*Excitedly distributes cupcakes and hugs* *HUGGIES :D*
~IA
Yugi, Téa, Tristan, Joey and Bakura settled down outside the perimeter fence of Stonehenge to wait for...something.
Yugi was starting to wonder if Slater was going to show up at all. He knew that he would find them eventually – he was hardly going to give up on three of the items, especially since they had all previously been in his possession – but when? It was difficult to tell. Kaiba's jet was incredibly fast, and they didn't know when Slater had left New York. For all they knew, he wasn't even in England yet.
"In the next Shadow Game," Yugi said. "I...I really hope Slater puts Mokuba's soul up along with a Millennium Item. The sooner we save him, the better."
Bakura scuffed his feet. "Yeah."
He lifted the Millennium Ring. In the dim light, it was difficult to make out.
"Sometimes I wonder how different our lives would be if the Millennium Items had never been created," Joey said.
It was something that Yugi had often wondered himself. "I wouldn't be friends with you guys," he said softly. "That was what I wished for when I solved the Puzzle."
"Serenity would be blind now," Joey pointed out. "If Pegasus hadn't wanted to get a hold of the Puzzle to resurrect his wife, he wouldn't have held the Duellist Kingdom tournament and I wouldn't have won the prize money."
"I wouldn't even have met any of you," Bakura murmured. "If I hadn't kept transferring schools..."
Yugi picked up his Puzzle. "So many horrible things have happened because of these items...but we also have so much to thank them for, too."
Bakura sighed, and nodded, still holding the Millennium Ring.
And then, completely out of nowhere, its five points began to glow.
Yugi and the others jumped, startled by the sudden gold light. The pointers turned to point in the same direction – somewhere out in the darkness.
Yugi shivered, wondering what was to come now.
The vehicle that emerged from the darkness wasn't out of the ordinary; it was just a Ute. Jam packed in the back of it, however, were twelve armed men, clad in black and wearing balaclavas.
As soon as the car stopped, they leapt from where they sat and surrounded Yugi and his friends. Yugi's heart raced as he found himself staring down the barrels of twelve guns.
His blood ran cold as he saw Slater step from the driver's seat of the car. His scarred, misshapen face looked eerily terrifying in the light shed by the Ute's headlights.
"Sorry I'm late! Those customs officials don't know when to quit."
Yugi gulped, not at all fooled by the easy tone in Slater's voice.
"Why don't you cut the act, Slater," Yugi said. "You came here to play a Shadow Game with me; now let's get it over with."
Despite the fire in his words, Yugi's insides were turning to jelly. He had lucked out the first time, and Slater had let him win the second. Now, Yugi was going to have to face whatever Shadow Game Slater had in mind head on. This was where it got difficult.
Don't panic, Yugi told himself. Think. What would Atem do?
Slater sighed. "Don't you want to thank me for giving you an excuse to visit this place? You should be happy – I let you get here early to give you an opportunity to enjoy the stones."
Yugi made to answer, but Slater cut him off again. "Whatever the case; if it's a game you want, it's a game you'll get, Game King."
Slater reached inside his enormous jacket and withdrew the Millennium Key.
He wasn't going to put complete trust in the Millennium Necklace again, but he still had use for it, at lease for the time being. The Rod, of course, couldn't be spared, and with the Eye in his head, he wasn't parting with it in a hurry. The Key was the only item he could afford to wager now.
Not that Slater had any intention of losing. The game he had in mind was just that – in the mind. It wasn't a test of how well one knew gaming; it was a test of how well one knew oneself.
Everything had played out according to plan – so far. He would face Yugi while Dempsey took care of Kaiba. That was why they had waited so long to arrive; so that Kaiba would leave before the others.
Slater hadn't been able to find a use for Kaiba in his plan, but with access to state of the art technology as well as being one of the best gamers in the world, the young CEO's presence on Yugi's side was a threat to Slater. He had to go.
Yugi's words jerked Slater back to reality. "I'm not putting up three Millennium Items for one and nothing else; you have to give back Mokuba's soul if I win."
Slater looked at Yugi, amused. "You really think you get to decide that? I'm afraid you've forgotten that I'm the one calling the shots around here, Yugi. You will wager the Puzzle, the Ring, and the Scales, and I will wager the Key. Winner takes all, fair and square."
Yugi hesitated. With the Millennium Eye, Slater could hear his internal dilemma. He didn't want to part with his Puzzle, and he didn't want to risk everything on a single game.
Slater saw his intentions a second before he moved. He signalled the three henchmen closest to Yugi, and before the boy could disassemble the Millennium Puzzle, there were three guns positioned inches from his face.
"I think it's in your best interests to leave the Puzzle as it is, Yugi..."
Yugi could only watch as a fourth henchman took the Puzzle from around his neck. A second later, Bakura was also surrendering his Ring at gunpoint.
Slater knew from reading Yugi's mind that the Scales were in his duffel bag. After taking that away too, Slater put the Puzzle and Ring inside it and zipped it up.
He dangled the bag now containing three items in front of Yugi. "Winner takes all."
"You haven't put the Key inside it as well," Yugi stated.
Slater pretended to look startled. "Really? I hadn't noticed."
He set the bag aside. Turning the Millennium Key over in his hands, he looked at Yugi. "I will now explain the rules of our next Shadow Game, Yugi. I hope you're up to it."
He could sense Yugi's growing tension, and smiled to himself. He wouldn't be thinking clearly if he kept winding himself up. And that was just what Slater needed.
"This game will be unlike any you've played before, Yugi. You see..." He held up the Millennium Key. "This is the item that I'll be putting up for grabs in our game. Why don't you tell me what it does?"
Yugi looked puzzled. "The Key gives its user the power to unlock the doors to a person's soul, giving them access to that person's soul room."
Slater sighed. "Entering another person's soul room is serious business, wouldn't you agree? The most unforgivable breach of their own privacy. But what about entering your own soul room?"
Yugi stared at him. "What are you saying?"
Slater laughed. "This Shadow Game will take place in our respective soul rooms; to put it simply, the first person to leave their soul room will be the winner."
"But that doesn't make sense!" Yugi exclaimed. "How can you use a mind slave in a game like that?"
Slater laughed. "Oh, Yugi; you clearly should have paid attention when you learned about Shadow Games. The challenger can make up any rules to the game that don't give either player an unfair advantage; in this game, it will not be our own souls at stake, but somebody else's."
Yugi was sickened by Slater's words. How could his henchmen willingly choose to follow a man like that?
He remembered the duel in which Atem had duelled Marik's darker side; instead of the two player's souls being at risk, it had been Yugi and Marik's. This must be applying the same principle.
But even so...the game confused Yugi; the first one of them to leave their own soul room? What did that mean?
Slater was still speaking. "So, Yugi? Whose soul are you going to bargain?"
Yugi could do nothing but stare at him, utterly repulsed by the very idea. "You can't gamble with someone else's soul! And there's no way that I ever will."
Slater simply rolled his eyes. "Oh, I see how it is. You don't want to choose between your friends. In that case..."
His eyes shifted to Téa, Tristan, Joey and Bakura.
"I suppose I might as well use all four of them."
"Don't you dare hurt them, Slater!" Yugi gasped. "You're here to face me; they have nothing to do with it!"
Slater lifted an eyebrow in a not-so-innocent manner. "Since when did I care about that?"
He lifted the Millennium Key and moved it towards Yugi's forehead.
Seto Kaiba took out his deck – something he hadn't done in years, and hadn't planned to do in the presence of anyone but Yugi Moto.
He and Dempsey were standing between their two cars, preparing to duel by the cars' headlights. There were three of Slater's henchmen lingering on the outskirts of their makeshift field. Neither duellist dared break eye contact as they shuffled the other's deck.
Kaiba took his place opposite his opponent. This wouldn't take long; he wasn't going to lose to the likes of Dempsey, whoever he was.
"I'll give you a last chance to surrender, Kaiba," Dempsey said. "If you know what's good for you, you'll take it."
His words only made Kaiba more determined. "Please; you can't scare me. You don't know who you're dealing with."
Dempsey laughed. "I know enough to defeat you, and that's all I need. I've been given an order and I intend to follow it."
He pulled something from one of his enormous pockets. From where he was standing, Kaiba first had difficulty making it out. Then Dempsey held it up in front of himself, and Kaiba recognised the gold necklace that had once been worn by Ishizu Ishtar.
Kaiba still didn't believe in all of Yugi's stories about the Millennium Items 'magical powers', but the presence of the necklace in Dempsey's possession did do one thing; it confirmed Kaiba's suspicions that Dempsey was working for Slater.
Kaiba sniggered. "What are you going to do with that? Look pretty?"
Dempsey smiled wickedly. "In order to create a Shadow Game, one of the Millennium Items is required; this one was given to me in order to make eliminating you a little easier."
The darkness that crept in from seemingly nowhere to surround them didn't faze Kaiba at all; Dempsey was trying to throw him off guard with his light tricks. It was nothing he hadn't handled before.
Kaiba didn't like Dempsey's overconfidence. As sure as he was that this opponent would be no less easy to beat than any other opponent he had faced, there was something about him that Kaiba didn't trust – even less so than anyone else.
There was no way the Kaiba would let himself be intimidated by someone like Dempsey. Without a further thought as to his opponent's motives, he activated his DuelDisk. "It's time to Duel."
I've always wanted to say that :D
I also wanted Dempsey to say "YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS DEALING WITH!" but I cut that part out :( Oh well.
Sorry to anyone who was expecting me to start the duel in this chapter :/ Basically, I wrote this while putting off the beginning of the duel. It's surprisingly difficult to write XD but I'm managing – I think...I'll see how it goes ;D
I came up with Yugi's game on the spur of the moment. I'm not sure exactly how plausible it is, but with the help of Yugioh Wikia, I think I've confirmed that at the very least it could work :/ You'll see what I mean by 'leaving soul rooms' when I actually get around to writing and posting round four.
Once again; thank you soooooo much for reading :D In case you wanted to know, the word document in which I'm writing this story has exceeded one hundred pages, making it the longest story I've ever written...and not even finished XD so yeah...thanks a bunch :D
~IA