II.

My notes: I feel that even if I only get one response than I have an obligation to write for them. It's just me, I may be weird, but oh well. So to you my lovely reviewer, if there is a special card that you would like involved….email me! I always consider my first reviewer an honor! Thanks!

Oh yeah…if anyone wants to see pictures of the cards I have used in the story, I could try to scan them in and send them to you. They are actual cards that I do play with. The game is really fun. I don't know how the foils will scan but the offers there…



Alright, it was official. Yami was bored. He had been with the stallion for what seemed like ages and he was also sore. He needed something to take his mind off things, so he did what any sane young man would do in his situation.

Talk to his horse.

"So…what do I call you? I can't just keep calling you horse or Stallion and I don't think you would appreciate being called Mitzi," He was ready for the buck that came with that comment. "Didn't think so. So we need a name for you…Well…" He knew they didn't have knights in Egypt, so that sort of name wouldn't do. So where did they have knights…

Old England! Okay, now a name. He tried to remember the lessons he had listened to while with Yugi. Something about angels…

"Got it! Gadreel!" the horse flicked his ears back apparently interested. "I remember that it was the angel that was sent down from the Christian god to teach mortals the use of weaponry. At least I'm pretty sure." He nodded. That fit, and that was now the Stallions name.

With that out of the way, he still felt bored. He crossed his ankles behind him on Gadreel's back and looked about. The forest had changed. It was no longer quite so wild. It seemed rather tame…and there was a strange feel to the air, a feel he recognized.

He sat up straighter and looked around. Gadreel seemed unconcerned and kept moving forward. Since there was no way to control him, Yami let him and concentrated on the forest around him. He thought he could dimly hear chanting.

"Gadreel. Do you know where we are going?" The stallion nodded and continued on a bit faster. He could now make out the tone of the voice, if not the words. It was male, and definitely not human. But it was extremely beautiful. Where had he heard it before?

Gadreel suddenly turned off the slight path they had been following and took off at a dead run right into the heart of the forest it seemed. The chanting became louder and he understood it as commands. Commands to the plants around him. The wildlife listened as surely as he did and they, at least, understood what was being told.

They pulled up suddenly just within the outer limits of a clearing. It was smaller than the one that Yami had arrived in and in the center there was a small pool of water. In the center of the water, sitting on a tree limb coming from the clear depths was a small male elf with long green hair and loose pale cream robes. He was the one chanting and Yami recognized him now.

The Green Phantom King. It was the youthful king of the plants.

Yami stared in surprise. Another card? The card in question turned to them and smiled.

"Welcome my dear friend. It has been some time since I have last seen you." The elf looked puzzled for a moment. "But you are alone? Where is your knight? Where is Gaia?"

Gadreel just shook his head with a soft snort and stepped into the clearing. The young King gave no signs of seeing Yami as he stepped down and walked towards the water edge. Gadreel also seemed to have forgotten about him.

//It's as if to them I do not exist.//

Once of Gadreel's back he could no longer understand the exchange between the two cards for the elf spoke in the language of the horse. He would gain nothing from trying to decipher their conversation. It was like trying to read one of Yugi's schoolbooks. He laughed quietly at the memory that brought up.

Looking down in the water he could still see his light's frustrated face when he had told him he couldn't read and didn't want too. Yugi had sighed and had given up. The water rippled and the image was lost. He looked up to see what had caused the ripple and instead was met with an unexpected sight.

"Gaia!" The knight nodded.

"I trust you are done with my horse. He has gotten you to your first game. It was time that you played." The deep voice was smooth and cultured, but Yami felt a chill at his words.

//Just exactly what am I to play?//



Yugi sat beside Joey in the store. The others had had to go home but Joey had said he would stay.

"Do you think he'll be alright?"

"Of course Yug', this is the King of Games we are talking about." Yugi nodded at those words, but something still bothered him.

"I wish we could see what he was doing." He sighed and looked down at one of the latest gaming magazines in the shop. He saw an article for a new product from Kaiba Corps. "Wait a minute! Maybe Kaiba can help us!" Joey looked shocked.

"Kaiba! That creep? Why would he help get Yami back?"

"Because Yami saved him!" Joey shook his head, but in the end agreed that it was worth a shot. The both took of towards Kaiba's mansion. Hoping that something could be done…because there was one thing Yugi hadn't told his friends.

It was something that Yami had told him.

'You are my Light and I am your Darkness. Without Light there could never be Darkness.'

/And without Darkness, there could never be light./

He was starting to fade away, and he knew it was because Yami was gone.



Yami looked at the knight suspiciously.

"What kind of game?" The knight just shrugged and pointed back towards the young King. He could see that Gadreel was gone and that the elf was nervous about something. Something was whispering in the wind, growing stronger and foul.

Yami shivered, but Gaia stood there unmoved. "Do you wish to play?"

"What am I playing for?" Yami had to shout this, the wind had started to howl and still the knight's response came clear in his ears.

"Answers."

Yami could only nod and the game had begun.

The Green Phantom King had turned to him and ruby eyes locked with ruby eyes. Yami was frozen and then he was captured. Vines sprang from the earth and wrapped themselves around the young Pharaoh and dragged him in front of the King. He felt a branch-like hand touch his shoulder as he was turned to face the source of the disturbance. A voice spoke softly into his ear.

"I play you, Yami, in Attack mode. The vines let him go but Yami still could not leave.

//What is going on! I'm not a card! The only reason I came here was for the Celtic Guardian!//

He stared into the darkness that had grown between the trees and watched as another very familiar card walked into the clearing. Under all the Dragon like armor two ivory eyes glared at the King behind Yami and an evil smile crossed his face. But it wasn't to this that Yami looked. He knew the Lord of Dragons, no it wasn't him. It was the little blond elf, wounded in his arms. A little blond elf, with features that Yami recognized immediately.

It was the Celtic Guardian.

He didn't have his armor or his sword, but it was him. But Yami didn't have time to register this. The duel between the two cards had begun and Yami was the main fighter. At the King's command he used the Power of Ra and destroyed opponent after opponent and took blows that shook him to the core. But Yami knew what was happening even if the king behind him didn't

So in a lull between turns, Yami reached for his deck and pulled a card. He smirked.

The Trap hole. Any monster with an attack over 1000 was destroyed the minute it was summoned. He placed his card into the device on his hand and there let it rest. Ready to be activated. He chanced a glance back at the King and saw Gaia standing beside him. Gaia caught his eye and Yami smirked at him before turning back to the duel. He knew what was at stake and there was no way in hell that he would he let the little blond elf be harmed any more.

The next attack came and the Tri Horned Dragon appeared. The King faltered and the Lord thought he had one.

//Think again!//

"I activate The Trap Hole! Your monster is destroyed!" So saying, the ground opened up, encouraged by a certain King, and swallowed up the dragon, destroying it. The lord of Dragons had lost and he knew it. He glared at Yami and dropped the elf in his arms and left, back into the howling winds. This duel was over.

Yami sighed in relief as he was released and he ran over to the fallen elf, ignoring the two cards behind him.

"Are you alright?" He shook the lithe blond, gently, until the eyes finally opened. Yami sighed in relief.

"You came!" Yami looked at him strangely for a moment. He then nodded.

"Of course I came. You asked me to. You asked if I wanted to know why you wielded a sword and are the only elf to do so. I think I need that answer, to understand why I'm feeling strange." The Guardian looked down, as if ashamed.

"I don't wield a sword, my Lord. I don't know how. I only knew that if you came I would…I would finally be able to do something right. That I would finally be able to protect, those that I love." The elf would not meet his eye and Yami understood. The heart of the cards was something he had only just touched. If he wanted to really understand it, he would have to learn their reasoning. Some where simple, like the warriors and Spellcasters. Some just belonged in the Shadow realm, but others, like the elf in his arms, had a reason to willingly place themselves in that position. It wasn't a matter of being able to do it or belonging there. It was a matter of wanting to protect and wanting to be able to believe in the one who you served.

Yami stopped for a moment. He had always had the most faith and trust in the Dark Magician and yet, whenever the Celtic Guardian had come into play he had used him without thinking, taking the loyalty for granted. He used the Elf, just like he himself had just been used.

Maybe it was time to start listening to the cards.

He looked down at the elf and with one hand chose a card from his deck. He looked at it and smiled, then he looked down at the elf.

"First things first. You need a sword." He placed the Legendary Sword on his wrist and it activated giving the elf a gleaming white sword. The elf looked down at it in wonder and than back at Yami.

"But-I'm an elf and elves don't use swords!" Yami just smiled at him.

"Maybe it's time you chose your own path." He felt a tug and then Gaia was pulling him away. He looked at the knight questioningly. The knight didn't even look back, just threw him up into the saddle of Gadreel and came up behind him. Then they were off. Yami didn't even have a chance to react when they hit the darkness, he could only hold on.

But, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that made his heart sink. Gaia had a card device on his arm and the card in play, was Yami.



Yugi and Joey had just finished explaining to Kaiba everything that had happened and what Yami Bakura had said. It had taken them a lot just to be let in the house and now Yugi had a sinking feeling that Kaiba wasn't going to help them. The next words confirmed it.

"I don't see why I should help. Yes he did save my brother and I, but he also got us in the mess in the first place. No 'lives' are at stake so why should I…"

Yugi didn't hear the next words. He felt a shock go through him and suddenly he was growing cold. Yami was scared, and that shook his whole world, even though it reassured him that he still did exist. Yugi collapsed, the last words he heard were from Kaiba,

"Well, I guess this changes everything…"