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but Ryou interrupted.

"Look, I know there's a lot of bad blood between you two and being friends is probably impossible, but you don't have to fight anymore." He looked at me. "You get to reroll a new character, draw a new hand. You don't have to be the alter ego anymore. You can be whatever kind of person you want to be."

It was nice to hear someone say that, because I really liked the idea of figuring out what . . . perhaps who, I really was. Before, my decisions and my thoughts weren't completely my own, I was a garbage can for Marik. I don't blame him for that. Fuck, we were kids, and the shit we went through . . . It was too confusing to sort out on Yugi's couch. I needed time, but it was still nice to hear Ryou say it out loud – that I could draw a new hand with my own hands, my own cards from my own deck. No more sharing.

However, I didn't want to seem tamed in front of my enemies, so I snorted and stared at my hands instead of trying to explain the mess of thoughts in my brain. Instead I said, "yeah, because the gods, with their omniscience and their omnipotence, incarnated me with money and a passport."

"Okay, good point." Ryou walked up to me, sat on the couch next to me, and rested his hands over mine.

I held my breath. No one had ever touched me before. They touched Marik, but not me. I've felt contact, usually as people struggled to escape me, but that's not the same as someone choosing to touch you. I stared at the contrast of our hands. Mine were broad and dark; his were slender and pale. I noticed a scar on his left hand. I wanted to ask about it, but the Pharaoh stared at us so I kept a stoic face.

Ryou squeezed my hands and continued talking. "How about this? I only have a couch, but as long as you don't hurt anyone, you can crash at my place until you decide what you want to do with you life and how you can go about doing it."

I blinked at him. I didn't know how to respond. Since I met him, Ryou smiled at me, opened his home to me, and touched my hands as if I were . . .

A person.

Anything other than a monster.

Human.

"Ryou you can't!" Yugi protested. "He's dangerous. He sent you to the Shadow Realm, don't you remember?"

Ryou let go of my hand and scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin decorating his face. "Actually, he sent the Spirit to the Shadow Realm because my other half was trying to save the other Marik by challenging this Marik to a Shadow Game . . . " he glanced at me, "ever notice how confusing that all sounds when it's said out loud?"

I grinned at him.

Yugi opened his mouth to argue, but then stopped. "Wait, Bakura tried to save Marik?"

Atem crossed his arms over his chest, muttering, "he wouldn't try to save anyone – not unless there was something in it for him."

I thought about Battle City. Back then, the Pharaoh acted like he wanted to help my weaker half because Yugi wanted to help, but they still stood on opposite sides of the playing field. Only by submitting to the Pharaoh, forfeiting the game, was my other heart able to save himself. However, when I fought the thief, Marik stood beside the thief like they were equals. No submission, no conflicts of interest, it was just Marik and the thief against the fires of Ra, and not once did they flinch at those odds.

The Pharaoh snapped his fingers as he thought of something. "The prophecy on your back. I bet that's why he aided Marik. He needed my memories."

I smiled. I wanted the expression to be bitter, but it felt more rueful on my face. "That's what the thief said back then. Only he and Marik knew that if I lost, Marik's body and the prophecy carved into it, would disappear with me."

I realized that I'm calling him Marik instead of myself. I said Marik's body. Well, it was his body now. I had my own, but who was I if not Marik? I didn't know. I continued talking to avoid that question.

"True, the thief would have gotten the Rod, but by then he knew the Items were useless without the secret on our backs." I laughed. I managed to make it bitter that time. "No, great Pharaoh, the thief fought against me because my idiot other half asked for his help." I gesture the other room where the arguing filtered through the door. "And that's how Marik repays him."

"It doesn't . . . I don't understand." The Pharaoh frowned.

"I know. That's why you're here, Pharaoh. You don't know about anything that doesn't directly affect you. That's why your heart couldn't balance with an ostrich feather. You. Honestly. Don't. Understand. The. Suffering. You've. Caused. You don't. You can't. You'd have to spend five minutes thinking that perhaps you're not always right about everything."

The Pharaoh dismissed me with a gesture. "You're just trying to—"

"Speak! I'm just trying to speak!" I clench my new hands into fists. "No one will look you in the face and tell you the reality of it and I'm sick of it. Maybe you are the manifestation of Horus, everyone treats you like it, but you're still a selfish asshole. Someone needs to say it. You're an asshole."

"Scathing words from a lunatic."

I was tempted to snap his neck for the sake of seeing if the gods would send him right back to life or not, but the thief pushed the door open and stomped into the living room, growling into the phone's receiver.

"Yes of course, because you're so busy. I mean, I'm sure it's exhausting running an organized crime ring all by yourself. After all, without the Rod you have to hire a hit-man to kill your underlings when they fail instead of waving your magical wand . . . oh yes, redeemed, you mentioned. Good for you . . ." The last silence lingered as Marik spoke on the other end. The thief crushed his eyes shut; his face reddened. "Don't ask, it's not like you care." He jabbed the "end call" button on Yugi's phone and caulked his arm back as if to throw it. He grunted, thinking about his actions, and tossed the phone to Yugi instead. "Thanks kid."

Ryou looked sad, his eyes big and empathetic. He stood up. "Come on. Let's go home."

The thief snapped at Ryou. "My home burned to the ground over 3,000 years ago."

He glared at the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh glared back, oblivious as ever. Yugi blinked like a confused puppy, but I could see him trying to piece things together. The thief's outburst, his different appearance, the new knowledge that he'd helped Marik, Yugi was beginning to understand the thief wasn't as simple as he seemed. Yugi was a good successor to the Pharaoh, more balanced. I wasn't with Marik when the Pharaoh fought his Ceremonial Duel, but I can see how the kid won just by looking at the thoughtful expression on his face.

A sigh slipped unbidden from my mouth. If Ryou took the thief home, I wouldn't have anywhere to go, but of course Ryou would look after his own other half. That's how it worked – for everyone but me – Marik abandoned me. He made me, dumped every hurt and agony on me, and banished me (not that I blame him for that. I was trying to do the same to him). We hated each other . . . so why did I feel broken knowing he wasn't going to come back to Domino City?

"Let's go home." Ryou tugged at his red sleeve. "You don't want to stand here next to the Pharaoh, right?"

I jerked when Ryou touched my shoulder on his way towards the door. "You too, let's go home."

The thief sneered. "Not him. I don't want to look at any Marik right now."

Ryou shook his head. "I'm not leaving him here. You're both coming home with me."

The thief snorted, but he couldn't hold his annoyance on his face. The shell cracked and a glimpse of the pain he was hoarding showed in his gray eyes. "Sure. Whatever. Just . . . get me out of here, Ryou. I want to be anywhere else."

"Ryou," Yugi protested.

Ryou smiled. "Don't worry. Now I have enough people to start a gaming campaign. You relax and enjoy your reunion with your own other half."

"We can't let them go with you. It's too dangerous," the Pharaoh said.

The thief set his jaw at the statement, and I feel just as pissed. Even dogs knew better than to shit where they lie. The thief wasn't a spirit in a Ring anymore. I wasn't an alter ego anymore. The taint of the Items wasn't filling our heads with black rage anymore. Why couldn't he see that? Fucking asshole.

Ryou simply smiled. "Danger? I don't think I've ever been safer walking down the streets of Domino than with these two beside me. It's like I have body guards."

"That's not what I meant."

"Sorry Atem, it's been nice to see you again, but it's my only day off and I'd really like to go home now. Bye, Yugi. I'll call you on my lunch break tomorrow, okay?"

Yugi nodded, resigned. "Please text me before then so I know you're okay."

"No problem. Oh, and if Marik happens to call back, please let him know they're both with me and give him my number."

"Sure."

"That pig-headed bastard isn't going to call." The thief frowned, but before his expression grew too thoughtful he smirked at Ryou as we walked out the door. "Hurry up. I need to find a knife so I can stab you once or twice for old time's sake."

Ryou laughed and turned back to Yugi and the Pharaoh. "He's joking."

"No I'm not," the thief insisted, louder than need be for everyone to hear him.

Ryou shut the door and laughed a little louder. "Oh shut-up with the stabbing jokes, I just calmed them down. You're lucky they didn't try to stop me again."

The thief tched as we walked down the hall. "What were they going to do? Keep me there?"

"Huh, maybe Yugi will baby sit you for me when I'm gone."

"Ha, ha." The thief dropped his head and slowed his walk. "Thanks . . . for getting me out of there. I was about to strangle the Pharaoh just to see if the gods would bring him back right away or wait awhile."

I laughed at that. "Same here, only I was going to snap his neck."