It was a beautiful, quiet morning in Domino City, Japan. During these early hours, most people might have been having a hard time dragging themselves out of bed for work or school. But for Marik Ishtar, this was the opposite. He had spent a good portion of his childhood in Egypt living underground, with no access to the outside world. Back then, Marik had been forced to follow his family's ancient tradition of serving as a tomb keeper and guarding the secrets of a pharaoh who had lived thousands of years ago. But ever since that part of his life had ended years ago, Marik had never once stopped appreciating the beauty of the sun. He always got up early every morning to watch the sunrise; eternally grateful to not have to live in the darkness anymore.
Marik stood in front of the upstairs bathroom mirror in his house. His lavender eyes examined his reflection in the mirror one more time before he headed downstairs for breakfast. Marik's long, platinum blonde hair contrasted sharply with his dark skin.
Maybe I should get my hair cut just a little shorter. Just to make it easier to put my earrings on, at least. Marik thought to himself skeptically.
A knock on the bathroom door interrupted Marik from his thoughts.
"Marik? Your alarm clock has been going off for the past 10 minutes now." The voice of Marik's older brother, Odion, came through the doorway.
Marik hurriedly opened the door. "I can't believe I did it again!" Marik said in frustration as he rushed to his bedroom to shut off the blaring alarm that he could now hear clearly. Even though he always managed to wake up well before his alarm went off every morning, Marik still couldn't help setting the alarm just in case he somehow overslept.
Odion smiled in amusement. "Well, I imagine that you're afraid of jinxing yourself and oversleeping if you don't set it." He said.
"Who's to say it wouldn't happen? Stranger things have!" Marik joked.
"Quite true." Odion agreed as he headed downstairs. But Marik couldn't help but notice that he had said this with an edge of seriousness in his voice. Even though Marik and Odion weren't related by blood, they had been close ever since Odion had been taken into the Ishtar family by Marik's now-deceased parents years ago. Marik could tell whenever something was troubling his brother, and it sounded like this might be something serious. Trying not to dwell too much on it, Marik headed downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning, Marik." Marik's older sister Ishizu greeted him as he sat down at the breakfast table.
"Good morning, sister. Did the newspaper already get here?" Marik questioned as he sat down with a bowl of cereal.
Ishizu and Odion exchanged a troubled look. "Yes, it has. And you're probably going to want to look at the front page article." Ishizu said. She then handed the paper to Marik.
Marik read the article quietly. It explained how Maximillion Pegasus, the president of Industrial Illusions and creator of the popular card game, Duel Monsters, had suddenly fallen into a coma after what looked like an apparent robbery attempt by a group of unknown intruders. But there were parts to the story that didn't add up. After breaking into Pegasus's castle, they had somehow managed to overpower his elite security team. But the guards themselves had no recollection of being attacked at all. They had simply woken up to find Pegasus unconscious. Nothing had been stolen. The only proof that there had even been any intruders in the first place was the fact that the castle's security cameras had showed a group of hooded men entering and leaving the premises. But the footage of what had happened while they were inside the castle seemed to have been erased.
Marik felt his stomach tighten with dread as he looked at the article again. This situation looked all-too familiar to him.
"Were the doctors able to determine what caused Pegasus to fall into a coma like that?" Marik asked, even though he felt like he already knew the answer to his question.
"They don't believe that there was anything wrong with him physically. But the doctors suspect that whatever Pegasus saw could have shocked him into his condition through fear." Odion said.
"However, judging from what we have seen before, I think it's pretty obvious that Pegasus has lost his soul. I may not be able to see the future anymore, but I have a feeling that a dark force is at work here. We need to be careful." Ishizu warned.
"I agree. This is like Battle City all over again…" Marik said. He had hoped that that part of their lives was over, but it looked like that had been wishful thinking.
xxx
After he had finished breakfast and said goodbye to his siblings, Marik left for Domino High School. It was easy for him to arrive there early on his motorcycle, and Marik always enjoyed talking to his friends before class started. After locking his bike by the side of the building, Marik went into the school. He ignored the flirtatious smiles and giggles that most of the female students who passed by directed at him. Ever since Marik had started high school here after moving from Egypt, he had attracted more than his fair share of attention from the female student population. But the way that the girls reacted to him was unnerving. They never seemed interested in having any real conversations with Marik, preferring instead to take pictures of him with their cell phones, or to openly converse with their friends about him as if he weren't even there. Marik felt like a museum exhibit around them, and it just made him feel more uncomfortable than anything else.
After entering his classroom, Marik sat down his usual seat next to his regular group of friends: Yugi Mutou, Tea Gardner, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Ryou Bakura.
"Marik, good morning!" Yugi said brightly.
"Good morning, Yugi! Have you heard about what happened to Pegasus!? It was in the paper this morning." Marik said.
The spiky haired teen turned serious. "I did. But I don't understand how this happened. I thought that we had put all of this behind us after we said goodbye to Atem…" Yugi said quietly.
Yugi had once possessed an Egyptian artifact called the Millennium Puzzle. The puzzle had housed the spirit of an ancient pharaoh, Atem, who had become Yugi's alter ego for a long time. But to Marik, Atem had been the one responsible for the way his family had been forced to live for generations. Hiding away underground to guard the key to the pharaoh's lost memories while they awaited his return.
For a long time, Marik had been hell-bent on killing the pharaoh in order to avenge his family. This had even led him to organize a group of criminal card thieves known as the Rare Hunters in order to find the legendary God cards so that he could defeat Atem in a duel and kill him. At the time, Marik had believed that his quest for revenge was all that really mattered. He had almost killed Yugi and his friends during the Battle City Duel Monsters tournament. Eventually, Marik realized that he had been wrong. The pharaoh had not been responsible for everything that had happened to him and his family, including the murder of his father. Marik still couldn't believe that Yugi and his friends had forgiven him for everything that he had put them through. Even after he had given Atem the secret to his lost memories and helped him to return to the afterlife, Marik still felt like he hadn't done enough to redeem himself.
"I don't know, Yuge. I feel like weird stuff is always a part of our lives now! We're like magnets for it!" Joey joked proudly.
"I think that you're the only true weirdness magnet around here, Joey!" Tristan said with a smile.
"I wonder how those people were able to get past Pegasus' security team? It would probably take a power equal to that of the Millennium Items to pull something like that off…" Bakura mused thoughtfully.
The seven Millennium Items were all ancient Egyptian artifacts that each held a power of their own. Marik himself had been the owner of one of them. The Millennium Rod had allowed him to control others' minds, and Marik could feel the guilt eat away at him when he thought of all of the horrible things he had forced people to do for him while he had had it. But the Millennium Items had been laid to rest; buried deep underground after Yugi had won a duel against the pharaoh, opening the way to the afterlife for him. And even if the items were still around, they could only be used by the ones who were chosen to wield them. Whatever was happening now was due to something else entirely. Something terrible…
"Heh, heh, heh."
Marik practically jumped out of his chair. The laugh that he could've sworn that he had just heard shook him to the core. His eyes darted around the classroom frantically, but he found nothing.
It can't be! It must've been my imagination. My mind is playing tricks on me because of what happened to Pegasus. Marik thought to himself nervously.
Yugi and his friends were looking at Marik with concerned expressions.
"Marik, are you all right? You look like you've just seen a ghost!" Tea said.
"I'm fine. Sorry for scaring you guys like that. All of this just brought up some bad memories. That's all." Marik reassured everyone.
Yugi looked at Marik sympathetically. "I understand. But if you ever want to talk about anything, we're here for you, Marik. Okay?" Yugi said.
"Thanks, Yugi." Marik said gratefully. He knew that he didn't deserve their friendship, but Marik still appreciated it all the same.
"Well, aside from the way all of this is messing with our heads by givin' us a bad trip down memory lane, we got another problem! Now that Pegasus is takin' a dirt nap, who is gonna design new cards for Duel Monsters!? This could be the end of the game!" Joey said anxiously.
"I don't think that you need to worry about that, Joey. I'm sure that Industrial Illusions has specialists who can take over management for all of that if needs be." Marik reassured Joey.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'd hate to see what would happen to rich boy if that wasn't the case!" Joey said with a smirk.
Marik glanced in the direction that Joey was pointing at. Seto Kaiba was the president of Kaiba Corporation, one of the biggest game companies in the world. As usual, Kaiba was reading a book and appeared to have no interest in anyone else around him at school. Kaiba had been Atem's constant rival in Duel Monsters. Ever since Atem had left, Kaiba had become even more distant than usual. He had even stopped making his occasional rude remarks to Yugi and the others, or as he referred to them: "The Geek Squad". Kaiba had completely dropped off of the dueling grid, and seemed to be focusing solely on running his company. Marik was pretty sure that Kaiba wouldn't even bother coming to school if it wasn't required by law. But he couldn't help wondering what Kaiba thought about the incident with Pegasus.
xxx
Marik sat at his desk while he worked on his homework. It was about seven at night, and Ishizu and Odion were still at work over at the Domino City Museum. Pretty soon, they would be home with dinner, and Marik wanted to finish his schoolwork before then.
"Hello, Marik." The voice made Marik leap out of his chair in fright. His eyes widened in terror as he gazed frantically around the room.
The voice laughed in amusement. "Surprised to hear from me? You should know by now that I was never truly gone. After all, we both know that I exist because of you." He said.
"This is impossible! We got rid of you! You shouldn't be able to come back!" Marik shouted.
Marik's dark side, Yami Marik, was a split personality that had been born out of Marik's own hatred after he had undergone the cruel ritual of having the secret of the pharaoh's memories carved into his back by his own father. Yami Marik was nothing more than a psychotic madman who had taken over Marik's body in order to cause as much destruction and suffering as he possibly could. He had killed Marik's father and attempted to kill Ishizu and Odion as well. And years later, after Marik had once again lost control during Battle City, Yami Marik had turned the tournament into a living hell, torturing his opponents by using his dark magic to turn their duels into sadistic Shadow Games that had almost cost them their lives. Yugi and Atem had managed to defeat him in a duel, banishing him into the darkness and allowing Marik to reclaim his body again.
"That's funny! I don't recall you being able to do anything back then! We both know that it was the pharaoh who really defeated me. And he could've done it while destroying both of us in the process if he had really wanted to. But now, he is gone, and there is no to save you, little Marik!" Yami Marik taunted.
"How were you able to return!? Answer me!" Marik demanded shakily.
"What's wrong? Are you afraid? You should be. You should've known that I would come back one day! Let me guess. You thought that you would be able to just go on with your pathetic little life and live happily ever after?" Yami Marik said.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT REAL!" Marik shouted in agony.
Yami Marik laughed. "Oh, I assure you that I am very real, Marik! And mark my words, once I regain control of this body again, you will pay dearly for your defiance against me during Battle City! I will kill you and everyone you care about, one by one. That is a promise! So you'd better enjoy what little time you have left while you still can!" Yami Marik threatened.
"NO! GO AWAY! PLEASE, JUST GO AWAY!" Marik begged desperately with tears in his eyes while his dark side laughed in delight. He couldn't believe that he was reliving this nightmare all over again.
Finally, after several minutes of silence, Marik pulled himself up from the floor. He had been curled up in a fetal position with his eyes screwed shut while he had waited for the voice to fade away. He still couldn't believe what had just happened. Was it possible that it had all just been in his head? It wouldn't have been the first time. Ever since Battle City had ended, Marik had been plagued with almost constant nightmares about his dark side returning. But somehow, this felt different. It had been too real.
Marik tried to calm himself down and think rationally. If his dark side really had returned, how had it happened? After Yami Marik had murdered their father, it had been Odion who had managed to keep him sealed away. After Marik had gone through the tomb keeper's initiation, Odion had performed a similar ritual by carving markings on his own face that resembled the ones on Marik's back. It was a sign of loyalty. Marik hadn't felt as alone as he had before after he saw that Odion had chosen to endure the same type of pain that he had gone through. It was that sense of compassion and loyalty that had acted as a seal against Marik's dark side for so long. But after Odion had fallen into a coma during Battle City, Yami Marik had returned to power again until Yugi and the pharaoh had banished him during their duel.
But if he's really back, does that mean that something happened to Odion!? Marik thought to himself in fear.
After nervously rummaging around his room for five minutes, Marik was able to locate his cell phone. With shaking fingers, he texted Odion a quick message: I thought we could have a duel after dinner. We haven't had one in a while! What do you say? Marik had made the text sound as normal as he could.
After a few minutes that seemed like hours to Marik, Odion finally texted him back: Sure, I'd like that. But you'd better be ready, because I've made a new strategy since last time!
Marik sighed in relief after seeing Odion's response. At least the people he cared about were safe. But he still couldn't figure out how Yami Marik had managed to return, or how he would try to stop him. After all, Marik knew very well that his dark side did not need him in order to exist in his body. But for now, Marik decided on not telling Ishizu and Odion about this. Nothing had really happened, and he didn't want them to worry about him for nothing. But somehow, Marik had a horrible feeling that this was only the beginning of his problems…
Author's note: This is my first Yugioh story ever, and I decided to write one about Marik because...well, why not? He is awesome! Oh, and because he's my favorite. XD I know that I summarized a lot of things that people probably already know about in this chapter, but I feel like I need to do that whenever I write the first one or two chapters of a new story. It just helps me get started on things more easily, that's all.