A/N: As I write this, I have been awake for 72+ hours due to things that could only be sorted out by me needing my attention. I'm being held together by coffee and willpower XD.
Also, since I've been so busy lately, I haven't been able to reply to most reviews, I'm getting through 2 reviews a day X_x
DON'T REVIEW FOR THIS CHAPTER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, REVIEW THE NEXT CHAPTER. ¬_¬
~Ava
~XxX~
All four of us carefully ignored each other in the lift, but there's only so long you can ignore someone when they're barely six inches away from you.
Why do you insist on being difficult?" I asked, being completely honest and looking at the back of Seto's head questioningly. He snorted and countered my question with another question, not looking round.
"Why do you insist on being incorrigible?"
"You just proved my point." I sighed.
"As did you." Was the annoying answer. I sighed again at him and closed my eyes, not before shooting a glance to a preoccupied Ishizu.
"Pawn. B4." I said after a moment.
"Bishop. B4." A smirk in his voice, "I take your Pawn."
"Hn." I re-evaluated my current strategy, "Fine, let's take it up a notch." I snickered, "Bishop. B2." I eyed the back of his head again. "I do believe that's Check." This drew his head round to face me, one eyebrow raised.
"Check, Callaghan?" He asked, smirking slightly as I shrugged.
"I take it you were expecting that move?"
"Of course, but I suppose I hadn't figured you for an actual strategy -"
" - Lovely - "
" - I assumed you'd try to take my Queen." The look he shot me was clearly to wind me up as I glared at him.
"I actually can do 'underlying strategy' you know. I doubt I'll beat you, but I can certainly back you into more than one tight corner." I rolled my eyes at him, "I've only been playing for four years, you know." I smirked, "Still, well worth it for the look on your face."
"Hm. So it took you four years of study to mildly shock me." He turned away from me again and I could just hear the smirk in his voice. "You're right, you can't beat me." I looked to the other two occupants of the lift for help but received none. Well, what else could you expect from a lift where only two people wasn't wholly preoccupied by something else. I realised something as we exited the lift and wandered up the stairwell.
I had issues.
Of course, that was when Seto threw a card at Yugi and told him to use it in the Duel.
Then I began to think that he was the one with the issues here.
"You can't just hand it to him, like a normal person, can you?" I asked as Yugi shuffled it into his Deck without another word, regardless of the protests from Joey. Seto didn't look at me while he replied.
"Since when have you ever seen me do anything normally, Callaghan?" The way he accentuated the word made me realise that 'normality' in his mind was akin to 'idiocy.'
"Less ostentatious than usual?" I hazarded, earning a stifled laugh from Mokuba before rolling my eyes and walking over to my friends. I stood next to Teá as Joey cursed Marik and Kaiba under his breath. Sighing as Teá did and we exchanged a look of utter exasperation. We were the only sane men there.
Roland started the Duel.
~XxX~
A Shadow Game.
It was only to be expected from Marik, but I didn't comprehend the utter horror behind it until Ishizu gasped that the Good Side of Marik and the soul of Yugi were chained to rocks and slowly lost part of their spirit body to the Shadow Realm with every life point lost.
We couldn't see anything. Just Marik and Yami Dueling, but Yami kept turning off to his side and speaking, sometimes calling Yugi's name after a particularly hard blow to his life points. I decided to ask Ishizu the burning question as Yami drew a card and set it without even looking.
"How can you see them?" I hissed under my breath, so as not to break the concentration of either Duelist. As much as I would have loved Marik to lose, if he lost he ended up with just the evil, mental part of him. She spared me a momentary glance before looking back to the space next to Marik, clutching a hand to her heart and wincing every time he took damage.
"Those of us that have been chosen by the Millennium Items can see the spirits of the others…" She tailed off and gasped as Yami called something out. I turned my attention back to the Duel.
Yami had activated 'Daemon Sanctuary' in a counter-attack to the Ra/Marik hybrid.
The first time round, Marik fusing with the God card, it had been impressive. But he'd called the chant so many times by now it was starting to grate on my nerves. I scanned each of my friend's faces as I wondered on my sudden apathy. Shock seemed the most prevalent expression, none more so than Seto, which led me to believe that that was the card he'd thrown at Yugi. I carefully looked up at the Duel, deliberately avoiding looking at Marik. I think I had developed a healthy phobia of him since just looking at the vague silhouette of the cloak made me shudder and bile rise in my throat.
And that was when the fireball hit the Daemon Token and practically blinded all of us behind Yami.
By the time I'd lowered my arm from my eyes and squinted over at what was happening I realised that Yami's Daemon Token was still standing, hard to believe considering it only had one attack point, and so was Marik, hard to believe considering that one attack point had been his one life point.
"Wha-" Yami began, looking as thought he wanted nothing more than to leap across the Duel Arena himself and tear into the annoyingly surviving Marik. The latter man laughed madly.
"I used 'Fusion Reverse' before the fireball hit, Pharaoh! It looks like your little tactic wasn't the ending move you'd hoped it to be!" I exhaled at his words, realising the reason for my apathy even though the apparent fate of the World was at stake.
I was emotionally drained. Every last emotion had been wrung out of me, I felt tired and weary and the very fact that the World was at stake over a children's cardgame was the height of absurdity. I didn't cheer because I was terrible at it, I didn't heckle because Marik actually scared me into nauseousness-
"You've resigned yourself to the Darkness, haven't you?" Came the calm voice from my right. I glanced back to Ishizu, who was staring intently at me for an answer.
"Of course not." I answered, sounding affronted. "I am fully supportive of Yami and every move he makes, I am wholly behind him. But I'm terrible at expressing it and," I sighed, "I just feel so ineffectual in the grand scheme of things at the moment." I paused before feeling some emotion trickle back into me, like ice melting, "Nothing to worry about though," I said, smile creeping onto my face despite myself, "I get that feeling every time I see something bigger than me." The smile was not due to my words, but due to the fact that I'd turned back to the Duel in time to realise that Yami had three 'Tokens' on the field and was now tributing them. Which could only mean one thing.
"Obelisk!" Yami called at the massive blue Monster that appeared with startling effects, "Attack his life points directly!"
I'd never seen something sweeter than Marik get punched in the face by a God.
Except, maybe, his rough landing on his back three feet away from where he had been standing.
"Hell yes!" I yelled, punching the air triumphantly as my friends did the same. I paused afterwards, realising that it was stupid to be celebrating that, considering it meant the Good Side of Marik was probably closer to death than before and-
"There's no way he was caught out by Obelisk's attack." Seto voiced my thoughts exactly. I nodded in agreement.
"Hmn…" I mused, "He's got a strategy, I'd bet my right arm."
We were right, unfortunately, considering the fact that Marik activated a Trap card shortly after rising.
"But Trap cards don't work on God cards!" Was the indignant yell from both Joey and Duke.
"Trap Monster." Yami breathed, staring at the silver Slime that had been called to the field.
"I activate Trap card 'Holy Slime!'" Marik's face stretched out horribly and I felt myself wince as I tried to not look away from the important development. "This card can clone one Monster from my opponent and gives it three quarter's worth of your Monster's attack points to my Monster!" I'm sure I wasn't the only person who cursed at that. It apparently became worse when he fused it with that blue thing…'Revival Jam,' wasn't it made the giant silver clone of Obelisk virtually immortal.
Something that became clear when Yami tried to attack it with the original Obelisk.
It just re-formed.
Marik cackled maniacally, something he was astoundingly good at as it certainly sent a shiver up my spine.
"I'll set a card, Pharaoh and summon Bowganion to the field in defence mode!"
I cringed as Teá spoke my mind.
"Ew. That's just…gross." Bowganion seemed to be a singular eye covered in spikes. With hands. And a bowgun.
"And the best thing is, for every standby, Bowganion inflicts 300 points worth of damage!" Marik pulled at the skin under one of his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Yami. This…was not good, I surmised. Yami drew a card and set it facedown before tributing the guy with the shield and summoning a card that I thought was a joke.
"I summon my Dark Magician Girl!" He yelled, obviously getting ready to attack. I, however was sidetracked by just how skimpy the Girl's clothes were. Honestly, I thought that there was an equal gendered fanbase for the game, but apparently even here sex sells. I'd obviously missed something while I was on my little feminist rant inside my head as Dark Magician Girl was thrown backwards to Yami's surprise.
"Sorry, Pharaoh! I've played Jam Defender!" Marik called across the field, taunting Yami. I looked to my friends for an explanation. The answer came from a little to my left. I whirled on the balls of my, probably extremely dirty, feet at face the Kaibas.
"It re-directs all attacks to the Revival Jam, Callaghan" Seto glanced across to me, "Surely you remember? You were there." He spoke patronisingly at me as I thought back to Strings' Duel. I snorted.
"I must have missed that while I was in the pond." I glared at him, "Maybe I would have seen it better if someone had helped me out." I smiled at Mokuba. "But you were decent." Seto snickered at me.
"Then I assure you, Callaghan. The next time you fall into a pond due to your own lack of spatial awareness, I'll fish you out."
"I'll take that as an oral contract you know." I warned, "I have witnesses."
"Don't oral contracts mean something only if they have been agreed upon in your own language?" The question would have seemed innocent if he wasn't smirking at me.
"Oh…shut up…" I said, knowing he was unfortunately right and with a name like his I really, really doubted that English was his first, or even fourth, language.
And just as I was turning back to the Duel to see Yami struggling to stand after another attack from Marik as the latter laughed insanely, I heard the horribly familiar dual tones of Teá/Marik.
"Yu…gi…" The layered voice sounded weak as heck and I pitied him. Before remembering that this was the person who had decided he'd try to kill us all, sane or not. I turned away from the Duel fully, rounding on the puppet of my friend. "Don't…hesitate…"
"Don't hesitate to what?" I snapped at her/him, folding my arms and glaring into the plain eyes. The head cocked to look at me, if you can see without your pupils.
"You are Sophie?" The voice held no emotion.
"Yes." Mine on the other hand…
"I'm sorry…for what he has done to you…what I have done." The apology was spoken as the eyes flicked to the blood on my blouse. I bristled, what? Did he feel bad? Did he want to make up for it? Oh-fucking-well.
"How dare you!" I hissed, unfolding my arms and balling the uninjured one into a fist by my side. "Don't patronise me! Bloody do something about it!" The eyes blinked slowly at me, as if s/he was confused. Then of course, s/he shoved me out of the way and repeated himself.
"Yugi!" More coherent now, as though he'd regained strength. Probably sucked the strength out of Teá… I thought bitterly. Yami turned to face Puppet Teá, as did everyone else.
"Don't hesitate to attack!" Teá's eyes glared at the other Marik. "Please! Kill my evil heart, even with me!" My resolve to remain astoundingly pissed off at him wavered slightly, bowing under the weight of possible self-sacrifice. Joey grabbed Teá's shoulders and shook her roughly.
"Teá? ! What are you saying? ! Why would you die? !" Marik paid no attention to the friend of his current puppet, instead pushing Teá's hand past Joey's face so hard he was shoved out of the way.
"I have accepted this fate! Do it!" Marik's voice was forceful now and the bowing of my resolve became so too as Ishizu ran over to her 'brother' and begged him not to resign himself to death.
"Marik! What-? You can't do this!" Ishizu ran to Teá as he looked down, seemingly sad at her distressed tone.
"I'm sorry, Sister…But this is the only way to get rid of my evil heart for good…" I bristled again, this time almost livid. I shoved Teá's arm hard, inwardly apologising to my best-friend for what was probably going to bruise.
"I'm going to repeat what the girl you're controlling has said to me on occasion." I glared at him, "Get a freaking grip." This time I gestured up to where Yami was currently wrestling with how to kill the other side of Marik. "I'm afraid you're just going to have to trust Yami. To not kill you." A snarl from me as Yami turned to say something to me, I waved whatever it was away, "He may have been a truly barbaric little man." Glare. "But he's a tad more mature now." The inner 'I hope' went unsaid. Marik seemed to pause for a full minute before I was once again looking into real eyes. I nodded curtly before turning to face the Duel without another word.
~XxX~
Did Yami just take the Obelisk clone as two separate sacrifices of 'Holy Slime' and 'Revival Jam?'
Yes?
Oh good.
And did the other Marik somehow escape the imminent loss that came from an infinitely attack powered Obelisk?
Yes?
Well shag.
So now, as a group, we all began to wonder just how Yami was going to twist this one. The answer came in the form of a magic card he'd already set, obviously a part of him anticipated Marik's annoying survival capabilities. However now we had Yami, with a sure-fire win on hand with "Dusk of All Gods' and the two Monsters needed in the shape of Dark Magician Girl and Dark Magician. And on the other hand we had Marik, fused to Ra and technically a monster, but with one life point left and a good(ish) soul on the line that wouldn't be able to take such an attack.
"This doesn't seem good now, does it?" I asked rhetorically, receiving nods from my friends as we all stared at what was happening.
"Master Marik!"
I wasn't the only one who leapt about half a foot in the air at the sound of Odion's voice from directly behind me, but I certainly was the only one who cussed loudly at the shock. I placed a hand over my sputtering heart as we turned to stare at the supposedly bed-ridden coma patient. He stumbled past us, eyes locked onto the other Marik.
"Odion!" Ishizu reached out a hand to her other brother but stopped when he continued even past her. He stopped finally in front of the Duel Field, sheer force of will keeping him on his feet, I surmised.
"Huh." An almost comedic sight came as the Marik who was still fused from the waist up to the head of Ra folded his arms, "You're still alive. You're actually pretty tough then." Though he did sound severely unimpressed and perhaps a tad bitter. Then I remembered that Odion's unconsciousness was the sole reason for the other Marik's appearance. His sudden consciousness would surely reverse that…
"Even if you're still alive, no matter, my other side is far too weak to try anything now!" The real other Marik laughed at Odion and my theory was promptly squashed.
Damnit
".Master Marik!" Odion started again, his voice a little stronger in the face of his obvious adversity.
"Are you okay, man? You're not walking too good - " Duke's concern was cut short by Odion stumbling a little and regaining his balance. Joey moved forward to help him but was stopped by Ishizu.
"No." She said quietly, still looking at her brothers, "You mustn't help him. This is something only Odion can do and he must do it without our help." Joey backed down as I eyed the large man warily, he had tried to kill Joey, but he was doing it on the orders of a family member he was wholly devoted to, that would normally be no excuse to me but…I glanced over to a certain other set of brothers. Hnn…
Clean slates for everyone when this was over. If. I don't think I could take holding grudges against so many people at the same time.
That didn't mean I'd forget it completely though.
Odion had obviously said something enough to piss off Marik as when I'd finished resolving what I was going to do when (if) this ended, he was thrown back by a blast from the Millennium Rod. He slammed against the exact same 3D projector I had but stood again.
"Master Marik! You're trying to seal your soul away in the hopeless darkness!" Another blast, another hit, another scream of his name from Ishizu as she ignored her own advice and ran to his side. He brushed off her helping hand and stood of his own accord, eyes still fixed on Marik. " But just because you're still lingering in the darkness doesn't mean you can't live!" Odion balled his fists, "Life that is not the 'fate' of a Tombkeeper, but a human!" Another hi-
"ARGH!" Marik screamed as Odion braced himself for another, possibly final, blast from the Millennium Item, but his anger turned into what sounded like actual pain.
"What the hell?" Tristan voiced what we were all thinking and I shrugged.
"I have no idea, but the bastard Marik's in pain and that's just brilliant." I said, hovering on the edge of a smile.
"No! You can't be this strong!" Marik screamed again, both hands covering the eye he appeared to leave behind to guard his one life point each time he fused with Ra. When his hands came away a collective gasp went up from my friends.
Two eyes.
Two completely different eyes.
One of which was, quite clearly, the 'Good' Marik's.
"Yugi! Attack me quickly! Quick!" A different voice too it seemed. The voice that 'Namu' had had and the voice I had heard so many times before, layering over Teá's. It appeared that the actual Marik was fighting for full control of his mind and body. "I have done so many things! But a human always has a chance for hope! And I shall bare the crimes I committed and hope for a better future!" I have never hated someone more for changing my opinion of them so rapidly before.
"You bastard!"
This gave me a whole new idea as to what 'arguing with oneself' meant.
"No!" Another clenched fist, "Yugi! Do it! Now!" Yami seemed torn as he looked up at the Ra/Marik/Evil Marik hybrid, but I guessed Yugi had a hand in what happened next.
"I trust in you, Marik! I shall trust in your one life point and that you shall return!" One dramatic magic card call out later and the word was no longer shadowy black. It was orange.
And had the spirits of all the Duel Monsters Yami had in his graveyard swirling around it.
A Kuriboh gambolled about me for a few seconds, 'Kwee'ing.' In spite of the current situation, I really thought that was cute. The spirits of Obelisk and Slifer wrapped themselves around Ra, carrying it into the seal that had materialised when Yami played the card along with the other spirits. I willingly suspended disbelief for the moment about how the blazing hell this was possible and instead hoped for the best.
Smoke lingered.
"Did it work?" Joey asked, standing and trying to see through the smoke.
"Is Marik okay?" Teá's voice from a few feet to the side of me, but like hell I could see her.
"Did we win?" Tristan's question this time and the smoke was thinning so I could just make him out. Another voice from several feet way.
"No. Marik still has one life point left." I decided not to say anything about the fact that Tristan had said 'we' and Seto had answered, he'd only deny it anyway.
The smoke cleared.
And a normal Marik was standing.
Panting, obviously in pain and tired from the exertion, but most certainly not his evil side. He tore the cloak that was favoured by his other half off his shoulders and threw it away as his siblings cheered. I felt myself smile.
"Yugi! I still have one life point left! This Duel is over yet!" A pause as the two Millennium Item holders were distracted by their spirits. Marik had obviously had enough of his. "Quiet! The evil that bred from my heart does not define me! I'll bury you with my own hands!" With the declaration of a new beginning, Marik placed his hand over his Duel Disk.
"Wha - " My question was cut short by Seto.
"He surrendered, Callaghan, his life points are reduced to zero," A glance at me, "Did you honestly do no research?"
I would have retorted had the actual brightness of the real sky not blinded me and I realised what that meant.
"He won!" Teá's punch to the air was followed by Duke, Tristan and Joey clambering onto the, still raised, Duel Field. Teá and I, however, waited until it sank back into the floor before congratulating Yami on his win. I remembered my inner truce and sighed, I followed in Teá's congratulatory footsteps and hugged Yami. I pulled back from the hug and glared at him.
"You are slightly more mature now, right?" I asked, holding him at arms length and checking his eyes for hesitation. His answer was to laugh and nod. "Good." I stepped back to be level with Teá.
"Yugi!" Our collective attention was drawn away from Yugi and towards Seto. Arms folded and glaring at us all. "You won the title of 'King of Battle City' fairly." The words would have sounded perfectly fine coming from anyone else, anyone who wasn't acting as though every word was personally offending him. Which U knew they were. "And as the host, I congratulate you."
"Yugi, you can take one of Marik's cards now!" Mokuba however, seemed to be the perfect antithesis to his older brother, actually seeming happy that Yugi had won. Marik nodded and walked over to us, handing Yugi the final God card. I glared at him. I forgave him while they were Dueling, but like hell I was about to forget any of the shit he'd put me through. My hand twitched and I absently rubbed the healing cut on my chest. The movement drew attention as Marik frowned a little at my cut.
"I apologise." Two words from a person that last time he'd said it I'd attempted to hit him. This time I merely pursed my lips.
"You're forgiven." I said haughtily. He seemed surprised that I'd say something like that but nodded anyway. He turned back to Yugi.
"And your friends that were banished to the Shadow Realm have been returned." Joey whooped as Yami nodded his approval. Ishizu said something too low for us to hear as Marik nodded and pulled off his shirt.
Ahem.
I decided it was best for me to go check on the people that were supposedly awake.
~XxX~
A/N: adgsryjhnbszdf This chapter, as much as it is long and fairly okay, I want you to go RIGHT on to the next one. The next one shall be uploaded sometime today and NEEDS you to review it. Not this chapter, you don't have to review this chapter GOOD GOD NO, just go onto the next one. ¬_¬
NEXT CHAPTER. GO GO GO GO GO, SUPER ROBOT REVIEWING TEAM HYPERFORCE GOOO.
~Ava