"This castle is way too big!" Akia whined. "Why is it that, in every virtual world I go to, it suddenly becomes a walking simulator? Can't we just teleport to the next level or something?"
Marik sighed in annoyance. He had been listening to her nonstop complaining for a while now and was close to reaching his limit.
Meanwhile, two duels were going on. Ouka Chikuzen, with his Deck Master Judge man, was dueling with Jounouchi. He had been cheating, but got called out by Noah who wanted to stop the duel. Jounouchi, on the other hand, wanted to keep going with Ouka if the latter promised to not cheat anymore. Yugi had reunited with Anzu, who had won her duel against Otaki Shuzo and his penguin deck, and both friends were watching the blond young man's duel. In a separate location, Ota Soichiro, and his Deck Master Robotic Knight, had set his eyes on Shizuka. Honda and Otogi had tried to convince him to let them take her place, but it ended up being all three of them against him.
Akia kept walking and trying to open the numerous doors in the never-ending corridors. Every time letting out an irritated groan since none of them would open. "This is driving me insane!"
"You're driving me insane!" Marik retorted, unable to hold in his frustration for much longer.
"Well excuse me for trying to find a way out! You've just been walking and following me around this whole time!" The red-eyed girl snapped back.
"You've been whining and complaining about everything without trying to just stop and think of a way out of this," the young man reprimanded her.
"Well, since you're so smart then, what do you suggest?" The girl huffed and asked sarcastically.
Without saying a word, Marik took out his Millennium Rod and went up to one of the doors. He then struck the knob a few times with the end of his Rod, breaking it off. The young man then kicked open the door, that easily swung open, revealing a long corridor, lit up with what looked like strips of bright white LED lights. Akia blinked a few times, shocked that she hadn't thought of this herself earlier. "If you were planning on doing this, why didn't you do it earlier?"
"I was wondering why I was ever attracted to such a bumbling idiot. The more I looked at you, the more repulsed I became, which, in the end, is best for me. That way, I'll actually be able to finally free myself of this destiny we share and get rid of you once and for all," Marik chuckled.
Akia frowned, feeling the sting of his words. She reminded herself that she was not in the presence of the real Marik. She was dealing with his evil split personality. The red-eyed girl knew that, once Marik was back to normal, he would never say those things to her, or at least she hoped. Without even glancing at the man, she walked past him and into the dark corridor. Seeing how obviously she was hurt by what he had said, Marik tried to brush off the small ball of guilt that was welling up in his stomach. He then followed behind her silently.
Having won his match, Jounouchi joined up with his two friends, Yugi and Anzu. The three of them wandered about for a little, ending up in a virtual version of the hangar where the blimp was stationed. It was where Jounouchi had been prior to his match, believing that he had made it out, only to be ambushed by Ouka Chikuzen before being challenged to a duel. It was also, coincidentally, where Shizuka, Honda, and Otogi were having their duel. Honda had lost his Deck Master, however, falling into a pit of lava underneath. Shizuka had seemingly lost all hope, but her brother was able to cheer her up, helping her gain back her confidence and use her Deck Master's ability, and defeating Ota Soichiro.
Akia suddenly stopped walking along the corridor. Marik almost bumped into her, due to her abrupt halt.
"What is it?" He asked.
"I was just thinking... Wouldn't Noah or whoever is controlling this Virtual World want us to go along this corridor? Aren't they basically guiding us to where they want?"
"And your point?"
"My point is... every program has an exit. We can even use brute force to break it. If we go where they don't expect us to go, won't we find the loophole?"
Marik, not really understanding much when it came to advanced technology, stayed quiet, waiting for her to explain further.
Noah was not watching everyone anymore, since he was now on his way to duel Kaiba who had won against one of the Big Five, Kogoro Daimon. Ota Soichiro, who had taken over Honda's body, had kidnapped Mokuba and brought him to Noah.
With the latter unaware of Akia's plan, there was no one to stop her as she started checking the walls of the tunnel her and Marik were in. "This tunnel is like a transition between levels. I bet there's an emergency exit for the program around her somewhere," the red-eyed girl explained.
"You said you can brute force the program, right?" Marik inquired.
"Well, yeah, usually as a last resort..." She replied.
"Stand back," the young man took out his Millennium Rod. "My Rod may not work for Shadow Games, but I can still use it as a weapon."
He unsheathed his item, revealing the sharp blade. Marik then started picking at the wall, causing the lights to distort. The more he hit it, the more distorted the surroundings were becoming.
"I think it's working, even though I was talking about the brute force method in programming and not an actual physical attack!" Akia exclaimed. This encouraged Marik to hit the walls harder and faster. A bright light then enveloped them, blinding them for a moment.
When Akia opened her eyes, she found herself lying down, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. She started moving her arms, realizing that she was lying down in some sort of pod. Reaching up, her hand collided with glass, which was trapping her inside the enclosure. Starting to feel claustrophobic, Akia's breathing became short and quick. She then heard a blast from somewhere nearby. Soon after, Marik's figure loomed over her pod. He then clicked on a button outside her enclosure, causing it to open. As soon as it did, Akia sat up, taking a deep breath to calm her racing heartbeat. The girl then got out and looked around, finding her brother and her friends' bodies enclosed in the same way that she was. One of the pods was completely blasted open, with shards of glass scattered everywhere. It was the one Marik was in, Akia concluded. She then looked at the man who was looking back at her.
"Thank you... for opening it," she mumbled.
He shrugged, "you proved yourself useful enough. We still need to find a way out of this place."
"Are we sure we're out of the virtual world, though...?" Akia asked. "This may be another trap."
"My Millennium Rod is back to normal," Marik simply replied then started heading for the only door in the room.
Akia, on the other hand, tried to look for any control panel or computer that she might use to free everyone. She didn't want to risk yanking them out of their pods, in fear that their consciousness may be lost in the virtual world.
As soon as Marik blasted the door open with the powers of his Millennium Rod, an alarm sounded, and robots came flocking to the room. One by one, they were incapacitated by the Egyptian man's magical item until there were none left. Akia followed him out, not finding what she needed in the pod room. Looking around the facility, they encountered more doors locked with passwords, that Marik blasted away like the first one. Keeping Akia behind him, he took out all the robots in sight before they had a chance to attack them.
After many dead ends and many destroyed doors and machines, they finally made it to the hangar where the blimp had landed.
"That's great and all, but I need to go back..." Akia said.
"For the other idiots?" Marik inquired.
"They're some of the most important people in my life," the red-eyed girl let out an exasperated sigh. As she turned around to go back, Marik yanked her by her arm. "Ow...! What?!"
"Stay behind me. I'm going with you," the young man stated.
"Why? Isn't it better off for you if we're all dead anyway?" Akia questioned.
"I want to be the one to feed your souls to the darkness. Whoever that brat is, I won't let him have all the fun," Marik chuckled as he walked ahead of Akia, back into the many corridors.
She quickly went to follow him, counting on his sense of direction which was probably better than hers, since she had none. After walking around and looking into some of the rooms that they had not explored, a loud beeping sound blared from a room that was further away. Marik started walking towards the sound with Akia in tow.
The reason for that specific alarm, was Noah, who had tricked everybody and taken over Mokuba's body after being defeated by Yugi in a duel, redirecting missiles, that his father had launched, to the island so that he alone would escape, leaving everyone else to die. On his way to the helicopter however, he felt a pang of guilt towards Mokuba, who had been so loving and welcoming towards him as a step-brother. Deciding to follow his conscience, he ran back to stop the missiles.
Marik and Akia had arrived to the control panel of what was making the noise.
"I wonder what it's for..." The red-eyed girl pondered.
The young Egyptian man couldn't care less, however, and brought his Millennium Rod out, hitting the control panel with its magic, causing it to short-circuit and shut down.
"Wait! What if this was important?!" Akia yelled out in panic.
"Whatever, at least now it's not as noisy anymore," he retorted.
Just then, Noah came in the room, in control of Mokuba's body.
"Mokuba! You made it out!" The red-eyed girl exclaimed happily.
Noah stopped in his tracks, confused as to how Marik and Akia had gotten out. He was so preoccupied with everything else, that he did not notice their absence in the virtual world. He then glanced behind them and saw the control panel completely shut down.
"What...! What happened?!" The boy cried out.
"Was it important? I thought so too! Marik just had to destroy it because of how annoyed he was at the noise it made," Akia answered.
"Oh no, oh no! This controlled missiles that are targeting this island and now I can't turn them off!" Noah yelled in panic.
"Wait, what?!" The black-haired girl screamed. "Who did this?! And how do you even know all this?!"
"W-Well... I'm not actually Mokuba..." He confessed. "I'm Noah, I took control of Mokuba's body and wanted to get out on my own, but... There's no time to explain! I have to get everyone out of the Virtual World before it's too late! You two should go to the blimp right away!" The boy stated as he ran out of the room.
"Wait...! Ow...!" As Akia was going after Noah, Marik yanked her back by her arm, causing her to yelp in pain. "Let me go! I want to help!"
"I'm sure you won't be of any use in this situation," the young Egyptian man replied nonchalantly. "Just listen for once and make things easier for when we have to leave in a hurry."
"This is all your fault!" The red-eyed girl was starting to get angry from how scared she was of losing her brother and friends. "If you hadn't destroyed the only way to stop the missiles, we wouldn't be in this situation!"
Not answering her, Marik just rolled his eyes and dragged her back to the blimp while she was loudly voicing her anger and discontent.
Fuguta and Isono came out as soon as they spotted the returning duo.
"You should start the blimp if you want to make it out of here alive," Marik cryptically told them before bringing Akia to his room. After he locked the door, he finally let her arm go.
The young woman rubbed her sore arm while glaring at the Egyptian man.
"Such a scary look you got there," Marik said sarcastically, then laughed.
"You're the worst..." Akia mumbled.
"Yet, you still don't hate me enough," the young man stated. "I want us to despise each other to the point that we would do whatever it takes to destroy one another. I won't let you jeopardize my life for your silly sentimentality. You will stay here and wait until this blimp takes off. With your non-existent sense of direction, you're bound to get lost and delay the departure even more."
The young woman felt so powerless. She knew that, logically, he was right. Akia's sense of direction in an unfamiliar place was lamentable at best. She went and leaned on a wall, arms crossed, feeling so angry at Marik's evil personality for so easily dismissing their feelings for each other. She was also mad at herself for being so helpless to do anything.
Marik was not feeling as amused as he thought he would be at upsetting Akia, but he didn't want to give the situation any more attention, lest he yield to his desires for her. He then got up and walked up to Akia, standing a mere inches in front of her. She looked up, still with a frown on her face, "what do you want? I'm not going anywhere..."
He put his two arms on the wall, surrounding her. Akia, not feeling in the mood for anything, because of how upset she was, tried to duck and get away. Marik wouldn't have it, though. He roughly held her by the shoulders, forcing her into a kiss. Seeing as she was not reciprocating it, he bit her lower lip hard, causing it to bleed. Akia yelped in pain as he kept nibbling and sucking on the wound. She tried to push him away, but he was too strong. After he pulled away, Akia brought a finger to her throbbing swollen lip.
"That hurt...!" She exclaimed with a shaking voice as she saw the blood on her finger.
Marik then yanked her closer to him by her arm, a scary look in his face, "I'm not done..." Veins were popping up from around his face as it distorted into the most evil expression that Akia had ever seen. There was no trace of Marik's original personality in there anymore. The red-eyed girl's blood ran ice cold. She was horrified, even more than when the Spirit of the Ring threatened her. Marik did not seem sane anymore. Acting on instinct to protect herself, Akia quickly reached into her bag for her Millennium Scale. As soon as Marik saw her bringing it close to his heart, he quickly let her go and backed off. The girl could've sworn she saw a tinge of fear in his eyes.
"Back off," she said, feeling more confident in being able to stop him.
"Come on, Akia," Marik chuckled, "you know you want me."
"I do want you, but not like this," Akia replied. "I want the real you and I will get him out. I'm not staying her a second longer... If you try to stop me, I will use my Millennium Scale." After saying her piece, the black-haired girl ran out of Marik's room. She decided to go wait for her brother and her friends at the entrance of the blimp.
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I just couldn't dwell for too long on the virtual arc it becomes such a mess... Besides, I wanted to get on with the main plot! I'm sorry if some of you wanted to see more of the virtual arc :( I hope it's not too disappointing?