Ryou ducked and rolled as a spell chain headed his way.
As the green and red spells splashed against the ruined brickwork of the village around them, he rolled to his feet, more grateful than ever that Bakura had insisted that he keep up with the self defence training even after they had split into two beings, and pointed his own wand at his attacker.
"Incarcerous! Stupify!"
His target could not dodge in time, the ropes that the incarcerous spell conjured managed to wrap around her legs, causing her to fall to the ground, her wand going clattering across the floor. The second spell missed, but that was fine by Ryou as he grabbed up her wand and pointed his own at her.
"Ombre. I know you're in there." He snapped out, right hand slipping into his pocket and pulling out the Orb of Light, "This isn't you."
He saw her hand reaching for her deck and reached for his own, silently wishing their sneak attack had worked and his partner had not been hexed.
Ombre's Silver Fang launched itself forward, only to get destroyed in a burst of orange smoke as his Widespread Ruin decimated it.
The bond between them, forged by the Orb of Light, allowed him to sense her use the pain of the monster's destruction to try and rip through the suppression of her mind, pushing past the happy haze to breathe, "R…Ryou?"
"Ombre." Her boyfriend pulled her up and into a kiss, using the distraction from his actions to tap into another card in his deck, De-Spell. He felt her melt into the kiss as the magic of the spell blew away the curse controlling the Spirit of the Orb.
As she pulled away, she looked away, "I'm…"
Her apology got cut off as the ground shuddered and power shifted as darkness faded and merged with light, creating a powerful source of grey magic, magic that felt similar to Ryou's own magic since he had inherited the Thief King's powers. It drew their attention back to the battle that had been going on while they had been fighting.
"Atem's gone." Ombre squeaked, face pale.
Her partner nodded, his own expression grim, bolting back towards the battle. The Princess followed quickly, hoping that they could get back before something went horribly wrong. A black version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon swept past and they turned the corner in time to see a Blue Eyes White Dragon get destroyed by the fake, only for the energy from it to drain back into Luna.
Harry exploded in fury, using the cards in his hand to end the threat that was Voldemort by turning his own spell back at him.
"We weren't needed…" The Spirit of the Orb looked relieved, shoulders sinking, body relaxing as Luna picked herself and launched herself at her boyfriend.
"Don't…"
As Ryou started speaking the skies went dark, purples and blacks swept through, eradicating the rising Egyptian sun and casting the world into an eerie glow. The darkness kept going, sweeping further and further out as a black figure formed where Voldemort had been stood just seconds ago.
A giant demonic figure that Ryou knew from the inherited memories.
"Jinx it…" Ryou trailed off, eyes wide, trembling slightly as an aura of fear rolled off of the creature.
"That's… that shouldn't be possible." Ombre breathed, her own Orb given memories allowing her to recognise the great demon, born of the hatred and fear of humanity, Zorc, "Atem died so this couldn't happen!"
As Yugi held a card aloft and the great golden orb that signalled the summoning of the Winged Dragon of Ra appeared in the sky, Ryou looked at Ombre, took a deep breath and shoved the Orb of Light into Ombre's hands. "Take this and go."
He clenched his hands and called up the Thief King's Ka beast, the Ka beast that now belonged to him, Diabound.
The great part serpentine, grey skinned creature, emerged from the shadows with a bellow.
"I activate Mage Power." Ombre's call made Ryou turn to look at her, his creature growing in size and power as she laid four spell or trap cards on the floor. Before he could ask what she was doing, she glared at him, "I lost one wielder because I wasn't there to fight at their side, I refuse to lose another."
"Together then?" The Thief King's inheritor asked the woman he planned to ask to marry him.
"Always."
Ryou's monster darted forward, sweeping towards the Pharaoh, who was stood facing down the great demon, going to protect the key to their victory, as, across the battlefield, DMG, the author of Digital Duelist who had come to the battle with some of DuelDMU, planted herself in the best position to record the fight for later distribution online, protected by her unique, green Dark Magician Girl.
"Great beast of the sky, please hear my cry. Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight. Envelop the desert…" Yugi practically shouted, trying to ensure he could be heard over the snarl of the beast as Zorc built up power in its claws, getting ready to strike.
Before Yugi could finish the incantation to unlock Ra from its orb like state, Zorc unleashed a wave of fire that swept along the sands.
"…with your glow and cast your rage upon my foe. Unlock your powers from deep within so that together we may win…" Yugi tried to find a trap card in his pile of disorganised cards, still chanting.
Joey was faster, holding a trap card aloft and silently praying that this would work as he called, "Negate Attack!"
Just millimetres from them, the black tainted flames were sucked up into a vortex of air and dissipated, revealing that the sand between them and the huge, black scaled creature had gained a glassy sheen to it.
"Appear in this Shadow Game as I call out your name, Winged Dragon of Ra!" The blonde Shadow Duelist looked relieved, having reacted on instinct rather than a certainty that it would save them as his best friend finished the summoning call and the great golden dragon unfurled itself from its resting place. The Pharaoh's next move was to activate Emergency Provisions, discarding three magic cards from his deck to gain three thousand life points, all of which and then some, he poured into Ra, taking the divine dragon up to what would be 6,500 attack points and leaving him with just 500 points of life energy.
Before Zorc could launch an attack on it, two bursts of thunderous light, one a pale white-blue, one the golden glow of divine energy, struck from opposite angles, causing the demon to recoil and bellow in pain as Diabound's Thunder Force attack, stolen from Slifer the Sky Dragon when it had destroyed the divine beast during the Memory World Shadow Game, teamed up with the White Lighting Strike of a Blue Eyes White Dragon, summoned by Seto Kaiba, who was just arriving on the scene with the rest of their friends.
"I told you all to leave!" Yugi protested as he fished out the great red sky dragon's card, planning to summon it next and well aware that his beasts would hold the demon at bay until his friends left, "Get out of here."
"Yugi Mutou, have some sense." Tea scolded as she held up three equip cards, increasing the power of the duel monsters around them, giving them some more support, "You've always been stronger with us at your side and that's not going to change now."
"Besides, Yugi," Seto snorted as he fished through his deck and pulled out Polymerisation to join the two Blue Eyes White Dragons in his hand, "I have the stronger creatures."
With that he held his hand aloft and the one Blue Eyes on the field dove into a pool of light.
Zorc launched another attack, a wave of darkness that threatened to blow them all away, only for Tristan's Draining Shield to absorb it. The young man half fell as his own power grew to match the amount of damage the attack would have done, pushing it far beyond anything he had carried before and overwhelming him but Harry supported him as he got his feet under him.
The pool of light he had protected turned into a tsunami, washing over them all, flashing blinding them momentarily before revealing the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
The three headed dragon unleashed a burst of light and lightning, aiming to push Zorc back further, or better yet, blast part of it away, only to get stopped by a wall of writhing shadows that forced the blast up, away from its target.
Yugi, shaking slightly from the drain of summoning one of the God Monsters, held the second tightly as he called, "Slifer the Sky Dragon! Come forth!"
He had to bite back a cry as he felt energy rip from him and surge skywards, taking the form of a long, red scaled, serpentine creature with two mouths and red and black scaled wings. He staggered slightly as a moment of light headedness hit, then clenched his hands into fists so tightly that the feel of his nails biting into his skin brought him back to awareness.
The memories he had inherited alongside Atem's powers told him that the Pharaoh himself, back in the ancient times, had felt just as rough when he had summoned the three gods, preparing to summon Horakhty. However, if his brother had been able to do it back in Egypt, then he could do it now and he drew a full hand of cards, matching modern rules with ancient technique to give his Sky Dragon 7000 attack points.
"Harry!" Yugi called to the boy who was just moving away from a more stable Tristan and wheeled around to look at him. "I need Obelisk!"
The teen glanced down at the cards he had snatched up and started to call back, only for Zorc to snarl out, "I'll never let you summon all three!"
With a roar he launched an assortment of fireballs towards the group of humans and the monsters they had summoned.
Ra and Slifer counter attacked, loosing a burst of purifying flames and golden lightning, which cleared a chunk of the fireballs, clearing a swathe of them, allowing the rest to sweep past the summoners into the desert where they impacted with the sand and exploded, shaking the ground. The twin attacks impacted with the demon, who shrieked as Slifer's lightning blast blew away one hand while Ra's fire burned away the other arm. Zorc did not give the humans a chance to recover from the shaking. He swiped his remaining arm through the air and created a blade of darkness that swept towards Ra, but Slifer dove into its path.
"Winged Wolf Pack!"
An explosion of shadows forced Ra back and sent Slifer crashing into the older, more powerful divine beast. It kicked up so much sand that for a moment it was impossible to see. It was not Yugi who cried out in pain as his monster shattered into a million shard of light, however. It was Harry, whose summoned monsters had dived in front of the powerful God monsters, preventing the demon from eradicating both them and killing their summoner in the same strike.
"Harry!" Luna's voice cut through the silence as Yugi darted towards his friend. The sand laid heavy on all of them as it settled, revealing that the younger witch had caught her partner, who was relying on her to keep him on his feet.
"Here." Harry offered the card in his hand to the newly ascended Pharaoh as dark, creeping figures emerged from the ground and assaulted the grounded monsters. Figures everyone who had been in the real world during Shadowmorn recognised as the beasts who had been ripping out souls.
Yugi's hand shook slightly as he took Obelisk the Tormentor from the young wizard. This was it, the third God. Taking a deep breath, held the card aloft, trying to ignore the way the world spun around him as the third divine beast erupted out of the ground, costing him yet another huge chunk of Ba.
"No, no! This can't be happening!" Zorc snarled out, launching another flame attack.
It never reached its target. Instead the flames suddenly veered off, just before impact as the rest of the fighters who had come with them, who had been freed from the fighting when the Death Eaters had fled when they had felt Voldemort's death, joined them.
Dinah's 'Alice: Champion of the Whyte', an older woman in shining silver armour, would have been destroyed by the attack she drew in, if Carnelian, her second in command, had not activated her own Negate Attack, protecting her team leader and the monster that would shield their side of the battle from attacks.
"You know, Whyte," Carnelian smirked at Dinah as the rest of Duel DMU caught up to them, "Us Redds are normally trying to get you lot killed."
"I think in this moment, we're both Wonderlanders." Dinah chuckled back, trying not to let the fear that was bubbling away under the surface rise up, "And as such…"
She held up a card from her deck, "I activate Chess Board Wasteland!"
The shadow covered battlefield suddenly shifted and warped, the sands turning into a black and white chessboard while the ruins of Kul Elna shifted and warped into the ruins of an medieval city, a collapsed castle appearing on the horizon. Immediately both Dinah's Whyte monsters and Carnelian's Redd ones gained a glow as their attack and defence points grew by 500.
Immediately the Redd Wonderland Duelist summoned 'Alice: Guest of the Redd Queen', a young girl in a blue and white dress, which was a three star monster who not only gained the 500 from the Chess Board Wasteland, giving her 1800 attack and 1200 defence, but when Zorc tried to destroy her as she launched her attack, the attack impacted with her but could not destroy her due to her own effect.
The younger Alice's attack went through, but Carnelian slumped into Dinah as the battle damage was calculated normally, ripping away 1800 points worth of life energy.
The small Alice gave the older one the opening she needed to stab Zorc in the right eye, blinding it on that side and giving the Order of the Phoenix, guided by Professor McGonagall, the chance to cast their spells to chain down the screeching, recoiling demon.
"In the name of the Pharaoh, in my name," Yugi shook with exhaustion as he spoke, focusing his remaining power and the energy of the three Gods as he tried to call forth the ultimate Goddess. "I f…"
He started to fall back in his fatigue, but hands on his back supported him. He glanced over his shoulders to find that Tea, Tristan and Joey had his back and were helping him stand. Energy flowed from them to him as they gave him every last drop of power they could afford, just as the priests in Egypt had tried to do for Atem. Harry and Luna joined them, swiftly followed by Hermione and between them, the power boost they all got from the Clan's oath AND the power Tristan had stolen from Zorc, the Pharaoh was able to get up and stand tall as he spoke. "I fuse the God Monsters together to summon Horakhty, the Creator God of Light!"
The three divine beasts dissolved into balls of light, one red, one blue, one gold. The trio of lights merged together into a bright white light that extended and took the shape of a robed woman in golden armour and great golden feathered wings. The sheer radiance she gave off made it hard to make out the details on her Egyptian headdress but it pierced the shadows covering the lands, revealing the skies of Egypt once more.
"Even if you defeat me here, I will never be gone!" Zorc's words were harsh but his tone was panicked as he tried to free himself from the chains the witches and wizards had placed upon him, "I cannot be killed while fear and hatred rest in the hearts of humanity! I will come back, again and again, until everything you know and love is gone forever!"
"We will never, ever, let you win!" Yugi swore, power swirling around him, light forming a crown that was a mix of Japanese and Egyptian on his head and flowed out behind him like a cape, "We will be there to fight you every time! As long as there are Domino Clan members in the world, we will ALWAYS be there! And we will teach others to fight you too! Now, Horakhty!"
As the former Puzzle bearer threw his arm forward she unleashed her attack, blasting her enemy with pure white light. Zorc screeched as he disintegrated, but none of those with the Pharaoh got to see it as the shadow beasts made on last assault, launching themselves towards them, desperate for one last soul.
Behind him, Yugi heard Harry let out a pained cry. He wheeled around to find Harry, half collapsed into Luna, a shadow monster's claws deep in his stomach where he had jumped between Luna and the attacker, taking the blow for her. The sight of the blood flowing from the wound infuriated the Pharaoh but Luna reacted faster, white spectral dragonic wings forming as she screeched out, "You will not take anyone else from me!"
Light erupted from her, disintegrating the shadow beasts around the Pharaoh and his court as Horakhty's radiance cleared the last of the darkness from the skies of Earth, sending the demon back to the darkness and freeing the world from his influence.
For now.
As the Chess Board Wasteland faded away, returning the desert sands and Kul Elna back to normal, Yugi helped Luna lie Harry down, his hands pressing over the bleeding wound, suddenly wishing he had not sent Serenity away with the wounded.
"Let me see!" Hermione demanded, shoving her Pharaoh aside to move to Harry's side and snapping the pendant Serenity had given her before pushing it against the haemorrhaging gash.
Yugi wrapped an arm around Harry's shaking partner, who stared up at him with silvery blue eyes filled with terror. "He… he saved me…"
"He'll be fine." Hermione promised as the charge of Vulnera Sanetur stabilised the young wizard, who had nearly died so many times today already. "But we need to get him to the healers."
"You go ahead." Yugi told Hermione, Luna and Harry, "I'll finish clean up here and then be right behind you."
"Is it really over?" Hermione asked him, her voice shaking as Luna's Allure Queen Lv5 took both its Duelist and Harry back to the healers.
Yugi swallowed hard as he looked to where Zorc had been stood, wishing he could be sure that it was and hoping that the Domino Clan did not hate him for promising that they would always be ready to fight.
"Yugi. You weren't wrong." Joey spoke up as he put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We'll always be here to fight by your side, any time that asshole comes back. Right guys?"
"Of course." Tristan pounded left fist into right hand.
"And I'm sure the others will agree with us." Tea smiled hopefully, "After all we're Clan. That means we're going to always be friends."
"And as long as we stick together, we're stronger than ever." Joey reminded him as Kaiba nodded to Yugi and got his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to take him and his brother back to Duelist Kingdom.
"You're right." Yugi breathed, internally relaxing a little.
He knew his friends. He would not be alone in protecting the world against the demon. They would be there for him.
"Come on, let's get this mess sorted."
Far to the right, Danielle Mavis Green, aka DMG, packed up her camera, stunned and planning as the Clan members got their Duel Monsters to take them away from the battle field, where the Pharaoh started to gather up and thank the allies who had made his win possible.
Zorc's declaration, if it was true, meant the world was not safe. The world and humanity would NEVER be completely safe. The Domino Clan and Shadow Duelists would always be needed in order to protect humanity.
And her footage, once distributed properly, would ensure that they would get the support they needed.
After all, no one wanted another Shadowmorn.
5 years later:
The Pharaoh of Demiguise could not help but smile as he looked out over his kingdom.
Once known as Duelist Kingdom, the artificially expanded island had slowly grown into a small magical nation, made up of all sorts of magicals. He had accepted them all, giving them homes and sanctuary and in exchange they had helped him shape the small, magically unplottable island into what it was today.
He could see the homes in question from his place on the battlements. They had been built using a mix of muggle and magical methods that had sped up the process and allowed them to build in most parts of the island. Almost all the old duel platforms had been torn down and their power grid, which ran on hydroelectricity, had been utilised for power. It was not entirely enough for the several thousand who lived in the small city that had emerged but the wind farms and solar panels on every house certainly helped.
The last remaining duel platform was near the beach and he while he could not see who was down there, the fact that there were quite a few children both using it and the sandy beach made his heart sing because it meant they felt safe enough to enjoy themselves on their day off from the school that made up the heart of the magical city. A school that his own High Priestess, Hermione Granger, helped run, alongside several teachers who had been recommended by Minerva McGonagall, including one Remus Lupin.
Out just beyond the beaches laid the solid vision projectors that both shielded his nation and gave it its name. With a simple flip of a switch their home could become invisible, disappearing from the world when its people needed safety and shelter, just like the magical creature that they had chosen their name from.
Seto Kaiba, aided by his brother Mokuba had not rested until those projectors were perfected and the island thanked them for it. Especially considering the underlying anti-magic sentiment amongst the more conservative sections of the world. Sentiments that were not stopping more and more magicals coming out into the open, revealed by the second Shadowmorn that had happened the day he had been tricked into sending his brother to the afterlife and not wanting to go back to having to hide and fear for their lives.
Their farmland was not substantial, not yet, and they still had to do a lot of trading with Japan for food, but they were getting there and that, to him, was what mattered. He just hoped that Atem would be proud of the Domino Clan and everything they had built.
"Hey, Yugi." The Pharaoh jumped and wheeled around to find Harry, who had sprouted up over the last few years and whose scar had mostly faded since Voldemort's demise, but still maintained the messy black hair and bright green eyes, had snuck up behind him. An impressive feat considering he had his oldest child in his arms. The three year old James had inherited his father's black hair, but his mother, Luna's, blue eyes. The small child poked his tongue out at Yugi, making the ruler wonder what his father had interrupted to come looking for him.
"What's up?" He stretched and turned away from his kingdom, tilting his head curiously.
"You're going to be late." His friend huffed, shifting James onto his hip so he could push Yugi towards the door.
"Late?" The Pharaoh's eyes narrowed as he tried to remember what was today.
"Joey's bachelor party?" Harry snorted, "You honestly forgot?"
Yugi brought palm to face he suddenly remembered that this coming weekend Joey Wheeler, his best friend, was getting married to Mai Valentine, making her an honest woman at last. What most people did not know though was that Joey was going to formally adopt the twins, Hope and Faith, he and Mai had had together a year ago, after the ceremony so he was officially their father by name as well as blood.
"Yugi!" Harry laughed, exasperated, "Let me guess, the politics drove you up here again and the view wiped your memory."
He could not deny it. Today had been hard but he had finally had the breakthrough he had been working towards for so long. Demiguise was going to be officially recognised as a country by the United Nations and they were going to be working with them to provide safety, training and security for Shadow Duelists across the globe as they waited for the next meeting of the General Assembly to be added to their number.
"I'm not sure Joey remembers either." Yugi pointed out, remembering how his friend and bodyguard had been tired too on their return from the negotiations.
"Then we'll kidnap both of you." Harry chuckled, "I just need to drop James off with Ginny and then we'll be on our way."
"Ginny?" The Pharaoh frowned, "Not Luna?"
"Ginny is having all the kids over tonight so the girls can take Mai out. Lily is already there." Harry huffed, shaking his head, exasperated, "Remember?"
Yugi nearly face palmed again as he remembered Serenity telling him that she was going out this evening with Tea, Mai, Hermione and the others and that she was dropping the twins off at Ginny's house but the rush of happiness he had at the thought of his own, recently born twins, a little boy they called Atem and a tiny girl they had named Tenshi, pushed away the embarrassment.
"I do now." He laughed as he headed down with the man formerly known as the Boy Who Lived, "I take it Mokuba's going out with us?"
"And he's been told to sleep at his brother's so the kids can party." Harry laughed, happy to see his friend and Pharaoh relaxing. Joey had alerted the Clan that negotiations had been challenging today, so seeing Yugi, who was the face for the island's council in the muggle international scene, relax, made him happy. "But the guys will be heading out soon, so we should drop off James and catch up to them."
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Yugi paused at the door to watch the sun start to set over the island and see all the lights come on, lighting homes, streets and parks. "Harry… he'd be proud of us, wouldn't he?"
The Head of Wizarding Affairs for Demiguise paused and looked carefully at his friend, realising that it had not just been the talks that had driven the Pharaoh up here. He no longer had the magical bond to his comrade he had once had, but he did not need it to know that Yugi had been thinking of his brother.
"I'm sure he would." Harry spoke softly, putting his free hand on Yugi's shoulder, trying to be reassuring. "I mean, how could he not be? Look at everything we've accomplished together."
There was a moment of silence, then the Pharaoh gave him a small smile. "You're right. I just… there's days when I can't help but think that he'd do so much better at the political stuff than I can. Today was one of those days."
James squirmed out of his father's arms and climbed up into Yugi's, letting the young man hug him tightly, sensing he needed it.
"You're doing the best you can." Harry pointed out, "As are the rest of us. I'm still trying to get a seat at the International Confederacy of Wizards so we can work officially with magical governments other than Japan, rather than having to go through our Japanese allies if we want to help anyone."
"There's still a lot to be done." The Pharaoh sighed, thinking of all the negotiations that were still to be made if they were going to be accepted by everyone they needed to be.
"There is but we can worry about it tomorrow." His friend grinned as he changed the subject, "Tonight, we celebrate."
"Right." Yugi grinned and headed down into the castle to drop off James. "We shouldn't keep Joey waiting."
Author Note: And that's it. I hope you've enjoyed the series and I'm grateful for you for sticking around since 2006 to see it through to its completion. This series has been a major part of my life since I was a teenager and I'm sorry to see it go, but the story doesn't end here. There are many adventures the Clan can have in the future, this is just the end of the story of this generation. One day I may come back to Clanverse and write the future generations, but for now this is the end of the series.
Thank you all,
Joey Taylor