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The Orichalcos Saga

Fanfic Chapter 197: Target: Yami
Episode Basis: The Challenge

Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh! Joey formed a plan to have both him and Mai lose the duel at the same time. That way, nobody would have their soul stolen. Joey's plan was actually quite sound and under normal circumstances probably would've succeeded. But Valon, one of Doma's Warriors, interfered and "saved" Mai. Then the Warriors of Doma spirited both Mai and Harold away. As if the gang's day couldn't get any worse, Kaiba shows up and everyone investigates Pegasus's secret room where a hologram of Pegasus revealed that a man name Dartz was seizing control of Industrial Illusions and was using Duel Monster spirits to fuel the revival of a terrifying creature: The Great Leviathan. Now, the only way to beat Dartz is to use the Legendary Dragons held by Yami, Kaiba, and Joey.


"What, my eyes must be playing tricks on me!"

"I doubt it mine is doing the same thing, Kaiba."

"It's as if these dragons are calling out to one another!"

The glow emitted by the close proximity of the three strange dragon cards faded.

"Oh yeah, nothing magical about that," Duke said sarcastically.

"What was that all about?" Tristan asked.

"I was told that a team of warriors have been chosen by fate to wield the power of the Legendary Dragons," Yami explained. "I have a feeling that we're them."

"Give me a break, Yugi, I decide my own fate."

"Kaiba, why do you think you were given that dragon card? They were to be used to defeat the Great Leviathan!"

"How many times do I have to tell you clowns that this is all a gimmick set up by Pegasus!"

Amara saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and let out a scream, "Uh… Kaiba, I think Pegasus no longer has a say in the matter."

"And how do you know?"

"Because he's right over there." Amara pointed to something behind a large statue of Toon Dark Magician Girl. The others followed her glance and gasped.

Pegasus's body was face-down behind the statue.

They moved Pegasus's body to a couch in the office and covered it with a blanket. "Well, that eliminates Pegasus… from the suspects list anyway," Tristan said.

"Any more theories you'd like to present to us, Kaiba?" Amara asked sarcastically.

"I don't have time to play detective, I have a multi-million dollar company to run." And the Kaiba Brothers turned and left.

"We don't need Kaiba weighing us down," Joey said. "With Hermos on our side, Dartz and his boys don't stand a chance."

"Glad to see you're back to your old self," Tristan said.

"Sorry for my moping," Joey apologized. "It won't happen again."

"What are you two doing?" Tea asked Weevil and Rex, who were going over Pegasus's personal room with a fine-tooth comb.

Weevil quickly took off his glasses and threw them. "My glasses, I can't find them!"

"They're over there," Tea said pointing to them. "Where you just threw them."

"So what do we do now?" Amara asked.

"We could chill back at my place, play some Dungeon Dice Monsters," Duke offered.

"What we need to do is find Dartz and his goon squad, bust them up and rescue Harold and Mai!"

"One problem, Tex, the goon squad didn't leave a forwarding address," Tristan pointed out.

Yami gasped, "Professor Hawkins! He might have some information for us."

"I'll call information and ask for his address," Amara volunteered.

"We're going to need some way to get there," Tristan said as a loud engine came from outside the window. Everyone went to the window to see the Blue-Eyes White Jet starting to take off. Tristan pounded on the window. "Hey, wait, we need a lift!" But the jet was already taking off. "Swell, there goes our ride."

"Not like we could all fit in there anyway."

"No sweat, we can take my car," Duke volunteered. "There should be enough room for the six of us."

"Hey, you mean the eight of us," Weevil said.

"What are we, chopped liver?" Rex added.

"What ARE you two doing here anyway?" Amara asked.

Weevil and Rex each put on embarrassed faces. "Um… this isn't where the Cheese Festival is?" Rex asked weakly. Weevil slapped himself on the forehead.

"No problem," Duke said. "I have the perfect place for them.


Apparently, the perfect place for them was the trunk along with the rest of the luggage. Duke drove with Tea and Amara sharing the role of navigator. Yami, Joey, and Tristan took the back.

"This trip has been awful," Rex complained.

"But it'll be worth it," Weevil commented.

"I've been beat up, tossed around, frozen and tossed in a trunk like a bag of golf clubs, how is it going to be worth it?"

"Everybody knows this Hawkins guy is a card fanatic, he should have lots of good cards."

"Oh." The two were silent for a while. "Mai Valentine seems to have gotten stronger since she joined up with those Orichalcos guys."

"Yeah," Weevil agreed. "I wonder…"

In the riding part of the car, Tea struggled with the map. "Okay, according to the directions Amara got, Altamont Pass is still about twenty miles off so if we continue on 580 we should get there by nightfall."

"Couldn't we just take the blue path directly there?" Tristan offered.

"If we had a boat," Amara snapped.

"Well what about heading down there then going back up?" Tristan pointed to a spot on the map.

"That's Mexico, dill head," Amara said. "We'd prefer to stay within one country's boarders. Now sit down and shut up! We're trying to navigate here."

Joey had been quiet since they started the trip. He couldn't believe that Mai would join a plan to destroy civilization. Heck, she barely believed Pegasus had the power to steal souls at Duelist Kingdom. So why would she join up with the Warriors of Doma. "Hey Yugi?" Joey asked. "Is there… Mai wouldn't listen to reason do you think anything can be done to return her to the Mai we know?"

Yami was quiet. Then he said, "There might be a way."

"Really, how?" Joey asked quickly.

"There's no way to tell if it still exists inside her though, and we've already seen how the Orichalcos is stronger than the Shadow Magic."

"What is it?" Joey asked again.

"During Mai's duel with Marik, I was able to infuse her with some energy from my Millennium Puzzle. That energy enabled her to summon the Winged Dragon of Ra without getting hurt."

"But she couldn't read the text on the card, right?" Tristan asked.

"Correct, that I did not count on. But if the energy still exists inside her, it can expel the evil energy of the Orichalcos. But it's a big chance. Like I said, the Orichalcos magic has proven stronger than the Millennium Puzzle. There's no telling if it'll work." Yami pounded the side of the car.

"Calm down," Yugi said. "Getting upset won't save Harold or Mai."

"I know."

Yugi decided to change the subject. "From what Pegasus told us, Dartz controls a force that's thousands of years old. It might even be older than you, no offense."

"None taken. The Orichalcos seems to be the most powerful magic we ever came across."

"It seems to be connected to Professor Hawkins's theory but I'm not sure how."

"Hopefully, he does."


"Ow."

"Oh hold still, you big baby," Jonah said as she tied the bandage around Valon's arm. "There, that'll have to do until we get back."

Mai shoved Jonah away and scowled at Valon. "What were you thinking, interrupting our duel when I was about to win!"

"You were about to lose," Jonah pointed out. "Your life points and your soul!"

"Bull crap!" Mai spat. "I didn't need to be saved."

"You have no idea the danger you were in," Raphael said calmly. "Wheeler now controls one of the Legendary Dragons. Only a Chosen Warrior can wield one and the fact that Wheeler was given one means his power's now greater than yours."

"Wheeler was chosen, all right, chosen to have his scrawny little butt kicked by…" Jonah slapped her across the face. "What was that for, you little matchstick?"

"Listen, you bimbo, Valon saved your soul though if you ask me, you don't deserve it! You've been nothing but a thorn in Doma's side ever since Valon brought you in. I think it's time you learn some manners."

"If I wanted to play with kids, I would've dueled a first grader." And then she got onto Valon's motorcycle and took off. Wheeler won't escape me again.

"I… I can't let Mai… get hurt," Valon stammered as he started to stand. He then fell back on his butt as Jonah backhanded him across the cheek. "What was that for?"

"You're no better than she is," Jonah said. "Because of your stupid obsession, we've lost any advantage of stealing the soul of the Pharaoh and his friends! You can bet Master Dartz won't be happy about this, especially when I tell him what you did."

"That's pretty much all you're good for, Sheila, telling, you're no Duelist, the only reason you're here is because of your old man, and now that he's food of the Great Leviathan, there really is no need for…"

Raphael's huge bulk suddenly filled Valon's line of sight. "How would you like two broken arms?" Valon shut up. "We can't waste our time arguing like this. Jonah, radio Alister for a pick-up, I'm going for the Pharaoh."

"And what of him?" Jonah asked referring to the unconscious Harold.

"Bring him back to base," Raphael instructed. "At the very least, we can use him as bait."


Altamont Pass is a mountain pass road near the town of Livermore. Its claim to fame is the overabundance of wind turbines of various sizes. One wouldn't expect a house to be out here in the middle of nowhere.

But someone did: Arthur Hawkins and his granddaughter Rebecca.

As the sun was setting, Rebecca rode her horse Copernicus over Altamont Pass Road heading towards Dyer Road where the house was situated. She had just returned from shopping in town.

The house could be seen in the horizon. Inside, the Professor was going over an old text that spoke of Atlantis. One word kept leaping out at him. Unfortunately, his mentor, Dr. Hunter, taught him only how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. He got up and went to his computer. He decided to pull elements from several ancient dictionaries in order to translate the text.

"This can't be!"

Rebecca was almost at the house when suddenly Copernicus started neighing and rearing up on his rear legs. "What's wrong, boy, did I weigh you down with too much stuff?" She looked up to see a helicopter rapidly approaching the house. It already overtook her and was now hovering not far from the house. Suddenly the helicopter fired a rocket at the house. The house exploded throwing Rebecca off her horse knocking her out.

When she awoke, there was a sea of faces staring at her.

"Rebecca, are you all right?" Someone asked.

"Yugi… is that you?" Rebecca asked as her vision came into focus.

"Yeah," Yugi confirmed.

"Oh Yugi!" Rebecca cried sobbing into his shoulder. "It's awful… they… Grandpa… he…"

"He's all right," Tristan reported as he and Joey held Prof. Hawkins.

"What… but… I thought…"

Yugi smiled.


"Look, smoke," Duke spotted.

"The Professor's house is in that direction!" Amara cried.

"Pedal to the metal, Duke!" Tristan shouted.

"Right!" Duke floored the gas pedal almost causing Rex and Weevil to fall out. The car went off-road and stopped where a motor home was. They got out and Yugi immediately saw Rebecca all but pinned underneath her horse.

"Rebecca!" Yugi shouted.

Duke checked her pulse. "She's alive, just knocked out."

"But what about the Professor?" Tea asked. Everyone looked towards the burning house.

A white orb flew by Yugi's peripheral vision and disappeared into the burning house. Yugi could still see the glow. "What was that?" Yugi wondered. He reached into one of the grocery bags which had spilled out and pulled out a bottle of water. He doused his jacket in it and held it over his head as he ran in.

"Yugi!"

Yugi looked around and saw the white orb floating over the fallen Professor. "Thanks," Yugi said and struggled to drag the Professor outside. He was able to get the Professor to the doorway before Joey and Tristan were able to take the Professor from Yugi.


Everyone reconvened inside the motor home. "Who would do something like this?" Tea wondered.

"It had to be Dartz," Joey said. "But why?"

"To get to us," Amara offered.

"Maybe, maybe not," Yugi said. "How would they even know that we know the Hawkins? They would've had to have been watching us ever since Duelist Kingdom to make that kind of connection."

"So the question, ladies and gentlemen, is this, what do we do?"

"Isn't it obvious, Amara? We find where this Dartz guy hangs, bust in with both barrels, and rescue Harold."

"We wouldn't even know where to start looking," Tea pointed out. "Once they realize we're here, they'll come back and we'll be waiting for them."

"Well if we're going to be waiting, I'm going to need something to eat." Tea and Amara started to prepare something to eat while Joey raided the refrigerator.

"Hey, where did Rex and Weevil go to?"

"Knowing those two, they're up to no good."


Rex and Weevil were sifting through the ruins of the Hawkins' house looking for some rare cards.

"This is stupid," Rex complained. "Even if the old guy did have rare cards, they're probably a pile of ash by now!"

"Stop thinking," Weevil commanded. "That's what I'm for."

Rex spotted some cards on the ground but they only turned out to be a deck of normal playing cards. He growled furiously, "You're batting 0, Weevil." Rex's stomach growled. "Man, am I hungry."

Weevil's stomach agreed with Rex's. "Yeah, I could sure go for a cheeseburger." Rex and Weevil turned and saw Yugi and Rebecca walking by, looking like they wanted to talk somewhere alone. So naturally, they decided to listen in.

"Rebecca, do you still have the stone I gave to your Grandfather?"

"Yeah, I wear it around my neck." Rebecca removed the object in question and Yugi put it around his own neck.

"Hopefully with the power boost from this stone, I can get my Millennium Puzzle to work inside the Seal of Orichalcos."

"Yugi, I'm scared for you," Rebecca said.

"Don't worry, Rebecca, I think they just used you to get to me. So I guess in a way it's my fault."

"Don't blame yourself, Yugi."

"I know but I…" Yugi stepped on something. "A Duel Monster card?" Weevil was ready to rush Yugi to get it but then heard Yugi say, "No, it's a note."

Pharaoh,
If you want to see your friend again, come to Death Valley immediately.
Raphael

"Yeah, no doubt about it now," Yugi said. "How far away is Death Valley?"

"About an hour by car but faster by horse."

"Then I guess I have to go meet this guy if I'm going to have a chance to rescue Harold."

"Wait, I'll come with you."

"No, Rebecca, I already put you and your family in enough danger already I don't want to see you or anyone else hurt. Please, don't tell the others."

"Okay."

"Interesting," Weevil muttered.


Alister and Jonah carried the still unconscious Harold into the temple. Behind them was a still pouting Valon. Alister wouldn't stop off to pick up Mai and she wasn't answering the communicator built into the motorcycle. He was worried about her.

"Welcome back, my Warriors of Doma," Dartz greeted. "Well, what do we have here?"

"A prisoner," Alister explained. "One of the Nameless Pharaoh's friends."

Dartz noticed Harold's Armlet. Can it really be… after all these centuries. "How ironic," he said. "That things have come full circle." The three Warriors were confused as to Dartz's ramblings. Dartz started to reach for the Armlet but a burst of energy made him pull back. "I see; he still retains some control over it. Alister, Jonah, put him in a cell for now."

"Yes, sir." The two started to drag Harold away but Jonah said, "Master, there's something you should know. Mai Valentine…"

"I know perfectly well about Mai's duel with Joey Wheeler, and the fact that the dragon Hermos has been revived." That made Valon stand up straight. "Do not worry, in the end everything will work out in our favor."

"Yes, sir," Jonah agreed and she and Alister led Harold away.

Dartz turned to Valon, "Now, Valon, about your behavior during the duel…"

Valon gulped.


The motor home was cramped. Professor Hawkins got the only bedroom there. Tristan and Duke slept on hammocks. Joey got the couch while Amara used her windbreaker as covers as she slept on the floor (having said that she was so tired from the jet lag that she could sleep through anything). Tea and Rebecca each slept on the bench.

Yugi tip-toed over his sleeping friends to the door all the while trying not to wake anyone up. But he did wake one person up: Rebecca. "Yugi?"

Yugi gave her an assuring smile, "Don't worry, I'll be back." Outside, Copernicus waited already saddled. I know what I have to do, it's time to face those creeps, save my friends and put these Warriors of Doma down for good! He switched with Yami and galloped off, white orb trailing behind him.

Joey accidentally turned over and fell off the couch. Unfortunately, it was on Amara.

"Joey, you pervert, get off!"

"Sorry, Amara," Joey said as he got up. He looked around and saw the place where Yugi was sleeping was empty. "Yugi?" He turned to Rebecca who had walked back into the motor home. "Rebecca, where's Yugi?" Rebecca was silent. "Come on, out with it, where is he?"

"I promised him I wouldn't tell."

That comment alone was enough to tell Joey what was going on. "Wake up, everyone!" In no time at all, the others have awaken and Joey have informed them of the situation. "What were you thinking, Rebecca?"

"Hey, lay off of her," Tea defended. "You would've done the same thing if you were in her position."

"No, I would've talked him out of it," Tristan replied.

"Yugi was barely able to defeat the Seal of Orichalcos before, what makes him think he can do it again?"

"That's just it, Amara, I don't think he was thinking," Joey said.

"Calm down, everyone," Tea said in a voice that was anything but calm.

"Rebecca, you said that he was going to Death Valley," Duke pointed out.

"That's right."

"Amara, let me use your cell phone for a minute."


As Yami galloped towards Death Valley, Yugi appeared besides him, looking like he was flying. "As long as we have the Eye of Timaeus, we'll be fine."

"But they have the Seal of Orichalcos," Yami pointed out.

But Yugi pointed out, "But we have something better: a belief in the heart of the cards."

Behind him, the white orb glowed brightly and bounced around like it was happy about something.


"Hold down the fort, Tea," Joey said. "We're going after Yugi."

"Will do," Tea agreed. Duke and Amara were already in the car. Joey leapt into the back along with Tristan.

"Keep an eye out for Rex and Weevil," Tristan advised. "I don't trust those two guys."


Weevil and Rex panted as they rode a tandem bicycle they found in the ruins of Professor Hawkins' house. "Weevil, slow down," Rex complained. "I can't keep up."

"Try," Weevil replied. "You don't want to miss the duel between Yugi and those Orichalcos guys. Besides, if we find out what made Mai such a strong Duelist, maybe we can use it to become strong Duelists too."

"Look!" Rex pointed to a ledge above them where Yami was riding in the same direction.

"Pedal faster!" They started pedaling for all their worth.

"Just answer me one thing: why do I have to ride the rear?"

"Because you're a butt head, that's why."


Raphael stood on the far side of a suspension bridge holding a Duel Monster deck. I'm ready for you, Pharaoh.

A pair of silver wings appeared behind him.

The End


A/N: All the information regarding Altamont Pass is actually true! According to the Yujyo web site, the place where the Hawkins lived is near Altamont Pass (based on the scene with wind turbines). I did a little research and found out there really is a place called Altamont Pass in California outside of San Francisco. And like I said, its claim to fame is the over 6000 wind turbines (I kid you not there really are 6000 wind turbines). Also, a tandem bicycle is another word for a bicycle built for two people (in case you didn't make the connection the first time.)