A/n; Okay... I so don't deserve this after leaving this ficcie on hiatus for like six months, but I need everyone who's still reading to review this. If I don't get enough, I may decide to just leave this story and not ever come back to it.

I know I said I'd never do that first, but this final year in school full of tests is taking most of my time, as well as the stress of not having money for college and trying to improve my art enough to sell so I can raise money in comissions to go. And on top of that I fell in love with 5D's and haven't had any contact with the original series for like five months. U___U; So please review- or if you can't remember what's going on and need time to read over, send me a PM just to let me know you're still here and interested by all means. But I'd prefer if you reviewed, I need to know whether my style of writing has changed at all over the time.

This chapter concludes the duel and the mystery of what happened to Bakura, but is only part one as I wanted to get this up as soon as I finished to let you all know I haven't forgotten it. Part two will be... the start of the finals, as well as a nice little fanservice scene of which I will reveal when the time comes...well, whenever I get time to write it. D:

So without further ado.. enjoy your continued thiefshipping. ^____^ Seiri is back, and better than ever. OTL AT LEAST I HOPE ANYWAYS ;A;

Disclaimer; I barely own my health any more lately, let alone Yugioh. *is currently sick for about the seventh time in four months* Also, I disclaim the ability to make the chapter name line stay centred for some reason. D: *kicks Edit system*

Chapter 16- The end and the beginning, part 1

As soon as Joey had disappeared from sight, his shadow soaring into the dark abyss Marik sat up and a wave of water slid down his midriff.

The shiver that ensued had nothing to do with the unpleasant chill that numbed his body, it was something emotionally appealing. Something he'd never ever experienced before.

"Namu! Namu!" People were shouting, and without caring in the slightest what happened to him after, he snatched a glance sideways. The two Kaiba brothers were locked in a tender embrace of sorts, with the older of the two crouched and muttering angry threats to the entity "Marik" who'd done his brother harm, amongst faint words of gratitude for his safe return.

Another shiver overwhelmed our defeated villain, he stared faintly through the two, imagining vainly they were he and Bakura together in that very same embrace. Safe.

I'm sorry… I just wish that you had of listened to me in the first place… If you had of done that, I would have had no reason to tie you to the anchor in the first place… If I could have you back… just for a little while… I'd…

"Namu! You okay?" Marik was rudely interrupted, and as soon as he'd turned to meet the owner of the voice, a concerned pair of amethyst eyes grasped his.

"…Y…no…" he responded angrily. "What, you think I'd be fine right after you go and let Bakura drown like that?" Suddenly that trademark anger that confined his soul began to manifest itself again, and before he could stop them, tears of confusion and rage were blurring his vision. "You promised nothing would happen to him!"

"I… I'm sorry… I tried… we all tried… Joey might be able to go and find him…"

"And what are we going to do if he doesn't?" A sharp voice interjected from across the docks. "If I'm not mistaken here, that Bakura kid is more than dead by now. So that's murder, essentially. And we could all be suspects, if we can't prove that this Marik exists. After all… he could be among us now still, if he truly can control minds…!" Kaiba warned. Our villain shivered unhelpfully when his icy cold eyes darted across his momentarily.

"In fact… he could even be one of you!"

There was a pause.

"Why would we attempt to murder one of our friends, Kaiba? Don't you think that's sort of harsh?" Yugi defended, as people began to stir.

"Yeah Kaiba…"

"Don't say it as if he's really gone!" cried a shrill voice behind our villain, and no sooner had he glanced up, when a pair of hands grasped one of his.

"You know that Namu hasn't given up… If anyone can save him, it'll be my brother!" Serenity appeared to be crying also, trapped tears dampening the bottom of the bandage slightly as her voice shook.

"But it's been almost five minutes… nobody can survive that long without…" Tea had appeared to have been trying to administer some sort of sense, facts- but it seemed Marik wasn't the only one who wouldn't acknowledge Bakura's departure from this world.

"No! You'd never say that about Yugi! Or my brother, if he were the one down there on that anchor! So don't say it about Bakura! Come on! He can make it!" She tightened her grip on Marik's hand as she spoke, yet our villain could do nothing to prevent the doubts from overflowing his mind. While he valued her physical abuse of his hand very little, it touched him somewhere deep down that the girl would care that much about trying to keep false hope up.

"You can't say that though…" Marik told her truthfully, his voice dying meekly in his chest. It felt as if a whole packet of cotton wool had been shoved down his throat it was so tight and unco-operative. He'd never expected that to happen, and now that it had… well… it hadn't quite sunk in yet.

"Yes… I can!" She tightened her grip once again, if such a thing was possible, until Marik winced with pain although he knew that wouldn't stop her- being blind and all. "I'm so sure of it.. The second I hear the water breaking again, I'm taking off my bandages! And seeing my big brother as the hero in action that he is!" she recited passionately, other hand rising to the bindings around her face.

"No… Serenity…!" Tea attempted to appear to want to reason with her.

"No ifs!" the girl replied, with a wide grin which lit up her whole face. "Now! Let's cheer for my brother and Bakura! Come on, guys! You can do it!"

Marik sighed weakly. He was still too much in shock to become angered by her stubborn refusal to believe what had happened either. It was sort of endearing… but not enough to compensate his whole world crashing down around him. For this was something the magical energies of the millennium rod could never reverse.

…It wasn't the first time he'd felt such despair though… It had happened a few times before…

Bakura… it… doesn't feel like you're gone.. I should be the one down there dead for doing this to you…

You can't be gone…

I…

I….still ...need you.

Behind them suddenly came the sound of breaking water, and even before most had looked up, a wave of freezing droplets scattered across the congregation followed by a desperate, wheezy gasp behind them.

"It's Joey…!"

The hand that restricted our villain's disappeared like lightning, and soon a wave of auburn hair fluttered across Marik's cheeks as Serenity got to her feet, the bandage already halfway undone.

"Joey!"

Our villain couldn't even bear to look, to see if indeed Bakura's body had been hauled from the anchor or not. It wasn't worth the bother… he almost knew deep down that there was a slim to none chance he'd be able to be revived from the few minutes without air even if his lifeless body had been salvaged from the anchor.

"Man… I…" coughed the blonde between deep pants somewhere behind them, splashing weakly as Tristan dived in to help him to safety. The same blond who had defeated Marik's mental grip on him a little while ago. Marik was certain now if he were to look back on it, he should be angry… but wherever there should be emotions, he felt curiously empty. Like the seabed drained right before a tidal wave. Like the calm before a storm.

"You okay? You've been gone ages now!" Tristan scolded him as they no doubted-ly reached each other.

"Yeah.. Man that was lucky…"

Marik stared upwards at Serenity, whose newly revealed two deep brown eyes(Just like her brother's) were transfixed on the ocean scene, wet tears pouring down both cheeks. The bandage lay in rings around her neck like a scarf of some description, framing her young face as she held back sobs. Marik could not discern right then whether the sobs were of joy or in despair, though.

"J…Joey!" she called, her shrill voice quivering.

"We need a little help here!" Tristan yelled, and Marik was snapped from his distant thoughts, hopes and dreams by something landing roughly before him with a thump. It was wet… a flood of water pooled around our villain's knees… But what exactly the object was didn't seem to want to sink in through the curtain of emotions cloaking him.

Then… after a few seconds…

"Bakura!!" He yelped. For before him now lay the white-haired teen, his brown eyes shut to the world, and his chest no longer rising and falling with the rhythm of breathing. Almost… the image of when they had first met, curiously.

Ra… he looks even more beautiful now than back then…

Our villain had just reached out a hand hesitantly as if his eyes had somehow tricked him into this sight, but was almost knocked to the ground once again by two white heavy coat tails which heralded the arrival of the oldest Kaiba brother to his side.

"Let me in there. Is he dead?" There was the noise of a transmittable radio being activated. "This is Kaiba three.. I need a paramedic team, down on the docks, asap!"

Our villain's hand collided with his arctic-haired friend slowly, and he sat forward slowly until he was almost atop the lifeless teen. Bakura's skin was unnaturally cold, and wet to the touch as a smooth rock in a shallow puddle. However he still only appeared as if he were sleeping, a breathtakingly beautiful expression of peace laid across his features. Peace after the torment of being controlled by a spirit Marik could not quite admit he'd be lost without now.

"Bakura?" Fire had lit deep in our villain's eyes once again.. Hope… The slight hope that perhaps Bakura would live after all… and then that he could forget about this day for the rest of his life…

Come back to me… you can't leave me here alone… you ungrateful fool… not before you get me what you promised to…

He was snapped from his thoughts violently as people moved either side of him, people assisting the two still in the water.

"Eh… I dunno.. It was really weird.." Another wave of water gathered across Marik's lower thigh as the blonde-haired teen was pulled gracefully onto the wooden structure once again beside him, sopping. "It was like.. I dunno, like he'd already freed himself from the anchor. I just kept swimming down… and then suddenly he appeared out of the blue, floating up towards me!"

"What? So you didn't even need the key?"

"Naw, man. He was already out of the chains, perhaps he'd managed to jam something into the lock and open it… or something… I dunno…" Marik bowed his head in concentration, leaning down on the lifeless chest. The paramedics had better arrive soon, he thought, because it might already be too late. And you can't leave me, spirit.

… You still owe me my duty. So wake up already!

He considered the conversation going on around him.

"They'd better show up soon…!" Kaiba was grumbling, still leaning over our villain and the lifeless teen vindictively, watching impatiently.

"You've got to do something… now! We can't wait for them!" Tea was shouting, although because of all the commotion, could not get very close to Bakura's body.

Serenity, without looking, Marik was very certain was still crying. She appeared to be a very emotional person anyways.

"Doesn't anyone here know CPR??" Joey demanded angrily, getting to his knees and brandishing an accusing finger at the body.

"Actually… both Seto and I have had training in it," a meek voice answered from the side, and an ashen-faced Mokuba appeared by his brother's side, pushing roughly into the congregation.

"Mokuba, get back!" The CEO exclaimed, as if he were attempting to shield his little brother from the sight of the death before them.

"We're almost as efficient as the paramedics employed at Kaiba corp… right Seto?"

"Mokuba-"

"Well why don't you do something for once??"

Hardly had Joey spoken, when the terrible screech of breaks filled the air and at least six white-coated men were forcing their way through, two of which were sporting a stretcher.

"Is this him? How long has he been out?" The man who appeared to be in charge asked urgently.

"About five minutes," answered Joey immediately, moving dutifully so the other people could haul the drowned boy onto the stretcher.

That was quick…

Marik sat up to allow them to take him away, even though his curious blue-violet eyes were shining with tears, and he still longed to cradle the creature again in his arms, helpless.

"Any sign of movement?"

There was a pause, in which the girls sadly shook their heads. Serenity was shaking with suppressed emotional anguish.

"Oh please! You have to be able to save him!" she suddenly burst out. "You have to! If not for us, for Namu over there!"

All the attention was reverted back to our villain within that second, and he felt not only his eyes overflowing with tears, and the hot burn of their salt as they danced fleetingly down his cheeks to his chin, but the embarrassment and self-consciousness of being in such a state.

"I.." he stuttered, not at all like himself when nobody said anything for a few seconds. Those seconds felt like forever.

"I can't promise anything," the man replied grimly when nothing more escaped Marik's lips, and rushed away to the commotion going on at the ambulance, shortly joined by the CAO.

A few more seconds passed. With every beat of his heart, Marik could feel himself get more and more afraid. Afraid that he'd never see the lucid dance of candle light in those deep chocolate eyes, or the lustful gleam of trouble either. That he'd never again run his fingers through the mane of whiter-than-snow hair, watching his tanned fingers buried in it's faint milky warmth, to resurface seconds later, the cool softness caressing his skin.

That he'd never hear that deep British purr ever again.

It couldn't just be over like that.

…Could it?

The rest of the group were just as anxious, although Marik felt right then as if he'd never been so alone… abandoned…

The ring of a cell phone punctured the sickening silence, and as Kaiba stood away momentarily to answer it, something began to take place in his absence.

Through whatever the CEO was explaining loudly to the person on the other end of the phone, Marik could faintly hear their attempts to revive the now dead Bakura in the ambulance.

"Clear!"

The jolt of electricity.

"Clear!"

…Thump.

"Clear!"

Nothing.

Silence still. It was over.

………………………………

Inside, one of the men was being ordered to tell them the bad news, and another was looking at his watch, to read the exact time he'd died.

"Time of death; Six twenty-four pm," he read off.

The job of explaining was allocated, and the man drifted away to face the group of panic-stricken teenagers.

Another, the one who had been attempting to revive the curious white-haired teenager, had momentarily turned his back bleakly to replace equipment when there was an orange glow enveloping the ambulance.

He'd barely spun around when he saw it was from a gold artefact hung around the dead boy's neck, one which had previously not been there when he'd ripped his shirt off, he was sure of it.

But still… there it was now, resting perfectly across his un-moving ribs and casting a shadow across his dead skin, still faintly glowing.

He frowned, and leaned closer.

How curious.

It was circular, and had five points, which he could not ever recall seeing any piece of jewellery being like before.

However, after two seconds of staring, he had still not solved the mystery of how the object had arrived there. The body had not moved a muscle, and he was just straightening back up when…

WHAM.

Faster than a fleeting bolt of lightning, a hand collided with his throat out of nowhere it seemed, tightening around it's capture. His windpipe was completely restricted, and as he clawed pathetically at the hand to try to release himself, he realised dimly the supposed dead body was the one choking him.

Impossible…

Perhaps he was being deceived by the lack of oxygen, but there were at least three other men standing around, frozen with horror too so it must be true.

Two auburn eyes pierced his very soul, narrowed and fierce, as the dead teenager's grip only tightened. This was the last thing the man in the ambulance saw before he slumped unconscious, no longer able to keep awake beneath the lack of oxygen and shock.

As soon as he became still, Bakura dropped him to the floor.

"That'll teach you to stick needles in me and electrocute me," he announced smugly, although it was directed to nobody in particular. Then he'd just rounded on the three dumbstruck paramedics, when Seto Kaiba reappeared, his look of disgust and disdain melting into a puddle of shock when his cold blue eyes met the spirit's.

"You!" He choked, almost stumbling backwards. Apparently he was the last person Kaiba was expecting to see standing, facing him.

"Why hello there," he snarled, showing a single fang in a demonic grin. "You look like you've seen a… a ghost…"

………………………………

"So he's really…?"

Joey bowed his head.

"Man, if only I'd been a second earlier!" he grimaced angrily and slammed his fist into the wood.

"But it's not your fault, man!" Tristan tried to console him. "You did all you could to save him!"

"You weren't the one down there, were you? I would have given him my air if I could, but I couldn't! Man, why do I always screw these things up?!" he burst out. Marik could see the blond shiver, suppressing the rage and devastation that his heroic act had not prevailed in the saving of Bakura's life, if nothing else.

Yet curiously he felt nothing.

Nothing.

A part of him had died too it seemed.

"No," sobbed Serenity, surrounded by Tea and Yugi. "No, he just can't be dead!"

Marik glanced quickly sideways at the host of the Pharaoh, and could see crystalline tears of shock welling beneath the amethyst too, trickling silently and steadily down his cheeks. Shock that anything bad could happen in his perfect world, probably, he reminded himself distastefully.

He knew the spirit of the great king would be watching too, nearby but unfortunately could not locate him. Instead his eyes focused on Kaiba, standing oddly (for Kaiba that is,) by the side of the ambulance with three other men.

"You…!" he gasped in the distance.

Because of the commotion of the group around him, Marik was certain nobody else had noticed him and his odd behaviour.

"But… how?" he asked, almost as if he was conversing with someone else. It looked bad- or shocking, whatever he'd been told.

Our villain couldn't handle any more bad news, so although he hoped faintly it would be nothing worse than the original situation, he didn't care anymore because chances were there could be nothing worse than Bakura's accidental death.

The CEO staggered back, and Marik could scarcely believe his eyes when another figure leapt out of the back of the ambulance. It was a figure not like the other paramedics at all, someone with a shirt hanging limply around the crooks of their elbows, bent over slightly… with white flowing hair, whipped back in the chilly evening air, someone Marik was willing to believe had cold hazel eyes as icy as the chilly bite of iron, and clothes so wet they were pasted to his skin in a layer.

He stared for a second before the creature rounded, facing the group. His shirt was ripped down the centre which revealed the millennium item dangling around his neck, and the pale skin covering his chest and front contrasted with his surroundings.

Is that really… but he…

Marik's eyes were captivated. His gaze stolen. After everything that had happened, the sight before him was not registering whatsoever.

"I'm sorry," The paramedic that had delivered the news repeated. It was all he could say in light of the death.

As our villain watched, the ring began to fade from Bakura's neck. To melt back into the spirit's very heart as the wind clawed fiercely at the pale mane, and he slipped the ripped shirt back up over his shoulders, from where it hung on each elbow as soon as the ring had completely gone.

"………Look!"

A small hand pointed upwards, into the distance behind the bearer of bad news. Mokuba's eyes were locked in wonder as the apparently dead Bakura approached the group, calmly and a hush fell across the sobs and laments when all present looked up. Marik's discovery and vision was no longer secret, it appeared. As well as very much real.

There were all eyes from both sides fixed on him in an instant, even the paramedics by the ambulance and Kaiba, who all had not stopped ogling him since he made his epic comeback to life.

"B…Bakura! You're…!" Yugi yelped, the first of the group to find a voice.

"Yes! Hello guys, I'm sorry I gave you such a scare," he smiled apologetically as he strolled over, sweet British accent masking the entity Marik knew was hiding beneath.

"Bakura! B…but how…?" Joey stuttered, his eyes as well shimmering with tears for a fallen friend …who did not look very fallen at this moment in time.

"I guess all that electricity just… did the job, eh?"

"But you died! You weren't breathing! You-"

"But the important thing is that I am, now, right?"

It had not sunk in.

Marik's whole body screamed for him to leap up and scoop the creature into his arms again, yet part of him still did not enjoy the prospect of such weakness of character. So he sat there still, his faintly soggy trousers sticking unhelpfully to the back and sides of his legs. There was still a small pool of water he was sitting in too, he realised after a second.

The veil of silence and numbness that had pressed in upon him since he'd been pulled from the sea was gone he noticed then, the heavy sloshing of waves, the sobs from the group and the breeze whistling around them was suddenly all real again- as if a light had switched back on in our villain's head.

"Well don't I at least get a hug then…Namu?" offered Bakura rather falsely, grinning sweetly down at Marik with his arms open. Still in some shock, he could not work out if the spirit was still angry under this guise or whether he was just glad to be alive and almost recoiled when he realised it was truly his fault for the whole ordeal…

I didn't do th-… wait… yes… yes I did…

There was no recollection after, he realised after it was over, of his actually getting to his feet at that moment- he seemed to just have been sitting slumped in a puddle one second, and the next was buried in the other teenager's warm, damp exposed shoulder, stray water trickling down either leg uncomfortably.

"B…Bakura I thought I lost you…" he mumbled faintly, beyond crying by that point. He didn't even know for sure whether he felt upset or happy or worried or plenty of other un-named emotions at that moment in time, all clamouring to be felt at the same time. He could also feel the tears prickling at his eyes, but desperately held them back for now was not the time to show weakness in front of the demon. Two strong arms enveloped his waist, and brought them closer.

His clothes were still soaked, the wet sopping t-shirt ripped from his body sticking to Marik's wet t-shirt and filling with their combined warmth.

"Well, you can't lose me that easily," he concluded cheerily in his unlucky host's voice, but quietly at the same time lest anyone else would hear him.

"But how did you- they said you were already out of the anchor's chains… I thought they'd.. I did bind y- Ouch!"

Two fangs buried themselves in the outside of his ear as Bakura closed his mouth over it. It took a few seconds to register why he did it.

Oh, that's right… I didn't do all of this. I'm supposed to be Namu…

He buried his face into the crook of the slightly taller's shoulder.

"I really missed you, snowdrop," he responded weakly, grimacing from the new pain in his ear… Just suddenly thankful he could feel it at all, since this meant that meant Bakura was alive for real- and that thought alone sent an adrenaline shot of stardust and moonbeams of happiness through our villain's veins.

Suddenly…

Everything was as it should be.

He was only faintly self-conscious in front of Yugi and the rest of the group this time as he buried his face and left a sloppy kiss in the bend of Bakura's warm, pale neck. The spirit in return rewarded his affection by running his fingers through the other's hair absent minded-ly before he answered.

"I know, my dear… I know…"

A/n; Aww, well I hope you enjoyed that! :D (is it still in character? I haven't had any contact with the original characters since the last chapter nearly, and didn't even read over the last ones when I sat down to write this... T^T *dies*) It's a much happeir ending than last chapter though. There is more in part two, by the way I haven't even completely the afforementioned lemon scene I mentioned, estimated to happen in about three chapters or so, I think..

So All I have left to say is review! ^___^ I want to know who doesn't think I suck and stopped following this story ages ago...o3o Because I do suck... I suck for abandoning this story , I suck for abandoning the original Yugioh (And being in love with Jack Atlas T^T) and I suck because I procrastinate against everything.. but I want forgiveness... if you have it in your hearts to do so...? ;A;