Happy Juneteenth Everyone.
As I said updates will be sporadic but with this one I had a HUGE debate with myself regarding continuity. I also originally planned for this to include the entire Slifer Duel but the ending of this segment was just TOO GOOD to pass up.
Once again prepare for foreshadowing!
Disclaimer: This is heavily based on dialogue taken directly from the YuGiOh Manga volume 13 Duel 111
Not Yet
His motorcycle roared to life under his touch like a loyal guardian eager for instruction and Marik felt closer to godhood riding it. His duel disk felt light on his arm like a knight's shield and the deck within it was a temple for the golden god who deserved nothing less.
Again his ghouls questioned why he must go himself. Why must he who was their King sully his hands with one so low, but oh, did they not see that was why he must go? What kind of king lazed about and let his servants fight his own battles? Sent failures and fools to rescue his beloved Queen when they'd been captured and held hostage by a tyrant? Did nothing while a usurper tried to claim what was his? No, Marik would no longer wait. No longer would he sit on the sidelines. It had been so long he was forgetting that he himself was a duelist.
Now it was time to prove it: he'd already been chosen by two of the Gods and he knew who held the third. All he had to do now was prove it to himself and that murderous parasite King—And Yugi.
"You're going to use the Doll?" His henchmen gasped incredulously.
Marik just rolled his eyes. "Of course," he smirked. Domino was about an hour away, he'd get there in 40 minutes, easy. "I don't want to bore him any longer. I'll fight him before I even get to the city." And prove myself to my love.
Just thinking of his sweet, strong Yugi made his heart leap and flutter and his determination doubly sharp.
He sped off with a loud vrooom down the street: a king upon his steed, and it was a crimson god who commanded respect and that was exactly how he felt whenever he rode his motorcycle. Ever since he'd glimpsed its visage and it's promise all those years ago he'd kept it close to his heart—a dream and a goal of the freedom that would never be is. But it was also a hope, a prayer, a sacred wish that one day. One day his wish would be granted and he would know freedom in all its happiness and heartache.
He'd gotten his wish.
And he remembered it with a bitterness that turned his heart cold.
Once again the roar of his engine rekindled his fire and Marik kicked up the speed and angled his back to do a one-wheeled trick and laughed when he landed.
This had been the first thing he'd obtained when he received his freedom and formed the Ghouls. A symbol of freedom, of power, his power, his choice and he treasured it with the same ruthless love as he'd hunted down the Gods that would ensure his destiny. Not the one of dark misery and slavish obedience that the Pharaoh his father worshiped had chosen for him but the one of life, love, light and legacy he had chosen for himself—and now it would be with his beautiful angel besides him, ruling with him, loving him.
Marik trembled as he imagined Yugi's arms tight around his waist, his head lulled to his shoulder as he rode behind him.
He wondered if Yugi liked motorcycles. If he'd want to ride on the back of his with him. Maybe even get his own and they could race each other.
The thought was so sweet and beautiful that he'd almost forgotten the entire reason for this drive until he felt the sharp slice of the Rod's ax against his hip, the prick of the blade startling him through his shirt and hoodie.
That's right he reminded himself. Not yet . First he had a parasite to squash and a tyrant to overthrow .
"Yugi..." he hummed the name to himself and hissed as he thought of the false king infecting his body like a virus. "The Time has come...the millennium battle is about to begin." He felt the best of the Rod at his side. Envisioned the city of Domino through doll's eyes and he was speeding through it all without a care.
Somewhere in Domino, the Doll's eyes snapped to attention. It leapt from atop the park bench and bolted towards the district Yugi was last seen.
"Run, my Doll," Marik commanded. "Run to Yugi."
X X X
The streets were quiet. Too quiet. Yugi hated it.
Hated the waiting.
Hated not knowing.
Hated that right now someone could be watching him from the shadows eyeing the Millennium puzzle and his Other self within like a prize to be snatched and stolen away from him without a second's hesitation.
The Doll .
The sinister echo of those words filled his head.
"What did he mean by 'the Doll'?"
"If our enemies are hiding," Yami assured him. "We'll just have to wait for them to come out."
The hidden dejection underneath that cool tone, the faintest sliver of helplessness made Yugi explode.
"I can't just wait! The Ghouls want to kill you, Yami! They could be plotting something horrible as we speak! You're trying to get back something important to you...and I..." He ran out of breath before he ran out of words and each was a sob choked with tears and terror. "I can't let them stop you."
Yami spun, stunned surprise transformed into realization and it bulged his eyes.
"Aibou..." he breathed the words, guilt soon replacing his earlier conviction as he realized he had never told Yugi why he wanted to enter this tournament...and finally understood it was not for Yugi's sake.
Yugi stiffened and snorted back his tears but did not meet Yami's eyes. "I know...what you're trying to find here in battle city. I've always known from the start you wouldn't enter a tournament just for rare cards, you were looking for something really important...it's your memories."
And there it was: the truth, plain, open and honest between them with all its biting promise. The truth that they both knew could lead to only one true conclusion. One true outcome.
And that single fact more than anything else sliced Yami's heart in half.
Did Yugi think he meant to leave him? That Yami wanted to leave him? That he has not meant every word he'd spoken on that hospital's rooftop. That he didn't...
"But don't worry!" Yugi's face was a bright smile banishing all thoughts of doubt and fear. "I'll help you. We'll fight together. Getting your memories back is my duty too." He smoked again and there was no doubt or hesitation. Only pure and earnest devotion.
Yami's heart squeezed.
Yugi strokes the puzzle in his hands: his precious heart and that of someone he loved.
"It took me years to solve the puzzle, that's how I got to meet you...you gave me courage when I was weak and didn't have any friends."
Yami wanted to protest that statement adamantly, but Yugi continued and the spirit didn't have the heart to interrupt him. "You made my wish come true all on your own and part of me wants you to stay in my heart forever...like you are now...but maybe that's 'cuz I'm dependent on you, maybe I've been trapping you inside me using your strength to protect me and my friends..." Determination seized Yugi's features. "But you can't protect me forever, so now it's my turn to make your wish come true! I'll help you get your memories back!"
Yami gasped, stunned, then smiled. Yugi, his Yugi. The sweet, shy, innocent boy he had first met and adored even in his cruelest and darkest of moments...he'd become so strong. Was that because of him? Or had Yugi always had that strength and merely needed some way to express it?
In the end it did not matter.
Yami loved him all the more for it.
"Thank you partner."
A bolt struck his senses and Yami whirled around just as Yugi did—and came face to face with the Rare Hunter known as the Doll, a ventriloquist dummy with Marik's voice.
"So Vessel...we meet again."
Yugi stood his ground, spitting Marik's name. The fire in his eyes, a dark, subtle and impenetrable force like the dark of night sweeping across the sky.
"This is the final round of the battle that has lasted over 3,000 years..." the Doll spoke but it's words were soft and held none of the grating harshness it had when Marik spoke of his Other self. "Will you please stay out of it...?" The words were almost a plea.
Yami did not give Yugi a chance to answer and shoved Yugi's spirit protectively behind him. "If this is Fate then I cannot avoid it."
Yami declared: fierce fire and lioness claws.
"He has a God Card!" Yugi warned before his mind stepped back into the puzzle. "Slider the Sky dragon."
Something in Yami's heart pulsed. Like an aching sense of familiarity but with no face or name to identify it. His chest squeezed with the pain of that acknowledgment and his heart hammered like a secret determined to make itself known but found its voice silenced.
Yami couldn't acknowledge it now, not when Yugi was still in danger.
He forced the ache away...and the burning persistence of remembrance that wanted, needed to be known.
Not yet . He told himself. Not yet .
Now...
"I will defeat a God."
X X X
From across the city, the Millennium Rod pulsed at Marik's side, galvanizing the boy's body in such a subtle way as to mistake it for adrenaline. The sight of the fiery king in all his magnificent glory, rousing it to life and through the eyes of its own Host. It snickered and licked it's list full lips.
Marik was oblivious as his hair began to spike and he found himself filled with a hatred and desire that he did not recognize was not his own.
The words he spoke were not his own and the voice it used was not his.
"At last..." came the low, lecherous growl of ravenous hate "You came out..." It licked MariK's lips as though it were his own. "I have waited 1,000 years for this!"
Didn't I say there would be foreshadowing ;)
Many of you have figured it out by now but again this is an experiment for me while I edit Timaeus and work on getting back into the swing of writing original works (editing sucks and note taking is HARD) so this is also an exploration in character and prose for me...
That said, for anyone who missed it, the ending is actually CANON! I didn't make it up! Rereading the manga there is a specific scene when Marik is riding his bike when the Duel appears where he says "At last you've come out. I've waited 1,000 years for this" when Atem appears where his hair spikes up in an all too familiar way and his eyes sharpen...this is not the first time "vengeance for 1,000 or 3,000 years is mentioned either. In fact it's mentioned several times and I plan to explore each one in the coming chapters...it makes me think that Yami Marik aka Malik (as he refers to himself in the Manga) has been pulling the strings and using Marik without his knowledge MUCH sooner than anyone else though-which works PERFECTLY with all the evil plans I have for this story...and again Libra note, he ALWAYS tells Yugi, referring to him as "the Vessel" to stay out of it, making it clear his beef isn't with him, so take that how you like.
I will hopefully be able to get more of these up faster since I'm back from vacation and I need SOMETHING to keep my mind occupied while I accomplish the ardacious task of editing Timaeus but I am determined to share that story with the world!
Thanks everyone for your support!
