Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Rewind 1 ❯ Electrocute ( Chapter 17 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Nehti

All hell breaks loose when Marik touches the Golden Millenium Rod. Electricity scorches everything in its path, leaving behind it the sparking ashes of a new phoenix.

Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.06.2005 | Pages: 30 | Words: 40.8K | Visits: 262 | Status: Completed

Heya!!! I'm back, sooner than expected!! Just so we clear things up, this chapter is TOO long. TOO long even for my standards. In order to write it, I woke up at nine and slept at midnight. And before you ask, yes, I was writing the whole day long, except for two bathroom pauses. I missed my meals and ate my food after midnight. Thus, PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!! I'd advise reading it in two or three sittings, in order not to get a headache.

IMPORTANT: confusion

Just to help you with reading this, I'm gonna tell you this: do not, I repeat, DO NOT expect to understand EVERYTHING that you read in here at once. It's meant to be a bit scrambled. Just read it, draw your conclusions, agonize (!), and more answers will come in later chaps.

MORE IMPORTANT: the name Nehti

I will use the name `Nehti' in here multiple times, about Bakura. It may be confusing at first, but the next chaps will clear it up. Please don't be mislead into thinking this is some sort of perverted self-insertion Mary Sue. My penname may be Nehti, but I got the name idea from Rewind 1. I am not inserting myself in the story. I'm using `Nehti' as the name of a character, but after a few chapters, you'll see it won't be so overused anymore.

OKAY. GOOD LUCK WITH THIS. IT'S PRETTY SICK. >_>

REVIEW ANSWERS IN THE END OF THE ENDLESS PAGE.

P.S: RATING IS UP TO 16+…I DON'T THINK IT'S NECESSARY, PERSONALLY. A 13-YEAR-OLD CAN FREELY READ IT. THE THING IS, FF.NET IS A BIT STRICT WITH THE RATINGS, AND WE GOTTA BE CAREFUL…

Marik finally knew pain. He knew torture when he looked at that god-awful Rod. He finally understood what pure hurt meant, rolling down his back in strings of red. He was still vaguely conscious of what was happening around him. Bakura was back, now lying next to him, possibly unconscious. The mere thought of such a possibility infuriated Marik enough to allow him to keep his consciousness.

But the Leader was cruel, and his golden Rod powerful, and Marik's scars oozed blood more than any other time, as if trying to carve themselves out of his body and through his tissues. He saw the dark figures be revealed one by one, through his hazy tortured brain. He heard Serenity scream something at the appearance of a blonde man with brown eyes, but he couldn't make out what she was saying.

He saw all of them reveal themselves, all random faces they'd met in their journey, Pegasus, Mai, Tristan , Duke. But the peak of betrayed pain came when Marik saw the familiar face of the man he considered his brother. Rishid. Why was Rishid here? Why were Rika, Lena and the others here? Most importantly, why were they with them??

Marik couldn't hear specific words, but since the Leader's Rod was periodically pointed to others, like Bakura, Marik finally got a chance to regain his balance and understand that Rishid and the others hadn't willingly betrayed them…they seemed to be in some kind of a trance, staring with blank eyes at the void.

But Marik couldn't think extensively about anything, when his lungs were burning for breath and the aftershocks of the Rod's electric power were shooting through his spine. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Marik knew, he would be paralyzed at the end of this pain.

And then, the cold voice came, accompanied with the frosty blue eyes- Kaiba's eyes. Things happened, people shouted, Bakura breathed heavily next to him, but Marik couldn't understand what was going on, not when the crucifying pain was still as bright as lightning before his eyes.

As if this torture wasn't enough, the Leader suddenly turned to him, pointing the golden scepter back at him and flailing it around, forcing Marik's back to twist in the same direction as the Rod. Marik screamed, he screamed with all the power of his lungs, and he heard more screams echoing above him, but his eyes were closed and he couldn't understand why the others were chorusing his doleful cries.

But the Leader's voice -the same voice of the cloaked man that had led them to Kuru Eruna- was now screaming too, shouting things hysterically, obviously trying to be heard above Marik's screams.

“….always a wrong one….flawed clone…your memories….make Nehti live…brother” was all Marik could understand out of the Leader's words through the frenzy of his pain. At some point at the end of the torturer's speech, a pain so strong shot through Marik, that he opened his eyes in reflex and howled like an animal, completely carnal and brutal.

He knew he was hallucinating when he saw his own reflection staring down at him. It was like watching his reflection in the mirror, only holding the Rod. Marik hated himself so much so as to conjure hallucinations of his own body torturing him, apparently.

“WHAT ARE YOU??!!” Marik heard the hoarse, familiar voice roar from his left, and realized it was Bakura who was shouting. Marik saw himself laugh amusedly and twirl the Rod in his fingers, a crazed spark lighting the lilac eyes. Begrudgingly, Marik finally registered where he'd heard that familiar-yet-not-quite voice. He'd heard it every time he opened his mouth, reverberating through his lungs.

But this was impossible! He must be hallucinating!! This was not logical!!! It couldn't be himself up there, holding the Rod and sneering. And then, as if hit by a stab of reality, a thunder of pain hit Marik's head, and he left all thoughts to a whirlpool of nothingness.

Bakura, who was temporarily relieved of the Rod's power, focused on conjuring all his mental strength in order not to collapse on the spot. He started clawing at the stone floor with his scratched nails, willing the dizziness to stop, fully aware that he must have looked like a squashed bug in this state. Unfortunately, he had to admit in his hazy mind, feeling absolute pain in life was better from not feeling anything at all in death.

Ryou's sleeping consciousness, still lethargic in his mind, gave him the comfort of companionship, even at this critical moment. The warmth of Ryou's heart, beating in Bakura's ribcage, was a greater reminder of all things good than Bakura could ever ask for.

But his glee was short-lived as it seemed, since more unpleasant surprises were waiting for him yet. Leader-Marik looked more psychotic than he imagined a human being could be. His face was not distorted and his hair was not raised up, like the effect Bakura had on Ryou's body. But Leader-Marik's face, even though exactly the same as the face of the Marik he knew, seemed unexplainably insane. The eyes weren't right, somehow…the mouth was curved awkwardly, unfamiliarly.

Apparently, at that moment, the leader's father thought it appropriate to reveal his identity also, not wanting to be the only one left with a hood, probably, Bakura thought with stale humor.

And the `father's' hood fell, and Bakura suddenly thought that either this was some very strange, sick joke of Kaiba's or he really was having hallucinations, because he knew it was utterly crazy, if not impossible, to be faced not with one Marik-look-a-like, but two. The father also seemed to be Marik's twin, only twenty years older. He had a blond beard and a slightly different haircut, but the eyes were still the same. Bakura really wanted the Earth to split up and swallow him at that moment, wondering idly if it was possible for him to be so obsessed with Marik that he saw his face everywhere he looked, now.

“Joey!!” Serenity's scream suddenly tore through the already overloaded air “What's wrong with you!!!?! Do something! Joey!!! JOEY!!!!”

“Serenity, calm down!!” Yugi frantically, called, trying to restrain her from doing something completely foolhardy. But it was too late, since the old-Marik, or `father's' dark lilac eyes were already focused on her. He didn't say anything, only stared at her silently, as though honestly curious about what she would do next.

“Joey! Mai is here!! Look at her!! Mai, what about your kids?! What about Zora? Mai, please!! LISTEN TO ME!!!!” Serenity hollered at top capacity, kicking and flailing around like a wild animal. “Joey, is this why I've been looking for you? Is this my brother that I've longed for all these years?! Joey, I believe in you!! Please!!”

But Joey's figure was as still as that of a statue, his eyes dark and unearthly. Not even his little finger twitched at Serenity's words. Seeing his unresponsiveness, Serenity turned to the next target of her ire.

“What have you done to him, you heartless freak?!” she screamed at a smirking Kaiba's direction. Marik's screams were still in the background, but the only one who seemed to notice them anymore were the crazed Leader and Bakura. Kaiba and the older of the two Marik replicas, the bearded one, smirked. It was strange to see Kaiba so…alive…while standing in the circle of motionless faces. What was it that made him so special, even though he seemed to be just another mind-slave?

“Miss Wheeler. Ahh…of course. I remember.” Kaiba remarked casually, his usual scathing tone not residing in the least. Bakura suddenly got the urge to pound him dead, not that he hadn't experienced the feeling before. Too bad the albino was still partially unconscious, due to the Rod's attack from before.

“Foolish girl.” Kaiba continued with his rant, while the Marik `father' kept snorting and shaking his head, as though reprimanding Serenity and all her friends. He didn't seem as crazed as the younger Marik Leader, but he did seem insane enough to be considered dangerous, at least in Bakura's standards.

“I always knew of your origins.” Kaiba said, and watched Serenity's eyes widen in horrified surprise “Did it pass your lilliputian brain even for a moment that I didn't know you came from Earth?” he sneered at her, and Bakura got a constricting feeling of foreboding, while staring helplessly at Marik, whose voice had now become thick and hoarse from the screams, like the yowls of a crying dog.

“That's why I even hired you in the first place. I knew of your brother and your obsession with him. I knew where I'd find you if you escaped my grasp in Mercury. You're so predictable, Wheeler. To even think we wouldn't track you down. Idiot woman, we've known where you were and what you were doing all along!!”

“Exactly.” The Leader's father spat at Serenity's petrified face, seemingly enjoying the whole group's startled silence “We've known what you've been doing. Our mind slaves are everywhere” to this, he motioned around the circle of the Rare Hunters, indicating their familiar faces “Everywhere you went, we knew exactly what you were up to. We were practically the ones who controlled your entire course of action! “At this he smiled with mortifying glee “And those who weren't already in our circle…” he let the statement trail on, and Bakura thought he saw his eyes slip momentarily at Rishid' s direction “we made them join.”

Tea, apparently over all inhibition and driven solely by disbelieving fear, spoke up “What have you done to these people?!” she inquired in a near-whisper, obviously feeling it would express her true dread much more than any scream could, at this point. “What does Serenity's brother have to do with anything?” she asked.

Kaiba snorted in a derisive tone, obviously scorning Tea's intelligence. Seriously, hadn't she caught on by now? “But to lure the Wheeler girl here, of course. We knew that she wanted to find her brother for ages. It was only natural to make him one of us…it was a stable investment. We'd find Wheeler someday, if we had her brother.”

“And Mai? And Rishid? And Lena?” Yugi cut in anxiously “Why them? Where do they fit in your schemes?”

“Were do you think, you midget fool?” Kaiba exclaimed, obviously annoyed at the interrogation, but answering nonetheless “Everyone who knows of the Operation must die!! Including you!”

Meanwhile, Bakura was lying prostrate on the floor, fully aware of Marik's unceasing torture beside him. The albino had finally managed to regain his consciousness fully and the dizziness in his head had almost resided. Almost. He thought it best to wait for the opportune moment and not reveal his sober state yet. What was wrong with Yugi and the others, anyway? What were they doing, chatting with Kaiba when Marik was practically dying? Marik, who had no voice to scream any longer, and was closing his eyes in a resigned coma of pain by now.

Bakura, for once in his life, analyzed the situation beforehand. The Leader had his Rod pointed at Marik, not him. Which meant that if Bakura moved fast enough, he'd startle the Leader and make him drop his golden magic wand. And then, everything would be peachy. He'd pound all these suckers to the ground, as long as he was out of the Rod's energy beam.

“You're the Mastermind here, aren't you? You're Ishrat!!” Dark Yugi, who had taken control of Yugi's body roared at the Leader's father while pointing an accusing finger at him. The man with the platinum beard practically roared in sadistic laughter, enjoying the lordly determination in Yugi's eyes, which he would enjoy wiping out later.

“HAHAHAHA!! You always were a funny one, weren't you, Atem?” he barked out pleasantly, watching Dark Yugi facefault.

“What did you say!?” the Game King inquired, now more eager for answers than any other time.

“Of course I'm not the mastermind! You of all people should know this!” the Father barked again, while laughing.

“If not you, then who is it?” Serenity inquired wildly “Who's your master?”

But the old man didn't answer that question, since he was distracted by a silver hurricane moving in front of him. The Marik Leader, who'd been so viciously focusing all his power in making Marik hurt was terribly unprepared for Bakura's attack. Bakura, who'd taken the exact moment when everyone was preoccupied with their stupid conversations to notice him.

Thus, the Leader didn't have the time to turn his Rod toward Bakura when he pounced upwards. Everyone was too surprised to react, and Bakura took his perfect chance to land a solid kick at the Leader's ribs. Bakura tried with all his might not to let the fact that the man he was fighting looked like his friend affect him.

Just as Bakura had predicted, the Leader reflexively let go of his glowing metallic rod -which fell on Marik- in an effort to clutch his ribs, but Bakura didn't give him time to think. He whirled around and gave him a crochet with enough force to shatter his jaw, making the man stagger backwards and collide with his now overactive father.

“Quick, you idiot!!” the father roared at the son, pushing him away from him and towards a panting, blood-fetished Bakura “Control him!!”

The Leader closed his frantic violet eyes and brought his hand towards Bakura as though trying to cast a curse, or something. Bakura knew what was coming- this would be another mind attack, probably similar to the ones his friend Marik kindly granted him sometimes. But nothing happened. Bakura waited a few moments, and when he realized he wasn't feeling anything, took the wonderful chance to land a punch at a completely defenseless opponent, sending him flying to the floor.

“Father!!” the Leader shouted, sounding more and more unlike his sadistic proud self, and more like a cowardly powerless brat “I can't control him without the Rod!!!!” he roared helplessly, and Bakura smiled, baring his suddenly over-pronounced fangs for all to see. But it wasn't meant to be another wonderful moment of hitting the Leader, since he was now attacked by the Rare Hunter zombies from all directions.

He kicked Tristan and swirled around just in time to avoid an upcoming hit from Mai's hyper-arms. With a round-house-kick, he landed a satisfying crack on Joey's elbow, making the man yell in pain.

“Idiot!” the Father grumbled through gritted teeth “Why must I do everything by myself?” but Bakura didn't manage to hear him, worrying in stead for the Rod's location and who would grab it first. He hoped Serenity and the others had the good sense to pick it up, but that's when he saw Serenity, Tea and Yugi being held back by Rishid, Taichi and Kenji.

Bakura, distracted as he was, received an especially steel-hard punch up his chin, which made him land face first on the floor. He whirled around in ire, only to realize it was Kaiba Seto's solid mass that was towering over him.

“Damn you!!” Bakura growled in aggravation and jumped to his feet, starting a sequence of crazed kicks towards Kaiba, who unleashed his fare share of elbow-hits on Bakura's ribs, his face a curious mask of nonchalance; he was not even panting for god-sakes!!!!

“Take the Rod!!!” the Leader's father shouted from somewhere Bakura couldn't see, attacked as he was from all directions. He managed to land a hit on Kaiba's cheek, but the knuckles of his hand almost broke altogether, when he met cold steel on Kaiba's face, where normal skin tissue should have normally been.

“What the f-“ he started saying, but had no time to finish the sentence, since Kaiba had grabbed his throat with a literally steel grip.

Bakura clawed at the offending hands, but Kaiba didn't seem to feel anything, until finally the albino managed to land a kick on the CEO's stomach and cause Kaiba to convulse by reflex, letting him go.

“I can't touch it!!!! I can't approach-“ the Leader's voice shot out in answer to his Father's order.

Bakura rose to his feet and decided the most strategic option in this case would be getting away from Kaiba and dealing with the weaker ones first. With an unnaturally high roll jump, Bakura flew out of the way just in time to miss Duke's hit.

Pegasus was suddenly standing in his way and Bakura immediately granted him a fist the moment he saw him. Them focused again on finding the Rod. He had to get it, before the Leader managed to touch it again, and ruin everything.

“Take that! And that!!” Bakura suddenly heard, and turned around to see Serenity with the leather leash of her outfit, hitting anyone she saw, except maybe Kaiba, who she was afraid of.

“I'll show you manners!!” Tristan suddenly challenged Bakura and came at him with a full frontal punch. Bakura ducked, but he wasn't fast enough and couldn't avoid the scratch on his upper arm, which forced out a trail of blood.

“MARIK!!!!” Bakura heard Tea's terrified cry and turned around to see what was happening, distracted. Tristan got his chance to kick Bakura in the ribs, making him fall to his knees.

“Aargh!!” Bakura howled in pain and was forced to kneel.

But he had seen what Tea was screaming about. Marik was still lying on the floor the way Bakura had left him, only now he had the Rod lying on his chest, and what seemed like electric sparks enveloping both him and the Rod.

“Grab it!!!!” the Leader's father roared once again to his son, who desperately shouted back “ I can't!!!!! It'll kill me!!” he was standing above Marik's shining body with his hands over his eyes, obviously waiting for a chance to take the Rod.

That was when Joey hit Bakura between the shoulder blades with his knee, bringing a blinding pain to Bakura's mouth, forcing him to yell. Had his shoulder been dislodged? It did feel torturous enough, but Bakura knew, through his fuzzy brain, that it wasn't possible.

The albino saw Duke raise his hyper-armed fist above him, the blades protruding from his knuckles shining precariously in the now blue light of the wall inscriptions. By the way, when had the lights turned back to blue?

Bakura didn't have much time to think, all kinds of confused notions flying through his head, for example, he started wondering if he was really going to die, if his head would be dislodged from his throat, or simply pulverized, if he'd ever get to ask Marik what the hell was happening…

He saw doom approach as Duke started to bring his hand down, and Bakura fought not to close his eyes, since he had no power to escape.

`MIND CRUSH!!” was what Bakura heard. He saw Duke's eyes widen and his limp, knocked-out body fall to the floor, revealing behind him a very pissed Game King, who had just, literally, crushed his head with a long metal stick of unknown origin.

“You okay, maniac?” he asked, tiredly, before he was attacked by other mind-slaves.

“I was doing fine without your help, your highness.” Bakura bitterly said, taking over the fight with Yugi's opponents. He would never openly admit that the other Darkside had probably just saved Ryou's skin, if not his life.

“Yeah, yeah…spare me the praises, will you?”

But there were too many of them, now that Rishid, Taichi and Kenji had been added to the enemy ranks. And they all seemed subhuman and dead and immune to most physical attacks. Then Kaiba showed up, with his untouchable skin, and Bakura knew they needed help, right now. More importantly, they needed Marik, because even though Yugi was good with basic punches and his notorious `Mind Crush' attack, he could never execute the experienced combos Marik knew.

`C'mon, dammit!' Bakura thought frantically as he fought Pegasus all over again, avoiding Kaiba once more `What's going on with the Rod?'. And he turned around to see a now mutely screaming Marik, enveloped in electrical waves, but not electrocuted, somehow. Bakura's heart stopped.

“Shit!! MARIK!!!” he yelled at his friend and ran towards his Marik's body, only to intercepted by a very irate Leader, his lilac eyes sparkling mysteriously in the blue light.

“What's happening to him?!” Bakura roared at the other, trying with all his might not to be affected by the soft curves of Marik's jaw on the Leader's face.

“I was hoping you'd tell me.” The Marik-look-alike responded in a menacing, dangerously low voice.

“AARGH!!!” Bakura's battle cry was reflected from the walls and ground like bells' echo. And then, he and the Leader were engaged in a brutal fist-fight, the Leader matching Bakura's notorious demon-spiral pace flawlessly.

Unfortunately, Bakura realized, those extraordinary combos of Marik's were now turned against him, since what could only be Marik's twin brother was seemingly as experienced in physical fighting as Marik himself.

The Leader's Father was nowhere to be seen, and Bakura was subconsciously getting more and more worried about being hit on the back by someone. But, apparently, Yugi was doing a fair job on the back, using the only combo he knew, to `crush' everybody's head without killing them, somehow.

Bakura finally managed to hit the leader's face with a full frontal punch.

“You, know, “ he said fleetingly “sometimes I really wanted to do that” he finished, referring to the general concept of hitting Marik's face.

The Leader wiped the blood from his lips on the sleeve of his long cloak and granted Bakura the most intense malicious glare the albino had seen, except of course for his own, which was unsurpassable.

“We never should have let Kaiba take you for the experiment.” The Leader concluded darkly, while pushing the purple cloak over his head, revealing a black tank top and beige pants. “I'll kill you now.”

Bakura smirked, letting out another string of punches and kicks, swirling around and hitting in any way he could.

But Ryou's body's stamina was fading fast, and his worry about Marik was gnawing at his insides. Tea's screams at Marik didn't help, since Bakura eventually got distracted and received a series of hits from his opponent's part. Bakura raised his eyes, finally beaten down to the floor. The Leader was above him, smiling at him with that serene, extremely insane smile.

“Goodbye, Nehti.” He said simply, the eager craze in his eyes growing to dangerous proportions.

Bakura knew he would be knocked out after this, and there was no Yugi or Marik to help him this time. He'd be knocked out, and everybody would be killed except him, and he'd end up alone again, in his dark, golden prison. But physical laws didn't help him, no matter how strong his emotion was. The energy he had unleashed on Ryou's body and the continuous strain he had inflicted on it would not allow the body to respond to his mental commands as fast. And speed, along with agility had always been his advantage in fighting.

“He'll miss you while he lives.” The enemy sneered at him and started to move against Bakura's already blood covered face, and Bakura realized, belatedly, that they would all die and he wouldn't even get the chance to enjoy the semblance of a life he'd found with Marik, not even for a while.

Marik was lying supine on the floor, his eyes wide and unseeing, flashes of a death from long ago attacked him, memories he thought had been lost. His head swung around and his limbs flailed as though he was a raving lunatic. Tea's screams were far away, and so were Bakura's battle cries. Now all that mattered was the shock of electricity he felt hit him, his nerves stretching out to thorns as flashbacks attacked him one after the other…

“Father!!! Please!!! Stop!!!!!” the girl with the ebony hair begged, her beige skirts twirling around her sparkling sapphire eyes.

“Shut up, Isis! Learn your place as a woman!!” the man with the blond beard- his father- shouted at her, and slapped her roughly on the face, making her take several steps back, her eyes wide and moist and tearful. “This scum must be punished for what he's done! He's the one responsible for your Mother's death!!”

“Nee-san….” A young blond boy appeared in the threshold of the house, watching with wide eyes the red-littered floor of the living room, his mother's corpse lying on the corner, next to the trashed television set. “MOTHER!!!!”

“Marik!!!” the boy's sister cried in fright, rushing forward to cover the virgin eyes of her innocent brother “Don't watch, Marik! Don't look!” she said, trying to bury her brothers wide eyes against her bosom, trying to muffle her brother's ears from the screams of their trusty servant, Odion, who was now being whipped to death on the floor, by their own Father.

“Marik? Good, you're here. You're next. You, also, must be punished…”

“STOP!!!” the cobalt-eyed woman shouted “He's only a child!!”

“KAA-SAN!! (mother)” Marik kept crying desperately, trying to shake off Isis's embrace and see for himself the horror he had only fleetingly witnessed.

“Only a child?! The `child' had known all along!” the Father barked at the frightened girl “He knew and didn't tell me!! Isn't that right you little brat?! You'll pay for your distrust!!”

“Kaa-san…” Marik know kept crying, his hands fisting in Isis's soft beige sweater “Kaa-san…” his muffled voice whimpered, not even hearing his Father's accusation.

The freakish sound of the whip being brought down on skin echoed in the room, and next came Odion's anguished cry, his dark hair whipping around his bloodied face like a halo. Odion, the young servant they had hired not more than a year ago…a soft-spoken young man with sparkling eyes and chestnut hair. Now he was lying prone on their red-stained living room carpet, whip-marks crisscrossing on his back.

“ODION!!” Isis cried desperately, earning a string of sadistic guffawing from her father “Die you insolent! Die!!”

“Father, no!!! Stop!” Isis tried desperately, her tears falling freely down her cheeks as she tried fruitlessly to stop the inevitable. Her eyes fought to stay away from her mother's defiled body, but it was no use, she looked at it against the will, and let out a pained howl.

“Don't look, Marik…don't look” she cried through her sobs, her heart and lungs swelling to breathe, as though there was an iron bar pulling them down. She knew she had to take Marik and leave that place right then, if she wanted to survive. But she was paralyzed; her legs wouldn't obey her. She knew he'd come after them…he'd track them down…and kill them- his own children. Just like he'd killed his wife.

“Slimy scum!!” their father roared at the shrieking victim, kicking Odion's sides mercilessly “Thought you could seduce my wife and get away with it, did you?!”

Another whip slash -a scream- and Isis knew why her conscious wouldn't let her move. She couldn't let him die there. She wouldn't. Slowly, she bent down to Marik and whispered in the trembling boy's ear “Marik…I want you to listen to me very carefully…all right?” she asked in a whisper, feeling Marik's chubby head nod at her quickly, his wide sky-blue eyes blinking up at her, his short golden hair sparkling so innocently at the sunlight that filtered through the red-stained windows.

“I want you to…Marik, listen to me!!” she urged, as she realized that her five-year-old brother's eyes had strayed again to their mothers corpse, watching it as if expecting it to stand up and speak any second now “ I want you to go up to your room, lock the door and close your eyes, okay? Can you do that, Marik? Up to your room, lock the door and close your eyes. Okay? For me.”

Once her brother nodded, she looked up to her father, who was still whipping his late wife's secret lover. When Isis made sure their father was too distracted to look at her, she pushed Marik away and mouthed for him to run. The little boy stared numbly at the commotion, but then saw Isis's desperate grimaces for him to run and finally obeyed her orders. Always the faithful boy to trust his sister, Marik ran upstairs as fast as he could across the hall, past his parents' ruffled bedroom and into his and Isis' room. He grabbed the door and closed it, turning the key with shaking hands and wide, clear-blue, shining eyes, with specks of gold in them.

Obeying his sister's orders word by word, he shut his ears and sat down, waiting, his teeth biting his lower lip and wondering when it would be that his mother would clean herself from all the red stains -she hated having stains on anything, much less her clothes- and come up to tell him he could come downstairs again, and play with Isis. He looked at the wall, at the golden Egyptian ornament his Isis had given him, saying it symbolized their family's deep roots from Egypt. He blinked at it owlishly with his huge eyes, watching the golden rings clink but unable to hear their sweet sound because of his closed ears.

From downstairs, the brunette girl heard her brother's footfalls on the staircase and smiled a bittersweet smile, She wasn't so sure she would see him again…but she wanted the best for him. Her heart constricted in pain at the thought she'd probably not be there to see him grow up, not there to hug him and read bedtime stories to him. Not there the first time he'd fall in love.

But she couldn't; wouldn't let her father kill again. Her eyes freezing over with determination, she turned to her father's back.

“Nobody fucks my wife except me!! Nobody! Nobody turns my son against me!” he was screaming “Now it's your turn!!”

Overly careful not to make any sound, Isis stood up gingerly and took a step backwards, her hands reaching out to grope the wall behind her. When she felt what she was searching for, she wrapped her hands around it, unleashing the golf club from its seethe on the wall. She prayed for God to forgive her for what she was about to do, but she couldn't allow a second murder, even if she had to commit one in order to prevent one. At least she was about to kill a murderer…her father.

Not finding it in herself to cry, and choosing a determined expression instead, Isis slowly approached the back of her father's screaming head, her club raised up in an attack position. She was now no less than three feet away from her father. If she'd swing now, she'd hit him. She raised her club slowly, unbelieving of the fact that her father was so distracted that he didn't even notice her.

She drew the tool back, starting to bring it down, when instead of blonde hair, her father's head whirled around and presented her with his burning, paranoid blue eyes. Biting back a scream of terror, she couldn't even gulp, much less move the club. Her father's gleaming eyes met her wide, horrified ones. She saw, as he smiled the homicidal smile she'd seen directed to her mother, and the next thing she knew was a suffocating grip around her throat.

“Isis…” her father started saying, his back turned completely away from Odion now. He had Isis's throat in his grasp, squeezing it and lifting her from the ground, choking her “…you little bitch. Just like your mother!!”

Isis felt her vision become blurry, red and yellow lights twirling in her eyes as she grabbed her father's hand on her throat, trying to dislodge it, but to no avail. She was losing her senses completely, her purple face revealing she was this close to chocking, when the grip let her fall down and a pained cry came from her father. Isis fell on her knees, panting frantically and cradling her misused neck, trying to bring back breath in her lungs.

“You fuck! I'll show you!” her father screamed at Odion, who had apparently managed to hit his calf with a shard of glass lying on the floor. But Isis's father was much more powerful and robust than Odion, and the young man received the lethal hit with a knife, which was held securely in Father's belt. Normally, there were two of them, but the other had already been buried deep in Mother's chest.

“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Marik heard his sister's desperate cry. Not even a hundred hands over his ears could have muffled that sound. Terrified, Marik rushed under his bed, his eyes squeezed closed, his hands fisted in a stuffed animal's fur.

He had stopped covering his ears now, and he could hear more screams, more desperate cries. Both his father's voice calling “You bitch!!” and Isis's despondent wails could be heard, and then there were sounds Marik couldn't recognize, then another female scream, then silence.

A few moments went past and Marik was trembling helplessly under his bed, his eyes and nose now buried into the soft teddy's belly. He heard his own desperate, panting breath and saw his small fingers grasp at anything available and squeeze.

Silence. Deadly silence for a long time, until Marik heard some steady sound come from outside his locked door. Something coming from the stairs -his father's feet. The familiar brown leather boots were now hitting the carpet that his Mother hated having dirtied. The footfalls came in a steady, unhurried pace.

“Maaarik…” the boy heard a sing-song sweet voice call. Many times had Marik wished he would look and sound like his father when he grew up. But his father had never sounded like this before, and Marik now thought that he didn't want anything to do with that voice, since it sent chills up his spine.

“Oh, Maaarik…come'ere…I won't hurt you…Dad won't hurt you…you know that, right?” the increasingly loud voice sent a sugarcoated laugh, and Marik cowered deeper in the cover of his bed, now trembling more than ever. Where was Isis? Why wasn't she here to help him…why? This was all wrong! It wasn't supposed to be this way!

And the, the door of his room made a sound. Marik knew his father was trying to open it from the other side. “Marik, open up.” His Father said, but Marik was afraid of that voice, having heard it scream and yell murderously. He didn't open his mouth to answer, and instead gritted his small teeth and squeezed his eyes further.

“OPEN UP!! “ the voice was louder now and the hits on the door were becoming much harder “OPEN UP, YOU BRAT!! I'LL SHOW YOU!!!” his father barked, and Marik's heart gave a painful lurch. He had to get out of there by himself, he realized. Isis wasn't coming to save him. His mother wasn't here anymore. Odion wouldn't open his arms and take him away on a piggyback ride this time.

He had to get out on his own, he realized, as he saw the wooden door shake precariously. But how? How would he leave?

His wide eyes fell on the window, the very window he could not reach. It was made especially so he wouldn't be able to jump out of it when he was a baby. How would he get out? How would he escape? Wooden shards were now flying in all directions, since the door was breaking down. Marik's ears heard his father's enraged shouts, but, loudest of all, he heard his own heart, thumping in his small, childish chest.

A fraction of the door broke down, and he could now see the better part of his father's torso through it. He could see the sledgehammer his father was using. He knew that that same hammer would have no mercy when crushing his own bones in punishment. There was no escape. He couldn't leave…but he could hide! But where to hide? His father knew this room, just as he knew the rest of the house…His father would find him…his father could run faster than he. Father had longer legs. He was stronger…more powerful.

Sirens started echoing loudly in the distance, and his father's pounding on the door stopped abruptly.

“The fucking neighbours!!” Marik heard his father shout in distress, and then he resumed his pounding on the door. Marik didn't fully understand, but he did the only thing he could, rushing into the closet and locking himself in darkness while hearing his father's uneven hits. He saw the ladder in the closet, but knew he needed the appropriate key to open the hatch on the top of the closet ceiling, in order to reach the house's roof. Besides, he never could climb that ladder…his legs were too short…

The sirens got louder and his father's pounding more frantic, until Marik heard the wood of the door finally give in and fall to the floor. This was it. He was trapped. He heard his father walk in and vaguely saw his deranged figure through the small creak of the closet doors.

“Maarik…” that same sweet tone from before “We don't have much time, Marik…come out, come out, wherever you are…”

It was a game they played often, but Marik didn't feel like playing now. He covered his mouth with his palm, feeling that his breath was just too loud in the stillness of the room.

He had buried himself behind a stack of coats in the closet, but his father would find him in a second if he opened the wardrobe, Marik knew. The sirens were deafening now, and Marik saw his Father look hoarsely everywhere in the room, from under the bed and the desk to any other hiding place possible. He was this close to the closet, a hysterical look in his eyes. Marik pressed his palm against his mouth even harder, forcing himself to keep absolutely still. But then, as his father was about to open the doors, sounds were heard from the front door, along with the sirens, and the blond man backstepped. Someone had just broken into the house.

A stampede of footsteps were hitting Mother's clean carpet, and Father came face to face with someone Marik couldn't see. Now the boy was even more afraid, knowing the black-clad men were with the police, but unable to react through his numbness. He watched fleetingly as his father's eyes widened in angst. The man ran to the window, pushing it open roughly and hanging one leg out of it, over the windowsill.

“There he is!! Get him!!!” Marik heard strangers yelling and saw them running to the window, but it was too late. His father had already jumped, probably hanging down the pipe next to the window, or falling onto the bush under it.

“Quick!! Outside!!!” the men shouted, and left the room. Marik waited in the closet for a long time, his hands wrapped around his knees tightly. He waited for what must have been hours and hours, until the voices stopped coming from downstairs and people stopped walking in his room, scaring him.

It was night when he finally walked out of his closet, his small limbs aching because of the straining pressure they had undergone. He stepped outside gingerly. Carefully, he walked down the stairs, keeping his left hand on the handle so as not to collapse and tumble down. He reached the main hall and turned to go to the living room with shaky legs. The living room, where he had last seen Isis…and his mother. And Odion.

But across the ceiling door was plastered a shiny yellow tape. There were yellow tapes in the kitchen too. Marik looked in the living room, but all he could see were dark stains on the floor, walls, windows…his mother and Odion weren't there any more. Nor was Isis. The stains were black in the night, but he knew they must be the red ones he saw that morning. Mom would sure be angry at all that dirtying. She loved cleanliness.

But last time he'd seen her…Marik had been frightened…he didn't understand why her face was so white, her body so scathed…he didn't understand.

His family wasn't there any more, so he'd have to wait for them. But when he checked for food, there was nothing left in the kitchen. Only yellow tapes and strange plastic bags containing cutlery were lying around.

Marik knew the men would be back the next day, since they'd let their things here…And he was hungry. He could go to the neighbours…but he was afraid. Afraid of them. The kid next door had this big dog and if you stepped into the garden, it started barking at you and brandishing its teeth…

Marik gingerly walked out of the front door, which was left ajar- probably broken- and walked out to the yard. He saw the same yellow strips forming a rectangle around his house, as though creating a borderline. Slowly, Marik walked under the strips and into the open road. His sister and mother would come for him, he knew. All he had to do was find some food and go back to the house to wait for them.

But his mother and sister didn't come looking for him. He stayed near his trashed house for many, many days, preying and doing whatever he could to summon his mother back. He told the words she'd instructed him to say when he felt sad `There are always worse things in the world” and he sang the tune Isis always told him she loved. He thought that if he sung it often enough, she'd hear it and come to him.

But they didn't come. And he was still hungry. He was afraid of the neighbours- not just the ones with the dog, but every neighbour. Because all the neighbours had fathers…and Marik didn't like fathers any more. He didn't like any grown-up any more…

The food he found in the garbage wasn't enough, though. He had to search farther, in other garbage cans. His mouth watered when he walked by a baker's store. His eyes narrowed in jealousy when he saw a dog or a bird eating greedily from their owners' hands or plainly from the street. He didn't know where he was or what he was doing. He only knew his mother and sister would come for him, eventually.

He didn't let people see him. He was afraid of them, especially big men. He stayed in the shadows for the most part, near the cans where he could find food. He sang his sister's song whenever he couldn't sleep and told his mother's words aloud when he felt miserable and lonely, just so he could hear them out loud…but after a while, he couldn't understand their meaning any more. After a while, he began to hate them. Them and his sister's song.

They had both left him, hadn't they? What could be worse than that in the world? What could be more saddening? The words had no meaning. There were no worse things than this.

He watched little girls pounce around as their parents lavished them with gifts. He saw big sisters treating their siblings ice-cream…but he stayed in the shadows…away from all that. When people saw him in their garbage cans, they yelled at him to go away, calling him names, spitting at his feet. They didn't want a scumbag like him near their houses, they said.

Sometimes, at night, as he walked by stores, he'd see bars over the glass displays of food and jewelry, and he'd feel jealous for no reason. He'd tried to steal bread sometimes, but his feet just weren't strong and fast enough, and his swollen belly hurt him every time he tried to run away. Besides, he was afraid. Afraid of big male shopkeepers and black-clad policemen. No. Better to starve than to be their victim.

Until, one day, as he was bending silently over a nearby trashcan, his eyes darting back and forth to make sure no one was watching him, he heard a voice. The voice of a woman. No one had spoken to him directly without shouting at him for a while, and Marik was afraid at first, cowering in his comforting shadows. But the woman persisted, calling him sweet names and giving him bread. Marik looked at it in wonder, not believing he was offered such a vision. Immediately, his mouth started watering.

He looked at the woman distrustfully, then back at the bread, with wonder. He hesitantly looked back at her shadowed features, but she smiled at him. “Go on.” She said in her sweet voice, and Marik was reminded of his mother so suddenly that he felt like crying. Maybe this was her, just with a different voice! Maybe…she'd finally remembered him.

Not able to help himself any longer, Marik grabbed the slice of bread and started to devour it greedily. His stomach protested at the sudden magnanimous offer, but Marik gulped it down, uncaring and finally happy. After only a few bites, he felt full, as though Isis had just given him ten bowls of cereal, all in one sitting.

The woman smiled at him. He stared back at her, in wonder. She was so, so very beautiful, her shiny hair cascading down her shoulders like cherubic veils, at least to Marik's eyes. Marik's own hair was shoulder-length now, but it had lost its sunshine quality, since he never washed or combed it. It was shabby and split-edged, just like the rest of him.

“You poor thing…How old are you?” the fair woman asked him suddenly, and he looked at her half-eagerly, half suspiciously. Then he looked at his hands and started counting with his fingers, looking at each of his broken nails carefully. The woman smiled, watching him.

“ 'm five…” he answered finally, after much consideration. He didn't even think that he was probably not five anymore. He hadn't been five in a while. But that didn't matter, because for him, time had stilled when he'd left his home.

“Five? Hmm…what a big boy…” she commented in appraisal. Marik smiled at her with his endearing, big blue eyes “Mom always says I'll get bigger, so…”

Suddenly, as though her smile was completely make-believe, the woman scowled “Your mother?” she asked in perplexed confusion. Marik rushed to explain, not wanting to stop talking to her yet.

“But she's gone now! And so is Isis and Odion and …Father…” he explained hurriedly, watching the light of understanding and …relief?…dawn in the woman's eyes.

“Oh? How so?” she asked, and Marik really didn't understand the syntax she'd used, so she rephrased “Why are they gone?'

Marik looked at the floor, not knowing exactly why they'd gone either. He settled on the simple way he understood it “Dad was shouting at Mom one day, and then he made her dirty, and then Odion was dirty too…but Isis was afraid, and said I should go to my room. And then dad shouted and I didn't hear anything else. And after that I left, because everyone was gone, and there were yellow stuff everywhere…but dad wasn't there…”

The woman furrowed her brows, trying to understand what the child was trying to tell her, then gave up, seemingly satisfied with the explanation that `everyone was gone' and `I left the house'…She turned a radiant smile towards the child, who looked at her as though she was a seraphim on earth.

“You're a very cute little boy. You know that…?”

“Marik” he filled her sentence, which was asking for his name.

“Marik. What a pretty name. But you're all alone, aren't you?” she said, sadly, and as though her expressions were contagious he became sad too, and nodded.

“You must be very hungry…Tsk, tsk, tsk…” she continued in that sad tone, looking pointedly at his belly and Marik nodded numbly, seeing it pointless to deny the obvious, and hoping he'd get more bread if he showed how desperate he was- a technique that always worked with Isis.

“You know, I could give you more of that” she pointed at the bread remains in his hand.

His eyes widened and he started salivating all over again, seemingly forgetting that he already had food in his hands “Really?” he asked.

“Of course. I'll give you as much as you want.” She answered him, her bright smile blinding him.

Marik furrowed his brows, confused, not trusting the night more than he did its people “Why would you do that?” he asked, eyeing her suspiciously, now freely wary of her.

The woman smiled, unperturbed by his change in his conduct “ Call me a helper. I like to help children like you, who are left alone and hungry.” She simply said, and Marik started releasing his suspicions “Are you an angel?” he asked seriously, still suspicious, but the woman laughed with a clinging sweet chime and petted his head, dismissively.

“No, Marik. But I do want to take you to heaven” her sweet laughter, along with the teasing bread in his hands and the soft touch on his head, not violent for a change, reminded him too much of Isis and his Mother. Too much of his happy life…

He nodded dumbly, staring at her candid face, aghast. He was lost, felling like Isis was finally here to help him again…When she said she wanted to take him to heaven, he believed her.

“Come with me, Marik…” she urged him, sweetly “Let me take you there.” She offered him a wonderfully polished, pale soft hand, and he felt unworthy at putting his dirty, tanned one over it, as though he was a leper that would ruin her angelic perfection.

He followed her. Followed her to a house with a big room, where dozens of other children like him were gathered, some younger than him, some older. He wanted to ask what they were all doing there and what was the woman's name, but when an entire feast of meat and sweets and milk and warm cookies was presented to the children in the room, none spoke and they all rushed to the table, feasting on the food as if they hadn't eaten in years. As though they were like Marik. Marik soon found out that they were exactly as abandoned and alone as he.

Until, one of the days that followed, a man came, dressed in a green suit. Marik was afraid of him, unlike the other children, who were less inhibited than he, but he still followed the man when the beautiful woman instructed him to do just that.

They were all led to big cars, like trucks, which had places for all of them to sit in the back. Marik stayed away from the other kids. He was less afraid of them than adults, but he still didn't want to talk to any of them.

They didn't understand where the cars were leading them and they were all worried, since the beautiful woman hadn't followed them there, wherever they were going. Marik felt alone and abandoned and betrayed all over again, but now he was fed on a regular basis, and he'd been given clothes, even though they were scrubby and old. They were clothes.

They entered a forest and drove through it. When they had reached a strange clearing, they were instructed by the drivers and supervisors to leave the trucks and walk forward. Marik saw one of the men drive forwards and take out what looked like a phone. He started speaking quickly and Marik couldn't hear what he was saying, but he still heard what the men near him were saying to each other.

“I'm telling you” one of them told the other “More than 100 miles underground. MultiCorp really did it with this one, eh? Can't wait to see it”

“Are you serious?” the other answered “I know they say these underground beehives are the thing of the future, but…”

“It's a lab. Their secret dirty lab. I just know it. You'll see..”

“Are you sure about this…there are rumours you know…they say everyone who ever walked in there never came out again.”

“Pfft…Lies, I say.”

The supervisor ended his phone call, turned back to the children and shouted for them to follow him. They had no choice and no will to leave, so the moment the ground shook and revealed a metallic huge hatch, they weren't the least bit inclined to leave, even though shaken. They were all children of the street, wary of other people but hungry nonetheless, and they wouldn't abandon this ticket to free food no matter what happened.

The supervisor took out what looked like a remote and started playing with the buttons. When they all saw the huge hatch on the ground slide open in two, they took a step back, but didn't run. The followed the man as he went down the metallic staircase that had emerged. And then all of them, children and adults together, stood unmoving on the huge platform were the stairs led and waited for it to `activate' as the supervisor said.

Marik saw the hatch close over their heads and heard the soil of the forest cover the metallic passageway, hiding it from view. The next thing he new, his guts were threatening to come out through his mouth, since the platform they were on had started moving downwards in great speed.

The rest of the children yelled in alert, and so did some of the men who'd driven them there, but their supervisor was left unfazed. When the torture finally stopped, the elevator-platform had reached the lowest level it could probably go. The children, excited at all the new things and the `roller-coaster ride', were instructed to walk through a door and into a small room, where they had to huddle close together for everyone to fit.

“This is the decontamination room.” The supervisor said, and of course, Marik didn't understand what he meant. The adults, however, seemed to understand. “One by one we will walk to that door” the supervisor pointed at an open archway in the end of the small room.

“When you walk in, glass doors will close around you and a gas will be released. The air will change colour. Don't be afraid; it won't hurt a bit. When it's over, you'll only be able to walk forward, so step forwards and wait for me there. Okay? Here, I'll go first and show you.”

The supervisor walked fearlessly to the alcove. Once he'd walked under the arch he had indicated before, glass barriers really did come down around him and everyone could see a blue thing be released in the air around him, decontaminating him. When the gas was sucked back into the vents, the glass door in front of the man opened while the one behind him stayed closed.

“Decontamination complete” a computerized voice said and the supervisor walked outside. When he had left the glass chamber, the door he'd just walked through came back down again, whilst the other glass door, which connected the glass chamber with the room Marik was in, opened.

One by one, the children started to shakily walk in the glass alcove, getting `cleaned up' as one of the men put it. When it was Marik's turn, his heart was beating wildly from fear and he gritted his teeth. He shut his eyes tightly when he walked under the alcove. The glass doors fell around him and he couldn't hear anything anymore, as if he were surrounded by a barricade of cement, not by glass.

“Decontamination process engaged” the computerized voice said in his chamber, making him start. Then he saw the blue gas shooting around him and felt a bit giddy for a moment; but it was over in two seconds, and he unsteadily walked out of the glass door in front of him, letting it close after he walked out.

When everyone was through with that, the supervisor smiled at them and explained it had been necessary, but the kids weren't at all concerned, talking about how fun it had been to be in that blue thing; it felt like floating. Marik hadn't liked it all that much, however.

They walked down an endless metal-walled corridor, until they finally reached the end, where a sturdy-looking metal hatched door waited for them. Their supervisor, who had put on a white doctor's robe after the decontamination, took out an ID card from his pocket, slipped it in the reception and watched as the metallic hatch opened, letting the door slide open for him.

Once it was open, a whole new world was presented to everyone. They walked through the door and into the chaos of white robed scientists and phosphoric green lights. It was a humungous, round reception hall, with huge computer screens on the walls and metallic doors all around. Scientists were everywhere: some conversing lightly and others looking at the ratings on the screens, some walking through doors, some were followed by dogs and other animals, some by humans…The lighting in there was green and blue, and it gave Marik the creeps, for some reason. But the other kids were excited about it all, saying it was great and wonderful and completely cool.

“Welcome to Kuru Eruna” the supervisor said, a smile now on his face “MultiCorp-MediCorp's top secret laboratory, buried 300 kilometres under the earth's surface and completely untouchable by local authorities.” He said that in a proud, satisfied way, as though exhilarated by the very thought of it.

Marik wanted to see the beautiful woman. This isn't what he'd bargained for. This didn't look like heaven…this didn't make him less lonely. It only made him more frightened. Suddenly an amiable female scientist walked up to them, her hair pulled up in a bun.

“Hello Peter” she greeted the scientist that had accompanied them there. Marik noticed she had a strange accent…as though she didn't come from around there. He didn't know what to call it though…He didn't know it was British.

“Hey. These are the ones from unit 343” he reported simply, not even bothering with salutations. The woman sobered up immediately ay mentioning of business.

“I'll take them down to the BWP-DNA sector. You take care of the adults.” She said, and Marik suddenly realized he was surrounded by the very adults he was afraid of, and that they practically were talking in another language- one he didn't understand. The fact that they were talking about him as if he wasn't there also bothered him.

“Children” the woman said, again in that obviously fake friendly tone “My name is Maya, and if you'll please follow me.” She said and walked forward. Not knowing what to do, most of the children hesitated, not liking to be tossed around from one supervisor to another. But, having nowhere to go and knowing they'd probably not be allowed to get out now, they started walking after the woman. Marik walked slowest of all, hearing the worried whispers of the others.

He looked back and saw the Peter guy who had taken them there lead the confused adults in one of the doors that were all around this great hall. The Maya woman who was their guide now had walked all across the hall, reaching a hatched, metal door. There was an inscription over it, but Marik couldn't read, so he never realized it spelled “Brain Wave Procession- DesoxyribosoNoucleinic Alteration” the woman took out a card, pout it in the ID receptor and turned to smile a very worrying `reassuring' smile at the children.

“C'mon ”she said “I'll show you something fun” and walked into the revealed corridor, which had green lights over it. Marik doubted what he'd be seeing would be fun at all. At the end of the corridor they met yet another bulked door and the card-reception process was repeated. For all his head, Marik couldn't in his wildest dreams fathom why would something `fun' be hidden so many locked doors.

“Stand-by for retina identification” the computer said and Marik didn't know exactly what it meant by that, but he saw some sort of light beam hit Maya's right eye and the computer say “Retina recognition successful. Standby for voice identification” Maya said her name aloud, and the computer talked to her again, saying “Identified. Welcome, Reidey, Maya” and with this, the door opened, revealing yet another `decontamination' room. The gas was purple this time. Maya said it was stronger, for security purposes.

Once they had all walked to the other side of the glass chamber, a dark room illuminated only by green lights awaited them.

“Now, you may see many things as we walk around here” Maya started saying, making Marik realize this was not about food and heaven any more “but don't be afraid. It's just the way things are around here. You may hear people shouting, but, trust me, they're not in danger. Just follow me and everything will be okay.” She finished, and twirled around to walk through the silent dark room, her stiletto heels clicking as she walked. “C'mon” she urged the kids and walked into an equally dark, long corridor. Only this corridor's walls were made of glass, glass Marik was too short to see through. The taller kids who could see, however, gasped and trembled and scurried closer to Maya. No sound came from the rooms behind the windows and Marik thought these glasses must be strong too, like the decontamination ones.

They climbed a step in the corridor and continued their walk across it. Suddenly, Marik heard a blood-curdling scream come from behind him and whipped his head around in alert. Where the heck had that come from?

“Don't mind it!” Maya told the startled kids, petting their heads and telling them to turn around “The glass is soundproof, but sometimes a door has to open…” she explained and walked forward casually. Marik idly wondered if there were always screams in those glass rooms, in order for a scream to be heard whenever `a door opens'…

Maya reached the end of the long hall and stopped. The children halted right after her and stared up at her expectantly, waiting for what would come next.

“All right, children. Listen up.” she started, and Marik knew this was not going to be good, whatever it was “We have to walk in there, now” she said, pointing to the door next to a glass window. Most of the children who were tall enough to see through the glass places shivered. There was no escape. Nowhere to go now. Too late for repent.

“…but you might get scared, so let me just clear this up for you.” She explained “There are people in there who are very, very ill and we have to find medicine for them and help cure them. So, if you see people in there, don't get frightened. Whatever we do is for their own good. Okay?”

All the children nodded, conveying their understanding wordlessly. Maya smiled in what looked like a satanic smile- his father's smile- to Marik, especially since shadows were all around them.

“All righty” Maya said in a fake patronizing tone and stepped towards the door, using a different card to enter this time. The moment she opened the door, penetrating cries were unleashed in the corridor, and Marik clamped his hands over his ears, horrified. Most of the children mirrored his behaviour.

“DON'T BE AFRAID!! THEY'RE VERY ILL!! COME ON!!” Maya shouted to be heard over the hollering, and most children walked inside, others lingered a little, then entered. A new corridor, this time with walls made entirely of glass. Marik could see…everything.

On the right and on the left, everywhere, cells with people screaming. Scientists were over them with various instruments, checking their pulse, doing things with their heads, operating on them. In common view. Was Maya crazy to bring children in this place? And the hollering continued, all the way.

Marik kept walking, the last child in the row, observing the interiors- horrors- of the labs. In the back of his mind, Marik started to realize, he was very wrong at having followed the beautiful woman. He was very wrong in his assumption about her…she was more of a demon that an angel. He knew that now.

As he walked, trying, like most of them, not to look inside the glass cells, he suddenly heard a raspy voice from somewhere in the front. At the sound of it, he saw Maya pause and look inside a glass. The kids gathered round her, trying to see why she had stopped and who was speaking.

It was a lab like all the others, only this one didn't have scientists running around in it. There was only one person in there, and what had caught Marik's attention was that he wasn't lying down, like most of them. He was hanging from what looked like a machine, his body spread in the stance of crucifixion, his wrists held up by metal handcuffs, tying him to the machine. The man looked dangerously thin with a sucked-in stomach and frail limbs. He only had a white cloth tied around his hips, covering his private parts.

But that wasn't the worst part. Over the man's body, on his torso, his legs and his hands…and even on his head… were attached slim tubes. Thin tubes, which looked like they were piercing his skin and forcing inside him the yellow serum carried inside them.

The most frightening part about the situation, though, Marik supposed, was the fact that the man was awake. Oh yes, wide awake and staring at the passersby with his truly unsettling, absolutely terrifying, glaring red eyes. His black hair fell over his brow, some of them sorter than the others, but all of them much longer than any usual male's hair. Black like the feathers of the most red eyed crow, his unruly hair reached the length of his hips. And the nails, too. Oh, god. Long and curvy, like those of an eagle, a falcon. Terrifying.

He wasn't exactly a man, Marik noted. He wasn't like Marik's father. His arms and chest weren't as puffy and toned as a grown man's would have been. But he wasn't a boy either, as his taut torso, long limbs and angled jaw showed. But then again…he had curvy thin eyebrows, and a distressingly feminine face…he definitely wasn't a boy, or a man. Marik supposed he was what his mother had always told him he'd become one day. A `big boy'. A boy big enough to shop in the supermarket alone, commute by bus without needing to hold his mother's hand, and go to the places Marik had never been allowed to go to.

“Taking kids now as well, are we?” his worn out voice- probably from screaming- was directed at Maya, and Marik thought he was a very frightening big boy, even though he was hanging on a machine and he had a gauze around his forehead and he had pipes attached to his skin. His read eyes were like fire- too red to be normal. Too red to be human. His skin pale and zombie-like, as though the sun hadn't looked at him for a long, long time. The black hair fell straight, like spaghetti strings, tumbling over the gauze on his forehead: first to a short fringe and then to their blue-shiny mane.

“Don't worry, love. You're still a priority.” Maya literally sneered at him, much unlike the way one would treat a sick patient.

The hanging person didn't say anything, just raised his chin and spit at her, his saliva falling on the floor in front of him, never reaching the target. Maya grinned derisively, obviously enjoying the fruitless efforts very much. Especially the other's helpless state.

“Children” she called to her followers, sending the crow-man a last scornful look “Let's go. I have much to show you. Don't worry. I promised I'll take you to a fun place, and that's what I'll do.”

“FUN??? You sick bitch!! You're sick!!” the hanging adolescent screamed at the top of his lungs and lunged forwards with his demon-claws bared, as though intending to harm Maya. But with his sudden movement, he'd consequently dragged along with him the entire set of tubes that were locked on his skin. Now he was screaming out of pain, his voice tenor high now, much like the rest of the screams in that place.

The children were deafened and afraid by the sudden lunge, so they immediately jumped to the other end of the corridor and walked as far from the glass as they could, simultaneously trying not to touch the glass behind their backs, on the opposite side of the corridor, where some man's brain was being operated, out of the children's view. Marik, who was afraid of older males in general, was particularly shaken by the bigger boy's screech, so much so that he actually jumped back and fell on the glass behind him, getting a sting of electrocution and yelping. Maya looked at him in alert for a moment, but then resumed her attention to her long-time acquaintance.

“Sick?” Maya asked, amused, as she started walking past this crow-like person's chamber, disinterestedly. “I'm not the one with the red eyes, Nehti.” She obviously teased and unleashed a derisive guffaw, before she motioned for the kids to follow. Then, she walked forwards nonchalantly.

“YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!!!” Nehti's mind- imploding screech hit the corridor's glass walls and reverberated what must have been a hundred times, before it died down. That must have been the last of Nehti's strength, since after that, he bent his head to the floor and stared at it listlessly, as though giving up on life completely. He must have felt terrible, hanging on a machine, with red eyes that made everyone afraid of him…

Suddenly, in Marik's ears, his Mother's words echoed once again. `There are always worse things in this world'…oh…oh god. There were. Nehti' s black hair, wet as though from sweat or water, his convulsing chest, his unearthly red eyes…there were worse things.

“Come along, children. Just ignore him. He's sick.” Maya said as she walked forward, motioning for the last of the remaining kids to follow. But Marik wasn't so sure of Nehti's illness anymore. He was the last one to walk away from the crow's chamber, watching as the man remained unresponsive to the woman's neglecting words. At last, just as he was going to walk away, Marik saw the black head raise and the red eyes pierce through his skull.

“Run” Nehti mouthed at him, with a somewhat ironic grin “While you still can”

Marik froze, his sky blue eyes widening in absolute dread, his heartbeat racing. Why were those eyes looking at him!? It was like the Boogie-Man his Mother had told him about. The Boogie monsters always had blue eyes…The monsters in the shadows always wanted to get him. He was so frightened, so terrified by the red eyes, the vampire skin and the muscles dilating under the tubes, that he really did run. He ran away from that glass, as far away as he could, not wanting to be alone near anyone that reminded him of red…Red liquid on his Mother's face…Red on his father's hands… His fear for anyone that reminded him of his father's psychotic face that day drove him far from Nehti's cage. He willingly followed Maya now, not wanting to talk to anyone, all of a sudden.

“Who was that guy?” one of the kids of their group asked curiously, pulling Marik's interest immediately. His heart throbbed unevenly once again.

Maya shrugged disinterestedly “His name is Bakura, Nehti. He's very sick, as you must have realized. Highly dangerous. Insane. Stay as far away from him as you can”

Insane, huh? Strange. He'd sounded much more logical than she had at any moment.

Marik was glad when she showed them to a huge room at the end of the corridor. It was a playroom for kids, unlike anything he'd ever seen around there. Toys and candy lay everywhere and dormitory beds were located in an adjacent bedroom. There were already other kids in there, dozens of them, as poor and alone as Marik and his group…Marik watched the other kids exclaim happy cheers, not bothering to trouble themselves with what they'd just seen when faced with such mountains of sweets.

But Marik wasn't like that. He watched Maya leave the kids with a woman who looked suspiciously like a Babysitter and then repeated Nehti's words in his mind : 'You did this to me' He knew it wasn't over yet…they wouldn't just let them go with nothing in return. It couldn't be.

Life was enjoyable in Kuru Eruna. They had tons of food whenever they asked for it. They had toys and underground playgrounds. There was fun and joy for everyone, and kind babysitters to spare.

But something was off.

At irregular intervals, Maya would come, or one of the nurses, and they'd ask for one of them to follow them. The other kids never found out where their companions left to, but most of them didn't care as long as there was food in their plates and a soft bed to sleep at night. Poor street kids no one would miss, or notice were one from the face of the earth. Their conscience was easily lost when their gluttony and constant need reminded them of their poverty.

But Marik didn't understand it. Where did all these kids disappear to, one by one? Why didn't they ever come back..? What was it they did to them? Did they make their eyes red to make them look like demons? Did they mutilate their limbs? What did they do?

There were significantly less children in Marik's group now than there had been a month before. Marik was waiting for it any moment now, waiting to be called to his doom. He couldn't sleep well any more. Couldn't eat comfortably. He was marching towards a non-fun place like the rest of them, he knew. Something interesting that he'd discovered was that he wasn't really five years old any more. More like nine-ten. A nurse had told him after she took his medical reading one day.

Oh, of course. The medical check-ups. Every week, each one of them had to go through one of those. It was a small visit to the nurse, who took your blood pressure and put other funny thingies of your hands and chest to check out `physical details' as she called them. Marik wasn't told anything, apart from his weekly height or weight, but he knew there had to be something more than that. Why did the nurse put that big helmet-thing on his head if there was nothing going on?

Marik exited the playroom very seldom, since he hated going outside, in the midst of all the screams. When he'd passed by Nehti's cell again, he'd found it empty. He never saw the red eyes again.

Finally, on a Thursday morning, a nurse walked in their room and took out the -by now- familiar catalogue. “Marik, catalogue number 73” she simply called, not adding a last name, since there was none. At least not anymore.

His knees shaking, he left with the nurse, leaving the cheery calls behind and following the woman down the nightmarish corridor and out, to the silent corridor, with the window-like glass walls.

“C'mon” the nurse egged him on when she saw he was stalling. She clasped a hand around one of his and tugged at it, making him walk faster. This time they entered a different door in the dark corridor. Walking in, Marik realized, this looked much like the glass wall corridor where the playroom and Nehit's chamber had been. He followed the nurse, but he kept getting the feeling that she wouldn't take him to a playroom place this time. He was afraid he'd be one of the people he could see through the glass walls. One of the `sick' people. One of the lost kids. Afraid he'd wake up with red eyes and nails like claws. Afraid he'd become…that.

And indeed, his fears were justified when the nurse turned to a glass wall and signaled to the scientists inside to let her in. They pressed some buttons in a control pad and the glass barrier opened. The nurse pushed Marik inside and at his terrified look, she simply waved goodbye.

Now he was alone, his insides convulsing in fear. Alone in one of the glass chambers he acoided so meticulously. Of course the scientists were there, but they didn't count. They were much like the rest of the surroundings. They were part of everyday life now. The background in everything Marik did. Marik wasn't even afraid of them any more. In fact, he was slowly getting over his fear of adults. Now he was afraid of the room itself, albeit he knew that was even more unstable.

“Hello…uh…” the scientist looked at his catalogue “…Marik, is it?”

The boy nodded stiffly and the scientist smiled. This didn't look right. Definitely not right.

“Right!” the scientist called, ignoring his colleagues, who were fussing about behind him. “Okay, Marik, we simply want to run some tests. This won't hurt a bit, so if you'd just sit on the chair over there” he pointed at a fairly ominous mechanic chair, full of wires “we can get started. This is just like the helmet your nurse puts on your head, only bigger.”

Marik nodded, wanting to ask more but unable to speak. He walked where the scientist with the catalogue and the glasses indicated and sat down gingerly.

“Just…relax and you won't feel a thing.” the bespectacled man suggested, and Marik found he couldn't relax, since he didn't know whether he'd ever walk out of here or not. Actually, the more they told him to relax, the more reason he found not to.

Suddenly, a helmet clammed down on his head from the top of the chair, and he shivered at its steely coldness. Small stings started to poke his skull, just like with the nurse's helmet. He was expecting something to happen to get him killed, maybe, but nothing out of the ordinary occurred.

“Okay Marik” the scientist's voice was audible, but faraway “I want you to think of a red car. Do you understand? Picture in your mind a red car.” The man said, and Marik supposed the machine -or the scientist- would fry him alive if he didn't comply...the fear of where he would end up after this `test' was almost killing him, but he knew that he had to do what he was told and try not to piss them off. Therefore, not really seeing the meaning of this, he did what he was told and thought of the damn red car.

“Good, good…” the scientist said and there was a pause. Then he spoke again “Right. Now I want you to think of an orange, black-striped tiger. Think very carefully, Marik. A tiger.” Marik grudgingly thought of the tiger, wondering what other colours a regular tiger could have- except for the polar felines that Marik didn't know about, of course.

And the game went on from there, Marik keprt thinking whatever he was told to think and listening to people from the back say “It matches!” and “I can't believe it!!” the test was pretty long, and Marik got tired, eventually.

When the helmet was finally lifted from his head, the scientists all had sparkles in their eyes. They started lavishing him with epithets he didn't really understand and then told him he would hear from them a few days later. He really wasn't looking forward to it, but he was aware that he was the only one so far that would return to the playroom. He supposed it was a good sign, but his instincts warned him otherwise. He knew that whether or not he'd return to the playroom, he'd still stay trapped in Kuru Eruna, and that was bad enough.

The nurse came to take him away just as he heard one of the scientists say to an intercom machine “His brainwaves are an exact match. It `s unbelievable, I tell you! Down to the last detail, the data is-“

“Shall we go, dear?” the nurse urged, and Marik nodded, having no excuse to stay and listen to what he wanted to know was wrong with him. Because in order for these people to be excited about I, itt had to be some sort of disease. It couldn't possibly be good. At least not for his corporal integrity…

Many a time he contemplated running away from the seemingly flawless Kuru Eruna, but he found no way. The one way would be to steal ID Cards, and that was virtually impossible for a ten-year-old like him. Besides, where would he find the eye scan and the voice recording in order to pass through the high security doors? How would he now the buttons to activate the platform-elevator, all this without being seen?

Nah. It was loony beyond comprehension. He just had to stick with what he was told to do, careful to keep his eyes open always. Unbidden, the remembrance of a rumour came to his mind, which he'd heard someone talk about…'no one who walks in Kuru Eruna has walked out again'. He shivered.

A few days after his first test, he was called again, this time without delay of other kids being tested. He was led to a different lab this time, one where there were chips lying around and screens that charted numbers. There was also this scan of a line bobbing up and down, much in the form of cardiograph screen, only not the same.

This time, they told him to stare at this weird chip that had a round shape.

“What is this?” he asked in suspicious curiosity.

One of the scientists looked at his colleagues, who shrugged and answered, “It's a new technology we've developed, Marik. Let's just say we've made a gigantic step to the future. Now. I want you to look at this chip and think of something, anything.” He instructed.

“Okay” Marik said, shrugging, and turned to look at the weird mechanical thingy. He thought of the beach his Mother used to take him to and the sweet coldness of the wavy sea.

“Well?” one of the scientists asked from the back.

“This is incredible” the other said, pointing at the chart on the screen, where two wavy lines were now pictured. “Amazing. See how the chip's waves morph according to his own?”

“Unbelievable.” The other agreed. “Okay…Marik, is it? Think of something else.”

Marik thought how amusing it was that these people were fawning over him but didn't even know his name. That thought was followed by a new sting of `ohhh's and `ahhh's from the scientists.

“This is great. Marik,. One more try. Think something along the lines of `I want you to go over there'” the scientist urged.

Marik instinctively thought `I want you to shut up' and hoped that it wasn't recorded in the screen what he was thinking, just how he was thinking it.

“Perfect. He's actually forcing the chip's waves to match his own.” A female scientist said in an astonished tone, turning to look at what seemed to be the director scientist of that place.

“Wonderful. Marik, you just wait here” he pampered the boy “I'll just go make a call.”

The guy walked near a table of buttons on the wall and said “Noa, connect Dr. Alpha One for me, will you?”

“Signal sent. Awaiting server response” the familiar computerized voice answered.

“Who's Noa?” Marik whispered to one of the scientists, his childish curiosity prevailing.

The woman smiled at him, probably because his brain was the way she wanted it to be and not out of pure amiability “Noa is the main-frame computer of Kuru Eruna. He's in control of all the utilities of the building…Some say that before this place was created he was…” she started thoughtfully and then stopped “Never mind.” She finished, and Marik turned his attention back to the intercom conversation, thinking all the while that if somehow, he could make Noa like him, he'd be able to escape Kuru Eruna with the computer's help. But then again, Noa was a computer, which didn't have feelings. Bummer.

“….that's splendid, Gamma Twelve.” The man on the other end of the intercom was saying “We'll finally be able to set the plan in motion.”

“Yes sir.” The Gamma guy answered briskly, obviously overexcited about his new discovery and how it would change his world- and ,possibly, his doctor rank.

“You know what to do. First neutralize the memory and tinker to make it appropriate. Don't mess with the waves. Then clone it. Thousands of times. No, make that a million…Just use our top capacity.” The man on the speaker said and Marik's blood froze as he repeated the key words in his, apparently miraculous, brain `You know what to do?' `memory' `clone'? What the heck was going on? Was his fate worse than that of the others…just because of this…this…brain-thing?

“Yes sir. We'll be sending you the results ASAP.” Gamma twelve said and finished the connection.

“Connection terminated.” Marik heard Noa's boyish voice say through the haze of his anxiety. Then, the Gamma director scientist turned and smiled at him, and Marik knew this was the end of the line for him. It was over, whatever his short and very eventful life had been.

“If you'll kindly follow me to our main laboratory, Marik…” the man said, and Marik felt more than saw two bulky men walk up behind him, probably to restrain him, in case he decided to run for it.

“We can begin the standard procedure.”

No choice. No escape. A ten-year-old who was afraid of big men. Naive enough to follow a beautiful woman in search of companionship and salvation. That was how idiotic he was.

He wondered if he'd scream doggedly and shrilly, just like the ones he was afraid of. He wondered if his screams would scare other children brought here, in desperate search of `a fun place'. And now, in his ten years of age, as he watched Gamma's eager, commanding eyes brittle at him, imagining what his brain would look chopped up in a platter, he finally knew how Nehti felt.

“Who am I?” he asked, his head dizzy. He was on a white bed, people with red-stained robes hovering around him.

“Give him the anesthetic.”

“Call Alpha One. We neutralized the memory completely.”

“Bring out the artificial enhancements”

And the world faded back to black, just as he felt a sting on the side of his throat.

“Tell me who you are” the man with glasses and brown hair who was standing next to him asked.

“I am Marik Ishrat” He answered simply, knowing full well what he was meant to do, who he was, where he was. “Nice to see you, Beta three.” He greeted the man beside him. He was in a customary Kuru Eruna room, the light grey sheets of his patient bed pooling around his legs. He smiled automatically at the man above him. He remembered. This man was a friend.

“Hi, Marik.” The scientist answered him. “How are you feeling?” he asked, bringing out a notepad.

“Fine, thank you” he responded mechanically again.

“Tell, me Marik.” The man asked him again, his hand flying over his notes in steady writing pace “Where is here?”

“We are in Kuru Eruna, Beta. Just like always.” He answered in a questioning tone, as if he didn't understand why the other was asking him about things he already knew.

“And what is your mission?” the interrogator demanded.

“To guard the Sleepers, of course.” The tanned boy responded calmly, without a twitch of his nose.

“Until when do you guard them?” Beta asked, seemingly satisfied with watching the steadiness of Marik's responses.

“Until the android finds the Secret.”

“What Secret?” Beta's eyes were narrowed now, watching Marik carefully.

“Why, the Secret of immortality, of course. I only tell you this because you already know it, Beta. After all, you are one of the Sleepers.” Marik simply said, not at all affected by what he was saying.

“Wonderful. Marik, tell me, how old are you, exactly?” Beta asked, obviously satisfied by the pace of the interrogation.

“I have existed for two hours and fifteen minutes exactly.”

“Correct. And…what must you do?” Beta slowly asked, putting great weight on this question.

Marik didn't even think about it. He just answered, like a machine “I must go to the main hall, receive the Gift from the previous clone and become his heir.”

Beta smirked, his lip curling in full display of his smugness at this creation.

“And…what is the Gift?”

“Because clones are not born with the required brainpower, due to memory alterations, I must allow my predecessor to use the microchip instrument on me, so that my brainwaves can equalize fully with those of the android.”

Beta smirked. “Peeeerfect” he said, and stood up. “Wait here Marik, and I will send your predecessor to Initiate you. This time, he will come to you.” He said, and Marik nodded his accord.

Beta slowly walked out of the glass chamber, the doors slamming behind him.

“Free the gas. Don't leave until you're sure he's dead.” Beta told the man in the lab control panel. And Marik, locked in his laboratory, smelled a strange scent in the air. He didn't have time to react, however, since he was already suffocating.

After the torturous few moments that he was forced to suffer in the haze of blurriness, Marik's body finally fell, and the world around him went black.

As for Beta, he called the notorious master doctor, Alpha One.

“It is done. The original is dead.”

“Good.” Alpha answered stiffly “And the memory exchange?”

“Flawless. He thinks exactly what we want him to.”

“Perfect. Clone the DNA and install the memory in all the clones. And I mean: ALL the clones. We don't want any problems with the sequence.”

“Of course, sire. Everything will go according to plan.”

“Good. Call me when it's over.”

Marik woke up alone, surrounded in some sort of vile gelatinous fluid. What was going on? He looked down at his liquid covered hands. He was still ten, apparently…his hands looked and felt the same…only this place wasn't where he last remembered being…

“There was that Gamma guy…” Marik started saying out loud “And then they said something about memory…and then they took me to the surgery room…Shit!” Marik grabbed his head, trying to steady the dizziness.

“Okay. What the heck is this?” he asked aloud, referring to the blue slimy thing around him, looking at it strangely. ` I gotta get out of here” he thought, and stumbled out of the gelatinous bubble that he had been enveloped in. He noticed that his body felt the same, though not exactly the same…It was like he was seeing things through someone else's eyes, only they were his own…this was…weird to say the least. There was an inscription at the top of the glowing cyst he had just walked out of -looked numeric- but he didn't know what it meant, godammit!!

And then he saw them. Around him, All around him. Hundreds of thousands of them. Cocoons like the one he just came out of. Cocoons…with him inside. He. Thousands of himself, sleeping as though in a coma. Waiting to be awoken. Unbidden, a thought came to him about cloning, and how they'd said they were going to clone him…what the heck? They actually had the guts to go through with it? Then again…the things he had seen in that place…Seeing all those faces…all his selfs, lying there sleeping, as if going to wake up and hunt him like zombies any moment…

But…wait a minute…hadn't he walked out of one of those…uteruses? Did that mean that… that he was…He grabbed his long her -wet and slimy- and wisted his arms in them, refusing to believe it. He was not a…a…a doll! He was not a clone. He hadn't lost his marbles- at least not yet. He had memories, didn't he? He knew who and what he was…he…he couldn't be…They'd probably confused him with one of the clones and put him in a cocoon…yes, that had to be it…He…he needed to get out of that place…away from his own disgusting, multiplied by million faces. He hated that place! Hated it!

Speaking of `that place', the dark alcoves of the great cocoon-room he was located in were eerily familiar...for some reason, they reminded him of the playroom. Naked and still wet from the disgusting liquid- whatever the heck it was- he ran in the dark towards where he thought the exit was, until he blindly walked into a door. Oh shit!! What now?! He couldn't stay in there! Not with all the thousands of hims sleeping about. He felt like throwing up. He tried to fight it. Eventually he did get sick, only there was nothing in his stomach to unleash, so he was spared the trouble.

He had to get out of there. Out of Kuru Eruna. Out before people found him and forced him to stay!!

“Noa!! Open the god-damn door!!!” Marik shouted at the top of his lungs, hitting the door with his fists.

“Of course, Marik. Door released.” Noa said and Marik stared at the computer panel, which was glowing in the dark.

“What the…?” he said out loud, wondering since when Noa, the notorious Eruna main computer, obeyedhim of all people.

But he never scorned a stroke of luck when presented with one. He ran outside, through dark corridors with murky walls, completely unlike he remembered them. Frantically, he ran, sprinted. He knew where he was, and yet, he didn't. Was he still in Kuru Eruna? It didn't look the same. No glass walls, no metallic doors, no freaky scientists bustling around. He walked down the corridor, completely naked, Where the hell was everybody? Where were the glass doors?! What was happening?

He ran straight into another door and cursed. He couldn't see anything or hear anything in the dark- only his frenzied panting. Once more, he asked Noa to open the door and was granted permission. The old(?) metal creaked in a disgusting way as the hatch opened. Marik got goosebumps. When did the metal get a chance to rot? What had he been doing all this time. Something was obviously different about Eruna…something that made the place even more dark and frightening. Everything looked older, somehow. Rotten. Disintegrated, as if it had been left like this for decades…

Looking at the computer panel strangely, he ran out the rotten steel door. The place smelled disgusting. Another corridor, and now he was getting afraid he'd get lost. Not at all impossible at this dark place. Now he had no lights to guide him from the clones' blue cocoons. He had only Noa's computer light…But of course!! Noa!! Noa seemed really fond of him nowadays, didn't he? Noa would help.

“Hey Noa.” He called the AI as he approached the next door “How do I get out of here.”

“He is waiting for you in the main reception, Marik” Noa answered, casually. Marik could not in his wildest dreams fathom who `he' was, and what Noa's answer had to do with his question, but he still got a sense of foreboding at the mentioning of `him'…He didn't know what was worst: being alone in the torture dungeons of Eruna, or being there with a potential torturer. And Marik really was afraid of bigger males…even though he'd been trying to suppress it with the scientists…

“How do I go there?” Marik hoarsely asked, thinking that being led somewhere was preferable to getting lost.

“Don't you already know?|” Noa questioned in obvious disbelief.

“Uh…I forgot.” Marik answered, not able to believe he was actually expected to know these things. How the heck would he be able to find his way through the labyrinth that was Kuru Eruna? And in the dark, too? He didn't know the place so well…thank God.

“…Very well.” Noa answered after brief consideration. “I will guide you. Go through this door, walk down the hall and meet me in the next threshold.”

The door in front of Marik opened and he did as Noa had ordered him. After a while of following Noa's concrete directions, Marik reached another door.

“Through the door. And turn at the second door on the right.”

Marik did as he was told and took the right, which was quite difficult to ascertain, due to lack of proper lighting. He was afraid in the darkness and lonely silence. He wanted to get out, now! Or at least find someone to talk to…even though `he' sounded ominous…

Finally, Noa led him left and right and straight, and left again. And he was actually expected to know all this?! He thought the twists and turns in the labyrinth of darkness would never end, until he saw a faint green light on the end of a corridor. Elated, he ran towards it and came to the threshold of the door in front of it, only to discover it wasn't a natural light at all. It was the light coming from a green cocoon, much like the blue one he had woken up form, only this didn't contain another him inside. There was a touch-screen panel in front of the bubble, showing details Marik could not read and also having a picture of an old man- the man who was sleeping in the cocoon, probably.

Turning around, he realized that all the corridor was covered in these sleeping, half-dead…creatures. Again with the feeling that the zombies would wake up and bite him. Now he felt more alone than ever. He continued down the faintly illuminated halls, now with the company of frozen old people hanging from their…highly eccentric nests on the walls. As he walked down halls, corridor after corridor of sleeping elders, he couldn't help but stare at the frozen faces, feeling his lungs constrict with dread…they'd wake up…they'd eat him alive…Finally, he reached a corridor that had a different light in the end. A natural orange one.

Marik ran towards it, excited, only to see that he was in a vaguely familiar, huge round hall. Only now, the reception hall didn't look exactly like he remembered it. Gone were screens hanging on the walls. Gone were the metallic hatched doors. Deteriorated with time, probably. No more teeming, busy people. There was no one there. Now the walls were covered with weird relieves, some strange, glowing…stuff. They were blue, but the torches on the sides of the room gave out a natural yellow colour. Damn. This place looked more medieval now than Marik had remembered it from his past. Marik slowly turned his eyes, until they met with the only occupant of the room, a robed figure with a hooded head. It was probably the nameless `he' that Noa had told him about. His robed figure was like a pillar of purple, bolted to the floor in the middle of the round hall.

“Are you ready for the Initiation?” a raspy voice asked, as though it hadn't been used for long.

“What initiation?” Marik asked, bluntly, making the other turn to him. Marik noticed then, that he was holding a sparkly golden…stick.

“The Gift will be given to you.” The man said, slowly taking the golden distaff in both hands and dragging a palm over one end, unseathing a…knife?!

Okay, this was not good. This was definitely not good.

“What…the heck are you talking about?” Marik took a step back, his eyes fluttering in fear first at the man's broad shoulder and then at the glinting instrument in his hands. The hooded man retorted through a forward step. Then he stopped, suddenly.

“What's wrong with you?” he simply asked, as though aggravated to no end.

“What do you think is wrong with me, with you waving that…thing around like that!?” Marik couldn't even bring himself to say it, fearing that once he'd say the word, his fate would be automatically bonded to that disgusting thing.

“The Millennium Rod is a necessary tool. You know that.” The other said, casually.

“Millennium Rod? What on earth does that mean?” Marik took another step back.

“It is named like that symbolically, to indicate that the Sleepers will remain intact through our line for more than a millennium.” The man patronizingly explained “But then again, you should already know that, shouldn't you?”

“Get away from me.” Marik now started saying, in a raspy voice, his sky blue eyes looking at the man's hooded head as though he believed the person was clinically insane. He took another step back, his eyes flying to all directions. He had backed out into a corridor now. The green glow of the lethargic people's cocoons fell coldly on his face and illuminated his offender.

“Are you playing games with me, 289?” the elder of the two asked, obviously annoyed.

“289? What's that?!” Marik questioned, starting to sound repetitive with all the questions.

“YOUR CLONE NUMBER, THAT'S WHAT!” the other raised his tone of voice, brandishing his knife.

“I AM NOT A CLONE!!!” Marik roared back “I'M MARIK, AND YOU'RE PROBABLY A TERRORIST WHO BURT DOWN THE WHOLE PLACE AND WANTS TO KILL ME NOW!!”

The eldest stopped dead in his tracks. With a graceful move, he reached up and pulled down his cloak, and Marik literally screamed as he watched his own Father stare back at him, eyes strangely mutilated into a weird purple color- probably from his paranoia. He kept brandishing his knife, just like that day…

“AHHHH!!!! Get away from me!!! Not you!!!!” he yelled and made to run away, but the other was faster and stronger, and pulled him to the floor effortlessly.

“Shut your mouth you sniveling brat. Come to think about it, I was never like you. Perhaps it's some sort of memory disorder or something. Maybe a memory anomaly in the system… but no matter. After the initiation, you'll be normal.”

“NO!! NO!! LET ME GO!!! ISIS!!! HELP ME!!” Marik cried, rivers of tears now falling freely from his pretty blue eyes. The man was holding him down by the calf and Marik kept squirming helplessly on the floor in order to get away. The cold, glassy faces of the Sleepers looked like they were sneering at him from their refrigerator beds,

“Shut up.” The eldest said “Whoever you think I am, you're wrong. I'm just you, only thirty years older.”

“LIAR! I'D NEVER LOOK LIKE YOU!!” Marik screamed, his shouts echoing through the dead, silent halls. “NEVER LIKE MY FATHER!!”

“Shut it.” The other said and grabbed Marik by the shoulder, rolling him prostrate. The boy kept crying `I don't want to die!' so the eldest rolled his eyes and pressed his knee on the small of Marik's back to stop him from squirming too much.

“I'm not going to kill you, you idiot. I'm going to correct you. There's obviously some sort of fault in the system” And with that , his Father pushed his hand against his naked back, steadying him.

“NO! NONONONO!!!” Marik cried, preparing for the worst. And it came, in the form of deadly electrocution.

“AHHHHHHH!!!!” he cried, as he felt something connect with the top of his back.

“Coward” the eldest said “No one ever cries so much.” He finished, then made sure he'd carved the first symbol correctly. It wasn't so important what the symbols said, just that the knife was transferring to the boy the sufficient energy for controlling the droid. But through the generations, a traditional tattoo had been made customary. It was the same that had been carved on the reception hall's walls.

“ARGHH!!!” the shouts continued, and so did the squirming, making the whole process even more painful for the young. The cloaked man, annoyed by the commotion, gave his younger self a piece of cloth to bite into while all the symbols were being carved down his- now bloody- back.

One by one, the symbols were carved. In each and every one of them, the eldest gave the sufficient electricity jerk through the rod, in order to make sure the correct frequency was printed on the boy's brainwaves, and they would synchronize with those of the rod, and the droid, of course.

“NOOOOO!!!!” Marik screamed despite the cloth, as he felt the unmistakably deep flash of electrocution hit him. His eyes, wide and unblinking, stared into nothingness, as he felt a beam of light explode in his brain, forcing his thoughts out and filling them with numbers and charts and stars. His head was throbbing, about to explode from overdrive as his torment was prolonged a thousand times in his head. He squeezed his eyes, not wanting to see the cold faces around, staring at him mockingly, even though their eyes were closed.

At a particularly nasty carving, Marik arched his back helplessly, feeling the red liquid roll down his naked body and being inappropriately reminded of someone's red eyes- couldn't remember who's... But it all dissipated as he felt the electricity cover his limbs, destroy his sanity, meddle with his thoughts. Blue eyes were now wide, their pupils dilated so as to cover the entire retina. And the pain continued, and the blood flowed more freely, and his Father was as quiet and as efficiently merciless as he remembered.

The beams of lightning covered his face, his nose, his ears, his entire brain, shooting through it like arrows, trying to destroy it! The god-damn electric knife. And so, in the middle of a green lighted corridor, behold the shut eyes of dozens of sleeping spectators, Marik was finally Initiated, his screams become much more drawn out, much throatier. At the peak of his torture, at the highest of his screams, at the uncontrollable convulsing of his stomach and liver, he raised his sapphire jewel eyes to the ceiling, and then, through the power of his electrical mutilation, they burnt into thunderstorm amethyst- unnatural and inhuman color, which would, from then on, spark thoughts of lightning in his brain.

When it was done, the Father let him collapse to the floor, unspeaking, unmoving. Moments past like centuries, while Marik fought to find his breath, make his heart beat again. Make his eyes stop crying scorched tears, which let out a small spark of electricity when falling to the floor. He felt something cold and soothing on his defiled body, but didn't have the will or stamina to understand what was going on. He felt, but didn't see, gauges wrap around his torso, which hurt to even consider moving. He only had one question burning on his lips now, and it was simple. Why? Why had he been forced to go through this? Why did he have to become one of the screaming monsters in Kuru Eruna, after all? Why..? Just…why?

“You'll need some thing to eat and drink and… and painkillers for your back. We discovered at the early stages that it's better that the Initiation be done before you put something in your stomach. When you feel ready, you know where to find me.” The one responsible for this casually said, and left in the darkness, but Marik didn't understand anything, red rivers now flowing from the new-carved relieves on his back, along with sweat and maybe tears, he didn't know.

Fallen to the floor, panting, completely helpless, he felt something being thrown at him, and realized it was a cloak, dark purple, not unlike the one his `Father' was wearing. Was it really his father? His father would have killed him instantly…But then…there were fates much worse than death. He'd just discovered as much.

After what seemed like years of exhausted pain and comatose slumber, Marik stood up from his lying position, the dark corridors now seeming fuller than he ever wanted them to be. As long as the man who'd done this disgusting mutilation to him wasn't near…it was relatively okay…Even with the Sleepers hovering around him. Were his clones also `Sleepers'? He didn't know.

Over his head went the cloak, and the nearby slippers hosted his trembling feet. He cried then. Long sobs, echoes of a past long forgotten, of life dreams forever lost. Sobs and tears of hunger, need and loneliness tore through him, making him break down and cry. And now this…this needless desecration of his last citadel- his body- the only thing he had left intact, was inflicted on him, seemingly for the satisfaction of his father, who just had to be there still, even though the whole world had changed.

“Have you completed the Initiation process?” Noa asked him, mentioning it as if it was a normal, everyday thing. But then again, what did a computer know of pain?

“It's…'complete'. “ he answered, not bothering to hide his spiteful bitterness. But Noa wouldn't understand his pain. He had no one to share it with, apart from the friendly psycho who had done this to him.

“Then welcome to Kuru Eruna, new Guardian.” The hated words he had heard so many times were repeated once again `Welcome to Kuru Eruna' `Welcome to Kuru Eruna' what was `Kuru Eruna', anyway, some kind of `fun' ski resort meant to be advertised? I=It was a torture hall for experiments- yes, he'd figured it out by now- and it was the disgusting, freaky place that had ruined his life. That and the beautiful woman, who just had to stumble in his path when he was at his weakest.

“Look, I just want to go outside, okay?” Marik said, trying not to cry from the memories. How unloved he truly was…how cursed and alone he had been, all of his life.

“Shouldn't you rest a while first, Master?” Noa asked him, and he turned a full-fledged glare at the computer screen, even though Noa probably wouldn't care. But since it had called him Master, he supposed he had some privilege already, didn't he? OUCH. Oh. Right. He'd momentarily dared to forget about his pained back and now he was being punished for his impudence. By hurting.

“LET. ME. OUT.” He spelled out, his irritation showing dreadfully clearly, measured only near the ache on his back.

“As you wish, then Young Master.” The computer told him, and the doors to what he considered his salvation opened. He expected to see decontamination rooms and elevator platforms, but all he saw was a long corridor, a staircase, and a hatch on the ceiling, which Noa automatically opened for him. Marik walked out, thinking he'd see the sun for the first time since he'd entered that disgusting place.

His back still aching, Marik walked up the stairs and climbed out of the huge platform, only to see that he was surrounded by a new darkness. A constricting darkness all over again. Only this time, there was no Noa to guide him.

“Master” the familiar computerized voice called from its speaker. The eldest guardian of Kuru Eruna looked up at the call. He'd been preparing the meal for his young apprentice, when Noa interrupted him.

“What is it?” he asked, not used to Noa speaking to him on its own accord.

“I think you should be made aware of something. Just to make sure you're comfortable with it.” Noa said, the AI voice unusually evasive.

“Speak up then. What's wrong?” he asked again, now approaching Noa's interactive panel.

“It's the young Master, sire.” Noa answered “He demanded to be let out of the Tomb.”

“What?” the other said in alert, then scowled in annoyance “ What's the big idea with him? What's he doing outside right after the Initiation? Guardian's only exit the Tomb after the first five years.”

“I don't know what's wrong with him, sire. He seems to be increasingly rebliious. I thought it wise you should know of this.” Noa strategically covered up for the fault of letting young Marik leave so freely.

“Show him to me.” The elder demanded, and Noa provided him with a camera view of a small Marik, walking through the halls of the old factory, which was the Tomb's cover.

“Dammit.” The Elder cursed “I knew there was something wrong with him. The Secret is not safe with him. “

The Elder gathered his robes, preparing to go outside. He turned to Noa at the last moment.

“I'm going to get him back. You call Kaiba. Tell him I need him here.” He ordered and then left the room, walking down the halls of Eruna, long robes billowing after him.

“Very Well” Noa's loud voice echoed through the speakers in the empty halls.

“What's your name?” the bald youngster was asking, his warm smile reminding Marik of all the things he couldn't have. Couldn't trust. Not after what the beautiful woman had done to him. “Are you lost?”

“I…I don't know…” Marik started saying, his form trembling with fright at all the fast flying things rushing around and at the thick atmosphere. There were people around him…people with strange arms which had…spikes on them. He was quite sure he'd be torn apart if close to them. But the older boy speaking to him…he didn't have these mutilated forearms. ”Where…am I?” he asked, cowering backwards but getting a fresh jar of pain from his back “OUCH!”

“What?” the tanned bald man with the warm eyes asked “What is it? Are you hurt?”

“ `M….I'm…” but he never got the chance to finish the phrase since he fainted, there, at the middle of the unnatural street, not managing to care if he would die or not.

“You're awake?' a vaguely familiar voice touched his ears, and Marik's eyes slowly started to crack open, letting the warm light crack inside them. He was lying prone on a soft mattress, and his back didn't seem to hurt…yet.

“I…I …” he started, but couldn't find it in him to finish the sentence. His eyes hurt, their newfound colour stinging him. And his back ached horrendously, proving it hadn't all been a nightmare. How could it? The pain was so real.

“I'm Rishid. “ the fairly recognizable bald man said, smiling “And this is my brother, Hubel.”

“Hey there!” Hube's deep voice wrung from his left, and Marik turned painfully to see him. A stong-chinned man with wide shoulders and a strangely shaved head, not much unlike Rishid. Only his arms were covered with the spikes Marik had seen before on the passersby. He was scared of them, but didn't say anything, for fear of insulting kind-looking Hubel. He desperately wanted to ask about them, but held his tongue, for now.

“Are you okay? We did out best with your back, but…wait a second. Are your eyes purple?” Rishid asked, his thick eyebrows raising at the sudden realization. The amulet earring on his ear clinked, reminding Marik of his Egyptian talisman back home. It was a hurtful feeling, yet he loved it.

“Huh?” he suddenly realized what Rishid was asking him “Of course not. They're blue, see?” he asked and brought a finger to pull down his bottom eyelid, displaying his retina in a funny way, for all to see.

The brothers laughed at the grimace he was making and Rishid eventually shook his head.

“III don't think so. I still think your eyes are…lilac.” Rishid concluded, motioning to Hubel for something. Hubel walked out of Marik's peripheral vision, but Marik was already answering Rishid' s question, so he didn't notice.

“You can't make me lilac. That's for girls.” Marik said, remembering Isis showing him all the colours when he was young and also remembering himself remarking that lilac got on his nerves, because it was `too pink'.

“Hahaha!! You're a funny kid.” Rishid remarked, making Marik smile in inhibition, thinking it had been a long time since anyone had talked to him so kindly. But he wasn't going to fall a couple of warm smiles so easily, this time. The last time it had led to his downfall. Now where would it lead?

Hubel handed Rishid a hand-mirror and Rishid presented it to Marik, who stared at his reflection as though it was going to bite him, failing to recognize the long hair and the…yes, purple eyes.

“I'm…I'm…” Marik said in horror, grabbing the mirror from Rishid' s hand and staring at it in utter disbelief “I'm a girl!!!” he shouted, terrified, as though having just seen a two headed monster transform into the tooth fairy.

The brothers laughed over him once more, shaking their heads at him as he painfully moved his hand to twist a long blond lock of hair around his index. “You're not a girl.” Hubel said, patting the boy's head “You're just a funny kid.” He said, and pulled the mirror away from an aghast, wide-eyed Marik.

“So…” Rishid suddenly started, pouring everyone a cup of some hot, unfamiliar stuff “Wanna tell us how it happened?”

Marik sent him a confused look.

“That thing…” Hubel filled in “On your back…”

They'd seen it!! The defiled, disgusting scar!! But of course they'd seen it! How else had they renewed the gauges around it?

“I…I…I'm not..I...” Marik started, but was cut off abruptly by Rishid “You don't have to tell us if you don't want to.” He quickly said, raising both arms in reassurance “It's just that the scars don't heal with any herb or medicine we tried.

`Have you tried skinning my disgraceful back?' Marik wanted to ask, but thought better of it, since it wouldn't do to confuse people who were just trying to help, just because he personally hated everything about himself.

And so, he spent a couple of days lying on Rishid's bed. He didn't know how to read, so he couldn't entertain himself with books. But he spent a good time looking at all the weird things he kept seeing around the house- things he didn't remember existing in his day and age. He asked around and learnt of Hyper-Arms, the spiky things on peoples' arms, which helped with their work in the factories, which he didn't know much about yet. He also discovered the date. Year: 2637. He spent entire days thinking about it, in proportion to his waking up in a blue clone cocoon…but he couldn't find the solution, no matter how hard he tried. The only thing he knew for sure was that something had happened to him in Kuru Eruna. They'd done something to him that he was unable to remember.

Something was wrong. Not with him, but with the world, which had suddenly progressed 600 years since the last time he was awake.

At the third day of his recovery, at night, shouts were heard in Rishid's house, and sounds of death echoed in the night. Marik knew those sounds now. He'd heard them in his own house when he was a baby…now he was hearing them a boy. He tried to deny the fact that he'd always been hearing them, during his stay in Kuru Eruna. Idly, he wondered whether any of the last breaths he'd heard during his stay at Eruna had belonged to the man with the red eyes, whose name he couldn't remember.

.Rishid rushed in Marik's room, trying to move the child out of the house while he still could, but he was too late, since the cloaked men had already broken in.

Marik didn't remember much. Only a pistol aimed at him and a dart hitting his chest. He looked at the anesthetic, then at Rishid, who had a similar one stuck on his back, and then Marik looked at his own hands, seeing them painted red with Rishid's family's blood. The cloaked ones had been looking for him, after all. Rishid's family was innocent…Now they were dead because of his presence in their home.

He was the one who'd killed them. He was just like his father, after all, and if his worst fears were true, he'd look like his father when he grew up as well.

He lost consciousness.

The next time he woke up, he was tied to a bed with chains, which were linked around his waist and in every one of his limbs. The guilt and weight of Rishid's family's death hit him full force, and he started flailing his head right and left in desperation, for once not caring about his hostageg state, but about the people whose lives he was responsible for. He saw a metallic ceiling with green lines, reminding him eerily of the Kuru Eruna he knew in the past. He looked right and saw his friend, Rihsid in a similar position as he, only now deep in slumber.

Another flash of drowning self-hate and guilt drowned him. He was responsible. He was a murderer. Last but not least, Marik saw the robed figure of his purple-cloaked father, his sardonic face hooded and concealed. He had the familiar Rod in his hands, and Marik's flesh became rippled at the mere sight of it. Upon seeing him, Marik started howling in terrible fear, only for his screams to be held back by the gag around his mouth. The gag he hadn't even noticed was there, in his frantic craze.

Upon haring his muffled cries, his Father and the man he was conversing with turned to smirk at him. Marik hated them even more for that.

“Told you about that one.” His father told the other man, laughing mockingly “Screams like a bitch. You should have seen him before; in the Initiation ritual.”

The other smirked “Wouldn't want to damage my eardrums, Ishrat. I'll just leave that to the manipulative pigs who deserve it, like you.”

Very tall and impressive, very young-looking, that other man. He wore a silver trenchcoat: a colour that reminded Marik of glamour almost as much as gold did. High boots adorned the man's calves, leather straps attached over his elbows, on his arms. And overall, the imposing blue gems of his eyes, shining cold and steely dead, utterly emotionless. Marik felt jealous, remembering his own ex-blue eyes, and how they'd now been defiled for all the world to see, unlike his back.

“Watch your tongue, infidel. I want their memory completely erased, d 'you understand? Both of them.” The Father said, and Marik felt his blood run cold, having heard that phrase about memory before, in what seemed like a whole lifetime away.

The man with the brown hair and blue eyes nodded in comprehension “Completely erased, you say? Why not just have them killed?” he asked, and Marik immediately screamed in protest at that, deciding he didn't like this guy at all. At some point, Rishid also started to wake up, and was seen thrashing around wildly when he saw Marik and their surroundings.

“I don't want him completely trashed.” The other answered, shrugging, and Marik found it ironic that the particular man would come to his salvation. “He might be worth something. Who knows? I just want you to erase his memory completely and put him somewhere where we can easily control him. You can do that, right Kaiba?” the Father asked and raised the Rod to Kaiba's eye-level, obviously threatening him with it. Marik thought he would use the knife to hurt Kaiba unless he complied, but the real blackmail reason was far different than that…

“Fine.” Kaiba huffed, imperceptibly flustered “Have it your way. There's a planet where we have many `contacts'. It's isolated. Poor. He'll never get the chance to find out anything over there.” Kaiba finished.

“I want to be able to see what he's doing. At all times.” The cloaked man said, staring thoughtfully beneath his hood at a struggling Marik.

“Very well. We'll install the code inscriptions in a house, connect them to Noa' s main circuit, and there you have it. You'll be able to see though the camera-inscriptions at all times.”

“Oh?” the other asked, unimpressed “And how do you suggest we do that, genius? How will you make sure Marik's going to be in the house you build for him? And where are you going to put the secret inscriptions?”

“Pfft. That's the easiest part.” Kaiba huffed “Honestly. Ishrat. You have to get out more. Don't you know of a little thing called technology, or is that too advanced for the TOMB GUARDIAN?” Kaiba mocked “ Seriously. I'll build the symbols in a cave under the house. As for where Marik goes…I'll take care of it.”

Ishrat eyed him up and down, very suspiciously “How?” he asked.

“I'll use my contacts to make sure your little self gets where he belongs.” Kaiba confidently said, bringing his palm up and studying his nails meticulously, a smug expression on his face.

“Let's not forget who orders who around here, shall we?” Ishtar threatened again. Bringing his Rod back in the discussion. “However” he changed his tone “Maybe you're right about him. We should just kill them and be done with it. This sounds like so much trouble, anyway…seeing as his brainwaves are now adjusted to control you as well, this could prove quite dangerous.”

At this, Marik's ears perked up. Control him? He could control Kaiba?

Kaiba shrugged at Ishrat “I told you it would be easier.”

Ishrat nodded, his hooded head bobbing up and down. “Very well then. I see no reason to hinder any longer. You `take care' of them. I'll make sure another clone- a normal one- takes his place.” And with those words, Ishrat was gone, his suffocating presence finally leaving Marik alone. But now he was stuck on what he'd heard. He could control Kaiba? The same way the scientists in Kuru Eruna said he could `control' that microchip. Maybe he had a chance on saving himself and Rishid, after all.

Marik thought it was worth a shot. Trusting his short experience, he closed his eyes, focusing only on Kaiba's presence and on what he wanted him to do. “Don't kill us. Don't change our memory. Don't kill us, don't change our memory.' He repeated the mantra in his head multiple times. Calling all his willpower to assist him. Suddenly, in front of him, Kaiba jerked and grabbed his head, as though something was hurting him.

Seeing this, Marik intensified his efforts, until finally Kaiba jerked up and stared at him with his arctic eyes. Marik stopped. If the gag wasn't around his mouth, he would've grinned.

Kaiba turned around, raised his hand and started talking through what looked like a watch-walkie-talkie “yeah. Prepare the surgical room. Yeah. Full memory removal. Okay. Uh-huh. I'll take care of it. Done. Over.”

Marik's eyes widened, his brain working overload. Hadn't he just commanded Kaiba not to change their memory? Why wasn't it working?

“NaÃ¯ve child” Kaiba sneered at him as he walked to his bedside “You'd think after all these years, I would have become a genius about how to cheat Ishrat's orders. You see, many a time have the two Master clones disagreed about things, and I've had to choose an alternative. Do you really think I would've fallen for a command as simple as yours? You forbid me to kill you, as Ishrat orders, but I choose the alternative window you left for me. Of course I won'tchange your memory. I'll erase it. All of it. Destroy it completely and pulverize it. And you know the best part? As long as he's not directly involved, Ishrat won't even mind if you live.”

And then he was gone too, and Rishid with Marik were left alone, their gazes locked and alarmed all the same. Marik wanted to say, `I'm sorry; to Rishid, about what had happened to his family, but he never got the chance, before white-clad sterilized people, came to take him to the surgical room, with his miserable cries echoing in the distance.

“Who am I?” he simply asked, lost in a haze of a daydream condition.

“Your name is Marik Ishtar. That's all I know. And that we lost our memory in a hover accident.” The bald man beside him answered, his eyes looking blank and empty, as though something was missing. Marik wandered if his own eyes looked like that as well.

“How do you know?” Marik demanded curiously, dying to know more about everything in this world. But he was dizzy, for some reason, as though his brain had just gone through a frying pan.

“Someone told me before we got on this ship.” The bald man answered from beside him “It's taking us to a refugee planet. Yango, I think, is its name.” He concluded and looked at the distance, out the window of the spaceship.

“Who are you?” Marik simply asked, for lack of anything better to say plus he found this crucial detail missing.

“I'm Rishid. Your servant. I didn't manage to collect more information.”

Marik nodded, not questioning the seemingly all-knowing man. His eyes fell on a pamphlet on a table nearby and he stared at it, unable to understand the strange chicken scratch on it.

“Hey. Rishid” Marik started saying.

“Hmm..” the man answered coolly. Apparently he had been lost deep in his thoughts.

“Will you teach me how to read?”

When they reached Yango, a guide to their `house' was already waiting for them. They were told he'd been informed of the accident and of the fact they didn't remember things, so he led them to what he claimed was their home. Marik didn't understand, but didn't question either. He just accepted things as they came, and followed the guide to a sturdy-looking small house, with light blue fungus outside it's front door..

Rishid was a great tutor, and a great companion as well. Unlike the other kids of his age, Marik was strangely anti-social and inhibited. He stayed at home studying most of the time. He enjoyed playing old-style chess with Rishid. He enjoyed walking down the cool aisles of Virna at night, when the sun didn't burn his head.

He interacted sufficiently with the inhabitants of Yango and the other kids. He didn't go to school with them, since he had Rishid' s private tutoring, but when he did visit the school at daytime, he'd see people staring at him strangely. He thought it was because of his strange eyes, the colour of which he had never seen in any other human. People staring really did get on his nerves.

He discovered the…thing on his back the first time he remembered going to the bathroom. He cried and cried and wailed endlessly about it. He grew hating himself for it, and when, at his adolescent years, he reached the stage of attempting to kill himself because of this mutilation which was stuck in his head, Rishid carved scars on his own face, telling Marik that if the boy thought he was mutilated, then he should die too.

Marik denied frantically, and mourned again for what his arrogant behaviour had forced Rishid to do. He continued being extremely self-conscious about everything -and especially his back- but never again thought he deserved to die because of his body's mutilation. It was their common pledge with Rishid. The man who had become his brother.

Almost every single girl in the vicinity was batting her eyelashes at him by the time he was fifteen and had developed his personal style -kohl, armlets, earrings…the usual Virnian fashion-, but Marik wasn't interested in any of them. Somehow, something kept him back. As though a nameless fear coursed through him at the very thought of human contact, in general. He felt a strange dread when alone in a room with older men, except for Rishid, of course. When judging women, he always preferred the ones with ebony black hair and light blue eyes, but never had any thoughts of being in love with them. These were strange behaviors, not completely adjacent to what his adolescent conduct should have been.

Never one to waste a good offer, however, Marik used this new-found charm to try and get people- especially brainless females- to do what he wanted. Male adolescents of his age often respected him because of his prestige with women or his above average social status. He had a servant and a good house, after all. But most young boys admired him because of his studiousness and fervour about everything he ever did, including his passion with the martial arts and being able to defend himself. With older men he fraternized as little as possible, constantly aware of their strong jaws and hard knuckles. Maybe golden knives were hidden in their clothes, Marik thought for absolutely no reason, whenever he talked to one of them. Maybe they'd rip his back apart. He didn't even know what he was thinking.

Once, he had walked in the garden and noticed a wooden trapdoor aon the floor. He'd followed the crypt to the end, until he reached the hall with the glowing symbols. That's when he first started getting scared of himself, and thinking there was maybe more in his lost memory than what he was being told

Rishid and he talked about it a lot, with Marik making many references to what he'd heard was a medical company in the rich Mercury planet. Marik thought he could find a way to restore his memory there; Rishid urged him to go alone, without him. He wanted eighteen-year-old Marik to become independent.

Marik went for the interview. He hadn't graduated from a serious university, though. He had no experience and no recommendations, and he lived in YANGO, for goodness sakes. But when Kaiba Seto himself came to see him, he immediately approved of hiring him. Marik was perplexed, and immediately knew there was something wrong with him…and that that something had to do with KaibaCorp. Why would Kaiba hire him just by hearing his name and taking a look at him, after all?

He moved to Mercury alone, painfully aware of Rishid' s absence from his life, and started his new career as a scientist wannabe. When walking in KaibaCorp's halls, he felt somehow uncomfortable at seeing all the people with white robes walking around, and he wore his own white coats only when necessary. Under normal circumstances, he despised them, for some reason. Them and those god-damn decontamination rooms.

But he found that, overall, nothing had changed. Women still fell at his feet with him doing absolutely nothing to provoke them, except maybe winking, eye-contact sellers still refused to sell him contacts, saying it would be a shame to hide his `beautiful' eyes, and Kaiba Seto seemed to be following his every move like a vulture preparing for its favorite meal.

Marik was never one to follow the `wild life' even though most of his colleagues assumed he was something akin to a male stripper or a club patron by night. That wasn't true, though. He was just the only person from Yango who had managed to get a job in Mercury, he thought, and his clothing habits drew attention. Contrary to general belief, though, Marik stayed home most nights, either reading a book about memory restoration or entertaining himself with his computer, or just plain slacking off.

It was then, at the nineteenth year of his life, that Marik finally started having what other men normally experienced in early adolescence. Sexual desire. But of course, it was only muffled breathing at the middle of the night, never actually doing something about it. Neither with a woman, nor with his hand. What frustrated him the most, however, was that he couldn't actually understand what it was he saw in his dreams, that he was so dreadfully attracted to.

He saw long legs, overly pale and thin. He saw soft curves, ones that could only belong to a woman; but then, the sight of a masculine chest would confuse him, and visions of his own dark hands fisting in raven black hair absolutely disoriented him.

He knew that what he was afraid of, more than anything, deep down, was a man. His worst nightmares were of a man more powerful that he, hunting him in the dark. How was it, then, that in the midst of his darkest moments, he'd dream again of a man, only reversing everything in his twisted conscious? Making a strangely defined man become the absolute trophy of his desire? Making the fear of the dark reverse to pleasure in the dark?

He really disgusted himself. From the bizarre eyes to the scarred back and the strange complexion.

And that was the end of it

It really was the end of it, since Marik opened his eyes, and realized were he was. Realized what the hell was happening, and why his mind felt ready to implode. He stood up, failing to notice his body was still surrounded by electric shocks, his eyes glowing almost translucent from the Rod's activated power on him. His hair standing on end, his veins popping everywhere around his face. Marik finally knew.

“MARIK!!” Tea was screaming at the top of her lungs and right before his eyes, Marik saw the figure of his own body, preparing to strike a familiar albino down. It was the replacement. The poor replacement of himself. Another clone.

But his clone never made it to hit Bakura, because Marik had pointed the Rod at him and focused all his brain power on it. Two seconds later, the clone started screaming in the Rod- induced pain Marik himself had been going through in what seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Did you know that Ishrat made a dreadful mistake with meeeee?” he called at the man he was torturing, the man who had his face, yet none of his experiences. Marik didn't fully understand what he was doing. He dragged his tongue out and made a crude gesture at the clone.

“Hahahaha….” Marik was laughing, veins popping from his forehead, his chin, everywhere. Bakura was staring at him with disbelieving eyes, but Marik never noticed, too preoccupied with his insane revenge to care. And it would be great…it would be a great revenge. For all of them.

“The thing is…I already had the right brainwaves when he initiated me….I had the prototype's full memory bank….therefore, I already had the right waves. But the Initiation made me more powerful!! More!more!more!!!” He said, making all the occupants of the room, Rare Hunters and not, stare at him in confusion “You know what that made meeee?? Ahahahaaa….” He laughed at the other's horror twisted face. He felt the Rod in his hand, giving him power, making him even stronger.

“That made me…more powerful…than you!!!!!AHAHAHHAHA!” he guffawed as he hit the man with more and more constricting power waves. Not only the clone under him, but Bakura, Dark Yugi, Kaiba and all the other Rare Hunters started screaming as well, grabbing their heads. His power seemed to affecting them too! But Marik was too lost to care. Too much power.

Too many people to kill, so little time.

“Kill you!!!” Marik screamed, completely glad at having this cosmic revolution “Destroy!!! Destroy everything!!!! Destroy Eruna!!! DESTROY THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!”

Serenity, who was the only one unaffected by the commotion, along with Tea, saw everyone hollering in pain and clutching their heads.

“Marik no!! Don't do it!! You're killing our friends!! Marik!!!” the girl yelled, but realized he couldn't hear her. He just continued with his ravings. Then she turned back and saw all her loved ones practically dying, and decided she'd done enough talking for the day. No wait. Enough talking for her whole life. Now was the time to act.

Bracing herself against the electric shock she was sure would follow, she ran with all her might against Marik. It was true that it hurt when her body collided with his electrified one, but at least she managed to knock the Rod away, disorientating him and making him fall.

“Serenity!!” Tea shouted and ran to her friend. Serenity stood up just in time to present the view of a seemingly `burnt-out', fried looking Marik.

“Oh no!! “ Tea anxiously exclaimed ”Marik!!!” and she bent down to caress his face, trying to comfort his tense expression. The protruding veins started disappearing from his body. His pretty hair fell back into its normal feathery halo around his head. His fried clothing, still massive only over his left arm and on his legs, stopped shooting lightning sparks every now and then.

Soon, Bakura was over him, opposite Tea. Uncaring whether he'd get electrocuted or not, Bakura the Heartless reached out and gathered the boy in his arms, turning to look at a hopeful, yet startled Serenity. He nodded at her and turned away with Marik still carried in his arms, and Serenity knew that this was as much of an acceptance, or a thank you, she'd ever get from him. Marik's blond strands flew prettily with each of Bakura's movements, since the tanned boy's head was arched downwards. Bakura pulled one of his friend's arms over his shoulder and set out to carry him away, over the ruins of their fights.

The remnants of Marik's temporary insanity were obvious. The clone on the floor was petrified, unable to move. Yugi seemed to be regaining his consciousness, but Kaiba the weak Rare Hunters didn't revive from the sock for a while, and when they did, they'd just stand still and stare forward, like robots who didn't know what to do. Ishrat the Eldest was still nowhere to be seen, but nobody could bother to care.

Serenity, who now knew of the importance of Bakura to Marik, didn't even bother about asking about Ryou's return, since it was obvious this was not over yet. Their questions had still not been answered. Who was doing this? What did they want? What was this place?

Meanwhile, Bakura led a worn-out Marik into one of the dark alcoves and walked a little further into the darkened corridor. Finally, he stopped and bent towards the side of the hall, sitting against the nearest wall and propping up against it. He held Marik in his embrace wordlessly. Not speaking, not moving, maybe not even breathing loudly so as not to wake him…who knows? Marik wasn't warm this time. He was cold, frozen, electric. Bakura didn't want him to be like this. not Marik, who was always the picture of life in his head.

Until finally, a muffled gasp came, and Bakura felt a mouth latch onto his throat in the darkness. He felt Marik's free hand rise up and swing over his shoulder, and he listened at Marik's now calm, recovered breath. Maybe there were sobs too, but Bakura just held on the other's back carefully, so as not to hurt him, and waited.

“…” Marik didn't speak, just buried his nose there, in the warmth of Bakura's throat. His torn clothes made him cold, but he couldn't care less. Now he felt warmer than ever.

“I'm sorry.” Marik finally said, his voice throaty and deep in Bakura's ears.

“What happened?” the albino just asked in a hushed voice, afraid that if he spoke too loud, he'd scare Marik's newfound heat once again.

“Do you know what it's like,” Marik started , tightening both arms around Bakura's shoulders and allowing his temple to rest on the albino's shoulder “to wake up with memories…and know those memories happened while you were in another body that just looked the same? Some of them happened while you were here…some of them while you were in another body…I'm a clone, Bakura. I was born a…a clone. I have somebody else's memories. I…I'm…fake. I even hate the word `clone'. I can't stand being one of them…”

A long pause. Then Bakura spoke, very slowly and in a whispery voice “I…don't care” he simply said, remembering his torturous flashbacks. In the distance, he could hear their friends talking, shouting and squealing in joy at having made it alive.

“..You say that now…but you haven't seen it. The millions of cubicles with me inside them…the clones…you haven't seen them sleepi-“

“Shhh…” Bakura's finger was now upon his lips, silencing him, and Marik finally let out a breath and calmed down, nodding in the darkness.

Bakura couldn't see Marik's face in the complete darkness -not even the customary sparkle of his eyes. Everything was completely dark and still. The atmosphere thick and murky. Bakura felt the other's arms around him, holding on really tight. He'd maneuvered their bodies so he knew Marik's face and his own were inches apart from each other, even if he couldn't see the flawless features in the dark. He couldn't see in the dark when in Ryou's body, since he was using mortal eyes…but he just knew where Marik was. He could feel it.

“I still don't care.”

At Bakura's words, Marik's hold became even tighter, constricting even, but Bakura didn't mind, because in the darkness, nobody could see his face and read his emotions. The darkness was his friend, and he could manipulate it. He retaliated Marik's tight embrace by holding on the other's waist, pulling him forward gently, while leaning in, trying to breathe through the pounding of his heart. The air he was breathing was suffocating- warm. The space around was tight. He felt he couldn't breathe in Marik's embrace, the smell of what he thought was soil and lightning was attacking his senses, blinding him, drenching him in its mystical odour.

“You really are Nehti…aren't you?” Marik asked, the darkness of his eyelids covering the darkness of his vision. Bakura understood what Marik had said not because he was paying attention, but because the exhalations were breathed directly in his mouth.

“I… don't care…” Bakura stubbornly repeated in a much deeper tone, and leaned even further in, wetting his lips with his tongue eagerly.

For one millisecond, the heat became unbearable- so strong, that he knew when this was over, he'd never want to return to the cold again. Marik's fire was scorching him form the inside out. Unable to take the pressure of this suffocating heat, Bakura finished the movement of his scoop, finally reaching the core, where wetness and heat became one, and the taste of nothing he'd ever tasted attacked his senses. That, coupled with the scent, was enough to drive him crazy.

Crazy for more, Bakura dragged his hands up softly over Marik's half-exposed back and to cup his unnaturally handsome face, pulling it closer still. More wetness; more warmth. Bakura followed his natural reflex, thrusting deeper in the warmth, wanting to go deeper, deeper, to dominate the wet cave completely, to fill it with his own essence. The lack of resistance made his stone heart swell with the happiness of acceptance.

He felt Marik split his lips only slightly, and didn't even wait for a better invitation to push his tongue through the slit, opening Marik's lips with his own. Teeth clashing together now. Tongues twirling around one another. Mouths sucking each other greedily, intending to swallow down as much as possible. Bakura opened his eyes, not wishing to lose one moment of it, begging all his borrowed senses to participate, now that they still could.

The kiss went slow, their tongues carefully caressing one another, finding frenzied passion in prolonging their desire. Bakura fleetingly remembered what Ryou often thought about kissing Serenity, and how -sweet- Ryou always said `Serena' tasted. Well, Bakura thought, Marik didn't taste at all sweet. He didn't taste bitter either. He didn't have the taste of a simple food. He tasted like Marik -not food- and he smelled like Marik -not flowers. It was a man, and he smelled like power and mist and tears and heat. He smelled like Marik.

Oh…and his moans sounded like the growls of an excited wolf, growing more feverish with each moment. Bakura was kissing Marik. Kissing the long-craved lips. The mere mental sight of those juicy tissues was enough to make Bakura thrust violently against the other's mouth, this time not bothering about teasing but caring more about taking. Taking the heat, the wetness for himself. Bringing so much of his passion in Marik's mouth that he felt saliva escaping down their chins.

Bakura felt fingers fisting in his hair and he let all urges break loose, relinquishing control over his teeth and proceeding to bite and suck into his pliant victim as much as he could. Marik didn't even dream of protesting, feeling the albino's mouth slip over to his throat, sucking at it hungrily, just like a starving vulture. Marik let his mouth drop open, freeing a series of heated gasps and pants; his eyes rolled back and closed in bliss just as he tugged on Bakura's hair roughly enough to hurt.

But Bakura naturally didn't care about pain, only about heat and life- the life of the jugular pulsing under his lips.

Unable to stop it, and unthinking of any possible consequence, he opened his mouth and bit down, his teeth sinking deep, bringing too much pain, so much, that it became pleasure. Marik howled, his back arching uncontrollably, his fingers burying in Bakura's hair and pulling at them in animalistic need, feeling the smudged cherry mouth of the albino suck and suck and take everything from him at once. Bakura's arms around his aching back hurt, but the pleasure was enough to surpass any other feeling. Blonde locks flying in all directions, Marik's head lolled up and down, his mouth wide open and moaning wantonly as Bakura lapped at every single ounce of skin- his throat, his shoulder, his collarbone. And then, back to his mouth, starting a kiss much more brutal and passionate than the one before. Again their saliva mixed in their mouths, again the friction of their bodies brought fevered moans to their kiss. Marik was lost- lost in pleasure that he'd never believed possible before.

“I want you” Bakura growled roughly, after the wet sound of their lips parting. He yanked thoughtlessly at the other boy, suddenly landing them on an opposite position: Marik's back glued to the wall, long, tanned thighs squeezing between them the albino's hips. Lips wide open and gasping frantically, as Bakura's hand roved every bit of skin it could reach.

“Well, well, well…what do we have here?” An alien voice suddenly sounded, and both of them stilled their movements in a second, literally caught in the act. But in the darkness, they couldn't see who had spoken and could only hear the bemused silent sniggers. “Didn't I say you were a bitch the day I first met you? Your general anomaly obviously extends to this level as well…” and there was more laughing, and Marik suddenly realized who the speaker in the darkness was, and unconsciously squeezed Bakura against him as tightly as he could, probably trying to conceal himself and not let show the shoulder that had been exposed, or the bite-marks on his neck, fearing, somehow, that now he'd be punished for it.

“And…oh dear….tsk tsk tsk. Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is our favorite boy on the floor? And with a man no less…but Nehti?!” the man continued, enjoying the torture.

Bakura growled at that, earning new hordes of laughter. Marik cowered behind his silver-haired lover, fighting to keep the newfound memories out of his head. Trying not to let the sadistic laughter echo in his mind.

“Father…” he simply said, drawing a confused Bakura's attention. The man in the darkness clicked his tongue in annoyance and raised a light-chip, igniting it and making pure white light glow all over them, revealing Bakura and Marik's suggestive pose for all the world to see, including their bruised lips. The light revealed, however the cloaked man's face as well, bringing his grey-blond beard to the light, and the familiar- yet-foreign lavender eyes in common view.

“How many times must I tell you, boy?” he asked, clearly agitated “I'm not your father. I'm just yourself, only thirty years older.”

“I know.” Marik simply said, fisting his hands in Bakura's shirt and pulling him closer with trembling shoulders, making the albino finally understand the extent of fear that Marik felt about this Ishrat man. The albino narrowed his eyes, unable to understand why Marik was so afraid of this punk, all of a sudden.

“That's why I hate you more.” Marik concluded, making Ishrat smile in homicidal satisfaction.

“You should” he answered “Because no one can be allowed to be so special so as to get the original's memory. Why do you get to be special, and not me? What do you have that makes you capable to leave the Tomb as though it means nothing to you?”

Marik shivered in Bakura's arms and the spirit glared at Ishrat while hugging Marik close, hiding the blond's miserable apparel beneath his strong shoulders.

The old man's eyes narrowed even more at this display “Why do you, such a coward, get to have someone to be with, while we just live and die here, alone? You're just another one of us! Another clone! Why do you get to be number 289 and not me? What have you got more than I do?” the man demanded and approached the entangled couple on the floor.

“You better be afraid of me, Marik…Because I'll do my best to be worse than your father” the man said, and Marik realized the one he feared was probably himself, not his father. He was afraid of what he was, what he could grow into…Afraid of the torture he had put himself though and what he'd done to Rishid's family…Afraid of this heartless man who cared for nothing except himself, and who willingly put his younger self though a torture no child should have to endure.

“Bakura…” Marik started saying, trying not to sound to much like a frightened little girl. But Bakura didn't `seem to mind, since he held Marik tight in his embrace and glared at the Reaper above them.

The battle had only just begun.

WhOA! This, my friends, is HUGE, not only in size, but in importance as well. Mar and Kura in love? Kura protecting Marik? Marik: the clone?! What is this, anime crossovers? Man, I must be on serious drugs to be writing this stuff.

I'm telling you, I think this chap is pretty dark. Lots of bleeding, screaming and salivating (for various reasons)

Please, guys, write me a review. This thing is the biggest chap I've ever written, and I'm exhausted. Please tell me: was it worth it? Could it have been better? Do I suck in smut scenes? (I think I do…)Do I use the words `terror' and `scream' too much (just kiddin)? Gimme your honest opinion. Did you like this? I'm not sure I do, that's why I wanna know what the majority thinks. Please, I'm begging you here. Tell me if this (forty-four page) thing is worth it.

OKAY. ON TO THE REVIEW ANSWERS.

Anubia: Thankyou sososososo much!!! I'm so sorry I never got to answer last time, and it was really rude for some great reviewers (like you ^___^) but I swear I was SO tired, I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I just answered some reviews and just put the names for others! This time I'm answerin' though, so bring it on!!!! Did you like this chap? Was it too dark? Was it inconsistent with the rest of the story? Ahh…forget about it. I hope you solved the mystery on whether Marik is a clone or a brother!! I promise you, in the next fun-filled chappy, more answers will be solved!!! YEEEEHAHH!! I'm SO GLAD YOU LIKE THIS!!

V son sayian: I'm so glad you like it! You know you're a great reviewer, who has very objective views? You liking my story is like getting the personal achievement I'm looking for! I'm so happy you're actually sticking with this!!! I must admit, I'm always kind of worried with this story, that if take one wrong step, the plot will deteriorate. And truth is, let's face it, I really suck at smut scenes and my writing isn't that advanced, so there's nothing there to draw the reader, except for a good plot!! I'm really happy you like it!!! I'll do my best for you!!

Lily Of the Shadow: I know what you mean. Sometimes, I just think of where this story began and were it has taken us…I think that in the beginning, the characters were all so different than what they are now…I am proud of this story, both because finishing it will give me a sense of personal accomplishment and because I want people to read fanfiction and be able to appreciate it for what it is. You know, many people read fanfiction with a mentality of `it's just FANfiction, it's nothing SERIOUS, after all' but I disagree. I think it's great that all these people want to be so creative with something they like. And when I say I want to see readers appreciate fiction, I mean that I wish less people would focus on soap-opera love stories brought to fanfiction and more people would appreciate the serious stories, the ones with a plot, a meaning to exist, apart from: “MALIK IS SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!” Ya know?

Raptorous Voice: I hope you're happy with my fast update ^_^ I wanted to surprise you all this time!!! I hope you like this!

Aseria: I know, right? I was dead for months, but now I'm up and about again. Posting here, posting there…getting a brain overload here, frying my braincells there…I'm telling you, this `major plot' thing is a real headache. How am I supposed to make it WORK!!??! Ahh…but that's the beauty of it, isn't it? The angst…the passion for the story…the passion for Kura…OKAY. Gotta stop here!! CYA!!

Pihorist: Is this your new name, Uber Rei model? I'm sorry if you're someone else, but it just sounds so much like Uber Rei…I'm so happy you don't hate me!! I was so worried ppl would stop reviewing because of my update delay!!!! I'm so glad!!!!!!!!!!! I love you too!!!

Anime-Fan-Meepa: HEY!! I'm so glad you're here!! I know the plot is really confusing. Really, only my brain knows how I manage…(shakes head) BUT, the Kura/Marik moment was worth it, at least for me!! Well, I'm not revealing to you if Baku gets a bod or not (I'm sure if he will, it will be HOT), but I can safely say I have thought about the SCAR, and…I am still thinking bout it. I thought this chap was sad (apart from gory) even at the smut moment…I don't know. All the time I kept thinking `what has Marik gone through, what has Marik been through' poor kid, that's all I can say. Poor me for inventing such a dark chapter- imagine what goes on in my brain while I'm sleeping. Urgh. Can't watch (covers eyes) too much blood! Too much sick gore!! Too much Marik/Bak action!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! Seriously, though. I think this chapter was good. Even though there must be many typos, I really worked my ass off for it. I'm sure the plot is now jangled up, but it's gonna clear up. Writing about the Mar-Bak-Seren- Ryou love puzzle…omg, what a mess. Poor Marik and Bakura, who want to be together but can't…poor everybody! Oh, hey, Anime-fan, please tell me which part of the chap you liked the most and if the smutt scene was good!! I really want to know what you think about it!! Ok, until next time!! ^_____^

Gelap Gelta: Omg! You woke up at 6 in the morning to read my story!!!!!!? This makes me a happy gal for the rest of my life, I hope you realize. What can I say about the HUMUNGOUS review? Where do I start?! I'd think a normal THANK YOU would be enough, but it's not even near compensation for how happy you make me. Here you go (gives Gelta a life-size Kura doll, complete with fangs and red-eyes and hot abs and all…)…Oh! But not even THAT is enough!! Oh well. LUV YA LUV YA LUV YA LUV YA….ooookay, now I'm getting dizzy from all the `l's and the `v's…Okay, so listen up. When I say `Marik' I mean, Marik, the hikari. Yami Marik appears in this story only one time. You just read it in this chapter. Yami Marik appeared when Marik was screaming `DESTROY DESTROY KILL' etc…That was Yami Marik, but I didn't say “Yami Marik” because it doesn't stick with the plot of this story. Let's just assume Marik got a little wacky for a second there…but hten Kura kissed him and everything was fine. In case you didn't read it at the top of the page, I'm telling you now: Nehti is just a name I use for Bakura in this fic. I'll explain why in later chapters…This is definitely not self-insertion. I just chose my penname to be `Nehti' because I liked it a lot! Don't be confused tho. When I say Nehti in the fic, I mean Bakura. You'll see why!! There are probably loads of typos in this chap, but I'm so tired to recheck AGAIN. I hope there aren't too many. Oh! I just thought of a way to compensate for your great review! I wrote you this chapter, because you're going on vacation and I wanted you to enjoy it!! I hope you have a great time!!!! Ok, CU next time!!! Hugs and kisses!! WAAAAIIIII!!! ^_____^