Yami ran out of the room with a frightening speed, slamming the door behind him. He didn't stop until he reached the angry sea.

As the mixed emotions caused his heart to falter, the crashing waves seemed to accompany his emotional hell.
Cruelly whipping his psyche into a slavering frenzy of self-loathing, hate, sorrow, bitterness and brutal anger, the water threw itself into the cliffside with all the fury of Poseidon's rage. Yami stood, braced against the buffeting wind, to watch the seething, liquid tempest below, and join the anguished wail of the ocean squall coming into port.
His heart was livid, his mind was biting, and he had never felt more lost in his life.

Things were different now.

His counterpart, the only one who understood, told him so.
He was different...Better...he was moving on...
He cringed inwardly, as he remembered the pain in Malik's violet eyes.
Yes, Malik would forgive him...but would he forget him?
Yami was terrified by the thought, although he was empowered by it.
By forgetting his Hikari, maybe Yami could let him go....
Maybe he could let go of the burning memories...
Of the battles won and the victories lost.
Maybe he could release the pent up frustrations and the relentless barrages of pain. Malik was bewitching like that. He was imbued with the sheer vibrancy of life. He reverberated with it, it flowed within him like wind. It shone in his eyes like sunshine.

And it haunted Yami no Malik.



"Don't let me go!"
Those were the words Malik had cried, on a dark, stormy night, when they lay tangled in the warm darkness. Desperation clung to Malik's every word.



"Do you always have to kiss me like that?" Malik had smiled, while burying his face in his Yami's shoulder.
"Like what?"
"Like I'm going to disappear..."
Yami held Malik just to make sure he didn't.



"Malik…have you always been that angry?"
"Did I hurt you?
"No, of course not...but you were crying, and you were so intense..."
"I'm sorry, Yami."
"No, don't be sorry..."


"Why are you pushing me away?"
"Malik, you deserve something more than I can give!"
"Don't you see? All that you can give...That's all I want!"


The memories were bittersweet, and tore at his heart.
He had sentenced his Hikari to his own judgment. He had sacrificed Malik's feelings for his own pride.

Redemption was out of his grasp forever, for he had passed judgment on himself as well.

All things end.
Malik was gone, because he had let him disappear. Back to Earth, away from his love.

The love of a Yami was nothing Malik should have to face.
The betrayal of a Yami, something he must.

But...like jewels...the tears that had fled down Malik's face, the night Yami had let him go, were now the rings that held his heart captive.
He was destroying him by forgetting him, by ignoring him...but Yami welcomed his own destruction. He needed it.
He willed it to come into being like some form of the Grim Reaper.

"Forget me...Forgive me...Forget me...Forgive me..."

The mantra was lost in the air, but he continued to breathe it.

It had been what, a week? A month? A year?
He had lost track of time without Malik, he had lost track of the daylight without him...

He studied the foaming sea, as it continued to hurl itself against the rocks.
How easy it would be...To slip under the freezing surface, to fill his lungs with liquid death, and join the void of blackness like the hundreds he had sent to the Shadow Realm...
But all was not done yet. He had to watch over Malik. Become his silent protector.

Malik had to forget how his Yami had once held him in his arms, calming the violent sobs wracking his body as he tried to forget a scarred and bloody past.


Yami's love would go unpunished, but the sins of his soul would not.

He was guilty of shattering Malik's heart into a thousand pieces. In truth, he loved nothing but Malik, for the bond between them was not easily destroyed. Yami's Hikari was his missing half, the only light, joy, and laughter he would ever experience.
But he was also Malik's enemy. The opposing source and the villain. He was not allowed to love his Hikari.

Yami's heart did not agree, and broke the rules. His soul did not agree, and made him suffer. His mind did not agree, and made him remember.

Maybe Malik would regain his strength and destroy the Millennium Rod. Yami could only contain Malik in his soul chamber for so long.
He could not win, but he could not accept defeat. Not yet.

He had never felt lonelier in his life, his mind was biting, his heart was broken.
He stood, braced against the buffeting wind, to watch the seething, liquid tempest below, and join the anguished wail of the ocean squall coming into port.
Cruelly whipping his psyche into a slavering frenzy of self-loathing, hate, sorrow, bitterness and brutal anger, the water threw itself into the cliffside with all the fury of Poseidon's rage. The crashing waves seemed to accompany his own emotional hell, the mix of emotions caused his heart to falter.

And through it all, Yami no Malik watched the sea.