So, this chapter got stuck in my head while at work the other day (it was super slow and my mind wandered off). Came home and decided to just jot down enough to get my brain to shut up before bed...and then it was 1AM. Whoops! Thankfully I didn't have to work early the next day. Especially since at 5AM the next morning I woke up realizing I forgot to include a very important plot point (gotta love when brain goes "Pssst! You up? You forgot something! Oh good, you're up now!"). Thankfully it was easily corrected with 2 sentences. Also promising no new chapter until Saturday gave me time to go back and fix a few minor things.
No new reviews :( But I did see lots of new numbers on my views chart! :D Super exciting to see numbers from all over the globe! To those of you that are still hanging in and reading my crazy, THANK YOU! :D
Except for my son's friend that he sent my fanfic link to. The Evil Knievel jump you made with that completely non-existent ship while singing "My Heart Will Go On" is making the rest of the mental patients wonder how you got out of your straight jacket...and now my brain is stuck trying to figure out how to make that work. Thanks a lot.
The wind playfully teased his pale, blonde hair as the purr of the engine grew louder. The midday sun lit up the long stretch of road before him, the distance beckoning him to twist the throttle back to it's limit. As much as he longed to do so, he wanted to enjoy every precious moment in the light. He dreaded the end of his journey, fearful of being forced back into the darkness.
Something jetted across the path ahead. He released the throttle, slowing to a stop. Lavender eyes scanned the surrounding area, but only saw the surrounding sea of sand and dunes. Perhaps it had been a mirage, one of Ra's tricks for those worn out from his intense gaze.
He prepared to pull back on the throttle and kick off when he heard a melodic 'mau'. Gazing down, he noticed a sleek black feline by his boot. 'Mau' it called again, turning it's sapphire gaze towards him. He switched off the ignition and dismounted his bike, then knelt down to inspect the cat at his feet.
"What are you doing out here in the middle of the desert?" Marik questioned aloud.
The cat responded with yet another 'mau'. Golden hoops dangled from each of it's ears, a stark contrast to it's jet black fur. There was more gold wrapped around it's neck as a collar shaped like a winged sun (exactly like the one carved between Marik's own shoulders), an ankh pendant with what appeared to be a ruby hanging below.
"You're no ordinary cat are you?"
Marik knew cat's were sacred creatures, but the most sacred were those with black fur. This particular cat was highly decorated as if it had come from a temple.
His attention was so focused on the feline before him, he didn't see the sun and surrounding landscape vanish. Even his motorcycle was now gone. He didn't notice until the shadows came crashing down upon him.
"No! NO! Get me out of here!" he shouted frantically.
He saw a light in the distance and began to run towards it. As he got closer, he noticed the shadows change into a familiar black corridor. He slowed down when he reached a round room with a dark imposing door on one side. Beside it was the sconce lever, only this time it was lit.
Marik looked around in panic. Had Bakura summoned him here somehow? He didn't want to stick around to find out. There had to be a way to leave.
"Ahhh!" he shouted, jumping back. He had felt something brush against his pant leg, but to his relief it was only the black feline from before. It walked up to Bakura's soul room door, sat before it, turned it's head back towards Marik, then made another melodic 'mau'.
"You want me to go in there? No offense kitty, but that is the last place I want to go."
The cat just stared at him, repeating it's cry.
"How about I just open the door for you? You can deal with Bakura yourself."
The feline purred in agreement.
Marik stepped forward and carefully pulled on the sconce, taking care to not burn himself. He was surprised to find the heat of the flame tolerable, considering it's close proximity to his hand.
Once the door was open, the feline jetted forward into it's dark abyss. Marik took a few steps back. He didn't want to be close enough for the Spirit to be able to reach out and drag him in.
Several minutes had passed when the cat called out again.
"No way! You can't make me follow you in there! I don't care if you're Bast herself! There's nothing you can do that will convince me to enter that place again!" he shouted into the darkness before him.
Marik began to look around again for some sort of way out. The corridor was now gone. He now stood in the center of a perfectly circular black room, with Bakura's door being the only apparent alternative.
"Oh come on! That's not fair!" he pouted.
He took a deep breath, then stepped forward into the darkness that was Bakura's soul room.
It looked similar to how it had before. There were a few noticeable differences though. The broken glass and clay jugs were absent. The corner where they were piled now consisted of a velvet sitting cushion with a pile of leather bound books beside it. On the table beside Bakura's bed the framed photo was no longer laying down, nor was the glass broken. Beside the photo was the small figure of Ma'at, as was before, but this time something was floating just above her hands. It was some sort of blue ethereal object that pulsed.
Marik stepped closer, his senses on high alert. He wasn't going to let the Spirit sneak up on him again. As he approached the pulsating object, he could see it resembled a physical human heart. Or at least half of one. He could hear the slow rhythm of it going 'thump-thump, thump-thump'.
"Okay, just when I think this place can't get any weirder." he said, shaking his head.
A shadow moved beside him, causing him to jump into a defensive stance. He looked around nervously, searching for a head of white hair, or the shine of metal brandished by a ghostly pale hand. Instead he was met by a pair of sapphires gazing at him from a short distance away, accompanied by a now familiar 'mau'.
"You have to stop doing that to me!" Marik chastised.
The cat was sitting in front of the door that was sealed by some sort of spell. It sat as it had when it begged for Marik to let it into Bakura's soul room.
"Good luck getting through that door." Marik warned.
The feline stood up, then proceeded through the door. It was as if the door didn't exist at all.
Marik facepalmed "Of course. And I'm supposed to follow, right?"
He was answered by a 'mau' beyond the door, though it sounded far away.
Marik hung his shoulders in defeat, muttered a curse in Arabic, then stepped forward through the door.
He wasn't greeted by the burst of wind this time. Instead he found himself in a room with rows and rows of books and scrolls. A library?
Not far away Marik could hear shouting. It sounded like a man and a woman, but they weren't speaking in any language he knew.
"Kitty, where have you taken me?!" he said in an irritated whisper.
He looked around for the cat, but it was nowhere to be seen. The voices grew closer, causing him to hide behind a nearby shelf.
Searching frantically for some sort of way out, he was relieved to see an open patio on the far side of the room. He crept low, moving quickly between the shelves. Another row and he would be free!
Marik stopped as he saw the source of the shouting come into the room. The first voice was the woman. She was short, like Yugi, with golden-bronze skin. The waves of her jet black hair cascaded down to just past the small of her back. She turned her deep blue gaze towards the source of the other voice, shouting angrily in her foreign tongue.
The other voice was a man, one Marik recognized instantly. It was the same man that was in the photo in Bakura's soul room. The one with the Millennium Ring around his neck that was not Ryou's father. And it was still around his neck. Which meant that this was most likely a vision of the past.
Marik decided to test out this theory and stood up, and approached the arguing couple. Not only did they not see him, they walked right through him.
"Ugh! Stupid cat! I want out of here! I'm done with your games!" he shouted, while searching around again for the black feline.
He walked out onto the open patio, hoping maybe the cat was lingering just outside. He didn't jump this time when he saw movement off to the side of him, that is until he saw it's source.
Marik felt all the blood pool from his face as he stumbled backwards, falling over a foot stool. Crouched around the outside corner of the patio's entrance was the face of his greatest fear, and it wasn't Bakura. It was the face of his darker self.
"NO! YOU WERE BANISHED! HOW DID YOU END UP HERE?!" Marik screamed in fear.
His darker self didn't even glance in his direction. Instead he appeared to be chanting something in the same strange language as the couple inside.
There was a small glint of something gold in the dark doppelgangers hand.
"The Millennium Rod?! But how?!"
Nothing made sense. His dark self hadn't taken control until Battle City, and by that time Ryou had been in possession of the Millennium Ring for several years. If this was truly a vision of the past, there was no way both the man inside and his dark self could exist at the same time.
Marik finally composed himself enough to return to his feet. He needed to take a closer look. Perhaps this wasn't his dark self, maybe it was someone that just coincidentally looked a lot like him.
He ran a mental checklist of the doppelganger's features.
Same pale, blonde hair: Yes.
Same hairstyle: Same feathered bangs, rest spiked in all directions resembling a lions mane.
Same bronzed skin tone: Yes.
Same lavender eyes: Yes.
Same facial features: Yes (no popped veins like his dark self).
Same height: Taller by nearly a head.
Same physical build: More muscle.
Same voice: Deeper and cracked (similar to his dark self).
"You're not him. Thank the gods." he sighed.
Something else caught Marik's eye. Around the base of the rod was what appeared to be two stone rings. One made of Tiger's Eye and the other made of Amethyst.
The shouting from inside had increased in volume again, not far from the patio opening. The doppelganger pressed himself tightly against the wall, trying not to be seen. Marik's eyes grew wide as he realized the man wasn't reciting a chant. His words were the exact same as the woman's. He was controlling her, the same way Marik had controlled his Rare Hunters.
Marik ran inside to see the look of frustration on the woman's face and the tears forming in her eyes, even though her words sounded like ones of anger and hatred. He knew she was aware of everything that was happening, and was trying hard to fight the mental control of the man outside.
He watched as the woman raised her hand and began weaving it in a strange gesture. A spell? Did she know magic?
Marik ran back towards the patio to find out if the spell she weaved was her own as an attempt to fight the mind control, or if it belonged to the controller outside.
He had barely crossed the threshold when he heard both the woman and the doppelganger shout in unison.
"Nihilu en Tot!"
There was a bright flash of light as the words echoed from all around.
Marik had been caught off guard and was completely blinded. He stood for several minutes rubbing his eyes, waiting for the effects of the bright flash to wear off. Once his sight returned, he noticed that the man outside had vanished. In his place was the Millennium Rod atop a pile of sand. The two stone rings lay shattered in several pieces not far from it's base.
He turned to see the woman kneeling hunched over on the floor over by where the man from the photo had been. Her body began to shake uncontrollably. She spoke quietly, but this time in a language Marik could understand. He could hear the pain and sadness in her voice as she spoke in the old Kemetic tongue.
"(Please...please come back! It wasn't me! I swear it wasn't me! Please don't leave me! I can't make you the same promise I made him! Please! PLEASE!)"
Marik didn't need to see her face to know tears flowed freely from her eyes.
She sat upright, clutching the Millennium Ring tightly to her chest.
"(NO...NOT AGAIN!)" she cried out.
A melodic 'mau' rang through the air. Marik had forgotten about the cat. He looked up and saw darkness begin to swallow up the memory. Looking back he saw the woman take a lung full of air, and the last thing he heard before the darkness took him was her heart wrenching scream.
BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT!
The sound of Yugi's alarm brought Marik out of his dream (or was it a nightmare?). He rolled over, pulling the blankets up over his head.
Yugi sat up and stretched, then looked sleepily over at his roommate.
"C'mon, time to get up. We don't want to be late for school." he said tiredly.
"Nnnngh…"
Yugi padded over to Marik, poking him to get up.
"Ugh….I'm getting up, I'm getting up! You can stop poking me." Marik grumpily replied as he pulled the blankets from his face.
The two got ready for school, though Marik took twice as long as Yugi at everything, before meeting down at the breakfast table.
"Trouble sleeping after last night?" Yugi asked as Marik dropped his head face first onto the table.
"Ugh...sure. Something like that."
"Grandpa didn't leave any coffee, but I can make some real quick if you want?"
"Unless it can wake the dead, no thanks." Marik said sarcastically.
"That bad huh?"
"You have no idea."
"Maybe the fresh air on the walk to school will help."
"Gods I hope so. Otherwise today is gonna be an even longer day than yesterday." Marik said in exasperation.
Thanks for sticking around for another chapter! Next one is already in the works. It will contain another 'Dream Sequence'...and finally some extended POV from someone that isn't my favorite Tomb Keeper!