10. Broken
Yugi had no idea where they were or even how he'd gotten there. Everything was fragmented, like a puzzle that had come apart. Tunnels. More flickering torches. Another cavern. An alcove in the corner where Téa was laid out on blankets, Serenity at her side, small and frustrated and too inexperienced to do anything. His backpack—not really his, someone else's—shrugged off and landing on the stone floor with a crash, spilling counterfeit Millennium Items and food everywhere. Falling to his knees at Téa's side, unable to speak, to ask Serenity how she was. Unable to touch her because touching her would make it real.
Images of her, so alive, fought to block out the reality of how pale and lifeless she looked. The handheld game he'd given her when they'd met in elementary school, if for no other reason than she was the only one who would talk to him. The first time she'd stood up for him against someone. Her catching his puzzle box in her hand when Joey and Tristan were playing keep-away with it. Ketchup splattering on him and Joey as she drowned their food in it, angry that they'd caught her working at a burger joint even though she was underage. The way she'd confronted Kaiba after Yugi had let him win at Duelist Kingdom. Her dancing in the rain on the way home from school one afternoon. The way she clung to him when his soul was returned from the Orichalcos. In her bedroom when she told him she liked him. Their first kiss and the way she'd tasted like peaches. Her body pressed against his the night they'd found the cave.
Her body crumpling like a rag doll… into Kaiba's arms, not his. Kaiba was there, not him. Kaiba saved her, not him. I couldn't protect her, I couldn't protect her….
Serenity was checking her pulse, her eyes, other things that medics do. Téa's face was so ashen it almost seemed to glow white in the dim torchlight. He didn't want her there, on the floor of a dank cave with an eighteen-year-old pre-med student with six weeks of EMT training and no medical equipment, not even a first aid kit. That had been in Evan's backpack. He wanted her at a hospital surrounded by dozens of specialists with beeping instruments and every medical miracle at their fingertips. He wanted her off this island, away from the darkness, away from here, alive and well and happy, not crumpled on the floor.
He wanted to ask how she was, but his throat was stuck and he couldn't make a sound. Someone else asked and it surprised him for a moment to remember that there was anyone else there.
"I don't know," Serenity was saying, sounding frantic. "She's alive, her pulse is fine, but her pupils are constricted, like she's OD'd or something. I don't know what happened. She doesn't seem injured in any way I can see. She just—"
"What about the Shadow Realm?" Was that Joey maybe? His voice sounded thin and far away.
"I don't know!" Serenity cried in frustration.
Joey appeared and knelt by his sister. "It's okay, you're doing fine, you'll help her, I know you will."
She looked at her brother, eyes haunted. "No, I can't. I can't help her." She took a deep breath. "Joey, it feels all wrong. Just like Pegasus. I don't know where she is."
Yugi couldn't take any more. Abruptly, he stood up and turned away. His eyes fell on the backpack he'd dropped and the fake Millennium Items strewn on the floor. He saw the Millennium Puzzle, and picked it up by its cord, letting the wrong and unfamiliar weight swing from his hand. Why couldn't you be real? If you'd have been here, you could have protected her. I couldn't protect her, but you could have. He stared at the Puzzle, willing it to be real, willing Atem to return. Why weren't you here? Why weren't you real? But there was only one answer. There is only one Yugi Mutou in the world, that's why.
He thought of early this morning beside the lake, her falling asleep in his lap. You always do, don't you? Watch over us.
No, I don't, he thought bitterly. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't be what you needed me to be. But I will now. If he's not here to make things right, I will.
His hand clenched in a fist around the cord of the Millennium Puzzle, his knuckles turning white. Then, swallowing his grief until it hardened back into anger, he steeled his resolve and marched off toward the tunnel that would take him back to face Evan Haines.
Joey wanted to hit something. No, scratch that. He wanted to hit someone. He wanted to smash his fist against Evan Haines's face, sending him sprawling. He wanted to pound him senseless against the cave wall. He wanted to see the man bloody and bruised, crying for mercy that wouldn't come. But then Yugi had gone ballistic—and who could blame him?—forcing Joey to be the rational one.
Now, away from the Chamber of Whatsis or whatever the hell that bastard had called it, he stood helpless, watching Serenity and Yugi kneel at Téa's side. Téa. It was Battle City all over again. Another person he loved, down for the count because some megalomaniac creep wanted to take over the world and instead of going and smashing the guy's face in and knocking him into next week, he had to wait, wait for the right tools and the right moment when they might actually have a shot at winning. But make no mistake. Like Pegasus and Marik and Dartz and Bakura before him, this guy was going down and going down hard.
"Is she okay?" Mai asked Serenity from beside Joey.
"I don't know," Serenity replied, stressed and panicky. "She's alive, her pulse is fine, but her pupils are constricted, like she's OD'd or something. I don't know what happened. She doesn't seem injured in any way I can see. She just—"
"What about the Shadow Realm?" Joey asked, fear clutching at his heart.
"I don't know!" Serenity cried out, sounding overwhelmed.
Joey went over to them, past Yugi, and knelt by his sister. "It's okay, you're doing fine, you'll help her, I know you will." He squeezed her shoulder and looked down at Téa, biting his lip. God, she was so freaking pale. You'll be okay, Téa. You have to be okay. We'll get you back, whatever it takes.
Serenity looked at him, and the look in her eyes tore his heart out. "No, I can't. I can't help her." She took a deep breath. "Joey, it feels all wrong. Just like Pegasus. I don't know where she is."
Abruptly, Yugi got up and walked away. Joey looked up, torn between his sister and his best friend. Yugi stopped where the Millennium Items were scattered around the floor and picked up the Millennium Puzzle by its cord, watching it dangle from his hand. He stood like this for a moment, then something in him seemed to change. His hand clenched around the Puzzle's cord and his back stiffened as if he'd just made a decision. Immediately Joey had the sense that it wasn't the right decision, that it was born out of grief and anger, not out of the kind of sound strategic thinking for which Yugi was famous. As he started to walk off, Joey scrambled to his feet and went after him.
"Yugi! Where are you going?"
Yugi ignored him and kept walking toward the tunnels, back toward the chamber and Evan.
"Yuge?"
Nothing.
"PHARAOH!" Joey shouted.
Yugi stopped short but didn't turn and Joey stopped a distance away from him. The cavern was completely still and quiet and he could feel everyone's eyes on him, but he ignored them all and concentrated on Yugi. "You can't do this. Not now, not like this."
"I have to," Yugi replied, his voice deep and gravelly. Not just the Pharaoh's voice, but the Pharaoh's voice when he was well and truly pissed. The Pharaoh's voice when he was about to do something stupid and rash. "He has to pay for what he's done."
"Hell yeah he does," Joey agreed fervently, "but not like this. Not by yourself and not in that room with all that weird energy and darkness. You can't win that way, and even if you could, what good would it do if you end up that person we all become in these Shadow Duels? You'll have beaten him for Téa only to end up not even caring about her. Is that what you want? Is that what you think she would want?"
"You don't understand," Yugi replied without turning to face him.
Joey dug his nails into his palms. "I don't understand? I don't understand? Are you kidding me? Were you not at Battle City?" Out of the corner of his eye he could see Mai stiffen at the mention of Battle City, but he pushed that away, focusing only on Yugi. "You wanna turn around and look me in the eye and tell me that of all people, I don't understand?"
He did turn around then, but what Joey saw on his face was not encouraging. His eyes were narrow and almost crimson with anger. His jaw was locked and his body was rigid. The only other time Joey had seen him like this was right after the Pharaoh had lost Yugi's soul in the Orichalcos duel with Rafael. "If you understand, then you know why I have to do this."
"No, I don't," Joey insisted. "Not now, not alone, not before we've figured out how to beat him. Revenge isn't the way to get it done."
"This is my fight."
"So much for teamwork, right Yugi?" called a voice over Joey's shoulder and he looked to see Kaiba leaning against the wall watching them, his arms crossed. "Now that he took something important to you, now that it's personal, all your pretty speeches about working together as a team don't mean as much anymore, do they?"
"Kaiba!" Yugi growled.
"Is that what you want, Yuge?" Joey asked. "You wanna be like Kaiba, thinking you gotta take on the world alone? Where has that ever gotten him? Where do you think it'll get you now?"
"It's my fight," he repeated, but Joey shook his head.
"Why? Because you love her? Take a look around you!" Joey swept his arm around the cave, taking in everyone. Tristan and Duke. Rebecca. Mokuba and Kaiba. Mai. Behind him, Serenity, still kneeling at Téa's side. "You think there's one person in this room that doesn't love her? Even Kaiba, even though he'd rather die than admit it, I'd bet my last yen that even he cares about her, in whatever cold and twisted way he's capable of caring for anyone who's last name isn't Kaiba."
Kaiba snorted but didn't interrupt and Joey continued. "You think there's one person in this room that doesn't want that bastard to get what's coming to him for what he did to her? For what he's been doing to all of us all along? This isn't your fight, this is our fight, and you know it. We'll beat this guy, Yugi, but we'll do it the way we always do it, by thinking it through and doing it right, together."
Yugi glared at Joey, his expression unchanging. After a long pause, he said, "What if it were Mai, Joey? What would you do if it were Mai?"
Joey could feel Mai's eyes boring through him, waiting for a response. He wanted to say it wouldn't matter, that he'd do the right thing, the smart thing. That he'd wait for them to come up with a plan and work together. But he remembered Battle City, that last moment of Mai's duel when Marik had sealed her into the Shadow Realm. He'd wanted to pulverize him, right then and there, but Duke, Tristan, Téa, and Serenity had stopped him. If it had been Mai, if Evan had hurt Mai….
Joey hung his head, letting his hair hang in front of his eyes. "I would do the same thing you're doing."
"Then you do understand," Yugi said.
"I understand," Joey said, but then he looked back up at his friend, his eyes narrow and fierce. "But you would be right here stopping me."
At that moment, something in Yugi broke. His face fell as anger dissolved into pain and the Pharaoh was gone, leaving only Yugi. "I couldn't protect her, Joey," he whispered, pain etched in every syllable. "I couldn't protect her."
"I know, pal," Joey told him.
Yugi looked down at the Puzzle dangling from his hand. His fist clenched around it again and his expression changed once more. His eyes were filled with rage and anguish, but it wasn't the same, it wasn't hard and vengeful but helpless and grief-stricken.
Swinging his arm in a wide jerky motion, he threw the Puzzle as hard as he could. It crashed against the wall of the cave, startling everyone as it smashed into dozens of pieces. "I COULDN'T PROTECT HER!" he shrieked, his voice echoing around the cave as he fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands and sobbing. "I couldn't protect her," he repeated into his hands, becoming his own echo. "I couldn't protect her… I couldn't protect her…."
The cavern went completely still, silent except for Yugi's sobbing as no one dared move or even breathe. No one except for Joey, who was at Yugi's side in an instant, on his knees, gripping his friend's shoulders. Then Tristan was there, too, the three of them together feeling the loss of their fourth. Tristan said nothing, but Joey knew Yugi could feel the added strength his presence brought. "I couldn't protect her," Yugi repeated, weeping into his hands. "I couldn't protect her."
"I know," Joey soothed. "But Yuge, he couldn't have protected her, either."
Mai stood frozen, unable to move or turn away as Yugi crumbled. She'd only seen him like this once before, and that was after Kaiba had beaten him at Duelist Kingdom. Of course, now that Téa had told her the truth about that day and what had happened….
Téa.
Mai closed her eyes and tried to breathe again. The horrible scene wouldn't stop playing over in her mind. The flash of light and the painful silence like she'd gone deaf. Their confusion when nothing seemed to happen, then Téa calling Yugi's name before collapsing and nearly toppling into the ravine. And it was all Mai's fault for not seeing Evan for what he was. If she'd only have seen sooner, if only she had realized….
Her hands clenched into fists and she squeezed her eyes tighter, Evan's face swimming before her. That bastard. That low-life, pond-scum dwelling, bottom-feeding, slimy bastard. How could she not have seen? How could she not have known what he was? She'd trusted him. She'd even forgiven him for not allowing Tristan down to the Holiday Deck to rescue Joey when all the while he was the reason Joey had needed rescuing in the first place.
Every conversation she had with him replayed in her head, haunting her. The way he'd reacted with surprise—no, it was recognition she now realized—when she'd first told him her name. How he'd been so insistent that she stay in her cabin just hours before the ship sank. The outright lie he'd told—and she'd actually bought—about the gym closing, about it having been searched. How he'd seemed a little panicky when she'd accused him of nearly being responsible for Joey's death, then relieved when she explained what she'd meant by that. The way he'd insisted on coming with them into the cave and how he'd tried to get Rex and Weevil to duel Yugi and Kaiba instead of Yugi and Joey. Every step of the way he had been manipulating them, like Reshef the Dark Being himself, controlling them against their wills.
To be honest, she could so get behind Yugi's plan to obliterate the guy, the sooner the better. She wanted nothing more than to go after him right now and wipe that smirk off his lying, scheming face. Of course, her wanting that didn't make Joey any less right. They were in no position to fight him, not in the Chamber of Wedju, not anywhere on the island, not until they figured out how to stop the darkness from controlling them.
Sighing, she opened her eyes. Somehow Joey and Tristan had gotten Yugi back on his feet. "We'll get him, don't worry," Tristan was saying. "We always do. And we'll get Téa back. She'll be fine, you'll see." Mai cringed at the note of desperation in his voice, like he was trying to convince himself as much as Yugi.
"That's right," Joey agreed, "but right now, she needs you."
Yugi nodded and allowed his two friends to lead him back to where Téa was lying. Mai looked away, uncomfortable with all this intrusion into what was a private moment between four close friends. Serenity must have felt it, too, as she got up and left them alone. But the rest of them stood there, not knowing what to do, all of them wanting to do something to help, to figure out how to beat that slimebag, but at a loss as to how.
"It's like Battle City all over again," Serenity said, coming to stand beside Mai, but this made Mai all the more uncomfortable because she had been the one laid out then and she didn't like thinking that this kind of raw emotion had once been directed at her.
She nodded numbly. "We need to do something. We have to get out of here."
"My thoughts exactly," Kaiba said, his voice hushed as he walked over to her. Mokuba, Rebecca, and Duke joined them as well. "I for one have no interest in waiting around on that maggot. I think he lied about the only exit being back through there," he went on, indicating the direction of the tunnel back to the Chamber of Wedju with a jerk of his head.
"Gee, there's a stretch, Evan lying to us," Duke said dryly. "You think that one up all by yourself or someone help you?"
"What, Wheeler's taking a day off from being Class Moron so you thought you'd fill in?" Kaiba shot back. "It's more than just a guess based on the fact that he's a lying sack of horse manure. Have you noticed that the tunnel and cavern here are still conveniently lit by torches? If this Chamber of Wedju of theirs is the focal point, the whole reason we were brought here, why are there torches on this side? Hell, why have a drawbridge at all? There must be something out here."
"Another exit," Rebecca said.
"Has to be," Kaiba replied. "Think about how detailed everything is down here. This took years to set up. Can you imagine Evan or this boss of his spending years hauling all this stuff the way we came? There has to be another entrance, something that won't take four or five hours of walking to reach. And he would want to have an escape route of his own."
"Not only that, the fact that the torches are all staying lit and we're all still breathing means this cave has ventilation somewhere," Rebecca added. "If air's getting in, we can get out."
"That doesn't mean it's big enough for a person to get through," Duke pointed out.
"True, but it's a starting place. If we find the source of the ventilation, we might find an exit."
"Okay," Kaiba said. "I think we should do some exploring around here, see if we can find any other tunnels besides the one we came through."
"We probably should leave Téa in one place until we know where we're going," Serenity advised.
Kaiba nodded. "You should stay here, too, in case she needs any medical attention."
Serenity shook her head in frustration. "What good can I do? I'm not a doctor and we don't even have so much as a first aid kit. Evan had everything in his bag."
Mai reached out and touched the younger girl's arm. "Serenity, I don't think you realize your gift for healing. Just your presence will make a difference. I know it did for me."
Serenity met her eyes. "If you say so," she said without much conviction.
"I do," Mai replied with conviction enough for the both of them.
"And the Three Musketeers over there should keep guard, just in case that snake decides not to wait for us to come to him," Kaiba added.
"I'll stay, too," Mai said.
Kaiba turned to look at her. "Why? Just how many people do you think it takes to watch out for one purser?"
"It's not that," Mai said, although if Evan did come after them, she wanted to personally be the one to greet him. "If he's looking for a duel, I think it needs to be someone other than Yugi or Joey this time. They've torn each other up enough for one day. Let them focus on Téa and leave any dueling to me."
"Fine," Kaiba agreed after a moment's consideration. "Yugi's in no condition to duel anyone right now and I don't think his second-rate sidekick could handle it anyway."
Mai folded her arms and glared at Kaiba. "This has nothing to do with Joey's ability, Kaiba. I don't know what your problem is with him, but he's a damn good duelist and you know it. So he's never beaten you, so what? Neither have I or anyone else here other than Yugi for that matter, but you don't give us the crap you give Joey. Whatever problem you have with him, let it rest until we're out of this mess. You might look down your nose at the whole teamwork concept, but we're all in this together and tearing each other down won't get us anywhere."
Kaiba just rolled his eyes at her. "Whatever." He turned to Mokuba, Duke, and Rebecca. "Then the four of us will do some looking around. Let's give it a couple of hours and meet back here."
"Sounds good," Duke agreed.
"I'll go tell Yugi where we're going," Rebecca offered, but everyone was concerned about Téa and wanted to sit with her a moment. Kaiba alone seemed reluctant to get near her. He stood a ways away, arms crossed, waiting.
They'd covered her with a second blanket, Mai noticed, and she did seem a little more peaceful. Not quite as pallid as when they'd first brought her here. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Mai stood behind Joey and put her hand on his shoulder and he reached up and squeezed it gratefully.
"She'll be fine when it's over, just like I was," Mai said, trying to comfort him, but realizing too late that her words would not bring much comfort at all. She hadn't been fine after returning from the Shadow Realm after all. But Joey just nodded and smiled at her, apparently remembering only that she had eventually woken up. Really, it was all they wanted at the moment.
Rebecca gave Yugi a tentative hug and he gave her a similar grateful smile. Mai was relieved to see he looked more like himself. His eyes looked haunted, but at least the venomous anger was gone. While she felt much of the same anger herself, seeing it on someone like Yugi, who always saw the best in others and in every situation, was disconcerting.
Rebecca then gave them a quick explanation of the plan to search for an exit and a rundown of who was going and who was staying. He nodded dully, then noticed Kaiba standing back away from the rest of them.
"Thank you, Kaiba," he said slowly, his voice a little strangled. "Thank you for saving her."
Kaiba kept his expression impassive. "Don't make too much of it. She saved Mokuba's life earlier. I owed her."
Mai was sure there was more to it than that, that Joey was right about him and he actually cared about Téa, that insofar as Kaiba was capable, he saw her, saw all of them, as friends. Yugi seemed to think so, too. He gave Kaiba a short bow of the head in response, but his eyes showed he knew better than to take Kaiba at his word.
After that exchange, Kaiba, Mokuba, Rebecca and Duke headed out across the cave in the opposite direction from the tunnel that had brought them here.
"Why don't you and Yugi and Tristan sit with her a little longer," Serenity said softly to her brother. "Mai and I will clean up a bit and set up camp. Maybe get some food."
"I'm not hungry," Yugi said listlessly.
"Me neither," Joey agreed and Tristan likewise shook his head. Serenity didn't push it and she and Mai left them alone in the little alcove.
As they walked away, Serenity went to the backpack Yugi had dropped on the floor. Mai knelt beside her and picked up the bag, holding it out to Serenity, who started scooping food into it. When all the food was picked up, she looked in the bag, frowning, then threw her head back and cursed.
"What's wrong?" Serenity asked.
"I wasn't thinking about it when I was looking for breakfast before, but this can't be all the food they stole. It's enough for us for a while, but remember they said they stashed the rest?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Remember what they said? It stashed in the 'chamber.' We just didn't know what that meant at the time."
"The Chamber of Wedju," Serenity said, understanding.
"Which means Evan has it all," Mai growled. "He probably has enough to live off of for a long time while he waits for us to come back. Plus he's got the lake not to far away and can get all the water he needs while we're running low." Damn him, she thought to herself, then struggled to push the bitterness away again.
"Great," Serenity sighed.
Next were the Millennium Items. "Why don't you pick up those," Mai indicated the ones near them. "I really don't want to touch them if it's all the same to you."
"Good idea," Serenity agreed quickly. "For some reason this stuff hasn't been affecting me like it has the rest of you."
"I'll get the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle while you're doing that."
"Are you sure?" Serenity asked skeptically. "It probably isn't any safer than the other Items."
Mai shrugged. "Seems kinda harmless in pieces."
She got up and brought Yugi's gold box, the one Weevil had stolen—or had that been Evan too?—over to where the Puzzle had smashed against the wall. Kneeling down again, she began picking up the pieces. Turning over one of the pieces in her hand, she idly wondered if the individual pieces were the same configuration as the original Millennium Puzzle. She couldn't help but feel a little curious. No one but Yugi had ever been able to put the original together. She'd always been pretty good at games and puzzles. Could she put this one together?
Shaking her head, she dropped the piece she was holding into the box. Stupid idea born out of her stupid competitive drive. So what if she could put it together? It wasn't the real one anyway and it would be beyond insulting to Yugi to even bother trying.
She reached for a piece by the wall. It was slightly larger than the others and had the Eye of Horus embossed on it. She remembered the story Joey told her about how he'd stolen the original of this very piece from Yugi before they were friends. In some ways it was easy to picture Joey as the punk he'd described, so cocky and full of himself. In other ways, it was nearly impossible to imagine him treating someone that way, especially Yugi.
She was running her fingers over the rough gold surface and the sharp puzzle edges, envisioning Joey jumping into the canal to retrieve it after he'd tossed it there, when something strange caught her eye. At the point where the Eye of Horus was raised away from the rest of the piece, some of the gold had chipped off as if it had merely been painted on. No, gilded was more like it. It was real gold, but not solid gold. She chipped at the gold with her nail, flaking more of it off to reveal what it had been gilded over.
She sucked in her breath sharply as a flash of recognition hit her. No, it can't be! Can it? Quickly she dug through the bag until she found the Millennium Ring beneath the other Millennium Items. She pulled it out of the bag and scraped it against the wall of the cave a few times, trying to get the gold to flake off the Ring's Eye of Horus. Sure enough, some of it did chip away, revealing the same green glow underneath.
Serenity, startled by the racket Mai was making pounding the ring on the wall, came over beside her. "Mai, what are you doing?"
"Oh my God, we're so stupid! We are so stupid!" Mai breathed.
"What?" Serenity asked again, "what's wrong?"
"We've been looking at the wrong kind of darkness," Mai told her, kicking herself mentally. How could she have missed it? The anger, the hostility, the inability to connect with anything that was good inside her. "Weevil even gave us the answer and we were too blind to see it. An 'ancient darkness, older than the Millennium Items.' These aren't from the Shadow Realm, Serenity. They're Orichalcos stones!"