Stifleshipping (Noa x Yami no Marik)

(Creepy...so what would happen if Noa had run into Yami no Marik just after stealing Mokuba's body?)

The throat of Noa's stolen body was parched and rough – it was an unnatural feeling. In the virtual body he was accustomed to, he never had such uncomfortable sensations. The unwanted side effects of emotions and pain were deprogrammed from his identity.

That was certainly not the case now.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the looming, tan-skinned man said with a malicious sneer. "A little lost lamb, perhaps?"

Noa's mouth flapped open and closed silently. He couldn't figure out what to say, what to do – instincts that he didn't know he had were screaming at him to run away as fast as he could. For a moment, he tried to manipulate the world around him and erase the code of the being standing before him; but he realized in the back of his mind that this was the real world now. There was no data to manipulate.

"Cat got your tongue, hm?"

Without warning, a knife flashed out from the folds of his cloak. Noa yelped and jumped back, but the knife came nowhere near him. Instead, the tall boy twirled it absently between his fingers, considering Noa with flat, malicious violet eyes. Once again, Noa tried to access the data of the world he had left. It was no use: he could not access the data about the Battle City finalists that he had downloaded previously.

It was terrifying to realize just how helpless he really was in the real world.

"It's strange," the violet-eyed boy said. As he spoke, he moved forward until he had Noa backed up against a wall. "You look like Kaiba's brat of a brother. But you're certainly not him."

"How could you possibly know that?" Noa spat, trying to regain some of his old venom.

The figure just grinned, and flicked the tip of his knife to rest on Noa's throat. Noa froze up, literally unable to make himself move. Slowly, the taller boy traced the edge of the knife across Noa's throat and up the side of his face. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.

"I'm more observant than people like to believe," he said. "They all think, oh, it's Marik's dark half. He's just a bloodthirsty killer that can't think past the thrill of murder."

He gave a short bark of laughter that sent Noa's blood running cold.

"It's an impression I enjoy cultivating," he continued. "I realized you were someone entirely different in a moment. Your eyes and bearing are much different than Mokuba's."

"Go – get away," Noa stammered. "I'm warning you."

With a terrifying grin, the maniacal figure just leaned in until Noa come feel warm breath against his face.

"Or what?" he said softly, as the knife pressed a little harder against Noa's throat.

Noa's hand brushed against a panel. Survival instincts kicked in.

He slammed his hand into the panel, breaking the glass and striking the red button beneath. Instantly, the room was awash in red light and the scream of sirens. In the moment of the boy's distraction, Noa made use of Mokuba's small, nimble body to wriggle underneath him and fly down the hallway.

Behind him, security bots rolled out of the hollows in the wall that had opened in response to the alarm.

The crunching of metal, the rupping of wires, and the maniacal laugh of the terrifying boy followed him in an echo down the corridor. Noa didn't stop until he was safely inside the control room, with a set of reinforced steel doors locked tightly behind him.

Who was that? What kind of psychopaths did Seto allow in his tournament?

He shook his head firmly, and was surprised for a moment by the long black locks that snapped around his face. He would have to get used to that. Or maybe get a haircut.

Anyway, it didn't matter who the maniac was. He was just one more reason to blow this island off the face of the earth as soon as possible.

A/N: It was hard to find a way for these two to meet, but I think it worked out well. Yami no Marik is so crazy sadistic and terrifying...which makes him so much fun to write. XD Next is Stepshipping (Noa x Mokuba).