14. Fighting the Shadows Within
Yugi covered his face with his arm as Rebecca's Luster Dragon wiped out his Beta the Magnet Warrior, taking two hundred of his Life Points with it. Fury welled up within him as Rebecca, looking every bit as enraged as he was, called out, "And that leaves your Life Points wide open to a direct attack from Marie the Fallen One!"
The blue-faced winged creature began her attack, but Yugi pulled Kuriboh out of his hand. "Stupid, worthless, weak monster, the only thing you're good for is this," he cried, discarding Kuriboh into his graveyard.
He heard a gasp behind him, and Serenity called out, "Yugi, don't talk like that! Joey says Kuriboh is one of your favorites!"
Shut up you stupid priss, he thought savagely, then brought his attention back to the duel. Discarding Kuriboh made the damage from Marie's attack zero, so his Life Points hovered at twenty-four hundred. Rebecca had only two thousand Life Points, but she had Solemn Wishes on the field, a continuous trap that would increase her Life Points by five hundred points every time she drew. Rebecca ended her turn.
"My move," he shouted, drawing a card. Looking at it, he smiled. Pot of Greed. He played it, then drew two more cards. Even better. Cross Counter and Gamma the Magnet Warrior. Alpha was already in his hand, along with Diffusion Wave-Motion, which was useless without a Spellcaster monster on the field, and The Reliable Guardian. Of course he had just lost Beta. But Monster Reborn was somewhere in his deck. If he could hold her off until he drew it, he would be able to summon Valkyrion the Magna Warrior. With the two cards he just drew, he might be able to do just that. After two years of playing with that brat in Egypt, he knew her methods inside and out. She usually attacked facedown monsters with her weaker monsters first, hoping to reserve her stronger monsters for direct attacks against her opponent's Life Points. If she ran true to form, this combination would work perfectly.
"I play one monster in facedown defense position," he said, putting Gamma the Magnet Warrior horizontally onto the monster slot on his duel disk, "and play two more cards facedown," he added, putting Cross Counter and The Reliable Guardian into the trap/magic slots. Three giant holographic facedown cards appeared on the field before him. "I end my turn."
Rebecca drew, increased her Life Points by five hundred, and played one card face down in the magic/trap card slot, then attacked his defense monster with Marie the Fallen One. This flipped Gamma face up, showing Rebecca that its eighteen hundred defense points were higher than Marie's seventeen hundred attack points.
"I activate Cross Counter! This doubles the battle damage you receive to your Life Points and sends Marie to the graveyard!" he crowed.
Rebecca bent over as Marie disintegrated and her Life Points took two hundred points of damage, bringing her to twenty-three hundred. When she straightened, she was smiling vindictively. "Thank you! With Marie the Fallen One in my graveyard, I gain two hundred more Life Points every turn! Not only that, Luster Dragon has more than enough attack points to finish off Gamma the Magnet Warrior. What a pathetic waste of a move!"
"Becky!" Yugi heard Duke call out. "Come on, don't play like that."
"Yeah, Rebecca, you can beat it!" Mokuba added.
"The only thing I need to beat is him," she growled in Yugi's direction.
Yugi's fists balled in fury. He had never loathed anyone in his life quite so much as he loathed this stupid brat of a girl…
No! I don't hate her! She's my friend! he thought wildly.
DUELISTS HAVE NO FRIENDS. ONLY OBSTACLES TO VICTORY. SHE IS IN MY WAY!
He struggled against the voice screaming in his head. No, she's my friend…
ONLY OBSTACLES!
Rebecca called her attack and Luster Dragon went after Gamma the Magnet Warrior. Triumph rang through him, allowing the screaming voice to overpower the softer one. With savage glee, he activated the instant magic card Reliable Guardian. "This adds seven hundred defense points to Gamma the Magnet Warrior, making him stronger than your Luster Dragon. I'm afraid you'll be losing another five hundred Life Points. Oh, and I have to thank you for being so utterly predictable. If you had attacked with Luster Dragon first, I could never have used Reliable Guardian against you. It only works on face up monsters, and you took care of that nicely when you attacked with your weaker monster first."
"You'll pay for that cheap shot," she growled. "I have one more move before I end my turn. I summon Fire Princess in attack mode."
"Whatever," he spat back. He drew Swords of Revealing Light. Not the card he needed, but it would help him stall until he could draw it.
"I play Swords of Revealing Light," he announced, sliding the card into the magic slot. Bright white swords flashed from the sky, surrounding Rebecca's Luster Dragon and Fire Princess, preventing them or any other monsters she might summon from attacking for the next three turns. His Gamma the Magnet Warrior had enough attack points to wipe out Fire Princess, but her facedown card worried him. She wouldn't have played Fire Princess in attack mode at the very end of her turn when it was too late to attack him unless she had a way of protecting her. If he attacked, he risked losing Gamma, putting two of his three Magnet Warriors in the graveyard, taking him even further away from his goal of summoning Valkyrion. Though every inch of him ached to attack her, to cause her pain, he decided not to risk it. He ended his turn.
"Fine," she snapped, and drew. "Now I get an increase of two hundred Life Points thanks to Marie the Fallen One in my graveyard, and as long as Fire Princess is on the field, her special effect costs you five hundred points of direct damage to your Life Points whenever my Life Points increase. Then I get another five hundred Life Points from Solemn Wishes, so you lose another five hundred Life Points. And so sorry, but since it's an effect and not an attack, Swords of Revealing Light is useless against it."
Yugi growled as her Life Points went up to twenty-five hundred and his went down to fourteen hundred.
"Now I play Witch of the Black Forest in defense mode," she said, playing her monster face up because Swords of Revealing Light did not allow her to play any monsters face down. She played two more facedown cards in the spell/trap slot and ended her turn. "You can't hide behind Swords of Revealing Light forever. Only two turns left."
"It's all I'll need," he shot back.
He drew and looked at his card. Mirror Force. That would protect his monsters once Swords of Revealing Light was lifted. He played it face down and ended his turn.
Rebecca drew, beginning her second turn under Swords of Revealing Light. Her Life Points went up another seven hundred and his went down another thousand, bringing her to thirty-two hundred and him to four hundred. He had to do something to get rid of Fire Princess or she'd have him on his next turn without ever attacking. Even if it meant sacrificing Gamma the Magnet Warrior. She then sacrificed Luster Dragon and Witch of the Black Forest to summon her trump card, Guardian Angel Joan. The effect of her Witch of the Black Forest being sent to the graveyard allowed her to take any monster from her deck with fewer than fifteen hundred defense points and add it to her hand. She found the card she wanted, put it in her hand, shuffled her deck, and ended her turn.
Yugi drew Graceful Charity. He played it and drew three more cards: Gazelle King of Mythical Beasts, Dark Magician, and Fissure. He now had these three cards plus Alpha the Magnet Warrior and Diffusion Wave-Motion in his hand. Graceful Charity required him to discard two cards so he chose Diffusion Wave-Motion. Dark Magician would do him no good if he didn't have enough monsters to sacrifice, so he put that in the graveyard as well.
"I summon Gazelle King of Mythical Beasts in attack mode," he announced, "and play the Fissure spell card to destroy Fire Princess." Now only Alpha the Magnet Warrior remained in his hand.
"Big deal! I still get seven hundred Life Points every turn thanks to Marie the Fallen One and Solemn Wishes, and once your Swords of Revealing Light is gone, Guardian Angel Joan will also increase my Life Points. You've only got four hundred Life Points left. You can't win!" Rebecca shouted.
"Watch me, you little brat," he shot back.
"Yugi!" he heard Serenity and Duke both call out. He ignored them both and saw Kaiba out of the corner of his eye watching him, his eyes cold.
You keep watching, Yugi thought, filled with revulsion, because I'm coming for you next, Kaiba. I'll crush you in the finals.
But first, he needed to finish off Rebecca. "It's your move."
Téa thought she'd been surprised by the size of the first chamber of the cave, but that was nothing compared to what was before her now. She, Mai, and Joey, Pegasus slung over his back, stood behind Tristan in the opening he had found, all of them too stunned to speak.
The place where they stood opened out onto a sort of ledge overlooking an immense cavern, lit throughout by torches at even intervals along the walls. The ledge circled around from the opening on either side, and on the opposite side of the chamber from them, a path gradually sloped down from the ledge into the cavern below. Lining the walls were eight large stone tablets, four on each side, also placed at regular intervals between the torches. They were all etched with detailed carvings and looked ancient. They reminded Téa of the stone slab Ishizu Ishtar had brought to the Domino Museum, the one that detailed the history of the duel between Pharaoh Atem and Master Seto.
"Those are Egyptian hieroglyphics," she breathed.
"On a deserted island in the North Pacific," Joey added.
Téa swallowed. "What is this place?" Suddenly the idea that the Millennium Items could be real after all seemed a little less unlikely.
"I don't know," Joey replied, "but we're gonna have to find out."
"Not without Yugi we're not," Tristan cautioned. "This place is a little too Indiana Jones for me. We need someone who can figure out what those hieroglyphics mean."
"First we get a dramatic recreation of Titanic, now Raiders of the Lost Ark," Mai observed wryly. "Think our grave robber is a movie buff?"
"Those grave robberies!" Téa cried. "Do you think those artifacts are here?"
"Who knows," Tristan shrugged. "We still need to find Rex and Weevil and the Millennium Items, too. And look," he added, pointing around the ledge to the left.
"What?" Joey asked.
"An empty MRE wrapper."
Joey squinted. "You can tell that from here?"
"Dude, I'm in the army. Sadly, I'd recognize those things from five clicks away."
"Then Rex and Weevil were definitely in here," Téa said.
"Boys and girls, welcome to Screwed Ville. Population, us," Mai said through gritted teeth, shaking her head. "You realize what this means, don't you? We have officially been set up."
"Huh?" Joey asked, turning to her.
"You don't think it's coincidence that we ended up on an island that happens to have a whole Egyptian tomb theme park underneath it," she said. "Remember how we were off course before we sank? How the lifeboats had just enough fuel to come here? We thought it was all to make it harder to find us, but obviously we were brought here deliberately."
Joey's eyes widened. "If that's true, then everything has to be a setup. Of all the venues Pegasus could've chosen for his tournament, he couldn't have just happened to pick an Alaskan cruise that gets us in this general vicinity." His eyes narrowed again as he looked back at the unconscious man slung over his back. "I have half a mind to just haul him over the ledge, the little…"
A thought suddenly occurred to Téa and she gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
"What?" Joey and Tristan asked in unison, turning to her.
"If we were brought here on purpose, then maybe whoever did all this wasn't trying to stop the tournament after all. Maybe the whole point was to duel here. It wasn't until we got here that everything started going nuts with the duels."
They all exchanged looks.
"What if Goradon's involved?" Mai mused. "That could be why he's so hell bent on continuing the tournament. And we don't know who picked the cruise venue, Pegasus or the IDMTC."
"Oh man. I think we need to get back to the beach and stop Yugi's and Rebecca's duel," Joey said.
"You know what, Joey? I think you're right," Tristan agreed.
Rebecca drew and gained another seven hundred Life Points, bringing her to thirty-nine hundred while he had only four hundred. Plus she had Guardian Angel Joan on the field, while all he had was Gamma the Magnet Warrior and Gazelle King of Mythical Beasts. I have to turn this around, he thought bitterly.
"I summon Ruby Dragon to the field," Rebecca informed him. "Then I sacrifice it to special summon Luster Dragon from the graveyard, which I will also sacrifice to play this," she cried, revealing one of her three facedown cards to be Adamantine Sword Revival. "This allows me to summon Diamond Head Dragon, which gains all the attack points of the dragon I sacrificed for it plus adds another thousand attack points. I now have Guardian Angel Joan with twenty-eight hundred attack points and Diamond Head Dragon with twenty-nine hundred attack points and as soon as my turn ends, so do the Swords of Revealing Light!"
I'M GOING TO WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR SNOTTY LITTLE FACE…
No, his own voice fought inside his head, no, she's my friend, it's just a game, she's playing a good game…
SHE IS THE ENEMY AND I WILL ANNHILATE HER! I WON'T REST UNTIL SHE IS BLEEDING!
No, it's only a game…
IT'S NEVER ONLY A GAME! SHE MUST SUFFER!
"I'm not through yet," she added smugly. "I also play the Shallow Grave magic card to bring back Fire Princess in defense mode! Say good-bye to your Life Points on my next turn!"
Yugi's anger turned to a triumphant smile. Could she really have been so stupid? "Shallow Grave also allows me to special summon a monster from my graveyard into face-up defense mode," he grinned. Thank you, you stupid brat. Now I don't have to wait for Monster Reborn.
He brought Beta the Magnet Warrior back onto the field in defense mode and Rebecca faltered, realizing then what she had allowed him to do. With nothing left to do, she ended her turn. Swords of Revealing Light disappeared, freeing her monsters.
But it was Yugi's turn and she'd already given him what he needed.
He drew Dark Magic Curtain and played it face down in the magic/trap card slot. It would allow him to summon Dark Magician from the graveyard. A good backup plan in case she had Mirror Force, like he suspected. Then with a wide smirk, he called out "And now I sacrifice Beta and Gamma the Magnet Warriors from the field and Alpha the Magnet Warrior from my hand to summon Valkyrion the Magna Warrior! Go, Valkyrion, attack Guardian Angel Joan!"
Rebecca was knocked backwards as Guardian Angel Joan blew apart, taking seven hundred of her Life Points with it. No Mirror Force, at least not yet, Yugi thought with satisfaction. But when she recovered, she did activate a trap card after all: Rope of Life.
"With Rope of Life, I bring back Guardian Angel Joan with an additional eight hundred attack points! Say good-bye to Valkyrion on my next turn!" she crowed, discarding her entire hand as the cost for playing Rope of Life.
"We'll see!" he snapped. He still had Gazelle King of Mythical Beasts, which he used to destroy Fire Princess and then he ended his turn.
She drew, played her only card face down in the magic/trap slot, took another seven hundred Life Points, bringing her back up to thirty-nine hundred, then called for Guardian Angel Joan to attack Valkyrion.
"You fell into my trap!" Yugi cried, revealing his own Mirror Force card. It destroyed every monster in attack position on her side of the field leaving only two facedown cards, the second of which might yet be her Mirror Force, plus Solemn Wishes to defend her Life Points.
"You son of a—"
"Becky!" Duke interrupted her sharply, making Yugi laugh. Her turn was over.
With no monsters on the field and nothing in her hand, she was in trouble, even with her high Life Points. Then again, Yugi had nothing in his hand, either. He drew Soul Release. Perfect! "I play Soul Release, removing up to five monsters in your graveyard from play. Say good-bye to Marie the Fallen One, Guardian Angel Joan, Diamond Head Dragon, Fire Princess, and Luster Dragon. No more pumping up your Life Points every turn," he gloated. "Not that you'll get another turn. Valkyrion, attack her Life Points directly!"
"Activate Mirror Force!" she cried, and Valkyrion and Gazelle were both destroyed. "And I still have Solemn Wishes!"
It was what he'd expected, but he still seethed with rage. All that work to summon Valkyrion… His jaw clenched, he ended his turn.
"Come on, Rebecca! You can do it," Mokuba cheered.
Ignoring him, Rebecca drew, took five hundred more Life Points from Solemn Wishes, bringing her to forty-four hundred and with a scowl, passed.
Yugi drew Card of Sanctity. Playing it was a risk; it would allow him to draw until his hand had six cards, but would also allow her to do the same. Still, he had the advantage in all but Life Points, thanks to his Dark Magic Curtain. He played Card of Sanctity and drew six cards, while Rebecca drew five to add to the one she already had and increased her Life Points another five hundred. He looked at his new hand. Remove Trap, Monster Reborn, Dust Tornado, Curse of Dragon, Reduction Barrier, and Magician of Faith. Monster Reborn! he thought with elation. Between that and Dark Magic Curtain, he was set. And Remove Trap would get rid of Solemn Wishes, too. First he needed to normal summon a monster. The only one he had was Magician of Faith, a week card but one with an interesting special effect. He reached for it, then faltered, remembering how this card had come to be in his deck in the first place.
Téa had given it to him to play against Bakura in what had turned out to be his first Shadow Game against the Spirit of the Millennium Ring. She, Joey, and Tristan had each given him cards that they felt represented themselves and she'd chosen the Magician of Faith. When Bakura had activated his Millennium Ring, he'd trapped each of their souls in their chosen cards and all four of them ended up on the field. Though Téa now identified herself more with Dark Magician Girl than Magician of Faith, he still thought of her whenever he saw this card.
Téa…
TEA? WHAT ABOUT TEA? SHE'S OFF LOOKING FOR THE MILLENNIUM PUZZLE AND HIM. I'M JUST HIS LEFTOVERS. WHO NEEDS IT? I DON'T NEED HER!
No, not Téa, I do need her, I—
SHE'S WEAK! SHE DOESN'T EVEN DUEL! CRUSH HER WITH THE REST OF THEM!
But I love—
I LOVE POWER, THAT'S WHAT I LOVE!
"Are you gonna play or not?" Rebecca called out, drumming her fingers impatiently. "Get on with your turn so I can slaughter you and move on to the semi-finals!"
"Not likely," he spat. "I set one monster in facedown defense position," he told her, putting Magician of Faith into his duel disk without thinking further of Téa, "and play two facedown cards," he added, putting Reduction Barrier and Dust Tornado into the magic/trap slots. "And finally, I play Remove Trap to destroy your Solemn Wishes and Monster Reborn to bring back Valkyrion the Magna Warrior in attack mode! Attack her Life Points directly!"
"I activate Gravity Bind!" she countered, revealing her one remaining facedown card. It was a permanent trap that prevented all monsters level four and higher from attacking. No matter, he could get rid of it on his next turn with Dust Tornado.
"I end my turn," he finished.
She drew, set one facedown card, then played Silent Dead to bring Ruby Dragon back to the field in defense mode, and last summoned Sangan in attack mode. "Sangan, attack his facedown monster!" she ordered, and Sangan destroyed Magician of Faith.
Téa! Yugi thought irrationally, then shook his head. It didn't matter. "By attacking Magician of Faith, you activated her Flip effect," he called out. "I can now return one spell card from the graveyard to my hand." He chose Monster Reborn just in case she had a way to get rid of one of his monsters. Rebecca ended her turn and Yugi drew Metorain. Perfect!
"I activate Dust Tornado to destroy Gravity Bind," he declared, "and I activate Dark Magic Curtain, paying half my Life Points to do so." They dropped to two hundred. "This allows me to special summon Dark Magician from my graveyard. Then I'll play one facedown card," he added, slipping Metorain into the magic/trap slot on his duel disk. "Now Dark Magician, attack Ruby Dragon!" He did so, and Ruby Dragon was destroyed. "And Valkyrion, attack Sangan!" Rebecca put her arm up against the onslaught as Valkyrion obliterated Sangan along with twenty-five hundred of her Life Points, bringing her down to twenty-four hundred. This activated Sangan's special ability, which allowed her to choose a monster with fifteen hundred or less attack points from her deck and add it to her hand, provided she show Yugi which card she chose first. She selected Canon Soldier and added it to her hand. Yugi ended his turn.
Rebecca drew, then played Tribute of Decedent, discarding one card from her hand to do so. "Tribute of Decedent allows me to destroy one of your monsters, and I choose Valkyrion!"
Yugi winced as Valkyrion disappeared.
"Next I play Injection Fairy Lily and activate the trap card Ultimate Offering. At the cost of five hundred Life Points per monster, I can summon extra monsters to the field per turn. I tribute Injection Fairy Lily and summon two cards in facedown defense mode." Her Life Points diminished by a thousand down to fourteen hundred and she ended her turn.
Yugi frowned. One of her monsters must have powerful defense points if it required a tribute to summon it. Her Millennium Shield, he thought, his frown becoming a grin. It has three thousand defense points! The other is probably Canon Soldier, with only twelve hundred defense points. With my Life Points down to two hundred, she's hoping I'll attack the wrong one with Dark Magician and I'll lose. But I have another plan.
With a wicked smile, Yugi drew one last time. He didn't even look at his card; it didn't matter. This duel was over.
"First, I activate Metorain, which will give your Life Points battle damage if your defense position monsters are destroyed. Then I play Monster Reborn to bring back Valkyrion the Magna Warrior, which will attack your facedown card on the left!"
Valkyrion attacked and it was, indeed, Millennium Shield. Valkyrion, however, was five hundred points stronger and Rebecca's Life Points lowered to nine hundred. "And now, Dark Magician, attack her other facedown card!"
Dark Magician attacked, destroying Canon Soldier and throwing Rebecca backwards as her Life Points went down to zero. Yugi felt a surge of satisfaction as he saw that the attack knocked the breath out of her. These are no ordinary holograms. They're infused with the Shadow Realm, he thought. More power…
"It's over!" he heard someone call behind him, and turned to see Serenity heading onto the field toward him. She grabbed his arm, but he wasn't interested in her playing nursemaid to him and he wrenched his arm free, knocking her off balance.
"Serenity!" Duke called out. He'd been heading for Rebecca, but changed track in an instant, grabbing Serenity and yanking her out of Yugi's way. He then grabbed Yugi's shoulders and shook him. "Snap out of it, man, the duel's over!"
Yugi shoved Duke backwards. "Would all of you insufferable morons keep out of this!" Yugi snapped. He saw Rebecca across the field getting to her feet, her face a mask of rage. "This is between me and the little girl and you're not her big brother!" he shouted, though he was looking past Duke to Rebecca. He covered his mouth with his hand in mock horror as if he'd made a blunder. "Oops, I forgot, you don't have a big brother any more, do you, Becky?" He clucked his tongue, feigning pity. "You don't still believe in guardian angels, do you?"
No! She told me that in confidence…
JUST GOES TO SHOW YOU WHAT A FOOL SHE IS.
She charged at him, snarling in fury. "You watch your mouth, you—"
"Becky!" Duke called out, intervening once more. He grabbed Rebecca and swung her around, her momentum pulling both of them in a circle away from Yugi and into the group of people watching, which parted quickly. The referee tried to get involved, but Yugi sidestepped him and moved toward Rebecca.
"Do you think you can destroy my Valkyrion not once but twice and get away with it?" he seethed, his ambivalence gone in a flash.
More people were on the field. Mokuba Kaiba put himself in between Yugi and Rebecca. "Yugi, the duel's over, stop!" he cried, but if Yugi wasn't going to take it from Duke or the referee, he certainly wasn't going to take it from a spoiled rich brat like Mokuba Kaiba.
"This doesn't concern you, either, you snot-nosed whiny piece of trash!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
A hand clapped down on his shoulder. Yugi whirled around to find Seto Kaiba towering over him. "Whatever your problem is, Yugi, it ends NOW."
"And you, Kaiba, I'm so sick of your lording it over everyone! STAY OUT OF THIS!" He pulled himself out of Kaiba's grasp and held up his duel disk in front of him, which still had Valkyrion and Dark Magician poised to attack. Kaiba was going to regret crossing him when he was blown off his feet by two Shadow-infused high-powered monsters.
"I don't think so!" Kaiba snarled, then with a swift move from his left arm, brought his own duel disk down on the back of Yugi's head with a loud crack.
Yugi collapsed to his knees, and as the world faded to black, he heard someone in the distance scream his name.