Annihilation. Yu-Gi-Oh.
Annihilation.
I'm moments away from claiming my victory! The phoenix rises tonight!
People obsess over all the wrong things.
Money.
Power.
Revenge.
Immortality.
The last is usually represented by the phoenix. But, they're obsessing over the wrong aspect of the phoenix - they look at the strength it has, and never ask themselves what upon what it feeds to gain such strength.
Seto knows.
Seto knows the phoenix feeds on souls.
That's how it's reborn so often. Each soul it takes fuels another rebirth, another glorious rise from someone else's ashes. The phoenix never truly dies, yes, but others die for it. Others die to make it beautiful, others die to make it immortal. Immortality's price can only be paid by mortals - Death can only be placated by those who can die. By the deaths of those who can die.
Which makes perfect sense to Seto. Nothing in this world is free. Especially something like immortality. Something that nobody should have, comes at a price that nobody should be willing to pay. Nobody human, but Yami no Malik's not human, is he?
So, Yami no Malik doesn't care when he smiles so prettily (he's insane and beautiful and his insanity is what makes him beautiful) and draws the God Card from his deck. He doesn't care when Seto's on his knees, head tilted back and neck exposed so submissively that if the fate of the world didn't ride on the duel, surely someone would be teasing him about it (if Mokuba hadn't died and if Seto was still human). He doesn't care when the rise of the phoenix leads to the fall of Seto, an empty shell slumping to the ground, lost in the shadows cast by the brilliant golden God. The brilliant golden God, and the equally brilliant master, who casts no shadow because he is one.
Yami no Malik doesn't care about any of that though. It would be too human of him to care. Too human of Seto, even. If Seto had been strong enough to control the God Card then Yami no Malik would have been the sacrifice (or so he told Seto, but he lied because really, would he want anyone else to have the pleasure of destroying the world?). It's only chance that the sacrifice should be Seto (if you can call him that anymore, he is by now nothing but Yami no Malik's wants and needs in human flesh, a living shadow and nightmare pet). Only chance, which Seto has never believed in like so many other things that he refused to acknowledge. That he hated, but never believed in, try through Yami no Malik might to prove otherwise.
So really, it makes sense that Yami no Malik shouldn't care about the beautiful body that he had once stroked for hours on end, relishing in the feel of flesh tensing with distate under his touch. It makes sense that Yami no Malik shouldn't care about the dark indigo eyes losing all signs of life, and shouldn't even think about the fact that they once were blue. It makes perfect sense that Yami no Malik shouldn't even watch Seto die, his insane indigo eyes prefering to regard his God rise than watch Seto fall(to tell the truth, Seto died a long time ago, this is not him, as he would have been the first to tell you were he still him.) Yami no Malik prefers the result to the method, the strength to the sacrifice.
Yami no Malik knows what the phoenix feeds upon and doesn't care.
He's the one who feeds it.
He offers it Seto's soul, and doesn't care about the lovely shell that once housed Seto's spirit. Instead, Yami no Malik kicks it off the side of the building, and laughs as the world flames to ashes.
After this time, the phoenix will not rise again.
It has nothing left to feed upon.
Don't you realize you don't exist anymore?
~Fin~
Yami no Malik, Seto and phoenix-food.
Dangershipping, final part of a trilogy I wrote for Nek0-chan.