Chapter 11

"I am disappointed in you," Anubis exaggerated. "We have so many memories together, yet you lack the remembrance of any of them. Not to mention that we dueled the deadliest shadow game the past could ever reveal."

"I don't need to remember everything to understand what it is you plan to do," growled Yami, still unable to stand.

"Oh you do know. As I expected you to," he said, his eyes looking at the ground. "But I highly doubt you know why."

"I defeated you years ago. That's why," Yami concluded.

"That is far too vague to be entirely true," he said. Yami was not sure what he meant by that. "You are right, but it goes beyond that, because it is not just you I despise."

He paused and turned away.

"Society in general, I envy it," he seemed to be more emotional. "Congenitally I was not only cursed with the untying of my doing, but I was also cursed with the expectations of a dark destiny. To everyone except my parents who died not long after my birth, I was nothing but a shadow that could strike at any time. Yet my heart had not been put on the scale for its weight to be tested, so the humans and their so-called kings had nothing to judge their assumptions! I hated them for it! I was tormented by society for a darkness that was not only yet to occur, but a guess they could not confirm! Why point the finger at me? Was my name so terrible that I had to be treated as I was? This hatred boiled in my blood for years until finally I decided to fulfill the destiny people had chosen for me, because it is what they deserved! What surprised me is the shocked look on their faces the day I carried out their expectations."

Hearing all his rage, Yami almost felt compassionate for his enemy. He did have a reasonably understandable excuse for his madness. He had been mistreated his entire life, and only because his name was that of an Egyptian God, which was hardly an excuse for abuse. Even though it was the belief of the Egyptian society that one who carried a God name was sinful, it did not judge the person's true character, and Yami understood that.

"Then why do you take your anger out on me?" he asked, that part being the only unclear piece of Anubis' insanity.

Anubis looked into his eyes, and fire seemed to burn in them.

"You really do not know, do you?" Anubis said angrily. "Of course the fact that you stopped me from succeeding in my desire to destroy everything has some weight on it, but also because you were part of that crowd."

Yami was surprised. He did not believe that he would be so foolish as to do that to someone. But then he remembered that this was all five thousand years ago, which he had hardly any memory of. He could not recall such a thing.

"As part of the blood line of a king, you were probably given many caveats of my darkness long before many, and you chose to believe such despicable foolishness! As royalty, you should have known better, but you did not! It was you who greatly influence the idea of me causing chaos, was it not? It was you who helped my bad name grow to such popularity, and left me stranded out on the city streets to look for work!"

He knew his own personality, and he knew he would never do anything of the sort to anyone. Unfortunately, he could not remember anything from his past, so he had nothing to argue with but his own word, which in this case would not be good enough.

"I would never..." Yami tried to say something, but was quickly cut off.

"You would! You are a mortal with a shallow mind, and nothing more! You are just damn lucky that there was always work that was needed in Egypt and I got by!" Anubis was breathing heavily from all of his screaming.

Yami felt it was best not to say anything. If he told him I did not do it but had nothing to back up his answer, Anubis would only yell at him more and perhaps worsen the situation. Anubis' power was greater than his, especially in the position he was in now was.

"The world will pay for its lack of good and equal judgement," assured Anubis. "I will see of it."

"You understand you chose to fulfill what people had predetermined for you," Yami told him.

"And it was what the people deserved, plus more," he sighed. "Enough about that. Let us continue the duel, shall we? It is never good to leave a game unfinished."

Anubis turned to Yami, the sphere in his crystal pyramid beginning to glow. The figuration of two monsters began to glow on the ground in front of him on the field. Anubis was now going to duel in Seto's place and use his own monsters in the duel. It was Kaiba's turn, so all of it was permitted. The monsters were obviously real, just as he had created them to be.

Yami, weak and practically defenseless, could do nothing but continue to duel, though he was not sure how much longer he would last. He could say nothing that would change Anubis' mind, and he could do nothing to stop him from doing so, especially if he had the power of the true God Anubis.

"I remember our duel," his evil grin returned to his face. "Do you remember how it ended?"

Yami shook his head, moaning as the pain continued.

"It never ended really," he said as the outlines of his monsters began to rise from the ground. Again, Yami was not sure what he meant by what he said.

When the light from the outlines faded, two monsters with large dog bodies stood on his side of the field. One contained the head of a vicious canine, the other the head of a female vampire with long hair. On their paws were sharp, butcher knife size claws and virulent saliva dripped from their mouths.

"These are my old friends, Adro Sphinx (3000/2500) and Sphinx Teleia (2500/3000). They were here the last time you and I got together," he said. "I had to keep Gods' Forsaken Tomb on the field, otherwise I could never bring them to the field so easily."

The two Sphinxes growled angrily, both containing heavy attack and defense powers. Yami had two monsters on the field, which were supposed to protect his Life Points. Little did he know that both of them had effects which could decrease them to the littlest possible.

"What cute hairballs you have on the field," Anubis laughed at the weak Watapon and Kuriboh in defense mode. "They shall make a good snack for my monsters, though they will not be nearly enough to fill their stomachs."

He pointed ahead of him and signaled his monsters to attack. Lightning fast, the two monsters leaped across the field and held both Kuriboh and Watapon down with a single paw. Claws out and teeth bearing, the female and male sphinxes opened their great jaws and bit harshly into Yami's last wall of defense. With one chomp, both monsters were destroyed and the two monsters returned to their master.

Though he had thought his Life Points were safe, he felt another extreme wave of pain go through his body. His body felt like it was falling a hole but never hit the bottom. Bones felt snapped into several pieces, and muscles felt ripped to shreds. All this pain, from when he first lost Life Points to Peten the Dark Clown to this recent attack, had added up and now Yami was precariously close to death. He could not even hold his head up to stare at his opponent, and it fell to the ground. Through all of this, he was conscious, his eyes still open yet not able to see much. He lied in his puddle of blood, motionless. He was able to look at his duel disk to see his Life Points had dropped to fifty.

"When Sphinx Teleia attacks a monster in defense position, half of that monster's defense points are deducted from my opponent's life points, and when Andro Sphinx attacks a monster on defense, half of that monster's attack points are deducted from your Life Points. Do the math, and you lose two hundred and fifty Life Points from your remaining three hundred," informed Anubis as his body glowed a little bit, absorbing the strength Yami had lost.

Though he looked dead, he knew Yami was alive. With only fifty life points left, he knew his foe would be no threat. He had sucked almost every ounce of life from him, and he was suffering through the worst of pain. Blood dripped from his mouth and he was hardly breathing. His enemy right where he wanted him, exactly how he wanted him, Anubis walked from his side of the field to Yami's. Slowly, he approached the one he had despised for so long. He stood in front of his face so that Yami would see that he was there. Yami dragged his chin along the ground to only see the feet of Anubis, unsure of why he was over on his side.

"This duel was never about me defeating you in some game," he told him.

Yami tried to lift his arms so he could try to lift his body from the ground, but failed miserably. He wanted to say something, but no words would come from him.

"You have been sapped of your strength," he reached behind his back. The sound of a blade rubbing against something hard rang in Yami's ears. His eyes suddenly opened wider. "Now to sap you of your life just as mine was."

It sent pain through the entire back of his neck, but Yami turned his head to see that Anubis had unsheathed a dagger into his right hand. The sheath hung on his belt behind the cape on his back. He was prescience of what would come next.

Yami felt himself being lifted in the back of the neck. Just hanging in the air made him grunge in pain. Anubis' large hand then moved to hold him by the front of his neck, though his long wide fingers could still grasp the back as well. His grip tightened, almost choking his victim. Yami felt himself being held above his own height, Anubis holding him as high as he could. Anubis held the dagger tightly at the handle and pointed the end of the blade at his desired target.

He could delay his decision no longer. Yugi knew what he had to do, and he would forever be in disgust with himself, but that would have to have been his other sacrifice. He retightened the grip around the blade of the dagger, cutting his hand. The pain in his hand was the least of his concerns at that time. Tears rolling down his face, he reopened his eyes and looked at his friend hanging above the mummies.

"Tea," he spoke in a shaky voice. "I'm sorry."

She knew his decision. Though she was likely to be sacrificed, Tea knew that he had made the right choice, and could not have been more proud of her friend for knowing it. With thousands of other innocent lives at stake, she could not be selfish. Joey and Tristan began to cry while beating up the mummies, knowing that the moment had come.

"Yugi," she called to him before carrying out his decision. "Thank you. Thank you for everything."

He was upset, but Yugi showed her a smile. It was the least he could have done.

In one motion, Yugi threw the dagger at the eye on the wall, the dagger spinning in the air several times. He glanced back at Tea, whose body had fallen into the mummies and was no longer visible. He shot his eyes back at the dagger, still making its way to the eye.

Yugi's heart had been broken, because just as Anubis suggested, he missed. The dagger's blade became stuck in the wall exactly next to the eye. It cracked portions of the wall next to it, but the dagger did not hit the eye. Yugi fell to his knees, thinking that he had failed and lost his friend's life because of it. He covered his eyes, but his hands could not hold back the tears.

Joey and Tristan tried making their way to the area where Tea's body had fallen, but it was useless. There were too many of them, and they had become exhausted. The mummies seemed to be gathering around them, ready to eat them alive as well.

The sound of cracking echoed through the room. Yugi looked up to see that the pupil of the fake eye was beginning to crack. There was now a large crack in it, and a black light emerged from it. Apparently, the cracking in the wall the dagger had caused had extended to the eye. While this crack would not be enough to burst it, it would be enough to break half of Anubis' seal. The seal that kept them locked in the puzzle. Yugi, Tristan, Joey, and Tea's body were being lifted back into the air and then disappeared, escaping the peril in the puzzle.

Joey and Tristan woke up on the outside of the pyramid where they had been sucked into the eye. The eye on the pyramid was no longer there as they stood up to look at it. Around them, Mokuba, Pegasus, and Duke had been there, along with Tea's body, which had bite marks, scratches, and deep wounds in it.

"Joey! Tristan! Tea!" Mokuba cried.

"Oh my god! What happened to Tea?" Duke cried, holding her motionless body up in his arms.

"Mummies, dude!" Tristan told, though Duke seemed not to believe him. He did not expect to see him, but bothered not to ask why he was there.

"We swear! It's a long story, but...hey where's Yugi?" Joey looked around, but Yugi was no where in sight. He ran around the pyramid, but he was not anywhere.

"You don't think he's still...in there, do you?" Tristan asked Joey, the only other person that would understand what went on.

"He could be in the pyramid," he looked at the tall black pyramid. "Let's just hope he's ok."

"Guys! Quick!" Duke called them.

Joey and Tristan ran back over to Duke and found that there had been at least one miracle out of everything that had just happened.

He was seconds from his death, and all Yami could think about was how it all came to that moment. It did not seem like this was the end for him, but it looked like that was what it was.

Is this what fate has chosen for me? For me never to remember the past I seek and to make no impact on this generation? After everything I've been through, it all comes down to this? He thought to himself, still being held in the air. He did not want to believe that his fate would be sealed at such a time where he was beginning to learn his true identity, but there was not a sign that indicated other wise. He shut his eyes, ready to accept his doom.

Anubis was about to complete the killing when he saw Yami's puzzle begin to glow. He knew what had happened, especially after he could no longer see what was happening in the puzzle. The one he had thought he sealed away, he had succeeded. Under strong emotional pressure, under life-threatening circumstances, he broke through the seal. An ordinary mortal able to destroy a God's power...

He was thinking about this far too hard! Anubis, after puzzle's glowing had stopped, again focussed on slaughtering the life he had in his hand. Nothing the mortal could do would be able to stop him.

After being released from the puzzle, Yugi gradually awoken. He opened his eyes to a room that was closer to pitch black, but he knew where he was. He had not yet been sucked into the puzzle until after Gods' Forsaken Tomb had taken place. His eyes still a little blurry, he rubbed them and sat up, his right hand still containing the cut from the dagger he threw. Strange how he did not feel Yami's spirit present with his, as it normally was. As a matter of fact, he had been back in his original, shorter body, but Yami always took control when they dueled, and they were in the middle of a duel with Kaiba. That is what he remembered at least.

Yugi had awoken on the outside of the field on the right side. He saw two monsters he had never seen or heard of before on Kaiba's side, but simply assumed they were two new monsters from Seto. It was not until he saw Seto knocked out that he knew they were not his. He was about to go to him to see if Seto was ok, but he saw something at the corner of his eye that worried him more.

On his side of the field, the man he had seen being revived in the puzzle, Anubis, holding his dear friend Yami high in the air in the grasp of his left hand. What Anubis had shown him while in the puzzle, with Yami losing his life, was not a gimmick as Yugi only had hoped. Blood dripping from his body and mouth, the dazed look on his face, and dangling body only justified it more. He saw the razor sharp dagger in Anubis' hand, its blade directed at Yami. He finally understood that he had not sensed Yami's spirit with him because the two of them, for the first time, were in separate bodies.

"Yami!" he yelled to his friend, knowing what was about to happen.

Hearing Yugi's voice, Yami opened his eyes. He saw Yugi, several feet away from them, watching with the worst look of fear and sadness he had ever seen. It was a relief to see Yugi alive and well, but he wished not to have him see such a gruesome, horrid sight. Him and Yugi stared eye to eye for what seemed like minutes, Yugi's stare seemingly telling Yami, unintentionally, that he did not believe it was meant to be this way that they could not suffer through journeys of death and loss and not achieve their main purpose. Yami could see his future now, even though he knew what was coming looked to be the end.

This cannot be my fate, he gave himself one last thought before the moment arrived.

It looked like it all happened in slow motion. Anubis' arm swung over his head, the tip of the sharp edge shining in the darkness. Like throwing a baseball at ninety miles per hour, his arm was thrown forward, carrying the dagger with him. An unpleasant sound of ripping flesh echoed through the blackness. Large drops of blood flew across the field and a surprising silent cry of pain was let out. Anubis released his grip on the dagger, it being in so deep into the center of his enemy's chest it would not fall out. Once blood dripped from his toes, he dropped the body to the ground, the dead looking Yami landing on his back. Savoring victory over his nemesis, Anubis left the dagger where it had been jammed in.

And through all of it, Yugi did nothing but watch the devastating massacre. Such a sight had felt to burn a hole in his eyes, but worst of all, his heart.