Chapter Thirty-Seven: Mörka Spel

"I'm coming to get you."

-The Doctor

Yugi groaned and tried to sit up, flinching at the headache that pounded in his skull. He closed his eyes, remaining still for a moment before continuing to lever himself upright, gasping as he felt someone touch his shoulder helping him up. The room spun with the sudden movement, Yugi clinging to the other person as he waited for it to stop spinning.

"Come on." Yugi opened his eyes and stepped away from the person at the impatient tone, looking over the man before sighing. It would have been too much to ask to be dumped where the Pharaoh was, wherever he was. He dusted off his clothes before looking around he dark room, flinching again as he head pounded, groaning and leaning into his hands. He yelped as he was shoved forward, shooting a glare at the man who was encouraging him to keep moving. "You're late."

"For what?"

"I don't know why you are even in here." The man was obviously ignoring him, continuing to rattle on. "It's too close to the starting time to send in a new person, but I'm not in charge of things here, just wanting to get my chance."

"What?"

The man glanced over at him, shaking his head. "That trasmat did a number on you, didn't it? Simply put, you are on a game show that you will lose."

"Lose?"

"I intend to win," the man nodded, more to himself than to Yugi, "and make out with a small fortune in the form of credits, complements of the Dark Game Company."

"Dark Game?" Yugi glanced at the man before looking over at the small set that was lit up; his eyes going wide as he stared at the podiums that were arranged in a half circle, staring at the one that had his name written on it. He shivered, feeling like his stomach was twisting. Those two words had followed him all over time and space, seeming to taunt him with their foreboding message, whatever message that was. Yugi swallowed, glancing around nervously. After all, there was no other way to think about this other than a trap, seeing as his name was on the podium.

"Yeah. All you do is participate in the games. If you win, you get off free."

"And if I lose?"

The man hesitated, shaking his head with a laugh. "Don't think about it that way, kid."

Yugi was about to protest that he wasn't a kid when he was shoved towards the podium, catching himself on it before scrambling behind it, watching as more people scrambled around. He tensed as he looked over all the contestants, realizing how frightened that most of them looked. Yugi jumped as the crew in charge of the set began the countdown, stiffening as the motioned for the game to start.

He blinked as the lights came on, focusing on him as the android in front of them began to speak. "Welcome to the Weakest Link."

Yugi blinked at the unfamiliar title, not one for game shows, but he saw the others tense, muttering to themselves. He swallowed and glanced around, not paying attention to the instructions on how to play. Something was telling him that he had to get out of here as fast as possible because something was going to go wrong. Yugi tensed, glancing back at the door and figuring out when he should make a break for it, straightening suddenly as he realized that he was being asked a question.

"Who was the leader of the Pluto Revolution?"

"Um…"

"That is incorrect." Yugi stared at her for a moment until he realized that she had taken his hesitation for an answer. "The answer is Fredciso. Next question."

The android rotated away from him, Yugi relaxing and staring at the others, watching as they trembled and gave their answers. Yugi found himself gripping the podium tightly, jumping as his turn came up again. He almost hoped that the Pharaoh would show up.

"Yugi, what the Great Cobalt Pyramid is built on the remains of what famous Earth institution?"

"The FBI?"

"Incorrect. The correct answer is Torchwood." And the android was away again, Yugi feeling his arms tremble. He relaxed a moment later as the first round was called to an end, looking at the board that he was obviously supposed to write on. His hands trembled as he picked up the marker, realizing belatedly that he would have to vote someone off the show, it was the standard formula for these things. Swallowing nervously, he looked around the group before scrawling down the first name that he saw.

It was bad enough that he was here on his own but worse that he was horribly distracted by the reappearance of the words dark game, the two words that seemed to have been following him. His hand tightened on the marker that he held, Yugi shaking his head before holding up his whiteboard to show to the android, not really caring what was going on. All he knew was that he had to get out of here before something happened.

"Yugi," he perked up as he name was called, slightly embarrassed that he hadn't been paying attention before he turned to look at the android, "what is it you do?"

"Oh," he blinked, "I just travel."

"So, you're saying that you're unemployed."

Yugi stared at the android before shaking his head. "No, I just travel."

"So you are unemployed."

"That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm taking a year off for travel. It's normal."

"If I were you, I would get a job. That hairstyle must be hard to keep up on a small budget." Yugi resisted the urge to do something drastic, gripping the podium tightly as he watched the android shift about, looking at the other contestants before returning to him. "So, why did you vote out Daria?"

"Well, she got some of the questions wrong…"

"So did you."

"But I can't vote for myself." Yugi stared at the android before glancing back at Daria, surprised to see that the young woman was crying. He edged away from her, his eyes widening as she looked over at him before glancing at the android.

"Please, give me another chance. I was just nervous the first time from all the lights. I can do better, I promise."

Yugi flinched as the android's mouth opened, a tube appearing. "You are the weakest link. Good-bye."

He jumped as a beam of light was fired from the android, blinking the bright light from his eyes as he stared at where Daria had stood, shaking his head. All that remained of the young woman was a pile of ashes. Yugi shivered before looking back at the other contestant, unsurprised that the man who had helped him over remained uninterested, but the others looked just as nervous. Yugi swallowed before shaking his head, opening his mouth to speak.

"I'm not playing!" Yugi turned his head to look at a teenager on one of the ends of the half circle, the teenager trembling as he shook his head. "This is insane!"

The teenager pushed away from the podium, running for the door out of the studio. Yugi leaned back a bit, hoping that he would have a chance to run soon. He didn't know anything about this time period, what was common knowledge for the rest of the group was strange to him. He shivered, not wanting to end up voted off of the show, especially if being disintegrated was the result.

He jumped as the android turned to look at the running teenager, its eyes seeming to glow a bit in the bright lights as its mouth opened again. "You are the weakest link. Good-bye."

The teenager gave a panicked scream as the beam of light hit him, Yugi tensing as the teenager dissolved into particles of dust. He froze in place, staring at the dust pile so close to the door that led out of the studio. So there was no escape from this unless he played the game through, something that he doubted that he could actually do unless he guessed correctly. He turned back to face the front, his mouth suddenly dry at the enormity of the task.

He wouldn't get out of here alive.

Yugi shivered, the man beside him shooting him a sideways look while cleaning off the whiteboard in his hand. "You know, I might just keep you around."

"What?"

"You're stupid," Yugi bristled at that, unable to deliver a retort as the man continued, "I want to face you in the finals."

"We'll see."

"Yeah right." The man chuckled. "Where have you been, living under a rock for the past twelve years of your life?"

"I'm not twelve." Yugi braced his arms on the podium, looking over at the man. "And I intend to win."

"I'd like to see that."

Yugi glared at him, turning his attention back to the android as she began the next round, his heart sinking as more of the questions came his way. There was no way that he could know any of them. Yugi swallowed nervously as the android came to face him.

"Who is the premiere citizen of the Boeshane Peninsula?"

Yugi stared at her for a moment before his eyes widened, decided to take a chance. "The Face of Boe!"

"Correct." He relaxed as the android continued on, a smile crossing his face. Maybe he could do this; it just wasn't in him to give up. Yugi straightened himself up, eagerly waiting for the android to come back around to him. This was a challenge that he was looking forward to.

Three rounds later with only three of them remaining, Yugi was trembling again, licking his lips nervously as he watched the android look at them all, realizing that the voting would be beginning soon. And, he could easily be voted off. The man hadn't answered most of the questions or banked the most money, it was the other contestant, the one that kept shooting Yugi disappointed looks. His fingers tightened on the podium as the moment ticked closer.

"Let's see who you've chosen to be the weakest link."

The door burst open as the android finished those words, Yugi leaning around the man to see three people waiting. A smile crossed his face as he recognized two out of the three, taking a step back from the podium. "Pharaoh…"

The smile disappeared when he remembered what would happen to them. He glanced back at the android before pushing away from the podium, crossing the room at a run. After so many close calls, he had gotten faster and better at running, almost able to keep stride with the Pharaoh. Yugi pushed himself into a sprint, intending to push the Pharaoh and Duke out of the way if anything went wrong. He couldn't bear to lose any of them. Duke was like his best friend.

And the Pharaoh…he was just the Pharaoh. Yugi wasn't willing to look much further into that.

"You are the weakest link." Yugi felt his heart speed up, he was almost there He would be able to beat this. "Good-bye."

He felt something hot touch his back, the heat spreading through his body. Yugi looked up in time to see the Pharaoh staring at him in what looked like horror. He tried to reach out to the Time Lord, screaming as the heat became too much.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

The Pharaoh fell to his knees, staring at the pile of ashes that had once been his companion. He reached out, not really aware of anything that was going on around him, barely looking up as Duke stormed past him, the gun that the former Time Agent had come out of his game with aimed at the crew working in the studio. He was only focused on the ashes, gently picking up a bit between his fingers and watching it run out of his grip, his hand beginning to tremble.

Some part of him wanted to deny that it was true, that Yugi was dead and gone. But the evidence was right in front of him. There was no denying that.

The Pharaoh swayed slightly, hearing people moving around and Duke shouting, but not able to do anything about it, numbly letting the security guards take him away, most of his attention turned inward. He had failed Junri. He hadn't been able to keep Yugi safe from everything out there. It was just a testament to his life.

He hadn't been able to save his family.

He hadn't been able to save his brother.

He hadn't been able to save his planet.

And he hadn't been able to save Yugi, the one person who had become his entire world.

Everything that he had done had been for Yugi, and he could admit that freely now because Yugi would never be coming back. The young man had showed him that the universe was something more than just pain and reminders of everything of what he had lost. He had been able to see the beauty, see the excitement through Yugi's eyes as the young man stepped onto a new planet. Somehow, he had begun to heal, begun to return to an almost normal state.

Now, he just couldn't feel anything anymore. It was just like after the war.

He felt a hand brush over his arm, turning his head to look at who touched him and finding that Lynda was looking at him, a smile on her face as she attempted to cheer him up. The Pharaoh turned his head away, staring at the grey walls as the guards led them away to the security station. He didn't want comfort now; he wanted something more tangible, more satisfying. He wanted revenge.

His blue eyes hardened at the thought, narrowing as he stared at the floor. Yes, there would be revenge for what they had done to Yugi. There was nothing that could escape the fury of a Time Lord, and the Pharaoh wanted to make sure that exactly that would happen. The satellite would be shut down for a second time, and this time for good. He would fix the mistake he had made one hundred years before. If only Yugi hadn't had to pay for his mistake.

The Pharaoh closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to be shoved into a holding room, aware that Duke crashed into him for a moment. He shoved the Time Agent aside, catching Lynda only because she was the next to come through the door. He released her and continued to walk towards the door, staring at the security guard that stood in his way.

With little care, he grabbed the man by the collar and shoved him backwards, the man nearly thrown into a wall. The Pharaoh stepped out of the holding area, moving to one side as Duke charged out, the Time Agent slamming into the next man and taking him down to the floor. The Pharaoh watched with little interest, catching the third man and sending him slamming into the nearby wall.

His eyes fell on the table where they had taken Duke's weapon, picking it up and carefully testing the weight before shifting it into a comfortable position and walking out of the holding area. He didn't care if anyone followed him, he would settle this by himself. But it would say a lot about the loyalty of the people that he kept around him. Almost immediately, he heard Duke catch up with him, Lynda a few seconds behind.

The Pharaoh turned, spotting an elevator and heading towards it. He stared at the box for a moment, mentally laying out the structure of the satellite. The command center would probably be on the five hundredth floor, it was already set up for it and some of the reporters might have let slip what had gone on up there. He keyed in the floor number, scowling as the elevator didn't move.

They had left in the code. Unfortunately, he remembered it from last time. This type of system would only have one code to go to the top floor. The Pharaoh shifted the gun and leaned over to type in the eight numbers into the keypad.

32754263

The elevator lurched into motion, the Pharaoh bracing himself and swinging the gun back to the front, staring at the doors as he readied himself for whatever was up there. He was fully aware that he could be charging right into a trap, but he didn't care any longer. All that mattered was striking back against the people who had caused him to lose his second chance.

He tensed a moment before the doors opened, all his senses working on overdrive as he watched the doors open. He strode out into the room, aware that Duke was bellowing orders. He let the Time Agent do as he pleased, heading for the front of the room where a young woman dangled from wires.

"Alright everybody, hands on your heads and move towards the front of the room. GO!" The Pharaoh stopped walking long enough for the personnel to move to the front of the room, still walking towards them before looking at the young woman. He frowned at the wires that were attached to her.

"Is there a way to reverse the disintegration process on this station?" The woman kept muttering numbers, reading from an invisible screen. The Pharaoh growled to himself. "Tell me now!"

"She can't hear you." He glared at the male programmer that had come up to his side, watching the man tremble under his gaze. The Time Lord turned back to the woman.

"Why not?"

"Because you're not a member of staff." The male shifted nervously. "But recently she hasn't even been recognizing us."

"Archive Six is out of bounds!" The woman suddenly screeched out the words, the Pharaoh looking over his shoulder to see Duke standing at a door, the former Time Agent shaking his head and shooting the control panel of the door, slipping in the open door. The Pharaoh turned back to the woman, shifting the gun again, aware of how out of place that it felt again. Even in the Time War he had been slightly reluctant to carry a gun. Before, he had always been a pacifist.

He was about to ask something else when the lights dimmed, the male programmer wincing and ducking. "Solar flare. The Station will be out for a while."

"Pharaoh? Where's the Pharaoh?" The Time Lord stared up at the human before tossing the gun to the side, barely noticing that the male programmer caught it.

"Here."

"Can't see. Blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers. But I saw you. Solar flares hiding me. They can't hear me, my masters listen but they can't hear me now. The sun, the sun is so bright."

The Pharaoh raised an eyebrow at the mention of masters, tipping his head slightly to one side. "And these masters are…"

"The word is in my head the name is forbidden." The Pharaoh let out a low curse, the woman continuing as if she hadn't heard him. "They control my thoughts. My masters, I had to be careful. They monitor transmission but they don't watch the programs. I could hide you inside the games. I knew that you would find me."

He glared at her. "Yugi died in those games."

"Doesn't matter."

"Don't you dare tell me that!" The Pharaoh bellowed the words at her, pulling himself up to his full height. This woman knew nothing about how important Yugi was.

"They've been hiding. My masters, hiding in the dark space. Watching and shaping the Earth. So, so, so many years. Always been there, guiding humanity. Hundreds and hundreds of years."

"Who are they?" It would do no good to continue on with his tirade about Yugi, the woman was obviously just relaying information as fast as she could. With the limited time, he should be thankful, but he was still smarting over the Yugi comment.

"They wait and plan and grow in numbers, they're strong now, so strong, my masters. They speak of you. My masters, they fear the Pharaoh."

Fear? "Who are they?"

The woman tensed before going back to her previous state, the Pharaoh cursing again as he realized that the solar flare had passed. He spun around, intending to demand that the programmers tell him what was going on when Duke ran out of the archive room, a smile on his face. "I found the TARDIS."

"Well, that's one less thing to look for."

"But there's something else. The TARDIS worked it out." The Pharaoh stared at Duke, watching as the former Time Agent scurried over to one of the stations. "Lynda, stand over there please."

"But I-"

"Over there. It won't take a second." The young woman reluctantly moved over to the spot that Duke indicated, standing nervously as the former Time Agent worked with the display. A few seconds later, the disintegrator beam consumed Lynda, the Pharaoh only raising an eyebrow.

"You have proved nothing. I knew that happened before."

"That's not all." Duke was back at work, hurrying through his typing before hitting the last button with a final flourish, smirking as Lynda was transmatted back into the room, the blonde girl a little unsteady on her feet.

The Pharaoh stared at Lynda before looking at Duke, the former Time Agent coming around the console, explaining. "It's a secondary trasmat, not a disintegration beam. It just takes them out to some point in space. It means that Yugi is still alive!"

The joy of knowing that was quickly smothered by another thought, the Pharaoh quickly spinning around to face the young woman who was hung up by wires, watching her carefully and considering his question. "We need to know where the transmat goes to."

Duke sighed, the Pharaoh hearing the sound as he watched the woman. "I'm working on that now, but it will take time."

"Time is something that we might have precious little of." He thought he saw the woman stir a bit, her mumbling stumbling over a number. The Pharaoh raised an eyebrow and waited, ready to turn around when the woman spoke again.

"I have the coordinates." The Pharaoh motioned for Duke to begin recording them as the woman rattled them off. "51, 49,37,56. No, my masters, you shall not stop me this time, I bring your doom! 53,49,69, 36."

She managed to get the last number out before she was suddenly transmatted out of the station, her scream still echoing around the room.

The Pharaoh took a moment to nod his head to her in thanks, knowing that she was going to pay for having helped them. He turned around, walking over to where Duke was, looking at where the coordinates had brought them. His hearts sunk a little at the sight; it was just empty space. He sighed, leaning heavily on the console and staring at the empty space, frowning.

All his instincts were telling him that there was something there. He tapped his fingers against the metal console before lunging forward, typing in something and then pulling away as the image flickered. Hopefully, cancelling all broadcasts from the station would show something. If not, then ratings would drop, which wasn't his problem.

The image gave one last flicker before revealing the same space, only this time it was filled with circular ships, the Pharaoh staring at the huge mass of them in horrified awe. He never thought that he would see that sight again, something that he never wanted to see again. He stepped back from the image on the screen, looking over as the large area behind where the woman had hung flickered to life, the Pharaoh staring at the three domed, bronze aliens that stared up at him with their single eyestalk. His eyes lingered over them for a moment before moving to the familiar human beside them, fighting the smile that wanted to cross his face.

"Damn it, Yugi-"

"I know. No wandering off."

"Cease. This. Talk-ing." One of the Daleks wiggled a bit, moving closer to Yugi. "You. Will. Leave. Or the. Hu-man. Dies."

The Pharaoh stared at the three Daleks there. He could always promise to leave, let the Daleks do as they willed with the Earth and flee with Yugi to the farthest points of the universe. But he knew the Daleks. He knew that they wouldn't be happy with just one planet, they would want more. They would want the whole universe to become like them.

If he just left, he would be staring another Time War.

"No."

"What. Is the. Mean-ing. Of this. Neg-a-tive?"

"It means," the Pharaoh stood up, "that I am going to get my companion out of there and then destroy all of you."

"You. Can. Not."

The Pharaoh laughed, leaning forward so that his hand rested on the switch that would cut off communications with the Dalek ship. "Watch me."

He flicked the switch.

Many thanks to Reena for translating the phrase Dark Game into Swedish for the title of this chapter.

Please read and review. Constructive criticism is always welcome.