He was jarred suddenly. It was the second time since he'd lost his battle to control the ravening power of the Millennium Puzzle that he'd become aware of something outside of his consciousness. The other time it was as if Akai had called out to him directly, asking for his help.
Then, there had been no words, just a plea that Mahaad do something to help Yugi and Yami. Mahaad had somehow responded, he was certain of it, but he had no idea what form that response had taken, except to knock him senseless for a while.
Now, it almost felt as though he were in an earthquake, sliding helplessly along as a bottomless chasm opened underneath him. He found he was truly helpless, trapped in the fear of the unknown, unable even to find his bearings to concentrate enough and understand what was happening or how to avert the logical end of his sudden, disastrous free fall.
"Is this to be...my end?" he wondered.
A vast power caught him within itself. There was no pain, even the panic ceased. He knew, somehow, he was safe.
A moment later, he also knew that the being 'Mahaad' was, for all intents and purposes, to be no more. He was trapped more thoroughly than he had ever been, bound tightly in chains that had no form, locked somehow within an alien, powerful being suffused with the power of Dark Magic. He felt when his consciousness, and his power, which seemed feeble compared to the Dark Magic literally dissolving him, slipped and melted completely, draining completely into whoever or whatever had trapped him.
--------
Yugi almost felt as though his heart would burst. Surely, surely Mahaad was here! Mana sensed him in the tomb of Yami's mind, and Akai had explained the logic behind his conclusion that Mahaad would come here. Even Yami seemed to think it made sense. Yugi couldn't help but recall when he'd confronted the Dark Magician in this very hallway.
Shadi had used the Millennium Key to enter the corridor in Yugi's mind and from there cross into Yami's mind; Yugi had saved Shadi from one of the many traps in the labyrinth of Yami's mind and joined him, offering his help to try to find some secret Shadi wished to discover. After Yugi had asked, Yami stopped obscuring the path to that secret, and Shadi and he had discovered this corridor. The walls were formed of great stone tablets, depicting powerful duel monsters. To Yugi's surprised awe, the Dark Magician stepped forth from his stone tablet to block their way. He remembered how his heart had pounded upon seeing his favorite duel monster made real! That Dark Magician hadn't been just a hologram, but the real-life duel monster! Yugi had noted the determined look in the Dark Magician's eyes and almost felt as if he could sense the power in the being that stood before them.
Yugi had always considered the Dark Magician his friend. The Dark Magician was more than his favorite card, he was Yugi's friend among the duel monsters, even before he'd heard of Mahaad, or met Akai. There was just something about the image on the card, the way the Dark Magician bore a subtle arrogance in duels, born of being 'the ultimate magic user in terms of attack and defense' no doubt, that made it impossible for Yugi to not like him. Yugi wished so strongly for that almost arrogant air of checked power that the Dark Magician had become the card he most identified with himself. Not the 'himself' he was, but the 'himself' he wished he were.
And it seemed almost as if the card itself had responded. Whenever he'd found himself in a bad situation in a duel, Yugi knew if he could just draw the Dark Magician, it would be okay. He didn't even have to play the card, just holding it gave him the confidence to try to win. And somehow, whenever he needed that confidence, though he had only one Dark Magician in his deck, he would draw it. Sometimes he wondered if it were some kind of magic. It made him respect the Dark Magician all the more, thinking that the card knew what was going on enough to make sure he would come to Yugi's hand.
As he had grown more skilled in the game, he didn't need to see the card to know it was there. His need to draw it lessened, but still, just having the card in his deck reassured him. And he knew, if he had a moment of doubt, he wouldn't even have to wish for it, but the Dark Magician would find some way into his hand to reassure him and bolster his confidence. It almost seemed as if the Dark Magician considered him a friend too.
Whenever the Dark Magician was destroyed in a duel, Yugi felt almost as if a part of his soul died too. It was only his dueling skill that permitted him to sacrifice the Dark Magician, or allow his favorite card to be taken down in a duel and even then, sometimes he had to fight to keep his will strong enough to deter him from trying to save the Dark Magician. He'd remind himself that it was only a game, even if it were a Shadow Game, and as long as he won, the Dark Magician would be okay. It was always with a measure of relief that he picked up the 'graveyard' pile and added the card into his deck again.
He was horrified when Shadi told him the Dark Magician meant to attack them and prevent their progress. Shadi began to try to awaken the Blue Eyes White Dragon from it's stone tablet until Yugi stopped him.
There was no way he would allow Shadi to attack the Dark Magician with the Blue Eyes White Dragon! That the Dark Magician had leveled his staff to attack him was almost more than he could bear. But, destroying the Dark Magician, not merely a simulacrum created by Seto's holo-system, but the 'real' Dark Magician (for that was how it had appeared to him that day), right in front of him, was more than Yugi could bear. He'd rather suffer the Dark Magic attack than watch as Shadi destroyed the Dark Magician.
He'd seen Shadi's eyes widen when he'd talked the Dark Magician down from his attack. Yugi thought he saw a flash of respect in Shadi's opaque eyes that the Dark Magician followed his words. Before they could finish their walk down the corridor to the secret door, Shadi had withdrawn his Millennium Key, removing both himself and Yugi from Yami's mind.
Once he had learned of Mahaad's past, and after he met Akai, Yugi knew it was Mahaad as the Dark Magician whom he admired so much. Akai had become not only his Dark Magician, but also his friend. But, even though he wielded the same powers, and bore that hint of arrogance that delighted Yugi, Akai wasn't quite the same as 'his' Dark Magician. Mahaad was the Dark Magician that Yugi would always think of as 'his', as the Dark Magician his heart not-so-secretly wished he could be.
"Celtic Guardian...Summoned Skull..." Yugi mentioned each duel monster as he remembered them from his trip here with Shadi. He looked down. Sure enough, the Blue Eyes White Dragon's stone tablet formed the floor they stood upon. The Dark Magician's tablet should be just ahead.
"It...makes sense...if he is here," Yugi stated nervously. He hoped, he prayed that Mana, Akai and Yami were right. In part, for them; Mana and Akai had told them how the rest of the cards mourned still, and Yugi knew that Yami was still suffering from the loss of his friend. But, he missed his favorite card too! There was something almost unapproachable about Mahaad, making Yugi feel as if he would always be a child who would never measure up to his hero, but he wanted that hero back, even if he never did measure up. Yugi shook his head, mentally shaking himself from his memories and self-absorbed thoughts. He didn't care what his reasons and motivations were, he just wanted his favorite card, no, the purple Dark Magician, no...dammit! He just wanted Mahaad back! Leading the way, Yugi sped up slightly.
--------
He'd been awakened. Fully awakened, as had happened only once before. This time, four beings tread, unheeding of their great peril, through the passage that was his ultimate duty to defend against such intrusion. It was for this that he had been placed here, and charged most solemnly, with binding oaths whose consequences would make even the gods shake, if he were to falter in that duty.
Accessing the merest touch of his power, he separated from the stone that housed him when he was dormant, and blocked further advance into the sacred hallway.
Two Dark Magic duel monsters, a Magician and a Dark Magician Girl, a mortal child and...the avatar of the Pharaoh stopped suddenly before him.
He discounted the duel monsters as no threat right away, as with the First Dark Magician contained within him, he was more powerful than they. The presence of the Pharaoh troubled him. That one had not progressed enough recovering his memories to be here yet. And the boy...wait! This was the boy who had nearly deceived him once before. His eyes narrowed.
--------
As before, when he approached the tablet of the Dark Magician, magic swirled incarnating the Dark Magician before him. Yugi's knees sagged that the Dark Magician was purple, not red. Anxiously, Yugi looked up, into the remote, nearly reproving eyes of Mahaad.
"Mahaad!" Yugi charged forward joyfully.
The Dark Magician leveled his staff and shot a blindingly intense Dark Magic attack directly at Yugi, lifting him from the floor to crash against the tablet of the Summoned Skull, blasting the life from him. Yugi fell hard to the cold, stone ground and lay ominously still.
"I am the Guardian Dark Magician."
Mana and Akai rushed over to help Yugi.
"He's, he's...!"
"He's not breathing." Akai's voice was calmer than Mana's, but anxiety rimmed his eyes.
"Get him out of here!" Yami commanded, as his appearance changed. Gold gleamed in the headdress he suddenly wore, and at his arms and wrists. His eyes narrowed and darkened as he pulled himself up to glare at the creature who had just inexplicably attacked, if not killed, Yugi.
"My Pharaoh." The Dark Magician inclined his head slightly, a tacit gesture of submissive respect. "It is not yet time for you to pass. I will be compelled to attack you, too, if you attempt it."
Yami, Pharaoh Yami, made an crisp, dismissive gesture, contemptuously pushing that notion aside. "You have more pressing worries to concern yourself with. I am not trying to get past you. I will destroy you for hurting Yugi." Yami promised in a dark tone.
"Really? When I am only following the destiny you wrought for me?"
"Explain." Yami demanded brusquely.
"I am to guard this door, and the knowledge behind it, until the time ordained. Even then, only those destined to learn this knowledge can pass. Until that time, I am to guard this pathway against all who attempt to cross." The Dark Magician crossed his arms, not-so-subtly reminding Yami that he held a lethal Dark Magic staff.
"Even me?"
"Even you."
"Yugi wasn't trying to pass. He was trying to approach you." Yami told him tightly.
"Me? Really? Why?" It tore Yami's heart to see the puzzled head-tilt that Mahaad would have used executed by this heartless parody of his friend. There was no way he'd believe that Mahaad could ever be compelled to attack Yugi!
"You are Mahaad, are you not?"
"Yes...but only in part. I am the Guardian Dark Magician. My duty is to guard this pathway against all who would cross it undestined, or prematurely."
Yami gazed with veiled horror at the remote aspect the Guardian Dark Magician presented. His form was Mahaad's as was his face and power, but the soul...
The soul of the being who appeared to be Mahaad was as cold as the deepest, most forsaken tomb.
"Mahaad...so...we find you only to lose you forever. And it was me who doomed you with this destiny...and I don't even remember why..." In his Pharaoh demeanor, though his words were full of ultimate despair, Yami refused to weaken.
--------
Though they had met him in the corridor at the door to Yami's mind, it didn't seem like the right place to take him. Akai bore the limp Yugi in his arms, so it was Mana who put a tentative hand to the door to Yugi's mind room.
"Another door," she observed. Akai nodded.
"If he's locked it..." she started.
"Try to open it," Akai suggested.
Mana's hand dropped to the knob. She turned it, expecting to feel the resistance of a locked door, so when it opened, she stumbled a few steps into the room. Akai followed, carrying Yugi in his arms.
Mana smiled. Yugi's room was bright, filled with a cheerful light. There were toys and games strewn all around. She reached down to pick up a plushie from the floor. It was a fierce teddy bear, dressed in a street tough's leather jacket.
"I wonder what this means to him," she whispered.
Akai also delighted in the appearance of the room, the representation of Yugi's mind, but put it aside for other, graver concerns. He noticed a bed, and placed Yugi there. He reached down and covered Yugi with the blanket neatly folded at the foot of the bed.
"He appears to be dead," Akai finally stated it aloud.
"He, he can't be! His room is still here!"
Akai stood at that and looked out into Yugi's mind room, studying it for a while. Mana knelt at Yugi's side, and stroked the hair back from his face. She placed the back of her hand against his cheek, alarmed at how cool he felt.
"The edges are disappearing," Akai noted. His voice was light, but laced with sorrow. "There's nothing we can do to revive him. Mana, I don't know for sure, but I believe he's really dead."
"No," Mana whispered in horror. "Not that way! Not by the magic of the Dark Magician. It's so...wrong!"
--------
Within the person of the Guardian Dark Magician, Mahaad felt a faltering. It was the tiniest lessening of the confidence in the rightness of his actions that the Guardian Dark Magician felt. Suddenly, the iron control on him slipped, just enough for him to speak directly to the one he was somehow merged into.
"Is this...the only way? Is it our destiny...my destiny to cause pain to my Pharaoh and destroy one of the friends he loves so dearly?"
"None may pass until the appointed time..."
"They aren't trying to pass. They are only trying to recover...me."
"..."
"Is that the truth?" the Guardian Dark Magician asked aloud.
"Is what the truth?" Yami asked, puzzled.
"You are only here to rescue the soul of the one who has joined with me?"
"Yes. We are not trying to learn the secret you are guarding. We only want to save Mahaad."
"I see."
Within, the Guardian Dark Magician asked.
"You know that your destiny is to be one with me when the ordained time comes?"
"I suspect that now, after finding myself here. I realize who you are, and what your duty is."
"There is no reason for me to hold your soul captive until then. Until the fated time, you can live the destiny you crafted for yourself."
Mahaad felt a rush of gratitude. He had the idea that the Guardian Dark Magician was more isolated than any other duel monster. Sleeping except for when his corridor was breached...
"Not so. I guide and direct the Pharaoh's wanderings within the labyrinth of his mind. There is an order that must be maintained to the regaining of his memories."
"But enough of that. If he can devise a means to rescue you, I will let you go."
"Mahaad understands, and wishes to leave, until the time ordained for him to become one with me for good. It is up to you, my Pharaoh, to free him from me," the Guardian Dark Magician said aloud.
"Yugi...met you here in this corridor when Shadi entered our mind. But, Mahaad was the Dark Magician of Yugi's deck at that time..." Yami pondered. "So, Mahaad, you aren't the Guardian Dark Magician. You don't have to be part of him!"
"I promise I am not trying to discover the secret of the room you are guarding. I only wish to recover my friend, Mahaad, from being part of you. Will you permit me to approach?" Yami finally asked the Guardian Dark Magician directly.
A grave nod and the lowering of the Dark Magic staff gave him permission.
"Can you tell me how I can recover him?" Yami craned his neck up to look into the eyes of this ultimate duel monster.
The Guardian Dark Magician shook his head.
"That is for you to fathom, my Pharaoh. Only you would have the power to pull him away from me."
"Pull....away?" Yami echoed. It seems almost as if the Guardian Dark Magician were trying to give him a clue, despite telling him that he wouldn't. Yami remained in thought for a moment that seemed eternal.
"I do not know you, Guardian Dark Magician, so I would have no reason to offer a token of friendship and affection to you. However, may I ask your assistance?" Yami ventured finally.
The Guardian Dark Magician nodded.
"Upon my honor, I promise that once I recover Mahaad, both of us will quit this corridor and trouble you no more." Yami vowed.
The Guardian Dark Magician shook his head. "But trouble me you must, for it is your destiny. Rather, promise that you will not seek this corridor again until the time is right," he suggested.
Yami nodded. "As you say, then. Will you assist me?"
The Guardian Dark Magician nodded again, then spoke. "You will have but one chance, my Pharaoh. If Mahaad returns with me to the tablet, as you have sworn to not provoke me, Mahaad's fate with be forever sealed within mine. Do you understand?"
Yami nodded.
"Then, decide what you must do, and tell me when you wish me to return to my sleep."
"One cannot easily hold a soul... My grasp must be true!"
Yami stepped forward. The Millennium Puzzle glowed and suddenly Yami found himself to be the same size as the Guardian Dark Magician. He looked deeply into the duel monster's eyes, searching for even the tiniest gleam of his friend's consciousness there. Finding none, he sighed, but reached his arms around the Guardian Dark Magician anyway.
"Mahaad, return to us. Return to your friends in the Magic Box, return to your place in our duels, return to Yugi...return to me. I don't know what else to try, so I hope you can feel my arms around you, my embrace, and help me to be strong enough to hold you here. Please, use ever bit of your will, and your heart, to stay in my arms. I miss you, my friend. Please, return to us. Return...to me."
Yami didn't know at what point the tears began to flow, but his face was wet when his words finally stopped. His throat tightened so much with emotion that he couldn't speak, but it seemed as if the time was right. Though he hadn't been able to say anything, a massive purple flare erupted in his arms and the Guardian Dark Magician's head slumped to his shoulder as the duel monster went limp.
Yami kept his arms tightly closed as he was buffeted by the energy. He only hoped he was strong enough to hold Mahaad during this intense spiritual storm.
His eyes widened as he realized why the magic flare seemed familiar. It was exactly like the power that Arcana had attacked him with in their duel, after he stripped the souls of his monsters with the Ectoplasmer card. During the duel with Arcana, somehow Mahaad had been able to use the bilateral effect of the card to make his own soul a defense against the attack of Arcana's Dark Magician's soul. If Mahaad had not realized he could do that and become a soul shield, Yami, and Yugi, would have been killed in that duel.
The purple energy pulled free from the Dark Magician collapsed in Yami's arms and swirled for a moment in front of him before floating into the tablet of the Dark Magician.
Yami felt as the Dark Magician still held tightly in his embrace drew a deep, shuddering breath and stood up. Yami dropped his arms and stepped back.
"He gave it...to me?! He gave me my destiny back!"
"M,Mahaad? Is it...you?" Yami had to ask.
For an answer, the Dark Magician straightened, gripped his staff resolutely, looked into his eyes, and smiled. Yami smiled back delightedly, unmistakably recognizing his friend in that smile.
Mahaad nodded. He turned to place one palm against the stone. "I will return here to be one with him when it is time for you to open that door," Mahaad nodded down the hallway. "It is my destiny. But that time is not now. Seeing how all of you were so concerned for me, he decided to release me until that time comes."
"He...attacked Yugi," Yami told him in a voice thick with strain.
"Yes..." Mahaad's hand still rested lightly upon the Dark Magician tablet. He closed his eyes.
"He's...sorry for that. Yugi had appeared once before in this hallway..." Yami shivered, realizing that Mahaad was communing somehow with the spirit of the Guardian Dark Magician. "Even though the time wasn't right, he almost let Yugi pass, since Yugi was so sincere. Afterward, he realized what a mistake that would have been, and vowed to not be fooled by Yugi again. So, when Yugi approached..."
"He attacked him...out of fear? He must feel his duty very strongly." Yami finished. "I had Mana and Akai take Yugi out of here for safety. Do you think he's okay?"
Mahaad looked up, directly into Yami's eyes, and shook his head.
"No, my Pharaoh. The Dark Magic attack Yugi suffered..."
Mahaad couldn't hold Yami's gaze. His head dropped. Yami had never seen the Dark Magician, or Mahaad, wear this sort of demeanor before. He appeared defeated.
"Yugi has been slain, my Pharaoh."
"What?!"
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Author's notes -
::grin:: So, is everyone happy now? Both Akai and Mahaad are back!
::sigh:: Of course, now I've gone and killed little Yugi...
Next chapter teaser - Chapter Fourteen - Destroying the Shadows
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(at)stargarde.com