"Impressive, Joey! You came so very close to winning, without attacking either of my Dark Magicians!" Yami Yugi praised.
"I didn't want to hurt Yugi. Akai seems pretty cool too," Joey replied. "That card you snuck into my deck in place of my Flame Swordsman certainly helped."
"Speaking of that," Yami reached into his pocket pulling the Flame Swordsman card out again, "I should return this to you."
"Thanks!" Joey accepted his card back. "And here. You should take..." he offered a card to Yami.
"No, Joey. Keep it as a 'thank you' for dueling against me. I'm sure Dian Keto the Cure Master will come in handy for you in future duels!"
"So everything's back to the way it's supposed to be," Joey grinned.
"Yes, it seems so," Yami agreed.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Why, what was that, Joey? Did you hear something?" Yami teased.
"Naw, must just be the wind!" Joey replied.
"Guys! This isn't funny!"
"There! I heard it again! It almost sounded like a voice..." Yami mused.
"A little, tiny voice," Joey agreed.
"Gu~uys!"
"They're just teasing you, Yugi," Akai reassured. "Though I wonder if perhaps they go too far!"
"I get no respect! I only SOLVED THE PUZZLE!" Yugi, still the Dark Magician, clenched his fists around his Dark Magic staff and shouted up from the dueling field.
"Yes, that you did," Yami suddenly smiled down on the tiny Dark Magicians. They were the only monsters he'd left active on the field after finally winning the duel against Joey. "I suppose I had better return you to where you belong."
Yami closed his eyes. The Egyptian eye that suddenly glowed on his forehead showed that he was accessing the incredible powers of the Millennium Puzzle. Dark Magician Yugi faded from the field. The glowing eye faded and Yami opened his eyes again.
"Better?" he asked, easing back from total control now that Yugi was with him again.
"Well, I had fun dueling as the Dark Magician and meeting face to face with Akai," Yugi replied aloud so Joey and Akai could hear, "but yes. I'm glad to be back where I belong!"
"Thank you for allowing me to duel with you and not just for you, Yugi...and Yami," Akai suddenly said. "I'm glad to have met both of you, and Joey, too!"
"Eh, knock it off! I'm sure Yugi'll keep your card in his deck now, Akai!" Joey exclaimed.
"You bet I will!" Yugi agreed. "So, even if it's just a regular duel where you have to act as just the Red Dark Magician, I'll know you are a whole heck of a lot more, Akai! I'm glad you're in my deck!"
That seemed as good a place as any for Yami to let the soul of Akai the Red Dark Magician return to his card. Transporting both himself and Joey to the Shadow Realm and incarnating two sets of cards in a duel, while maintaining the Millennium soul spell on Yugi, had taken a toll of even his resources.
Yugi smiled a bit sadly as he reached down and picked up his deck. "Time to go home, huh?"
********
"Would it be wrong of me to admit I envy you?" Mahaad wondered.
"Envy...me?!" Akai exclaimed.
Mahaad smiled as he rose from his seat and paced across the floor of the atelier. "Yes. I will never be able to duel at Yugi's side as you have done."
"Oh. Because you are his favorite card," Akai realized. "But I am envious of you for that distinction! And others," Akai admitted.
"'Others'? What are you speaking of?"
"Even in the duel I was just in, with Yugi on the field, still, my actions were determined by another, by the player," Akai observed.
"You did warn Yami not to have Yugi cast Magic Box of Death," Mahaad replied. "That was outside your player's control."
"I merely advised. I did not actually take an action unanticipated by my player, as you have done," Akai countered. "And...how would you know what happened in the duel?! Yugi dueled in your place!"
Mahaad laughed. "Yes, he did!" He sobered. "I was...shocked when Yami told me that there had been a duel I had no memory of. Knowing that in the next duel, while the powers of the Dark Magician would be needed, my soul would not, I made it so my soul would stay here, in the atelier, so I could observe."
"I see." Akai stared at Mahaad for a long moment. Truly the first Dark Magician had unexpected abilities!
"Are you more at ease, Akai? Playing for Yugi that is, now that you've met him?"
"You told me during that first meeting in the Graveyard that Yugi was not like Arcana," Akai replied. "I now know that to be truth and not merely wishful thinking."
Mahaad laughed. "Then all is well!"
"Well..."
Mahaad decided to bring Akai's reservation out into the open. "You are concerned by Mana's hostility."
"Yes."
"Don't be. She behaves as a child much of the time, but when it matters the most she always comes through. She will come to see that you are not a threat to Yugi. She will also see that my respect for you does not change the fact that she is my apprentice. Your presence here does not affect her standing, in Yugi's deck, or with me, in the least. Once she realizes that, her hostility should cease."
"I hope so."
"The other card monsters have accepted you, especially now that you've dueled side by side with Yugi! That's a very singular honor, you know!"
"Singular...no. There were others in that duel!" Akai contradicted.
"Yes...but they were summoned as only card monsters, not for themselves as you were. Yugi still doesn't realize that most of his cards have individual personalities."
"How many decks...how many cards, are like us, Mahaad?" Akai asked.
"It's impossible to say," Mahaad replied.
********
"Just wait until Joey sees these cards!" Yugi enthused. "Thank you so much for telling me about them!"
"It makes sense for you to have them in your deck, since you favor the Dark Magician so much, Yugi," Yami replied. "Not all of them, all at once like this, though. It would be too much of a handicap this way. I still have to hunt down the ritual cards so you can summon them."
"Oh, I realize that!" Yugi responded. "I'm only putting them in with my dueling deck until we see Joey! I'm not going to try to duel with them!"
Yugi put the four new cards Yami had helped him find into his deck case, grabbed his jacket and ran out through the door.
********
A shock, almost like an earthquake, ran through the Magic Box. It was centered on the atelier.
"Oh...my!" Mahaad said mildly.
"What, what happened?" Akai asked.
"A significant power boost to Yugi's deck, if I'm not mistaken. A Dark Magic power boost!" Mahaad ran toward the atelier.
"Master!" Mana stopped him with her call. "Can't I...can't I come too?"
He smiled gently as he turned and regarded her. He shook his head. "Not yet."
Tears rolled down her face as she regarded the backs of the two Dark Magicians until the door of the workshop closed behind them.
"You'll be invited in someday," Vialla offered in comfort.
"I don't think I ever will!" Mana wailed out before dashing into the wooded region and out of sight.
"I hope Mahaad realizes what he's doing to her!" Rowan exclaimed.
"It seems harsh, but there has to be a reason. He does care for her, after all. She is his apprentice!" Vialla observed.
********
"Surely Yugi doesn't intend to play with his deck this way!" Akai was still stunned as he stood with Mahaad outside the atelier some time later.
"No, he's done this before. He's just excited by his new cards. He knows it's too unbalanced, I'm certain. Yugi must be going to show them to Joey, that's all," Mahaad smiled. "Though I am excited by the prospect of these cards too! Once he finds the rituals to summon them, that is!" Mahaad's eyes gleamed.
"What happens...when he summons one of them?" Akai asked.
"It depends on which one of us is on the field. I have wielded power far beyond that of the Dark Magician before!"
"R,really?!"
Mahaad nodded sagely. "I hope you will get to experience that at least once, Akai. There is no feeling in the world like being...increased."
"Increased?" Mana asked as she walked up. "What do you mean, Master?"
Mahaad reached over and tipped her helmet to one side playfully. "Nothing you need to worry about just yet, little Mana!"
"When will I ever learn what the atelier is all about?!" Mana wailed in frustration as she settled her helmet back on her head. It was still askew.
"When..."
"'When I am ready.' I know..." Mana sniffled. "Why is it he is already ready?!" She rudely pointed toward the Red Dark Magician with a thumb.
"Akai? He just is. You are improving though, Mana," Mahaad offered.
Akai reached over and straightened Mana's helmet before smiling down at her.
"Humph!" Mana flounced off. Akai sighed.
"Give her time," Mahaad advised.
********
Yugi dashed into the alley that was the quickest shortcut to Joey's house and pulled up suddenly. Bright sunlight no longer gleamed from the sides of buildings. The frightening miasmic darkness of the Shadow Realm met his horrified gaze instead. He almost didn't notice as Yami surged forward into the position of control, to protect his more vulnerable mind from the malign influences of the Shadow Realm.
"Who brings me here?!" Yami Yugi demanded aloud in a serious no-nonsense tone.
"It worked! It worked! He claimed it would, yes he did, but still I wasn't sure, no I wasn't, I wasn't at all! But it did! It worked!"
A black-cloaked figure stepped forward from the shadows. Something about its appearance teased at Yugi's memory. Yami only half-recognized it too.
"Why did you bring me here?" Yugi was grateful that Yami was able to act. If the truth were to be told, the Shadow Realm scared him more than he wanted to admit. He hated feeling as if Yami was all that stood between him and a fate he didn't even want to contemplate, but he did. He felt useless in the Shadow Realm.
"Why, I brought you here to duel, what else?" the mad voice replied.
"Who are you? Why do you want to duel me?"
"You can call me...Wrack. As for why I want to duel you..."
The figure paused for a long, dramatic moment.
"I hate you, Yugi. But more than that, I hate your deck. And even more than that, one card in particular. Because of that hatred I have researched, read books no sane man would touch, discovered powerful rituals best left alone, and the fruit of my labor is this!" He held up a card but showed Yugi only the back.
"What is it?" Yugi wondered.
"You will find out once you play the right card!"
"Why would I duel you at all?" Yugi asked. He was grateful for the respite Yami had given him, but this duelist said he hated Yugi, not Yami. If there was to be a duel, it was his to fight.
"A power not your own brought you here. If you do not duel me, and win, you will remain trapped here in the Shadow Realm!" the black-cloaked figure began to laugh madly. Yugi wondered again at his opponent's appearance. The cloak was missing the chains that marked the servants of Marik. Still, somehow, it seemed familiar...
********
The duel had been brutal. Mahaad had already been sent to the Graveyard. Akai waited in attack mode on the field. Gaia the Fierce Knight, Everon the Summoned Skull and Neo the Magic Swordsman shared the field with him. They had been goaded into useless attacks against Mirror Wall, draining their power alarmingly before Yugi had found a way to destroy the Wall. The Hannibal Necromancer leering at him from the other side of the field could now take any one of them out.
"I play Dark Magician Girl! And I give her the Black Pendant, boosting her power. And my Dark Magician in the Graveyard strengthens her attack, too!"
The Dark Magician Girl whirled happily as her attack took out the Necromancer.
"Ah!" Wrack breathed
in satisfaction. "There she is! Say good-bye to your Dark Magician
Girl, Yugi!"
"This card...I designed
it to destroy cards. Not merely take them to the card Graveyard,
but once there to grind until it pulls the duel monster apart, destroying
it utterly." He pulled something from a hidden pocket and opened
his hand to show Yugi. It appeared to be the shredded bits of a duel
monster card.
"What is that?!"
"I had to test it. As you can see, as the duel monster was destroyed by my lovely card in the Graveyard, his card was destroyed in reality too. It took four turns in the Graveyard for this card to destroy each of my Dark Magicians. I think, to destroy the Dark Magician Girl, it will take only three."
"In the Graveyard?! Once a card monster goes to the Graveyard, it is out of play! How can anything hurt them there?!" Yugi asked in horror.
"The Reaper of Cards....funny how no one respects him. Researches him. How is he able to affect card monsters in the Graveyard? He does you know. I discovered how. And with that knowledge, I made this card! It will destroy your Dark Magician Girl utterly, Yugi! She will suffer wracking agony until she is literally pulled apart!"
Finally Wrack's outlandish appearance made sense. He resembled the Reaper of Cards! He ripped back the cowl of his cloak revealing a face as horrifyingly white and frightening as any death's head of legend or nightmare.
"Seize her, Rack of Card Destruction!" he played the card.
"Oh?!" The Dark Magician Girl cried out in surprise as shackles snaked across the field, seeking and capturing her wrists and ankles. She was dragged back across the field until her back was pulled painfully taut across the table of the nefarious device. Two wheels racheted tighter until there was no slack in the chains binding her. Her arms were pulled straight and tight over her head and her legs were held firmly too.
Unnoticed on the field, Akai was horrified. He knew that Mana despised him, but from his conversations with Mahaad, he understood the reason. She was, as Mahaad had told him, loyal and headstrong. Akai had seen how she was genuinely liked by all the other card monsters of Yugi's deck. He knew Mahaad, for all his stern demeanor, was fond of Mana too.
Akai thought that perhaps, as time went on, as he dueled more for Yugi, and showed he wasn't a threat to her with Mahaad, her Dark Magic Master, Mana would stop hating him so much and let him become her friend. That was all he wanted...friendly accord with all the card monsters of Yugi's deck. Until he earned her trust, he would always feel a little as if he didn't belong.
Unlike Mahaad, he wouldn't mind being the focus of her teasing attention. Mahaad said she was like a child. That was true. She had the winsome eagerness of a child. Because of her antics, the Magic Box, while still the restful haven that Mahaad had designed it to be, wasn't just a quiet, boring place as the Graveyard was.
Bottom line...Akai liked Mana. Despite her animosity toward him, he honestly liked her. He didn't want to see anything bad happen to any of Yugi's cards and that included Mana. It didn't matter how she felt about him. It was how he felt about her that counted. And he would hate himself more fully than Mana ever could if he let this duelist 'Wrack' destroy her utterly.
"And now my Rack of Card Destruction, take her, the duel monster I hate the most, take her to the Graveyard, and avenge me by giving her wracking torment until you PULL HER APART!" Wrack cried out.
Mana, trapped in the Rack of Card Destruction, screamed as it tightened. It disappeared, taking her with as it went to complete its gruesome, appointed task in the Graveyard.
Akai recognized Wrack in that moment. The way his veins stood out on his neck when he shouted, his hatred for the Dark Magician Girl and the pathetic remains of the two Dark Magicians' cards...
"NO! Arcana, you WILL NOT DO THIS!" Akai cried out.
It felt like the Ectoplasmer effect. Akai felt that same disruptive, fluid power flow in him. He was dissolving just like that time...
No...the power wasn't just pooling in him for his duelist to use, it was flowing through him. Then he'd been in a state of fear and hatred, forced to endure the attack of his own master, forced to passively accept what his master was doing to him when his soul was stripped from him and turned into that Ectoplasmer attack on Yugi...
Now, he still felt fear, but the urge to do something, to somehow protect Mana from the hideous fate Arcana had devised for her, rose to the top. Akai knew he was doing this to himself. He had freed his own soul to be his ultimate expression of everything that he was, of everything that he longed to be...
"Is this how it was for Mahaad? I've wondered. I've always wanted to do as he did, take one action that was not called for by my master...is that what I'm doing? How does this help Yugi save Mana? I've got to try!"
Yugi's eyes were drawn from the spot where the Rack of Card Destruction had seized his Dark Magician Girl and disappeared to witness his Red Dark Magician inexplicably dissolving before his eyes. The red soul flowed up and a new card shimmered into being in Yugi's hand.
Dark Retribution
If your Dark Magician Girl is sent to the Graveyard by the actions of your opponent and you hold this special summon card in your hand, you may sacrifice three monsters from your field or hand to activate it. All Dark Magic users (except for the Dark Magician Girl) in your hand, deck or graveyard are summoned to the field. They are able to act in the turn they were summoned. Additionally, Yami will be auto-cast, if you have the card in your deck. Finally, the Book of Secret Arts, if it is in your deck, will be invoked on the summoned Dark Magic user of your choice.
"I can't let you destroy my Dark Magician Girl! I play Dark Retribution!" Yugi called. He hadn't recognized Arcana at all until Akai had called out the mad illusionist's name. 'Wrack' appeared even more homicidally insane than Arcana ever had.
"Dark Retribution? I've never heard of this card!"
"Watch and learn!" Yugi felt panic as he selected his three monsters on the field to serve as the required sacrifice. He'd never seen this card before either! But it had appeared in his hand at the moment he most needed it. He couldn't let Wrack destroy his Dark Magician Girl forever!
Gaia the Fierce Knight, his Summoned Skull and Neo the Magic Swordsman dissolved and sank into the ground. Nothing happened for the longest moment. Then, surprisingly, a simple shed, perhaps a workshop, rose up from the floor of the Shadow Realm dueling arena. It sat there, inert, almost as if it were gathering energy. The top of it erupted violently spilling Dark Magic power out into the arena.
Yugi recognized his purple Dark Magician, the Dark Sage, and the Magician of Black Chaos in the aftermath of that potent spill of Dark Magic. After a moment he identified the other duel monsters as the new Blaze, Mirage and Dark Magic Knights, and the Dark Paladin. Two cards incarnated in the spell zone before him. Yami turned up on its own, bringing magic-enhancing darkness into the arena. The Book of Secret Arts turned itself over next and hovered before him.
Though he was stunned, Yugi realized the card was waiting for him to decide who would be affected by the magic of Secret Arts.
"The Dark Magician. Give your power to him," Yugi told the Book. Mahaad bowed his head as the power poured into him. He looked up, directly into Yugi's eyes.
"May we bring the force of Dark Retribution to bear on him?" Mahaad asked Yugi in a low voice. Yugi had some idea what Mahaad was asking. The Dark Magician was the ultimate magic user in terms of attack and defense. Even before the four new cards he received today, Yugi had built his deck to promote the power of Dark Magic. He knew that normally it was restrained, as it was one of the most powerful forces in Duel Monsters. There was no way a deck could normally bring forth the raw Dark Magic power now on the field before him. For him to unleash it...let the Dark Magician free to use that overwhelming power...
He recalled the scream of his Dark Magician Girl as the Rack of Card Destruction had dragged her to the Graveyard. He ached that Wrack had promised a painfully 'wracking' and final moment for her there. He was horrified by the card confetti that had once been two Dark Magician cards. If what Wrack said was true... Yugi didn't know if it was possible to 'kill' a duel monster forever, but he was not willing to find out. Not with her. Not with any of his cards. Not ever.
He nodded. "Take him down."
Mahaad closed his eyes in gratitude. That anyone would attack Mana directly! He didn't know if he could have restrained himself if Yugi had not granted his permission.
"Chaos," Mahaad called softly.
"No. You be the focus. We will channel to you," the Magician of Black Chaos countered.
"With Secret Arts you can take it," the Dark Sage agreed. "Be our instrument of righteous punishment, Mahaad! You are the lash of Dark Retribution!"
Yugi could only watch in a type of stupefied awe as six of the Dark Magic users, the Dark Sage, Blaze Knight, Mirage Knight, Dark Magic Knight, Dark Paladin and Magician of Black Chaos took positions behind his Dark Magician.
"You have no duel monsters to defend you," Mahaad turned as he addressed Wrack in a deceptively quiet voice. "That will be your final short-sighted mistake in a string of errors. You never should have made such a terrible card. You never should have used it, ever, much less on cards of the Dark Magician. You never should have used it to attack Mana, my apprentice, the Dark Magician Girl. For that last error on your part, we, the force of Dark Retribution brought forth from Yugi's deck, will make you pay!" Mahaad promised.
He lifted his staff high above his head. The Dark Magic users behind him sent the fullness of their Dark Magic power into his staff until it glowed black with the mixed colors of their distinctive energies. Mahaad lowered his Dark Magic charged staff and pointed it at Wrack.
"Do you think I fear that?! Ha! You are just duel monsters! How can you affect me directly?! This isn't just a game where you 'win' when my life points reach zero! There's no spinning disk to worry about here. We're already in the Shadow Realm. What do you think you can do to me?!" Wrack mocked.
"This isn't just a game," Mahaad agreed. "This is the Shadow Realm. The stakes are always higher here."
He let the Dark Magic he could barely control free to stab into the mad remnant of a human being raving before him. Wrack screamed as the Dark Magic ripped what remained of his mentality apart. Mahaad realized there was no way Wrack could ever recover from his Dark Magic attack. For what had been done to Mana, he didn't care.
"There's still time. She survives still!" the Dark Magic Knight urged.
The Dark Sage, the Dark Paladin, and the Magician of Black Chaos surrounded Mahaad.
"Save her."
Yugi watched in uncomprehending horror as three of the Dark Magic users of his deck, acting of their own will, combined their attack, and deliberately sent his Dark Magician to the Graveyard.
********
"Mahaad!" Mana cried out from her painful position chained to the rack. Mahaad could see that the one turn it had taken to send him here had tightened the mechanism one setting, pulling on her arms and legs painfully, stretching her out on the cruel device.
"I will get you out of there!" he vowed.
"I know," she replied calmly, though tears streamed down her face. "But hurry!"
There was no key to release her shackles. There was no keyhole to use a key in anyway. With his mind destroyed, there was no way for Wrack to stop the Rack of Card Destruction even if he wanted to. Mahaad lined up with the chains binding Mana's hands over her head. He shot a powerful Dark Magic attack across the chains, trying to avoid hitting the Dark Magician Girl. His attack was deflected harmlessly into the sky of the Graveyard by the Rack of Card Destruction itself.
The wheels and gears of the Rack turned, and with a moaning, stressed metal sound, they tightened. Mana screamed as she was stretched across the huge central table of the rack. Mahaad could see that one more turn would literally pull her apart.
"MA-HAAD!" she screamed in agony.
Knowing that though she was in wracking agony, just as Wrack intended when he created such a terrible card, nothing could happen until he completed his next action, Mahaad stopped and considered the evil device. He could think of only one way to free her in time. It would be painful, even more painful than the rack itself, but ultimately it would not destroy her.
He knelt next to the rack and stroked Mana's hair. He could not help but wince at her suffering.
"Little one, I've figured out how to free you, but it's going to hurt."
"I...don't care. Please...!" Mana tried to courageously contain her tears.
"Forgive me!" Mahaad pleaded. He stood up again. He gathered his strength and magic. One strong, powerful blast would be kinder than a feeble, weaker one. He lowered his staff, pointing it right at her.
"Mahaad?! What?! NO!"
Mahaad blasted the Dark Magician Girl with the most powerful basic Dark Magic Attack ever witnessed. Mana screamed in agony and disintegrated into glowing purple dust. The Rack of Card Destruction ground down to the final setting, the one that would have pulled the Dark Magician Girl into pieces if she'd still been there. Its terrible task completed, the Rack disappeared.
A pink, shimmering glow appeared where the Rack of Card Destruction had been. Mahaad dropped his staff and knelt next to the glow. The Dark Magician Girl appeared again, huddled on the ground, crying piteously.
"I'm so sorry!" Mahaad whispered as he took Mana into his arms. "It was the only way to free you in time!"
She clung to him, sobbing. "I know!" She finally shuddered. "But it hurts so much!"
Mahaad rocked her in sympathy, offering her comfort. He wondered at the irony that made the very attack he'd used to gain retribution for what had been done to her the only means of saving her. He worried too at the implications of a card designed to destroy cards in the Graveyard. His Dark Magic attack should not have worked on Mana. He hoped it was only because she had been confined to a card designed to work in the Graveyard, rather than a fundamental change in the rules of the Graveyard itself.
Putting such portentous pondering aside for another time, Mahaad turned Mana to face him. He smiled gently as he brushed the tears from her lashes. He looked down into her large, suffering eyes for a long moment before placing his hand on her forehead.
"Let me bear it." he murmured. "You have no need for such a memory!"
A shudder ran through him as he took the memory of the agony of his attack away from her, taking it into himself.
She clung to him impulsively in a hug that he would spare her that and endure it himself. He kissed her forehead and pulled her up with him as he stood.
"Now." Mahaad stooped to reclaim his staff. "Shall we find Akai?"
Mana made a face. "Why? Why should we look for him?"
Mahaad turned her and pointed his staff toward a gravestone. The surface of it sprang to life showing Mana not only the Rack of Card Destruction attack on her, but Akai's actions and the awesome power of Dark Retribution.
"He did that?! Called all of you to the field to save...me?!"
"Yes. If he is not here, in the Graveyard, I fear Akai is lost forever."
********
"Did you find him?!" Rowan was anxious as Mahaad and Mana appeared in the Magic Box again.
"He is nowhere to be found!" Mana claimed. Mahaad watched as most of the duel monsters of Yugi's deck congregated around them. Some acted nonchalant, like Everon the Summoned Skull, but most were honest that they were concerned about Akai.
"I met with the Reaper of the Cards," Mahaad began. "It was when we split up," he told Mana before she could interrupt him. "I know how the Reaper frightens you. He told me that Akai never showed up in the Graveyard."
"So, where is he?" Celedor the Celtic Guardian asked.
"He changed his card into the special summoning card, 'Dark Retribution'." Mahaad explained. "Akai, the Red Dark Magician, is no more."
********
"That was..." Yugi fell silent.
"I've told you that your Dark Magician was my high priest Mahaad in ancient Egypt, right?" Yami asked quietly. Yugi nodded. "Mahaad was the most loyal of all my servants...and one of my closest friends. He would never go against you, but he does have a very highly developed sense of justice...and vengeance."
"It was frightening to see that," Yugi admitted. "But...beautiful too. How many, Yami? How many of the cards, of my cards, are more than just cards? Akai, he was more than just a duel monster, when I dueled alongside him as the Dark Magician. You are now telling me that Mahaad is the same way? And he called the Dark Magician Girl 'Mana'! What right do I have to duel with any of them, put any of them at risk in play, sacrifice any of them in duels?!"
"You are their duelist, Yugi. That gives you the right. They duel for you, because they want to. Your heart is in those cards, Yugi. They know that and respond to you."
Yugi thumbed through the Dark Magic cards until he found the new card, Dark Retribution, again.
"And Akai? He...did this to himself. He...sacrificed himself to give me this card so I could save..." Yugi placed the Dark Magician Girl card next to Dark Retribution, "...her."
"I miss him, Yami. I know I could probably never duel next to him as the Dark Magician again...but having done that once...I had a connection with him. He was...a friend. Maybe it's shallow of me, but having dueled with him, I thought that was special and I would remember it always whenever I played his card. Even though he'd have to be 'just' the Red Dark Magician, I would always know he was so much more and I could look and see if I could see my friend in his eyes in a duel, or smile whenever he got to cast Magical Hats...and now...he's gone..."
Yugi possessed a strength that was mistaken by many for weakness, but this wasn't the first time Yami wished with all his heart that he could somehow wrap Yugi in his arms and make the heartache go away. Yami knew how dangerous it was to Yugi to try to bring him into the labyrinthine tomb of his mind or he'd offer comfort there.
"Yugi, close your eyes. I want to try something," Yami asked suddenly. Without question, Yugi complied. Yami smiled at that token of trust and accessed the power of the Millennium Puzzle. He used it to enter, not the maze of his own mind, but the corridor between his mind and Yugi's. He knocked politely on the closed door.
"Yami?!" Yugi opened the door and stared in amazement.
"The maze of my mind is dangerous to you, but there should be no dangers in your mind for me!" Yami laughed. "May I come in?"
Yugi stepped aside and allowed Yami to enter. Though much simpler and brighter than his mind, Yami noticed that Yugi had his own shadows too. He wondered if the gloominess reaching from the corners of the Yugi's mind had anything to do with his sorrow over Akai.
"It does," Yugi answered.
"What?"
"Somehow I could tell you were worrying, wondering if what happened to Akai is affecting me. It does," Yugi clarified. He turned up large, lavender eyes welling with tears, knowing that Yami would never belittle him for being weak.
"Caring as you do isn't weak," Yami told Yugi. "And you are right to feel as you do. In a very real way it is as if you have lost a friend." Yami opened his arms, offering the supporting embrace he'd wished on so many other occasions he could have given Yugi. He was consternated that it had taken him so long to look beyond his own mind enough to realize he could have done this before. Somehow Yugi had always found his way through his pain alone...
"But I haven't been alone!" Yugi's protest was muffled. He looked up sincerely into Yami's eyes. "You've always been here, so I'm not alone. I don't need your hug to have your support, Yami!"
Yami blinked down at Yugi then enfolded him again. Not because Yugi needed the hug so much as Yami needed to give it.
"Your spirit is a source of never-ending strength, Yugi!"
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Author's notes -
With any luck, no one saw the events in this chapter coming! Heh, heh! Please don't worry that this is going to become either a Mana/Mahaad or Yami/Yugi romance either. I just see people offering comfort to people who are suffering, that's all.
I know that "Dark Retribution" is a seriously unbalancing card that could never exist in the real game of Duel Monsters. It's cool to think about all that Dark Magic power in one place though, isn't it?! ^_~
I also know there are other card monsters that should be considered 'Dark Magic users', but there is a reason for why I selected the cards I did!
Oh, and before anyone decides to come up with the idea of sacrificing their own Dark Magician Girl to call forth the ultimate Dark Magic potential of their deck (Which we know Yugi would never do!) I feel obligated to warn you that there are serious repercussions! If the Dark Magician Girl is sent to the Graveyard by her own duelist to activate Dark Retribution, the summoned forces of Dark Magic attack that selfsame duelist! So don't even think about it, k?
Next Chapter teaser - (But it would be giving it away!)
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com