Chapter Twelve-The Showdown
"Victoria! Wake up,please!" A familiar voice called out pleadingly. It was Johanna.
"Jo..." The girl squirmed a bit, not realizing she was being held.
"Thank you,Seth!" Jo replied,and the grip tightened. "I was so worried!"
"Where are we,Jo?" Victoria's eyes opened a little.
"We're in the park. Christien and Jonathan Roba ran to get help." She was shaking. "We're in a lot of trouble if they don't come back soon." The older girl turned her head slightly, to the two yamis who were arguing. "Rakura's really mad at Yami Marik."
"W-why?" Victoria tried to struggle to sit up,and look too.
"Because he was threatening to kill me, and you."
"Why would Rakura care about me? I thought he said I was useless?"
Johanna merely shrugged,hugging her close, as the shouting got louder.
"You almost got Victoria killed! That was not part of our plan." Rakura growled. "Not that I really care about her, but once you threaten my Jo,you're asking for it,Yami."
"Don't trifle with me! I can kill you faster than you can blink!" Yami Marik retorted, holding Victoria's Rod out menacingly.
"That's only a toy in the end, and you know it." The tomb raider almost laughed. "I have the real thing." Suddenly, he whirled, his eyes on Johanna. "Leave us,and take that child with you." He ordered his apprentice.
"I'm not a child!" Victoria replied in annoyance, but Jo clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Okay, Rakura." The other girl pulled Victoria to her feet. "Come on." She gently pulled her best friend along behind her.
"I'm not done with her yet!" Yami Marik moved to grab Victoria, but was surprised when the thief moved into his path.
"You're not done with me yet either." His Millennium Ring began to glow. "If you want her, you're going to have to go through me."
"H-he......." Victoria began, but just then, Christien, Jonathan and their eldest brother Espa ran to the girls who were just before the park exit.
"She's all right!" Christien grinned in relief.
"Not quite. She's still very weak. We have to get her somewhere she can rest." Jo replied.
"I think the hospital would be a better place." Espa replied, picking Victoria up. "She's hurt."
Victoria was starting to feel lightheaded again. "M-marik...I need to see Marik...."
"Soon." Espa told her, as they got into a car. "The hospital, Wheeler. She's in bad shape."
"Aww man..." Joey's clear Brooklyn accent caught Victoria attention quicker than the fact that the Robas were psychic. Joey can drive? Wow....
"I'll follow you guys on foot." Jo told them, as they drove off. It didn't seem to phase her that she'd been talking to the Robas or Joey Wheeler.
Before she could hear the reply, Victoria was unconscious again.
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"Johanna, if you know something about what Victoria's said, tell us." Magda Johnson pleaded.
"I don't know what she's talking about. She's been weird lately." Johanna replied calmly.
"JO! How can you deny it?!" Victoria shouted in anguish, as her adopted father herded her away to the car.
Jo smirked a bit. "Because, I can." She then turned, and walked back to the lot where she lived.
"That was a dirty thing you did." Yami Bakura chided her as she entered "Egypt
".
"Oh well. I did it for her own good. Yami Marik won't touch her there."
"Fool! He doesn't have to be there in sight to torment her!" Yami Bakura sighed. "What is done is done. What did you bring me?"
"Not a lot today...too many eyes." Johanna dropped a few dozen beef sticks on the floor of Seth's temple.
"Beef sticks." Yami Bakura grunted. "Can you find nothing of value in this blasted city?!"
"I'm trying my best..." Jo began, but her mentor brushed her aside, and walked out of the structure. "Please, Rakura, I'm doing the best I can!"
"Begging will get you nowhere with me, girl. I should think you would know that by now." The tomb robber turned to face Jo, his eyes narrowed. "Now, you will do better tonight, or else I shall leave you."
"Please, you can't!" Jo bit her lower lip, when he got in her face.
"I'll do what I wish. There is trouble coming where I live, and Ryou will be needing me more than your useless self." He walked out of the lot then, calling over his shoulder. "I'll be back tonight. You have until dark."
Johanna blinked away tears, amazed at the daydream memory she'd just had. Yami Bakura used to be so cruel to me...yet, I followed him around like a dog loyal to her master! But just now, he spared both Victoria and me. I don't get it...She looked up at the hospital in dismay. She had been in that building one too many times that day. Now her best friend, whom she often betrayed, was there herself, and needed her. She sighed deeply, and moved to go inside.
"Johanna." Yami Bakura grabbed her wrist. "Why do you waste your time trying to be her friend when you know she would rather you weren't?"
"Because between you and "Master Marik", we have both been manipulated. She has no choice but to trust me, and I her." Jo replied, not minding her wording.
"I just saved your life, Girl. How dare you treat me with such ill respect!" The tomb raider spun Jo to face her. "I saw into your soul. You don't wish to be here. It's too strange for you. Isn't that right?"
"B-but....I want to stay with you, Rakura..." That was the truth. Surely the ancient tomb robber could see that.
"That may be. But not here." Her mentor seemed to be studying her thoughtfully. "You will come back with me to Ryou's house." It was not a request. It was an order. "I may yet have need of you in a different way." Now he was thinking of Ryou, not himself. Ryou could use another companion besides him. "Come."
"But I must see Victoria!" Johanna's voice held that high pitched whining that the yami so despised.
"Enough of that! Victoria does not need you,nor want you anymore. She's got the Robas and Ishtars now. Come." With that, the spirit of the Millennium Ring dragged her down the street, away from the hospital.
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"He's waking up!" Mokuba's voice was the first one Marik recognized when he began to return from his unconscious state. The young Ishtar boy stirred briefly, the pain in his chest still great from Victoria's attack. No. Victoria didn't do it. The Yami did it! That poor girl...Then he remembered. Victoria had said all three of the Ishtar siblings were supposed to die.
"Marik...my dear brother....." Rishid's gentle voice floated to him like soft breeze.
"Rishid..you are not dead?" Marik reached a hand out to the elder Ishtar.
"She could not kill us all. The yami lost control of her." Rishid took his hand, and held it gently. "She was in a state of insanity when last we saw her. Then her friend Johanna came and took her away to your yami again."
"Why would she do such an abominable thing?!" Marik demanded, barely above a whisper, as he struggled to sit up right.
"We don't know." Ishizu told him, as she carefully helped him to sit up. "All we do know is...whatever the task she had to perform was left her drained, and out cold. Espa Roba, his brothers and Joey Wheeler brought her in over two hours ago."
"Poor Victoria.." Marik said again. "I must see her, right now." He started to get up, but both of his siblings held him back.
"You must rest. One of us will find out where her room is, and go check on her." Ishizu told him firmly.
"I'll go." Mokuba offered. He was curious to find out how Jonathan and Christien has single handedly broken Yami Marik's spell over Victoria. He was willing to bet it had something to do with their psychic gifts.
"Thank you, Mokuba. It would put my mind at ease to know Victoria is all right." Marik told his best friend. He was glad Mokuba did not hold any grudges over his other best friend, and that he was accepting her as a part of Marik's life.
"You got it, Marik." Mokuba smiled, and left the room to see to Victoria.
When Mokuba left, Marik sighed, looking from Ishizu to Rishid. "It seems she will never find happiness. Not even here."
"She has found it, Marik. She found it the day you two were reunited." Rishid told him. "Anyone could see how relieved, and happy she was to be with you again. I highly doubt she had any such things after we left her with the Johnsons."
"That's right. Victoria was elated to be reunited with you." Ishizu assured her youngest brother. She moved closer to the bed. "Is there anything we can get for you?"
"No.....I'm all right." Marik attempted to smile convincingly, but a sharp pain shot through him, and he winced instead. "I suppose I just need a little more rest. I would prefer to do it in my own bed."
"Perhaps once the doctor has come to see you, we may arrange that." Rishid said quietly. "Why not sleep for now? We will notify you when Mokuba returns with news on Victoria. "
"Thank you, Rishid. I would most appreciate that." Marik sighed deeply, and with great difficulty, found sleep once more.