When I said the next update would take longer, I didn't originally mean this long. I'm sorry for the delay! Thank you all very, very much for the reviews!

See chapter one for disclaimer.


Chapter Sixteen

(In which only one person is knocked unconscious.)

Malik had just returned from locking up Pegasus, and was about to sit back down on his cushion and wait for the other two to return, when Bakura barged in, dragging a reluctant-looking Ryou behind himself, and saying two words:

"The pharaoh."

Malik stared at them. Ryou wasn't fighting the other man's hold on his arm, but he was looking stubborn and confused and like he was going to be no help at all. And Bakura – frankly, if the thought weren't so weird, Malik would say that he looked panicked.

"What?" he said.

"Yuugi, Kaiba, the whole group," Bakura snapped, even as he rushed past him and toward an adjacent room, Ryou in tow. "They're here. Where's Pegasus?"

Malik froze. The pharaoh, how...? He glanced at Ryou, wondering if he had betrayed them, and he couldn't resent it if he had, could he? And he was scared. He hadn't seen it first hand, but he knew: the pharaoh could do worse than kill you, destroy your very mind – and you only got one chance at redemption, didn't you?

"Upstairs, in his room," he answered Bakura's question; the thief cursed, and turned to him impatiently, and interrupted his "how" with:

"Well, what are you waiting for then? We need to get out of here."

Malik stared at him in confusion; from the next room, there was a direct stairway leading downstairs, and then a room leading the large garden beyond...

"The pharaoh is here and you want to run away?" he asked; that was – that was a brilliant solution, and not one he would have expected Bakura to come up with.

"Now," Bakura snapped, tugging at Ryou's arm as if for emphasis; Malik glanced from Ryou, who gave a small helpless smile and still made no motion to free himself, to Bakura who had a slightly crazed look in his eyes; he'd like being on the run, he really would.

"I'm coming," he declared.

Bakura turned away without another word, and rushed downwards; he'd let go of Ryou, but the latter followed, though he stopped briefly when they were outside – it wasn't very warm and rain hung in the air – and said quietly.

"Maybe you should stay – I'm sure Yuugi would forgive you."

"I'm not," Malik mumbled; maybe he was being unfair, but there was no time to think about it now, and if he made the wrong choice – well.

He would have asked Ryou why he didn't stay, or try to, but there was no time for that either; Bakura was already running down the meadow, towards the large black gate in the distance. The garden was surrounded by large walls, a place for someone who liked their privacy, and Yuugi and the others must be coming from the main entrance.

The gate was dark and metallic and looked like a prison door, solid and forbidding; Bakura had reached it, and Malik watched with sinking dread when he pushed at it fruitlessly. They were not going to escape a confrontation.

"It's closed," he stated the obvious; Bakura gave it a vicious shove, to no effect; Ryou stood next to him, biting his lips nervously; Malik could hear voices in the distance.

"It's wasn't closed yesterday," Bakura said darkly. "Pegasus did something."

"We've been watching..."

"Obviously, we've not been watching him well enough or they wouldn't have found us!"

Malik said quietly:

"I think they're coming."

He grabbed his millennium rod from were it was hanging on a loop on his trousers, felt the comforting presence of its magic, and faced the house. Bakura, however, had leant with his back against the gate, and was not moving; the ring was still and lifeless on Ryou's chest.

"Do something already!" Malik snapped at him.

There was a brief, dull sound, and Ryou collapsed into the thief's arms.

Malik turned round slowly, confronted to the rather weird sight of Bakura absently brushing his lips on the spot on the back of his ex-host's neck, where he had just knocked him out with a single hit. Neat trick. Malik made a prudent step backwards.

"That... wasn't quite what I had in mind."

Bakura rolled his eyes.

"I can't use the ring," he informed him negligently, as if this was a pretty secondary information, while picking up Ryou as carefully as possible.

"What do you mean you can't use the ring?" Malik sounded panicked to his own ears. "This isn't funny, do something!"

"I assure you that if I could just send the pharaoh's cheerleaders to the shadow realms, I would gladly do it," the thief replied coldly.

"How's that possible? What happened?" He paused and motioned Ryou. "And why the hell did you do that to him?"

"I've never been able to use the ring ever since the ritual. And I don't need him to find out."

Finally, a look of realisation spread over Malik's face. Now, that would explain Bakura's sudden reconcilability.

"But you just tell me? I'm touched by your trust..."

"Shut up," Bakura snarled. "I'm just telling you because I have no qualms about killing you."

"I'm sure Ryou'd appreciate the preference," Malik answered laconically, not particularly worried; they had real and common enemies to worry about.

Bakura just snorted and hugged Ryou's limp body, which he was now carrying bridal style, closer to his chest. Malik paused for a moment to contemplate the picture.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You freed Pegasus from the card. What if you take the ring?"

"Don't you think I've tried?" Bakura snarled. "It was still there right after the ritual, the connection to the ring. But it's been fading, and now it's gone."

"Shit." Malik glared at the fence, and back at the house, and noted almost detachedly that four silhouettes had appeared in front of if, and were approaching. "So much for that. Isis is never going to let me leave the house again."

Bakura threw his head back to glare at him.

"How horrible. I'd feel sorry for you if it's wasn't for the fact, they're going to kill me."

Malik looked at him in interest.

"You're actually scared?"

"No," the thief snapped. "I'm actually trilled at the idea of having to face my most ancient enemy while being mortal again and having absolutely no powers!" Malik blinked at him, several times. "Do you think I survived for so long because I'm stupid? Here, hold him, I'll try to break it open."

Malik thought about saying something about the relative intelligence of getting yourself stuck into a gold trinket for three millennia, and how it couldn't necessarily be called "surviving", but decided to save it for later, and wordlessly took Ryou from Bakura's arms. As the other boy was heavier than he looked, he slid down, his feet dangling in the air as Malik stopped him from falling completely by pressing him against his body with both arms; chances were he wouldn't feel all too well when he woke up, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

When the pharaoh came into clear view, Bakura gave up trying to break the gate open, and turned back towards the enemy grimly. Rishid was with them, which made Malik feel marginally better – he knew he could count on him, always. It was unfair, but he didn't feel as absolutely certain about Isis.

He instinctively began to murmur a brief prayer, before remembering that there was very little hope the gods would be listening to him rather than to the pharaoh.

The pharaoh, who was probably going to kill him. Or drive him insane in a way that might or might not actually be worse than death.

A while ago, during his other personality's duel against the pharaoh, he wouldn't have minded if he had been sacrificed; he would even have accepted it if the pharaoh had, instead of generously forgiving him for all he had done, chosen to punish him even after he had, with the help of Rishid, overcome his darkness and surrendered.

But now that he had pretty much taken advantage of this forgiveness, but discovered that life could actually be quite enjoyable, even without ruling the world or at least having a few mind-slaves at your disposal, he realised that he really didn't want to die.

He glanced at Bakura, who was again holding their only shield – Ryou's still unconscious body – against his chest, leaving him completely exposed. Typical.

Or maybe the pharaoh would challenge them to a shadow game. And then he'd win, because he had all three fucking god cards, and Bakura was probably going to resurrect somehow, and he would be destroyed, and he couldn't even say goodbye to Ryou and Rishid –

Next to him, Bakura growled. He was prone to a lot of non-verbal sounds like this since he had gotten this body. Malik wondered if there was a connection, or if he just hadn't known the thief well enough before.

Then he noticed something: the small boy with the spiky, three coloured hair who was running towards them with the others was not the pharaoh.

"Yuugi." Bakura had noticed as well. "Why isn't he here yet?"

He seemed nervous as well, which in any other situation might have made Malik feel a little smug, but now it only made things worse. He'd never seen the spirit being nervous before, and it was just his luck that the first time had to be when they were forced to remain allies.

Now that he thought of it, this whole thing really hadn't worked well the first time. What had he been thinking trying –

"Malik!"

Rishid's voice. A few instants later, they were here: Yuugi, still not the pharaoh, and Anzu and Honda; Kaiba, Jounouchi and Isis were nowhere to be seen.

"What happened to Bakura?" Anzu asked, still out of breath; Honda, without saying anything, made a threatening step forwards, eyes locked with Bakura's, who didn't move, and didn't speak.

Honda looked the most pissed; Anzu seemed more worried than anything else; Yuugi, to Malik's utter confusion, was smiling. Rishid was standing next to them, calmly, and that at least was a little bit reassuring – and Malik briskly felt much more afraid for Bakura than for himself.

"He's fine," he answered Anzu's question hastily. "He's just unconscious."

"Release him," Honda said, cold, threatening.

Bakura glared right back at him. Malik realised that this was utterly new to him, having to consider mere mortals a treat. He absently wondered who would win a fight between the two of them. Bakura was strong, but he hadn't got much training lately... At least they were not yet attacking each other.

"We didn't do anything to him," Bakura actually protested.

Malik raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing. He did wonder if it would help if he said it had all been Bakura's doing, and at least when Ryou's current state was involved, he wouldn't be lying, but he decided it probably wouldn't work, and despite everything, chances were that Ryou himself wouldn't be too trilled to find out he had gotten the thief subjected to a punishment game while he was out cold. That, and he didn't particularly want Bakura to be rendered insane either.

"Er... Yuugi?" he began uncertainly, to create a diversion. It looked like they weren't about to pry Ryou from them and kill them just yet, and the pharaoh still wasn't present. "I guess... I should give this back to you..."

He made one step forward and held out the millennium rod to him, just like he had done for the pharaoh after Battle City, dagger turned against himself; it wasn't bared of its shelter, but the implication was still there.

Yuugi – still Yuugi, not his pharaoh – looked up at him. He was still actually smiling.

"Thank you," he said softly, and took the rod. No irony. Malik felt oddly small and stupid; he threw a quick glance at Rishid, then looked down; he didn't dare turn to check how Bakura took this surrender.

Yuugi then turned a slightly less friendly face to Bakura, but before he could say anything, Ryou suddenly began to move, so à propos that Malik guessed that it couldn't be by chance.

"What..." Ryou opened his eyes, looked around, disoriented, for a moment; a large smile lit up his face when he became aware of the newcomers. "Yuugi!" He wriggled free of Bakura's loosened grip, and made a step in their direction. "Honda-kun. Anzu." He marked a brief, embarrassed pause; Malik wasn't sure if he didn't recognise Rishid, or if he just wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to greet him like his friends or not.

"Are you alright?" Honda asked, in a suspicious voice that implied that he probably really wasn't, and stepped forward.

Malik's shame was briefly chased by annoyance – he loved Ryou, he wouldn't ... – but he guessed he couldn't exactly blame the other boy: Ryou's previous encounter with the two of them had put him in a coma twice, and killed him once.

"I'm fine," Ryou assured him, but let Honda take his arm to support him anyway. He did have a bit of a headache. From the corner of his eyes, Malik could see Bakura tense next to him. "What happened?"

"It's a long story," Yuugi said. "But Pegasus and the girl are both okay." He looked around at the others. "We should probably go back to the mansion."

Ryou was used to getting limited information about the adventures he was, sort of, taking part in, and was thus content with this for now; Malik, though completely confused by Yuugi's behaviour, was not about to overthrow the fragile balance they seemed to be working under.

"Oh..." Ryou said. "I think you should have this..."

He removed the cord of the ring, and held it out to Yuugi. Next to Malik, Bakura clenched and unclenched his fists, but made no move.

"It's yours," Yuugi answered. "If you want to keep –"

"The eye," Malik interrupted what could have become a long generosity contest; he had decided that since he had to betray someone anyway, he'd rather side with the good guys for once, if there was such a thing. Especially with Rishid here, looking wordlessly at him since they had arrived, and Bakura's best bet was probably to avoid a confrontation anyway. "The millennium eye," he added, looking at Bakura.

He had at least expected an angry glare, but after a fractional hesitation, the thief pulled out the object from his pocket.

Yuugi's eyes became even wider; Anzu put a hand in front of her mouth, as if to stop a scream. Only Rishid remained entirely motionless.

It was Honda who said it:

"You... ripped out his eye? He didn't mention that."

"He didn't do this now..." Ryou mumbled, like this made a major difference. Malik held back a snort at this implication that Bakura wouldn't have scratched out Pegasus' eyes this time around.

"Give this to me."

At the assured, commanding tone, Malik thought – and he was sure that Bakura did too – that the pharaoh had finally arrived, and needed a moment to realise: this was still Yuugi. Only looking a lot more serious and severe than usual.

Bakura crossed his arms over his chest, eye hidden in his fist.

"Duel me for it. A shadow game."

"No!" Ryou said.

Yuugi looked at Bakura searchingly.

"You can no longer start a shadow game on your own," he asserted slowly.

Bakura did not deny it; instead he said, his voice soft:

"You will need this." He held up the eye between two fingers.

"Then give it to me," said Yuugi, and after a brief glance at Ryou: "I am willing to forgive the past."

He knew, somehow, Malik realised. Knew that Ryou wouldn't want him gone. How on earth...?

"I don't seek your forgiveness," Bakura snarled, the softness gone from his tone; Honda, who was no longer steadying Ryou, made a protective step forwards, and Anzu followed suit.

"You said a minute ago that you weren't stupid," Malik hissed at the thief; he of all people must know how long a normal person could last in a shadow game; and for all he'd bitterly thought about Bakura's ability to come back from the death, he really didn't want to chance it.

"Yuugi, please..." Ryou said feebly. "I know what he's done, but..."

Yuugi nodded.

"We'll talk about it," he said, giving Bakura another long look, asserting. "We need to get back to the others. Will you come?"

Bakura gave a brief, curt nod.

(end of chapter 16)

AN: Uhm. Well. I hope Malik's reaction doesn't come completely out of nowhere.

Next chapter shall come soon, and will most likely be the last one, though there's an epilogue too.

As always, I love comments!