A/N: Final update! I've completed this…someone gasp. I've actually completed my first fan fiction. o.o
Zebra Girl: Heh, I'm being evil, am I? Yeah, I am…I definitely know you, person who used my first name that I have not once revealed online. I definitely know you.
Phantom of blood: yeah…I'm touched that my writing is good enough for you to care…
Solitudity: Yeah, it's hard on Mokuba…I am very glad you like it. Is whenever this is up soon enough?
In answer to my challenge, the air between the pharaoh and I crackled with electricity. The stone walls around us faded into darkness, as did the floor beneath our feet, though we did not fall. To my surprise, the stone tablets that sealed the Shadow monsters vanished as well, and Atemu and I floated alone in the realm of nightmares, golden Items glowing softly. This was not to be a duel as I had fought them, a game as I had played, but a pure battle between souls.
"Is this how you are going to return Seto to his time?" Atemu asked softly, the barest hint of a smile fleeting across his proud but weary face.
"It is." A bolt of what looked like lightning arced between us, connecting us and beginning the duel.
Atemu possessed great mastery over the shadows, but so long had they been chained by this pharaoh, wandering in their own darkness, thirsting ever to consume the light they so rarely beheld. I whispered to the creatures that flowed around us, promising freedom, exploiting Atemu's weakness, manipulating all but his most loyal servants.
But the darkness was hungry, drawn to me more than the pharaoh I fought, for I was less protected. My rod glowed more brightly.
"Seth, you'll get both our souls ripped apart!" hissed Atemu as I resorted to sheer willpower to direct my attackers toward my foe. I said nothing, just grinned with a touch of insanity, the reflection of the lightning a maniacal gleam in my eyes.
Briefly, I glimpsed Isis's face against the pale stone, though the shadows were all the darker. There was a breach. The monsters were trying to escape.
"No! I can't let them escape again…" Atemu whispered. Sensing his weakness, I used the power of my Millennium Rod while he was distracted to twist his will, barely, to the side of a choice that he was already considering. "I…resign."
The bolt connecting vanished, and the storm around us gradually faded. The pharaoh had collapsed onto his knees, shuddering slightly, body glistening with sweat. My hair and robes were damp as well. Isis stood behind me, back against the wall, watching what was happening with horrified disbelief.
"Do what you will," commanded the rival I had spent two lifetimes trying to defeat. "The throne of Pharaoh is yours."
I sealed his soul in the puzzle and broke it into its pieces. It would not be solved until Yugi received it, I knew.
"Give me the Tauk," I commanded Isis, raising the Millennium Rod menacingly when she did not respond. She tore her gaze from the soulless but breathing body that slumped against the throne of the pharaoh, staring at me with flames smoldering behind her insert eye color here eyes as she calmly handed me the Millennium Tauk. I take it from her, staring into the Eye of Anubis, summoning the latent Shadow power in both it and in my Rod, casting my mind into the future where my eyes scanned the paper vessels of the Shadows.
…
I know why I lost to Yugi, though of course I will never accept that there is no other way. Destiny is not set like a computer program, but dynamic, changeable. Twice, I have won against Yugi, though only once against Horus. It was because of Mokuba that I won against Horus.
He could have killed me then, fulfilling both our destinies, but I know that he could not bring himself to do so. Yugi is not a murderer like Set or Horus.
The Blue Eyes stare up at me; they have been loyal servants through millennia, and now their scales stained a dark pink. Phantom blood bleeds from slashes that I can feel on my wrist. Mokuba walks into the room, smiling through one of my perspectives, horrified through another. His greeting and anguished cry blended into one alien sound before one of the visions grew dark in death.
I smiled at Mokuba.
