Episode 128: Fall of the King

The Land of Capsule Monsters, 5,000 Years Ago

Yugi has vanished from existence. Everyone is reacting in some way or another. Tori is crying, while Brutus fights back tears. Atem is completely at a loss, and simply wears a depressed look on his face. Cosmo and Celestia are horrified. Even Kaiba looks surprised for once. Yuni though, he is reacting with pure rage. His eyes are glowing purple with energy of Darkness. He looks to Otto, the one who just destroyed Yugi, and shouts with rage, "I'll destroy you!"

Otto laughs. "I'd like to see you try."

Yuni begins to screams with rage and lunges at Ottiuk.

Cosmo looks down to a remote-like device he has pulled out of a pocket. He presses a button on it, and the moment he does everyone except for Otto reappears back on the abandoned city planet outside the temporal gate.

Yuni lunges and trips, as his target is no longer in front of him. He looks back to Cosmo with fury and demands, "Put me back! Put me back now!"

Cosmo declares in a strict tone, "Calm yourself Yuni!"

"I won't calm myself until I've destroyed that monster! Now put me back!"

Tori cries, "Yuni, stop this, please! You're scaring me…This isn't what Yugi would have wanted."

Yuni turns to her and shouts, "How dare you pretend to know what Yugi would want!? You know nothing of him! Nothing!" Tori cowers in fear.

Atem says, "Stop this Yuni. She's right. This isn't what Yugi would want. And I do know that."

Yuni now turns to him. "You left Yugi! You have no say in this matter! Maybe if you had stayed with him, he wouldn't have been defeated here!" This statement hurts Atem.

Seeing how he's treated Tori and Atem, Brutus is now angered. He marches up to Yugi and slaps him across the face. "Snap out of it Yuni, this isn't you speaking! You're letting the Darkness take control of you again."

Yuni turns away. "Maybe I am, but it doesn't matter. All that matters now is avenging Yugi."

Brutus puts a hand on Yuni's shoulder. "Please Yuni, calm down."

Yuni swats his hands away. "Don't ever touch me again!" He then scream with rage. He looks back to Cosmo. "Are you going to bring me back or not!?"

Cosmo shakes his head. "No Yuni, I'm not."

"So what!? We lose and we're just going to run away!? I'm not running away!"

Cosmo shakes his head. "No, I never said we were running away. Now calm down Yuni. Take from one with experience, you cannot allow Darkness to control your actions."

Yuni ignores the last statement. He demands, "If we're not going to run away, what are we doing?"

Cosmo grins confidently. "We're going to save Yugi."

Yuni's eyes open wide with surprise. "What…?"

"You forget, we are time travelers. As we speak, Celestia is reprogramming the gate to take us back to before Yugi was defeated. If we can get to him in time, he never will have perished."

Yuni is stunned. "We…can…save…Yugi…?" He blinks, and as he does so, the Darkness disappears from his eyes. He suddenly faints and begins to fall to the floor. Tori and Brutus catch him and set down against a wall.

Atem asks, "Do you really mean that? Can we save Yugi still?"

Cosmo nods. "Yes, assuming everything goes right for us, we should be able to at least try."

Critias suddenly realizes something. He marches angrily up to Cosmo, grabs him by the shirt, and lifts him up with one hand. He demands, "If what thou says is true, then why did thou not do that to save Hermos!? Thou could have saved him, and thou didn't!"

Cosmo shakes his head. "I truly am sorry, but that wasn't an option. You see, the temporal gates are ancient artifacts, normally beyond our control. There is only so much we can do with them. To go back and repeat an event risks destroying the entire system of temporal gates. I'm sorry, but we absolutely need Yugi to save the galaxy, and if Ottiuk gets his hands on the Power of the King, then we've certainly lost. As much as I'm sure you'd hate to hear this, Hermos just wasn't worth the risk."

Critias shouts, "How dare thou say that!?"

Timaeus steps forward, "Set him down Critias. He is right. Hermos may have been our dear friend and comrade-in-arms, but the fate of the world is vastly more important than any one man's life." Critias reluctantly sets down Cosmo and stomps away.

Tori asks, "So why not instead of saving Yugi, we just go to a time before Yugi went to India? That way he would never even be in danger."

Cosmo shakes his head. "No, that wouldn't work. As I already explained, the temporal gate is already locked to certain time frame. Once we made our trip, we locked it even closer. We may be able to get there a couple of hours, maybe even a day earlier, but no more. And then with Kaiba already here, we can go straight to Yugi."

Brutus says, "Hey, I've seen enough sci-fi holos to know that bad stuff happens if we meet ourselves while time traveling. Are we going to have to worry about that?"

Cosmo shakes his head. "No, the temporal gates were designed to not have a lasting impact on the timeline. Once we left, we were removed from the events, at least the ones in the timeline we're visiting. We won't meet ourselves."

Brutus nods with relief.

Tori looks down to the unconscious Yuni and asks, "Do you think he'll be okay Cosmo?"

Cosmo sighs. "It's hard to say. In the past year, Yuni has had a lot of pressure put onto him. Through all that pressure, Yugi was always with him. Now for the first time he's dealing with it without him. Yuni being the Lord of Chaos only complicates matters. I have a feeling that all this time Yuni has managed to keep his inner Chaos in balance has been because of Yugi. Yugi provides a constant source of Light that keeps the temptation of Darkness at bay. It's actually completely possible that Yuni never would have managed as Lord of Chaos without Yugi. Now with Yugi gone, Yuni's going to have to be more careful than ever about keeping himself in check, or else what just happened will happen again…but worse."

Celestia pipes in, "Alright Father, I've finished the recalibrations. I'm not certain how many hours we'll get, but it should get us some time to work with."

Cosmo nods. "Good." He walks over to Yuni and shakes him. "Come on Yuni, we have to get moving to save Yugi."

Yuni slowly returns to consciousness. He looks around, slightly confused. "What…just happened?"

Brutus asks, "You don't remember what just happened?"

Yuni is about to respond, when all the memories come flooding into his mind. First of watching Yugi get attacked, then of Yugi disappearing in his arms, and then of his fit of rage and Darkness. He looks around at everyone. "I'm so sorry everyone. I don't know what came over me…"

Cosmo says, "We don't have enough time to worry about it. We have to get moving right away. I do have to warn you though, we cannot fail this time. The temporal gate would not be able to handle yet another trip back in time. This truly is our last chance."

Yuni nods and gets up. "Then we won't fail." With that, everyone walks into the gate.

On the other side, they find themselves back in the map room of the pyramid. There is no longer a glowing tile.

Yuni suggests, "Well, I guess we might as well go to the tile were we saw Yugi…" he gulps and doesn't finish the sentence. "Then we can just wait there until he gets there." Everyone nods in agreement.

They walk around the game board to the same tile as before. Yuni jumps onto it, but nothing happens. Tori asks, "Why didn't it work?"

Kaiba comments, "Looks like your board game is broken."

Then the first row of tiles in the front side of the room begin to glow. Atem realizes, "The game doesn't want us to skip to the end. Before, Yugi had already played through the game, so it let us join him there. Now we have to go to the beginning and find Yugi ourselves."

Yuni nods. "That sounds reasonable." He gets off the board and leads everyone back to the front of the room. Before he steps on, he turns to everyone and says, "Wait, I've got an idea."

Tori asks, "What is it?"

"I think we should split into two groups and have one stay here. Then maybe once that tile over there starts glowing, they can skip right to the end."

Atem nods. "That is a sound plan."

Yuni looks around. "Alright then. Tori, Brutus, Cosmo, Celestia, Seto, Kaiba, and I will go in first. Atem, Priest Seto, Critias, and Timaeus will wait."

Atem declares, "No, I'm going in first. I need to help you save Yugi. I know this game better than any of you."

Yuni shakes his head. "No, that's why you need to be with the second team. Don't forget, I know all about this game too via Yugi. The second team needs someone with experience too. That's why you should wait."

Atem nods. "I see your point." He sighs. "Alright, fine. You go ahead, we'll wait."

Yuni nods. "Thank you." He turns to step onto the board. Right before he does, he stops and turns back to Atem. "For what it's worth, I really am sorry about what I said before. This is by no means your fault. I didn't mean it."

Atem nods. "I know what it is like to let your dark emotions take control of you."

Yuni grins, then turns back to the board. He steps on. Everyone else in his group follows.

Once transported, they find themselves in the middle of a dense and dark forest at night, similar to where Yugi and his friends were brought when they first entered the game. Everyone is once more equipped with Capsule Launchers and a belt to hold capsules. Tori asks, "Alright, we're here, back in the game. What do we do now?"

Yuni looks around. "I don't know. As Atem said before, this could be a whole new game. My best suggestion would be to just move forward. If this really is a game, a goal should present itself to us. Whatever that goal is, it will probably be the same as Yugi's, meaning we can possibly catch up with him." He beckons for everyone to follow him, and he begins to walk forward. Everyone follows. Yuni calls out, "Yugi, can you hear me!? Are you there!?" He waits a moment, but there is no reply.

Everyone just continues to walk in silence, at least until a loud roar is heard. Brutus cowers in fear and asks, "Was that just me, or did you guys hear something too?"

Tori replies, "No, I definitely heard that too. What was it Yuni?"

Yuni is looking off toward wear the roar was heard from. "Just as monsters do battle in the Capsule Monsters board game, so too do they here. That was such a monster."

Just as Yuni finishes saying that, the roar is heard again. It's louder this time.

Seto observes, "Whatever that beast is, it's getting closer."

Brutus asks, "But wait, how do we fight it? We don't have our Duel Gauntlets and decks with us here."

Before Yuni can answer, the ground begins to shake. Another roar, even louder is heard. Then a great, giant beast comes plowing through the trees, knocking them down. It's a hideous behemoth with red skin, the Great Angus monster. It stops, looks to the group, stomps its feet, roars wildly, and then charges at them.

Everyone leaps to the side. In doing so, Yuni notices that a capsule has been revealed by the beast's destruction of the forest. He leaps at it and places a hand on it, declaring, "This is how you fight it." The moment his hand touches the capsule, it cracks open like an egg, and a beam of light shoots out. A mechanical bird, the Cyber Falcon, appears above Yuni. Yuni commands, "Cyber Falcon, attack the Great Angus!"

The Cyber Falcon shrieks in a semi-mechanical tone and dives at the Great Angus. It swipes at it with its talons, but does little to harm it. The Great Angus just roars again and charges at Yuni.

Tori nods. "Oh, I get it. Those are like the capsules we let monsters out of in the board game." She looks around and spots a capsule nestled in between some rocks. She runs for it and taps it. It breaks, also releasing a pillar of light. In front of Tori appears a Guardian Statue. Just in time too, because the Great Angus is now charging at her. "Block it Guardian Statue!" The Guardian Statue raises its large arms in a defensive pose and stops the Great Angus in its tracks. The beast roars with rage.

Yuni nods. "Good job Tori. Attack again Cyber Falcon!" Cyber Falcon begins a series of swooping dives on the monster while Tori's statue holds it in place.

Brutus is looking high and low for a capsule of his own. He spots one and runs for it. "Don't worry, I'll help out too!" He dives for the capsule and taps it. It shatters. Out of the light emerges the Giant Orc. Brutus cheers, "Oh yeah, that's a monster I can work with! Giant Orc, let's beat this beast!" Giant Orc charges at the still restrained Great Angus and swipes its club down on it, bludgeoning it. The Great Angus is destroyed and vanishes. Brutus cheers, "Oh yeah! I rule! Yes I do!"

Tori laughs and says, "Hey, that was a team effort."

Brutus says with arrogance, "But I delivered the finishing blow."

Yuni looks up to his Cyber Falcon and nods. The monster turns into a small capsule and falls into Yuni's hand. He places it in his belt. Tori's and Brutus' monster also revert into capsules and fall to the floor. Both go to pick them up and copy Yuni.

Kaia comments, "Alright, that's great. You've beat your first monster, but we still have no clue how to find Yugi. Are you going to suggest that we continue to wander aimlessly through this forest until we just happen to bump into him?"

Seto nods. "I agree. We need a better plan than that."

Yuni shrugs. "I don't know. That's all I can really suggest."

Cosmo steps forward and declares, "No, that is not what we should do. As you can tell, it is late at night. Not only have none of us gotten much sleep recently, but the monsters in this forest are certainly going to be more active at night. I say we set up a camp and light a fire to keep any monsters away."

Tori nods in agreement. "That's a good idea. Then we can figure out a better plan of action tomorrow."

Yuni looks up to the sky. "I don't like it. We only have so much time before Yugi…before we have to get to Yugi. I don't think we should waste that time."

Brutus says, "Come on Yuni, Yugi hasn't even made it to the final area yet, I'm sure we have plenty of time."

Yuni suddenly shouts with anger, "You have no way of knowing that! We could only have an hour or less for all you know!" A hint of Darkness can be heard in his voice.

Everyone looks at Yuni with either fright, disappointment, or scorn. Cosmo steps up to Yuni and says calmly, "I know it's important to you to save Yugi, but that doesn't mean we should just charge forward. Come on, let's find a campsite and get a fire together."

Yuni takes a deep breath and attempts to control his anger. "Alright…fine. Let's do that."

And so, in a relatively clear patch of the forest, they set up a camp. Everyone lying down around a campfire that burns brightly, everyone except Cosmo and Celestia. They remain the only ones awake. Celestia asks, "Father, is this really it? Is this game what I think it is?"

Cosmo nods. "I believe it is. All signs seem to indicate it is so. If not, it is a massive coincidence, one I am not willing to overlook."

"So if this really is that, then that must mean the Power of the Kings is…"

Cosmo nods. "Exactly. That is why it is so important that we do not allow Ottiuk to get his hands on it. If he acquires it, not only would he gain its immense power, but he would change history itself so that we cannot use it against him. He would become truly invincible."

Celestia stares into the fire. "So we must not allow him to win this game."

Cosmo nods. "And the key to that is saving Yugi. We must protect him…no matter what the cost is. If Yugi is destroyed again, we will have failed and the galaxy is doomed."

Celestia nods in understanding. She looks to Yuni, sleeping on the other side of the fire. "And what of Yuni, Father?"

Cosmo sighs. "We're going to have to be careful about him. In the end, he is a spirit of Light, and should be able to fight off the Darkness, but without Yugi he has less Light within him than he is used to. Add to that the grieving process he is going through now first of having Yugi separated from him, and then watching him be destroyed, he will be very volatile. I truly wish there was something we could do for him, but there isn't. I know better than anyone what he is going through right now. When the Darkness first possessed me and I became Oblivion, I felt like I was losing control of my own life, losing touch with who I was. The feeling of helplessness only makes it easier for the Darkness to take ahold. Yuni must feel the same."

"So is there any risk of…you know…"

"I don't Celestia. It all depends on if Yuni can remember his training as a Lord of Chaos or not." Celestia is about to say something else when Cosmo raises his hand to silence her. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Just listen." They are both silent, and a faint buzzing noise can be heard.

Celestia notices movement to her left. "Over there! In the trees!"

Cosmo notices movement on the opposite side of the clearing, "Now it's over there!"

This begins to wake everyone up. Yuni asks, "What's going on?"

Cosmo answers, "Not sure yet, but a monster seems to be stalking us. You can hear it."

Everyone listens to the buzzing. Kaiba realizes that the buzzing is all around them, not just coming from one area. He declares, "That's not just one monster, there's a whole swarm!" Almost immediately as he shouts this, the monsters come into the light of the fire from all angles. They're giant wasps with massive stingers, Killer Needles. They begin to fly at random into the clearing, attempting to attack with their giant stingers. Everyone leaps out of the way.

Yuni shouts, "We have to fight them off!" He pulls his capsule off his belt. "Load capsule! Fire! Come to me, Cyber Falcon!"

Brutus and Tori do the same, both declaring, "Load capsule!" at once. They release the Giant Orc and Guardian Statue. The monsters go into battle, attempting to fight off the never-ending barrage of Killer Needles.

Both Seto and Kaiba are looking around and locate their own capsule at the same time. They dive at the same time to tap them. Seto's turns into a large, multicolored ball with spikes, a Mega Thunderball. Kaiba's reveals a La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp.

Seto orders, "Thunderball, go!" The Mega Thunderball begins to rotate rapidly in place, and then it flings itself at some incoming Killer Needles.

Kaiba orders, "Attack La Jinn!" La Jinn attacks with shadowy energy, destroying several of the giant wasps.

Everyone's monsters continue to fight, but no matter how many Killer Needles are destroyed, more seem to fly in to replace them. Brutus cries out in despair, "It doesn't matter how many of them we destroy, they just keep on swarming us!"

Yuni reminds him, "There's nothing we can do but continue to fight. These monsters may be weak, but what they lack in power is made up in numbers. Their numbers cannot be infinite though."

So they continue to fight. Then, out of nowhere, one Killer Needle makes it past the defensive perimeter. It manages to have its stinger graze Tori's arm, cutting her clothes in the process. She cries out in pain and falls to the ground.

Yuni shouts, "Tori!" His Cyber Falcon immediately destroys the stray monster. "Are you okay Tori?"

Tori just holds her wound and cries out in pain.

Yuni looks around at the wasps angrily. He declares, "You won't hurt another of my friends!" He notices out of the corner of his eyes a capsule hidden in the hallow of a tree. He runs for it, leaping from side to side to avoid attacks from Killer Needles. He makes it and taps the capsule, releasing its monster. It's a hulking and bulky robot with purple and blue armor plating and laser cannons attached to its hands. Yuni shouts in anger, "Destroy them all Cyber Soldier of Darkworld!" The monster begins to release rapid fire laser shots from its cannons, destroying Killer Needles at a faster rate than ever.

Brutus cheers, "Yeah, way to go Yuni!" The incoming Killer Needles begin to slow down, some even turn around and flee. Brutus continues to cheer, "Yeah, you got rid of them!"

But Yuni doesn't stop. He orders, "Destroy every last one of them!" The Cyber Soldier of Darkworld continues its volley of lasers. Once all the Killer Needles in the clearing are destroyed, Yuni and his monster begin to chase after fleeing ones.

Brutus asks, "Yuni, what are you doing!? They're already running away, you don't have to destroy any more!"

Yuni looks behind, revealing that his eyes are once more glowing purple. He shouts with fury and Darkness, "I won't allow any of them to hurt anyone ever again! I may not have been able to save Yugi, but I'll save all of you!" He continues to push his monster to destroy the remaining wasps.

Tori looks up from the ground, hearing what is happening. She shouts "Yuni, I'm okay! You have to stop this! Please! Just stop, you're giving into your dark emotions again!"

Yuni shouts, "Maybe I need these dark emotions to be strong! I wasn't strong enough to save Yugi. His destruction is my fault! I was too weak! Never again will I let someone get hurt because I'm too weak!"

Tori struggles to get up. She walks slowly over towards Yuni. "Please Yuni, stop…you're scaring me…" She gets behind him and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Let it go. What happened to Yugi was not your fault. Don't forget, we're fighting Ottiuk, Darkness incarnate. If you give into the very thing we're fighting, then we've lost. I'm certain that Yugi would say the same."

The moment she says this, Yuni has a flashback of Yugi telling him exactly that. Yuni's eyes go wide. He then closes them and looks down with shame. He utters, "You're right…that is what he would say. Without him here, I had almost forgotten that…" He opens his eyes again, they are no longer glowing purple. "Cyber Soldier, ceasefire!" The monster obeys and returns to its capsule. So does everyone else's monsters.

Yuni turns around to face Tori, hugs her, and begins to cry. He sobs, "We've only been apart for less than a day now, but I'm already losing touch with him! I can't do this without him, he's always been there with me, through anything! I'm alone for the first time in a year, and there's nothing I can do about it!"

Tori soothes, "No Yuni, you're not alone. You have us. We're with you. We may not share a mind with you. We may not know your every thought and be able to guide you through everything that happens, but we are here for you. As long as you have us, you're never alone."

Brutus steps forward. "You've got me, don't forget, I'm your best bud."

Cosmo steps forward, "And I will always watch over you."

Celestia steps forward. "As will I."

Seto reluctantly steps forward and equally reluctantly admits, "I'm here for you too."

Kaiba, meanwhile having only just met Yuni, steps back awkwardly and remains silent.

Tori says, "You see Yuni, you're not alone. We can make it through this, together." Yuni looks up and around at everyone, and then smiles weakly.