Yugi had changed much in the last few years. Four years ago, he had almost resigned himself to be forever alone. He had Téa, but she was so popular and had other interests that Yugi didn't share. He wasn't going to hold her back and expected her to find other friends soon. He was fine being alone. He was used to it.
Then he solved the puzzle.
It all seemed to go by so fast after that. First, Yugi found a real group of friends. Then, he learned how he was deserving of their friendship, like how Téa was never on the path to leave him, none of his friends were. Then, he had found courage. He had always been strong, not physically but definitely mentally strong. He just didn't have faith in himself to back it up at the beginning.
It's strange, as a young child, he had been very "courageous," as his grandpa put it. Yugi used to always battle the monsters in the closet or back-talk the villains in his cartoons. Then, when he was six years old, his father left the KaibaCorp private army… After seeing the pain his dad went through, and how it hurt everyone else in the family, Yugi found he had one belief that he clung to for the rest of his life. He HATED violence. If that meant sacrificing his body to avoid a fight, he would do it.
Four years ago, this core belief put him on the track to failure, but that was because he hadn't the nerve to implement other ways of getting out of fights. Taking the hits and not fighting back, even to defend himself, seemed like the path of least resistance. The Pharaoh had been a big help there. The spirit had given him the strength to look past his fears and face his problems, in and out of duels.
Duel Monsters could seem like Yugi simply pushing the fighting onto others, especially since he knew some cards had actual spirits in them. But Duel Monsters as a species loved to fight and grow. Duels in the human world never injured them. Even shadow games weren't life-threatening. That changed when Yugi was in their world. This was their home, and the damage was real. Yugi knew as soon as the Gandora lunged at him that he couldn't fight back. Not just couldn't, wouldn't. It was something that he had felt to his very core. Even if he knew how to use the sword strapped to his back, he wouldn't be able to lift it to really hurt his opponent. However, that didn't mean he was helpless.
As soon as he saw the large dragon lunge towards him, Yugi jumped to the side and rolled. It was a move his father had taught him when he was still working for KaibaCorp, but Yugi thought he'd never use it again. It was the Pharaoh that showed him that self-defense was not violence. He was worth saving. He wasn't just as wrong as the bad guy for wanting to keep himself safe. While he couldn't go out of his way to hurt this dragon, he wasn't just going to roll over as he used to (ignoring the fact he just rolled over to get away from her attack).
"We don't need to do this!" Yugi yelled. The dragon mob laughed as the female Gandora nearly threw herself off the edge when she missed Yugi.
"We absolutely do need to do this, little pharaoh. Gandora only accepts the strongest, anything less, and you will not be worth 'talking' too." Giga chuckled. Then he yelled to the attacking Gandora. "You have this Hakairyuu!"
Yugi gritted his teeth and glanced towards Hakairyuu, who was now righting herself. It took her a bit of time just to find her center of gravity.
'So, these guys don't have the greatest balance.' Yugi thought. He kept to the thick mountain wall to the side of the cliff and yelled. "We don't need to fight Hakairyuu!"
Hakairyuu's eyes narrowed as Yugi yelled. "You don't get to use that name." She said in a low, dangerous growl. She gritted her teeth and lunged at Yugi with more ferocity. She threw her whole body into grabbing him, causing her to slide along the ground on her belly. When he saw her coming, Yugi used the wall as a jumping-off point. He waited until she was nearly in front of him and leaped onto her head and ran down her back. He more fell off than jumped off her back, but he quickly found his feet and backed away from the fuming dragon.
The other Gandora were laughing at her attempts at catching the small warrior. This only made Hakairyuu angrier as she jumped to her feet, hitting her head on an overcropping. "You'll pay for that!" She screamed blindly. While this only made Yugi realize he couldn't talk her down, it made Giga smile.
Yugi kept slowly backing up until he turned tail and ran away from the cliff and closer to the Gandora mob in the center of the mountain clearing. He then glanced through the throng of Gandora to Silent Magician. She was still pretending to be knocked out, but she had one eye open. She looked horrified as she watched the fight. Yugi once again nodded at her. He then shifted the bag strapped over his back around as he ran. Kuriboh stuck their head out a little, enough for Silent to see. When Yugi saw the recognition across her face, he then looked to the barely standing, crescent-shaped stone wall. It was taller than any of the Gandora, and once Yugi looked at it, Silent did too. This wall was on the other side of the clearing, opposite the cliff, currently being blocked by the crowd of Gandora. The grimace that crossed Silent's face let Yugi know she was starting to get his plan.
"There you are!" Before Yugi could move, two giant hands circled around him. They crushed him as he was lifted into the air by Hakairyuu. Yugi tried to struggle out, but her hold was too tight.
"Crush him!" The other Gandora began to cheer. Giga crossed his arms and silently watched.
Yugi suddenly stopped feeling pain as his whole body became covered in the same rainbow light as earlier. This surprised Hakairyuu. It was only a split-second hesitation, but it was enough for Yugi to grasp the sword hilt over his shoulder and push it out, stabbing the dragon's hand. Hakairyuu yelped in more surprise than pain and dropped Yugi. He landed with a thud on his belly, but once again, he felt nothing. He used the momentary confusion and decided to backtrack. He ran back towards the edge of the cliff. While this was the opposite direction of his plan, he needed time to check on Kuriboh. He quickly pulled off the bag and looked inside to see his ruffled Kuriboh with two swirls in their eyes.
"Thanks for the save. I'm guessing you can't do that again for a while?" Yugi asked. Kuriboh woozily put up two claws. "Can't do it again for two minutes or two hours?!" Yugi gulped. His plan would be a lot harder without Kuriboh.
"Hey! Eyes on the fight!" One Gandora yelled. Yugi turned to see Hakairyuu staring daggers into him. She then held up her hand so that he saw the small wound he gave her. In a flash of red light, the cut suddenly disappeared. Then, Hakairyuu's eyes seemed to gain a fire in them, literally.
"You shouldn't have done that hatchling." She said in a low voice. Yugi chose to run to the cliff because he thought it would make her second guess running straight at him again. Now he wasn't so sure. He rehid Kuriboh in his bag and pulled his sword forward. He held the sword awkwardly, any real swordsman would have laughed at his stance, but Yugi had to hope that these dragons weren't real swordsmen. They couldn't know how scared and unprepared he really was.
Instead of charging, Hakairyuu let her mouth slowly open. Yugi saw a familiar red light grow in the back of her throat. He didn't need a second glance to know he needed to run. Yugi dashed to the left of Hakairyuu, but the dragon followed him with her head, allowing a blast of crimson light to explode out of her mouth. Yugi remembered this beam from the forest and how hot it was. Once he knew he was not going to outrun the beam, he dropped to the ground. The beam went flying over him, just barely, the heat burning his back and neck. The rest went flying out into the open air and disappeared. Yugi wanted to cry out, but he knew if he did, the other dragons would notice.
'Why couldn't Yami be here?'
"Come on, Hakairyuu, finish this! Get your fighting spirit back, and then we can be mates once again!" Giga yelled.
'Mate?' Yugi thought. He then saw Hakairyuu powering up another blast. It was only thanks to his adrenaline that Yugi was able to jump to his feet and run towards the crowd of Gandora. He had to hope that they wouldn't join the fight if he used them as a shield. As he rushed between the dragons' legs, he heard Hakairyuu's frustrated roar.
"Come on! Just blast us! A little sword slash won't make you strong enough to hurt us!" One of the Gandora yelled. Yugi's heart froze when he heard that. If Hakairyuu did breathe another blast, he didn't think he could dodge it in the packed space between all these dragons' legs and tails. Yugi then heard another frustrated bellow. He gathered enough courage to look back to see Hakairyuu pushing through the dragon horde instead of using her destructive breath. While Yugi was relieved, he noticed many of the dragons seemed frustrated by this.
Yugi nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a tap on his shoulder. As he continued to run towards the back of the crowd where the crescent-shaped rock wall was, he looked behind to see Kuriboh sticking one arm out. The puffball gave a three-clawed version of a thumbs up and pulled back into the bag. Yugi hoped that meant Kuriboh was ready to take away damage again, because ready or not, they had to end this. Before he or anyone else got hurt.
Once Yugi finally fought through the horde, he turned, putting his back to the rock wall. He looked out and wondered why some of the other dragons were purposefully slowing Hakairyuu down. Either pulling on her or blocking her path.
"Just blast already!" and "You've really lost your fighting spirit, haven't you?" were just a few of the things the horde was roaring at Hakairyuu.
Hakairyuu squeezed her eyes shut and spread out her wings, making everyone back off her a few steps. "I don't want to blast you guys!" she screamed. This only made the other dragons' gazes turn from disappointed to pity.
It was then Yugi saw that Hakairyuu's ruby orbs were glowing nearly as bright as her breath. For once, he hoped that meant she was about to explode, and that exploding wasn't a trait of that one small Gandora from earlier. Yugi glanced one more time to Silent Magician. She was slowly standing up, forgotten by the dragons as they watched the fight. Yugi prayed to whatever god could hear him that at least she would get out. He then turned back to Hakairyuu.
"Over here you… large lizard!" Yugi yelled. He then took a step forward and held out his sword again. "Can you really only catch me with that breath? Well, that seems to line up with what I heard about Gandora. They can only do one thing, and even that isn't that good." Yugi tried taunting. He was nowhere near his friends' witty comebacks, but it seemed to do its job. Hakairyuu stared into his very soul with those crimson eyes and roared. The rock wall behind Yugi shook at the thunderous roar, but he stood firm as the dragon charged at him.
All in under three seconds, Hakairyuu full-bodied-rammed into Yugi, throwing him and herself into the wall. Kuriboh then activated their ability, taking away Yugi's pain. Then Silent Magician magically pulled Yugi with what little power she had left. In the side of Hakairyuu's eyes, she saw the rainbow boy slip past her and land next to the small mage. Hakairyuu couldn't stop her charge due to her lack of balance as she detonated right in the rock wall. By the time she could see past the ruby flash of her body's bomb, the wall was already collapsing on top of her.
Yugi blinked in surprise as a great dust cloud covered his opponent. His plan somehow worked, all without being able to tell the different pieces what their parts were. Nonetheless, Yugi got to his feet and hugged both Silent and Kuriboh close.
"Let's never do that again. We all good with that plan?" Yugi sighed. Silent pushed her face into his chest as her agreement. Kuriboh then broke up the hug by wildly squeaking.
Everyone turned to see the clearly furious Giga stomp towards them. They all stood their ground, Yugi holding his sword forward and Silent Magician pretending to begin a spell. Giga wasn't focused on them, though; his eyes were on the large rock pile that had completely buried Hakairyuu. When Yugi finally looked back and saw the pile, his heart fell. He had wanted to end Hakairyuu's attack, but not like this. He remembered the Gandora earlier fainted after exploding. He hoped the rocks would only keep her in place, not bury her.
It looked like Giga was about to start digging for his ex-mate, but he stopped himself. His clawed hands clenched and unclenched. His tail whipped in all directions as he stared at the newly created grave. From Yugi's group's point of view, he looked conflicted, but he was the picture of pissed from the horde's view. After many dreadfully silent seconds, he turned on his heels and faced the mob.
"She lost. She was weak." Giga snarled. "She has no place among us anymore!" He announced with finality. He turned to Yugi with a growl, but he quickly hid it with a toothy smile. "You have won, Pharaoh. You are clearly one of us."
Everyone stood dumbstruck for many seconds, then the Gandora began to cheer "Pharaoh!" over and over again.
Yugi swallowed hard, still staring at the collapsed stone wall. There was no movement beneath. Silent tried to get his attention by pulling on his shirt, but Yugi couldn't take his eyes off the grey rocks.
"Now you wished to talk-" Giga began but was cut off by Yugi racing past him to get to the mound. The teen immediately started pulling rocks away in an attempt to unearth the Gandora.
"Leave it!" Giga growled, but Yugi only glanced back at him for a moment before continuing. "She lost! There is no need to make yourself look weak for her sake."
Yugi did stop after that, long enough to wave Silent over. "Can you help me? I can't move all these rocks myself." Yugi asked.
With eyes full of fear, Silent glanced at the Gandora mob that had destroyed her home and had run her people out of their forest. She then looked to Yugi, who was still trying to move aside boulders too heavy for his human body. She gulped as she ran to his side. While she could no longer use her magic, she still helped him dig up stones, probably wishing the entire time that she could yell at him for being an idiot.
The dragons crowded in, but none helped or even went past Giga as the two worked (Kuriboh was too exhausted to get out of the bag). All the dragons looking to their leader for direction. He gave them nothing, only glaring with bared teeth as the little beings worked.
Quickly, the two pushed out a huge slab, and Hakairyuu's head was free. Yugi knelt down and felt her scaly neck. Her scales were surprisingly smooth, like obsidian, with the skin in between even being soft. He didn't know much about duel monster anatomy, but he guessed since she was still breathing, even if it was shuddered gasped, that she was alive.
"Stop! She has lost. Do not go back on your victory for this weakling!" Giga roared, his wings and tail flaring up. Despite his threatening stance, he wasn't stepping forward. No dragon was. In fact, they were so focused on what Giga would do that they didn't notice that all their playthings had run away.
Once Yugi saw that all the other monsters had gotten away, he frowned right back at Giga.
"I won, but I couldn't leave her buried. She deserves her life. It doesn't make her or me weaker!" Yugi yelled, lecturing these dragons like there were middle-schoolers instead of building-sized monsters. He had been called weak his whole life, and it was only the support of his family and friends that made him realize that he was not. He was not about to let that insult control him again.
Giga's eyes narrowed. "Maybe I was wrong. You might not be one of us. Gandora are NEVER weak." Yugi ignored the dragon's growl and continued to work at freeing Hakairyuu. Silent had stopped working and glanced worriedly between Giga and the human. Still, when Yugi needed help again, she immediately jumped in.
Just then, Yugi met the crimson eyes of Hakairyuu. She looked confused and, most of all, scared.
"No, you…you," She started to say.
"Don't worry, we are getting you free," Yugi said.
"No! Leave me. It's going to make things so much…worse." She trailed off into a whisper as the mob's eyes seemed to trap her.
It was then Giga got a twisted smile, a smile that showed all his razor-sharp teeth in the worst light. He crossed his arms once again and stared down Yugi. "If you truly are one of us, you'll stab that sword in her neck," Giga growled in his lowest voice. This got both Yugi and Silent to freeze in place. The other dragons felt just as paralyzed as gasps spread around the crowd.
"No." Yugi simply said, not even turning to the large dragon. His word ending any chance of that happening then and there.
"Then you are not one of us!" Giga roared as he took a step back. "Those that aren't with us are against the Gandora!" Silent soundlessly screamed as she saw him open his jaw, and a brighter light than even Hakairyuu's beam began to build in his throat. Yugi turned just in time to see that there was no way they would get out of its destructive path in time.
The rock pile behind them began to move. The two turned to see Hakairyuu standing up, pushing off the stones and equaling Giga's height. The lead Gandora wasn't stopping his beam. In a blink of an eye, Hakairyuu scooped up Yugi, Silent, and Kuriboh and spread her wings. She plowed into Giga with what strength she had left and ran past him while he was off-balance. She charged right through the crowd, everyone still being frozen in place. Then the horrid red beam shot out of Giga's maw, blasting many Gandora in its path. Hakairyuu took a page out of Yugi's book and used Giga as a jumping-off point. She leaped over the beam and used the warm air it generated by opening her large bat wings. Her wings picked up the new wind, and she started flying up the mountain, leaving the Gandora far behind.
Yugi could only stare at the disappearing Gandora as they grew smaller behind high mountain clouds. He turned to see Silent trying to wiggle out of the Gandora's grip but to no avail. Soon enough, however, Hakairyuu found a cave much higher up the mountain and just about threw the three into it. She then sat at the cave entrance and snapped at anyone that came within ten feet of her. She wouldn't move, and the others couldn't get around her. They were trapped by their savior.
The entire time Hakairyuu was repeating to herself. "What have I done? What have I done?"