Warnings: M. Yaoi. . No spoilers here. The plot is mine.

Beta: Strange Liou.

Chapter 14: Broken Things

Bakura watched as Malik seemed to break down emotionally right before his eyes. He was trembling visibly, his back thumping against the wall as he rocked, tugging his hair as tears ran down his cheeks.

"Malik," Bakura made to approach when suddenly gravity crashed down on him. He fell to his knees, grasping at his chest. It was as if someone was ripping the life right out of his body. His vision darkened and he collapsed face first into the carpet, choking out, "Not again." Bakura slid out a hand towards Malik, desperate for any relief from his pain. "Malik..." He saw the boy wasn't responding and scraped the rest of his energy to scream, "Malik!"

Malik snapped out of his stupor. The former Host wiped away his tears with his sleeve and crawled across the floor to the fallen dark soul. He carefully rolled him onto his back and partly onto his lap. "Bakura..." Malik gasped holding onto him, "What's happening?"

Bakura fought with everything in him to keep his eyes open to stay connected to the world, but he was losing the battle and felt himself being pulled away.

"Bakura." Malik looked and sounded panicked. "Don't leave me."

Bakura gradually relaxed. "The pain... has stopped." He sighed in relief, and reached up to brush his fingers across Malik's cheek. "I've been away too long... time is running out."

Malik cried out when Bakura suddenly became covered in blood again, his clothes torn and stained like the first night they had met. "Nonononononono!" Malik shook him. "Stay with me, fight it!"

The moment the words left his mouth, a blinding light filled the hotel room. Then, with a loud crack, Bakura and the light vanished.

Malik, shocked for a moment, turned his eyes onto the shoe box to see all the broken bits of gold glow. They pulsed a few times like a heartbeat before fading. His hands shook as he picked up the box and watched as the lighting from the room caught on the gold and making it gleam.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would come into the possession of the Ring like this.

Yugi ran, hoping to out run the thoughts in his mind; he had spent years blocking them out. Despite having his head down and tears blurring his vision he managed to dodge everyone on the street.

A sense of relief had washed over him now that he didn't have the contents of the shoes-box in his care. He hoped that whatever Bakura had planed might in some twist of fate further his own plans. His heart raced painfully in his chest as ideas of a life with just himself and Grandpa lit his hope anew.

He shook his head wiping at his tears. It was impossible to achieve what he wanted. He saw how much pain Ryou had gone through and Yugi didn't think that he had the strength to go through it himself. 'It's dangerous to think like that stop, stop it now.' The voice in the back of his mind made itself known as it often did. 'He'll know what you're thinking; he can read minds.'

"Shut up!" Yugi yelled back and sped up in his run home.

'Foolish boy, Bakura and Ryou will never help you for what you did to them.' It sneered at him.

"Yugi?"

His good arm was snagged and he was pulled about. He stumbled on his feet as his arm was released and, for a terrifying moment, he lost all feeling in his body at the thought that Yami had found him.

"Yugi."

The world came crashing back in blinding light and the deafening noise of the street when he finally focused on the person before him.

Yugi gasped and stumbled backwards again, hands reached out grabbing him by the shoulders to stable him. "Ishizu?" Yugi's heart was pounding so painfully hard that he feared he might have a heart attack.

"Come." She moved in just as Yugi felt that he could no longer stand on his own. Her arms wrapped about him and guided him into a diner.

She ordered some water and placed him down onto a chair. "Breathe," she instructed calmly and firmly.

Yugi downed the glass of water in huge gulps and took a moment to regain his bearings.

Ishizu waited patiently, and said, "You look terrible." She was as truthful as ever. "I'm glad to see you once again."

Yugi nodded. "Me too." Again it looked like she was waiting for something, her eyes pinning him in place. He shifted and cleared his throat. "How's... how's Malik?" Her eyes darkened and instantly Yugi regretted asking. Despite only seeing him not too long ago Yugi was generally curious on how Malik was really doing when he wasn't in a hysterical mess. "Sorry." This stomach twisted up and his throat tightened.

"Yugi?"

He glanced at her, her blue eyes drifted to his bandaged arm and back up again.

"Are you alright?"

He shook his head no and then nodded yes.

"You're so shaken up."

"You frightened me." Yugi replied tightly.

"I apologize it was not my intention." She titled her head slightly to the left, her eyes never leaving his.

"What can I get you?" A waitress asked with her small book in hand.

"Something warm for the boy."

Yugi shook his head and tried to tell them that he was fine.

"One hot chocolate coming up," She said in a cheery voice and bounced away.

"How have you been keeping?" Her eyes once again drifted to his arm, like she knew the truth.

"Fine." Yugi offered the simple lie.

"What happened to your arm? It looks serious." She sat back in her seat.

"A sports accident at school, it's getting better slowly." Yugi hugged his bad arm more tightly to his body.

"A sports accident, really? To me it looks like your arm was shattered by a deflected spell from a shadow monster."

Yugi froze in his seat. The truth never escaped her.

"Forgive me." She smiled again. "Memories of my past as a priestess and healing such battle wounds hunt me often."

"I should go." Yugi was about to rise to his feet when the drink she had ordered him arrived and placed down before him.

"Please sit." Ishizu gestured to the hot steaming drink. "Don't let it go to waste." Yugi slowly sat down watching her carefully. He would not answer anymore of her questions. In fact he wasn't going to talk to her anymore. Yugi glanced up at her from time to time over the rim of his cup. Had Bakura in some way twisted her up in his plains? did he send her to help him? If anyone could save him it was her. 'Ask her now she can save us. She knows. How could she not know? She sees everything. Get up and leave, you're making things worse, leave now you coward! You'll never be free.' Yugi shut his eyes as the voices got so loud that his head hurt.

'Yugi.' Yami's voice sliced through the others, like an ice-pick driven through his head. How could he have let his walls down? How could he have let his other into his mind? Stupid, stupid, Yugi cursed himself over and over again.

"Yugi."

He snapped his eyes open to see her kneeling before him with a worried look on her face.

"You blacked out on me." Her tone was worried and suspicious.

"I really have to go." Yugi got to his feet making her step away. "Thank you so much for the drink." He bowed his head. "It was good to see you again." He turned to walk away; he needed to get home, now!

"Yugi wait!" Ishizu had grabbed his shoulder gently stopping him. "Do you see Ryou often? I'm looking for him, but no one seems to know where he is." Yugi bowed his head; she sounded so concerned, but she had always been that way for the bearers of the Items. Their safety was her personal duty and she took it seriously. Did that mean she knew?

"We are not friends... I mean we were friends at one point, but not anymore..." Yugi trailed off but her stare darkened with worry. "We became distant from him for his own good; we stopped talking to him..." Yugi blocked out the flashes of memory that weren't his.

"Why?" she pressed in such a tone that Yugi couldn't ignore her and he held back a sob.

"Ya–... Bakura demanded it that way. He was abusing Ryou. He was jealous, driven mad by what he couldn't have and no one could stand up to the Darkness that Bakura is – was. Ryou would take days, weeks off school and when he did turn up. He was black and blue and wrapped in bandages." Yugi with his head still bowed and holding back tears. "Ryou was truly my best friend." Yugi broke from her hold and ran from the dinner and headed home.

Ishizu watched the boy run; things were worse then what she had originally thought, there was a great imbalance with the Item bearers. It was time to go see Marik; Ishizu knew that she would not be well received. She stepped out of the dinner, it was getting late and she had left her address book back at the hotel room. Besides all that, she had left Malik alone for too long.

In the short time Hitomi had came in to check up on Ryou, Marik had ducked out of the apartment, down the laundry stopping in the stairwell. The hairs on the back of Marik's neck stood on end. Up the stairs and to the door, Marik stepped through it and his skin crawled. The scrapings on the short hallway walls, the marks in the broken elevator doors, the shattered glass inside, the blood on the floor. Marik growled, he hadn't noticed it before, someone had used shadow magic and it was powerful for something that should have weakened over time. Only three people he knew could use shadow magic that was himself, Bakura and the Righteous Bastard. Since himself and the Righteous Bastard had no real reason to go after Ryou like this, it only enforced his original thoughts it was Bakura and the way he can came after Ryou meant that Bakura wanted his former host dead... which didn't came off as a surprise since Bakura had murdered all his past hosts.

Marik snarled as he turned away, despite Bakura being his ally, he would kill the bearer of the Millennium Ring next they met.

Marik shut the elevator down so no one in the building could use it until it was fixed, and returned to his apartment. Hitomi left with a pat to Marik's shoulder telling him that Ryou should wake soon.

Marik once again sat on the coffee and lent forward brushing the hair from Ryou's face. "Don't worry; I'll make sure that bastard gets what's coming to him." Marik promised caressing Ryou's cheek. "I'll make sure he never comes near you again."

"Bakura, I'll try harder," Ryou mumbled, tears slipped from closed eyelids.

Marik froze. The anger that Marik had kept contained, erupted. He picked up the two cups from that morning and flung them across the room. Marik would make it so that Ryou would never again have a reason to speak that bastard's name.

"Marik!" Ryou jerked upright, wide awake. Marik had no time to react as Ryou jumped up on his feet and into his arms.

"He came after me." Ryou muttered into his chest while clutching at his shirt. "He came after me, here."

"You are safe with me." Marik lifted Ryou's chin. "Just tell me who it is and I'll stop them right now."

"I don't know," Ryou clutched at his head. "I was running for my life." He placed his forehead against Marik's chest and Marik offered what little comfort he could. "I see him in my mind and dreams, but he's always shrouded by shadows."

"What can I do to help you feel safe?"

"Stay like this a little longer." Ryou wrapped his arms about Marik's waist and snuggled in closer.

"Anything you want." Marik rested his chin on top of Ryou's head.

Ishizu couldn't shake the slight feeling that things would escalate soon enough.

"Ridiculous," she muttered to herself and placed the feelings down to the bizarre meeting with Yugi and the thought of seeing Marik soon. "Malik, I'm back," she called. Besides she wouldn't let the situation get that far.

"Malik?" She called out again when she got no reply, and wandered through the hotel room looking for him.

She didn't have to look far. He was on the floor of the living area, rocking himself.

"Malik." She rushed to his side falling on her hands and knees. She fought to keep herself from reaching out and touching him. He was staring at the wall, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Malik what happened?" A note of panic in her voice; it was another one of his episodes. "Malik talk to me." How long had he been like this? What would have set him off? Had he been crying this whole time she had been gone? She grit her teeth together and cursed the name in her mind, Bakura. She should have known better then to leave her little brother in the hands of that psychopath.

"Bakura!" Ishizu hissed under her breath as she got to her feet. "Where are you?" She dashed to the kitchen ripped open the fridge door and pulled out a syringe. She returned to Malik's side, pulled the cap off with her teeth, and injected it into his arm. Ishizu watched him closely for any reaction. He didn't flinch nor did he fight her, he simply stopped rocking. "It'll help you get some rest," she murmured. He started to fall sideways until Ishizu reached out her hand under his head and guided him to lie on the floor. So many times she had considered putting him in a special hospital where he would get the help he needed. Ishizu sighed; he was only getting worse.

"It wasn't my fault." Malik's voice cracked. "He forced me."

"I know." Ishizu brushed his hair from his face and wished that he would came out and say what happened to him to make him so... broken.

"Marik didn't... love me at all." He turned clouded eyes onto her. "Don't leave me alone." Malik was fighting a losing battle against the drug that was fast at work in his system. "Marik left me. Bakura left me... I'm alone in the darkness."

"I'm right here, I won't go anywhere." Ishizu wiped away her own tears; she hated seeing him in so much pain. Once she was sure he was no longer conscious, she let herself break down and sob out her helplessness.

Yugi slowly opened his front door and slipped inside without so much as a sound and glanced about. He was alone. Yugi sighed, removed his shoes, and walked towards the kitchen.

"Are you alright?" came Yami's smooth voice.

Yugi whipped about with a gasp and backed up, instantly spotting his Dark half leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.

"I felt pure panic from you..." Yami moved forward and placed a gentle hand on Yugi's good shoulder.

Yugi roped in the urge to run. "I... I almost got hit by a car today, it really frighted me." Yugi's heart seized up when Yami's eyes narrowed and his head titled to the side. Yugi had never been a good liar but he was learning how slowly.

"Poor thing," Yami purred gently pulling Yugi into his arms and held him. "I can still feel you shaking."

"I'm fine now." It was moments like this that sparked up old feelings of love towards Yami...

"That's good to hear." Yugi shut his eyes when he felt lips move against his ear. "You know we haven't spent a night together in so long." Yami pulled back but not enough for Yugi to be completely free of the other's hold. "I'm beginning to forget what you look like under all those clothes." He lightly chuckled.

"My arm is..." Yugi stopped at Yami's growl. "I'm exhausted and I have to get up early in the morning." Yugi gave him a smile and turned to leave, when long fingers grabbed his good arm and stopped him.

"I'm beginning to feel that you are avoiding me." A snarl clipped his tone.

Yugi gasped as the grip on his arm tightened painfully.

"No." Yugi swallowed thickly. "You're right." He moved his unwilling feet back to his Dark half and rose up on his toes and kissed Yami on the lips. "My room tonight after Grandpa is asleep."

"I look forward to it." Yami bent down placing a brief kiss to Yugi's lips before he walked away.

'Someone, help me,' The tears Yugi had been holding back broke free and he crumbled against the wall.

TBC

I kinda need to take a sit back and find the grand design for this fic before I lose sight of what needs to happen, so the next update should be a really good one. R&R (love and cookies)