Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Seto Kaiba's Perfect Match ❯ Marik's Plot ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Yugi and the group caught up with me as I was leaving KaibaCorp's office building.
"Hey there, Robin," Yugi said as he caught up to me. "How'd it go?"
"Went all right," I said, unable to keep my face from glowing incandescently.
"You were in there awhile," Joey said, a teasing grin on his face. "Can't help but wonder what you were up to---"
"Oh, hush, you pervert, all of it was G-rated," I interjected, laughing a little as I spoke. "Not that my imagination didn't go places it shouldn't, however."
"So, what happened?" Tea asked. "What was the 'matter he had to discuss with you?'"
"Ah, it was just about what I had said in our duel," I said evasively. Seto and I had agreed to keep our conversation private, and I wasn't one to break promises. We had discussed such tender and soul-baring issues; it wasn't surprising that I then found myself mentally referring to him by his first name.
"You mean you won't tell us anything else?" Tristan asked, giving me a pleading look.
"Nope. All else is confidential," I said, but with a mysterious wink.
"Dang it!!!" Joey cried in frustration. "You really know how to screw with a guy's mind, don't you?" I laughed at his outburst, and shook my head pityingly.
"And you know how to make an ass of yourself," I joked with him. "We just agreed to keep the events of our meeting between us."
"Uh-huh. I see," Tea said, giving me a knowing look. She leaned over and whispered loudly to the group, "Must have done a little sumpin'-sumpin'."
I rolled my eyes in mock disgust. "God, you guys are perverted, you know that?" Then I gestured down the street. "Should we cruise around a little more, see if there are any more duelists?"
"Sure," they all agreed, and we headed off to find more challenges.

Night crept over Domino City slowly and surely, and the last fading golden beams of afternoon light blended gently into a violet darkness. "Well, I guess I'll see y'all tomorrow," I said, yawning a little as I said it. Tristan, Tea, and Joey nodded agreement and walked off.
"Sure thing," Yugi said, and unexpectedly reached out for me as I turned to leave. "Hey, Robin, wait just a second."
I turned back to him. "What?"
"I just, um----I just wanted to say that I hope something between you and Kaiba works out. You two seem----I don't know if I'm just crazy or what, but you seem perfectly matched to each other." He smiled shyly, and I grinned.
"I hope so, too, Yugi. Maybe I'll be the person who melts that frozen heart of his."
"I'll cross my fingers." Yugi turned away from me slightly, indicating he was about to leave. "See ya tomorrow."
"See ya," I said brightly, and turned to head back to the hotel for some good rest. So much had happened that day that I was pretty much mentally and physically exhausted. However, sleep wasn't going to come until much later, as I found out shortly.

A male voice, of quite a brassy and needle-like tambre, stopped me in my tracks.
"Well, who might you be, hmm?"
I looked about me quickly, but saw no one. The voice seemed to emanate from the shadows of one of the dark alleyways, but I knew better than to follow it.
"Ha ha ha," the voice said. "I see you're afraid of me. That's good. Very good, in fact." A figure stepped from the shadows on my right fluidly. Instead of gasping in fear, I nodded in knowledge.
"Marik," I said reluctantly.
"Ah, so you know me," Marik said. "Glad to see that my reputation precedes me." Dressed as he was in the dark purple robes that were the traditional garb of the Rare Hunters, I could have recognized him anywhere. A thin tendril of pale-colored hair fell from underneath his hood, and showed up bright white in the moonlight as he moved closer to me.
"I believe you're the young woman who beat Seto Kaiba, aren't you?" His voice became smoother, as if he were trying to lull me into relaxing.
"Yes, I am," I said, admittedly trembling a little. How much did Marik know about me? How long had he been watching me? These questions ran circles in my mind.
"You must be quite a duelist," he said. His attempt at trying to flatter me didn't work to relax me. "Worthy enough for me to duel you, to see exactly how good you are. Care to try your luck against me?"
"Uh, no thanks," I said, attempting to back away. "I'm sure you'd just defeat me and make me another victim of your Millennium Rod, and I'm not exactly in the mood to be a mind-slave."
"You seem to need some incentive," Marik said, and he snapped his fingers. A floodlight lit up the alleyway from whence he came, and he gestured for me to look. "I think I have just the thing." When I saw what his "incentive" was, my eyes flew wide open in shock.
"Seto! Oh, Seto, are you all right?" Marik's smile grew more insane by the second, shadowed slightly by his hood. He mimicked me cruelly.
"Oh, Kaiba, your girlfriend's calling," he said in a singsong voice. "Too bad you can't free yourself to get to her." Marik had Seto trussed up like Christ on the cross, fastened firmly to what appeared to be a steel wall of some sort. He apparently was unconscious, his face unusually calm and serene.
I bit my bottom lip in quiet anger. "OK, this is total BS," I said to Marik, my voice conveying utter loathing. "You just love manipulating people, don't you? You are so gay it's not even funny." My eyes cooled and stared, burning into Marik fiercely. "Why do you enjoy hurting others? Especially----" My voice shuddered and cracked under my emotional tension, and Marik laughed.
"You think I'm being cruel, don't you? Well, it's about to get better." He gestured to where Seto was imprisoned. "If you don't agree to this duel, then you're never going to see him again. You see, I took a page from history, and set up my version of my favorite torture device----the rack. Your precious Kaiba is on it right now."
He showed me a remote control and grinned evilly. "At just a push of a button, I can pull him apart, slowly, painfully----" He paused, then added, "and you get to watch." He grinned evilly as he said it.
"You son of a bitch," I said, through clenched teeth. Marik had the gall to endanger Seto just so I would duel him? Although I knew this was typical of Marik, I still couldn't understand what would drive someone to be this dominating and cruel.
"All right, I'll duel you," I said, sighing. If I had to endanger my own life and mind, I was glad it was for a good cause, at least. I looked to my right, over my shoulder a bit, and gazed at Seto as I thought this.
"Don't think you can save him so easily," Marik said as we stepped into position. "I'll make sure you lose."
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you," I said curtly. My eyes showed my resolution to win, and Marik smiled.
"Such a strong little girl, aren't you? I will quite enjoy seeing you lose your love because of your inferiority to me," he said with an evil laugh.
I was irritated enough as it was, and his constant putdowns added to my ire. "So, aren't you ready to duel yet?" I asked impatiently, gesturing to his duel disc, which wasn't activated yet.
"Oh, it isn't that type of duel at all, my dear," Marik said, and he pulled back his hood to reveal his face. "This is a duel of souls, where your soul's power and mine are pitted against each other in the Shadow Realm----fitting, isn't it, since your mind will soon be locked away there and Kaiba will soon be gone from this world permanently." His face, fully revealed now, held the most evil look I had ever seen, and his lavender eyes showed no emotion within them but hatred.
Marik's Millennium Rod began to glow with a golden-white light, and a blue-black darkness began to surround us slowly. I looked about in fear, unsure of what I was doing and scared of what would happen if I lost.
"Scared already?" Marik taunted. "Maybe you should give up right now, spare yourself some pain. Of course, it wouldn't be as fun for me, since I enjoy seeing my victims writhe in psychological torment like doomed fish on a hook." He punctuated his sentence with evil laughter, and I shuddered.
The Shadow Realm's darkness had by then enclosed us fully, and I breathed deeply, steeling myself for whatever came. In this atmosphere, I felt energy, fluid, mobile, and charged, coming from everywhere. I looked down at my hand and saw a brilliant blue glow beginning to surround my hand, and I knew this was my aura----I had seen it before.
I looked across to Marik and saw his aura as well----a dark, muddy red that seemed to ooze hatred, and started the warning bells ringing in my mind. Unfortunately, I've never been able to hide my emotions very well, and my fear read plainly on my face. Marik took advantage of this.
"Look at you, you frightened little girl. I don't think you realized just what you were up against, did you?" He waved his Millennium Rod to illustrate his point. "I already control powers far greater than you ever will, and I aim to attain supreme power. Once I get rid of you, I get rid of Kaiba, and then I'll have access to Obelisk the Tormentor, which Kaiba has in his possession. Not for long, though," he said, caressing his Millennium item lovingly. "I'll have him and you out of my way soon, and then I will be that much closer to gaining the power of the pharaoh." He breathed the last words of his statement in a voice that conveyed an utter lust for power.
His aura intensified, becoming brighter and brighter shades of red by the second, and he raised his Millennium Rod. "Weaken her mental defenses! Shatter her, rod!" The auric energy around him was fire-engine red by this time, and somehow, using the power of his item, he fired it at me powerfully. I tried to brace for it, but somehow couldn't, and the impact wracked me to the spirit. I cried out in spiritual pain; Marik could only stand there and smile devilishly.
"This is proving to be easier than I thought," he said confidently, and I watched in horror as he began to power himself up again.
"I have to find a way to do whatever he's doing and intensify my own auric energy," I thought desperately to myself. I searched my knowledge frantically, but was not successful.
"Shatter her!" Marik cried shrilly, and his power hit me again, full force, before I could even think. For a few seconds, all I knew was soul-shaking pain and torment before I came back to my senses.
"God, you're a disappointment," Marik said disapprovingly. "Not even fighting me back? That's not what I expected." I was getting more and more pissed off, most obviously because he kept insulting me, but also because I couldn't seem to find a way to strengthen my own power. I growled in frustration.
"Damn it, Marik, you crackhead, what the hell is the matter with you?" I cried angrily, seemingly at my wit's end. "You scare the shit out of me by coming out of the darkness in all your Millennium Rod glory, basically force me into a duel by taking advantage of my emotions towards Seto, and then keep trying to beat me down with your little dumb-ass comments? Well, let me tell you something, you power-hungry pharaoh wannabe," I spat bitterly, "you are not worthy of the power of the pharaoh, and I don't care how much you know about it; just because you know a lot about it doesn't entitle you to rule the world. If your sorry ass ruled the world," I said, gaining strength from my tirade, "we'd all be in deep shit, let me tell you. You are not a leader----you are a dictator, and those, my dear Marik, are two very different kinds of people."
I let out a frustrated sigh and looked down at myself, only then to notice that my aura was glowing just as brightly as Marik's had before he fired his energy at me. I held up my right hand and watched my brilliant blue auric energy collect in the depression of my palm, and smiled deviously.
"I think you're in trouble, Marik," I said, mimicking his singsong tone of a few minutes before. "Recognize this?" I focused on the ball of energy in my hand, and it was his turn to look horrified as the ball grew bigger and brighter until it covered my whole hand. I pointed my hand at him. "Shatter him!" I cried, and my energy fired and hit my target squarely, catching Marik completely off-guard and making a direct hit. He shuddered under its force, and it left him speechless for a few seconds.
"How---how did you know---how to do that?" he finally managed to gasp out, bent over at the waist, his hands on his bent knees for balance. "You----you weren't supposed to know how to battle me."
"Let's say I'm a quick learner," I said, and smiled. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw Seto, still imprisoned, and noticed that a faint indigo glow surrounded him. Realizing I was seeing his aura, I smiled. "The color suits him well," I thought to myself, lost for a moment in my own mental world. I had completely disregarded the impending threat of another of Marik's attacks until I heard his brassy voice cry out again, disturbing my inner peace.
"Shatter her! Lock her away in the Shadow Realm!"
I had no time to think to do any kind of complicated maneuver, and I shut my eyes tightly, knowing the pain I was going to face was going to be even more than the last time. But, to my surprise, none came. I opened my eyes and looked around. Marik looked just as bewildered as I did.
"What? How are you still standing there?" He looked at his Millennium Rod in confusion, turning it over in his hands----I suppose he was checking to see if it had malfunctioned or something. I felt strangely stronger than ever, and looked down at my hands only to gasp.
My aura----my personal energy----was actually absorbing Marik's energy. I could see a faint red tinge blending into the bright blue of my energy, and the light around me glimmered more brilliantly as a result.
"How did you do that?" Marik asked me frantically, his shock heightening the pitch of his voice as he spoke.
"I----I don't know," I responded honestly. Marik's blast of energy had hit me right as I was thinking proverbial "happy thoughts"----about Seto, of course. Perhaps my devotion to Seto somehow provided a shield or a way of absorbing any power directed at me? Whatever the case, the energy around me now radiated out from me strongly, and I smiled a confident smile.
"I think I found the way to defeat you, didn't I?" I said with strength in my voice. "Judging from your face, I think I wasn't supposed to be able to do this, but I can." I looked down at my hand and focused my energy in the palm like I had done before.
"Anger apparently powers it up---"
Then I looked across to him and grinned. "And I can even use your own power against you by absorbing whatever is thrown at me." The blue ball of energy that had been in my hand was by then encompassing my whole hand and half of my forearm.
"What do you think, Marik?" I said, looking at him, challenging him with my eyes. "Since you know so much about this energy, does this look like enough of a blast to kick your ass?" He didn't have to answer----the horrified look in his lavender eyes told me easily.
I looked up and faced him resolutely and calmly, aiming my newfound power directly at him.
"Shatter him."
The blue energy grew in size slightly, then intensified to blinding brightness and fired from my hand.
"N-no! You can't! I can't---" Marik's voice was cut off sharply as the burst of energy hit him full force, and oddly enough, he disappeared, shimmering out of existence in a light sprinkling of glittery sparks. The Shadow Realm slowly dissolved around me, and I was left on the street where I had been before. I looked around, getting my bearings for a second.
"God, he really is gone," I thought, seeing where Marik had been only seconds before. I turned to look down the alley, and saw to my surprise (and delight, of course) that Seto had been freed, and was coming around! He now lay on his back, on the pavement of the alleyway. Of course, I practically flew to his side to make sure he was okay.
"Are you all right?" I asked worriedly.
"Yeah" His eyes were a little glassy. "Robin? What---how did I get here?" He blinked and looked around, looking as if he were trying to process everything. "Who were you fighting just now?" He rubbed his eyes and stared up at me inquisitively.
"Don't worry about it----I'm just glad you're all right," I said, and offered a hand. "Need any help getting up?"
"No, I'm fine," Seto said, rising from his position and standing up. He was still as independent as ever, and it was good to see it. "I only remember a little from your fight with whoever that was---I remember you looking at me so strangely." He had evidently seen my look just before I realized how to beat Marik. My eyes had been full of love then, but I just smiled mysteriously.
"I'm glad I was able to free you," I said. "It was kinda freaky there for a minute, but it worked out."
"Thanks," he said simply, and I could tell it was genuine. He stared at me for a second.
"You're probably going home right now, aren't you?" His question had a tinge of shyness to it.
"Yes, I suppose I am," I replied honestly. "My 'home' right now is a hotel room, but it serves the purpose for the time I'm in the Battle City tournament." I wanted to add "However, I could come over to your place and, ahem, play a bit," but I reined in my carnal urges and instead smiled at him, my eyes twinkling.
"If you'd like, I have some guest rooms in my mansion that you could stay in." Seto seemed to be uncharacteristically nervous as he said this.
"I wonder if he's thinking what I was thinking a second ago?" I thought to myself. "If he is, he's a bad boy---he'll need to be spanked for that." I couldn't help but let my naughty laugh slip out, eliciting a strange look from him.
"Do you always laugh like that, Robin?" he asked, piercing into my soul with those twin sapphires of his. "It doesn't seem to fit your personality; you seem to be brighter and more cheerful. Your laugh seems to hint at a darker side."
"Wouldn't he like to know my darker side," I thought to myself, doing a mental tiger growl as I thought it.
"Oh, I don't know," I said breezily in response to his question. "I suppose all of us have a dark side." I decided to do away with some pretense and instead outright flirted with Seto by winking at him. Whether he caught my subtle double entendre or not would remain to be seen, but he blushed in response to my wink.
Just then I remembered about his earlier offer. "Oh, and by the way, about your gracious offer of one of your guest rooms----I believe I'll take you up on that," I said brightly. "You're awfully kind to even offer, so thank you in advance."
"You're welcome," he said softly, and, since the Kaiba mansion was only just a little ways up the street, we walked there----together.