A/N: Yaaay! No more duels!
Chapter 9
Tristan and Téa finally reached the main floor of Shadow Tower. They caught up with the others right outside of the elevators.
"Hey, guys!", Vittoria threw Téa a dirty look.
"And girls," Téa added.
"That's better," Vittoria remarked, "So what did you have to do to get up here? Me, I played comeback kid in a duel against Setoni."
"That was nothing! I had to duel a holo-Rebecca!"
"Holo-Rebecca! Try winning a Dungeon Dice Monsters style duel against a hologram of Duke Devlin," Tristan added.
"My arms still hurt from all that swinging I had to do to get to my elevator," Yugi said.
"So, Vittoria, where is the entrance to the main room anyways?", Joey asked.
"It's on the opposite side of this floor from the elevators."
"Just great, more walking."
"Hey, look on the bright side, at least the door is easy to get to," Tristan remarked.
They soon made it to the door leading to the main room of Shadow Tower. One problem, though, it was locked.
"Where there's a lock, there is usually a key, or in this case a key code," Bakura remarked as he punched in what he guessed must be the code to enter the room.
"Yesss, it worked!" Marik said happily, as the door opened.
They entered the main room only to find Malik and Setoni there and the kids gone.
"What? Where are they?", Marik asked.
Bakura looked at the wall where the boys were chained wondering the same thing. Then, he pinned Setoni against the wall by his throat.
"Where the bloody hell is my son, Setoni?", Bakura demanded, "Tell me or else I will strangle you and then drown you."
Suddenly, the door to the sleeping quarters blew off its hinges, hitting Yami in the head.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, there stood Ripley holding an unconscious Izzy with an evil smirk on his face. Ripley tossed Izzy to the ground like he was a discarded toy.
"Nooo! Izzy! What happened to him? How could this happen?", Marik cried as he rushed over to help his son.
"Let's just say that Amalia and I played with him 'til our hearts were content," Ripley said.
"Ripley! I thought that I taught you better than that!" Bakura yelled at his son.
Ripley looked over to see an unconscious Yami with a huge bruise on his forehead.
"Ha! Looks like I took care of the Pharaoh for you!"
"Ripley! Knock that off this instant!", Vittoria screamed at Ripley.
"Make me," Ripley said sarcastically, "Now, who wants to be next!"
Ishizu, Téa, and Yugi rushed over to help the fallen Pharaoh.
"Hmmm...how about those three," Ripley mused. He then used his shadow magic to throw Yugi and the two girls into the wall, knocking them out.
Marik looked up from where he was with Izzy to find his sister, Téa, and Yugi all slumped on the floor near the wall, unconscious.
"Sister, no...", he gasped, "That's it! I'm teaching this little brat a lesson that he'll never forget." Marik grasped the Millennium Rod and pointed it straight at Ripley. To everybody's surprise, the Rod glowed. Marik chanted the sealing spell that his sister taught him after she found out that he had the Rod. It glowed brighter and brighter as Ripley struggled and eventually started to lose consciousness. Ripley slumped to the ground, asleep.
"And they said that the Rod wouldn't work here! Ha!", Marik said after he was done.
Vittoria rushed over to Ripley to see if he was OK.
"Thank the Gods," she remarked, "Now that it's all over can we go home? Please?"
"How are we going to get everyone ta da boat?" Joey asked.
"Well, if the Rod worked," Vittoria answered, "then maybe my Charm works and we can get them down that way."
Vittoria activated the charm and floated herself and the unconscious people out to Marik's boat. The rest of them boarded Ishizu's elevator and headed down that way.
Once they all got to the boat, Joey and Vittoria volunteered to take care of the fallen ones. Bakura took lookout duties.
"So, Bakura, what do you think happened back there?", Marik asked.
"I don't know. Maybe Amalia did something to him to make him act like that," He was unwilling to tell his friend what he thought that cause really was...that maybe Ripley had somehow inherited Zorc from his dad and was unable to control his powers.
They finally made it back to Domino City. They agreed to stay at Marik and Bakura's house until the others recovered from their injuries.
Kalila greeted them when they got there.
"Wow! I guess you people can't get through anything without a few injuries," She remarked, "Oh my Ra! What in the hell happened to my son?"
"You don't wanna know," Marik told her.
"I'm going to take Ripley to his room and see what I can do to help him forget what happened tonight," Bakura told everybody.
Bakura put Ripley in his bed and chanted a spell that would erase the memories of what happened that night. As Bakura was finishing up, Marik came in to put Izzy to bed. Marik and Bakura hoped that their sons would remain friends after what happened at Shadow Tower.
"Wow! After all that happened, it sure is nice to see Ripley sleeping so peacefully," Marik whispered.
"Unfortunately, I think his nightmares have only just begun," Bakura added.
"You know, it has been a long day, I think that I am going straight to bed, fully clothed."
"Same here. I have a feeling that Vittoria may already be there."
The next day, Bakura called Mokuba so that he could take care of the kids while Bakura told the others about what he thought may have happened to Ripley.
"So you think that maybe he inherited Zorc somehow?", Ryou asked.
"Unfortunately, that is what may have happened," Bakura said.
"So much for Ripley's chance at a normal life," Ishizu remarked.
"But what about that sealing spell that I did last night?", Marik asked.
"Zorc is much too powerful to stay sealed like that for long," Bakura told him.
"So where do we go from here?", Vittoria asked.
"I have no idea, Vittoria, no idea," Bakura said.
A/N: Pretty sad ending, huh? Writing it almost put me in tears.
