Kitty: Chapter 18!
Yugi: (grins) I've been looking forward to this chapter...the challenges are AWSOME!
Kitty: Particularly since you, Marik, Seto and Ryou will be going through them!
Lina: Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Kitty: (glares) R&R, peoples!
Chapter Eighteen:
Trust in Your Other Self
"Whew," Yugi whispered, "We made it...""Safe and sound," Marik added.
"SAFE AND SOUND?" Seto repeated, "LOOK AT YOUR LEG!"
Marik looked at his leg to see the one of the vines in the plant had been gliding up it, and now that he saw the vine, he realized it was gripping his leg painfully tight.
Marik tried to slap the plant away, but it grabbed his wrist. He and his friends struggled against the plant, except for a newly appeared Ryou, who was sitting perfectly still.
"Stop moving, all of you!" Ryou snapped, which was kind of strange for him, "This is a Devil's Snare. Sprout-sensei mentioned it in Herbology. You have to relax, or it'll kill you faster."
"KILL US FASTER?" yelled a newly appeared Atem, "OH, NOW I CAN RELAX!"
Ryou rolled his eyes, and the plant suddenly brought him down into the plant, under the others' line of vision.
"RYOU-KUN!" Marik yelled.
"Now what are we going to do?" Seto moaned, as the plant started fastening itself around his shoulders.
"Just relax!" they heard Ryou's voice under them.
"Ryou-kun, where are you?" Atem yelled.
"Do what I say!" Ryou told them, "It'll bring you down to where I am, you'll be fine!"
Atem forced himself to freeze up, and then he felt himself come down to the floor right next to Ryou. Marik came down after him, but Seto continued to howl with terror and alarm.
"He's not relaxing, is he?" Marik asked sarcastically.
"Apparently not," Atem muttered, "Then again, he's the only one here with no magical experience..."
"What are we going to do?" Marik implored Ryou.
Ryou's face scrunched up in thought. "Oh....I'm no good at Charms...I don't know..."
After a few seconds of thought and a muffled scream from Seto, Ryou snapped his fingers in realization.
"I got it: Devil's Snare hates sunlight!"
Bakura suddenly took Ryou's place, raised his wand and yelled, "LUMOS!"
Light erupted from Bakura's wand, and the plant released Seto, making him come tumbling through the plant and onto the floor beside them.
"Are you okay?" Atem asked as he helped Seto up.
Seto snorted in indignation as he slapped Atem's hand away and brushed himself off. "I'm fine."
"Fine thanks to Ryou-kun and Bakura," Marik snapped, "Don't you think you could at least say 'thank you' or something?"
Seto glared coldly before turning toward a silver-crusted door at the end of the small hallway. "Let's get going. Dare-kun and the others need us."
Bakura nodded. "Kaiba-kun's right. Who knows what they're getting themselves into right about now..."
Atem went over to the door and pulled it open.
As soon as they stepped inside, they heard a strange rustling/clinking sound above them.
They looked toward the ceiling to see a swarm of what appeared to be winged keys flying around the room; in the corner next to a second door were also some broomsticks.
"I guess we're supposed to catch the key to unlock the door," Seto said as he turned the doorknob to show it was locked, "We probably need a old fashioned silver one...if we go by the handle, anyway."
"There it is!" Marik said, pointing to one of them, "It even has a broken wing, like someone caught it roughly and threw it into the lock...like Snape and Harry-kun, don't you think?"
"But none of us are as good of a flier as Harry-kun!" Atem said, "You got hit in the face and Yugi-kun broke his wrist, for Ra's sake!"
Bakura smirked. "Hit in the face and a broken wrist? That's nothing compared to my hikari..."
Marik raised an eyebrow at the Tomb Robber, and Bakura laughed.
"Ryou ended up flying in circles," he explained, "All around the school grounds, and when he finally got down, he got sick."
Marik and Atem exchanged a mixed look of disgust and sympathy. Seto, however, shook his head.
"You don't even want to know what happened to me..." the CEO muttered.
"Yeah we do!" Marik said immediately.
"Must I embarrass myself with having to tell you?" Seto asked coldly.
"Hey, we all told ours!" Atem said with a smirk, "Besides, you're among some of the worst fliers in the history of wizards..."
"Charmed," Seto muttered coolly, "Oh, alright...when I was trying to get the broom 'up,' instead of going up into my hand...the broom hit me in the crotch."
Marik and Bakura burst out laughing. Seto glared coldly, although his cheeks was quite pink. Atem, however, was expressionless, his scarlet eyes blank.
"Uh...hello?" Seto waved his hand in front of Atem's face, "You in there?"
"He and Yugi are talking," Bakura explained, "In their soul rooms."
Seto scowled, and was about to retort with the whole 'I don't believe in magic' speech, when the Pharaoh blinked and came back to reality.
"Well..." Atem said, "Yugi-kun says that he'll give flying another chance...you know how optimistic he is...but we both agreed it was for our friends' sake, so here goes nothing..."
Yugi took his Yami's place, and took a deep breath before picking up one of the brooms and mounting it.
/Yami?/
-Hmm?-
/Can you help me catch the key we need?/
-Sure, hikari. You do the flying, and I'll do the catching.-
Yugi smiled, before kicking off from the ground and starting to fly. The keys started flying away, fast and furious to escape before he tried to catch them.
Flying was definitely better than the first time. Yugi wasn't as afraid, it was true, but he had a reason to not be as scared.
-Your friends, along with the rest of the world, are counting on us... -
Yugi nodded inwardly. /We can't let Voldemort win.../
"Behold the power of Lord Voldemort!" the man screamed, "Artemis's Heir and Potter have finally met their end!"
Diana and Harry were dead...and under their bodies, Yugi could see the flaming red hair of Ron and the bushy brown curls of Hermione.
"Those fools thought they could stop me from getting the Sorcerer's Stone!" Voldemort laughed in spite, "They didn't even have Dumbledore on their side! And now...to finish off the others who tried to help them..."
/I won't let that happen!/ Yugi thought.
Yugi felt Atem nod in agreement. -And I'll be right there to help you.-
Yugi's jaw clenched in determination, and he gripped his broom as he flew around the keys to get to the silver one as it flapped away as fast as it could with a broken wing.
-Ready, Yugi-kun?- Atem asked him.
/Ready!/
Atem took his place for but two seconds to catch the key, and Yugi then took over again to fly down toward the ground. Around the landing, he lost control of the broom and hit the ground with an uneasy THUMP, but he'd done what he needed to do.
"Nice one, Yugi-kun!" Marik said as Bakura took the key from him.
"No...sweat," Yugi said with a tired grin, "But I never want to play Quidditch for real..."
-Ditto,- Atem said, -I don't know how Harry-kun can stand that kind of pressure...-
/And dueling for the world doesn't have pressure?/ Yugi teased.
Atem frowned inwardly while Bakura ran over to the door and unlocked it, before letting the key fly back up to the ceiling.
"Alright, Yugi, the Yami-Hikari chat is done," the Tomb Robber said, "We have to go help the others."
Atem blinked as he took Yugi's place and nodded toward Bakura. "For once, I agree with you, Tomb Robber."
The Japanese boys walked into the next room, and at first thought they were in a Graveyard...but Seto was the first one to realize what it really was.
"A chessboard," he whispered.
All the chessmen were broken as if they had just gone through a crusade, and in the corner of the chessboard, the boys saw someone they were hoping to see alright.
"MIONE-KUN!"
Hermione, Ron's head in her lap, looked up to see her Japanese friends standing there.
Her eyes widened. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Coming after you, of course," Atem said, his eyes narrowing, "Who's stupid idea was it to leave us out?"
"That was Dare," Hermione said quietly, "She...thought it'd be best..."
"What happened to Ron-kun?" Bakura asked, as he felt the boy's pulse.
"H-he sacrificed himself to win the chess game," Hermione whimpered, "I think he's out cold. I was going to bring him up to the hospital wing and then write a letter to Dumbledore to come quickly...Dare and Harry went on to face Snape."
"Hey, four students to a full grown wizard and Voldemort sounded bad enough," Atem said, "Now you're saying Harry-kun and Dare-kun went on ALONE?"
"This isn't the time, Atem," Seto whispered, "We have to go after them."
Marik had been quiet this whole time, but right then he spoke, "I'll go with Mione-kun, guys. I can play the harp to help us get past Fluffy..."
"But you'd have to get past Fluffy to play it," Bakura pointed out.
"I've got it," Hermione said, as she pulled a silver pan-pipe out of her pocket, "Dare got this for Christmas and used it to help us get past Fluffy before...it's enchanted to put people to sleep."
"I swear, Dare-kun is positively brilliant," Marik whispered as he took the flute from Hermione and examined it before giving it back to her, "Oh...and Kaiba-kun?"
"What?" Seto asked.
Marik pulled his Millennium Rod out of his pocket.
"Take this with you," he said, as he threw it toward the CEO.
Seto caught it deftly, before looking at it. "Why would I need something like this, Marik-kun?"
"Trust me, Kaiba-kun..." Marik said seriously, "You will."
Hermione helped pull Ron onto Marik's back and the two of them started back the way they came.
Seto looked down at the Millennium Rod, and then after Marik, before yelling, "DON'T YOU DARE THINK THIS STUPID PIECE OF GOLD WILL MAKE ME BELIEVE IN DESTINY!"
"I'M NOT!" Marik hollered back.
Seto, finally satisfied, turned to the Yamis. "Alright...how many challenges do we have left?"
Atem pulled up his robes to look at the old words he'd written on his hand when he was at Hagrid's. He squinted, trying to read the blurry names.
"Sprout-sensei...I guess that was the Devil's Snare... Flitwick-sensei was the Flying Keys... McGonagall-sensei must've transfigured the chessmen... Quirrel-sensei and Snape are left, if you don't count Dumbledore-sama."
The three of them opened the door, and into the next room. As soon as they stepped inside, they were greeted with a nasty smell.
"I remember this smell," Atem told the other two as he held his nose, "This is..."
A troll even larger than the one Dare had knocked out was on the ground, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.
"Glad we don't have to fight that," Seto muttered.
Bakura looked at Atem. "Do you think it's more likely it was Snape who did that...or Dare?"
"Hard to tell," Atem admitted.
Walking past the troll, Seto pulled open the next door to reveal a table with seven differently shaped bottles on it...and two Gryffindor first year students next to it.
"DARE-KUN! HARRY-KUN!"
Diana and Harry whirled around, and stared.
"What are you guys doing here?" Harry inquired.
"Coming to help you, what else?" Bakura said reproachfully as he looked at Diana, "What were you thinking?"
"It was safer," Diana said stubbornly, crossing her arms.
Atem stepped away from the open door, and almost as soon as he did, purple flames shot up around the doorway, blocking the way back, and similar black flames shot up around the one to the Stone.
Seto looked around. "Snape's, I assume, due to the potion bottles."
"But what do we have to do?" Atem asked.
Diana picked up a roll of parchment from the table, and began to read:
"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind;
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find.
One among us seven will let you move ahead,
Another will transport the drinker back instead,
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide
You always find some on nettle wine's left side.
Second, different are those that stand on either end,
But if you move onward, neither is your friend.
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death on their insides.
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."
Diana rolled the parchment back up, and to everyone's surprise, she smiled.
"No matter how evil or unfair Snape is," she said calmly, "I will admit he is brilliant. This isn't magic at all...it's logic. Tons of the best wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, so they'd be stuck down here forever."
"And so will we..." Bakura muttered, "Even I couldn't solve most of the riddles down in the priests' tombs..."
Atem sighed. "Then we're really doomed. I never learned this stuff...it was always Seth who could figure that stuff out...then again, he made half of those old riddles up..."
"Who's Seth?" Harry asked curiously.
"My older cousin in Egypt," Atem explained, "His real name was Seito, but I used to tease him and call him Seth, after Osirus's evil brother...I met him during the Battle City Finals; he came out of Marik-kun's Rod and told us how to save Kara-kun from death...kinda weird, ne?"
Seto froze. He remembered that day...that guy who had helped them had spoken through him...but they'd never seen what he looked like...still...
"Kaiba-kun?" Bakura waved a hand in front of his face, "Hey, Kaiba-baka!"
But Seto didn't answer.
"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked worriedly.
"It's like he's...in a different world..." Diana whispered.
Seto looked around to find him somewhere else...it was like his room back at the Kaiba mansion, with computer technology, Duel Disk plans and pictures of him and Mokuba all over the place.
/Where am I?/ he asked himself.
Seto opened the door in the corner of the room, and found a strange purple hallway. Across from his room, was another door, painted gold with the eye of Millennium Items.
/What the hell?/
The door suddenly opened, and someone came out.
Seto stared.
The person looked just like him, except his brown hair had streaks of black near his bangs, he had a dark Egyptian tan and his blue eyes were lined with silver.
The Seto-clone stepped toward him, examining him almost as carefully as Seto was him.
-Amazing likeness...-
He even sounded like Seto, although his voice was slightly deeper.
/Who are you?/ Seto demanded.
-My name is Seito, but you may call me Seth, everyone does,- the Seto-clone replied with a smirk, -Besides, I think saying both "Seto" and "Seito" would be confusing.-
/I remember you,/ Seto said coldly, /You're that guy who saved Rozene./
-My Priest Keeper? Of course,- Seth replied, -I couldn't have her die in saving my cousin, could I?-
/I thought you hated Atem...after all, I do./
-Rivalry doesn't automatically mean hate,- Seth pointed out, -You only hate Atem because he beats you all the time, which I can quite relate to...I mean, now that you know the difference between my cousin and his hikari, you like Yugi just fine.-
/How do you know?/ Seto demanded.
-Obvious, isn't it?- Seth asked, -I've been paying attention to your life through my soul room and through your eyes...-
/You've been spying on me? Pathetic./
-At least I waited to learn a little more about your life and the future than the others...I mean, I'd guess Atem made a fool out of himself trying to learn how to use a toaster...-
Seto smirked in slight amusement, and Seth cleared his throat seriously.-I can help you and your friends beat Snape,- he said urgently.
Seto snorted. /That I doubt./
-I can help you get past this challenge,- Seth repeated, -Didn't you hear what my cousin said about me solving riddles? I can help you. All you have to do is let me take over for a bit.-
Seto looked at his other self suspiciously. /Why should I trust you?/
-Because I'm the only plan you've got.-
Even Seto had to admit he had a point.
/Fine,/ Seto snapped, /But if you don't solve the riddle, I'm taking over./
-Agreed.-
"Seto" blinked, and looked at the others.
His friends all stared.
It wasn't Seto.
"Seito?" Atem whispered, "What are you doing here?"
"The third time someone here has been asked that," Seth said in amusement, "I'm here thanks to an agreement made between me and my stubborn hikari, who you happen to know as Seto Kaiba. Anyway..."
He picked up the scroll and read it through.
"Are you going to help us solve the riddle, Seito?" Harry asked.
"But of course," the High Priest replied said, "Oh, and Seth's fine."
"Well...Seth," Diana sad slowly, "Thanks."
"Tell me," Seth said as he pondered the riddle, "Are you guys just not riddle-minded people?"
"I'm no good at these kind of riddles," Diana said slowly, "I'm better at guess riddles...you know like, 'The bigger it gets, the less you see,' that kind of thing."
"I'm the one who made that up," Seth said coolly, "Kept Atem-chan quiet for months before he figured it out and ruined my fun."
Atem scowled. "Aw, shut up already with that, will ya-"
"Got it," Seth interrupted, before picking up the smallest bottle, "Here it is: the bottle that will take us onward to kick Snape's ass."
"That's barely one swallow," Harry said worriedly as he took the bottle from the Priest, "And there's five of us..."
"Just a second," Seth said, before he froze, his eyes blank.
"Talking to his hikari, I guess," Bakura muttered.
Seto suddenly took his Yami's place, and waved his wand at the potion bottle, muttering, "Multi!"
One bottle suddenly became five, all with the same amount of potion.
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked.
"A Multiplying Charm," Seto replied simply.
"A what?" Atem and Bakura said together.
"We never learned about that," Diana reminded Seto, "Flitwick said he'd teach us that next year..."
"I read ahead," Seto said with a smirk.
Diana grinned. "For once...I'm glad you and Mione are so attached to magic books..."
"Good," Seto said as he took one of the bottles and drank it. He shivered.
"What's wrong?" Atem asked.
"It's cold," Seto said with another shiver.
Diana took hers and drank it down too, also shivering. "It's like ice..."
The other three followed, shivering a little also.
Then Seth took Seto's place and said, "Alright, comrades! Onto the last challenge...and to kicking Snape's ass!"
"Is that all you think about?" Diana snapped.
Seth smirked in amusement. "Sorry. It's kind of hard not to want to kick someone's ass after 5000 years of waiting in a Millennium Item while your hikari is dueling tons of people...."
The High Priest started toward the black-fire-blocked doorway, but Atem cleared his throat simply.
"Pharaohs first," he said coolly.
"The phrase is 'Ladies first,'" Seth replied in an equally cool tone, "But it applies both ways for you, so whatever."
Atem stuck his tongue out at his cousin, before walking through the black flames, the others behind him.
But when the five of them got past the flames, they froze in surprise.
They weren't surprised to see someone there...but they were surprised as to who it was.
It wasn't Snape, and it wasn't Voldemort...
Kitty: That's it!
Yugi: WHAT? That evil of a cliffy?
Kitty: You guys already know what's gonna happen...
Yugi: I DON'T CARE!
Seth: Well, well, well...I've finally appeared in this story...
Seto: (sarcastically) Oh, joy.
Kitty: Reviews, Lina?
Lina: Hmm...Five. And Meanae the Thorn is first, with two reviews.
Kitty: (cries) Sorry I didn't answer your first review. I must not have seen it until I posted Chapter 17. Sorry... (sniff)
Lina: Anyway... (smiles) Yeah, Malfoy's a coward and Artemis kicked ass, I'll say "Amen" to that. And Voldemort's kinda cool, I like the whole "Tom Riddle and Harry being similar" thing in the second book.
Kitty: (nods) True... Next review is from Kani. (sweatdrop) Sorry you're confused. Well, Harry and the gang were kind of one room ahead of the Japanese boys the whole time up to the chess room, where they found Hermione and Ron. But good question. And cliffys are fun to write, (sarcastically) so I'm glad you enjoy them... (winks)
Lina: Third is Claire, a.k.a. SGCred.
Kitty: I got all of your emails, and I'm sorry I didn't reply. (cries) And it seems I'm having troubles reviewing fics like you were...thanks to this STUPID, SO-CALLED POP-UP BLOCKER! (kicks her computer) I click on the button, and it "blocks" the review window, and yet it still shows me junk about dating services... (sweatdrop) YUGI IS MY BOYFRIEND, YOU IDIOTS, I DON'T NEED A DATING SERVICE!
Dating services: (run away)
Kitty: Last review is RAINBOW GUARDIAN ANGEL! (chews her cookie and sings under her breath) This is Halloween, this is Halloween...
Yugi: (smiles) We need to watch that movie, Kitty.
Kitty: Definitely...
Lina: (sweatdrop) Get back to the review, Kitty.
Kitty: (glares) I was! (ahem) Yeah, I liked writing the Teletubbies part... (grins) c'mon, doesn't anyone here besides me love seeing Seto get embarrassed? I love tormenting him, even though he's my friend.
Seto: (glares) I don't have friends, especially not you.
Kitty: (eyes get all watery) You're...not my friend? (bawls)
Yugi: (fumes) APOLOGIZE!
Seto: No way! I'm not going to get run over thanks to her whining!
Kitty: (cries so much that everything in the room is drowning)
Yugi: (glares at Seto significantly)
Seto: (sighs) Oh, okay...I'm your friend, Kitty.
Kitty: (stops crying and glomps Seto) And you're mine, Seto-kun!
Seto: (sweatdrop)
Yugi: (sweatdrop) Pretty Kitty, you need to take your medication now.
Seto: (sighs in relief)
Kitty: (blinks, and drops Seto on the floor) What medication?
Yugi: (smiles and offers her a heart-shaped box of chocolates)
Kitty: (eyes become shiny) Aw...Yugi-chan, you're so sweet! (glomps him)
Seto: (sweatdrop) Chocolate is not a medication...
Yugi: (blushes, but grins) Hey, Dare-kun's not the only one who loves chocolate...
Seto: BUT CHOCOLATE MAKES KITTY HYPER!
Yugi: It also makes her happy, and it is my duty as her boyfriend and lover to make her happy.
Seto: (sweatdrop) Oh, brother...
Seth: (shakes his head derisively) R&R!