To say that Marik was surprised when he finally found himself face to face with Bakura after three years would be an understatement. For a second, he worried that he might have resurrected some otherworldly demon, but then he found Bakura's brown eyes on his, and saw a scowl on Bakura's pale face as the latter recognized the body in which he'd been brought back.
"Ryou?" Bakura asked, sounding both incredulous and ticked off. "Why would you bring me back in Ryou's body?"
"Well, it's the only body I remember you in, so how else would I picture you when I focused on you?" Marik shot back, though he was still reeling at the idea that Bakura was alive and well and standing in his kitchen right now.
Bakura scoffed, crossing his arms. "And I was actually looking forward to having my old body back. This one is so...weak and pale compared to my original body."
"Either way, I think Ryou's body suits you," Marik replied. "I mean, it's not like it's unattractive or anything."
Marik bit his tongue before he could go so far as to say that he was attractive.
Bakura gave him a strange look but ignored the comment. He then extended his hand toward Marik expectantly.
"Now that you're done using the Ring, I'd like it back," he said.
Marik clutched the Ring tightly, making no move to return it. "I don't think so. The Ring is essentially a weapon. I don't want you using it to harm innocent people."
"What?" Bakura asked sharply. "Are you...keeping it from me?"
"Yes. I don't want you using it to hurt anyone."
"And exactly how do you expect me to steal these Tokens for you if I can't use the Ring?" Bakura still looked appalled at the idea that he wasn't getting the Ring back.
Marik shrugged. "You claim that you're such a great thief. Stealing a few Tokens shouldn't be a problem for you."
"I don't even-" Bakura started. He shook his head, trying to get control of himself.
At that point, it seemed that Bakura had reached his limit. He was clenching and unclenching his fists unconsciously while his mouth struggled to find the right words. For a moment, Marik wondered if there was a possibility that Bakura might actually strangle him right then.
"Of course I can steal the Tokens without the Ring," Bakura finally snapped. "But that's not the point here. Do you realize that the Ring rightfully belongs to me? That it was made from the blood of my people? That I watched as that piece of gold you're holding in your hands was melted and sculpted out of my people's burning flesh? How can you even stand there and tell me I can't have it back?"
Bakura's words cut deep into Marik. But a moment later, Marik regained his resolve.
"Let me put it this way," Marik said. "I'll give the Ring back to you when I feel that I can trust you not to use it for evil purposes. The last thing I want is to be the person who gave you the Ring and then have you use it to harm people. I don't want to be even partially responsible for anything violent that you might do to get me into this tournament. So until you can prove to me that you're not going to hurt anybody, you'll just have to wait."
Bakura still looked supremely pissed. The fact that Marik was withholding his own possession from him was outrageous.
Theoretically, if he really wanted it back, he could just stride over to Marik, knock him over, and grab the Ring. But in this body, he was weaker than Marik, and there was even a possibility that Marik would use the Ring to defend himself against any attack that Bakura might make. And still, Bakura didn't want to make an enemy of Marik.
So Bakura tried to put aside his anger. If he could earn Marik's trust, then Marik would give him the Ring willingly. There was nothing else he could do about it in the meantime, so he might as well bide his time.
But something else in their conversation nagged at him. So he let the issue of the Ring drop for the moment and instead addressed what he sensed was a recurring theme with Marik.
"Why the hell are you trying so hard to be good, anyway? Are you still wallowing in guilt and hating yourself for everything you did?"
Marik was glad to see that they'd stopped discussing the Ring, but he knew Bakura was still trying to needle him. Nonetheless, he gave the question some serious thought.
"I don't feel nearly as guilty as I used to," he said finally. "But yeah, I still feel bad about what I've done sometimes."
"Well, stop it. It's fucking stupid," Bakura replied.
That reaction caused Marik to lash out just as harshly.
"Well, thank you for that profound insight! My problems are now over! It's a damn good thing you came back!"
"Do you honestly even think you did anything that bad?" Bakura said. "What did you really do? Steal some stuff? Use a little mind control? Oh, and one loser chose to kill himself when you brought up bad memories for him. You tried to murder some people, but you were so incompetent you failed every time you tried."
"Yes, because your ridiculous plans worked out so much better than mine did," Marik snapped. "And that's not all I did. Are you forgetting the tiny fact that I killed my father?"
"Don't you get it? That wasn't your fault."
Marik rolled his eyes. "Oh, so now are you going to tell me that it wasn't me who killed my father, it was my dark personality, so I can't be held responsible?"
"Hell no!" Bakura said forcefully. "I'm going to tell you that you did the right thing. What else were you supposed to do? Live trapped underground for the rest of your life? Let your father go on beating you and your beloved brother? Let him fuck you up in the head more than he already did? No, you did the best thing you could possibly do, considering your circumstances."
"I guess I'd expect that kind of reasoning from you," Marik scoffed, though a small part of him was glad to hear Bakura's words. He had been blaming himself for so long, and he'd never heard an outsider's perspective. "You were always all about the vengeance."
"Hell yes. I got dealt a bad hand in life, and that sucks. It would be nice if it wasn't that way. But it was, so I didn't just lie down and take it. I did something about it."
"And that worked out so well for you," Marik replied, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, it pretty much did. I'm still alive after 3,000 years and all of my goals have essentially been accomplished. So I'd say I came out of it pretty well. Do you think I waste time feeling guilty or regretting anything I did? No, because I did what I had to do, just like you did."
"You do realize that this is my father we're talking about, right? It wasn't just some random person who came around and hurt the people I loved. It was my own father."
"And why the hell should that matter? Just because someone happens to be genetically related to you doesn't mean that they deserve your love or respect. They have to earn it, just like everyone else. And from everything I've heard, your father didn't deserve a damn thing from you other than the stab wound you gave him. The fact is, it's pathetic that you're still feeling sorry for yourself and beating yourself up over your past all these years later. You're fucking pathetic."
Rage sparked in Marik, and any feeling he'd had that Bakura understood his situation was blotted out.
"Oh, fuck you!" Marik exclaimed. "What the hell do you know? Maybe I should just slit your throat right now with the point of your own Ring. Nobody would ever know, and you sure as hell wouldn't be able to defend yourself since I brought you back in that weak little body."
But Bakura only smiled. "Ah, now that's the Marik I know. Let that anger out. It's good for you."
"Is that what this is? Just some scheme to get me mad so that I'll go back to being evil?"
"Well, that might be part of it," Bakura said, smirking slightly. "But everything I said is also the honest truth. You'd better believe it. I'm actually trying to help you."
"You just don't understand," Marik said.
"Ishtar, I understand you better than anyone else who has ever existed. We're the same. And I know you know it, because I heard you thinking it. You need to stop crying and moaning over what you did in the past."
"Do you see me crying? Do you?" asked Marik defensively. "Maybe you think I feel worse about all this than I actually do. It's been three years since you last saw me. I told you that I don't feel as bad about it as I used to."
"Then why are you still trying to redeem yourself and fit in with these jerks who will never accept you for who you really are?" Bakura asked perceptively.
"Because I want a life! Did you ever think of that? Maybe I just want to move on and live a normal life, the way you say you do."
"I don't plan for my life to be about changing who I am and being accepted by people who will never understand me anyway. But whatever you say," said Bakura dismissively. "You want to win this tournament, and I said I'd help you, and I'll hold up my end of our deal."
"You'd damn well better," Marik replied sullenly.
"You don't have to worry about it. Of the two of us, I believe you're the one with a history of failing to hold up his end of the bargain."
"Let's not start that again," Marik said tiredly. "Apparently I'm going to be stuck with you for a while. If we're going to be working together again, let's try to go five minutes without fighting, alright?"
"Okay, how about we duel instead?"
Marik's head snapped up.
"What?"
"I believe we've already established that you've never won a game of Duel Monsters. I think you could use some practice if you actually expect to do well in the finals. You might learn something from me."
"Well...I don't know about learning anything from you, but I guess it makes sense to practice before the tournament."
"I certainly don't want to waste my time stealing all these Tokens for you just to have you get eliminated in the first round," Bakura scoffed.
"I won't get eliminated in the first round! I'm better than you think!"
"Then duel me," Bakura dared.
"Alright, fine."
"You have cards, right?"
"Yeah, of course," Marik said. He hadn't spent all that time stealing rare cards not to keep a couple hundred cards on hand. "I'll go get my decks, and we can play on the kitchen table."
"Oh, and Marik?"
"Yeah?" Marik replied distractedly, poised to head into his bedroom.
When he turned to face Bakura, he found them nearly nose to nose. Bakura grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a serious look.
"Just remember one thing," he said. "Your father deserved it. He fucking deserved it. It wasn't your fault."
Bakura let go immediately and stepped into the kitchen without a backward glance. Marik stood stunned for a moment, wondering at the serious expression on Bakura's face.
He shook his head to clear it and set out to find his cards.
"Do you even remember how to play?" Bakura drawled, picking up five cards from his deck.
"Of course," Marik snorted. "It's not like I've never played in my life. Why don't I go first to show you?"
Bakura glanced at him, amused. They were sitting across from one another at the small kitchen table. He played with the frayed ends of the tablecloth while Marik perused his cards and formulated a strategy.
"How long have you been living here, anyway?" Bakura asked while he waited for Marik to make a move. "The place is a hellhole."
Marik took a card from his hand and placed into his graveyard- Gravekeeper's Commandant, Bakura briefly noticed- and glared at him.
"It's all I can afford," Marik replied coolly. "Anyway, the card I threw into my graveyard lets me draw Necrovalley into my hand and-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know the rules," Bakura interrupted, clearly not as interested in the game as in Marik's answer. "So when did you move out of the tomb?"
"After the pharaoh's ceremonial duel," Marik said, placing Battle Ox into attack mode, and then placing three more cards facedown into his spell and magic card zone, and ending his turn. "We all moved out after that; all of the tomb keeper's clan, including my brother and sister and I. Rishid and Ishizu live in Luxor too, but I decided to live alone after- everything."
Bakura gave him a significant look, as he saw proof that Marik did indeed feel guilty about what he'd done.
"Your turn," Marik said sharply.
Bakura wasted no time in putting Dark Zebra into attack mode, attaching the magic card Black Pendant to increase its attack to 2,300, and obliterating Marik's Battle Ox.
"Dammit," Marik muttered under his breath as he watched Bakura write 7,400 on Marik's score sheet. Bakura's score was still a flawless 8,000.
"Tell me more," Bakura said. "Why is this all you can afford?"
Marik drew a card, ignoring Bakura's question momentarily. He activated Fissure, which destroyed the monster with the lowest attack points on Bakura's side of the field- Dark Zebra. Fortunately for Bakura, his monster was in defense mode due to its special ability, so he lost no points.
"I work at the Luxor Museum," Marik finally replied. "It's not much pay, since they don't regard me very highly. But it's something. And it lets me have this." He gave the kitchen a brief glance, which turned sour when he saw the curling, faded wallpaper.
He suddenly noticed Bakura inking a 6,900 on his score sheet and frowned.
"What's that for? I just destroyed your monster."
"Yeah, but since you also sent my Black Pendant to the graveyard, that lets me take 500 life points from you directly," Bakura replied, giving him a smug smile. "So what exactly do you do at work? Since you're not paid much, your job must be pretty menial."
In reply, Marik summoned two more monsters into attack mode and since Bakura was monster-less at the moment, he extracted 3,400 points from Bakura.
"There," Marik said haughtily. Bakura was now down to 4,600 life points and Marik watched with self-satisfaction as he wrote in the score. He might have started off rocky, but he wasn't about to let Bakura win this game.
He returned to the question at hand as Bakura drew a card.
"Well, right now I work at the gift shop," Marik said. "It would be easy work if it weren't for the customers. They complain about everything- the quality of the merchandise, the authenticity, the price- it's like, geez, if you don't want to buy it, then don't. No one's forcing you to be here."
Bakura smiled. He placed Drillago on the field, adding Malevolent Nuzzler to reach a total attack power of 2,300, and attacked Marik directly.
"That sounds like hell," he said, as he wrote Marik's new score.
Marik eyed their even scores morosely. They were now matched at 4,600. "Tell me about it."
"What else do you do, other than work? From what I've heard so far, it sounds like you live a pretty boring life."
Marik raised a new monster to the field and made to attack Bakura, who countered with Mirror Force, killing all three monsters on Marik's side of the field.
"I'm taking some online classes, too," Marik finally replied, putting all three of his monsters into the graveyard. This game was really not turning out in his favor. "I've never had proper schooling, so it's kind of tough."
Bakura placed a new monster on his field. Belatedly, Marik realized that he had no cards to prevent a direct attack, and with two monsters and the magic card Rush Recklessly, Bakura took out 4,800 life points in one turn.
"That's-" Marik grimaced as all his life points were wiped out. "That's not fair. You must have cheated."
Bakura rolled his eyes and wrote at the top of the score sheet: Marik-0. Bakura-4,600.
"Tough luck," he replied, standing up from the table. "But you need practice. I appreciate you showing me just how great you are at dueling after all."
"Fuck off," Marik said tiredly as he gathered up his cards. He wasn't in the mood to argue any longer. He was still exhausted from the day's work, and as he glanced at the clock on his microwave, he noticed that it was now precisely 2:07 A.M. Thankfully, it was now the weekend, so he didn't have to worry about having to interact with customers or snapping anyone's head off in his irritability. Other than Bakura's, perhaps.
As Marik yawned, Bakura walked into the living room curiously, observing the small apartment more closely.
"So, where do I sleep?" he asked.
Marik just pointed to the couch tucked into a corner of the living room. There was single pillow decorating the couch and the edges of the cushion covers were ratty-looking.
Bakura made a face at him, but Marik paid him no heed.
"There are clean sheets in the cabinet. Make yourself at home."
Minutes later, Marik collapsed into his bed and didn't wake up again until long, long into the morning.
AN: Thanks for reading! Please review and let us know what you think!
Fun fact: The card game played at the end of this chapter was actually played the same exact way in real life, using those same cards and points.
Also, we'll both be out of town and busy for the next few weeks, so the next chapter won't be out for a couple of weeks. Thanks for your patience!