Taking Kaiba's limo, they arrived at the half assembled Dueling Dome. Construction had been delayed for a long time, leaving the dome unoccupied. The ceiling was almost complete, but the inside was still a wreck and in definite need of work. Walking in, the floor was dirty and some walls had been taken down. Without lighting, it was dark and hard to see. Nonetheless, they entered the half built building, assuming the tracking system was correct and Yugi was there.
Staying as a group, they all searched in the arena, finding nothing. In fact, they found nothing except dirt, pieces of the building, and abandoned tools by workers anywhere they searched. Yugi or his dueling disk had not been found. Even searching outside of the building, he seemed not to be anywhere near there.
"Damn it!" Jounouchi punched the wall after returning inside. "Is your program messed up or something, Kaiba?"
"It's an accurate, very expensive system so you know! It can't be wrong!" Seto told him.
"Then where's Yugi?" Jounouchi muttered in frustration.
"Calm down, Jounouchi," Anzu told him. "Kaiba, isn't there some place in the building we haven't checked yet?"
"I was about to get to that when that make inu over there interrupted me," he said. "There is a basement in this building, but only two ways to get into it."
"Why the hell would you need a basement in this place?" Honda asked him sarcastically. Seto glared at him, shutting him up instantly.
Annoyed, Seto led them to the nearest entrance to the basement. Trying to open metal door, Seto found that it was locked and bolted shut. He tried kicking the door open only to no avail. Knowing they were anxious to see Yugi, he continued trying to kick and flail his body at the door. It still wouldn't budge.
"Let's try the other door," Otogi suggested, already making his way aimlessly to the next door.
Seto walked ahead of him and took them to the second door. Like the one before it, this door was also locked and bolted shut. Again, he tried kicking it open and flailing his body at it, but it too would not open. Eventually, everyone began trying to knock it open, only to fail just as Seto did. Even hitting it together would not knock it open.
"They weren't locked like this the last time, and after what had happened here, they'd be knocked down," Seto told them.
"Then I think it's safe to assume somebody's in there," Bakura, who had been silent practically the whole time, said. "We have to break it down."
"Yeah, but how?" Otogi asked.
Looking around, Honda spotted a sledgehammer that had been left behind by one of the construction workers. It was just the thing they needed at the time. Wielding the hammer with both hands, he pulled his arms back and slammed it against the door with all his might with it. It dented the door, but not yet knocking it down. He took a few more hard swings at it, and eventually, the door gave way. The broken down door fell down the narrow stairway as everyone began to follow it.
Mokuba trotted along with them.
"Mokuba, stay upstairs," Seto demanded. "I don't feel right about this, and I'd feel better if you stayed here."
Unsure of what Seto meant, Mokuba obeyed his older brother's orders and followed them not down to the dark basement.
He heard a bang! He had no time left. It was time to prepare the entrance to everything. It disappointed him that it was not done the way he had hoped, but he was left with no choice. Grabbing some rope, a key, and his dagger, he left his chamber for the final time and returned to Yugi's room.
Yugi looked exactly how he had left him: beaten, tired, depressed. Anubis took the key and unlocked his shackles. Thoughtless, Yugi fell to the ground, having no feeling in his arms.
"I have the power to get what I want, and you cannot stop me," Anubis told Yugi, who didn't seem to be listening.
He began using his God pearl again. It glowed white and black, alternating colors every second. Yugi could feel something coming out of him, like a whole different person. Showing no emotion or struggle, Yugi felt Yami Yugi slipping away from him. His presence was no longer sensible. He saw a large yellow light fly from his body and towards a different side of the room. At that point, he seemed not to care about much of anything anymore.
The glow disappeared, and Yami Yugi, in a separate body, sat on the ground. Just like what had happened before, Yami Yugi and Yugi were separated into two different bodies. Yugi laid down in exhaustion while Yami Yugi nearby was beginning to realize he was no longer in Yugi's body. Before Yami Yugi had time to react to what had happened, Anubis took the rope he had taken and tightly tied his feet together and his arms behind his back. Immobile, Yami Yugi could only snarl at his enemy.
"Escaping my grasp now is impossible. I have won," he stood above a helpless Yami. He took the dagger from his boot and unsheathed it once again, mocking him with the blade. Yami Yugi tried to kick him with his feet tied together, but missed miserably, and received a kick in the gut for his attempt. "I count down the time until I kill you. That will conclude my victory!"
"You," Yami Yugi began, trying to catch his breath, "have won nothing! You were forced to separate us because you failed in your attempt to make Yugi submit to the darkness! He withstood anything you threw at him! You couldn't put out the light within him, and thus he broke through everything! Anubis, you can kill me, but you haven't proved your might! You're a coward that contains yet severely lacks a God's ability!"
Anubis became infuriated, already sitting on a short fuse. He grabbed him by the shirt and lifted the dagger above his head, his intention looking to kill him then and there. He was breathing down his neck, but Yami Yugi was not afraid.
"I ought to finish you off here!" he threatened him.
His arm began to fall toward him when out of nowhere, someone grabbed it arm, stopping the fall. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Honda, using both of his arms, holding back his stabbing motion. Jounouchi flew in as well, kicking his hand and knocking the dagger out of his hand. Anubis threw Honda off his arm and released his hold on Yami Yugi to concentrate his attack on Jounouchi and Honda. Otogi jumped on his back, trying to choke him. Jounouchi and Honda attempted to tackle him and pin him down, dealing him a few punches and kicks.
Meanwhile, Bakura had stepped in and untied Yami Yugi's arms and legs while Anzu went to help Yugi. Both had noticed that they once again had been separated, but bothered not to ask about it. Bakura helped Yami Yugi up, who was prepared to join Honda's, Otogi's, and Jounouchi's fight, but he had been too late. Anubis tossed Jounouchi and Honda off of him and over at Anzu, knocking her down. Yami Yugi, Kaiba, and Bakura pulled them out of harm's way as Anubis eventually pulled Otogi off his back and over to where the others were standing. Bakura fetched Yugi's bag sitting in the corner of the room, which he hoped contained the Millennium Items but only having his duel disk and deck, as the others regained themselves.
"Are you okay?" Anzu asked Yami Yugi. "We were so scared! What happened here?"
"I'm fine, but Aibou is hurt," he told them. "He suffered much…if not for him, we'd both be dead. I don't have time to explain all that's gone on, but Aibou needs help."
"Tell me one thing: how'd Hulk Hogan get back here? I thought he was dead," Honda asked almost randomly.
"He must have stolen souls to revive his body again," Yami Yugi concluded, remembering a news announcement about mysterious murders. "He can't go to Hell or heaven because he can't be reincarnated. So his soul wanders the Earth like a ghost, and somehow he must be able to take over other bodies in order to perform acts to revive his own."
All were in wonder and stopped to think for a moment. Their thoughts were quickly interrupted when they saw Yugi beginning to stand. His legs shaky, Yugi barely made it to his feet, using the wall as support. Happy to see him back on his feet, they all rushed to him. Yugi slowly turned around, and his stare almost paralyzed his friends. On his face was the creepiest, most evil look they had ever seen. In his right hand was the dagger Jounouchi had kicked out of Anubis' hand.
"Yugi," Jounouchi said softly, being scared for the first time of someone half his height. "Are you okay?"
"A body with no spirit is so simple to control," Yugi said in a dark tone. He began to laugh crazily as his friends took a glance over at Anubis. They saw his eyes were dull and emotionless, looking as if he had no soul in his body. Turning back to Yugi, they realized that this was not Yugi. Somehow, Anubis' soul had transferred into his, and he now had control over Yugi's body, seeing how Yugi seemed to be in no condition to fight him back.
Instantly, Yugi made a dash towards Yami Yugi, who had already seen it coming. Yami side stepped the tackle and leaped against Yugi's back, knocking him down. The impact made him release the dagger once again, and Yami Yugi quickly grabbed it. He flipped Yugi onto his back and pinned him down. Angrily, put the dagger to his throat.
"Leave him now!" he demanded. "Let him go or I'll…"
"You will what? Kill me?" Yugi, or Anubis, laughed. He lifted his head up. "Go ahead. Kill me. I am right here."
Yami Yugi finally realized what he was doing. He understood now, that this is the situation Anubis wanted to put him in. Grasping the dagger tightly, Yami Yugi couldn't help but be tempted to slit his throat right there.
"Kill me!" Anubis shouted in Yugi's voice. "Kill me! Justify everything I have said! Show him the truth! Come now! Kill me! This may be your only chance!"
I…I…Aibou, Yami Yugi thought to himself, his eyes filling with tears. I can kill…I can't kill him. But…
"Kill me, you fool! Kill me!" his encouraging taunt continued. Yami Yugi's grip on him tightened as he looked away from him. "He said it, too! You are nothing more than another selfish bastard in the world! You cannot prove him wrong now! You have no other choice but to kill me!"
He knew Anubis' curse wouldn't work if he killed him there. Since he was the one that killed Yugi, he would not be healed or revived. He finally came to this thought, and his decision became inevitable. He simply couldn't kill his best friend. Yami Yugi lifted the dagger from his throat and dropped it next to him. He released his restraint on Yugi and walked away towards a corner of the room, where he collapsed in fear. Everyone ran over to him, trying to make him feel better.
"Yugi!" Jounouchi said.
"I…I almost killed him," his voice spoke shakily. Tears began falling unstoppably from his eyes. "I almost killed my friend! What have I done?" he looked at his hands. "He's right: I am only a justification of the world! I was willing to kill…for me! For my own selfish vengeance and anger! I almost couldn't control it! What am I!"
Anzu kneeled next to him.
"The thing is you didn't kill him," she explained. "You stopped your emotions and desires from taking over you. Yugi, you've done good! You haven't done anything wrong because you controlled yourself and didn't kill him, and we all know you wouldn't have. You wouldn't forget about Yugi like that."
The rest of them nodded in agreement. Yami Yugi wiped his tears away as the others went to the other side of the room to deal with Anubis' soulless body. Yami Yugi remained in the corner, still shocked over what he almost did.
A shadow covered him in the corner. Yugi had risen and taken the dagger again and now had Yami Yugi trapped in a corner. Yami Yugi had no will to fight him this time, fearing he might actually finish him off. He was willing to accept anything he might do to him if that be his will. Now it was Yugi that had grasped a hold of Yami Yugi, holding the dagger above his head. Anzu and everyone had turned around to see him trapped. They began to run to stop him, but Anubis in Yugi's body threatened them away.
"Take another step, and I kill him!" he told them. They stopped, unsure of what to do as he turned back to Yami Yugi.
While holding the dagger in the air, his arm began to shake, and sweat dropped from his face.
"I…have…you…now…" he stuttered. He seemed to be struggling with himself to deliver the blow. Looking in his eyes, Yami Yugi could somehow see Anubis fighting another being within his self. This other being was no one other than the real Yugi.
I must! You must! We must! Kill him! Anubis argued with him in his head. He was able to gain enough control to thrust his arm downward.
No, a voice replied back to him.
"No!" the voice repeated, only this time with the voice of his body.
Anubis had temporarily lost control.
Blood squirted as a gruesome stabbing sound was heard. The blade became stuck and drenched in the red liquid. Yami Yugi had become frozen in place. He had never felt so much pain, especially from only a sight.
Yugi moved his foot forward, holding around the area of his chest which he himself had stabbed with the dagger. His innocent eyes became those suffering of immense pain, as if he were about to die. He looked down at Yami Yugi, who continued to sit frozen in shock and sadness. He knew what he had done. Redirecting the attack, at the last instance, at himself, he hoped that now, for everyone's sake, they had a better chance of survival. Giving a slight smile at one of his closest friends, he fell and shut his eyes. When he hit the ground, Yami Yugi crawled over to him and put him in his arms. His body was motionless, and stained more blood on his shirt. Yami Yugi stared down at his lifeless looking friend, and hugged him close as he cried loudly. He screamed in pain, in anger, in grief, in sadness, as the tears rolled down his face. Jounouchi, Anzu, Otogi, Bakura, and Kaiba joined him soon after.
Having no use for the body anymore, Anubis' spirit left Yugi and returned to his own body. Everything had been set now. Back in his normal body, he began to activate some other power of his God pearl…
Looking around, everyone realized they were no longer in the small room they had been in a second ago. Now it seems they were in the middle of a desert, and a vicious sandstorm was brewing. Standing up, they all realized they held a weapon in hand. Looking across the desert, Anubis stood with a sword wielded in his right hand. Behind him were several different duel monsters, looking prepped for battle.
"War is among us!" Anubis called to them from across a sand hill. "You have with you your own weapons, and your duel monsters! It is my side versus yours!"
They looked behind them to see many different monsters of everyone's decks. This included the powerful Blue-Eyes, Red-Eyes, and Black Magician. Yami Yugi placed Yugi's body down on the soft sand and walked ahead drawing the sword he had somehow been given.
"Anubis," he yelled to him, "I swear to you that I'll have vengeance! You will be brought down with my hands, you hear me! By me!"
Anubis just snickered. Jounouchi, Otogi, Bakura, Anzu, and Honda joined Yugi up at the top of the hill, drawing their weapons as well. A battle like no other was about to begin.
"Let's be rid of him once and for all," Seto now joined him on top of the hill, staring seriously into the eyes of their enemies. Yami Yugi showed a smile, knowing that he and Kaiba could collaborate once more. "Anzu, you start some kind of defense around Yugi over there. We'll take care of the rest."
Anzu did as she was told, and returned to Yugi's body. The other six of them began readied themselves for what looked like war.
"So, let the game begin," Anubis whispered to his self.
He lifted his sword above his head. He pointed his sword forward, indicating to his monsters to charge and attack. All at once, the monsters behind him began to quickly move forward. Yugi did the same motion as his foe, and his monsters moved to attack as well. Yugi ran ahead, screaming at the top of his lungs, and lunged into battle, swinging his sword crazily. He would not let his partner down this time.