It had been over six hours, and still Bakura and Malik's vacant bodies remained unmoving. Ryou was beside himself with worry, and though they were a bit more reserved about it, so were Rishid and Ishizu. Everyone felt ill at ease. It was just so eerie, seeing people whose personalities they were so accustomed to lying immobile, eyes empty like death. The Brit perched himself near his yami and prayed with heartwrenching earnesty that they would be alright. He was just beginning to see past Bakura's makeshift exterior into his soul. It couldn't end now. It just couldn't!
"Do ya think we should go afta' dem?" Jou gave Yami a questioning glance.
"No," The Pharaoh shook his head. "The tombrobber knows his way around the Shadow Realm well enough by now. Besides, that place is huge. The chances that we'd be able to find this Priestess person's castle without some sort of guide are one in a million."
"So we're just going to sit around and wait?"
Yami lowered his eyes in apology. "I'm afraid that's all we can do, Ryou."
"Well I for one refuse to let my brother die trying to save the very thing that would have destroyed him!" Pushing past Anzu and Jounouchi, Ishizu strode towards her brother. Taking a hold of his clammy hands she bent down and murmured softly in his ear. "Malik. Malik please. Forget your guilt. Forget Mariku. Just please little brother! Come back!" As if by magic the blonde began to stir.
"Nghhh...Sister?"
Ishizu fell to her knees with relief, and Rishid let out an audible sigh as the teen sat up and slowly looked around. To everyone's amazement he cracked a shaky grin. "You guys look like you just saw a couple of ghosts." Uneasy laughter broke out over the group of friends for a moment, but it was quickly extinguished by Yugi's worried voice.
"But what about Bakura and your yami? What happened to them?"
"I can sense Mariku's presense coming from somewhere in this house, and as for me? Well I'm right here." The Thief tried desperately to glare at everyone as he rose from the bed, but his barely knit wounds had once more been torn asunder, and blood was quickly soaking through the bandages.
"Kura, lie down!" As gently as he could, Ryou forced Bakura back onto the mattress. He could already tell that Dr. Katsume would have to be notified imediately. "Anzu would you please..."
"Oh my God, it's him!" The dancer was pointing past the open door and into the hall, where something was staining the carpet a vivid crimson. Honda and Jou leapt imediately to their feet. Both looked as if they would like nothing better than to rip Mariku apart. Bakura in the meantime had doubled his efforts to escape his hikari's grasp, and Yami, for once unsure of what to do,stood shocked beyond words.
"Is he dead?" Yugi was the first to speak. With a slight frown he stepped towards the Darkness' limply sprawled body. Bakura hadn't been kidding when he'd said the Priestess was cruel. Mariku looked as if he'd been through a wheat thrasher, twice.
"Aibou, don't get any closer." Yami put a hand on the hikari's shoulder. "Mariku's not dead. He could still hurt someone."
"Don't be stupid." Breaking away from the rest of his family, Malik strode over towards his darker half. "He couldn't hurt a Ra-damned thing." As he approached, the sympathy he'd gained for his yami melted away, and once again the Egyptian's heart gave way to hate. He stood over Mariku for a moment, eyes narrowed with rage. Then with a feral cry Malik began kicking the Darkness, in his stomach, chest, legs, face, any available bit of skin. The violet-eyed boy continued to scream as he did this, screamed and cried a sea of sad and bitter tears. In the back of his mind he could hear Bakura's howls of protest, could see the wide-eyed expressions on his friends' faces, but Malik didn't care. He was sick of it. Sick of having to regret his past, of having to work every day to prove that he was a good person, that he was sane, and here lay this creature who went against all the teen had worked for in the past months. After trying so hard to separate himself from his mistakes, why should Malik have to face very thing that represented all of them?
"I hate you! I hate you! I HATE YOU!" Finally, too out of breath to continue, the blonde was forced to stop his physical assault. Instead he stood there, glaring down at his double as if daring him to move. Mariku stared back, body completely limp. He hadn't made a sound when Malik attacked him, hadn't even grimaced, but his eyes told a different story. They were filled with confusion, confusion and a detached sort of pain that made one believe he was so used to agony the Darkness no longer even cared from whence it came.
"Malik?"
The hikari whirled around, suprised to see Rishid standing right next to him. "What? What do you want?" It took everything he had to keep his voice under control as he spoke.
The man rested his hands on his master's shoulders and slowly drew him away. "Doing this won't solve anything," he murmured. "You can't take back what you did."
Even as he allowed himself to be led away, the younger Ishtar couldn'tstifle a bitter laugh. "No, Ra forbid I should ever be allowed to do that."
"Don't worry," everyone turned to Ryou, who still straddled Bakura's waist in order to keep him down. "Sometimes the things we regret most are the things that really needed to happen all along."
For a minute Malik stared wide-eyed at the Brit. Then, with a choked sob, he sank down against the wall and cried. Rishid lingered by his side for a moment, before, with his usual aura of calm, scooping the boy's Darkness into his arms and turning back to Ryou. "I'll go put him on the couch. Perhaps it would be best if you called Dr. Katsume now."
'This is not happening...this is not happening...this is not...fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!' Malik sat at the dining room table of his sister's Domino apartment, trying uselessly to convince himself he hadn't done this, that at that very moment his yami wasn't lying upstairs in the spare bedroom too doped up on pain medication to even know where he was. Hell, the Darkness still thought he was in the Ra-damned Shadow Realm! All the long drive from Ryou's house Mariku had lay stretched out in the backseat, whimpering and spitting out Coptic curses while he slept. Now that Malik thought about it, that was probably the most excruciatingly painful car ride of his life! Then again they hadn't had any other options. Ryou's house held only one bedroom, and Dr. Katsume absolutely insisted that both Bakura and Marik be cared for in beds.
"I've done what I can. You can visit him if you like." Said physician came downstairs, already angular face looking more severe than usual. "Whatever trouble these friends of yours have gotten into, tell them its not worth it. Nothing's worth physical mutilation and rape."
Malik nodded dumbly. She must have thought the spirits' injuries were the results of some kind of gang initiation. Not that he was going to say anything to contradict her. If he tried to tell the truth the Egyptian had a sneaking suspicion that Dr. Katsume would have him committed to a sanitarium. 'Who knows, maybe the padded cell would be a relief.'
"Anyway," the doctor continued, "I'm going to go back to that little European boy's house now to make sure that other kid hasn't done himself further damage. If you need anything just call. I left my card and Mariku's medication with your sister."
"Um...thanks." Malik watched as the woman flitted through the door, then clambered slowly to his feet. Without even glancing up towards the guest room he plodded over to the telephone and dialed Ryou's number. He let it ring ten or twelve times, not bothering to put down the receiver as he stared aimlessly out the window. However just as the blonde had finally decided to hang up, the Brit answered.
"Hello?"
"Ryou..." Malik came out of his daze with a tired sigh. "Hey."
"Oh, Malik! I was just thinking about you! How's everything going with your yami?"
The Egyptian bit his lip. "Fine...things are just fine."
"I'm glad. You really had us scared when you started freaking out on Mariku like that. I actually thought you were going to kill him there for a minu..." There was a sudden pause, and he could hear Ryou talking to Bakura in the background. "...Kura...I'm on the phone...with Malik... What? No you may no..." A few muffled protests followed, then the thud of someone being shoved to the floor.
The Egyptian furrowed his brow in confusion. "Ryou?"
"You fucking BASTARD!" Malik nearly jumped out of his skin as the Thief King screeched at him over the phone. "What the hell did you think you were doing? You better watch your back, Ishtar, because sooner or later I'll get you for this!"
The blonde growled dangerously. "Maybe you didn't realize this Bakura, but if it wasn't for me Mariku would still be rotting in the Shadow Realm where he belonged! I don't even know why you care! Did he let you fuck him or something?"
"...I will kill you..."
Menace oozed from every syllable, but Malik was too pissed off to bother with fear. Instead he let out a peel of derisive laughter. "Yeah, I bet that's exactly what happened. He spread his legs for you, and now you want him back so you can keep sticking your cock up his ass! What if I decided to send him back to the Shadows after all, hmm? What would you do? Probably go crawling in after him all over again!"
"Malik if I ever hear you talk like that again, I swear it won't be my yami who..."
Ryou must have finally wrestled the phone from the other's grasp, but before he could finish Malik slammed down the receiver with enough force to put cracks in it's plastic casing. With an unsteady sigh he sunk down onto the couch and let his head fall into his hands. He choked back the sobs that threatened to overwhelm him, rage collapsing into mere fustration. It had been the Brit'sanger more so than Bakura's that had finally shamed his hatred. Ryou never got angry without good reason, and Malik knew he had gone way over the line. "I didn't ask for this," he murmured softly.
"No, but its happened, and now you have to get your shit together and face it." Ishizu stood in the doorway, her gaze morecomanding than usual. He gave her an imploring glance, but the woman simply narrowed her eyes and pointed towards the stairs. "You can't run away from this, little brother. No matter how frightened you are, you can't run away."
Malik was taken aback by how quiet it was in the Darkness' room. For some reason he'd expected madness, torn carpet, bloodstained sheets, but Mariku appeared more serene than anyone had probably ever seen him. The curtains were drawn, causing the flourescent lights from the numerous medical devices surrounding him to make the spirit's face glow ever so slightly. He didn't look so bad now that the blood and filth had been cleaned from him. Still, Malik hesitated before entering the dimly lit room. Ishizu had been right. He was afraid.
/Marik/ It felt weird, using his mindlink for the first time. The Egyptian had always entertained the idea that one existed between them, but he'd never tried it. There hadn't been reason to before. /Marik, can you hear me?/ He sat down cautiously in the chair next to the bed and waited. At first he thought his yami was too deeply asleep, that the morphine had put him out completely, but then Mariku answered.
/...hikari/
Malik was surprised by the incredible note of weariness in his darker side's reply.
/Yeah...I'm right here./ The light reached out to touch his other half's cheek, but the boy unconsciously flinched away. Chewing nervously on his lip, Malik tried to think of something to say. /Um...how...how are you feeling/
There was no answer, but ever so slowly Mariku's eyes began to open. They shimmered strangely in the impersonal glow of the machines, their normally purplish sheen brightening to a more delicate shade of lilac. For the third time Malik found himself slipping, slipping away into eyes that were identicle his own yet at the same time completely foreign. He wondered briefly if those enigmatic orbs were more iris or pupil, for they seemed to have no clear definition at all. 'Maybe their just a mixture of both, like the mists of the Shadow Realm.'
"You're going to send me back there, aren't you?" Talking hurt, and Mariku was forced to swallow hard before continuing. "Like last time..." Those same fathomless eyes grew cold, boring deep into the lighter boy. Then that look of hate melted away, and there was nothing but despair. "J-just one day! Please, it won't be like last time! I won't do anything wrong! One more day in this world, and then..." Mariku's words were cut off abruptly as a violent bought of coughing seized him. He bolted into a sitting position, body doubling over as fit after fit of wracking coughs shook his frame. With each breath the Darkness took blood sprayed forth, speckling the sheets with flecks of crimson.
A chill came over Malik as he listened to the yami's words. Was this really the same Mariku he had known during Battle City? 'One day. He's willing to settle for one fucking day!' It was truly terrifying how hatred and pain, the very things from which Marik arose, could also be used to break him. That panic in his voice, his eyes...oh God it was horrible! He had to make it stop! "No," Malik whispered, terror leaking into his own words. "Don't worry. I promise, you can stay here as long as you want."
"I'm going to kill him! Don't you get it? KILL HIM!" Bakura shifted restlessly in bed, venting all his fustration on Ryou's smarting eardrums. He twisted about his quilted prison in anguish, loathing every instant he was forced to spend in bed. "The second I can get up again, I'll make that little cunt scream til his voice breaks!"
The Brit shook his head, exhausted. "You're never going to be able to get up if you don't settle down and get some rest. That rescue operation about killed you." After the Ishtars had left the tombrobber had passed out, waking only when the agony from his freshly bleeding wounds overcame the morphine.
Bakura growled and turned from his vessal, grimacing as his rebandaged lacerations stretched and curled. He knew Ryou was right. The kid may have been a weakling, but he was no idiot. It was obvious he'd been talking with Dr. Katsume. The Thief sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter really. Mariku has his own body now. Malik couldn't banish him even if he tried."
"Yes, that's true enough...Bakura, can I ask you something?"
"Huh? What is it?"
A faint blush crept over Ryou's cheeks. "Are you in love with Marik?" The boy refused to meet his yami's gaze, choosing instead to watch the trembling of his own hands. "I mean, its not like...like it matters that much. I was just wondering."
Bakura stared openly at his lighter half. True, he'd occasionally entertained the idea that perhaps the new feelings he felt for the blonde-haired Darkness ran deeper than mere companionship, but those had only been distant fantasies. However the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Bakura had gone to great lengths to save Mariku. He'd been willing to hold him in his arms when no one else would. Did that constitute as love? In the Thief's world it was close enough.
"You know, Ryou, I think I do."
"Oh...I was just wondering." Ryou left the room, hoping desperately Bakura hadn't heard the crippling disappointment in his voice.
-TOT (Hope you enjoyed!)