SC: This chapter is technically off game plot, which is ironic because it contains more of the game plot than the last chapter did. Basically, the veer I had with Counterattack was pretty sharp. I need to get back into line. Those of you who know what happens in the real Counterattack… well, now we get game plot.

Did you know that in the game there is no indication of whether Fizdis is a girl or a boy?

Also: the title is brought up several times. Look for it.

Shattered

After the mess with Atensa, the resistance then took the fort. With no one to lead them, the remaining Imperial troops were like flies: pestering, but without unification to their attack; and now with their dragons back the resistance was stronger than ever. Fort Chelyumn was theirs in minutes.

"Ah-yeah! The resistance is back in business!" Joey practically kicked the front door off of its hinges once the fight outside was done. He held out his arms and did a twirl in the fort's front hall. "Nothing beats collecting the spoils after a round of Imperial tail-kicking."

"I share your sentiments," said Yugi, grinning. The last ordeal had lifted the hazy gloom from his eyes. He was genuinely happy again, something that had been lost on him with the recent events, between the injuries and shunning of his friends. His tail swished and he added wryly, "Except for the part about kicking people's tails." Joey laughed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Some spoils, though." Tristan eyed the place warily. "Looks like the Empire really didn't care about this dump." The ghastly hall, bleaker than any other they had taken, was bogged with stagnant puddles: remnants of the last rainfall that had leaked inside and never dried. "All it needs is some stalactites to be a cave. I swear I hear bats or something."

"It's cold, too." Fizdis gripped her elbows, silver mist at her lips. "I can almost see my breath…"

"We are in the mountains; it's almost night, too," said Ryou. His brilliant hair was the brightest thing visible in the dim lighting. The heavy cold and shadows around them made it hard to see even the usual shine off of Yugi's scales and leather clothes.

"I am not sleeping in a puddle of ice-water," grumbled Mai. The harrowing events of the day had left her with limp, disheveled hair and a weary-lined face, and it was clear that the knowledge of her own unkemptness irritated her to no end. "Those creeps had to be sleeping somewhere warm. Let's find it."

After a marginal amount of castle combing Yugi opened a door and was met with a gush of warm, curling air. "Hey, guys!" He had uncovered a large, circular chamber with a sunken floor a few steps lower than the doorway. Various rugs and cushions covered the floor around a plush bed, set off to one side of the room. Deep crimson tapestries lined the walls and cast black-and-orange shadows in the light of a smoldering fire. The room was formal enough to have been Atensa's private chamber, but judging from the blankets and cloth strewn everywhere Yugi suspected that everyone in the division might have slept here.

Téa appeared in the doorway behind him and her eyes lit with relieved joy. "It's so warm…"

"There's enough room for everyone, if you don't mind the floor," Yugi said to her. His voice was warm like the air slipping around them, gentle like the light flickering on their isolated forms. Téa shivered at the sound; blushed when she noticed his smile.

"Sweet!" Joey and Tristan appeared right off-cue behind them, scrambling for the heat. "I claim the big bed!" they yelled as one.

Téa groaned and Yugi shook his head. He moved away from the door to the fireplace set low into the floor. It still had a few flames burning, hinting at the recent hour of its last occupancy, but they were low. As he bent to take a stick from the pile heaped up nearby he noticed some papers stacked on a small stand. At Mahado's nudge he looked more closely at them and saw furious notes scrawled across the pages, along with what appeared to be arcane symbols. Perceivably, they were Atensa's notes on magic. He leafed through a few pages with half-interest, until his eyes landed on a drawing of a flute. He hissed, and quietly and innocently he took the whole stack and threw it into the fire.

Joey and Tristan were still engaged in their argument. "What? Who says you get the big bed?" demanded Joey. "You didn't even do anything all day, you oaf!"

"Oh yeah? And just what did you do to earn it?" Tristan countered.

"I saved the day!"

Tristan rolled his eyes. "If anyone 'saved the day,' it was Yugi. That was just… crazy. I mean, jeez. He still gets me with that…"

Yugi chuckled at Joey's pouting face. "Well, I'll forego my title to Joey, in honor of his superior show of athletic skill." Joey cheered and punched Tristan in the arm. He added, "Also because it's a much more dignified show of friendship than a noogie."

"Hey," Joey rounded on him, "that was punishment. I can give ya' another." His eyes flashed with energy, the old Joey that wasn't afraid to joke with his friend. Much as his hair would object, Yugi liked this Joey more than the one that had withdrawn from him so.

"I'll decline the offer, thanks."

Mai, Ryou, Fizdis, and Shimon trudged in then, the warmth of the room solidifying their exhaustion. Mai marched right up to the bed where Joey stood victorious and shoved him aside. "Thanks for the loft, Hon'."

"Wha–? Hey! That's mine!"

"And I know you're such a gentleman, and that you'll give it over to me." She settled on the bed and winked at him. "See? You're so thoughtful!" Joey stared at her, dumbstruck.

"Uh… Well at least I earned it!" He stomped away, half-scowling, his face flushed red. Tristan laughed at him before receiving a kick in the shin.

The activity started to unwind after that as people found spots among the cloth to settle in. Yugi scored a spot next to the fire, near Téa. He hadn't stopped grinning the whole time. Things were getting back to normal in this crazy life of his, including his crazy friends. He didn't even care that he had to turn onto his stomach in order to find a comfortable way to sleep. Right now, he was content with one thing: the fact that he felt good.

Too bad good things don't last.

Late that night Yugi woke up with a bad feeling blinking in his eyes. The room was dark and still, the fire low. The scent of smoke and charred pine drifted lazily in the air. His friends were sketches, forms of muted color and black. He reached out with one arm, clawing for another stick, and flung it into the fireplace. A puff of embers breathed upward and he glanced around the room warily. Peaceful as it may seem, something had lodged into his nerves as being wrong, a gristly feeling that didn't match his surroundings. 'Mahado?'

'Soulmaster?' the sorcerer asked after a fatigued delay in response, and Yugi felt sorry for having to wake him. 'What is it?'

Yugi bit his tongue, unsure of whether he should say anything, yet he was genuinely concerned. There was a taste of smoke on his tongue that couldn't belong to this fire alone. 'It's just a feeling,' he said defensively, 'but I don't like it regardless…'

Mahado stirred to greater attention. He knew the subtleties of reality to which his master was sensitive. 'You sense magic?'

'I…' Magic was not the source of his troubles. He had never felt anything of this nature before; it didn't have the same strength in his blood that a wave of magic had. This was… faint. Black. He didn't truly feel anything, more like his mind was supplying him with things that weren't thoughts or dreams. Images of smoke and shadow kept coming to him in fleeting heartbeats, and still it was dim, barely a murmur against his heart. The sense of smoke kept returning to him. Smoke, and a whisper of hate…

He tried to put the feeling – no, not a feeling, a knowing – into words. 'I sense violence. The intent of destruction. I… I don't know what it could mean, or how it could affect us, but…' He froze suddenly, eyes glinting in the firelight, as memory stood against him. Smoke. Blackness. Evil… 'Scott's army.'

'The darkness itself?' Yugi felt Mahado's aura strengthen and weave a greater connection around his heart, should the event of battle grace them. 'You are sure of this, Soulmaster?'

Yugi swallowed. Could Scott's army really be here, high in the mountains? Despite himself his tail was curling upward into a defensive arc. 'I don't know how they could be here, but still.' He checked to see that his friends were still asleep. 'Mahado. Could you sweep the area? See that all's well?'

With a touch of golden magic Mahado vanished to the outside world. Yugi waited in the semi-darkness. His tail swished, curling and uncurling, the equivalent of a nervous foot tapping on stone. 'Soulmaster,' came Mahado's voice, and every muscle in him tensed, 'it is the darkness. They have surrounded the castle. They have formed a circle to a radius of one mile, and are closing in.'

'They have what?' Yugi sat up quickly, the smoky images still adrift in his mind's eye. He was stunned. He had… sensed Scott's army. Known that it was there, approaching them under night's wing. He had felt a presence that wasn't forged of magic… and how did I do that? Now a rough feeling of dread was churning through him. 'Can you gauge their numbers?' he asked. 'Their strength?'

'There are as many as ever, teeming… Sometimes they are there, and sometimes they are leering mountain shadows. There are… hundreds of them.'

Hundreds. A number that none of them was prepared for. Yugi was hastily getting to his feet. 'How soon is their arrival?'

'Though they are many, they come slowly. We have maybe twenty minutes.'

Twenty minutes! That's hardly enough! "Everyone get up!" he shouted.

'Mahado, stay on lookout until I get out there!'

"Nnh," groaned Mai, tossing her pillow weakly at him. "What's wrong with you? It must be two in the morning."

Yugi hissed at her exasperatedly. He wasn't angry, but this very sudden, very deadly threat from the brink of nowhere had filled him with an emotion that he wasn't used to: fear. Static was tingling up and down his nerves. "We've got twenty minutes until we get overrun by Scott's forces!"

"Scott's forces? Here? Now?"

Joey rolled over and stared at the ceiling, eyes bright in the dark. "How the hell did they know we were here?"

"I don't know. We don't have time to debate. We need to move now."

Tristan sat up grumpily, rubbing his eyes. "I hate him. I'll be the one to kill him."

'Soulmaster!' Mahado said suddenly. 'I have been seen. The darkness knows we are aware of its presence. They have hastened their coming, and are nearing the peaks.'

Yugi snarled. "Joey, Mai! You're with me, outside! The rest of you, get ready to fight!" He dashed out the door, leaving Joey and Mai to scramble to their feet and chase after him.

"Wha – Why us?" asked Joey between breaths as they dashed for the roof.

"We need air support! You're my best fliers!" They burst onto the roof then, chilled fog rolling low against their ankles. Already the shadows on the roof seemed too dark; too real and solid for the night. Yugi didn't let up his pace and headed straight for the ledge keeping back the sky, as rose-colored light streamed beside him, becoming feathers and flight. He jumped, and Seiyaryu was beneath him, and they were airborne.

'Soulmaster,' came Mahado's voice. Seiyaryu swooped toward him, flapping high above the parapets.

'What have you seen of these creatures?' Yugi asked, eyes narrow and sharp in the starlight. Red-Eyes and Curse of Dragon were hastily flapping up to join them.

'As I have said, they are shifting. Seemingly endless, like sand…' He looked hard at Yugi, matching his master's slit-thin eyes for sternness. 'They appear to have no monsters with them. It seems that they themselves are the weapon, using claw and shadow to destroy. There is a strange magic about them – one that even I cannot identify.'

"It's Scott," said Yugi, a growl in his words. "He's created this ultimate destructive force to obliterate us." That was the plan, after all, wasn't it? Atensa to weaken them, and Scott to finish them off… The history he had pieced together was playing itself out, exactly as he had predicted.

Think. Plan. Get your friends out of this.

Yugi saw the others appear on the roof below. Some of them began calling monsters to join the circle in the sky. He dug in his heels then, steering Seiyaryu down. "No! Stay on the ground!" he called to them.

"But you all are up there!" said Ryou, one leg on Parrot Dragon's back.

"No! Stay where you are. All of you!" Ryou flinched, nicked by the blade edge in Yugi's words. "We're extremely outnumbered. We need to hold the fort; it's the only advantage we hold to them! Send up your flying monsters, but anyone grounded should stay to the walls!"

Seiyaryu swooped to the other side of the fort. Yugi scanned its form, searching for some fortification they could use to their defense. There were none. Just the four walls holding it up, and the leaky roof over it. The Empire had never meant for this fort to be important, and thus had never anticipated its use in a battle like this one. The resistance had to be their own defense, which meant certain death against these numbers – unless Yugi could think of something.

The mountains penned them in with rocky slopes on three sides; the fourth, the path up the mountain to reach the fort, was open but narrow and offered no protection from the onslaught. There were no natural barriers to aid them, and so long as Scott's forces came via the mountains, they were effectively surrounded. Around the fort there was very little open ground, a ring of flat rock and hard earth – the demons would be right on top of them almost as soon as they cleared the peaks.

'Soulmaster, they draw nearer!' Mahado warned.

Think! Yugi told himself fiercely. He needed a way to get the battle on one front…

'Mahado, tell me! Could these creatures be stopped with magic?'

'They are endless, and too strong! My magic is not enough to destroy all of them, not as powerful as they are; and I know not what effects their foreign magic might have against mine!' Then Mahado froze, an uncharacteristically startled look on his face. He saw the idea that his master was thinking in his mind and was stunned. 'Surely not such a parlor trick–!'

'I'll help!' chimed Mana from her gem. 'This kind of spell was never Teacher's thing, anyway.' Mahado's face reddened.

'I know not if such a spell would deter them–'

'We have no choice!' Yugi countered. 'We'll try anything at this point!' He turned his gaze over to the castle, eyeing the positions his friends had taken around the roof, and looked up – and then he saw the darkness.

"Gods," he breathed.

Night had bled on the mountains, sable-dark. True to Mahado's word, the demons cresting the mountain's edge were like sand shifting on a dune, with their hulking forms suddenly becoming two, or moving thirty feet to the right, or wafting away into nothing at all. It was impossible to count them all. The layer of smoke so keenly in his memory was there, choking off the stars. The light of the moon dimmed over them, and the only light with which to see anything was the glow cast by a thousand evil eyes. (1)

Everything was frozen for a moment: the resistance, the darkness, the wind.

'Mana!' Yugi called. 'It's now or never!'

'Right!' Mana appeared in a swish of violet that lit the sky. Her staff hovered beside her as she drew up her arms, for illusion magic worked better when shaped by one's own hands. She wove the symbols–

BOOM!

A huge explosion sounded from the open area on the right-hand side of the fort. A field of flames ignited the ground, shimmering violet-red, throwing off waves of heat. The resistance members had all jumped in terror at the sound, which in truth had been only that.

'I thought the sound might make it better,' said Mana proudly. 'The heat will help too, although if they get too close they'll pass through it and know that the fire is an illusion.'

'Never mind that. Thank you, Mana.' Hopefully, this would trick the demons into approaching from one side of the fort only. If they could fight on one front, there was a chance they could survive this onslaught – barely. If there isn't a barrier between you and your enemy, make one, Yugi thought to himself, smirking slightly, and if you can't make one, fake one.

'That is if fire is even a hindrance to them,' said Mahado grimly. Inwardly Yugi agreed, but he prayed anyway.

Scott's forces started their descent over the mountain face. Like behemoths they trudged, taking pounding steps, slow and unshakable like the mountain itself. Yugi watched; they came down from all sides like sludge slipping down a drain. Seeping… and then a shift. Those on the right hand side began to turn away from the false fire, thickening the ranks to either side of it. They were avoiding the illusion!

Yugi steered Seiyaryu back toward his allies. "Listen to me!" he called to them. "Hit where they are the most numerous, where there is a chance of hitting more than one! Let the walls be a defense, and let them come to you!"

The first of the demons set its foot to the land surrounding the fort. Above, Yugi bared his fangs and called Mahado to his side. 'Let our first strike be the strongest!' he declared. Starlit magic gathered at Mahado's staff, casting an indigo glow upon both of their frames, as twin lights of hope in the sky.

"Black Magic!"

The streak of magic blazed down toward the front ranks of the approaching onslaught. Added to that was a silver fireball from Seiyaryu, and the two formed a blazing comet with a glittering sapphire tail. The demons all seemed to shudder in the light as it washed over their twisted leather forms. The comet carved a great arc in the sky before coming down into the ranks of demons. One of the demons fell to the ground with an unholy screech. Writhing diamond flames and magic tore through its hide down to the bone, and it was gone. One down, several hundred to go.

Yugi swallowed, a sudden parched feeling in his throat. He knew the resistance was in way over its head, and that they had barely any chance of surviving. From what he could see of their faces below him, the others knew it, too. He found that his hand was on Seiyaryu's neck, stroking pink scales. "Seiyaryu?" he asked, and was surprised at the shakiness of his own voice. His dragon growled up at him, a roborant sound of a strong presence, as if to say I am here, and I am with you. Yugi looked to his friends beneath him. "Help me get them through this."

Seiyaryu nodded, and sapphire gleamed in its eyes.

Whatever spell had come over the demons had ended, and they pressed forward again; though now, as battle was unfolding, they had picked up their pace, and brandished their claws readily. Curse of Dragon crested a wind beside him, and Mai's expression was like the stare of a hawk on a field. "It's been a while since I've actually had to fight like this. I mean, there's a fight, and then there's a fight. An actual battle for your life, and there's a good chance you'll lose. Man." She turned her sharp eyes to the enemy below. "I'm getting excited."

Red-Eyes swooped near them. "I would say ladies first, but I'm really starting to hate looking at these things." Joey glared down at the encroaching demons. "Go Red-Eyes! Black Fire Bullet!" Red-Eyes roared and a dark red version of the same heavenly comet careened down into the demons and exploded forcefully. Another of the beasts screeched and fell, but it was just a drop in the bucket. Then everything kicked into high gear.

The demons were no longer content with just marching at their targets. Now they screeched and bellowed, wisps of onyx fog wafting from them. Though they could not fly, they could leap high enough to swipe at the monsters overhead with their huge talons. They also chose now to begin using the foreign magic Mahado had described: black, crackling energy seethed in their hands as they lobbed shots like cannonballs at the fortress walls. Yugi's nerves buzzed and he felt that same hateful desire to destroy stronger than ever in his mind.

"They're like machines… Relentless…" Seiyaryu swooped suddenly, jarring him with wind, as it dodged one of the demon's attacks. Yugi held on tight and locked his eyes on the demon that had fired at them. He knew that Mahado and Mana's magic wouldn't be enough to take out these creatures entirely, but, a smirk curling his lips, he knew one thing that would.

"Shining plasma!" Gorgeous silver fire streamed in an arc, chasing, homing in on that one demon that had locked eyes with him –

BSSHH! Flames exploded and devoured the dark beast. For all their evident might and relentlessness, they were no match for divine fire. But Seiyaryu was only one monster, and it alone could not take down the hundreds now engulfing them.

The fight had escalated now. The aerial monsters were doing all they could to keep the demons from reaching the fort, but there were so many that they couldn't hold back the waves. The demons had reached the fort wall and many were climbing up to eradicate the resistance forces on top. Attacks were launched to drive them back, but they were so hardy that unless they were hit directly with a powerful blow, the demons shirked the damage off and kept coming.

An idea forming in her head, Mai urged her Curse of Dragon lower to the teeming mass below. "Dragon Flame!" Her dragon released a gush of flames that ignited a slice of the battlefield. By attacking an area instead of individual monsters, she hoped to take out more of them or at least whittle them down from full strength. When the fires receded, however, the demons were still standing. Small plumes of fire crackled on their hides, but the huge monsters didn't even seem to notice. They kept stomping forward without a single consolation to their pace.

Yugi saw this and was stunned. The fire hadn't affected them at all! It was as if they were immune to it… Seiyaryu dove low and raked its clawed feet along one of the demons, and another thought came to him. These demons seemed immune to fire. Dragons like Seiyaryu with empowered fire and Red-Eyes with the force of impact behind the flames could deal damage, but normal, unmodified fire did nothing to them. Why, then, had the demons avoided the illusory wall of fire? If they were immune to it, they could have walked through unharmed; and if they knew that it was an illusion, they would know that continuing through it would leave them unfazed. It just didn't make sense – Yugi racked his brain for an answer to what might be going on, but without another clue he was left baffled.

Red-Eyes swooped in the wake of a Black Fire Bullet and slashed a demon in the face with his claws. The demon howled and what looked like black blood with the consistency of syrup gushed from the gashes on its face. "Serves you right!" hollered Joey as they flew past. He was looking over his shoulder at the damage he had done and so didn't see the demon lunge up from under them. Hooked talons caught on Red-Eyes's thigh and snagged on ebony scales. Red-Eyes jerked violently with the weight, roaring in pain. Joey was caught unaware and scrambled to hold on to his dragon, but the demon's mass had caused Red-Eyes to tilt and now he was slipping free into gravity's grasp.

"Aaahh!" he yelled, as he fell free from his dragon and tumbled toward the ground.

Yugi's head whipped around when he heard the scream. "Joey!"

THWACK! He hit the ground forcefully and felt his arm crunch under his weight. He cried out in agony, but his broken arm was the least of his problems. The demons were all around him, twice his size in all dimensions, and he was stranded without a means to defend himself.

Seiyaryu twisted in the air and flew hastily to the spot. "Joey!" Yugi called again. He saw the obvious pain on Joey's face and knew that it wouldn't be long before the demons noticed the pathetic thing at their feet. "Shining Plasma!" Seiyaryu launched a rapid assault of fireballs, striking six of the behemoths in a ring around Joey. With the temporary safety of the burning demons as a shield Seiyaryu swooped low over the spot. Yugi jumped off and landed beside his weakened friend.

"Joey!"

"Yug'..." Joey looked up at him, his breath coming unevenly. "My arm... I think it's broken..." Ugly black and blue splotches had formed on his arm and were growing larger, but despite this it didn't seem to be a critical break; the arm itself was in one piece and bone hadn't pierced his skin.

"We need to get you out of here!" Yugi tried to see through the smoke above them, searching for Seiyaryu.

"Yug', look out!" A demon had burst through the sputtering silver fire and was bearing down on them, gruesome tusks jutting out of its leathery maw. Yugi paled and out of pure reaction swung his tail into its path just as it started to rush them. The blade drove point first into its gut, puncturing deeply enough to cause the massive beast to roar in pain. Both Yugi and Joey were shocked as the demon stumbled back; Yugi used the opportunity to get between his friend and their attacker, his tail curling in front of him defensively.

Just then a hailstorm of magic rained down onto the spot. The wounded demon and several more around them were disintegrated and Mahado descended to the scene. 'Soulmaster, quickly! The two of you must get off the ground!' Red-Eyes landed beside them and lowered its neck to them.

"Come on!" Yugi helped Joey clamber on. Joey winced, most of his forearm a giant bruise. He looked painfully at Mahado, whom was defending them as they made their escape.

"Tell your magician I owe him one." Red-Eyes thrust down great wings and took off. When they reached a safe distance above the battlefield Seiyaryu swooped in next to its master, watching the scene taking place on Red-Eyes's back.

"Joey," Yugi put a hand on his shoulder, a fearful concern in his eyes, "you're hurt. You need to get to the rooftop."

"M'fine," he mumbled. He was breathing heavily through his teeth. "It just hurts. I can fight."

"You can't hold on to your dragon properly with that arm. You could fall again!"

"Are you kidding? I'll hold on with my teeth if I have to..." He spied the dripping black stain on Yugi's tail blade. "Damn. I guess you can defend yourself from these things, huh? You don't even need your dragon."

"Joey–" Yugi began exasperatedly, but something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. In the distance Bickuribox was firing a volley of blasts at the demons. It looked like a completely normal battle scene, with demons falling to the ground and Bickuribox laughing madly, except for one thing: the shots were going through the demons, not even touching them. Every so often one would hit, and a demon would fall to its knees, but the rest sailed by like puffs of wind. Bickuribox was cackling its head off and firing too rapidly to pay attention to what it was hitting, and the others hadn't noticed this strange phenomenon, either. Yugi's sense of something fishy was going off with bells and sirens in his head.

His eyes narrowed. "Seiyaryu!" he called, his arm extended. With a great flap of its wings Seiyaryu reared back and launched a fireball. Silver flames streaked toward one of the demons – then shuddered, and curved sharply to hit a demon to the left of the one it had been aimed at.

Joey's jaw dropped. "It avoided it completely!"

"No," Yugi countered, stern embers glittering in his eyes. "It didn't avoid the demon... It didn't register it as a target."

Scott's army, Yugi realized. These are Scott's forces! He created this world... Which means...

Gods.

'Illusions!' he cried. 'These forces aren't real!'

'What?' Mana cried.

'Soulmaster, that cannot be – for even with their foreign magic, they are solid, capable of causing us damage; and even I do not detect the traces of illusory magic!'

Neither did Yugi, which meant that it was something else. 'It isn't something you'd be able to detect. These forces are a different kind of illusion: cloned images!'

'"Cloned?"' repeated Mahado, a rare confusion in his voice. 'What do you mean?'

Yugi gripped Seiyaryu's reins more tightly in his fist. 'Scott created this world with computer technology. Everything in here works like a computer… He wrote programs to create these demons, but only a portion of this army is actually real. The rest are copied images of the real ones, pasted in alongside them and programmed to mimic their actions; but they lack the solid strength to hurt us.

'Everything makes sense. Scott programmed his demons to be immune to normal fire, but he also set them to seek us out as their targets. With the illusory wall of fire in place, the path to their target was obstructed, and it wasn't in their coding to realize that they could just go through it...'

Mahado and Mana took in the fleeting images of computer screens and electrical knowledge filtering with Yugi's thoughts and were utterly bewildered. 'Such is a modern type of magic?' asked Mahado. 'One created by humans?'

'Not really; but here, to him, it works like magic.' Yugi realized that Scott must have programmed these forces into the game before he entered. They had appeared at the same time as he had, and bore no magical signature about them. Without any magic in their coding, Mahado couldn't detect their illusory nature; yet despite his ability to alter the computer files running this world, Scott also did possess true magic. The deletion spell he had used on Haysheen had been true magic, not some computer re-coding. It would have been impossible for him to reprogram the realm and delete the Emperor while he was within the game himself.

So, when Yugi had sensed the coming of the dark army, he had not sensed anything magical at all. Rather, he had been so in tune with the area as to sense an alteration to the game's programming, a spot on the very fabric of the realm. He shivered slightly, a little shaken that he had displayed such ability that not even Mahado could replicate with magic. He hadn't felt those things the first time they had encountered the demons... so why had he now? Although, if you hadn't felt them coming, the demons would have been all over the fortress with nothing to stop them...

"Hey! Earth to Yugi!" Joey waved his hand in front of Yugi's zoned out eyes. "Come back to us!"

Yugi snapped back to reality. In talking with Mahado he had spaced out from the current situation at hand. He glanced at Seiyaryu, whom was watching him with firm gemstone eyes. "Joey," he said, turning back to his friend, "they're not real."

"What? Who's not real?"

"The demons!" he exclaimed. "Some of them are, but the rest are just images!"

Joey looked ready to fall over with shock, but he gripped Red-Eyes's neck tightly. "You gotta' be kiddin' me!"

"I kid you not – " he scrutinized the battlefield, watching the sea of demons. Those lobbing energy at the fortress had to be real, for they were leaving scars in the stone, as well as those scaling the walls. A few more solid ones were interacting with the flying monsters, but the rest he assumed to be one hundred percent phony. "I'd say about a third of this army is real."

"A third?" That still left anywhere from sixty to eighty demons left. "How do you know?"

"It's an simulation made by Scott. He programmed a force this large to daunt us into being afraid, and in being afraid we would be weaker when facing the real ones." Reading the sharp thoughts in his head, Seiyaryu stiffened and swooped beneath Red-Eyes, allowing Yugi to land on its back. "We have to tell the others!"

A whoosh of air rattled over pink feathers as Seiyaryu aimed for the parapets where the grounded members were fighting. Several of the demons had successfully clambered up onto the roof and were sparring with monsters; more were on their way up the battle-torn walls. Fizdis and King Rex were staring down a particularly nasty looking demon with spikes jutting out of its arms when silver fire thundered down upon it.

"Yugi!" She craned her neck up to see him poised in the sky above her, Seiyaryu's wings beating silver-dusted air. He looked so powerful, with regal posture and eyes that could drive back a hurricane. Her heart beat faster beneath his gaze of judgment day.

"Fizdis!" he called to her, snapping her from her imagery. "Get the others – tell them to keep fighting the demons that make it up the walls, but to leave those in the masses alone!" She nodded weakly, and he raced off to another part of the castle.

"Ryou!" he cried when he saw his white haired query. Ryou looked up, his deep eyes harrowed with the wear of battle, yet upon his call he knew that he would be given a duty. "Call your Parrot Dragon, and come with me."

"I thought we were to stay to the fort?"

"The situation has changed. I need your eyes."

Soon the wind was whipping though his brilliant hair as he steered Parrot Dragon to follow Seiyaryu. Yugi was leading him high above the battlefield to the center of the sky. Black swarmed against color below him in the light of the wine-colored fire, and from here the odds looked even less favorable. Ryou turned to Yugi curiously, but Yugi had bent over his dragon and was stroking its neck as he spoke to it.

"It's up to you," he said softly. "Mahado and Mana's magic cannot reveal the illusion to us. You're the only one that can show what of this field is true evil, and what of this field is but a mirage." Seiyaryu's eyes sparkled, and it growled determinedly. Ryou could only watch as Yugi pulled back and Seiyaryu opened its beak.

Silver embers swirled, condensing, like the beginnings of the fireballs he was so used to seeing. Then wisps of light, unlike fire, began building: crystal blue and the white of clouds and the thrumming ring of radiant sunlight. Seiyaryu reared back as this energy collected, and Ryou could liken it only to a proud stallion tossing back its head as it breached the surface of water. Light and air and fire glittered, and he could see within that mass the sparkling of dewdrop magic. This light covered the whole battlefield, and Yugi kept his piercing eyes to his dragon as the energy was released.

A comet blazed forth, but it radiated not only power but also grand emotion. Ryou could practically feel his heart lift with hope as it soared. The great comet then shattered, becoming a thousand tiny specks that rained down upon the sea of demons. It fell with the quiet sound of rain, but the fragments sought out the bellowing demons and settled in the folds of their hides. Not all of the demons were touched: only a portion bore this glittering mark. Those that did have it didn't react to it, as if they couldn't see it.

Then Ryou remembered what Yugi had said about his eyes. The demons had been marked with divine magic, and he was the only one who could see it, and know which ones to strike.

Yugi turned to him. "You can see which ones are real. Direct us so that we know which ones to attack!" Ryou nodded and steered his Parrot Dragon toward the ground. Seiyaryu followed, and Red-Eyes and Curse of Dragon soon came up beside them, but Yugi knew that his dragon no longer had the strength to attack with fire. Mahado and Mana would now be his means of attack.

Ryou's eyes narrowed and he pointed off to the left. "There!" Three colors of flame gushed onto the spot, and a burst of dusky magic sealed the attack as a cell of four demons was eliminated.

"There!" He sighted another that was quickly destroyed. They flew back and forth over the battlefield, Ryou picking out targets for them to attack. Waves of the demons fell, and not just because they had been destroyed; as the real demons were eliminated, droves of the illusory ones vanished as well. Soon the sea had thinned greatly, and most of what was left was near or on the castle.

Fizdis watched the four of them systematically ravage the field. She had forwarded the message to the others, but she was in awe of what she was witnessing. Yugi had figured out the perfect way to deal with their situation, and had used the strengths of not only his monsters, but his friends as well. His tactic of creating a wall of fire had ensured that they were not completely overrun on the ground. Despite the impossible battle before them he had pulled the resistance out of despair and within reach of victory. Now, the last of the demons stood on the roof in front of her.

"Go, Uraby! Wild Bite!" The tiger-striped dinosaur charged at the demon, ramming his thick skull into its stomach. The demon tried to claw Uraby in the neck but he quickly lashed the arm away with his tail and bit forcefully into its shoulder. A great chunk of black leather tore free, and the demon stumbled back against the edge of the roof.

'Uh-uh-uh! You've been too much of a migraine to get away so easily now.' Mana appeared hovering behind the demon, her staff raised in front of her. 'I've been wanting to make up for missing the last confrontation with Scott, so let me give you a message for your master: burn!' Milky black magic shot from her staff and ripped apart the demon. A few black shreds were left on the stone beneath.

Mahado settled in the air beside her, smirking. 'Impressive, Mana. You have improved greatly.' She beamed and he added, 'Now you may be of actual use to the resistance.'

'Hey! Teacher! That was uncalled for! Yugi, did you hear what he said about me? Are you going to let that fly?' she squealed.

Yugi chuckled. 'He was making a point. This was your first time to shine for the resistance.' She scowled at him. 'But you have always done well for me. Thank you.' Mana's angry face quickly died and she glowed with pride.

Seiyaryu landed wearily on the rooftop. Yugi slid off and found he was exhausted. From the look of the monsters and people around him, they too were worn beyond anything they had been before. The mists of the early morning sun were seeping in around them, and the sky in the far distance had a twinge of lighter color. Morning was nigh.

"Urgh," Joey grunted as he stumbled off his Red-Eyes clutching his arm. Yugi suddenly remembered his injury and rushed over to him. He helped steady him as he plopped down on the stone.

"Joey, are you all right?"

"I'll live," he replied, "but this arm is killing me." His cheeks were flushed a shade lighter, and Yugi knew that he was willing himself to keep from showing his true amount of pain. Stubbornness had always been in his blood.

Ryou saw the pair and moved closer. "An injury?"

"Joey fell during the fight," Yugi explained. "His arm is broken." Ryou winced.

"Ouch. You could probably use a splint, couldn't you?" Joey nodded weakly and he dashed inside to fetch the supplies.

"Do you guys understand what just happened?" Tristan was standing with a distant, dazed look on his face. "We just won. All of those demons, all of that crap, and we won."

"We look like hell, though," commented Joey. They had already been tired out from the day before, and their dreams of a full night's sleep had been completely trashed. Tousled hair, bruises, and bleary eyes were all around.

"In your case, you've always looked like that. But yeah." Tristan let out a long whistle. "I just can't believe it."

"We have one person to thank." Yugi's face flushed pink as Téa clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Yugi figured out what was going on. If he hadn't discovered that some of the demons were fake, you guys would have kept attacking the fake ones, and the real ones would have eventually run us over."

"S-Sure," he said. He blamed the stammer on being tired. He was so worn, he felt like his knees would give out from under him any minute.

Ryou returned with some cloth and a pair of sticks he had pulled from the fireplace. "Easy now," he said as he took hold of Joey's arm. "We need to make sure the bone lines up the right way so it will heal the right way."

"How long will it take for him to recover?" asked Fizdis as he worked.

"I don't think it will be too long. It took Yugi's shoulder three days to heal, and this isn't as bad of a wound." He tied the bundled arm around his neck. "You can be reckless again when it's better."

"Then he'll just break the other arm," muttered Mai.

"What was that? I'm not an idiot you know!" Joey grumbled. Mai just rolled her eyes and bonked him on the head. "Ow!

"Let's just get out of this place. I don't want any more company."

"Right." Yugi turned to Shimon. "Shimon, could you fly ahead? We need to find a safe place to stay."

"As you wish, Lord Yugi. Where are we headed?"

Yugi's eyes turned sharp. "This has been going on for too long. Running and fighting Imperials goes straight into his hands." A glimmer of a fang showed as he spoke. "We need to take this fight to Scott. We're going to Sygh-Varths."

Téa gasped. "The capital city?"

"I'm all for it," declared Mai loudly. "I am done with this place; I am done with fighting and roughing it. Let's kick his butt and find the way out of here."

"Me too," growled Joey. "That damn jerk. I'm gonna' ring his neck!"

Shimon left to see what he could find in the capital city, and the others trudged slowly off the roof in exhaustion.

They were camped out on a hill a few miles away when Shimon returned.

"I've found a place where we can stay," he said. "There's an inn in the capital run by a resistance sympathizer. While our safety is not guaranteed in the rest of the city, there we should be safe."

"Sounds like a plan," said Tristan, turning to see if it had Yugi's approval.

Yugi had a faint sad look in his eyes. "Sure."

"Waitaminute. You've got that look like there's a catch."

"There isn't… Not for you."

Ryou tilted his head curiously. "What do you mean?"

Yugi sighed. "You guys are fine. But I can't just waltz in with the rest of you." He swished his tail emphatically.

"Oh…" Ryou nodded guiltily. "Right. That." He hadn't even thought of the limitations that came with Yugi's new form. The resistance had no problem with him, but others… If he were seen, at the very least, someone would probably scream. He would be a jeopardy to the resistance's secrecy. It saddened Ryou a little that Yugi had been the one to realize this first. That meant that it had been on his mind since… everything. Although, he supposed that it was likely on his mind all the time, given that he had a living reminder of it always looming over his shoulder.

Violet eyes remained solid despite the grimness clearly there. "I'll just have to sneak in at night, that's all."

"Yugi... Are you okay with that?" asked Téa concernedly.

"Does it matter? It has to be done, whether you or I like it. As long as I know where the place is, I'll be fine."

Téa nodded sadly. Shimon quickly explained the location of their safe house, and then they took off, leaving Yugi alone on the hill. Téa watched him over her shoulder until he was out of her sight.

When they reached their destination, the innkeeper graciously opened his doors to them. He informed them that he had arranged for the whole second floor to be vacant, allowing the resistance to claim it for themselves. Everyone would be getting his or her own room tonight, and Mai practically cheered with joy.

The first thing Joey and Tristan did was order a ton of food. Everyone was eventually drawn to the delightful smells and warm light emanating from the room, all but Téa. The sun was finally setting, and someone needed to keep a watch for Yugi to let him in. Darkness fell over the town, and she watched it deepen into pearly indigo for nearly an hour before she saw something move in the alley below. Excited, she hastily slid open the window and called in a whisper, "Yugi?"

"Téa?" She felt a wave of relief at his voice. At least nothing had happened to him on the way here.

"Yes. We're on the second floor." Téa heard a soft growl and realized that Seiyaryu was there with him. She heard feathered wing beats and saw the small pink dragon rise up toward the window, bearing its rider on its back.

"Thank you, Seiyaryu," said Yugi in his marble-smooth when they reached the window, causing Téa to blush. She offered him a hand to help him balance as he moved from his dragon to the windowsill. He got one foot in, but then caught a wing joint on the window frame and stumbled into the room.

"Oof!"

"Watch out!" Téa caught his shoulder. "You're more of a klutz than Joey," she said with a giggle.

Yugi huffed, "They just need to make bigger windows, is all."

"It was your idea in the first place."

"I know." He looked away and starlight flashed on his eyes. "Unfortunately, it was probably necessary."

"Hey." She grabbed his hand and squeezed it lightly. "Don't worry about it. Now, let's go get some food before Joey and Tristan eat it all."

"Food?" Suddenly Yugi's stomach reminded him of just how hungry he was by grumbling loudly.

"Yeah. They got tons of it... We're gonna' be poor again. Come on." She led him next door and the wall of energy, fragrant foods, and laughter that filled the room hit Yugi like a gust of wind. It was radically different from the quiet darkness he had just come from; he had to blink several times to get his bearings.

"Oh, Yugi, I see you made it in," said Ryou when he saw him enter.

Yugi gave a sheepish grin. "Not without a few splinters."

"Hey Yug'!" Joey waved him down with his good arm. "I saved you some food!" He motioned to the many plates of meat and fruit on the table.

"Really?" He gave a laugh. "Then why do I have the feeling you've eaten a whole mountain already?"

"I told you, he and Tristan ordered a ton of food." Téa shook her head. "The two of them alone eat more than his Red-Eyes."

"Hey!"

"Don't worry," Tristan told him. "We'll get back the gold in no time. For now, let's just eat!"

"Just enjoy it!" urged Fizdis. "Don't you think we've earned it?"

Yugi sighed, a smile creeping up on his face. They certainly did deserve it after all they had been through, especially with these last few tumultuous days. So, himself feeling the celebratory mood of the room, Yugi grabbed a plate and took a seat (his tail curling happily for the fact that the table had benches instead of backed chairs), and laughed beside his friends into the night.

The resistance had gone to bed late that night, but they had gone to bed happily content. Surely enough, they had managed to finish all of the food. Even Joey and Tristan had found room for more. The laughter and good feelings subsisted for a while longer, but eventually the fact that they had been up for hours caught up with them. They trudged to their rooms for sleep, and then quiet overtook the hall.

Joey was snoring as usual in his room. The moonlight shining through the window fluttered like gossamer butterfly's wings as the door eased open. Footsteps slipped silently inside, leaving the door only barely open. A figure moved across the room slowly, quietly, all the while keeping its eyes on the sleeping Joey. The target he sought rested on the nightstand just beside the bed. Joey had taken off his monster gems and left them there, but they weren't the true prizes. With them, the deep red treasure glinted weakly in the moonlight, its center dark with the absence of fire.

The figure stepped carefully closer. One hand reached out, glistening pale in the moonlight, and eased the spidery chain free from the tangle of others. Joey shifted, and the figure froze, shadowed eyes locked upon him. When he didn't move again, the figure scooped up his prize and crept back out of the room. A steely smirk crossed his lips as he disappeared from the room, Slypher's Orb in hand. (2)

After having everyone share sleeping quarters for so long, Yugi wasn't used to the quiet that came with having his own room. It had almost been enough to make him feel lonely. This didn't bother him for long, however, as tired as he was. He fell asleep almost the instant he hit the bed, much the way the others had. All of them were exhausted from the prior battle. Even the monsters were out like lights in their gems. Yugi was so soundly asleep that he didn't even notice the intruder come in his room in the darkest hours of the night.

"Another to take care of," a gruff voice said. Groggily Yugi heard the sound but didn't react to it. It had to be just a dream... Then something rough and itchy touched his arm, and his dreamy state faltered a little. It feels like a rope, his mind mumbled as though it were nothing at all.

Then everything flew into overdrive. A rope!

"SHYAAH!" The screech was out of Yugi's throat before his eyes were fully open. There was a broad shadow standing beside his bed, leaning over him with hands outstretched. He jerked back from whatever it was and instinctively lashed out with his tail – not really aiming, not really aware of what was going on. He managed to hit the thing in the side.

"Oof!" The thing staggered, but didn't fall. Coming to his senses now, Yugi registered that it was an Imperial soldier. He spied the rope he had felt clenched in the man's fist.

Another soldier hurried into the room. "The others are all taken care of. We've got them tied up outside. This one's the last one."

Yugi's eyes widened in shock. The others had already been captured? His pupils thinned with rage and he snarled at his assailants. He hunkered down on the bed and his tail curled into a scorpion pose, threatening to lash out again.

The staggered guard wiped his lip. "This is the one they warned us about. That devil-dragon half-breed."

Yugi growled angrily at that name, his eyes bright and feral in the dark. He struck with his tail again, catching the newer guard in the ribs. A few of the spikes caught and drew blood as they raked past. The man fell, but attacking had left a hole in Yugi's defenses.

The guard with the rope surged forward and slammed Yugi against the wall. He gasped, winded, but didn't let the sudden assault bank his rage. Immediately his hands were up and clawing at the man with the ferocity of a tiger, to drive him off. The guard cried out and stumbled back, blood dripping from his arm and brow. Yugi hissed and readied his tail for another assault, when suddenly a pair of hands seized his wing and yanked him off the bed onto the floor. The impact left him momentarily stunned, but now the guards had their chance. The bigger one came down and pressed all his weight down against him. Yugi screeched and lashed his tail, splinters flying up from the wooden floor, but the second guard grabbed it and managed to restrain it before it could cause any damage to the man now moving to tie him up.

The big guard tied down his arms and wings, and then bound his wrists behind his back. Yugi struggled but couldn't overcome the man's pinning strength. A third guard had entered the room and was helping the second one tie thick ropes around his tail. They pulled the two trailing lines taut between them, so he wouldn't be able to strike with it. Yugi was breathing heavily through his teeth, half-dazed, his dragonic rage cooling.

Then the biggest guard seized the back of his collar and jerked him to his feet. "You're coming with us, half-dragon rebel," he huffed with an angry sneer.

Yugi was pulled roughly downstairs and outside, where a dozen more Imperial soldiers were standing around the resistance members. They too were bound and tethered to guards like worthless dogs. "Yug'!" cried Joey.

"Damn," said a free soldier when he saw the one leading Yugi. "What happened to you?"

"This one fights," said the bloodied guard. "Hell if I catch some disease from those damned claws. Filthy beast." Yugi uttered a low growl but said nothing.

"You deserved it, you slab of meat!" hollered Joey. His broken arm was on fire, as the soldiers had undone he splint and forced it behind his back. The bloodied guard rolled his eyes.

"Shut that one up." Another guard raised the spear he was carrying and whacked the pole hard on Joey's skull. It certainly served to shut him up: he would have fallen off his feet had not a guard been holding his rope.

"Joey!" cried Tristan. Joey was still conscious but was no doubt seeing stars. "Why you...!"

"Silence before you get the same!" barked the guard holding his rope.

Téa shuddered. This was a horrible mess they were all in. She looked at Yugi for inspiration on keeping her sturdy countenance – but he looked worn. He wasn't willingly going along with what was happening, but he also didn't seem to be plotting a means of escape. His eyes were still thin, but the look behind them was the dull one of someone on autopilot. It was uncharacteristic of him, and it scared her a little. Maybe it's all too much, she thought. So much in such a short time... She tried to imagine what Yugi was thinking. Was he maybe thinking that this was the true crux, and that the prior battle had been nothing but a ruse for their exhaustion?

She couldn't contemplate for long. The guard assigned to her jerked the rope and spat, "Start walking, rebel."

They were led in an uneven line like some train of prisoners going to their execution. The guards would occasionally curse them or jerk on the ropes to make them stumble whenever they felt like tormenting their captives. Joey fumed angrily to himself. What the hell had happened that had gotten them into this mess? They were supposed to have been safe at the inn – had the innkeeper feigned his rebel sympathy, and turned them in? The fact that he had given them all separate rooms had certainly facilitated their capture. The guards had pulled the innkeeper away from the group when they brought out the resistance members. Joey didn't know what had become of him after that. Although, the faint shivers he spied in Yugi and Ryou's shoulders made him think that maybe he didn't want to know.

People were poking their heads out of windows and doors into the morning mist, hearing the commotion of the guards outside. They stared at the strangely dressed prisoners; gasped when they heard one guard shout: "See the rebels who have defied our Emperor! See how easily they are captured and brought to justice!"

"My word! Those are the rebels?"

"How could the resistance force have been captured?"

"A group that small has been the cause of all the Empire's problems...?"

"Heavens! Look there!"

Joey gulped and shot a glance at Yugi. He had been afraid of this happening; he had wanted them to get to wherever they were going without him being singled out. When it came to magic and curses and monsters, these people were as superstitious as those in the Dark Ages. That meant only one thing if they saw Yugi. He wished death upon those people. Shut up, you idiots!

Their voices came more loudly. "Gods! What is that?"

"It looks almost familiar…"

"Isn't that their leader?"

"The resistance is led by that monstrosity?"

"Surely it would lead them to do evil–"

"What atrocities have they committed without our knowing...?"

"The resistance must be ensorcelled fools to follow that demon!"

That was Joey's last straw. "Shut up, you jerks! You don't know anything about this!"

The people who had been talking to one another jumped when they heard one of the rebel prisoners address them. Rather than have the effect Joey wanted, the people kept talking: "Such rash behavior, how could they be the same ones working to undermine the Empire?"

"Maybe that wasn't what they were doing," said another darkly. "Maybe they wanted to tear it down so they could build it up for themselves."

"All the fortresses they've attacked have caused an increase in the brutality of the army toward civilians!"

"Our farms and shops have been looted to supply the army! If they weren't rebelling, we wouldn't have so little food!"

As bad as these accusations were, Joey's heart clenched the tightest over the things they said about Yugi. "How could he defend a creature like that?" one said, glaring at crimson scales and spikes as they were pulled past.

"See the marks on that soldier? Surely it was that beast that did it..."

"Such a vicious thing–"

"Truly a demon–"

"Wretched–"

"Vile–"

"Shut up!" Joey hollered again, an angry choke in his voice. "Leave him alone, you buncha'–"

"Joey!" Yugi cut him off harshly. Joey flinched, turning his eyes to Yugi. He faced straight ahead, and he held his posture with as much rigid dignity as he could while bound. "That's enough. Stop it."

"But Yug'–!"

Yugi growled, and Joey quickly shut up. The people kept up their din of hateful commentary, some of them going so far as jeering at the resistance and at Yugi. Joey watched his friend's back with a weighted heart. Yugi kept his focus on the guard in front of him, never once looking at those so scorning him. Such incredible inner strength it took, to not react to the hatred burning in his ears. Joey couldn't bear to hear these things said about his friend. They were treating him like he wasn't even a person, like he didn't have a heart. All the while, the people's doubts for the resistance's good intentions grew.

After being led gruelingly through what felt like the whole city, they reached the high gates of the Imperial capitol. The shining white marble soared so high above their heads the sky itself was blocked out – a reasonable image for an empire that blocked the hopes of its people. The white color was too pure and clean to seem real. It reminded Joey of only one other thing: those haunting, empty eyes of Scott.

It hit him then. That must be where the guards were leading them. After all, Scott had become the new Emperor. Those were his forces they had just eradicated. Was he planning to eliminate them here and now, in a grand execution? The resistance couldn't fight like this. He had them in his own domain, helpless, without means of escape. He could crush them all in an instant and leave nothing but stains on the floor…

The capitol walls swallowed them up as they pushed ever deeper toward the center. Inside the halls were dark and cavernous above them, echoing with a low grumble like a hungry beast. It got to the point of being almost pitch black before the walls fell away and they entered the capitol's huge rotunda. A single shaft of sunlight pierced the darkness, shining from a skylight above; the light was weak and feeble, constricted by the great sense of evil lurking there.

"Stop gawking!" huffed the guard holding Fizdis's ropes. He gave them a fierce jerk that almost upset her balance.

"Now, now," the weak sunlight sputtered and dimmed as though a cloud had passed overhead, "leave them be. They are our guests."

Eight pairs of eyes narrowed as their common enemy entered the room. Scott Irvine stepped into the vast rotunda, looking almost like an elite businessman in his slick white suit. His attire stuck out sorely from the darkness of the room, but his face and eyes did well to match it. No one made a sound, save a barely detectable snarl from Yugi.

"Untie them," he said absently, surprising the resistance members. The soldiers started undoing the heavy cords and let them fall in coils around their feet. Joey rubbed his sore wrists, glaring furtively at the soldier pulling away from him. He tried to ignore the stabs of pain coming from his arm after being bound in an unnatural position for so long. Once untied Yugi's tail immediately started whipping back and forth in conjunction with his sharply alert nerves. Tristan looked ready to slug the guy who had been leading him but a look from Ryou made him check his swing.

The guards retreated then from the room. Scott had taken to staring at the back of his hand while waiting. Joey's fist clenched. He hated this guy. At least when Pegasus had been obnoxious to them, he had paid attention to them. This guy ignored them completely!

"Hmm," he said, finally glancing up at them, "and here I come to meet with my friends yet again."

"We ain't your friends, bastard!" roared Joey. "You're our enemy!"

He stared obsessively at Joey, a baleful grin rising on his lips. "Shouting at me is not going to help you win this fight. A true genius wins the battle before it's even fought."

"Yeah? I'll bet you enjoyed watching us get paraded around like cheap animals!"

"The only reason you have the upper hand here is because you're the one who trapped us here in the first place!" Tristan brandished a fist.

Scott chuckled darkly, and the sound resonated in the marble walls and floors and vibrated up into their legs. "You should be grateful I allowed you that much. I could have killed you instead. I have more power over this realm than even you know."

Joey wasn't convinced. His scowl turned smug and he said, "Oh yeah? Last time, I seem to recall you ran away like a big white chicken. Yugi had you cornered and you turned tail and ran. I bet that wasn't in your genius plan!"

"I highly doubt I will have to face that in the future," said Scott, undaunted. His gaze slid to Yugi and soaked in his image. "I can see the side-effects of the last summoning. I doubt you are likely to try that one again. Are you, half-dragon rebel?" Yugi hissed, baring his fangs.

"I've got a bright idea," snapped Mai with a sharpness to her voice that sought to strike. "How about you tell us why you brought us here?"

Scott stepped closer, his footsteps like the cracking of pillars. "The persistence of your existence here is meaningless. I dictate everything that happens in this realm. I control everything, including your only means of ever getting home. Allow me to demonstrate."

He spread his palms wide, and light pooled on the ground at his feet. It swirled and spread to a vast circle, buzzing with white and green static. "When you entered this world, your souls were pulled from your bodies to create the avatars you use as bodies here. Your true selves were left behind…" Then an image surfaced in the light, swirling with the magic to cross the dimensions, and the resistance was suddenly looking down on a laboratory room as though viewing it through a hole in the ceiling.

"I-It's us!" stammered Ryou. There the five of them were, laying where they had collapsed after their souls had been pulled into the game realm. Off to the side was a separate image showing where Mai was sprawled on the floor, her invitation to the test trial laying beside her like some letter bearing the grimmest news. The metal cuffs still attached to their wrists throbbed with mint green light in twisted mimicry of a heartbeat as electrical signals from their bodies pulsed back to the main computer hub: the duel disk-shaped device on the center table.

Shimon and Fizdis stared at the metallic marvels in the image, awe-stricken. "What sorcery is this…?" murmured Shimon.

Téa looked up from the scene, her face pale in the upward glow of light. "Why are you showing us this?"

"You seem to think that all you seek shall be granted if you can get out of this world. That everything will go away, if you can only find the way out," Scott said, the voids of his eyes turning like galaxies. "I am merely clearing that false truth up."

"No…" Joey turned to Yugi and saw him take a step back from the image. Flickers of fear gathered in his eyes. "No, it can't…"

Joey followed his gaze into the image. The real-life Yugi was laying facedown on the shining metal floor, disheveled lightning bangs shielding his eyes from view. Joey shook his head slightly, not used to seeing the "normal" Yugi… and that's when he realized what Yugi was so afraid of. In truth they were barely visible, so faint as to be marked off as the brain supplying the images by habit, but no; they were really there. Coiled at his feet, glistening at his shoulders, the translucent legacy of Slypher was present in the real world. The swirls of light forming the image almost appeared to be the shimmering of solidified scales. The Yugi beside him was breathing shakily, his eyes locked on that image of himself.

"Your soul was transformed here in this realm," said the voice of deepest space. "Should you return to that one, your curse will follow you."

"No!" Téa broke through his daze and took Yugi's hand between her own. "Yugi, it isn't true. He's just trying to hurt you!" Yugi looked up at her but couldn't get his voice to work. There was a great fear and grief in his eyes, and everything else around him was just something far away.

"Am I?" Scott watched the hopeless expression on his face with hunger. "And what reason would I have to do that? I can do far worse to you, here and now…"

"Oh yeah?" Joey stomped a foot forward, and the image beneath it shattered into a million drifting pinpricks of light. "I don't think so! We'll take you down right here!"

The dimming light cast misshapen shadows upon Scott's face. "I didn't mean physical damage… No, no, I have the power to damage your very minds…"

Suddenly both Yugi and Ryou shuddered. Their attentions snapped to Scott, the color draining from their faces. A heavy weight tightened on Ryou's chest as he looked through the darkness at something only he could see. "An aura of magic," he breathed, "So strong…" He was staring at Scott as though a giant monster was rising up behind him, and Yugi's tail started to swish fitfully at the rising acidity of the room.

'Mahado?' he tested. His skin was starting to feel the burning magic and he bit back a hissed breath.

'Be careful, Soulmaster. These energies are moving in around you, and are encircling both you and your friends.' Then a crack of lightning resounded over the link between them. 'Soulmaster!'

'Mahado, what is it?'

Static crackled over his voice. 'We are being cut off from you–!'

'He's suppressing our presence with his aura!' said Mana frantically. Her voice had the fuzzy quality of an old overhead speaker. 'He's going to do something – Yugi, be careful–!'

With a snap Yugi was cut free from them and his heart fell silent. He grew colder on the inside without their warm magical presence residing so near his heart. Around him the acid magic was steadily growing in intensity, burning through his nerves, almost boring holes in his very spirit. The others were oblivious to this feeling, but Ryou seemed to be able to see it, for his eyes kept flicking about the room as the aura spread.

"Hey, you two," Mai looked at them worriedly, "you're doing that freaky magic thing again, and I don't like it. What's going on?"

"He's... He's extended his aura," Ryou answered. The tightening pressure made his breathing forced. "It's all around us... curling in... Like it wants inside us…"

Yugi's eyes flew open. He realized, now, the malicious truth of Scott's plan. He had the supreme power in this game, the power to reprogram the elements within its woven lines of code. He, and his friends, and even their monsters were all elements interacting within the realm. If he changed the nature of the programs governing their actions here... he could change them: the way they looked, the way they acted, even go so far as to rewrite their personalities.

Scott noticed the realization on his face. "Ah, so you see it," he said with the tone of one holding ultimate victory in his hands. "The grand conclusion to our meeting, one where I am left supreme."

Yugi quickly snarled, "It won't work! Our hearts are stronger than your false godhood!"

Scott chuckled darkly; the acid aura squeezed suddenly tighter, enough to make Yugi choke and stumble back, his hand gripping his throat. "Let me share something with you." The walls pulled their weight to the center of the room where he stood. The heavy gravity rooted their legs to the spot. "The human mind is a lot more fragile than you might think. You'd be surprised how few people have a clear and unwavering idea of 'self.' The idea that one is who one is, and that nothing can influence that fact beyond what is desired… Without this will, this strength of mind and heart, the mind is easily manipulated, even shattered.

"The only thing tying you to this world right now is your mind." Malice glinted on grinning teeth. "And I can control anything here."

Invisible magic turned solid, became iridescent lines of coding twisted around them. Like coiling snakes they wound around them, layering, until a pillar of light engulfed them and blinded them with its sheen. The magic struck quickly and gave them no time to react. Once it had surrounded its victims the wall collapsed inward, pressing suffocating magic against their skin. Scott's laughter in his ears, Yugi felt the whole world falling away to leave him alone in his own little void.

The magic adhered to him, try as he might to struggle free. As he struggled fruitlessly, the feeling came over him that maybe there was no reason to fight back at all. He wasn't supposed to fight back. Nothing was wrong with the situation; everything was under control. Yes, everything was functioning with perfect order, never once acting unfavorably, never once deviating from his ideals.

Just as this sense of secure acceptance had almost taken hold of him, he snapped back to himself. Scott was tampering with his mind! Trying to get him to give in, to stop going against what he wanted of them. Streams of data and numbers and electrical signals flew before his mind's eye, thrown into a wash of white from the light blinding him. His nerves were flying, receiving so many directions and programmed actions that his mind was numbed and unable to think. The codes were penetrating his veins and seeping inside him, where they were latching on to whatever they could and altering the nature of his being. He thought he could hear a low voice, somewhere in the distance, telling him things he couldn't understand…

NO! he screamed mentally. The magic was trying to reconfigure his soul and redefine his persona. Things like his bravery, and staunch protection of his friends, being replaced by uncertainty and the obedience to obey what he was told to do… Though Mahado and Mana were dulled in his heart, the desire to react and preserve his shining ideals was so strong that his heart swelled with magical energy. He would not let himself be reprogrammed; he would not allow himself to be controlled again!

A vicious snarl unlike anything he had ever uttered escaped his throat, and with all his strength his ripped his arm away from the invading magic. His hand broke free and burst into the dark room, where Scott stood watching his spell take effect. He could feel the rebellion of Yugi's mind to his reprogramming, and witnessed the rapid rise in the strength of his captive.

"So I thought," he murmured, as the minds of his friends grew dimmer. "Your mind gained strength in repulsing its last influences, and your heart shines greater with the guilt and duty you bear. Your sense of self is strong, for you have so many others to define it for you…"

Forcing strength upon his tail, Yugi slashed hard at the wall of codes encircling him. With a crash that sounded almost like the agonized screeches of writhing serpents he was cut free from the magic and released to the dark air. A strange violet aura, the color of his soul, blazed from his form and gave off immense energy in the form of dense magic and crystal hope and roiling ferocity. Yugi, seemingly unaware that it was there given that he was still dazzled by the spell, leapt at the nearest pillar of light with claws outstretched, tearing, fighting to free his friends from the coercion of Scott.

KZZ! With a blast of electricity, another spool of coding unraveled, and Mai fell limp into his arms.

"Nnh… My head…" Yugi set her down and jumped at the next target. The swirling layers of coding hissed and melted into the air at contact with the violet aura flaring from him, for his strength of heart could not be overridden by their woven deception. A hole appeared under his touch, allowing him to reach in and grab the arm of his friend, and pull –

Another blast of electricity sent sparks dazzling on the floor. Tristan was free.

"Fabulous, just fabulous." Scott watched Yugi leap for another of his friends, his eyes brightening with haunted light. "I didn't think I'd even have to participate at all."

Yugi didn't hear Scott speak. His only thought was to reach his friends and rip them free of their bindings. Fizdis and Shimon were lying unconscious on the floor beyond; they were pure programs of this game, without anything from the real world to influence, so Scott's magic did little more to them than render them immobile. Hissing iridescence parted under his touch, and he spied within the whirling light shoulder-length brown hair fluttering weakly. He snarled, ripping with claws and tail, and reached out to her, to pull her free to be with him –

Then a crushing wave of magic slammed into him, knocking all the air out of him in a forced cry. He fell to his knees, completely winded, and it felt as if the whole ocean had surged against him with its weight lashing upon his frame. The aura surrounding him sputtered and died as the pressure constricted against his strength. The hole in the wall of light scarred over, and she was gone from his sight.

"No!" he cried in desperation. "Téa!"

"You are too late," said Scott murderously, deep and low in his throat. The white of his eyes flashed as the remaining three pillars of magic turned black as night. "My reprogramming is complete. These three have been reconfigured to the tasks I have for them. Their thoughts and actions are mine."

Tristan and Mai had recovered from their daze and snapped their attention to Yugi. He had collapsed onto all fours on the marble floor, breathing forcefully; he couldn't move, as it took all of his strength to bear the weight of the magic on his back. The two of them were instantly at his side but the dread on his face had their blood running cold.

"Téa," he said weakly, his voice strained, "Joey, Ryou…"

"You are nothing." Scott stepped towards them, eyes bright as starlit cosmos, looming stories above them as they remained paralyzed in their horror. "You have lost the support of the people, for they have seen you for what you are and will spread the word of the resistance demon. You have lost your purpose, for the populace no longer supports your goals in war and has reestablished loyalty to the Empire. You have lost the allegiance of three of your own, here, to me.

"The people, the land, and your own allies are against you. You have nothing left to fall back on. You have nothing left. So tell me, Yugi," Scott's eyes bore straight into him, spanning the voids of space, and gales of wind seemed to penetrate every inch of his body at his next words:

"What will you do?"

Yugi's eyes were broken; the heart behind them, shattered.

He gasped in a breath against the ocean, and forced all of the strength of his heart to one end. "Mahado!"

Whirling gold light blazed, driving back shadows to cower behind Scott, as the five of them were picked up by magic and whisked away into nothing. The hall now empty, Scott turned his back to the doorway.

All the world was his.

With a flash of golden light and wind, the teleportation spell dumped its passengers on a hill outside the city. They landed with an unceremonious thud on the grass, bits of data and shadow still blurred in their minds.

"Ugh… Where are we…?" Mai groaned. Tristan pulled himself up from the grass and looked blearily to where Yugi had landed, but he had already scrambled up and was hastily climbing the rocky outcropping at the top of the hill.

"Yugi?" He reached the top of the rock and perched there, his tail wrapped around the boulder, his claws grating granite as tears began spilling from his shattered eyes. He stared at the capital city glowering in the distance beneath the shadow of Scott, and cried. He had lost them.

He had lost her.

Notes:

(One) – Heartless, anyone?

(Two) – Dun, dun, duuuuunnn. Who do you think it is?

SC: ANGST ANGST ANGST. Here comes the horrible times! You thought it was rough for these guys with Slypher around. It's about to get a lot worse.

I reread several of my older chapters while I was writing this, particularly Crucial Battle. That chapter rocked. Why don't my new ones rock like that?

If you read it, you'll also see a lot of Vathara influences in there. I tried to keep that to a minimum.

Thank you for the wonderful reviews on the last chapter! When I first checked back and saw that it had three reviews, I thought, "Oh, it's my usual people." When I looked, it was three different people, none of which was a usual reviewer! It made me incredibly happy.

So basically, I would like you all to review again. I didn't realize I had so many different people reading! It really has increased my enthusiasm. And Pikpik: Yes, please. (dies)

Thank you for reading the chapter! Please review!

Word count: 13,691. (Holy frick.)