Okay, I need to say a few things. First of all, thank you to all my reviewers! You and my boyfriend are what's keeping me writing this! Okay, second... The violence is going to intensify quite nicely in the next few chapters. I'm sure you'll like it. Most of the future chapters are "written", but not in a document yet.
Disclaimer: I'm not going through this again. You all know that some stuff belongs to me but the majority of it doesn't.
~~The Taste of Revenge~~
CHAPTER 6
It was Bakura's turn again. He looked over at his opponent's side of the field, a drop of sweat dripping from his chin to the metallic ground. Examining his hand, he found nothing promising. It contained two magic cards while the rest were all traps, now rendered useless by the Jinzo that stood in a protective stance beside his opponent. He drew a card from the deck, and instantly his eyes brightened.
He slammed the card face-down on his duel disk, as well as the two magic cards. Trying to remain calm, he glanced at his opponent once more.
"I'm not afraid of your dragons, Zalika."
"Good, I don't like cowardly duelists," she replied.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked quietly. "It's your move."
"Fine then." Zalika drew, hardly glancing at the cards she held. She placed a magic card on her duel disk, and instantly it activated. "This is Diffusion. Do you know what it does?"
Bakura shook his head.
"I figured as much. This card separates any fusion monster into its original forms."
"Oh no..." Bakura whined. Inside though, he felt no fear. He knew that she would use the Diffusion card to make three Blue Eyes White Dragons, and then summon Slyfer. And that's exactly what he wanted.
"And now, I sacrifice my newly created Blue Eyes White Dragons, and I play my Egyptian God Card!"
Bakura glared, for the second time in his life, at the colossal dragon that loomed over him. Slyfer the Sky Dragon sure lived up to its name, for it did literally touch the sky. That is, if the Shadow Realm actually had a sky, it would.
"Since I have 5 cards in my hand, Slyfer has 5,000 attack and defense points. Whatever your face-down card is, it's doomed. And thanks to Jinzo, your defenses are greatly limited."
Bakura said nothing. He simply waited.
Like he predicted, Zalika attacked. His defense card, which turned out to be Wall of Illusion, activated nicely without being disabled by Slyfer. Although it was in defense position, its special effect forced Slyfer to withdraw itself back into Zalika's hand. Once Slyfer had been safely eliminated back to its owner, the Wall of Illusion crumbled into a bloody pile of bones.
"I knew you were an amateur!" Bakura shouted, laughing. "You are so stupid you couldn't even predict that I had a trap set!"
Zalika growled, but remained mostly calm. "I'm not through... And your life points are wide open for a direct attack."
Zalika ripped another card from her hand and placed it in the field-change slot. Around them, the purplish darkness swirled into a light-grey mixed with black. It consumed any light around them, leaving them in complete darkness.
"What the fuck?" Bakura asked. "Is this some kind of trick?"
"Mystic Plasma Zone," Zalika replied. "It boosts the attack of all dark type monsters."
"I can't even see my monsters, or my hand!"
"That's not my problem."
Bakura drew a card, starting his turn. Not knowing what it said, he kept it in his hand. "I play no cards. So make a move, and it better be good."
"It will be." Zalika hissed.
Again, Bakura was not worried as he heard cards shifting between Zalika's fingers.
"I move Jinzo onto the field, and I am adding Axe of Despair to it," she said. "And I am having him attack your life points directly. With 3,900 attack points, Jinzo brings your life points down exactly to zero."
"Not so fast, I activate my magic card, Dan Keto the Cure Master!"
"What does it do?"
"It increases my life points by 1000."
"What?? No!"
"And I also activate my second magic card! This allows me to take the weakest monster on your side of the field and deduct it's attack points from your life points. And since Jinzo is your only monster..."
"Bakura!"
"You lose!"
"But... How could I not see this coming?!"
Zalika growled angrily as her full demonic form took over. "I can't believe this, I am so stupid!"
"I had no other choice. I had to defeat you."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Marik woke up in his bed. Looking at the clock, he read 4:26 AM in large, digitalized red numbers.
How did I get here from the parking lot?
He looked around. His clothes were soaked with sweat, and his door was wide open.
...And where is Zalika? She knows I never leave my door open.
Marik stood up and walked out the door. Peering out the window, he found his motorcycle still safely parked outside. The sun had not yet begin to rise, and Marik didn't feel like staying up.
I hope she's okay. She never stays out late it seems. Maybe she brought me back and left to kill Bakura.
Marik shrugged. His mind screamed at him to go looking for her, but his body ached all over and as he took his clothes off, he noticed that there were bruises all over his body.
What the fuck? I didn't get into any fights.
His mind was blurred. He remembered only the duel, nothing afterwards since he woke up. He dumped his wet clothes in the laundry basket and headed back into his room.
She can take care of herself. She'd kill me for caring anyways.
It's not that he didn't care, he was just too tired to do anything about anything at all.
Demons can't die anyways....
Marik collapsed back onto his bed, falling asleep before his head hit the pillow. Nightmares flooded his mind. He kept dying, over and over again. Bakura, Zalika, and other demonic looking creatures attacked him ferociously, ripping off pieces of his flesh.
---[nightmare]---
He howled in pain. The dragons, devils, and gods lounged at him, ripping off a piece of his flesh and devouring it before attacking again. Before he knew it, he was nothing more than an intact skeleton, slowly being ripped apart and eaten alive once more.
Then he fell. The abyss seemed to never want to stop. The icy air slamming into his skinless skull stabbed at him like a blizzard of a thousand knives. He flailed his bony arms and legs, wondering how they had returned after being eaten by the wicked creatures.
His curiosity was cut short as he saw the red substance forming below. The liquid rushed like a river; it threatened to crush his thin frame once more the second he slammed into it.
His fall slowed just long enough for him to realize that it was a raging river of blood. The reek of rot filled his non-existent nostrils. He kept falling, faster and faster, until his body slammed into it and drowned him.
Again he woke up, this time covered in his skin but also a dried up layer of blood. He looked around. People surrounded him; every person he knew in his life that is. Whether or not they were friends or foes, they were laughing.
"Stop it!" he cried. "Stop laughing at me!"
At his soft whimpering, the people laughed even harder. Some even fell on the floor, laughing insanely.
It was then that his father stepped forward. People silenced, watching what the older Ishtar would do. Marik wiped away his tears and looked up into his father's critical eyes. The man back-fisted him in the face, drawing blood from inside his mouth.
"You are a disgrace!" he shouted. "Marik, I can't believe you were once my son. Look at what you have done!"
"I did.... I didn't mean to do it... I..." Marik stammered, fear stricken. "I HAVE DONE NOTHING TO YOU!"
He received a kick in the gut. He fell over, curled up painfully on the floor. Again, the "room" erupted in laughter. He looked around, seeing people crying from the humor. Even Ishizu and Odion were there, as well as Seto Kaiba, Yugi, Bakura, and everyone else he knew.
He looked back up at his father. The man had a knife in his hand. It was the same dagger that he had used to give Marik the scars on his back.
"No! Don't put me through that again!!"
"You fool, I'm not going to even let you live this time!" he father yelled.
The dagger slammed into his chest, and although he tried to struggle, his arms would not move. He screamed in pain and his father ripped the dagger over his skin, ripping it off his skeleton for the second time that night.
Horrified and paralyzed, Marik watched as his father began ripping away his internal organs. Pain shot through what was left of him. He screamed so loud that he could no longer hear the laughs and cheers of the audience. What seemed like hours later, his father had left only his heart and brain with his skeleton, and his organs laid beside him in the bloody heap. He looked up, and around at the people. Most of them were crying from laughing so hard. Only one wasn't laughing... And that was his own mother. She looked at him, crying blood. Marik felt the pain increase, but in his brain more than anywhere else.
"Marik... I'm here for you..." she whispered.
Marik felt himself burst into tears once again. The pain from his past began filling him ever so slowly, enraging and destroying him mentally from the inside out. Again he looked at his mother, but she was gone.
He looked down at his skeleton, which was covered in the blood that had spurted out of his now dead heart. He looked up for the last time, only to receive a blow in the face from an unknown being.
---[end nightmare]---
Marik's eyes flew open and he immediately sat up. He looked down at his hands and screamed. The skeleton was still visible... Was he living in his dream still? Out of fear, he jumped and fell off the bed. He quickly stood up, and trembling, ran into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and saw that his skin had returned. His blonde hair stuck to his face, dripping with sweat. He turned on the water and began washing his face, trying to clear his mind.
It was then that the laughing began again.
He heard the voices, but one in particular was heard above the rest. Fearfully, he looked up, and into the mirror.
"Welcome home my little hikari." Yami Marik snickered.
"No! Get away from me!" Marik splashed water onto the mirror and the image faded. The laughing ceased and Marik calmed down. He walked back into his room and pulled the sweaty blankets off his bed. Looking at the clock, he noticed that he had 1½ hours to get ready for work. It was more than enough time, but he decided it was worth it. He hoped Zalika would show up for work, but wasn't sure what to expect on this day.
Sighing, Marik walked back into the bathroom and turned the shower on. Thoughts from the night terror raced through his mind, giving him a migraine headache. Seeing Kaiba at work wouldn't make it any better either.
He concluded that it was going to be a long-ass day, and a bad one at that.
____________________________________
Well isn't this a nice little twist? XD Sorry people, I had to make something bad happen. Oh well, it's not the first thing bad to happen and most definitely won't be the last.
Hope you enjoyed! Please review! ^_^