Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Did My Time ❯ More of the Past ( Chapter 4 )

Sorry for the slowness in posting, working on three fics at a time is never a good idea. But first I would like to thank all my reviewers for their supportive comments, and then I'd like to answer a question that was posed in a review. . . .

Well, it was more of a statement, but anyway, Lime, this is for you.

Maybe it does seem like I'm going to pair off Malik with Yugi, but that's not the point I'm trying to make with this fic. I don't want to pair up anyone actually. And you'll see in this chapter why Ryou and Bakura will most likely not make an appearance any time soon.

So there are no pairings here but a mentioned RishidxIsis.

~*~Did My Time~*~

Chapter 4

by BlueMew

Emerging from the shower room, his hair still dripping and with only a pair of sleeping pants on, Malik was surprised to see Yugi waiting at the dinner table with a meal prepared for the both of them. It wasn't more than instant noodles and chilled tea, but Malik truly appreciated the gesture, sitting down across the table from the younger man and slowly eating the meal.

Both ate in silence, listening to the commotion of the after school crowd that came to play the featured game of the day, and Yugi couldn't help but smile as he heard his grandfather directing the children below toward the cards and expansion packs they should buy.

Malik sighed as he finished his meal, picking up his trash and depositing it in the wastebasket under the sink, then walked back to the table where Yugi remained, resting his elbows on the table so that he could support his chin in his hands as he looked over at little Yugi.

"How did Ryou overcome the spirit of Bakura?"

Yugi shook his head. "He didn't. Ryou moved back to England, and I haven't heard from him since then. That was two years ago. But I think you have something in common with Ryou, Malik." Yugi looked deep in to the violet eyes across the table from him. "I think you don't really want to leave Ishtar behind. Why else would Joey say that your writing changed from sloppy to neat every other line you penned if you weren't holding a conversation with Ishtar while you were at school?"

The platinum haired young man just snorted, running fingers through his tangled hair. "Joey is an idiot, Yugi. He doesn't know how hard it is to write like I do."

"Don't insult Joey, he's my friend." Yugi shot back, holding on to the Millennium Puzzle, which he still wore around his neck. "Besides, Joey has usually been right when he says he feels that something is wrong."

Standing up, Malik moved from the table to look out the upper window above the sign for the game shop. This was becoming just as annoying as all the doctor visits when he had been in the hospital.

But Yugi wasn't a doctor, and he knew that the kind-hearted fool would never call the police to have him arrested or committed again unless he pulled some dangerous stunt, so what harm would it be to speak his mind?

"So what if I enjoy having conversations with Ishtar. You frequently talk out loud to seemingly no one when you want to get Yami's attention."

"That's not the same, and you know it!" Yugi had to stop before he said something he would regret in his anger, so after taking a sip of his tea, he continued. "Malik, maybe if there was a way to wipe Ishtar's mind clean like Yami's memories had been at the start of Battle City, you could coexist with him and even carry the Millennium Rod around again, but with Ishtar still being a dangerous entity, you shouldn't be allowing him to take control of your body anymore."

"I was just writing to Ishtar during the test." He shrugged, then waved at a group of girls that were staring up at the window where he stood before moving away to lean against the bathroom door, his hair still clinging to his face and shoulders from the dampness. "Ishtar misses having a host too Yugi. Can't you feel him in the Rod, trying to break free so he can return to my body even at this very moment?"

Closing his eyes, Yugi concentrated on the other Millennium Items that were in his possession. The tauk rested lightly on the mannequin that Yugi kept in his room, and the spirit that resided in it lay dormant as always. The eye rested on Yugi's desk, and the spirit that had controlled Pegasus was moving about the room, still searching for something to amuse itself with, but it was absolutely harmless. Of course, Yami was ever-present in Yugi's mind, and he listened intently to everything Malik had to say, waiting for the right time to show himself so he could fix the problem with Ishtar.

And then he allowed his mind to move to the Rod, which was kept in his grandfather's bedroom. Ishtar was certainly active, and the emotion resounding through his mind was that of pure rage.

"Ishtar will hurt you again Malik. Please, give up contact with him, and if you won't do that, well," Yugi sighed, clutching the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. "I guess I'll have to destroy the Millennium Rod. I can't bear to see a friend hurting."

Friend? Malik glanced over at the younger man, not certain of what he should do or say next. Yugi actually considered him a friend?

"After everything in Battle City, you'd call me a friend. . . ." The statement was almost inaudible, but Yugi smiled when he heard those words, knowing that the Egyptian would have to fight his own demons yet again to be able to truly accept friendship.

Nonsense! The Pharaoh just wants less competition, so he's become willing to destroy me Malik! Do you think he'd actually WANT you as a friend? Someone as ignorant and worthless as you!?! I am the only one that is truly your friend, beloved master. Remember how I always protected you and kept you safe when the authorities were trying to capture you? Remember who was there to keep you company when you were bound and left to sit in a padded white cell. . . .

"Malik, you are my friend. Even though you controlled people's minds and were really mean during Battle City, we still share a common bond between our Millennium Items. So I want to help you, no matter what."

The Egyptian just sighed, heading back over to the couch and laying across the cushions. "Like I said last night, my family made certain that I was sent to that hellacious place by tricking me in to releasing Ishtar in the middle of the courtroom.

"I arrived at Mercyhurst Wellness Center the next day, and immediately I was stripped of my suit and jewelry and they forced me to wear a solid white jump suit. I knew that I didn't belong with the other lunatics in the center, so I hoped that by complying with their rules and being friendly with the doctors and staff that I could be released early for not showing signs of insanity.

"The problem was that no matter how normal I acted, the doctors would describe any "normal" habit for my culture, such as eating with my hands instead of chopsticks or a fork or my pleading for my jewelry back, as those of someone that was insane.

"So just as if someone started telling you that your hair looks hideous today, Yugi, and then told you this same line ten times or more a day, every day of the week, you would start to believe what they said, and you would change your hair to what the person wanted.

"That is why I became insane. I was constantly told the symptoms of how I should act and how I should dress, so after it was drilled into my mind, I began to speak in a low voice to myself about Rishid, you, Bakura, or Ishtar. I began to have violent outbursts when I didn't get my way for anything. I began believing that I was Ishtar.

"The belief that I was Ishtar, a few millennia old Egyptian bodyguard for the Pharaoh, didn't help to prove my sanity.

"So Ishtar, seizing the opportunity to take an already fragile mind back in to his own, entered my body one night, and was able to stay longer than the usual half hour visits he paid.

"He raped and killed two nurses in the morning when they came to check on me and deliver my breakfast, then sent their bodies to the Shadow Realm. No one ever found out the nurses were dead.

"When he left me that time, I was broken. I had never, EVER allowed Ishtar as much freedom as he gave himself that day. When I was with a woman before the incident, Ishtar had to live in the Rod and not come out until she was gone the next morning. Perhaps he was jealous of me. I don't know.

"The doctors found me around noon when I did not arrive for lunch, huddled in a ball against the farthest wall from the door, shaking and crying, muttering something about "not wanting those girls".

"The doctors were confused at how badly I'd deteriorated since I'd come to the facility, and now put me in a smaller padded cell, restraining me with a straight jacket because I had been screaming suicide threats anytime I felt Ishtar's presence near me.

"The next half year I spent in therapy, until I was fit to return to the world, or so they said. I've continued with my therapy, but you can see it's not working." Malik sighed, his chest heaving with the breath. "I won't talk to them about Ishtar anymore after what happened that last time."

Yugi folded his arms and sighed, still deep in thought as he tried to analyze Malik's story. It sounded logical enough, so he was probably telling the truth. "I think you may need to confront Ishtar and put him in his place. We'll wait until my Grandpa goes out with Joey after the shop closes tonight, then we'll call upon his spirt.

"I just want you to be free Malik."