Title: Two Sides Of A Coin (Chapter 22) – A Sunny Evening
Pairing: Ryou x Marik, Ryou x Yami Marik (of a sort)
Rating: M
Summary: Banishing part of Marik's soul to the Shadow Realm had more consequences than anyone realized. Two years post-series, Marik's dark side resurfaces with unclear goals and an unnerving focus on Ryou.
A/N: Sorry about the lateness, guys. Real life has been busy. The next chapter probably won't be out until after Christmas, but I should hopefully be back to my normal update schedule after that. Meanwhile, enjoy!

"It's strange that that thing came with us," Marik said, still peering out the window. "It might be a good thing, though."

"A good thing?" Ryou asked.

Marik shrugged. "A fake sun is better than no sun, right?"

"Maybe..." Ryou replied.

"Guys, come look at this," Yugi said, gesturing at them to come over to the TV.

Ryou and Marik left the window to join him, just as the news anchor reappeared on the screen.

"This just in," the news anchor said, holding a new sheet of paper in his hands. "It seems that the sun has, in fact returned. Dawn occurred just a few moments ago, and..."

"But that wasn't really the sun," Ryou protested. Surely they'd know that? Everyone's been talking about the UFO for weeks.

"Maybe it's just that station," Yugi replied, picking up the remote and switching to the only other channel broadcasting from within the Domino City limits.

"The sun is back!" declared a reporter standing next to a giant cheering crowd.

Yugi frowned. "This is getting a little weird," he said.

"It's been weird for a while," Marik replied. He squinted at the figures on the screen, which seemed almost washed out by bright light. "Aren't those people the UFO nuts? They're probably just happy it hasn't gone missing."

Ryou took a closer look at the figures himself and saw the distinctive yellow hats on most of the heads. "That's them, but surely the reporters aren't that obsessed with UFOs...?"

The camera cut to another reporter standing next to a man Ryou recognized as the mayor of Domino City. "I'm here at City Hall with the mayor, who believes he can shine some light on the situation. Mayor Parker?"

The mayor cleared his throat. "Yes," he said, smiling broadly. "We've determined that the sun never disappeared. The real problem is interference from whatever is currently surrounding the town. It's some sort of odd frequency..." He waved his hand around generally. "...that affected all of our clocks, throwing off the time. We're asking everyone to reset their clocks to the correct time, based on when the sun actually rose."

A new time appeared at the bottom of the screen next to the words: 'Domino City Real Time: Fix your clocks!' The reporter gestured down at it. "As you can see, it's really just after seven AM. We'll be keeping the accurate time on screen for the rest of the day."

"How can a frequency throw off even mechanical clocks?" Marik asked, sounding skeptical.

"It can't," Yugi replied, shaking his head. "And anyway, you'd think something like that would just flat out break at least some of the clocks."

"This doesn't make any sense," Ryou said. "Why is everyone going along with this?"

"They're probably too relieved to have something up there to question it," Marik replied.

All three were quiet for a moment.

It was Yugi who finally spoke up. "I think we need to go down there," he said.

Ryou frowned, but gave it some thought. If that thing is the key to all of this, it might not be a bad idea. We haven't investigated it nearly enough. He glanced at Marik, wondering if would be a good idea to bring him along, and if so, what they would tell him.

Marik blinked. "Why?"

"The sun's gone, and everyone's suddenly decided this thing is the real sun," Yugi replied. "It doesn't seem like it could be a coincidence. We need to learn more about it."

"True," Marik replied. He picked up his flashlight. "Let's go."

They gathered up their lightweight supplies, then told Ishizu and Odion where they were going. Odion decided to come with them, but Ishizu said that she had to get to the museum. The mayor had declared that all city buildings would open and close at the 'correct times' that day.

Yugi's grandpa stopped them before they left, giving them each a long range two-way radio from some sort of live action military game he had in the shop. "The phones still aren't working, but at least you'll have a way to call home, or get Ishizu at the museum."

"Thanks, grandpa." Yugi took the radios and handed one to each of the others.

While the others were still talking about the radios, Marik pulled Ryou behind one of the shop's shelves and gave him an eager kiss.

Ryou's eyes widened in surprise. "Mmph!"

Marik pulled back slightly. "Sorry," he said, not sounding at all apologetic. "I don't think we'll have any opportunity for this later."

"It's all right," Ryou said, turning a little pink at the knowledge that the others were only a few feet away. He pressed his lips to Marik's in a fairly chaste kiss, which Marik promptly turned into something far less suitable for a room with other people in it.

Ryou was flushed and breathless when they finally separated, but Marik just looked happy. He tried to look normal as they returned to the others, but knew it was probably a lost cause.

"Ready?" Yugi asked. He and Odion had the look of people who had been waiting very patiently.

Ryou coughed. "Ready."

The 'sun' was hovering over the general vicinity of KaibaCorp, so Ryou and the others started trekking in that direction.

The heat of the 'sun' got more noticeable as they approached; when they got within several blocks of their destination, Yugi had to stop and take off his coat. "It feels like it's summer over here, not the end of December."

"I'm not sure it even is December here, wherever 'here' really is," Marik replied, shrugging off his own coat. "Time might not be the same in the Shadow Realm."

"It isn't," Ryou agreed. He joined the others in shedding his jacket, then tied it around his waist. "A day feels more like a month. At least we can't starve to death, even if we run out of food for that long..." Ryou trailed off at Yugi's disturbed look.

"Wait, how much time passed the last time you were in the Shadow Realm?" Yugi asked.

Perhaps I shouldn't have brought that up. Ryou gave Yugi a broad smile. "Er. It's hard to say. Like I said, time is different here. And my memory of that time is fuzzy." It was true, in a way, but Ryou did remember more than he was letting on. He just didn't think Yugi would benefit from hearing about it, especially in the situation they were currently stuck in. I came out of it without any new injuries. In some ways, this place is scarier than it is dangerous.

Yugi shook his head. He looked like he was about to say something else, but Odion spoke up first. "We should continue."

Yugi blinked, then nodded. "Shouldn't be too much further," he said, following Odion onward.

They heard the crowd before they saw it. The assembled people were singing some sort of song, though Ryou couldn't make out what the words were. They turned the corner about a block away from KaibaCorp Headquarters and ran right into a security barricade. The light from above was almost blinding.

"Are people being blocked from this area?" Marik asked one of the guards.

"No," the guard replied. "But it'll cost you $150 per person if you want to see the 'sun'. That's per day. If you want a week-long pass, that's $900."

"I guess Kaiba found a way to profit off this," Yugi said. He turned to the others. "Well, I don't think any of us have that kind of money, so..."

"Don't worry about it," came a voice from the other side of the barricade. Ryou turned to see Mokuba Kaiba, wearing shorts, a KaibaLand T-shirt, and dark sunglasses. Mokuba had a quiet conversation with one of the guards, who then lifted the barricade to allow them entrance.

"Here," Mokuba said, handing each of them a pair of sunglasses from the guard station. "You'll need these. You can leave your coats and things here. No one will bother them."

The four put their coats in a neat pile next to one of the guards. Ryou gratefully donned the pair of sunglasses he'd been given. We really should have thought to bring some.

Mokuba tilted his sunglasses downward to look at each of them. "Do you guys have any idea what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Ryou asked. He could be referring to a lot of things about this situation.

"I mean this," Mokuba said, gesturing upward, then waving his arms generally around. "Everything. The thing that's been in the sky for the past month. The real sun's disappearance. The weird wall around and over the city-"

"Over the city?" Yugi asked.

Mokuba nodded. "Seto took a helicopter up there to see if he could get out of the city that way, but the wall extended upward into a dome. It's like we're trapped in a giant purple bubble."

"It makes sense," Marik replied, looking thoughtful. "You'd need something like a bubble to get the whole city to the Shadow Realm."

"The Shadow Realm?" Mokuba asked. "See, I knew you guys would know more about this than we do. I thought of you," Mokuba pointed at Yugi, "as soon as I saw the purple wall."

"Ah... we really don't know much more than you do," Yugi replied, running a hand over his spiky hair.

"Well..." Mokuba looked at Ryou. "What about those statue heads you told me about? Could those have anything to do with this?"

Ryou glanced to his side and saw Marik looking at him in surprise. "Um. Maybe," Ryou replied. "Did you find them?"

Mokuba shook his head. "No, but the UFO moved over here the day we brought all the garbage back to Headquarters. We've been through every inch of it, but still haven't been able to figure out what's causing this."

"You're sure the heads aren't here?" Marik asked calmly.

"Positive," Mokuba said. "I've seen every single bit of garbage in there, but there were no statue heads. I can show you what was there later. You should see this thing up close, first. Come on." Mokuba started walking toward the crowd of people. Odion and Yugi followed him.

Ryou moved to do the same, but Marik stopped him. "When did you tell him about the statue heads?"

"Um." Ryou wished they could talk about it later, but knew that he really did have to explain. "I ran into Mokuba the day after he broke the statues. KaibaCorp workers were taking all the garbage, so..."

Marik seemed to think about it for a moment. "That makes sense, but... why didn't you say you were looking for the heads?"

"I knew he wanted them for some reason," Ryou replied, looking away. "I didn't want to warn him that I was trying to find them."

Marik went quiet for a moment, then sighed. "You probably had a point," he said finally. He glanced at the others, who were getting farther and farther away. "We need to catch up," he declared, grabbing Ryou's hand and running off.

Ryou hurried after him.

They caught up with the others at the edge of the crowd. The 'sun' was so painfully bright that Ryou was almost concerned about getting a sunburn. How do any of these people stand it? Ryou wondered, glancing around at the singing UFO fanatics. He saw what looked like a few KaibaCorp personnel in the crowd, which wouldn't have been odd had they not been wearing yellow hats and singing along. "Are those your people?" he asked Mokuba.

"They used to be," Mokuba replied. He lowered his voice somewhat. "Some of them went a little crazy after the sun disappeared. When that thing started shining in the sky today, they decided it was the real sun and joined the... others."

"They aren't the only ones," Marik replied in a normal voice. "Even the news people seem to think that thing is the real sun."

A man in the crowd heard what he said and turned to look at him with an unnerving glint in his eyes. "Are you saying this isn't the real sun?" he asked, looking ready to come to blows.

"No one is saying that," Mokuba replied quickly, pulling Marik away. He led the others to the KaibaCorp Headquarters entrance.

"What was going on with him?" Yugi asked.

"I don't know," Mokuba replied, gesturing at the guards to open the door. "They used to be your average UFO fanatics. A little off, maybe, but not that bad. But a couple of weeks ago, some of them started saying that thing was the real sun, and the old sun was blasphemous." Mokuba held up his hands. "The 'real sun' thing was strange enough, but I still don't know where the 'blasphemous' part came from."

Ryou and Yugi looked at each other, both thinking the same thing.

"Anyway," Mokuba continued. "Within a couple of days they were all saying the same thing, and when the sun disappeared, they weren't even surprised. They seem to think their 'real sun' won."

"Do you believe they have something to do with the sun's disappearance?" Odion asked.

Mokuba shook his head. "I don't think any of them have that kind of power," he said, leading them to an elevator. "They all came here for a 'UFO' originally. I think they're just very gullible people."

I can't argue with that, Ryou thought.

They rode the elevator down to one of the underground floors in silence. They emerged in a large room divided into several sub-rooms using clear plastic walls. The sub-rooms appeared to be full of garbage. A few had workers in Haz-mat suits handling the items inside.

"Isn't that kind of overkill?" Marik asked, pointing to one of the men.

"It's weeks-old garbage," Mokuba replied. "Trust me, they want the suits. You won't need them for what I'm taking you to see, though." He walked over to a door at the back of the room, then led them inside.

The smaller room had several tables inside, each filled with various objects. "This is where we put all the unusual or notable objects we found. Do any of them stand out to you?"

"Not immediately," Yugi replied, glancing over the tables. "But we should give it a closer look before giving up."

"Do whatever you need to do," Mokuba replied, relaxing against the door as though ready for a long wait.

The four split up, each taking one table at a time. Ryou surveyed the objects in front of him. The room had plenty of electronic-looking items, but it looked like he'd gotten the non-electronic table. There were various statue-like objects, but, as Mokuba had told them, no heads. He saw an intact lawn gnome, a statue of the Virgin Mary, some strangely melted toy cars, bricks with names carved into them, a bright red circular rock, a fake flute...

Ryou frowned. Wait a minute... He looked at the rock more closely. It was about the size of a dinner plate, but was much too thick and heavy to be used for that purpose. The red color was unnaturally bright, and the stone actually felt hot to the touch. Ryou turned the stone over and saw what looked like a painting of three dead snakes knotted together on the other side. That's a little weird, Ryou thought. He stared at the snakes, feeling like he was missing something.

It took another minute, but Ryou was finally able to figure out what it was. Those snakes are in the same style as the three on the missing heads, he realized. He'd seen the pictures often enough to recognize them. He glanced at Marik on the other side of the room, wondering if maybe they shouldn't have brought him along. Well, it's too late now.

Ryou brought the stone over to Yugi. "What do you think of this?" he asked.

Yugi looked at the stone, frowning in concentration. "In some ways, it looks Egyptian, but I'm not sure. It's a possibility."

There was a strange crackling noise from Yugi's bag, and then Ishizu's voice came through. "Yugi? Yugi, are you there?"

"Oh!" Yugi grabbed the radio from his bag. He pressed the button and spoke into it. "I'm here. Um. Over."

"Good. Something strange has happened to the artifacts at the museum. I think you should all come here right away." She paused. "Over."

"We'll be right there," Yugi replied. "Over." He looked at the stone, then at Mokuba. "Is there any way we could bring this with us?"

"Go ahead," Mokuba replied. "We haven't been able to do anything with it here."

Mokuba led them back to the KaibaCorp entrance. "Let me know if you need anything else," he said, waving at the four as they left through the door.

The four walked quickly through the courtyard, urgently wanting to get to the museum. Ryou felt a twinge of nervousness as they approached the singing crowd, though he couldn't explain why.

His nervousness only grew as the singing died down, then stopped. Every head in crowd turned towards them, and the group moved silently, in perfect unison to block their path away from the building.

The four stopped, then turned back toward the building, but it was no use.

They were completely surrounded.