A/n This took me longer to finished than I would have liked. Sorry about the wait I just started a new Job and have a lot of stuff going on. Please forgive any errors or mistakes in this chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter. There is only the epilogue left now.
***warning for blood and gore in this chapter but it is over quickly.***
Bakura woke up the next morning with Marik sleeping on his chest. Neither of them were clothed from last night. After they had packed up everything from there picnic they returned home. When they got back to the apartment they went into Marik's to the bedroom. the two removed their clothing on the way to the bed.
They'd had sex before but this was different. Their previous session had been hot fast and fueled by lust. This was slow and deliberate. Bakura felt everything tenfold what he did back in the ring. the fell as sleep in each other's arm complete spent. He looked down at Marik's sleeping form. Bakura could not remember ever filling this at calm and at ease. He smiled everything felt right in this moment. Bakura leaned down and kissed Marik on the for head and whispered "I love you.". Finally letting his guard down and allowing himself to be happy.
"That was what I have been waiting for" Zorc s voice came from the back of his mind.
"how are you here!" Bakura demanded retreating into his soul room to confront Zorc.
"I going to use you to resurrect myself!
"You really think I'm going to let you do that!"
"Did you forget that your soul belongs to me? You don't have a choice." Bakura notice then that Zorc had taken control of his body. Zorc had gone to the kitchen and grabbed a knife.
"Zorc what are you doing!" Bakura trying to wrestle back control as Zorc walked them back to the bed room. they stood over the bed where Marik was still sleep
"I've been wanting to do this for a long time." Zorc said savoring what he was about to do.
"NO!" Bakura screamed in their mind as Zorc pulled back their hand. Bakura used every ounce of his will power to stop his arm. This did no good as blade pieced Marik's stomach. Marik let out a gasp of pain. Coughing up blood Marik moved his arms over the wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. Zorc ran the knife though Marik two more times.
The cruelest part was Zorc gave Bakura enough control that he could feel everything. It felt like he was stabbing Marik himself. Marik placed his hand on Bakura's arm his feeble grasp all he could manage. Zorc pulled the knife out of Marik one last time. Marik looked up at Bakura before tossing consciousness. "No! No! Please no!" Bakura begged.
This isn't real. This is a dream and you're going to wake up in the Shadow realm. Bakura repeated over and over in his mind crumbling to the floor.
"Sorry but this is real". Zorc Said
He took complete control over Bakura washed the blood off and putting on a change of clothes. Zorc went to the living room grabbed a kitchen chair jammed it under Ryou's door handle. Then he cast a sealing spell to keep Ryou from breaking out. Zorc cast several fireballs into the apartment before leaving.
The fire alarm blared jolting Ryou awake. He could smell something burning, smoke drifting through the door. Ryou tried to open his door but it was stuck. Ryou rammed his body against the door to no avail. He was starting to panic now. What the hell was going on here? What was wrong with his door? Why was the house on fire and why couldn't he her Marik or Bakura yelling about what was going on?
He calmed himself enough to remember how the teleportation spell worked. Half the living room was engulfed in flames. Ryou immediately began to choke on all smoke in the air. He put the fire out with magic. Where those two? He had heard them come back in last night.
Ryou walked over to Marik's open door trying to find any clues about what the hell was going on. Standing in the doorway Ryou s heart dropped at what he saw. Ryou ran to Marik hoping that he wasn't too late. To his relief he found a faint pulse when he turned Marik to him. Ryou quickly cast a healing spell keeping one hand on Marik's pulse. Two minutes passed of Ryou casting the spell before he could feel Marik's pulse become stronger. Marik opened his eyes coughing up the remaining blood in his throat.
"What the hell happened?" Ryou asked.
"Zorc took over Bakura and tried to kill me." Marik answered voice raspy from the blood. "We have to go after them." Marik said weakly trying to get out of the blood soaked bed.
Ryou placed a hand on his s holder
"Hold on you almost died you can't just run after them!"
Marik gave Ryou a death glare. "I'm fine." Marik said.
"We don't even know where they went." Ryou said as he removed his hand from Marik's shoulder.
"My bet is Zorc is going got to get the items or the tombs." Marik said attempting to get out of the bed stumbling.
Ryou caught him before saying "You can barely move right now there's no way we can go up against Zorc like this."
"I'll have the entire plane ride to recover and for us to come up with a plane." Marik pushed himself off of Ryou steadier on his feet now. Ryou knew that there was going to be no use arguing with Marik.
"Alright then it Zorc is going after the items we need to call Ishizu." Ryou said.
Marik nodded grabbing his phone he dialed his sisters number. Ryou heard her say hello before Marik started "Zorc is back you need to try and hide the items." there was a moment of silence before she responded
"There not here they are on loan to the domino museum."
"They're in domino and you didn't tell me." Marik said exasperated. Ishizu never took his concerns about the items seriously and know the entire world could be ending because of it.
"They don't have any magic anymore!"
"Do you really think that's going to stop an inter-dimensional demon?" Marik yelled into the phone and hung up. "They're at the domino city museum"
"I'll try to call my dad on our way." They left the apartment trying to rush over to the museum. Ryou was not able to get a hold of his dad. When they got to the museum they went around to the back to the employee entrance. They were stopped by a security guard be for Ryou showed an id badge. Marik followed Ryou through the maze of hallways till they reached the director's office.
"Hello Ryou your dad is in a meeting right now? Said his dad's secretary standing up to greet them.
"Do you know when he will be back." she looked down at her watch.
"Maybe an hour."
"We'll wait" Ryou said walking over to the leather couch. Marik followed him sitting next to his friend. "Do we have time to be waiting like this?" Marik ask whispering trying to avoid the secretary overhearing them.
Ryou closed his eyes thinking. Zorc is practical he won't try to steal the items from a crowded museum. "They are probably casing the place right now and planning a heist tonight." They remained quiet while they waited for Ryou's dad. They couldn't plan or discuses Zorc with the secretary listen to them. An hour passed and Ryou's dad returned to his office.
"What are you doing here? His father asked confused.
"We need to talk." Ryou said pointing to the Office. Ryou's Dad looked annoyed but did not deny the request. The three of them filed in to the office closing the door behind them. Ryou's dad went over to a small side table in the corner of the room and poured himself a glass of whisky.
"What do you want?" he said with an exacerbated sigh walking to his desk taking a seat.
"You have move the millennium items to a safer location someone's going to steal them tonight if you don't do something." Ryou said
"So they're going to bypass the other priceless items to steal just those." Ryou nodded. The director raises his eyebrows "And how did you find out about this?" he asked humoring them.
Ryou opened his mouth to speak but stopped. how do you explain that a demon took over your friend's mind. Was planning to use seven ancient artifacts to resurrect himself, and take over the world. Ryou knew that his dad would never believe him. What sane person would? Ryou stood there deflated.
his dad took a drink looked over to Marik and asked "How did he convince you of this delusion?"
"He's not delusional you would know that if you would spend more than five minutes in the same room as your son." Ryou's dad glared at Marik.
"Get out of my office." Ryou didn't budge though
"Dad please trust me, I already lost one of my best friend today I don't want to lose anyone else I care about." The statement made Marik run cold. What did he mean he lost Bakura? Before Marik could ask about it though Ryou had continued his statement. "If you won't move them at least hide them in the traveling compartment after hours." his father stared at them his patients already worn thin he took a drink of his whisky
"Fine if it will get you to out of my office so that I can get back to work." he said picking up his phone and dialing an extension. "Phil put artifacts 102 though 109 from the Egyptian exhibits in their traveling compartments after closing." There was a pause. "I know just do it." He hung up the phone glaring at his son.
"Thank you" Ryou said turning to leave. once they left the museum Marik said "We're going to break in and stop Zorc tonight aren't we"
"We'll banish Zorc to the shadow realm." Marik stopped in the middle of the ally way. They were in eye sight of the main street. Marik knew that once they had people around they wouldn't be able to talk.
"We are going to exercise Bakura first though!" Marik asked the statement Ryou made to his dad about already losing a friend playing in his head. Ryou who had kept walking stored at Mar its question his s holders slumped
"I don't know a way to stop Zorc that doesn't involve banishing Bakura."
"After everything we did to bring him back you're going to give up."
"Zorc controls Bakura s soul even if we tried to send Zorc he's going to drag Bakura back with him."
"There has to be some way to save Bakura." Marik said eyes filling with tears.
"I wish there was but we don't have two years to sort through spell books to find it." Marik stormed off not wanting to talk any more. He only had a few hours to figure out how to save Bakura. He'd let Zorc have Bakura once before and he wasn't going to make that same mistake again.
When Marik got back to the apartment he went to his room. he ignored the scorch marks in the living room and his blood cover bed taking a seat at his vanity.
Marik pulled out his phone going through his text messages with his sister. She had insisted that he keep number he finally found the number after a few minutes of scrolling. Marik dialed the number to the last person on earth that he ever expected himself to call. Right now, though Marik was out of options. If there was one person who knew how to save someone against impossible odds it was Yugi Moto.
The phone rang twice before Yugi answer "Marik?" Yugi asked confused why he would be calling him.
"Yugi I need help." Marik said and proceeded to explain the events of the last week. Yugi was quiet for a moment, drumming his fingers, thinking. "The tablets that Pegasus found were Ka part of people's souls."
"Right." Marik said wishing that Yugi would get to the point.
"I think that when Bakura fought against the Pharaoh the first time Diabound had been sealed away." Yugi said "so Bakura did at have his entire soul when he sold it to Zorc."
"Right" Marik's brain went into over dove trying to figure out how to use this loophole.
he racked his brain trying to remember all the spells that he and Ryou had studied over the past few years. Marik's face fell "I have to go!" he said hanging up. he ran over to a trunk that was sitting on the edge of his room. He rummaged though the different scrolls. He found the one that he was looking for. Marik grabbed the scroll and ran into the living room were Ryou was fixing the damage from the fire. Ryou stopped casting when Marik put the scroll in front of him. he took it in his hands and read it.
"Bakura's ka was sealed away when he made his deal with Zorc."
Ryou gave him a sad look "Marik".
"This can work it's the only chance we have please." Ryou looked down at the spell again his brow furrowed in thought he made some adjustments to the spell.
"If we just release his Ka it won't do us much good if it goes straight to Bakura, and under Zorc's control." Ryou finished writing his adjustments to the spell. He held the scroll away from him taking the entire thing in all at once. "That should make it to were Bakura's soul should go to Diabound instead." he rolled up the scroll and handed back to Marik. "I'll be casting a banishing spell if you cast this at the same time we might be able to separate them." Ryou said he was worried that Marik might be getting his hopes up.
He wanted to warn Marik the plan had a slim margin of success, but he cut off when Marik said. "We can disable the alarms security a soon as the building closes to setup the banishing spell." Ryou gave a sly smile, he was underestimating Marik, even if this didn't work Marik would find a way to save Bakura.
"We'll need to pay of guards to stay away from the Egyptian exhibit!" Marik waved off Ryou's comment saying "That goes without saying." The two of them sat down at the kitchen table planning out their confrontation with Zorc.
Bakura laid on the floor of his soul room catatonic staring at the wall. Marik's murder kept playing on repeat in his mind. He wanting to be scream, but his body refused to co-operate. He knew that the look in Marik's eyes was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. It was like he was begging him, but instead of fear there was determination. It felt like Marik was begging him not to let Zorc win. What was he supposed to do though if he was able to stop Zorc he would have done it he for plunging the knife into Marik.
"I swear if you don't stop!" Zorc's yell eared echoing through Bakura's soul room
"What you'll kill me." Bakura muttered. He could only hope that Zorc would put him out of his misery.
"You know I will never give you what you want." Zorc said "It's your own fault for letting yourself grow attached to those idiots."
Bakura brought his focus out of his soul room becoming aware of their surroundings. They were back at the museum. He knew they had been there earlier that day when Zork was casing the place for the heist.
Bakura knew he should try to do something to stop Zorc, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Zorc had already killed the only two people in the world that Were worth protecting. What was the point.
Bakura's sulking was interrupted by Zorc's low growl. Bakura tuned himself back into the physical realm. They were in front of the dismay case for the items but there was nothing in side them. What the hell is going on here? This didn't make sense he was a tuned to the items again though Zorc. He could feel their energy radiating from this spot. Zorc growled and smashed the glass case. There was a shout as a freezing spell was cast on them.
Bakura knew that, voice Ryou was alive! "Ryou hurry up and banish us." Bakura yelled he was able to take over while Zorc was distracted trying to break the spell.
"I need your help that is not going to hold him long enough I need you to help me buy more time."
"I can't"
"Bakura you fucking sold your soul to a demon and spent thousands of years in the ring to get revenge for your village. You're going to let Zorc getaway away with killing Marik. Get your shit together." Ryou Yelled at him Zorc broke though the spell and lunged at Ryou having taken back over.
Marik heard Ryou shout his freezing spell, in the other hall, signaling him to start his own incantation. Once he finished the incantation he waited. Afraid that the spell wasn't going to work, that Ryou was right about Diabound's tablet having been destroyed.
That is when a bright light- flashed in front of him as Diabound appeared in front of him. Diabound was beautiful pure white emanating a soft light, the Ka had snake head tail wrapped around Marik as he waited for an order.
"We have to save Bakura, when I try to reunite you two you have to stay bound to me till I released the spell." Marik said. Diabound seemed to agree to merits request judging from the way he had bowed his head, he heard Ryou fighting Zorc in the other room.
Marik had to hurry Ryou was not going to be able to hold Zorc for long, and they couldn't risk waiting on the brandishing spell. Marik ran to the main exhibit hall yelling "Now Ryou!"
Zorc broke the freezing spell than and took back control of Bakura body. Zorc lunged for Ryou attempted to stab him with the switch blade he been keeping in his pocket.
Ryou's words had gotten through to Bakura. Even if this world was a cesspit of misery and despaired he'd be dammed if he just gave it to Zorc. Even if he hated the world if Ryou was alive that meant that there was still something good left to fight for. Maybe that little silver of light was enough reason to save it.
Bakura wasn't able to grab back control from Zorc but he was able to slow Zorc down just enough for Ryou to dodge the attack. Zorc went to attack Ryou again Ryou side stepped Zorc's attack aging. Zorc let out a low growl clenching his fist. Zorc shot a fire ball at Ryou who was on the other side of the room now. Ryou cast a nullification spell on the fireball Ryou then moved into a defensive stance waiting form whatever move Zorc made. "Ryou what are you doing hurry up and cast a banishing spell on us."
"I promised Marik that was a last resort."
Bakura was able to steal control from Zorc for a moment "What does that matter he's dead" Ryou didn't say anything he just smirked.
"As soon as I finished of your little friend you'll pay for this." Zorc yelled in the back of their mind. Bakura held on to whatever controlled he could. Bakura refused to make this easy for Zorc
"Ryou now" he heard shouted before he knew what he felt his soul being ripped away. He heard Zorc scream as he sank his claws in to him. Trying to keep Bakura soul in place. Then the spell that was pulling at him managed to yank him way. Bakura could hear a final cry of anguish form Zorc. Everything went silent, and Bakura's soul collided with his Ka.
Diabound reunited with Bakura's soul making him whole for the first time in millennia. He didn't know how much pain the gaping hole inside him had caused till it had been healed. He was on the cold museum floor Marik had ran over and wrapped Bakura up in his arms. Bakura was shaking overwhelmed as he stared up at Marik. He could not believe that Marik was alive.
"Marik?" Bakura said his voice barley above a whisper, and tears began to fill his eyes.
"Shush I'm here." Marik responded pulling Bakura into a tight hug.