Hey people! I've got good news for you all. A) this isn't the last chap. B) there's no cliffie at the end! Yes, I know. I'm too good for this world but you don't have to worship me. Simply reviewing me and telling me you all loved the chap and that I'm the greatest will do. So R&R people!

--: 13 :--
Fight

Atemu eyes widened as he saw his little one struggling to keep a firm hold on the crack in the wall. He could see blood trickling down the wall and Yuugi's hands, meaning that the obvious sharp edge had cut into Yuugi's skin.

Atemu tried to stand up, desperate to get to his little one, to save him, but the three god monsters had taken too much energy. He had already had to call his Dark Magician back, because it was draining him too much. He knew that if it hadn't been for the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, he would've surely died by now because of energy loss.

Ra, Slifer and the Blue Eyes White Dragon were shooting attacks from the air at Dakuso's Cosmo Queen, as Obelisk tried to punch the said monster with his fiery fist.

Atemu's eyes shot back to the Blue Eyes White Dragon, 'Seth, he's still on the other side! ' He glanced to the other side of the room and saw Dakuso with a large blazing aura following the fight and giving his Queen more power when needed.

Against the wall behind the High Mage turned Pharaoh, were Jou and Seth. Jou seemed to be unconscious, a small trail of blood sipping from a wound on his head. Seth was holding Jou close to him, while glaring fiercely at Dakuso. Atemu guessed that when Dakuso had powered up, Jou had been thrown against the wall and knocked unconscious.

"Seth!" Atemu tried to call out, but it was nothing more than a mere whisper.

Atemu tried to get up again, but Slifer, Ra and Obelisk had simply taken too much energy from him. He tried to take the energy he needed to at least call out to his cousin from his Puzzle, but there was barely anything left in it.

Taking the last bits of Shadow Magic from the mystic item hanging from his neck, he managed to stand up shakily, "Seth!"

This time, Seth looked up from Jou and glanced Atemu's way. He could see his cousin standing on shading legs, a lot more pale than he usually was, and obviously very drained from controlling the God Monsters fighting the Cosmo Queen. He gave his cousin a questioning look to only see the other point towards them… no, lower. Lower? Was he pointing at the wall of the pit?

Before he could be sure, Atemu sank to the ground exhausted. He could see Atemu's eyes only half open, but still staring at that one spot on their side of the room… the spot he had been pointing at.

Seth glanced towards Dakuso but the other hadn't noticed a single thing as he was too busy looking after his Queen. Seth reluctantly let go of Jou, and placed him against the wall. He then slowly stood up, and walked to the edge of the gap, carefully watching Dakuso as he did so.

As he reached the edge, he looked down to have his heart skip a beat and his breath hitch in his throat for a moment.

He could clearly see Yuugi hanging right below him, gripping the edge of a sharp crack in the wall. The other was almost losing his grip, and was only hanging from the tips of his fingers as his feet almost touched a sharp spike right below them.

He quickly glanced at Dakuso again to see that the ex-High Mage hadn't noticed him yet, before quickly lying down on his stomach, and reaching out towards the smaller teen, "Yuugi!" he hissed.

Yuugi glanced up at hearing someone call out to him, to see Seth above him with a hand reaching for him. Knowing the Shadow Magic around him was somehow blocking all sound - as he had called out many times to his friends but had gotten no response - he tried to grab Seth's hand without a word. Since now only one hand was holding his weight up, the sharp edge of the crack dug deeper into his skin. He winced at the painful feeling, but kept reaching out to Seth, knowing this was the only way he wouldn't die a painful death.

He could already feel Seth's fingertips, but couldn't get a good grip on them, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't get any higher.

Seth mentally cursed with every word he knew as he just couldn't get a good grip on Yuugi's hand. At suddenly feeling someone crouch beside him and hearing that person gasp at what he saw, he looked up startled, but relaxed at recognizing Jou.

"How…?" Jou stared with wide eyes at Yuugi but snapped out of it at seeing the sharp spike right below his little buddy, "Can ya reach him?"

Seth shook his head, "No, I can just reach his fingertips, but I can't get a good grip on his hand." He glanced to the wound on Jou's head, "Are you…?"

"I'm fine," Jou cut Seth off before the other could even finish his question "it's Yuugi who needs help right now. I'll hold onta your legs so you can reach deeper." Without even waiting for an answer, he grabbed Seth's legs and slightly pushed the other forward.

Seth glared slightly at Jou for not even letting him finish his line, before all but ordering him to do something. Ignoring it for now, he reached to Yuugi again and this time, grabbed the other's hand firmly.

Yuugi felt Seth grab his hand firmly at long last, and let go of the wall to grab Seth's arm with his other hand as well. Blood was still seeping from both gushes, but he ignored the pain as much as he could. Seth pulled him up with surprising ease, but as Yuugi reached the edge and was put down on solid ground again, he saw that not only Seth, but also Jou had been pulling him up.

Jou hugged the amethyst-eyed boy tightly, almost squishing the other in the tight embrace, "Yuug, I thought ya were dead!"

Yuugi smiled slightly, "Me too…" he muttered, but decided not to speak his words too loud. He freed himself from Jou's arms to look at the other side of the room. He had only shortly glanced there as his focus had been on holding on to the wall, but now he wanted to know what had happened to Atemu after the other had summoned the three God Monsters. Yuugi gasped as he saw Atemu only lying on the ground with half opened eyes that didn't even seem to be taking in anything.

"Atemu!" Yuugi cried out as he rushed forward, only to be stopped by two arms pulling him back.

"You can't just run over ta him! Da madman is still standin' dere!" Jou hissed, but Dakuso had already heard Yuugi's cry, and had turned around. The man was smirking madly at the small group with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Well if it isn't the brat's little lover. I thought you were dead. I guess that no-good slave of mine couldn't even kill one of you." Dakuso grinned, "No matter, now I'll just have the pleasure of killing all of you myself!" He lifted the Millennium Rod and aimed the Eye of Horus at the group of friends, ready to send them to the Shadow Realm.

Seth pulled Jou in his arms in a protective manner, not even realizing it himself until Jou was already sealed tightly in his strong arms.

Jou's eyes at first widened slightly as he felt himself being pulled into Seth's arms, but then simply leaned into the othe's chest, feeling the protective aura around Seth's body envelop him as well. He glanced back at Dakuso and then at Yuugi, who was still standing in front of them. His little buddy had a fierce and defiant look in his eyes, showing not the slightest bit of fear in those amethyst orbs.

Yuugi glared at the man in front of him. At this moment, he didn't care that the man was the most powerful Mage alive, he didn't care that the man had the power to control their minds, and he definitely didn't care about the fact that this man had the power to send them all to the Shadow Realm. The only thing he cared about was the fact that this man was the one who had hurt Atemu, that this was the man who had controlled and killed his childhood friend, and that this man was standing between him, and the bridge to Atemu.

In a burst of pure rage, he bolted forward, surprising the ex-High Mage, and making them both crash to the ground. The Millennium Rod fell from the man's hands, and slide over the ground. Dakuso let out a startled cry, before glaring and letting the aura around him flare out. He threw Yuugi off him, and made a grab for the Rod as he stood up, only to find Seth smirking at him with the Rod in his hands.

"Looking for this?" Dakuso glared at the blue-eyed teen in front of him. 'Nobody does this to me! I'm the Pharaoh!' He created a Shadowball in his hand but before he could throw it, he was tackled by Yuugi again. He growled as he fell to the ground, 'I've had it! They're all going down!' He once again let his aura flare out, throwing all three teens backwards, before creating a huge and dense Shadowball with enough power to kill all three of the teens in front of him, "Say goodbye!"

Yuugi froze as fear finally took over his body. He stared wide-eyed at the madman in front of him, and bit his bottom lip softly. He glanced past Dakuso and the lethal ball of Shadow Magic in his hands towards Atemu, thinking this would probably be the last time he'd ever see the other.

Atemu's sight had turned to nothing but blurs of colours some time ago, his ears not really picking up any coherent sounds, but for some reason he could feel that Yuugi needed him.

He tried to focus his vision, trying to get rid of the blurry images he was seeing now. With a lot of difficulty he managed to focus enough to see what was going on in the room. First the still fighting monsters came into view. The Cosmo Queen was still fighting, though her power seemed to have diminished. Ra, Slifer and Obelisk had scrapes from the Queen's attacks on them, but seemed to be fine otherwise. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon was in a lot worse state. Blood trickled down form the wounds on her body, and she was panting heavily.

Atemu let his gaze wander to the other side of the room where he knew his friends would still be. His heart stopped for a second as he saw the sight that met his eyes. Dakuso was aiming a very powerful Shadowball at his friends, who were all lying on the ground, looking fearfully at the madman in front of them. Yuugi's gaze seemed to go passed Dakuso, looking at him instead of the threat in front of him. Amethyst met crimson for a moment, before Yuugi shut his eyes tightly, but that moment was all Atemu had needed. He'd seen the extreme fear in Yuugi's eyes, and knew the eyes of his friends held the same look.

'No… I can't let them die… They only came to help me, they've done nothing to deserve death.' Briefly images of his test of fear shot through his head again, the way Yuugi had died at Dakuso's hand. 'It's happening again, only for real this time… I couldn't save him last time… but…' He heard Dakuso's laugh of insanity and victory as the man was about to throw the dense ball of Shadow Magic, and kill Yuugi, Jou and Seth.

'No. I can't let it happen again! I won't let it happen again! No!'

"NO!" Atemu cried out. He would not let his friends die because of his battle. This was between him, and Dakuso. With strength he didn't know he possessed, he got to his feet, an aura of Shadow Magic already flaring around him. He had no idea where this power had come from, but he was grateful beyond words.

Dakuso looked behind him as he heard someone cry out. He saw Atemu getting up on shaking legs, a flaming aura slowly appearing around his body, and growing fast. Before he could do anything, a ball of Shadow Magic had already appeared in Atemu's hand, and was coming straight for him. The ball hit him dead on, throwing him backwards, and beyond the group of friends. His head hit the wall painfully, and he could feel blood trickling from the wound.

At this moment, Ra, Slifer, Obelisk, and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon all fired an attack at the Cosmo Queen, sending her flying into the wall behind her. Dakuso cried out again as he felt his monster almost being defeated; something that would kill him as the Queen was obviously his Ka. He knew that now that he was weakened, and missing another Millennium Item - since Seth still had the Rod in his hand, which in turn strengthened his Blue-Eyes White Dragon - it wouldn't be wise to keep fighting.

The Cosmo Queen disappeared from her spot in the wall, and slowly a Shadow Portal appeared next to Dakuso, "You haven't won yet, brat! Egypt is still mine!" With that, Dakuso stumbled into the portal.

Jou tried to get up and run through the portal as well, but before he could go through it had already sealed up again.

"You coward!" Jou yelled at the wall in front of him, not really paying attention to the fact that he was actually yelling at a wall.

"Let it go, Pup." Seth muttered, "he's gone. We'll get him next time." He called his Blue-Eyes White Dragon back, and fell back on the ground exhausted.

Jou muttered darkly under his breath as he walked back, "I hate dat guy."

Seth smirked, "Don't we all." He watched as Yuugi got up from the floor and quickly - yet carefully - crossed the bridge to get to Atemu, who had called back the God Monsters, and had collapsed on the ground again, panting heavily. "Come on, we better get over there as well."

Atemu felt a bit of his energy returning to him as he let the God Monsters disappear. He glanced behind him at the God Tablets, only to have his eyes widen as the tablets shimmered in Shadow Magic for a moment, before disappearing from their places. He felt a strange tingling sensation running through his entire body, but before he could really think about what had happened to the tablets and twhat that strange feeling was, he felt slim arms wrap around his neck, and someone crashing into him, making them both fall. He looked up into the overjoyed, though somewhat concerned face of his Little One.

Atemu wrapped his arms around Yuugi's frame, holding the other close to him. His body felt exhausted and almost completely drained of energy, even if he had gotten some back. He tried his best to keep his eyes open, to stay conscious, but his body wouldn't allow it. Slowly he closed his eyes, and let sleep take him over.

Crimson eyes slowly opened as Atemu finally woke up. He looked around confused at not recognizing his surroundings, but quickly remembered what had happened before.

He looked around him once more, and noticed that he was still lying in the room where they had found the God Tablets, and that his friends where all lying close to him, fast asleep.

Yuugi was using his chest as a pillow, and was sleeping with a content smile on his face. Seth and Jou were lying in a similar position as he and Yuugi, only with Jou using Seth as a pillow.

The soft smile playing on Atemu's lips at the sight before him, slowly faded as his eyes darkened, a look of sadness now ruling his features.

'Teana…'

He let out a sigh and glanced into the pit of spikes, only half hoping to find their blue-eyed companion. He scanned the spike covered floor carefully, until his eyes landed on the remains of Teana's mangled body. He quickly diverted his eyes, not being able to look at the dead, lifeless body; it was simply too horrifying to look at.

'Dakuso, you'll pay for killing everybody just because you feel like it, or because they've become a nuisance or useless to you.' He closed his eyes, imagining what his father might've looked like when Dakuso had killed him, 'You'll even pay for killing my father.'

He opened his eyes again, the image of his father's dead body still in his mind's eye, and for the first time since Dakuso had told him his father was dead, his heart wrenched at the thought of never being able to see the other again. Aknunkanon might've been a tyrant, a terrible father, and the man might've done something very bad - although Atemu still couldn't remember what - but he had still been his father, and no matter how hard Atemu tried to deny it, he did love his father to a certain extent.

Atemu was pulled from his thoughts as he felt a slight tug on his robes. He looked down to see Yuugi's sleep-clouded eyes looking up at him. Atemu smiled lovingly and pulled his Little One closer, mentally smirking at the small blush on Yuugi's cheeks, "I'm fine, Little One," he whispered reassuringly, "are you?" He looked at Yuugi's hands, remembering the blood that had trickled down the wall, with concerned crimson orbs.

Yuugi just smiled at him and nodded, also glancing down at his hands, "Yeah, just fine. My hands still hurt a bit, and the side of my chest is probably going to be bruised for a while, but nothing too serious."

Atemu gave Yuugi a relieved smile, before kissing the other softly. He pulled back as he heard a groan next to him. Glancing aside, he saw Seth rising slightly, before looking down at Jou slightly annoyed because he couldn't rise completely. The annoyed look on his face quickly faded however, as he saw the adorable sight of Jou snuggling into his chest, smiling contently. Seth couldn't help but smile.

"Very cute, cous." Seth's smile faded in record time and he glared at his cousin.

"Oh shut up Atemu." he muttered, subconsciously pulling Jou closer – something that woke our blonde pup up.

Jou opened his eyes groggily, half glaring at everything around him for waking him up - he'd been having quite a nice dream involving our blue-eyed ex-High Priest. "Can't you people be quiet?" he asked annoyed, his glare turning harsher as he saw Atemu's mocking and smirking face. He smirked himself as he saw Yuugi give Atemu a glare – if it could even be called that – and Atemu pouted slightly.

"Well you did have to wake up, you know." Seth said, smirking at the pout he was receiving from Jou now.

"And here I was, thinkin' you were on my side." Jou said, rising and releasing himself from Seth's arms.

Atemu just smirked at the blonde again, before remembering something, "Hey Jou? How did you get out of Dakuso's spell?"

As soon as the seemingly innocent question had left Atemu's mouth, both Jou and Seth turned red - though Jou a lot more than Seth.

"Well… uhm… Seth uhm… You see…" Jou stuttered nervously. He didn't really know what to say. Seth had kissed him to get him out of that trance, but he still didn't know why…

"Well?" Atemu asked, raising an eyebrow. What was so hard about telling something like this? Unless… He mentally smirked and looked at his cousin, "Did you get him out of it, Seth?" Seeing the nod, Atemu's mental smirk widened, "How?'"

Seth could feel his face heating up even more, and forced himself to calm down. Ra, Atemu would never let him live this down, 'Eternal mocking here I come.'

"I… kissed him."

Seth glanced at Jou to see the other going even more red, and glancing at him questioningly as if to ask: 'Why did you kiss me?'.

Seth turned away, too stubborn to answer the non-spoken question and refusing to talk about it in front of Atemu, "We should get out of here and start heading back to the palace; we still need to win back your title, Atemu." he said before his cousin could start making any other remarks about it. Seth glanzed at the spot where the God tablets had been before, and his eyes widened in shock, "Where did the God tablets go!"

Atemu frowned for a second, thinking back to that weird feeling he had had as the God tablets disappeared. It had felt like the time he had first summoned his Dark Magician. He suddenly smiled understandinly at the rest of the group that were looking at him expectantly, "I think they became a part of me somehow."

Seth frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember what the rest of the story about the God Monsters said? It said that the monsters would never leave your side, and would always be with you. I think they meant that the God tablets would disappear, and that the monsters would simply become a part of you so you could always summon them whenever needed." Atemu explained, seeing realization dawning on Seth's face as he told the story.

"That would be a logical explanation…" Seth said thoughtfully.

Atemu nodded and glanced at the Golden Rod in Seth's robes, before looked back at Seth's face questioningly, "How did you get the Rod?" he asked while getting up.

"Dakuso dropped it when Yuugi tackled him." Seth replied, "I just grabbed it before Dakuso could get his hands on it again." he got up as well and Yuugi and Jou followed his and Atemu's lead. Atemu nodded, smiling at Yuugi in a proud way, before they all crossed the bridge.

As they reached the other side, both Jou and Yuugi looked back into the gap sadly, obviously thinking of Teana. They'd never see her again…

Atemu wrapped his arms around Yuugi frame, and hugged the other tightly, "Don't worry, we'll get back at him for killing her, I promise."

Yuugi nodded and smiled sadly, before letting himself be pulled towards the exit of the room. They left the room together, leaving Jou and Seth still standing there silently. Atemu of course hoped that the two would get together if he gave them some time alone, and Yuugi just didn't seem to notice.

Seth let out a sigh as he walked towards Jou, hesitantly wrapping his arms around the blonde and surprised as his pup leaned into the touch. He stood there for a moment, not really knowing what to say, before deciding that since his impulses hadn't really done any harm - as he'd liked kissing Jou - to just go with whatever came to mind.

"Atemu's right you know, we'll get him for killing her." 'And for even daring to try and control you.'

Jou glanced his way, "I know… I'm just gonna miss her." he said, leaning his head on Seth's shoulder and nervously toying with the sash around his waist. He wanted to ask Seth about the kiss, but he had no idea if he even wanted the answer. Maybe Seth had just known that Jou was in love with him and that this would break the trance. Maybe Seth hadn't really meant the kiss… Maybe Seth would think he wasn't worthy like in his test…

Going nuts with all the doubts and the want to know the answer, he took a deep breath and looked up at Seth again, "Seth?"

"What is it?"

Well so far he didn't sound mad… or annoyed… or revolted. Jou took another deep breath, "Why did you kiss me?"

Seth froze. He'd been so caught up in holding Jou and comforting him, that he had not seen this question coming… and he hadn't though of an answer yet.

At first he though of just lying and saying he didn't know, or that that was the normal way of getting someone out of a trance, or SOMETHING along those lines, just anything but the truth. But as he glanced down and opened his mouth to speak, he looked into Jou's eyes. They were filled with anxiety, hope, depression and… love? No it had to be his mind playing tricks on him. Or…

Before he actually knew what he was saying, the words had already left his mouth, "Because I love you." and he wanted nothing more than to just die right there, right at that moment. His prays however, were not heard and he could do nothing but stand there, waiting for Jou's reaction.

He could see confusion, more hope, disbelief, and still the imaginary bit of love showing in those honey-brown orbs. What he didn't see was disgust, disapproval, and rejection. Maybe his mind wasn't playing tricks on him…?

Jou felt like cleaning his ears for he surely hadn't heard right.. had he? No, that couldn't be. Seth… loved him? How? When? Why?

"You… love me?" Jou asked with wide eyes, still not believing he had actually just heard those words leave Seth's lips. He watched as Seth looked down, not daring to meet his eyes, before nodding. Jou felt like actually jumping into the air of joy, yelling at the world that Seth did love him. His face cleared of all traces of fear and doubt, and he hugged Seth, obviously surprising the other.

As Seth felt Jou hug him, he looked up shocked to meet the smiling and overjoyed face of his brown-eyed blonde pup. He stared into the other's eyes for a second, before finally processing that Jou wasn't rejecting him. He leaned closer to Jou and kissed him, more passionate than the time when Jou had been under Dakuso's control, and felt Jou return the kiss with just as much love.

From the shadows of the corridor, both Yuugi and Atemu had to hold back an 'awwww' as they saw Seth and Jou finally kiss. Atemu decided that he wouldn't ruin the moment - for once - and tugged on Yuugi's robes to follow him. They left the new couple, hoping they wouldn't go too far and that they'd follow soon, preferable within the next 10 minutes.

WOOOOOOOOW! Jou and Seth finally got together! And it only took them… what? 11 chapters? Ain't they fast! Well no but that's not the point. Anyway, this was my longest chapter yet, and I'm very proud of myself for it! Well people, R&R!