Shukumei Danpen: A New Destiny
Chapter Three: Costly Restoration
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Unfortunately, Seto had not altered their duel disks to override the effect the magic around them had on electronic systems, so dueling was rather boring on just the tables.
"The bastard charms his own duel disk, but doesn't even touch ours." Marik mumbled, slapping a monster card down on the table.
"I don't think he had time Marik, with his soul being stolen and all." Yugi replied solemnly, tossing his Celtic Guardian into the graveyard pile.
Harry was standing next to the window, rain pelting on the glass in a rhythmic manner.
"How are we going to get his soul back?" Harry wondered aloud, holding his deck in his hand.
"Yeah, Seto can't miss the entire year, I don't think the High Priest can handle it." Ryou replied, shuffling his cards together as his life points hit zero because of Marik's attack.
"Dartz isn't just going to release him because we want him back, last time I had to defeat the Leviathan before the souls were restored." Yugi added, pulling his Black Magician from his graveyard.
"We have his soul card right? Maybe professor Flitwick can restore him." Ron suggested.
"I doubt it, if anybody could do it, it would be the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, but I don't think it would be wise if we explained the situation before knowing where his loyalties lie." Yami no Yugi replied gravely, appearing transparently behind Yugi.
"Good thinking Yuge." A voice snickered from the nearby entrance to the boys' dorms, a familiar figure walking out of the darkness.
"Joey? What are you doing here?" Yugi replied, watching his best friend walk closer.
"His forehead, look at his forehead Yugi!" Ryou stammered, the Millennium ring glowing faintly.
In the center of Joey's forehead was the Orichalcos, but with the head of a serpent in the center, blazing green against his skin.
"You have angered the dark masters, you are in the way of their plans…" he snickered, his Atlantean duel disk activating as he spoke.
Yami no Yugi growled in dismay, his friend was under the control of the Orichalcos, and without a duel disk that worked by magic, they couldn't duel him.
"I always knew you were weak Wheeler…" Yami no Bakura laughed, the Millennium ring shining around his neck.
"I'm stronger than you think spirit…" he replied darkly, pulling his six card hand.
"Dartz!" Yami no Yugi exclaimed, the Millennium puzzle glowing faintly.
"I will duel Joey! If you return Seto's soul when I win!" he added, the dark power of his Millennium item sending them to the Shadow Realm.
Away from the intense magical residue that covered Hogwarts, Yami no Yugi's duel disk activated with ease.
Yugi Mutou: 4000 / Joey Wheeler: 4000
"As the challenger, I'll take the first move." Joey snickered, pulling a card from his hand.
"I summon Alligator's Sword (1500), in attack position!" he cried, pulling a second card from his hand.
"I set one card face down, and don't think I've forgotten about your wager…" he snickered, pulling a third card.
"Seal of the Orichalcos!" he laughed, tossing the spell card into his field card slot.
The seal appeared around the field, pushing everyone except the two duelists away.
"My turn Joseph." Yami no Yugi muttered, ripping a card from his deck holder.
"Please Joey, I know you're in there! Take control, fight Dartz off like you fought off Marik!" he pleaded, staring into his opponent's eyes.
"No." Was the only response, a sinister grin on Joey's face.
"I can't duel you!" Yami no Yugi cried, hoping to break through to his companion.
Before the Orichalcos locked into place, Yugi forced control of his body, pulling a card from his hand.
"Then I will!" he grimaced, surprise emanating from his dark half.
Everyone else seemed to be thinking along the same lines, Yugi could never duel his friends like this!
"You're not my friend! My friend would never succumb to the Orichalcos!" Yugi exclaimed, throwing a card down on his duel disk.
"I summon Gazelle, The King of Mythical Beasts (1500), in attack mode!" he cried, his beast monster appearing in front of him.
Pulling a two more cards, Yugi smirked and ended his turn.
"'Bout time Yuge, now it's my turn!" Joey laughed, sliding a card out of his deck and adding it to his hand.
"Heh, I sacrifice my Alligator's Sword to summon Jinzo (2400), attack position!"
Yugi took a step back as Jinzo's effect spread over the field, disabling his face down traps.
"I hope you weren't planning on using your two down cards to protect Gazelle, because Jinzo is takin' him down!" Joey called, splaying his right hand in Yugi's direction.
"Attack, Jinzo! Destroy Yugi's Gazelle!"
Jinzo shot Gazelle with an electric orb, destroying it completely and taking out nine hundred of Yugi's life points.
"Your turn!" he snickered, overlooking the hatred on the shorter boy's face.
Yugi Mutou: 3100 / Joey Wheeler: 4000
Drawing his card, Yugi began reformulating his plan; Jinzo took out all of his trap abilities!
Looking over his hand, Yugi saw an opening.
"Graceful Charity!" he called, discarding two cards and drawing three more.
'Yes!' he thought, pulling a card from his hand.
"Raise Dead!" he bellowed, recalling his Black Magician Girl (2000) to the field.
"Now pay attention..." he growled, slipping a card into his duel disk.
"Sage's Stone! Which allows me to special summon a Black Magician to my field!" he smirked, pulling his signature monster from his hand.
"Now for the fun part, Knight's Title!" he called, sacrificing his Black Magician for his Black Magician Knight (2500).
"Now, using his special ability, I'll destroy your Jinzo!" he spat, watching Jinzo disappear into the graveyard.
Joey stepped back at the destruction of his only defense; his down card wouldn't help him without a monster on his side of the field!
"You're going down! I summon my monster for the turn, Skilled Black Magician (1900), in attack position!" he called, vengeance burning in his eyes.
"Attack, all three of you! Destroy him!" he called in bitter triumph, watching his opponent's look of horror as his monsters attacked.
Yugi Mutou: 3100 / Joey Wheeler: 0000
Yugi smiled as the Orichalcos shrunk to encase Joey, its energy surging uncontrolled as it took his soul.
Yugi tapped into his Millennium puzzle's dark powers and returned them to the Gryffindor common room, Joey's soulless body falling to the floor.
Yugi walked over to the body and pulled the cards from the duel disk, separating the top card.
Taking the Seal of the Orichalcos, Yugi ripped it in half, and then picked up the soul card lying next to his body.
"I told you it wasn't him, I don't know how they did it, but they made a copy of him. A soulless copy." Yugi muttered, showing them the blank card.
"Spirit Transfiguration!" Ryou exclaimed suddenly, taking them all by surprise.
Quickly noticing the blank stares, he launched into an explanation.
"Spirit Transfiguration is a highly advanced type of Dark Magic, it's banned for good reason by International Ordinance 57 clause 3A." he began, running over to his trunk, which was sitting nearby the fire.
"Spirit Transfiguration involves the transfiguration of an essence of a person or thing: hair, personal effects, highly-concentrated amounts of spiritual residue, et cetera. Taking the essence of them, you transfigure the essence into a material form of the person, a soulless clone."
Ryou looked around as they followed his definition.
"But, people who could transfigure spirits tended to manipulate them into following paths of darkness, so the International Council banned the ritual all together."
Fishing around in his trunk, Ryou pulled out a rather large volume, entitled Decrees of the International Council, Past and Present. Flipping it open, he threw it onto the table and pointed to a place halfway down one page.
"That must be how Voldemort restored Dartz!" Harry exclaimed, "You said he led a battle against humanity right? There must have been a ton of magical residue, not to mention personal affects from Atlantis!"
"That's not going to get Seto back…" Hermione whispered from the doorway, staggering inside to join them.
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, running over to help her to a chair.
"We have the Millennium items for God's sake, can't we just use their magic to restore his soul?"
Yugi sighed; it wasn't that easy…
"Hermione, that only works with souls sealed in the Shadow Realm. Not-" Yugi began, then saw Ryou's Millennium ring.
"Ryou, can you use the Millenium ring to locate him? The card should link to his soul in Atlantis right? So if we use the ring to open the link, the ankh and scales to keep it solid, the eye and tauk to guide it, and the puzzle to power it, we might be able to use the rod to make his soul fully possess the card, which Hermione could restore to his body!" Yugi exclaimed, thinking of the Millennium rod, lying dormant in the infirmary.
After thinking it over for a moment, Ryou nodded.
"It's possible, but I'll probably only have one shot. If we mess up, we could end up sending his soul into oblivion, and never get it back." He said grimly, staring off into space.
Yugi nodded and jumped into action.
"Marik, Harry, go get Seto's body and the Millennium rod from the infirmary, everybody else clear everything from the center of the room." Yami no Yugi ordered, possessing Yugi's body.
Harry rushed to his trunk, pulling out his invisibility cloak and throwing it over Marik and himself, heading into the corridor.
Ryou pulled out his wand and shot streams of energy at the furniture, pushing them against the walls.
Then, they placed the Millennium items in a circle around Ryou using the numbers on a clock to help them.
The eye was placed at eleven o'clock, the tauk at one o'clock, the scales at three o'clock, the puzzle at six o'clock and the ankh at nine o'clock. They needed the Millennium rod at twelve o'clock before the circle would be complete, but they had to wait on Harry and Marik to return with Seto's body before that could happen.
Moments later, a furious pounding was heard on the portrait of the Fat Lady, nobody had told anyone the password. Hermione only knew it because she overheard professor McGonagall in the corridor on her way back. Nobody had bothered to check the bulletin board yet.
After Yugi ran over and let them in, he helped drag in Seto's body, setting it in the circle of items beside Ryou. Harry tossed Yugi the Millennium Rod and he placed it at twelve o'clock, nodding to Ryou and motioning for everyone to get back.
'Are you up to this Dark One?' Ryou asked his other half, who was still unhappy about helping the High Priest.
'Since when am I the "Dark One"?' he replied with a smirk, appearing behind his host in reality. Hermione tossed Ryou Seto's soul card and he laid it in front of him both sides of Ryou focusing on the darkness inside the Millennium ring.
Calling together the power of the items, Ryou began to chant, weaving his objective in as he went, as he did with the spell.
He didn't have the time to worry about the fact he had no clue what he was doing, this was the one chance they had to revive his friend.
Millennium puzzle, lend your power to me
Millennium eye and tauk, lead me to the lost soul
Millennium rod, force the soul of your master into his card
Millennium scale and ankh, balance the gateway
Lastly, I weave my spirit with that of the Millennium ring, to guide Seto Kaiba's soul into this vessel.
Waves of dark energy circled around the Millennium items and the two Bakuras, there was no turning back now, Seto either came back, or didn't and Ryou would die from the power he was summoning.
'Don't give up faith' Hermione thought to herself, focusing on Ryou's form in the darkness.
One by one, the spirits of the Millennium items appeared around the Bakuras, lending their power to them.
Ryou furrowed his brows as he focused harder.
The room was filled with blinding white light and Ryou's world went black, Yami no Bakura disappearing from behind him.
Ryou collapsed to the floor and passed out, the Millennium ring falling dormant and losing its usual shine.
Hermione ran over and picked up the card that lay before Ryou's unconscious form, falling to the ground in relief.
"We're not done Hermione, you're closest to Seto, you have to place the card on his chest and tap into the power of the Millennium rod." Yugi muttered, directing her through it.
Hermione picked up the Millennium rod from the circle and placed her boyfriend's hands over the handle of the Millennium item and put her own over them. Focusing on the darkness she knew was inside the item, she threw her soul into it, concentrating on restoring his soul.
A moment later, she passed out, noticing only the bright white light that lasted only a split second, not feeling the familiar hands reach over and grab her to stop her fall…
As Seto returned to his body and Hermione fell into his arms, Yugi and Harry ran over to Ryou, picking up their Millennium items on their way.
'Yami, is Ryou okay?' Yugi asked, helping Harry pick him up and move him to the couch.
No response.
'Pharaoh?' he called, peering out of his soul room.
What he saw shocked him to the core.
Their shared soul corridor was almost non-existent, and the pharaoh's door was sealed shut and almost destroyed.
Yugi returned to reality and noticed Harry was looking the same way he felt, like his best friend had just been murdered before his eyes.
In Atlantis, Voldemort was cursing every name he knew. How could this have happened?
Dartz too was shocked, but kept his cool demeanor as he thought it over.
'They must have used the Millennium items to call his soul back.' He thought disdainfully, 'But- it must have nearly killed them, they shouldn't have the power to do it again.'
"Worry not Voldemort, they won't have the power to pull this stunt again, we still have the upper hand, and your plan should help us greatly... Their souls will be ours soon enough… And the world will fall before our power!" he laughed maniacally, turning around to look the Dark Lord in his formless eyes.
'Besides, I've already got an informant at Hogwarts, and once I get close enough to the pharaoh, their friendship will shatter!' Dartz thought to himself, a sinister smile plastered on his face.
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Review. I promise, term starts next chapter!