Rock Bottom: Season Two

Impasse

"Why did you follow me?" The Spirit of the Millennium Ring had been quiet since he left the Stratos Duel Arena with Marik following in his shadow. Bakura had gone directly to his host's room on the blimp, avoiding the spectators and other duelists completely. Now that they were alone, the spirit turned to face the Egyptian, his eyes hard as stones.

"Because I don't trust you to know how to take care of that body," Marik answered, serious, straightforward, without a trace of fear in his countenance. "And because someone needs to keep an eye on you."

"Oh? So you're going to be my bodyguard? Excellent." Bakura's smug grin was temporary, though, for Marik surprised him by giving those pale arms a shake to indicate his beloved's hijacked body.

"You are not allowed to hurt this." The Egyptian teen was earnestly serious, his eyes scanning Bakura's startled and miffed expression for a sign that the spirit understood him. "If you try to hurt this, then I will stop you."

"And what if I try to hurt you?" the spirit countered without missing a beat, already recovered from his temporary sense of surprise. "Again, I mean. Will you just play along like last time?"

"I will do whatever needs to be done," Marik answered after a short pause, holding the other's gaze steadily.

"You just left the hospital, didn't you?" Bakura taunted with a smirk. "Do you really think you can hold up long enough to stop me?"

"I will do whatever needs to be done in order to stop you," Marik repeated emphatically, belying the residual weakness in his body caused by his recent wound. The tense silence stretched out between them until it was interrupted by a chime over the intercom system.

"All duelists, please report to the common area for the lottery to determine the participants in the next duel!"

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After retreating from the open-air duel arena, Ishizu and Seto had ducked into the former's private room to discuss their options, speaking in frantic, hushed voices—aware that they might be surveilled at this very moment, and that they had very little time to talk before the next duel was announced.

"There should be a way to defeat Noah using the Millennium Items and their Shadow Magic. I don't think we have to play along with the tournament duels as the only way to take him down."

"What are you suggesting, Seto?" Ishizu's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"You, Yugi, and I all possess Millennium Items and have complete control over them. If we ambushed Noah with a three-way assault of Shadow Magic, there'd be no way that he could stand against that." Granted, he understood relatively little about the Shadow Magic, but he knew for a fact that it could be weaponized.

"It would have to be an ambush," Ishizu mused. "But what if the Spirit of the Millennium Ring decided to join the battle on Noah's side?"

"We'd still have the numbers in our favor, I should think." Seto's eyes examined Ishizu's face closely, searching for a hint of approval. "And if we can also get his bodyguard separated from him beforehand, there's nothing to stop us from using physical force against him as well."

"An attack like that would have to be coordinated," Ishizu pointed out. "How do we stop him from seeing our plan in our minds before we act on it?"

"I don't know. The only option is to strike before he has the chance."

"That means we'd have to inform the others of our plan right now." Ishizu's eyes sparkled with fear. "Do you really think that this will work?"