"Hey, it's finally starting."
I glanced at Honda when he spoke, then looked to the Duel Ring. Yuugi and Pegasus approached either end, preparing to Duel.
The last Duels had been of no interest to me. Yuugi Dueled Mai and won, Jonouchi Duel Bandit Keith and won, then Yuugi and Jonouchi Dueled, and Yuugi won. This was the Duel everyone had been waiting for.
"Yeah, I can almost see their fighting spirits clashing from all the way up here," Jonouchi responded to Honda.
"We finally made it this far!" Anzu chirped.
"It's a little scary," I murmured.
Bakura nodded in agreement. "Will Yuugi be alright? The odds of winning against an opponent who can use the power of the Millennium Eye to read his mind..."
"You dumbass! Yuugi won't lose!" Jonouchi insisted, though I frowned at him. What a harsh thing to call a friend! "He'll be the real king of this island. He'll kick that Pegasus bastard's ass!"
"That's right! Right, Honda?" Anzu asked, hoping for his immediate agreement. Honda looked skeptical.
"I just brightened the mood!" Jonouchi huffed. "What's with the depressing attitude, Honda?"
"But just think about it. This battle can't be called fair. He's taken those three hostages to lure Yuugi this far, after all."
I nodded, chipping in, "He's been shamelessly toying with Yuugi the whole time."
"But didn't Pegasus capture Yuugi's grandpa's soul just for this Duel?" Anzu asked, albeit defensively.
"Pegasus is a Duelist himself. Even he wouldn't do anything that low," Jonouchi spoke, then turned to Honda. "Besides, you're the one most worried here."
"Their Duel is about to begin!" Anzu beamed. "Hey, let's go to the upper balcony so we can see better!"
"Yeah, good idea."
The two walked away, and from beside me, Bakura spoke. "Jonouchi and Anzu aren't worried at all... But you may be right, Honda. Pegasus isn't to be underestimated. If the Duel gets dangerous for him, there's no telling what measures he'll take."
Without responding, Honda started to run off.
I called after him, "Hey, where are you going?"
He paused and looked back to respond. "I can't do anything about his grandfather's soul, but if I can at least get Mokuba and Kaiba, Yuugi may stand a better chance!" He started running off again.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on, I'm coming too!" I ran after him, leaving Bakura behind me. I had no idea where we were going, but Honda seemed to know better than me. I did my best to keep pace with him, but he was damn tall, and could run fast.
Thankfully, when we got into an area that looked sufficiently off limits, he slowed down, allowing me to walk alongside him.
"This sure seems like a dungeon to me..." I murmured.
"This castle's huge. It could take forever to find Kaiba or Mokuba down here," he grumbled.
Before I could respond, around the courner at the end of the hall, a shadow of a person appeared, along with echoing footsteps.
"Hide, hide!" Honda whispered harshly, and I nearly stumbled over myself as i looked around. The only option I had was to run back to the last courner we'd rounded and press against the wall, hoping whoever it was wouldn't come this far. I took one chance to check to see where Honda hid himself, but I couldn't find him. Hopefully, that was a good sign.
The owner of the shadow rounded the courner, and I ducked back around the wall, holding my breath as I focused on the footsteps. They didn't come too near, but the guy spoke.
"Time to change shifts. How's the kid doing?"
I bit my lip. Was 'the kid' Mokuba?
Another voice joined in. "Same as usual. We shouldn't have to worry about him escaping, but don't let your guard down."
"Of course. He's the only one who knows the location of that key, after all."
The sound of footsteps followed, then silence.
I peered around the courner cautiously, and instead of seeing a security guy, or Honda, I saw the metal armour that had been standing as a decoration moving on its own. "Ah!" I yelped, covering my mouth as I stepped back and tripped over my own feet, falling backwards on to my rear.
A "Shush, Mara!" came from the armour.
"Honda?" I whispered, uncurling to push myself up off the ground, dusting off my pants as I walked toward him. "Damn, don't scare me like that! How'd you even get in there in time?"
"Don't ask." He went to the hall where the guards had been. "Thought so. He's gone."
"Mm?" I joined him. "How could he be gone? Where is there to go?"
What I'd thought was a hall turned out to be more of an alcove. It went in about fifteen feet. The only significant feature was a dragon statue on the wall.
Honda took a few steps forward to investigate, but instead tripped on a misplaced tile, his momentum thrown forward. Somehow, he caught on to the dragon's head before he fell all the way.
"Ah, klutz," I laughed quietly. Then, the dragon's head shifted down, and the wall to our right rumbled, a panel lifting to reveal a staircase.
"Well..." I tip-toed to the new path and stared down into the darkness. I couldn't see a thing, but I glanced back at Honda. "I guess we should go. If this is where the security guy went, we ought to check it out."
Honda picked himself back up and nodded. "With how they tried to hide this, there's gotta be something down there."
I let him lead the way down the stairs, and when we reached the base, waited as he peeked around the courner.
"What do you see?" I whispered.
"That guy sitting at a table. Looks like a jail cell or something behind him. I can't see if anyone's inside, though."
"If they're guarding it, it's probably Kaiba or Mokuba!" My heart started racing. Maybe we could actually save them!
"Awright, I'm going in." Honda grabbed a helmet of a nearby suit of armour and tip-toed toward the guard.
"Honda!" I hissed, but ducked back behind the courner. He was going to get us caught, no doubt.
I heard a loud clang and flinched, but peered around the courner. The guard was now knocked out, the spare helmet on his head.
"That was nothing!" Honda nodded decisively, waving me over.
Shaking my head, I walked toward him. "Not exactly graceful, but you did it. Good job." When I reach his side, I zeroed in on the jail cell, my heart leaping into my throat. A sallow-looking Mokuba sat on the bed, staring emotionlessly at the ground. I gasped.
"Honda, it's Mokuba! We found Mokuba! Check the guard for a key!"
Honda nodded quickly, and checked the guard's pockets. "Here." He hurried to the cell and pushed a key card into the slot. The lights on the console flashed, and the lock popped open. "Yes!" Honda started inside, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, Honda?"
"Huh?"
"Probably should take off the armour now, yeah?"
"Oh, yeah, probably." He took a few moments to get out of the armour, then lifted Mokuba onto his back piggyback style. "Alright, let's go!"
We ran back to the stairs, and hurried up them, heading back the way we came.
"They're probably on to us, you know," I panted as we ran, and Honda nodded.
"I know. We just have to keep running for now."
That's what we did. We ran away from any sounds we heard, but one security guy cut us off, making us stop. Before we could even turn around, another security guy was there too.
"Honda, what do we do?" I gasped, looking back and forth between the guards.
"That's far enough," one spoke. "You've got nowhere left to run."
A familiar feeling came over me, as if the air was shimmering. Along with it, a chiming sound.
Everyone paused, confused, and after a moment, I saw Bakura enter from a hallway from behind one of the guards.
"Bakura!" I gasped, relieved. I didn't know how much help he could be, but the guards were outnumbered now.
"What are you doing here?" Honda demanded, though he got no response.
"You bastard!" The guard behind us yelled. "If you don't obey us, you're a dead man!"
I turned to see the guy reaching into his coat, and my heart dropped. Did he have some kind of weapon?
"Isn't this interesting?" Bakura spoke, uncharacteristically calm for a situation like this. "If I don't obey you, what will you do?"
Each security guy pulled out a gun, and I tensed, shrinking toward the wall.
"In that case, my weapon is this. Magical Bonds." Bakura held up the card, cause a flash of light that washed out the room for a moment. When I could see again, the guards were retrained in semi-opaque vines.
As they squirmed, I looked to Bakura. "How did you...?"
"These guys..." Honda tried to finish my thought.
"Now, let's take this chance and escape." Bakura turned to run, and Honda followed. I didn't hesitate for a moment, chasing after them.
"Honda, they had guns!" I gasped once we were a decent distance from them. "This is really, really bad! They could kill us!"
"Yeah, but what else are we going to do now? If we leave Mokuba somewhere, it won't make a difference!"
"I'm not saying we should do that!"
"Then what are you saying?"
"I don't know!"
"Enough," Bakura hissed. "If you two keep yelling, you'll draw unnecessary attention to us."
I fell silent. I didn't want to be the reason we got caught. I'd never been in a situation like this, though. Having guns waved around, and being chased like a criminal. I didn't know this would lead to anything like this.
We found ourselves in what felt like an endless stairwell, but every door we tried was locked. We kept climbing staircase after staircase, and when we reached the top, the open door that led outside was a sheer drop to the forest.
"There's no where left to go, now..." Honda grumbled.
"Found them! Up there!"
I turned to the source of the voice, and instead of seeing one or two people, there were a lot more. A whole group of security guards had tracked them down.
Honda repositioned himself, pushing me behind him. "Damn... All these guards!"
"To give up hope so easily! That's not like you, Honda," Bakura spoke with a bit too much confidence.
"You have some sort of plan?"
Instead of responding, Bakura pulled another card from his pocket. "Man-Eater Bug." In another blinding flash of light, the monster appeared from the card, but for real.
I let out a gasp and backed up, pressing my back to the wall. There weren't any Duel systems around, and that thing was actually attacking the security guards! I had to turn my gaze away as the Man-Eater Bug leapt on the guards, nausea turning in my stomach.
The room went eerily quiet, and I dared to look back down the stairs. The guards weren't there anymore. I didn't know what happened to them, but I didn't think I wanted to, either. All I knew was this Bakura standing in front on me wasn't Bakura from school.
"I remember..." Honda murmured, catching Bakura's attention. "It wasn't a dream. You're not Bakura. You're the other Bakura from deep within Bakura."
"Tch. I feel so honored that you remember me. I'm an ancient soul resting deep within one of the Millennium Items, the Millennium Ring. Now hand over Mokuba."
"Like I'd hand him to you!"
"What could you want him for?" I somehow gained the courage to speak up, though I flinched when his gaze turned to me.
"All I require is the key to the contracts for Kaiba Corporation that Mokuba has cleverly hidden away." Bakura looked back to Honda then. "If you're a good boy and hand me Mokuba, I'll turn everything back to normal. There was a short pause, then Honda lowered his head.
"Ah, I get it. I'll hand this brat over to you."
"Honda, no!" I gasped. What was he doing?
Honda pulled Mokuba off his back and began to hand him to Bakura, then yelled, "Here, catch!" He tossed Mokuba to Bakura, which made me yelp in concern.
Bakura caught him however, and Honda snagged the opportunity, rushing toward Bakura and knocking him out, catching Mokuba in the process.
"I swear to God, Honda, hanging around you is going to give me a heart attack..." I sighed heavily, resting my hands on either side of my head.
"Here, can you hold Mokuba for a second?" He held the boy out to me, and I nodded.
"Yeah?" I turned to Honda could hoist Mokuba onto my back, then watched Honda take the Millennium Ring from Bakura and dash up the stairs. Once he was out of sight, I readjusted Mokuba on my back so I had a better grip, and waited.
When Honda returned, he was sans the Millennium Ring.
"What'd you do?"
"I tossed it," he spoke matter-of-factly. "You think you can hold on to Mokuba? It'd be easier if I didn't have to carry both him and Bakura."
"Yeah, I got him. If we're running though, I don't think I can do that."
Honda grimaced. "I think the other Bakura handled that for us. There shouldn't be anyone for us to run from."
I frowned, but nodded. "...Where do you think those guards went...?"
Honda shook his head as he slung Bakura over his shoulder. "I don't know. Nowhere good."
That seemed to be the only answer we had for it. We headed back the way we came, weaving through the castle halls. Eventually, the stone walls were replaced with the sickly pink wallpaper, and eventually, we got our bearings. We headed up to where we knew Jonouchi and Anzu would be. It meant climbing more stairs, but even with all the running before, I managed somehow.
"Hey!" Honda greeted loudly when we reached the top, and Jonouchi and Anzu looked over. Anzu's eyebrows rose.
"Honda, Mara, where have you been?"
"You wouldn't believe it. We had an adventure and a half today," Honda sighed as he set Bakura down, leaning him against the railing. I followed suit with Mokuba.
"What's wrong with Bakura?"
"It's alright. He's just unconscious." He looked up at them. "That evil spirit took over Bakura again. He wanted Mokuba for some reason."
"It sounded like he was after Kaiba Corporation too. Which is weird," I mumbled, remaining on the ground to give my legs a rest. I looked down toward the Duel Ring, and my eyes widened. "Whoa, what's going on here?"
Instead of a Duel Ring, I could only see a huge swirling mass of blue, purple, and black clouds.
"We don't know," Anzu murmured.
"We should check it out," Honda said, looking to Bakura and Mokuba. "They should be alright here for now."
"You guys go ahead." I waved them on. "I'll stay here. I'd rather not leave them alone. Just yell up at me if you need me."
"Are you sure?" Anzu cocked her head, and I nodded.
"Completely. Go ahead."
With that, the three of them ran past me and down the hall.
A long time passed. I didn't know how long. An hour, maybe? But no sign of Yuugi. Anzu and everyone were still down by the clouds, and Bakura and Mokuba were still unconscious.
"How long can this go on?" I grumbled to myself. "You'd think someone would've gone through all their cards by now, or something..." I complained as if someone were listening, but I was still alone. I looked back at the Duel Ring, and my eyes widened. The clouds were fading. I shot to my feet, searching for information. The Life Point counters came into view. Yuugi still had 100, and Pegasus was at zero.
"Yes!" I bounced in place. Yuugi won!
I heard an incoherent mumble to my right, and I looked down. Bakura stirred before opening his eyes. I hesitated. If Honda threw away the Millennium Ring, this should be the classmate Bakura, so I knelt down. "Bakura...?"
He squinted up at me, as if the lights surprised him. "Mara? What's going on?"
"We're in the Duel Arena. Yuugi just one a few seconds ago!"
The male blinked innocently, then turned to see for himself.
I stood back up and called down to my friends. "Hey guys, Bakura woke up!" As I spoke, Bakura stood.
They all looked up at us, and Honda called back, "Did you return to normal?"
"Eh? What do you mean?" Bakura frowned.
"Do you really not remember? That weird ring of yours took control of you again."
Before that subject could continue, Anzu called up to us, "Can one of you stay and watch Mokuba for us?"
"Sure." I agreed immediately, though Bakura seemed reluctant.
"Eh... sure, but..."
"Thanks!" Yuugi waved, and the four of them ran off.
I sat back on the ground, settled in for a wait. I didn't know how long it'd be, but I didn't want to leave Mokuba. Honestly, though Honda tossed the Millennium Ring, I wasn't sure about Bakura. The Millennium Ring was a magic object. It didn't exactly seem trustworthy.
I looked up at the male. "Well, don't need to stand there. Might as well get comfortable."
There was an odd, out of place silence, then Bakura turned and walked away.
"Eh? Bakura, where are you going?"
He ignored me and continued down the hall, out of sight.
A shiver ran down my spine as I stared after him. Could that have been...? "No, Honda got rid of the Ring. That's that," I spoke out loud, hoping to convince myself. I gave a sigh, and slumped back against the railing, but as I did, Mokuba stirred, and I sat up straight again.
"Mokuba?"
Silence.
"Mokuba, can you hear me?" Nothing.
I rolled my eyes at myself. I was just getting jumpy, that was all.
I sat in silence for a long time, but eventually, Bakura came back. I tensed, and spoke cautiously. "Hey, Bakura? You feeling alright?"
He paused and looked at me. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" It sure sounded like the regular Bakura.
"I dunno, forget I said anything."
As if saving me from the situation, Mokuba stirred again, and his eyes slowly opened.
I shifted so I could check on him, and he looked up at me, a bit unfocused and confused, but lucid.
"Mara...?"
I smiled, glad he remembered me. I'd done my best to comfort him when we'd been with him before, but I didn't think I'd made an impact anyway.
"Mmhmm. How do you feel?"
It seemed like he was still waking up a little, and before he could respond, everyone else returned.
"Hey, guys, Mokuba's awake."
"Thank goodness," Anzu sighed, and Yuugi stepped forward.
"Mokuba, the seal has been removed."
"Where's my big brother?" Mokuba finally spoke. "Where is he?"
I wanted to frown. We couldn't find him. But I knew he was here, and if Mokuba was awake, then he was too. "Here's here somewhere, Mokuba. We'll find him."
"Croquet," I heard Yuugi speak, and looked up at him, following his gaze behind me. The main security guy was standing there.
"Master Pegasus has been sent away to a hospital." He stepped toward Yuugi, holding a box out to him. "Take this. A card called Bonds of Friendship. Master Pegasus told me to give this to you." As Yuugi took the card, he continued. "You guys did well in your duels. This is the prize money." He pulled an envelope from his coat and held it out to Yuugi. Yuugi didn't take it, instead looking up to Jonouchi, who nodded and took the envelope instead. "Now, please excuse me." With that, Croquet turned and walked away.
I spoke first. "We should get to looking for Kaiba. He's got to be looking for Mokuba right now." As I stood, I helped Mokuba to his feet.
We wandered the halls at first before heading outside, trailing behind Mokuba. The boy called out for Kaiba the entire time. There was no sign of him.
As we wandered through the courtyard, the large door at the other end shuddered before rumbling open, and on the other side was Kaiba. Mokuba didn't make a sound at first, instead breaking into a run and barreling straight into Kaiba, hugging him tightly as he sobbed. It was so good to see the brothers together. Through this whole weekend, they'd only ever been apart. We had seen Mokuba searching for Kaiba, and Kaiba searching for Mokuba, but it wasn't until now that they'd been reunited.
Once they'd had their reunion, Kaiba turned his attention to Yuugi. "Yuugi, you saved Mokuba. I owe you one."
"It's nothing." Yuugi responded quietly.
"But Yuugi, don't forget that our Duel is not over yet."
"I know."
"I'm looking forward to Dueling you again." With that, he and Mokuba turned to walk away.
A few moments later, Jonouchi spoke. "Come to this of it, how are we going to get off this island?"
"Wait, nothing's arranged for us?" I gasped, eyes wide.
"...Hold on a minute, Kaiba!" Jonouchi yelled, he and Honda running after him. "Don't leave us here!"
Yuugi joined in, scrambling after them. I checked to make sure Anzu was following, and we ran after Yuugi, chasing down Kaiba. It took a vote from Mokuba, but Kaiba decided to lend us a ride back in the helicopter. Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu, Yuugi, and Bakura all squished into the back bench, and I found room for myself on the floor.
From the front, Mokuba looked back at us, grinning, and said, "You guys better thank Nii-sama for letting you come!"
Kaiba turned to glare at us then. "When we get back to Japan, we're even, got it?"
I had to smile at the change in attitude everyone seemed to have. Everything was back to normal. We were going home, and I'd be able to put all this behind me.
While we were flying, I decided to take few pictures with my instant camera. I got some of my friends, and the view, and even snuck one in of Kaiba and Mokuba in the front. The best pictures I got had to have been of the city as the flew overhead. I never thought I'd see the city from that angle, and it looked entirely different. Amazing.
Kaiba landed the helicopter on the helipad atop the Kaiba Corp building, and of course, I had to snag some pictures from there. After that, though, I parted from my friends, making my way back home.
Being back in the familiar city made me feel like everything really was back to normal. The sun had already started its descent below the horizon, and I was glad. I could go home, make up a story of how my weekend at Anzu's house went for my parents, then go to sleep. I could definitely go for a good night's rest.
[A/N] So, I was a little lazy with editing this one as far as typos goes, so if there are typos, I'm sorry, but blame zelos888, 'cause I had her read this over to look for them ;w; Also, I accidentally took forever to get this out because of work and life and shit, but it was only a little over a month! ^^;
Anywho, as always, pretty please leave a review so I know how you guys are liking it (or if you're not XP), even if it's constructive criticism. I love hearing your thoughts and opinions.
Thanks for reading! Muah!
