Chapter 5--The Dungeons of the Overlord

Slowly, the yami returned to consciousness. Where am I? And what happened? he thought. He was chained to a wall of a small, dank room by glowing shackles, clearly magical. Not yet wishing to remove the yami from the Millennium Puzzle, Chaos instead forced him to materialize and then kept him so by binding him. But how had he gotten here in the first place? Everything came rushing back to him. The battle! Clearly, they had lost. Had Yuugi been captured? They had been separated, so for all he knew, Yuugi could be dead. No...that was not so. He could feel it. The spirit knew they would come to interrogate him soon. No matter what happens, I must not betray the others. Never again...the creak of a cell door drew him out of his revere.

The Chaos Oracle, looking like a purple-black cloud with narrow, glowing red eyes, drifted in, gloating. "So, spirit, you return to us! Hahahaha....once a creature of Chaos, always a creature of Chaos! There is no escape this time, not for you or any of your pathetic friends!"

"That's not true!" Yuugi's yami replied fiercely, glaring at the Oracle with his dark violet eyes, so similar to and yet so very different from Yuugi's.. "We will never admit defeat!"

"Then you live in denial. Face it; with all of you captured, there's no one to come to the rescue this time! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!" the Oracle cackled, clapping the misty hands that floated close to his 'body", clearly amused by the spirit's helpless position. The yami grimaced. If what the Oracle said was true, there really was no hope...no! If he once believed that, they had already lost.

The beep of a communicator interrupted the Oracle's leering mockery. "What is it?"

The worried voice that replied, surprisingly pleasant for a Chaos creature, could only be Lieutenant Gash. "Oracle, the prisoner has escaped! Come quickly!"

The Oracle shrieked his fury. "What!? Which one?"

Gash hesitated for a moment before replying in a monotone, "The Warrior. Shang." Yami was confused for a moment before he remembered that Shang was Vice's second name--the one he used when he didn't want to reveal his True Name.

"How!? We had him locked up under heavy security! I presume that this has nothing to do with your past, Lieutenant?" The Oracle's voice held a razor-sharp edge of malice and suspicion as he scowled darkly.

The Lieutenant replied quickly this time, his voice returning to its usual clear, disinterested tone. "Oracle, how dare you suggest such a thing. My past is dead. As far as I am concerned, it never happened."

"Good. See that you do not forget this. I am on my way." Shutting off the communicator, he turned to the yami. "It seems that I will have to attend to you later. Don't go anywhere, now; there's plenty of time," the demon said in a mock-friendly voice, grinning maliciously before speeding away like a malevolent zephyr.

Yuugi's yami shuddered. Vice had escaped, at the least...but the others were still captured, and knowing the Oracle, it would not be a pleasant stay.

-o-o-o-o-o-

In another part of the base, Matt was unlocking Vice's cell door. After receiving Gate coordinates from the tragedy-stricken Clanners, he had Gated directly into the Chaos fortress! Hiding in the shadows, he had observed the Lieutenant pacing noiselessly by on his customary rounds. As Gash walked away, he shifted his arm slightly, and a small key dropped from his pocket. Matt hurriedly picked it up once the black-haired servant of Chaos was out of sight and found Vice's cell.

"Long time no see, Matt. Why are you here now? And how did you find your way in?" Vice asked politely, oddly at ease with his ally's bizarre arrival.

Matt shrugged with characteristic nonchalance. "It's a long story, too long for right now. We have to rescue the others!"

Vice shook his head. "Go home, Matt. This isn't your war, and you've just retired. Go...I'll do it."

Matt simply grinned. "Come on--we have some friends to rescue."

Vice shook his head, smiling, then laid out a complicated plan, in which Matt would search for the less heavily guarded targets-Yuugi's friends. Vice, with his better knowledge of the base's layout, would hunt for the Overlord's prize prisoner. The two separated, knowing that only speed would save the captives now.

-o-o-o-o-o-

As they left, another group of captured children was slowly waking up. Their hands and feet were bound, but oddly enough, they had all been thrown in the same cell, which, like nearly all the prison cells in the base, was dark, damp, and very cold. The unwise decision to leave them together was hardly useful to the prisoners, as they couldn't even stand up. Upon regaining consciousness and seeing their predicament, they began arguing fiercely with each other. These four children's names were (you guessed it) Joey, Kaiba, Tea, and Tristan.

"Where are we?" said one, shaking his tawny bangs out of his brown eyes. "The minute dose things touched us, dey must have transported us here!"

Another, sitting nearby, snorted, ice-blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Well thank you for stating the obvious. And here I thought you couldn't get any stupider..."

"Hey! Take dat back!" the first replied, fuming.

"What, offended by the truth, mutt?" came the immediate comeback, delivered with such total condescension it might have been practiced.

"Grrr...if you're so smart, den how do we get outta here, genius?" the blond answered back, looking smug at having come up with such an amazingly stumping comeback.

"We're trapped, tied up, and they've taken our Decks. It's hopeless, you twit," came the bored-sounding reply.

"No way I'm givin' up--dere's gotta be a way out. If only we could untie our hands..." the blond muttered to himself as he racked his brain.

"Great idea," the second boy said sarcastically, trying without success to get a strand of brown hair out of his eye, "but they've taken EVERYTHING WE HAVE! We can't untie our hands or escape, you idiot!"

"Don't be such a pessimist," the other snapped back.

"You don't even know what that means," was the reply; apparently the owner of the voice was too uncomfortable to think of something more crushing.

"I do too!" the insulted party said loudly, sounding like a three- year-old.

"Prove it," his adversary answered back, sounding equally childish.

"Why should I?" the first boy answered, while trying to remember what "pessimist" meant, exactly.

"See? You don't know what it means," the brunette sneered.

"Dat is so not true! You're just bein' a stubborn jerk!"

"Am I? At least I know that there's no way out of here." At this point, the conversation became even more tedious, if that was possible.

"Dere has to be!"

"There isn't."

"Dere is too!"

"There is not!"

"Dere-"

Tea sighed, blinking her clear blue eyes tiredly. "Could you two please stop it? You won't solve anything by fighting. Let's think. There must be something we can do," she said without enthusiasm; her cramped muscles were making it difficult to be her usual, cheerful self. Kaiba and Joey glared at each other for a moment, then fell silent, both too tired to keep arguing.

"If only we still had our Decks!" Tea said in frustration, wishing she could scratch her nose; her hair, as messy as everyone else's, was in her face, limiting her vision to a hazy curtain of brown. "Without our monsters, there's no way we can break these cell bars...but they took all of them...."

Tristan smiled, slightly more energetic than everyone else; his dark- brown hair was in its customary horn-like spike, so he could at least see better than the others. It was a small thing, but at this point, he wasn't going to be picky. He had remained silent so far, holding his trump card until the very end. "That's where you're wrong!"

Everyone turned to him. "What do you mean?" Kaiba demanded, blue eyes even icier than usual with his fury at not being the one to have an idea.

Tristan tried to stand up, and failed miserably. He attempted to regain his dignity by sitting up straight, dark-brown eyes filled with pride. "Well, you see, they've taken YOUR Decks, and all of your monsters, but they decided not to search me, because they already knew that I didn't have a Deck! You see?"

Joey groaned and slumped forward, causing his blond hair to flop back into his eyes. "For a second dere I thought you were onto something. Tristan, YOU'RE NOT A DUELIST! YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MONSTERS!" Joey wouldn't normally haven't gotten quite so upset with his friend, but under the circumstances, it was understandable.

Tristan looked injured. "Hey, I was getting to that part! See, I do have one monster. Remember when we all got split up that time when we first found out about Chaos? And you guys got all your monsters then? Well, I went to this weird place, where there were these creatures called Pokemon. I got one for myself!"

Tea blinked in surprise; this was completely unexpected.. "How? You don't have any blank cards..."

"That's where you're wrong again. Vice gave me some when he gave them to you guys! He said that, even though I don't have a Deck, they might come in handy. And boy, was he right!"

They all leaned forward eagerly. "So? What didja get?" Joey asked, sounding excited; the prospect of escape was enough to boost everyone's spirits.

Tristan grinned triumphantly. "This one! I Summon--Kylie!" He squinted, concentrating hard as sweat popped out on his forehead with the effort of the Summoning. At last, out of his jacket pocket erupted a shimmering light--the magic of Summoning. With agonizing slowness, a creature began to materialize...

"Eevee!" A small, brown, fox-like creature with a creamy-white ruff and tail tip hopped up and down excitedly, bright eyes shimmering.

Everyone groaned. "When you said you had just one creature, I thought that maybe you had made an intelligent decision for once and gotten a useful one. Why did you pick this thing?" Kaiba said, scowling in disappointment.

"I didn't really have a choice! She kind of...found me. Anyway, she can help us!"

Tea frowned. "Um, Tristan? I hate to be a downer, but she's too little to break the bars!"

"Eevee...." Kylie's ears drooped.

"It's okay, Kylie. Guys, she's small enough to slip between the bars! Then she can unlock the cell from the outside!"

"You sure about dat, Tristan?" Joey asked doubtfully. "After all, she's awful small..."

"She can do it," Tristan said confidently.

Everyone held their breath as Kylie wriggled between the bars, landing on the other side with a faint thump. Shaking her head vigorously, she hopped up and examined the lock. Luckily, it was a simple loop with a metal bar fitted through it rather than a keyhole. Slowly, Kylie began to nudge the bar on the lock to the side; her small size made it difficult, and the bar barely moved. Painstakingly, inch by inch, Kylie shoved it sideways with determination shining in her eyes. At long last, it slipped out, falling. Before it could clatter noisily to the floor, Kylie leaped up and caught it in her mouth. She slipped back between the bars and trotted over to Tristan, proudly handing him the piece of metal that formerly held the door shut.

"Eevee ee!" she squeaked excitedly.

The four freed prisoners began to speak in whispers, feeling more cautious now that freedom was in sight. "Great job, Kylie. Now, bite through the ties on our hands and feet!" Tristan commanded, breathing an inner sigh of relief that the bonds were rope. One by one, all of them were freed, until at last Kylie sat back with aching jaws, leaning contentedly against her master. The four stood up slowly, rubbing their wrists and ankles to restore circulation and stretching until their muscles felt less stiff.

"Okay, what next?"

"That's obvious, isn't it? Next, we find our decks and escape!"

Chaos' brilliant plan was starting to fall apart. Not only had Vice escaped, but all of Yuugi's friends had too.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Vice raced through the familiar corridors. They were lucky this time; the Overlord had been careless, not expecting any rescue to come for the prisoners. He headed right, to the subterranean high-security dungeons. The Overlord liked to have his prison cells scattered throughout the base, to keep prisoners separated and make escape or rescue more difficult; the demoralization amused him as well.

Well-hidden in the shadows of the rough-hewn walls and shrouded in his long, black coat, Vice could easily have been mistaken for a sinister Chaos creature himself. He ran at top speed, all the while wondering if it was already too late. "Three left, two right," he muttered to himself as he counted doorways, absently running a hand through his messy white-blond hair, hanging around his ears.

Finally, he reached his destination. Quietly picking the lock on the heavy steel door and canceling the Chaotic barrier with his own magic, he entered the high-security area. This was the only place the Overlord would imprison Yuugi, his greatest enemy. It was in the deepest part of the base, far from any entrances or exits, difficult to get into and nearly impossible to get out of. No doubt they never expected another prisoner to venture this far; few ever managed to get out of their cells, since outside help was nearly impossible to procure. Knowing almost nothing about Matt, the Overlord had made a grave miscalculation.

Vice glanced quickly around the room. His guess was a good one; Yuugi was here, locked up at the back. Vice was relieved to see that he was still wearing the Millennium Puzzle; evidently it never occurred to any of the Chaos troops to take it, not knowing of its power. Vice didn't care why they hadn't taken it--all that mattered was that they wouldn't have to find Yuugi's yami as well, since he could draw the spirit back into the Puzzle he was bound to.

"How did you find me? This must be deep inside the base..." Yuugi whispered, astounded.

Vice grinned, luminous green eyes quickly scanning the chains and shackles around Yuugi's arms and legs. "You'd be surprised," he said mildly, unlocking his small friend. "Come on; we have to get out of here before the Lieutenant finds out I've escaped. Bet they never thought Matt would save us, eh?"

The door closed again, and Vice pried open a concealed air duct cover. Yuugi stared at him. "How did you do that?"

Vice climbed through, pulling Yuugi after him. "I know every room and duct in this base," he said softly, his voice faintly sorrowful. "This is the one place even the Lieutenant won't think to search; most of the Chaos Army doesn't even know about these air ducts, since they didn't build this base themselves. That's what you get for using slaves to do everything, eh?"

Vice pulled Yuugi along, mumbling to himself as his recalled the layout of the ventilation system. The escape was nearly complete; now only Matt's job remained...

-o-o-o-o-o-

Matt, meanwhile, was calming exploring the base, unconcerned at being inside the main headquarters of a army most people were terrified of. He followed Vice's precise, careful directions, and finally, he reached the level he was looking for.

At the end of a damp, cold, dimly lit room, four children stood outside a barred and locked cell, arguing furiously without regard to the amount of noise they were making. Matt was amazed that no one had noticed yet. He was unaware that, although troops occasionally patrolled the corridors, most of the Chaos defenses were based on preventing people from entering the base in the first place; they needed very little internal security because the base was nearly impossible to escape from, once someone was unfortunate to become trapped inside.

"You have no way of knowing which way to go! Face it, we're lost!" shouted a tall boy with brown hair and a habitual sneer on his face; Matt was surprised to see that he was wearing a blue trench coat that flared out behind him impressively as he gestured.

"I still say it was left!" replied the person he was shouting at, a blond boy wearing a faded green jacket. His hands were balled into fists as he glared at the trench coat boy.

"That's because you're an idiot," the first child replied insultingly.

"It's not like YOU know which way ta go!" the blond snapped back, looking furious.

"Neither do you," the trench coat boy answered.

"Yes I do!" the other said a little too quickly. "I remember which way dey took us!"

"We were blind-folded," was the patronizing answer.

"So? What difference does it make?" the blond said, seemingly not realizing that the whole point of blind-folding someone was to stop them from seeing anything.

The slim, brown-haired girl sighed, shivering in her short skirt. "Would you two stop it? We have to get out of here!" she said, looking nervous.

"Eevee ee!" Matt looked down. To his surprise, an Eevee sat patiently next to the third boy. Forgetting himself, he said, "How did you get that Eevee?"

All four spun around. "Who are you, and how did you get in here!?" the Eevee-boy shouted, putting his fists up as if in preparation for a fight.

Matt grinned at the sheer bizarreness of the situation. "Oh, I get around. Come on; I'm here to rescue you."

And thus Matt met four very unusual prisoners. The escape was well underway. Now they just had to leave.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Matt and his rescued companions ran back to the central chamber of the level, where the elevators and stairs leading to the other levels were. Suddenly, Vice dropped down from the wall beside them, having removed the cover from the duct's grate. "Hey, Matt. Looks like you got everyone; now let's get out of here."

One by one, Vice helped the four children climb into the duct, where they were reunited their friend Yuugi. Vice and Matt were about to leave themselves when suddenly, a sinister voice echoed from the corridor behind them.

"So. We have found you at last. You may have escaped once, warrior, but you will not escape again." Lieutenant Gash drew his glittering Chaos Sword, cape swirling around him.

Vice turned slowly. "Stay back, Matt."

With a ring of steel, two knives appeared in his hands. Matt, watching the battle, quickly realized that as skilled a sword fighter as the Lieutenant was, he was no match for Vice. After a short and fierce fight, Vice knocked Gash's sword out of his hand with a clever twisting manuever and slammed him to the ground. He raised his knife, but the expected stab into the Chaos Lieutenant's throat never came. Vice stared down at him for a moment.

"You traitor," he whispered.

Vice thrust the knife into the ground beside Gash's throat, then rose and turned away. He threw a single, oddly-colored Pokeball to Matt, who caught it, not saying a word. He knew that he had to leave. As Matt walked away, Chaos bound Vice's hands behind him and dragged him off. All this time, the Lieutenant never moved. A single tear trickled from his closed eyes.

Neither side had won this day.