10. Intersections

This late on a Friday afternoon with a couple of weeks still left in winter break, the campus of San Francisco State University was pretty dead. The few administrative employees that worked during school breaks had mostly left for the weekend, and even the residence halls were closed until late in the month. Tristan couldn't imagine that the museum would be open—not that that would stop Marik if he really had come here. "So where's this museum anyway?" he asked Duke.

Duke was looking at a campus directory. "Uh… Humanities building, fifth floor. Hmm. It's only open to the public in November and April, though."

"Well, Marik's not exactly 'the public,' is he? Even if he were normal, his sister has more pull than almost anyone in the world when it comes to ancient Egyptian artifacts. And if he has gone evil, do you think he's gonna really care if it's open or not?"

"Good point."

They found the Humanities building and tried several doors. All were locked.

"So, did you learn how to pick locks in Military Police School?" Duke asked.

"Yeah, because I totally wanna be arrested for breaking and entering." Tristan rolled his eyes. "Let's give it up and go back to your place. He's gotta turn up there eventually."

"Wuss," Duke said under his breath.

"I heard that."

They started to head back toward the parking garage where Duke had left his car when something caught Tristan's eye. There was movement inside one of the doorways. Grabbing Duke by the arm, he jerked him around the corner of the Fine Arts Building across the sidewalk.

Duke cried out in protest. "What the—"

"Shh!"

They looked cautiously around the corner and watched as a door to the Humanities building opened and a man with platinum blond hair and a lot of jewelry emerged. Tristan grinned at Duke. "Bingo."

"So, now what? Do we follow him?"

"How we gonna do that without him seeing us?" Tristan asked. "It's not like there's a huge crowd to blend into. I just say we confront him directly."

Duke stepped back and bowed. "After you."

"Gee, thanks." Tristan strode out from behind the wall of the Fine Arts building. "Hey Marik!" He tried to sound casual, as if they'd just happened to have been on campus and run into him by accident. Late on a Friday afternoon during winter break. "What brings you here?"

Marik stopped, startled.

Duke was right behind Tristan. "Yeah, dude, if I'd have known you were coming here, I could've given you a lift. I got a girlfriend, lives over at the Towers residence hall just around the corner." He jerked his head in the general direction of Cady's dorm, and Tristan hoped Marik wouldn't know they were all closed for break.

"I…." Marik look flustered, which struck Tristan as very unusual whether he was evil or not. "There's an Egyptian exhibit here. Ishizu wanted me to see it while I was in San Francisco."

Tristan raised his eyebrow. "When the whole campus is shut down for winter break?"

Marik looked at them a moment and seemed like he was going to say something more. And then he bolted.

Tristan groaned. "Oh, that's just great!" He and Duke took off after Marik at a run. Marik had a good head start on them, but between Tristan's military training and long legs, he caught up with him pretty quickly. He tackled Marik on a patch of grass by the Student Health Center, then straddling him, grabbed him by the shoulders and flipped him over onto his back. "Dude, whatcha running for? We just wanna—"

He stopped short and Duke caught up to them, breathing heavily. "Jesus, Tristan, what did you do to the guy?"

"Nothing! I didn't even hit him, I just tackled him!"

"Then why's he unconscious?"

"I don't know!" Tristan shook Marik by the shoulders, then slapped his cheeks lightly. "It was almost like he was a puppet whose strings just got cut."

"Huh. Why do I get the feeling that's exactly what he is?" Duke shuddered. "Well, we'd better get him back to my place. Then we should call Serenity and have her check him out, see if he's just unconscious or if he's booked a time share in the Shadow Realm."

Tristan groaned again. "Fabulous. My favorite pastime, lugging around unconscious bodies."

Duke smirked at him. "Good. Then I'll leave it to you."

Joey stared at the Cyber Harpie Lady he'd just drawn. Now, Dark Magician was one thing—he supposed he could have mistakenly gotten some cards from Yugi's deck mixed in with his. They were best friends, after all. But the only person he'd ever known with Harpies was Mai Valentine, and she would kill him for having her card, so how the hell did it get in his deck?

The same way all those Hinotamas got in your deck, moron, he chided himself. The Voice.

And yet… the Voice was strangely silent. It wasn't urging him to destroy Yugi, or to play the Hinotama cards, or anything. Did that mean he was free? Could he just pass and let Yugi win so he would be dragged into the sea and not his friend?

I can't zero your Life Points, Joey.

Joey looked down at the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. Yugi had given him the Millennium Puzzle because he didn't want it to go into the sea with him. Yugi, who would never allow him to be killed while he went free. He won't beat me. We have to tie, Joey realized. But it was risky. If they ran out of time, they'd both be dragged under, and he wouldn't, couldn't let that happen to his best friend. But neither would Yugi let it happen to him. He reached for the Cyber Harpie—

The Voice roared to life. CRUSH HIM! PLAY HINOTAMA! But Joey had enough control to summon the Cyber Harpie instead. She appeared on the field, stunning and deadly.

And she had Mai Valentine's face.

What the hell?

The Harpie with Mai's face winked at him, and a memory flooded his mind. He was on his knees at Duelist Kingdom unwrapping a handkerchief Mai had just given him. Inside was the Glory of the King's Hand card he needed to qualify for the semi-finals against Bandit Keith. Does this mean we're friends?

She'd thought he hadn't heard her answer, but he had. Dork. Of course we're friends.

Then he was somewhere else entirely. A dueling field, and Mai was chained to some sort of stone. She was about to be attacked, and Joey jumped up to protect her, taking her face in his hands. I won't let anything happen to you, because we're friends. I'll always be there for you, no matter what. I have something to tell you, Mai. Remember that dream I had, that I was back at school and I couldn't stand up, but all my friends helped me—including you? I know I told you you weren't there, but you were. You're my friend.

But he wouldn't always be there. A time would come that she would need him and he wouldn't be there.

Don't even go there, Joey. Blaming you is how I got myself into such a mess the last time. This is not your fault. And these past two days with you… It's been the best two days I've had in a long time.

Joey wondered if he was losing his mind, or if the Voice was somehow doing this, giving him memories that weren't real, since only the Duelist Kingdom thing had actually happened to him. But they felt real. Mai felt real, and the depth of what he felt for her washed over him. He was in love with her, he realized with a shock. But that was crazy! She was completely out of his league, not to mention an adult while he was only sixteen, still in high school.

Wasn't he?

"Joey, you can do it! You can break free!"

Yugi's voice from across the field reminded Joey he was still in a duel. It must be a trick, the Voice was trying to trick him into attacking with Cyber Harpie. But he had to if Yugi really wanted to tie. He called the attack, and the Harpie-with-Mai's-face destroyed Yugi's Celtic Guardian, taking him down to 2100 Life Points. Still 2000 ahead of Joey, but there was no way he was gonna play those Hinotama cards.

Yugi drew and when he looked at the card, he got an odd look on his face. With an almost predatory smile—Yugi? Predatory?—he set the card he'd just drawn in facedown defense mode and ended his turn.

Joey drew, this time getting Gift of the Mystical Elf. Another card he didn't have, but at least it wasn't one he shouldn't have. It would give him three hundred Life Points for every monster on the field—a great card if he were actually trying to win. He started to set it facedown in the trap/spell slot, but as he looked at he had a sudden image of his sister, and then he got another one of those weird flashes and heard Yugi's voice.

I think that Mystical Elf may be your special guardian monster. You may be bonded to her the way I am to Dark Magician or Joey to Red-Eyes or Mai to Harpie Lady or Kaiba to Blue-Eyes. The Gift of the Mystical Elf is healing. She restores Life Points. You're a healer, Serenity. That's why she's connected to you.

Joey put his hand to his head. Stop messing with me, Marik or whatever your name is! Get out of my head!

Mai felt like she was living a scene from a bad civil war movie where the menfolk went off to battle while the womenfolk sat around darning socks. The fact that Joey and Yugi were both unconscious on the bed in the middle of the room marred that image somewhat, but she knew they were, in point of fact, engaged in a battle, and she couldn't do a damn thing to help them except sit and stew. Or more accurately, pace and stew.

Téa, Serenity, and Rebecca all looked about as antsy as she felt, but Téa and Serenity were somehow managing to sit still. Téa had pulled up a second chair beside the one where Yugi was still half slumped. She would alternately hold his hand or rub his back, muttering words no one else could hear but Mai could only assume were Téa's trademark words of encouragement. Behind Téa, Rebecca fidgeted, sometimes pacing like Mai, other times just sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up while she fiddled with her glasses. On the other side of the bed sat Serenity, her hands clenched in her lap and her head bent in what looked like silent prayer.

Occasionally, Mai would get the strange sensation that she could almost feel Joey as he struggled. She could feel his confusion and it made her think of her own Shadow Game where she thought the Orichalcos was controlling her when really it had just been a false enemy so that she would let the real enemy win. She remembered how difficult it was to let go of that, to believe that the enemy in her head wasn't real, and it made her crazy imagining Joey facing the same thing. The darkness isn't inside you, Joey, not this time. Trust yourself and fight to win.

Serenity gasped. "Onii-chan." She looked at the other three women. "Did you feel that?"

Mai frowned. "Wanna narrow that down a bit, hon? I've been feeling weird stuff since we got here."

Serenity's brows knit together as she closed her eyes and concentrated. "It's like… he's reaching out to me. But he's confused."

"I'm guessing he's been drawing our cards," Mai said. "I thought I felt something a little bit ago. Hopefully, Yugi's been giving him an earful."

Téa frowned, shaking her head slightly. "I don't know. Yugi's struggling, too. Can't you feel it?"

Mai's right hand, the one Téa had drawn that ridiculous happy face across seven months ago to symbolize their bond to each other, automatically went over her heart as she tried to feel what Yugi and Joey were feeling. They were just twinges, ghost feelings that came to her the way scents would waft in on a summer breeze. There was confusion, then clarity, then frustration, then anger. She looked at Téa. "I do feel it."

Téa leaned forward to where Yugi was sprawled half on the chair and half on Joey. She gently brushed at the blond hair around his forehead. "We're here for you, all your friends, Yugi. Just like we've always been. We're here for you."

The Nameless Pharaoh could feel his anger rising. It was one thing for his partner to expect to duel for revenge; it was quite another to duel him unarmed. "What are you doing? I can't move. I don't have a deck!"

The spirit didn't care. "If you pass, then I play Polymerization and Berfomet. I'll fuse Berfomet with Gazelle to form Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast and attack your Life Points directly!"

Chimera attacked, its 2100 attack points bringing him down to a mere 400. The spirit sneered at him, and the Nameless Pharaoh wondered if he shouldn't just give up. Isn't this what he deserved? What if the spirit was right? What if he had sent him away just because he didn't want his "weakness?" Then he deserved what he got. He wasn't Yugi, and he deserved to go.

Don't go! That was Tristan's voice calling out to him, another memory. But of what?

Then Joey's voice followed, full of desperation. Yugi! It doesn't matter if you're Pharaoh or Atem, you'll always be Yugi! Even in a thousand years, you'll always be our friend!

Joey, he thought. My friends…. He could almost feel them reaching out to him.

"Are you passing again?" the spirit asked.

And then he remembered. He did have a card. He didn't know how or why, but he knew that he had one card. It was a high-powered monster, and he should have to sacrifice two monsters to summon it, but instinctively he knew it wasn't necessary, not in this struggle against himself. He didn't need to sacrifice; he didn't even need his Duel Disk. All he needed was this card, the card once given to him by his friend.

"No, I am not passing." Retrieving the card from his pocket, he raised it high in the air with a flourish. "I summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"

The Voice was in control again. "All right, little Yugi, time to wipe out your Red-Eyes and your Life Points," it forced Joey to say. It wanted him to attack it with Cyber Harpie and then use the three Hinotama cards to finish him off.

But Joey could feel its control slipping. If he attacked Red-Eyes and only used two of the Hinotama cards, then Yugi would have 200 Life Points left and they'd be closer to tying. He looked across the field at the ailing Red-Eyes languishing beside Yugi.

I can't do it. I can't destroy Red-Eyes. He'd given it to Yugi for a reason. He could forfeit instead, let Yugi win—

And then something happened to Red-Eyes. Something in the dragon's eyes flickered, and Joey felt himself being pulled into them, into the deep red eyes of his most treasured dragon. It showed him a vision, but not like the weird half-memory visions the Voice was planting in his head. This was a vision of someplace he'd never seen before, but he knew what it was as soon as he saw it. It was a desolate canyon—Death Valley, he knew, although he didn't know how he knew—and Yugi and the Pharaoh were facing each other in a duel.

The huge black dragon appeared in front of the Nameless Pharaoh, not in the pixilated way the Duel Disk holograms were summoned, but in a burst of smoke and shadows. He could feel it beside him, living and breathing, his best friend's precious dragon.

And atop Red-Eyes, looking down at him with a confused expression on his face, perched Joey himself.