Chapter 16: The Fifth Duel
Yori summoned her Red Raptor [1700/1000] in attack mode and ended her turn.
"Rattled, are you?" Marik taunted.
"Not as rattled as you're about to be."
A second slime token appeared on Marik's side of the field. He ordered his Makyura to attack Yori's raptor, and she smirked.
"Wrong move," she said. She pulled Blue Raptor [1700/1000] from her deck and added it to the field, raising both of their attack points by 200.
"A pitiful defense," Marik said, "and not enough to stop me."
"Oh, but wait," Yori said. "There's more."
Her trap card activated, boosting her monsters' attack points by another 500 each during Marik's battle phase. One of her raptors leapt forward and snapped its jaws over Makyura's neck. Marik's monster disappeared with a scream, and his lifepoints dropped to 2700.
The shadows around them rippled.
Yori stared Marik down with cold eyes. "Time to see the monsters under your bed."
But he merely cackled. "Careful what you wish for."
Muted colors rippled in the fog around them, twisting to form a vast expanse of land cast in moonlight. Fifty or more horses galloped, carrying riders dressed in rough linen. The riders lifted spears and curved blades.
More images formed—a group of women and children directly in the riders' path. The woman screamed for them to get back to the village. Two of the children bolted, but the others stood frozen in fear. She grabbed another two by the arms and hauled them with her, running for some unseen shelter. She screamed back at the remaining child, but he remained petrified, his entire body shaking.
A lone rider pulled ahead of the rest of the group. His white robe billowed behind him, and as his hood blew back from his face, it revealed his blue eyes, wide and bright in frenzy. He galloped straight for the child.
And then he didn't stop.
Yori gasped in horror, looking away as the child screamed. After another second, the images and sound faded to silence.
"Mmm," Marik purred. "Delightful."
Yori's stomach twisted in knots. She shot a glance at Marik and saw sweat dotted on the Egyptian's face, even though his smile supported his description. He raised a hand to look at his cards, and Yori saw it tremble.
"Bracing, isn't it?" he said. "Fear."
Yori narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you?"
The images shown with her monster's defeat had been directly from her memory, but what she'd just witnessed had been the final fear of a little boy trampled to death by a madman. Unless the Millennium Rod allowed people to return from the dead, it couldn't have come from Marik's memory.
Marik hesitated, poised to place a card on his Duel Disk. The edges of his mouth curled until his eyes squinted.
"Oh yes," he said. "I'm not exactly Marik, am I? Did they tell you I was the rod? I'm not exactly that either."
Yori hissed in sudden pain. She looked down in time to see her lifepoints drop.
"Did you forget Makyura's equip card? When sent to the graveyard, it takes 500 of your lifepoints with it. I hope the pain is exquisite. If not, I have just what the doctor ordered."
He played his card, and a massive spiked wheel appeared on the field. Her Blue Raptor let out a shriek as the wheel trapped it against the spikes. A trickle of blood ran down its neck.
Yori's lifepoints dropped by another 500 points, and she took a deep, shuddering breath.
"Makyura's death allows me to play a trap card directly from my hand. As long as my Nightmare Wheel has your raptor, you'll bleed 500 lifepoints each turn." He bit the tip of one of the rod's wings, giggled. "I'm just dying to see what you'll do about it. End turn."
Yori looked around at the black fog. She wished she could see Yami through it. If she reached out with her bracelet, perhaps she could contact him, but what would she say?
There was nothing to do but duel.
She drew a card and surveyed her hand. First order of business was to get her raptor free and stop the lifepoint hemorrhage. She sacrificed her raptor to summon Blind Jester [2100/800], one of Seto's additions to her deck. Too bad he couldn't even see her use it.
Her jester appeared on the field, cackling. He did a handstand, and the bells on his hat jingled.
"My jester's special ability allows me to steal one card randomly from my opponent's hand," she said.
Marik rolled his eyes and extended his hand, card backs to her. She crossed the field and plucked a card from the selection.
"Bummer," she said. "I was hoping for your god card."
As she moved back to her place, he snorted.
"As if you could control a god," he said.
"After I win it from you, we'll put that to the test."
She surveyed the card she'd pulled, called Weighing of the Heart. Although not a god card, it wasn't a bad selection.
"I'll play your magic card," she said. "And I'm sure you're familiar with what it does."
Marik gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Enjoy this while you can."
The card allowed her to swap a current field monster out for one in her deck up to 200 attack points stronger. She slid her second raptor back into her deck and summoned Jade Assassin [1900/1900] to the field.
Her jester couldn't attack in the same turn it used its special ability, but her assassin had no such constraints. She ordered it to destroy one of Marik's slime tokens, now that they were unguarded.
Her assassin sent a wave of throwing stars that shredded the bulbous slime token, and as Marik's lifepoints scrolled down to 1300, the darkness around them rippled.
"Speaking of monsters," Marik murmured. His tongue flicked out to moisten his lips.
Figures burst into form in the darkness, accompanied by a cacophony of screams. Yori slapped her hands over her ears, flinching away in response—it had to be a hundred or more voices all screaming at once. Children, adults, elderly. All afraid.
She looked up just in time to see a girl her age impaled on a spear. Her stomach crumpled as the girl did. The soldier who'd killed her reached down, grabbed her arm, and dragged the body away. All around him, other soldiers advanced on weaponless people, and innocent after innocent fell under the onslaught and were dragged away to some unknown grave.
"What is this?" Yori choked out. Her bracelet vibrated against her wrist.
A bearded man hid in the shadows of a ramshackle building, his own fist stuffed in his mouth to keep from making any sound. His wide eyes watched as the soldiers killed people who were likely his friends, neighbors, maybe even family. A child shrieked, and the man lurched forward, then pulled back again.
"Fear," Marik said, nibbling at the rod. His eyes reflected the madness happening around them. "It drags humans like puppets, showcases their worst sides."
A soldier found the man and grabbed him by the hair when he tried to run. He raised his spear.
Yori watched, chest tight. "What were the soldiers afraid of?"
Marik's tongue hung from his mouth when he grinned.
A blade appeared through the soldier's chest, and he screamed, his spear falling to the ground along with his body.
Yami watched in horror as the scenes of carnage played out across the black barrier. Without being told, he felt it in his heart—there was something familiar about what was happening.
And that terrified him.
"Bet you're glad you stopped the broadcast, eh, Rich-boy?" Joey said, but the joke was half-hearted, and his voice faltered at the end.
"I don't understand." Anzu hesitated. "If what we saw before was from Yori's memory, is this . . . from Marik's?"
"No," Ishizu said, face bleak. "This darkness comes from the rod itself."
The images faded, and for a few minutes, no one broke the ringing silence.
"This all leads back to me," Yami murmured, unable to escape the feeling.
"I'm afraid so, my pharaoh," said a new voice.
Yami spun and came face to face with Shadi. The white-robed Egyptian stared expressionlessly at the darkness that concealed Marik.
"Who's this guy?" Joey demanded, jabbing a finger at him and looking around. "Where'd he come from?"
"I don't appreciate stowaways in my tournament," Kaiba said, eyes narrowed, speaking for the first time in nearly ten minutes.
Yami had neither time nor patience to deal with prophecies and warnings.
"Say it and leave," he said. "Whatever it is."
"The history of the Millennium Items is a tragedy," Shadi said, "drenched in blood."
"Is there any other kind?" Ryou frowned.
Shadi turned to face him. "Within the ring is the hand that will finish the work."
"I'm calling security," Kaiba said.
Shadi turned his eyes on the CEO. "Within the rod is the mind that will never forget."
And finally, he brought his gaze back to Yami. Yami felt it like a spotlight on his soul, turning the whole world to look at him.
"And within the puzzle," Shadi said, "is the heart that started it all."
"Started what?" he asked, and his voice came out hoarse.
"Look, pal." Joey pushed forward until he came eye-to-eye with Shadi. "Marik started this whole mess by takin' over people's minds and comin' after the pharaoh. Yami's just been defendin' himself—and honorably, at that."
"Joey," Yami said, but this time his voice was so hoarse it was inaudible.
"My pharaoh." Shadi continued to stare him down with that spotlight gaze. "The seven items. The three gods. You must bring all to the Valley of the Kings, regardless of what they might cost to obtain. It is not just the key to uncover the past but the one to save the future; the war you see before you in this shadow game never ended, and it will consume the world you know should you fail. You have mere days before all is lost."
The elevator dinged, and two security guards rushed out.
But Shadi was gone.
After the images faded and Yori recovered as much as she could, she ended her turn. She watched through narrowed eyes as Marik drew a card. Tentatively, she focused on her bracelet. It warmed against her skin.
And Marik rippled black.
"Looking for something?" he asked pleasantly, never raising his eyes from his cards.
Yori started. At the same time, her bracelet turned scalding. She hissed and shook her wrist.
Marik chuckled. "I'm afraid you'll find no 'spirit of the rod' as you would in quainter items."
"What are you?" Yori ground out.
The Eye of Horus glowed to life on his forehead. "I am legion," he said, grinning, "for I am many. Edrice and Amon. Husani. Khufu. Shani, Nefret, and Masudah. A big slice of Marik Ishtar, yes. And even a pinch of Seto Kaiba. Oh, yes. He once went by a different name, but the smell of his soul is no different."
"You're insane," Yori spat.
Marik winked. "Just you wait."
He summoned Melchid the Four-Face Beast [1500/1200] to the field, then sacrificed it along with his new slime token to summon Masked Beast Des Guardius [3300/2500]. A familiar opponent—it was no surprise the Ghouls shared cards.
Yori gritted her teeth. The field was definitely in Marik's favor.
"Let's see more of your soul laid bare, shall we?" Marik licked his lips, then ordered Des Guardius to attack her jester.
Yori braced herself for the burning pain as her lifepoints dropped to 1800. When it disappeared, her jester made no sound beyond the jingle of bells.
The darkness around her flickered.
And the hair on Yori's arms stood on end because somehow she sensed what was coming before she saw.
"Ooh." Marik shivered. "We've broken the surface to the real deep darks."
Gold eyes appeared in the black.
Yori's stomach hugged her spine.
But she couldn't look away.
After the duel had become a shadow game, Yuugi had stayed in the real world, watching along with everyone else even if he was invisible. It was pointless; he couldn't stop the shadow game or reach Yori inside it or do anything to help her win. But he still hoped she would somehow feel the support and know she wasn't alone.
"Do you think she's winning?" he asked in the silence that had fallen after Shadi's departure. Yami offered no answer; there was really nothing to say.
The black dome shimmered.
"Here we go again," Duke muttered.
"I thought this was supposed to be a game," Serenity said quietly. "For fun."
Joey's expression pinched. He slung an arm around her shoulders. "It is a fun game. Sometimes it just brings the psychos out to play."
"And the dogs," Seto quipped.
Joey shot him a dirty look but left it at that.
Yuugi snuck a glance at Yami. The pharaoh had his jaw clenched, his arms folded. Yuugi knew the effort it was taking for Yami to hold himself back; he could feel it as a pressure in his own mind. He was also the only person who knew the real reason why, and despite the current circumstances, the thought almost made him smile. Even though Yami had liked Yori from the start, Yuugi had expected his friend to keep it bottled up forever. But people were full of surprises. It was Yuugi's favorite thing about them, the reason he always tried to befriend enemies and see the best in unexpected places.
"Who's that?" Anzu asked, jarring Yuugi back to the moment.
He looked up at the black dome. It wasn't a scene this time—just a single guy, his black curls held in check by a bandana, his smile wide, his white shirt partly unbuttoned around a teal pendant.
"Yori's boyfriend?" Serenity offered hesitantly.
Yami and Seto responded in unison with snorts of disgust. Yuugi peered curiously at Seto, but after the single reaction, the stoic CEO remained stoic.
"The heck's with his eyes?" Joey tilted his head, squinting. "Are they . . . gold?"
The darkness flickered again. This time, it was the guy and Yori (blonde-haired and younger, but still Yori) sitting on a rooftop together. She shivered in the wind but smiled when he touched her bare knee as he pointed at a street below.
"Game's starting," he said, sparks of excitement in his striking eyes.
She craned her neck, then pursed her lips. "It's just a protest of some sort."
"Everything's a game, pet." He grabbed her hand, pulling her up with him. "Let's get a closer look."
She glanced at their joined hands and smiled more brightly than before, allowing him to tug her to the edge of the roof.
"I'd say boyfriend is a pretty safe bet," Duke said.
Yuugi's stomach churned. He stole another glance at Yami, but the pharaoh's face was now a purposeful mask—the same one he wore against the harshest opponents.
The images flickered and twisted into a nighttime alley lit only by the slanted rays of a distant street lamp.
"Let's keep it simple," Gold-eyes said, smirking at a much larger man. "How about an arm wrestle?"
The burly thug let out a thundering laugh that echoed from the alley walls. He flexed both arms; a single bicep was bigger around than the gold-eyed boy's head.
"So I can snap your bones like wooden chopsticks?" He cracked his neck. "Done."
"I wouldn't underestimate him," Yori warned, perched on the lid of a nearby dumpster, heels bouncing lightly against the metal.
"You know I won't, pet." The gold-eyed boy fixed the collar of his bomber jacket, tugged the right sleeve up to his elbow.
"I wasn't warning you."
He flashed her a grin that she returned, and then he and the thug took opposite sides of a wooden crate and joined hands. The thug had advantage from the start, forcing the boy's hand to tilt inch by unwavering inch. But the spark of enjoyment never left the boy's face. When his arm was back almost halfway, he lifted his opposite hand and tossed open the edge of his jacket.
A living, breathing cobra shot out of the leather to hiss in the thug's face. The thug turned white as the moon. He shrieked (accompanied by a present-day Joey). Yori and the boy erupted in laughter. The cobra retreated, and the boy slammed the thug's hand down on the crate.
"First rule of every game." He slapped the thug's cheek lightly while the man trembled. "Have fun. Now"—his expression chilled from the edge of enjoyment to the edge of murder—"never threaten me again or we'll have a serious game with stakes you won't survive."
The thug took off running.
"Well, this guy's a real shining knight," Tristan said. "Snake included. I totally get what she sees in him."
Anzu punched him in the arm. "Shut up. It's easy to judge from the outside."
The gold-eyed boy caught Yori's waist as she hopped off the dumpster, lowering her gently to the ground. She laced her fingers behind his neck, but he stepped away, pulling from her grasp.
"You know, Haku,"—the disappointment on her face was clear, but her voice came out lighthearted—"I don't understand why they keep trying. You've more than established your territory."
"Oh, pet." The gold-eyed boy, Haku, smirked. "I'm no thug marking territory. I'm a god. People will always be drawn to challenge me; they can't help it."
She shook her head, smiling. "Well, god, would you and your snake miss me if I went to the beach tomorrow? That concert—"
"You're not going," he said.
Her smile faded. "I know you're not interested, but I thought—"
He pressed a finger to her lips, stopping her short. "Settle it with a game. Win, you go; lose, you listen."
Once again, the disappointment was clear even as she kept her tone light. "Fine, then we'll duel. It's about time I got a win off you anyway."
"Somethin' tells me this ain't a happy ending," Joey said.
"How about everything we've seen on this shadowbox up 'til now," Duke offered dryly.
"Are you okay?" Yuugi asked quietly, although there was no reason for him to keep his voice down.
Yami swallowed and kept silent.
When the images faded into black, nothing replaced them. The slideshow was over for the moment. But unless Yori could end the duel, it would be back. Yuugi could only imagine the stress of trying to duel while reliving the worst moments of his life. Yori was a hundred times stronger than he was. Even in his worst moments, he'd never been alone. He'd had Grandpa, his friends, Yami. . . . Until she'd come to Domino, Yori'd had no one.
But it would never be like that again.
/If you can hear me, sis, I believe in you. You can win this./
He offered his support from a distance because it was all he could do, and he could only pray it was enough.
Yori's fingers trembled. It wasn't the most severe reaction she was having to reliving things with Haku, but it was the one she chose to focus on. Slowly, deliberately, she curled her fingers in, tightened her muscles until her knuckles turned white and her whole arm shook.
"Looks like you're carrying that one close." Marik grinned, and his eyes bulged. "Like a bad boyfriend, one might say."
Yori relaxed her hand, released her grip, flexed her fingers outward.
"What a sheltered life you have lived," Marik went on, "to have a little boy and his pet as your greatest fear."
"Coming from the guy who lives in a tomb," Yori ground out.
Her fingers still trembled.
"Would you like to know my greatest fear?" Marik raised his Millennium Rod, stared tenderly into its hollow eye. His tongue snaked across his lips.
"I don't need to hear you brag about being fearless."
"I am everyone." He licked the eye. "And at the heart of everyone is the same fear—vulnerability. Exposure. The darkness has revealed that, too." He jabbed the rod at her. "I wonder what your dear little friends thought of the picture show."
Yami.
Yami had seen.
Yori's heart stopped.
Marik doubled over, cackling.
She hated him more than ever.
"My turn," she snarled.
She drew a card, but for a second, she couldn't even see it. All she could see was Yami.
She should have just told him when she'd had a chance. Explained everything.
"F-f-f-frozen, are we?" Marik snickered.
Yori wanted to run.
But there was nowhere to run to.
She blinked her vision clear, and when it was Dante who came into view, she almost managed to breathe again. If she could just take care of Marik, she could figure the rest out. She hadn't lost her best card to the ocean, and she wouldn't lose the best thing that had ever happened to her either. Not to Haku and not to this shadow game. She had everything she needed in order to win.
One facedown card had been patiently waiting on the field since her opening turn. The time had come. She pressed the button next to it.
"Activate spell card: Magician's Release!"
White light burst in the darkness, bringing with it Dante. He rested his forehead against his black staff and smiled back at her. And it was funny how even though she'd only seen him projected in his spellcaster form once, he was still a familiar, comforting face.
"Just not good enough." Marik grinned.
It was true; with no spell cards on the field, Dante was only at 3100 attack, while Marik's Des Guardius was at 3300.
But she wasn't finished yet; Magician's Release wasn't the only equip card Dante could currently take.
She slid One-Shot Wand into play.
"This equip only helps a spellcaster for one attack." She smirked. "But one attack is all he needs."
Dante's black staff disappeared, replaced by a white wand tipped in a gold half-moon. His attack rose to 3900.
Marik snarled like a terrier trying to ward off a great dane; he was just as successful. Dante lifted his wand, and a beam of red light severed Des Guardius from head to clawed toe. Marik scratched at the wound on his arm, spreading fresh blood in streaks. His lifepoints dropped to 2100.
Dante's wand disappeared, replaced by his original staff, and Jade Assassin stepped up to the plate.
"Attack him directly," Yori ordered, voice empty.
Her assassin melted into the darkness only to reappear behind Marik. She sank two knives into either side of his ribcage while he howled in pain.
As the assassin returned to Yori's side of the field, Marik's lifepoints fell to 200. He panted for air, clutching his chest. Then he dissolved into giggles. Yori narrowed her eyes.
"One . . . more show?" he managed, turning his wide, red-rimmed eyes to the darkness.
Unlike the previous scenes, there was no screaming. No fight. No flight.
Instead, a line of soldiers stood in eerie calm and faced the white-robed man with the chilling blue eyes. Except one of his eyes had been replaced by gold. The Millennium Eye. Blood marked the cheek below it like tears.
"Men . . ." His voice choked with emotion, and he paused to clear it. "We have done a great service today. To our pharaoh. To our kingdom."
And in hollow echoes, the men repeated, "To our pharaoh. To our kingdom."
"Now, you will offer your final service."
A monster burst from the ground, shattering the calm. It clawed through the soldiers, severing limbs, gnawing faces, leaping from target to target. Some soldiers screamed, some ran, but others stood deadly still. Just waiting.
Marik shuddered. He bit a knuckle, grinning around it.
Yori's heart sank as she realized Yami could see all of this, too.
"We've both done enough damage," she whispered. "Let's end this."
She had one card left in her hand, a trap that could force all of Marik's monsters into permanent defense mode—but she couldn't activate it without discarding two cards, so it was useless for the time being. Marik was hanging on by a fingernail, and she would have given anything for just one more attack, but for now, there was nothing she could do. She and Dante would just have to stick it out together. He'd never failed her before; he never would.
"Turn end," she announced.
Marik's smile split through to his skull. There could be only one reason for it.
Yori swallowed.
He played Monster Reborn, brought his Des Guardius back to life. But he didn't attack Dante; he tributed his masked beast along with his two slime tokens.
Three monsters.
He was summoning his god.
"Are you prepared?" he hissed.
A ball of blinding gold light formed in the sky.
"Didn't realize the sun god was an actual sun," Yori said, shielding her eyes. The taunt fell flat, not that it mattered, since Marik made no response. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest.
"Don't tell me you pray to it," she said.
He began chanting a low rhythm that sent out ripples in the dark. The sound of it grated on Yori's soul, cold and hard like diamonds. She took a step back.
She started to reach out to Yami with her bracelet, felt it warm against her wrist—
But what would she say? She stopped, took a firm fighting stance.
And waited.
Marik's eyes snapped open.
At the same moment, the cry of a great bird rent the darkness. Wings of light opened from the ball, pressing against the black dome, cracking it against the sky. A golden head rose toward the unseen sun, and beyond it, Yori saw the stars.
Ra, the Great Sun God.
With 4300 attack points.
Note: Thank you for all of the support and encouragement you've given through reviews and messages. All of it helps, and I really appreciate you guys. See you next Thursday, December 19th.