FINALLY this story is starting to become far more interesting to write! At least, to me it is. I actually feel like I have a reason to continue it. I just wish I'd get more reviews. Oh well -_-

Disclaimer: You know what belongs to me and what doesn't..... *cries wishing I could own Yu-Gi-Oh*

Oh well. Anyways...... On to the story!

~~The Taste of Revenge~~

CHAPTER 7

Heavy moonlight pierced its way through the black shadow clouds and found its way into the isolated parking lot. Zalika fell to the ground, unconscious. She breathed weakly, trying desperately to move or become human again. Pain shot through her head as the sound of Bakura's footprints approached. She heard his menacing laugh, slowly getting louder with each step.

"I told you that you were weak," he snickered.

Bakura pulled her deck from her duel disk, unaware that another pair of eyes were watching. He began searching through her deck, keeping his eyes open for Slyfer the Sky Dragon. It was on the very bottom, as the duel disk had put it there to return it from her graveyard. He quickly pulled a protective plastic case out of his pocket and placed the card inside of it, staring at it victoriously.

I wonder if anything else of value exists in this deck.... Looking through the cards once again, he selected a few rare ones.

"You should put those down."

Bakura quickly turned around to face the newcomer and glared at him with his demonic green eyes.

"Who are you, intruder?"

He received no response. Zalika managed to twitch her tail, happy that her nerves were beginning to function again. The voice of the other man confused her.

Who can that be? she wondered.

Growling, Bakura continued. "Stay out of this, mortal. These are not matters that you should be interfering in."

His new opponent pulled a dagger from his belt and continued walking towards Bakura, showing no fear. Bakura backed up slightly, realizing he would be no match for him if it turned to fighting. Although he had magical powers in the shadow realm, they were useless to him now. He whipped his tail against the ground, trying to ward off his enemy, but having no success.

"I'm not asking you to do it, Bakura. I am ordering you to put her cards down this moment or you shall face dire consequences."

Zalika moaned and opened her eyes slightly. She looked up at the two, scraping her claws against the black asphalt to regain her sense of feeling.

"Who are you...?" she asked weakly.

The guy facing Bakura turned to her and smiled softly. It didn't last though, as they began to advance at one another.

Bakura found himself being violently grabbed by the throat and choked. He was carried over to an old, rusty, abandoned car by the curb. Before he could blink, he felt metal crunching beneath him and glass shards cutting their way into his skin. He hadn't even felt being thrown.

"You chose the wrong person to have a shadow game with," his rival sneered. "And now it shall be you who pays and not her."

Bakura looked up, blood streaming down his face from a large glass gash in his forehead. A slight fear began to flow in his blood as he stammered, "Who are you to meddle in the affairs of us anyway?"

Rough hands reached up and grabbed Bakura's filthy, blood-soaked hair. The large dagger that his attacker held was brought up to the wound in his forehead and pushed into it.

"I'm your worst fucking nightmare, that's who," he replied.

Bakura howled in pain as the dagger began ripping away the skin protecting his thick cranium. It wasn't the first time he had been scalped as a devil, but each time he had hated it. And now the he was in the real world, the pain increased greatly. Blood poured out of the open wound as he was scalped, but he managed to quickly stop the murderous action by kicking his aggressor in the stomach.

As the man was getting up from the ground, Bakura tried desperately to stop the bleeding by pushing the skin back over his head and pressing so hard he thought his skull would crack. His opponent took advantage of Bakura's lack of attention on him and thrust his dagger into his shoulder.

Zalika weakly stood up on all four of her shaking legs and inched back a little. She felt a slight fear, as she was defenseless and too weak to defend herself if Bakura's adversary were to come after her. But she didn't turn her back. In her mind, the show was nothing but amusing and make a great story to share with Bakura's other enemies if she needed to embarrass him at any time.

Bakura thrashed, trying to get free. The dagger had pinned him into the side of the wrecked vehicle, and in his weakened state, he couldn't even pull himself free. He began swinging weakly at his attacker with his free hand, missing horribly each time. He heard Zalika begin to laugh, now remembering that his worst enemy stood there watching him being murdered.

His thoughts vanished as he received a gut-wrenching blow to his sternum. Pain shot immediately from his lungs to his stomach, causing him to cough up blood from both places. Blood sprayed out of his mouth and nose, slamming into the pavement like raindrops. The force of the blow made him faint, and he fell limp, still pinned to the car. Blood continued to drizzle from each of his wounds, and his breathing was shaky and threatened to stop at any second.

Zalika watched the victor of the fight with great curiosity. He wiped his dagger in a clean area on Bakura's matted clothes and returned it to his belt. He then searched Bakura's pocket, pulling out the Millennium Eye and picked up Zalika's cards.

Again, she retreated slightly. He walked over to her and extended his hand, which contained the golden eye he had stolen from Bakura.

"I believe this belongs to you."

Zalika weakly stood up to her full height and glanced at him with a confused expression. Cautiously, she stepped forward and accept the ancient piece of gold.

"Thank you... very much." She gulped, trying to regulate her breathing. "Who are you anyways?"

"Me?" he replied. "I'm just a passerby..."

He then handed her the cards, which had somehow avoided being rained on by Bakura's acidic blood.

"I believe these also belong to you."

Zalika allowed herself a rare smile. Since she never did smile, curling her lips up and revealing her sharp fangs took some effort.

"How... how can I ever repay you?" she asked weakly. "I didn't even win. I technically do not deserve these items."

"He cheated anyways. That cure card... he kept it in his sleeve and waited to use it. I saw him remove it from his shirt cuff."

Zalika snarled. "I should have known...."

As Zalika placed her cards into her jacket, he gently picked her up and began carrying her back to her home. Slightly surprised, she transformed back into her humanoid appearance and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck.

"What's your name?" she asked kindly.

"It would be wise if you do not know that for the time being."

Zalika frowned. "So I'll be seeing you again?"

He laughed lightly and smiled. "You could say that..."

She returned the smile, now with much more ease. She couldn't see him well in the pitch black night. The moon had concealed itself behind some black clouds, afraid to poke out and shine it's light over the corrupted planet that it was confined to.

He looked down, pretending to read the name imprinted on her jacket under the KC. "Zalika Pegasus, huh?"

She nodded, continuing to look at him.

"Well I must thank you for ridding the world of that skank known as Téa."

Zalika blinked. "How do you know about that? I have told no one other than Marik Ishtar and my father."

"You would be surprised at what I know," he replied.

Zalika ignored her feelings. Half of her mind told her to leap out of his arms and attack him, the other half told her to be calm and just be thankful that he was helping her. Deciding that for now he was not going to harm her, she relaxed and held on a bit more firmly.

"I saw how you hid your tracks that night with the deer blood. Very impressive..." he continued.

"Hehe, I like fooling police. They are too blind to even suspect me." she laughed quietly. "At least you didn't turn me in. I guess I don't have much reason to be afraid of you, do I?"

"Oh there are millions of reasons to be afraid of me, but you have no reason to worry at the moment."

They arrived a little later at her doorstep. He set Zalika down and watched her.

"Thank you so much. I owe you... a lot." Amazingly, she hugged him lightly.

"You're very welcome, and no you don't owe me."

"Yes I do. You've done a lot for me tonight and I don't even know who you are."

Zalika watched him, just barely able to make out what he looked like. From what she saw, he was very handsome... more handsome than Marik. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden hilted dagger with a diamond blade and handed it to her.

"Here is something to remember me by."

Zalika smiled deeply, and lowered her head so he wouldn't see. "You're very kind, but isn't this a little much?"

He shook his head. Zalika hugged him again, allowing herself to let go of her serious nature for a while. She held him for a long moment, and couldn't help not wanting to let go. It felt much warmer and more realistic than Marik's hugs, which always made her feel like she was hugging a skinny sappling.

"The dagger is very pretty."

"It's from ancient Egyptian times."

"Thank you, again." Zalika sighed. "I really need to give you something in return. So tell me what you want."

He said nothing, just shook his head and turned around. She sighed sadly as he began to walk away.

"Umm, goodbye... Sir." She watched him, lost in deep thought.

He glanced back over his shoulder, casting her a smile. "I'll see you around."

She smiled back, for what seemed to her like the millionth time that night. "I look forward to it."

Once he had disappeared into the blackness of the night, Zalika walked back into her home. Seeing the clock, she scowled as she was late for work.

The ticking became annoying. 10:12 AM; she should have been there over an hour ago.

Jesus fucking Christ! Kaiba is going to have a fucking horse!

Scrambling to get ready, she slapped on a fresh pair of clothes and retrieved a clean jacket from the laundry room. Her truck was parked outside, most likely low on gasoline. She ran back out, throwing her wallet, a box of work papers, her calculator, and the other items she needed for her job into the back cab.

She ran back through the old door and to the refrigerator. Nothing interesting was inside, so she grabbed a bottle of milk and a chilled candy bar. Her hair was a mess, but she didn't care. If Kaiba were to make a big deal about it, he could kiss her ass.

Back in the truck, Zalika started it up and headed towards the Kaiba Corp. main building.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kaiba was furious. When she had entered the building, people flooded the lobby, and she had escaped up to her office with ease. But once she had entered her password and walked in, her phone was ringing within seconds.

Rolling her eyes, Zalika answered.

'Where the fuck have you been?' Kaiba yelled.

"I knew you were going to ask that. It's none of your fucking business."

'If you are late again you are fired!'

"I knew you were going to say that too. Just shut up you prick, and accept the fact that I have a life. Unlike you, I don't spend 99.999% of my time in front of my computer making up programs with little success, like you have been these days."

'You worthless bitch! Get your slutty ass up here!'

"Oh for what? For one, I'm not a slut. Second, just because you're my boss doesn't mean you can treat me that way. Employers are supposed to be kind to their workers. Perhaps I should...."

'You wouldn't dare....'

"I do what I must."

Kaiba growled. For once, he didn't know what to say. He knew he'd end up getting killed if he continued, and slammed the phone down.

He wondered if Zalika would actually do what he said and come up to his office. After 15 minutes of waiting, he became lost in his mound of papers that need to be signed and forgot about the fight completely.

Zalika knew he'd give up. Thinking to herself, she laughed.

It's sad how people like that devote themselves to their work so much that they hardly allow themselves to take a breath. So pathetic... Especially for that manwhore. He should fucking be enjoying his money instead of worrying about his fucking satellites.

Zalika tried to work at her computer, monitoring and entering commands into the satellites. Analyzing pictures they sent to her was extremely boring. She wished she could quit the job. She wished that the whole fucking building would explode and she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

She found herself thinking about the duel and how it had ended. Her thoughts drifted to and from the man who had taken her home. She wondered constantly about him.

Is he stalking me or something? No... I doubt it. Probably just a coincidence that he saw me sadistically murdering that fucking bitch. But... if he's not stalking me... then who is he? And how does he know so much?

Oh well... Perhaps I should just.... get back to work.

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Another chapter complete! Please review! ^_^

Not that many people do anyways.... .

So, who is the mystery guy you ask? And what's up with this chapter's oddness? Come back for the next few chapters to find out!