Twill: So, um, hi. It's been a long time, hasn't it? What with school, new fandoms, and sort of losing interest in the YGO universe after Battle City finished, this story has fallen to the bottom of my 'things to write list.' I apologize. This is by no means a promise that I'll be updating furiously, but it's a start towards completing things.

Bakura: Twill doesn't own.

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Taking a Deep Breath: The Point of No Return

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-Bakura's POV-

I bent double and tried to force air into my lungs. Summoning three dragons, real as life, was a lot harder than I seemed to remember, and I didn't have my carbon ring to help the flow of shadow magic. It almost seemed like I was acting as the conduit, which was a strange feeling to say the least. As the burning in my chest subsided, I straightened and watched the sky light up with the flash of white lightening. I'd say one thing about all of this: Kaiba was very good at directing his monsters.

"Attack again, now!" he shouted, tall figure stiff and straight. He pointed grandly toward the dim shape of what must have been Ra. The ground was scorched around him, but the twisted creature was unharmed. Hardly fair, considering.

As the three Blue Eyes' united their blasts, I felt a slight wrenching in my gut. "Hey," I said, poking the CEO, "use those attacks sparingly. It takes effort on my part, you know."

Kaiba spared me a withering glance, although it wasn't up to its usual power. "You should eat more vegetables," he replied simply. "I bet Yami wouldn't have a problem." He tried to smirk, but the grin only managed to show how worried he was underneath all the bluster. "And speaking of the Pharaoh," the CEO turned to the huddled shape of the resident King of Games. "What's taking so long?"

"I can't decide." He looked up briefly from his deck and then down again. "Should it be Slypher or Obelisk?"

Seto and I stared at him. "WHAT?" we both screamed.

Yugi cringed beside the spirit. "Well," he said, trying to sound reasonable, "which god card do you suggest? Obviously we're open to ideas."

There was barely a heartbeat and then Kaiba was in charge. "Obey Bakura," he shouted at his dragons, turning to shoot me a look that was obviously meant to convey that I was in charge of the distraction, now. He moved to Yami's side in three quick strides, snatching the cards from his grasp. "Obviously, you summon Obelisk. Slypher depends on cards in hand, and this is hardly a dueling situation."

Not to mention, I thought to myself, it's more fitting for Jou to be saved by your former monster.

The tall brunette sorted through Yami's deck as quickly as he could, cursing mildly to himself when a few cards slipped from his fingers to drift lazily to the ground. The Pharaoh, for his part, seemed about to make some snide report but Yugi stomped on his foot, hard. I could almost smirk at that. If only the situation had been different.

A high keen of pain from one of the Blue Eyes jerked my attention back to the epic battle taking place in the middle of a nice, suburban neighborhood. What were the neighbors thinking, anyway? Assuming, of course, they all hadn't died of fright the instant Seto had set his prized beasts on the attack. I hastily collected my thoughts.

A dark shape had latched itself onto the middle Blue Eyes' neck, a shape I could only believe was Ra. The dragon was thrashing wildly, bellowing in pain and outrage. For a moment, I could only be thankful that Shadow Monsters didn't appear to have blood. I don't think any of us could've dealt with that.

"You're losing, you know," came Ra's taunt from his high perch. He was deftly avoiding the other two dragon's attempts to help their comrade. "You can't beat a god card with three measly lizards."

I heard Seto growl behind me. "Shut up," he murmured, probably as much to Ra as to Yami, who hadn't yet started to take the situation seriously.

I frowned at the twinge in my chest as Ra continued to dig himself in. There was the hint of a release behind the strange feeling, the suggestion that if the Blue Eyes was destroyed then the stress on me would vanish as well. I gritted my teeth against temptation and reached into my own deep pockets. Who said two decks were the only ones that were going to see any action?

"No one messes with the Electric Lizard."

My fingers froze. Well, damn. I ran the risk of summoning a tainted monster that could just as likely backstab the whole plan as help it. In fact, we all did. There was no way to tell which monsters were on our side, if any of them were. After seeing the Pharaoh's Celtic Guardian cross to the 'dark side' it was easy to believe anything was possible. But there was at least one…

Dark Necrofear appeared with a wrench that left me feeling as though I'd run a mile across the desert without a break. I found myself on my knees before I knew it and couldn't help cringe at appearing weak. This wasn't the time to worry about such things, not when so much was at stake. Old habits died hard, it seemed.

I pointed a steady hand at the three squirming dragons. "Get Ra off of them!" I shouted. "Now."

The fiend nodded in its eerily silent way before floating up to do as it was bid. In the circumstances of a duel, I could never have summoned it without the aid of other cards. Seeing as this was a special situation, and I didn't really care that the winded feeling wasn't going away, at all, I figured why not bypass all the annoying complicated stuff? And save Kaiba's precious dragons in the process, whatever. If only I could see through the black spots.

Wait.

-Jou's POV-

There was a muffled bellow from what had to be Seto's Blue Eyes White Dragons and I cringed. Of course, there was my own situation to think about. The cool metal of the sword rested heavily on my shoulder and as much as I wanted to turn my head and look at the owner, the fear of accidentally sending my head tumbling across the carpet kept me pretty rigid. I wasn't exactly helped by the sight of Malik, either.

So instead of dwelling on the negative, I forced myself to consider something else. The voice. What monster, with a sword, would have a voice like that? My thoughts immediately turned to my favorite card, Flame Swordsman, and I felt the blood drain from my cheeks. Wouldn't that be perfect? Ironic, even.

Since when did I know the meaning of 'ironic'?

"Look," I said, my voice amazingly steady, "your master, Ryou – whatever! – is being attacked outside. I know Ra is Ra and everything, but aren't you worried that maybe a stray shot might wing him and suddenly you're up the creek without a paddle?" I raised my hands slowly, into the surrendering position you always see on television. "What harm am I gonna do, huh?"

The monster shifted and I could feel the movement through the vibration of the sword. "You're in too deep to swim, Jou."

There it was again, the familiar tone like I'd heard something similar before. Okay, yes, duel monsters didn't go around talking every day but they did have those guttural battle cries when summoned to the field. And it knew my name! I wasn't sure if I should be excited – because I had to know whoever it was now – or worried, since there might be a monster or two out there that resented my fantastic dueling skills.

"Um, right," I said. "Only we're not at a swimming pool."

My eyes unconsciously found their way to Malik again. He might as well be swimming, considering how dark the carpet around him seemed to be. How could he keep breathing after all of this? Not that I was complaining, no. I would be very happy if he continued breathing for a long, long time.

I took half a step forward, and the steel pressed closer. "I just want to see him," I said.

"He's as good as dead, you know. Once the life bleeds out of him the gate will be open forever, and he'll be gone into a darkness no yami can penetrate." The voice was calm, almost light. Just for that I wanted to punch him – for it was a 'he' – hard enough for him to wonder what had happened.

But still, I'd learned something. So long as Malik was alive, the gate could be closed. The world could be saved. Everything could sort itself out and return to something resembling a happy ending. But only if the rod's hikari kept breathing, kept fighting.

Damnit, I felt so helpless!

I felt the impact before I heard the jarring thump, the roar of pain and finally, the pressing, mournful silence. A dragon had been killed, finally. Ra had to be getting serious. And what about Ryou, in all of this? Was he standing on his doorstep watching, maybe rubbing his hands together as whatever possessed vision moved slowly closer toward completion? Or was he trapped in his own mind, helplessly witnessing the world he always saw the best of crumble a little more toward oblivion?

Okay, that was it. No more coward Jou. I used to be a bully, didn't I? I had vowed my friends over and over that I'd be there for them whenever they needed me, right? No one needed me more right now than Ryou and Malik. Sure, I wished I could be standing outside, an army of monsters at my beck and call facing down a humanized god card, hoping to tip the cosmic balance in favor of the side of good, but we all had our roles. Tonight, I was going to play rescuer to the two hikari's damsel in distress. I set my jaw.

I pretended to look towards a window, maybe hoping I could see what was going on although I could hear just fine that we were losing. Slowly, but still losing. Then, I turned away from the cold blade and ducked down. I went for the legs of my captor savagely. Oddly enough, it was the boots that finally tipped me off to his identity. Seeing his face only confirmed it.

Celtic Guardian's face twisted in a sneer as he tried to bring his sword back up and into play. I grabbed his wrist and jerked the arm away, using my free hand to smash a fist into his face as hard as I could. The monster grunted in pain, his head jerking back, but he continued reaching for me, struggling.

I'm not sure what snapped or what went through my head when I made the decision, but only one option seemed like it would end our battle and leave me free to help Malik without having to worry about being attacked from behind. I tightened my hold on his sword hand and managed to wrench the weapon away from Celtic Guardian. It was heavy in my hand.

"I'm sorry," I said through gritted teeth.

-Marik's POV-

I had said I was going to see Isis. I had claimed that Bakura's functioning without his copy of the ring could be a key to winning, a key to saving everyone. I had said a lot of things, really, but not one of them was true except that the thief had damn well better do his best. Really, though, I was scared.

Malik was dying, I could feel it. His thread of life, the sort of warm presence that always hovered at the back of my mind, was fading and it wouldn't be long before it disappeared completely. I wasn't used to worrying.

The cell phone in my hand was trembling. I flipped it open and hit a button that my hikari had assured me would instantly connect me with his sister. I listened to it ring in the darkness, the shrill sound lonely, empty. It stopped after the third ring.

"Malik?" Isis' voice was warm and strong. "What's up?"

"It's Marik. Malik's… not doing very well."

"But he's not dead." Her conviction was so strong that I felt a nudge of renewed confidence. He wasn't dead. At least, not yet.

I sucked in a deep breath through my teeth. "I thought you should know what's happening. Bakura and the others are here, trying to get to him. I didn't know what to do, so I thought maybe I'd fill you in." I wanted to laugh at myself. When did I start to worry this much?

"Thank you." She paused. "Just be strong for him, Marik, if nothing else. Keep him alive."

"Okay." My voice sounded impossibly small.

Isis let out a shaky sigh. "Marik?" I grunted. "Do whatever it takes."

Do whatever it takes, the words echoed. Do whatever it takes.

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Twill: I hope Jou and Marik aren't too ooc, or Bakura for that matter but I'm not too worried about him. A lot of people guessed the Flame Swordsman as Jou's attacker, and as you can see, I threw in a different sort of twist. You must remember that he was all evil when Bakura was wandering around the Shadow Realm.

Jou: Why did I notice his boots?

Twill: I'm not sure, but you did. And I'm sure your next actions are nice and obvious, right reviewers? Anyway, I'm going to be thrust back into Yu-Gi-Oh! soon, so I thought I'd get back into things by returning to this fic. I spent some time reviewing where I intended to go with this, and got myself straightened out. Hopefully, I'll come back sooner than later but please understand I have quite a lot going on right now, and it might be difficult.

Jou: Of course, reviews are always a good reminder and motivator.

Twill: I'd also like to thank The Wingless Raven for poking and prodding me until eventually I tumbled back to this fandom, and for reviewing. She did me the favor of advertising my fic, and I'd like to return the gesture. Check out her story Love As Pure As Snow if you like twists, angst, and a writing style that continues to grow.

Next chapter: Marik acts on Isis' advice, Ryou appears, and Ra's a little less cocky.