Painful Memories: Part III: Consequences

The Love of Psychopaths

There was something endlessly hilarious about Kaiba falling to his knees in front of Joey Wheeler. Unfortunately Marik was pretty sure he was one of the only people holding back laughter at the moment. Pegasus screamed his name and lunged forward, but couldn't quite catch him in time. Joey on the other hand, with reflexes seasoned after years of fighting with thugs on the streets of Domino, caught Kaiba before he could slam his face into the floor.

"I got him, I got him," Joey said, but Kaiba's weight nearly pulled him to the floor as well. "Damn, I thought he was going to slug me there for a minute."

Pegasus came over to help him, "I suppose you're lucky then, Joey. Here, help me get him to the guest room. Marik, can you lead the way?"

Marik nodded. Although he always thought Kaiba was physically a pretty scrawny guy, he realized as he watched the three men struggle to get him onto the bed, that it was probably all muscle. Ishizu was close behind them, carrying enough bandages and antiseptic to care for a small army. Marik almost told her she was overdoing it, but then realized she would probably know if it was necessary or not. He crouched down next to his sister as she cleaned Kaiba's wounds. Most of it was dried blood, and simply looked worse than it actually was. His arms though, that was a different story. The sweatshirt Pegasus had let him borrow was all in tatters from the shoulders down, and from his elbows down his skin was a light pink as though he had a terrible sunburn.

"Is he going to be alright?" Pegasus was on the other side of the bed, watching her closely.

"These should heal just fine. We were lucky that Marik put the flames out when he did."

Marik couldn't help but glow at the praise. He didn't hear it very often from Ishizu, which made those few words all the more precious. Still though he didn't want her to know how valuable her words were. He got to his feet.

"I suppose we can't do much more today then, can we?"

Ishizu had covered both of Kaiba's arms in the goop that looked like petroleum jelly, and now she was bandaging them with Pegasus' help. "We must. We don't have much time left. Already the Pharoah has nearly faded, and if we don't finish giving out the rest of the Millennium Items so that their bearers can heal, we may be too late to save him."

Marik narrowed his eyes, " Who else is there? We have the Puzzle, the Rod, the Eye..."

She glanced back at him, "Ryou must take up the Ring. Hopefully he'll bring back the Thief when he does, because we'll need his assistance as much as I'm loathed to admit it."

He frowned. How could he have forgotten that part? He looked around suddenly as though expecting Ryou to be standing behind him. Of course he wouldn't be. He wouldn't want to see Kaiba in this predicament because he wouldn't want to imagine what it will be like for him.

"Did you lose him already, Marik?" Ishizu didn't turn away from her work this time, and Marik gave a heavy sigh. Another reason he enjoyed his sister's praise so much was because it was never long before it was followed by judgment.

"Don't worry, I'll find him."

She glanced up to Pegasus, "Please go with him. I have Kaiba. Think of the Pharoah now."

Pegasus never seemed to question Ishizu like Marik did. In fact, his blind trust in her always made Marik a little uneasy. He nodded and pulled out the Rod from his pocket with a spare handkerchief. Marik couldn't turn away from it as he slid it into Kaiba's unconscious hand. He must have picked it up at some point when Kaiba had collapsed earlier. Marik had been so amused by the scene that he hadn't even thought of the Rod's whereabouts. Pegasus covered Kaiba with a blanket, and Marik was thankful that the Rod was out of sight again. Even when it was in the hands of its true owner, Marik still couldn't shake its pull. It was shameful for a grave watcher to be so entranced.