Set in Battle City at the dock duel.
Aqua girl 007 and Guest wanted to see Pharaoh/Yugi vs. Jounouchi on the docks and here it is. This will be as close as I get to narrating a duel.
Summary: The situation had got out of control fast, but in the midst of it all, Yugi might have a lesson to teach to the Pharaoh. If only it didn't involve such deadly circumstances.
Docks
It was insane. The Pharaoh didn't want to believe so many of his friends had been dragged into something like this. Into a Shadow Game, started by someone who hated the Pharaoh. Someone the Pharaoh didn't really even know. The name Marik Ishtar meant nothing to him other than that he was apparently also a Millennium Item -holder, which meant he was incredibly dangerous. The Pharaoh stood in Yugi's body at the docks where Marik had led them. Marik himself wasn't there. Not in the flesh. Just in the mind. He had used his power to take control of Jounouchi and Anzu, and some of his henchmen were there too, making sure no one tried to escape. Not that anyone would try to. Marik was very effortlessly holding them all there with just his hostages alone.
The Pharaoh looked around and took it all in once more before the game started. Jounouchi stood in front of him, duel disk in hand and ready to duel. There was a maniacal grin on Jounouchi's face that made him look like a completely different person. Jounouchi was normally so lively, fun and passionate about things he cared about. Now he just seemed... dead. A shell forcefully possessed by a malicious person. The possession wasn't complete like what the Pharaoh and Yugi shared. It was merely mind control, putting a piece of one's soul into a person. It didn't feel right. Jounouchi had a handcuff on his wrist, just like the Pharaoh did. The metal felt cold where it touched the skin. Anzu stood a bit farther away, a cyanide capsule in her mouth. The Kaiba brothers were there as well, Kaiba forced to watch from a distance by holding his little brother hostage. Mokuba Kaiba was struggling in a large man's grip, staring wide-eyed at the knife pointed at his throat. The players and the pawns were in place, as Marik was obviously thinking. The Pharaoh and Jounouchi would have to duel or their friends would suffer. Except duelling meant suffering as well. The cuffs they were chained with were attached to an anchor that would drag them down when the timer over their heads would run out. The winner would get the keys to unlock their own cuffs. The loser would drown. The set-up was complicated, perhaps needlessly so, but it was clearly designed to hurt the Pharaoh, and Marik had managed to find the best way to do it.
Through friends.
The Pharaoh gritted his teeth. He didn't really know why Marik Ishtar hated him. But Marik had dragged too many of his friends into this. He would not just stand by and let someone toy with their lives. Marik would pay for this.
He would duel. Not that he had a choice.
The thing was, he didn't want to win. If he did, Jounouchi would die. He would have to find some way of getting through to Jounouchi before the time ran out.
He felt Yugi's anxiousness at the back of his head. They had promised to fight Jounouchi later, but not like this. Definitely not like this. The game started, and Jounouchi wasted no time bringing out illegal cards, which Marik had no doubt put into Jounouchi's deck. It was mostly magic designed to hurt the player and monsters straight away. The Pharaoh flinched when the first attack hit. As he had thought, Marik had put in some magic into the game on top of everything. The attack hit him like a real, physical beast. He gasped, but stayed standing. He had had worse.
"I don't want to fight you, Jounouchi!" he shouted.
Marik laughed, and it echoed out of Anzu. It felt and sounded incredibly wrong.
The timer ticked towards drowning. The Pharaoh needed something to bring Jounouchi back. He was struck again, and he took a step back. He kept his face a determined mask, but in reality he was getting nervous. He couldn't reach Jounouchi through words alone. Maybe he could remind Jounouchi of his real self somehow. Perhaps with the Red Eyes Black Dragon that was somewhere in his deck. It was Jounouchi's card, really. It could...
Other Me?
He blinked when Yugi's voice echoed in his thoughts, surprisingly confident.
Partner?
I can see you're in trouble, Yugi stated, I guess this is the first time for you, huh?
It was, maybe. Well, at least the first time when the Pharaoh started to feel like he wasn't in control of the situation well enough.
I think I can help.
The Pharaoh saw Yugi smile when Yugi said that.
What do you mean?
Let me duel, Yugi said, I know I can get through to Jou.
Well, it made sense. While the Pharaoh and Jounouchi were good friends, Yugi and Jounouchi shared a much closer bond. And with Yugi's natural tendency to making friends Yugi would have much more of a chance to snap Jounouchi out of it. The thing was, that plan would mean Yugi would have to go out there, against magic and deadly consequences. He didn't like it, but it was their best way out of this.
The Pharaoh nodded slowly.
Okay, but be careful. If something goes wrong, I'll get back in charge.
Yugi stepped out in control, and the Pharaoh was back in his own mind, focusing immediately to see the physical world surrounding them. He gave Yugi a few quick words of advice. It was probably not that necessary – Yugi probably already had a plan – but it was a part of being, well, him, he supposed. Yugi had more than once called him overprotective, albeit mostly jokingly, and the Pharaoh knew it was entirely true. Protecting Yugi was his strongest instinct, and it sometimes overrode everything else. And that instinct made it extremely hard to just stand there when Yugi continued the duel, trying to snap Jounouchi out of Marik's control while fighting.
The Pharaoh glanced at the timer that was counting down to the end of the match. They still had time, but there wasn't exactly plenty of it.
Come on, Jounouchi, the Pharaoh looked back at the duel, It's Yugi for crying out loud! You have to listen to him!
Yugi took hits, and it pained the spirit to see his partner hurting. He should have told Yugi to stay back. This duel was deadly. He should be the one going through this. Yugi persisted, talking to Jounouchi and playing his cards just to make Jounouchi remember. The spirit knew Yugi didn't want to win the match at all. He was playing to free Jounouchi. To just get him back.
It wasn't working.
The Pharaoh winced when Yugi was hit again. He shouldn't have let this happen. He shouldn't have even let this to start. Whatever he had ever done to Marik... he shouldn't have done it. Because then his friends might be safe from this.
Time was wasting.
He couldn't stand back any longer.
"Partner!" he barked, "It's too dangerous like this! I will take over!"
He stepped forward, only to be stopped by Yugi's surprisingly firm voice.
"No."
Yugi gripped the Puzzle's chain. The Pharaoh froze, nailed in place. Yugi had fire in his eyes. It would have been an admirable kind of fire if the Pharaoh didn't already know what Yugi was about to do with it.
Yugi slipped the Puzzle's chain over his head.
"Let me finish this," Yugi said quietly.
The Pharaoh felt colder, more detached the moment Yugi pushed him away. He wanted to protest, but Yugi didn't give him the chance.
"I made a wish on the Puzzle that I could have friends," Yugi said, looking at the Puzzle and not meeting the Pharaoh's ghostly eyes even though the Pharaoh was standing right next to him now, "And you gave me courage when I needed it the most. Thanks to that, I finally have friends. But..."
Yugi's grip on the Puzzle tightened.
"If I hadn't met you, would I still be a coward?"
Of course you wouldn't be.
The Pharaoh wanted to say that. Wanted to think that loudly enough for Yugi to hear. But how could he be certain of it? He knew Yugi had always been stronger than Yugi himself even knew, but that strength might very well have stayed hidden if Yugi hadn't finished the Puzzle. It had been haunting Yugi, the Pharaoh knew it. And maybe Yugi was right.
Was the Pharaoh... holding Yugi back? Was he keeping his partner from becoming independent?
He didn't want that. Definitely not.
"I want to do this," Yugi said, "with my own strength."
Yugi's voice was quiet, but still firm, a command mixed with a plea.
"So please, stay back, Other Me."
As if he had a choice now. If Yugi just dropped the Puzzle, he wouldn't be able to take over. Yugi had the power to lock him out of this world whenever Yugi just wanted, but most of the time Yugi never used that power. Now he was more than ready to. And the Pharaoh knew why. He could have almost accepted it too, if it wasn't for the watery grave that awaited the loser.
"If you lose, you'll pay for it with your life!"
"I know," Yugi said, "But I trust Jounouchi."
The Pharaoh clenched his hands into fists. If he had had a physical form, his palms would have started to bleed from the nails digging into them. He didn't want to stay back. He had to protect Yugi. He had to.
But he would also have to leave, eventually. Did he really have this little trust in his partner? He was the one always encouraging Yugi, telling the boy to believe in himself, but when it really came down to it, he was doubting Yugi. What was wrong with him?
Yugi couldn't forever depend on him. Right now, Yugi trusted Jounouchi to pull through his possession. And Yugi needed someone to trust him too.
"Don't you dare to die, Partner," the spirit said firmly.
Yugi smiled.
"Thank you, Other Me."
It was one of the hardest things the Pharaoh had ever had to do, staying back when Yugi turned back to the duel, when Jounouchi's blank, crazed face twisted to a smirk and he prepared another attack. He almost lost it when Yugi was hit. Life points ticked down. Too close to zero. The Pharaoh held his breath for far longer than would have been healthy for a living human being. Yugi was hit again. The Pharaoh felt his partner's pain as if through murky water. Muffled, sluggish, but it was there. Yugi was down, tired and shocked by the brutality of Marik's charge.
Partner, get up. It's not over yet.
And Yugi did get up. The boy managed to drag himself to a standing position and even walk up to Jounouchi. The hand holding the Puzzle twitched. The Pharaoh caught a flood of emotions from Yugi's side. Among them was an apology.
"Jounouchi... please, take it."
Partner?
Jounouchi's face caught a hint of confusion. Some of it was Marik's. Some was Jounouchi's own.
Partner? Yugi? What are you doing?
The Pharaoh already knew. Why did he always have to know? At least if he didn't, the horrible feeling he had about it all could have been wrong.
"Jounouchi..." Yugi whispered, "Whatever happens, your life points can't reach zero. So please..."
"Partner!" the Pharaoh screamed out loud in his empty soul room, "No!"
"...take care of it, when the time comes."
The Millennium Puzzle was slipped around Jounouchi's neck. And by extension, Marik's neck. The Pharaoh was in the hands of a madman who wanted him destroyed. But that didn't matter. Yugi obviously had enough faith in Jounouchi to trust him with this even when Jounouchi was possessed. What mattered was that Yugi was willing to die right there just to save everyone else.
Yugi! You can't do this!
Yugi couldn't hear him any more. Yugi had turned his back and was walking back to his spot. The shackle around Yugi's wrist clinked when he turned back around. The clock was ticking. The Pharaoh could hear Marik's muffled laughter and wasn't sure if it was telepathic or came from Anzu. He didn't care either, really. He shouted after Yugi. He had sworn to himself he would trust his partner, but this? Yugi couldn't die. The spirit needed to protect his friend. He needed-
Jounouchi gripped the Puzzle's chain and yanked it off violently. The Pharaoh felt the tug that came with the Puzzle leaving human contact again.
"Jounouchi! Wait!" he tried to shout, but every possible link to the outside world was blocked. Marik's white noise.
Jounouchi! Fight it! You don't want to do this!
Jounouchi stared at the Puzzle with a deranged look on his face. There was a fight behind those possessed eyes. A fight with Marik's orders that didn't last long. Jounouchi's fingers gripped the pyramid almost convulsively, searching for a spot where to loosen the pieces. The Pharaoh felt coldness rushing through him. Jounouchi wouldn't, would he? Even when Marik was controlling him, he wouldn't destroy-
A piece was ripped loose. The Pharaoh screamed.
It wasn't like a physical wound. It was like something had just torn away a piece of his spirit, his existence. The Puzzle wasn't him exactly, but it was bound to him so tightly that he could feel it breaking as easily as one would feel the breaking of a limb. His hand flew to clutch his head; it felt like it had fractured when the piece had come loose. Pieces of his soul room disappeared. Walls split open and floors started to crack. Shadows rushed in, ready to coat the walls and eventually plunge the whole maze into darkness. It was almost worse than being shattered completely. At least then he had lost consciousness almost instantly before waking up in the shadows. His legs gave out and he slumped on the cracking floor.
"J-Jounouchi..." he managed to grit out, "Please, don't..."
Jounouchi raised his hand, the piece hidden in his fist. He was going to throw it. Oh, gods, he was going to throw it into the ocean! The Pharaoh clawed at the floor, trying to summon enough strength to get back up. He managed to get on his hands and knees.
"Stop it... Jou... No... Marik! Stop this! I swear, if you force Jounouchi to hurt Yugi any more, I will make you pay! I will make you wish you had never crossed me!"
He collapsed back on the floor.
"At least..." his ethereal voice cracked, "At least leave the others alone. It's me you want. If you wish to break the Puzzle... doom me into eternal darkness, then fine, do it. But leave the others out of this!"
His pleas went unheard. Jounouchi's hand shook. Yugi was staring hopefully from across the battlefield. For a moment time seemed to stand still, and the spirit could glimpse all of his friends, now in terrible predicament because of him. Because of a grudge someone had for him for reasons he didn't know.
Maybe, in a way, it would be better that he ended up in the sea. As long as no one else would have to follow him.
Jounouchi hesitated, then shouted with anger. The Pharaoh jerked back into reality. Time ticked forward again. Jounouchi clicked the Puzzle piece back into its place.
The Pharaoh breathed a sigh of relief. The pain dissipated, the cracks in the room knitting back together, forming ancient brick walls. The shadows retreated. In just a moment everything was as if nothing had ever happened in the Pharaoh's soul.
"I don't really care about 3000-year-old grudges," Jounouchi declared, with a voice that was only a little warped, "I am a duellist! We'll duel to the end, and that's how we'll decide this."
On the pier, Yugi smiled.
The Pharaoh lay on the floor, dizzy from his brush with the shadows. He tried to take deep breaths, even though he didn't really need them. It was strange how a human soul clung to things like breathing even after three thousand years dead with no memory of life. Jounouchi hadn't destroyed him. Jounouchi had fought Marik. There was still hope.
But there wasn't a whole lot of time.
Yugi kept duelling. He kept going even after Marik had been ready to stop the game. The Pharaoh pushed himself back to his feet. The Puzzle sat again around Jounouchi's neck. Whole. Not shattered. The Pharaoh couldn't feel more than fleeting comfort because of that. There were still too many lives at stake.
He could only watch when Yugi stopped Jounouchi's last attack and left it hovering between them in the Mystical Refpanel. They were out of time.
"Jounouchi, we were never really fighting," Yugi said.
Yugi said that the real loser of the duel was Marik. That Jounouchi hadn't succumbed completely. They were friends and would stick together to the end. The Pharaoh would have felt proud, but the terrible feeling was back. Again, he knew what was coming next.
Don't do it. There has to be another way.
But there wasn't. Not one Yugi would take, anyway. The Pharaoh knew it. The duel had to end. Otherwise they wouldn't get out of this. Yugi aimed Jounouchi's attack at himself.
"Jounouchi, you are my best friend," Yugi said, tears in his eyes, "I love you."
Then chaos erupted.
Yugi was knocked unconscious with force that rattled the Pharaoh as well even through their temporarily weakened link. The Pharaoh staggered back, hitting the wall behind him and quickly shaking himself back to full awareness. He couldn't falter now. He needed to see what was happening.
In what was one of the most horrible moments of the spirit's existence, Yugi's limp form was dragged underwater.
"No!" Partner!
This couldn't happen. Not again. Yugi had almost died once already without the spirit to help him. That had been one time too many. This was unforgivable. The Pharaoh smashed his fists into the wall behind him. He couldn't just stand here! He needed to help! He needed to protect Yugi!
But even as he raged at himself, he knew there was nothing he could do. He was trapped. Useless. He felt the Puzzle hitting the pier and directed his attention to Jounouchi.
Jounouchi had forced his own life points to zero as well and was now frantically trying to reach the key to Yugi's cuffs. Jounouchi grabbed the key from the box it had been locked in and dove after Yugi. The Pharaoh stared after them, hating himself for being so useless. Again he was all too aware of the restrictions of his spirit form, of the fact that he was bound to an artefact. He tried to reach out with his mind, to hear Yugi's thoughts, but Yugi was too far under – literally – to answer his calls.
Jounouchi was taking far too long.
They had to make it. They would leave too many people grieving if they died. If Jounouchi wouldn't make it, the spirit would never forgive himself for dragging such a good friend into this. And if Yugi wouldn't make it... the spirit feared it would drive him back to madness. He could already feel it. He was still balancing on the brink he had thought he had left ages ago. He had left it thanks to the sweet soul that was Yugi Mutou. Without him, he would be utterly lost.
He stood at the pier, invisible to everyone. Just as well, everyone else was invisible to him at the moment. He could only see the settling, dark depths of the sea, where two of his closest friends had just disappeared. It took a terrible eternity for Yugi to break the surface. The boy coughed, probably on reflex. He was still barely conscious.
Partner! Can you hear me?
He got no answer. But at least Yugi was breathing. Mokuba was there, dragging Yugi onto the pier. When had Mokuba been freed? Did it matter? They were safe. That was enough. Seto Kaiba walked past them, picking up the key Jounouchi had left behind. The key to Jounouchi's cuffs. The Pharaoh looked back at the water. Jounouchi hadn't surfaced yet. Kaiba dropped the key into the water, a strange expression on his face. It was like a mix of grudging worry and amusement. It would have been out of place on anyone else's face except on Seto Kaiba's.
"J-Jounouchi..."
The Pharaoh turned when he heard the weak voice. It was Yugi. The boy twitched, then jerked into a sitting position, coughing up water and demanding to know if Jounouchi was safe.
"Don't worry," said Mokuba, "He'll be fine, thanks to my brother."
True enough, Jounouchi broke the surface soon enough, free and most important of all, alive. The spirit could feel Marik's presence disappearing. They were all free again. They were all right. The Kaibas were okay. Anzu woke up from her trance, spitting out the cyanide and wondering where she was. Jounouchi got back to his feet, apologising to Yugi even though they all knew Yugi had already forgiven everything. The Pharaoh felt weak, almost as if his spirit would disperse into the air at any moment. Too close. Too damn close. Jounouchi picked up the Puzzle, looking at it with an apology written all over his face.
You are forgiven, the spirit assured with his mind, not quite sure if Jounouchi heard it, Everything is fine now.
That last part was as much for himself as it was for Jounouchi.
"Here, man," Jounouchi said to Yugi, "This is your treasure."
And with those words, the Pharaoh was returned to where he was supposed to be. Yugi held the Puzzle to his chest, tired but happy. As happy as one could be after something like this.
Other Me... Jounouchi and I both won.
Yes, yes you did, the spirit replied, trying not to sound too shaken up by the whole thing.
He would have wanted to scold Yugi for his suicidal behaviour. But he had promised to trust. And he had every reason to trust Yugi. Despite everything, Yugi had handled it all much better than the Pharaoh would have. Like the spirit had learned a long time ago, Yugi's strength was in kindness, and in believing everything could be better. But only now did he realize how much strength it all was.
I learned from you today, Partner, he admitted, A kind heart also has the power to win over anything.
Yugi's response was a wave of happiness. It was almost as if nothing terrible had just happened. At that moment, the Pharaoh knew that he had finally met his match. That one day, Yugi would surpass him.
He was looking forward to it.
Author's Note: Hectic scenes are fun because I like to write them with short. Abrupt. Sentences. And I like it. Also I kinda like narrating scenes that actually happened in canon, because that way you can find a new point of view and think how said person feels about it. Then again, I get a bit uncomfortable writing something someone else already wrote but hey, this is fanfiction so having guilty thoughts about using someone else's intellectual property for fun is kinda late once you've started in the first place...
For some reason I find it really amusing how the Pharaoh was so calm after the dock duel in the manga. He was just like, "Yeah, cool. I learned something." and that was it. In my mind he was trying very hard to hide the fact that he was totally freaking out in the Puzzle while the duel was going on. And I find this amusing because I'm evil and find a character having a freak-out and a slight relapse back to their old psychotic side amusing, I guess.
By the way, I am not going to tell which card they were debating over in the last chapter. Names are important, and not mentioning names is also important. I learned this when I was learning how to analyse short stories for school. For example, have you noticed how in these one-shots the way the Pharaoh is referred to in narration changes? It happens for a reason, at least in my head.
Review response time:
Yami E: Creating decks is indeed kind of fun. And feel free to suggest anything you want! Whether I decide to write it or not is another matter, but you never know where I might get ideas so... :)
Guest: Thank you very much for your compliments! I hope this chapter is at least somewhat what you wanted to see.
