AN: The events in this chapter are based on the anime episodes Showdown in the Shadows part 1 and 2 (Marik vs Bakura part 1 and 2.) The dialogue in this chapter is from the sub and dub dialogue in those episodes.

You do everything for me
Protect me from the shadows
You hold me when I'm falling
Chase all the bad dreams away

I'll die for you
Let me die with you

-Die With You by Blutengel

When it was time to duel Marik's dark personality, Bakura walked up behind Marik's dark self, with Marik's soul floating beside him. Marik saw with horror that his dark self was about to kill Rishid.

"I'll have to step in now," said Bakura, and Marik's dark side turned to face him.

"Bakura," Marik's other personality said.

"Almost right," said Bakura. "I've got a companion with me. It's the real Marik."

"Yes, I've brought an old friend along to help me," Marik told his dark personality. "And I won't let you kill Rishid."

"And that Rod is rightfully mine," added Bakura. "Hand it over, or I'll kill you."

Bakura couldn't stand to see people using the Millennium items for their own purposes, but it was even worse seeing Marik's dark personality doing so- seeing an item used by someone who was trying to hurt Marik and his siblings.

Besides, if he could threaten Marik's dark personality into giving him the Rod, then he wouldn't be so much of a threat. If he had the Rod, then he could protect Marik and his family.

But Marik's dark personality wasn't about to give up the Rod that easily.

"Do you want me to kill you?" Marik's dark self asked the two.

"You can try," said Bakura. He had to be strong; not just for himself, but for Marik. "We're not afraid of you."

"Go to hell!" yelled Marik's dark personality, and then he used the power of the Millennium Rod to slam Bakura against the wall, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Bakura, I'll deal with you after I kill Rishid," said Marik's dark self.

"No," said Bakura, immediately using the power of the Millennium Ring to freeze Marik's dark personality in place, preventing him from killing Rishid.

Marik felt a wave of gratitude to Bakura for protecting his brother, and thanked him through their mind link.

"My chest...I can't move..." said Marik's dark side, obviously now in pain himself.

"Your power is nothing," said Bakura.

"It seems that you are powerful," conceded Marik's dark personality, as Bakura released him from the hold of the Ring. "Maybe we should duel for the Rod."

But Bakura realized now that he couldn't just duel for the Rod. The Rod would not be enough- not enough to protect Marik and his family. It was obvious that Marik's dark personality was extremely dangerous to Marik and his family- Bakura would have to get rid of him, even if it meant risking himself. Even if it meant risking everything. He had no choice. So Bakura refused the offer.

"No," said Bakura. "Let's up the stakes."

And so Bakura suggested a dark game where the loser would be destroyed. Marik's dark personality agreed readily.

And then they headed to the top of the blimp to begin the duel.

"The only rule is that the loser will disappear," Marik's dark side reminded Bakura, once they were ready to begin the duel.

"Let's get on with it," said Bakura.

Bakura was obviously quite eager to start the duel and destroy Marik's dark self. Marik had never seen Bakura so eager to kill someone- usually, when Bakura killed, he did so dispassionately, accepting it simply as a necessary part of his quest. But this time...Bakura was angry, and he wanted to send Marik's dark side into oblivion.

But before the duel began, Bakura made a point of calling Marik "my partner" aloud. Had he done it to bring comfort to Marik? To remind him of what they were? If so, it worked...but only slightly. Marik was wired. Everything was on the line here. If he'd had nerves in his current state, every one of them would have been alight.

"Come on, Bakura," said Marik's dark self. "Let's start the duel."

But Marik had told Bakura earlier that he needed to talk to his dark personality before the duel, that he needed to confront him about what he'd done when he was a child. Despite Bakura's obvious eagerness to start, and despite the fact that Marik still hadn't told him exactly what this was all about, Bakura agreed to delay the duel so that Marik would have a chance to confront his dark side before they began.

"Wait a second," said Bakura to Marik's dark side. "Your real self has something to say to you."

So Marik spoke to his dark side, and as he did, he opened his mind completely to Bakura, finally allowing Bakura to know what he'd been hiding about his past- about the clan of the tomb keepers, the initiation he'd been forced to take, the creation of his dark side, and the killing of his father.

Marik had thought it would make him feel better to tell his dark personality that he knew the truth- that after taking the tomb keeper's initiation, his dark self had been created inside him, and it was his dark self who had later killed his father. But the confrontation only ended up making Marik feel worse, as his dark self pointed out that he wouldn't exist at all if it weren't for all the rage and hatred inside of Marik. The blame was equally shared between the two of them, his dark self told him.

Bakura had delayed the duel in order to allow Marik to talk to his dark side, in the hopes that it would make Marik feel better and give him strength, but Marik had even messed that up. Marik was mad at himself for his own weakness, and he was starting to hate himself more and more. But Marik had to try to be strong now and fight. He would do anything to destroy his dark personality, even if it meant coming to harm himself, in order to make up for all he'd done.

"I will help you with the strategy in this duel," Marik offered Bakura, in some attempt at assurance.

"Stop ordering me around, already!" snapped Bakura. "All I require is that you keep your promises."

Marik wasn't sure why Bakura suddenly seemed so annoyed with him, but he said, "As long as you can defeat him, I'll give you the Millennium Rod."

"That's not what I want to hear from you," said Bakura.

Marik's eyes widened in shock as he suddenly realized something- in opening his mind to Bakura and showing his past to him, he'd also let Bakura know that there was something else he'd been hiding. Bakura now knew that, in addition to possessing all seven of the Millennium items, he would also need to decipher the scars on Marik's back in order to unlock the door- the door that would raise a dark power that Marik himself didn't really understand. That was why Bakura was so irritated with him- because he'd been keeping an important secret from him. Bakura had agreed to this duel before he knew that this information was on Marik's back, but now that he was aware of it, he wanted Marik's word that he would show him the scars.

"I promise you," said Marik without hesitation. He had been inside Bakura's mind as well, and understood his goals. Marik wanted to help him with those goals, and now he felt guilty that he'd kept his secret even this long.

But Bakura didn't seem angry at all anymore. He knew the whole truth now, and he was satisfied with Marik's promise.

"That's all I need to know. I'm going to kick his ass," Bakura said decisively, referring to Marik's dark self.

Bakura could have demanded that Marik reveal everything to him immediately, before the duel- that he show him the scars on his back, so that Bakura would know the final piece of information that he needed to open the door. But Bakura did not demand this- he trusted Marik's word completely. He was ready to begin.

Bakura faced Marik's other personality. "Your better half and I will send you into the darkness," Bakura told him.

And so the duel began.

Bakura was horrified to realize that as he lost life points, parts of his body actually faded away, and he cried out in surprise, momentarily confused as to what was going on. But Bakura wasted no time in pulling himself together and showing his trademark arrogance.

Shaking off his initial shock and disbelief, he said, "This will be fun."

There were many times during the duel when Bakura appeared scared or shocked, when he sweated or shook, yelling out denials when things didn't go his way. But he always quickly regained an air of supreme confidence. Marik wondered if Bakura was struggling hard to remain that confident in order to reassure him, so that Marik wouldn't feel worried. Marik only wished he could act as confident. But all he could do was attempt to help with the duel the best he could.

And there were ways he could help. Because of Bakura's mind link with Marik, Bakura knew that Marik's dark personality held the Ra card.

"I know how to deal with Ra," Marik told Bakura.

He told Bakura the information through their mind link, so that Marik's dark side couldn't hear them.

"If your strategy works and we defeat this demon, your body may be destroyed as well, Marik," Bakura warned, making sure that Marik was really alright with this.

"It's OK," said Marik. "Do it."

Through the mind link, Marik told Bakura that everything would be alright, as long as his dark side no longer existed as a threat to his family...and to his own soul.

So Bakura played his cards and managed to get Ra from Marik's dark self. Marik's dark personality handed the card over, but made fun of Bakura for being unable to duel without his friend- for Bakura couldn't read the symbols on the card of Ra, so he would only be able to use it with Marik's help. Marik and Bakura ignored him and focused on their strategy.

"You must summon Ra now!" Marik told Bakura.

"I told you to stop ordering me around!" snapped Bakura. Yet Bakura immediately summoned Ra anyways, trusting Marik's judgment.

Marik's dark self seemed unfazed. He activated a trap card which both added to his own life points, and reduced the attack power of Bakura's sacrificial monsters to zero. Because the monsters sacrificed to summon Ra now had no attack power, it meant that Ra had no attack power, either.

Bakura was very irritated with Marik for not warning him that this could happen, but he collected himself and kept on with the duel, determined to win. He didn't want Marik to be afraid.

"You don't have to worry anymore, Marik," said Bakura. "I'll send Ra to the graveyard. Then, even if your dark self gets it back, he won't be able to use it, because its attack power will still be zero."

Bakura then began sacrificing his own life points, which caused him to lose more parts of his form. His body was fading away bit by bit. Bakura had said earlier to trust him, but Marik didn't understand Bakura's strategy, and frankly, he was terrified. He had his own ideas about what strategy they should be using, but Bakura insisted on doing things his own way.

Marik had been grateful for Bakura's confidence earlier, but now, Bakura's arrogance was annoying him. He wasn't listening to any of Marik's advice anymore. Marik was starting to find it impossible to keep his temper in check. He was in jeopardy here as well as Bakura. Shouldn't he get some input?

Bakura was obviously annoyed with him as well. He and Bakura began fighting over strategy, yelling and snapping and glaring at each other - it was, on some level, the same tension that had bound them in the past and rendered them separate from everything else, as though the world consisted of just the two of them.

But now, in this dangerous situation, there was also a sense of panic in their words and in their glances. They had to win this duel. But how was the question that hung uncertainly between them.

They were so absorbed in their fight that they were both startled when Marik's dark personality suddenly spoke to them.

"It's so sad when two such good friends can't work things out," Marik's dark self said. "Do you two want to split up?"

Marik was incensed. His dark self knew everything about him, so he knew how close he and Bakura really were, and he was taunting him with that. His dark personality was happy that the stressful situation he'd put them in was making them fight with each other.

Things only got worse from there. Marik's dark personality managed to raise Ra from Bakura's graveyard. Then he began

saying an incantation to activate a special power of Ra- one Marik hadn't known about. Marik's dark self had to sacrifice all but one of his life points to activate Ra's special power, causing the majority of his body to fade away.

"What?" Bakura said in horror, his body shaking. "Marik's body is disappearing..."

Bakura was quite clearly upset by the sight of Marik's body disappearing, even though he had known that was what would happen if he were to win this duel.

But it was all to the advantage of Marik's alternate personality. He could now transfer his life points into the card of Ra, restoring its attack power.

"If I destroy you, Bakura, I can keep Marik's body forever," said Marik's dark personality.

"What?" asked Bakura, and he was trembling, terrified.

It was then that Marik realized that they couldn't win this duel. Before he knew it, Ra had attacked, and it was all over. His dark personality had won, and Bakura was fading away, being consumed by flames, his soul in the process of being banished. The fire then seared Marik's own soul, causing him to cry out in pain, not just for himself, but for what was happening to Bakura. Because of him. All of this was happening because of him.

As Bakura's form faded away in wisps of smoke, he spoke to Marik's dark personality.

"I'll come back, and I'll kill you, you bastard."

AN: This fic will follow the timeline for the manga, not the anime, which means that the Noah arc and the Doma arc never happened. So the next chapter will go straight to the part where Yami Marik is defeated by Yami Yugi, then to Ryou getting the Ring back, and then straight into the Memory World arc. Only two more chapters left!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading, please review and let me know what you think!