Yes…all must have pity for Malik…Doesn't mean I'll go easy on him. Well, maybe just this once.

Oh. A small note. Mariku gets a letter/received a letter in the start of this chapter from Isis. Now, with logical reasoning this would not be possible, as he received it in about a day or so from when it was sent. Why is this not possible? Isis is in Japan. Mariku is in Egypt. Now I'm just assuming that it would take just a few more days for the letter to travel. Therefore, logical reasoning really isn't used here right now. I apologize. And the plane ride is kinda…short. Crap -.- Meh…

This chapter is more…how do I say it…peaceful than the rest? I guess. It's almost too much that it feels choppy…damn.

Black-skull-dragon: ASAP? I tried my best o.o; This is up quicker than I normally would be on something, so I suppose that's a good plus.

Englasu: Yay You're reading something of mine, heh. I will make it all better.

Purple Rose: Mariku will turn things around, I promise.

Sugar-Goddess: Yeah, I was being mean now, wasn't I?

ThE KrAzY OnE: Yes, it was very hard actually.

"Without the mask where will you hide? Can't find yourself lost in your lie. I know the truth now, I know who you are."

-Everybody's Fool: Evanescence

Chapter Four: Savior

"Can't we just leave?"

"You know you can't put off your duties, Mariku…" a figure sighed, crossing his arms in thought. He glanced at the adolescent, noting the determined face on the darkly tanned face. "Mariku, please stop asking about this."

"Rishid! Isis said it's an emergency though! Read the letter!" the boy forced a piece of paper in his elder's hands, pointing down to a certain inked line, "see? You see it? Right, it says exactly 'Please send Mariku here as soon as you can, Malik seems to be becoming very…sick,'" the boy sighed, pale, spiked hair drooping in worry. "Please…"

The darker-skinned one sighed, shaking his head with a rising smile, "All right, all right. Let's go to Shaadi and see what we can do…"

"Can't we just leave?"

"Mariku!"

"What? I see no problem. If we ask him, he's just going to drag me away and force me to sleep with the camels again!" he glared as Rishid chuckled at his comment, "It's not funny! I hate camels!"

"Relax, child. I suppose just this once we can…escape, should I say?" Rishid nearly smirked, folding his arms behind the back of his robe innocently. "Or is breaking away a better term?"

"Anything is fine, let's just go." Mariku gave a brief cheer, running past his legal guardian. "Besides, I'm sure I can raise his spirits."

Mrs. Ridge scanned the room of her Geometry class, clipboard at hand as she marked off those present and those who were absent. Eyes of blue hid behind mostly long brown hair, though a few streaks of orange seemed to fall into the mix. Unlike many of the teachers in the school, she was fresh from college…and yet, some students swore she knew what was going around the school more than most teachers. Maybe the administration's zombie like nature didn't apply to her.

"Hm…no Malik today? …That's a shame…we're starting cylinders too…" her lips uplifted in a smile when the class let out an altogether groan. "They won't be that bad, you might even like them."

Yami kept his arms crossed on his desk, head laid tiredly atop them. Somehow he did manage to keep a slight focus to the board as the teacher uncapped a marker and began to write for all to take notes. But he wasn't taking notes. His pupils scanned the room to see who was and slowly nodded to himself; Ryou was scribbling the words down, Honda was most likely doodling. And Seto and Jou? Never trust either of their notes. Seto's never made sense to him as there always seemed to be more on them and Jou's generally comprised of different kinds of food he could be having for lunch.

Sleep deprived. That's what he was. Last night he laid in bed for at least three hours trying to get to sleep, and finally around two o'clock he got up and went to work on that science project. That stupid project…no matter what he tried - it wouldn't work. He couldn't get the damned car to move, and then he ran out of balloons, giving up for the night. Well, the morning. The rest of the few hours he had left until school were spent laying on the couch.

And yet here he was in Geometry - a class perfect for him to sleep in, and his body still had enough energy in it to keep him awake. Dammit.

His eyes scouted over to the empty desk and he mumbled a dark slur of words, head tilting more to the side so his cheek was pressed against the sleeve of his jacket. The gaze blurred from the lack of sleep - or perhaps because he had yet to blink again, zoning out weakly. He's not here, the realization finally sunk in.

"Yami?"

"It's not my fault," he muttered in response, taking a minute or two to realize it was the teacher who spoke. He rose his head slightly to look at her, blinking to awake his awareness before slumping back against his chair, arms falling to his sides. "Sorry."

She gave him a quizzing look, sighing, "Just try to pay attention to the lesson?"

"Sure," though even as he answered, his mind was clicking off again. Honda stared back at him, noticing the crimson gaze shifting over to the empty seat again before slipping off to sleep.

"Come on, Yami…" Ryou mumbled as he pushed at the exhausted teen's back, trying to get him out of the classroom in one piece. Yami collapsed backwards, starting to crush Ryou until Honda grabbed his arms and pulled him to his feet again. "Why's he so depressed and tired…?" Ryou complained, catching his breath once the weight was off him, Honda having put one of Yami's arms around his neck to keep him steady.

"I bet I know why."

"Eh?"

"It's because his new punching bag isn't here today. He needs someone to pick on, you know?"

"Yeah, that must be it…" Ryou sighed, blinking when Yami began to wake more and forced Honda away so he could stand on his own. Of course Seto and Jounouchi had to run off to their classes. Could have at least helped a little bit. "You ok now, Yami?"

"I'm fine," he hissed a bit, head falling back slightly before he forced himself to straighten up, gathering his composure to send a glare in Honda's direction, who in turn became surprised by the act. "Don't try figuring my emotions again," he bit out carefully, stumbling forward, "I'm going to improv…" That would wake him up.

"Does that mean I'm wrong about the punching bag bit?"

Ryou shrugged unknowingly.

"Mariku?" Rishid laid a soft knock to the door of the plane's bathroom. "What are you doing in there? People are starting to wonder," he glanced around at the seats of the plane. "And starting to become upset, mind you."

"Pull of some of your dark, evil, security expressions and they'll leave you alone, you'll see."

"Mariku!"

"Shhh, not so loud, Rishid!"

"Come out already!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," the door opened and the boy poked his head out, arms wrapped around a black carry-on bag, stepping out fully and striding innocently back to his window seat. Rishid rolled his eyes, following and sitting by the other.

"What took so long…?"

"I was feeding Paku. I didn't want to do it so openly, people may freak out a bit."

"Paku? What, may I ask, is a 'Paku'…?" he cast the boy besides him a worried gaze as Mariku unzipped the bag in his lap.

"My new mongoose, of course," he smiled as a small head peeked out of the bag and then pulled back in. Mariku rose a brow at his guardian's shocked gaze. "What? When we were in the airport you said I could pick up anything that could possibly make Malik happier. And I found this guy sitting with a cage with this mongoose. Said she had all her shots already. So I bought her. I'm sure my brother will be pleased."

"Master Mariku!" Rishid tried to keep himself hushed from drawing any attention.

"I thought I finally got you away from the 'master' nonsense?" Mariku sighed, leaning on the armrest closest to the window and glanced out. "You worry too much, Rishid."

"…What were you feeding it?"

"Her. Not 'it.'"

"Excuse me then, what were you feeding her?"

Mariku's face pulled up into a smirk, "Just a mouse."

"Mariku!"

"It's good to have you boys in class today. We can't get enough of your minds here, and I'm sure you can't get tired of mine. So I'll be seeing both of you after school for skipping class." Third period began for Yami and Bakura with a lightly agitated history teacher, Mr. Hodei. Yami tossed the teacher a glare as he sat down at a desk between Bakura and Otogi. Honda, from elsewhere in the room, sent a single, hovering gaze in Yami's direction to make sure he was ok. The flicker of relief gave Yami notice that he must have been looking ok.

I feel shitty, he thought to himself, scribbling his name into the corner of a piece of paper that Bakura offered him. It took him a moment before he blinked over to Bakura, "What's this for anyway?"

The silver haired gave a lopsided shrug, "You think I know? If you were paying any attention he told us to take a sheet out," Bakura signaled to the teacher sitting behind the desk in the front of the room. If Bakura didn't know better, he could have sworn Mr. Hodei was smirking at the two of them in particular.

"Pop quiz on the reading from last night."

"Reading?" Yami blinked before hitting his head onto the desktop. "Bloody hell…Otogi, what was the reading on?"

"…That's a good question. Damn! I knew I should have done that homework…"

Yami rolled his head towards the right again to glance over at Bakura. "Why isn't this bothering you?"

"What? The pop quiz?" Bakura blinked, then shrugged, "Can't stop the inevitable. Even if I did read or do whatever the so called homework was, I would fail anyway."

"Good point, you would."

"Ye - Hey!"

"…I can't believe you made it through security."

"What do you mean, Rishid?" Mariku blinked innocently, looking behind them at the area where the carry-on items and whatnot are scanned. "You thought they'd stop me?"

"You have a mongoose in your bag, Mariku."

"So?"

"How did they not catch that…?" the man sighed, shaking his head as he stared up at the ceiling.

"They asked about it. I told them it was my treasured stuffed animal, Fefe."

"They believed that?"

"Yep!" the boy snickered, unzipping a part of the bag once he knew they were clear of trouble and Paku could easily pop her head out.

"And what about getting off the plane itself? The crew thought you had a bomb with you after all the time you were in the bathroom. Not to mention the smell of mongoose that seemed to be left behind afterwards," he rose a brow as the other started to laugh.

"That was classic, Rishid. I told them I wasn't used to planes, so I was a bit shaken in the bathroom. Said I missed and was polite enough to clean it up for them. And about the smell of mongoose, I told them they didn't know anything. Exclaimed with grave annoyance that it wasn't my fault I worked around camels all the time and it happened to smell up the bathroom, but it wasn't mongoose they smelled. It was camels. Stupid fools believed me. I can't think of how they were hired."

"You're something else, Master…"

"No 'Master' shit!" he growled back, eyes scanning around when a few people stopped to look at him. He snorted and adjusted the bag over his shoulder roughly, earning an irate sound from Paku. "Sorry," he muttered to her.

"She's awfully tamed…"

"Probably from the previous guy or something. He said he had her for a few years. Came from…Ethiopia," he thought carefully as they waited at the baggage claim for their one suitcase. Mostly of Rishid's items, as Mariku wanted to simply leave - not bother with packing. "There it is," Mariku's hand shot out to grab the handle of the black suitcase, heaving it off the moving platform and onto the ground. He released his hold to it for Rishid to take before glancing around. "So how exactly are we…traveling?"

"Great question. Let's find a payphone."

"Why?"

"To call Isis. Unless you plan on walking?"

Mariku gave his guardian a glare.

"I suppose you want me to pick you up?" Isis sighed, glancing around the small front office of the museum. At least it was quiet…or…more quiet than normally. She uneasily bit her lip. "I can't leave now, Rishid…I'm needed here…"

"Excuse me, miss?"

She glanced to an old woman with what seemed to be two children, probably grandkids. "Where are the bathrooms?"

"Down the hall and to your left."

"Thank you greatly, miss," the woman shuffled off.

"Sorry, Rishid. What were you saying?" For Malik's benefit. Right. "I'll see what I can do, I'll try to get there shortly," she hung up the phone and stepped out of the office, stepping into the Egyptian section and offering a smile to an intern who had been working beneath Isis for awhile now. "Cody? How would you like to have an official job here?"

The boy turned around from cleaning the glass of one of the setups, an old necklace held within it that had been found in a tomb recently. "Are you serious?"

"Very."

"I'd love an actual job!"

"Great. You can 'officially' start now. I'm leaving you with an important task…watch over this section while I'm gone, or you're fired," her eyes danced with fire and the boy straightened, giving a wary nod a his response. She then smiled and turned away. That was easy. Assuming everything is in one piece when I return… She hurriedly moved out of the building once she heard that one of the bathrooms was flooding.

"Say it again."

"Thank you, Isis," Rishid and Mariku mumbled in unison. The guardian sat in the passenger seat of Isis's car whilst Mariku got comfortable in the middle of the back seats, Paku sniffing around outside of the bag, making a small peep once she found a penny on the floor. She went to bite into it when Mariku pulled her up onto a seat.

"You're not eating that," he muttered.

"How is Malik?" Rishid finally spoke up as they drove, ignoring whatever was occurring in the seats behind him.

"When I left this morning he wouldn't talk to me. Just stared at the wall. I didn't want to leave him…but I had to," she shook her head sadly, "I should really leave this job. Perhaps it would be better for all of us if I did."

"Don't do that, Isis, I'll make things better for Malik," Mariku smiled, managing to get Paku back into the bag. There wasn't much else in it except a blanket and a few books of his. …A very light packer. "Oh, hey, could you drop me off at the school?"

Both blinked back at him quizzing, but it was Rishid who spoke up, "Don't you want to see Malik first?"

"No. I mean…I want to figure out myself what is troubling him before I actually face him. Probably doesn't make much sense…but it does to me. Oh, by the way…what's the name of anyone closest to him, as in a bad way?"

Isis thought over to remember the boy that was at the apartment, "I believe Yami. Not sure of his last name, but I do remember him being rather rude…and smug…" Mariku mumbled darkly at this, but said nothing too loudly.

"I suppose then I can…pick you up some new clothes…" Rishid thought aloud, off in his own world, so to speak.

"What's wrong with my clothes?!"

"You look like an Indian, Mariku."

The boy glared darkly, "I do not!" he snapped, glancing down at his attire of pants made of a material like cotton and a loose fitting camel skin shirt. He crossed his arms and snorted, looking out the window as the car began to slow. His eyes fell onto the school, the area surrounding it seeming dead. Like a prison of some sort, he thought carefully. He slipped his bag back over his shoulder, making sure Paku was safely within it before opening the door and stepping out.

"Do they allow pets in school…?" Rishid's voice stopped him from moving and the boy shrugged, internally smirking.

"Of course, Rishid. Don't you know these things?" he closed the car door, starting towards the building so no one could stop him again.

Rishid turned a glance to a smiling Isis. "Do they allow pets?"

"No," she chuckled softly.

He looked more than appalled by her comment, "Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I'm not that old, Rishid. I am still allowed to keep myself amused."

"Wait! Stop, boy! You can't just go sneaking off late into the building!"

Mariku faltered as a woman grabbed his arm just moment after he entered the building. He stared down at her, making a mental note that she looked like some sort of frog hermit. "It's not like I've been here before!" he snapped towards her as she positioned herself behind the main desk.

"Ah! New student, then?"

"I…guess…"

"Name?" she hummed, tapping a pen feverishly to the surface.

"Uh…Mariku Ishtar."

"Another Ishtar? Hm…let us get you a schedule…" she turned towards a computer, putting on a pair of reading glasses as she searched through class lists, finding random places to stick the boy into before printing off a sheet. She grabbed the paper and handed it to him. "Here, now get out. It's period six right now."

"Wait a second," he blinked, staring down at the paper. "Isn't Earth Science supposed to be a freshmen class?"

"Yes, yes, now go."

"But…I'm technically a sophomore…I guess…" he checked the rest of his classes to make sure they were all right, though was a bit confused with the Photography one.

"Who cares. Leave."

"But -"

"Get out of here or I'll lock you in a cage for a week straight!" she shouted and he backed away carefully, deciding that this woman could possibly do that to him. No way am I risking it, he thought, running a bit down the hallway until he was clear from her vision.

"I don't want a schedule…" he muttered with a sigh, folding it up and putting it into a back pocket.

"Hey, Malik! So you actually decided to show up, hm? And with such a cute new hairstyle…"

Mariku growled when he felt someone come up behind him, hands toying with his hair. Rude and sounds smug…that's what Isis said. I suppose THIS is Yami then…

"What? The runt doesn't feel like speaking after the little beating I gave you? Aww…what a shame, artichoke head."

"Well then, Yami," Mariku started as he spun around, clenched fist going right into the figure's gut, forcing him to the ground. His bag twisted around slightly from the movements and Paku chirped in disapproval, twisting from the bag to move out atop it. Mariku stepped over and glared down narrowly at the figure. "That one was for my brother."

"Did…you just call me…Yami…?" the boy on the ground gasped, clenching an arm around his stomach.

"Yes. That is your name, isn't it?"

"You've gone mad, runt. Seriously mad," he stood with a grunt and signaled with both hands to himself, "Katsuya Jounouchi, remember?" there was a pause and then, "Wait, what about a brother? You are Malik, right?"

"Wrong," Mariku smirked as Paku climbed up onto his shoulder, making a jeering sound towards Jounouchi. He watched the other shift uncomfortably at the sight of the mongoose. "My name is Mariku," he held a hand out to the other. Jou went to shake it and he quickly pulled away, tilting his head to the side, "Paku, go introduce yourself."

The mongoose jumped down and Jou yelped loudly, stepping back quickly, but the animal was already biting into his leg. It was a short motion, quick and over with enough that she had jumped back into the bag. "Now that we've all been acquainted, why not show me to Yami, hm, Katsuya?"

The blonde rubbed his leg, unbelievably shaking his head at this boy, so much different than Malik in his perspective. Insane was the fitting word.

"Well?"

"Eh…Yeah…I'll show you to Yami…" Jou muttered, walking around the other in a wide arc before moving towards the stairs. "He's…in science right now…"

"And where are you supposed to be?"

"…History," he muttered inaudibly. Mariku was overjoyed; he had successfully shaken one of his brother's tormenters. And he gained a guide in the process.

"When I come around to you and your partner, show me what you have done on your projects," Mrs. Mikoto informed the split up class. Desks were broken up for the different partnerships, everyone working efficiently. Everyone except Yami. Fuck this class to hell, he spat darkly in his mind, staring at the single sheet of paper on his desk that represented his current work on the project. It held a table of all the different failing car designs and the trials of distances that each balloon powered car went. This is hopeless, he sighed, hand clenching the desk angrily as he restrained himself from tearing up the paper.

He raised his eyes slightly when he saw Jounouchi stumble nervously into the room, waving to get the teacher's attention. "Eh, can I have a word with Yami for a bit?"

Mrs. Mikoto's attention shifted between the two boys, taking in Yami's confused expression and then Jou's uneasy nature. "Fine."

Yami stood slowly and walked to the doorway, immediately asked Jou what was going on. "Well, see, uh, this…guy wants to talk to you…" he muttered as they stepped outside. Mariku was leaning against the opposing wall of the hall, eyes darkening as they absorbed Yami's appearance. "He's insane, I'll tell you. Be careful. I'd stay around but…eh…he freaks me out…" Jou bolted immediately when the shadowy lavender eyes fell on him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Yami scoffed, collecting himself and crossing his arms.

"That doesn't matter at the moment," Mariku pushed away from the wall and started to stalk towards the shorter other. "What in Ra's name did you do to my brother?!"

"…Excuse me?" Yami blinked, surprised.

"My brother, Malik Ishtar. Perhaps you haven't noticed that he is not here today, and I'm assuming you had something to do with it," a growling surrounded him and Yami took a step backwards into the hallway, away from the classroom. But he noticed the growl was from the mongoose whom once again seated itself curved around Mariku's neck and on his shoulder. "You should really start praying for your life right about now…"

Yami's awareness flashed back to the image of the letter he had grabbed back at Malik's apartment. Realization flickered across his expression. "You're the older brother," he muttered and watched a smirk uplift across the other's face.

"That's right. And I'll have you know my younger brother is hiding in his room right now, refusing to talk to anyone except the darkness within it," his body came close to Yami's, enough so he could guide it into a wall, his arms coming up and palm pressing against the lockers lining that very wall. His other arm came up and did the same, trapping Yami in a tight spot. Paku's muzzle uplifted in disgust and she growled lightly again.

Shit, the one word crossed through Yami's consciousness. He managed to keep an unreadable appearance, eyes hollowing to block his emotions from showing through.

"You better start talking," his body was tensing as his face contorted darkly, "Or I'll be killing you right here. This is your only warning."

See! It was pretty light! …Until the end XD Yami's kinda screwed where he is right now, hm? Well, he should have seen it coming. Couldn't stay safe forever. Ah…but see…though things may perhaps start looking up for Malik, Yami is still breaking - even though he's trying to keep to all he's built up for himself. But how long until he has another break down? How long until he fully snaps? Hmmm? None of you know! Bwaha! Actually…I don't really know either…

Crap. I should have edited this. mutters Spelling may be off…please inform me if you see anything.

Oh, this is in my bio now too…but I'm putting it here as well…See, I made a livejournal account that I would put snippets/updates/whatnot of my work on it. Some of it is good to see that I am alive on some stories XD I post snippets a lot…lol… So if you want an easy way to find out what I'm up to/working on (sometimes pieces of stories that aren't even posted yet) then check it out.

Damn this quickedit crap! -curses- Just to go to livejournal itself and look up the member 'spiritofallia'. -sigh- FFN can be so bothersome...