FIRE AND SHADOW
Review responses at the bottom, as always.
The group of seven moved as quickly as they could through the maze of storage containers, single or double file.
"We really shouldn't have left him there like that," mumbled Yugi, softly enough only for Mai to here, who was to his right.
"Look, Yugi, I'm not crazy about leaving Joseph there on his own either: but he's faced worse. He'll be okay," she encouraged.
She did have a point. Yugi knew his best friend had effectively beaten Yami Marik in a one on one duel, and the diminutive Duel Spirit Joey was facing was certainly no Yami Marik. Yet, the fact remained that the last truly high stakes duel Joey had been in was when he had lost to Mai herself, and had his soul taken by the Seal of Orichalcos.
That moment had been a traumatic one for Yugi, which was causing the trepidation within him now. Yet, he wasn't going to bring up that particular incident with Mai of all people, as it was something she was still clearly wracked with guilt over.
"Wheeler will be fine," came a grunt from ahead of them. Yugi looked up in surprise. It turned out Mai hadn't been the only one who heard him speak.
Kaiba didn't turn to face them, but he continued to speak. "As much as I hate to say it, I can count on one hand the number of people who I'd bet on in a duel against Wheeler, and two of those are you and me."
Yugi was stunned for a minute, but then broke out into a smile.
"Kaiba, are you-…"
"If you tell him I said that, I will destroy you, Yugi. I admit that he's doing us, and more specifically me, a solid here, but that's as far as this goes."
These uncharacteristic words from Kaiba continued to leave a smile on Yugi's face.
"I still can't believe how much he's changed sometimes. It's not obvious on the outside, but this was once the guy who tore up my grandpa's Blue-Eyes and threatened to jump off a castle to stop me from winning a duel."
Yugi had no doubts that the continued presence of himself and his friends in Kaiba's life was definitely a factor behind this, but he held no illusions about what the biggest factor was. It was, and always had been, Mokuba, and Kaiba's devotion to him.
This thought made Yugi frown, for it diverted his thoughts from happy surprise from Kaiba's unexpected words to the dark situation regarding Mokuba.
The thought that he was being possessed by a dark Egyptian God they never knew about was insane. Yugi himself shared a body with a Pharaoh who literally commanded Gods. How had this slipped their notice for so long?
His train of thought was interrupted by a low cackle.
The group stopped short at the next turn collectively. Through the darkness, they could now vaguely make out what was quite literally a walking skeleton in front of them. Most of its body was covered in a purple robe, but with bony hands poking out through the sleeves. A prominent indenture was visible on the curvature of its skull.
"Skull Servant (300/200)," muttered Pegasus, tentatively taking a step back.
Odion, however, did not. He reached into his purple robes, and extracted a machete. Unsheathing it, he did not take his eyes off the monster in front of them.
"Sister: take them another way," he muttered.
Ishizu's eyes widened as the skeleton took another menacing step towards them.
"Odion, I'm not leaving-…"
"Sister, you must GO!" he growled, holding the blade up in front of him.
She lingered helplessly for another minute behind him, before beginning to back away as well. Kaiba and Marik were at the rear, and took it as a cue to change direction as well.
Odion waited silently until the last of the footsteps had receded.
"You will not pass, heathen," he growled through gritted teeth.
In response, the Skull Servant let out another cackle, a sound like bones rattling in the wind, and charged at him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ishizu was white in the face and her thoughts were almost paralyzed.
Did she just leave her brother alone to fight that thing? After all these years, all the sacrifices Odion had made and all the suffering he had endured… Once Marik was born, their father made it quite clear that he viewed Odion as less worthy than his trueborn children, but Ishizu and Marik had always been clear to him that he was no less than their brother in blood.
Yet, they had walked away so easily, leaving him to possibly buy them a few more minutes at the risk of his own life…
"ISHIZU!" came a loud hiss from next to her.
She shook out of her thoughts with a jolt, realizing the others were all staring at her expectingly. Yugi had managed to get her attention.
"Which way do we need to go?" he whispered, urgently but gently.
She placed a hand against a nearby wall, as if to steady herself both physically as well as emotionally.
"We need to… we need to go…"
She almost wanted to slap her own face to get herself to focus. She looked to either side and squinted.
"We need to go left," she muttered. "We should be almost there."
Thankfully, she was correct. The next turn took them to a long corridor, but then in the darkness, Kaiba bumped into a door. He flung it open, causing a stream of pale moonlight to flood into the warehouse.
The group poured outdoors, almost soaking in the illumination like divers would oxygen after coming to the surface.
"Ok, we're here. What now?" mumbled Mai. "Since we kinda know the way now, maybe we could go back for Joey and Odion?"
Yugi shook his head. "As much as I would want to, that doesn't make sense. Joey himself said it, we need to figure out where these monsters are coming from and how to stop it. Since Mokuba has the Quantum Cube, he could have used it to open a portal."
"That is guesswork, which we don't have the time for," growled Kaiba. "I'm not advocating for leaving people behind, but there needs to be a plan-…"
His train of thought was interrupted by a pained, exhausted howl of what sounded like all of shock, fear and relief.
The group all turned to look at the source of the sound.
It was a bearded North African man who had collapsed on his knees about twenty feet from them. He was wearing a gray jacket, clearly intended to ward off the nocturnal desert cold, yet he still seemed to be shivering. His face looked as if he had seen a ghost. Several ghosts, actually.
Kaiba closed the distance between them in a few long strides, and grabbed man by the collar.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" he growled.
The man raised his hands up in a defensive gesture, his face still glazed over with pure terror.
"Please… I… Please don't hurt me…"
Kaiba snarled and was about to say something else when Marik appeared by his side and placed a hand on his wrist.
"Kaiba… He's a local. Let me talk to him…"
The CEO growled again, but let go and took a step back.
Marik knelt down next to the mortified man and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, speaking to him in Arabic in a low voice.
Hearing his native tongue seemed to put the man a bit more at ease, though his trembling did not cease. He answered Marik's questions in a quivering voice, stumbling over words but seemingly getting some kind of message across.
Marik turned back to look at the group.
"His name is Karim. He's a driver for the local government, and was ordered to drive some East Asian looking men to a spot in the desert some miles from here."
Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "What did they do there?"
Marik translated, listened, and then responded, "They unloaded a giant crate and told him to wait until they returned. He couldn't see anything in the darkness, but after a little while, he began to hear… screams."
The mood immediately became grimmer.
"He drove off to try and save himself, but the car broke down. He saw the lights outside this warehouse and made it here on foot hoping to find help."
"Well… Japanese men whom he heard screaming. Sounds like a certain someone decided to send some Kaiba Corp employees here with some Duel Spirits," reasoned Yugi.
Kaiba did not respond to this.
"I sincerely doubt that little Mokuba, or whoever is controlling him, literally spawned a bunch of monsters, put them in a crate and flew them halfway across the world," responded Pegasus.
"Whatever the case may be, we need to figure out how to stop them, now," insisted Mai. "We've got Joey and Odion back there potentially fighting for our lives. If we're not going back in to get them we need to figure out where these monsters are coming from and shut it down."
"She's right," muttered Ishizu. "Even if we do get them out we can't leave these things running free in the open. They could eventually make it to Cairo and target more innocents there."
"So then let's stop waiting around and do something," growled Kaiba.
Marik turned back to Karim, and asked him in Arabic, "Can you take us to where you dropped those men off?"
The poor man's eyes bulged, and he shook his head furiously, trying to scramble to his feet, while a horrified ramble left his mouth.
Marik groaned. "He's terrified. No, wait, Kaiba, let me-…"
Marik's arm didn't leave Karim's shoulder and he continued to speak in a gentle, yet urgent voice. Strangely, he pointed to Yugi and then Kaiba, before looking back at Karim and finishing his diatribe in an insistent tone.
Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "What did you just…"
This seemed to calm Karim down, if only a little bit. He still seemed utterly dead-set against the idea of going back into the desert but at the very least he seemed willing to listen to the case Marik was trying to make.
Curiously, Marik pointed at Yugi and Kaiba again before closing his hand into a fist and placing it on his chest, before then pointing to the sky. He then pulled out his phone and seemed to look for a particular picture, which he then showed to Karim, whose eyes widened before he looked at Yugi again.
Yugi was thoroughly confused. "Marik…?"
Finally, Karim testily seemed to agree.
Marik turned back to the others. "He's not happy about it, but he's agreed to take us back to where he dropped the men and their crate off."
"What the hell did you say to convince him?" mumbled Mai.
"He's from a fairly isolated village that still adheres to the ancient Egyptian religion and worships the old Gods. I told him that I was a Tomb Keeper, and then convinced him that Yugi and Kaiba were reincarnations of the old Pharaohs and that we had a duty to guide them on their quest," replied Marik a bit sheepishly.
Kaiba's eyes bulged. "You… WHAT?"
Marik raised his hands defensively. "It was the only way. I showed him a picture of the Tablet of Lost Memories depicting Atem. The resemblance seemed to you, Yugi, seemed to do the trick. He also now believes that the two of you command the favor of the Gods and will keep us safe if we venture out there."
Kaiba shook his head. "You people…"
Yugi looked bemused, but shrugged. "Well, if that's what it takes."
"So, do we make for the car?" inquired Pegasus.
Mai bit her lip, and then interjected.
"You guys go ahead and figure out how to potentially stop these things. I'm going back in for Joey… and Odion," she hastily interjected.
Yugi's eyes widened. "Mai…"
"She is right," Marik nodded. "All of us don't need to drive out there. My sister can translate for Karim, I will go back to help as well."
He turned to the confused Karim, said something in Arabic before pointing to his sister and nodding reassuringly.
Yugi looked like he wanted to go back for Joey as well, but at the same time he knew they'd need numbers on this endeavor too, and he wasn't sure how Karim would react if one of the supposed Pharaonic protectors decided to leave.
"All right," he said firmly. "Let's go then."
"Finally," grunted Kaiba.
Yugi, Kaiba, Pegasus, Ishizu and Karim made for the Ishtar SUV, while Marik and Mai turned back around to step back toward the entrance of the looming warehouse.
"Mai," called Marik hesitantly, when the others were out of earshot.
She looked at him, a bit unsure.
"I… I'm sorry to bring this up now, but I haven't had a chance before this. I just… I just want you to know that I am truly am sorry about-…"
"Marik, I know. It's fine," she interrupted with a bit of a sad half-smile.
He shook his head. "No, Mai. It's not. I've been trying to make amends to everyone that got harmed since then, I really should have reached out-…"
"Marik, for one, I know it wasn't you, so you don't need to make amends to me," corrected Mai. "Second, I haven't had very many people reach out to me because soon after Battle City I did some pretty horrible things myself. I am not an innocent victim in this."
Marik looked torn and clearly wracked with guilt.
"Mai…"
"Look, we can talk about this later, all right? Let's go back in there and help Joey and your brother now."
He nodded in defeat, and then followed her out of the moonlight back into the dark cavernous building.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kaiba, of all people, was driving.
It had been Odion before, and he was in the warehouse. Ishizu was hanging back and conversing with Karim softly in Arabic. Kaiba had looked at the other options: Yugi and Pegasus, and decided that if he wanted something done quickly, he'd need to do it himself.
Karim had driven to the drop-off spot off of verbal instructions, and didn't know its actual location. As a consequence, they had found the armored car he abandoned and then began following its tire-tracks back into the desert. Thankfully, it was not a windy night and the moonlight left them with fairly clear directions to follow.
They rode mostly in silence for a while, which was broken after about ten minutes when Karim muttered something to Ishizu.
"He's saying he can't believe that we convinced him to do this," she relayed.
Yugi placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Tell him not to worry, we're going to make sure nothing happens to him. We just need to find this crate he's talking about and figure out how to save our friends."
Ishizu communicated this, and Karim simply pressed his face into his hands.
Looking up again, he spoke to the occupants of the car in general, though Ishizu continued to translate.
"Where I grew up, traversing the desert at night was almost forbidden. The foolish few who ventured out never came back. In our faith, the night represents the reign of evil and fear, and we rejoice every morning when the sun rises and defeats the darkness."
Yugi narrowed his eyes, going back to Marik's story in the warehouse.
"Wait, the sunrise: does this represent the victory of Ra over Apep?"
When Karim heard the last word, without even waiting for Ishizu to interpret, he sucked in some air and let out a small wail.
"He's asking you please not to use that name in this time and place," mumbled Ishizu.
Kaiba, who was partially listening to the conversation while focusing on following the tracks, let out a grunt of disgust at this.
Yugi pressed on. "Is that what he's talking about though?"
"It is," confirmed Ishizu after Karim finally responded.
Yugi figured this was as good a time as any to try and find out more from someone who had actually been raised and participated in the ancient Egyptian faith, as compared to the Ishtars who rejected it from the get-go (which, however, was not entirely unjustified given what their childhoods had been like).
"Can you tell us some more about Apep?"
Karim winced again at the sound of the name, but finally replied through Ishizu.
"He is the polar opposite of Ra in every way. Ra represents order, while he is the universal manifestation of Isfet or Chaos. Ra is light, he is darkness. We believed he would encircle the Earth every night, trying to break free of his prison and blotting out the sun in the process."
He was clearly steadfast in his refusal to name the God in question.
Yugi frowned. They already knew all this.
"You said you were told to never go into the desert at night. Why is this? Why were you safe from Apep in your village but not the desert?"
Upon hearing the question from Ishizu, Karim considered his words before replying through her again.
"Look, I understand you may look down on our customs as unsophisticated. Our faith has dwindled to barely a few thousand followers living in scattered desert villages. It is, however, all we know, because we were raised in it. I admit I sometimes questioned the validity of what we were taught: until tonight. What I heard happens to those men confirms to me there was validity to what our elders taught us."
Yugi groaned internally. The man thought he was being mocked.
"I'm not questioning your faith: far from it. I'm trying to understand it. We honestly do believe Apep has something to do with what might have happened out there, and any information from you might be helpful."
Karim shrugged.
"Part of our practices was an annual ritual to protect our village from him. This used to be done on a grander scale by our ancestors for the whole of Egypt, but now it is performed by isolated communities like ours. We would build an effigy and then defile, dismember and finally burn it. Unlike the other Gods, who drew power from the faith and prayers of their worshippers, he received strength from our fear. The ceremonial act of destroying him represented our rejection of that fear and kept him at bay temporarily. The protection, however, did not extend outside our village."
He shifted uneasily again. The act of explaining all this was serving as a reminder to him that being in this place at that time was utter madness according to his faith: a notion that had been proven fact by what he had witnessed earlier that night.
"You can tell him that he doesn't need to worry, it's me that freak is after," growled Kaiba from the front, keeping his eyes on the road.
He then looked up into the wing mirror briefly, so Karim and the others could see his eyes.
"And if it's fear that he feeds off… He's not going to find any of that here, either."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Joey was sure he had passed that particular container before.
He stopped walking, looked around once more to try and see if there was anything in his surroundings he could use to figure out where he was, gave up, and then simply groaned.
"Yeah, real smart thinking pal. Sure, you stayed behind, played the hero and put the smackdown on short stack but now what? You can barely see in this place and it's basically a maze."
What now? He presumed, he hoped that once the rest of the group figured out how to stop these monsters, they'd come back and get the power back on.
No, he decided, he couldn't rely on that. He got himself into this mess by dueling that bozo, he could get himself out…
"Wait… Dueling!"
That was it. He almost wanted to slap himself for missing such an obvious solution.
He pulled his Duel Disk back out from his jacket, slid it onto his wrist and re-activated it. He didn't fire out the hologram projectors, but simply left the life-point counter on.
It wasn't much, but it did provide some illumination: enough to guide him but not enough to paint a target on his back.
Holding it up in front of him, he took in the scene in front of him and did his best to commit it to memory, before making a left.
Doing his best to make sure he wasn't going in circles, Joey steadily made his way through the corridors.
It felt like he was making progress, but…
Suddenly, he froze. He could hear something.
It wasn't very audible, but it was coming from his right, and it sounded like a man grunting. Along with that was a rather haunting rattling sound, like bones hanging on a rope in the wind.
On the one hand, it could mean the others were still there, and he could find them. On the other, he was actively walking towards potential danger…
As Joey stood there momentarily, considering his options, he heard another, louder grunt. This one was more pained.
That did it for him. He took off in that direction, moving straight, ignoring the available turns.
In less than a minute of full tilt sprinting, he came upon a morbid scene.
Odion was half lying on the ground, his back against one of the containers, blood seeping from a deep cut on his forehead. Some sort of a long-bladed weapon lay a few feet from him.
Standing a few feet of him was a gaunt skeletal figure, robed in purple. It was easily recognizable as a Skull Servant to Joey, likely another Duel Spirit
It didn't seem to notice him, for it was solely focused on its prey. Then letting out a strange cry, the Duel Spirit raised a hand and lunged towards its victim.
Joey reacted purely on reflex. He closed the gap between himself and the monster before the latter could do so between itself and Odion. Its hand was drawn back, looking like it simply wanted to punch through Odion's body, when Joey caught it in that position before it could switch directions and initiate the swing.
It was as if time was frozen for a second, with the three of them all stationary in that position.
Then, the clock restarted. The Skull Servant started pulling back against Joey's grip, its back still facing him. Joey was digging his feet into the ground, not really thinking about anything except stopping this thing from harming Odion further.
He didn't even realize that soon the monster was likely to simply turn around instead of trying to pull him through a full circle.
After about eight seconds, it began to do exactly that.
This was, however, never completed, because Odion had scrambled off the floor, grabbed his machete, and sliced off the Skull Servant's arm near the shoulder.
Joey was still pulling back on the arm with all the force he could muster, and when suddenly there was nothing keeping said arm connected to the body, his backward momentum simply caused him to fall back to the ground, still clutching the now severed and boney arm.
The Skull Servant let out a piercing shriek, raising its other arm to grasp at the stump for a second. Given the creature was literally all bone, there was no blood: just a sharp bone spur sticking out at the injury site.
It then backhanded Odion with its remaining hand, sending him flying back against the wall, before turning on Joey with a menacing stare.
The blonde raised his fists to his face and let his knees hang lose in a boxing stance, fixing his own mouth with a grimace.
The Skull Servant lunged again, attempting to pile drive Joey with its sheer mass. He side-stepped, letting its momentum carry it forward, and then attempted a right cross to its side.
Pain exploded across his knuckles and he yelped in shock. In hindsight, he should have known better: punching into solid bone with his bare fists was unlikely to yield productive results.
This thought was interrupted by a hard knee to his midsection, sending him to his knees, and then a kick which knocked him to the ground a few feet away.
Joey's head was spinning. That was two hits and he could barely stand.
He was aware of the monstrosity lumbering towards him when he heard a cry from Odion and then the rough sound of metal skidding over concrete.
His vision cleared and he realized Odion had pushed the machete across the ground toward him, and had now draped himself over the Skull Servant's legs, trying to keep it rooted to that spot.
Once again, Joey's mind seemed to operate on autopilot. He grabbed the machete off the floor and launched towards the other two.
The Skull Servant had raised its remaining arm, seeming ready to simply flatten Odion's own skull, when Joey swung and cleaved it off himself.
There was another piercing screech, and in its pain the Duel Spirit found the strength to break free of Odion's grasp and kicked him away before simply barreling into Joey with its bulk.
He was knocked off his feet, again, and dropped the machete in the process. He desperately rolled out of the way to avoid a follow-up stamp, but it seemed the Servant's forward momentum had caused it to lose balance as well, dropping forward into its knees.
With no arms to assist, the monster was in an awkward position, trying to basically lever itself up onto its haunches using only its legs.
It made one attempt, and before it made a second, Odion had picked his machete up and with one hard, clean swing he decapitated it.
There was a thud as the Skull Servant's… skull landed on the ground next to it, and then another softer one as its body slid down as well.
Odion stood there, still holding the blade, panting.
Joey slowly got to his feet, cognizant of the pain in most of his body but especially his knuckles.
He lit up his Duel Disk again, before slowly walking over to his Egyptian comrade.
"Man, that was some good teamwork," he mumbled with a half-grin.
Odion returned the expression, and accepted a light fist bump from Joey's left hand.
"How did you-…"
Odion had begun to speak when they heard growls coming from either side of them.
Both turned to see that two of the four corridors around them were now blocked. In both were wolves, covered in snowy white fur, baring fangs so bright that they reflected the light from Joey's Duel Disk. It took him a moment but he realized they were both Silver Fang (1200/800).
Joey and Odion stood absolutely still for a second, the unsaid hope between them that if they didn't move the wolves wouldn't notice them.
That hope was dashed when the growls turned to barks and both wolves simultaneously lunged forward.
"Oh, COME ON!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yugi, Kaiba, Ishizu, Pegasus and Karim were standing in a circle. Their car was parked off the side of the road and the brilliant silver moonlight shone through the cloudless desert sky to the point they didn't need any artificial lighting to see within ten feet or so.
Karim was the center of attention, and he didn't seem to be taking it very well. He had meekly told them when it was time to pull over, and then seemed to have been grappling with venturing back towards the place that would surely plague his nightmares for years (if he survived), or waiting in the car instead alone.
In the end, he opted for the former, because some part of him still likely believed there was some truth to what Marik had told him about Yugi and Kaiba.
"This was where I had been made to park, but I do not know how far those men walked on their own with the crate before… whatever happened to them happened," he mumbled, his arms crossed tight across his chest and his eyes boring a hole into the sand below him.
Ishizu relayed this.
"We could split up and cover ground faster that way," suggested Pegasus.
Yugi shook his head. "No, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think Karim is a coward, and whatever has him so spooked must be really bad. We should stick together and just look for that crate."
This seemed like their only choice, and with no further disagreements they pressed on. Thankfully, it wasn't windy, so they would eventually be able to find their way back to the car by retracing their steps.
After walking for about two minutes, Kaiba stumbled and cursed loudly enough for the rest of the group to stop.
All of them, including Kaiba, turned to see what had caused him to almost trip.
It was a body. Specifically, a body lying on its stomach, and dressed in what appeared to be a three-piece suit. Most notably, it was missing a head.
Karim's breath sucked in.
"That… That was the leader of the group I was met with," he mumbled. He seemed on the verge of tears, and turned to look up at the sky, as if offering silent prayers in a plea for safety.
Kaiba took a step back before kneeling down to examine the corpse a bit closer. He seemed to spend a minute looking at the watch that was still on the dead man's wrist.
He stood up and nodded grimly.
"He used to work for me, I recognize his Omega. He was a general fixer; I'd send him on logistical errands to other countries when greasing palms was involved. Mokuba… or that thing controlling him must have sent him here with this crate we keep hearing about."
The mood around the group was as dark as the night around them.
"Stay close and be alert," managed Yugi. "I don't imagine he could have gotten very far. We should find that crate soon."
They found the man's own tracks and began following them. The footprints were getting further apart as they went, implying that the man had started off at a slower pace before shortening his stride and breaking into a sprint.
What exactly had caused him to run like that? It seemed like they were about to find out.
A couple more minutes of walking, and Pegasus held up his fist, his back to the group.
The moonlight illuminated a grizzly sight.
Four more bodies were strewn across the sand in front of them. A couple were missing limbs, a third a head, just like the first one they had chanced across.
Yugi swallowed, and tried not to think about what he had eaten on the flight over.
A bit further down from the corpses was what they could make out was a stainless steel crate. It was about four feet tall by six feet wide and deep, and had its lid thrown open and contents exposed to the night sky.
From their current angle, however, the group could not see what was in it.
"This is… bad," admitted Kaiba in a low voice.
It took a lot for the CEO to fess up to how he felt about the dark situations they found themselves in; five dead bodies, however, seemed to be enough.
No one replied, for they were all simply staring at the massacre they saw before them.
"I'm going to see this through, none of you need to follow me," he stated plainly.
Yugi shook his head and finally spoke. "Don't be ridiculous, Kaiba. We've come this far. Assuming it was the monsters from the warehouse that did this, they're obviously not here anymore anyway."
Kaiba didn't reply, and then starting taking slow steps forward. He walked a careful, circular path around the bodies in front of him.
Slowly, gingerly, the rest followed him single-file, with Karim bringing up the rear, trying to keep their eyes off the macabre sight to their left.
Kaiba stopped a few feet short of the crate, his jaw slightly agape.
He was soon joined by the others, who had a similar reaction upon seeing the contents of the crate.
Floating a few inches above the surface of the crate was a dark, pulsating sphere, with a diameter of about three feet. Its surface seemed to be matte black in color, with a few stray strings of light visible wafting around it. It emitted no sound.
"What… What is that?" whispered Ishizu.
Kaiba didn't take his eyes off it. "It's a wormhole."
"What do you mean, Kaiba-boy?" muttered Pegasus. "That doesn't look like much of a hole to me."
Kaiba grunted in annoyance.
"Sometimes, Pegasus, like with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, names don't accurately convey the true nature of a thing. Wormholes are space-time distortions that enable travel from one point of the universe to another almost instantly. You think of them as flat circles because just like the rest of the universe, they are reduced from three to two dimensions when depicted by humans."
"How do you know all this?"
"Because, Pegasus, unlike yours, my company has a pure science division and I spent a pretty extensive amount of time researching this when I got a hold of the Quantum Cube. When I conducted my… experiment a few days ago, this was what I used the Cube to create. Any portal between dimensions is effectively a wormhole."
"So you're saying Moku-… I mean, Apep, must have created this portal using the Cube and sent it here?" muttered Yugi.
Kaiba nodded. "Yes. It's a bit ingenious really, it looks like he's using an antigravity stasis field in the crate to keep it suspended."
"What would happen if it… wasn't?"
Kaiba shrugged. "I have no idea. Probably nothing good. It might start absorbing anything it touches and send it to whatever dimension is on the other side."
"Could said dimension be the Shadow Realm?" suggested Pegasus.
"I don't believe so," muttered Ishizu. "The Shadow Realm was created by Zorc, who was born from the evil in the hearts of man. Apep, if that's who we are indeed dealing with, comes from a much more primordial age. The Shadow Realm is likely irrelevant to him."
"Either way, it doesn't matter, the point is to shut this down so no more monsters come out," grunted Kaiba. He still hadn't broken his gaze at the sphere.
"How do we do that?" asked Yugi.
"Without the Quantum Cube, I don't know."
That wasn't helpful, but no one else had much to add to Kaiba's thoughts on the matter. They simply stood in silence, allowing him to continue to think.
It was a full two minutes before Yugi spoke again. "Kaiba-…"
Before he could finish speaking, there was a rustling sound to their left.
The entire group turned to look, but they saw nothing.
"Probably just the wind," offered Pegasus unconvincingly.
Just as these words left his mouth, something else shifted on their right. Once again, they turned, but were unable to catch sight of whatever it was once again.
In an unsaid agreement, the group pulled themselves into a close circle around the crate so that between them they had an uninterrupted three hundred and sixty degree view of their surroundings.
Karim had gone completely white and was murmuring prayers under his breath.
"Looks like your assumption that all the monsters had gone to the warehouse might have been a bit off, Yugi-boy," murmured Pegasus, his eyes flitting around. He sounded genuinely scared, probably for the first time that anyone had heard that from him.
Kaiba felt almost helpless. Something was out there, clearly, and the people with him weren't exactly going to be much help in a physical brawl. He couldn't believe he was thinking this, but he almost wished Wheeler was around. For all his (numerous) flaws, at least that mutt had a hoodlum past and would provide some degree of reliable support in what was to come.
He looked desperately back at the crate and the pulsating sphere hovering within it. Somehow shutting this down might be their only hope, but how was the question-…
"You can close the portal yourself. You have it within you."
Kaiba stopped short. Where did that come from?
He looked blankly around at the rest of the group.
"Who said that?"
"Said what, Kaiba-boy?" grunted Pegasus. "Look, we need to focus-…"
"SHUT UP," hissed Kaiba in response, before turning around completely to look at the sphere.
Was he hearing things?
"You have opened one before. You know how to close one too."
He blinked. The voice was in his head.
"This is NOT happening to me," he snarled out loud.
Yugi gave him a curious, desperate look.
"Kaiba, I don't know what's going on with you, but if we don't know how to deal with this thing, we need to move. There is something out there and-…"
Yugi was cut off by a thud, followed by a shrill, trumpet-like sound.
They all looked to the north to see a gigantic, skeletal elephant-like creature standing about fifteen feet away from them. It obviously had no trunk, but two immense tusks curved out in front of it, glinting in the moonlight. It was a Mammoth Graveyard (1200/800).
"We really need to go," hissed Ishizu.
Kaiba almost listened to her, and made a false start with stepping away, but then stopped again.
"DO IT."
He shook his head. He wasn't sure if he was going to die today, but he did need to find out whether or not he was going insane before that happened.
He turned to Yugi. "I need to try something. The rest of you go."
The undead pachyderm had let out another shrill trumpet, and had begun to take another step forward.
"Kaiba-…"
"It won't hurt me; it's pretty clear the thing controlling Mokuba wants me alive. GO."
Yugi looked at the others, who were already beginning to inch away, and then gave him another desperate look, before they began to make a break for it.
Kaiba didn't look at them again, and tried to think back to the research and experimentation he had performed with the Cube before he took it up to the space elevator.
"Research is nothing, will is everything."
The mammoth grunted, and then began to charge.
Kaiba ignored it, and breathed out. He simply raised his hand in front of the sphere and tried to clear his mind.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The pair of wolves were on either side of Joey and Odion, bounding forward and fast closing the gap.
"DUCK!" roared Joey.
Odion didn't think to question this, and obeyed.
Joey stood tall, and activated his Duel Disk, holding it out in front of himself. He then fired out the holo projectors to either side of him, directly for the lunging Silver Fangs. His aim was true, and the force knocked them both right out of the air.
"Let's go!" he hissed.
Odion didn't need telling twice. He scooped up his machete, and they ran for the next corridor, leaving the wolves to pick themselves up off the ground, snarling angrily.
They ran for a solid thirty seconds, taking multiple turns, before Joey risked a look behind him. They seemed to be far enough ahead that if the wolves were after them, they were obscured by darkness.
Just as he turned his head back, Joey collided with something, knocking him off his feet and to the ground for the third time in less than two minutes.
He let out a groan and scrambled backwards on his elbows and feet, while Odion flashed his machete and let out a feral snarl.
"Odion: it's me!" came a familiar voice.
As it turned out, Joey had not crashed into something but rather someone.
Marik and Mai both came into view.
"What are you guys doing here?" grunted Joey, getting to his feet.
"The others are figuring out how to stop this, so we came back for you guys-…," began Mai, before they heard dim snarls and barks in the background. They were slowly getting louder.
"Talk later, we gotta get moving!" yelled Joey.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"What exactly is Kaiba-boy doing?" growled Pegasus, as the foursome tore back toward the car.
"I… I have no clue," panted Yugi. "But clearly he has a reason for staying back there. He knows more about the Cube than any of us, so we need to distract that monster."
They jumped into the car, with Yugi getting in the driver's seat, given that Ishizu was trying to calm a now almost hysterical Karim down and Pegasus probably hadn't been behind a wheel in decades.
The mammoth was slower moving than any of the other monsters they had encountered, but it was beginning to pick up steam.
"Damnit, gotta keep that thing away from Kaiba while he does whatever he's trying to."
Yugi moved the vehicle into drive and then slammed down on the horn.
That did seem to get its attention, and slowly, the walking skeleton turned its attention to the car, continuing its steady forward progress. It seemed to be going faster now.
Yugi breathed out, and accelerated.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kaiba had absolutely no idea why he was doing what he was doing, but somehow, his body and mind just knew. It was as if there was something in his subconscious guiding his actions, similar to when he had been able to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics without actually ever having learned the language.
He closed his eyes, and tried to simply empty his mind of all thoughts.
This was difficult, and something he was only partially successful at. Yet, there was enough of a void for him to notice something.
Something lurking, a figure, in his mind's eye…
He hesitated, but then reached forward and tried to grab it.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was the crack of dawn in Japan. Since Mokuba Kaiba's body had been taken possession of and arrived at Kaiba Corp's headquarters, he hadn't left.
He didn't need sleep. His sole focus was on returning Seto Kaiba to his grasp.
Right now, he knew that Kaiba and his friends were likely being laid upon by the reception of Duel Spirits that he had organized to welcome them outside Cairo. He needed Kaiba alive, of course, but if the monsters he had unleashed slaughtered some of his allies then that made his overall job quite a bit easier.
The Cube was an extremely useful tool when used properly
He smiled absently, glancing out at the window and the rising sun. The same window that he had threatened to throw the boy's body off of not too long ago. The sheer terror on Kaiba and the Pharaoh Atem's reincarnation's faces had been utterly delicious.
He then looked back at the Cube. Suddenly, it was glowing a bright orange.
His eyes widened. The Eye of Anubis on it had been glowing red on its own, given the active link between it and the open portal in Egypt. Why was the rest of it-…
Then, out of nowhere, he felt a splitting pain through his head. He let out a sharp shriek and fell out of his chair and to his knees.
The pain was unbelievable. Inhabiting a human's body gave him access to a human brain, a human nervous system and… human pain receptors.
It felt like his skull was going to explode. As if… there was too much in his head.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Mammoth Graveyard remained in steady pursuit of the SUV. It was keeping a pace of twenty miles an hour or so, impressive enough for a creature of its size but not so fast that it couldn't easily be outrun.
Yugi, however, wasn't willing to simply gun it. He kept glancing back at Kaiba and kept enough steady pressure on the accelerator to outrun the beast but not to lose sight of the CEO standing there in front of the crate.
"Yugi-boy, you might want to step on it," hissed Pegasus from next to him. "That beast is clearly after us and isn't interested in Kaiba anymore."
Yugi risked another look back, and his eyes bulged at what he saw.
Kaiba was on his knees, his head titled up to the sky, and his entire body seemed to be convulsing.
Yugi slammed on the brakes, and then unbuckled his seatbelt.
"Pegasus, drive, and keep that mammoth's attention! I'm going back for him!"
With that, he threw open the door and was off into the desert, trying to cut a wide arc past the mammoth.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kaiba had no idea what was going on.
All of a sudden, the crate, sand and night sky were no longer around him.
He didn't know where he was, or even what he was. He couldn't see his hands, his feet, nothing of the body he knew.
Everything around him was chaos. Burning, screaming, light, darkness. The air around him was literally on fire in places. He was looking at other things his mind couldn't even perceive.
He tried to open his mouth to yell, but he didn't have any control over his jaw muscles.
Then, suddenly, everything was black again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Now, Kaiba was surrounded by rocks. It felt like he had been buried alive. How was he not being crushed?
As if on cue, he began to rise. He still couldn't see any part of his actual body, but the rocks tumbled off him like specks of sand.
He felt himself float into a dark night sky. Below him was a desert. Was he back to the same place he was before? No, this was different.
Spread out on the sand beneath him seemed to be a large number of men. An army, possibly; they were armed with spears and shields. Some of them started screaming in terror when they saw Kaiba and fled, others collapsed on the spot.
One man did not. He stood tall and proud amidst the despair around him. He was dressed in blue and white robes.
Wait, blue and white-… Kaiba thought he knew this person.
All of a sudden, the man picked up a small black cube-like object. He began an incantation. His voice strained as he continued, and he fell to one knee, yet he pressed on.
The object turned a bright orange, and suddenly, Kaiba's world was chaos again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yugi almost collapsed to his own knees when he reached Kaiba once again. He was panting with exertion, sweat pouring down his brow despite the chilly desert night.
"Kaiba-… Kaiba, what's going on with you? Snap out of it!" he cried desperately, grabbing his rival's shoulders and trying to stop his shaking.
It didn't matter. The taller man's body continued to jerk and shudder erratically, and his eyes remained rolled back in his head.
"KAIBA!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was all chaos again, all fire, shadow, darkness, all spinning and lurching.
Then, it all dematerialized.
Now, he could see something very different. Computers, panels, controls. His body suddenly felt somewhat familiar again, he realized he had hands, he raised them to look.
He felt something brush against his neck, now he realized it was hair.
He felt his body turning, blindly, frantically, against his own will. Suddenly, it saw a shiny metal wall, a reflective surface: he stopped and peered into it.
Staring back at him was the face of his brother, Mokuba Kaiba.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Marik was leading the group as they frantically raced through the warehouse in single-file.
He had done his best to memorize the path him and Mai had taken as they had gone back in to search for Joey and Odion. He was optimistic they'd make it to the exit, any minute now.
A shriek came from around the next turn, and Marik skidded to a halt.
The Skull Knight from before came into view, its cruel scimitar glinting in the darkness.
"Awww crap," growled Joey as he stopped behind Marik too.
"Back!" commanded the Tomb Keeper heir.
The others were about to heed this, when loud, rabid snarls heralded the arrival of the Silver Fangs from earlier on the other side too.
Marik went pale. There was a large container behind them, and the left and right exits were now cut off.
"No…"
Before they could even think of trying to take the last remaining path available to them, a snide laugh broke through.
Coming through the final corridor was Kozaky, his white lab suit considerably more disheveled than before and his hair a mess. He did, however, have a triumphant and sadistic grin on his face.
Joey narrowed his eyes. "You son of a-…"
"That dragon of yours did a number on me, I will admit," he hissed. "I want revenge, and I brought a friend capable of exacting it for me."
A repulsive, undead, purple creature came up next to Kozaky. It was very fat indeed, to the point that its limbs were bulging to through the blue and brown rags that it wore as a semblance of clothes. Its eyes were tiny and snake-like, extending out from its head on green tubes.
"This is Plaguespreader Zombie (400/200). Since there are four of you, it seems fair that him and each of the others get one."
Joey, Mai, Odion and Marik pressed together, backs to each other, their predicament beginning to set in.
Odion raised his machete in defense even though he realized it wasn't going to be much help.
Joey didn't turn to look at Mai, but he felt her hand snaking into his. It was trembling slightly, so was his.
The zombie, the skeletal soldier, and the two wolves all took a threatening step forward.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Kaiba was screaming internally but there was no sound. He had no control, either physically (which included his vocal cords) or over the scene in front of him.
He saw his brother mirrored in the metal wall in front of him, and then that vanished too.
Now he was walking through a corridor. It seemed busy, people were passing by on either sides, some dressed in white coats, some in blue scrubs.
A door swung open in front of him, and then he stepped through and walked towards a bed.
One of those men in coats was talking to him, but he couldn't make out what was being said. He leaned over the bed to look at the person in it, who seemed to be unconscious.
Kaiba recognized his own face.
That did it.
He let out another scream, and this one he actually seemed to hear.
"ENOUGH!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yugi continued to hold onto Kaiba's shoulders, trying to stop the spasms, desperately shouting his name in some vague hope of bringing him back to himself.
Out of nowhere, the other man screamed.
"ENOUGH!"
It was more of a roar, and it startled Yugi to the point where he let go and fell backward.
Kaiba's eyes rolled back forward, and he fell forward too, catching himself with his hands in the sand.
Before Yugi could react to this, something else happened.
The wormhole in the crate let out a loud hiss, and then simply began to shrink.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mokuba's body was on the floor, on his hands and knees, also convulsing.
The pain in his head was so immense he could barely see. In fact, none of his other senses were transmitting anything tangible to his mind right now.
It was all just pain, pain, pain, splitting searing agony in his head.
All of a sudden, it stopped.
He crumpled for a minute, lying on the floor facedown, allowing his mind to clear and his breathing to very slowly calm down.
Very gingerly, he staggered to his feet, and looked at the Cube.
The orange glow was gone, as was the red from the Eye.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ishizu had decided to take the wheel once Yugi had gotten out. She wanted to be there for Karim, but she'd also rather he be alive and panicking than dead and calm.
She had been in two minds as to her course of action. Self preservation dictated accelerating and getting the hell out of there, but it would also mean leaving the two Pharaoh reincarnates to the mercy of… whatever the hell was going on, which was also unacceptable.
She didn't actually have the time to make a definitive choice, when Pegasus called out to her.
"Ms Ishtar: look!"
She glanced up into the rear view mirror, and then hit the brakes and turned around.
The Mammoth Graveyard was literally evaporating. Its bones were withering away into dust.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Mai squeezed Joey's hand again, her mind spinning.
Was this how it was going to end?
Her mind was screaming a million different things at once, yet somehow over the din, a single thought broke through.
If she was going to die, she was at least glad that recently one of her biggest ever regrets had been resolved. There was another one, though, that she'd never get to-…
One of the Silver Fangs barked and then leapt forward, directly at her.
Mai's hand slipped out of Joey's, and she raised both arms in front of her defensively, squeezing her eyes shut while hoping it was over quick.
The expectant pain never came.
She stayed like that for a few seconds longer before slowly lifting an eyelid.
She then dropped both arms and gaped.
Both wolves were gone. Quite literally, turned to dust.
She swung ninety degrees and then a full hundred and eighty. So were the Skull Knight, Kozaky and Plaguespreader Zombie.
Joey, Marik and Odion were similarly stunned.
Just what the hell had just happened?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yugi lay sitting awkwardly in the sand, his weight supported on his hands behind him.
The wormhole had continued shrinking and then, in a momentarily blinding flash of light, it was gone.
Meanwhile, Kaiba was still leaning forward on his knees, supporting himself on his palms as well, heaving deep breaths. His eyes were bloodshot.
Yugi got to his feet and approached him cautiously.
"Kaiba… what exactly just happened?"
Kaiba slowly turned to gaze at him. When he spoke, it was in a very hoarse voice.
"I… I think I got inside his head somehow… and I saw things."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Phew! That was a long one. 26 pages and almost ten thousand words, making it the lengthiest chapter of the story so far, without any duels even.
I will also say that we have basically concluded act one of the story, and if it's the card games that tickle you there will be a lot more of that coming soon.
These first nine chapters have basically been set-up. The dominoes are lined up and very soon I'll begin knocking them down. The story is going to get a lot easier to write from hereon out.
Reaver72: I am glad you feel that way! I definitely think some of my duels from back in the day were ridiculously over the top with way too many CACs, though I think this improved by the second half of Nightrise. The style I'm going for is Battle City type duels where each move carries weight.
GearfriedTheSynchro: I gotta be honest: that duel was a lot easier to write than this chapter haha. I imagine some of the future ones will be harder though. You're right that a lot of what happened before was set-up, things are going to get really crazy really fast now.
Superscribe CJ: 1) Ah another old reader! Welcome back, couldn't be happier to have you along for the ride. Trust me, this will be better than Nightrise and will scratch the itch it left after all these years. 2) Yeah, definitely want to give Joey his props in this fic. I didn't appreciate him enough in my old stories, and he really should've gotten a chance to duel in DSoD too. This is my attempt at rectifying both those mistakes. 3) As I've said before, the goal of this story is to tie up all the lose ends from the original series and Mai's absence was one of the biggest. I think you will be VERY satisfied with how things end for her.
ChroniclerDL: If you like the Kozaky deck, go and read "Dream Duel" by Metal Overlord 2.0: it belongs to him and he let me borrow it for Nightrise all those years ago! KSK was his idea too haha.
7th Librarian: Haha like we've talked about, once you reach a certain level of maturity then you need some suspension of disbelief as to why these folks will play card games to resolve conflicts instead of just fighting. Also all those logical decisions are just things I feel the need to clarify because I'm frankly just obsessive about things sounding coherent.
Metal Overlord 2.0: Ahhhh man I can't put into words how I feel about writing this response. Writing this simply wouldn't feel complete without having you along for the ride. Like I've said before, part of this story will be revisiting the best parts of Nightrise, and I think the Kozaky deck was definitely one of those so I am glad to be able to include it as a tribute to your contributions from way back (hint: this won't be the only one haha, you'll know it when you see it).
I enjoyed writing Joey's new and improved deck and I'm glad you liked it too: I had him go full Warriors in Nightrise with Red-Eyes basically teched in, I think this is a better fit though for his character since the Red-Eyes is really his most iconic card in the way Blue-Eyes is for Kaiba or DM for Yugi. It won't be long before you see what I'm doing with the others as well man! SO glad to have you back and along for the ride!