I'd like to thank presea221 for such wonderfully detailed and thoughtful reviews. I'm also glad to say that you guessed wrong in your match-ups, TopRanger237! I'd already decided who would verse who before even starting this Fanfic, as well as who the eventual victor will be!
07 - Battle Between the Millennium Items
Yugi Muto frowned at his cards as they were laid out on the carpet before him, spread so Joey could take his pick. The blonde teen had not yet returned to his room. The four other non-duellists had gradually stopped being boisterous and now spoke amongst each other quietly, although lightly. Yugi had stopped joining in the talk some ten minutes ago. Soon the next match of the finals would be revealed, and Joey had still not returned from going out to 'get some fresh air and clear his head'. They'd just been duelling on top of a blimp – how much more fresh air did he need?
Absent-mindedly his hands clutched the Millennium Puzzle suspended on a chain around his neck. Until Marik was defeated he'd likely not relax one moment on this ship. As his anxieties mounted he got to his feet.
"I'm just going to go check on Joey, guys." He announced.
"Oh yeah, good idea." Duke replied, blinking his green eyes. "He's been gone for a while, huh?"
"Do you want me to help you look for him, Yuug?" Tristan offered.
"Nah I'll be alright." Yugi started towards the door. "You know what Joey can be like. I'd hate to think his victory's gotten to his head and he's out doing something stupid, like challenging Kaiba."
"Yeah," Serenity smiled from the couch between the two guys. "Bring my big brother back, Yugi. The next match is probably going to start soon."
The door whooshed open at the press of a button.
"Will do, Serenity." Yugi stepped out into the hall and once the door slid back his care-free smile became a frown.
No Joey in the hallway, his eyes scanned the length of it. The small boy started walking with his hands in his pockets. He turned his head when he noticed the door to his room was open. What's more – someone was standing in it! A shadow in the darkness. Yugi hesitated before clenching his fists. He strode determinedly into his room.
"Who's there? Kaiba?"
The door slid closed behind Yugi and he gasped as they were concealed in darkness. Then the glow of another Millennium Item revealed Bakura standing stock-still with a menacing grin. His Millennium Ring eyed Yugi from the white-haired boy's chest.
"Walked right into my web…" he stated in a dark voice.
"The evil spirit!" Yugi gasped. "I knew it! What are you doing here!?"
"I'm here to take your Millennium Puzzle, Yugi. Marik may have wanted you to stay in the tournament so he could win your god card and banish you to the shadows, but I don't have the patience to beat you in a duel. Not now. Besides, that fool Joey holds that Slifer dragon now doesn't he?"
"You're working with Marik!?" Yugi gasped, recalling the tall hooded figure.
'Yugi,' Yami spoke from inside the small boy's mind. 'I will handle this foe. He can't overpower us on his own.'
The Millennium Puzzle glimmered a brilliant gold and Yugi raised his chin, when he lowered it back his eyes held a fierce determination that didn't belong to the shy boy who'd stood there previously.
"Now that I know for sure that you're back, evil spirit, I will expose you to the others! As well as your secret dealings with Marik!"
"You'll be too busy suffering in the Shadow Realm to do any of that." The long-haired boy laughed quietly.
"Just try to use your powers on me!" Yugi shouted, and waved his arm. "I may be out of this tournament, but I will not sit by and allow you or anyone else to use dark magic to interfere with the other duellists!"
Two Millennium Items charged gold light at each other in a stand-off of power.
"You don't even know how to properly control your powers, even now." Bakura laughed and reached behind him. "Plus you're outnumbered two to one."
"What?" Yugi gasped as Bakura revealed what he was holding, Pegasus's Millennium Eye. "How did you?!"
It started glowing and Yugi gasped in pain, his body tensing up. The power of Bakura's magic was so strong that he was being brought to his knees. The white-haired boy laughed as he casually approached.
"Yes, it's true. I stole this item from Pegasus. With two in my possession I have more strength than both you and Marik. His proficiency with that rod is great, but with three items in my possession he will not be able to deny me a fourth." Bakura reached out with a wicked grin as he approached his kneeling victim.
Suddenly a third light illuminated the room and both teenagers turned in shock to see a white-robed man who appeared beside them. He wore a white turban on his head, the Millennium Key strapped around the dark skin of his neck.
"Shadi!" Yugi recognized the mysterious figure from Duellist Kingdom. The keeper of the Millennium Items.
"It's you!" Bakura snarled and stepped back, bunching his fists.
"You will not harm the Pharaoh, thief king." He spoke with a calm neutrality.
"Don't be so sure! After I take Yugi's item I'll be ripping that key off your cold corpse!" Despite Bakura's threats Yugi was now getting back to his feet, the binding magic gone.
"Do not forgot that I too possess more than one Millennium Item." Shadi threatened. "The key and the scales. With the Pharaoh we both possess three, making you outnumbered in terms of power." He tilted his head. "Watch yourself, soon all of the items will return to the hands of good."
Bakura let out a furious growl before shooting Yugi a dark look.
"We shall see who is first to obtain all the power on this ship!" He marched past Yugi, their eyes staring each other down as Bakura exited through the opening door. Light filled Yugi's room once more as Bakura's white hair flicked behind him on his way out.
"Thank you, Shadi…" Yugi breathed and turned to the man who stared after Bakura.
"You are welcome, my Pharaoh."
"This tournament truly is dangerous… and I feel powerless now that I've lost my place in it."
"Something has happened to change the course of destiny." He lowered his head and closed his eyes, the gold hoops on his ears glinting in the light. "We must all do what we can to fight against the evils on board this ship."
"But how?"
"All seven Millennium Items are here, as such I've made my way on."
"All seven?" Yugi gasped and then narrowed his eyes at the floor in thought. "I have the puzzle. You have the key and scales. Marik holds the rod. The evil spirit has both Bakura's ring and now Pegasus's eye. So who holds the seventh item?"
Yugi looked up in surprise when he noticed Shadi was gone. He'd cloaked himself with his invisibility magic and was again walking the halls unnoticed. Frowning to himself he clenched his fists before another announcement sounded out over the intercom.
"Finalists please return to the main hall for the selection of the second match of the Battle City Finals."
'Let's go,' Yugi mentally spoke to Yami. 'It's our job now to protect the others from Marik and Bakura's meddling in any way that we can.'
Marik Ishtar – the real one again – stood with his arms crossed in the crowd of duellists, secretly bemused. Around him Joey, the Pharaoh and their stupid friends were tense and facing Bakura as he approached the group in the main hall with the Millennium Ring in plain view around his neck. He was no longer trying to hide his identity, which didn't really matter at this point. The Pharaoh had lost Slifer to his incompetent friend (who admittedly wasn't that incompetent, the turnabout of their duel had honestly astounded Marik).
While being unable to summon Slifer, Joey had proved his resilience by defying Marik's mind control in the past and even eliminating the Pharaoh in the first round. Thus denying Marik the pleasure.
Initially the topic of discussion had been Joey's busted lip and Kaiba's bruised cheek. The tall instigator of their tournament stood by his security guards, ignoring all questions about a supposed scuffle. His little brother looked at him worriedly, but he seemed his composed self now as he waited for all the duellists to arrive.
When the Pharaoh made it down he'd informed them all of Bakura's secret identity, giving them time to form an angry line as their confident enemy approached them. A ways behind him Odeon also approached while wielding his fake Egyptian relic. These fools are terrified of both me and the evil spirit of Bakura's ring, Marik thought with wicked amusement. The tension in the air was tangible.
Bakura stopped and faced off against the teens that opposed him angrily.
Marik had tried to look confused at Yugi's explanation of Bakura being evil now. The blonde woman duellist also didn't seem to understand and eyed her motionless competitor with trepidation. Odeon simply walked around the still Bakura and stood patiently away from the crowd.
"Alright let's go!" Kaiba couldn't seem to stand waiting any longer. He was frustrated, not caring at all about whatever was going on between the Pharaoh and his friends.
His suited henchman stepped onto the podium and they all watched as he raised his arm.
"The finalists for the second match will now be chosen! Begin random selection!"
The plastic balls inside the glass sphere immediately began bouncing around. Marik grinned wickedly to himself, perhaps it would be his turn to send another soul to the shadows. A ball was soon sucked into the mouth of the Blue-Eyes replica and spat out. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.
"Duellist number 8 has been chosen! Ishizu Ishtar!"
What?! Marik's face immediately went slack.
"I'm here to stop you, my brother!" A woman's voice announced and they all whipped around to face the duellist in white, a shawl atop her head and her Millennium Necklace sparkling.
Ishizu?! She's going to ruin everything! Marik and Odeon were both more shocked than everyone else, the other duellists quickly recovered. Her eyes were glued to her brother and he felt his façade slipping from between his fingers.
"Ishizu!" The Pharaoh cried.
"It's her!" Tea added. "The woman we met at the museum, the one who knew about those stone carvings!"
"Ishizu!" Kaiba looked shocked for the second time since his finals had started. "How did you get into my tournament without me noticing, let alone the finals?!"
"I have my ways, Kaiba."
"If you're here to take back Obelisk the Tormentor there's no way you're setting one foot off this blimp with that card in your deck!" He threatened. It was clear that his control over his own contest had been progressively slipping.
Ishizu merely closed her eyes before returning their stare to Marik.
"As I just said… my family matters are of greater concern to me at the moment."
"Arrrggghhhhh!" Marik screamed and abruptly whipped his Millennium Rod out of the invisible pocket-space it'd sealed itself within. He swung the gold item and it glowed threateningly. The Pharaoh and his friends turned and jumped out of the way like frightened rabbits. The space between him and his sister cleared right down the middle and her necklace glowed in retaliation, although Ishizu remained calm and collected.
"You will not continue to meddle with my plans, sister!" Marik snarled while pointing his magical weapon at her.
"N-Namu…?" Someone trembled stupidly in confusion.
Odeon looked aghast from the sidelines. Bakura smirked in amusement.
"What the hell is going on here!?" Kaiba raised his fists in outrage.
It was the smaller Kaiba brother who urged the stunned henchman to continue. The glass machine whirred as it made its second selection, only no one was looking at it this time. Marik was enraged, firing arrows of hate at his sister through wide veiny eyes. Kaiba was grinding his teeth, the surrounding teenagers eyed Marik with growing horror and recognition. Slowly everything on the edges of his vision became a blur around Marik's staunch new rival.
"Ishizu will be duelling… number 7! That is to say… um…"
"Odeon Ishtar," Ishizu turned her face to the bald tattooed man who'd been posing as Marik.
Marik lowered his rod and tried to calm himself down. Yes, this is good. Odeon would use his carefully constructed deck, as well as his elaborate fake god card to defeat Ishizu.
"You mean to tell me that guy's not Marik?" One of the idiot teens continued to gasp. "Namu is actually Marik?"
"Yes you fools!" Marik turned to sneer at the onlookers before whipping around to his servant. "Odeon! You will proceed to the upper levels and crush her immediately!"
"…Yes, master Marik." He responded before narrowing his eyes at Ishizu. "You shouldn't have come. You shouldn't have continued to interfere with our plans."
"You have done what you can to protect our brother, Odeon. For that I thank you," Ishizu's softened expression turned hard. "But you have allowed him to stray to the dark side! By defeating Marik and reclaiming the Winged Dragon of Ra I will do what's in his best interests to truly keep him safe!"
"Then let us discover whose will to protect and serve him is stronger, dear sister." Odeon replied smoothly in his deep voice. "Let's ascend to the stratos level and settle this now! Tomb keeper versus tomb keeper!"
Mai Valentine got the feeling a lot more was going on in this tournament than she at first thought. She stood yet again in the secondary elevator with her arms crossed and looked around at everyone else, feeling like she knew the least of everyone here. Kaiba was completely still, obviously gripped by the anger that'd unravelled since the last duel and robbed him of his usual calm. His younger brother watched on worriedly. Yugi stared out the wide glass tube they shot upwards in, he seemed lost. Joey was now mad, silently fuming beside his frightened sister. Tea, Tristan and Duke each looked downwards in sad thought. Their classmate Bakura had decided to wait and catch the elevator up by himself, either that or he didn't care to watch this next duel. Namu/Marik had also decided to wait behind.
This duel sure promises to be dramatic, Mai thought to herself. And I have no idea what's going on between everyone here.
She thought to question Joey once they all filed out onto the voyeur's platform. When the steel doors did slide apart Kaiba was the first to storm out importantly and they all spread around once out to watch as the two contenders and the referee took their marks. The guy everyone was now calling Odeon had thrown his hood back, revealing an atrocious haircut. His dark head was bald safe for a pony-tail at the back, really what was he thinking? He still looked quite threatening as he raised his duel-disk and it slid together and activated, shimmering with rainbow light. The only other female duellist raised her arm elegantly and her disk manoeuvred into place as well.
"I don't know what all you Ishtar clowns think you're up to!" Kaiba suddenly barked. "But I'm going to get through these first rounds as quickly as possible, all that matters is that all three Egyptian God Cards end up in my deck!"
"May the second match of the Battle City Finals begin!" The referee swung his arm down as if this were a pro-wrestling match. Two holographic rectangles appeared and beeped their way up to 4000 points.
At that moment the elevator doors on their level opened to reveal the grey-haired real Marik, holding his glowing rod-thing overhead. There was no Bakura in there with him.
"Hear me now, Ishizu!" He called out to her. "By using my Millennium Rod on the sidelines I can prevent you from foreseeing Odeon's moves and the outcome of this match! Good luck trying to cheat your way to victory this time!"
"As if someone like Marik can call anyone else a cheat!" Joey spat.
"What he's saying is true," Yugi spoke up. "A Millennium Item is the only thing that can go up against another. Marik and Ishizu both have one."
"I can't believe Ishizu is Marik's sister!" Tea exclaimed "Talk about a dysfunctional family…"
"Enough of this fantasy nonsense!" Kaiba yelled. "Begin the duel!"
Both duellists drew their hands from their decks.
I did like the idea of Marik duelling as Namu but oh well, maybe I'll save that one for the Alternate Alternate Battle City Finals? So Marik's identity has been revealed and it's tomb keeper versus tomb keeper. Next chapter another duel can start and I'm sure it'll be another dramatic one, full of Ishtar family tension!
