The Falsebound Kingdom: Hero's Crusade

by Shining Charizard

They thought it would just be a game... Now, trapped in the game simulator Kingdom, Yugi and his friends face the game of war. Based off the GameCube game. Rated for violence and language, though mostly violence. All major characters included eventually.

17. Break Free

SC: Here's to hoping you guys are still there.

An announcement: By my calculations, this story will have a grand total of thirty chapters. That means we're only a bit above halfway. Sit back and buckle up; we'll both be here awhile.

"April Fools" has a lot to do with the theme of this chapter.

Break Free

Barely escaping their pursuers, Yugi and friends decide to try to take the lightly defended fort Chelyumn. Surrounded by steep mountains, the small fort Chelyumn doesn't hold much strategic importance. But taking the fort is the only chance they have to break free of the Imperial forces surrounding them.

"Man," mumbled Tristan. "Of all the lame things I could be doing, lookout duty is the lamest."

It was midmorning and Tristan was tired, bored, and annoyed. He and Fizdis had been sent out to scout the area around town and out towards the mountains. There was an Imperial fort there, one that was currently occupied. Tristan didn't see the point in checking up on it. If the Imperials didn't know they were there, why would they attack?

"We must be careful," Shimon had told him before they left. "The Imperial soldiers there are ignored by the Empire. They will be itching to do battle to break from their castle fever. Their leader, Atensa, is a marshal, but a weak one. He was only given the post because of its strategic irrelevance. Formerly he was the High Mage of the Empire, a priest. It is unknown what magics he is capable of."

"Yeah, yeah," Tristan muttered to himself. He could care less about magic. That was Yugi and Ryou's thing. All he wanted was to go back to the inn and sleep. The others had stayed behind, lounging around, goofing off. The resistance hadn't pulled out of town yet because they wanted to make sure Yugi was back up to speed before they encountered any fighting.

"Stop grumbling," Fizdis said, her voice light like a bird's in the morning mist. "It's not that bad. We could be walking."

"Point," he said, patting Gazelle's neck. "I do appreciate the ride." Gazelle purred up at him, and Uraby rolled his eyes.

"Still," he went on, "I don't see the point in what we're doing out here."

"We're scouting the castle. I think we might take it, to use as a stronghold against Scott's army…"

"Where did you hear that?"

"The others were talking about it." She looked over at him. "You were asleep."

"Damn it…"

The mountains were visible now, peeking over the edge of the world. "The fort's somewhere up in there," said Fizdis.

"Now all we have to do it find it," agreed Tristan.

"You won't be finding nothing up there but trouble."

The voice had come from behind them. Immediately they turned to see a pair of Imperial soldiers jump down from an overhang of rock. They weren't like the Imperial soldiers he was used to seeing: they weren't wearing Imperial uniforms for one thing, save the head gear, and they looked rough, like they had been living in the mountains for years. "Just two of them," Tristan said to Fizdis slowly. "I think we can handle that."

"'Handle?' It's a fight we're after… We'll see how you handle that!"

Tristan jumped off of Gazelle just as he pounced at the first Imperial monster. The monsters they called were built like their owners: roughly hewn warriors and thick-skinned fiends scarred from mountain wear. Still, against Blackland Fire Dragon's breath and Megazowler's horns, they whimpered.

"Yeah! That's the way to roast 'em!" Fizdis's dinosaurs were enjoying this bout, a rare chance where the enemy was as rough-and-tough as they were. Watching their tails and heads and claws slam into the enemy was like watching bulldozers made of leather plow back and forth. Such attacks were destructive enough; but the Imperial monsters, hardened physically, had little resistance to attacks of flame or energy, and took great damage from Two-Headed King Rex and Machine King. For all their boasting, the Imperials were weak, scoring only a few minor hits in non-critical areas. Tristan was too concentrated on the battle to notice how terribly one-sided it was.

That's when the whole world became off.

He didn't notice it immediately. Then the feeling slowly came over him that things were not right. There was something… wrong with his senses. Something had gotten into his nerves and was crawling along at a speed almost too slight to be noticed. He didn't know how to describe it. It was like a noise that he could hear, but not listen to; like a thing he could feel but not touch.

He was lost in trying to identify the sensation. He didn't notice one of the enemy monsters try to take a swing at him until he was inches away. "Whoa!" He ducked instinctively, and a good thing he had, for an instant later came a wave of fire from his Blackland Fire Dragon. The enemy monster went up in smoke and was gone. Tristan turned to see his dragon, to thank him – but there was something wrong with him, too.

Blackland Fire Dragon had frozen, its jaw open and steaming, a giant frozen mass of muscle and scales. Tristan looked into its eyes and saw something there move. He must have been imagining things. It looked like his dragon's eyes had melted, pooling yellow, swirling into a strange emerald green. He gaped up at his monster, clueless as to what could be happening. Then his dragon looked at him, prostrate on the ground, and snarled.

"Good shot!" called Fizdis as King Rex incinerated one of the enemy monsters. She was happy with the ease at which this battle was proceeding, but her happiness faded when she looked on her monster. King Rex hadn't moved yet, and there was a motion somewhat like a shiver that ran up both its necks. Both heads turned, bearing jade eyes, glaring right at her with an emotion she had never seen there before, and smoke filled its mouths. Fizdis was frozen in fear as her dinosaur released its twin breaths of flame on her, yet thankfully Uraby pushed her quickly out of the way. She looked up to see Uraby's familiar, protective gaze… and saw only a hateful sneer.

She squeaked. "U-Uraby…" Megazowler appeared behind her, blocking her escape. It too was watching her like it wanted to eliminate her from the earth. She was surrounded by leering teeth and horns…

Panicked, she screamed, "Tristan!" but the threesome did not take kindly to that. Uraby lashed her in the side with his tail. She wheezed and was knocked outside of the ring. A split shadow hung over her and she scurried out of the way as a slash from King Rex raked the ground, narrowly missing her legs.

Tristan dodged Blackland Fire Dragon's bite by rolling under it. He scrambled quickly away and was met with a face full of forest scales. He collapsed from the tail-hit into the dirt. Stars clouded his inky vision. He heard Fizdis's scream but couldn't tell where she was. Heavy scales were over him; this was his end…

Golden light flashed before him, brighter than the light of day. For a moment he wondered if it were a divine presence before he realized that it was real, somewhere above him. He rolled over just in time to feel a rush of air against his skin, and opened his eyes just in time to see that his dragon was gone.

The field was empty.

"Fizdis!" he croaked. "Where are you?" He sat up and tried to figure out what had happened, where he was.

"I-I'm here," she answered, but her voice was so frail and injured he could barely hear it. She was stretched out on the ground much as he had been.

He dragged himself over to her, still not in his right mind enough to walk. "Are you hurt?"

"No." Tristan realized the reason her voice sounded so hurt was because she was crying. "They missed." Tristan looked around. All of their monsters were gone. No – his Machine King had fallen in the battle, his jewel somewhere in the field, that he remembered; and Gazelle was still there in the field with them, though the great beast looked dazed.

"We need to get back," Tristan said automatically. He pulled himself to his feet and had to practically do the same for Fizdis. She seemed to have lost the will to stand. "We have to tell the others what's happened here."

---

Early the next morning, Yugi slipped outside into the misty air. It was so early the sky was still dark, dotted with stars, but the coming dawn could still be felt as a stirring at the edges of the world. Everyone else was still asleep inside. This was preferable to Yugi: he hadn't been outside for days and he wanted the freedom of the chill air without the presence of people breathing all over him. After being cooped up in that small room for another two days, all of his injuries had finally healed, though the others had insisted that they stay one more night, just to be sure.

He glanced passively at his surroundings. He had been right in guessing that the town was a modest one: a main road of packed dirt with wooden buildings running up and down the sides. The inn was the most elaborate structure within sight. He moved around behind the inn where there stood a small clump of cedar trees. He had seen this grove from a window above and knew he could make use of its cover for privacy. He breathed in the wet, piney air; the scent of a clean world. Mist drifted beneath the trees and frosted their boughs with silver-white.

Once he stood safely in the center of the trees he felt the warm tingle of magic in his heart. Mahado appeared opposite him hovering an inch or two above the loose soil. 'Soulmaster,' he said, his voice stirring Yugi's heart and awakening him more effectively than any contact with the brisk air. 'You wished to speak.'

'Yes.' His heart sank a little, not quite in sadness, but with a weak hope that was burning out like dying embers on a coal. 'I wanted to know… if maybe…'

Mahado watched him patiently, knowing. Yugi couldn't avoid the impulse to look down at his hands. 'If you knew of a cure, a way to reverse what has happened…' Mahado's eyes softened and he looked solemnly at him. He spoke with slow and deliberate words.

'Soulmaster. There are many magics that I know. There are also many that I do not. What I know is that what has been done to you… Magic initiated the changes, but they were forged of your flesh and blood. They came into existence as part of you. Magic no longer touches them; they are naturalized to you… There are spells that could remove them, but it would be the same as removing a part of your body, an arm or a leg.'

Then he spoke the words Yugi didn't want to hear: 'Soulmaster, they are permanent.'

The edges of Yugi's eyes darkened. '…Yes.'

'I am sorry.'

Yugi's voice dimmed noticeably. 'The fault is not yours. Thank you, Mahado.' Silence took him then. He was already lost deep in his thoughts.

So I'm stuck like this… The weight of the new limbs behind him was suddenly greater and more burdening to his stance. He shifted, but they moved with him, bound to him by bone and blood. The realization that he was stuck as he was, as this dragonic human that Slypher had made him to be, evoked in him a despondency dark as the wet cedar bark around him. There was no going back to how he was before.

So were his thoughts, until he was distracted by the glow of a purple light around his neck. A swirl of young magic touched the air, and Mana appeared with her back turned to him, facing Mahado. She looked a tad disheveled and she rubbed her eyes.

'Yawn… Good morning, teacher,' she said sleepily.

'Mana?' both Yugi and Mahado asked as one. She hadn't come out of her gem since her arrival in the Maryah-Denn Fields, and her sudden appearance here startled them both.

'You were asleep?' asked Mahado.

Mana looked down at the ground. 'Eh heh heh…'

'Mana, don't tell me you've been asleep this whole time!' he said exasperatedly.

'I was tired!' she countered. 'All that trouble it took to get here wore me out…'

'That is hardly the attitude that will make you a good sorcerer.'

'Teacher! It wasn't even for that long, it's not like I missed anything… Right, Yugi?' She turned around to face him. It didn't take long for her eyes to go wide; she stared at him, sinking slowly in the air until her feet touched the ground.

Yugi smiled at her sadly. '…Actually Mana, you missed a lot.' The end of his tail curled forlornly.

For a moment she didn't move. '…I… I'm sorry, teacher,' she said, her voice serious. 'I won't let this happen again. Maybe I could have helped.'

'Indeed. Let this be a lesson to you, Mana.'

Yugi looked away. 'It was a lesson for all of us.'

The mist was starting to curl away as the sun moved closer to the boundary between night and day. Mahado and Mana returned to their gems and Yugi slipped back inside the inn, careful not to make any noise lest he be heard reentering. Fortunately the wooden floors held quiet for him as he climbed the stairs back to his room. Thus far there had been no incidence, yet as he walked through the doorframe he did it without thinking and caught his half-open wings on the rough-hewn wood.

"Kss!" His hiss of pain did not travel far in the corridor. With a hint of irritation in his eyes he angled his shoulders and stepped through sideways. That was one thing he had already discovered about his "additions": even though he had been given wings, he could not move them. He could feel contact with them just like any other part of his body (a sensation that still sent shivers down his spine), but otherwise they were stuck in half-furls, held rigid and partially open by ligaments drawn taut over the spindly bones. When Slypher had created them, he had not seen them through to completion. The muscles necessary to move them were not developed enough for even simple motion, let alone for the requirements of flight.

There was a thought. It struck Yugi then that he had never even considered the possibility of flying. Would he be able to hang against the backdrop of the skies with the support of his wings? Then again, would he ever want to? To take to the skies, to forego the land, would only be a further acceptance of his fate. He didn't want any part of anything that made him more like a dragon than he already was. The thought was quickly banished from his head. He didn't think he would ever get a chance to try it anyway, since his wings were held so rigidly in place that any attempt to force motion upon them was painful to him.

He didn't bother to sit and instead stood in the semi-darkness waiting for sunrise. Every few minutes he would take a few steps, pacing while he considered the day's plan. What had at first seemed like a straightforward objective now was as linear as a mountain trail. With its minimal defenses, taking the fort should have been as simple as walking right toward it, yet Tristan and Fizdis, as scouts and not invaders, had been attacked before they had gotten anywhere near it. Even then it should have been an easy fight – indeed they had been winning – that is, until their monsters turned on them. The result was a battle-harrowed Tristan and a distraught Fizdis, and four resistance monsters that had disappeared in the mountain air.

This was more than just a minor obstacle; this was boulders hurled onto the mountain path, rolling down towards them and roaring. Whatever had caused this betrayal of their monsters was dangerous, thought Yugi to himself with a steely resolution. He watched the sky lighten through the window on the distant wall and knew that whatever it was may yet return to strike again. The resistance needed to be prepared for such a turn of events in the future.

There came the sounds of stirring from the next room. Yugi turned around to start the grueling task of waking the others, already sighing to himself about the resistance Tristan would no doubt raise – and this time he remembered to tilt his shoulders at the door.

---

They were outside just as the sun was emerging fully into the sky, preparing their mounts for departure. Téa and Fizdis stood uneasily off to the side while the others worked, as they had no mounts of their own. Téa was thinking of the way she had seen Yugi when he first woke her up. In the semi-darkness of the room his eyes had been deep violet, almost indigo. His pupils were at their widest to allow the most light to come in, like ovals, and Téa had felt a touch of internal warmth at the sight of him looking more familiarly human. Her momentary joy hadn't lasted long, though, for when he stepped outside into the morning light they thinned again into dragon's eyes. Now she was mulling over this difference and watching him as he stood stroking Seiyaryu. She felt her heart lift at the sight of his smile, rarely seen in the past week.

Seiyaryu purred at him fondly, giving him frequent nips of affection. "Hey," he said in his smooth voice. "I missed you." Seiyaryu nudged his arm in a reciprocated statement. The two had been separated for over a week, and the happiness of being reunited was warm like the soft sunlight on their faces.

Yugi was uplifted by the fact that his dragon didn't seem at all daunted by his new appearance. Even though they acted as if nothing had changed, Yugi had still sensed a distance from the rest of his friends. It wasn't a profound distance, just a wariness to get too close and nothing more, but it still reflected in his eyes as sadness. What little words that had been spoken to him had been of a strictly business nature: intelligence reports (from Shimon), orders to eat something or rest or squawks of "What are you doing out of bed?" (Téa), or just silence (everyone else). No one had come to ask him how he felt or even have a plain conversation with him (he was certainly bored to tears enough that a conversation about anything would have been gracious). All in all, for the most part, he had been simply ignored.

The reservation was particularly strong with Joey. The blonde avoided all eye contact with him and steered away from anything that would require them to talk. Yugi hadn't even seen him in all the time they had been at the inn, after that day. He didn't like the anonymity between them, but he wasn't about to break it by walking over and saying something. Joey probably wouldn't even look at him if he spoke to him. Maybe he was still thinking of the scene a few days before, or maybe he still hadn't forgiven himself for causing it.

Yugi didn't pay any attention to the others when he announced it was time to leave. Seiyaryu bowed and allowed him to clamber on, a little less gracefully than usual. The rose colored dragon shifted under him, adjusting to the different feel of its rider. "I'm sorry," Yugi said down to it. "I'm not the best passenger for you anymore, I know." His tail was too long; it tangled with Seiyaryu's, and he knew this would interfere with its flight. He really should have been riding on a bigger dragon like Red-Eyes, but that was out of the question right now. Seiyaryu growled reassuringly up at him. It would manage.

The plan was to head back towards Fort Chelyumn. It was the general consensus that the Imperials that had attacked Tristan and Fizdis would be nearby, and that they would find their missing monsters there. Fizdis had been silent since the ordeal. The shock of Uraby and her other dinosaurs turning on her had devastated her. She sat behind Mai on Curse of Dragon with eyes like flat, unpolished stones. Once everyone (except Tristan) was in the air, Yugi flew to the front of the group to lead. There he could ignore the looks of uncertainty from everyone else. He had noticed the increase in stares from the others over the past few days, and it slipped ice cubes down his throat. The flight itself was uneventful and quiet. Yugi heard sounds of limited conversation behind him, but no one spoke to him. He didn't care. He had the secure feeling of Mahado and Mana in his heart, and the warmth of Seiyaryu's scales beneath him. They had been the only ones to not turn away from him. He didn't have any responses to anything they would say to him, anyway. For now he was content with listening to the wind in his ears.

They had traveled about half of the distance to their destination. The mountains were in view ahead, tall and pointed spires of rock, but here the land they crossed was flat grassland, dusky plants, and hard earth as far as the eye could see. The sound of the wind in the rippling grass and the swirls of dusty sunlight was almost hypnotic. They flew near an outcropping of rocks with a small tree standing nearby.

Yugi suddenly sat up straighter on Seiyaryu's back. Something in his nerves prickled like a sixth sense. His blood simmered; he felt the tides of battle woven in the air. Beneath him Seiyaryu had stiffened with the same awareness, which meant–

He jerked back on the reins and dug in his heels. Seiyaryu reared back, flapping high in the air, but it was enough. The burst of magic passed harmlessly under Seiyaryu's toes to dissipate beyond.

An outcry from somewhere behind him: "Imperials!" Like scuttling ants they appeared from the rocks below. There were at least five of them, lights dancing around them as they called monsters to the fore.

Undaunted even after being inactive for so long Yugi called, "Attack!" Seiyaryu roared, spilling a rain of silver fireballs onto the enemy below. Each hit its mark and created a sparkling fire on the rocks. Other resistance monsters were appearing to join the fray. Joey's warrior monsters charged across the field, weapons held high. They had almost reached the enemy when a violent red light engulfed them, catching them in their tracks. The light roiled with heat and burned the monsters it held.

Yugi drew in a breath at the sight. "A spell!" he cried. Now that he looked he recognized that many of the enemy monsters on the ground were of magic: sorcerers, witches, and idols. 'We're fighting Spellcasters!'

Mahado stirred with great force. 'Brute strength alone is not enough to stand against spells; we must counter them!' He and Mana appeared in blinding bursts of purple, staves held at the ready. Mana drew a clump of dark magic to the end of her staff and launched it down onto the monsters below while Mahado summoned a counterspell to free Joey's monsters. The red light shriveled and disappeared, leaving the two warriors steaming on the battlefield.

'These aren't your average Spellcasters!' cried Mana, deflecting a paralyzing blast that had targeted her, though she barely succeeded.

'No,' agreed Mahado, 'their methods are too indirect. These foes have been trained with spells designed specifically to undermine our efforts in battle, rather than damage us outright. They are stalling us.'

Yugi wondered what could be done to combat such tactics, when Seiyaryu sighted an enemy witch, Mystical Sand, that was tormenting Gazelle and Parrot Dragon. It fired a blast that zoomed toward her mercilessly. Mystical Sand saw the attack coming with basalt eyes. Waving her hands through the air, she raised a shield and blocked the attack. Then, with a pulse of magic and a wicked laugh, the fireball was deflected, streaming right back toward Seiyaryu.

'Soulmaster!' Mahado warned.

Yugi paled and pressed his heels to Seiyaryu's side. The dragon tucked in its wings and dove under the blast. Just when they thought they had cleared the attack it curved in its path and followed them at an angle towards the ground. Even though it had been deflected, Seiyaryu's fireball was still using its homing powers to follow the pair. Yugi saw it over his shoulder and urged Seiyaryu to fly faster. "It's gaining!" he cried, seeing that the flames were quickly closing the gap between them, inches away from singeing the tip of his tail.

Mana appeared then, zooming along beside them. She turned and fired a blast of dusky magic that collided with the fireball, which hissed and fizzled out into dazzling smoke. Seiyaryu swooped against the ground and pulled back up level to her. Yugi looked to Mana appreciatively. 'Th-Thank you.' She winked at him and zoomed off.

Yugi was about to steer Seiyaryu to rejoin the fight when his dragon dipped sharply beneath him. Seiyaryu was spiraling lower, dropping closer to the ground until it touched down. It hurried then to the cover of the tree. Yugi looked down at it incredulously. "What are you doing?"

Seiyaryu twisted its neck around to look back at him and growled hurriedly. Its sapphire eyes were pressing, urgent, and Yugi seemed to understand. "You're leaving me here? You're keeping me out of the fight?"

Seiyaryu growled again in a serious tone, eyes like rippling pond water. "What? It's not too dangerous!" The dragon jabbed its beak in the direction of his arm. "I'm not hurt anymore!" Yugi countered. "I can fight with you!"

His dragon would have none of it. Without warning it rolled over onto the ground, pink feathers stirring up dust. Yugi gave a startled yelp and fell off. Once free of passenger Seiyaryu took off quickly so that no resistance could be raised. Rubbing his back where he had hit the ground, Yugi looked up and watched it fly away. "Seiyaryu…" His own dragon had left him behind.

'It is best, Soulmaster,' said Mahado from somewhere far away in the battle. 'You should not partake in this fight.'

'I'm not worthless!'

'I did not say that you were, Soulmaster.'

'But you're treating me like it! You and everyone else!' Yugi's heart pounded with anger and hurt. 'Are you afraid something bad will become of it?'

There was a silence. '…Soulmaster, I do not wish to see you injured. You nearly lost your life to the wounds you received prior. To see you in such pain… I could not stand to see you in that state again.' Yugi felt the severity of Mahado's sadness, the pain of a too-strong memory.

He pulled back his anger then. 'I… I didn't mean it like that.'

'I understand.' There was a pause between them. 'Soulmaster, there are strong spells being cast in this battle. I ask that you remain at a safe distance. It is impossible to predict what will happen with all this magic in the air…'

Though he didn't want to, Yugi felt that he had no choice but to comply. 'All right.' Mahado sent a feeling of gratitude and returned his concentration to the battle.

The battle was not going easily. The protective spells bending the air made it difficult for the resistance to land a hit on the enemy monsters with ranged attacks, and going up close was dangerous because of the ensnaring magic they so liked to employ. The resistance monsters were worn, tired from their constant, failing effort. It seemed to be the enemy's goal to wear them down gradually, and slowly but surely, they were succeeding. Joey was determined to hold strong in the face of such difficulty, to not give the enemy an inch to crawl forward.

"Let's take these jerks down a notch!" he yelled to his monsters. Using the small amount of magic he knew Giltia formed a protective screen of glitter around Flame Swordsman. It wouldn't hold off a full assault, but it would block a spell for a brief moment. Flame Swordsman raised his sword and instantly crackling fire surrounded it, hot with writhing orange. Targeting the nearest monster, a Dark Elf shooting crystal shards into the resistance ranks, the swordsman charged forward into a leap of assault. She didn't see the attack coming and shrieked when flames roared over her.

Then, as Joey watched the fiery blade hit, he felt it: the sensation Tristan had described earlier, tingling at the edges of his senses. Like the sound of a muted television, that barely audible hum of electricity that became harder to hear the moment one focused on hearing it; it was there, permeating the air, but Joey couldn't pinpoint the source of it. It was everywhere and yet so slight that he could almost attribute it to his imagination. The unwavering feeling persisted invisibly beneath the squalls of the battle.

Squalls which, all of a sudden, were dimming.

The battle had slowed inexplicably. Joey looked up, and still saw monsters clashing, yet for some reason felt a slump in the aggressions occurring around him. He couldn't think of a reason as to why, until he caught sight of his Red-Eyes. The towering black dragon was frozen, wings spread in half-furls over the battlefield, halted in its takeoff. Receding embers of a Black Fire Bullet curled out of its gaping jaw. His dragon had relinquished all prior actions and now stood motionless like a great ebony statue.

His was not alone. Mai's Curse of Dragon, screeching with a readied attack of flame, abruptly lost its rattling voice and sank in the air to settle on the ground. Kaiser Dragon released the coils holding a constricted enemy. Harpie's Pet Dragon's chain leash clanked on the hard earth as the beast pulled back from a grapple and bowed its head. Ruffled feathers on Parrot Dragon and Seiyaryu smoothed over and settled despite the presence of battle all around.

Yugi stood farther back from the main fight next to the tree. There was a stern caution radiating upon him from Mahado, and Mana as well: their worry held him at a distance from the battle. He watched the attacks with narrowed eyes, trying to pull from the situation a tactic that would hasten the outcome; yet as he watched he found he could draw nothing from the event before him. Every time he focused on an attack – a blaze of light, a swipe of claws – his focus would blur. He could not keep his eyes on a target: the forms of the Duel monsters and his friends kept slipping away, curling into smoky shadows. A hard buzz in his ear prevented him from thinking straight. The sound was dizzying, and numbing to his brain. It grew steadily louder and swelled to an intense frequency, so that everything in his body seemed to be vibrating along with it. He couldn't concentrate on the battle and lost sight of it beneath the oppressing sound.

'Soulmaster!' came the voice of Mahado, drawn taut with apprehension. 'You are unwell! What has happened?'

Yugi fought to connect back. 'Can't you hear it?' he asked desperately.

'Soulmaster, I do not know what you speak of!'

'I don't hear anything!' Mana agreed.

'That sound! That awful sound!' Yugi pressed his hands down over his ears. The sound had crossed the threshold from a numbing buzz to a painful wail. His balance was failing; he had fallen back against the tree to keep from falling over completely. Mahado said something to him frantically but he didn't hear: the shrill noise drowned out everything else. Sweat formed on his brow and he pressed his hands down harder; he didn't know how much longer he could stand it, vibrating in the core of his bones.

Joey watched the resistance dragons freeze up into giant statues. None of the enemy monsters were attacking them, but neither were they moving to combat the enemy. It was as though they weren't even there to influence the fight. This was serious news to Joey; he didn't think they could win without the help of their dragons, and he turned to Yugi with the hope that he would know what to do. "Yug'! Our dragons! There's something wrong with our…!" Joey's voice dropped off in an instant at the sight of Yugi leaning heavily on the tree behind him.

Crap. Crap! "Yug'!" Joey ran to his side. He tried calling his name again, but drew nothing in response. Yugi had his ears covered and was shivering fiercely as if caught in arctic crosswinds. He practically yelled, and still Yugi did not seem to hear. Joey felt panic rising up into his lungs. He had seen this behavior before, when Yugi had been filled with the magic of death…

If this were magic again… Now was really not a good time to have to deal with that.

"Rrr… Yugi! Listen to me! What's wrong?" Joey placed both hands on Yugi's shoulders and gripped them. Yugi's eyes snapped open at the contact, yet they kept flickering, overcome by the frequency and unable to focus on the person before him.

"J… Joey," he stammered after struggling to recognize his humming blonde hair.

"Yug', look at me! What's wrong?"

He winced and squeezed his eyes shut again. "It hurts… Joey, I can't… I can't hear anything… Too loud…!"

"What the hell are you talking about? What's too loud?" He gave Yugi a shake to urge him to continue.

"Ahgh! That sound! Make it stop…!" He shuddered and hissed with pain. Joey was incredulous. What sound was Yugi talking about? He couldn't mean… Not that astral noise, barely there, on the wind? Joey couldn't hear it at all; he could hardly feel anything at all, much less it be such an agonizing force to him. Then again… if it were a magical force, then to Yugi it really could have the strength to hurt him so.

Joey looked him head on. "Yug'! I'll find out what that noise is, I'll – "

Fierce roars crossed the battlefield, drawing Joey's attention. Energy returned to the fight: the resistance dragons had regained movement, but with a new shine of hatred in their eyes. Emerald glittered evilly from their irises as the great beasts turned, fire gathering in their mouths. Their attacks were not intended for the enemy. Flames gushed and roared, devouring resistance monsters in their wake. The dragons were attacking their own allies! Not only had their loyalties turned, but their aggression had also grown, converting them into wild beasts.

Joey watched his Red-Eyes howl with rage and tear across the field. Such ferocity that had arisen – Red-Eyes's long claws ripped through Flame Swordsman and drew thick gashes in the earth beneath him. The great dragon then roared savagely, blood dripping from his claws, before turning back to destruction. Joey felt his heart clench with both fear and despair, and there was still the problem of Yugi and his ravaging sound. A growl vibrated weakly in Yugi's throat: half of it human, expressing pain; half of it that rattling sound Joey feared so much. "No!" cried Joey, whirling back and seizing him tightly. "Yug'! Come on! Snap out of it!" Still he did not heed.

The dragons were wreaking havoc. The already weakened resistance monsters fell in droves, often dropping after only a single hit. Some of them held out against the onslaught: Mahado and Mana were expertly defending themselves from fire and fang, and Téa's fairy monsters were dodging attacks from the sky, though this was becoming harder to accomplish with Seiyaryu's silver fireballs chasing after them. The remaining enemy monsters had pulled back from the fight completely and simply watched the resistance fall to its own ranks.

Bad, bad, bad, thought Joey, fire reflected in his eyes. The resistance wouldn't last another minute, and he didn't think Yugi could either…

A pulse of brilliant golden light flashed over Joey's shoulder on the battlefield. It was bright enough to effectively blind him even though he wasn't facing it. He heard roars, the roars of the resistance dragons, and the high sheen of intense energy. He turned to see the dragons outlined with shimmering gold that bathed the whole field with color. The remaining resistance monsters halted, blinded by the light. Joey locked eyes with his Red-Eyes, which had turned its head sharply to glare right at him. The evil emerald glimmer looked horribly out of place against the backdrop of dulled ruby irises. Red-Eyes hissed angrily at him and jerked his gaze away. The gold outlining them grew and another pulse of light blazed, sending a shock wave of wind to ripple the tall grass in all directions. In the next instant the field was clear. The dragons, and all of the Imperials along with them, had vanished.

Yugi exhaled loudly, all tension leaving his limbs. Joey turned back to him and held a grip on his shoulders, supporting him in his moment of weakness. "Yug'…?" he asked testily.

"Joey," he answered, opening his eyes partway to meet his gaze, "it's gone…"

"They're gone!" hollered a ragged Mai from several yards away. She stamped a heel to the ground and looked around for any sign of the enemy they had been fighting seconds prior. The vast field around them, except for the resistance members themselves and the few monsters that had survived the battle, was empty. "They just up and–!"

'A teleportation spell,' observed Mahado, now resting safely in his gem. 'One of the Imperial soldiers may have implemented it, although to transport so many would require strong reserves of magic, the likes of which I did not detect during the battle...'

Téa then caught sight of Joey standing with Yugi beneath the tree. "Oh my goodness, Yugi!" She dashed over to the spot in an instant. The sight of Yugi looking so weary pained her, and she turned a fretful gaze to Joey. "Is he all right?"

"Yeah. I think he's okay now." Yugi nodded in confirmation, though he was still panting for breath. "Just a little shaken."

"What on earth happened?"

A shiver ran down Yugi's spine. "I…"

"Damn it! They ran away again!" Tristan asked loudly. He and Ryou were approaching the growing ring around the tree. "That's the second time they've run away; cowards! Those – hey, what's up over here?" he inquired upon seeing Yugi looking so weary.

"Ryou," Yugi said hoarsely when he saw the white-haired youth approach. He was surprised that Ryou didn't look as disheveled as he felt. "Didn't you hear it?"

Ryou looked at him oddly. "Hear what?"

"That… That awful sound…"

"Surely you heard it," said Joey. "This really loud noise was hurtin' Yug', but I didn't hear a thing." The others murmured their agreement, having heard nothing unusual during the fight. "It must be something magical if only he heard it."

He shook his head. "No, I didn't hear anything. Certainly nothing that would constitute 'really loud' and cause such pain…"

'Nor did we,' said Mahado. 'Magic does not seem to be the deciding factor here.'

Yugi had shaken off most of the sound now, and stood free of Joey's support. "But if magic's not a factor, then why did only I hear it?"

Mana's heart twinged with concern. 'Yugi, what if it's not magic, but your…?'

Tristan was standing a few feet away and staring out at the battle-ravaged field. "That's twice now we've started a fight and had our monsters go crazy."

"Hey, will you shut up about that for once?" snapped Joey. "We've got a different problem to deal with!"

Tristan ignored him. "Both times, it was only the dragons that went crazy. The second time, Yugi hears a sound that no one else can hear."

Téa followed him. "So you're suggesting…"

'There isn't any other way,' said Mana.

'Yes,' agreed Mahado. 'Soulmaster, this mystery sound is dragon-specific. It is imperceptible to others outside of this class.'

Yugi paled, his eyes widening a little. "But… But I'm not a dragon!"

Tristan crossed his arms and looked him over. "You sort of are."

"Not all the way!"

"That may not matter," said Ryou. "You were the only one to hear it aside from our dragon monsters. You must be dragon enough to hear it." Yugi sighed in defeat. He didn't like the idea of being classified with the rest of the resistance dragons.

Shimon approached the gathering after having collected the gems of the fallen resistance monsters from the field. "It would appear as though we no longer control our own dragons."

"Yeah, but the question is who does?" asked Joey.

"The enemy?" supplied Téa.

"Yes, but how they are doing it is more pressing," said Ryou.

Yugi looked down at the ground, eyes narrowed in thought. "It must have something to do with that sound I heard. If only dragons hear it, and our dragons were the only monsters to be affected, then the two must be connected." He looked up. "The sound might even be what's controlling them."

Ryou put a hand to his chin. "A sound that controls dragons…"

"If the sound controls dragons, then we're lucky Yug' didn't…" Joey trailed off apprehensively, but Ryou shook his head.

"If the sound is designed for dragons, it shouldn't affect Yugi. He's too human for it to work." An immediate relief eased the air around the tree.

Yugi agreed. "It didn't feel like magic… It just hurt."

Mai turned to them resolutely. "So someone else has our dragons now. That's not good. What if it's the enemy? They could be planning to use them against us."

"I'd say that's definitely what they're planning," said Yugi, slipping into his usual edge-of-battle seriousness. "If not, it won't take them long to think of it."

"What are we supposed to do then?" asked Téa worriedly.

"The only thing we can do," Yugi answered her. "We have to hit them first, before they have a chance to attack us. If we can surprise them, we may be able to overcome them long enough to find out how it is they're controlling our dragons, and find a way to break the spell. I'd say that's our only shot at getting them back." The others nodded to each other in agreement, but Joey kept his gaze stern.

"So we set out to find them." Tristan cracked his knuckles eagerly. "A chance to fight those cowards back!"

"One thing though," said Joey suddenly. His eyes were narrowed with precaution, almost suspicion. "I don't think Yugi should come with us." There came an immediate unified gasp, but Yugi didn't seem surprised by this statement.

"Are you crazy?" Tristan exclaimed. "A fight without Yugi is like… like…"

"I know. A gun without a bullet… or a dragon without its teeth." The blonde looked hard into Yugi's eyes. Seeing his denatured irises only doubled his resolve. "But I don't think it's a good idea. If we're fighting the enemy and they use our dragons against us, they'll use that sound again. Yugi will only get hurt when they do." There was more behind his words than just his rationale. He didn't like the plan Yugi had given, even though the others had already agreed to it. If he was going to follow it, he was going to do it without Yugi around. He couldn't stand the idea of following him around just yet.

"But…!"

Yugi held Joey's gaze. "I agree with Joey."

"What!" Tristan rounded on him, aghast. Joey too was surprised by this.

"No. I'm only a liability to you all. If that mystery sound comes back… I won't be of any help to you. Also…" He paused, a slight friction in his voice. "I don't want to take the chance… that I'm really not immune to it." He glanced at Téa and met her downtrodden gaze, but he couldn't stand the worry there for long and looked away. "I'll stay here with Fizdis. She can't stay here alone."

Joey nodded. "Right. We'll head out, and you two stay here. We'll come back when we've taken care of everything." How they were going to manage that seemed a forlorn hope, for everyone bar Téa had lost his or her most powerful monster to the enemy; Mai had even lost two. What monsters remained were already beaten and exhausted from battle. To hope for a victory now was the hope of a fool. Still, they carried the determination to fight their hardest and reclaim their stolen monsters.

They turned to leave then, intent to not waste any time. Yugi watched them go with narrowed eyes and sent a deft, calculated thought to Mahado. There came in reply sternness, then an understanding, and a touch of reinforcing magic. 'I see. I will do what I can to aid you, Soulmaster.'

With a sigh he turned and made for the rock where Fizdis was poking her head out, smiling at the sight of her.

---

The two sat together on a flat stone a small distance away from the tree. It had taken Yugi a few moments before he could find a way to sit comfortably thanks to his tail. He wasn't used to dealing with an extra appendage, especially given its location: its tendency to get in the way of things became quickly apparent. The way it would move on its own continued to unsettle him, too. The end of it liked to wave back and forth as though lulled by a gentle wind. He still hadn't mastered control over the myriad of muscles his tail possessed, even though he had been practicing; but if he concentrated hard enough he could at least express minimal influence over its movements.

Right now his tail was doing its usual, curling behind him, and he leaned back to rest against his hands. He looked up at the sky and noted, "It's a beautiful day today."

Fizdis murmured a faint agreement, and then quiet resumed. The air around them was peaceful, with just enough wind to flutter the ends of their hair. The temperature was comfortably warm without being too hot. There was a faint buzz in the air from the wispy insects undulating among the grasses. Fizdis glanced at Yugi, whom was watching the clouds above them, then looked away quickly. She had her hands clamped together uneasily on her lap, until finally she broke and said, "You didn't have to stay behind with me."

Yugi turned his gaze away from the clouds to look at her. His eyes shone warmly in the sunlight and he smiled. "Nonsense," he said. "I couldn't just leave you here alone. I imagine you'd get lonely pretty quickly out here." He waved at the expansive plain in front of them. "I wouldn't want to leave you unprotected, either, should any Imperials come this way."

The kindness radiating from the dark violet of his eyes evoked a smile on Fizdis's face as well. The fact that he actually cared about her well-being warmed her heart greatly. She had thought that Yugi cared more about his other friends, those he had known since before joining the resistance, and that she was nothing more than an obligation to him. "Besides," he added, the warm light cooling slightly on his eyes, "I still stand by my earlier rationale for staying behind."

He was referring to the terrible sound that had incapacitated him during the battle. Fizdis had overheard the conversation with the others shortly afterward, though she could hardly imagine what such an awful noise could sound like. "Y-You don't think it actually would…?"

"I don't know." He sighed and turned back to face the sky again. "But I'd rather not risk it." Another period of extended silence followed.

"So… How do you think the others are doing?" asked Fizdis timidly. It had been nearly an hour since their departure. Inwardly Yugi was grateful for her conversation. Of all the resistance members, she was the one the least afraid of speaking to him.

"…It will be a difficult battle for them," Yugi answered truthfully. "But I don't think we have to worry about them too much. They'll stay strong, even though they'll have to fight our own monsters…" Fizdis sniffed slightly and he turned to see a bead of water collect in her eye.

"Like Uraby…" she said quietly, the tear slipping down her cheek.

"Hey." Yugi placed his hand on top of hers. "Don't worry. The others will win. They'll get Uraby and your other dinosaurs back."

There was a pause as Fizdis hesitated like she was holding something back. Then without warning she flung herself onto Yugi, gripping him in a tight hug. Yugi gasped in surprise; he remained frozen as she pressed her head against his shoulder. "I couldn't stop them from taking him…" she said desperately. "And now I can't even help get him back…!"

She sobbed, "I miss them…" The tears from her eyes were dripping onto Yugi's skin and running down his arm. She had crossed the line with this, Fizdis knew. Yugi had offered her solace and she had blown it out of proportion; she had even dared to cry all over him. She thought for sure that Yugi would shove her away… but he didn't. Instead he shifted closer and put his arm around her shoulder. Shocked, she looked up to see him gazing at her concernedly.

"It's all right," he soothed. His marble-smooth voice slid into her ears and slipped down to her stomach where it settled the hiccups of her tears. "I can see why you miss them so. They're good to you, and do so much to protect you. They're true companions."

He looked away at the horizon. "Like Seiyaryu…"

Fizdis pulled back, the edges of her eyes still wet, and looked at him. "You miss your dragon, too…" She saw the pained sadness swirling in Yugi's eyes, but when he spoke to her his voice was steady in tone.

"We'll see them again soon…"

---

Walking on foot towards a battle known to be lost was disheartening enough to keep them silent even without the pressing thoughts on their minds. By now the grass had thinned to lesser plants and open ground as they neared the mountains. Their destination was still a distant block set into the rocky face of the mountain, far away from where they stood. The sight of their target only worsened their dread.

At the head of the group, Joey suddenly stopped walking, his eyes slightly narrowed, a buzzing color mixed with the usual brown. The others stopped curiously behind him.

"Joey?" Mai tested. The wind swept through his hair and stirred his jacket tail.

"I don't like this," he said finally. His voice was open and opaque like the rocks surrounding them.

"None of us like this, Joey. We're walking into our own doom."

"No. Not that. I don't like that we left them back there alone."

"Yugi and Fizdis?"

"Yeah."

"They're fine where they are, Joey," said Ryou gently. "They're safer there than they are with us."

Joey shook his head. "I don't know. It's been bothering me ever since we left. Eatin' at me. I just have this feeling…"

"What do you mean?" asked Tristan.

"Joey, I think you're just overreacting," said Mai.

"I don't know what it is, okay? I've just got this feeling… that maybe they're in more danger than we are…" he trailed off after having finally voiced his worry.

"In danger?" Mai echoed. "How?"

"Look, it's just a feeling, all right?"

"The sound," said Téa quietly, her eyes quickly misting.

"You mean the one Yugi heard?" Tristan rounded on her but she already had her gaze averted.

Mai's face tinted a shade lighter. "You don't think it would come back, do you?"

"There's always a chance that it could," Ryou said with much the same realization rising on his face.

"Damn it! I don't know what to think!" Joey hollered. "We're this close to the base but we haven't been attacked; that makes me think the enemy's back there–!"

"We have to go back," Téa said detachedly. "We have to make sure."

"I'm with Téa," said Tristan.

Joey turned on his heals. "Damn it! If he's hurt I'll kill those Imperials!" He took off sprinting back towards the grassland.

---

Fizdis had recovered from her tears and now sat quietly, although Yugi continued to keep her hand in his to assure her calm. The slight breeze had died off, leaving the world around them still. The buzz of insects in the fields was a faint and distant drone settling into the earth. He sat watching the flurries of heat dance above the grass with an internal sigh. The continual stillness, the quiet, was unsettling; he could hardly stand the nothing and his anxiousness was expressed in his curling tail.

The eeriness of the setting then struck him. It was too quiet, too serene. Something about it was subtly off to him, as though it was by someone's hand that the world should lay so still. The end of his tail gave a flick and he felt a jangling against his scales. It was faint, but he could still sense it as the undeniable wisps of magic in the air.

He squeezed Fizdis's hand a little tighter. She looked at him concernedly as he let go of her hand and slowly stood up from the rock. There was magic in the air around them. Yugi's eyes narrowed sharply, for the unknown stirrings carried a taste of sinister intent. Despite its faintness it was uniformly spread around him, with no apparent source. Where was it?

The ground.

He felt it and realized its source just as the ground beneath his feet roared.

The ground shuddered and pinched itself in a bind. It rumbled like the heart of a storm cloud in a black roiling sky. An earthquake! The soil heaved, a twisting mass of dust and rock in the air, and as Yugi stood through the shock he watched it curl in around Fizdis. Though the dusky smoke now became visible the forms of gnarled vines: the thick roots of the tree beyond rising up in anger. They rose up around her and tightened, gripping her in an inescapable hold. She cried, "Yugi, help!"

Yugi did not hesitate – yet the ground beneath his feet then split, and more roots issued forth, shooting straight up at him. They had already looped around his legs before he even had voiced his surprise. He tried to make use of his tail and slash at the roots with the blade tip, but they were too quick for him and seized their would-be attacker before he could direct the intended movement. The roots snaked their way up him and squeezed, constricting his arms and pressing his wings painfully into his back. The last coil stopped dangerously close to his neck and curled gingerly.

At last, complete in their objective, the roots and earth fell still around them. Yugi struggled against them, but their woody grip held true and proved too tight to seek escape. He looked at Fizdis on the ground across from him. She was tied up in much the same way, with no chance of getting free. Yugi was bound by nearly twice the amount of vines that she was. Whoever had initiated this capture had made sure to keep him properly restrained.

His head jerked up at the sound of deep growling nearby. He spied then through the dissipating dust the image of a black dragon. It stood tall on its sinewy back legs and growled with the throat of an alligator, leathery and coarse. Bleached ivory horns stood in clusters at the back of its head, and its teeth… Yugi hadn't seen such teeth on any dragon before; they veered directly out of its jaw, with no lip to hide them, in a shape that sufficiently matched the layout of a beaver's and made them perfect for gnawing on anything the size of a tree trunk or better. The beast was staring at them with glinting emerald eyes that even in the warm air were frosted.

Yugi's breath came sharply. "A controlled dragon…"

A voice answered him: "Quick to see it. Maybe this is worth my effort."

A man stepped into view beside the black dragon. He wore the garb of an Imperial officer, with robes that pooled at his feet and the shine of bluish steel on his helmet. He was tall, but thin beneath the folds of fabric; the armor he wore did not suit him. Indeed, Yugi noted that this officer looked different than most of the others he had faced, for his robes made him look less like a commander of troops and more like some sort of priest. He could sense around this man a thick aura of magic, stifling and purposefully released as if a ploy of intimidation. It stuck in the back of his throat like dried cotton; it was nothing at all like the smooth, controlled power that Mahado emitted.

Yugi was quick to interrogate him. "Who are you?"

The man turned to face him fully. "I am the High Mage Atensa, chief overseer of the Empire's magics," he answered, his voice sounding brassy, full of confidence. "No need to introduce yourself. I'm well aware of your identity. You are the leader of the resistance." Atensa stepped closer and stood in front of Yugi, looking him over. "Yes, you are he… I can tell by the look of fire in your eyes."

Indeed Yugi's eyes were fiery, fueled by the mention of the Empire. Anger now simmering in his system, his pupils narrowed, making him look more dragonic. Antensa said more casually, "You've done quite a number on the Empire, you know. You've felled every form of high command you've faced. Quite an impressive feat. Now you've left me to do their jobs."

"Why serve the Empire?" Yugi demanded. "Your Emperor is dead!"

"I'm well aware of that," Atensa replied, "but the new Emperor is a far more capable man than our previous. His power is far greater than anything that weak Haysheen possessed. Now I serve the new Emperor… Emperor Scott!"

At the mention of his enemy's name Yugi hissed with spite. Scott had used his power to take the position of Emperor in this world and in doing so and now commanded all of the Imperial troops and monsters. He had claimed control of the entire continent, and in his head Yugi could see that wretched smirk, those abyss eyes leering with unwavering power. He would throw the entire resources of the continent against them in his campaign. "Scott has become Emperor? To what end?"

Atensa gave only the vague reply: "It matters not." He turned his back to Yugi and took a few paces towards Fizdis. Her eyes were wide and she shivered as she looked back and forth between the hulking dragon and the towering man before her. Atensa hummed at the sight of her fear. "Emperor Scott will reward me greatly for my actions today. I have succeeded where my fellows have failed: here, I have overturned the resistance and captured their leader."

"My capture alone will not be our undoing!"

"Oh?" He turned back with a superior smirk and a knowing glint in his eyes. His voice was deliberate as he said, "What about the betrayal of your dragons?"

The glimmer of light in the black dragon's eyes now shone on revelation. "It was you," Yugi realized aloud. "You're the one that turned our dragons against us!"

Atensa grinned wickedly. "Wonderful, isn't it? I am the sole commander of your once-monsters now. I am their master and they obey me without question or will…" He gestured to the black beast behind him. "A Black Dragon Jungle King, an earth dragon, ruler of the forests and guardian of the forests, destroyer of those who would invade his realm. A dragon capable of bending all forces of the jungle to his will." He motioned then to the roots entangling the pair in front of him. (1) "You know that firsthand."

While he had been talking Yugi had been struggling again, but the roots were like hardened cement, molded against his form. "You would corrupt such a noble guardian for your own gain?" Yugi asked, his anger rising further. Even his scales seemed to shimmer with hate. "You are as black-hearted as any of the Empire's spawn."

Atensa laughed at these words. "So valiant: a hero's eloquence. For all your cries of anger, your words go unheeded. I am beyond what any of the other Imperial drones are. I possess magical skill that they could never command… and I alone possess the knowledge to control dragons…"

He touched a gem around his neck, half-hidden by the many folds of fabric. A spark of light gleamed, and an idol-like statue appeared, floating in the air beside Atensa, staring forever forward with its one eye and holding a long flute in its hands. Yugi saw this monster and recognized it immediately, for he had faced it once before in a fight with the distant Pegasus. His face paling slightly at the sight of it, he swallowed and said, "A Dragon Piper."

He should have foreseen it. Everything made sense now. The Dragon Piper controlled dragon monsters with the sound of its flute, and in the game the effect was used to turn dragon monsters against their owners. Its sound only penetrated a dragon's ears, which explained why Yugi, dragonic as he was, had heard it. Atensa's smirk broadened with the recognition of his monster.

"Yes. With this monster by my side, I can control any dragon… and no one will be able to touch me in battle." He stepped forward and stood directly in front of Yugi. "Which brings me here to claim the final piece."

He traced a thin finger along the edge of Yugi's chin. Yugi growled and snapped at it, but Atensa pulled it out of harm's way. "I watched the battle that took place here prior. I know that you can hear my song."

Yugi snarled, fangs salient in the light. "Its spell does not affect me!"

Atensa chuckled at his vicious reaction. "Yes, I know. You are too human to suffer its full effects. It merely hurts you, without subjecting you to any of its will-bending magic. I have planned a way around that. You display bits of a dragon's nature within your own, even if you are not consciously aware of it…" He eyed the pearly fangs leering at him. "I contend that if subjected to enough pain those bits would flare stronger, and even you as a human would then become vulnerable…"

In being vulnerable, Yugi would then become the equivalent of the last resistance dragon, and be stolen the same way the others had been. Fizdis realized this and cried out. "No! You can't!" Atensa was planning to torture Yugi into submission! She couldn't let that happen: she squirmed in the roots, trying desperately to twist free, to save Yugi!

Atensa ignored her, and Yugi felt him exude a wave of magic toward the Dragon Piper. The monster raised its flute to rest precariously on its bottom lip. "I won't give in to you," Yugi growled darkly. Recalcitrant as he tried to keep his face, he felt remnants of a buzzing fear rising up in him quickly.

"Then we'll see just how long you can hold out."

A pulse of dense magic, directed at the Dragon Piper, sent static tremors through Yugi's nerves. There was a breathless moment as the floating monster tightened its grip and began to play.

Instantly the sound began anew. It started softly, that low, irritating din, then rose quickly up into its most intense frequency and lashed against Yugi's ears with the force of a wave smashing into a rocky coast. This time it peaked much faster than it had in the battle: it caught Yugi unprepared and evoked from him a cry of surprised pain.

Even though she heard nothing, Fizdis felt the imagined sound in her head and shuddered. "Yugi!"

Yugi grit his teeth then and pulled his expression taut. Though his eyes were clenched shut and he was applying so much pressure to his jaw he thought it might crunch, he kept the true amount of pain he was feeling invisible beneath his steely resolve. He worked hard to restrain the shivers and draw in any outward sign of affliction. He held stiff in the vines, quivering slightly at the edges but otherwise solid in demeanor.

Atensa frowned at his effort. Resistance from Yugi was to be expected, due to the fact that the magic wasn't formatted to him, but the amount he was now showing displeased him. The sound of the flute wasn't pulling its effect over him, even though the air was filled with the vibrations of the spell. The magic wasn't even touching him; what he suffered came only from the sound itself and not the spell behind it.

He commanded the Dragon Piper to stop playing and the sound abruptly cut off. Yugi let out a gasp of air and released his rigid posture. His skin tingled with remote numbness due to the ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes and looked across at Fizdis. She saw the fatigue in his eyes, the amount of will it had taken to hold silent, and saw the drain of vitality there. He never changed his expression: he just looked straight at her, panting for breath. Something flickered in his eyes that she didn't recognize, like a touch of truth that no one, apart from himself, knew.

This will not do, thought Atensa to himself. The current method for subduing
Yugi was much too slow. He needed to try a new avenue. Although not a commonly known fact, the Dragon Piper possessed songs that produced effects other than simply dominating a dragon's will. It could stop dragons in their tracks by putting them to sleep, slow them down to incredibly sluggish speeds, or, Atensa realized with a rising smirk, inflict upon them a terrible agony that struck every organ of the body. Yes, he would invoke a pain so fierce that not even the mighty resistance leader could stave it off for long.

Yugi read Atensa's expression and narrowed his eyes defiantly. He didn't speak, but the emotion was clear in his countenance. "Oh no, don't think that you can hold out on this one," said Atensa darkly. "I'll bring you to submission yet…"

Again the Dragon Piper started playing, but this time the sound was different. Rather than rising up in a high-pitched wail, the sound stayed lower, a strong, steady rumble that warped the air. Like its predecessor the sound vibrated with just the right frequency to make Yugi's whole body resonate down to his core. Yugi held his breath cautiously. There was no pain coming from the sound, but the look on Atensa's face steadily increased his worry –

It struck him full force. In an instant the sound exploded inside him. Jagged claws on the ends of gnarled hands seized all of his muscles and pulled on both ends, drawing them tight. He jerked as his whole frame went livid; for a moment he couldn't breathe and felt the sweltering panic of being airless. It was then that the sound's true pain was ushered in. While his muscles were already being stretched to the limit in both directions, he felt as though something was pulling at the middle, like a finger plucking a giant guitar string. When the string didn't vibrate the finger would pull harder, then harder, stretching and tearing muscle free from bone…

His voice broke free from his restricted throat. "Ahgh!" He tried to regain his composure, his mien of resistance, but the sound was inside him, ravaging everything! He struggled at the roots still grasping him and felt a greater tightness inside: to move was to incite agony, and to remain motionless was much worse. The groaning sound pressed in on his heart, squishing it flat so that every beat forced blood through veins stretched too thin to accommodate it and resulted in a feeling like sand being driven through him to erode away his insides. He could hardly breathe; his lungs could not draw in sufficient air and what little was obtained was immediately expelled in his cries of agony.

Fizdis felt a wave of salt strike the back of her eyes with the sound of his pain but she could not force herself to look away. "Yugi!" she hollered. "Don't listen to it!" By talking to him she hoped to draw him away from his plague, to ground him. "Please! You must stay strong! You can't listen!"

Though his ears were barely functioning, Yugi heard her. He didn't hear her words, but the sound of her voice broke through and, sensing her intentions, he cried out to her hoarsely. "Fizdis! Ahgh! It's too loud… Aah! I-I… SHREEAALH!"

The last of his words tightened without warning into a screech. Fizdis flinched at the unnatural sound, a sound of pain. Atensa's expression changed when he heard this to a look of anticipation. "My theory was correct," he said. "With pain you do revert." Swiftly he appeared in front of Yugi and seized a rough grip on his chin. "Keep listening, dragon. You'll give in soon enough."

"Let go of him!" yelled Fizdis. "Stop torturing him!"

Atensa didn't even look at her. "Don't be naïve, girl. This one in his adamancy will yet be mine."

Yugi couldn't draw in his voice. It kept escaping him, thrust out as every bone in his body was stripped bare of its sinew. His throat was tight, clenched like a vise, restricting the air forced up through it into the screeches Atensa so desired. His mind was cold, filled only with the acute awareness of his pain and bereft of any thought that would help the situation. He knew only that should the sound not let up, he would not make it. This thought did not seem to grace Atensa's mind as he watched Yugi's struggle hungrily. He still believed that Yugi would be overcome. The idea of destroying his target before he had a chance to succeed in his goal was alien to him.

Only a watery exclamation from the strained voice of Fizdis seemed to bring this to his attention. "Please stop! You'll kill him!"

…The girl was right. Atensa released his hold on Yugi's face and issued a quick command to the Dragon Piper to stop. Yugi shuddered as all of his muscles were released from the ragged grip that held them and allowed to relax. He gasped for breath, caught in a daze that consisted of nothing but pumping his heart and lungs. His pupils were thin. The eyes behind them were dull. His ears were ringing and he didn't hear Fizdis's frantic calls to his health.

Atensa watched, and stirred a frown: he needed to act now, while Yugi still showed a dragon's pain, before he could recover. Again there was a swift command sent to the Dragon Piper to begin anew his will-bending song. The high-pitched wail returned and caught Yugi between breaths, causing him to choke on the air. Not again; not now, so soon after being torn–!

It held him. It burrowed into him and lodged into his bones and resonated cleanly there, filling his whole being with the sound. It twisted rusted nails into his skull, piercing his conscious more deeply than it ever had before. The sound hurt more than it had previously, rattling the already flayed edges of his muscles. Atensa watched the pain overtake his captive; surely now the magic would affect him, draw in his weakened will. What he didn't know was that still the magic was failing, unable to bridge the gap from dragon ears to a human mind.

This was Yugi's limit; another swell from the insane sound and he would break into a limp mass of bone and bleeding eardrums. He could scarcely feel the rattle of his throat as he let loose another screech. His ears had long since stopped functioning, deaf to everything except the penetrating powers of the sound. With the last amount of conscious that wasn't completely ravaged by the sound he clawed inward, searching for that frail trace of magic Mahado was no doubt holding out to him, scouring his heart to find that pinprick–

There! He grasped the thread of magic and eased slightly on the inside, knowing the relief that would soon come with it–

But the sound reached a crest and crescendoed into a lance that through its resonance in him attacked his heart with its blade. It sliced through his heartstrings, abruptly ending what little contact with Mahado he had. Yugi gave a terrible jerk, feeling the magical repercussions of this action all the way up in his brain. An insane numbness – black, blind, couldn't see – and then that was it. With not so much as a word he slumped in the roots' grip, head slack to the side.

Fizdis let out a gasp of horror. "Yugi, no!" Tears poured out of her eyes, but Yugi didn't answer, didn't budge. Atensa motioned for the Dragon Piper to stop playing. He stepped in front of his captive in scrutiny. Had the magic finally succeeded? Yugi appeared to have passed out from the pain. Atensa scrutinized his aura (startled at its strength even while unconscious) and found that there was no air of resistance. Just solid magic, a listless field, set on autopilot.

Fizdis tried to see Yugi but Atensa barred her view. Atensa watched Yugi sternly and held his aura strong. There was a prolonged moment of stillness, during which he judged Yugi's aura until he finally came to a decision. He tipped his head back in a laugh. "It is a success!" he declared. To the Black Dragon Jungle King he issued the command of, "Release him." The vines twisted away, curling back under the earth, leaving Yugi to stand alone. The Black Dragon Jungle King caught him against his shoulder before he fell. Yugi's head was angled down so that his eyes remained hidden behind the shadows of his bangs.

"Surely it is not that simple, though," murmured Atensa to himself suddenly. "To have resisted for so long, there must be a catch to such a quick submission." He looked hard at Yugi. "We will see about that later."

Fizdis saw the black dragon's claws close around him in a captive grip, and trembled weakly. "No…"

Atensa turned to Fizdis with a smirk on his face. "Leave her," he said to the black dragon, whom had been eyeing her and shifting its jaw. "We need someone alive to bear witness to the other rebels."

Fizdis showed confusion at this, and he explained, "I was originally going to take the rebel dragons and escape with them, so that Emperor Scott himself could finish you off in a glorious moment of destruction… but it would be so much more painful to be destroyed by your own dragons and your leader." He came closer and stood beside Yugi. "When the others return from their fruitless battle they will find you and know that I have succeeded in taking their last dragon…"

Atensa brought his hand up in front of him, and a touch of gold encased his fingertips. "You'll know where to find me," he said, "at the fort of Chelyumn you so desperately wanted to take." Gold light gleamed and surrounded Atensa and his two servant monsters. It swirled up around Yugi too, and with a dismissive wave of his hand Atensa completed the teleportation spell and all of them vanished in a blast of light. Fizdis looked away, felt the cold burst of wind on her face, and heard silence. When she turned back the ground was empty.

Tears drying on her face, she looked up at the sky in despair.

---

Damn it! swore Joey in his mind. The closer we get the bigger my bad feeling's getting…

The outcropping of rocks was visible as a swelling lump in the distance. Joey's heart drew in more tightly with each gasp for breath, with each pump of fearful blood. A few more seconds and they would be able to see Yugi and Fizdis safe, untouched, and right where they left them… or at least Joey kept telling himself this.

There! He could see the place where they left them…

…and even from a distance could feel the barren wind blow through, circling the place where Fizdis was trapped by twisted vines, and driving into him the painful fact that Yugi wasn't with her at all.

DAMN!

"Holy-! Fizdis!" cried Tristan, for he had seen her too. They reached her and he and Ryou immediately began pulling the roots off of her. "What the hell happened?"

Fizdis's eyes were listless, staring at the sundered ground. She didn't react to the two boys attempting to break the bonds holding her. "The mage Shimon warned us about," she said quietly. "Atensa…"

"What happened?"

At last they pulled her free, yet she remained where she was, wreathed by the torn curls of the roots. "He played the sound that only dragons hear…"

"Damn it!" Joey swore.

"He tortured Yugi with it, and took him…"

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Anger and tumult were pounding through Joey's frame, such that his innards were completely bathed in their color. This was his fault. Because of him, Yugi had been put in danger under the illusion of safety. And why? Because he had been stupid enough to think that separating was a good idea. His pride hadn't let him stay near the friend he had so injured… the friend that he had mistrusted, out of fear of his difference, fear that his transformation had left him somehow different from before. Now… he had failed in trying to protect his best friend. He could not, would not forgive himself for that.

Nor could he forgive that conniving Imperial bastard.

"You are DEAD, Atensa!"

---

Joey ran towards Fort Chelyumn with all the speed he could muster. He was exhausted from all the exertion; his head was swimming with fatigue, a shortage of oxygen, and his thoughts. He swore to himself that here he would right all his wrong actions: letting their dragons be taken, splitting up the team.

Being a jerk toward Yugi.

As he ran, he wasn't even sure if the others were behind him or not. He might have left them in the dust. He couldn't pause to look back, for if he did he knew he would not get himself to start running again. The landscape ran with him, the hills equal in his speed, the grass falling behind as the plains opened to dirt, then scabbed over with rocks. Here rose the mountain from its resting place at the edge of the world, just in time to feel the light of day on its face as evening rapidly approached. Joey was so preoccupied with everything that he hadn't noticed that no one had appeared to stop him from reaching his destination. He didn't have time to think that maybe the Imperials wanted him to approach their lair.

Joey had reached the base of the mountain where the path leading up to the fort began when he realized he could go no further. He collapsed against a boulder, leaning heavily on it as he huffed for breath. The nerves in his legs sizzled with heat and pain. The stitch in his side had been sewn so tightly he wasn't sure if he would ever stand up straight again. He gasped for air and stared up at the mountain face, cursing his weakness. He had to make it up there…

"Hey rock head! Slow down!" Tristan was yelling at him while trying, and failing, to look dignified as he ran. Everyone else was with him gasping and wheezing for breath. He had summoned Gazelle to carry the girls, though it too looked exhausted from having to bear their weight for so long. Tristan half stumbled and half stopped to rest against the boulder next to Joey. "You – rock – head," he repeated between breaths.

"Hey, shut up!" said Joey, breathing just as heavily. "Or I'll slug ya' a good one right in the–"

He didn't have time to finish his threat. The ground started rumbling, groaning like a beast mad with hunger deep within its cave. Everyone froze except for Fizdis, whom immediately started hollering, "No! We have to move, before–"

KRRNGH!

The ground burst open and roots shot out, flailing for their prey. The boulder upon which Joey and Tristan had been leaning cracked and blew apart as more roots forced their way out. Tristan tried to punch one back; yelped as it seized his arm. The slithering, squeezing vines were engulfing everyone; they were grabbed, constricted, and lifted into the air. Gazelle was seized and squished mercilessly until it suffocated and vanished into its jewel.

Joey felt the roots curl around him more tightly, digging their roughest parts into his exposed skin. He struggled against them but couldn't break free from where they held him high above the ground. Suddenly gold light blazed across the clearing, halting the roots' movement, and he snapped his head to see a man appear from the blast. He knew the identity of this man. "Atensa!" he roared.

"Come now, is that any way to greet me?" he said snidely. "I've been taking such good care of your friends, after all." He waved his hands and a myriad of gold lights burst behind him, like yellow roses opening with the snap of winds in a sail. There stood the resistance dragons, with leering emeralds in their skulls, as well as countless other dragons that were foreign to him, others who had been ensnared into the Imperial force against their will. Joey saw among them Seiyaryu, Yugi's dragon. He felt that the forced evil in its eyes was the most gut wrenching of all the dragons. Red-Eyes and the others could be vicious, yes, but for Seiyaryu its battle-wrought anger had never seemed like rage, more like divine providence, and great justice. Thinking on this reminded Joey of his greatest anger.

"Where's Yugi?" he demanded. Atensa said nothing and merely smirked, gesturing off at the ranks of dragons, towards his Red-Eyes. Joey looked to where he pointed and saw near the ground a form supported by black talons, a form with red scales and a crown of spikes. "Yug'!" he cried, but knew there would be no response.

Joey rounded on Atensa with rage, or at least performed the best equivalent that he could while constricted. "What did you do to him?"

"Why, all I did was play a little song for him." He summoned his Dragon Piper to the air. Fearful memories surfaced as Joey looked on it. A Dragon Piper… of course. "I didn't think it was that loud," Atensa went on. "Maybe it was for him. Regardless, it was quite rude of him to pass out in the middle of my song like that."

"You jerk!"

Atensa stepped up to him then, right at the base of the roots, and peered up at him with the flames of a strange excitement in his eyes. Joey realized that he didn't like the look in his eyes and swallowed. "Would you like to see what he can do?" he whispered with dark intensity.

He whirled around, his robes billowing up as he took great strides toward his choicest captive. "He held out longer than any other dragon," he said loudly enough to cross the clearing. "Much longer than I would have wagered. Even so, there is still a delay in the spell, but that is to be expected: he is only a half-blood, after all."

He stood in front of Yugi; signaled for Red-Eyes to let go. Yugi stood unnaturally still once released, even his tail, which lay in a motionless coil around his feet devoid of even its nominal swishing. There was something distinctly off about his posture, and Joey felt a slithering dread creep into his stomach. Atensa gave a wave and the other dragons pulled back, leaving him alone with Yugi. "Would you like to see what he can do?" he repeated.

"Don't you dare touch him!"

"Tsk tsk, you should be more concerned with what he'll do to you." He gestured at the bound resistance forces. "You're sitting targets in front of a sleeping dragon."

"He ain't a dragon! He's Yugi!" Joey swallowed thickly. Emotion was coming up within him to replace his fear. "He's a person. He's my best friend, and I – I trust him!"

His declaration rang out against the curling mountain air. He had relinquished what fears he had for his friend, of his friend… Whatever happened now was fate. Atensa's strange dementia took on more power with his proclamation. "How touching," his voice was a rumble. "Let us ask your 'best friend' if he returns your sentiments." He turned, spinning his waves of magic, and Yugi stirred.

It was a subtle movement at first, then his tail shifted, and his head tilted up so that his eyes were visible as they slid open. The others saw in them exactly what Atensa wanted them to see: a touch of green dust drifting in his eyes and no emotion. The green in his eyes was the iridescent color of a peacock, one that changed in hue as the angle of light shifted. With the setting sun shining directly onto his face the green was dull and brilliant purple shone behind it.

"You speak of his humanity but I will show you a dragon's rage!" hollered Atensa, guiding his magic further. There was a hesitation before Yugi started growling. The sound was loud enough to clearly reach Joey's ears and wrench his heart. His tail curled, lifting up so that the blade was readily visible, crimson scales stained vermillion in the fading light. "A dragon in viciousness and in essence!" shouted Atensa.

Yugi snarled, fangs edged in the shadows cast by the setting sun. Dark orange sunlight struck his face, carving it into the same areas of dark shadows and fierce highlights, and in that light something pinged in Joey's head. He noticed the subtle change in Yugi's expression, a slight glimmer of light on an exposed tooth, as his snarl changed, inexplicably… into a grin.

Yugi whirled, scales flashing, eyes shining an unhindered violet to face Atensa with spite and pride and a dragon's fierce snarl lashing in his voice. "Psych!"

Atensa gasped but was already knocked down before he could react. He gestured wildly to his Dragon Piper but Yugi had already raised his tail high and smacked it – clean and hard – into the rocks beyond. The small monster cracked upon impact, then crumbled into dust. Waves of broken spells spilled from the site, tracing spider thread paths back to the ensorcelled dragons, which shook the light from their eyes and the magic dust from their scales. Atensa saw his army of dragons slowly loosen from their servitude and paled.

Yugi pressed him down hard against the rocky ground. Atensa should have had the strength to break free from the grip of someone half his size, yet he found himself feeble, paralyzed into weakness by the radiating heat and anger of the baleful, red-violet eyes that glared at him. "Atensa," he hissed, "I'm glad we can chat face to face."

"Y-You!" he stammered. "There's no way! No way my spell could be broken–"

"Fool!" Yugi cut him off, "You actually believed you had succeeded in taking me?" He flashed his fangs. "Your magic never touched me, Atensa."

"Impossible!"

"No, what's impossible is you making it out of here alive…" Atensa realized just how scared he was of those eyes. "I believe my comrades would like to share with you their feelings on being treated as Imperial dogs." Behind him, the dragons were growling and snarling, stretching their claws and huffing sparks from their nostrils. They stared at Atensa like the victims of an insatiable hunger.

Yugi pulled back, and the dragons encircled the terrorized Atensa. With surging roars they tore into him viciously; there was a muffled scream before one of the dragons ripped his throat out. Such was the end of Atensa.

Yugi looked away from the sight. He turned instead to his friends, still bound by the roots. He couldn't suppress the grin creeping up on him. They were staring at him numbly, absolutely thunderstruck. A dragon could have walked up and kissed them full on the mouth before they would have reacted. With a grand flourish of his arm he bowed and said royally, "Tada."

Still they stared, even more confused by Yugi's actions. Innocently he asked them, "What, no applause?"

"Y-Yug'?" Joey asked weakly, working through his stupor.

"You'll have to speak up. My ears are still ringing, I'm afraid."

"What the hell did you just do?" he blurted.

Yugi's eyes sparkled mischievously. "You make it sound as though I've committed a crime. I thought it was a wonderful performance."

"'Performance?' You mean you were…" Joey looked as though he had been hit in the face with a brick. "You were faking it?"

"I prefer the term 'acting,'" he said, his grin broadening, "but yes."

"But the growling–"

"That's easy. Anyone can do that. All it takes is practice." He demonstrated by inhaling and releasing his breath, holding the air back in his throat. The sound produced was exactly the same as his prior growl. (2)

Joey gaped at him. "But your eyes were–"

Yugi chuckled. "That I had help with." He tapped the violet gem around his neck, which gave a quick pulse of light in acknowledgement.

Joey could have died. It was all so simple. "But… But… Why?"

"Because it was the only way to get our dragons back," he said. "There was an extremely low chance of us ever succeeding in reclaiming them by force. The only viable options were to get them back with stealth or strategy. Seeing as how it was impossible to have a sound strategy without knowing the enemy's methods for taking our dragons, by elimination, stealth was the only way."

"There's no way you could have predicted everything would turn out like this."

"No? Let's test my logic, then. Initially, our only clues were from the two battles fought with the Imperials. From those, we know that it was our enemy's goal to take our dragons from us, but during the course of those battles little damage was inflicted physically to our monsters, not until our dragons turned against us. Thus we can assume it was not only our enemy's goal to steal our monsters, but to weaken our emotional resolve as well. We were harrowed, but not knocked out of the count; weakened with the hopes of crumpling in a later encounter.

"During the second fight, a teleportation spell was used in the enemy's retreat. To execute a teleportation spell, particularly for such a high number of Imperials and monsters to be carried, requires massive amounts of magical energy. During the course of the battle Mahado did not detect any signatures of magic that would be strong enough to complete such a task, even among the Spellcaster monsters, which meant: there was a third party, watching the battle at a distance.

"This third party was in tandem with the enemy, obviously, since he aided their retreat. The fact that he was hiding shows his cowardice in the face of battle. Whoever it was preferred instead to watch in safety, then act when he was sure of success. This might have been the end of our encounters with him, but there was an unexpected twist thrown in: me. I could hear the sound he used to control dragons.

"Since we couldn't identify the source of the sound during the battle, that meant that it was with our hidden guest, wielded from afar. He, being in command of the sound, would have noticed my reaction to it, and taken interest in it. Let us remember that our enemy's assumed goal was to destroy our resolve to fight, to attack our hearts. Imagine then the opportunity that appeared before him. He saw that I, the leader of the resistance, could hear the sound. To turn our own dragons against us is one thing. What if he could succeed in turning me against the rest of you? It would be his ultimate strike to our spirit.

"I realized this, and figured to use it to my advantage. I would let him think I was playing into his hands. With his cowardice, he would not have attempted to do anything to me unless he could assure he would be victorious. It would be much easier for him to trap me alone with Fizdis than it would have been had I gone with the rest of you. I myself was going to suggest staying behind, but Joey did that for me. This worked favorably; I couldn't let you in on my plans, for fear of him somehow learning of them.

"It was obvious that when our friend revealed himself he would try to force his magic against me. I arranged with Mahado prior to his assault to set up several spells that would make it appear as though I had submitted, namely the green eyes. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop the pain – that was real – but I didn't have to worry about the spell itself because I truly was immune to it.

"Now back to our friend. Since he believed he could control me, he believed he held all the cards for this situation; this was enough to get the coward to believe he could not be defeated. This sense of security led to him revealing himself to you. Naturally he would want to show off all of his power – all of his dragons. With the belief that I had been successfully taken, he wouldn't have feared placing me among his ranks. He didn't suspect that I could turn on him, and in the end he made the lethal mistake of bringing his fragile Dragon Piper too close to my tail." (3)

Yugi finished and took another bow beneath the stares of his comrades. "How's that for logic?"

"Duh…" No one could believe all that Yugi had just said, yet he had recounted his chained thoughts with the ease of telling what had happened to him at school that day. Inside they were awestruck.

"Remind me to call you the next time I lose my car keys," said Tristan numbly.

"Sure. Now, let's get you guys down from there." Yugi called his two magicians, who used their magic to peel away the vines ensnaring his friends. He stood on the ground beneath as they unraveled the roots and slowly lifted Téa down. He steadied her as she touched down on the ground. "Easy now. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said quietly, not looking at him. "You scared me with that act, Yugi."

"I know." Then for no reason at all he hugged her, and told her, "I promise I won't do that again." She nodded, and hugged him back.

Yugi then moved to catch Fizdis. She seemed wobbly on her feet, thick with the post-worry jittery nerves, and Yugi said softly in her ear, "Fizdis. Had Atensa done anything to threaten you, back in the field, I would have dropped my cover then and stopped him."

She gasped, her eyes wide, shining brown.

"I want you to know that."

She nodded.

Yugi watched Joey tumble down and crash in an undignified heap after refusing to accept the aid of Tristan. He laughed and went over to help him up. "Still have all your grace, I see," he said, offering his hand.

Joey didn't take it. He sat there, unmoving, his hair in his face. After a long silence he exclaimed, "You idiot!"

Yugi flinched. "What?"

"Do you have any idea how freaked out I was? I ran all the way here! That stupid act terrified me!" He rose quickly to his feet. "I'm gonna' kill you!"

And so they did the only thing logical: Yugi ran, and Joey chased him.

"Stop being angry!" called Yugi over his shoulder. "Everything worked out, didn't it?"

"I'm still gonna' knock some sense into you!"

No matter how tired he already was, Joey was faster than Yugi. He caught up to his query and pulled him down. Both hit the ground with a puff of dust. Joey seized his friend in a tight one-armed hug. Yugi struggled against it. "Hey! Let go! You win!"

"Nope, I gotta' punish you first." With that he took his fist and proceeded to rub it in Yugi's hair as jarringly as he could, making the spikes even crazier.

"Ow! Stop that! You know I hate that!"

Mai watched from a distance and shook her head. "Must be a guy thing." After that it didn't matter, for soon they were both laughing and dusting themselves off. Something had happened more important than rescuing the resistance dragons.

The two of them had made up.

---

Notes:

(One) – Black Dragon Jungle King is one of my most favorite monsters ever. It's in nearly every game they've released… You can be sure that if it were in this game (and it saddens me that it's not), he would be one of the resistance monsters.

(Two) – It's true. The sound I imagine Yugi making is one hundred percent achievable by humans. I do it all the time. The screech too.

(Three) – Elementary, my dear Watson. (Holy frick.)

SC: Once again, holy frick. I have bested the longest chapter record by a lot:. That's too much, my friends. I need to cut back. I think the reason my chapters are so long is because I plan everything out so much. When I plan, I have to say everything that I planned.

I'm really proud of the logic in this chapter. I worked really hard to make everything work. Now that you know the end, go back and reread it. You'll see all of the foreshadowing I threw in.

I'm also sorry this took so long. I wanted it out before March ended, but I didn't get as much writing done over spring break as I had planned. (Stupid labs.)

Please review! If you don't hate me, that is… (I know there are more of you than just three out there. How could three people leave 100 hits on a chapter! Please review people!)