Okay here's chapter 14. Again my apologies. When you lose inspiration things really slow down. I also want to apologize for Marik's deck being inaccurate. I haven't seen him duel very much and don't know many of his cards. Everything will get better in the next chapter or two…I hope. Anyway, chapter 14.
Chapter 14: Slifer Falls
"Marik!" I shouted at him. He had the Millennium Ring and Millennium Puzzle around his neck and I wanted to know why. Chances are, he had Slifer the Sky Dragon again, too. "What have you done with Yugi and Bakura?"
"We had a little agreement," he replied. "If he lost, he would give up Slifer, his puzzle, and spend eternity in the Shadow Realm! As for Bakura, he and my former self were there long before now. Don't worry, you and everyone else will join them soon enough!"
"I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else, Marik," I informed him. I looked at my friends next to me. Téa was crying into her hands and Joey, Tristan, and Duke gave Marik dangerous looks. "When I beat you, you'll release everyone from the Shadow Realm and turn over all of your Millennium Items to me."
"Is everyone ready for the final match?" Mokuba asked. No one had even noticed that he had come up.
"This tournament isn't in your jurisdiction anymore, Mokuba," I told him. "Things have gotten way too far out of control." Mokuba tried to protest, but his brother, who was finally beginning to see what was really going on, reinforced my words.
"I'll agree to your terms, but you must agree to mine," Marik said with an evil grin. "You must give up Obelisk and your soul when you lose. Oh, and I'll be taking this match to the Shadow Realm as well!"
Two of his items glowed as the murky darkness shrouded the entire level. I noticed that the puzzle didn't react. That meant he didn't have control over it yet and Yami might be able to help me later.
"Now to decide how to play this Shadow Game," Marik continued. "There's so many ways, our bodies fading out as we lose life points, losing memories with our monsters. Or how about we play with our former selves on the line? Yes…that sounds fun!"
Marik used the Millennium Rod and the spirit of himself appeared next to him. He was held in place by shackles that faded out into the dark clouds. I sensed a good aura from him. "Ishizu was right. Marik does have a good side," I said to myself. "But what is going to happen when he finds out I don't have another spirit anymore?"
"That's strange…you have a Millennium Item, but not a second spirit," Marik commented. "We'll need a replacement. Any volunteers?"
"Don't even think about it!" I threatened as he turned his gaze to my friends.
"Let's see who you are most attached to," he continued. "Ah, yes, little Téa…" He pointed the rod at her and her body slumped over. Her soul appeared next to me, shackled just like the former Marik.
"Téa? Téa…please talk to me," I pleaded quietly. I looked into her eyes and saw a blank expression. She didn't make any indication that she could hear me. I turned back to Marik, my anger building uncontrollably. "You're going to pay for this."
"Brian, you take him down," Tristan called out. I glanced at him and saw that he had picked up Téa and was holding her in his arms. "Don't worry, man. I'll take care of her for you."
I made a note to thank him later as he took her back down to the lobby. "Now, let's go Marik."
"Finally. I'm eager to begin your suffering," Marik replied. He laughed maniacally to end his comment.
I drew my first card and looked at my hand. It was nearly perfect. Within two turns Marik would be faced with a very difficult challenge. "Let's see how well you fair without your Winged Dragon of Ra. I play Prohibition," I challenged. "Then I set one card face down and summon Masked Dragon in defense mode."
"Already on the defensive I see," Marik laughed. "I summon Revival Jam in attack mode. Then I'll set this card face down and activate Jam Breeding Machine." I watched the small jell creature pop out and sit on the field. "Now your Masked Dragon, your only defense, will crumble. Revival Jam Attack!"
"That's exactly what I wanted," I told him as the monster literally squeezed the life out of my dragon. "Using Masked Dragon's special effect, I call forth Red-Eyes Black Chick!" The smaller dragon appeared, letting out a small cry. It was weak, but still stronger than his Slime Token.
"That wimpy little monster won't be around for long," Marik commented.
"It has served its purpose already. I'll send it to the graveyard to summon my Red-Eyes Black Dragon," I declared proudly. I saw his confident smile change to a grimace. "If you thought that was all, you were wrong. I sacrifice my Red-Eyes Black Dragon to call forth Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!"
The same spectacle that had occurred the last time I summoned it happened once again. This time the backdrop of the Shadow Realm accented the darkness of the dragon itself. Its power rose to 3300 for the three dragons in my graveyard. Marik showed no hint of worry though.
"I thought that you would have a creature of immense darkness in your deck," he cackled.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
"Any wielder of a Millennium Item has a dark side," Marik explained. "That dark side likes to control the person. In most cases, it is a spirit within the item, but with you it's different. Your darkness resides in that monster card."
"That's nonsense!" I shouted at him. Suddenly, I thought of my match with Joey. I remembered that I had nearly lost myself to the power of that monster. But now I was stronger, wasn't I?
"I can see that you know it to be true," he continued.
"Don't listen to him!" Duke said to me.
"Yeah! He's just tryin' to throw ya off!" Joey added.
"I won't let you win," I told him. "I add Armed Dragon LV3 to the field and attack the Slime Token with Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!"
"You haven't figured out my strategy by now? I activate Jam Defender!" Marik countered.
"That's what I expected. Reveal face down card, Dragon's Rage!" I declared. "It inflicts damage to your life points even if your monster is in defense mode."
My dragon's attack continued and took 1800 life points from him. As his life points fell, the arm of the spirit next to him began to vanish. "What is going on?" I asked myself. "Why is the spirit of Marik disappearing?"
"Confused?" the evil Marik asked. "You're wondering why my former self is fading into nothing. It's because their souls are tied to our life points. As they fade away, so do the spirits!"
"What happens when they are gone completely?" I asked.
"Who knows? What the Shadow Realm does with them is none of my concern," he answered.
"Great," I said in my mind. "Not only do I have to protect my life points, but I have to prevent Marik's soul from disappearing as well. How am I supposed to do that?"
"Now for my turn I play Infinite Cards and Card of Safe Return," Marik said. "Infinite Cards allows us to hold as many cards as we want in our hands and Card of Safe Return lets me draw one card whenever a monster is revived from my graveyard. Also, another Slime Token is made. And I'll play Nightmare Steel Cage to stop you from attacking for two turns!"
"For my turn I send Armed Dragon LV3 to the graveyard and summon Armed Dragon LV5 in its place," I told him. With another dragon in my graveyard, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon grew to 3600. Marik drew his next card and glared at it. A third Slime Token appeared on the field before he ended his turn. From the look on his face, his hand must have been as useless as mine was. The cage disappeared after my next turn.
Marik drew a card and smiled happily. "With this card you will see your defeat! By sacrificing my three Slime Tokens and destroying Jam Breeding Machine, I call forth Slifer the Sky Dragon! Then I'll play Pot of Greed to draw two cards from my deck. Since I now have two cards in my hand, Slifer has 2000 attack points!"
"Slifer is still no match for my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon or Armed Dragon LV5 either," I proclaimed. "I summon Spirit Ryu in defense mode."
"Activate, Slifer's second ability, Thunderbolt Summons!" Marik countered. "Whenever a monster appears on your side of the field, Slifer's second mouth opens and inflicts 2000 points of damage to it!"
Slifer's attack wiped Spirit Ryu from the field without much effort. My Darkness Dragon gained more power from it, but my plan was ruined. I could increase Spirit Ryu's attack and defense by 1000 for each dragon I discarded to the graveyard. I was going to use the ability to move dragons to my graveyard for my most powerful monster on the field. Slifer's ability gave me an idea though. With enough patience, I could raise its attack steadily each turn. First I had to stop him from drawing cards otherwise Slifer would grow too strong, too quickly.
"To finish my turn I attack Slifer the Sky Dragon with Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!" I said.
"Have you forgotten about Jam Defender?" Marik questioned. "It blocks all of your attacks with an invincible monster!" When my monster attacked the gel creature stretched out in front of Slifer and absorbed the hit. My Dragon's Rage trap card inflicted 3400 points of damage to him, dropping him to 2800. The spirit next to him faded out even more and was dangerously close to disappearing for good. "Now Revival Jam is reborn and I get to draw one card, and increase Slifer's power to 3000. Then on my turn I'll draw a card, but instead of leaving it there to power my Egyptian god, I'll set it face down."
"That's a foolish mistake," I informed him. "If I draw the right card, you'll be history."
"Well then I'll just take down your Armed Dragon. Slifer attack!" Marik commanded. The attack only took 600 points from me but it took a little bit of Téa's soul with it.
"You've now raised my monster's attack to 4200 and now I'll take advantage of Slifer's special ability as I summon Element Dragon," I said as I made my move. "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon grows even more to 4500 attack power. Now attack my creature!" I knew that this move would finish him, even if Jam Defender kicked in. With Dragon's Rage in play, the attack would inflict enough damage to reduce his life points to zero.
"I activate my trap card, Enchanted Javelin!" Marik proclaimed. "It takes the full attack power of your monster and adds it to my life points. Then Revival Jam will take the force of the attack." His counter went back up to 7300 then dropped down to 3300. Then he drew a card for the regeneration of the monster and another one for his turn. Slifer now had an attack power of 4000. My dragon was stronger for now, but after another of Marik's turns Slifer would have the edge. Marik skipped his next turn to wait until Slifer was stronger.
My turn came and I drew the card that would help me beat Slifer once and for all. "I'll play the magic card called Stamping Destruction. And I'll use it to destroy Jam Defender and inflict 500 points of damage to you. And now that Revival Jam can no longer protect it, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, destroy Slifer the Sky Dragon!"
"No! That can't be true!" Marik shouted. My dragon pulled back for the strongest attack yet and unleashed it against the mighty god monster. The attack resulted in Slifer's head taking the hit and a series of explosions rolled down its snake like body. Marik only lost 500 life points from the strike and he stared, wide eyed, at the place where Slifer had been a few seconds ago.
"Now I'll summon Luster Dragon to the field and end my turn," I declared proudly. I looked over at Joey, Duke, and Serenity who were still watching the match. Serenity was smiling happily and Joey and Duke stood with their jaws hanging open. To my other side was Kaiba. He was sitting there glaring at me, probably still mad for my beating him.
"I summon Makyura the Destructor in defense mode and play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Dragon's Rage," Marik said in an extremely mad tone. With nothing to play for my next turn, I skipped it and let Marik continue on. With me having a monster with 4500 attack points and Marik with only 2300 life points I was pretty confident he couldn't do anything to beat me. He merely skipped his turn and let me move on.
"Now I can finish this," I said. "I play Change of Heart to take control of Revival Jam. Now I'll attack Makyura with Luster Dragon and attack you directly with my Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon!"
Marik yelled in horror as my attacks went through and defeated him once and for all. The shadows around us disappeared along with Téa's soul. I hoped it had returned to her body like Marik told me it would. I stepped up to my opponent kneeling on the ground and took Slifer from his duel disk. As I reached for the rest of his deck, the Millennium Ring reacted and threw me away. I landed on my feet and charged at him knowing he wasn't giving up easily. I tackled him and he threw me off once more.
"You'll never defeat me!" He yelled at me menacingly. He held up the Millennium Rod and created a portal to the Shadow Realm. I charged at him again but he jumped into the portal before I could reach him. He closed the door behind him to prevent anyone from following him.
"No…I let him get away," I said under my breath. Joey and the others rushed over to me. "This is all my fault. Now Yugi's going to be trapped forever. Mai and Bakura too."
"At least now he knows you're a threat to him," Joey commented. "Even with two Egyptian god cards and three Millennium Items he couldn't beat ya."
"One Egyptian god and two items," I responded. I pulled Slifer out of my pocket and showed it to them. Then I made a gesture to the ground where I had landed the last time. The Millennium Puzzle was lying near there. "I managed to get it off of him when I tackled him. Marik was in such a hurry to escape I doubt he noticed it was gone. He's probably seeing it now so he'll be back. We need to get this back to Yugi as soon as possible."
Just then Tristan and Téa came back. Téa ran directly to me and I held her in my arms once again. "You saved me again," she said. "Remind me to thank you later."
"It's not over yet," I told them. "Let's go get Yugi."
"We can't," Tristan said sadly. "He's…he's gone."
"Marik sent him to the Shadow Realm, then," I stated. I hung the Millennium Puzzle around my neck and I immediately felt Yami's presence and power. "I'm going in after him."
"I'm coming with you," Téa informed me.
"Alright," I sighed. I used my bracelet to open a portal to the Shadow Realm similar to what Marik had done. I grabbed Téa's hand as we stepped through. "Téa, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?" she asked curiously.
"I'm sorry," I answered. She gave me a confused look as I turned to face her. I kissed her lips gently then shoved her back out into the real world and sealed the portal we had entered. I watched her try to come back through but it closed before she made it. "I have to do this one without you. Now, to get my friends back…"
