Next chapter. Thanks to everyone who told me to… ok, so I'm not gonna reveal the plot just yet. But… read on and you shall see!

All disclaimer stuff… see chapter one.

There was silence for a moment, as I fingered the dagger, feeling its sharp edge close against my finger tips.

For a moment… for a moment, I considered it. I considered killing him. Then I discarded the thought as evil, something that should never even be thought let alone carried out.

I thought about what I was going to say for several seconds, before I finally responded to what I had been told to do.

"I am sorry you had to lower yourself to this level before you believed me to be free. I am sorry you thought I would kill you. And… and I am sorry that you thought I could kill you.

"You have been cruel to me, tormenting me, every day for the last one hundred and fourteen days. But… what doesn't break you makes you stronger. It makes you better able to cope with the rest of your life."

I felt his amazement through our link. He was amazed that I had kept count. He shouldn't be. Who wouldn't keep count of the days of torture? The days… I know the exact moment he appeared, the exact moment this terrible nightmare all began…

Of course I know.

I place the knife gently on the floor, then dropped onto the floor in front of my Yami. He still hadn't climbed to his feet, or even looked up.

I place my fingers under his chin. "I don't want to kill you. I never would kill you. You should know that. You would, if you even tried to talk to me, just… sit down and listen to me, talk to me properly."

He looked up. I almost cried at the look in his eyes. It was just… he just looked so terribly, terribly lost. I suddenly realised just how far he was from his home. From the ones he loved. Every single one of them was dead.

"I'm sorry, Bakura-sama. I… I'm sorry."

He laughed bitterly. "No. Never say you're sorry. Never say you forgive. Never let someone go once they bow their head to you. If they ask you to kill them… kill them."

I picked up the knife again. He was starting to scare me. I thought he might decide that, as I was no longer going to kill him, he would do it himself. "Don't… don't talk like that." I stammered, my voice almost squeaking. I forced it to stay reasonably normal. Yugi-tachi would have noticed, but Bakura had no idea of what I even sounded like.

"Like what? You don't like it? Well, you should learn to like it. Because that's how the real world will think, and talk."

"No. They won't. I won't let them." I shook my head defiantly, and threw the knife into a corner of the room, where Bakura could get it later if he wanted to get it.

"Life is dangerous, you fool! Listen to me, because I'm the only person who will ever take the time to tell you how damn awful life can be." He jumped to his feet, raising his hand to hit me.

I lurched backwards, trying to stay away from him. Oh, I'm not that stupid.

He pauses, looks at me in a strange way, then drops his hand. I think he forgot that he asked me to forgive him, forgot that he promised not to hurt me. He has a bad memory for promises. A week or so ago, he promised me that he would pay for food – I think he took notice then that I have eaten so little. He forgot that promise. I should know him by now – he never remembers anything that might be to my benefit. Whether deliberately or not, I don't know.

He's like that. Even when he's not trying to be cruel, he still is.

I don't know what I can do to help him.

I don't know what I can do to help myself.