Chapter 20:

And set the world right, they did. Within the next week, Yami and Yugi worked over time with the help of their millennium puzzles to put everything back in it's place. Of course there was an ample amount of confusion among the public. They had to be brainwashed into thinking that the whole Marik ruling the world thing was just a dream. Once that was done, the rest of the damage control was pretty mild.

Kaiba's company was ridded of all traces of Marik and Malik. The public had no recollection of Kaiba being involved with anything, so his business didn't suffer or anything like that. Actually, it was Kaiba who was traumatized by the whole thing. He had to go to a therapist for the following few months to recapture his lost childhood and crap like that.

Yugi was able to go to Antarctica and rescue his Grandfather, along with the rest of the elderly. They were very thankful (the ones who hadn't frozen from the cold, anyway). They decided, on there way back from Antarctica, to pick up the cannibals on "Cannibal Island" as well. Yugi didn't really want to, but Yami thought it would be good to reintroduce them to the civilized world (there were only about twenty left).

Ryou had made Bakura apologize to Yami and Yugi for betraying them and almost sending them to the shadow realm. He didn't really want to say sorry but he did anyway. And he got his two cats that Yami had promised him. Yugi threw in the iguana, too.

"Woo-hoo!" Bakura yelled when the package was sent to their house. It was addressed to him from Yami and Yugi. He opened the cardboard box and peeked inside.

There were two cute little calico kittens and an iguana hiding underneath. They purred at him and Ryou protested, "Bakura, you aren't going to eat them, are you!"

"Of course, I am. A deal's a deal."

"But they're adorable!" He cooed, still looking at them.

"Yeah, adorably delicious." Bakura lifted one of the kittens out of the box and starred at it, hungrily. "Mmm…"

Ryou held out his hand, "Bakura, give them to me, now!"

"And let you eat them all by yourself? No way. I'll let you have the iguana, though, if you promise to leave the tail."

At Yugi and Yami's house, they continued life as before, when Marik and Malik were still trying to achieve world domination and hadn't succeeded. They were in Yugi's room, taping even thicker chains to their millennium puzzles.

"Do you think this is really necessary, Yami?" Yugi asked, "I mean, we're not even using scotch tape. This is duct tape, for crying out loud."

Yami wrapped more tape around the chain and puzzle, "Yes, I know. That's only because I couldn't find the crazy glue and Bakura borrowed my welding torch."

"But I doubt Marik and Malik will try the 'grab and run' tactic again. That'd be kinda dumb. I mean, they've already tried it once, and we'd expect them to try it again."

"That's right. They know that we know that they know that it's stupid. So, they're counting on the fact that we think that they think that they won't try it again. Then they'll do it, even though they think that we know that they wont try it again."

Yugi's brain was sizzling. "Uh…"

"I know, it's confusing. But that's the way they think. Trust me." Yami finished the roll of tape and held it up so Yugi could see, "There. Now it's safe."

"It doesn't even look like it could be a millennium puzzle. People will think that you're carrying a big ball of duct tape around your neck."

"That's the whole idea." Yami smiled triumphantly, "This way, no one will try to steal it. Only a crazy person would be after a ball of tape."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Yami, but… Marik and Malik are crazy people."

He sighed, "Why can't I ever win…?"

"That's okay," Yugi patted his yami on the back, "Marik and Malik have probably realized that ruling the world isn't all it's cracked up to be. They're probably at a therapists' office right now trying to fix their lives."

They both sat there on the bed, thinking about what had just come out of Yugi's mouth. In a minute they looked at each other. "I don't think so."

Marik and Malik had been back in their old house for about two weeks now. Their big, shiny castle had been destroyed a little after Yami and Yugi took the millennium puzzles back. So, they had to move back into their non-castle house. Marik was in pieces over the loss. He spent the first week sitting on the couch watching government funded television.

Malik had gotten over it rather quickly, as he is usually the one to pick up the pieces and move on. But Marik was a different story entirely. The night that the puzzles were taken, Marik and Malik were both drunk and they didn't really notice. But at around noon, they woke up from their intoxicated slumber to find that the puzzles were missing. Marik had a fit and Malik was upset about the smelly vomit on the floor.

To this day, Marik still complained to his hikari about how dumb they were. Presently, they were in the living room and going through the things that were still left over from their three months as king and co-king of the world.

"Let's see…" Malik said, "Well, our millennium rods are still intact. And look, we have some of the chains the prisoners wore."

"So what? What good are those, now! We don't have any prisoners, Malik!" Marik snapped, folding his arms and pouting.

"Here." He shoved Marik's rod into his lap and continued to look in the box. He shifted around and pulled out a bunch of papers. "What are these?"

Marik looked over at him, "Hmm? Oh, hey! That's the rough draft of the Marble that I was working on in my spare time!"

"I didn't know you were actually going to write that."

"Of course, I was! I told you we were doing it. You just think I'm joking all the time, don't you?" He grabbed the papers and sat them on the coffee table. "I'll finish this and we can get it published."

"What publisher would waste his time on that?"

Marik growled, "Watch it, Malik. This is pure gold."

"Whatever." Malik went back into the box, "…Oh hey, look!"

Marik turned his head and saw Malik holding up a DVD with the words Cannibal Island on it. Marik took it, "Aw, hey, I almost forgot I turned this into a DVD! We can watch it right now."

"Okay." Malik put it into the DVD player under the television set and pressed play. It wasn't more than two minutes into the show when Marik said to Malik, "It just isn't right. We should still be in charge of the world."

"Huh? Oh, Marik, are you still on that?" He groaned, "C'mon, how many times do I have to tell you? It's over. Done with. Gone."

"… It's all your fault, you know." Marik said coldly, "It was your idea to have us drink all that Tequila and stuff. We were so drunk, we couldn't realize that Yami and Yugi had come and robbed us."

"What! Don't blame it all on me! You said we should celebrate."

"I said celebrate, not get so wasted that we couldn't see straight. That was probably that worse night of my life. I woke up with a killer headache and you wouldn't stop complaining about transsexual aliens coming and stealing your stupid beanie baby collection!"

Malik rolled his eyes and said no more. Marik turned his attention away from the T.V, pulled out a pen and began working on his Marble again. Malik sighed, "You know… I think we should stop trying to take over the world."

"What?" Marik stopped writing, "What are you talking about?"

"Incase you haven't noticed, Marik, our plans don't turn out exactly marvelous. Maybe we should stop and get a job at the Seven Eleven or something."

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't you quit on me! So we've had a few minor set backs. It doesn't matter. Every time we try, we get closer and closer to reaching our goal. Doesn't that say something to you?"

"… No, not really."

"C'mon, it's just like that old saying. Try, try again 'till you can't try no more. And we're still alive, so we can try!"

"But wouldn't a real job be better, Marik? I mean, no offense, but trying to take over the world doesn't exactly pay the bills. We usually end up having to beat up old ladies for their pocket change."

"So what? That'll do, until we take over permanently. We do have a job, anyway. We're part of the evil society."

Malik scratched his head and frowned, "That's a job?"

"Well, duh! Without evil, good would not exist. It's like ying and yang. Dark and Light. Chocolate and vanilla."

"So, what are you getting at, Marik? Because, I swear, I don't get it."

"What I'm getting at is that our job is keeping the world balanced. If we stopped being bad and taking over the world, chaos would surely take control!"

"Wow… I-I never realized we were that important."

Marik smiled and began writing again, "We are. We are the very essence of evil… and that is a very important job."

THE END…

Her Sweetness: Hi guys and gals. So, how did I do? I hope you've been enjoying this because the Marik and Malik madness just won't stop. My next fanfic is coming soon, and they will surely be the stars.

Meanwhile, just chill out and review. You can wait for my next fic… but you won't be waiting long.