Look, more Dead Future! Rishid wakes up! This first section was... evil to format. Oh, and there's a curse word in here! Very unusual for me. I don't really like to curse, but... Malik is quite frustrated and sad at the time.

Yeah, right now I'm just babbling so on to the disclaimer...

I don't own YGO. At least not the concept. I do, however, own every single chapter of the manga in at least one form, and yes, I DO like saying that over and over again.


Someone was crying.
...
...
Heartbroken sobs every now and then, with steady sniffles in between... Who was it?
...
...
It seemed familiar, somehow.
...Had he heard this person crying before?
...
...
It seemed important to comfort him.
...Why? Who was it?
...
...
Why couldn't he remember? His mind was working so slowly.
But it seemed so familiar.
...
He wanted to open his eyes and look, but—

...He didn't have the strength for it...
...
"Rishid, please—"
...said the tearful voice.
..."Please wake up. I need you. Please…"
...
It was Malik-sama……!
...
What was wrong? Why was he—The other personality...
...
It must have come out—... right?
Because Rishid hadn't been there to stop it.
...
What had it done? ...The idea was terrible to contemplate.
Nothing good, Rishid was sure.
...Malik-sama needed Rishid's help.
...
Malik-sama… Rishid wanted to speak out loud, but he was so weak.
What had happened to him…?
...
…That's right. The fake Ra card.
...
It hadn't accepted Rishid as one of the Gravekeepers' clan…… ...
...
...
...
But there was no time to feel despair.
...
Malik-sama needed him. Rishid had to wake up and help his master. He couldn't bear to hear Malik-sama cry any longer.
...
He tried to open his eyes again.
No luck.
He was so tired…

But there was nothing to do but to keep trying…
Keep trying. He had to wake up.
Keep trying.
Keep…


With a great effort, Rishid opened his eyes and sat up in bed.

"Rishid!" Malik's voice cried. "Rishid… You're alive…"

Rishid turned his head towards the boy. Malik stood by the bed, tears still evident in his eyes. "I thought you were going to die…" he said weakly. "And it would have been my fault… I thought… Rishid, I'm so…"

Rishid managed a trembling smile. "I wouldn't leave you alone like that, Malik-sama."

Malik tried and failed to return the smile. "Rishid… S-so much happened while you were… unconscious," he said. He indicated a spot on the bed, next to Rishid. "Can I sit?"

"Certainly."

Rishid watched his master sadly as the boy sat down on the bed. Malik seemed unsure where to begin, so Rishid prompted softly, "Did the other personality come out?"

Malik shivered. "Yes." He was silent for a long moment. "It… hurt," he said. "Like… It felt like something was strangling my brain, just… squeezing it and making me unable to think. And I could hear him… laughing… And then the pain was gone, and I couldn't hear him anymore, and I was… nowhere."

Another extended pause. "The next thing I remember…" Suddenly Malik froze. After several ragged breaths, he stuttered, "H-hey, Rishid, g-guess who the e-eighth d-duelist was…"

"Who?" Rishid asked.

"It was Isis. Still… still interfering in… Damnit, why couldn't she just learn to stay out of these things!" Malik put his face in his hands, shoulders shaking. "Then she wouldn't have…"

Rishid froze too, distantly afraid. "Malik-sama… what happened?"

In a minute, Malik's tears slowed and he started speaking again. "…She… dueled Seto Kaiba first. She won. Her whole 'Reversed Worlds' and 'Blast Held by a Tribute' strategy… But when she first appeared, I sort of… woke up a little. I wanted to… get out and talk to her. I don't know. I just wanted… I tried to escape his control. I tried to get her to hear my voice. But he was too strong.

"And then… It was the next day—today—and he was dueling her. He… he made it so that I could see what was going on, but I couldn't do anything… just watch… The whole time I was shouting at him and at her, hoping she'd be able to hear me. And then he kept telling her what I was saying, taunting her because he didn't think she'd be able to free me…"

"But she did free you, didn't she, Malik-sama?" Rishid guessed. After all, that must be what had happened; Isis must have defeated the dark personality and restored Malik to control…

Malik didn't answer for a long time. He only sat with eyes blank, taking unsteady breaths.

"…Malik-sama…?"

"He summoned Ra," Malik whispered finally. "It has more powers than we'd realized. He turned it into a phoenix. I tried… I tried to stop him… I was even in control for a second, but he shoved me aside and… attacked…

"Phoenix Ra can… destroy one monster on the field—burn it to death—but… in a game of darkness in which the player is linked to the monster, the player… receives the same pain… the s-same mental damage…" He shuddered. "When the attack finished, Isis… collapsed, and suddenly I was at her side, trying to make her get up—me, not my other self… I don't even remember taking control. I was just so… scared for her…"

Malik trailed off. He sounded close to tears again.

"Malik-sama… where is Isis-sama now?" Rishid asked hesitantly. He knew vaguely that there was another question he should be asking, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that one…

Malik tried several times to speak, but eventually he gave up and gestured wordlessly across the room.

For the first time, Rishid noticed a gurney next to his bed. And in the gurney, with her eyes closed and a peaceful expression on her face, lay Isis.

Drawn by curiosity and fear, Rishid left his bed and stood by the gurney. He stared at Isis for a few moments, not comprehending, and then the fact of how still she was became too clear to ignore and his blood went cold. "No…"

Rishid's face twisted in disbelieving sorrow. He turned to face Malik, hoping his master would tell him that it wasn't true, but the suffering in Malik's eyes only confirmed his fears.

Isis was dead.

Rishid bowed his head, feeling tears come to his eyes and spill over. "Isis-sama…" he whispered. He hadn't spoken to her in three years—not since he and Malik had left home. For all that time, they had been unwilling enemies.

And now Isis was dead. He would never speak to her again. Never…

"She knew."

Malik's voice, distant and blunt, came from behind Rishid. "She saw with that stupid Necklace that this was going to happen. And she still came. She followed fate to her death. She… how can she……"

His voice started to shake. Stifling his own tears, Rishid returned to the bed and put his arm around Malik's shoulders.

"Rishid, I don't want her to be dead," Malik pleaded in a choked voice. He buried his head in Rishid's shoulder. "I never… I never wanted her to die. I never even wanted to be her enemy! But now… Now she's gone …" Malik took in a trembling breath. "Rishid, I've lost. There's no question about it. I don't… have the will to keep fighting. Not after…" With a sigh, Malik announced quietly, "Isis told me the truth about Father, you know…"

Rishid shifted uncomfortably. "She did?"

"Yeah."

"I'm very sorry… the two of us have lied…"

"I know. It's okay. She told me why." Malik bit his lip and hesitated. "There's… something else I should tell you… a-another reason I can't hate Yuugi anymore… Rishid, before you woke up, I… I didn't know if you were going to wake up, and… Isis was gone, and I was scared to live alone, so I… I was going to kill myself…"

Unconsciously, Rishid tightened his grip on Malik's shoulders. "Malik-sama…"

"But just before I could stab myself with the dagger in the Rod, th-they came in and stopped me. Yuugi himself made an effort to talk me out of it. And… I suppose… it's thanks to him that I'm…"

Malik let his sentence hang, looking thoughtful. Then he shook his head slightly. "So—anyway—I can't really hate him after that… Right?"

"I certainly can't," Rishid replied softly. "I'm very grateful to him… I think to wake up and find you like that—" (on the floor, dead, your own blood splattered everywhere and the knife in your hands) "—would have been… worse than I can imagine, Malik-sama."

"Yeah," Malik mumbled. "Sorry. It would have been… cowardly of me. But… Rishid, if you… if you'd never woken up, I think I'd do it again… even if I promised them that I wouldn't. They… may want me to live, but they don't know what it's like… to have the two people dearest to them…" Malik sighed heavily. "I've never been alone before, and then the thought of… just…"

Rishid held Malik tightly. The two were silent, lost in their own thoughts and sorrows. Minutes passed before Rishid finally inquired, "Malik-sama, what happens next?"


He stood at door number five with Rishid behind him. In one hand he held Ra and in the other, Obelisk and the Necklace.

Really, Malik had lost to Yuugi by forfeit and was required by the ante rule to give up Ra anyway. That was what he told himself, in an effort to quell the bitter nausea and pain of self-disgust.

But as for Isis's Millennium Necklace and her Obelisk card… he clutched those tightly, desperately. Malik didn't want to think of giving those to Yuugi, anymore than he wanted to remember how he'd had to search through Isis's deck to find Obelisk and remove the Necklace from her cold neck.

It felt like stealing, and it felt wrong. Those two artifacts were Isis's, and should have been until she lost them in a fair duel or chose to forfeit them. (Of course, she had lost a duel, but Malik didn't want to think about that either.)

Like everything else, however, it was part of his destiny as a Gravekeeper to give the Pharaoh's vessel the three God Cards and the two Millennium Items. And so he had to do it.

"Are you ready, Malik-sama?" Rishid asked gently.

"No," Malik replied, resentment in his voice, but he raised his hand and knocked on the door anyway.

To his surprise, Jonouchi was the one to answer the door. Malik cursed silently as he looked past the blonde boy and noted that the room was full of Yuugi's friends.

But he only met Jonouchi's eyes and stated, "There's something I need to do for Yuugi."

"Come on in," Jonouchi invited, glancing once at the objects Malik held. "You okay now?"

"Yeah, I guess." As long as you don't count the fact that with every step I take I hate myself more or the fact that I feel like I'm going to throw up.

Malik entered the room, and when Rishid followed they heard Jonouchi gasp slightly.

"Oh, it's you!" the teen exclaimed. "Are you okay? That attack from Ra really knocked you out…"

"Y… yes. I'm fine now," Rishid answered, sounding a little awkward.

Malik gave Jonouchi a smile, strangely appreciative of Jonouchi's concern for Rishid.

Then, steeling his will, Malik assumed a more serious expression and looked Yuugi—no, the spirit of the Pharaoh—in the face. He forced himself to meet his former enemy's eyes.

Even just that took all of his willpower. He was shaking, and he found it hard to breathe. All the hatred that he'd cultivated over the past five years swelled and boiled in his chest, commanding him to lash out and kill or to turn away and run out of the room—anything other than what he was about to do.

But he ignored it. He had to. "Yuugi," he said as firmly as he could manage, "it is time for me to fulfill the Ishtars'—my—final destiny."

As the rest watched, uncomprehending, Yuugi nodded and stood from his chair.

With an unwilling, clearly shaking hand, Malik held out Ra. "Take it," he ordered. "The God Card, Ra."

The god of the glorious, beautiful sun.

The god that had struck Isis with a killing blow.

And to Yuugi, it was little more than a card, one of three to be collected. Yuugi barely even understood the significance of collecting the gods.

All these thoughts crossed Malik's mind as Yuugi took Ra and looked at the card. Numbly, Malik watched Yuugi's eyes scan the card and then travel to Malik's other hand.

Where Isis's things were.

Malik gave a quiet sigh and raised his hand somewhat, but did not offer the Necklace or Obelisk to Yuugi quite yet. Instead he stared at them.

"This is the first time I've held Obelisk," he mused out loud. "She got to it before I could. I'm sure… she saw the future and took it. Because that was 'fate.' Because fate was so important to her." His hand started shaking, and he closed his eyes as they began to sting. He fought to keep his voice from choking. "And that's why… I have to give these two things to you, because I know she would have. She always followed fate. Right up until the end, she was following the path fate had set for her…"

His hand almost twitched forward—but it was so hard to give them up. They were hers. It was her place to present them to the Pharaoh. Malik didn't want to step into that place… because that would mean acknowledging the fact that it was vacant.

"Malik…" said a feminine voice—Anzu—and Malik was surprised to hear pity. "Malik, if you can't do it yet, I think that's fine…"

"Yes," Yuugi was quick to second. "Malik, I understand if… if you want to do this later, once you've had more time to mourn…"

"No, I have to do this now," Malik replied hollowly. "I don't think I'd be able to come back."

He clutched Obelisk and the Necklace to his chest for a brief moment as Rishid's comforting hand squeezed his shoulder.

A piece of painted cardboard and a lump of gold—these were the two objects Isis had used to draw everything together to this inevitable, fated conclusion. Malik hated them for that; and yet they were hers, so he treasured them. He didn't want to give them away.

But when had his own feelings ever mattered to his fate?

Finally, he thrust his hand forward, eyes still closed. "The God of Obelisk—" he said jerkily, "and the Millennium Necklace—Pharaoh."

Yuugi hesitated.

"Take them!" Malik demanded, his voice strained. "Please…"

And the objects left his hand. He did not lower the hand for a moment; then he let it drop and made a fist, clenching it until he felt his nails dig into his skin.

He knew that Yuugi was probably taking out the third card, Osiris, to look at all three of the cards he had claimed—stolen, stolen! insisted a part of his mind—from Malik. And Malik couldn't bear to watch that.

He had failed completely. As a result, all the bitterness and hatred he had once had for the Pharaoh were now aimed squarely at himself. Don't give in! screamed every instinct. Take them back, quickly! Don't follow your destiny!

His mouth twisted back in a disgusted scowl. He felt spineless, cowardly, pathetic for complying with his fate.

And it wasn't over yet.

"There's—one more—" He stumbled over his words, barely managing to force them out. He tried not to feel everyone's eyes burn into him. "One more thing—my clan—protected the key—"

He stopped, breathing unevenly. He couldn't do it. He couldn't! It wasn't fair! To have to do this, after all the rest—it was too much. He was going to break. Hadn't he already suffered enough today?

He was already trembling unstoppably, bitterly aware of how long he'd been fighting against this exact scenario. He had decided years ago that it would never come to this—that he would kill himself before this could happen(1). But somehow nothing had gone as planned.

And this isn't something you can take back, something in his mind said. If you change your mind, you can't steal back knowledge.

"Malik-sama…" Rishid squeezed Malik's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Malik shook his head wearily. "I'm not," he answered in a shameful whisper. "But I don't have any choice."

Then, without giving himself a chance to think about anything else, Malik pulled his shirt over his head and turned away from Yuugi.

He heard gasps behind him—first of confusion, then of revulsion as everyone recognized the carvings covering his back for what they were.

"Oh my gosh…" Anzu said faintly. "Th-that must have… Ow…"

"Malik!" Yuugi's voice was demanding and bewildered. "What happened to your—what is this?"

"The key to the king's sealed memory," Malik explained as firmly and emotionlessly as he could. "It's… a message from a prophet who served the Pharaoh. The person who collects the three gods… the three God Cards… is proved to be the vessel of the Pharaoh. That's you, Yuugi. So you should be able to read this…"

How was he speaking so calmly? His heart was pounding frantically. With every breath he had to choke back tears of self-disgust and shame.

You showed him. You SHOWED him! This can't be undone, you fool! It's all over!

And that was true.

"It's all over now," Malik voiced his thoughts softly. "Everything…" Some of the hatred faded; now he felt defeated and numb. A little louder, he told Yuugi, "With these actions, my destiny has been fulfilled…"

He pulled his shirt back on and started towards the door, Rishid following obediently. He didn't turn to look at their faces.

But before he could leave, he heard the voice of the Pharaoh's vessel behind him.

"Malik… you can stay in here if you want," it invited.

Malik paused, his hand on the doorknob. "No," he said. "I don't think…"

Yuugi ran up and grabbed his arm. "Malik… Please. I don't want you to go shut yourself up in your room and be sad again. You can't help yourself that way. Stay here. I want us to be friends."

Malik pulled his arm from the eager boy's grasp. "I'm sorry," he apologized without emotion. "But I can't. I… want to start a new life completely. I don't want to have any connections to the old one. Even my name—I plan to change my name. And other than Rishid, I want to cut myself off from… everything. Everything that I've touched. So…"

Jonouchi spoke up. "Malik, that can't be the only way to do it," he protested.

"But it's what I want to do."

Malik left the room and returned calmly to Rishid's, knowing that Rishid was following right behind. He managed to hold on until he'd reached the room and closed the door.

Then, as he'd known it would, all his self-control shattered and he collapsed to the floor in tears.

And he didn't know if he'd ever be able to get up.


(1) Actually, the plan was that Rishid would kill Malik and then kill himself. Yes, I'm serious. This is from the series. If you don't believe me, check out chapter two hundred of the manga.

About that last section: I really feel that Malik experienced some of those emotions in the series as it actually happened--the shame and self-disgust and everything. It can't have been easy for him.

And any phrases that seem similar to actual quotes from the series are probably intentional.