Chapter 2
The morning sun came faster than anyone could have imagined. No one got any sleep that night, but it was still surprising nonetheless. However, there was one person who did manage to sleep, and Yami couldn't blame him for doing so.
Yami watched Yugi sleep on the couch for a few seconds before joining everyone else in the kitchen. He had to check, at least to make himself feel better, that Yugi was still alive. Yami knew that he was but he needed to make sure that what happened that night wasn't some sort of joke or cruel dream. However, Yugi stayed as solid and alive as he did a few hours ago. Yami still had to worry though because although Yugi insisted that he was fine, there was still the fact that he had those stab wounds in his chest, and not to mention how exhausted he was after coming in through the front door. So Yami was glad to let him sleep…as long as he stayed alive while doing so.
As he walked back into the kitchen, he was slightly surprised to see Joey, Tea, Tristan and Solomon all staring at him expectantly from the dining table.
"Is he still sleeping?" Joey asked. Yami nodded and Joey sighed while looking at everyone else with a nervous look. "Ok, so seriously…how is this possible? Are we not gonna discuss this?"
Solomon sighed tiredly. "I agree... How and why did Yugi come back to life? Is there a reason? And if so, why are the consequences so steep…?"
"Yeah, I mean the planet is starting to fall apart," Tristan said. "Half of Australia is under water according to the news."
"Guys…" Tea said looking worried. "I just thought of something: What if the reason Yugi was brought back to life…was to destroy the planet?"
That suggestion hung in the air like sap.
"I…never thought about it that way," Solomon said uncertainly. "But if that's true, couldn't anybody be brought back to life? Why did it have to be Yugi? Not to sound ungrateful, but it's all very strange."
Yami didn't say a word. He knew how Yugi came back to life because he was the one who did it. At the time, he wasn't fully convinced that it would work, but he tried anyway out of desperation. Now knowing that his actions was causing a disruption in the planet, Yami wasn't sure if he had the courage to tell everyone right now that it was all his fault…because if everything started to go for worse globally, he didn't want to be blamed. Plus, he wasn't sure how Yugi would feel about it, and that alone would have stopped Yami from saying anything. With those thoughts in mind, Yami thought that it was a good idea to steer the conversation to more shallow waters.
"I think we should be less worried on how Yugi came back, and focus more on how we're going to keep him alive," he said taking a seat. "Shadi only gave us three days…"
Tristan leaned back in his chair. "Well that shouldn't be too hard. All we have to do is call everyone, tell them it's an emergency and make them come here. Then, boom!"
"…The world explodes?" Solomon asked with a raised eyebrow at his remark. Tristan looked at him with wide eyes.
"N-no! Everything's fixed! Bringing all the Millennium Item holders to one spot is how Shadi said to save the world, right?"
"Yes," Yami nodded. "The real question though, is how we contact them. Do we have anyone's phone numbers?"
"I think Ishizu is in town for her museum," Tea snapped her fingers. "All we need is the number to that place and she should come. And she should know how to get in touch with Marik, so that's two down…"
"And Ryou and Bakura live right down the block," Joey said. "I have their number somewhere…"
"What about Pegasus though?" Yami asked looking at everyone. "Does anyone actually have his number?"
Solomon looked nervous thinking about the man, but Yami assumed it was because Pegasus had trapped his soul before, and one cannot forget something like that so easily.
"I would assume we could call Industrial Illusions," Solomon said. "But I don't know if we would get him right away…"
"Probably not," Tea sighed.
"But then Shadi has two items so that's easy," Joey said. "He already said that he would come when called. And then we have you and Yuge…so, that's everyone, right?"
"Yes," Yami said. "Let's split up the work so we can get this done faster…"
No one could argue with that. Solomon tried to call Pegasus but was left with a long answering machine message and was on the phone for a while. In the meantime, Tristan tried to call Ishizu and again was met with no answer and left a voice message. Joey got a hold of Ryou and explained everything to him, and thankfully said that he would be over with Bakura as soon as they could. Although they got a hold of Ryou, the others were proving to be more difficult than they thought.
"How are we going to get a hold of them?" Tea asked sounding worried. "What if they never answer?"
"Then we're going to have to find them ourselves," Yami said standing. Everyone looked at him in shock before Solomon stood with him.
"You're right…I'm going to find Pegasus. I'll leave Ishizu and Marik up to whoever wants to find them."
"You're gonna have to fly on a plane!" Tristan said wide eyed. "The flight is thirteen hours one way… You'd be cutting it close…"
"Then I'm going to have to be quick. I'll catch the next flight…"
Before anyone could say anything to him, he was running up the stairs to his room to pack.
"I think I'd better go with him…" Tea sighed then stood. "He shouldn't go alone. You guys can contact Ishizu…"
Yami nodded. "Alright. We'll help him pack…"
Within a couple of hours, Solomon and Tea were packed for their long trip and were heading out the door to get to the airport. Yami, Joey and Tristan waited by the front door to see them off. Solomon was putting on his bowler hat but Tea hesitated. She looked back at Yugi who was still sleeping on the couch as he was before. After heaving a large sigh, she turned and looked at everyone.
"Tell him we'll be back, alright?"
Yami nodded and Tristan said, "Sure thing Tea."
"Call me if Pegasus calls back, or if there's any change with Yugi…" Solomon said shifting his bowler hat on his head. Tea switched arms for her carryon bag looking nervous. "And… take care of him for me, will you."
"We will," Yami said. "Good luck…"
As soon as Solomon and Tea were out the door, Joey spoke up.
"So then we should go to the museum then?"
"I suppose," Tristan said. "Hopefully Ishizu is there, and hopefully she can get Marik here in time…"
"Isn't the flight to and from Egypt really far too? And what if there's delays? We don't have a lot of time."
"We will manage it," Yami said trying to believe his words. "First thing is getting everyone here with their items, and then we have to balance out the world."
"…How do we save everyone else though?" Joey said looking sad. "All those people dying out there…?"
"I'm still working on that. For now, let's go to the museum."
A small noise caused the three of them to look over to the doorway where the living room was. To their surprise, Yugi was standing there looking tired, but determined.
"I'm helping," he said.
"Yuge…" Joey blinked. "Are you sure you're up for it? You can stay here ya know…"
"Yeah, but…" Yugi sighed. "This is all my fault so… I need to help make it right."
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's your fault but," Tristan said shrugging. "If you really wanna help, why should we stop you?"
Yami agreed with Tristan, but still felt worried. Although Yugi looked better than he did the night before, the teen still looked weak and his skin still had that grayish tinge to it that reminded Yami of the hospital.
"I can't just stay here…" Yugi said looking at Yami as if he knew what he was thinking. Yami sighed because it was probably true.
"Alright, but if you need to rest along the way, just let us know."
"Oh, speaking of which," Joey said. He walked over to the cabinet, pulled out a granola bar and handed it to Yugi. "Eat this first. You look like the slightest gust of wind could blow you away, and I know it's supposed to get windy later…"
Within ten minutes, the four of them were walking through town on their way to the museum. Luckily it wasn't a far walk, and Yami was glad for that for two reasons. One, because they were on a tight schedule as it was and two, despite Yugi's insistence that he was fine, he still looked exhausted. So despite their time constraints, Yami walked slow for Yugi so that he could keep up and thankfully, Tristan and Joey did the same.
"So I have a question," Tristan asked as they passed the arcade, which was full of people. "If all of these countries are having natural disasters and stuff, why isn't anything happening here?"
"Ya know, I was wondering that too," Joey said looking thoughtful. "Maybe it's just a matter of time…"
"In which case we should probably start stocking up on food in case we need it."
"Hopefully nothing will happen here," Yami said as they turned on the street that the museum was located on. They could see it in the distance. "That way it will be easier to make sure everyone is safe while we fix the earth's balance."
"Ishizu had better be in there…" Joey said looking at his watch. Yami didn't want to ask him what time it was because he knew that it would only make him more nervous.
However, as they walked upon the front steps to the museum, Yami noticed that something seemed wrong…there were no people at the entrance or around the grounds to the building at all, as if everyone was inadvertently avoiding it. Then he noticed that the front doors were slightly hanging off the hinges.
"Something's wrong…" he said, and without waiting for a response from anyone, he walked up to the front door. Luckily, they all followed him without question.
The front lobby was devoid of any people. The reception area was littered with papers as if everyone working there left in a hurry. The computers were off and all of the lights in the display rooms behind that were blinking as if they were set up with faulty wiring.
"Keep your guard up," Yami said nervously as they cautiously walked through the building. Something was off and despite the look of chaos that was on the first floor, something was telling him to walk down to the basement. He knew the door when they came upon it but was unsure as to why. Yami knew that whatever was down there was the cause of this disturbance. Despite this, he hesitated at the doorway before walking in, the others following behind him.
As they walked down the stairs, Yami resisted the urge to run down to the basement, calling Ishizu out loud. What if something happened to her? If she was missing or dead, then they would all be dead. They needed everyone to fix the earth's balance.
The basement was well lit despite the wiring being messed up on the first floor. There were bits of artifacts strewn about the floor from ancient Egypt and Yami knew that they weren't supposed to be there. They were supposed to be on display.
Movement from the corner of the room made them all stop and freeze.
Ishizu was standing there looking the same as ever, the Millennium Necklace around her neck. Yami would have been happy to see her except for the fact that she was being held hostage by a boy who looked to be in his early twenties. He was just as tall as her, thin and lanky, but his red eyes held a look of insanity. His red hair was short and stuck up messily in certain places. Other than that and the fact that all his clothes were made of black leather and that he had some sort of beetle hanging from his shirt, he looked normal. Oh, and he was holding a knife up to Ishizu's throat but that wasn't strange at all.
"Woah, woah," Joey said holding up his hands in a pacifying gesture. "Okay just calm down for a sec…and put the knife down…"
The boy laughed as if someone told him a funny joke at a dinner party. His grin stretched to each sides of his face and he held the knife closer to Ishizu's throat.
"Now why would I do that?" he said chuckling. "This is just starting to get interesting!"
"Yami…"
Yami looked over at Yugi. He had been quiet for the entire trip over but now he looked frightened as if the knife was being pointed at him instead of Ishizu. What little color he had gained in his face drained at that point and he started to shake.
"What's wrong?" Yami asked.
"T-that's him…" Yugi practically whispered.
"What?"
"That's him!" Yugi's voice started to grow louder with each word. "I remember now…that's the guy who killed me!"
"What?!" Joey said angrily and the look on face said that, that was a reason enough to hurt this guy, let alone the fact that he was keeping Ishizu hostage.
Yami looked back at the boy in shock, not sure what to make of the information. The boy laughed again and gave Yugi a strange look.
"Funny what dying and coming back to life will do to someone, am I right Yugi?"
Yugi didn't answer but Tristan spoke up.
"Did you bring him back to life?"
"Oh well that's funny," the boy said holding Ishizu tighter. She grunted but stayed wisely quiet. "No, I can't take the credit for that piece of work. That praise goes to the Pharaoh over there."
Tristan and Joey looked at him in shock, and seemed even more surprised when Yami didn't argue.
"You did…?!" Joey started to say but the boy with the red hair cut him off.
"All a part of the plan by the way, so I do suppose I deserve credit somehow."
"What plan?" Tristan demanded.
"Well it was simple!" the boy shifted the knife in his hand. "I wanted to destroy the world, so what better way to do it than to upset the balance of nature! Well I've done a lot of research and found out about the Millennium Items."
"Where'd ya look that up?" Joey said with a raised eyebrow. "Google?"
Joey was ignored as the boy continued.
"Then I found you two," he said gesturing towards Yami and Yugi. "Two peas in a pod and wielders of the most important Millennium Item of all! It couldn't have been easier! All I had to do was kill Yugi here which was the easiest thing I've done in a long time, mind you…and then I had to wait. My plan was to do that, then just sit back and wait for you to try and bring him back to life. And you did it, you actually did it my fine pharaoh friend! Kudos!"
Yami was so shocked that he couldn't think straight. They were being played from the beginning?! How did he know that the Millennium Items possessed that sort of power? The boy continued.
"After you did that, I knew that the world was going to go all sorts of whack, so I just played with magic a little bit, and surrounded this city with a protective barrier. That was the hard part, because the natural disasters should be more violent the closer to the source of the disturbance. That's the planet's natural defense to keep it from being destroyed completely, because if the natural disasters kill of the source of the disturbance, everything evens out again. I couldn't have that. The world needs to explode!"
"B-but if you destroy the world, you'll die too you know," Tristan said suddenly. The boy chuckled.
"Obviously, but I'm fine with that. I'm just along for the ride. You have no idea how much fun this is!"
Despite his anger, fear started to invade Yami's mind. You couldn't get more dangerous than going against an enemy who wasn't afraid to die. They believed that they had nothing to lose and were willing to do literally anything to achieve their ends...which was to have fun destroying everything.
"So," he continued. "I figured that after I put up the barrier that my work would be finished. But I got to thinking: What if I could speed up the process a little bit? What if I killed another Millennium Item wielder? And as luck would have it, there's one right here!"
Without a warning, Ishizu struck the boy in the gut with her elbow, causing him to double over in pain. Using the distraction, Joey pushed her towards Tristan and punched the boy in the face, causing him to fall to the floor.
"Nice hit!" Tristan said excitedly. Joey grinned but the victory was short lived when the boy stood up, unfazed and unhurt by Joey's attacks. He chuckled and twirled his knife around his fingers.
"I should have been expecting that…but luckily I play with magic…" he snapped his fingers.
Immediately, one of the suits of armor that was supposed to be on display started to shake. Within a couple of seconds, it had walked off of its pedestal and stood next to the boy. The armor started to hum.
"Kalcifer," it had said in an almost robotic voice. "What are your demands?"
Tristan raised an eyebrow. "Your name is Kalcifer?"
"Dude," Joey said looking from him to the talking suit of armor that could move on its own. "Priorities, man…. priorities."
The boy, now known as Kalcifer ignored them and addressed the suit of armor.
"Well I think it would be a good idea to kill them all…except for Yugi and the Pharaoh. If I want the world destroyed, they need to stay alive."
The suit of armor shuddered again and picked up an axe that was kept as a display in combination to the armor. It swung it around a couple of times as if trying to get a feel for the weapon, and then looked in their direction.
"Run!" Ishizu yelled without missing a beat. She led the way up the stairs and they all followed. Yami could hear the clanking footsteps of the armor as it chased after them. Ishizu led them, not to the front door like expected, but down a different flight of stairs. It looked like another part of the basement but in a completely different area. After they all filed in, she punched a code into a keypad into the wall. Suddenly, a metal door slid in place of where the door would be, locking them inside. "This should hold it off temporarily."
"Why lock us in here for?" Joey said in distress. "If it comes in here, we're done for!"
"We need to think of a plan, and we can't do that if we're running around town," she said defensively yet her voice had an uncertainty to it. "This door should give us some time. Now I have some questions. What is going on here?"
Yami explained as much as he could within a span of five minutes. By the time he was done explaining, the suit of armor had found their hiding place and was swinging the axe at the door repeatedly. It would do one swing every five seconds, as if it had to charge up its swing.
Ishizu looked at Yugi sadly. "I'm truly sorry that all of that happened…I will do everything I can to help right the earth's balance. However, you should know that the dead can never truly find peace with the living."
Yugi didn't look at anyone but Joey's temper flared up.
"What's that supposed to mean? He's alive!"
"Most of him is, but there is a small part of him that remains in the world of the dead! You must have seen it! This is why Pegasus wanted all of the Millennium Items to bring back his wife! One just isn't enough!"
Yami remained speechless. He had seen it but up until now, he thought it was just his imagination. Yugi had seemed oddly quiet all day and despite the fact that he seemed to be getting better, there was a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that said that it wasn't going to last. His eyes, while alive and alert, do not hold that spark of a living soul as it once did, and Yami was now fearful as to whether or not Yugi would be able to last the remaining two and a half days. How long would the Puzzle's power last? His thoughts were cut short when Tristan spoke up, addressing him.
"Why didn't you tell us that you were the one that brought him back?"
Yami hesitated before speaking, ignoring Yugi's gaze. "Because…I was afraid to…"
A particularly loud bang from the suit of armor caused them all to jump, and looking over, Yami realized that there was lump on the door from the armor hitting it so hard repeatedly. It was going to break in soon.
"Listen," Yugi sighed. "I really appreciate all of this but…if it's better for the world and everyone on it, then maybe it's best that I die-"
"Stop it," Joey said. He took him by the shoulders and shook him. Yami was going to try and stop him but hesitated. "Look, we're not giving up and neither are you. We're in this together whether you like it or not. If one of us is gonna die, then we all are…that's just how it's gonna work. Got it?"
Yugi looked at him in horror. "But Joey…"
Joey let go of him and looked towards the door. The metal was almost completely caved in due to the armor's increasingly powerful strikes. "So what's the plan?"
Yami looked from Yugi to Joey, unsure of what to say to ease either of their minds. Yugi still seemed saddened by the entire turn of events and Joey seemed determined yet frightened.
"We're going to figure this out, alright?" he said looking at everyone.
"That reminds me," Ishizu said. She went towards the back corner of the room, and started looking through boxes. "This was the other reason I wanted to come in here…"
However, before anyone could ask what she meant, the door fell off its hinges and the walking suit of armor jumped in. Without delay it rushed over to Tristan who was the closest, and swung its axe again, aiming for his head. Tristan ducked but the armor was resilient. It continuously tried to decapitate him but Tristan was backing up too far and he backed into the wall at the other end of the room. Yami rushed in to help but Yugi was in front of Tristan faster than he would have thought possible, right as the suit of armor was swinging down on Tristan's head. Yami's breath caught in his throat.
"N-no!"
The suit of armor froze, the axe hovering an inch away from Yugi's head. Yugi stood his ground however, staring at the suit of armor with a determined expression on his face as he shielded Tristan from harm.
"You are not the target," the suit of armor shuddered and withdrew the axe, holding it by its chest. "Please move-"
"No!" Yugi said defensively. "Leave them alone!"
The suit of armor seemed to try and get around Yugi but he didn't let it pass. Then while the armor was distracted, Joey rushed in and gave it a full on tackle. The suit of armor fell to pieces on the floor and didn't move, the clattering of the armor echoing throughout the room.
"That was close," Tristan said relaxing. Joey looked at Yugi with wide eyes.
"Dude, you could have gotten yourself killed!"
Yugi hesitated in speaking and Yami knew what was going through his mind…what he wanted to say. However, he seemed to hold him back in saying it.
Instead he sighed and said, "I knew that the armor couldn't hurt me…that would have gone against its orders…"
Joey looked at him for a few seconds with narrowed eyes, and Yami knew that Joey wasn't fooled. He too knew that Yugi was hoping for the suit of armor to kill him, and therefore fixing the balance the easy way.
"Everyone, we should move," Ishizu spoke up, and Yami immediately knew why. The pieces of the suit of armor were starting to shake and some parts were reforming back together. Soon it would be whole again. Ishizu pointed up the stairs. "Let's go!"
They ran up the stairs and this time, Ishizu aimed for the exit. They reached the steps that came up to the museum entrance before the front door exploded. Shards of glass and stone flew everywhere, and Yami could feel the heat from the explosion. Despite his better judgement, he stopped and looked back, as did the other four.
In where the doorway used to be, through the smoke, Kalcifer stood, his eyes glowing with a brighter red than before. He had a maniac grin on his face and two small flames appeared in his palms.
"Just who is this guy?!" Joey said fearfully. Kalcifer laughed as his suit of armor came striding up next to him, it's metal impervious to the flames.
"This is so much fun!" he said holding up his hands higher. "It's too bad I won't be able to do this for too long, but I'll have as much fun as possible."
"That's where you're wrong!" a voice said from their right. Yami looked and received a shock.
"Bakura! Ryou!"
The two teens were indeed standing together, looking determined. Ryou was holding out the Millennium Ring and it was pointing to where they were standing. Yami figured that that's how they found their way to this spot, but he didn't know what they planned on doing to get them out of their predicament.
"This is where you die!" Bakura said snidely.
Until next time
Yugisrose
