Author's Note: Well, by the time you read this, I'll have just uploaded Chapter Three along with this XP So Chapters Three and Four are done with Five coming soon (I hope XP) Read and enjoy! J (Already formulating the sequels in my head ^^;)

~Zelda Martial

Chapter Four: The Crush Card --complete--

Seiyaryu and I flew on back towards the encampment but just as we were about a hundred feet away, the ill effect of the Crush Card finally began to hit us. I could tell it was hitting Seiyaryu harder as he quickly began loosing altitude. As I quickly gazed at the ground in front of us, I noticed that we were on a direct collision course with Yugi and his friends.

"My dragon, please hear me; you must pull up!" I cried to Seiyaryu, but he hadn't heard me, which meant only one thing. Quickly looking through my deck, I grabbed the one card that would save everyone.

"Activate trap card, Waboku!" I summoned the card just in time as my dragon and I had hit ground just in front of the group of friends. We had passed right through them as the effect of Waboku caused them to momentarily disappear from the real world. When Seiyaryu and I finally stopped, we were several hundred feet away in the shallow waters of the ocean. Still holding onto the Millennium Puzzle, I slipped off Seiyaryu's back and splashed into the ocean, with barely enough strength to make it onto the sandy beach.

Meanwhile, Yugi had woken up with a start as he heard a tremendous splash coming from the direction of the ocean and he was not aware that his puzzle was missing. I still held the puzzle close to my chest, but I could hear Yugi not to far off coming towards me to see what was going on. I was surprised that his friends hadn't woken up too, but in the end, I figured it was better that way.

"How much longer must we fight Spirit?" I whispered to the puzzle. "I don't know how much longer I can protect you."

"Then don't protect me."

"But I can't do that. I would be breaking the sacred law of which I've been eternally bound to."

"Don't worry. I will be safe so long as I am in His hands."

I propped myself up on one arm and gazed upon my dragon, holding the puzzle still within my arms. I knew so long as he was infected with the Crush Card, I would not be able to summon him back without infecting my whole dueling deck with the virus. I knew the card that could save him, however, I also knew that I didn't possess it. But maybe He did… Standing up, I faced the ocean and as the Millennium Puzzle gave off an aura of golden light, Yugi soon saw the damage that had been caused by Master.

"What happened here?"

It was then that I stood up and let the glow of the Millennium Puzzle reveal myself. Yugi gasped as he turned to face me, as it was at that moment that he realized that his puzzle had gone missing. However, once he had seen me with his puzzle, he somehow felt at ease with my presence and holding his puzzle that he shifted his gaze back towards my dragon.

"He and I have both been infected by a Crush Card. I haven't yet felt the full effects of the virus, but because Seiyaryu is not immortal, like myself, he has succumbed to its illness."

"Who would do such a thing?" Yugi asked, not having fully realized yet what it was that I had said.

"There is one who is." I replied. "A being beyond this world who is seeking out The Seven in order to rule over all." I looked down at the puzzle just then, realizing that I should give it back now before any more time passed. "It is for that reason I took Bakura's Millennium Ring and your Millennium Puzzle. I thought that as long as they were in my keeping that they would remain safe until the threat of Evil passed, but I was in error. He came after me and Seiyaryu and now we have paid the price." I walked towards Yugi, offering him back that which was rightfully his. "The Spirit located within your Millennium Puzzle was correct when he said to me that I should not protect him, even though it is my sacred duty to do so. So long as I hold him within my care, he is in more danger than he is with you."

"He told you that?" Yugi asked out of curiosity.

I nodded. "I don't know how it is he remembers who I am, maybe it is the power located within my own Millennium Item, letting him have a clue as to why it is I have sought him out. Until this moment Yugi, when I had first taken your puzzle from you, I had totally forgotten who it is I truly am and why it is I am here. But now, it's slowly coming back to me. Soon, you will have to guide the spirit within your puzzle to find out who he is and help him remember why it is his soul was trapped within the Millennium Puzzle thousands of years ago."

Yugi looked at me in fascination and concern. I knew I had already burdened him with so much, but he must find out this now to truly follow his destiny.

"You said that you possess a Millennium Item also; which one?"

I regarded Yugi intensely with my aquamarine eyes as I contemplated whether or not to reveal the Shadow World to him. I knew that I should, but he hadn't quite figured out the power of his puzzle. How could I make him understand that the fate of his entire world rested upon his and the spirit of his puzzle's shoulders?

"I'm afraid, at this moment in time anyway, you're better off not knowing Yugi. Besides, the only Millennium items that you have to worry about are the seven sacred Millennium items for which your puzzle is one of, for those seven Millennium items alone are powerful enough to destroy entire worlds without the help of the other six. All I will tell you at this moment is that I posses one of the 'other' six Millennium items that only exist in the Shadow World."

"Then why are you here?"

"To be honest, I don't know why I'm here. But even though I know we've never met before, I feel as if we were destined to do so. With the spirit hidden away within your Millennium Puzzle, I have a feeling things are just going to get more interesting with each passing moment."

Several moments of silence passed between me and Yugi. As I was still gazing upon my dragon, I could tell that Yugi was bursting with questions he wanted to ask me. After a while, he got the courage to ask me one of his questions.

"What is the Shadow World?" He asked me in a whispered voice.

I turned towards him and grinned. I had been waiting for just this moment.

"If you will let me borrow your dueling deck, I will not only tell you," I replied, "I will show you as well."

Yugi stared at me with his violet eyes and I knew what he was thinking; 'Could I be trusted?'

"Believe in her." The spirit within his puzzle whispered to him.

Yugi still wasn't sure, but he trusted whole heartedly in the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle so he reached into the jacket pocket of his school uniform and handed to me the Deck of Destiny.