Chapter 32: Rescue from the Great Beyond
"Found anything yet?"
"I'm still looking through the database. Most of it's just financial stuff, some legal stuff-"
"Keep looking. There's bound to be something in there."
"Ya know, we could totally mess with Montalban's records! An extra 0 here, take away a 1 from there-"
"Yeah, let's tack on 'fraud' to the list of things we're already in trouble with him for, that'll definitely work out well for us."
"Hey, it's the thought that counts. Besides, the guy's a creep anyway."
Having gained access to Montalban's corporate database was a useful step in the right direction. Or at least, that was the intention. Now Andrew had Izzy working from one of KaibaCorp's computers to get to what they wanted to find out: how to get Matt out of the Great Beyond.
"There's gotta be something in there," Andrew murmured, pacing back and forth. "Surely with all those years, he's got something in regards to the Great Beyond."
The room remained quiet as Izzy continued to skim through the database. No sound other than the ambient noise of the room could be heard. Finally, Yugi spoke up to Andrew first.
"What if we don't find what we're looking for in the database?" Yugi asked.
Andrew stopped his pacing at that moment. It was a question that they all had on their minds for a while, and it was the one question Andrew hoped would remain unasked. But now that it had, there wasn't much else beyond that. He sighed and turned to face the others.
"Then we continue on in his place," he said.
The others looked up. Even Izzy stopped her search and looked up at Andrew with astonishment.
"What're you saying?" Creighton asked.
"Matt went hunting for the Spirit Dragons for the longest time," Andrew replied. "It would be fitting in his memory for us to take up that search."
"But we can't even find the locations without the Compass Medallion!" Shannon retorted. "That's supposed to be the one thing that could lead us even remotely close to them!"
"And what about Slifer the Sky Dragon?" Joey asked. "We can't just leave an Egyptian God Card in da Great Beyond!"
He's right, Yugi thought. What if we can't get Slifer the Sky Dragon back? It's going to be trapped in the Great Beyond where we can't get to it!
There must be a way to it.
Yugi looked up to find Yami floating beside him. How would you know about that? Yugi asked.
If it's truly destiny that will lead me to find my memories, then it's destined for us to venture to the Great Beyond and retrieve Slifer the Sky Dragon, Yami explained. I believe in that destiny, and so I believe there must be a way into the Great Beyond.
Yugi gave this some thought as Andrew answered the others, "The only other way I can think of to saving Matt from the Great Beyond would be to retrieve the Spirit Dragons ourselves and defeat Adolf Rommel with their power. I don't think we would be able to do so otherwise."
Creighton was about to retort when he remembered his own duel with Rommel. The man had managed to gain an overwhelming advantage over two duelists going against him, and they barely managed to scrape by. Had it not been for Bonesman's interruption, the two might have lost the duel, and he wouldn't even be here to complain about it.
"But without the Compass Medallion," Shannon repeated, "we won't be able to find the Spirit Dragons easily, if at all. A search like that could take years!"
To this, Andrew didn't reply. He simply went back to pacing and muttered, "Even time won't keep me from getting him back..."
DING!
Suddenly the computer chimed. Izzy looked down and smiled. "I've found it!"
The group turned their attention to her. A number of smiles and smirks cropped up in the group. They would be able to find him after all!
"Dat's great!" Joey said. "So what's da secret?"
"Hang on, let me check the file..."
A couple minutes later, Izzy found what they had been looking for. At first, she read the info. Then she read it again, with a frown. Then she read it again, now puzzled.
"What's up?" Creighton asked.
"It...it doesn't make sense..."
"What doesn't make sense?"
Izzy then read the info: "'The Great Beyond is a dangerous place of great uncertainty. Those who wish to enter into its boundaries must find themselves at the edge of the earth - the end of the world.'"
A pause took over the room.
"The end of the world?" Shannon asked with some concern.
"So what, we waiting for da apocalypse before we get dere?" Joey asked, confused.
"But it also says the edge of the earth," Tristan noted, "so it can't be some kind of earth-shattering event."
"...earth-shattering..."
The group looked over at Andrew, who was in a clearly thoughtful pose. Then he snapped his fingers and announced, "It's a riddle!"
"A riddle?" Izzy asked.
"Think about it: in ancient times, the world was a small enough place that people thought nothing went beyond the horizon," Andrew explained. "Mathematicians and scientists had given formulas to provide the belief that the earth was spherical and that it had no edge."
"Isn't that the problem though?" Creighton asked.
"You have to think about this from a time before those formulas were given," Andrew continued. "Most people would have thought the earth was flat and that if one sailed off into the distance, they would fall off the edge of the earth."
"That's true in theory," Izzy said, "but we know the earth doesn't have an edge. Where's the edge of the earth when there's no edge?"
"That's when you gotta think of it another way," Andrew paced about as he thought aloud. "Given that people would eventually come to the conclusion that the concept of a flat earth was null and void, what would be the edge of the earth by comparison?"
"You mean like the end of the land?" Tea wondered.
"But that's where the ocean is, and we know the land just keeps going from there," Shannon pointed out. Then her eyes widened with another thought. "Unless..."
"Until you get to the edge of the earth," Andrew finished.
"I still don't get it," Joey said.
Then Yugi suddenly gasped. "Wait! You think it's referring to the Mariana Trench, don't you?"
"You mean the deepest part of the ocean?" Tea asked.
"Exactly where we need to go," Andrew nodded.
"I still don't get it..."
"It's like what Tristan had said earlier," Yugi said.
"Did I say that earlier?" Tristan wondered.
"You said 'earth-shattering' before," Andrew said, "and that's what got me thinking: an earthquake on the surface would look like the earth was splitting open, marking a sort of edge on it. Another way such edges can be made is through erosion, and that logic can lead one to canyons, another earthy edge. And where's the one canyon that we know the least about?"
"The Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean!" Creighton exclaimed, mashing a fist onto his palm.
"Assuming that we're going to ignore the leaps and gaps in that argument, there's still one major problem with that theory," Izzy retorted. "No ship can possibly survive those depths. We'd just end up getting crushed to death."
"I never said anything about not dying."
The group collectively gasped as they turned to Andrew.
"You mean...to get to the Great Beyond..." Shannon was unable to finish her sentence, the truth of it too startling to express in words.
...we have to die?
Silence. The group looked around nervously as Andrew gazed over them, a determined look in his eyes.
"You're not...serious, are you?" Izzy asked.
"I don't think I could be any more serious than I am right now," Andrew answered.
The group was forced to cope with the idea behind this notion: to get to the Great Beyond, they would have to die. Coming to terms with that notion was another story. To die was to meet the end, the final awakening, a date with the grim reaper. There would be no turning back. And then there was the idea that Andrew could be wrong with the idea of dying to get to the Great Beyond. Surely there was another way, right?
Unfortunately, the rest of the file only seemed to confirm the idea more. There were no known ways of escaping the Great Beyond, and there were no known ways of getting into the Great Beyond otherwise. There seemed to be one unifying bridge between the world and the Great Beyond: death.
After making the preparations and heading out to sea for a couple of days, the crew found themselves right above the location of the Mariana Trench. On the ocean's surface, it wouldn't appear that the group was about to attempt the most daring and dangerous act any living person could imagine doing.
"So what exactly is the plan now that we're here?" Creighton asked Andrew as the two strolled along the deck, a wary eye from every crew member following them.
Andrew didn't respond at first, pacing about the deck for a while. Perhaps it hadn't occurred to him how he was going to take an entire ship's worth of people down into the deepest part of the ocean, let alone how they'd get to the Great Beyond that he speculated was behind it. He gave pause, stroking his chin beard.
"Well?" Creighton was beginning to get impatient again.
"Get something weighty on you."
"Huh?"
Before Creighton could clarify what kind of weight he could wear, Andrew began heading down underneath into the hull. Creighton quickly pursued as did most of the crew. Andrew led the group towards the inner deck of the ship that held the cannons.
"Start grabbing a few spare cannonballs, tie them to yourself," he said. "Sandbags, crates of metal, anything! If it weighs you down, that'll be good enough."
As Andrew began messing with one of the cannons, the crew began gathering various weighty objects and whatever could bind them to themselves - rope, clothing, chains, all manner of connections. Creighton on the other hand continued to badger Andrew.
"What exactly is this supposed to accomplish?" he asked.
"The heavier we are, the better we'll sink," Andrew simply replied.
"Are you trying to sink us or the ship?" Creighton pressed.
"Working on both ends at the same time is really difficult," Andrew continued, tying a rope around himself to the cannon. "You've gotta do one to ideally perform the other, although that's not quite true the other way around - tie this around your waist, would you?"
"But what do you want to do?" Creighton asked again, absentmindedly tying the rope around himself as Andrew turned the cannon inwards.
"Ideally sink us all," Andrew answered. "I figure that we at least need to sink while the ship could either sink with the rest of us or just sit here with no crew and a big sign saying, 'We're going to the Beyond to save Matt, hope you don't mind!' This way at least even if the ship doesn't make it with us, we won't be leaving much of a trail for Montalban and his goons to go sniffing up."
"So you're covering your bases is what you're saying," Creighton stated plainly.
"That about does it, yeah."
Andrew then turned to the crew and called out, "Gentlemen, I dare say I hope to see you all in the Great Beyond."
He then grabbed a linstock, saluted to the others, touched the vent hole with the linstock, and fired the cannon straight down into the depths of the ship. The blast more than well-created a hole in the midst of the ship, allowing for the swelling waters of the ocean to rush onboard. The recoil of the cannon knocked it clear out of the side of the ship, dragging Andrew and Creighton with it as they plunged into the water with the cannon and proceeded to dive down into the depths.
Now realizing that it was either go down on one's own terms or with the ship, the rest of the crew gathered up their own weights and plunged themselves into the depths, drowning themselves in the oceanic waters below. Down they went into the cold Pacific waters, sinking deeply into the crushing depths. As the group sank, the pressure surrounding them began to crush their bodies, forcing the air out and beginning to work the dreadful process of drowning. Saltwater entered as the oxygen fled from their bodies, and yet deeper and deeper did they sink, all the while their only hope being that they had not willingly drowned themselves.
As the colors of the world faded one by one - first the reds, then orange, yellow, greens and purples, until only the blues were left behind till they too began to fade into darkness - the encroaching waters around them began to overwhelm their senses. Soon their consciousness began to slip in and out, their vision becoming blurry and their thoughts floating away and disappearing with the bubbles that trailed above them towards the surface of salvation.
Then suddenly, Andrew found a green light glowing from within his pocket. Pulling it out, he discovered the jade jewel that had transported the group away from the Poseidon and its tragic ending. Then a mysterious and mystical light began to emanate from the murky depths below. The group looked downward as the light began to encompass them. Soon they were surrounded not by the dark waters of the Pacific but this warming light. The air returned to their lungs, expelling the water that had taken siege within them.
And then just as suddenly as the light had appeared, it disappeared again. And there they were, lying on a sandy beach.
"Hmmmmmmmm…"
Not a sound. Not a single movement. Nothing for miles, or at least what appeared to be miles. No clouds in what could be called a sky, no water to surround the massive vessel he was on - there wasn't even soil as far as he could tell. Nothing more than an infinitely vast expanse of nothingness. Nothing at all.
"If I'd known the Beyond was going to be so boring, I would have packed my laptop on the ship! Not that there'd be any reception down here anyway…or up here?"
A grim Matt set the telescope he'd been peering through down and sat on the deck of the Poseidon. It was interesting that the ship appeared to have absolutely no damage on it, even after being torn apart by the Dark Leviathan. Maybe that was just how transport to the Great Beyond worked? It hardly made any sense to him at all.
"No food, no water, no anything!" Matt grumbled to himself, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his deck. "Nothing but my cards to keep me company."
He looked over his Duel Monsters cards, the great and mighty dragons alongside which he'd fought many battles. And now here they were, trapped in an otherworldly realm of plain and dreary blandness.
"I guess it's better than nothing," he muttered as he shuffled through them, recalling some of his past duels with them. He remembered the fond memories he had of defeating opponents with his unusual tactics, making them think he'd go full force with his draconic onslaught and then tricking them with his traps and spells. He especially loved using his Decoy Dragon to really get under their skin at times, but sometimes trickery wasn't enough.
Matt looked over a card with a hatching baby dragon, a shining star over its head. The monster card, Dragon of Hope. He recalled using this card when things got tough, utilizing its power to instantly bring forth aid from within his deck. If it weren't for this little guy, he wouldn't have been able to win some of those duels.
"Funny thing, isn't it?" he said to the card. "How hope can drive you into belief and help turn a bad situation around."
Matt continued looking at the card as another card dropped down onto the deck of the ship. This card showed a powerful red dragon with two mouths, one closed over the other which appeared to be roaring or perhaps preparing for an attack. Matt looked down from his musings at this card, remembering that he had taken it from the three God Cards back at the Battle of the Titans tournament.
"Slifer the Sky Dragon…"
He frowned as he picked it up and examined it. "Not even a God Card could get me out of this mess," he grumbled, given the card a disgruntled look. "I thought you were supposed to be some all-powerful being that would help me out of this mess."
A moment passed as Matt continued to stare at the God Card. Then in frustration and rage he tossed the card away, only to have it float back down in front of him. He glared now angrily at the card and stood up.
"What, now you want to mock me?! You didn't even do anything for me, so why should I expect you to do anything now!" Matt yelled, raising his foot up and preparing to stomp down on the card.
RRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRR
Matt froze, his foot hanging above the card. He looked around him, seeking out the source of the terrifying roar he'd heard. Was it some kind of dragon sent to hunt him down? Or maybe the Dark Leviathan just kept people in the Great Beyond to eat later, and now it was returning to do just that? Matt scanned the landscape desperately until he was sure the coast was clear, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when he confirmed it.
"Great, now I'm hallucinating the roar of dragons," he cursed himself as he came back to Slifer the Sky Dragon, still laying on the deck of the ship. He paused for a moment before finally picking the card up.
"Well if I never get out of here, I at least hope you'll be able to leave," Matt admitted to the card. "I'd hate for Yugi to have to come all the way down here just to get his card back."
A pause of silence followed as Matt looked at the card. All that trouble to host a tournament for this one God Card, and nothing to show for it. Literally! Now that he was stuck here in this eternal absence it just seemed all for not. Not even that slight breeze and the creaking of the ship could…
Breeze? Creaking?
Matt looked around him, out at the horizon, whatever could be seen around him. It was strange, but he felt this strange sensation that somehow the ship was moving on its own. He looked up at the sails, still furled along the masts. He looked across the landscape, still no water to float on. He looked down over the side of the ship-
And there it was. A large red serpentine body curled around the ship, lifting it up off of the ground. Matt could trace the spikes that ran down and across the figure, there were so many of them. Long white claws protruded from various feet along the body, and it was then that Matt heard the mighty roar once again.
Only this time, it was at the front of the ship.
Matt charged to the bow and looked below to see the magnificent face of a two-mouthed dragon, its horns protruding majestically from its forehead where a blue jewel appeared to be. Its eyes glowed a fierce yellow as it let out another savage roar.
"Well I'll be…"
RRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR
"GEEZUS!"
Creighton jolted awake and looked around him. He patted himself down quickly, breathed in a heavy breath -
"I'm alive?!" he yelped.
"That might not be for much longer…"
Creighton looked over at the rest of the crew. Somehow they'd all made it - Andrew, Izzy, Shannon, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Willaby - everyone was alive!
RRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR
"What in the world is that?!" Creighton asked.
"Whatever it is, I don't wanna be around ta find out!" Joey yelped.
"I agree, we should find Matt and get outta here!" Tea replied.
Yugi simply looked out at the mound of sand. Something about that roar was familiar to him. It wasn't just a hunch; no, he was sure of it! He had heard that roar before!
"Guys, I think Matt's about to find us," Yugi said.
The gang looked over at Yugi in confusion. "And what makes you say dat?" Joey asked skeptically.
"Blimey! Look!"
Willaby pointed out at the mound, and sure enough poking over the hill was a mast. The mast rose up higher and higher, slowly revealing the ship and in turn the giant dragon carrying the ship!
"That's Slifer the Sky Dragon!" Yugi exclaimed.
"And it's carrying the Poseidon!" Izzy added.
Then that means…
Slifer continued to carry the Poseidon over the beach until finally diving into the ocean, dropping the ship on the surface of the water. It rose up out of the waters and flew across the sky, letting out one more triumphant roar before fading away into nothingness.
The group began to cheer at the sight of the Poseidon once again riding the currents. Andrew smiled as he looked out and saw his brother waving from the deck of the ship, tearing up a little bit. He'd found his brother.
"Wow…that's some story."
Matt sat amidst the group as they recounted their tale of treachery and plotting in order to take control of KaibaCorp, how with the defeat of Montalban they were able to discover what they needed to do, and their journey down into the depths that would lead them to the Beyond. It was certainly an interesting account to take in, especially given how different viewpoints were given on the matter, but overall it still ended the same and with the same question on everyone's minds:
"So how do we get back to the real world?" Matt asked aloud.
"I thought you had a plan for this sorta thing!" Creighton exclaimed.
"I planned for a lot of things, but I never planned to be in the Great Beyond in the first place," Matt replied.
"So we don't have a way out then…" Shannon stated plainly. The message seemed to resonate with everyone in the group, as most of them lowered their heads in thought.
"I don't suppose you remember anything else from Montalban's sources, do you?" Andrew asked Izzy.
"I would, but I think the process of dying has affected my memory a bit," Izzy replied. "I don't know if I'll even remember it while we're here."
"Andrew, did you bring that jewel I gave you?" Matt asked.
"The jewel?" Andrew thought for a moment and reached into his pocket, retrieving the small jade jewel that he had kept with him since the Poseidon was sunk. Matt snatched the jewel and held it up to the light of what appeared in the sky to be the sun.
"We might be able to talk with Auntie Margareta, see if she can help us out of this," Matt said. "Until then, it's best that we sail for the horizon."
"Look for an edge to the Beyond?" Andrew asked.
"Pretty much," Matt nodded.
"And what if we don't find an edge?" Creighton asked. "What if we keep sailing and find there's nothing there?"
Matt turned towards the captain's quarters and walked towards the doors. "Then I guess you'll have come here for nothing," he said as he opened them, "because if we can't find a way out, we're going to be stuck here for all eternity."
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Yeah, I'm going to admit that this chapter was tricky to write, especially given the similarities to At World's End. First, I had to establish this in the new continuity; sure, I could have gone with falling off of a large waterfall, but any real-world counterparts wouldn't have exactly been suitable for throwing ships off of them, whether because of where they are located or how popular they are (looking at you, Niagra Falls). Because of that, I needed a way to access the Great Beyond without falling off of a giant waterfall. So what was the next best thing? The edge of the earth, and that's where the reasoning from before came from.
Granted, there's a lot of mysticism involved with plunging one's self into the deepest part of the ocean (which by the way, I don't condone under any circumstances, it's actually a very nasty way to go) in order to gain access to another realm, but I figured that something would have to happen to be credible in some sense. That's where the jade jewel comes in; being a mystical artifact, I figured teleporting was a rather specific one-time use for the item, so it makes more sense for it to be able to allow for transportation instead, i.e. allowing for the group to get to whatever location they need to be, so long as they were in the midst of some type of danger (such as with the Dark Leviathan attack or the fact that they were all about to drown). What a sneaky artifact to have but very useful to deus ex machina away from sudden death.
...what? Just cause I can't think of a reasoning for the Mariana Trench being the focal point wherein people enter into the Great Beyond doesn't mean I can't think of a reasoning for a small relatively minute jewel to help them out!
...oh come on, you weren't giving me a hard time for using Slifer to transfer the boat!
Next time: the group travels through the Beyond and runs into a familiar face! But who is it, and how did they get here? Stay tuned!
