Chapter Four.
Once again Yugi awoke from an unexpected sleep only this time he was no safe nor was he sound within the protective walls of a space craft. No, this time he was floating in space tethered to an asteroid.
"Where am I?" Yugi asked himself at first then he looked up and saw the run was distant and far off. He was no longer with in the confines of the solar system. "Weevil, that's right, he tricked us. Kaiba tricked us. I'll be that he wasn't really broken down. He just wanted to get me out and leave me here." Yugi didn't realize that his personal transmitter was online or he wouldn't have spoken such words out loud.
"Don't be ridicules Yugi, I haven't brought you all this way just to abandon you. I want to see you die before my very eyes." Yugi looked around for where the disembodied voice was coming from and then he looked to a nearby asteroid. To his surprise Seto Kaiba was standing tethered to the hunk of space rock just as he was. He had his duel disk on and he looked ready for a fight.
"Well Yugi if he's ready for a fight, then let's give him one." Yami whispered in Yugi's ear.
"Sure thing." Yugi replied then he transformed from just being little Yugi Mouto to YU-GI-OH "Kaiba what's the meaning of this treasury?" Yugioh demanded to know.
"I mean to take your life Yugi. For far too long you have haunted my steps and brought me the shame of loosing to you on the battlefield. Therefore, I have created a Shadow Game for us to play. Here in the cold dark of space will we play for the right to live." Kaiba told him.
"What do you mean, the right to live?" Yugioh asked.
"I mean simply that right now our two ships and your precious freinds are far away and the only way that either of us are going to get back alive is if one of us wins a shadow duel and thus wins the right to undo the tethers from our asteroids. Once the victor is free, he can then use this space shuttle, the Blue Eyes One to make it back to the fleet." Kaiba said and just as he said it, a small shuttle came flying by with Mokuba Kaiba in the pilot's seat.
"Kaiba this is madness, why do you persist in these foolish shadow games when there is no reason for them? Don't you know that I don't care for pride or dignity. You have never been less of a man in my eyes. In fact I've always considered you a close friend. Now undo these tethers and let's rejoin the fleet before it's too late." Yugioh said.
"NO! Not while both of us live! Yugi, for one of us to live a happy life, the other must die. I can not go on living any longer with you. I must kill you in order to go on with my life but first I must beat you in a shadow game. Do you remember the last time we dueled?"
"I do." Yugioh replied.
"I have gotten much stronger since then and now I'm ready for my ultimate victory. One which will usher in a new age for humanity." Kaiba stated. "One of us will return alive to lead the human race to it's new homeland and be hailed as a living god. The other will die a cold lonely death in the darkness of space."
"Kaiba think about what you're doing." Yugioh pleaded with him. "Do you really want my blood on your hands? Do you really want to make my family and friends hate you for all eternity? Please Kaiba we both have people we want to go back to. You have your brother and Serenity Wheeler. I have Tea, my Grandfather, Joey, Tristan, and…"
"Enough!" Kaiba yelled. "I don't care about any of that anymore. I don't care if any of your friends love me or hate me."
"And what about Serenity?" Yugioh asked.
"I love her, but it really doesn't matter is she loves me, or hates me. What matters is that I can go on with my life knowing that I was the better man." Kaiba told him then.
"Kaiba, if you truly want to be the better man then undo these tethers and let's go home to our families." Yugioh tried to reason with him again, but there was no reasoning with a madman. Not when his pride was hurt and his ego was at stake.
"It's too late Yugi, we're dueling, and I'm going to win. Now pick up your duel disk and prepare yourself for death's embrace." Kaiba drew his five cards off the top of his deck. Yugioh looked down at his feet and there was his duel disk and deck. He had no choice but to play this deadly shadow game after all.
"Very well then Kaiba, if there can be no reasoning with you then I'll play but I will play to win." Yugioh put his duel disk on and drew his five cards. "I'll start things off, if that's alright with you?"
"Fine." Kaiba replied.
"I play Alpha The Magnet Warrior in Attack Mode and now I play Pot of Greed." Yugioh drew two more cards from his deck then laid two of them face down. "I end my turn."
"Good, you were taking too long anyway." Kaiba berated him. "Now then for my move I draw one card from my deck."
"Activate Light Force Sword!" Yugioh cried.
"What?" The card in Kiaba's hand went out of play then and would stay out of play for four of his turns. "Yugi, you'll pay for that. I summon the Familiar Knight to the field. In the space between the asteroids their monsters appeared and waited for the command to do battle. It was Yugioh's turn now and so he drew a card.
"Activate trap card!" Kaiba said. His face down card flipped face up and it was Jar of Greed. He too drew one card from his deck and then Yugi summoned a second monster.
"I play Beta Magnet Warrior with 1700 attack points to destroy you Familiar Knight." When the Familiar Knight was destroyed, Kaiba's life points went down from 8000 to 7500 then he and Yugioh both were able to summon another monster to the field. This gave Yugioh two monsters against Kaiba's one monster. "I summon The Rare Metal Dragon."
"And I summon Gamma The Magnet Warrior!" Yugioh's three monsters were weaker than Kaiba's monster though. Alpha had only 1400 attack points, Beta 1700, and Gamma had only 1500 against Kaiba's dragon which had 2400 attack points. So as his last move on that turn, Yugioh combined them. "I offer up Alpha, Beta, and Gamma to summon to the field Valkyrion The Magna Warrior with 3500 attack points and I end my turn."
"Curse you Yugi, but very well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve also. I play Megamorph and equip it to my Dragon. Now he's 4800 points strong and your Magna Warrior is weaker. Now feel the wrath of the Dragons! Attack my Rare Metal Dragon and destroy his monster!" The dragon attacked and Valkyrion was destroyed, leaving Yugi's life points at 6700.
---------Scene Break--------
Tea and the others awoke on the bridge of their ship with Pegasus in the in the command seat. They all disoriented
"What happened?" Joey asked. "Feels like I was struck by lightning of something."
"Whatever it was, Weevil did it to us." Ryou pointed out. "I'll bet that he had planned it all along too."
"But why?" Tea asked. Then she realized what was wrong. "Oh my gosh guys, where's Yugi?" They looked all around and when they could not find him they searched the ship for him but he was not there. "Guys what if Kaiba took him?" Tea supposed.
"Why would he do that?" Duke asked. "Kaiba hates Yugi." Then it dawned on them. This whole scenario had been a ploy so that Kaiba could kidnap Yugi and get his revenge on him.
"We've got to find him guys, we've got to catch up to Kaiba's ship!" Tea said as they all took their stations on the bridge. Duke and Ryou took seats at navigation and communications while Rebecca took up the Engineering station. Being that she was the brightest amongst them and most qualified.
"I am a College Student After all, and cute for my age." She had told Pegasus when she volunteered. Once they had the ship up and running again they immediately started tracking down the Blue Eyes Two and the rest of the fleet. They all supposed that Yugi and Kaiba would be aboard.
-------Scene Break--------
Kaiba and Yugioh had dueled for what seemed like an eternity in the vastness of space. Their air tanks were running low, their breathing was forced, and they were both so cold. Kaiba's life points were down to 500, and Yugioh's to 450. This would be the draw that determined it all.
"I tribute Kaiser Sea Horse to summon The Blue Eyes White Dragon." Kaiba said.
"Activate face down card." Yugioh replied. "Chain Destruction. Now your other two Blue Eyes White Dragons have been sent to the grave yard and you can not play them again."
"Damn you Yugi!" Kaiba cursed. "Very well then, I only need one Blue Eyes to destroy you. You have nothing left, all three of your Egyptian God cards have been destroyed along with my Blue Eyes Shining Dragon. Now we'll see who is the better Duelist when it comes down to the last cards in our hands. Go my blue Eyes white dragon, attack his Summoned Skull!"
"Not so fast Kaiba!" Yugioh cried out. "Reveal my other face down card, Mirror Force!" Kaiba's blue eyes was destroyed by it's own attack and that meant that on Yugio's turn he would win.
"NO!" Kaiba yelled. "NOT AGAIN!"
"Summoned Skull, attack his life points directly!" Yugioh commanded and it was so. Kaiba's life points fell to 0 and Kaiba sank to his knees.
"Again, he beat me again. Why does he always beat me?" He demanded.
"Because Kaiba, you were dueling out of malice. I was dueling out of love. I was dueling for my beloved Tea and my friends. To see them happy again. Now I will make you an offer. Come back with me to the ship and let's put all this behind us. I'm willing to forgive you if you are willing to accept." Yugioh told him.
"Please just forget this big brother." Mokuba said over the radio. "I don't want to have to leave you out here. I love you Seto and think of how sad it will make Serenity if you die!"
"Mokuba…Serenity… Yugi, I don't know what to do." Kaiba said at last. "I can't lead this expedition onward after all I've done. I can't go on with your victories hanging over my head. I don't know what to do."
"Well I know what to do." Mokuba said as he positioned this shuttle's grappling arm. "I'm going to take both you and Yugi home, Seto." Mokuba cut the tethers from the asteroids and then one at a time, he lifted his brother, then Yugioh to safety. Once they were both back on board, Kaiba berated his brother for helping them.
"You should have left us both out there to die." Kaiba told Mokuba from the pilot's seat of the cockpit.
"You say that now big brother, but once you see Serenity again, you'll be glad that I saved you." Mokuba was not the least bit hurt by his brother's fowl manner. Nor was Yugioh who was now once again, little Yugi Mouto. He was just glad that the shadow game was over, and that both he, and Kaiba had survived. Now they were on their way to join back up with the rest of the fleet. That meant that Yugi would soon be safely back in the arms of his beloved Tea.
-------Scene Break----------
Little did Yugi and the Kaiba's know that their ships would not be where they thought they would be. For Tea and the others had mounted a daring rescue mission of their own accord upon finding out that Yugi was not aboard the Blue Eyes Two. Now Tea and the others were desperately trying to track down the Blue Eyes One's propellant trail.
"Their propellant!" Rebecca had exclaimed from her seat at engineering. "We can track their propellant trail if their engines are still expelling fuel. Liquid fuel such as rocket boosters are easier to track because they use fossil fuels, which burn up faster, and leave trace amounts of carbon monoxide."
"What about the fact that we're in space, can we pick up such small trace amounts of Carbon in an atmosphereless environment?" Duke asked.
"Sure, it's a lot easier than trying to pick it up when mixed with air. Here in space there are practically no other elements to interfere." Rebecca informed them.
"Great, then lets go." Tea commanded. She stood up front now on the bridge watching out the windows for them.
---------Scene Break---------
"The Blue Eyes Two should be right here." Kaiba said as he scanned the area but both ships had long since left this area of space.
"Where could they have gone?" Mokuba asked as he searched in vain out through the windows for their mother ship.
"They must have gone looking for us." Yugi supposed. "If we go back to the asteroids then maybe…"
"We haven't got time to run around in circles, Yugi." Kaiba told him. "This shuttle only has enough fuel and stored up batteries to last us another few hours. It's only a test ship if you'll remember. When I launched it into space the week before we took off from Earth, it was left in orbit around the planet until we picked it up. I had thought to use it as a temporary ship to ship transfer shuttle. It was never intended to last more than a week in space on it's own."
"And it's already spent a week up here." Yugi realized. "Then what do we do once the power runs out?"
"We die." Kaiba replied.
Once again Yugi awoke from an unexpected sleep only this time he was no safe nor was he sound within the protective walls of a space craft. No, this time he was floating in space tethered to an asteroid.
"Where am I?" Yugi asked himself at first then he looked up and saw the run was distant and far off. He was no longer with in the confines of the solar system. "Weevil, that's right, he tricked us. Kaiba tricked us. I'll be that he wasn't really broken down. He just wanted to get me out and leave me here." Yugi didn't realize that his personal transmitter was online or he wouldn't have spoken such words out loud.
"Don't be ridicules Yugi, I haven't brought you all this way just to abandon you. I want to see you die before my very eyes." Yugi looked around for where the disembodied voice was coming from and then he looked to a nearby asteroid. To his surprise Seto Kaiba was standing tethered to the hunk of space rock just as he was. He had his duel disk on and he looked ready for a fight.
"Well Yugi if he's ready for a fight, then let's give him one." Yami whispered in Yugi's ear.
"Sure thing." Yugi replied then he transformed from just being little Yugi Mouto to YU-GI-OH "Kaiba what's the meaning of this treasury?" Yugioh demanded to know.
"I mean to take your life Yugi. For far too long you have haunted my steps and brought me the shame of loosing to you on the battlefield. Therefore, I have created a Shadow Game for us to play. Here in the cold dark of space will we play for the right to live." Kaiba told him.
"What do you mean, the right to live?" Yugioh asked.
"I mean simply that right now our two ships and your precious freinds are far away and the only way that either of us are going to get back alive is if one of us wins a shadow duel and thus wins the right to undo the tethers from our asteroids. Once the victor is free, he can then use this space shuttle, the Blue Eyes One to make it back to the fleet." Kaiba said and just as he said it, a small shuttle came flying by with Mokuba Kaiba in the pilot's seat.
"Kaiba this is madness, why do you persist in these foolish shadow games when there is no reason for them? Don't you know that I don't care for pride or dignity. You have never been less of a man in my eyes. In fact I've always considered you a close friend. Now undo these tethers and let's rejoin the fleet before it's too late." Yugioh said.
"NO! Not while both of us live! Yugi, for one of us to live a happy life, the other must die. I can not go on living any longer with you. I must kill you in order to go on with my life but first I must beat you in a shadow game. Do you remember the last time we dueled?"
"I do." Yugioh replied.
"I have gotten much stronger since then and now I'm ready for my ultimate victory. One which will usher in a new age for humanity." Kaiba stated. "One of us will return alive to lead the human race to it's new homeland and be hailed as a living god. The other will die a cold lonely death in the darkness of space."
"Kaiba think about what you're doing." Yugioh pleaded with him. "Do you really want my blood on your hands? Do you really want to make my family and friends hate you for all eternity? Please Kaiba we both have people we want to go back to. You have your brother and Serenity Wheeler. I have Tea, my Grandfather, Joey, Tristan, and…"
"Enough!" Kaiba yelled. "I don't care about any of that anymore. I don't care if any of your friends love me or hate me."
"And what about Serenity?" Yugioh asked.
"I love her, but it really doesn't matter is she loves me, or hates me. What matters is that I can go on with my life knowing that I was the better man." Kaiba told him then.
"Kaiba, if you truly want to be the better man then undo these tethers and let's go home to our families." Yugioh tried to reason with him again, but there was no reasoning with a madman. Not when his pride was hurt and his ego was at stake.
"It's too late Yugi, we're dueling, and I'm going to win. Now pick up your duel disk and prepare yourself for death's embrace." Kaiba drew his five cards off the top of his deck. Yugioh looked down at his feet and there was his duel disk and deck. He had no choice but to play this deadly shadow game after all.
"Very well then Kaiba, if there can be no reasoning with you then I'll play but I will play to win." Yugioh put his duel disk on and drew his five cards. "I'll start things off, if that's alright with you?"
"Fine." Kaiba replied.
"I play Alpha The Magnet Warrior in Attack Mode and now I play Pot of Greed." Yugioh drew two more cards from his deck then laid two of them face down. "I end my turn."
"Good, you were taking too long anyway." Kaiba berated him. "Now then for my move I draw one card from my deck."
"Activate Light Force Sword!" Yugioh cried.
"What?" The card in Kiaba's hand went out of play then and would stay out of play for four of his turns. "Yugi, you'll pay for that. I summon the Familiar Knight to the field. In the space between the asteroids their monsters appeared and waited for the command to do battle. It was Yugioh's turn now and so he drew a card.
"Activate trap card!" Kaiba said. His face down card flipped face up and it was Jar of Greed. He too drew one card from his deck and then Yugi summoned a second monster.
"I play Beta Magnet Warrior with 1700 attack points to destroy you Familiar Knight." When the Familiar Knight was destroyed, Kaiba's life points went down from 8000 to 7500 then he and Yugioh both were able to summon another monster to the field. This gave Yugioh two monsters against Kaiba's one monster. "I summon The Rare Metal Dragon."
"And I summon Gamma The Magnet Warrior!" Yugioh's three monsters were weaker than Kaiba's monster though. Alpha had only 1400 attack points, Beta 1700, and Gamma had only 1500 against Kaiba's dragon which had 2400 attack points. So as his last move on that turn, Yugioh combined them. "I offer up Alpha, Beta, and Gamma to summon to the field Valkyrion The Magna Warrior with 3500 attack points and I end my turn."
"Curse you Yugi, but very well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve also. I play Megamorph and equip it to my Dragon. Now he's 4800 points strong and your Magna Warrior is weaker. Now feel the wrath of the Dragons! Attack my Rare Metal Dragon and destroy his monster!" The dragon attacked and Valkyrion was destroyed, leaving Yugi's life points at 6700.
---------Scene Break--------
Tea and the others awoke on the bridge of their ship with Pegasus in the in the command seat. They all disoriented
"What happened?" Joey asked. "Feels like I was struck by lightning of something."
"Whatever it was, Weevil did it to us." Ryou pointed out. "I'll bet that he had planned it all along too."
"But why?" Tea asked. Then she realized what was wrong. "Oh my gosh guys, where's Yugi?" They looked all around and when they could not find him they searched the ship for him but he was not there. "Guys what if Kaiba took him?" Tea supposed.
"Why would he do that?" Duke asked. "Kaiba hates Yugi." Then it dawned on them. This whole scenario had been a ploy so that Kaiba could kidnap Yugi and get his revenge on him.
"We've got to find him guys, we've got to catch up to Kaiba's ship!" Tea said as they all took their stations on the bridge. Duke and Ryou took seats at navigation and communications while Rebecca took up the Engineering station. Being that she was the brightest amongst them and most qualified.
"I am a College Student After all, and cute for my age." She had told Pegasus when she volunteered. Once they had the ship up and running again they immediately started tracking down the Blue Eyes Two and the rest of the fleet. They all supposed that Yugi and Kaiba would be aboard.
-------Scene Break--------
Kaiba and Yugioh had dueled for what seemed like an eternity in the vastness of space. Their air tanks were running low, their breathing was forced, and they were both so cold. Kaiba's life points were down to 500, and Yugioh's to 450. This would be the draw that determined it all.
"I tribute Kaiser Sea Horse to summon The Blue Eyes White Dragon." Kaiba said.
"Activate face down card." Yugioh replied. "Chain Destruction. Now your other two Blue Eyes White Dragons have been sent to the grave yard and you can not play them again."
"Damn you Yugi!" Kaiba cursed. "Very well then, I only need one Blue Eyes to destroy you. You have nothing left, all three of your Egyptian God cards have been destroyed along with my Blue Eyes Shining Dragon. Now we'll see who is the better Duelist when it comes down to the last cards in our hands. Go my blue Eyes white dragon, attack his Summoned Skull!"
"Not so fast Kaiba!" Yugioh cried out. "Reveal my other face down card, Mirror Force!" Kaiba's blue eyes was destroyed by it's own attack and that meant that on Yugio's turn he would win.
"NO!" Kaiba yelled. "NOT AGAIN!"
"Summoned Skull, attack his life points directly!" Yugioh commanded and it was so. Kaiba's life points fell to 0 and Kaiba sank to his knees.
"Again, he beat me again. Why does he always beat me?" He demanded.
"Because Kaiba, you were dueling out of malice. I was dueling out of love. I was dueling for my beloved Tea and my friends. To see them happy again. Now I will make you an offer. Come back with me to the ship and let's put all this behind us. I'm willing to forgive you if you are willing to accept." Yugioh told him.
"Please just forget this big brother." Mokuba said over the radio. "I don't want to have to leave you out here. I love you Seto and think of how sad it will make Serenity if you die!"
"Mokuba…Serenity… Yugi, I don't know what to do." Kaiba said at last. "I can't lead this expedition onward after all I've done. I can't go on with your victories hanging over my head. I don't know what to do."
"Well I know what to do." Mokuba said as he positioned this shuttle's grappling arm. "I'm going to take both you and Yugi home, Seto." Mokuba cut the tethers from the asteroids and then one at a time, he lifted his brother, then Yugioh to safety. Once they were both back on board, Kaiba berated his brother for helping them.
"You should have left us both out there to die." Kaiba told Mokuba from the pilot's seat of the cockpit.
"You say that now big brother, but once you see Serenity again, you'll be glad that I saved you." Mokuba was not the least bit hurt by his brother's fowl manner. Nor was Yugioh who was now once again, little Yugi Mouto. He was just glad that the shadow game was over, and that both he, and Kaiba had survived. Now they were on their way to join back up with the rest of the fleet. That meant that Yugi would soon be safely back in the arms of his beloved Tea.
-------Scene Break----------
Little did Yugi and the Kaiba's know that their ships would not be where they thought they would be. For Tea and the others had mounted a daring rescue mission of their own accord upon finding out that Yugi was not aboard the Blue Eyes Two. Now Tea and the others were desperately trying to track down the Blue Eyes One's propellant trail.
"Their propellant!" Rebecca had exclaimed from her seat at engineering. "We can track their propellant trail if their engines are still expelling fuel. Liquid fuel such as rocket boosters are easier to track because they use fossil fuels, which burn up faster, and leave trace amounts of carbon monoxide."
"What about the fact that we're in space, can we pick up such small trace amounts of Carbon in an atmosphereless environment?" Duke asked.
"Sure, it's a lot easier than trying to pick it up when mixed with air. Here in space there are practically no other elements to interfere." Rebecca informed them.
"Great, then lets go." Tea commanded. She stood up front now on the bridge watching out the windows for them.
---------Scene Break---------
"The Blue Eyes Two should be right here." Kaiba said as he scanned the area but both ships had long since left this area of space.
"Where could they have gone?" Mokuba asked as he searched in vain out through the windows for their mother ship.
"They must have gone looking for us." Yugi supposed. "If we go back to the asteroids then maybe…"
"We haven't got time to run around in circles, Yugi." Kaiba told him. "This shuttle only has enough fuel and stored up batteries to last us another few hours. It's only a test ship if you'll remember. When I launched it into space the week before we took off from Earth, it was left in orbit around the planet until we picked it up. I had thought to use it as a temporary ship to ship transfer shuttle. It was never intended to last more than a week in space on it's own."
"And it's already spent a week up here." Yugi realized. "Then what do we do once the power runs out?"
"We die." Kaiba replied.