It seems as though I'm falling forever. The darkness wraps around me, laughing at me, digging into me, trying to pull me away from Rishid. He refuses to let me go, no matter how dire our predicament is. It would be easier for him to protect himself if he let go, but he isn't going to.
Suddenly we land, crashing onto the floor with a dull thud. Rishid's grip on me relaxes and I grow worried. He wouldn't have willingly loosened his grip. . . .
"Rishid!!! Speak to me!!! Please!! . . ." I cry, begging for a response. I do not realize how badly I myself have been affected by the force of the grenade and the crash. Not until I find my vision swimming.
"Your brother will live," I hear a voice cackle in my ear before I black out. "But you may not!"
I do not even have time to process the statement correctly. My eyes insist on closing and I feel my body going limp as it greets oblivion.
****
I open my eyes again, slowly, but something doesn't seem right. It feels as though I'm laying in very cramped quarters. When I breathe, I can feel it coming right back at me. And I can't see a thing.
Panic starts to rise within me. Where am I??! And where is Rishid?!? And Kaiba?! Somehow I know I am alone in my prison.
"LET ME OUT!!" I yell, frantically banging on the walls as I find them. The ceiling is right here above my head and there's not even enough room for me to sit up.
A laugh, belonging to the same voice I'd heard before blacking out, echoes outside wherever I am. "Awake, are you, Marik Ishtar?"
Now I can process the voice better. It's Rishid's birth father!!
"What have you done with me?!" I scream, continuing to shove against the walls and ceiling. "Where am I??!"
I hear a tinny thump as he hits the ceiling. "Dark in there, isn't it?" he cackles. "Well, get used to it. You'll most likely be there for the rest of your life, which, admittedly, won't be very long! There's only enough air for twenty minutes!"
"What do you mean?!" A cold chill comes over me now. Somehow, I think I know where I am.
"You're in a dreaded sarcophagus, my friend!" The wicked man kicks at it now, and I feel it very acutely. "That's right. I've locked you someplace where your nightmares will continue to torment you! And there's no escape! Your prison will very shortly become your coffin as well!"
The panic seizes me. A sarcophagus. . . . What if it's the same one that . . . that zombie dwelled in?! What if it comes back?! I could never fight it off!!! There's no room! No room at all!!
"WHERE IS RISHID??!" I have to concentrate on something else, and the whereabouts of my precious brother is most important.
"Oh, he's being taken care of. I can't very well kill him, now, can I? Maybe if he does what I want in time, you and your sister can be freed! But don't count on it. He's being very stubborn. Maybe he just doesn't realize how much power I wield! I could kill both you and Ishizu, and believe me, it will happen."
"NO!! DO WHATEVER YOU WISH TO ME, BUT LET ISHIZU GO FREE!!" I struggle against my prison frantically.
"That's just the attitude I expected from you, Marik. So noble. But you can expect to join Ishizu in the afterlife if Rishid doesn't hurry. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have much to attend to!" I hear him walking away.
"COME BACK!!" I scream. "WHERE ARE THE KAIBA BROTHERS??!"
He doesn't answer. Now I hear a door slam somewhere nearby.
It sounds as if the gates of death have been slammed on all our fates.
~Rishid~
When I regain my senses, I am all alone in what seems to be a large hall.
A very familiar hall.
Slowly I stand, staring at what I know was once part of our old abode here in Egypt. The one place none of us ever wanted to see again. How am I here?! And are the others here as well? Where is Marik?! I remember holding him as we fell. . . .
"Rishid!!"
My birth father's voice seems to come from all around me and I soon realize that he has installed a loudspeaker system.
"So good of you to join us, Rishid!" he continues. "I trust you'll recognize the surroundings. I used the Millennium Tauk to see some of the things you've experienced in these very halls! Breath-taking, isn't it, to be back in the place that caused you so very much pain and agony! And both of your siblings are here as well, though they don't realize it! I've remodeled so much!"
"WHERE ARE THEY??!!" I clench my fists, ignoring the ghosts of the past as they try to creep into my mind. "AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE KAIBAS??!"
"All in good time, Rishid. Do something for me and I'll do something for you."
"I will not help you with your greed!!!"
"I knew you'd say that. Somehow, I just knew. But what about Ishizu and Marik, Rishid? Ishizu is dying in my associate's laboratory! She will be no longer here if the antidote isn't administered within fifteen minutes!"
It is too horrible to think about. I knew he would be treating them cruelly, but now I am faced with this abomination. This impossible decision.
"And Marik! Do you want to know where Marik is, Rishid? He's been locked in a sarcophagus, quickly being deprived of his breath and his sanity!"
I know the color is draining from my face. Marik will not survive in a sarcophagus, not in his condition! This . . . this creature knew it would be the very worst thing to do to him!!
"NO!!!!!! RELEASE THEM, YOU MONSTER!!!!" For one brief moment, the voice changes to my ears and it becomes Marik's father's. The two most treacherous people I have ever encountered!! They are both haunting me, taunting me to do something to save my loved ones!
"Only if you help me, Rishid!!" Suddenly a monitor that I hadn't noticed before now blinks to life, showing me an image of Ishizu laying on Dr. Portman's slab. Her poor body barely moves or ripples with breath at all. Her flesh is so pale . . . so deathlike. . . . I know that he speaks the truth of her condition. And I cannot bear it!!
Young Mokuba makes his way onto the screen, tears streaming down his face. He shakes Ishizu, pleading for her to get up, but she does nothing.
"ISHIZU!! Come on, please!!!" the child wails. "I don't want to be alone. . . . I probably deserve it, but . . . I don't wanna be alone!!!"
"Had enough yet?" my birth father's voice says smoothly. "Or would you also like to hear your brother's pitiful screams?"
"BE SILENT!!!!" I step closer to the monitor, reaching out to touch the image of Ishizu's body. I can't let her suffer more!! And Marik . . . oh my poor, atrociously mistreated brother! . . . He has been through so much!!! How will he survive more?! He has already had two extreme emotional breakdowns today. I fear that this one will be the final straw. There is only so much that anyone can take!
"Oh, there *is* one other thing you could do. You could wander around and try to find where I have placed your siblings. But will you make it in time? You would really need a guide." I hear a button being pressed and suddenly the most anguished screams I have ever heard echo around me.
"RISHID!!!!!!!!!!! LET ME OUT!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T STAND IT, RISHID!!!!" I hear a pounding sound and I know that Marik is trying to get out of the casket. "I CAN'T GET AWAY, RISHID!!!!!!" There is a pause while he tries to collect his bearings. "I'm not very strong," he whispers. "I'm not strong enough to handle this. . . . But . . . I would rather die myself than to have Ishizu perish. Rishid, if you can hear me, please . . . save Ishizu. . . . Save our sister!!" It sounds as though he is gasping for breath. "RISHID!!!! DON'T GIVE IN TO YOUR FATHER'S DEMANDS!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!! ISHIZU WOULDN'T WANT THAT AND NEITHER WOULD I!!!" He screams the same way he did when he was telling me what the zombie had tried to do. "STOP!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!! AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!!!!!!!"
I scream my brother's name desperately, wanting him to hear me. But I know he does not.
"Doesn't it pull at your heart strings, Rishid?" my father cackles. "Marik is trying so hard to hold onto his sanity, but it seems to be continually slipping. He's teetering on the edge between reality and illusion! And yet he is still so unselfish. So kind and thoughtful."
"You have pushed my brother to that edge!!" I retort furiously. "It is because of you that he was harmed!!! I will never stoop to your level and assist you in anything!!!" I look down the corridors in alarm, wondering which way I should go. My path is clear now. I must try to find both Marik and Ishizu before their time runs out. There is no other option they or I could feel good about.
"Have it your way, Rishid," the voice replies. "Perhaps you have made the only decision your foolish mind can be at peace with, but what if you can't reach them in time? What if they both die? Their blood will be on your hands!"
This only makes me angrier. "You are wrong!! Their blood will be on your hands if they perish! And you will burn in Hades!!!"
The only reply I get is his evil laughter.
~Mokuba~
It's too much.
I hurt Marik. I hurt my best friend, when only a few hours earlier I'd told him that all I wanted to do was to help him and Rishid get Ishizu back! Thanks to me, now maybe he'll never recover!!!
I didn't know. I didn't know he'd almost been . . .
But that doesn't matter! Why wasn't I kind to him?! Why do I have to be so stubborn?!
And why won't Ishizu get up??! What am I gonna do if she dies, right here in front of me?! She's the whole reason Marik and Rishid came out here to Egypt!
"Ishizu!! Come on, please!!" I sob, shaking her again. She doesn't move at all. "Ishizu, what about your brothers??! You can't leave them!!! Marik and Rishid would be so crushed!!"
She responds to this, giving a weak moan and clutching the edge of the slab as if she's trying to hold on to life until someone comes who knows how to help her. And I get the horrible feeling that it really is that much of a struggle for her to keep hanging on.
~Rishid~
As I search through the endless halls, looking desperately for any clue to indicate where Ishizu or Marik is, I feel a hand suddenly touch my shoulder.
"Who is here?!" I demand.
"It's me," Kaiba says coldly, stepping out from where he has been hiding. "I managed to get away. I don't think he really wants me. He took Mokuba because he's Marik's best friend."
This reasoning does make sense. And it makes me far more outraged than even before. "He is targeting everyone who is important to me or anyone else in my family!!"
Kaiba nods. "And I heard what he was saying to you. We don't have much time to find them if we're gonna do it on our own." He narrows his eyes. "But either he thinks we absolutely never will, or he has something else planned for when we do find them."
Or perhaps a mixture of both, I think grimly, following him up the corridor.
All the way I have been praying so desperately to be guided to my precious siblings. I cannot lose them. I know I cannot! And I also know that I will never find them if I rely solely on human strength. Only through a miracle will this all be able to work out.
"Rishid," a soft, musical voice calls. "Seto!"
Both of us freeze, recognizing the voice's owner as she appears in front of us. Kasumi!
"Come with me," she says softly, beckoning.
We follow her down the endless hall, becoming increasingly aware of young Mokuba's pleading cries for Ishizu to awaken. When we reach a certain door, Kasumi shimmers and vanishes, indicating that this is the right room for us to enter.
We waste no time in doing so.
"Ishizu!!!" I scream, running to my dear sister's still form. I gather her into my arms, horrified as I feel how stiff she is, and how cold her skin has gotten.
"Big brother!!" Mokuba sobs, running to Kaiba's arms and hugging him tightly. I can hear him begging to know where Marik is and that he has to apologize. Briefly my mind registers this and I am glad that he has recognized his mistakes, but then my attention immediately turns back to Ishizu. I realize that I do not know where the antidote is. What will I do?! How will I help her?!
The thought comes to me to check the cabinet on the other side of the room. Perhaps Dr. Portman would never think that anyone would actually be able to identify which of her concoctions is the antidote, but I know I must try! We would not have been guided all this way only to have Ishizu perish now!
Frantically I rummage through the cabinet's contents. Kaiba and Mokuba come to assist me, but we cannot find anything with a readable label. Dr. Portman obviously creates her own personal code for everything she brews. Only she knows which is the right one. But she isn't here, and even if she was, she would never tell.
"What about this one?" Mokuba speaks up, pointing to one near the front of the top shelf.
I take it down and look it over. How will I possibly know?!
"It is the right one," I hear Kasumi's voice whisper. "Now hasten, dear Rishid! You still have another sibling to save as well!"
Without saying anything to either Kaiba brother, I go back to where I have left Ishizu and gently inject the substance into her arm. Then I gather her into my embrace, praying that she truly will be safe now.
"Are you nuts?!" Kaiba asks me, obviously not having heard Kasumi. "You could've given her a large dose of the very same thing, or even something worse!!!"
"She will be fine," I reply, stroking my dear sister's hair. Please, Ishizu. . . . Please come back to us!
After an agonizing moment, I am rewarded as Ishizu's gentle blue eyes flutter open and gaze up at me in awe. "Rishid," she says softly, a smile starting to appear on her tired face. "Elder brother. . . ."
I smile back in immense relief as I say silent prayers of gratitude. "Yes. I am here," I tell her.
She hugs me weakly. "Where is Marik?!" she asks urgently. "I . . . I am sensing he is not safe. . . ."
My heart pains. "He is not," I must tell her. "We still must find where he is." I pause, wondering if I should tell her what I do know.
Ishizu looks at me sadly. "He is in a sarcophagus."
I cannot deny it.
"Wait!" Mokuba bursts out. "A sarcophagus?! Then I know where he might be!! I saw a room with one of those when I was being dragged here to this place!" His dark eyes reveal his utter alarm, at last knowing what being locked in such a place would do to Marik right now.
"Then you must lead us there!" I tell him, standing up with Ishizu in my arms. I do not know if she is strong enough to walk on her own yet.
Mokuba nods and runs to the door, anxious to redeem himself for earlier. "Come on!!"
He leads us down a strangely deserted hallway until we come to a room that resembles a museum. I know it was part of our old home once, but now it is so completely changed that it is hard to tell.
Ishizu climbs down from my arms and walks forward, swaying slightly but then catching herself. "I will be fine," she says firmly. "Marik is the one we must worry about now." It is such a weight off my shoulders to see the color coming back into her face and the life to her eyes.
I see the sarcophagus laying flat on a table in the middle of the room first. "Marik??!" I cry as I go to it, praying that if he is inside, he will be able to answer. But no reply comes.
"Marik!!" Mokuba wails, banging on it. "Are you in there??!"
Ishizu walks over as I struggle with the locked lid. "They did not want him to escape," she whispers, tears filling her eyes. There is no doubt in either of our minds that he is in there. And yet, at the same time, we are both praying that he will not be. Because if he is, he is so quiet. . . .
"Here," Kaiba says, handing me an axe he'd found hanging on the opposite wall.
I whisper my thanks and smash it against the lock. Soon it shatters and I am able to raise the lid.
Marik is inside, laying very still. There is an unreadable expression on his face, but I can see the traces of tears there. He was crying. I also notice how he tried to curl up protectively as best as he could. I cannot even begin to fathom how terrified he must have been. It is heart-breaking to look at him.
"Brother!!!" I scream, feeling an inexpressible horror grip my heart. Carefully I lift his precious body out of the coffin and cradle him close to me, the memory of his petrified screams returning. He had been convinced that he was being attacked. . . . But at the same time, his mind was clear enough to tell me to please save Ishizu and not to give in to my father's wishes. "Marik . . . speak to us, brother. . . . Please. . . ." Gently I brush his tears away, noting with horror how he does not stir.
I have nearly forgotten that others are here. But now Ishizu is right next to me, touching Marik's shoulder in alarm.
"Marik!!!" Mokuba wails. "You can't be dead!!! You CAN'T be!!! I . . . I never got to tell you how . . ." He swallows hard. "How sorry I am. . . ."
I lean down, listening for breath. There is none. But . . . young Mokuba is right. . . . Marik cannot be dead!! Kasumi indicated that there was still time. . . .
I exchange a grim look with Ishizu. She brushes Marik's long hair aside and kisses the cold cheek, her tears adorning his face. "He cannot leave us," she says shakily. "Not after everything he has just come through! He . . . he must recover! He must. . . ."
Gently I take Marik's limp hand in mine, whispering for him to take my hand. But he does not.
Suddenly we land, crashing onto the floor with a dull thud. Rishid's grip on me relaxes and I grow worried. He wouldn't have willingly loosened his grip. . . .
"Rishid!!! Speak to me!!! Please!! . . ." I cry, begging for a response. I do not realize how badly I myself have been affected by the force of the grenade and the crash. Not until I find my vision swimming.
"Your brother will live," I hear a voice cackle in my ear before I black out. "But you may not!"
I do not even have time to process the statement correctly. My eyes insist on closing and I feel my body going limp as it greets oblivion.
****
I open my eyes again, slowly, but something doesn't seem right. It feels as though I'm laying in very cramped quarters. When I breathe, I can feel it coming right back at me. And I can't see a thing.
Panic starts to rise within me. Where am I??! And where is Rishid?!? And Kaiba?! Somehow I know I am alone in my prison.
"LET ME OUT!!" I yell, frantically banging on the walls as I find them. The ceiling is right here above my head and there's not even enough room for me to sit up.
A laugh, belonging to the same voice I'd heard before blacking out, echoes outside wherever I am. "Awake, are you, Marik Ishtar?"
Now I can process the voice better. It's Rishid's birth father!!
"What have you done with me?!" I scream, continuing to shove against the walls and ceiling. "Where am I??!"
I hear a tinny thump as he hits the ceiling. "Dark in there, isn't it?" he cackles. "Well, get used to it. You'll most likely be there for the rest of your life, which, admittedly, won't be very long! There's only enough air for twenty minutes!"
"What do you mean?!" A cold chill comes over me now. Somehow, I think I know where I am.
"You're in a dreaded sarcophagus, my friend!" The wicked man kicks at it now, and I feel it very acutely. "That's right. I've locked you someplace where your nightmares will continue to torment you! And there's no escape! Your prison will very shortly become your coffin as well!"
The panic seizes me. A sarcophagus. . . . What if it's the same one that . . . that zombie dwelled in?! What if it comes back?! I could never fight it off!!! There's no room! No room at all!!
"WHERE IS RISHID??!" I have to concentrate on something else, and the whereabouts of my precious brother is most important.
"Oh, he's being taken care of. I can't very well kill him, now, can I? Maybe if he does what I want in time, you and your sister can be freed! But don't count on it. He's being very stubborn. Maybe he just doesn't realize how much power I wield! I could kill both you and Ishizu, and believe me, it will happen."
"NO!! DO WHATEVER YOU WISH TO ME, BUT LET ISHIZU GO FREE!!" I struggle against my prison frantically.
"That's just the attitude I expected from you, Marik. So noble. But you can expect to join Ishizu in the afterlife if Rishid doesn't hurry. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have much to attend to!" I hear him walking away.
"COME BACK!!" I scream. "WHERE ARE THE KAIBA BROTHERS??!"
He doesn't answer. Now I hear a door slam somewhere nearby.
It sounds as if the gates of death have been slammed on all our fates.
~Rishid~
When I regain my senses, I am all alone in what seems to be a large hall.
A very familiar hall.
Slowly I stand, staring at what I know was once part of our old abode here in Egypt. The one place none of us ever wanted to see again. How am I here?! And are the others here as well? Where is Marik?! I remember holding him as we fell. . . .
"Rishid!!"
My birth father's voice seems to come from all around me and I soon realize that he has installed a loudspeaker system.
"So good of you to join us, Rishid!" he continues. "I trust you'll recognize the surroundings. I used the Millennium Tauk to see some of the things you've experienced in these very halls! Breath-taking, isn't it, to be back in the place that caused you so very much pain and agony! And both of your siblings are here as well, though they don't realize it! I've remodeled so much!"
"WHERE ARE THEY??!!" I clench my fists, ignoring the ghosts of the past as they try to creep into my mind. "AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE KAIBAS??!"
"All in good time, Rishid. Do something for me and I'll do something for you."
"I will not help you with your greed!!!"
"I knew you'd say that. Somehow, I just knew. But what about Ishizu and Marik, Rishid? Ishizu is dying in my associate's laboratory! She will be no longer here if the antidote isn't administered within fifteen minutes!"
It is too horrible to think about. I knew he would be treating them cruelly, but now I am faced with this abomination. This impossible decision.
"And Marik! Do you want to know where Marik is, Rishid? He's been locked in a sarcophagus, quickly being deprived of his breath and his sanity!"
I know the color is draining from my face. Marik will not survive in a sarcophagus, not in his condition! This . . . this creature knew it would be the very worst thing to do to him!!
"NO!!!!!! RELEASE THEM, YOU MONSTER!!!!" For one brief moment, the voice changes to my ears and it becomes Marik's father's. The two most treacherous people I have ever encountered!! They are both haunting me, taunting me to do something to save my loved ones!
"Only if you help me, Rishid!!" Suddenly a monitor that I hadn't noticed before now blinks to life, showing me an image of Ishizu laying on Dr. Portman's slab. Her poor body barely moves or ripples with breath at all. Her flesh is so pale . . . so deathlike. . . . I know that he speaks the truth of her condition. And I cannot bear it!!
Young Mokuba makes his way onto the screen, tears streaming down his face. He shakes Ishizu, pleading for her to get up, but she does nothing.
"ISHIZU!! Come on, please!!!" the child wails. "I don't want to be alone. . . . I probably deserve it, but . . . I don't wanna be alone!!!"
"Had enough yet?" my birth father's voice says smoothly. "Or would you also like to hear your brother's pitiful screams?"
"BE SILENT!!!!" I step closer to the monitor, reaching out to touch the image of Ishizu's body. I can't let her suffer more!! And Marik . . . oh my poor, atrociously mistreated brother! . . . He has been through so much!!! How will he survive more?! He has already had two extreme emotional breakdowns today. I fear that this one will be the final straw. There is only so much that anyone can take!
"Oh, there *is* one other thing you could do. You could wander around and try to find where I have placed your siblings. But will you make it in time? You would really need a guide." I hear a button being pressed and suddenly the most anguished screams I have ever heard echo around me.
"RISHID!!!!!!!!!!! LET ME OUT!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T STAND IT, RISHID!!!!" I hear a pounding sound and I know that Marik is trying to get out of the casket. "I CAN'T GET AWAY, RISHID!!!!!!" There is a pause while he tries to collect his bearings. "I'm not very strong," he whispers. "I'm not strong enough to handle this. . . . But . . . I would rather die myself than to have Ishizu perish. Rishid, if you can hear me, please . . . save Ishizu. . . . Save our sister!!" It sounds as though he is gasping for breath. "RISHID!!!! DON'T GIVE IN TO YOUR FATHER'S DEMANDS!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!! ISHIZU WOULDN'T WANT THAT AND NEITHER WOULD I!!!" He screams the same way he did when he was telling me what the zombie had tried to do. "STOP!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!! AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!!!!!!!"
I scream my brother's name desperately, wanting him to hear me. But I know he does not.
"Doesn't it pull at your heart strings, Rishid?" my father cackles. "Marik is trying so hard to hold onto his sanity, but it seems to be continually slipping. He's teetering on the edge between reality and illusion! And yet he is still so unselfish. So kind and thoughtful."
"You have pushed my brother to that edge!!" I retort furiously. "It is because of you that he was harmed!!! I will never stoop to your level and assist you in anything!!!" I look down the corridors in alarm, wondering which way I should go. My path is clear now. I must try to find both Marik and Ishizu before their time runs out. There is no other option they or I could feel good about.
"Have it your way, Rishid," the voice replies. "Perhaps you have made the only decision your foolish mind can be at peace with, but what if you can't reach them in time? What if they both die? Their blood will be on your hands!"
This only makes me angrier. "You are wrong!! Their blood will be on your hands if they perish! And you will burn in Hades!!!"
The only reply I get is his evil laughter.
~Mokuba~
It's too much.
I hurt Marik. I hurt my best friend, when only a few hours earlier I'd told him that all I wanted to do was to help him and Rishid get Ishizu back! Thanks to me, now maybe he'll never recover!!!
I didn't know. I didn't know he'd almost been . . .
But that doesn't matter! Why wasn't I kind to him?! Why do I have to be so stubborn?!
And why won't Ishizu get up??! What am I gonna do if she dies, right here in front of me?! She's the whole reason Marik and Rishid came out here to Egypt!
"Ishizu!! Come on, please!!" I sob, shaking her again. She doesn't move at all. "Ishizu, what about your brothers??! You can't leave them!!! Marik and Rishid would be so crushed!!"
She responds to this, giving a weak moan and clutching the edge of the slab as if she's trying to hold on to life until someone comes who knows how to help her. And I get the horrible feeling that it really is that much of a struggle for her to keep hanging on.
~Rishid~
As I search through the endless halls, looking desperately for any clue to indicate where Ishizu or Marik is, I feel a hand suddenly touch my shoulder.
"Who is here?!" I demand.
"It's me," Kaiba says coldly, stepping out from where he has been hiding. "I managed to get away. I don't think he really wants me. He took Mokuba because he's Marik's best friend."
This reasoning does make sense. And it makes me far more outraged than even before. "He is targeting everyone who is important to me or anyone else in my family!!"
Kaiba nods. "And I heard what he was saying to you. We don't have much time to find them if we're gonna do it on our own." He narrows his eyes. "But either he thinks we absolutely never will, or he has something else planned for when we do find them."
Or perhaps a mixture of both, I think grimly, following him up the corridor.
All the way I have been praying so desperately to be guided to my precious siblings. I cannot lose them. I know I cannot! And I also know that I will never find them if I rely solely on human strength. Only through a miracle will this all be able to work out.
"Rishid," a soft, musical voice calls. "Seto!"
Both of us freeze, recognizing the voice's owner as she appears in front of us. Kasumi!
"Come with me," she says softly, beckoning.
We follow her down the endless hall, becoming increasingly aware of young Mokuba's pleading cries for Ishizu to awaken. When we reach a certain door, Kasumi shimmers and vanishes, indicating that this is the right room for us to enter.
We waste no time in doing so.
"Ishizu!!!" I scream, running to my dear sister's still form. I gather her into my arms, horrified as I feel how stiff she is, and how cold her skin has gotten.
"Big brother!!" Mokuba sobs, running to Kaiba's arms and hugging him tightly. I can hear him begging to know where Marik is and that he has to apologize. Briefly my mind registers this and I am glad that he has recognized his mistakes, but then my attention immediately turns back to Ishizu. I realize that I do not know where the antidote is. What will I do?! How will I help her?!
The thought comes to me to check the cabinet on the other side of the room. Perhaps Dr. Portman would never think that anyone would actually be able to identify which of her concoctions is the antidote, but I know I must try! We would not have been guided all this way only to have Ishizu perish now!
Frantically I rummage through the cabinet's contents. Kaiba and Mokuba come to assist me, but we cannot find anything with a readable label. Dr. Portman obviously creates her own personal code for everything she brews. Only she knows which is the right one. But she isn't here, and even if she was, she would never tell.
"What about this one?" Mokuba speaks up, pointing to one near the front of the top shelf.
I take it down and look it over. How will I possibly know?!
"It is the right one," I hear Kasumi's voice whisper. "Now hasten, dear Rishid! You still have another sibling to save as well!"
Without saying anything to either Kaiba brother, I go back to where I have left Ishizu and gently inject the substance into her arm. Then I gather her into my embrace, praying that she truly will be safe now.
"Are you nuts?!" Kaiba asks me, obviously not having heard Kasumi. "You could've given her a large dose of the very same thing, or even something worse!!!"
"She will be fine," I reply, stroking my dear sister's hair. Please, Ishizu. . . . Please come back to us!
After an agonizing moment, I am rewarded as Ishizu's gentle blue eyes flutter open and gaze up at me in awe. "Rishid," she says softly, a smile starting to appear on her tired face. "Elder brother. . . ."
I smile back in immense relief as I say silent prayers of gratitude. "Yes. I am here," I tell her.
She hugs me weakly. "Where is Marik?!" she asks urgently. "I . . . I am sensing he is not safe. . . ."
My heart pains. "He is not," I must tell her. "We still must find where he is." I pause, wondering if I should tell her what I do know.
Ishizu looks at me sadly. "He is in a sarcophagus."
I cannot deny it.
"Wait!" Mokuba bursts out. "A sarcophagus?! Then I know where he might be!! I saw a room with one of those when I was being dragged here to this place!" His dark eyes reveal his utter alarm, at last knowing what being locked in such a place would do to Marik right now.
"Then you must lead us there!" I tell him, standing up with Ishizu in my arms. I do not know if she is strong enough to walk on her own yet.
Mokuba nods and runs to the door, anxious to redeem himself for earlier. "Come on!!"
He leads us down a strangely deserted hallway until we come to a room that resembles a museum. I know it was part of our old home once, but now it is so completely changed that it is hard to tell.
Ishizu climbs down from my arms and walks forward, swaying slightly but then catching herself. "I will be fine," she says firmly. "Marik is the one we must worry about now." It is such a weight off my shoulders to see the color coming back into her face and the life to her eyes.
I see the sarcophagus laying flat on a table in the middle of the room first. "Marik??!" I cry as I go to it, praying that if he is inside, he will be able to answer. But no reply comes.
"Marik!!" Mokuba wails, banging on it. "Are you in there??!"
Ishizu walks over as I struggle with the locked lid. "They did not want him to escape," she whispers, tears filling her eyes. There is no doubt in either of our minds that he is in there. And yet, at the same time, we are both praying that he will not be. Because if he is, he is so quiet. . . .
"Here," Kaiba says, handing me an axe he'd found hanging on the opposite wall.
I whisper my thanks and smash it against the lock. Soon it shatters and I am able to raise the lid.
Marik is inside, laying very still. There is an unreadable expression on his face, but I can see the traces of tears there. He was crying. I also notice how he tried to curl up protectively as best as he could. I cannot even begin to fathom how terrified he must have been. It is heart-breaking to look at him.
"Brother!!!" I scream, feeling an inexpressible horror grip my heart. Carefully I lift his precious body out of the coffin and cradle him close to me, the memory of his petrified screams returning. He had been convinced that he was being attacked. . . . But at the same time, his mind was clear enough to tell me to please save Ishizu and not to give in to my father's wishes. "Marik . . . speak to us, brother. . . . Please. . . ." Gently I brush his tears away, noting with horror how he does not stir.
I have nearly forgotten that others are here. But now Ishizu is right next to me, touching Marik's shoulder in alarm.
"Marik!!!" Mokuba wails. "You can't be dead!!! You CAN'T be!!! I . . . I never got to tell you how . . ." He swallows hard. "How sorry I am. . . ."
I lean down, listening for breath. There is none. But . . . young Mokuba is right. . . . Marik cannot be dead!! Kasumi indicated that there was still time. . . .
I exchange a grim look with Ishizu. She brushes Marik's long hair aside and kisses the cold cheek, her tears adorning his face. "He cannot leave us," she says shakily. "Not after everything he has just come through! He . . . he must recover! He must. . . ."
Gently I take Marik's limp hand in mine, whispering for him to take my hand. But he does not.