A/N: Hey and welcome back to another chapter of Strangers Like Me, and this time we'll be taking a trip through the Movie... but before we do I'm just going to clarify some things first - a lot of time takes between each arc if you like - so this one is nearly a year after Battle City. It also means that if Seto has known the others for quite some time... and so without further ado, I shall hand over to Cassie...
Disclaimer - I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I only own my own characters - or the main plot of the chapter (that belongs to Waffles4eva)
Dedication - Waffles4eva without whom this chapter would not exist
Chapter Three - Freedom
Alyssa and I made a promise when all this crazy stuff started that we would never save the world wearing our school uniforms. We made it last for about sixteen months before that promise fell to pieces – not only did we end up saving the world in our school uniforms, but I also had to do it in my PE kit. Yippie!
I don't really know how we managed to explain the horrendous state that we where in when we all got home that April evening, but then again, the rather large monsters showing up all over the globe and attacking does tend to distract ones parents from our own activities.
It started like any other Thursday afternoon – my sister and Izzy were preparing to go home while I was getting ready to play netball. I watched my sister waved to the other girl and leave. Izzy, to start to head off in the direction of her own home, but soon stopped when she heard Monica and Sam calling her. She waited patiently for them to catch up before the three of them walked across the car park together.
Unfortunately, they didn't get much further than that – for at the other end of the car park was a crowd of duellists all waiting to get a piece of the 'King of Games' and her three Egyptian God Cards. This was actually one of the nastier side-effects of winning Battle City last summer, particularly since that certain documentary on the television, but now everybody and anybody who considered themselves to be duellists knew that Izzy Corbey had in her possession the God Cards – three of the most powerful cards in existence.
Seto Kaiba has tried at least five times since last September to win the God Cards from her, but each time, he has failed spectacularly – the last time they accidentally set off the fire alarm with the explosion from Obelisk the Tormentor and Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. I am pretty sure that the Pharaoh should have had Kaiba's three Blue Eyes White Dragons and his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon for the amount of times that the God Cards have been at stake, but for some reason, he refuses to take them. In Battle City, the only rare cards that he collected from other duellists were the God Cards – he had been entitled to take them, but he chose not to.
Anyway, the hoard of duellists had spotted Izzy and began surging towards her. I could almost imagine the surprise and panic on her face as Monica shoved her and Sam back towards the school doors. This may not have been the wisest of ideas seeing as the doors only open in one direction and in this case, it was the wrong way.
At this point, I decided to abandon the netball and help Izzy who was being forced against the door with Monica and Sam. There was no way that she was going be able to duel anybody in those conditions, let alone activate her disk without the risk of decapitating someone. I opened the door and dragged the older girl into the school; Monica and Sam - who instantly started moving the large reception sofa in front of the door to stop the mob from pouring into the school, closely followed on behind us.
However, we all knew that it was not going to last for long, and Izzy needed to be out of there before that happened, so I took a hold of her and dragged her away once more while Sam held them at bay. We managed to get out of school and on to a bus, before other duellists spotted us, but since the bus was already pulling away, they never caught up with us.
The bus took us up to the Museum where the stone tablet is still on display – it seems to have taken permanent residence until such a time when the Pharaoh can reclaim his memories and there is no telling when that might be. We hopped off and headed into the Museum to find a pay phone so I could call Alyssa and tell her where I was – that mission soon proved to be redundant because my sister was already there – looking at a poster for a new Egyptian exhibit that was on display. She saw us and waved us over, pointing it out to us. It was some strange blue pyramid thingy that looked eerily like the Millennium Puzzle around Izzy's neck and of course, curiosity got the better of the three of us and we went to take a look.
We found it and a rather large sarcophagus with a creepy mummy. There was a legend too – it spoke of a powerful Egyptian Sorcerer known as Anubis who tried to take over the world 5000 years ago, but was prevented by the intervention of the 'nameless' Pharaoh – three guesses to whom that is. Before he was destroyed, Anubis promised that he would one day return from the dead and take his revenge - that did not sound good in the slightest. I exchanged a look with Izzy who was certainly thinking along the same lines as I was. I turned to share this with my sister, only to find that she was no longer standing beside me and had gone back over to the mummy case.
She pointed out a white notice next to it and we read it, wondering what on earth it mean: "The eye that see what's yet to come, it's vision shall be fulfilled; unless blinded by event predetermined thus light and shadows both be killed."
We were blasted backwards by a blinding white light – crashing painfully to the floor. Alyssa and I woke up almost instantly to find that both the Pyramid of Light and the mummy of Anubis had gone – having vanished into thin air. Izzy woke a moment or two screaming something about coffee pots – scaring the heck both of us before she too realised that the items were missing and scrambled to her feet and started mumbling half sentences about weird dreams and Kaiba. She said something about staying put for police questioning.
I scoffed at that – we have never listen to her about staying behind before and we had no intention of beginning now so we followed her outside to find that she was being driven away in the back of Kaiba's car. This was not going to be good.
We followed the car up to Kaiba's Duel Dome where we found Mokuba who told us that once again his brother was challenging Izzy to yet another duel – as if the previous 42 times that he's already had his butt kicked by the Pharaoh didn't matter at all.
But this time was different; because Kaiba activated a new trap card which none of us had ever seen before and conveniently also called the Pyramid of Light. It sent up a bright blue light, cracking the roof of the duel dome, before spreading to the four corners around the two duellists, creating a super-sized version of the Pyramid of the Light sealing both Kaiba and the Pharaoh inside. Alyssa and I watched in horror as Obelisk the Tormentor reached out to touch the blue pyramid and dissolved into a thousand pieces – Slifer and Ra following suite.
This soon proved to be the least of our problems as we stared at the large looming red eye in the middle of the pyramid that decided that it was going to suck my sister and myself into it. We woke up to find ourselves lying on a cold stone floor – we had barely enough time to consider where it was that we were, before we heard a piercing shriek from somewhere in the labyrinth-like place that we had found ourselves in.
It most certainly was Izzy. Alyssa glanced at me and I caught what she was thinking – we started heading towards where we thought we had heard Izzy, but the problem was that no sooner had we started to move, then a jet of flame spat out at us – Alyssa threw us to the floor as the air singed above our heads. When it had stopped, we both had stood back up cautiously – it was quite clear that we were not welcome wherever it was that we were.
By the time that we had found Izzy, we had already faced three pit falls, several volleys of arrows, yet another fireball, thunderbolts, tidal waves, monsters, and large spiders and I was beginning whether or not the Millennium Puzzle – which by this point we had decided that was the most logical explanation for where we were – knew that we were not Indiana Jones.
Izzy has mentioned that she'd been in here several times, but from what I can remember she'd never said anything about the traps – though I suppose if the Pharaoh knows that she is in here, he's hardly likely to set them off.
Admittedly, it would be a lie to say that we found Izzy; she actually found us and began dragging us back the way we had come screaming something about necromancy. Alyssa translated this for me into there were active stiffs that were now chasing us, waving her hand behind to the legion of the undead that were following us, and we ran faster.
Alyssa came to a sudden halt in one of the corridors that we had come earlier and turned back to face the legions of the undead still stumbling towards us, and kneeling on the floor. Izzy and I exchanged fearful looks as my sister removed the Millennium Ring from her neck and placed it on the floor and waited. She waited until the closet mummy had within grabbing distance, before she yanked the ring backwards towards her – activating one of the firetraps that we had had come across earlier and setting our undead friends on fire.
Apparently, Alyssa noted as we booted various flaming limb back through the fire, it wasn't us that the Puzzle was worried about, but Bakura – the Spirit of the Ring. Izzy shot us both a look and asked if there was something that we weren't telling her, but we were saved from answering by some of the stronger mummies breaking through the fire, and still ambling towards us.
We shrieked and started once more to run along the corridor – me yelling at my sister for the disastrous results of her plan; Alyssa shouting her defence of said plan; and Izzy screaming at the both of us to shut up and run faster.
We followed Izzy down corridors; around corners; up and down stairs of various sizes and through doorways that I was convinced had not been there earlier, but still Izzy seemed to have the best sense of direction in this crazy place and now we had a factor in our favour – the traps that had been constantly activating were no longer doing so – maybe there is some sort of internal safety catch when Izzy is in here, but whatever it was, it was working to our favour as we outran the flaming mummies and left them behind.
I stopped eventually, checking that we had lost the mummies, practically walking into Izzy and Alyssa who were staring in opposite directions. Izzy pointed towards the large eye-shaped portal that showed the duel outside and she muttered that things weren't going too well for 'Yami' as she still calls him.
And she was right – as long as the Pyramid of Light was in play, the Pharaoh would have no chance.
Alyssa then pointed the large versions of the Pyramid and the Puzzle were fighting it out to and the Millennium Puzzle seemed to losing. She voiced this and Izzy disputed it. They stood in silence for a few moments before they decided it was completely pointless and the best course of action was to: "Head back toward Anubis' room" and: "Then find a way to help Yami."
When I tried to remind them the mummies were back in this direction, but Alyssa simply said that I should be used to all this after Battle City.
When we were almost there when Izzy sank to the floor, clutching her side, groaning in pain, telling us that she had felt weak all of a sudden. It was then that I noticed the blue energy stream that had been following us. Izzy noted that it might lead us back to Anubis and we agreed – hauling her back to her feet and back along the corridor and to Anubis.
We came to a stop a few feet away from Anubis' room – peering around and staring at it for several moments before Izzy asked if we were ready. Alyssa shrugged and said that she just knew Anubis was going to give us a monologue, which inevitably he did.
He showed us a world tour of the destruction that he was planning. We watched in stunned silence as we watched the Earth's landmarks crumble into dust one by one. It wasn't that the human race didn't try to stop him – the ships and tanks and soldiers were proof enough of that, but we just didn't win.
Anubis finished by chanting something in a language that I couldn't understand, but clearly someone behind me did. Izzy started mumbling as she repeated his words, trying to get it clear in her own head: "At the dawn the eighteenth year of light and shadows, the child of fire will be renewed." She said it was Ancient Egyptian and that his voice seemed familiar, but she got no further than that because our old friends, the flaming mummies had turned up behind us and some other new friends, although not burning, appeared in front of us from caskets.
This was not good and I said as much to the two older girls – wanting to know how exactly we were going to get out of this, but Alyssa merely smiled and waved her hand to the space above us to where Mike was currently floating and wearing an extremely disgruntled expression. A moment later he was crashing painfully to the floor sending burning limbs everywhere. He scrambled to his feet pulling a flaming foot from his singing hair – demanding an explanation for whatever the heck was going on as the rest of the mummies advanced on us.
We gave him the shorten version while beating the undead with their own limbs. We told him quickly about the legend and about Anubis and the vendetta he has got with the Pharaoh, and about the prophecy. My sister jerked her head up at that point from where she was fending off her collection of friends and asked if pre-determined events was the same as fate.
Izzy's face lit up at that and she shouted across to us that she had an idea. She scurried across the room to the sarcophagus, ducking the mummies trying to take a grab for her and she knelt down beside it and started digging around the coffin for something – leaving the rest of us to deal with the rest of our pals. All of a sudden, our friends expanded and exploded – one by one and became nothing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Izzy shoving something into her shoe – it was something shiny gleaming in the white light that blasted us back to reality.
I woke to be greeted by the concerned face of Mokuba Kaiba peering down at me and I hugged him, while Mike and Alyssa rose groggily to their feet. Sam steadied them and supported them as they did so. She grinned at us and waved our attention to where the pyramid was shattering into a thousand pieces – leaving the two duellists who were still standing.
Well, almost – the Pharaoh was still standing, but Kaiba was not – having been flung to one side by Anubis who had taken the CEO's place in the duel.
Staring past her, I noticed that another person was standing behind us – folding his arms as he watching the duel beneath us. I blinked. It was Pegasus – when did he get here?
While the Pharaoh fended off against the new monster that Anubis had summoned, Sam told me that, after getting rid of those duellists at school, she had meet up with Mike who had come to find where his sister was, who still hadn't come home yet. It had been then that they noticed the large blue beam of the Pyramid of Light above Kaiba's Duel Dome, and the question of where Izzy was soon solved. They had got inside, and were greeted by Mokuba Kaiba who confirmed that their respective siblings were in the middle of the blue pyramid.
Then again it wasn't safe for them either with the floor cracking and moving as it was, making it almost impossible for them to get back out the way they had come in which meant that the only way out was up. At that point, the end of a rope ladder had fallen from the sky and had hit her on the end. They had looked up to see the Game Creator leaning outside his helicopter, shouting at them to hurry up.
Sam had propelled the younger boys along – reminding them both that Izzy and Kaiba would kill whoever was left alive if Mike and Mokuba didn't get out. They had not needed to be told twice as they scrambled up the ladder and she had followed suite. When they were in the helicopter, some force started dragging Mike out of the helicopter and if the three of them had not grabbed hold of his body then he would have fallen to his death. It was then that Mokuba had noticed Alyssa and me out-cold by the upper railings and they had decided that the best action was to come down to us. Mokuba added that it had been quite a shock when they watched various burns appear on our faces with no idea of how they could get there.
They finished the explanation just in time to see the Pharaoh summon the three Egyptian Gods back to the field and use Obelisk to do what he did best - blasting the Sphinx into pieces and taking Anubis with it.
Alyssa rubbed her hands together in glee, grinning widely as she said: "And so, another World-Saving event draws to a close. We've seen a lot of trouble here today, but it's turned out well in the end. The Pyramid is destroyed; Anubis is gone; the God Cards prevailed once again, and it is almost certain that Izzy is about to extent the hand of friendship to Kaiba…"
I scoffed at that – but Izzy's voice drifted up to us as she sprinted over to the fallen duellist who was groggily coming to: "Seto, are you alright?" She held out her hand to him and added, "Here, let me help you." My sister shot me a 'told you so' look.
We heard him snap at her that he could look after himself, but nonetheless he accepted her hand and she hauled him to his feet. I raised my eyebrows at that and glanced at Mokuba and Mike – who both started grinning at me in a knowing fashion - the three of us have a bet that relies on our respective older siblings and I shoot them both a look to tell them that the exchange below was nowhere near a contribution factor to that bet. Alyssa and Sam too, watched with slight amusement, but that soon changed to horror as the black sludge that was Anubis began oozing and reforming into a large dog-like creature.
He laughed and asked how well we would play this game when the monsters were real. I shouted that he really should get with the times – Izzy had already faced real monsters a dozen times before and there was even that one time when we were all monsters too – that was a little creepy, but still the point still stood. Sam looked taken aback for a moment and asked if that was real – for she had thought that Alyssa had been making it up.
Apparently Anubis didn't like my interruption and he snarled at us while simultaneously scattering the contents of both Kaiba and Izzy's decks adding that there was nothing in their decks that could save them now. My sister tried her luck summoning her ever faithful Strike Ninja and Rabid Horsemen, but Anubis snorted at her and swatted her monsters aside as though they were flies.
And to make matters worse, the roof above us was beginning to crumble. Izzy screamed at us to get of there and Pegasus added his agreement – pointing to where the Toon Dark Magician Girl and the Toon Blue Eyes White Dragon were holding up a section of the roof.
Alyssa pushed Mike and me towards the elevator door. Mokuba hesitated only briefly, glancing at his older brother who nodded, before he too followed us with Sam and Pegasus bringing up the rear.
We had been standing outside, just waiting for it to be over when Anubis exploded out of the Dome and quite literally jumped down the roads away from us. We understandable highly alarmed; I think Alyssa put it best when she said: "This is what's technically known as a bit of a bugger."
Pegasus agreed and ordered his man to start the engine of his helicopter and we all climbed in – waiting for Izzy and Seto to appear which they did moments later.
We knew we were flying into a giant shadow game – we all knew as we watched the black clouds spread beyond our line of vision. Pegasus confirmed it - saying that this storm was spreading all over Great Britain and in less than hours we would wave goodbye to Western Europe and the Eastern Seaboard of America, and in just a few hours from now, the entire world was going to be covered in shadows, and we were the only ones who had any way of stopping it - so we had little pressure on us; or anything.
Anubis was waiting for us - watching our small helicopter from a distance and as we neared him, he seemed to roar, creating a billowing black smoke that rolled towards us. We watched in muted horror as the smoke dropped, leaving behind hundreds, maybe even thousands of monsters and one in particular was aiming for us in the helicopter. We heard Croquet shouting in the cockpit that there was no way that there was no way that we would be able to avoid a collision. Pegasus bellowed over the sounds of the helicopter to turn around and run.
Croquet must have managed to break every rule in the flying manual as he swung the helicopter around so much that we were effectively flying on our side in mid-air, but even Croquet's spectacular flying skills couldn't stop Grey Wing, the Dragon from hitting us.
The force of the impact shook the helicopter throwing those of us in the back about and wrenching Croquet from the now useless controls as we spun faster and faster- colours and shapes, trees and buildings, blurring before sharpening into focus as the ground came rushing up beneath us.
Eventually, I heard Izzy scream that we were going to hit the local petrol station, and she was right. If we hit it, the explosion would take out not only the helicopter, but most of the surroundings too.
This was a residential area and although storm warnings had been issued, and that monsters had been spotted in the sky, and most of the cars on the road were police cars trying to stop the panic and get people to return to their homes – Izzy and Mike's father was probably with them.
Alyssa's voice crackled over the inter-chopper radio from her position in the cockpit – there had not been enough room for her in the back with us so she had hopped in the front with Croquet - she shouted that the angle of depression equalled the angle of elevation and that judging by the angle that Grey Wing had hit us at, we were not going to hit the petrol station. Alyssa had always said that she would find a use for all those maths lessons studying trigonometry and now she had.
It still didn't help us very much because we were still going to hit the ground – well actually we skimmed over the top of the petrol station and knocking down the old tree that had stood for years in the local area, before crashing diagonally into the ground.
I opened my eyes to find that I was still alive – and without major injuries, or even minor one come to think about it – I was a little shaken, but still very much alive. I groaned as I released the buckle keeping me in place and staggered to my feet.
Izzy was already on her own feet, checking that both Pegasus and Sam who had sat in the wrong places were not dead, but merely unconscious. She ordered us younger ones, Mike, Mokuba and myself to get outside while she and Kaiba got the two unconscious people on the stretch of green lawn beside the helicopter that was not covered in debris.
We stood back for a moment before we realised that Croquet and Alyssa were still in the cockpit. Izzy raced back in to get them out with Kaiba following her. I tried to follow, but Mokuba held me back, telling me that I would probably get in the way. Grudgingly I knew he was right as Kaiba hauled the badly bleeding Croquet out of the helicopter and placed him on the ground beside Sam and Pegasus.
A few moments later, Izzy emerged with my sister who immediately pulled off her glasses and threw them aside. I heard her say something about the fact that her glasses were now useless – scratched beyond repair, but then she bent her head and something quietly to Izzy that only she heard. Izzy nodded gravely and then, they both headed towards us. We had to move now if we wanted to stop Anubis.
So we left the crash site, we ran along the deserted, life-less roads – knowing that the hope of the world was resting on our shoulders as we ran towards the eye of the storm - the beginning and end of it all.
We got as far as one of the sets of traffic lights before something started bubbling and oozing on to the pavement as two shapes formed themselves into men and dragged themselves out of the black sludge.
I heard Izzy gasp – she had recognised them, I know I did - these were two of the six men who had been in search of Anubis' tomb at the same time that the Millennium Puzzle had come to Izzy almost two years ago. They had not been seen since and it had been widely believed that the men had died in that terrible place, but at that precise moment it was not important because the taller of the ex-men put his hand and lift a finger and then another, quite deliberately as two duel disks materialised on both his arm and on his partners. I guessed the disciples of Anubis wanted to play a little game.
We watched as Kaiba strode forwards, accepting the challenge - from behind me, I heard the Pharaoh calling Kaiba back, telling him that it was dangerous and that we still did not exactly what it was that we were dealing with, but Kaiba ignored him.
The shadowy man lowered one finger but he wanted two people to play the game. It was to be a tag-team duel and Seto knew it – he threw a card at the Pharaoh who caught it without a conscious thought, before asking Mokuba to join him.
Again the Pharaoh protested – shouting that it was a Shadow Game and that Kaiba should not be taking Mokuba in there, but then Mokuba didn't listen either – he waved confidently at us, but his smile faltered as both Kaiba brothers were lost from view.
Izzy – for she had switched with the Pharaoh again - said miserably that neither of them would be able to survive a Shadow Game. I wasn't too sure about that – there have been plenty of things that Kaiba had survived that not many other people would have done and Mokuba was exactly the same, so I thought that they would be all right.
Izzy came to this conclusion to as she flickered her eyes over the card that Kaiba had thrown at her – it was the Blue Eyes Shining Dragon, before storing it carefully in her blazer pocket.
Mike had already been home this evening and had time to change, but the rest of us were still wearing our uniforms and I was still wearing my PE kit.
We headed off again down the road, getting quite a good distance before once again the bubbling and oozing sound began ringing in our ears, which signalled the arrival of two more servants of Anubis looking for two more individuals to do battle with. Mike and I shared a glance and made a silent decision. I told our respective sisters to beat it and get out of here and go after Anubis – there were four of us and these two ex-men only wanted two.
Neither of them were too happy about it, but they had little choice in the matter – we had made up our mind and that we wanted to do this. We wanted to help. They grudgingly accepted it and stepped away from the traffic lights. In the single instant before Mike and I were swallowed by the shadows, I thought I saw Alyssa move her lips in a silent prayer, but then it was gone replaced by the darkness.
I turned to face our opponents – coming to the sickening realisation that neither of us had a duel disk – sure we both had decks; all of us had taken to bringing a deck with us when we went anywhere after Battle City and those of us who had disks had taken the habit of bring them to school – so that's Alyssa, Simon, Seto and Izzy.
And speaking of Simon, I wondered if the boy was all right – he had not been at school that day. I hoped he was okay, but this was not the time to dwell on anything else as two duel disks appeared on our arms – I could already feel the shadows already working on my mind and the game hadn't even begun yet.
We didn't do too badly –game wise; our opponents were using fire and water decks and we had more life points than they had – Mike was using Solemn Wishes to repair the damage to his life points, but still as the duel went on, it became harder to breathe – we were using our own energy in this game. Izzy and the Pharaoh had not been lying when they said that these Shadow Games were deadly. We could feel the shadows bearing down on us from all sides, invading all parts of our minds, slowly suffocating us…
I had to shake my head again – reminding myself that it was that sort of thoughts that would distract us from the duel and as it happened, our opponents were about to unleash something practically nasty.
Fire used his three monsters to summon his new monster – only the Gods needed three monsters as tribute, unless of course this monster had a dangerous effect that was triggered with an extra tribute, which of course it did – leaving a monster with 4000 ATTACK POINTS in it's place.
Which leads me to the second problem that we had - Mike was proving to be rather hyperactive for the situation we were in. From what I've been told, if your life points hit zero in a shadow game you die and so by my logic if exceeded 8000 life point as Mike's had just done, then it resulted in the person going hyper, but the upshot of this was that I missed my turn – while I had been trying to work out Mike I'd missed my go and Water was already beginning his turn – this time using four tributes instead of three and so now we were now facing two monsters – one with 4000 ATTACK and another with 8000 ATTACK.
We were in serious trouble and Mike's constant giggling – having already graduated from hyper to slightly drunk at the end of Water's turn – was not helping at all.
I'm afraid that I slapped him – several times in fact, to get him to wake up, and it wasn't until he had seen the powerful monsters before us that he truly sobered up; then Mike started yelling at me for letting this happen and I hit him again. We were both being extremely irritable with the other and that was not going to be the way to get out of this Shadow Game.
Mike drew, but as he did the 'roof' of the doomed Shadow Game swirled and went white. We stared at it as it prepared to show us something.
We watched as first we were shown an aerial view of the Kaiba's brothers' duel – their remaining opponent had control of Kaiba's Blue Eyes and was gearing up to attack the younger boy who had a single magic card on the field. I let out an involuntary gasp as Mokuba was consumed by the power of the Blue Eye.
The white smoke swirled once more, but revealed a different scene. This time it was Alyssa and some white-haired dude that I had never seen before in mid-duel. I watched my sister's face as the guy slumped down, his head banging against the traffic lights as he fell.
The shadows swirled back over and turned black. It was hopeless; we were all losing – Mokuba, that guy, whoever he was, with my sister, and who knew where Izzy had gotten to herself to, and we were not far behind them all.
It was at this point that Mike noted that all the duels were by traffic light. I jerked my head – he was right, and it gave me an idea. I told him to attack the traffic light, and seeing as he had nothing better to do, Mike ordered his Unshaven Angler to attack the traffic lights.
They exploded in sparks of electricity and smoke. The oppressive shadows that had been drawing itself around our minds faded and we blinked, back on the streets, but it was not time to celebrate any victory yet – we had to press on and regroup with the others – or at least those who had survived.
We ran along the deserted roads in search of any of the others, but found nothing. I stopped dead – something was wrong and I knew it – Alyssa wouldn't give up; she would die on me, and I told Mike this as we hurried up the roads to where another small storm was circling.
As we approached it, the Shadow Dome swirled away, revealing my sister, surrounded by three bodies, but then her knees gave way and she joined them – the Ring tinkling as it hit the floor. The three other bodies disappeared – the two servants dissolving back into the black sludge while the third, the odd white haired man just faded away without the shadows to support his existence.
Mike stood by as I tried to wake my sister. She wasn't going to die on me yet, and indeed she opened her eyes and sat up again. I jumped on her; hugging her fiercely and accidentally slamming her head back down on the ground. She sat back up, groggily rising to her feet looking toward the old derelict factory much further along the roads and wondered if Izzy had figure it out after all.
I asked my sister who the white-haired dude that she had been duelling with earlier and who had disappeared with the Shadows. Alyssa waved her hand as we headed back up the road and said that that was Bakura. I blinked – Bakura, as in Spirit of the Millennium Ring, Bakura - what the heck was she doing duelling with him of all people.
Alyssa went on to explain that both she and Izzy had carried on towards Anubis, but the monstrosity had seen them and he had snarled – disappearing from view.
It was then that she felt it, the pain, it had hurt so much - it was almost like when we were being sucked into the puzzle earlier, but it worse, only it was more like it was in reverse, and then it had hit Izzy too, but it finished almost as quickly as it had begun.
They had stood back up, but were acutely aware of the fact that there was someone was now standing behind them. The two girls had turned around find Bakura and the Pharaoh standing before them - both surprisingly solid.
Apparently, Anubis was strong enough to not only make monsters on the cards real, but also to give the two spirit of the Millennium Puzzle and Ring flesh and blood too – they were mortal like us.
Alyssa said she used this to her advantage, taking full opportunity of the chance to beat up Bakura, which was fun for a moment or two before the Pharaoh had reminded her that there was still a world that needed to be saved. She'd backed off of course, letting the ex-tomb robber take his guard down, and then almost instantaneously the pair of them had started to bicker again for several moments, before the Pharaoh had rounded on both of them and had told them to shut up.
The argument shifted from my sister and Bakura to the Pharaoh and Bakura; it probably would have resulted in an all out fight if she and Izzy had not decided to intervene, restraining their respective darker halves from slaughtering the other.
Izzy had hissed something in the Pharaoh's ear and he'd backed down, and then she had repeated it louder so that Bakura and Alyssa heard it to. They no longer had any shadow magic, so technically, banishing the other to the Shadow Realm was out of the question.
With that Alyssa and Izzy had started back up the street they had been running along, before they had been interrupted by Anubis' little magic trick and were followed a moment or two later by the two gentlemen who had caught up with them as the bubbling oozing slime which signalled the arrival of the last two disciples of Anubis. She and Bakura had opted to stay behind this time, while Izzy and the Pharaoh continued after Anubis.
Well, Mike had noted dryly, that at least explained where Izzy had gotten herself to, the only problem was that we needed to get there as well.
This problem was soon rectified by the arrival of a small four-seater car, speeding towards us on the road with all the windows rolled down. It screeched up to us, the driver evidently doing his or her best to floor the break; the car swerved and stopped next to us.
We stood in silence for a moment, before Mokuba stuck his head out and asked if we wanted a lift. I almost laughed as he opened the door and slide over to where Sam was sitting - so he had survived that attack after all. I asked him where they had gotten the car after we had managed to fit a fourth person, Mike, into the rather cramped backseat of the car – it was that or he sat on the handbrake. Mokuba shifted uncomfortably as he admitted it was borrowed.
I took that to mean that it was stolen. Apparently as well as being able to drive at sixteen in a country where that is illegal, Seto Kaiba can also hotwire a car. My sister shrugged as she put it her seat belt in the front and pointed out that with the way the world was at the moment – monsters attacking everywhere; buildings being destroyed and people being injured and even killed – it mattered little whether the car was stolen or not.
I asked Sam what had happened to her while Alyssa and Seto were arguing in the front about where Izzy was – she told me that she had woken up by the helicopter and had only just managed to get away before the ambulances had arrived. She had taken a wild guess in the direction that the rest of us had come and had headed in that direction – when she eventually came across a shattering shadow dome and both Kaiba brothers. She and Mokuba had barely time to greet each other before they followed Kaiba who was already leaving.
And speaking of Kaiba, at that moment he seemed to be having problems of his own. Alyssa had been trying to use the Millennium Ring to locate where Izzy had gotten herself to, but it had backfired on her yet again as it tried to drag Alyssa completely over the top of Seto and out of his window. He was having difficulties trying to shove my sister back in her seat.
Eventually, the Spirit of the Ring took matters into his own hands, pulling the ring under his control and spinning the steering wheel around so that we were facing the factory. Kaiba shouted something about not being anything, but he was ignored as the Bakura stamped down harder on his foot, making him press down harder on the accelerator.
I'm pretty sure we were all screaming as the car blasted through a rusted fence of the factory that Alyssa had pointed out earlier and into the factory itself, through several walls and their respective rooms at such a speed that the car was thrown half-way up before flipping and landing upside down, spinning like a top on it's back on a metal walkway overlooking a large room which held the large monster and two individuals we were looking for.
As we scrambled out from the car to hear Izzy shout that there was no way on earth that Alyssa was dead. Anubis told her to believe what she liked because Izzy and the Pharaoh would soon join her.
Alyssa didn't take to kindly to being assumed to be dead, shouted down: "Well actually, I'm right up here along with Cassie, Mike, Sam, Seto and Mokuba. What are you going to do about it Anubis?"
Izzy was delighted to see us; the Pharaoh too, he asked about Bakura; Alyssa tapped the Rind around her neck, saying cheerily that he was back where he belonged. Apparently, he had sacrificed himself so that Alyssa could go on to win their duel.
However, Izzy and the Pharaoh should have been more concerned with the large fireball that Anubis was preparing to throw at them – Sam shouted a warning to them and they leapt, not entirely elegantly to the side. There was no telling how many times we watched the pair of them dodge, roll and in all in all narrowly escape the volley of fireballs as Anubis steadily got more and more annoyed with them.
It was weird seeing the Pharaoh like that – I mean we've all seen the stone tablet before, and so we knew it was him, but it was so strange actually seeing him before us now as he and Izzy crashed painfully to the floor again. He would be the first to his feet, hauling Izzy up to - both clearly trying to figure out a plan while not being killed in the process.
We did our best to figure out a way that we could help – even Kaiba who even shouted down his own version of encouragement and of course, Sam promptly yelled him at for being mean.
At Sam's outburst, my sister seemed to jerk herself out of a though pattern and she hurled herself toward a metal staircase. She shouted that she needed something from the school library.
We turned our attention to the floor below us to where Izzy and the Pharaoh were struggling to their feet after finally being hit by a fireball – still determined to fight on. We watched as Anubis go from irritated to just plain angry.
Somehow he knew that physical attack alone was not going to be enough for them, particularly Izzy to give up and so he began the mental barrage – asking her what she thought she was fighting for. What exactly she believed herself to be fighting for.
Izzy responded sharply: "The world, and if I'm not fighting for that, then I'm fighting for him because I'm glad to help in any way I can. We've had good times in this – all of us! " For the briefest of moment, the Pharaoh slipped his hand into Izzy's and squeezed it, giving her a smile that we've never seen him use, before Anubis interrupted, snorting as he asked her:
"Fighting for the Pharaoh are you? You have already died once by his hand, do you really intent to make it a second time." Izzy had blinked at that and so to did the Pharaoh who had no clue as to what Anubis was talking about, letting go of her hand and demanded an explanation of the monstrosity's words, which of course Anubis did not oblige him with, continuing, "And as for the 'good times', I'm sure that there is a lot more bad times, why don't you try and remember them…"
He had set out to break her, and break her he did – we found out later that he had forced Izzy to relive every bad moment of her life. We couldn't see which memories Izzy was being forced to see, but it was affecting her – she was on her knees and she was crying, not moving, and despite the Pharaoh's best efforts she didn't come back until Anubis was assured that she had seen everything that he wanted her to see.
When she did come back to us, and Izzy finally moved crying a little, it was to ask what was the point in all this. We tried to convince her that there was a point because we saved lives – she saved them, but she wouldn't listen. We tried to point out the times that she'd been there for us, but it didn't matter because Izzy argued that every time we got out of one problem we walked straight into another.
At some point, Alyssa arrived back clutching an old library book, one particular page marked by some photos that she had collected before going to the museum earlier this afternoon. Kaiba told her what had happened and that Izzy had given up the will to fight and Mokuba's comments about the hero becoming a pacifist wasn't helping at all.
Below us, the Pharaoh was doing his best to snap her out the Anubis induced mind-sludge - we couldn't hear what he said to her, but we did heard her hysterical response: "But that's just it, Yami, don't you get it, they're all so nice to me, and they end up getting hurt anyway, and then we just end up doingit all over again! I can't… I'm sorry… I just can't do this anymore!"
It was at this point that Anubis began unleashing the fireballs once more, and since they had not moved to a safer place, both they were still easy targets. The Pharaoh still hoping that he could get through to her stood in front of her, defending her from the attacks, he was the only thing that was stopping the fireball from reaching Izzy and in this mood; there was no denying that a direct attack would probably kill her and we all knew that he would defend her until she snapped out of it or he died.
Alyssa snapped, throwing the book that she had gone to such lengths to fetch at Izzy. It hit her head, crashing to the floor, cascading the photos everywhere. My sister shouted that she knew that Izzy was scared – heck we all were – the whole human race was scared right now. She said that she couldn't deny that we hadn't been caught in the crossfire, showing her Battle City scar as proof of that but she also said that that didn't matter because we'd come out each time alright. Because we had to keep doing it – she had to keep going because we would continue getting out until the world stopped being so screwy.
There was an awful silence for a moment – if Alyssa's words hadn't got through to her, then the Pharaoh may have been force to leave her to try and save the rest of the world, but as it happened Alyssa's advice had been taken to heart, and Izzy scooped up the book and yelled: "Just exactly how is this supposed to help?" Alyssa shouted down the page number and Izzy quickly found the page in The Lost and Found Legends and began reading it – despite that Anubis was trying to blast her into pieces again.
While she did that, Alyssa explained to the rest of us what it was – she said that the prophecy at the museum hadn't predicted anything, it only revealed itself to be a prophecy and that bad stuff would happen if we didn't win, but maybe it point to another prophecy that might help now.
She remembered reading one of the legends in this book and for some reason it had stuck with her, and she had a feeling that it might be able to help against Anubis.
It was a tale of a great war between Magicians and Dragons, which went on for centuries – until eventually the cause for starting had been lost and it would an endless, but for a young apprentice Magician who looked into the future to see what the Dragons would do, but saw a greater and more powerful evil coming and the Magicians alone would not be able to have stopped it.
He had watched as they fell to the legions of the evil creature, and then as the same army slaughtered the Dragons to – the rest of the world destroyed. No one had believe him when he told them about what he had seen - but he had known what he had seen and tried for the rest of his life to find a solution.
It evaded him until the moment before he died. Again, he saw the world destroyed, but this time it was different, it continued and the world was rebuilt, flourishing and becoming the place it should be. He could only hope that when the creature returned that people would have more chance, before he saw nothing else.
Below Izzy dropped the book, coming to the end of the story, dodging out of the way of Anubis' latest fireball. She screamed up that it was a good story, but how was it supposed to help them.
That was the problem – it had only been a fleeting feeling, Alyssa didn't know have any great knowledge of it than that, and she was about to say this, but Kaiba interrupted her, shouting that it was quite obvious – neither side in the story had been able to defeat the evil creature on their own – as the Blue Eyes Shining Dragon had not worked to destroy Anubis.
There was a pause before Izzy asked about the last two lines of the prophecy: "Unless blinded by event predetermined thus light and shadows both be killed." She wanted to know if there anything useful wrapped up in that.
We racked our brains – the Pharaoh was flagging badly from where he was doing a very good job of both distracting and annoying Anubis by dodging the new wave of fireballs. We did not have long. We were all thinking as laterally and metaphorically as we could but we were all drawing blanks, but trust Kaiba to be thinking literally:
"Light and Shadows is another way of saying Light and Dark – that story, however unrealistic it maybe, is just like the game – light and dark monsters fighting each other, the dragons in the story couldn't win alone, but if they had joined forces with the magicians…"
He trailed off as Izzy asked the Pharaoh if that would work, but before he was able to respond, Anubis had decided that he'd had enough of us, throwing a fireball, ten times the size of the ones spat at the Pharaoh and Izzy at us. We scurried for the metal staircase, only just making it in time before it impacted, blowing a large hole in the wall.
Amazingly, we escaped with no addition injures – only a momentary deafness from the explosion before we headed back into the main room, just in time to hear the Pharaoh say: "There are other forces just as great, if not greater than shadow magic, and our friends sacrifices will assure that not only will we summon a brand new monster, but it will defeat you!"
Alyssa frowned as we all walked back in through the main doors to the room, yelling in frustration: "Why do you all keep assuming that I'm dead?!"
Izzy just started at us with an open mouth, mumbling that we were blasted through a second storey so how on earth had we survived. Mike waved it away by saying that he would explain later, pointing both his sister and the Pharaoh's attention back to Anubis who was growing both in anger and in size- he seemed to be only a hairs-breadth from the shadowy sky. I added that we best be summoning this monster pretty sharpish too.
The Pharaoh looked at us all and swallowed hard – then I remembered what Alyssa had said earlier, he had no magic left to summon and now we were expecting him to summon this powerful creature, whatever it was.
Izzy's voice cut through my own thought as she pressed the Blue Eyes Shining Dragon card that Kaiba had thrown to her earlier, into the Pharaoh's hand, as she told him: "Don't worry Yami - we'll help you."
The rest of us added our agreement.
"Of course we will! However we can!"
"Same as ever."
"Behind ya all the way!"
"With all of us, there's no way that we can lose so I don't know why you're all worrying."
"We've been through tougher times than this and come out okay – together we'll all be fine!"
"Just get on with it already before he kills us!" No prizes for guessing which of us said that one, but I think I also heard Izzy add at the end, very quietly: "I'm sorry that I doubted you."
He smiled slightly, before he nodded to us all and lifted the Blue Eyes Shining Dragon and the Sorcerer of Dark Magic cards into the air. They started glowing – it was quite spectacular to see the two monsters appear in the air.
The light became unbearable, consuming both creatures in an explosion of whiteness. We were brought back to the present by a triumphant cry and then the smoke cleared and we were able to see the large silvery dragon hanging where the two creatures had once been.
Anubis wasn't at all happy about it - screaming protestations that it couldn't happen and that he was immortal, firing stronger and stronger fireballs at the dragon, but it was no use; it was the end, and the Pharaoh told him that as the Dragon of Fate started glowing with insane power.
We decided to beat a hasty retreat from the factory, pausing momentarily to collect the book and the photos as Anubis shattered the roof, rising towards the dark sky and the silvery dragon hanging in the air moved ever closer to the dark monstrosity and then suddenly, the world seemed to exploded in light.
When my vision returned I could see that the Pharaoh, who had returned to the Puzzle, the Dragon, Anubis and were all gone– replaced by entirely turquoise blue skies with not a cloud or monster in sight. We stood there for a few moments, before Kaiba left with Mokuba. We watched them deciding to find something chocolaty and gooey to eat, and as Mike pointed out to, some first aid wouldn't be a bad idea, either.
And so all in all, we waked away from collapsing buildings, fought with flaming mummies, survived a helicopter crash, several shadow games, monster attacks, a car crash, fiery balls of death and we saved the word – not bad for an afternoon's work!
She sat in front of the tablet, chewing her pencil absently in her mouth while she fingered the newly re-acquired photos in her hand. Her drawing pad was beside her, but was it was blank as her mind kept wandering, never settling, always moving, and travelling back to her memories of that incident a few weeks ago with Anubis and the Pyramid of Light and how close they'd come to not coming out alive.
Cassie screamed slightly, trying to dislodge her depressing thoughts and pulling her pencil from her mouth. She was supposed to be up from the Art Department on a trip to the museum, she was supposed to be having fun; she did not want to be dwelling on the past few weeks – and yet as always of all the artefacts in the museum it was the stone tablet that she was drawn to.
Why the heck was she thinking these dreary thoughts anyway? They had made it out alive – the human race had survived, they had walked away from it, so what was the problem?
She sighed as she stared at the photos again. Alyssa had asked her to pick up the replacement photos while she was here, so she'd popped in during the lunch break – the others, the first set of these photos had been scorched beyond recognition by the fireballs at the warehouse after they had been thrown at Izzy.
Cassie smiled as she recognised some of the photos – it was a pretty fair mix, it was three sets of film that had been developed. There were photos from the various school trips that they had been on and the trip to Tokyo last Easter. There were a fair number from the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City Tournaments too. Alyssa had been right – they had had good times in all those crazy adventures.
She paused as she stared at one of the photos, the one that Duke had taken of the five of them just before they had flown back to England from Tokyo – they still hadn't told Simon. Cassie shook her head. He kept asking if they knew what had really happened. He knew that that the others had done something that day while he had been wrapped up in bed with a cold and a hot water bottle – they just hadn't got around to telling him yet, because they simply hadn't known how he would have reacted. Didn't know whether or not he'd believe them. She stopped, and sighed, talking more to herself, "But it's affected her far worse than we thought…"
"Affected who?" Cassie scrambled to her feet to see a young woman, a few years older than herself, maybe even Alyssa's age standing behind her – she had not released that someone had come into the room – this was one of the quieter exhibits - to the best of her knowledge the only regular visitors to this place where herself and her friends and for Izzy especially while finished the older ones finished their GCSEs examinations. The girl smiled slightly as she moved forwards, "I know I shouldn't ask; it's not my place, but you looked as though you needed to talk to someone.""Oh," Cassie shifted uncomfortably, feeling surprisingly a little guilty about lying to this stranger, muttering, "It's just a friend – I think the monster attacks last month just affected her worse than we though it did."
That wasn't a lie as such – in fact it had more truth to it. She had overheard her mother on the phone to Izzy's mom and Mike had confirmed it to, but every night since the ordeal with Anubis, Izzy had been screaming and sobbing in her sleep, and there was nothing that he or their parents could do to help her – not without admitting what really happen. She mumbled under her breath, "So he really did break her…"
"Do you think they were real then?" The older girl asked suddenly, sitting beside her, snapping Cassie from her thoughts, "The monsters – I always thought they were just hologram, but they felt so real – like they were living, breathing creatures. It's hard to believe that holograms could do all that damage." She paused catching sight of the younger girl's arm, "You were injured weren't you?"
Cassie nodded slightly, raising her left arm to show the other girl the cuts and burns that were still healing and would take a while to do so properly. The other girl winced as Cassie pulled her sleeve down, muttering, "I heard this place was the centre of the storm – that it began and ended here. If those Seven Shadows hadn't been here, I think the human race would have disappeared." She paused and added quietly, "I really did think that we were going to die…"
Cassie turned her face away, not because she didn't have an answer, but because she couldn't answer – they had found out later that there had been a small camera crew that had taken a picture through the smoke and dust after the factory – none of them were identifiable, but the picture of the 'Seven Shadows' that the older girl spoke of who had done something saved the world had been splashed across the world under headlines of every language, was them, and the world would never know it.
They were the only ones who knew what happen that Thursday evening in April. They were still being asked by the police to turn themselves in, but they weren't going to do that, so instead Cassie said eventually, "Me too."
The girls sat in silence for a few moments, each lost in their own thoughts before the other girl offered:
"It makes you think doesn't it? All those things we take for granted… It makes you realise how important your friends are…"
Cassie shifted slightly, turning to look at the girl, placing the photos down. "We have a friend – some stuff happened and he wasn't there, but we haven't told him about it yet. We want to, but I don't know if he'll understand."
The dark brown haired girl smiled slightly, "Just tell him – if he's your friend then he'll understand."
Cassie sat for a moment, before she broke into a smile – the girl was right: "Thanks."
The girl smiled too, "No problem… hey, so you know Izzy Corbey then?" She tapped the photos that Cassie had put down on the seat. The younger girl nodded, and she continued, "I have a friend, Jonouchi, who would probably kill to meet her," she chuckled slightly, "I think it might have been the one of the reasons for coming on this trip – Yugi's grandpa met her brother in Battle City while we were out and then Ryo came back in September saying that he had almost met her too. He spoke to her friend instead."
"That was my sister, Alyssa, she told me about that – she said she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw him, never said why though," Cassie tilted her head, before she too smiled, "And yeah, I think I can remember Mike saying something about that in Battle City too while we were looking for Izzy – the game store owner, Mr Moto? Yes?"
The other girl nodded, "Jonouchi was annoyed that he missed it and was even more annoyed when he Ryo told him in September that the mime that jumped on him had gone after the King of Games…"
Cassie snorted and the other girl joined in laughing: "This museum got broken into, didn't it just before the monster attacks? Something got stolen – do you know if they got it back. I wanted to see them."
The shorter girl shook her head, "No, I think they might have given them up for lost. They can't find them." Cassie sighed, "You didn't miss much anyway…"
"Still, it would have been nice to see them," the girl glanced at her watch as she stood up, "Well, I guess I had better go, I did said that I'd meet my friends at the entrance at two thirty and it's two forty…" She started walking away, and she did so, Cassie came to a sudden realisation.
"Hey," she call after the older girl who turned around to face Cassie, "I'm sorry, but I never asked your name?"
"I'm Anzu Mazaki and you are?"
"Cassie Trent – it's been nice to meet you, Anzu."
Anzu smiled at her, and waved, "You to Cassie- take care."
A/N: 1. It really is llegeal to drive on the roads in England at sixteen
2. GCSEs are the English examinations taken at 16
Now, that probably wasn't what you expected now was it? Waffles4eva wrote me a version of this and I decided it would be the way that it would happen in Strangers Like Me and she very kindly allowed me do to so.
As always, take a pot guess at which character is going to come up next, and also see if you can guess some of the pairings too? (one person is banned from answering this one, yes, you know who you are) You might get a virtual cookie if you're right.
Til next time, have fun and review.