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Disclaimer: I do NOT Yu-Gi-Oh!

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Author's Notes: You have to understand I am NOT enjoying writing this fic but it's something for me to explore. Besides, it's a freakin' paradise to Isis father haters or at least SOON will be…but until then, I've really punished Isis. It's not going to get brighter until the end. Let's see how it all goes…

Chapter Two: Pain

Isis felt the sting of her own words pierce her soul as she made her way back to her domicile in the rain. She didn't give a damn about him since she had last seen him. She hated him with ever fibre of her being and he was the reason she was turning so cold and bitter. In actual fact she wanted to rip him apart like he'd done her, but she wouldn't allow such a thing to happen. Not now and ever.

God dammit, when will I learn?! That idiot cost me my whole life. He cost my own blood brother's life. It was all his fault that he died. Not mine. He made me believe it was mine. Well, I won't let him take advantage of me anymore.

With that thought finished she opened the door to her house and slammed it furiously. She sat on the couch and leant back against it, running a hand through her hair, refusing to let the pools in her eyes spill over. It was silly to cry over events of the past. But it was affecting her now. She had promised that it would not even dent her but it pierced through her soul like a dagger ripping through her.

***

The girl woke up shakily. She was cold and naked in her bed. The sheets were damp and she shuddered. But she thought everything was ok now, so she went about her normal tasks.

As she was making the bed, a pain shot through her head and wrists. She looked at her wrists to find deep red marks of nails etched around them. She shook in pain and sucked on it to stop it from hurting so much.

Just then her father entered. He was holding a bowl filled with a clear liquid. He shook his head and crouched down to meet her eye level. Putting the bowl on the ground he took one of her wrists and took a towel from his pocket. He soaked the towel in the liquid and dabbed it lightly on the red marks he had left on her wrists.

She stared at him, unable to even smile at him. She was shaking; scared that he might lash out on her like he did the night before.

"That should heal in a few days. But until then I do not want you doing anything, ok?"

"But what about my jobs?" She asked meekly.

"No, I'll get Rashid to help me with those. And Isis, don't tell anyone about last night, alright?" He said giving her that smouldering look she knew so well. Dad was back.

She nodded slowly. He smiled at her but still she couldn't feel the lips on her face curve upwards.

"Smile Isis," her father said touching her cheek with the back of his hand. She slowly smiled and hissed when she could feel the healing of the liquid finally take effect.

***

Isis brought her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly. She was crying for her brother. The pain she felt without his love and protection. He was dead, as dead as the moon was gone, as the sun would rise, as dead as her very soul…

She had watched him die, death seemed like an open door of opportunities to him. Like a world filled with all these wonderful chances to be free and have a freedom. But Isis knew, oh she knew that a world like that was created in your own void within your own soul. You were the one who made it happen; you were the one who made it be so. It was not something imaginary, it was something realistically true. But she would see to it that it would never happen again. Not to anyone, even Seto Kaiba.

Isis felt sick at his name. He had done no good, he was no good. He was just plain evil. What was she going to do? Forgive him for what he had her do to herself? Maybe not so much as a grin would form on her face at the thought of his life to end and be swallowed by darkness. Why was that? Should she not be laughing away, plotting plans of his death? Well, she could answer that. She wasn't Marik. She wasn't a paranoid freak bent on getting revenge on the Pharaoh.  

Wiping the tears away, she reached for a packet of cigarettes in the draw on her oak table. She had never been the type but ever since she had been living in Domino she wasn't really bothered about her health. She took one out and put it in her mouth, getting the lighter beside it. Just as she was about to light the cigarette she noticed something on the bureau by her window. She got up and walked to it slowly, dropping the cigarette on the ground when she saw the picture.

Damn it…is there always a reminder of that bastard around?! She screamed angrily in her mind.

The picture was so long ago, but Isis could remember every single detail of the day, including the day after…and the day after…and hell, she was still in love with him. A tear streamed down her cheek.

She could feel his arms wrapped around her waist. They were strong and tight, protecting and guarding her. She felt loved. Something she hadn't experienced until he had walked into her life. She loved the way he used to nuzzle her neck whenever he had the chance. She loved the way he used to kiss her first and then she would take over and they fought for control over the whole thing. She loved the way he used to spread butterfly kisses across her arm before she woke up in the morning after a night with him.

That was the problem. Used to. It was all gone, but not all lost. It was a solid rock in Isis' mind. Something that stayed and would never move. Like a bird that wouldn't take flight or a door that wouldn't shut. Oh and how it got on her nerves.

She slapped the picture on the floor and it smashed into a thousand shards on the red carpeted floor of the small house. Isis collapsed onto her knees in pure anger and exhaustion. But she could remember the way she had been so powerless to help her brother when he committed suicide.

***

Isis ran up the flight of stairs as fast as she could, not caring if she cut herself or bruised herself on the way. The point was her brother was standing on the edge of the cliff-like tower. The tower that was just a few blocks away from the Kaiba Corp. building.

She stopped when she reached the top, legs aching, head pounding and heart stopping. The breath caught in her throat as she saw him, tears falling from his eyes and the rod broken on the floor.

She stared at it and then at him. He wasn't standing anymore; he was crouched on the edge in a ball. The tears spilled uncontrollably from his eyes and by what Isis could tell, unwillingly.

"Malik?" Isis whispered approaching him. She reached out with her hand and tenderly placed it on his shoulder, but he shrugged it away coldly, not looking up.

"Go away!" He hissed through sobs.

This was the first time she had seen her brother like this; full of tears and sorrow. How long had it been since he had shown emotion like this? She hurt inside, like a deep wound was in her chest. Maybe there was, she couldn't tell.

"Malik…I love you." Isis said softly, her own tears brimming.

He looked at her with the softest eyes she had ever seen him send her.

"Rashid's dead. He threw himself off the tower first if I was going to." He said throatily looking at the ground below.

Isis gasped and put a hand over her mouth. Now that Rashid was dead, Malik was known to the real truth. That had been what possessed him to commit suicide. He knew why he killed his father, or rather why Marik did.

"Malik…please come with me…there's something I have to show you-"

"No." He snapped angrily at her, his red eyes studying her blue ones with extreme disgust. "I know what you are trying to do!! It won't work Isis, it won't!!"

He stood up, grabbing the pillar beside him to stop him from falling straight down. Isis gasped and shook her head, her sobbing dying down and her hands over her mouth. Her voice was muffled as she pleaded for her only brother to not jump. He seemed to tune her out altogether and she felt so helpless just standing. She contemplated on grabbing him by the torso and pulling him back from the edge but she didn't want to risk the chance of him actually falling to his death, making her a murderer.

"Isis, do you remember that place we used to go to when we were young? It was a long time ago…about ten years ago." He asked.

Isis nodded knowing exactly what he meant but she was more concerned with his safety. She smiled a little when he turned back to her his eyes in a far off look.

"Well, I used to think I could see it all…I thought I could defy anything and everything…" He said laughing a little. Isis smiled, tears streaming down her cheeks. Maybe he wouldn't jump after all.

"You used to say you were immortal." Isis said remembering the exact words that he used to speak. That statement however, had been a fateful error.

Malik stared at her and turned back to look at the ground below the tower, "I was so wrong…so naïve…" He sighed; it was audible and a sigh of self hatred.

It was breaking Isis like a hammer pounding on her heart. The pain was unbearable.

"Wake me up inside…" Malik began whispering more to the sky than to Isis, "Open my eyes to truth…beauty…and love…"

"NO!" Isis yelled running straight for the empty place where once stood her dearly beloved brother.

***

Isis got up, wiping her tears away. She would go visit him today. She was going to reminisce with him about the good times and the bad. It was about time she had a talk with him after so long. Another reason she hated the manager of Kaiba Corp.

There was soft rapping at the door and the woman pushed back her raven night hair and sighed, pulling herself together. Besides, now was not a good time to be thinking about things like that.

She walked into the hall, realising the rain was not giving up. She opened the latch on the door and pulled it open slightly to see who was waiting for her on the other side. When the cruel blue eyed gaze met hers she closed the door only to frown when his hand reached out to prevent it.

He let himself in rudely, dripping wet from the rain, soaking her white carpet in the hall.

"Seto, get out," She said folding her arms, "the last thing I need is you."

"Or maybe it's the first." Seto said lounging himself in the living room. Curious and anger washed over her and she followed him in.

"What on Earth are you talking about? You're drunk." She stated leaning against the doorframe looking over his wasted form.

He leant horizontally across her plush couch, putting an arm over his head and looking up at the ceiling.

"Erm, no Seto this isn't a hotel." She said annoyed. "Get out."

"I thought you wanted to know what I was on about,"

"I did."

"Then why should I leave?"

"Because I said I did. I don't want to anymore."

Seto studied her gaze for a second before averting his eyes back to the ceiling above.

"Why don't you want to know anymore?"

"Because I know anything that comes out of your mouth will just be a load of crap that you spun up in the time you took to get here."

There was a silence; not an awkward one but it had tension. Isis was slightly rigid by what she had just countered with but it was a known fact and truth. He would never be kind to her, it wasn't his nature. Yet she…she was always the type who took time to listen to people and understand them. She was turning into some bitch who didn't give a damn on life because her own was trashed. A wasted wench…

Seto's blue eyed gaze met hers and he gave her the most neural look possible but couldn't resist a smile. He turned to the broken picture on the ground.

"That's seven years of bad luck."

"I didn't drop it, I threw it off there."

"I can't believe you still have that. Why?" He asked walking over to the shards of glass and bending down to study the picture.

Isis didn't answer. She didn't know why she still had it. But a few moments ago she had admitted something to herself. She was still in love.