This Chapter Contains . . .
Violence: Violence
Language: None
Drugs: None
Nudity: None
Sexual Content: None
Edit Update: 10/11/2015
Re-uploaded.
Yugi's grandfather closed up the game shop for the night, worry in his tired old eyes. He had hoped that this day would never come, but there was no denying it now. He thoughtfully placed his hands behind his back and wondered if his grandson was safe. As he did, he remembered what had happened just a few nights ago.
He had been sleeping soundly in his bed, dreaming about days gone by and old friends that had come and gone throughout his past, when he was woken up by the sound of a door closing, followed by footsteps. Mr. Mutou, assuming that it was a burglar, opened the drawer in his nightstand and picked up the flashlight before jumping out of bed. The old man's slippers muted his footsteps as he walked across his bedroom. When he reached the door, he flung it open with great vigor and let out a surprised shout when he saw that someone was standing right outside. A teenage boy with dark skin and light blond hair blinked and stepped back when the bright light hit him.
"You had better get out while you still can, young man!" Yugi's grandfather told the intruder. "I may be up in my years but I can still-" He stopped when he saw what the boy was carrying on his back. It was Yugi, who looked like he was sleeping, and his clothes and face were covered with what looked like red and green paint. "What are you doing with my grandson?" His purple eyes widened when he noticed the deep gash in the stranger's shoulder. "Wait right there and I'll call a doctor."
Mr. Mutou ran back into his room and grabbed the phone before turning around to ask the intruder what his name was, only to find that he had already left, leaving Yugi in the hallway. After putting the phone back down, Yugi's grandfather picked up his grandson, almost breaking his back in the process, and carried him into the boy's room where he placed him on the bed before going back to sleep. Or at least, he had tried to until he finally got back up and made his way downstairs, where he stood in front of the bookshelf and stared at the golden box that rested there.
Mr. Mutou continued to worry about Yugi; but knowing that the stranger was probably protecting him and the fact that the Millennium Puzzle was supposed to help made him feel better, though not by much. If the stories were true, and he now knew that they were, Yugi would become a target by those were craved the Pharaoh's dark powers. When his grandson arrives home, he had decided, the two of them would leave the shop and go into hiding. While it did sadden him to leave this place, his grandson was much more important than an old building. He grabbed a washcloth and began cleaning the counter, knowing that this would be the last time he could, and looked at all of the various games he had collected over the years while he waited anxiously for his grandson to come home. As he worked, there was a knock at the door.
"Grandpa?" Yugi called as he knocked again. He had left the key, which was in his schoolbag, at Burger World in their rush to escape. "Grandpa, it's me. Can you please open the door?" The door creaked open, and on the other side was Marik, which made Yugi look at where he had been standing next to him just moments ago before looking back at Marik again. "How did you-?"
"I climbed in through the window." He explained.
Sure enough, one of the windows was now open. Yugi decided to put Marik's strange behavior aside and walked into the game shop. The lights were on, telling him that his grandfather must be home.
Yugi looked inside the living room. "Grandpa?"
Panic began to take over as Yugi ran through the house, frantically looking for his grandfather.
As Marik watched Yugi continue his search, he felt his lips pull into a smile. Yugi was suffering, and he loved it. He wanted the boy's heart to shatter; for him to feel true pain. To fall into utter and complete darkness. A part of him hoped that Mr. Mutou was dead and that they would find his body, laying broken and bleeding in some dark alley where rats were feasting on his rotting corpse. The thought of Yugi crying over his dead grandfather made him want to laugh, like it was the funniest joke in the world. But that wasn't enough. Yugi should watch his whole life crumble underneath his feet, tumbling down into an endless abyss of misery and despair. He wanted the boy to feel pain. The same pain that Marik had to endure. Marik's smile grew as he continued to imagine Yugi suffering from a fate worse than death. His limbs being torn off of his body, leaving a bloody trail and exposing flesh and bone. Driving a knife into his eyes and cutting them out, leaving empty sockets and red tears would run down his cheeks. Cutting his chest open and pulling out his heart before crushing it in his bare hands. Marik's tongue slipped out of his mouth and he licked his top lip, feeling the pleasure of his twisted fantasies.
"Marik?"
The tanned boy snapped back to reality, and upon seeing Yugi's shocked face, shook his head. What had happened just now? He had never felt like that before. Whatever that feeling was, he loved it. But he was also terrified of it. It was like a mix of euphoria and ecstasy. It felt like an out-of-body experience; like he was losing control of himself. But it felt so good. So right. And he wanted to feel it again. No, he wanted more. He didn't want to only see Yugi suffer in his mind. He wanted to make it happen. And he wanted to make it happen now.
The sound of gunfire rang out as bullets shattered the windows. The two teenage boys fell to the ground to avoid getting hit, but they couldn't stay down here forever. Marik began crawling towards the stairs and Yugi followed before they ran up to the second floor, unknowing that there was a letter from Pegasus on the counter.
When they made it to the top of the steps, Yugi and Marik rushed into Mr. Mutou's room, where the Egyptian opened the window and climbed out, landing with a cat-like grace onto the ground below. Yugi stared down and felt his head spin and his legs weaken underneath him. There was no way he could make that jump. Marik obviously had some form of gymnastics training, while Yugi could barely keep up in P.E. at school.
Marik waited for Yugi, a part of him hoping he would hit the hard pavement, where he would land on his head and either break his neck or crack open his skull. Or both. But when Yugi jumped down, he managed to land unharmed, much to Marik's disappointment.
The two men leaned out the window Yugi had just jumped out of, getting their guns ready to fire, and the two boys wasted no time in running in the opposite direction of the armed men, not sure where they were going or what they would do when they got there.
They were long gone when Yugi's friends saw the bullet riddled building the next morning. Anzu covered her mouth as they stepped on the broken glass, making their way into the abandoned game shop. The light bulb on the ceiling flickered on and off, making their shadows appear and disappear as they tried to make sense out of the wreckage.
Jonouchi cupped his hands around his mouth. "Yugi! Grandpa! Are ya guys in here?! Answer me!"
"Yugi." Anzu wrapped her arms around herself. "What could have happened to him?"
"I don't know." Honda answered honestly, inspecting the floor for clues. "But we should probably search the place."
"I'll start at the top." Jonouchi said before running up the steps.
Honda looked at Anzu, seeing how upset she was. "Why don't you stay here for a while? We'll let you know if we find anything."
Anzu wanted to look for her friend, but right now she could barely walk, let alone search a building. "Alright."
She watched Honda go into the living room before she managed to make her way to the counter to lean against it. Right before reaching it, her blue eyes caught sight of the simple white envelope that rested on top of it. She raced over to it and picked it up, examining it as her mind began racing. Written on the back was a name.
"Pegasus J. Crawford." She read out loud. "Where have I heard that name before?" She ripped the letter open and pulled out two pieces of paper. One contained a map, while the other . . . "Guys! I know where Yugi's grandpa is!"
Both Jonouchi and Honda hurried into the room and ran over to Anzu, who was attentively studying the map.
"What did ya find?" Jonouchi asked.
She handed him the note without looking away from the map. "Read this."
As he admired the fact that she went from shell-shocked to female Shinichi Kudo in such a short amount of time, he grabbed the piece of paper and read it out loud. "If you're wonderin' where your grandfather is, know that he is safe and sound. But I can't guarantee that he'll stay that way. Please follow the map that will lead ya ta my humble home so that we can discuss terms. Sincerely, Pegasus J. Crawford."
"Pegasus J. Crawford?" Honda asked. "Isn't he that eccentric billionaire?"
"That's where I've heard the name before!" Anzu exclaimed. "I remember reading about him. After his wife died, he locked himself in his mansion and he hasn't left since."
"So he's a kidnapper and a shut-in." Jonouchi said while flipping the page over to see if there was anything written there. There wasn't. "Do ya think Yugi left ta find his grandpa?"
"But this hadn't been opened yet." Anzu pointed out.
"Even so," Honda grabbed the map from Anzu, "this is our only lead. I say we follow it."
"Yeah!" Jonouchi said eagerly. "Let's go and kick that Pegasus' butt!"
"I think you should rephrase that." Honda said as he imagined Jonouchi kicking a flying house.
"But what about Yugi?" Anzu said worriedly. "He might still be here."
"We'll search the area for him today. If we don't find him by tomorrow, we'll try to find this Crawford guy. Maybe he followed them when they abducted his grandpa, which would explain why the note hadn't been touched."
"Okay." Anzu straightened up. "Let's go and look for him!"
"Is this the place?" Rishid asked as they approached the game shop as the sun began to set in the distance.
"Yes, I am sure of it." Ishizu answered, glass crunching under her sandals. "I saw it in one of my visions once before. Marik was here with the Pharaoh and they escaped."
"Do you know where they are now?"
Ishizu shook her head. "The vision stopped after that." She pointed towards the back of the building. "But I do know that they went in that direction." Her blue eyes half closed. "I just hope that we can find them before . . ."
Rishid knew what she was talking about. Many years ago, when Marik was only a child, she had run into Rishid's room with tears in her eyes. It took a while for her to calm down enough to explain. When she had gone into Marik's room to check on him, she had seen a horrifying vision. Her little brother, who was sleeping soundly, would someday be consumed by his Past Life. She had watched images of Marik holding up his Millennium Rod, which was covered with blood.
"Hold it right there!" Three of the commandoes who had tried to capture Yugi earlier held up their guns, ready to fire if needed, as one of them said, "We would like to ask you some questions."
Before they could even blink, Rishid grabbed three knives from his belt and threw them expertly, all of them hitting their mark. The commando officers fell to the ground, two of them grabbing at their shoulders while the last one held his hand. They all shouted curse words at the blades lodged into their bodies, sheer pain preventing their minds from telling them to pull the knives out.
"We should go." Rishid told his sister.
She nodded and the two of them ran in the direction she had seen her brother heading in her old vision. She wished more than ever that her Millennium Tauk would work as she thought about the last image it had shown her. The vision had been clouded, making it hard to make out what exactly was going on, but she did see Marik's face, and he had been smiling. Not the same maniacal one from the other vision that made her quiver with fear. This one was calm and gentle. It should have brought her piece of mind, but there was also pain in his eyes, and the image had faded as they had closed, as if for the last time.
'Please, Marik.' She said in her mind, somehow hoping he would hear her thoughts. 'Please be all right.'
Yugi sat on the floor as a rat scampered past a few feet away, dodging into a hole in the wall of the abandoned building he and Marik were now hiding in. Plaster and dust covered the floor, the old wallpaper was faded and peeling off, and a broken chair lay on its side across from him. He looked up at his protector, who was sitting across from him. His eyes were closed and Yugi almost wondered if he had fallen asleep. The silence was unbearable, but the last thing he wanted to do was talk to him. That look on Marik's face earlier, his eyes rolled upward and his tongue sliding out. He had never seen anything like it, and it made Yugi terrified of him. Marik seemed unpredictable and, quite frankly, insane. So instead, he lost himself in his thoughts, and they all came around to his grandfather. Where was he? Was he all right? All he could do was pray that he was.
"Stay here." Marik said suddenly as he made his way out.
"Where are you going?" Yugi asked.
Marik didn't answer and exited the room. A part of Yugi was grateful for it. Now he felt like he could relax.
As he sat there, Yugi tried to figure out what could have happened to his grandfather and what he could do to find him. The problem was that he didn't even know where to start looking. Maybe if he went back to the gam shop, he could find a clue that he might of missed. It was worth a shot. And then after that . . .
"Yugi."
He looked up, but no one was there. And why did the voice sound like it was coming from inside of him? "Who's there?"
A body began to materialize in front of him, making Yugi gasp. There, standing in front of him, was himself. And yet it wasn't himself. He had the same multicolored hair and was wearing his uniform, but he looked older and carried himself with confidence. The complete opposite of Yugi. Who was he? A ghost? He was in an abandoned building, after all. Or did some of Marik's previous insanity rub off on him, making him hallucinate? His other self smiled at him and walked towards him, stopping only a few inches away.
Yugi watched as his grin turned menacing. "Let's play a game."
Marik was glad to be out of there. The desire to torture Yugi was gone now, leaving him with his old feelings of hatred for the boy; the uncontrollable urge to either get as far away from him as he could or to end his miserable little life. All-in-all, he was glad that he was in control of his emotions again, but he found himself thinking about how it had felt. Now the memory seemed distant, as if it had never happened. As if it were someone else who had experienced it and he had merely watched. Marik shook his head. He needed to forget about it. But he didn't want to. It was wrong to think such things. But it had felt so right. He needed to find a way to quickly dispose of the Pharaoh without his sister knowing that he was responsible. But he wanted to torture and maim him, not caring whether she saw it or not.
He felt it returning but pushed it away. Marik couldn't afford to let his guard down. Not now. But it persisted, with greater force. His head began to pound, and he felt as if something were trying to take over his mind. Instead of fighting it, he allowed himself to slip into the state of mind from before. Whatever had been trying to force itself to surface subsided, as if it were satisfied. The logical part of his brain tried to figure out what was going on, but it was muffled by the longing of slowly carving off Yugi's skin, exposing the flesh underneath. Of breaking and crushing his bones. Of cutting out his tongue and making him choke on his own blood. Marik felt himself slipping away, finding it harder and harder to control his thoughts and actions, and his legs grew weak as his heart pounded in his chest. His tongue slid out, wanting to see more. No, experience it. He suddenly found himself heading back to the old building, the Millennium Item clutched tightly in his shaking hands. It wasn't until he reached the doorway that he caught himself. It was that same feeling as before, like someone was forcing their way into his mind and manipulating his movements and thoughts.
Once again he fought it off. He couldn't keep doing this. He needed to stay in control.
The headache returned, more painful now. Marik placed one hand against the wall for support and pressed the other against his screaming temple.
"You can't fight me." A voice inside of his mind told him. "It's only a matter of time before I take control of your mind."
Now he knew. His Past Life was trying to take over. And the Millennium Rod, which had protected him all these years, was now powerless against it. He couldn't let it win. Not before he killed the Pharaoh. If he lost himself before that, Rishid would fulfill Marik's request. Rishid would kill him.
Before Marik could decide what he should do, he felt something cold and sharp press against his throat.
"Sorry to interrupt." Bakura said from behind him. "But I'm afraid that I'm going to have to cut your life short."
