14. Touchstones

Tristan returned from trying to find Joey and Yugi a few minutes later, then he, Joey, and Mai went off again to find the others and bring them back while Yugi stayed with Téa and Serenity. He sat glued to Téa's side, checking with her every few minutes to be sure she was okay. Normally she would have found such hovering thoroughly irritating, but she was so grateful that they were all okay, that they'd gotten away from Evan and that Yugi was himself again after having figured out how to beat the Orichalcos and defeat Evan that she didn't mind.

After the others returned and they'd all taken a moment to greet Téa and hear about how Serenity had summoned Mystical Elf and how Yugi and Joey had found an exit, they gathered together around Yugi as he explained his theory as to how they could keep the Orichalcos from overpowering the good in them. Tristan, meanwhile, ever the MP, stood guard at the edge of the tunnel that led back to the Chamber of Wedju, listening to Yugi but also watching in case Evan decided to come to them after all.

"I want all of the duelists here to think about who in your life is a touchstone for you," Yugi began. "I'm not talking about prioritizing friendships or who means the most to you. I'm talking about a specific role in your life. When you're at your worst, who brings out your best? When you lose yourself, who pulls you back? Who's the one who will tell you the truth you need to hear, shakes you when you need to be shaken, guides you back when you go off course? Don't think too hard, just tell me the first person or people that pop into your head."

He looked at Mai first. "Joey," she said immediately. "And… Serenity. And you, too, Yugi."

Yugi nodded, the turned to Rebecca.

"You and Duke," she replied.

"Mokuba?"

"Seto. And… I think you, Yugi. I never forgot that time I stole those star chips to duel you at Duelist Kingdom and you promised to help me get Seto back. I wasn't quite the same after that."

Again, Yugi nodded. "Joey?"

"Uh… I don't know, half the people here."

"If there's anyone who needs to be shaken and guided back on course, it's you, Wheeler," Kaiba said dryly.

"Yeah, well you're definitely not in the half I'm talking about," Joey shot back, then to Yugi, he specified, "I guess Serenity, Tristan, you, Téa, and Mai."

"And you, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.

"This is ridiculous," Kaiba sneered. "Why don't you just come to the point?"

"Oh forget him," Joey said. "Everyone knows the only person who brings out anything good in Kaiba is Mokuba."

"Okay," Yugi said. "And for me it's Téa and Joey." He looked at Téa as he said her name and she smiled at him, touched, but also curious where he was going with this. "Now," he went on, "let's look at each of the duels and the other weirdness that has happened since we've been on the island and how we stopped it."

He turned to Mokuba. "When did Mokuba go back to his normal self after his duel with Jacques Rousseau?"

"When the duel ended," Duke answered.

"That's what I thought at first, too," Yugi replied, "but that's not true. He summoned Spirit Ryu and pushed Rebecca aside after the duel was already over. It was only after Kaiba ran onto the field and put his hands down on Mokuba's shoulders that he turned off his duel disk."

Téa frowned. Was that right? She looked at Mokuba for confirmation and saw that he was nodding. "I think you're right, Yugi."

"Kaiba's duel was next. He was about to go for Raul Pérez's throat until Mokuba stopped him by grabbing his arm and holding him back."

Kaiba said nothing, but Téa remembered that Yugi was right.

"Then Mai. She went back to normal as soon as she hit Joey with her duel disk. Joey said her arm hit him as well, right?"

"I think so," Joey replied.

"Then Rebecca, whose duel ended with me grabbing her shoulders, and Joey, who Tristan knocked down at the end of his duel with Mako. Last was my duel with Alrik Cronhielm, which ended when Téa grabbed my arm." He looked around the room. "What do all these duels have in common?"

"They ended when someone from the list we each just made stopped us," Rebecca said.

"That's right. And it had to be those specific people. Despite the fact that Mokuba and Rebecca have grown close over the past week, she was unable to get him out of it because that's not a role she fills in his life."

Yugi went on. "The duels the next day were the same. Joey's ended with Serenity taking his arm, Kaiba's with Mokuba stopping him, and Mai's with Joey grabbing her shoulders. Then came my duel with Rebecca."

He looked at Rebecca then and Téa's heart went out to them both as they shared a look of regret. Taking a breath, Yugi said, "Rebecca came out of it first. Do you remember when?"

Rebecca nodded. "When Duke pulled me out of your way."

"Duke is one of your touchstones," Yugi agreed.

"But so are you, Yugi. How could I be like that facing you?"

"I don't think just being there or facing each other is enough. I think it has to do with physical contact, like when Duke touched you, a bond was created. There were lots of times when that happened, and not just in the duels, but I'll get to that in a minute.

"As for me," he took another deep breath, "neither Téa nor Joey was there. Duke and Serenity couldn't stop it. Kaiba knocked me out and we thought that's what did it, but I don't think so. At some point while I was unconscious, Téa got back. She was holding my hand when I woke up and I think that's why I was back to normal."

"Okay," Duke said, "but what about your duel with Joey against Rex and Weevil? You guys didn't snap out of it until you went into the water."

"That's not true," Yugi disagreed, looking at Joey. "Joey and I both realized that we were back to normal just before hitting the water. When Tristan and Duke pushed me into Joey. Not when they first tackled me; only when I hit Joey," he emphasized.

Mai nodded. "And you and Joey are on each other's lists."

"That's right. But it isn't just the duels. Whenever there's been weirdness or that feeling of darkness, contact with someone who is a touchstone for us made a difference. When Mai had the fake Millennium Ring with the Orichalcos stone in it, she had a really bad nightmare, but when Joey was holding her and then Serenity examined her, she calmed down.

"Later that night when I was looking at the Ring it sort of zapped me and I snapped at Téa, but as soon as she put her hand on my shoulder I was better." He met her eyes as he said this, a silent apology and thanks both playing there. She gave him a small smile and nod in return.

"Then there was the Chamber of Wedju. I'm pretty sure the way it works is that Ramesses put a whole bunch of Orichalcos stones into those tablets because the nearer I got to them the worse I felt. I think Rebecca was one of the worst affected and she immediately sought me out. She told me that when she was with me, she felt better. Right?"

Rebecca nodded. "Yeah. That place felt… like death. But when I was with you, it felt like… I don't know, like there was a barrier between me and the darkness."

"Not just with me, but actually holding onto me. I felt like that, too, whenever Téa was holding my hand. And then when Evan revealed himself, we all activated our duel disks, planning to attack. But only Kaiba and Mokuba refused to stand down. Why?"

"Serenity," Joey said, understanding. "She grabbed me and Mai both."

"And Téa held my arm and I took Rebecca's. So the four of us were shielded, but Kaiba and Mokuba stood alone and were not. Not until Téa got the drawbridge down and I pulled Mokuba away and then he ran to Kaiba did they go back to normal. And then after—" He stopped short, closing his eyes as if steeling himself for a difficult task. He bit his lip and opened his eyes again, then went on. "After he attacked Téa, I would have joined the fight, but it was Joey who stopped me when he took me by the shoulders."

"Hold on," Kaiba said, frowning. "You claim this is about physical connection, but when you had your little tantrum here afterwards, Wheeler wasn't standing anywhere near you when he talked you down. How do you explain that?"

Téa frowned, wondering what she'd missed while she was unconscious. Joey had mentioned something about "pinch hitting" for her when Yugi had said he lost himself without her. What exactly had he talked Yugi down from? Yugi was avoiding eye contact with her now, she noticed, and he chewed his lip, looking ashamed.

"I don't think that was the Orichalcos," he said quietly. "That was just regular grief."

"It's okay, Yuge," Joey said bracingly. "We all feel the same way. We all want that creep to get what's coming to him."

What did I miss? Téa wondered again.

"This is all well and good if your little theory is correct," Kaiba said, his arms folded in his usual display of skepticism, "but how does this help us? You're not suggesting we go duel Evan holding each other's hands."

"Actually, that's exactly what I'm suggesting," Yugi replied, folding his arms in a mirror of Kaiba's stubbornness. "Remember what Pegasus said about the tournament being a test and that the top eight duelists would have passed the test and would be able to fight against Ramesses in the Shadow Realm?"

He looked around the room. "There are ten of us here, five of whom made the top eight. And each of us shares that sort of 'touchstone' bond with at least one of the other five. If we want to face Evan, we need to do it in pairs: Kaiba and Mokuba, Mai and Serenity, Joey and Tristan, Rebecca and Duke, and me and Téa."

"You can't be serious," Kaiba scoffed.

"I'm absolutely serious."

"If you think I'm going to go into a duel holding my little brother's hand…."

"Kaiba, we need to put aside our pride and realize that we need each other. All of us, duelists and non-duelists."

"Have you forgotten that Evan isn't above attacking the non-duelists?"

This seemed to suck the air out of the cave. Yugi's eyes met Téa's once more, a mingle of pain and determination there. He held her gaze for a moment and said softly, "Of course I haven't forgotten."

Then he turned back to Kaiba, his arms still crossed in defiance. "If I had my way, none of you would ever be put in harm's way. How many times have I watched someone I love suffer because of some madman? Grandpa. Bakura. Mokuba. Mai. Joey. Tristan. Even you, Kaiba. And now, Téa."

He looked around the room at them all, his closest friends, and Téa saw his face change and his posture with it. The look of confidence and leadership—Atem's look—melted into something quieter and smaller. He was just Yugi once more, but with a nobility Téa realized she'd somehow overlooked in the early years of their friendship. A nobility different from the Pharaoh's because it came from a different kind of strength—from Yugi'sheart.

"When my other self was with me," he said, "I used to think he could do anything and protect anyone. My goal was to be like that, to be strong enough to protect all my friends so that they would never have to be in danger or get hurt. But I was wrong about him. He couldn't do everything and he couldn't always protect us. If anything, the people we loved were in more danger because of us, because of the choices they—we all—made to stand up for what's right."

He sighed. "Do you think this is easy, Kaiba? Joey and I found a way out of this cave. What I want, what I really want more than anything is to send Téa and everyone else out of here as far away from this place as you can get and then come back here alone because then I'm the only one who could get hurt. A lot of what happens to all of us is because of me and I know that and I hate it. It would be so easy to just push everyone away for their own good so that I wouldn't have to worry about the people I love ever again.

"But easy isn't the same thing as right," he insisted. "I can't do this alone. The Pharaoh couldn't do it alone, either. He needed me and he needed everyone here. Our strength has always been in our bond to each other and to all of you. Whatever I might wish, I can't protect the people I care about." He looked at Téa again, his eyes filled with regret, but he continued to speak to Kaiba. "I can't protect her." He turned back to Kaiba. "But in this case, she can protect me."

In that instant, Téa understood exactly how hard for Yugi this was. He'd always hated being small and feeling weak. He'd hated that before Atem came to him, she'd always been the one to stand up for him instead of the other way around. He'd always wanted to be the one to protect others, to protect her. But whatever it cost him, Yugi would always do the right thing and that's why he was stronger than any of them. He needed her—needed all of them—more than he needed to be the hero, and the great irony of it was that that was the exact reason he was a hero.

It was one of the reasons, she realized with something like an epiphany, that she'd fallen in love with him.

He crossed his arms again, his stance changing once more, going back into that leadership mode Téa had always associated with Atem. Looking around the cave at each of his friends, he told them, "We have to stop Evan. Not because of what he's done to Téa or any of the rest of us, but because of what he'll keep doing if we don't. Whatever he's already started in the name of his master, he needs to beat us to finish it, and that gives us the advantage. We can set the terms and make sure it's a fair duel and we can beat him together. When we were getting ready to come down into these caves, I said then that it would take everyone one of us here, and now we know why."

"Not to be a killjoy, but are we sure what you're saying will work?" Duke asked. "It sounds good, but we need to be sure before we head off back to that Wedju Chamber."

"Yes, we'll need to test it out here first," Yugi agreed. "If I'm wrong, then Kaiba can have some fun knocking us all unconscious," he smirked.

"At least the day wouldn't be a total loss," Kaiba replied, and Téa thought she actually saw Seto Kaiba crack something close to a smile.

"Uh, guys? No time for that now," Tristan said, jogging over to them from the tunnel where he had been standing guard. "It sounds like we've got company coming."

Yugi wasn't sure what to expect as he brought up his duel disk before him and activated it in one smooth motion, but it wasn't this.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Yugi-boy and his little club of do-gooders."

"Pegasus?" Yugi said, astonished, lowering his arm. "I… I thought you were…"

"Lost in the Shadow Realm?" Pegasus finished for him. "Now now, Yugi-boy, you don't really think the Shadow Realm can keep a good duelist down, do you?"

"Well you're looking a lot better than the last time we saw you. What are you doing here, Pegasus?" Kaiba asked, and Yugi saw that like him, Kaiba had also activated his duel disk. Unlike him, he had not lowered it.

"Well, imagine my surprise, waking up to find all my dear friends have deserted me. I just had to come looking for you."

"So you just hiked down here all by yourself," Kaiba said, his voice laced with skepticism. "Through all these tunnels. Through that Chamber of Wedju. And no one tried to stop you."

Yugi's eyes narrowed. Kaiba was right; something was definitely wrong with this picture.

"What, are you referring to Evan Haines? Surely you don't think someone like him is a match for me."

"He beat you before," Kaiba said.

Pegasus laughed, but it was a brittle, dry sound that made the hairs on the back of Yugi's neck stand on end.

"Yugi," a voice whispered in his ear, and he turned to see Serenity beside him.

He frowned at her. "Is it…?"

"Like Rex and Weevil," she nodded. "I… I think he's still in the Shadow Realm."

Yugi turned back to Pegasus. "Pegasus, why are you here?" he repeated Kaiba's question, raising his duel disk in front of him once more.

"Weren't you paying attention, Yugi-boy? I came looking for you."

"Why?"

A wide grin spread across Pegasus's face but did not reach his eye. "To duel you, of course. I never did get a chance for a rematch after your stunning upset victory at Duelist Kingdom. Don't you think it's long overdue?"

"You weasel!" Kaiba spat. "You're in on this with Evan, aren't you?"

"No, Kaiba," Yugi said. "He's being controlled, just like Rex and Weevil."

"Say what?" Joey cried, bringing up his own duel disk.

"What makes you so sure?" Kaiba asked, glancing sideways at Yugi.

Yugi looked at Serenity. "I'm sure."

Pegasus laughed again, another hollow mirthless laugh. "Are we going to duel or aren't we?"

"How'd you get your deck back?" Joey asked. "It was gone when we found you."

"Joseph, Joseph, Joseph," Pegasus clucked, "surely by now you realize I have ways of getting what I want? Now, I believe I was in the middle of challenging Yugi-boy—"

"I'd be more than happy to duel you, Pegasus!" Kaiba cut him off.

"Why would I want to duel you, Kaiba-boy? I believe I've already proven I can beat you."

Kaiba growled, but Mai cut him off before he could say anything. "Hey Pegasus! You wanna a rematch? Why don't you duel me?"

"Why should I when I can duel the King of Games himself?"

"What's the matter, you afraid that with all these Orichalcos stones around, I'll be able to kick your sorry butt just like before?"

"Mai!" Joey gasped, but she winked at him.

"You all get out of here and go after Evan," she whispered. "Kaiba and Yugi especially; they're the ones he's afraid of. Leave Pegasus to me. It's time to give this 'touchstone' theory of Yugi's a trial run."

"Not without me you're not," Joey replied firmly.

"No, Joey, you go with Yugi and Kaiba and the others and go get Evan," Mai insisted.

Pegasus folded his arms and drummed his fingers impatiently. "I believe I challenged Yugi-boy, not you, Mai Sweet Valentine."

"Sorry, Pegasus, but I have a previous engagement," Yugi shot back. "He's all yours, Mai."

"No!" Joey cried, gripping Mai's shoulders. "I'm not leaving you here alone in some freaky Shadow Duel with a mind-controlled Pegasus!"

"She won't be alone. She'll have me," Serenity said.

This did not exactly improve Joey's opinion of the idea. "I don't think so! We don't even know if Yugi's theory is right!"

"He is right, Joey," Mai told him. "Can't you feel it? Right now, with your hands on my shoulders, the Orichalcos can't touch me. Everything clear and I know how to do the right thing, and this is the right thing."

"And what if you lose?"

"I won't. But it wouldn't matter anyway. Pegasus is just a distraction. It doesn't matter what happens here, as long as the rest of you beat Evan," Mai said softly.

"No!" he cried. "I'm not going to leave you alone again Mai!"

She smiled at him. "It's all right Joey, I told you, I won't be alone. And not just because Serenity will be here."

"Joey," Yugi said reaching for his friend. "She's right. If Evan is controlling Pegasus, then he's here to try and distract us or pick off me or Kaiba again. We'll have to trust Mai and Serenity to handle Pegasus so we can go after Evan."

"Trust me," Mai said to Joey, then on impulse leaned over and kissed him softly on the cheek. Joey's eyes widened in surprise, but before he could react any further, she stepped back from him and activated her duel disk. "Come on Pegasus, you and me! Unless I got your courage along with your soul the last time."

Yugi saw Joey cringe at her cavalier reference to when she was with Dartz's gang, but Yugi was convinced her taunting was merely to get Pegasus to focus on her and forget them. And it worked. With a scowl, Pegasus activated his duel disk.

"Let's duel!" he and Mai said together.