DECISION ROAD
Chapter 14/destroy

"Akane… I wish you could only hear me now… Or what's left of me… I know I've apologized before, but I guess I didn't tell you everything… I didn't tell you how much I wanted to turn time back, just spend more time with you… Even if I got you back for just a few days, you reminded me of what I used to be and what I used to have… You know, out of all the things I've lost… I'll miss you the most."

Akane's eyes shot open. Once again she was laying in her room, back on the jet.
That was Marik's voice… Wait. Marik?!
But her head was silent.
He's gone…

Akane got out of her bed, thinking how long she was out. The last thing she remembers is Yami Marik throwing her to a wall. She looked outside her window, where she could clearly see the duel tower. Oh no… she thought, seeing a dark cloud surrounding the top… I only know two people capable of doing this… And only one of them could be dueling…
*thump*, she heard.
What in the world?..
Akane cautiously went to the door of her room. Even if the main danger was on the tower, she was expecting anything. But what she saw only gave her hope.
"Odion!" she yelled, seeing him trying to walk. Trying isn't even a word strong enough to describe his walking – the guy was very, very weak.
"Miss Akane… You are okay…" he said, as she was rushing to help him. She took his arm and put it over her shoulder to help him walk.
"More or less…" she said, feeling pain in her back, which was most likely from the hit she took, "I'll fill you in on what's happening later, Odion, right now we have to get to that duel tower… Or this might be the last time we'll ever see or hear Marik… the real one…"

Akane didn't know just how she would help by dragging herself and Odion to the tower, but there was no way she could sit around, not knowing what's going on. And she remembered, that Odion used to suppress the evil inside Marik, or, well, at least everyone here says so.
As they were heading to the elevator of the tower, Odion spoke up:
"Miss Akane… I may sound crazy right now, but Master Marik was the reason why I could get back on my feet… I… heard him talking to me, just a few minutes ago…"
"That makes two of us." she said, making hope appear in Odion's eyes as well.

The annoying ding sound was there again. As the elevator doors opened, Akane had another image burned into her memory.
She saw Yami Marik merged with the Winged Dragon of Ra… while the real Marik was almost no more. There was only a part of his face left, which was tired, upset and given up.
This was the worst shadow game so far.

Everyone was staring at both Akane and Odion, yelling their names, but she could not hear them. She could not see that the Pharaoh and Yugi were in the same situation. She could not see Ishizu, who was more worried than anyone there. All Akane could see was Marik, Odion and the animal who started this whole madness.
She felt lightness on her shoulder. Odion started walking towards the dueling arena, trying to talk some sense into Marik. He was thrown backwards by the force of the millennium rod, just like Akane was before.
Odion got up and started doing the same thing. "Master Marik, you've created this evil, so you can destroy it as well!" he yelled, right before Yami Marik threw him backwards again.
But Akane just stood there. This was going nowhere. As Odion was getting up again and walking to the same spot, Akane stopped him.
It wasn't Odion holding Marik's dark side away…
She gave Odion a look, which was saying that he should stay out of this.
…and it wasn't Ishizu…
Aka took a few steps forward, catching the real Marik's attention.
…it was ME…
"I'm not afraid of you." she said to Yami Marik, making him even madder than he was before.
…and his dark side is here because I was scared…

Then she looked to Marik.
…and after what I've been through… Being scared is not an option.

"ISHTAR, GET YOURSELF TOGETHER." Akane yelled at Marik. "You can't just leave me like this! Do you want me to become a personal slave of your dumbass alter ego over there?! Yeah, I don't think you do, so how about you start doing something useful?! For what I've been through with you, you owe me at least a single date, Marik! And you kind of need a body to attend to a date, for your information! SO GET TO WORK."

Her words were followed by silence, and silence was followed by comments, such as "I…guess that was encouraging?" and "Did she just ask him out?", and THAT was followed by Yami Marik's groaning.
It's…working… she thought. Marik is fighting back…

"Pharaoh!" everyone heard a familiar voice, coming out of Marik's body. "Attack, now! I can't hold my dark side for long!"
"No, don't!" Yami Marik yelled, trying to fight back.
"NOW!"
"No!"
"Attack me now!"

They were fighting inside a single body, making the Pharaoh hesitate. "Pharaoh…" Akane spoke up, "this may just be the last chance to save Marik. You'll have to trust him."
"Right." he nodded, turning back to his opponent and declaring an attack, destroying the Winged Dragon of Ra, that Yami Marik had merged with, creating a blinding light and a lot of smoke at the same time.

As the light was gone, and the smoke was fading away, Akane could hear Ishizu's whisper "Brother…". The Pharaoh might have blasted Marik away into the Shadow Realm just now.
Please tell me it worked… Akane thought, getting ready for anything, waiting for the smoke to fade away enough.

Seconds later a familiar figure standing on the dueling field was visible. For everyone's relief, the crazy hair was gone, and, according to Joey, "his face looks a lot more normal now".
"Marik… you're alright…" Akane whispered to herself, dropping on the floor. Ishizu rushed to her immediately. "I'm fine, Ishizu, I'm just really tired…"

But the duel was not over yet. Marik, apparently, had a single life point left. "Pharaoh… I'm sorry. For everything I've done to you and your friends. I came into this world with a duty to help you and I did the exact opposite. Well maybe it's not too late to fix it yet."
With that, Yami Marik was back on the field. Or, well, his eye, in the place where Marik used to be.
"Marik, wait! Stop! We could rule the world together, just listen to me, you're making a huge mistake!" he begged.
"No." Marik said, "For once, I'm doing something right."
He lifted his hand over his duel disk, forfeiting the duel and making his life points disappear… along with his dark side.

Most of the people there ran to Yugi, as soon as he was announced the winner of this duel. But Akane…
Hell, I suddenly feel full of energy.
Aka quickly got up and ran. She got on the dueling field and rushed to Marik. When she got close enough, she saw how exhausted he was. But he had enough energy to pull her into a kiss.
It was short, but it was something Aka would never forget.
"To hell with being friends, I wanted to do that for a while now…" he said, after.
"Yeah, I think this will be easy to get used to." Aka said, laughing a bit. "Man… I miss being happy…"
Ishizu and Odion showed up moments later, along with the Pharaoh and the others.
Marik gave him the strongest card in his deck – the Winged Dragon of Ra: "Pharaoh, you need this as well as the ancient scriptures carved into my back." He spun around with his back facing the Pharaoh and took off his shirt.
Aaaand there's my reward. Akane thought, smiling and admiring the view of shirtless Marik. She was human, after all…
To her disappointment, Marik put his shirt back on, and was about to say something, but was interrupted by Kaiba:
"Alright you geeks, as much as I enjoy your little welcome back party, I have to tell you that this tower will self destruct in one hour."
"SAY WHAT?!" everyone yelled in a chorus.
"Yeah… Get on the jet."

Nobody was in the mood for exploding, so everyone quickly made their way to the jet, except for Kaiba and Mokuba.
"We have our own private jet here! So see you guys later!" Mokuba said, waving, "And thanks again for saving me back on the blimp, Naomi!" he winked, making Aka chuckle.

The rest of them made their way back to the non-private jet.
Everyone is going back to their own lives… And we will soon be home, where I wanted to go back to for a while now… Hm, I have to say, this was an interesting adventure. she thought.
A moment later Marik made his way to Aka and hugged her.
"Thank you." he said.
"If this is your way of saying thank you, then you'll have to go on acting a bit gay, hugging everyone. Couldn't have done it without them…"
"You never change… Glad to have you back…" he said, smiling.
"You too, Marik…"
"…Hey, did you seriously ask me out back there?"
"Well, one of us had to do it sooner or later!" she said, making them both laugh.

After a long trip, it was sure nice to be back at Domino City. Akane, Marik, Ishizu and Odion once again thanked everyone – both for saving Marik, saving the world and showing them the way back to the docks. Marik's yacht was still there, and they all had an even longer trip ahead – back to Egypt.
"Bye guys! We promise to visit someday!" Akane yelled, as they were sailing away. Hearing them yell their good-bye's made her sad – these people helped her out more than she could ever thank them for.
Aka didn't feel like going inside yacht and stayed on the deck, until Marik showed up.
"I was showing Ishizu how to steer the yacht, Odion needs some rest…" he said, leaning on the railing beside her.
"About time you started treating him as your brother…" she said, "So… What now?"
"Well… I don't know, really. We could actually start living. I guess going back to Egypt is the first step."
"Are you sure about Egypt? I mean… I liked Domino. Nice city. I know it more than Egypt, knowing that because of a certain someone I was living in Italy for two years." she smirked at Marik.
"Oh come on, I said-"
"Marik, I'm joking, calm down!" she laughed.
"Well… Domino seems nice, yeah. We could actually move here." He stopped, then looked at her. "Roomies, Aka?"
Aka smiled. "Roomies!.. Wait, what did you just call me?"
"Aka… I thought you didn't like it when I called you by you full-"
"Well now I do." She said, making Marik chuckle.
"Alright, Akane, I'll go check up on Ishizu before she crashes us."

He left her on the deck. The sun was setting, and Aka was just admiring the view. After what she's been through, this relaxation is what she needed.
My imagination is going way too wild after this… It's like I just heard an evil laugh inside my head. Right. she thought, turning around and heading inside the yacht.

"Or maybe it wasn't your imagination, my dear?"

Akane froze.

THE END

AN: FINALLY. I can finally go write the sequel! It's just that I have so many ideas for the sequel and asdfghjk :'D
Well, my dear readers, I am super happy that you stayed with me this whole time! Reviews of the whole story are appreciated , it will only make the sequel better!
Thank you to all my reviewers, and to the silent readers – it's not too late to say what you think :)

The sequel, Dark Highway, will be out in no time! So check back soon!

Once again, THANK YOU ALL! :3