As Ryou released Marik and used his hand to brush away the final traces of his tears, they heard a new voice call out to them.
"Hey!"
Everyone but Yugi lifted their heads to look in the direction of the newcomer, who turned out to be Mai Kujaku.
"So I guess you guys qualified too," she said cheerfully, but a moment later realized that something was wrong. "What's going on here?"
"Yugi lost a duel to Seto and now he's not qualified for the finals anymore," Anzu answered, her hand on Yugi's shoulder as he continued to sit in his shell-shocked state. Ryou couldn't help but wonder if Yugi was trying to speak with Yami. Were they arguing? Were they trying to work through Yugi's fear? Was the pharaoh apologizing? Or was Yugi trying to force the pharaoh out of his soul forever?
"Then I suppose I arrived just in time." She strode over to Yugi and bent over a little as she held out her hand, which contained a half dozen star-chips. "I promised I'd pay you back, didn't I? Well, here they are. Don't worry, I've got enough for myself."
She winked and held up her dueling gauntlet, which was full, demonstrating that he could take the star-chips without preventing her from entering the finals. Yugi didn't react, though, and Mai frowned in frustration.
"What, my star-chips aren't good enough for you?" she demanded, looking quite miffed.
"Come on, Yugi," Anzu urged gently, giving his shoulder a small squeeze. "You won Mai's star-chips back for her so she could stay in the tournament, now she's just returning the favor. It's only fair."
Yugi remained unresponsive, increasing Mai's annoyance.
"Fine then, if you won't take my star-chips, you can sit here while the rest of us enter the finals." She withdrew the hand that held the star-chips and started to walk away.
"It's more complicated than that," Joey snapped. "Yugi doesn't want to duel ever again."
"What, because you lost one lousy duel?" Mai turned around and crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow at the stricken teen. "Buck up, kid. So you lost one fight. Big deal. That's no reason to give up. If I'd given up when PaniK beat me, I wouldn't be standing here, now would I?"
"He's not giving up!" Anzu was quick to spring to Yugi's defense, metaphorically and physically. She now stood between Yugi and Mai. "You have no idea what he's going through!"
"Then explain it to me, because all I see is a sore loser who's not strong enough to get over himself."
"I won't let you stand there and mock him, Mai!" Anzu exclaimed, her emotions getting the better of her. "I challenge you to a duel!"
"I thought you said you didn't duel much," Mai scoffed, her sass increasing three-fold. "What makes you think you can suddenly beat me in a duel?"
"Because I'm dueling for my friend, unlike you! You're just dueling for yourself."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Mai just humoring Anzu now, taunting her into a small fury.
Anzu fumed as she glared at the other woman, suppressing the urge to audibly growl. "Because friendship is the most powerful force in the universe!"
"It's even stronger than Chuck Norris?" Joey asked facetiously, making Mai giggle.
"You shut up!" Anzu had already been annoyed with Joey, and his comment had only made things worse. "Will you duel me or not?"
"Fine," Mai sighed, sounding bored. "I saw a Duel Arena near the bottom of the stairs. We can duel there."
"Fine!" Anzu and Mai headed down the stairs towards the Duel Arena while Marik and Ryou approached Joey and Yugi.
"Why did you have to provoke her?" Ryou asked with a look of disapproval. "Was that really necessary?"
"Nobody blasphemes Chuck Norris and gets away with it!" Joey exclaimed as Ryou reached down and took Yugi's hands in his own to help him stand up.
"What's Chuck Norris?" Marik asked, looking confused as he tilted his head to the side.
"You don't know who Chuck Norris is?" Joey gasped and staggered theatrically in shock. "Ryou, have you taught him nothing about culture?"
"I hardly know who Chuck Norris is," Ryou replied, a little bit annoyed. "Besides, we've had more important things to teach him."
"As soon as we get back to Domino, I'm going to educate you two about Chuck Norris. We can have a movie marathon. It'll be great!"
Marik still looked confused, but when he looked to Ryou for further explanation, the Brit just shrugged. Joey attempted to entertain them with stupid Chuck Norris jokes as the four of them descended the stairs they'd ascended so recently in order to watch the girls' duel. Ryou quickly realized that Joey was just doing his level best to shake Yugi out of his trance. While Anzu had tried sympathy and Mai had tried taunting, Joey was trying humor. Unfortunately, his efforts were not very effective.
Ryou couldn't really focus on the duel. Joey and Marik seemed sufficiently entertained by it, but Ryou was more focused on Yugi, watching him carefully for any sign of interest or expression. He kept his hands on the other's shoulders, afraid that he was so out of himself he might fall over due to sheer inattention. With Joey and Marik focused on the duel, Ryou was able to speak to Yugi without being heard.
"I know how you feel, Yugi," Ryou began quietly, watching his friend's face carefully. "It's hard watching yourself—or the spirit, rather—trying to hurt your friends. I felt the same way during the Monster World incident." Yugi blinked a few times, which was the biggest reaction they'd gotten from him so far. "You don't have any control over your own actions. It's scary. You don't want to hurt anyone, but you don't know how to stop it." He fell silent as he relived some of the panic and terror he'd felt on that day. "It's hard, but you have to keep going. If you don't try to move forward… You lose everything, and that's not the answer."
When Yugi reached up and placed his hand over Ryou's, it startled the taller boy, but it comforted him too. Yugi still wouldn't look at him, but that was okay. He was reacting again, and that was a start.
Mai ended up conceding the duel to Anzu, claiming that she didn't have the cards to win. Between Anzu's encouraging words during the duel and Ryou's understanding, Yugi finally returned to his normal self. He gratefully accepted the star-chips Mai had won for him, pocketing the extra one before they all headed back to the castle.
They were halfway up the stairs when Ryou's cell-phone rang. Surprised, he pulled it out of his pocket and checked who was calling.
"Oh, darn, I forgot to call her back," he muttered as Marik glanced at him. He answered the call and put the phone to his ear. "Hi Mom!" he greeted cheerfully. "I'm sorry, I meant to call you back after this morning but…"
Ryou halted, and Marik stopped with him. After a few moments, so did everyone else, looking back to see what was wrong.
"I-I don't know," he said softly, his eyes flicking up to meet Marik's as the conversation continued. "Do the police have any idea where he is?"
"Ryou, what's going on?"
The white-haired teen seemed to be holding his breath as he looked up at Anzu and everyone else, listening carefully.
"Okay, I'll tell him. Update me as soon as you know something, alright?" A small pause. "Bye Mom." He hung up and put his phone away, looking around at everyone with regretful eyes.
"What happened?" Marik slipped his hand into Ryou's, hoping to transmit comfort to him with the pressure of his palm. It took Ryou a few moments to find the words he needed.
"Mokuba was abducted last night."
"Oh no!"
"That's awful!"
"Who?" Mai looked confused, so Joey decided to clarify for her.
"Seto's little brother."
"Oh."
"The police are trying to find him, but they don't know much of anything just yet. My mom was trying to call Seto, but she said his phone was off."
"We have to go tell him!" Yugi took off towards the castle entrance and everyone else followed suit, a guilty silence clinging heavily to the air between them.
After a brief debacle with the guard at the door, they all managed to enter the castle. It was a single hallway leading in one direction with no doors branching off, so they didn't have to stop and think about where they were going. At the end of the hall, behind double-doors, they found quite a surprise.
"Adina's soul too," Seto demanded as he faced Pegasus from across the Duel Arena.
"And why would you bother with the little sister of your greatest rival?" Pegasus questioned with a toss of his fabulous hair. "I don't see how she's any concern of yours."
"Because she's only in this mess because of me." His sense of guilty self-loathing was apparent in his eyes and the soft tremor in his voice.
"Seto!" Ryou called as he rushed forward to cling to the railing. "Mokuba's been—"
"Kidnapped. I know." Seto hardly spared a moment to glance at the new arrivals before fixing a glare of hatred upon his opponent. "And I know who has him, too."
"Come now, Seto, don't look at me like that," Pegasus crooned in his disturbingly melodic voice, a coy smile gracing his delicate features. "We're having a fun duel, aren't we?" He gestured towards the field between them, where the holographic projections indicated that they were, indeed, in the middle of a duel.
"Bastard." Seto slammed a closed fist against the console's surface to accent his fury. "You think betting people's lives is fun?"
"Perish the thought!" The Millennium Eye glittered behind his hair. "I think it's fun betting with people's souls!" While he cackled, Joey had an epiphany.
"Oh shit," he muttered, and for once, Anzu didn't elbow him in the ribs for it.
"What? What's going on, Joey?" Ryou didn't understand what was going on.
"Pegasus has Mokuba, doesn't he, Seto?" the blond called out, the others reacting in various expressions of shock and horror.
"Of course I do! How else could I persuade him to duel against his dear friend? I needed to see which one of you was better, and with both of you dueling for the soul of a loved one, I knew you would both duel your absolute best."
"Seto, is that true?" Yugi asked, pity entering his voice. Seto, disdaining the pity and overwhelmed with guilt, kept his eyes on Pegasus.
"Only if he can defeat me in a duel can he win his baby brother's soul back." Pegasus pulled a Duel Monsters card out from the inner pocket of his red suit jacket. The card's picture contained an image of Seto's terrified little brother. "Now he wants to raise the stakes."
"Yes. If I win, you have to set the others free too."
"Others?" Anzu looked scared. "How many souls does Pegasus have?"
"Quite a few, actually." He chuckled as he splayed the cards in his hand, revealing the soul cards for Adina Kaiba, Duke Devlin, and Yugi's grandpa as well. "Now tell me, Seto, why should I do such a thing?"
"Because you'll find it even more amusing."
"You should know by now that you don't stand a ghost of a chance against me." Pegasus smirked, but Seto didn't let it phase him.
"If you're so confident that you're going to win, then what do you have to lose?" The brunette lifted an eyebrow at the Duel Monsters creator, who paused to consider his point.
"Hmmm. Fair enough," he conceded. "Fine then: if you can manage to beat me in this duel, I'll let all four of them free. But, let's add a special twist: if I win, I take your soul as my prize."
"Fine." Seto agreed without hesitation, and the duel continued. One turn after that, Seto had to abandon his hand, since Pegasus was able to read his mind with the Millennium Eye. Yugi tried to warn Seto, but Pegasus silenced him, claiming that any aid or advice would be counted as cheating—which would result in an automatic loss for their friend.
Seto dueled hard, but Marik knew that he had lost before he even began. The moment he'd rejected Seth and the Millennium Rod, he'd lost. Without the Rod, he was incapable of withstanding the power of Pegasus' Millennium Eye. They tried to explain the magical element of the duel to Mai, and while she seemed unconvinced, she was willing to go along with it.
All too soon, Seto's defeat became apparent to everyone, and Ryou was clinging to Marik again, incapable of watching his friend lose his very soul.
As he faced Pegasus' final attack, Seto felt strangely calm and cold.
"I'm sorry, Mokuba. I never meant to break my promise," he murmured, his words audible only to himself. "Forgive me. I did the best I could. It just wasn't good enough." The attack wiped out his life-points, and he could only stand there as ice-cold magic pierced his chest and enveloped him in darkness. The last sound he heard was the menacing echo of Pegasus' sadistic laughter.
"He was just tryin' ta save 'is little brother." Joey watched as a pair of Pegasus' goons took Seto's empty shell away.
"Seto's just like me," Yugi said as he smashed his fist against the railing, his eyes watering again. "He was just trying to save someone he cares about." He shuddered and rested his forehead beside his fist, empathetic tears streaming down his face even as Ryou did the same thing, only with Marik's shoulder.
"Geez, I've never seen so much male weeping at one time." Mai's scorn broke through the haze of horror that had fallen over them all. "If you really want to help your friend, you'll need to suck it up and get your head in the game."
"Mai's right." Joey glanced at her and nodded. "We're gonna have ta focus if we're gonna save Seto, Grandpa, and the others. Are you in, Ryou?"
"Yeah." Ryou wiped the tears from his eyes as he nodded and pulled away from Marik a little, symbolically standing on his own. "Seto tried handling this on his own, but we know that's not going to work. Even though we'll have to battle one another, we'll have to find a way to work together too."
"Ryou's right," Yugi agreed, straightening up as he turned to face the others with an encouraging smile. "By helping each other, we can free them all and defeat Pegasus!"
"Yeah!"
"Attention duelists: if you'll follow me, I can show you to your rooms. You will be summoned for dinner in a little over an hour."
They followed Croquette down a few halls to the guest rooms. There were enough that they each got their own. While Joey, Anzu, and Yugi met in one room to discuss what they knew about Pegasus' Millennium Eye, Mai went for a stroll around the castle. Ryou, emotionally and physically exhausted from the day, opted to just lie down for a little while. Marik was going to leave his own room and join the others to add what he knew to the conversation when he heard a voice.
"Marik."
The tanned teen looked up at the sound of his name being whispered into his ear, but he was still alone, as far as he could see.
"Who's there?"
"Marik, you know me." Seth's ghostly image shivered into sight, and thought it was faint, there was no mistaking those broad shoulders, that imperial posture, those stern sapphire eyes.
"My pharaoh," Marik murmured in wide-eyed reverence. He dropped to his knees and bent forward, bowing with his forehead to the floor to the king he'd sworn to serve.
"Marik, I need your help to right these wrongs and keep Pegasus in check during the remainder of the tournament. Before we can do anything, you must answer me this: is the Spirit of the Millennium Ring still around, or was he successfully banished after Monster World?"
"He's still here, my lord," Marik answered softly, still staring at the floor. "He's very much present, but I don't think Ryou himself even knows. I would have spoken sooner had I known, but he made threats that I couldn't work around."
"I suspected as much." Seth closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, looking determined. "You must keep this a secret between us. Do not let Ryou know what's happening, and unless I give you specific orders, do not let Ryou out of your sight."
"Yes, Pharaoh."
"Rise, my child," Seth said, his voice gentling. Marik obeyed, standing before the tall spirit and gazing at him fondly. "Now, we must find a way to get me back to Seto's body. Once we've accomplished that, I can begin to help. You must be prepared to use the Millennium Rod at a moment's notice, the instant I tell you to. Can you do that, without hesitation and without reservation?"
Marik reached behind him and extracted the Millennium Rod from its place, holding it in front of him as he gazed into its eye for a moment. He held it tightly by its shaft, and for the first time in his life, he could feel the power, the energy, the magic it held. It flowed like a gushing river through his veins as, for the first time, he felt that he had access to all that magic.
"Yes, my pharaoh." Marik looked up at Seth, his jaw set firmly. He could wield the magic. He would do anything to serve his master.
Author Notes: "Nothing can destroy friendship! It's the most powerful force in the universe! It's even stronger than Chuck Norris!" ~Tea Gardner, YGOTAS, Episode 15: Duel Of Fates
The next chapter will be posted once I have 5 reviews on this chapter, so please review! (And I'm totally not doing that just to buy myself some time... ^-^')