Hey, I wanted to welcome my newest reviewer Jon, and respond to the many questions he asked ^__^. As for the few that you asked about Kinou using her power to do things like break Terry's lock open and throw Yami Marik off of her, she didn't use it on Terry's door because then she had just found out about it and really didn't know how to use it. Not to mention telekinesis is really just for moving objects around, and unless her mind were extremely sharp, she wouldn't be able to make the bolt inside of it slide open. And it's pretty much the same thing with the fact that she couldn't use her powers against Yami Marik (judging by when you asked that question, you're talking about the dream in which he showed her how to use her powers and took advantage of her); she had only just learned how to use it and he had her hands pinned up above her head, making it impossible to use anyway. Whew! Anyway, arigato for putting so much thought into your reviews ^^. And onto the next chapter!
24. The Final Blow~
Kinou regained consciousness a little while later, but did not open her eyes, afraid of what she would see. Her whole body hurt, and it felt cold and empty; she couldn't hear Marik's voice at all in her mind. From what she could hear, the room was deathly silent, but after a few minutes, she realised that there was someone crawling toward her, breathing heavily. Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped as she saw Marik dragging himself to her, the Millennium Rod back in his possession. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise, for she could not find her voice at all. He pulled himself beside her at last and sat up slightly, reaching his arms around her and cradling her to him.
"Are you hurt?" he whispered in her ear.
Kinou, still unable to make a noise, nodded her head.
"Can you move at all?"
Again, she failed to speak and instead shook her head, closing her eyes.
He sat her up and kissed her gently, holding her. "At least you're alive…" he murmured.
She opened her eyes imploringly and tried to speak to him. She wanted to ask what happened, why he was back in his body, why she had even survived, but all she could manage to get out was, "Wh….what…."
"By Ra, I have no idea," he said, catching her drift rather quickly. "When my Yami was latched onto you, I was pulled out of your mind right before the machine turned off and I woke up, back inside my body. My Yami must have been knocked unconscious from the blast, but thankfully I woke up much sooner."
Kinou smiled weakly and tried to move, but her body completely refused to do so without her muscles screaming in protest. She found her voice slightly, though. "What about… what about Tanurah?"
Marik looked around the room and his eyes came to rest to the left of the platform, which had dust still settling upon its fractured frame. "He appears to be unconscious as well. We had better go to tie him up before he wakes up."
"Or," cut in an angry voice, making Marik instinctively clutch her closer to him. "You can come over and untie me!"
Kinou and Marik both turned to see Kaiba glaring at them—from the floor, for his chair had been knocked over in the blast. They started laughing, and Marik gently laid her back on the floor before approaching Kaiba, limping slightly. "Oh, poor child, did you fall and hurt yourself?" he asked mockingly, standing over him. Kaiba growled, but Marik chuckled and knelt down to begin to untie him. Kinou kept giggling at seeing the great Seto Kaiba completely helpless on the ground, and he hurriedly dusted himself off when the last of the ropes fell away from his shoulders. Marik walked back over to her and slid his arms underneath her to pick her up; she slowly looped one of her arms around his back and her other grasped the front of his shirt. Resting her head against his chest, she was glad for his warmth, for she had started to shiver uncontrollably; not to mention her body became more able to move as it warmed up. Marik kissed her forehead before looking at Kaiba again.
"Go and tie him up; I'll start getting her warm," he said.
"Since when have you had the right to give me orders?" snarled Kaiba, obviously angry at the sight of him holding Kinou the way he was. "Last time I checked, you only wanted her to gain that stupid Millennium Puzzle for yourself, as if it has any real power!"
"And last time I checked, you wanted her for tests!" yelled Marik, squeezing her to him even more.
Kaiba stepped towards them, lowering his voice. "That was my original intention, yes, but when I rescued her from you, it was out of the want for her to be safe; I made sure she was escorted everywhere by someone trustworthy to make sure nothing hurt her; most of the time I walked her myself."
"Oh yes, trustworthy indeed," sneered Marik. "How trustworthy is someone who tortures a young boy in secret for his own cruel intentions?"
"As if you had no fault in your acquaintances; how dare you let that freak take over your body to hurt her? You knew what he was doing, and what did you ever do to try to stop it?"
Kinou had gotten the feeling back in her legs by now and stood beside Marik as he gently put her down to glare at Kaiba. "You have obviously not experienced the terrors of having a darker half," he whispered dangerously. "Do you honestly think that I didn't try to keep those horrible things from happening? Do you think it was easy for me to watch as he raped her?" Kaiba looked, shocked, at Kinou as Marik pulled her to him once more. "If you truly cared for her, you would have known everything that has happened to her ever since she was taken into this world; yet you barely know half of the torture she has experienced!"
Kaiba walked forward and threw Marik's arms off her and pushed her away as he grabbed Marik by the front of his shirt. "If you hadn't intruded in the first place, she would have been with me from the very beginning! Far away from that sick-minded freak!"
Marik tugged Kaiba's hands off of him and both of them began to yell at each other. Kinou put her hands to her mouth as they became more and more enraged, looking as though they wanted to snap the other to pieces. She was just about to take a step forward to try to separate them—when something caught her eye. Looking around them, she could have sworn something had moved near the platform. Her attention was snapped back to Kaiba and Marik when she heard one of them yell her name, though she could not tell which one it was because they were shouting with the same force, making it difficult for her to discern what they were saying. Suddenly, both of them reached out, Kaiba grabbing her left arm and Marik her right; they pulled her towards them and they both shouted, "I love her!"
They both ceased yelling, their last proclamation echoing into nothingness as they stared at each other with their mouths open. Kinou felt both of their grips tighten on her, and as Marik clenched his teeth, Kaiba hissed, "What did you say?"
"You heard me," he whispered back dangerously. "The same as what you said, you liar."
They both squeezed her arms even tighter, and she became angry. "Hey!" They both stopped looking daggers at each other to look at her, and she wrenched her arms from them. "You guys are fighting like kids! If you—"
She stopped, her attention once again caught by a small movement by the platform. The other two turned around and looked at the same spot just in time to see Tanurah rise up out of the dust. Kaiba swooped Kinou into his arms and pulled her back as Marik thrust out his arm with his Millennium Rod pointed at the doctor. Tanurah slowly glanced around at where they were, though he appeared only slightly disoriented as he realised that Yami Marik was no longer there. He looked at the three, and then looked down at himself in amazement, as though he felt entirely different than before.
"Why, doctor you look so pale," sneered Kaiba from above her, his arms still wrapped around her protectively. "What's the matter? Disappointed that your plan crumbled pathetically at your feet?"
"Not at all," Tanurah said simply, a malicious grin starting to play across his lips as he flexed his hands before looking up at them. "I'm just slightly amused that my partner did not have the strength to keep that pathetic little weakling from taking over again. Not to mention the fact that you both seem to hold that girl's safety above your own. It's really quite frivolous."
Marik gritted his teeth and his hand tightened on the Millennium Rod. "Say any more and you'll take a nice little trip to the Shadow Realm," he snarled, reminding Kinou so much of the Marik she knew before the whole ordeal.
The doctor laughed. "I'd like to see you try." Kinou stared at him as Marik set his jaw to prepare to summon the powers to banish Tanurah's mind for good. Something's not right with him. He knows he lost, why prolong it? He's fearless. "But, before you do, I'd sure like to see Kinou's powers in person once more," he said, causing the three to look at him in bewilderment.
"Do you honestly think that piece of junk still works?" asked Kinou, gesturing to the smouldering antennae, which looked as though it might fall at any moment given the right opportunity.
"No, just on something in this room would be perfectly fine," snickered Tanurah, Kinou getting slightly annoyed at his amusement.
"How about I use it on that machine and make it fall on you? You know, put you out of your misery right here and now," she scowled.
"Go right ahead," said Tanurah, shifting his weight to one foot and putting his hands in his lab coat pockets, grinning. Kinou froze. What the hell is wrong with him? she asked herself. That blast must have messed with his head… "Well, we're waiting," he sneered, looking up at the antennae.
"Do it, Kinou," said Kaiba, letting her go and putting his hands instead on her shoulders. "It'd do us all a favour."
Kinou nodded and stretched out her hands. She felt no resistance to kill as she had earlier, for which she was very grateful; she wanted to hurt Tanurah as much as she could and this was the worst she could possibly do. Though, as she focused on him, his grin became wider, almost to the point where he looked like he was about to laugh. She thought of nothing but moving the antennae ever so slightly, just enough to make it fall and rid the world of his existence for good, just enough to satisfy everyone, and end this nightmare.
Nothing happened. Looking at her hands and pausing, she looked back up at the antennae and tried again, but no familiar twinge in her forehead came, the antennae refused to move at all. She looked over at Marik incredulously, who was watching her with so much anticipation she couldn't stand it.
"What is it?" he asked worriedly.
"…it's…it's not working anymore," she said, staring at her hands again. Tanurah started to laugh at them, his cold, cruel voice echoing throughout the room, as Kinou clenched her hands so suddenly devoid of their tremendous power. "What happened to it?"
"No matter, I can still make him suffer," said Marik, pointing his Rod once again at the doctor. Tanurah took his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms, not flinching as the Millennium Rod began to glow with a radiant aura. "Now, feel the empty eternal darkness of the Shadow Realm!" shouted Marik, and with that he thrust his Millennium Rod in front of him, sending a blast of radiant light towards Tanurah. The doctor tilted his chin up ever so slightly as the light hit him and went right though, as though he weren't there. Marik froze with the Millennium Rod still glowing slightly in front of him, and Tanurah laughed once more as he held his hands out in front of him in the form Kinou had come to master.
Kinou put two and two together and screamed, "Marik! Get out of the way! He has my powers now!"
Marik ducked just in time to dodge one of the tables that came hurtling toward him through the air; it stopped, hovering a few inches above the ground as Tanurah turned both of his palms down and held his hands steady. Kinou's mouth dropped open. "How did you do that?"
He laughed again. "I learn quickly, Kinou. Mr. Kaiba there has recording equipment in all medical rooms and rooms used for study. I simply watched the video of you and that fool of a nurse practising a few times and deduced all that I needed to know."
"How dare you take advantage of my equipment," growled Kaiba, stepping out from behind her.
Tanurah shrugged, the table still staying in the air about five feet away from Marik, Marik eyeing it cautiously every so often. "You really should have been more careful with it, Mr. Kaiba. On the night you 'saved' Kinou, I was watching from across the street, for I had taken one of your trackers with me to see that you got her. Unfortunately, he had to take over that little boy and try to take her for himself. But now—" his eyes narrowed "—he's not here to interfere. I will take the world as its one and only ruler! Never again will he intrude into my thoughts and cause me pain when I refuse to rush through my studies, never again will I have to listen to his ramblings about the pharaoh's power! All is mine to take!"
With that, he hurled the table at Marik again, nearly hitting him before he jumped back. Kaiba drew Kinou back more, but she struggled against him to get to Marik. As Tanurah maneuvered his hands, he caused more and more objects to fly at Marik, as well as at Kinou and Kaiba, displaying concentration and skills Kinou never thought possible. Suddenly, Marik yelled out to Kaiba and Kinou, Kinou still trying to pry his arms off her.
"Get out of here!" he shouted, sending a stream of light from his Rod to meet the table flying dangerously through the air, causing it to stop completely, shaking as both men tried to force it back onto each other.
"I won't leave!" screamed Kinou, but she felt Kaiba's grip on her tighten as he started to drag her back towards the door. Tanurah was using all of his concentration on keeping the table from coming at him, which left them a free pathway to the exit without getting hurt, but still Kinou struggled against her protector. "Marik!" she cried, stretching out her hand to him.
He continued to battle with the doctor and only grimaced as the table teetered dangerously, and she felt Kaiba stop and release her with one of his arms to open up the door now right behind them. She heard the creaking of metal and his arm wound its way around her once more, and he pulled her through the doorway. She yelled, fighting more than ever before against Kaiba, but he pushed her the rest of the way through the doorway, making her lose her balance and fall hard on the floor. Looking up and through the door Kaiba was rapidly closing, she saw Marik give a great heave with his arm and the table flew to the side and both men dropped it. As it crashed into the wall, Marik turned sharply towards Kinou as Tanurah gasped for breath. As Kinou looked into his eyes, she was shocked to see them full of emotion, determination being the most prominent, but a sort of longing was right with it. Time seemed to slow down in that moment, drawing it out for what felt like an eternity as they stared at each other. His mouth quietly formed the words, "I love you, Kinou," before he turned back to the giant antennae and began to walk towards it, his Millennium Rod glowing once more. Kinou realised what he was going to do a second before Kaiba shut the door.
"MARIK!" she screamed, standing up and running to the door; she was about to tug it open again right as a tremendous crash of metal and electricity sounded, causing the very ground to shake. She held onto the door to keep from falling over, the terrible noise that sounded like a train colliding with another ringing in her ears. It sounded as though the whole room was collapsing, the concrete ceiling falling in great chunks while the steel rods supporting it creaked as they bent in half. As the sound died away, she still clutched the door, one of her hands resting against its frame. Her eyes eased open slightly as she listened through it, but no other noise reached her ears, only a deadly silence filled the destroyed room beyond. She slowly sank to the floor, tears clouding her vision. "Marik…"
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Yes, yes, another death. *tear tear sniff* Anyway, as a heads up, there is only ONE MORE CHAPTER after this one! And then it's over! And then you all will have to read my sequel! Bwahaha!