If you think this is the end, you are mistaken. It's not over yet, there's still one more battle to take place and boy, is it a doozy. Be sure to stay after the end of the story and there'll be a special surprise and a surprise announcement (well, I guess it isn't that much of a surprise since I probably already announced it). Anyway, enjoy the last three chapters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joey burst up from a pile of dust and wood chips. His shirt was torn in several places and his face was ashen. He looked around, "Hey is everybody all right?"
"Define all right," Tristan said up righting his motorcycle.
Kaiba was looking around frantically for Mokuba. "Mokuba! Mokuba, where are you? Mokuba, answer me!"
"He's okay, Kaiba," Mai called pushing a surviving plank of masonite from on top of her. She stood up revealing that she sheltered Mokuba from a majority of the blast. Their clothes were also torn, though fortunately for Mai, her clothes weren't torn in any place that she didn't want others to see.
"Seto!"
"Mokuba!" The Kaibas embraced one another. Kaiba looked at Mai, or rather, at Mai's feet. "Thank you," he said like he didn't really want to say it. Mai just nodded.
"Look at this place," Bakura said. "Masters really didn't spare any expense. Tea!" Bakura ran over to Tea who had ended up leaning against a tree. "Tea, here, let me help... your shoulder!"
Tea looked at her right shoulder. The explosion had ripped the shoulder of her shirt and a small red mark could be seen, about the length of a pinky finger and as wide as a piece of paper. "Oh, it's a... old wound." Tea gasped as she saw the carnage around her. "Oh no, Yugi!" Tea hobbled to her feet and ran towards where the mansion once stood. Tristan and Bakura each grabbed an arm. "Yugi, Yugi, say something! Yugi, where are you?"
"Tea, forget it," Tristan said. "Nothing could've survived that! It's useless!"
"No... no, it can't be..." Tea dropped to her knees.
"Oh man... oh man... oh man," Joey kept saying.
Mai patted his back. "You okay?"
"I... I don't know... oh man."
Even Kaiba couldn't believe it. "This is insane. I admit Yugi Moto isn't my favorite person, but..." his head lowered either in mourning or shame. "I wouldn't want to wish this sort of fate on anybody... not even him."
An aristocratic laugh caught their ears. They turned to see Edric leaning against a tree clapping. "Incredible, that explosion was simply incredible. Once again, my brilliance and technological skills have brought me victory!"
"Why that dirty stinking son of..." Tristan ran up to him and gripped him by the collar of his jacket and held him against a tree. "You'll pay for what you did."
"Go ahead, pound me into the dirt if you wish, you know that doing so won't be able to bring him back."
"Maybe not, but it would make me feel a whole lot better," Tristan said as he wound up to deliver a head-pounding punch but Joey stopped him.
"Forget it, man; this little rat ain't worth the energy." Tristan dropped Edric on the ground.
"Just as I thought," Edric said as Tristan led Joey away. "You're all weak, pathetic, and useless. I knew you would be listening in to our duel and I allowed it. I even allowed you to rescue poor Tea from my dungeon. It didn't matter, for in the end, I accomplished my overall goal: to put an end to the most self-centered Duelist of all, Yugi Moto!"
Enraged, Kaiba stepped forward. "I challenge you to a duel and if I win, you turn yourself into the police for murder and kidnapping!" Kaiba aimed his Duel Disk at Edric like a weapon.
"Oh please, Seto Kaiba, you saw how I backed Yugi up into a corner, do you really think you... of all people, have a chance to defeat me especially when I have Machina, the Machine God in my deck?" Mai quickly went to her car (which had somehow survived the blast) and grabbed her Dark Duel Disk. She threw it to Bakura while she donned her Battle City one.
"Then if you beat him, you can duel me next," Joey said putting on his Duel Disk.
"And then me," Mai said stepping forward.
"And then me," Bakura threw in ready to use his ring to boot Edric on a one-way trip to the Shadow Realm.
"Wait," Tea said stepping forward. She went up and looked Edric directly in the eye. She turned to Kaiba. "Kaiba, lend me your Duel Disk."
"Why should I?"
"Because I am going to duel him. I'll never forgive him for what he did to me or to Yugi. I'll duel this little toad."
"Tea, wait," Joey said. "Maybe Kaiba or I should duel, we have a better chance."
"Wheeler's right," Kaiba said trying to resist the urge to role his eyes at saying that. "You wouldn't stand a chance going up against Machina, the Machine God."
"Don't argue with me," Tea snapped making the normally stoic Kaiba shift his weight to his back foot. "I'll duel him and that's that."
"None of you can stop Machina. Even you, Seto Kaiba, with your precious Blue-Eyes White Dragons," Edric mocked Kaiba's favorite card making Kaiba even more infuriated. "Even all three of them wouldn't have the attack power to take on Machina, the Machine God."
Perhaps he's right, Kaiba thought. But maybe... if I combine them and increase their power with...
"Let me just show you how hopeless your cause is." Edric pressed a button on his remote control and the whole ground started to shake. "Long ago, this place used to sit on an old army base complete with a missile silo. When I inherited this place, I converted it to my new pet project. For years, I have been developing this and now it's finished. I think I'll show it all to you." The foundation of where the house once stood parted and a platform rose what could only be described as a fifty-foot version of Machina, the Machine God, complete with laser-emitting spires on its back.
Kaiba noticed something odd about it: a small 'KC' logo on the side. "So you're the one who's been stealing Kaiba-Corp. technology."
"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock, did you figure that out all by yourself?" Edric asked sarcastically. "It was so easy, hacking into your mainframe and changing the place of delivery to one of my warehouses instead of one of yours. And once people see something with the Kaiba-Corp. logo had been responsible for the death of the famous Yugi Moto, well... let's just say I'll be the overall winner."
What do we do? Tea asked herself as she looked at the giant machine. Yugi, if there was any time when we really needed you, now's the time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Yugi? Yugi! YUGI!"
Yugi moaned, "Is it morning time already?" He was dazed.
Yami stood over him and smiled in relief. "Good, you're not dead."
"Yami, where are we?" Yugi asked.
"Someplace I wished we would never end up in again. Take a look." Yugi got up and looked around but all he could see was dark smoke. But even though that was all he could see, he knew where he was.
"The Shadow Realm."
"Yes, apparently we were somehow transported here when the mansion exploded."
"But is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Despite what you may think, it's a good thing, Yugi," an unfamiliar voice said. Two shadows were walking towards him through the shadows. Yugi and Yami got ready for a confrontation.
But it was unnecessary, for the two who appeared were the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl.
"Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl?"
"That's correct," Dark Magician Girl said. "You are here because we willed it."
"You mean... you brought me here to the Shadow Realm? Why?"
"To save your life, of course."
"I know your previous experiences in the Shadow Realm were not pleasant ones, Yugi," the Dark Magician said. "But like she said, we wanted to save your life. The Shadow Realm is the only place where you would be safe from the explosion."
Yugi gasped as he matched their voices to the voices who called out to him during his duel with Kaiba. It was them who told him that his cards believed in him. Yugi trusted them then and in turn, he won the duel. Did Yugi trust them now? Of course he would trust his two favorite cards. Besides, it wasn't like he had much of a choice.
"I don't know what to say, guys, I'm really grateful, but... but what about my friends? What about Tea and the others? Are they all right?"
Dark Magician Girl looked at Dark Magician. The Dark Magician nodded and held out his staff. A scene showed of the others confronting Edric and Edric activating a large version of Machina, the Machine God. "Oh no, they're in trouble! And there's nothing I can do!"
"But there is something we can do," Dark Magician Girl added. "We can protect them."
"Huh, just the two of you?"
"Not just us..." Multiple flashes of light came from the deck of Duel Monster cards that Yugi had in his pocket and took the forms of all of his monsters, every monster that he used in his duels against Edric. "Yugi, you treated us with respect and kindness, the same way you treat your friends. You mourned for me even when I was under Edric's control when anyone else would've given up. It would be an honor to defend your friends."
"All right, but... how do we do it?"
"If we were to appear in your world, we would just be illusions, mirages, figments of the imagination," Dark Magician Girl said.
"Holograms," Yami translated. Yugi nodded showing he understood.
"But if a Shadow Game were to start up over the monster, we would be able to unleash our powers on it and destroy it," Dark Magician said.
"A Shadow Game? But... how do I know I won't end up like Pegasus, or worse... Bakura's Millennium Ring Spirit?"
Dark Magician Girl bent down until she was eye-level with Yugi. She took his hand and held it over her heart. "It's this that keeps you from succumbing to the shadows." She then moved it over Yugi's own heart. "You listened to and believed in your heart and that is what keeps you from becoming like Pegasus or the Millennium Ring Spirit. And it will be your heart and your soul that will save your friends and defeat this evil once and for all. Your duel today proved that the two most powerful forces alive are the human heart and the human soul." Yugi stared into the Dark Magician Girl's deep blue eyes. In her eyes, he saw that she believed everything she was telling him... and so did he. But deep down, he was still wondering why the monsters all volunteered to help him. Was it because of his ties to the Pharaoh? Or were they just doing it out of pity or was it something else?
"Yugi." It was the Tea look-a-like that appeared when Machina attacked him. She walked up to Yugi and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yugi, all these monsters have chosen to come to your aid not because of your link to the Pharaoh, but because of the nobility of your own spirit and the purity of your own heart. You and the Pharaoh are one and the same, and no matter what may happen in the future, the two of you will always be connected."
Yugi and Yami briefly switched. "I understand, but... I also have a question. What you showed me... what you showed us, did it really happen? Did I unite the bearers of the Millennium Items against a great evil?"
She nodded. "You did, I should know. I was there. For in saving the world, you also saved my soul from a terrible fate. And for that, my Pharaoh, I will always be grateful."
"Before, you said 'my beloved.' Does that mean..."
The woman placed a finger over Yami's mouth. "That question is not ready to be answered just yet. But rest assured... when the time does come, we will meet again." She kissed Yami briefly on the lips. "Until then, my Pharaoh... my beloved." and she disappeared.
Yugi took back control of his body and turned to his two favorite monsters. "All right, I'm ready!"
"You do realize that performing a task as big as this could be very taxing on you, Yugi."
"If it saves my friends, I don't care if it kills me!" Yugi declared.
The Dark Magician nodded. "Then summon the power of the Millennium Puzzle. Join with the spirit of the Pharaoh and protect your friends as you had done so in the past."
Yugi nodded. The Millennium Puzzle shined brighter than ever as Yugi released its full power into the sky. A speck of light appeared above them. The speck of light got bigger and bigger until it was big enough to fit a person through, or rather several people. The monsters assembled around Yugi turned into orbs of light and disappeared into the hole in the sky. Finally, Yugi himself did likewise.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Look out!" Mai tackled Joey and Mokuba sending them out of harm's way. The harm, in this case, was Machina's giant fist.
"How do we stop something that enormous?" Joey asked.
"You don't," Edric said. "You can only watch as it puts an end to your miserable lives."
"Why are you doing this?" Mai asked.
"Simple, you chose to side with Yugi Moto and his pathetic emotions."
"We're not going to let you get away with this!" Mokuba charged towards Edric but only ended up getting kicked to the ground.
"I think I'll start my destruction with you, little Kaiba. Can't have any of you riff-raff trying to upstage me in the future." Machina picked up Mokuba and went forward.
"Mokuba!" With lightning-quick speed, Kaiba kicked the remote out of Edric's hands. "That's what you get for messing with my family and my company."
"It won't do you any good, Seto Kaiba. In the event that the remote is taken from me or destroyed, Machina is asked to carry out the last orders given to it, and I ordered it to kill everybody except me."
"This isn't good," Mai said avoiding lasers that were coming from one of Machina's spires. "That thing could put the whole city in danger!"
"Bakura, let me take control," the ring protested. "I have the power to finish this thing off."
"No, how do I know you won't try to destroy Joey and the others?"
"Because right now we have more pressing concerns like trying to stay alive; just say the word."
"Fine, switch." Yami-Bakura emerged and took out his deck.
"Time to cause some damage," the spirit said. "Dark Necrofear, come forth!" A bald, blue-skinned woman appeared and attacked Machina. But Machina pinned it with one of its large arms. Machina zapped Dark Necrofear with its spire lasers. It didn't let up until Dark Necrofear was destroyed. The Millennium Ring Spirit growled and took out another monster card. "Patrician of Darkness, attack with Life-Draining Kiss!" The blue-skinned vampire-like monster didn't even get a chance before a shaft of energy emitted from Machina's eye and blew it up. "Blast, I was wrong; I'm not strong enough to do any serious damage like this." Regular Bakura took back his own body. "Then let me give it a shot. Man-Eater Bug!" A bug leaped out of the card and struck Machina but it had no affect on it. "Morphing Jar!" Bakura unleased several destroy all cards but they all had no effect. "So what do we do now?"
"I don't know."
We're doomed, Tea thought. Yugi could barely stand up to it with his cards and our cards aiding him, how can we do the same without anything to protect ourselves? Kaiba and Tristan dove behind Machina in an attempt to avoid its hand but ended up being the target of its multi-directional spire lasers. I know we can't give up. Yugi would never give up, even when things seemed their darkest. Bakura used a Dark Mirror Force trap card to protect himself and Mai from an attack. And we can't either. Edric was chuckling, clearly enjoying the carnage before him. But I don't know what to do. We need a miracle.
Tea got her miracle.
From the rubble of the house, a shaft of dark energy shot into the air catching everyone's attention. Everything began to get covered in darkness.