Good Day Readers. Obviously I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh only Kylie and Katherine Hope along with the unique cards within their decks and whatever other OCs decide to crop up. Also italics symbolise a mind conversation or a flashback, or something in another language.

By the way I skipped the episode that involved that Magnum person because… frankly it was boring. I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy

Chapter 23: - First Duel in The Sky

"Wait! Just hold a second! Let me get this straight! You and Katherine are from two long lineages of magic users, Katherine has an object called the Millennium Gauntlet which is part of an eight piece set of Ancient Egyptian magical items that Yugi's Puzzle is also a part of and the Puzzle happens to have a spirit inside of it, they can swap bodies and he's been given the name Yami cause he's got no memories and he also happens to be an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh," Honda summarised. I had told them all this after getting permission from Yugi and Yami to do so, all them appeared to be having a melt down from the information.

"Pretty much, yeah," I answered. Mai eventually brought the car to a stop and we hopped out or off of the vehicle since we'd have to walk to the finals from here, we walked in silence for a few moments allowing everyone to adjust to the new knowledge, only Yugi was unaffected due to both his experience with his own Millennium Item and his previous knowledge of me and Katherine having magic from when my little sister had saved his soul back in Duelist Kingdom and me entering his Soul Room.

"Honestly if I hadn't seen what you girls did back there, I wouldn't believe it. Speaking of which... why were Yugi-kun and Jounouchi-kun dueling in the first place?" Mai asked. Me, Katherine and Yugi all exchanged looks; I suspected that Katherine and Yugi were communicating via their Soul Bond which would allow Yami to put in his own opinion on the matter, Katherine relayed everything to me and I agreed with us that telling our friends was the best move that could be made, so that they'd be prepared when facing Marik.

"There's this guy called Marik who's running around attempting to gather the Three God Cards and kill Yami in order to claim the title of Pharaoh as revenge. He possesses the Millennium Rod which allows him to control the minds of others. He used this to superimpose the feelings of hatred he has towards the Pharaoh over Jounouchi-kun's real memories; luckily me, Red-Eyes and Jounouchi-kun's own fighting spirit broke through the mind control," Yugi explained. As the aforementioned mentioned blonde boy already knew he was affected he wasn't surprised, but the expressions of the others all twisted into shock, as I looked at them but then a terrified feeling pulsed into me and I snapped my head down to Katherine seeing that her body was beginning to shake.

"H-he'll b-be there won't he?" Katherine asked. There was no doubt in my mind that Marik would be present at the finals, all his goals were now converging on that point, that fact brought a wave of terror upon my form and it would definitely be even worse for Katherine as her mind from probably flooding with dark and twisted scenarios of our friends facing that bastard, a hand raised to her chest as her breath began to come in short, raspy gasps.

I made a move to reach out and comfort my sister but I had to pull up short because someone had beaten me two it; that person had slid a hand to grip with Katherine's own and it had the effect of startling Katherine enough to wretch her mind back to the rest of us and she looked down at the hand before following the arm up to look at the person responsible for saving her.

"Yes he'll be there but so will all our friends, so long as we can support each other then we can stop him. I'm sure of it so don't worry Katherine," Yugi comforted. My sister blinked her dark eyes in surprise before smiling gently at the boy, I supressed a chuckle at this as the two of them proceeded to drop their hands, although I did notice that was done rather reluctantly from both parties.

We continued our walk and soon arrived at the stadium as the lights placed above the stans suddenly flared on causing us to flinch back and close our eyes at the sudden penetrating brightness, once recovered we pressed onwards and into the stadium were we found Seto, Mokuba, two bodyguards and the helicopter that had flown over us; Otogi pointed out that the stadium was still under construction which caused me to raise an eyebrow as I looked around slightly.

'I don't think the finals are held here.' I decided. Seto would never attend or participate in any duels that were held in such shabby conditions, arriving before the gathered four we were greeted by the bodyguards who handed me, Katherine, Yugi, Jounouchi and Mai cards to signify that we'd been recognised as finalists in the tournament causing Mai to make a smart remark whilst Jounouchi asked where the other finalists were.

"Currently, only Seto-sama and the five of you have arrived," Isono answered. Silence fell upon us as we waited for the other finalists to finally show themselves; suddenly a chilling wind blew from the left causing all of us to look in its' direction, the individual stepped into the stadiums light allowing me to see a boy with tanned skin, layered sandy blonde hair that seemed almost white and purple eyes, he wore a sleeveless light purple hoodie with two gold chains on the front that exposed a part of his torso, black pants and black shoes with golden diamond shaped earrings and a gold choker.

"He's… Namu?" Jounouchi spoke up. I looked at the darker blonde in confusion at his words, then he and Anzu rushed forward to greet the new arrival. "If it isn't Namu?! Are you alright?" Jounouchi asked. Anzu tacked on that they were worried about him with this Namu admitting he was glad they were okay as well but Anzu wondered if he was okay after what had happened before which only served to confuse me even more.

"I guess they didn't bother with me since I don't have any rare cards," Namu admitted. Shortly after that Namu cast a dark look at Anzu then a flare of magical energy went up causing my hackles to rise and I glanced at Katherine who was already looking at me so I inclined my head only slightly to agree that I had sensed the magic as Yugi walked over to the trio causing my muscles to coil as I turned my gaze back to 'Namu'.

"Yugi, let me introduce you. This is Namu, he tried to save us when we were being attacked by the Ghouls. Right, Jounouchi?" Anzu introduced. The blonde in question let out a hesitant yet positive response causing me to lightly quirk an eyebrow as I strung a series of thoughts together in my mind; Marik had hijacked Jounouchi and Anzu's mind but had dropped control of the girl's before he had to fight for it unlike Jounouchi, therefore Anzu wouldn't be as sensitive to the mind control as Jounouchi was and she was easier to manipulate than the one that had fought back and regained control from him before.

Yugi's back suddenly tensed up, perhaps indicating that Katherine had supplied him with a warning as to our current theories about this mysterious individual, but from what I could see of 'Namu's' face that was the only indication of his reaction to my words as the tanned boy greeted Yugi kindly which Yugi easily returned and commented that he must be strong to have reached the finals.

"Well, with so many tough looking people here, I think I just lost my self-esteem," 'Namu' admitted. Footsteps then sounded behind us although they were somewhat weak and unsteady, turning around all of us spotted Bakura walking towards us but there was a bandage around his upper left arm that looked to be stained with blood and to top it off Jounouchi was shocked to see him here.

All of us who were his friends ran over to him as Jounouchi asked why the white-haired boy was there with Anzu moving on to ask if his wound was ok with Yugi admitting that Suguroku had told him the boy had been in critical condition; that begged the question as to why he was suddenly here instead of resting at the hospital, especially since his wound was still bleeding from the look of it.

Bakura's response whilst positive was slightly hesitant and Honda wanted to take him back until Bakura revealed that he had somehow become a finalist and even showed off his locator cards as evidence – naturally we were all shocked – a sudden dark surge came up causing Yugi to look at me and Kylie as we exchanged glances with each other and him; the same dangerous thought was coursing through all our heads, the Dark Spirit was back.

"Look, it's the seventh duelist," Bakura stated. We turned around to look in the direction Bakura had motioned and I saw an individual who immediately caused my eyes to widen as the individual wore the same purple hooded cape that the other Ghouls had worn although this one had a gold chain near the neck, underneath the cape was a long-sleeve dark purple sweatshirt, black pants, two rather large dark belts and boots.

When he got closer I saw that he had tanned skin with the left side of his face – stretching from probably the ear area to halfway passed his left eye in width but the full length of his face – was a carving of hieroglyphics, he also had gold eyes and any hair was hidden from view thanks to the cape's hood; naturally everyone assumed this individual was Marik, so perhaps he'd been waiting for a bit before entering and Namu was in fact one of his Ghoul puppets so he manipulated Anzu's memories to protect him.

"Are you Marik?" Seto demanded. The man claimed he was and this caused Jounouchi to declare he would never let Marik off the hook and when Marik greeted him, Jounouchi stated his desire to beat the hell out of the Tomb Keeper right now but also wanted to settle it fair and square in a duel. "Marik, as the organiser of this tournament I'm free to disqualify you… but rather than do that now, I'll beat you to a bloody pulp and take your God Card away from you!" Seto declared. Mokuba added on that Seto would get revenge for everyone.

"Probably best not to get in the way of a megalomaniac's quest for unjustified vengeance until you've got no other options," I stated. My eyes were colder than ice, in fact equating them to the Ninth Circle Cocytus probably wasn't close enough, surprisingly Marik was unphased by all this and walked away from the rest of us.

"Will the nine duelist please give me your attention. I have an announcement to make. All of you have won in the prelims and assembled here at the final location, Domino Stadium. However this will not be the locations of the finals," Isono called. Everyone else was confused whilst me and Katherine chimed in with an in-synch 'knew it' causing everyone to look at us as I folded my arms behind my head.

"Seto would… probably only hand over thirty percent of Kaiba Corporation before participating in such an unsightly place for a duel. Unless Mokuba got threatened or a Blue-Eyes got stolen that is," I stated. Shortly after saying that, think I heard Seto muttering his refusal to ever do such a thing as hand over any part of his company but agreeing all the same with my assessment; the other bodyguard stated the stage should appear before us momentarily, the lights suddenly rose up and a roaring sound came from the sky so we all looked upwards. "Well… I didn't see that coming," I admitted.

Above us was an airship that clearly belonged to Seto from the company logo on it and everyone except for me, Katherine, Marik and Namu were amazed by its' presence and that it would be the place for the finals; the airship began to lower down as its' landing apparatus extended out, as Mokuba stated it was known as the Battle Ship and we would be flying at one thousand meters in the air… that was certainly a new type of a stage even for the tournament veterans of me, Katherine and Seto.

Once landed the airship opened a ran for us to get in and we would be leaving as soon as the missing duelists arrived or at 7:00, Mai was excited to duel in the sky along with Yugi and Jounouchi, to be honest even I felt a buzz of excitement pumping through me at this different type of stage, the only downside was Marik's presence; our friends were nearly stopped from boarding since they didn't have I.D. cards until Mokuba stated he didn't have one yet would still be onboard so to let them go, he was a sweetheart.

Katherine giggled slightly before moving into the airship and it was shortly allowed to take off meaning the missing three duelists had arrived, we all gazed out the viewing platform as the aircraft flew over Domino City; Shizuka congratulated her brother who boasted but this triggered an argument between Jounouchi and Seto after Seto called him a deadbeat but stated it meant average in his mind… it was still an improvement over nobody.

After insulting Jounouchi a little more, Seto moved over to Yugi and warned the boy he had better put Osiris into his deck because he left it out of it in the last few duels since Seto wouldn't accept its' absence during their duel as the winner would have all three God Cards at the end of it and of course Seto believed that it would be him; he then walked off and it was announced that some rooms had been prepared for us so we went our separate ways in order to rest a bit before the finals commenced in one hour at which point the match-ups would be decided.

Lying down on the bed I thought about what could potentially happen during this duel, clearly Marik and Namu were our enemies however that did leave me questioning the three unknown duelists' alliance in this crazy event; were they Ghouls and thus enemies or were they on the same side as Yami thus marking them as allies, or were they perhaps more like Mai and Jounouchi bystanders that got dragged into this mess by happenstance, these thoughts jumbled through my head were eventually broken by a call for everyone to assemble.

Arriving at the Central Assembly Hall everyone milled around socialising whilst eating some food except for Marik who was leaning against the wall alongside the unknown three duelists who were still missing, I did have to wonder who they were but eventually Seto got tired of waiting so he revealed that each of us had been assigned a number and those numbers were printed on balls that would be random shot out of a Blue-Eyes Ultimate shaped Bingo machine to decide the match ups for these duels; the next duel would only be decided after the current match was concluded meaning our opponent was a mystery until right before the duel.

The numbers weren't revealed to us so we had to wait as the machine was started causing the balls to be sent randomly bouncing around the container until the centre head of the Blue-Eyes proceeded to swallow a ball which was spat out revealing Number Six which turned out to be Bakura, naturally all of us were concerned about the boy's condition despite his reassurances; the machine started again and this time the number was three which turned out to be Yami.

Everyone was talking about the duel but I felt a chilling sensation spread across my body at the fact that Yami would possibly have to face that psychotic spirit again, it would end up as a Shadow Game again without a doubt and I didn't want my spirit to be ripped out and stuffed into Virgo's card again; Isono then informed us that the duel would take place in the Aerial Duel Arena but to reach it we had to take separate routes to the participating duelists.

"Please be careful," I whispered to Yami. He nodded in understanding as he and Bakura entered the elevator whilst the bodyguard guided us through a different passage, upon our arrival we discovered that the Arena was at the top of the airship on the outside and that the actual dueling platform was raised above the spectating area slightly. "Well that could make things difficult," I commented. Everyone's eyes turned to pierce my form, no doubt confused by the words I'd spoken.

"Due to the high altitude we're currently at the air will be thinner and with thinner air comes less oxygen as well. Coupled with the chill present at this altitude, these conditions will make the duels even tougher," Katherine explained. Seto added on it would be a test of endurance and Honda found this fact to be exciting with Otogi agreeing with that sentiment; however Yami had a hard expression on his face.

"How about you reveal your true identity? You're not Bakura," Yami demanded. In response to those words, Bakura let out a dark chuckle as parts of his white hair proceeded to stand up in spikes with an ominous aura radiating from him. "You're the dark personality residing within the Millennium Ring," Yami accused. Upon hearing those words, the aforementioned magical item shone into existence around the boy's neck. "I knew it…," Yami stated. I bit the edge of my lip upon having our suspicions confirmed.

Naturally the rest of our friends were shocked and worried upon seeing the Millennium Ring, especially Honda since he was so sure that he'd managed to throw the object away back in Duelist Kingdom but just like I'd suspected the Ring had managed to claw its' way back to Bakura; there was definitely something wrong with that particular Millennium Item, it just gave off such a vibe of… wrong-ness that it made my stomach churn.

Namu was obviously confused so Jounouchi filled him in on the details but naturally the boy couldn't believe it, Dark Bakura brought up the fact that he and Yami hadn't dueled since that time back in Duelist Kingdom; Yami demanded to know what the spirit was up to by taking control of Bakura's body this time even wondering if it was the Millennium Puzzle but the psycho didn't respond for a moment then revealed that he wanted Osiris, I didn't buy it and neither did Yami from the look on his face, with that the duel began.

Dark Bakura – LP: 4000

Yugi – LP: 4000

After some encouragement from the non-duelists in our group except for Shizuka and the two duelists bantering, Dark Bakura started the duel by going first and he swiftly proceeded to summon out a monster known as The One Lurking In The Painting in attack mode; this caused Katherine to latch onto my leg in a near death grip due to her fear of Zombies and Ghosts.

The One Lurking In The Painting – Attribute: Earth, Type: Demon, Level: 4, ATK/1200, DEF/1500

Surprisingly the spirit ended his turn without playing a face down card which caused my lips to curl into a frown as I tried to figure out what the evil being could possibly be up to since I don't think that monster had any special abilities; but that didn't mean it wasn't a sacrifice for another monster somewhere in the psycho's deck, Yami retaliated by bringing out Gazelle in attack mode.

Phantom Beast King Gazelle – Attribute: Earth, Type: Beast, Level: 4, ATK/1500, DEF/1200

"Attack The One Lurking In The Painting!" Yami commanded. The beast king charged over and proceeded to cut the painting to shreds thus removing the spirit's line of defence and dealing damage as well, Dark Bakura's face had an annoyed expression twisting across it at this event. "I'll also set a face down! Turn over!" Yami finalised.

Dark Bakura – LP: 4000 – LP: 3700

"My turn! Draw!" Dark Bakura announced. He quickly played another monster card onto the field. "Nightmare Ghost in attack mode!" Dark Bakura revealed. However this move only served to confused me as this monster had too weak on an attack to defeat Gazelle yet its' defence was sufficient enough to withstand an attack from the bestial king, so what was the spirit up to especially when he ended his turn with no face downs for a second time.

Nightmare Ghost – Attribute: Dark, Type: Demon, Level: 4, ATK/1300, DEF/1800

"Using attack mode again?" Yami questioned. The ancient spirit remained silent for a few moments as he scrutinised his opponent's playing field. "My turn! Draw!" Yami announced. He then drew said card and proceeded to put the card into play revealing it was Magnet Warrior Gamma and he swiftly ordered the newly summoned monster to attack.

Magnet Warrior γ – Attribute: Earth, Type: Rock, Level: 4, ATK/1500, DEF/1800

Naturally the weaker monster was destroyed by Gamma which left the evil spirit defenceless and Yami fully exploited that fact by having Gazelle follow up Gamma's attack by striking at Dark Bakura directly thus dealing even more damage to the psycho; something wasn't fitting with everything I knew about this madman from our last encounter and what Honda told us of his encounter with him.

Dark Bakura – LP: 3700 – LP: 3500

Dark Bakura – LP: 3500 – LP: 2000

Otogi and Honda caught on to the fact that something wasn't right with the way this duel had been going after this attack, Anzu commented that it felt like he didn't know the basics of dueling but that was impossible; the last time he had dueled Yami, the evil spirit had shown that he clearly understood the moves of the game so I was deeply unsettled about what he could be up to.

"My turn! Draw!" Dark Bakura announced. He removed the top card from his deck and looked at it before adding that to his hand and taking out a different card. "Attack mode!" Dark Bakura stated. Suddenly a dark purple fog surrounded the arena floor as clunking footsteps echoed yet there was no source of those sounds but eventually the source appeared. "The Headless Knight!" Dark Bakura revealed. The creature was a headless armoured being that caused Katherine to cling even tighter to me making it like a boa constrictor had attached to my leg.

Headless Knight – Attribute: Earth, Type: Demon, Level: 4, ATK/1450, DEF/1700

Something was seriously wrong about this duel and I was trying to figure out what the evil spirit could possibly be up to with his confusing actions, Yami paused briefly at he ran through things in his mind before finally ordering Gamma to attack the monster and then followed that up with a direct attack from Gazelle there by reducing Dark Bakura's Life Points by a significant amount.

Dark Bakura – LP: 2000 – LP: 1950

Dark Bakura – LP: 1950 – LP: 450

Anzu, Jounouchi and Mai discussed what had been happening with Mai stating that if all went well then our friend would win on the next turn but that caused my eyes to narrow as my muscles tensed up whilst glaring at Dark Bakura as I tried to piece together what the madman could be up; Yami declared that his turn was over and then Dark Bakura began to laugh as the wind flow increased to give form to the parting currents, this only served to add a chilling essence to the scenario

"Yugi! You've fallen right into my trap!" Dark Bakura declared. Yami was confused by this but the ancient spirit wasn't answered as his opponent drew a card from his deck, however the others didn't believe a word that had been said by the psycho. "Hidden in my Occult Deck, lies one of the most terrifying cards in existence! But there's a special requirement in order to Special Summon this high level monster," Dark Bakura revealed. My eyes alongside Yami's widened in shock upon hearing that as the evil spirit gripped a card.

"That's right, the conditions to summon this monster are that I must sacrifice three Demon-type monsters from my graveyard to summon it. Now revive, ruler of the world of the dead! Dark Necrofear!" Dark Bakura revealed. He had made those strange moves intentionally to summon this monster without any of us even knowing this fact, from the card came a orb of purple light that streaked around the arena before forming into the monster

Dark Necrofear – Attribute: Dark, Type: Demon, Level: 8, ATK/2200, DEF/2800

"I let my guard down, I never thought he's summon a first-class monster using a method like that!" Yami condemned. Honda was freaking out from the monster's presence, although Jounouchi was confused as to why the attack position had been used since Dark Bakura was now rather short on life points; Seto explained it was to lure Yami into attacking and fulfilling the summoning conditions.

"Yugi, I'm going to teach you the true terror of my Occult Deck," Dark Bakura taunted. The madman then ended his turn by setting two cards face down causing me to press my teeth together tightly as the evil spirit didn't attack with Dark Necrofear despite the fact that he could have done seven hundred points of damage to Yami by destroying a monster, either the psycho was wary of Yami's face down or there was something I wasn't seeing.

"My turn! Draw!" Yami announced. He drew a card and proceeded to look at it before moving his hand to lay over Gazelle. "I sacrifice Phantom Beast King Gazelle, I Advance Summon Black Magician Girl," Yami declared. The female Magician appeared on the field in her enchanting fashion, naturally Dark Bakura mocked the girl's weaker stats.

Black Magician Girl – Attribute: Dark, Type: Magician, Level: 6, ATK/2000, DEF/1700

"We'll see about that, you thought my reverse card was a Trap! This card is really the Incantation Book of Black Magic!" Yami revealed. The card was activated as the ancient spirit announced its' name causing the book depicted on the artwork to be projected and the key holding it closed twisted allowing the book to fall open. "This card raises Black Magician Girl's attack power by five hundred points. She now has three hundred more attack points than Dark Necrofear," Yami explained. As he did Black Magician Girl read her new book.

Black Magician Girl – ATK/2000 – ATK/2500

Jounouchi cheered his friend on and so Yami ordered the female magic user to attack Dark Necrofear with Black Burning, the attack caused the fiendish monster to be set on fire alongside the baby that it held and Dark Necrofear let out a scream as the baby began to melt, eventually the monster vanished yet the baby didn't; that caused my muscles to coil tightly as I kept my eyes on the melted form.

Dark Bakura – LP: 450 – LP: 150

Eventually Dark Bakura began to laugh causing everyone to focus on him as the evil spirit proceeded to thank Yami for destroying Dark Necrofear which confused everyone and he revealed that with Dark Necrofear in the graveyard, he was allowed to activate the Field Magic known as Dark Sanctuary; immediately a demonic red realm engulfed the arena as a castle stood behind Bakura with mouths containing fanged teeth and eyes dotted the surface of the red cloudbank all the while Dark Bakura laughed manically.

"You just triggered the most terrifying switch of my Occult Combo," Dark Bakura declared. Yami was confused by this as the rest of us were currently terrified by the strange new surroundings with Shizuka and Jounouchi holding each other as I huddled Katherine in my arms. "Yugi, I'll let you enjoy Dark Sanctuary to the fullest!" Dark Bakura announced.