Rodshipping (Marik x Priest Set)

There was always something about the Millennium Rod that felt strange. It wasn't even because it was an ancient, magical artifact with the power to control people's minds. No, it had something to do with how he felt whenever he held its cool, metallic weight in his palm, the slight burst of heat that flooded through the metal like it was alive.

It was like...what? Marik couldn't quite place it. But whenever he used it, whenever he broke through a mind and closed up the boxes that would make that mind his to control, he would catch the hint of something else. Something...broken. Something searching.

It took him a long time, but he soon realized that the feeling would spark in him every time he thought about the pharaoh. Every time a thought of hatred passed through him, steeling himself against the task before him, he would feel it. A quiet, sad sigh, the sound of someone who had lost someone dear to him.

Was it the mind of the Millennium Rod? The previous owner? Marik never understood. But, for some reason, every time he used the magic, he would feel almost guilty. Like he wasn't supposed to use this power against the pharaoh. But those were not his feelings, and he would shove them aside.

Still...

It hurt, in those moments at night, when he would feel it most prominently. And sometimes, at the edge of sleep, he would catch a glimpse of long forgotten words, feelings embedded into the metal of the Millennium Rod by a long-gone spirit.

Pharaoh, I will wait for you...my friend...

They were not his feelings. They were the opposite of his.

But they hurt anyways.

A/N: Yeah. Uh-huh. Next is Rivetshipping (Keith x Pegasus x Rishid).