A/N: This story was one written by myself and a good friend of mine,
Shadowcat. Collaborations between the two of us are not unusual. Other
collaborations you may check out are "Two Worlds Mixed" and "?". The story
was started by me, Usorokoaemo, December 2nd, 2003. I then sent the story
to Shadowcat who added another bit. She sent it back to me and the pattern
continued in this manner. That will explain the possible stylistic
differences.
The title we really liked (Short Rod, Long Trip) was a mock title I came up with one day referring to Marik's Millennium Rod and the journey it has sent our friends on. We debated using it but didn't. It ended up sticking despite the fact that it sounds like a sort of twisted innuendo. I assure you, it is not ^_~
Copyright stuff: Neither Shadowcat and I own Harry Potter or Yu-Gi-Oh. Any of the characters or objects are not ours and we do not claim this. But if any of you are willing to buy me Yami I'll gladly accept.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon on the twenty-eighth day of August. It should have been a brilliantly sunny day with birds singing and a clear blue sky. That, oddly enough, was not the case. In fact, the case was quite the opposite. A strange dark covered the land and swallowed up the bright sun. Tendrils of chill mist hung heavily upon the air and if one took the time to stop and listen one might hear the strange rustling of nameless creatures dominating the sky. In the utter darkness of this strange, dreary day, there stood two figures.
One figure, was crouched over clutching his head. Sweat dripped like acid from this figure's body and splattered upon the ground. A figure of a wretched, trembling man at last subdued.
The second figure, on the other hand, stood defiantly against the shadows with arm outstretched towards a huge red beast. The second figure, a handsome young man with rather eccentric hair, stood several feet's distance from the first figure. He brought his arm down in a slashing motion. His extended forefinger halted in front of the other man's heart as he gave a powerful command.
"And now, Saint Dragon of Osiris, my God card, attack his life points directly!" Yami cried out his command in stern recognition of the inevitable. Across from him the evil spirit Marik crouched in utter defeat.
"This is impossible," The evil spirit growled hoarsely. "Impossible! I hold the power of the Winged Dragon of Ra! I hold the Millennium Rod! I am invincible!" "No one," Yami told him. "Is invincible." And in a flash of energy and light Osiris launched its attack.
"Aaahhhg!" Marik stumbled back, one hand dragging at his chest as if it might reach right in and pull the heart right out. That is, if Marik even had a heart. It didn't matter at the moment, though, all that mattered was that in a blur of digital light, his life points fell. A cold white '0' flashed ominously. In this world there was only one King of Games and Marik had not been worthy of this title. He who WAS worthy of this title stood across from him, hand still outstretched.
"Game over." And the evil man involuntarily fell to his knees in a mockery of a bow. A bow of defeat and total submission. A bow that signified who the game of Duel Monster's real master was.
"Goodbye.Marik," Yami's voice held what could pass for regret as Marik felt himself slip away. For in a Shadow Game the winner takes the title, the loser takes a trip into the Shadow Realm for eternity. "You battled well. Without honor, but well." The Pharaoh told him quietly.
"This battle.." The fading figure whispered. "Is not over yet," His voice began to strengthen as his body weakened. "And I'm not going to let you WALK AWAY UNSCATHED!"
And quicker than humanly possible the Millennium Rod flashed up. A beam of light shot out .straight at Yami. The young man gave a silent gasp but was not quick enough to dodge the attack. Suddenly he was falling, falling fast into oblivion. The last thing Yami remembered was Tea and Joey's concerted cry of fear and then two sharp tugs on the back of his shirt. And then all was gone.
Back at the site of the duel the Millennium Rod fell harmless to the ground. Marik was gone.and so was Yami and his two faithful friends.
After what had seemed hours, Yugi stirred. Groaning at the pain in his head he overcame his sleep fogged mind and slowly woke up. The first thing he noticed was that he was not in his bed, the hard surface he was lying on appeared to be concrete, and the reason it was cold was because he was outside. He propped himself up on his elbow and pulled himself into a sitting position. To the right of him Joey and Tea were also sprawled out upon the ground.
They were surrounded by shops, not even ordinary shops, for the look of them was anything but normal, and the names were just as odd. Strangely enough, people were passing them by without so much as a glance. But that could have been because they were partially hidden in the darkness of an open alley.
Yugi got to his feet and walked over to Joey. Getting on his knees he leaned over him and gently shook him, "Joey? Wake up. ." Slowly Joeys' eyes blinked open and he stared up at Yugi.
"What happened?"
"Marik used his Millennium Rod, and somehow we got transported here." Came Yugi's calm reply. Joey sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
"That was one heck of a journey, my head is sure feeling it." Yugi smiled fleetingly and looked over at Tea, who appeared to be just awakening as well. She sat up slowly rubbing the back of her head, and looked over at Joey and Yugi.
"Where are we?" she asked. It did not take Yugi long to answer.
"I don't know, and I don't recognize anything." After glancing around they were inclined to agree, nothing here was familiar.
Tea looked at them nervously, "What do we do now guys?"
"We find some really nice people and ask where we are of course!" Joey exclaimed brilliantly as Yugi nodded.
Pointing randomly Joey picked a couple out of the rather small crowd of oddly dressed people, dressed in robes. "Lets ask them, they look nice!" The couple he had picked did look nice enough if Yugi was any judge of character.
"Lets go then!" Yugi replied as the three of them jogged up to the couple Joey had picked out. Yugi was the first there and of course, the first to talk. "Hello, my friends and I were wondering if you could tell us where we are?" he said with a smile.
The couple, a rather tall man and a shorter woman, stopped and examined them.
"Of course we can, dear, you're in Diagon Ally. Do you need help? Are you lost?" asked the cheery woman in a kindly voice.
"Yes, we kind of are," said Yugi in a sheepish voice with a hand behind his head "We haven't been here before and we don't know anything about where we are except now we know that it's Diagon Ally. . ."
"Oh you poor dears!" she exclaimed, "and you haven't any place to go? Well you can come and stay with us until you get yourselves situated, and we can help you find your parents. This is my husband Arthur Weasley, my name's Molly, we would be glad to have you until then."
"Thanks, that would be great if you wouldn't mind."
"Of course not!" she replied as Yugi turned around to address his friends.
Joey was not looking altogether happy with the idea of following home a couple of complete strangers and Tea looked more than a little worried as well. It was obvious that they doubted Yugi, probably for his tendency of naïve trust. Sensing this, Yami then took control of Yugi's body and fixed each with a piercing, no nonsense stare. "We aren't in our world anymore, whatever Marik did, he transported us somewhere, and we don't know where. I think it would be best to go with them until we can sort out where we are and find a way to get back."
"I'm not so sure Yugi.but you've never let us down before. When none of us knows what's happening you've always got the answer. And at the moment I'm pretty sure none of us knows where we are, and I want to get back." said Joey.
"Me too." Replied Tea in a determined voice.
Turning back around Yami looked at Molly and Arthur, and nodded. Now that he felt his partner could take it from there, he slipped back to watch as Yugi was once again in control.
"Right," Said Yugi decisively. "My name's Yugi, these are my friends Tea and Joey. We're very grateful for your kindness and accept your offer."
Five minutes later the three friends found themselves gathered closely around a hearth with a fire blazing merrily inside.
"In you go, now!" Chirped Mrs. Weasley happily. The three gave her a joint stare of incredulity.
"Uh.I've been wrong before but I'm PRETTY sure that's a fireplace complete with a fire." Joey told her.
"Yes, dear." Concern flashed briefly across the woman's face. Perhaps she was a bit mystified as to why Joey would state such an obvious thing.
"Um.I'm flammable." Joey told her with raised eyebrow.
"Well, we all are, dear." She told him concern now quite evident.
"Excuse me," As one the group turned and again in unison tilted their heads down to find the source of the voice. Yugi smiled nervously and continued. "What Joey's trying to say is that it seems a bit dangerous to be walking into a burning fireplace. Couldn't we get seriously hurt?"
Mrs. Weasely stared at them for a moment, mouth partially open in a small round 'oh'. Her husband seemed just as shocked.
"You've never traveled by Floo Powder before?" She asked, regaining her composure.
"Floo.no I don't really think so." Replied Yugi politely.
"And.oh dear. One moment please." She turned to her husband and held a hurried conference muttered so Yugi only caught a few words. The rest of which were unintelligible and once or twice he swore he heard a strange utterance that sounded a bit like 'muggle.'
The three friends stood waiting, watching more oddly garbed people rush by carrying a variety of odd things. Yugi blinked, had that older man just rushed by carrying a jar of ORGANS? He decided not to mention it.
"They seem nice enough." The boy told Joey who snorted. Tea, who was unusually quiet, was chewing her lip.
"Are you okay, Tea?" Yugi asked, reaching over to set his hand upon her shoulder. Their height differences made it quite a reach.
"Hm? Oh yeah. It's just.well this place is so .so strange." She told him, eyes wide. "I'm not sure I like it here."
Yugi opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it again as the Weasely couple rejoined the group. There was a moment of silence and then Mr. Weasely cleared his throat.
"All right, you three, here's how to use Floo Powder. We'll work out the rest of this when we get home."
Tea went first. She stepped up to the blaze, powder in hand, closed her eyes and followed her pinch of powder in. "The Burrow!" She cried.
Yugi let out his breath slowly. Tea had simply disappeared. While this was far from a relief it was certainty better than watching one of his best friends go up in flame.
"No boiled Tea.I guess that's a good sign." Yugi heard Joey mutter as the taller boy took a much too large fistful of powder. Yugi blinked and Joey was gone.
"Your turn, Yugi." Mr. Weasley told him. "Just like I said. Take a pinch of powder and throw it in. Say the name of the place you want to go, the Burrow in this case, and then step in. Keep your elbows tucked in close so you don't hit anything."
The boy tried not to imagine what he might hit or even worse, what would happen if he did hit something. He swallowed nervously and took a pinch of the fine green powder.
Yami stood beside him, his presence strong and comforting. He smiled at the younger boy in an encouraging way. "Go on.I'm right behind you."
And with a deep breath Yugi stepped into the flames.
The title we really liked (Short Rod, Long Trip) was a mock title I came up with one day referring to Marik's Millennium Rod and the journey it has sent our friends on. We debated using it but didn't. It ended up sticking despite the fact that it sounds like a sort of twisted innuendo. I assure you, it is not ^_~
Copyright stuff: Neither Shadowcat and I own Harry Potter or Yu-Gi-Oh. Any of the characters or objects are not ours and we do not claim this. But if any of you are willing to buy me Yami I'll gladly accept.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon on the twenty-eighth day of August. It should have been a brilliantly sunny day with birds singing and a clear blue sky. That, oddly enough, was not the case. In fact, the case was quite the opposite. A strange dark covered the land and swallowed up the bright sun. Tendrils of chill mist hung heavily upon the air and if one took the time to stop and listen one might hear the strange rustling of nameless creatures dominating the sky. In the utter darkness of this strange, dreary day, there stood two figures.
One figure, was crouched over clutching his head. Sweat dripped like acid from this figure's body and splattered upon the ground. A figure of a wretched, trembling man at last subdued.
The second figure, on the other hand, stood defiantly against the shadows with arm outstretched towards a huge red beast. The second figure, a handsome young man with rather eccentric hair, stood several feet's distance from the first figure. He brought his arm down in a slashing motion. His extended forefinger halted in front of the other man's heart as he gave a powerful command.
"And now, Saint Dragon of Osiris, my God card, attack his life points directly!" Yami cried out his command in stern recognition of the inevitable. Across from him the evil spirit Marik crouched in utter defeat.
"This is impossible," The evil spirit growled hoarsely. "Impossible! I hold the power of the Winged Dragon of Ra! I hold the Millennium Rod! I am invincible!" "No one," Yami told him. "Is invincible." And in a flash of energy and light Osiris launched its attack.
"Aaahhhg!" Marik stumbled back, one hand dragging at his chest as if it might reach right in and pull the heart right out. That is, if Marik even had a heart. It didn't matter at the moment, though, all that mattered was that in a blur of digital light, his life points fell. A cold white '0' flashed ominously. In this world there was only one King of Games and Marik had not been worthy of this title. He who WAS worthy of this title stood across from him, hand still outstretched.
"Game over." And the evil man involuntarily fell to his knees in a mockery of a bow. A bow of defeat and total submission. A bow that signified who the game of Duel Monster's real master was.
"Goodbye.Marik," Yami's voice held what could pass for regret as Marik felt himself slip away. For in a Shadow Game the winner takes the title, the loser takes a trip into the Shadow Realm for eternity. "You battled well. Without honor, but well." The Pharaoh told him quietly.
"This battle.." The fading figure whispered. "Is not over yet," His voice began to strengthen as his body weakened. "And I'm not going to let you WALK AWAY UNSCATHED!"
And quicker than humanly possible the Millennium Rod flashed up. A beam of light shot out .straight at Yami. The young man gave a silent gasp but was not quick enough to dodge the attack. Suddenly he was falling, falling fast into oblivion. The last thing Yami remembered was Tea and Joey's concerted cry of fear and then two sharp tugs on the back of his shirt. And then all was gone.
Back at the site of the duel the Millennium Rod fell harmless to the ground. Marik was gone.and so was Yami and his two faithful friends.
After what had seemed hours, Yugi stirred. Groaning at the pain in his head he overcame his sleep fogged mind and slowly woke up. The first thing he noticed was that he was not in his bed, the hard surface he was lying on appeared to be concrete, and the reason it was cold was because he was outside. He propped himself up on his elbow and pulled himself into a sitting position. To the right of him Joey and Tea were also sprawled out upon the ground.
They were surrounded by shops, not even ordinary shops, for the look of them was anything but normal, and the names were just as odd. Strangely enough, people were passing them by without so much as a glance. But that could have been because they were partially hidden in the darkness of an open alley.
Yugi got to his feet and walked over to Joey. Getting on his knees he leaned over him and gently shook him, "Joey? Wake up. ." Slowly Joeys' eyes blinked open and he stared up at Yugi.
"What happened?"
"Marik used his Millennium Rod, and somehow we got transported here." Came Yugi's calm reply. Joey sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
"That was one heck of a journey, my head is sure feeling it." Yugi smiled fleetingly and looked over at Tea, who appeared to be just awakening as well. She sat up slowly rubbing the back of her head, and looked over at Joey and Yugi.
"Where are we?" she asked. It did not take Yugi long to answer.
"I don't know, and I don't recognize anything." After glancing around they were inclined to agree, nothing here was familiar.
Tea looked at them nervously, "What do we do now guys?"
"We find some really nice people and ask where we are of course!" Joey exclaimed brilliantly as Yugi nodded.
Pointing randomly Joey picked a couple out of the rather small crowd of oddly dressed people, dressed in robes. "Lets ask them, they look nice!" The couple he had picked did look nice enough if Yugi was any judge of character.
"Lets go then!" Yugi replied as the three of them jogged up to the couple Joey had picked out. Yugi was the first there and of course, the first to talk. "Hello, my friends and I were wondering if you could tell us where we are?" he said with a smile.
The couple, a rather tall man and a shorter woman, stopped and examined them.
"Of course we can, dear, you're in Diagon Ally. Do you need help? Are you lost?" asked the cheery woman in a kindly voice.
"Yes, we kind of are," said Yugi in a sheepish voice with a hand behind his head "We haven't been here before and we don't know anything about where we are except now we know that it's Diagon Ally. . ."
"Oh you poor dears!" she exclaimed, "and you haven't any place to go? Well you can come and stay with us until you get yourselves situated, and we can help you find your parents. This is my husband Arthur Weasley, my name's Molly, we would be glad to have you until then."
"Thanks, that would be great if you wouldn't mind."
"Of course not!" she replied as Yugi turned around to address his friends.
Joey was not looking altogether happy with the idea of following home a couple of complete strangers and Tea looked more than a little worried as well. It was obvious that they doubted Yugi, probably for his tendency of naïve trust. Sensing this, Yami then took control of Yugi's body and fixed each with a piercing, no nonsense stare. "We aren't in our world anymore, whatever Marik did, he transported us somewhere, and we don't know where. I think it would be best to go with them until we can sort out where we are and find a way to get back."
"I'm not so sure Yugi.but you've never let us down before. When none of us knows what's happening you've always got the answer. And at the moment I'm pretty sure none of us knows where we are, and I want to get back." said Joey.
"Me too." Replied Tea in a determined voice.
Turning back around Yami looked at Molly and Arthur, and nodded. Now that he felt his partner could take it from there, he slipped back to watch as Yugi was once again in control.
"Right," Said Yugi decisively. "My name's Yugi, these are my friends Tea and Joey. We're very grateful for your kindness and accept your offer."
Five minutes later the three friends found themselves gathered closely around a hearth with a fire blazing merrily inside.
"In you go, now!" Chirped Mrs. Weasley happily. The three gave her a joint stare of incredulity.
"Uh.I've been wrong before but I'm PRETTY sure that's a fireplace complete with a fire." Joey told her.
"Yes, dear." Concern flashed briefly across the woman's face. Perhaps she was a bit mystified as to why Joey would state such an obvious thing.
"Um.I'm flammable." Joey told her with raised eyebrow.
"Well, we all are, dear." She told him concern now quite evident.
"Excuse me," As one the group turned and again in unison tilted their heads down to find the source of the voice. Yugi smiled nervously and continued. "What Joey's trying to say is that it seems a bit dangerous to be walking into a burning fireplace. Couldn't we get seriously hurt?"
Mrs. Weasely stared at them for a moment, mouth partially open in a small round 'oh'. Her husband seemed just as shocked.
"You've never traveled by Floo Powder before?" She asked, regaining her composure.
"Floo.no I don't really think so." Replied Yugi politely.
"And.oh dear. One moment please." She turned to her husband and held a hurried conference muttered so Yugi only caught a few words. The rest of which were unintelligible and once or twice he swore he heard a strange utterance that sounded a bit like 'muggle.'
The three friends stood waiting, watching more oddly garbed people rush by carrying a variety of odd things. Yugi blinked, had that older man just rushed by carrying a jar of ORGANS? He decided not to mention it.
"They seem nice enough." The boy told Joey who snorted. Tea, who was unusually quiet, was chewing her lip.
"Are you okay, Tea?" Yugi asked, reaching over to set his hand upon her shoulder. Their height differences made it quite a reach.
"Hm? Oh yeah. It's just.well this place is so .so strange." She told him, eyes wide. "I'm not sure I like it here."
Yugi opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it again as the Weasely couple rejoined the group. There was a moment of silence and then Mr. Weasely cleared his throat.
"All right, you three, here's how to use Floo Powder. We'll work out the rest of this when we get home."
Tea went first. She stepped up to the blaze, powder in hand, closed her eyes and followed her pinch of powder in. "The Burrow!" She cried.
Yugi let out his breath slowly. Tea had simply disappeared. While this was far from a relief it was certainty better than watching one of his best friends go up in flame.
"No boiled Tea.I guess that's a good sign." Yugi heard Joey mutter as the taller boy took a much too large fistful of powder. Yugi blinked and Joey was gone.
"Your turn, Yugi." Mr. Weasley told him. "Just like I said. Take a pinch of powder and throw it in. Say the name of the place you want to go, the Burrow in this case, and then step in. Keep your elbows tucked in close so you don't hit anything."
The boy tried not to imagine what he might hit or even worse, what would happen if he did hit something. He swallowed nervously and took a pinch of the fine green powder.
Yami stood beside him, his presence strong and comforting. He smiled at the younger boy in an encouraging way. "Go on.I'm right behind you."
And with a deep breath Yugi stepped into the flames.