Chapter 26

"Why didn't you let me duel him?" asked Horus angrily, pacing back and forth in Zorc's chamber. "I would have easily taken him out!"

"No, you would have lost," said Zorc, calmly. "You were far too angry to duel."

"I could have beaten that fool with my eyes closed!"

"Calm down, Horus. I simply didn't want to reveal your power just yet."

Horus stopped pacing, took a deep breath, and turned to face his master. "I understand, master," he said, calmer but still slightly angry.

"Good." Zorc shifted his gaze away from Horus and looked towards the doorway. "Come forth, Anubis."

"My lord," said Anubis, bowing as he entered the chamber. "What is it you require?"

"I want you to go after Yugi's friends," said Zorc, smiling wickedly. "Take out as many as you can."

"As you command," said Anubis, bowing. Now, Pharaoh, he thought, smiling, we shall settle our battle once and for all. Without another word, he vanished.

"Horus," said Zorc, returning his focus to the Black Flame of Egypt. "Follow him. When he fails, you may duel whoever you want."

Horus bowed and turned around. He took a few steps toward the door, then stopped moving. "Wait," he said without turning his head. "'When' he fails?" Zorc said nothing. He just smiled. "Understood," said Horus. He took a few more steps, then vanished from the chamber.

"It seems he'll be completely obedient until he betrays me," said Zorc, still smiling.

"So it appears," said Osiris, appearing from the shadows behind Zorc's throne.

"Does it bother you," asked Zorc, "knowing that I intend to sacrifice them?"

"Of course not," said Osiris. "Those four have always been expendable."

"It's good to know you feel that way," said Zorc, smiling again. "Follow them, keep yourself hidden, and let me know the instant Horus betrays me."

"Yes, my lord," said Osiris, bowing.

"One more thing," said Zorc. "Do not take out Horus…" He turned his head back so Osiris could see the evil expression on his face. "…until I command it."

--

Yugi stood in a large hospital room, surrounded by his friends, including Mai and Rebecca, who were now lying in hospital beds. Darius also occupied a bed, and Amara was sitting faithfully by his side, clasping his hand in hers. "We need to stop them," she said.

"Don't worry, honey," said Serenity, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "We will."

"If only it were that simple," said Tristan.

"He's right," said Duke. "All we know about the Egyptian Gods is that they're incredibly powerful. We have no idea where they are or where they'll strike next."

"That's not completely true," said Joey, shifting his gaze from Mai to Duke. "They're after us. Wherever we are is where they'll be."

"So you're saying that all we can do is wait for them to attack?" asked Tea.

"Unfortunately, Tea," said Joey, "that's exactly what I'm saying."

"You're right," said Anubis, appearing in the room, followed shortly by Horus. "That is all you can do."

"Oh, great," said Joey, standing. "Two of you?"

"Relax," said Horus, glaring at Joey. "I'm not here to duel." He shifted his gaze to Anubis. "At least not yet."

"That's right," said Anubis, eyeing Yugi. "You're all mine, Pharaoh."

"Not so fast," said Tristan, steeping between Yugi and Anubis. "If you want Yugi, then you're gonna have to go through me."

"Don't forget about me," said Duke, stepping up to Tristan's side with his disk raised.

"I don't have time for this," said Anubis, raising his disk. "I'll take you both on."

"Fine by me," said Tristan.

"Yeah," said Duke. "Let's do this."

Horus clenched his fist and vanished, reappearing between the three duelists. His arms were raised at his side, and his hands were open with his palms out, one facing Anubis, one facing Tristan and Duke, gesturing for them to stop. "Show some respect, all of you. We're in a hospital."

Though surprised by this, Duke had to admit that Horus had a point. He lowered his disk. "He's right. Let's take this outside." Tristan lowered his disk as well.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Anubis.

"I'm serious, Anubis," said Horus, lowering his arms and closing his eyes. "Either take this duel outside…" He opened his eyes and glared directly into Anubis' eyes. "…or deal with me."

Anubis grunted angrily, lowering his disk. "Fine." He shifted his gaze to Tristan and Duke. "I'll meet you outside," he said, vanishing.

Horus turned to the group. "My apologies," he said, bowing. "We'll wait for you outside." With that, he vanished.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Tristan. "Let's get out there." He started to walk toward the door.

"Wait, Tristan," said Serenity, walking up to him. "Take this." She handed a card to him.

Tristan took the card and examined it. His eyes widened, and he smiled. "I've been looking for this card forever." He shifted his gaze to Serenity. "How'd you get it?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked, smiling. "I'm married to the richest man in Japan."

"Well, thanks," said Tristan, slipping the card into his deck. He turned to face the entire group. "Well, let's go."

The group left the room and proceeded out of the hospital, joining Horus and Anubis outside the building. "Shall we begin?" asked Anubis, raising his disk.

"You're on," said Duke as he and Tristan raised their disks. The life-point meters flashed 4000. "Let's duel."

--

Kaiba sat in the cockpit of his jet, which he had modeled after a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, pushing buttons and turning dials, adjusting the jet for take-off. "What's our status, Mokuba?" he asked through the radio.

"All set, big brother," replied Mokuba. "The Blue-Eyes White Jet is cleared for take-off."

"Excellent. Initiating launch sequence." He pushed a lever forward, igniting the engines. "Mokuba, once I'm gone, I want you to rejoin the others. I'll get back as soon as I can."

"Roger."

"Now, activate the catapult."

"Affirmative," answered Mokuba. "Blue-Eyes White Jet launching in three, two, one, now!" Mokuba pushed a button, and the jet began moving forward at an incredible velocity. After a few seconds, Kaiba pulled back on another lever, and the jet was airborne before the catapult reached the end of the runway.

Alright, thought Kaiba as he adjusted the course of his plane. Now all I have to do is get to Pegasus. I just hope Zorc didn't see this coming.

--

"I'll make the first move," said Tristan, drawing his card. "First I'll summon my Cyber Commander in defense mode." A dark-skinned, muscular monster appeared on his side of the field. It wore a rocket launcher on its right shoulder, and it held a red rifle in its right hand. It had short, black hair, and a metallic mask covered the lower half of its face. The defense meter flashed 750.

"Come on, Tristan," said Duke. "Is that the best monster you've got?"

"Unfortunately, yes," replied Tristan. He turned back to Anubis. "Next I'll activate the magic card Nightmare's Steelcage." A black, metal cage covered in spikes surrounded Anubis. "Thanks to this card, none of us can attack for two whole turns."

I get it, thought Duke. Tristan's using a stall tactic. That means he must be waiting for a certain card. He shifted his gaze to Anubis. The only problem is that, when that cage is gone, Tristan'll be an easy target. I have to make Anubis think that I'm the bigger threat so he'll go after me first, giving Tristan all the time he needs. "My move," he said, drawing. "First I'll place a card face-down, and then I'll summon my Strike Ninja in attack mode." A humanoid monster wearing a black body-suit appeared on his side of the field. Golden bands adorned its wrists and ankles, and it wore a golden belt, as well as golden kneepads. A golden mask covered its face, and it clutched a kunai in each hand. Its long red scarf waved in the wind as the attack meter flashed 1700. "That's all for now."

"This will be easier than I thought," said Anubis, drawing. "First I activate the magic card Call of the Mummy." The card appeared on his side of the field. "Now I can summon one additional monster per turn, so long as at least one of the monsters I summon is a zombie. So now I'll place one monster in defense mode and summon my Regenerating Mummy." The face-down monster appeared first, and the attack meter flashed 1800 as the Regenerating Mummy broke through the ground and took its place on the field. "That ends my turn."

Tristan drew his card. "Now I'll summon the Steel Scorpion in defense mode." A small, blue scorpion composed entirely of metal appeared on his side of the field, and its eyes glowed bright red as the defense meter flashed 300.

Another weak monster? thought Duke. I hope I'm right about his strategy. He shifted his gaze from the scorpion to Tristan. Tristan caught his gaze and nodded. Duke nodded back, then drew his card. "Alright," he said, returning his gaze to Anubis. "Now I summon my White Ninja in attack mode." A new monster appeared on his side of the field. This one wore a white body-suit and silver armor, and its face was almost entirely obscured by its armored mask. The attack meter flashed 1500. "Next I'll place another card face-down and end my turn."

Anubis drew his card, and smiled. "I'm afraid you've just lost this duel. First I'll use Call of the Mummy and sacrifice my Regenerating Mummy to summon my Dark Dust Spirit." The Regenerating Mummy turned into sand and fell to the ground, followed by both Tristan's and Duke's monsters. The five piles of sand swirled together, forming a tornado of sand. The tornado moved across the field, slipping through the openings in the cage and stopping in front of the Call of the Mummy card, then disappeared into the ground. The ground broke open a few seconds later, and the Dark Dust Spirit emerged, taking its place on the field as the attack meter flashed 2200.

"Aw, man," said Tristan. "He destroyed all of our monsters."

"That's not our biggest problem, Tristan."

"What do you mean, Duke?"

"Think about it. If he used Call of the Mummy to summon his Dark Dust Spirit, then he must be planning on summoning another one."

"You've got a point," said Tristan, returning his gaze to Anubis. "But look on the bright side. It can't be much worse than that thing." He pointed to the Dark Dust Spirit, and Anubis began to laugh wickedly. "What's so funny?"

"What's funny is how wrong you are. The monster I'm going to summon is far worse than anything else in my deck."

"Oh, no," said Yugi. "It can't be!"

"Now I sacrifice my face-down Pyramid Turtle to summon my Egyptian God card!" The face-down monster disappeared, and the giant purple jackal took its place. It roared as the attack meter flashed 2500. "The End of Anubis!"

That was fast, thought Horus, smiling.

"You've gotta be kidding me," said Duke. "It's only been two turns. How did he summon his Egyptian God card so quickly?"

"More importantly," said Tristan, "how are we gonna beat that thing?"

"You aren't," said Anubis, smiling, "and if it weren't for your Nightmare's Steelcage, I'd finish off one of you right now. Unfortunately, all I can do is place one card face-down and end my turn, forcing my Dark Dust Spirit back to my hand." The zombie disappeared in a funnel of sand, reforming in Anubis' hand.

"I guess that means it's my turn," said Tristan as the cage disappeared. He drew his card, and smiled. It was the card that Serenity had given him. Thank you, Serenity, he thought. This could be just what we need. He examined his hand. But I still need one more card to make this work. He looked across the field. Let's just hope I can survive that long. "I place two cards face-down and end my turn."

Come on, Tristan, thought Duke, drawing his card. If you're going to do something, now would be a good time. He shifted his gaze to Anubis. At least we're not in that much danger. He won't sacrifice his God card just to destroy our monsters, so he probably won't play his Dark Dust Spirit again, which means all we have to do is build up our defenses. He looked down at his hand. Fortunately, I have just the right cards to both protect myself and draw his attacks. "Now I summon the Armed Ninja in defense mode." A new ninja appeared on his side of the field, this one wearing a black body-suit and blue armor. Its face was concealed by a blue helmet, and it clutched a long sickle in its right hand. The defense meter flashed 300. "Next I'll activate one of my face-down cards, a trap card known as Ninjitsu Art of Replication." He raised the card. "Here's how it works. First I select one ninja on my side of the field, in this case, my Armed Ninja. Next, I roll a die. If the result is a one, two, or three, I summon that many Ninja Clone tokens, each with equal attack and defense points to my selected ninja. If I roll a four or a five, then I can summon up to two ninjas from my hand. Last, if I roll a six, I can summon a ninja directly from my deck. Now here goes." He said, gesturing outward. "Go dice-roll!" A die appeared on the field and began rolling. As it rolled, Duke thought to himself. It's true that rolling a one, two, three, four, or five would allow me to solidify my defenses, but if I roll a six, I can summon the strongest ninja in my deck and take out his Egyptian God card. The die slowed, coming to a stop with the number six facing up. "Yes, a six. That means I can summon any ninja I want from my deck, and I choose to summon my Experienced Strike Ninja." Yet another ninja appeared on his side of the field, this one nearly identical to the first Strike Ninja. The only differences between the two were that the new ninja's uniform was torn in several places, and its scarf was quite damaged as well. The key difference, however, was the large tear in the uniform over the ninja's chest, which left a large scar exposed. The attack meter flashed 2350. "This is the strongest ninja in the game, and he's about to get stronger, because now I'm going to equip him with a magic card known as Fuhma Shuriken, raising his attack power by 700." A large shuriken appeared on the ninja's belt, and the attack meter rose to 3050.

"Alright, Duke," said Tristan. "Nice move."

"Thanks, but I'm not done. Next I'll have my ninja attack the End of Anubis." Duke's ninja took the shuriken from its belt, ready to hurl it at the Egyptian God card.

"Not so fast," said Anubis. "I have a trap card of my own." He raised the card. "Activate Ordeal of a Traveler." The giant sphinx with glowing red eyes appeared on his side of the field. "Thanks to this card, whenever you attack, I select a card in my hand, and you have to guess what kind of card it is. If you guess wrong, your monster is destroyed." He held up a card from his hand. "Care to try your luck?"

Okay, thought Duke, gotta think. He probably wouldn't use the Dark Dust Spirit, but since it's the only card in his hand that I know, I have to take a chance and call monster. "Alright, Anubis, I'll guess that it's a monster card."

"Sorry, but wrong. The card I chose was the magic card Shifting Shadows." He revealed the card. "That means that your monster is destroyed." The eyes of the sphinx glowed brighter before firing energy beams at the ninja, vaporizing it. The shuriken fell to the ground, then vanished.

"Oh, well," said Duke. "It wasn't a total loss."

"What do you mean?" asked Anubis.

"When you destroyed my monster, you sent my Fuhma Shuriken to the graveyard, and when that happens, you lose 700 life-points." As he said this, the shuriken reappeared behind Anubis and proceeded to strike him. Anubis screamed in pain as his life-points fell to 3300.

"You'll pay for that," said Anubis, the Pyramid of Light draining his life-force. "You may have managed to damage me, but I will win this duel, and when I do, you will lose more than just your souls." He drew his card, then turned to his monster. "End of Anubis, destroy his ninja with Purgatory Flash!" The giant monster charged its energy and fired it at the ninja.

"Not so fast," said Duke. "Activate trap card." He raised his face-down card. "Ninjitsu Art of Decoy. As long as this card remains on the field, one of my ninjas can't be destroyed in battle, and I choose my Armed Ninja." The energy blast approached Duke's monster, but the ninja vanished, and a short log took its place. The ninja reappeared a few feet away, and the log was vaporized instead.

"No matter," said Anubis. "I'll still win this duel."

"You're a fool, Anubis."

Anubis turned around. "How dare you, Horus," he said, angrily.

"How dare I? You're playing right into their hands and you don't even see it." He pointed to Duke. "That one hasn't been trying to defeat you. He's been drawing your attacks from the beginning, stalling for the other."

A look of realization crossed Anubis' face, and he turned to face Duke and Tristan. He's right, he thought, examining the field. How could I have been so foolish? He looked at Duke and smiled wickedly.

Oh, no, thought Duke, a worried expression on his face. He's on to me.

"Don't worry, Horus," said Anubis. "I won't fall for it again."

If you survive this turn, that is, thought Horus.

"It's my move," said Tristan, drawing. He examined the card he drew, then looked directly at Anubis, smiling. "Alright, Anubis. It's time to take you down."

"What do you mean? I still have my Egyptian God card and over 3000 life-points."

"Not for long." He placed the card he drew in his duel disk. "Now I activate the magic card Polymerization, fusing together my Roboyarou and Robolady cards." The two monsters appeared, one a man wearing light-blue, mechanical armor, the other a woman wearing pink, mechanical armor, and fused together, forming a new monster. This one wore heavier, light-blue armor with spikes extending from the shoulder-pads. The weapon it held in its left hand had long blades extending from both ends of the handle, each charged with electricity. The attack meter flashed 1200.

"That monster can't possibly defeat me," said Anubis.

"It can once I activate this." He raised his one of his face-down cards, and a strange machine with what appeared to be a radar dish appeared on his side of the field. "It's a rare trap card known as Cyber Summon Blaster, and whenever I summon a machine monster, I can use it to inflict 300 points of damage to your life-points. Next I'll activate Super Roboyarou's special ability. By returning him to the fusion deck, I can summon Super Robolady." His monster vanished, replaced by a similar monster. This one was female and wore pink armor. The attack meter flashed 1200. "And, since I've just summoned a machine monster, you take 300 points of damage." Energy began charging in the dish, and it fired a laser beam across the field, striking Anubis. He screamed as his life-points dropped to 3000. "Next I'll use Super Robolady's effect to replace her with Super Roboyarou." The two monsters switched, and the blaster activated again, taking Anubis' life-points down further.

"I can't believe it," said Anubis as his life energy was drained by his shadow item. "I lost to you!?"

"Looks like," said Tristan. He continued to switch out his monsters until he had Super Robolady on the field and only 600 of Anubis' life-points remained. "Now I'll use her effect to switch them one last time and bring your life-points down to 300." The monsters switched again, and the Cyber Summon Blaster took another 300 points from Anubis.

"What do you mean by one last time?" asked Anubis. "I still have 300 life-points left."

"And I still have two more cards to play," said Tristan. "Now I activate my face-down Dust Tornado, allowing me to destroy your trap card." He raised the card, and a swirling wind surrounded Anubis' Ordeal of a Traveler card, ripping it to shreds. "Next I activate the magic card Rare Metal Soul, allowing me to increase one monster's attack points by 1000 until the end of the turn, and I choose my Super Roboyarou." The attack meter rose to 2200. "Now, attack his Egyptian God card." His monster complied, leaping across the field at the giant monster.

"You fool," said Anubis. "My monster still has 300 more attack points than yours."

"Not quite," said Tristan. "Whenever Super Roboyarou attacks a monster, it gains 1000 extra attack points." The attack meter rose again, this time to 3200, and Tristan's monster plunged its blade into the End of Anubis. The giant monster howled as electricity flowed through its body, and Anubis' life-points dropped to 0 as his monster exploded.

"No!!" screamed Anubis as waves of shadow energy emerged from the Pyramid of Light and surrounded him. After a few seconds, the shadows cleared, revealing nothing but the pyramid and Anubis' deck.

"Yeah," said Duke and Tristan in unison.

"You guys did it," said Serenity happily.

Tristan turned to face her. "It was all thanks to your trap card, Serenity."

"Yes, it was all thanks to that card," said Horus, stepping forward. "Do you think it will save you again?"

"Looks like we've got another opponent, Tristan," said Duke as Tristan turned around.

"No sweat," said Tristan as the two raised their disks. "We'll just take him down too."

"Don't think that I will be so easy," said Horus, raising his disk. The life-point meters flashed 4000. "Let's duel."