I did promise to finish this, didn't I? Not to say it's finished yet, that is. The last while has been more than a little busy, I had a lot of deadlines to meet and I was totally out of the energy reserved for writing. However, it's summer time now, and a new Yu-Gi-Oh! set with more exciting deck potential has just been released, which means I'll be updating like never before. In theory, this story will come to a close before September. In theory. We'll just have to see where this story is gonna take us, eh? As a matter of fact, to give myself a little more leeway, I'm gonna hike up the rating a tad. Things won't get that bad I'm sure, but you never know. At any rate, here we go!
To be sure, I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of that jazz.
Joey and Mokuba closed the door to the false jail and left Mephisto behind them. Joey's injuries began to subside and he was able to walk on his own soon. He and Mokuba broke into a run to meet up with their missing comrades.
Mokuba clenched his fists tightly. "I can't believe it, all this time they knew I had access to their information. I led us straight into their hands without knowing it. I'll make them pay for what they've done." He pulled out his laptop and opened it. They rounded a corner into a stairwell and paused. "They may know I have access, but they didn't falsify any information other than that prison. In one minute the guards will be out of the way upstairs. We should make our way to the duel research department. They appear to have a prison there to hold test subjects. They subject people to different card effects and fine tune them to make them as realistic as possible."
Joey was shocked. "So you're saying that Yugi and Kaiba are being caged like lab rats and are part of some twisted experiment?"
Mokuba nodded quietly. "Okay, get ready Joey. We take a left and head up the stairs until we hit the large door." They hurried up the stairs and out the door. They took a sharp left and up another stairway. They stopped in front of a large door that was laden with technology designed to keep something in and everything else out. Mokuba regarded the door critically. "This will take a second. Keep an eye out while I crack this walnut."
Joey nodded. He pulled Mephisto's deck from his pocket and searched through it. "As long as I have this, I might as well make use of it. Maybe there's something in here that will help me." He came across a card that had been used against him once before long ago and thumbed it thoughtfully. Joey stuffed the deck, minus the card he picked out, back into his pocket and turned back to Mokuba. A series of clicks and whirrs resounded through the great door and it began to open slowly. It was dark inside the room at first, a few lights came up when the door opened half way, jamming in place at that point.
It looked like a large laboratory at first glance. At second glance, you would notice the holographic projectors set up in the far corner in what was clearly a duel arena. If you put two and two together, it was obviously a laboratory set up to study duels. However, something was very wrong with the picture. It looked as if the lab had been torn apart. Thick glass barriers were shattered, the solid metal walls and ceiling were cracked and crumbling, there were what appeared to be fist marks made by a giant on some parts of the walls and large burned gashes in others.
"Mokuba, are you seein' what I'm seein'?" Mokuba could only nod in response. "Looks like giant monsters tore the place apart or somethin'." Joey looked around on the floor. Among the broken glass and equipment sat several people in lab coats. They were terrified beyond control, clutching their eyes shut and mumbling something about evil beasts coming for them. "Man, I hope I don't run into whatever got to these guys." Joey was suddenly struck with a sense of deja vu, and the memory of Marik's divine beast unleashing it's wrath upon him flashed before his eyes. He shook his head to clear the vision. "...Or did I already run into something like it before..."
A small sound coming from a dark corner broke the two from their thoughts. A tall, lanky man dressed in a lab coat emerged into the scarce light. He was wearing a duel disk that appeared to be somewhat damaged, not unlike his similarly disshevelled clothing. He stood before Joey and stared up at him. He stepped forth slowly and clutched Joey's shoulders and began sobbing. Mokuba clenched his fists. "YOU!" he roared, making Joey nearly leap out of his skin. "I know you, you're Baal of KaibaCorp's top three!"
Joey stepped back and regarded the man. He was still crying, something had tormented him beyond reason. Joey decided to take the chance of it being another trap. "Yo fella, are you okay?" he asked.
Mokuba grabbed Joey's arm fiercely. "Joey, do you who this guy is? He's the one in charge of KaibaCorp's research and development. He's the one who must have been holding Yugi and Seto here!"
Joey shook his head firmly. "Mokuba, take a look at this guy. He's in no condition to do anything right now, least of all get all rowdy and start a duel." He turned back towards the man. "Now tell me buddy, you are Baal of KaibaCorp's top three, right?" The man could only nod in response. "What happened here? If you can tell me then maybe I can fix it."
The man stared into Joey's eyes so fiercely that Joey couldn't bear to look into them for more than a moment. "It was..." he began, his voice shaking. "We... we were cocky, we never should have tried to control them... control those things... and now it's too late. I thought I was skilled enough to handle it, but I clearly was not. Their wrath is terrible, it was a nightmare. And then we created HIM... we thought he could control them, and he turned on us. But it was... Diablo. The man we call Diablo who started all this..." The man could say no more, he fell to the floor and went silent.
Mokuba stepped up to Joey. "You don't think he was talking about... you know..."
Joey clutched his shoulders tightly, in his mind he could feel the Winged Dragon of Ra's deadly attack burning him. "Yeah, I know." he said. He looked around the room until his eyes came upon a doorway. It was just the door frame, the door itself had been torn from it's hinges and cast aside carelessly. "There, that's where we'll find who did this, who hurt these people and is now hurting Yugi and Kaiba. You ready Mokuba?" he didn't wait for his response before approaching the door. He stepped through it with no hesitation.
Joey had been expecting the worst, but even so he was completely unprepared for what he saw. The room was a page from every horror story there ever was. The walls were drenched in a red substance that Joey could only hope wasn't what he feared it to be. Chained up against the walls were the second half of Joey's party; Tea, Mai, and Tristan. The ceiling was the most disturbing, amid a red fog that loomed overhead were large, inhuman eyes staring back at Joey, following him. At the far end of the room was a throne, carved perfectly out of shining white marble. Sitting on the throne was the one person that Joey had hoped not to see, and unfortunately expected to find eventually.
The raspy voice echoed from the shadow. "Hello Joey Wheeler. It has been too long since we last met."
"Bakura!"
The character in the throne stood, his long, white hair flowing out behind him, his eyes glowing bright purple with his hatred and malaice like a deadly beacon to all he looked upon. Hanging from his neck was his ever-present Millennium Ring. He wore a tight black jumpsuit adorned with spikes and skulls.
"I am flattered you remember me, but not entirely surprised. Skill like my own only comes once every Millennium."
Joey wanted to punch Bakura as soon as he spoke those words. "What are ya talkin' about ya freak? Yugi was twice the duelist you ever were, he beat you at Duelist Kingdom and in Battle City too..."
Bakura spat at Joey. "Do not mention the name of the Pharaoh, or his host for that matter, in my presence, mortal."
"What did you do with Yugi and Kaiba? And what happened to all those scientists out there? Tell me everything right now!"
Bakura laughed. "I am glad you asked, I do so love a good story. Your friends here asked the same thing, only they got a little upset right as it was getting good. I had to put them to sleep to stop their whining. However, if you will keep your mouth shut it would be my pleasure to tell you this story of my rise to power."
"I arrived in this future about 10 years ago, before any of your pathetic group wound up here. It didn't take long before for KaibaCorp recognized my supreme talents and wisely took me in as their third master duelist. A few short years later, the little Pharaoh and that oaf Tristan decided to barge in and spoil my fun. I decided to conceal my identity during the duel and thanks to the awesome power of my occult deck, little Yugi fell to my might. That labrat you passed on the way in, Baal, decided he wanted to study Yugi and his deck. Unfortunately for him he could not create any simulations difficult enough to challenge the Pharaoh sufficiently to get the data he wanted. The fool was about to give up, when who should arrive but that Kaiba fellow. By then the good doctor had began unlocking the power of the God cards, so that cocky fool wasted no time defeating him and locking him up, same as the Pharaoh. He then forced them to duel each other to collect all the data he could want. He was so delighted to see his little experiment produce such excellent results..."
Mokuba nearly ran straight for Bakura to hit him, his face flushed with rage. A quick, firm shake of Joey's head held him fast, but only just barely. Joey understood what Mokuba was going through at that moment, but it was important to hear Bakura out.
"Now, as you mentioned earlier, the little Pharaoh did manage a victory against me in Battle City thanks to his Slifer the Sky Dragon. Ever since then I have yearned to control the power of the God cards and take my revenge. The good doctor managed to scrounge up enough information to help me defeat Slifer, and so I did just that. Time and time again I would force Yugi to summon his God card and destroy it right before his eyes. Oh how he did scream and cry, it was most delightful. I never managed to make him beg however, I suppose he has the Pharaoh in his puzzle to thank for that. Unfortunately, my fun did not come without a certain price. It seems that while Yugi's spirit was unbreakable, the God's spirits were downright rebellious. Not to long ago as a matter of fact, Slifer and Obelisk decided to give us a real show of their power, and I believe you saw the results."
Bakura laughed out loud, a terrifying cacaophony that assaulted Joey and Mokuba from every direction. "That fool Baal should have know that the powers of the Egyptian Gods could not be controlled on a whim! It was simply delicious to watch them suffer! Not only that, but I also now have little Yugi and Kaiba to play with!"
Joey didn't need to hear any more. Silently, he stepped forward and slid his deck into his duel disk.
"Oh, what is this? The little understudy of Yugi wishes to face his teacher's superior? And I suppose you want me to release my prisoners if you win? Touching, but what is in it for me? Your pathetic life and your weak cards mean nothing to me, so don't bother offering those. However, what does interest me is the location of your little secret base of operations. I want to know where all you little rebellious ants live so I may enslave the lot of you! I will have control of all of Japan before long, and the world soon after! Well?"
Joey activated his duel disk, and it snapped into duel mode.
"I see. So be it! This is the beginning of your end little man! No mortal has any hope of defeating me!" Bakura activated his duel disk.
"Duel!"
"Duel!"
Bakura drew his card. "I'll go first, I prefer to hasten this duel so my final conquest may begin soon! I shall set two cards face down and summon Mystic Tomato in attack mode!" The air shimmered before him, and a rather sinister looking tomato appeared and snarled at Joey. "Your move."
Joey drew his card. "If I destroy that Tomato, he'll use it's effect to summon another monster from his deck. It's risky, but if I can get a life point advantage quickly I may be able to force him to reveal his strategy early."
"I set one card face down, and I summon Berserk Gorilla in attack mode!" The large gorilla appeared, and it immediately attacked the Tomato without any command from Joey. The Tomato was obliterated, and Bakura's life points dropped to 7400. "He may force himself to attack every turn, but that just means plenty of butt-kicking!"
Bakura only shook his head and summoned a Giant Germ from his deck. "What a simpleton. Do you really think just attacking me outright will solve anything? Observe my magic card, Creature Swap! It will switch control of my Giant Germ and your Berserk Gorilla, and I promise you won't like the results." With that, the Germ and Gorilla switched places. Almost immediately the Gorilla reared up and tore the Germ apart, which then sprayed Joey with a poisonous cloud that lowered his lifepoints by 500. Then the two halves of the Giant Germ twisted and bubbled into two new Germs on Bakura's side of the field, which then also attacked Joey.
Joey moaned in pain, his life points dropped to 4500. "I told you you wouldn't like the results. Make your move so I may destroy you!"
Joey drew his card, and almost laughed out loud. "Bakura, I know all about how your deck works from Yugi. You try to destroy your opponent's hand and keep lots of monsters with weird effects on the field. Well, I've got a little surprise for ya. I figured that eventually I would have to duel ya, seems to be the way it is with you; wherever Yugi is there's someone trying to get him. I prepared my deck while you were telling us your little story about how you hurt my best friend. In fact, I got the last card I needed a few minutes before we came in here. Allow me to introduce it to you!" Joey picked a card out of his hand and flicked it at Bakura, who caught it. His eyes went wide.
"What? How can your deck have a card like this? That isn't your play style! This is impossible!"
"Aw, cry me a river and go soak yer head. Now sacrifice your two Germs and play it!"
Bakura growled and slid his two Germs into his graveyard and played the card. A large steel cage appeared around him, followed by a large chain connected to the cage, followed by a gigantic lava monster attached to the chain. "How could a weak duelist like you have a card like Lava Golem and know how to use it?"
"Easy! While you've been sittin' on your butt making everyone's lives miserable, I've been gaining experience duelling! I know how to use it because Marik used it on me way back in Battle City, and I got one from a friend of yours, Mephisto. He never got the chance to use it himself, but it's sure coming through for me now." Joey set another card face down. "Now come on, I ain't got all day."
Bakura was furious, his Millennium Ring glowed with equal anger. "I do not take kindly to being made fun of! Now feel the flames of your own Lava Golem! Attack now!" The Golem's fireball attack didn't go far, Joey activated a trap card and Bakura found the molten lava streaking straight back towards him. He howled in pain as the lava burned his life points down to 3400.
"Now here's a little trick I learned from Yugi, called Magic Cylinder. It takes your attack and sends it directly back at your life points. Care to try again?"
Bakura called for the Gorilla to attack, but it fell short when three mages robed in purple stood between it and Joey.
"And here's something that Tea used to use against me, way back when I first started playing, Waboku. It'll reduce the damage your monsters do to me all the way down to zero. My turn now."
Joey drew his card, and Bakura's fury only grew. "That is enough, mortal! It is time for me to reveal my ultimate weapon!" Bakura activated his card, and a large ouija board appeared behind him. "My Destiny Board! Life points or not, in only a few turns you will lose! And to ensure your Golem does not harm me further, I activate Solomon's Lawbook. This card will allow me to skip my next standby phase, thus rendering the Golem's effect useless for that turn."
Joey only shook his head slowly. He was practically glowing with confidence. "Trust me, you won't last long enough to use your little board game against me. First I'll summon Exiled Force, and activate it's effect to destroy Berserk Gorilla." A small group of shady men appeared, they grabbed hold of the Berserk Gorilla, tying it up with ropes and restraining it. Once they subdued the Gorilla, it and the Exiled Force slowly vanished from sight. "And now I'll set this card face down."
The hands of the Destiny Board revealed the letter 'I' and Bakura drew his card. "If you are so confident, then let us raise the stakes a little in the Shadow Realm!" The room darkened slightly and a red mist filled the room. Everyone else vanished from sight, leaving the two in a seemingly empty room. "Whoever loses this duel shall not escape with their life! What do you think of that?"
"I think I activate my Scapegoat magic card, giving me four adorable little defenders." The four goats shimmered into existence, hovering harmlessly a foot above the floor.
"Your weak defense is meaningless to me! I shall remove my three Giant Germs from the game permanently to summon my ultimate beast; Dark Necrofear!" What little light still present in the room began to fade, drawn towards an unseen entity. Soon only the hot glow of the Lava Golem was visible, and only just barely. Deep within the darkness a figure shifted, then rose to it's full height. It's eyes shone an unnatural green, and in a nauseating wave all the light in the room swirled and bent back into place. The female demon carefully shifted the shattered doll in her arms and both screamed at Joey, a sound that could peel paint off walls struck him like a bulldozer. Joey couldn't help but shudder, but kept his confident poise. "My monster shall feed upon your strongest monsters, turning them against you. Not only that, but the clock keeps ticking as more letters of your death message are revealed! Feel the despair of the darkness, attack my mighty beasts!" The Lava Golem and Dark Necrofear struck two of Joey's Scapegoats. "Your move, mortal."
Joey drew his card. "Man, this guy is stubborn all the way to the end. I know all about that Necrofear's special abilities. If I destroy it, it'll be able to take over one of my monsters. Fortunately I just drew the card I needed to stop this guy cold."
"I'll set two cards face down, and then play Level Limit Area B." A large machine rose from the ground, in the center of which was a gateway with a large B in the center. The machine activated and what looked like a laser gun unfolded from the top. It swung around and pointed at Necrofear and Lava Golem. It fired on them both, surrounding them briefly in a green light. Necrofear took a step back and sunk to her knees, and the Lava Golem's firely glow dimmed. "This will turn all monsters that are level 4 or higher into defense mode, and there they'll stay until this card is destroyed. Back to you, freakshow."
The Destiny Board revealed the letter 'N'. Bakura drew his card, and almost immediately a splash of firey lava struck him in the back. Bakura actually seemed to savour the pain, even as his lifepoints dropped to 2400. "Fool, it doesn't matter that my monsters cannot attack, you will still be destroyed by my Destiny Board. However, in a shadow game I leave nothing to chance. I shall activate this Mystical Space Typhoon, which will dismantle your gate and allow my monsters to attack once more!"
The twister barely had time to form before it faded away. Joey laughed, "Sorry, but I can't have you doing that, so I used Magic Jammer to stop your Typhoon at the cost of one card in my hand. My move." Joey ended his turn quickly, and the board revealed 'A'. The Lava Golem dropped Bakura's lifepoints to 1400.
"You fool, what kind of strategy is this? At the end of your next turn my Destiny Board will banish you to the Shadow Realm for eternity! You will lose all your friends and your mind!"
Joey shrugged. "We'll see, won't we?"
"Take your last turn so we may end this farce of a duel."
Joey drew his card. "This is it, I've gotta time this just right or it won't work." He looked up at Bakura and grinned. "I end my turn."
Bakura's Millennium Ring shone triumphantly. "This is the end fool! Prepare to be banished forever!" The hands moved toward the last letter, 'L'. The five letters swirled into the air, spelling out FINAL. They began fading to black, a portal opened beneath them and a massive clawed hand emerged from the vortex and reached out to grab Joey.
Joey stared at the gigantic hand that threatened to drag him into the darkness forever. "Awright, on three... THREE!" Joey activated his face down card. From the darkness twin red beams shot forth and struck the letter 'F' in the death message. The letter crackled and sparked with red energy. The massive beast within the vortex screamed, the sound bringing both duelists to their knees, and the arm withdrew into the portal just as it closed and vanished. The letters returned to the ouija board, the F still burning red hot with the energy that struck it from nowhere.
Bakura dragged himself to his feet. "What is this? I don't understand! My death message should have destroyed you, it's unstoppable!"
Joey laughed. "Not entirely unstoppable. Despite it's awesome power, the key component of your little trick is nothing more than a trap card. As such, it has the exact same weaknesses." Joey pointed his thumb behind him. Standing at it's full 8 feet and clutching a glowing golden rope was Jinzo, it's eyes shining red. "So I tossed my Jinzo into the graveyard with my Magic Jammer and revived him just now with my Rope of Life. He negated your Destiny Board right before it took full effect."
"But why would you wait until right now to use it? You could have activated that any time!"
"Take a look at the field, I'd rather not spell it out for someone who think's he's such a bigshot."
Bakura looked at his duel disk. The Lava Golem loomed above him, threatening to drain his lifepoints away. He looked at the five pieces of his Destiny Board occupying every slot in the bottom row. Bakura growled. "I am unable to activate any magic or trap cards because my Destiny Board has taken up all five slots! I cannot do anything to negate your Level Limit card or destroy the Lava Golem! I locked myself down with my own ultimate weapon..."
"Wee-eel, I guess you ARE a bigshot after all, figuring that out all by yourself. You probably also know that means Lava Golem will toast the last of your lifepoints pretty soon." As if on cue, a mass of molten rock poured onto Bakura. This time the pain was enough to make even Bakura howl in agony, portions of his costume burning away revealing his singed skin.
"Well then, it seems I am unable to make a move, so I shall end my turn."
"And it seems I don't NEED to make a move now, so I end my turn."
True to his style, Bakura looked up at the Lava Golem, then back to Joey, and laughed. "You may have me beat, Joey. I shall commend you for this one victory only. To congradulate you, I have a little gift for you, something that I guarantee you will keep with you forever after! Farewell Wheeler!" Bakura's Millennium Ring flashed briefly and he fell to his knees. His hair and eyes softened, and he began crying. He looked up at Joey, his gentle features wracked with fear and pain.
"Oh no, the spirit of the Ring has switched himself out, now it's the real Bakura!"
Bakura tried to stand, but his legs gave out quickly and he fell hard. He looked up at Joey with his tearful eyes. "Joey," he spoke in a raspy and broken voice, "I'm so sorry for this. If you get us back to our own time then it will be like none of this ever happened, everyone will be back to normal. You must... you must hurry, put this duel behind you, forget about me and save the others." He pulled a small object from his pocket and tossed it to Joey. It skittered to a stop at his feet.
Joey kept his eyes fixed on his fallen friend. "But Bakura, if you don't come back with us then you might not be there! I won't take that risk, there has to be a way to save you! Lava Golem, stop! Don't hurt him!"
The Golem paid no mind to Joey. It slowly rose and began curving itself into a large wave, preparing to crash down on Bakura. Bakura clutched the iron bars of the cage that surrounded him. "Joey please! You are the only one who can do this!" The Golem began it's slow descent, it was seconds away from crashing down.
"Bakura!" There was nothing Joey could do. His feet were frozen in place, he stood paralyzed as Bakura's final cries of anguish echoed around the room as the Lava monster crashed down upon him. The mound of lava remained motionless, the cage and Bakura entirely covered under the searing hot beast. The room was dead quiet, even the Dark Necrofear still in defense mode on the field was eerily silent. Soon both it and the Lava Golem vanished, as did Joey's cards. The dark fog of the Shadow Realm lifted and he was back in the real world.
The room looked rather plain with the absence of the Millennium magic it once contained, the walls and ceiling were the same metallic tiling as the rest of the building. Joey lowered his head as his tears began to fall. He looked at the object that Bakura had thrown to him, it was a small key. Joey picked it up, wiping away a tear that had fallen on it with his thumb. He looked about the room, his unconcious friends began to wake, apparantly even Mokuba succumbed to the dark power as they entered the Shadow Realm. Joey walked over to the wall and began unlocking the chains that bound his friends. He dropped the key onto the ground as he finished, and sunk to his knees in silence. Tea was the first to her senses, and she kneeled next to Joey. "Bakura... the real Bakura..." Joey gasped out, "I sent him to an eternity in the darkness because I wanted to destroy the spirit in the Ring. I didn't have a choice, did I? If I didn't win then all my friends would be gone. But then why do I feel so..."
Tea slid her hand onto Joey's cheek and kissed him. They stayed frozen in their gentle embrace for a moment, until the sound of someone clearing their throat broke them apart. They looked back to see Mokuba, Tristan, and Mai standing awkwardly behind them. Mai blushed a little. "Sorry guys," she said softly, "but this is a pretty bad place to take a break. There seems to be a small room hidden in the back there, Mokuba, we have enough time to take a little break now?" Mokuba looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting a break, but gave an uneasy nod. "We can take five in there then, come on hun, on your feet."
Joey took a deep breath and Tea helped pull him to his feet. They slid their arms around each other and began slowly making their way to the door. Tristan was ahead of them, he carefully peeled the concealed door off the wall to reveal the hidden room. He peeked into the room and let out a sharp yelp in surprise. "You guys, get over here now! Look who I found!" The group made their way to the door and peered into the dimly lit room. It was hard to see, but there was no mistaking the two figures that were slumped over on the floor, the soft sounds of their laboured breathing felt like the only sound in existence.
"It's Yugi and Kaiba!"
"Seto!"
Joey staggered forward and fell to the ground next to his best friend. He ran his fingertips along the young man's slender face, as if making sure he was really there. His shirt was gone, revealing his thinning body that was covered with dozens of scars, large and small. Where there weren't scars there were burns and long gashes. His eyes were open a tiny sliver, gleaming with tears. He managed to squeeze out a single whisper, "Joey?"
Joey smiled and nodded. "It's good to see ya man, you look... well, it's good to see ya."
Yugi smiled, something he had apparantly not done in a long time, and let out a sigh. His body went limp and his breathing slowed as he fell deep into sleep.
Joey looked up at where Mokuba had gone to meet Kaiba. Mokuba was in tears, holding his brother's battered and bruised body close. Kaiba had apparantly lost his white coat at some point, and his tight black jumpsuit was torn and stained from his many wounds. Mokuba draped his own coat on him and continued to hold him. "I knew I would find you, brother. Everything is gonna be fine now..."
Whether the energy drained by his duels, the terror of losing Bakura, or the relief of finding Yugi and Kaiba, or a combination of all three, Joey's body gave way to exhaustion in a split second. Tea wrapped her arms around him and slowly eased him up against her. Joey's body tensed a moment as the pain of his duels hit him one last time as the adrenaline finally ran it's course, causing his wounds to finally give way. Despite the mess, Tea continued to hold Joey as he sunk into sleep.
Bakura is gone, but if he's right then he won't be gone for long. Tea has pretty much revealed her feelings to Joey, and they've finally found Yugi and Kaiba. There isn't much time to rest, however. Who was this mysterious character that was spoken of, he who may be able to control the God cards? Is it possible? You won't have long to wait for the next chapter! (at least, certainly not as long as you did for this one.)
