Yugi remembered.
He remembered everything.
How could he have been so blind? How could he not have known Tea would never lead him astray, that she would be trying to help him, save him, he should have known. And now she was stuck in Noah's little fantasy world, trapped forever because she tried to save them all.
And she had.
She had set everyone free, she had beat Noah, but at the cost of her freedom. Yugi slammed his fist onto his desk in anger. It wasn't fair! And now she was trapped with Noah for all eternity, and Yugi had already beaten Noah once! It wasn't fair! He had been so blind, and because he hadn't trusted his friend, Tea was trapped in a virtual nightmare, forever.
"Calm yourself, Yugi." Atem's voice murmured gently. "We will get her back, she is not lost to us." Since everyone had been returned to Earth, both he and Atem had been bonded back together. And The Pharaoh even knew his name! His real name, and had unlocked all the power that came with it.
"How can we? We can't get back to her! Noah's locked us out, he won!" Yugi shouted angrily, jumping up to pace his room. Noah hadn't kidnapped anyone since Tea had saved them, and with no one being Taken, Yugi didn't have a chance at getting back into the virtual world. "I bet Kaiba doesn't even have a digitalizer, does he?" Yugi muttered angrily.
"Have you given up all hope?" Atem shouted at him, and Yugi was so stunned to hear the tranquil spirit raise his voice that he paused to look at his ethereal counterpart. "Can you not feel the air? There is hope yet! Can't you feel the aura in the air? It is saturated through with magic, both dark and light. There is someone in this city with great power, immense power Yugi. And someone with this much energy can probably create a spell to send us into Noah's world."
"What?" He asked surprised, trying to feel what Atem could feel floating in the air.
"The air is drenched with magic, Yugi. There is so many weaves of magic in the air, it is quite possible there is more than one with great magic."
"If we can find this magic person, or magic people, we might be able to save Tea!" Yugi exclaimed.
"It is quite possible, but the quest to find them will be as daunting as impossible. Can't you feel all the weaves and snags in the air? To simply sort out one thread would take close to forever, and being able to follow it would be another task all together." Atem sighed, putting his hand on his forehead with the dreariness of the impossibility looming before them. But if it was to save Tea, they knew it was worth it.
"We have to do it, we have to find this magic person." Yugi decided.
"I agree, Yugi."
"Hm, well let me make your task a little easier." A new voice laughed, and the duo turned to find a tall girl with long black hair and bright green eyes leaning against the door frame. She was wearing jeans and a purple shirt, and a dazzling smile decorated her tan face. "Hi, I'm Rek, my family and I are the source of all this magic."
"You?" Atem asked thunderstruck, taking the petite girl in.
"Long time no see. What's it been? A few thousand years? A millenia?" She asked, walking over to the spirit and giving him a hug. Yugi expected this new arrival to fall through Atem's corporeal form, but amazingly she was able to touch him as if he were flesh and blood. The second two things that registered were A) This Rek could actually see Atem and B) Rek knew Atem!
"It has been awhile." Atem chuckled, breaking the embrace. "It has been awhile since the palace days, Rek dear. Why have you not passed on?"
"My family's duty is never done." She replied with a smile. "And why haven't you? I would have expected you to have passed on long ago."
"My duty has not been completed." Atem replied quietly.
"Ah, well. Anyway, Yugi, I've come to talk about Tea."
"We have to get her back, do you know how? And how do you know Tea?" Yugi demanded.
"I met her after Tristan had been Taken, and a bit before you two and Joey had disappeared. She is quite an uncommon girl, isn't she? She took to our cause immediately, she even let herself be Taken in order to return one of our own to us. So caring, so brave. She saved the day, didn't she? At the cost of her freedom." Rek ended in a whisper. Yugi could see the pain he had felt earlier reflect out of Rek's eyes. Tea always left an impression on everyone she met, she could alter lives with a simple smile and they all knew that. They had to get her back.
"Can we get her back?" Yugi finally asked.
"Thankfully yes. Thanks to Noah taking one of our wards, we are allowed to take vengeance. And be assured of one thing, we will be letting the full fury of our power fly. Noah will not go unpunished, of that I promise." Rek promised darkly, and Yugi swallowed in fear. Rek's one little glare had been enough to scare him into next week, and he didn't want to get on her bad side. "Now, once Tea played the martyr and promised her loyalty to Noah, I knew the boy would spin it into something huge. He loves the little theatrics, every theatric really. He will want to dress her up, dress himself up, and create a perfect little bubble where she can swear her loyalty for all eternity. We have less than a day to go crash this little service, or there will be nothing we can do." Rek explained quietly.
"So what do we have to do?" Yugi demanded. He would get his friend back, he would.
"I thought you'd never ask." Rek smiled in delight.