Disclaimer : I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its affiliated characters

This is my first fanfic and hopefully it will not be a complete disaster. I would appreciate reviews and I welcome constructive criticism but I will not appreciate flames!

Summary: Yugi's friends are attacked and forced into a deadly game where failure means death. Can the group ascend the tower and defeat the mysterious Lady Adina? Or will they fall to her traps in their struggle for freedom? Eventual Prideshipping (Seto Kaiba x Yami Yugi)

Without further ado, may the story begin!

The Tower of Demise

Prologue: Lady Adina's Challenge

Yugi strained his eyes as he tried to gain his bearings. He gazed up and saw torches flickering against stone walls. How...did I get here? he thought to himself. And then he remembered...

~ 3 hours earlier ~

"Come on Yuge, hurry up!" shouted Joey playfully as they ran towards Domino Park.

"Hey, I have short legs!" Yugi complained in response. "It's not my fault if I can't keep up!"

"It's never stopped you before," teased Tea.

"She has a point there, Yugi," added Tristan.

The foursome were sprinting towards Domino Park, desperate to catch their friend before he left the city again. It had been six months since they had last seen Yami, who had spent his time travelling to discover more about himself. He was only in Domino for the day before he caught a flight to the UK, looking to learn more of his other lives[1]. He had phoned the Game Shop and alerted everyone to his temporary return. But he was only going to be there for another 4 hours before his plane departed. Everyone was looking forward to meeting him again, but they were not the only ones hoping to catch Yami before he vanished again...

Seto Kaiba was already in the park, watching Yami subtly. Kaiba had been keeping track of Yami's movements since his disappearance from Japan. He had been to Egypt, France, Belgium and even the USA. But why? That was the question that had been plaguing Kaiba's mind. He wondered what was going on in the head of the spiky-haired former pharaoh sometimes. But that was part of Yami's charm. His spontaneity was contagious and had made an impact on Yugi's group, but also on Kaiba himself. Although he would never admit to Yami's face, the pharaoh had definitely had an effect on the CEO. Kaiba knew himself that he was much less cold than he had been before, and he placed all of that down to Yami. And thanked him for it.

Yami wandered onto the bridge which spanned the length of the water in the park. He has missed everyone terribly and was hoping to see them. And explain to them what he had learned: the good, the bad and the unexpected. As he became lost in his thoughts he heard a shout from behind him.

"Pharaoh!" came the cries of his friends as they ran to greet him. He simply smiled back at them as they crowded him. Yugi tackled into him and almost sent the pair of them to the ground, but Yami just managed to stay on his feet. "We missed you!" added Tea as Yami was finally let go by Yugi.

"And I missed you, all of you," replied Yami happily. His smile could not have grown much wider, which was noted by Kaiba, who stood only ten feet away, concealing himself behind a tree.

"So where ya been, pal?" inquired Joey. "Not a phone call for six bleeding months? Just postcards, and you didn't even tell us where you were, how you were, whether you were coming back, what you were doing or nothing." He inhaled deeply after his rant.

"Did you even breathe during that?" asked Tristan dismissively.

"So what if I didn't?" spat back Joey. The two continued their argument, much to the amusement of Kaiba who watched on from the sidelines. But his enjoyment did not last for long as he sensed something was wrong. He looked around and noticed that there was nobody else around. The park was completely deserted. It was usually bustling at this time of the day. His instincts were telling him to get right out of there but his conscience was nagging him to warn Yugi's group of the possible danger.

His indecision cost him, and he felt a wave of energy rush from behind him and send his flying into another tree nearby. As he tried to struggle back to his feet: badly winded after his collision, he saw a tree nearby being slashed to pieces by an invisible force. Fear built up inside him and he made to sprint away, but another blast impacted him straight in his back, sending him flying.

Yugi's group had heard the scuffle in the trees and went to investigate only to see Kaiba being thrown through the air and colliding with the ground hard. The group looked in horror at his motionless body but had no time to act as the same force impacted all of them, leaving them all unconscious and at the mercy of their attacker.

~ Present Time ~

Yugi sat up straight and looked to his right and saw Tea unconscious at his side. He shook her gently and she began to awaken. "Yugi?" she asked groggily.

"It's me, Tea," he replied reassuringly.

"What happened?" Yugi did not have time to answer her question as he heard Joey and Tristan stirring nearby. The two sat up and groaned. Joey was holding his stomach in pain. "What's wrong, Joey?"

"I need food!" he whined. The other three sighed in exasperation. "But not only that..."they turned back towards him, "I think whatever the hell happened, I have managed to bruise my abdomen. It hurts even sitting up."

"I'm surprised you even know that word, Joey," teased Tristan.

"Watch it, Tristan!" Joey turned round violently at the insult, but cringed at the pain in his stomach. The other three were concerned. "Any idea what happened, Yuge?"

"The last thing I remember was being blasted by something after seeing..." Yugi stood up sharply and desperately looked for Kaiba, only to see Yami awake and sitting by his side. Yugi joined his dark half and gasped in horror. Kaiba's injuries were serious. His left arm was limp and bruised and it was obvious that a couple of his ribs were broken. The right-hand side of his face had deep scratches and half of his shirt had been ripped away, showing how badly bruised his chest now was. Yugi looked away. He was thankful that no-one else had been left in this state. "I wonder what did this..." he pondered.

"We will find out, of that I am sure," stressed Yami. Yugi looked to him and saw the intense anger in his eyes. Yugi was not sure where his anger was directed but dared not ask at this point. It was then that Kaiba slowly began to waken, and the extent of his wounds finally took a hold of him. He yelled in pain as he tried to sit up, attracting the attention of Tea, Tristan and Joey. All three remained silent as Kaiba struggled to get up, against Yami's encouragement to remain still. It was only once he slipped as crashed back down to the ground did he remain where he was. "You have broken at least three ribs, Kaiba, you need to keep the stress you put on them to a minimum," Yami instructed.

"I don't take orders from you," sneered Kaiba, but he knew that Yami was right. The attack had left him in a bad way but before any of them could fully take in what had happened they heard a set of doors thrown open.

Their gazes moved towards a balcony which had suddenly become lit by torches, and stared as a young woman appeared before them. "Welcome, duelists," she declared. "I see that you are finally awake."

"Who the hell are you?" challenged Joey.

"I am Lady Adina, the Empress of Duels. You have all been chosen to face my tasks. Succeed, and you will win your freedom. Fail, and only death awaits you."

"That sounds rather unfair to me!" shouted Joey angrily.

"You expect us to do this? What if we refuse?" asked Tristan.

"Then this is the consequences..." Adina raised her hand and a sword was summoned from the ground, right in front of Yugi. The sword flew through the air and struck Yugi straight in the chest. Everyone else gasped in horror, until they realised the sword was not real. As it disappeared, Yugi collapsed to the ground in shock. Tea ran and embraced him in relief, and well as protecting him. "Next time, the sword will be real." Their eyes once again turned to Adina, and they were filled with anger and fear.

"Here are the rules of my challenge," continued Adina, "There are three paths to the top of my tower. All paths must be taken and all are of different difficulty. You must decide how many or how few of your group take each path, but know this. All survivors of the trials must reach the top before the final challenge may begin. Some of you may face difficult challenges while some may face far easier ones. But know this, if any of you break the rules or fail a single challenge, it will lead to your deaths. I eagerly await the results of the trials." Lady Adina bowed to the group before departing the balcony and the great doors shut behind her.

The group all were stunned, but one thought remained on both Yami and Kaiba's minds. All survivors of the trials...

[1] Potential for sequels should this story go well

Well that about wraps it up. Let me know what you think and Chapter 1 should be up soon!