Here's the next chapter.

[blah blah blah]- Ryou to other Hikaris (mind link)

[[blah blah blah]]- Malik to other Hikaris (mind link)

{blah blah blah}- Yami to other Yamis (mind link)

{{blah blah blah}}- Atemu to other Yamis (mind link)

{{{Blah blah blah}}}- Bakura to other Yamis (mind link)

{{{{blah blah blah}}}}- Marik to other Yamis (mind link)

Enjoy!


Chapter 9- Another Strike

It had been several days since everyone had agreed to work together to try and save Yugi, but they had come up with nothing.

"This is hopeless!" Joey exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Come on, Joey. We can't give up." Tristan said.

"Why not? We haven't figured out how to help Yugi. I mean, talking to him is the logical way, but he'll kill us if we get close, so that's obviously out. What else is there for us to do?" Joey asked.

The group sighed.

"I hate to admit it, but he has a point." Bakura said.

"What now?" Marik asked.

"I am going stir crazy in this place. We have been holed up in here for way too long." Malik said.

"He's right on that." Tea agreed.

Ryou looked over Atemu. "What do you think?" Ryou asked.

Atemu sighed. "As bad of an idea as it is to leave the mansion, I agree. We all need to get out of this house before we all lose our minds and end up killing each other." Atemu said.

"But where?" Mokuba asked.

"Well, why not the mall? Yugi is less likely to try and attack a mall full of people." Seto said.

"That's a good point." Joey agreed.

"All right. But we have to stay close together. I don't want to run the chance of Yugi showing up and getting to any of us if we separate." Atemu said.

The group agreed.

Atemu then used his Shadow magic t teleport them out of the mansion.


Yugi looked up. "So, they left the mansion." Yugi said.

Yugi stood up with a smirk on his face.

"This is the perfect opportunity to strike." Yugi said.

Yugi's smirk then faded as he sensed something.

"He's here." Yugi said softly.

The darkness in Yugi's eyes seemed to fade away a bit, and amethyst was shown.

"Why did he come?" Yugi asked.

No, Master! Do not be fooled! He is not here for you!

"He doesn't know any of them." Yugi protested.

He is still against you! He will side with those people once he learns everything! He will never remain loyal to you just as Atemu and the others did not! You cannot trust him at all! Do not be fooled by the feeling you have for him!

"But he's my-" Yugi trialed off.

Do not trust him!

Yugi's eyes then turned dark again. "Yes. I cannot trust him. I must go and find them." Yugi said before he vanished in purple smoke.


Atemu had teleported them to an alley that was close to the mall.

"All right. Let's go." Joey said, starting to go in.

Seto grabbed Joey and pulled him back. "We stay together, puppy. Don't ever forget that while we're here." Seto said.

"Oh. Right." Joey said.

The group then headed into the mall.

"It is good to be out again." Tea said.

"Come on! We have some shopping to catch up on." Serenity said.

"I agree." Tea said.

All the men the groaned.

"The pains we have to go through." Tristan said.

"Oh, come on, Tristan. I make it worth your while." Tea said.

Tristan smirked at that thought. "Yeah. You do." Tristan said.

"Okay. I most certainly do not need to know anymore." Seto said.

"And you'd better not be doing that with Mokuba." Joey said.

"Joey, I think you'd know if something was going on between me and Mokuba. We hear you and Seto go at it all the time." Serenity said.

Joey and Seto both blushed.

The others laughed.

"Come on, guys. Let's get to shopping." Tea said.

The group started off.

The first stop was a clothing store.

"Oh, look at this." Serenity said, holding up a tight shirt.

Joey jerked it from her. "Not until you're eighteen." Joey replied.

Tea took it from Joey. "She was talking about me." Tea said.

"Oh." Joey said.

"I can't believe this." Atemu muttered.

"At least you aren't here because your boyfriend loves to shop, too." Bakura said, standing beside him with his arms crossed.

"Well, I can sympathize with Atemu in this one." Yami said.

"So, what now?" Marik asked.

"We wait." Atemu said.

"I mean Yugi. We have to keep thinking." Marik said.

"If we could figure out how Yugi got Yami's Shadow magic, we might be able to figure out how to get the Shadow magic back into Yami." Atemu said.

"Any ideas?" Yami asked.

"Not a one." Atemu said.

"Maybe the Shadow magic acted on its own." Yami said.

The other three Yamis turned to look at him.

"What?" Bakura asked.

"Well, think about. Shadow magic has a mind of its own, but it's also directly linked to the Light magic the Hikaris possess." Yami said.

"I'm following so far." Marik said.

"What if my Shadow magic sensed the pain that Yugi was in? Sensed how I was not protecting Yugi? I'm thinking that maybe the Shadow magic saw that I wasn't doing my job of protecting Yugi, so it, on its own accord, left me and went to Yugi. If I wouldn't protect him, then it would." Yami said.

"That's plausible." Atemu said.

"Why did he go out of control then?" Marik asked.

"The emotions. Yugi has a whole pile of negative emotions, and the Shadow magic feeds on it. It might have used Yugi's negative feelings to feed itself, and because a lot of Yugi's feeling centered on Yami abandoning him, no offense intended, it reacted in the only way Shadow magic does. It wanted revenge." Bakura said.

"No offense taken, and are you suggesting that Yugi doesn't really want revenge on me?" Yami asked.

"I think Yugi wants you to understand the pain he has been in. I just don't think he wanted the pain to be physical." Atemu said.

"In any case, even if we're right, that means that we can't get the Shadow magic back." Bakura said.

Ryou walked over to them and started to say something, but froze.

Across the way, Yugi stood, watching him with impassive eyes. Someone walked in front of Yugi and he was gone.

"Ry, you okay?" Bakura asked, noticing Ryou's expression.

"I just saw Yugi." Ryou whispered.

"Where?" Atemu asked, looking around.

"He's gone now, but I saw him." Ryou said.

"He's here?" Yami asked.

"Yeah. The odd thing is he didn't look angry or revengeful." Ryou said.

"How did he look?" Atemu asked.

"Kind of impassive." Ryou said.

"That doesn't sound like him. At least not after the way he has been acting lately." Marik said, scanning the area.

"Okay. We aren't going to alarm the others, but remain alert. Ryou, let Malik know." Atemu said.

Ryou nodded. [Malik.] Ryou said.

[[Yeah.]] Malik said.

[Yugi's here, but we're keeping it low key.] Ryou said.

[[You sure?]] Malik asked.

Ryou told him everything.

[[Okay. I'll keep my mouth shut and my eyes open.]] Malik said.

[That's all we're doing for now.] Ryou said before ending the conversation.


Yugi stood on the building opposite the mall.

"So, they decided to come here, did they?" Yugi asked.

Yugi clenched his fists tightly.

"Damn them! I can't attack a building full of people! I'll have to wait!" Yugi said.

Yes, Master. Wait. The opportunity will arrive to get your revenge if we wait for the perfect moment.

"Yes. It will." Yugi said.


The group was sitting at a table in the food court.

Serenity and Tea were talking about the purchases they had made.

Joey and Seto were in argument once again.

Tristan and Mokuba were talking about meaningless things.

Atemu, Yami, Bakura, Marik, Ryou, and Malik were on the lookout for Yugi.

{Are you sure about this?} Yami asked.

The four Yamis had quickly learned to use the mind link between them to communicate, and they were using it to their advantage now.

{{{I know Ryou. He had to have seen him.}}} Bakura replied.

{{I have to agree with Yami. If Yugi was here, I thought that we would have sensed him by now.}} Atemu said.

{{{{Maybe he just hasn't attacked yet. He might not be planning to with all the people here.}}}} Marik said.

{{We'd better hope so, or we're going to have to try and fight Yugi without allowing people to find out that we have magic. That would case a scene that not one of us wants to have to deal with now or ever.}} Atemu said.

Tea laughed at something Serenity said. She picked up her drink to take a drink. She froze mid-sip.

Yugi stood across from her. His arms were folded across his chest, and he was looking at them with an expressionless face. When someone walked right in front him, he was gone.

"Oh my god!" Tea gasped.

"What?" Tristan asked.

"I just saw Yugi." Tea said.

"Are you sure?' Seto asked, immediately tensing.

"I'm sure that it was him. I just know it." Tea said, shaking.

Tristan wrapped an arm around her. "Don't worry, Tea. He won't try anything will all these people in the mall." Tristan said.

"He won't, right?" Mokuba asked.

"I don't know. I would hope not, but we can't be sure." Atemu said.

"I think we'd better go." Atemu said.

The group got up and quickly left the mall. They were going to go to the alley again, but there were people standing in it.

"What do we do now?" Serenity asked.

"There's a park near here. We can go there and teleport to the mansion from there." Seto said.

The group quickly headed to the park.

"Let's get out of here before Yugi does something." Joey said.

Atemu, Bakura, and Marik all used their Shadow magic to teleport themselves from the park to the Kaiba mansion.

However, a magical force interfered with the teleportation, and the three Yamis were unable to get them to the mansion.

Everyone crashed down into the ground.

"Ow! What the bloody hell did you three do?" Ryou asked as he sat up, rubbing his back.

"I don't know. Something interfered with the teleportation." Atemu said.

The group looked around and saw that they were on some kind of platform.

"Where are we?" Tea asked.

"It's some kind of platform on the top of a tower." Seto said. He stood up and started to walk around it. He then noticed something. "Take a look." Seto said.

Everyone looked and saw that they could see the entire city from where they were.

"So, who brought us here and why?" Tristan asked.

"I did."

The group turned around and saw Yugi standing there.

"Yugi?"

"Who else?" Yugi asked, obviously annoyed.

"You interfered with the teleportation?" Bakura exclaimed.

Yugi smirked. "It's amazing what can be done with Shadow magic. I now see why you and Marik like using your Shadow magic so much." Yugi said.

"Okay. We may do some crazy stuff with our Shadow magic, but we don't go to the extremes that you have." Marik said.

"Doesn't matter." Yugi said. He formed a sword Shadow magic in his hand and faced them.

"Seto, use your Shadow magic and teleport everyone back to the mansion." Atemu said as he formed a sword made of Shadow magic.

Bakura and Marik followed Atemu's lead and formed swords of their own, prepared to fight with Yugi once again.

Ryou and Malik formed Sais out of their Light magic to help the Yamis in their fight.

"Ryou. Malik. I want you two to go on back to the mansion with them." Atemu said.

"Why?" Malik asked.

"Because Yugi got through the shield at the mansion once before. I don't think he can again, but we can't take the chance. Go. If Yugi manages to break through the shield, I want you two to be there to help Seto and Joey." Atemu said.

"Sure thing." Ryou said.

"Go." Bakura hissed at Seto.

Seto growled. He didn't like being told what to do. "Listen, thief. I'm not-" Seto started.

"Seto, if you don't get your ass in gear right now and get the hell out of here, you're going to have to deal with my foot up your ass!" Atemu growled.

From Atemu, Seto could handle it since he did have a bit of fear from Atemu, although he would never admit it. "All right." Seto said.

Yugi's smirk had never left his face.

Seto tried to teleport them out of the area, but soon found out that he couldn't.

"Seto, go!" Atemu ordered.

"I tried! I can't teleport!" Seto said.

That wasn't good.

Atemu, Marik, and Bakura all tried as well and realized that they weren't able to teleport out of there, either.

Yami knew. "It's Yugi! Somehow he's stopping you from using the teleporting capability of the Shadow magic!" Yami said.

"Now aren't we the smart one?" Yugi said sarcastically. He snapped his fingers.

Around the tower, a purple aura was now seen.

"What is that?" Mokuba asked.

"It's a shield made of Shadow magic. Unfortunately for us, it's supercharged." Atemu said.

"Does that mean you can't use your Shadow magic?" Serenity asked, scared.

"No. We can use it." Atemu said.

"They just can't teleport out of here, meaning that they're stuck until I put the shield down." Yugi said.

"Now what?" Tristan asked.

"Start hoping we can stop him." Atemu said.

"Joey and I can help." Seto said.

"Seto, you help us. Joey, hang back and act as backup with Ryou and Malik." Atemu said.

Joey started to protest.

One glare from Seto had him shutting up.

Joey knew that his wasn't the time to argue and decided to just do what Atemu told him to do.

"Well, it's four against one. That doesn't seem fair." Yugi said.

"Like we care about fairness in this." Seto said as he formed a sword from Shadow magic.

"I was referring to it not being fair for you." Yugi replied.

Atemu knew that this was a bad idea, but he knew there was no other way to deal with the situation now. He charged at Yugi.

Bakura, Marik, and Seto followed his lead.

Yugi blocked Atemu's sword and forced it back before he turned and kicked Seto in the chest, knocking him backwards. Bakura struck at Yugi, but Yugi jumped up and flipped over Bakura. Marik struck out at Yugi, but Yugi flipped backwards again, and Marik's sword cut a part of Bakura's hair.

"Marik! Watch it! You almost decapitated me!" Bakura barked.

Seto tried to strike Yugi, but Yugi ducked out of the way and jumped up. He kicked Seto before he turned and blocked Atemu's word. Yugi forced Atemu back before he rammed his elbow in Atemu's chest, knocking the wind out of Atemu. Yugi then kicked Atemu in the chest and threw him backwards.

'Damn it! How are we supposed to defeat him?' Seto asked himself.

Yugi turned and brought his sword down at Seto. Seto managed to block the sword, but Yugi brought his knee up and into Seto's stomach, knocking the wind out of Seto. Yugi then kicked Seto in the face, throwing him backwards onto his back.

"Seto!" Joey shouted.

Marik and Bakura charged at Yugi at the same time.

Bakura brought his sword down at Yugi, but Yugi flipped backwards out of the way of the sword. Marik jumped up over Bakura and brought his sword down at Yugi. Yugi blocked Marik's sword with his own sword before he forced Marik backwards. Yugi then struck out at Marik, but Marik managed to move back out of the way.

Bakura ran at Yugi and sent a ball of Shadow magic at him, but Yugi merely jumped up out of the way. Marik tried the same attack from behind, but Yugi jumped up out of the way, and Marik's attack went speeding right at Bakura. Bakura dove to the side out of the way, and the attack hit the ground.

"Damn. They haven't even made a scratch." Malik said.

Ryou had watched and now he knew. "We're screwed." Ryou said.

"What? Why?" Joey asked, looking over at Ryou.

"Yugi could have already taken them down. He's toying with them. He's not even trying." Ryou said.

"Are you sure?" Yami asked.

A moment later, Yugi threw out his arm, and he released a powerful wave of Shadow magic.

The attack hit not only Marik and Bakura, but Atemu and Seto as well. All four Yamis crashed into the ground hard.

"I'm sure." Ryou said.

The four Lights prepared themselves for a fight.

"Look. I'll just go with Yugi willingly so you guys don't get hurt or killed. It's me he's after anyway. At least that will end this." Yami said.

"No, Yami. You can't do that." Tea said, holding onto her friend's arm.

"She's right. That's suicide." Tristan agreed.

"Look. I'm the one he's after. This will end if I go with him." Yami said.

"No, Yami. Yugi's out for more than that. He might manage to kill you, but it won't end there. If Yugi were himself, he wouldn't want you to die." Ryou said.

"Uh, guys." Joey said.

"Besides, Atemu wouldn't forgive us if we let anything happen to you." Malik said.

"Yeah. He may act like he hates you, but he doesn't want you to die, even if it is mainly because it's what Yugi wants." Ryou said.

"I know that, but this is mostly my fault." Yami said.

"Guys!" Joey said.

"What?" Malik snapped.

Joey was staring ahead, and the others released Yugi was watching them closely.

A moment later, a wave of Shadow magic hit them, knocking them all over the place.

Everyone groaned.

"Okay. This is getting old." Tristan said, wincing at the pain coursing through him.

"We have to stop him." Ryou said.

"I'd love to know how when you can't even lay a finger on him." Tristan said.

"Would you rather be dead?" Ryou asked.

Yami tried to rise up, but a foot on his back forced him back down.

"This is over, Yami." Yugi said.

Yami cringed at the emotionless tone Yugi's voice had taken on.

Yugi reached down and grabbed Yami, forcing him to his feet.

Yami looked at Yugi. "Yugi, please stop this." Yami said.

"Why should I? You never stopped." Yugi said before he slammed Yami backwards into the small building that housed the entranceway to the tower.

Yami winced at the pain.

"I have had it with you. I am not going to let this continue." Yugi said.

"Yugi, please. I know that you are angry with me. I get that." Yami said.

"No, Yami. I don't think that you do get it. You don't have the first clue as to what I have been going through. No one does." Yugi growled.

Before Yami was able to say anything, Yugi's hand was around Yami's throat, squeezing.

Yami brought his hands up, trying to stop Yugi.

"I suffered because of you. I screamed for you to come and help me, but you didn't! You let those men beat me! You let them rape me! You couldn't have cared less!" Yugi shouted.

Yami was shocked by this, but he wasn't able to focus on it because of the fact that he was struggling to breathe.

Malik's eyes widened in horror. "Yugi! Stop!" Malik shouted.

Everyone looked and saw this.

Atemu tried to get up, but couldn't. He was too exhausted. Despite how angry he was, he couldn't let this happen. Regardless of the mistakes Yami had made, Atemu knew that he still loved his brother and that he couldn't let him die. He knew that Yugi wouldn't want that, either. Not if he was thinking clearly. "Yugi! Stop this! You don't want this!" Atemu shouted.


From across the way, a figure was watching the battle.

"Damn it! I didn't think that Yugi would be this out of control!" the figure said.

He watched as all this happened. He had hoped that he wouldn't have to do this, but he now knew that he had no other choice.

"I have to stop all this before it's too late." the figure said.


Yami was having trouble breathing now. He wasn't sure how much longer he could last.

"You let them ruin my life. While you were off living your life happy and carefree, I was crying every night. I lived in fear of what may happen. I was so afraid that those three men would come back that I never felt safe. You never let me feel safe. You were never there when I needed you. You broke every promise you ever made to me, and you never once cared." Yugi growled.

Yami had known all this, but hearing it from Yugi made it hurt a thousand times worse.

"I can't believe that I actually trusted you. I believed you cared about me. Hell, at one time, I thought you were supposed to be in love with me, but you went to Tea the first second you had! You never loved me! I don't think you ever cared what happened to me as long as you had what you wanted! You were free, and all you needed was to be free of me! You had to get rid of me! You didn't want me to be alive! You needed me to be dead so that I no longer tied you down! You let all that happen to me because you hoped that I would die!" Yugi yelled.

Yami was stunned. He couldn't believe that Yugi thought he had wanted Yugi to die. He couldn't understand where Yugi was coming from, but Yami was having even more trouble breathing now. He knew that he wouldn't last much longer.

"It's over, Yami. You're going to pay the price for everything that you did to me." Yugi hissed.

"YUGI! STOP!"


Hope you liked it.

Next: Someone new comes in.

R&R.