Chapter 10: The Magic of Love
Chris watched Yugi as he and his turquoise-haired fiancé, Dartz, walked down the white-decorated aisle toward where the priest sat ready to state the words that would bind them together forever.
Dartz was dressed in collared blue and violet robes and a sharp-pointed silver crown, and around his neck still sat his Orikalkos pendant. The innocent tricolor-haired prince walking mindlessly beside him wore a gold crown with an Egyptian-style eye resting on his forehead and royal silver armor that made him radiate in the sun slowly moving toward the western horizon. Yet despite his beautiful appearance and the happiness of the event he was taking part in, Yugi didn't make any reference to his surroundings, as if he were walking down the aisle in his sleep, except with his vague violet eyes open.
Sky growled low beside her, eyeing Dartz in a dog's version of suspicion and struggling slightly against the leash Chris had him on. His master couldn't help but agree with her canine companion; something about Dartz just didn't seem right to her.
"Rebecca," she murmured, trying not to move her lips too much so her grandfather, Iron-Heart, wouldn't notice her talking during the ceremony and scold her.
"Yeah?" Rebecca hissed back through her barely open lips.
"Something's wrong...I thought Yugi loved Yami, and now he wants to marry this guy…"
Rebecca didn't answer immediately; when she finally did, she whispered, "I thought so too...but it's Yugi's choice, not ours. We can't make decisions for him-"
"But it's like Yugi's not even making the decision himself!" Chris interrupted under her breath. "Look at him...he looks almost dead! He's never this emotionless, ever!"
Rebecca bit her lip. "I know he's acting weird...but he did make the decision himself, Chris...he said he wanted to marry this guy."
"Words don't always say what someone is truly feeling," Chris dissented.
Now Rebecca was a child prodigy; she knew very well that something was wrong with Yugi...but Chris's words made no sense to her. Yugi chose to marry Dartz…but it seemed obvious that he really cared about Yami…the only way for both to be true would be for Yugi to be under a spell to make him act unlike himself, and this, Rebecca reasoned, was impossible. But as she watched her friend stop at the end of the aisle with Dartz without any sign of happiness or even nervousness, the blond girl couldn't help but wonder the true intentions behind Yugi's choice to marry Dartz.
"We gather here today," the priest said a feeble, weedy voice, "to bind these two men together in holy matrimony…"
Dartz smiled in evil satisfaction as he looked from the blank-faced Yugi to the sunset on the distant horizon.
'Finally…after all these years of waiting…the Great Leviathan will return once again!'
Out of nowhere a faint noise behind him made Dartz freeze where he stood.
"CHARGE!" yelled Marik.
As he turned around, Dartz found himself being dive-bombed by a flock of seagulls, which pushed him backward into the pedestal, knocking both it and the priest over.
Dartz zapped spells at the seagulls to force them away from him, furious for having his plans going awry; unfortunately for him, he was severely outnumbered by the flock and couldn't possibly hit them all at once. Then Ryou and Bakura leapt onto the deck, throwing starfish and water at Dartz to keep him away from his spot at the ceremony.
"Get his necklace!" said Bakura, pointing at the Orikalkos pendant around Dartz's neck.
The human crowd around them gasped and screamed in alarm, backing up at the sight of rabid-acting seagulls and two freakish men with fish tails. Tristan rushed to aid Yugi's fiancé out of duty, but Valon held him back.
"Nay, Tristan," he told him, smiling as he recognized Bakura as the red-tailed merman his father had set free from his net so long ago. "I think those mates are doing us a favor."
Tea looked ready to argue, but Chris nodded in agreement.
"Yugi doesn't love Dartz," she stated firmly. "The one he loves hasn't shown up yet."
With that, the little brown-haired girl let go of Sky's leash, letting her dog bound over to Dartz, barking loudly and biting and scratching every bit of him he could get a hold of.
Then a sword slammed down into the floor near where Sky was, almost cutting his paw.
Yugi stood in front of Dartz protectively, his sword drawn and his face forced into an expression of blank determination.
"Get away from my fiancé," he snapped in a monotone.
"Don't hurt him!" Ryou implored Marik and his flock. "He's under a spell!"
"A spell…?" Rebecca whispered.
Sky whimpered and backed away, still fixing angry eyes upon the smirking Dartz using his master's friend as a shield. Rebecca's green eyes narrowed as she finally realized what Sky and Chris had been saying all along was 100 percent accurate.
"I'm sorry, Yugi," she murmured, before she kicked over a bucket of soapy water in the corner that had been used to swab the deck.
The mind-controlled Yugi slipped and slammed face-first into the floor, dropping his sword and making it slide toward the other side of the deck.
"CHARGE!" Rebecca cried at the flock of seagulls.
After that, the action on the ship went in total chaos. The seagulls once again dive-bombed Dartz, who blasted spells at them while trying to control Yugi enough to make him retrieve his sword. Tristan and Tea were on the side watching the action, debating whether to help Rebecca and Chris or to obey Yugi's supposed wishes. Ryou gripped Sky's leash so that the dog could pull him closer to Dartz and, when he did, he smacked him continuously upside the face with his tail.
"THIS…IS…FOR…MAKING…ATEMU…CRY…YOU…BASTARD!"
Unfortunately, Ryou was a much bigger target than the seagulls, so it was quite easy for Dartz to force him away. With a single blast of red magic from Dartz's fist, Ryou was thrown painfully backward into the side of the ship, bruising the merman's back.
Roaring with fury, Bakura flapped over to Dartz; seeing the difficulty the shorthaired albino was having getting across the deck, Valon ran over, grabbed Bakura's hand and gently tossed him toward the Warlock, allowing Bakura to slam his tail into Dartz's feet to make him fall over. Raphael then leapt onto Dartz and wrapped one of his heavily muscled arms around his neck to restrain him while Bakura struggled over to Ryou.
"Are you alright, Aibou?"
Ryou nodded weakly but nevertheless got up with determination.
Valon and Amelda came over with some bandages and Amelda wrapped them around Ryou's chest over his bruises.
"There," said Amelda, tying the bandages tightly but gently around the pale merman. "That should help cushion those some."
Bakura gave the humans a rare smile. "Thanks."
"No problem, mate," Valon answered with a smile. "If you're here to help Yugi, we should be thanking you."
Suddenly Dartz blasted Raphael off him and into the deck with an almost explosion of blue-green light. His Orikalkos medallion flashing, he brandished his hand at the flock of seagulls, throwing them backward and even breaking a few of the birds' wings. The controlled Yugi picked up his sword and once more took his previous position in front of Dartz, his sword pointed at each of the merman and his friends in turn.
"You can't win, you fools," Dartz scorned Bakura and Ryou. "It'll take a lot more than you two misfits, a couple of humans and a bunch of poultry to defeat me."
"Well, then," a voice called out behind him, "maybe I'll influence the odds!"
Yami leapt onto Dartz, his scarlet eyes burning with hatred, and kicked and punched every bit of him he could get his hands on.
"The pendant, Yami!" Joey urged as he pulled himself onboard too. "Get the pendant!"
At his blond friend's words, Yami reached for the Orikalkos medallion; Dartz punched him in the chest, his fist shining with furious blue-green magic, thrusting him backwards.
"You are more trouble than you're worth!" Dartz snarled. "Now to use the Orikalkos to destroy you forever…!"
But when he tried to activate his Orikalkos magic, he realized that the source of his power was missing.
Dartz gasped in horror as Yami looked down at the turquoise pendant in his hand in both confusion and triumph.
"Alright!" cheered Ryou. "Now he can't use magic!"
Unfortunately, Ryou was wrong. Even though Dartz no longer wore his Orikalkos pendant, it was still part of him, and so although he couldn't blast magic spells anymore, he had his more dangerous weapon remaining.
The mind-controlled Yugi lifted his sword and raised it to hit Yami, forcing the merman-turned-human to jump out of the way.
Tea started forward, but Tristan held her back before Yugi could slash at her.
"Yugi…stop!" she cried.
At last Yami was able to grab onto Yugi's wrist and struggled to pull the sword out of Yugi's hands and away from him.
"Yugi, it's me!" Yami implored. "It's me…Yami!"
But nothing he said worked. The blank look in Yugi's usually happy eyes cut Yami like a knife. It was as if the man he loved had died and become a shadow of his previous self.
"Yami, smash the pendant!" Bakura yelled. "Smash it now!"
Yami struggled to hold Yugi's sword away from him just to look at the Orikalkos pendant still clenched in his fist.
"You do anything to that, and I'll make Yugi slice you in half!" threatened Dartz.
But Yami no longer cared about what happened to him…he just wanted Yugi to be out of Dartz's control. He lifted his hand slightly in the air before thrusting the medallion into the floor and shattering it into a billion pieces.
"NOOOOOO!" roared Dartz.
A great light erupted from the smashed medallion, engulfing Yami and Yugi in its blue-green embrace and blinding the onlookers. Tea again started toward Yugi and his love in worry, but the light made her bring her hands up in front of her eyes.
Within the light, Yami felt oddly distant from everything. He faintly heard Yugi drop his sword as he was finally let out of Dartz's control, but Atemu's vision was blinded by turquoise light and images zipping past his eyes like a fast-forwarded movie…
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty…" the doctor murmured, "we couldn't save her…the Queen…is dead."
It was the first and only time Atemu ever saw his father cry.
"I win, Seto!" a little Atemu laughed in triumph.
A little Seto growled in frustration. "This time, maybe…but next time, I will beat you."
"Thanks for the help, guys," muttered Joey as Atemu and Ryou helped bandage up some of the wounds his father had inflicted on him the previous night.
"What are friends for?" asked Atemu.
"This High Court order," announced Aknadin, "hereby banishes the merman, Ryou, from the kingdom for the rest of his life, for fraternizing with humans, a violation against Law 28 stated by King Aknamkanon…"
"They can't do this!" Atemu whispered in a type of angry misery. His pale albino friend's eyes were filling up with tears as the sentence was read.
"There's nothing we can do to stop them," Joey murmured, his voice similar to Atemu.
"Seto!"
Atemu swam up to greet his cousin, delighted to see him once more…but he stopped quite abruptly at the very cold, expressionless look in his eyes.
"Cousin?"
Seto very stiffly knelt like a servant at Atemu's feet, making the prince move slightly back in surprise at his odd behavior.
"I live to serve you, Your Highness," Seto stated in a very quiet, empty tone.
"And who are these people, chibi Aibou?" the stranger hissed, looking at Atemu and Joey suspiciously as he swam behind Ryou and put his arms around him possessively.
"Aibou?" Joey repeated in shock. "This is your Aibou, Ryou?"
Ryou nodded with a sheepish grin on his face. "Atemu, Joey…meet Bakura."
"Duel Monsters," Ryou corrected as Atemu looked over the drawings on the cards in awe. "You see, each monster card has an attack power, a defense power and sometimes a special effect. You have to fight your opponent with these monsters and helpful cards called magic and traps, until either you surrender or you wipe out your opponent's lifepoints."
"Duel Monsters…" Atemu murmured, before his face broke out into a smirk. "It sounds fun! I wish I had more cards…and someone to play with," he added with a slight sigh.
Atemu dove underneath the water fearfully, and his eyes widened at the sight of an unconscious Yugi, the gold box tight under his arm, falling down through the dark water.
The merprince swam down as fast as he could, snatched the human prince into his arms, puzzle box and all, and pulled him up to the surface.
'I've got you, my Yugi…I will not let you die…'
"You don't even know what love is, Atemu!" disputed Aknamkanon, his temper rising. "You only desire what you can't have, as all teenagers do!"
"Oh?" Atemu growled, his red eyes narrowing. "And I suppose you were just desiring Mother, because you couldn't have possibly been in love in her!"
Aknamkanon snapped at the mention of his deceased wife. "So help me, Atemu…I'm going to get through to you…and if this is the only way…" he pointed his staff at one of the shelves of the grotto as it glowed with magic, "…so be it."
"Rex and Weevil are taking me to see Dartz," the mer-prince explained simply.
"The Warlock of Orikalkos?" Ryou repeated in horror. "Atemu, no!"
"You can't!" Seto argued, swimming in front of Atemu to stop him from going farther. "He's dangerous!"
"Now listen carefully," Dartz said seriously. "I will cast a spell on you that will transform you into a human for three days…just three, so make them count, little blackfish. Before the sun sets on the third day, you've got to make little Yugi fall in love with you. In other words, he must give you his first, binding kiss…the kiss of true love. If he does kiss you before sunset on the third day, you will remain human for the rest of the eternity…but, if he doesn't, you'll turn back into a merman and…"
His eyes grew a dark, menacing glint that made Atemu shrink back as he tapped the Orikalkos pendant around his neck with one of his long pale fingers.
"…Your soul belongs to me."
Atemu turned back to Dartz.
"Very well, Dartz…I accept your terms."
The turquoise light and visions broke in unison. Yami's eyes blinked rapidly, to find Yugi in his arms and lifting his head up to look at him.
"Yami…?" he murmured, looking very confused as to where he was and very dizzy after all of the turmoil in his head.
"Yugi…" Yami whispered, staring at Yugi as if he hadn't seen anything like him before.
Then, out of nowhere, he practically glomped Yugi and held him tight.
"Aibou, you're alright! Aibou, you're free from his control! Thank the Gods, Aibou…!"
Yugi's eyes shot wide open at the foreign word for 'partner' erupting from Yami's mouth over and over again, disbelieving.
"Aibou…?"
Yami pulled away from Yugi but just couldn't let go of him entirely.
"Oh, Aibou…forgive me for putting you through this…my name is Atemu. I saw you on Valon's ship on your birthday and I knew as soon as I saw you, Yugi…I knew you were the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I was the one who rescued you from the shipwreck…I had to give up my memory to have any opportunity to tell you-"
"You know your name?" asked Yugi in a very weak voice, his mind overloaded with all of this new information and his eyes welling up with tears.
"Yes, Yugi, yes," Atemu (as he once again knew he was called) murmured, stroking Yugi's cheek as their noses touched, "I remember my name now, Aibou…"
Dartz started toward Atemu, his eyes flashing angrily. "You little…get away from him-"
Tristan and Raphael quickly moved to restrain him so he couldn't separate the two, but Yugi and Atemu didn't make any reference to the Warlock's outburst.
"You…gave up your memory…just to find me?" Yugi inquired in soft disbelief.
Atemu looked at the floor, before forcing himself to look back up at his love. "I obviously hadn't been thinking straight, as we were so focused on my past I couldn't find a time to talk to you about my feelings…but yes, I did, Yugi…I would do anything for you, my little Aibou…anything to make you happy."
Tears trickled down Yugi's cheeks. "Yami, I…I mean, Atemu…I…I don't know what to say…except…you are the most handsome, kind, wonderful idiot I've ever met!"
Atemu chuckled, and Yugi moved in closer to snuggle his cheek. The human prince's bangs brushed up against the merprince-turned-human's forehead as Yugi's lips moved close to Atemu's, ready to find its proper place against them…
"NO!" roared Dartz.
But before their lips could meet, Atemu shouted out in violent pain, his knees buckling as he collapsed onto the floor.
"ATEMU!" cried Ryou.
"ATEMU!" yelled Bakura.
"NO!" Joey shouted.
The reddening sun had finally set below the darkening horizon.
"You're too late, little blackfish!" Dartz laughed hysterically. "You're too late!"
"Atemu!" Yugi said anxiously, going over to him at once. "Atemu…what's wrong? AH!"
A blast of white light erupted from Atemu's body, making Yugi shield his eyes, and when the light evaporated, Yugi realized Atemu's tan legs were a single black fish tail.
He gasped. Atemu looked at Yugi with immense regret in his red eyes.
"I'm sorry…Aibou…"
Dartz yanked free of Raphael and Tristan as a blue-green shark tail replaced his legs, and with one hand, he snatched Atemu by the collar away from Yugi.
"Sayonara, little Yugi!" he mocked, laughing psychotically and pulling both him and Atemu into the water.
"ATEMU, NO!" Yugi cried, running over to the side of the ship in time to see them disappear into the blue depths.
Bakura, Ryou and Joey immediately scrambled to the edge to the ship as to follow them. Bakura and Joey had already jumped into the water by the time Ryou got to the edge, but Yugi stopped the longhaired albino before he could follow the other two mermen.
"Wait!" he implored. "You're Atemu's friend, right?"
"Yes," Ryou answered, distracted by his want to follow Joey and Bakura but knowing Yugi would only stop him if it were important.
"I want to go with you," Yugi stated firmly.
"You can't," Ryou pointed out. "Dartz's lair is underwater."
Yugi thought for a moment, before he turned to his friends.
"Where's my Puzzle?"
Sky trotted over to Yugi, holding the golden Puzzle box in his mouth.
Yugi took it from the dog, patting his head in thanks, and looked at the uncompleted puzzle inside, before he picked up the final almost-star-shaped piece and fitted it into the puzzle as he stated his wish,
"I wish to be the same species as Atemu."