Chapter 25

A small clock ticked quietly above the stove, making a noise louder than the television in the next room with the news channel on. Solomon watched the sun go down outside and worried over the group that had gone down to Kaiba's lab to enter a virtual world. He wasn't very fond of computers, and knew very little about the latest technology and new video games. It was why he ran such an old-fashioned game shop, which contained only various board games, card games, and tabletop RPGs. They still amused him, no matter how much work it took to set them up, or how many pages you had to read to understand the rules. And the puzzles. Oh, how he loved puzzles. Solomon had boxes and boxes of them, modern ones and foreign ones, all interesting and fantastic. He glanced around his cozy kitchen, at the doorways that led to the dining and living room, and where beyond lay his storefront. The Game Shop made him happy, and it was the best home that he had ever lived in.

But it was horribly silent as of late.

Yuugi's mother was overseas visiting his father, and neither were aware of his condition at the moment. To be truthful Solomon had no idea what he'd tell them if they asked how he was doing. Lie, probably. Yuugi was his only grandson, and they tended to get along far better than Yuugi did with his parents. Which was to say that Yuugi would tell him more of what was going on, and tell nothing to his parents. Well to be fair the child's father was never around, and the last time either Solomon or Yuugi had seen him was many years ago. His mother was home almost all the time, but she was somewhat oblivious to all of his...adventures. She knew nothing of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, nor of any of the magic he had encountered. He had gone on all those trips for tournaments, and went missing when something terrible happened, but he and his grandson only winked at each other and told her that he'd been on vacation.

There had been the vacation in the United States, and the vacation in India, and then the vacation in Egypt. Yuugi had certainly been going on a lot of vacations, his mother had tittered.

"To help others. There were dark forces at work. They were all important trips," Yuugi had grumbled to Solomon later.

"Sounds like something out of a corny action movie, Yuugi," Solomon had chuckled, "and you can't tell me that you didn't at least have some fun while you were at these places,"

"...Erm...that's not quite the word I'd use..."

Solomon had assumed that once the Pharaoh had returned to the Afterlife, things would settle down greatly. After all, there were no longer any Items to tempt peoples' hearts with, and with the Pharaoh gone, there was no great sorcerer that drew magic to him like a magnet wherever he went. Not to mention all of the other sorcerers that he had defeated in order to earn the right to an eternal sleep. He had even managed to defeat the Thief King, whom he could not beat over three thousand years ago. So surely the magic bit of Yuugi's life was over and dealt with. How terribly wrong he was.

The tall dark man sitting upstairs in Yuugi's bedroom had been introduced as a friend, and he definitely remembered him from the final battle in the Chamber, but he knew very little about him and it bothered him that he was connected to the past of Yuugi's that involved magic. Still here he was downstairs making the man something to eat. Hopefully he did not mind Japanese food. Solomon had nearly begged Yuugi to eat something, and had offered a wide array of strongly unhealthy food in order to appeal to him. Nothing had worked, and his grandson's complexion became more and more like a ghost's with each passing minute.

There was also the matter of what they'd returned from Egypt with.

Absolute shock had been his first reaction to the Pharaoh standing there in his doorway, with one arm around his grandson. Uncertainly introducing himself, he had stumbled over the word 'grandpa' and settled for Solomon, offering his hand to be shook. Yuugi waited with wide eyes for his reaction, and after calming his heart (goodness knows what he would do if he had a heart attack now, it would have been impeccably bad timing), Solomon pulled the two of them into his arms for a hug. The Pharaoh had stiffened momentarily, and Yuugi had just grinned.

"Call me Grandpa, Atem. You're like another grandson to me, you know. I won't have you acting like a guest in your own home. Come in."

Smiling slightly at the memory of Atem looking genuinely happy, Solomon turned down the heat on the stove and started at the sound of the phone ringing.

"Mutou residence, Solomon speaking..."

A warm female voice was on the other end. "Hi! This is Téa, I was just calling to let you guys know that we're returning from our trip in two days. Is that all right...?"

Frowning, he answered crisply, "Hello, Téa. I'm not sure if that's okay...but I assume that everything will be all worked out by the time you get back. I'd ask one of your friends to tell you what's going on, but they're all out at the moment."

"Well, it's not like I can stall my parents by telling them about the evil spirit back in Domino City. So we're returning whether or not it's a good idea. But where is everybody?" She sighed through the line, sounding worried.

Switching the phone into the other hand, Solomon stirred the food in the pot. "Downtown."

"Can you put Yuugi on? I want to know what's been happening while we've been away. And Serenity's been worried sick over her brother. Yuugi's not sleeping, is he?" She asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid he is. I would try to fill you in, Téa, but I feel you have a right to hear it first hand from the people you care about. They'll all explain things to you when you get back. Don't worry, last I saw everybody, which was only a few hours ago, they were all fine. Tired, and a bit cranky, maybe, but fine. So enjoy your time away, go to the beach, and rent some good movies. There's nothing you can do for us here. But I'll let them know you called and that you were thinking of them. I'm sure that it'll make everyone feel better to have heard from you and Serenity." Solomon told her gently, knowing how stressed the two women probably were. It made him sad to know that he couldn't hand the phone over to Joey or Tristan (or Yuugi), but it was probably for the best. Anything they said to her might only increase the stress she had, and there was nothing that she could do to relieve it, seeing as how she was almost a day's drive away.

There was some hesitation, and then Téa forced a cheery attitude. "Yeah, okay. Thanks, Mr. Mutou. I'll phone again later. Maybe things will be better by then. Bye." The dial tone sounded through the line, and then he dropped the phone back into its cradle. Clearly Téa was not thinking optimistically, if she was wishing that things would be better, which suggested that she had guessed how bad it really was in Domino at the moment.

As he doled out a plate for Odion, Solomon mourned the days when all he had to worry about was whether his grandson was being bullied or not.

Now he had to worry about someone trying to kill him.

xXx

The cold slowly dropped away as they worked their way through the rough passages, deeper and deeper into the darkness. It felt like they were gradually climbing up a slope, which was heartening, considering how sick they were of listening to the sound of scampering and screeching. Bats and burrowing animals prowled about in the darkness beyond the Flame Swordsman's light, enough of them that Joey had stopped flinching whenever he heard a noise. Marik had lived most of his life underground, and he was comfortable in the darkness, but Joey had only been in one cave previous to this, and it had not been a pleasant experience. Marik had at first been absolutely silent, but with Joey's pushing they started to bicker back and forth over trivial matters.

"Ya know, for all we know, we could have already been in this virtual world for days. I mean, we were in that blizzard and couldn't see much of the sun, an' now we're in this cave. I dun' have a watch on me. Do you have a watch?" Joey babbled, huffing as he tripped on another crack in the rocky floor.

"No, Joey, I don't. Somehow I doubt that it's been days. That's just your exhaustion talking. We've been doing a lot of running. Now don't speak so loud, will you? For all we know these caverns can collapse upon us at any moment. I for one do not want to be stuck underground." Marik pushed his sweaty bangs away from his face. Sharp, thick stalactites and stalagmites littered the tunnel they were walking through. One glance away from where he was walking would make him hit something.

Joey matched his stride to Marik's so that they could walk side by side. "Well, sorry. Just trying to make some conversation. I mean, I barely know you. Except for that whole Battle City thing. Not that I'm holding a grudge or anything. The past is the past, right?"

Thinking darkly of the tattoo on his back, Marik gave him a suspicious look. For what he had done to Joey, nearly killing him and his friend, and for taking over his mind, he thought it was simply not possible for Joey not to hold some resentment towards him. Not to mention the things his other half had done. It was too much to let go. But the person looking back at him had only kindness and teasing in on his face, like the whole near-death experience had just been a bad joke. Marik swallowed self-consciously. "Right...the past."

Jabbing his shoulder playfully, Joey said mockingly, "It's not like any of your plans ever worked on me anyway. I'm immune to the whole mind slave thing. Sort of. And I've got lots of friends to back me up should I get myself into a pinch."

"Kidnapped." Marik corrected uncertainly.

"Yeah, that thing. I could've beaten Odion up if I hadn't been tied to a chair though. Seriously. I used to be in gang, did you know that? I'm pretty strong." Joey joked.

"Gang," Marik repeated, and could only think of the gangs in those New York based Mafia movies, the ones that said all the intimidating lines while smoking cigars and drinking hard liquor. The only other gang that occurred to him was his own, but it had been based less on gaining money and more on gaining rare Duel Monsters cards. To the police it had been laughable, regardless of how much trouble they had caused. The boat that they'd stolen. And the crane, for that one duel. And the motorcycle. But that last one was more for his own interest than anything else.

Joey linked his fingers and rested his hands on top of his head. "Yeah. We wielded these tricked out yo-yos. And occasionally other things. But mostly we fought with our fists." He pulled back a sleeve and showed Marik the muscles in his arm with a cheeky grin.

Scoffing, Marik couldn't help the smile that was slowly twitching onto his face. Joey's good mood was contagious. "You may have some muscles, but nothing compared to me. I had to be intimidating. You may have been in a gang, but I led one, so I've got way more muscles than you." Joey aimed a slow punch, and Marik blocked it without thinking.

Pulling away, Joey gave him a sour look. "Hmm, maybe..."

Continuing on, Marik declared, "And against Odion, no offence, Joey, but it's unlikely that you'd get any further than the first hit. He's twice your height. At least." Marik returned, causing Joey to blow out through his mouth in exasperation. Marik taunted, "And yo-yos, seriously? That sounds a little ridiculous."

Joey's grin grew wider. "Says you. They had sharp metal edges on 'em. Ever been on the other end of having a yo-yo with a sharp edge coming through the air at your face? It sucks. Bad. Those things could tear through metal. Just ask Atem, he tried it." He bragged.

Marik's light mood vanished, and Joey could see it instantly. Backtracking on his reply, he realized where he went wrong and said, scratching his head as he spoke, "Not on good terms with him, are you,"

"No."

"You wanna talk about it?" Joey suggested.

"No."

They walked in silence for another minute before they came across something that they had not seen in the tunnel before. It was a fork in the road, one path leading in the direction that they had just come, whilst the other continued on forward. The two of them paused for an instant, and Flame Swordsman shifted in his boots, peering down both dark passages with the acute instincts of a warrior. They took the hint from the duel monster, understanding that his battle senses were on high alert, and it did not take them long to figure out why. There in the ground were a set of tracks, which definitely did not come from any animal that they were familiar with. They looked like tire tracks, two long rows on either side of the tunnel, which suggested that the thing that made them was quite wide. A duel monster. On wheels?

Uneasy now, the two of them glanced at each other and continued on more quickly up the passage that they thought led out. "Know any machine types?" Marik muttered to his companion.

"Eh...well...yeah, but I have a bad memory...Yuugi would usually think of the right monster. Bandit Keith had all these machine types," Joey offered.

"I don't know his deck," Marik sighed.

"Oh."

They tried to keep their movements quiet and kept one eye down on the ground, each trying to figure out which way the tracks were heading. If the monster was going deeper into the caverns, then it would be behind them. But if not, then they might run into the creature as they worked their way out. Either way, not knowing what they were up against was making them apprehensive as they ascended out of the tunnel.

It didn't help their nerves when a rumbling sounded from behind them. Having learnt from their past problems, they took off running instantly without pausing to consider what it might be. They tripped constantly, and were overjoyed when they spotted a light in front of them, which seemed to be the exit. The tunnel widened as they ascended, panting and speechless.

Slowing as they reached the entrance, due to the blinding effect that seeing the sun was having on their eyes, they stumbled their way out of the cavern and followed the sound of Flame Swordsman's boots scuffing against the rock and his fuzzy image leading them down a rocky trail. Eventually their vision cleared, and then the ground vibrated hard beneath them, and a harsh roar of a heavy engine rolled up behind them. Marik and Joey spun on their feet, and Flame Swordsman leapt between them and the machine. It was a great brilliant blue tank, sporting a thin coat of dust and grime over its paint. Spinning red drills were on the front, looking absolutely dangerous under its glowing yellow headlights. Flame Swordsman was a strong card, sure, but Marik did not know the monster before it and so was not certain if the warrior would win.

Joey was grumbling, "Labyrinth Tank. What was its attack points again?"

Labyrinth Tank seemed to have difficulty turning the ninety degrees it took to face them on the trail. It backed up, treads kicking up rocks and dust before it managed to execute the turn and roll towards them, picking up speed. "Uh, um..."

"It's fine, Joey, let the Tank attack. If it impales your warrior I'll just summon The Masked Beast. It should have more than enough attack points to destroy that machine." Marik soothed, drawing a hand.

They stared down the Tank rolling down the slope. The grinding of the drills was incredibly jarring on their ears after hearing nothing but tiny feet scampering and bats in the cave. Flame Swordsman levelled the Salamandra sword at the Tank, spreading his legs and dropping his shoulders to prepare for the incoming strike. Engine chugging away, the Tank tried to ram the warrior, but Flame Swordsman dug his Salamandra skilfully in-between the drills, denting the metal with a screech and stopping the large machine momentarily. Then, the Swordsman began to get shoved back as the Tank pushed against the sword, his boots breaking up the earth as he leaned forward to keep him from losing valuable inches and hitting his master. The engine roared louder, and the Labyrinth Tank foolishly tried to move the Swordsman out of the way, but it only ended up forcing the Salamandra deep through the weakened metal into the core of the machine. It had assumed that its hard metal exterior was impenetrable, and now it suffered its mistake by consequence of death. Flame Swordsman withdrew the Salamandra with a satisfying clanging.

Labyrinth Tank ground to a halt, and Joey's Swordsman pushed them gently but firmly back with one hand as the machine exploded into its own unique digits and codes. Defeated. Finally.

At this point the two of them got a good look around at their new location. They were standing on a trail crisscrossing the steep wall of a large canyon, with a very long drop to the bottom, where a river was situated. Marik and Joey stepped up to the edge, and Joey kicked a pebble down after some consideration. They lost sight of the pebble within a second, which didn't bother them as much as it should have. "That is a really long way down," Joey commented with a whistle.

"At least we're in the canyon now. After that is the castle, right?" Marik questioned.

"Right."

Returning the Swordsman to his deck once more, Joey and Marik started following the trail away from the caverns, not sure where it led but hoping it allowed them to cross the canyon to the other side. Preferably with a sturdy bridge. A stone one. That wouldn't fall apart as they crossed it. But knowing how destroyed and mutated the world of Noah's had become, they both doubted that they'd find an easy way of crossing the canyon. At the worst, they might have to use Joey's Thousand Dragon to cross.

That was a last resort though, because they were only too aware of the cloud of death above them, the army of duel monsters, ready to pounce should they spot any intruders into their world. The two of them hoped to keep a low profile by not using any large duel monsters, and not engaging in flashy fights with any enemies that they might come across. It was a slim hope, but it was there nevertheless.

There was another thing that bothered them now as they hiked up the trail to the top of the canyon, and it was the wind. It was more like a powerful gale than a breeze, and it whipped at them hard enough that walking against it was tiring. And walking with it was...well...dangerous, at best. Marik and Joey covered their noses from the dust with one arm and put the other over their heads to shield their eyes. As it was they were still constantly blinking away grit that got under their lashes. Marik pointed out a problematic feature in the distance. "How far away do you think it is?" He called to Joey, though the man was only a foot away from him.

Joey blinked at the image of the swirling dust storm that seemed to be hovering over their side of the canyon, and shrugged at Marik. "I think it's too far in front of us to be a problem," he said loudly back. Marik did not seem too convinced.

They walked for a while before they were interrupted by a dozen flying monsters that suddenly dipped out of the clouds and went down to inspect the canyon, or so it seemed. Neither spotted the group until it was nearly too late, as their eyes were so focussed on the ground before them, and their ears were being misled of the danger by the howling of the wind. As the group flapped downward, Joey accidentally knocked a few rocks down the incline and caught the attention of the monsters, and they growled and snarled as they flew towards the sound. Now alerted by the noise that the creatures made, both made a bolt for some cover under the crags of stone overhang. It wasn't much, but it might be enough that the monsters might pass them over if they were just doing a fly-by.

Diving for the overhang, they were sorely bothered to find that the monsters were not in fact just flying by, and as they landed on claws and legs and other various appendages, it was with some bad luck that the two of them were not nearly close enough to the cover to avoid being seen. Cards were drawn without thought.

"Panther Warrior! Scapegoat!" Joey cried out, coughing on dust and call mostly lost on the wind.

"The Masked Beast!" Marik slammed the already prepared card down onto a monster space.

Panther Warrior took his four sacrifices all at once, and was suddenly a bundle of fur and blinding strikes, dancing among the untrained monsters with all the speed of the great cat it took the likeness of. It dodged one monster's claws, leaping under the arm to sweep one of its khopesh straight through the creature's gut. Spinning on its feet, Panther Warrior parried a blow from another monster and lobbed the head off. Two down.

The Masked Beast was much slower but all the more powerful than its companion, and it ambled into existence in front of Marik, wooden staff raised to project a dark light onto its enemies. Creatures fell before it with screeches and wails. "Quickly! Don't let them make too much fuss," Marik urged.

Monsters fell to the ground like they were nothing, or merely ants beneath the Beast's large, bent feet. Joey's Panther struck out two other attackers and got Joey backed into a corner as the duelist stumbled on his feet, hand going for his deck as he looked for another sacrifice. "Joey!" Marik yelled hoarsely, watching with horror as the blond backed up another step, nearing the edge of the cliff. "Continue attacking!" He left that standing command with his Beast and dodged through the bodies on the ground that were digitizing as he spoke, mouth spitting out dust onto the earth.

The Panther was joined by the Swordsman of Landstar, which dropped immediately into the dirt as Joey's beast-warrior took it as a sacrifice and sliced the next offending monster from navel to neck. Joey stumbled another step backwards...

...dropping without a scream over the edge.

Marik dived for him, rocky ground scraping him harshly underneath his clothing. His hands reached out and grasped the pale wrist he could still see, and then he jerked forward, elbows going bloody as he dug them into the ground near his face. Joey gave a startled yelp, and the two hung like that for a brief instant, staring into the stunned faces of each other. Then, slowly working himself to his knees, he dragged the other man to safety. The sounds of battle had disappeared behind them as the last of the enemy force were killed. Heart thumping wildly and breath raspy in his throat, Joey looked at Marik and said aptly, "I can't believe you just managed to do that,"

"I can't either," Marik replied honestly.

Joey searched for some words for a moment, before simply saying, "Thanks. I guess I owe you one."

"You don't owe me anything," Marik told him shortly, "I'm just returning the favour from when you saved my life in the swamp."

The other man was looking at his bloody sleeves with somewhat of a subdued expression. "You and I both know that if Kaiba hadn't reminded me to use my cards I wouldn't have been the one who ended up saving you. If they hadn't showed up we would've probably been burned by that fire." Joey argued.

"You don't have any faith in yourself, do you?" Marik said in disbelief, pulling back his sleeves to get a good look at his elbows. Joey winced at the sight and Marik just bit his tongue to keep from crying out. "You're here for a reason, you know. The Pharaoh thinks you're a powerful ally."

"Yeah," Joey muttered, "but the Pharaoh likely heard an edited version of the first entry into the virtual world. Where Yuugi dove in first and I tagged along." He got to his feet and took his Panther off of the field, and Marik did the same with his Beast, following behind him. They had to move quickly if they wanted to avoid the attention from the flying monsters, who would notice the absence of their companions sooner or later. So they continued hiking up the trail, dirt in their faces and wind in their ears. Marik looked at Joey thoughtfully.

"Is that why you came along? Because you're convinced Yuugi's condition is your fault?" He asked in confusion. He was totally unprepared for the reaction his query brought.

Joey exploded, turning around to yell in his face. "You weren't there when Kaiba told me to just stop for one second and think of a plan before I went after my sister! You weren't there when I told Yuugi I was going in whether or not he was coming with me. You weren't there when I landed right in Noah's castle out of pure luck and Yuugi got stuck in the forest ages away. You weren't there, okay? So don't try and claim it wasn't my fault! I was so concerned about Serenity that I was willing to risk one of my best friends to save her. I traded her life for his. End of story." He tried to spin back around, but Marik stopped him abruptly with one hand on his shoulder.

"You think you're the only one who's in here out of guilt, Joey?"

That stopped him cold, and for a moment he just looked slightly embarrassed. "Nah..."

"I'm going to take back the Rod from my other personality. Somehow. While you and the others are fighting, I'll grab hold of it. I'll suck his spirit right out through his borrowed body, into the virtual world, and down into the virtual Rod. He'll be trapped in it where he can be easily defeated. I'll do it. Somehow I'll manage to." Marik vowed, his face a complete mask.

They stood for a moment in silence, listening to the screaming of the dust storm whirling upwards into infinity high above them.

"I hope you do, Marik. I really hope so."