A/N: Well I finally managed to get this puppy up! I had a few SACs this week and as such, couldn't find time to fit in study and writing. I probably won't be able to update for a few days because I have my last two SACs this coming week, but after that I'll be able to.
I've also taken the liberty of going over my past chapters and revising my tenses as I like to swap between past and present a lot. =/
Again info as follows:
Hikari Marik= Marik
Yami Marik= Malik
Disclaim ownership to Kazuki Takahashi and Stephen Sommers
رحلة الألف ميل بخطوة تبدأ الجزء الثاني
Marik sat on his bed, toying with the key recently given to him by the thief. The symbols on it interested the man greatly and learning more about the treasure would help him know what the item could be used for. Putting down the key for a moment, he rubbed his eyes to rid them of the kohl covering them. The lights were off on his older brothers' side of the room because the man was currently curled up in the blankets, fast asleep.
Glaring at the offending roof, Marik picked up the key to examine it once more. Unfortunately, this time his thoughts were interrupted by a certain white-haired thief plaguing his mind. He was intrigued by the man, what were his motives? Was he trying to sell him out for something? Could he be trusted? All these, Marik couldn't answer, but he still had to watch out for his deviant friend, guide or no guide.
The blonde heaved a sigh, closing his eyes while lowering his arms, dropping the key onto his stomach in the process. Resting his head on his arms he opened his eyes to the roof again, only this time, it wasn't the roof he was staring at. A massive sword was pointed in between Marik's eyes, automatically making the man freeze. The man holding the knife was difficult to identify as he was covered in black robes from his head to his toe. What surprised the blonde though, was that the man hadn't already run him through yet.
Marik's violet eyes trailed down towards his own stomach where the key was sitting, hoping to somehow jiggle it upward. But the man standing over him wouldn't allow that as he grabbed a fistful of his hair and forced it upward so his eyes were in line with the sword once again.
"I'm here for the map," the mans' gruff voice asked, muffled by the cloth covering his mouth. Marik, trying to think up a quick solution, darted his eyes to the table in the middle of the room where the map was laid out on, next to a candle. The masked figure followed his train of vision, and then returned it to Marik's.
"And the key?" He asked, obviously not noticing it on the blonde's stomach. Internally grinning at his luck, Marik kicked one of his legs upward, effectively getting the robed man off him. Grabbing the key that fell off his body during the struggle he tried to make for the door, but the man beat him to it, blocking the doorway, sword raised. Crap, Marik cursed in his mind, searching for anything to help him. He looked towards his still sleeping brother with a frustrated look on his face; he'd sleep through a tornado given the chance. Getting an idea, the Egyptian rushed back towards his bed, masked man stalking him and grabbed a pillow from it, flinging it at his snoring siblings head, waking him up.
The older, now ruffled up Ishtar rubbed at his eyes, annoyed by his brothers' action.
"Geez, thanks brother, wake me up while I was having quite a nice dream. Was laying on a pile of mo-,"
"You know, I'd love to hear about your dream some other time Malik, but right now I could use your help!" Marik was currently getting backed into a wall, the cloaked figure slowly making his way towards him. He had to find a way to get to the map before the man took it, but he was unprotected by the ever gaining sword.
Malik seemed to finally tune in on the problem and grabbed one of his own pillows, stalking his way up behind the man. The man in question finally noticed Malik too because he turned around, only to get thumped behind the head by the taller blondes' pillow. Malik grinned, but his joy was only short lived as the man landed hard on the table, breaking it in the process. Unfortunately the candle that was sitting on the table landed on top of the map as the table broke, setting fire to it for a second time.
Maliks' grin then turned into a scowl when he saw the man getting back up. He raised his arms in an attempt to whack the man with the pillow again. No such luck though, as the mans' sword cut cleanly through it.
Marik gave him a blunt look as if to say; 'did you really think that'd work twice?' Malik just shrugged at him and then turned back to their attacker. What he didn't expect was the man to whistle, signalling for something, or better yet, someone.
Not seconds after the sound, another four darkly robed figures appeared through the window in their cabin above Marik's bed. The Ishtar brothers glanced at each other in a way that said they were royally screwed. Not giving up without a fight however, they nodded to each other and turned to glare at the man who whistled. Grinning darkly, both Ishtars slammed headfirst into the man, knocking him out in the process. But there was still the problem of the other men.
The two blonde-haired men couldn't stand a chance against professional fighters and were being backed once again towards the wall. Two of the four men were holding guns, while the other two were holding swords similar to that of the first one. They were scrunching up their eyes in fright, ready to be shot when the door slammed open to reveal an annoyed white-haired thief, holding a gun in each hand. Once he noticed the Ishtar's predicament however, he barked a harsh laugh.
"Friends of yours?" He asked with a wry smile. It was short lived however, when the two men with guns pointed them towards him. Thinking fast, Bakura shot both his pistols, killing them. He just didn't expect them to go flying the way they did.
The Brit had fired into their heads, flinging them both back with momentum. They came down on a set of draws with an unlit lantern and a stack of clothes atop it. Crashing with all their weight, the drawer toppled over, sending the lantern and clothes flying everywhere. The lantern fell to the ground and smashed into pieces, sending kerosene spewing to the floor.
One of the alive, sword wielding men grabbed Marik around the neck with skilled precision, cutting off his airways with the weapon. Malik, seeing his brothers' struggles, bent down and grabbed the candle that fell over, now dimly lit. Making sure to stop the man from cutting off his siblings head, Malik poked the candle into the cloaked mans' eye.
While this was happening, Bakura was left to fight off another two men who'd appeared behind him and the other sword wielding one. Shooting and hitting one of them, the Englishman put away his now dead guns, reaching for a knife from his back pocket.
The man who had just gotten poked in the eye, howled in pain and instantly released Marik from his prison. Malik, having the candle knocked out of his hands, went to his now choking brother, not noticing the position the candle was in.
Flames erupted around the blondes as Bakura flung a knife at one of the remaining men. Satisfied, the white-haired man turned to the Ishtar's, grabbing their arms and forcing them out of the room before they could get burnt or stabbed. Turning back around, while ducking by sword swipes, Bakura picked up the 'supposed' key Marik had dropped in his struggle and quickly made his way back to the other two males.
Scurrying across the hallway, making their way towards the deck area, Marik froze.
"I forgot the map!" Turning on his heels, the younger Egyptian went to sprint his way back towards the room when Bakura's arm stopped him. Looking up at the thief confused, the violet eyed man tried to push his way past the inferior arm. Bakura merely scoffed at the act and pushed Marik back in line with his brother.
"Relax will you, I'm the map." The thief then grabbed a hold of Marik's shirt clad arm and dragged him along, Malik following close behind. Marik glared at the man while trying to break free from his iron grip.
"How reassuring", he rolled his eyes, "and I can walk perfectly well by myself, thank-you very much." He said as he managed to rip his arm out of Bakura's grip and straighten up, sticking his nose in the air. Bakura growled.
"Stop acting pissy. There are still more of those guys around here somewhere." As he said this, the trio had managed to make it out onto the deck, near where the horses were kept.
It was havoc outside, all the people on board were going nuts as the fire spread throughout the cabins and onto the open deck. A loud 'bang' sounded as a chunk of wall Marik was standing by blew up. Bakura pulled out another gun from who knows where and started firing at the second last cloaked man that had committed the act.
That proved to be a mistake however, as another five men appeared over the railing, all wielding guns and knives. Bakura scowled.
"Oh shit!" He cursed, once again grabbing the younger blondes' arm roughly, shooting the hatch off the stable door. The horses were riled up because of the fire and stampeded across the deck, startling the cloaked figures and cutting Malik from the other two. While the men were preoccupied, Bakura dragged Marik behind a wall to replace his lost bullets.
One fired at the wall, a nice distance from their heads. Bakura was hurrying with his bandolier, trying to shove enough bullets into his guns as another one fired, this time closer to their heads. Marik looked around worried.
"Will you hurry up?" He said to the preoccupied man impatiently. Bakura was fiddling with about two or three bullets in his mouth, unable to respond to the frustrated man. Another one fired, right next to the thief's head as he quickly shoved one of the bullets into the gun.
Just as another shot rang out, Marik grabbed hold of Bakura's vest and yanked him out of the way as it hit right where his head would have been. The white-haired man froze for a moment, unsure of what just happened. Shaking his head out of the shock, he ripped himself from Marik's grip and loaded the last bullet into his gun.
Quickly peeking around the side, the thief found another lit lantern next to the robed men and smirked, wielding his gun. He shot the object square on and it burst into flames around the mysterious men.
"Come on!" He shouted towards Marik and they both bolted to the railings separating themselves from the water below. Glancing back at the almost fully on fire boat, Bakura grimaced. He turned to the blonde with a somewhat pensive look.
"Can you swim?" He asked, gesturing towards the river below. Marik gazed at him, confused.
"Well yes…Wh-!" That was a long enough answer for Bakura as he quickly picked up the light Egyptian and threw him overboard.
Taking one last glance at the area around him, the thief jumped gracefully onto the railing and dove into the water after Marik.
وفي الوقت نفسه
Malik, having just punched a guy out, was in the process of making his way to the railings to follow his brother and guides example when he noticed his poker buddies from before, firing wildly at the group of cloaked men. Malik rolled his eyes.
"Tourists."
Suddenly a now fully lit man grabbed him by the throat and pushed him into a cabin wall. Malik's eyes widened when he spied a sword making its way towards him. A shot was heard from a distance and the flaming man dropped to the ground, dead. Malik's eyes followed the source of the noise to find Ryou holding a shotgun of his own. Looking shocked at what he'd accomplished; the nicer Brit shoved the gun back into his pocket and dove into the water.
Grinning at his luck, Malik looked around at the flaming boat in awe, backing towards the railing.
"Well that was lucky." He said while letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He then pointed a thumb proudly at himself.
"And did I panic?" He asked the air. Pulling out the key he had once again stolen from Bakura, he threw it up into the air and caught it.
"I think not." He answered himself, while puffing out his chest in happiness. That was when a few rogue camels came stampeding towards him, successfully knocking him off balance and plunging him into the Nile waters below.
The Ishtar and Touzoku brothers waddled their way onto the shoreline, completely spent. Ringing his hair out, Malik pouts.
"Well that completely wreaked my night." He said, more to himself than anyone else. Bakura glared at the now flat haired Egyptian and stormed all the way up to him.
"Give me my treasure. Now!" He fumed. The said man meekly stretched a hand out, trinket in his palm. Snatching it off Malik, Bakura growled. He then walked calmly toward his twin, thrusting the object into his hands.
"Guard it with your life Ryou or I will have your head." He sounded serious to Marik and Malik, but Ryou merely took it in stride, seeming happy his brother entrusted him with something. Marik shook his head, ringing the water out of his clothes and hair, Malik doing the same next to him.
A faint chuckle was heard by the Ishtar's and they looked to see Ryou staring at them.
"What?" They said, simultaneously. This only made Ryou laugh harder.
"Are you sure you two aren't twins either? Because you look pretty identical to me." Marik and Malik exchanged confused looks, but Marik was the first to speak.
"Well, we've been mistaken for twins before, but we're still a year apart from each other." He shrugged. Ryou smiled, also ringing out his drenched white hair.
Bakura was getting rid of the water from his clothes as well, as he gazed at the now sinking ship and the retreating backs of the millionaire's. He spotted Joey guiding three horses onto the banks and realised that they no longer had any form of transportation to carry them to the lost city. The dirty blonde turned to grace Bakura with a wide grin.
"'Ey Touzoku! Looks to me like I got all the horses!" Bakura, thinking up a quick comeback, turned and grinned at the American.
"Hey Wheeler! Looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!" The wet thief then dragged himself up the shoreline to meet the rest of his group. Joey, confused by Bakura's last statement, gazed up at the stars. Realisation came to him and he kicked the sand underneath him while muttering a few curses.
Bakura, grinning to himself, lead his group further away from the river to find a safe place to stay for the night as the flaming boat slowly sank deeper into the water in the background.
A/N: The title is the same with 'part 2' added to it and the middle Arabic word is simply 'meanwhile'. Also, I would like to know if you guy wanted me to put some hints of thiefshipping in this because that's as far as I'll go. Hope you enjoyed and R&R!