SC: I've been waiting forever to get back to this place.
You may be wondering why this took so long to get posted. There are two answers. One of them is senior year of high school. It's busy as heck. The second is the fact that this chapter started approaching fifty pages, without being near the end. I therefore decided to split it in half.
I also decided to change the angle of the chapter. I took out a bunch of stuff and changed the mood… The earlier versions were more typical me, but much more boring. Hopefully this version is acceptable.
I did complete rehauls of the chapter at least three times.
So I better hope it's good now.
Spellcaster, Part IAfter suffering heavy damage at the hands of Scott again, the resistance splits up to lose their pursuers. Yugi and the resistance have gone into hiding in order to escape Scott's forces and the spiteful populace. Showing absolutely no mercy, Scott hatches his next plot. To force Yugi into the open, Scott dispatches Téa, still under his mind control, with an army of her own. On edge of the Beasty Badlands, she prepares to perform a forbidden magic spell that will destroy the world. And in this magic ritual, Téa must offer herself as tribute. Hearing this, and fully aware that it is a trap set by Scott, Yugi sets off to save Téa. (1)
They were going back there again.
As if everything else that had already happened hadn't been complete crap. As if losing that numbskull Joey along with Téa and Ryou hadn't rent their hearts to pieces. As if the knowledge that the entire continent was would soon be in violent uproar over the resistance wasn't enough to make him fear for their lives. Now, he faced the knowledge that they were going back there.
It wasn't safe for the resistance to travel as a group anymore, no matter if their ranks had shrunk from eight to five. As a group they were more conspicuous and liable to be spotted. It had been hard enough just to steal the supplies they needed. Yes, steal: given their current situation, there had been no other choice but for one person to slip back into town and nab just enough food for the group before being caught and no doubt put to death on sight. As Yugi had said, desperate times called for desperate measures.
They were to split up and meet at a rendezvous point. Take different paths, stay out of sight, and don't stop for anything; just get as fast as they could there. Their only choice for regrouping was the one place that no one, neither Imperial nor citizen, would be looking for them, and that place was: the Beasty Badlands.
Tristan hated that place more than anything.
The blistering heat and freezing cold had been pretty bad. The way the whole place felt like it was alive and out to get you was worse. For the entire duration of their last visit Tristan had felt like there was something eerie over his shoulder, something that watched and stayed just out of sight when he turned back to look. It made his insides quiver just thinking about the place as he and Gazelle sprinted through strands of trees in the moonlight. They were walking into the biggest trash dump of magic and evil there was in this virtual realm, willingly at that. He was worried he wouldn't even be able to find his friends once he got there – the place was so vast and empty, he could wander around for days without seeing them. The land itself seemed so malicious that he wouldn't be surprised if the ground opened up and swallowed them into its starving depths. It was a terrifying thought, but it felt completely possible in the Badlands.
Something else was bothering him, too: something that had been lodged in a back corner of his mind when the drama at Sygh-Varths had unfolded. It was certainly bad news to him, stacked onto the already towering pile of misfortune for the resistance. Tristan's concern was that Slypher's Orb, that glinting ruby treasure that he swore still flashed with spite at him from around Joey's neck, was missing. That knowledge had certainly made his jaw drop, when Joey had hurriedly whispered it to him after they were dragged out of the inn. Neither of them knew where it could be: Joey had noticed its absence during the fisticuffs with the guards, and all the time the resistance was being dragged through town Tristan had searched the train of soldiers, looking for the glint of a chain around one's neck or a bulge in one's pocket. Nothing.
He found it painfully ironic that he was heading back to that place. It was where Yugi had first found the orb. How could they have known, back then, the troubles it would bring with it? Tristan still had nightmares about it sometimes, always with the hiss of laughter and the crash of thunder floating through the darkness. The thought of that harmless-looking glass orb being in the hands of someone else terrified him to no end. A small portion of his rational brain pointed out that he shouldn't worry, because if Yugi was the only one who could use it, and Yugi didn't have it, then what was there to fear? Tristan swallowed his doubts but was only half-convinced. It was too hard not to imagine an ashen-faced Scott looming over its living flame and laughing balefully.
He hadn't told any of the other resistance members about its absence, and he doubted that it would do much good to inform them. There was already too much on their plates as it was. The resistance didn't have the resources to seek out the orb's location anyway, and to go after it now would put them in unnecessary danger. For now, they needed to fall back and reorganize before they could do anything productive. There was just one problem: they were going to the Beasty Badlands. There were bad things to look out for there besides Imperials, like roving fiends and vicious weather; or, he thought with narrowed eyes, fierce magic, which could plague a certain scaly friend of his.
He grit his teeth against the cold night wind. Tristan hated magic. He hated the way it messed with Yugi and Ryou, and he hated how sometimes (more often than not in Yugi's case) it hurt them in ways he couldn't imagine. Tristan could always tell when one of them got that vibe. It usually took Ryou a few moments to notice the presence magic; but Yugi, he knew in an instant. There was always a shift in his eyes as his gaze slid to something far in the distance, and Tristan had quickly learned that when Yugi zoned out it meant trouble. In the past it had proved life-saving to have someone let them know when magic was on the rise, but with this last encounter he was starting to get a little freaked out by everything. Yugi divining the presence of demons, Scott corrupting the souls of his friends… that was beyond human magic. It was beyond anything anyone of mortal soul could comprehend – and those of magic soul were starting to show the rest of them the more ominous layers the magical plane contained. Their world was getting darker, and magic was pulling the shade.
It had felt so wrong. When Scott's magic had enveloped him, at first he couldn't tell what was going on; the only thing he felt was the immense internal sense of wrong, which clashed with the strangely calm sense of everything's fine rising forcibly in his thoughts. This dichotomy only served to unnerve him further, to make it easier to lose bits of what was real within the unreal. He hadn't realized anything was happening to him at all until a wave of heat washed over him and a blast of amethyst burned through his eyes. Yugi had released him, had driven off the magic and its influences, and only when it wasn't there did Tristan experience reality. That exact instant, that immediate sense of the freedom from corruption that came; that was the first time that anything had felt truly real, and it had thrown his whole paradigm of the world out of whack. He wasn't exactly sure if it could ever go back.
It had been unsettling enough just for him, coming out of the spell like that. What did that mean for Joey and the others? They had been completely overwritten by Scott. Even if they expelled the magic, would anything of their true personality remain afterward? If they were still themselves beneath the magic, would the gale of reality that hit them when they came out of it shove them out of their normal perception, inherently changing their nature? It was a thought that struck him somewhere in his heart and in his throat at the same time.
He couldn't know the answer… He couldn't know if their friends would ever return to them.
He sighed over the wind as Gazelle raced through the rapidly thinning trees. He saw the mountains beginning to leer at him from ahead: soon they would be in the Badlands. For now he would just have to focus on surviving through their stay in that hellish desert before worrying about things that were beyond his senses. Somehow, he mused bitterly, he knew it would only get rougher from here.
As Seiyaryu flapped high in the night wind towards the Badlands, tears slid down Yugi's face.
He couldn't help it. He had forced them away while giving the order to split up to his friends but as soon as he was alone again his thoughts had nowhere to go but back to Sygh-Varths. In his head everything kept replaying, highlighting the most devastating moments from a thousand different angles. It took all his effort to keep the desperation from overcoming him entirely and breaking him into sodden pieces, soon to rust under salt and water. Even so, he couldn't stop the tears.
They had told him it wasn't his fault. Mahado and Mana were telling him that now: radiating a soothing feeling to coax him into relaxing, but he didn't yield. He knew he was to blame for letting everything happen. He had been careless with their situation, and had allowed the success of the resistance to infect him. It had been his idea, emboldened by that success, to take the fight to Scott and go to Sygh-Varths. He had okayed the celebration of their victory without the thought of staying on guard in case of a surprise attack. All of his mistakes had lined them up perfectly into Scott's hands. He had failed to see it coming, failed in his basic duties as a leader, and the resistance had suffered because of it.
"…A true genius wins the battle before it's even fought…" Scott's voice echoed mockingly in his head.
'You can't blame yourself for everything,' eased Mana. 'We were off guard too. The only one you should blame is Scott. It was his evil.'
True, Scott had been the perpetrator, but that didn't mean that his was the only evil. The resistance was paying for Yugi's evil too. With each rumor and spiteful whisper hissed, news of the so-called "demon" would spread, and the populace would withdraw further from the resistance's efforts. He hadn't reacted to their jeers then, in tow of the guards; but on the inside each word felt like it had severed a heartstring. It hurt all the more because of its truth: they were right. Yugi was a monster. The resistance was suffering the loss of their reputation because of him…
The way Scott had dragged him forward into the public eye after he had worked so hard to remain unseen… It had definitely been an act of cruel mockery on Scott's part, but it was still true that Yugi had ultimately created that situation for himself. No matter what anyone said, that much was his fault.
"Wretched–"
"Vile–"
He had mauled that soldier – tried to. He had never even given the impulse to attack a second thought, and only after he had been caught and bound did he even realize the extent to which that impulse had gone. Yes, it had been self-defense. Yes, he would have fought back even if he were a normal human. But as soon as the fight came on he had snarled and lunged like a beast – like a monster.
"Truly a demon–"
Were they right? Was he a wretch, a vicious animal, whose curse would follow him to the outside world? It broke his heart to think about it. Even his friends sometimes shivered in his presence.
His friends.
"Joey… Téa… Ryou…"
It didn't matter that Scott had been the one to invoke the personality rewrite. To Yugi, it was his own fault for being unable to save his friends from its invasive magic. Mai and Tristan had told him again and again that he had saved them and that if he hadn't had the power to resist its influence then all of them would have been under the control of Scott right now; but to Yugi, saving some of his friends meant nothing if he couldn't save them all.
"…Their thoughts and actions are mine. Your own allies are against you…"
A flicker of hopeful light sparkled on amethyst resting against his chest. 'Do not worry, Soulmaster. There will be a way to free your friends. We will fight to release them from Scott's control.'
That was just it. The resistance couldn't fight. Not anymore. Too much had happened all at once – the battle to win back their dragons had been draining enough, and then the immediate battle with the endless swarm of demons after that… all within a span of just over forty-eight hours. Never mind their emotional distress; they were too worn physically to fight off anything bigger than a house cat. Their resources were stretched thinly, for with the depletion of their gold reserve from the celebration the night before, and with little hope now of ever gaining any of it back, they had to rely on their meager stock of medicine to keep their forces going. Everything needed to be rationed – which meant that none of their monsters had been healed since the battle with the demons, and were forced to chug on despite their injuries. It could take weeks for the resistance to reach its full strength again, and by then there might not be any hope of ever winning them back…
"…You have nothing left to fall back on. You have nothing left…"
Yugi half-hissed as a fresh throb of despair clenched his throat. He had been so close. He had seen her, had been close enough to brush her fluttering hair behind her ear. So close, and he had failed. He had let Scott take her, along with Joey and Ryou. His heart was listless with guilt, guilt of the worst kind: the knowledge that he had failed his friends, but that they, under Scott's control, had no knowledge of his failure. To them he was still innocent, still capable of saving them, and this fact dug hollows in his soul. He had sinned, failed them so miserably that they might never even know… and for that, he would never be able to atone. He could never be charged with protecting his friends again, not after this…
"…You have lost your purpose…"
Seiyaryu turned its head and growled at Yugi softly. Yugi looked up, silver ringing his eyes, and met his dragon's starlit gaze. Seiyaryu purred, almost morosely, pleading for Yugi to regain his strength of heart. Without that, without his dauntless determination, there would be no hope of ever saving his friends. The sound echoed in all of his senses at once and brushed against the bleeding scars to his heart. Yugi could only stare, something in him touched by the faith his dragon had set to him.
He leaned forward to stroke Seiyaryu's neck, and uttered his own quiet growl in reply, one that expressed gratitude and Do not worry. Seiyaryu purred again, like the coo of a dove, sapphire eyes still locked with Yugi's expectantly. His gaze flickered behind tears and guilt; why should anyone trust him anymore, knowing the things he had done…?
"Tell me, Yugi: What will you do?"
He spurred his dragon toward the clawed peaks scraping the sky on the horizon, Seiyaryu's clarion roar echoing across the night.
Mai had never actually been to the Badlands. During her escapades with Joey in the Black Dragon Squad, she had come close to its border, arriving just in time to save Joey from having his head handed to him, but its interior was a sinister mystery that stayed out of sight in the half-whispered tales she heard among the others. Essentially, her knowledge told her that it was a vast desert, a wasteland, but there was something about the way everyone seemed to shiver when they spoke of it that made her think that there must be something supernatural going on there, too. Everyone she knew practically squirmed whenever it was mentioned, but they could never say anything about why it was so bad other than they just had a creepy feeling every time they went there.
She supposed she would find out for herself soon enough.
She certainly had been feeling strange ever since she had left Sygh-Varths. She felt… out of place, like old things she had long forgotten had been stirred up to the surface of her spirit. She was still whole, and still herself, but it felt like the pieces that made her up had been tossed up in the air to land in disarray without care as to the pattern they left on the table. She had been feeling it ever since she had been ripped free of Scott's magic. It was an odd feeling, enough to drive Mai beside herself with the knowledge that everything she was feeling was herself.
Not wanting to get lost in logical paradoxes, Mai turned her head and looked back at Fizdis. She was peacefully asleep (or as asleep as she could be while flying at high speed on a cold night), her arms wrapped around one of Curse of Dragon's spines. She had ridden along because Mai didn't know her way around the Badlands, and Mai was partly glad of this, because she didn't like the idea of Fizdis running around by herself in these hostile times. The kid meant something to her, as did all of the members of their motley group.
Before, she wouldn't have considered that group of Domino teens to be friends. Now, though, with everyone treating her so well and fighting as much for her as for each other, she had come to accept them as true friends. They really did care for her, which was more than she could say about some adult acquaintances she had. They may have all been kids compared to her age-wise, but they were all incredible.
Especially Joey. She didn't know how a kid so reckless with his own safety could be so good at preserving the safety of others. Despite his tough act he had a big heart, and he never failed to amaze her with his incredible loyalty to his friends. He was a goof that saw to the good spirits of others; he was a kamikaze when it came to doing the right thing. It had made her feel warm and light on the inside, knowing that she was one he was willing to fight for…
Her eyes narrowed swiftly. "Guess Scott took care of that one, didn't he." That bastard; he had done exactly the thing that would hurt them the most. The devastation had ripped through them like shockwaves: losing Téa had all but snapped Yugi in half, Tristan was more distraught about losing his brawling buddy than he'd let on, and Fizdis had been silent the whole time, mostly for Ryou, for after Yugi the white-haired youth was the one who had been closest to her. As villains went, Mai would rank him high on the list of most despicable.
What a way to go about it, too. Scott had calculated everything perfectly to line them up into his plan. While Yugi berated himself for not seeing it sooner, Mai had thought that maybe it was pointless. Maybe Scott was too good for even the great Yugi to outwit. There were ruses within ruses, and plots within each battle. He had led them around time and again – so who knew where he might be leading them now? She didn't even want to think about it.
With a sigh she looked down at the land below. Life was rapidly dwindling from it as they neared the Badlands, with trees and brush thinning out into rocky ground and weeds. She felt like the life was slipping out of her, too, thinning, leaving bare spots on her heart. She looked ahead at the wasteland approaching, her eyes like river stones, and felt something in her throat clench. Would she ever even see him again…?
"Living up to its descriptions?"
Mai nearly had a heart attack at the sound of his voice. She whipped around and saw Yugi and Seiyaryu flying above her, their paths converging now that they were nearing the Badlands. Yugi had the familiar half-glaring focus in his gaze, but even in the moonlight she could see the redness around his eyes that meant he too was fighting back tears.
"The Badlands, you mean?" she asked. "I suppose. It looks pretty nasty at night." The cracks in the land below looked to her like fiendish tattoos on the leathery hide of some sleeping monster.
Seiyaryu swooped and came in line beside her. "It looks nasty all the time," he said. His eyes narrowed suddenly and he rubbed his arm, as if it were sore. Mai quirked an eyebrow, and he explained: "I'm still feeling some residual magic from Sygh-Varths. It snaps at me every so often."
"Residual?"
"After effects of the spell. Magic like that… It tends to stir up things in one's spirit and toss them around like a salad. Things that were buried return to the surface; things that were commonplace are shuffled around… It can leave you feeling jittery for a while, before it wears off." He turned his gaze forward again. "There are some sparks jumping around inside me, but I think that's just from his programming magic." Mai saw a faint flicker in his eyes, like inward concern, though it may well have been the moonlight glinting off his still wet eyes.
She let out her breath slowly. "In that case, I'm feeling it too," Mai said faintly. "I haven't felt right since we left Sygh-Varths…"
Silence dropped over them. After a painful minute Mai glanced at him again. "…What are we going to do?"
Yugi took in a steadying breath. "I… I don't know."
"If Joey were here, he'd be raving about some harebrained suicide tactic right now…" she murmured.
He nodded distantly. "Yeah..." They both fell silent, taken into battle to keep from crying in front of each other.
At the edge of the world, the sun was beginning to peek at the new day, though its light meant nothing to them. They had been on the run nonstop since yesterday, and every fiber in them was practically dead with exhaustion. The stirring glow of the sun warmed their backs as they flew towards the still-dark center of the Badlands to the west. When the sun began its climb into morning they reached a point in the wide desert plain and landed, their dragons too tired to go any further. Anyone coming from any direction would see them standing there, so empty was the land around them.
Mai tried to stifle her yawn and shifted on her feet. "Not even nine o'clock and I already feel the heat starting to come on. Urgh…"
"You haven't seen the worst of it." Yugi turned to Fizdis, who was standing off to the side with a touch of sadness in her posture. He felt a pang of pity and asked, "Fizdis? You're all right?"
She looked up at him, and Yugi noticed something odd about her expression. When he had spoken a crease had risen in her brow, just barely, but enough to tincture her usual brightness. A shift of her legs, and the slack in her posture tightened into seriousness. "I'm fine. Just tired." Yugi acknowledged with a nod but silently wondered why her actions felt so strange to him.
"You're tired? You had a nap. Yugi and I, we're tired," said Mai through another yawn. "I could almost go to sleep standing up."
"I wouldn't just yet. Look!" Yugi pointed up at the sky. Golden scales glinted in the new sunlight; Kaiser Dragon was drawing close, Shimon atop it.
"Looks like Wonderboy's here too." Mai rolled her eyes at an approaching cloud of dust, which gradually took the form of Gazelle and Tristan sprinting toward them across the parched ground.
"You're late," Yugi half-teased as Gazelle collapsed in a panting heap and Tristan leapt off.
"Easy for you to say, Mister 'Hey-I-Can-Just-Fly-Over-the-Mountains.' Gazelle and I had to climb!" He fell back onto the ground, propped up by his palms, heaving. "It's over. I'm dead. If anything else happens today, my head will explode."
"Good morning," said a voice, and wisps of fog curled around the group despite the sunlight shining down on them.
"Waaah!"
Despite his exhaustion Yugi managed a chuckle. "Easy, Tristan. I don't think he's here to be of trouble. I thought I might see you here," he said then to the fog. "Do you have something to say to me?"
"Indeed." The fog wisped a few feet away from them, and solidified into the form of the Illusory Gentleman. His mask shone with enough reflected sunlight to make them all squint, but the rest of his form seemed eerily dark in the morning light as the shadows clinging to him resisted the coming day.
Mai gaped dumbly. "Okay, now I get why you guys said this place was freaky."
Mahado simmered within his gem, a string of half-woven spells at his fingertips. 'A fiend met in this land is surely a threat–!'
'No,' Yugi eased. 'I set him to this task the last time we met. He means no harm to us.' Mahado withdrew his presence but kept wary, not thoroughly convinced.
"Um… hi?" said Tristan awkwardly.
"Forgive my intrusion," said the Gentleman, dipping his neck in a slight bow of apology. "I've come to complete my duty." His manner, polished and proud, had not wavered despite submission to Yugi's authority. Yugi stepped to the fore of the group and the Gentleman nodded at him. "You wished to be alerted if any should become active in this area?"
"I did." Yugi scrutinized the fiend, his eyes reflected back at him in the metallic face guard he peered into. His suspicions of the enemy were already humming alongside the crackling in his nerves. "Why? Has someone come through here?"
"Not just traveled through. A sizable Imperial regiment has taken up residence in the castle along the ravine. They arrived unannounced, almost out of nowhere, earlier this morning."
"The Imperials are here?" echoed Tristan incredulously. "What the heck are they doing in this place?"
"Isn't it obvious?" said Mai. The stacked misfortunes of the resistance lingered in the tired circles under her eyes. "They knew we'd be here. We've been outsmarted. Scott knew we'd be coming out here to avoid him and now he's already set up for a fight."
"I don't think that's necessarily the case," said Shimon carefully. "If they knew we were here, they wouldn't have holed up in a castle. They'd have come looking for us, or waited for us to settle into some outpost, and attacked us. They know we can't handle a direct assault right now. If they were aware of our presence, they would have seized on the opportunity to crush us altogether."
Yugi agreed with this observation. Though the Empire tended towards sneaky tactics, this failure to strike while the resistance was so weak was nearly uncouth. Still, if the Imperials didn't know of the resistance's presence, then what were they doing out here?
"What do you know of their forces?" Yugi asked the Gentleman. "Their purpose in coming?"
"I have sent my comrades, the Neck Hunter and the Archfiend of Gilfer, to spy on the castle for further information as we speak. What I know from my first stakeout is limited to a mere glimpse of their operation. From what I saw, there were perhaps a dozen men present outside the castle, working around its perimeter. From my vantage point I couldn't tell exactly what sort of work they were doing. Certainly it looked to be unusual work for a military unit."
Yugi crossed his arms as he took in the information. What could Scott be planning to do here, if he wasn't after the resistance? He had thought that eliminating the resistance had been Scott's only aim, but now he was suspicious as to whether or not that were truly the case. The Gentleman continued: "For a time, I wondered if it was even a military excursion at all. They didn't seem to have any monsters with them, and they had a woman with them who appeared to be giving them orders. I know the military has no female officers."
On went the light bulb over their heads. Five pairs of eyes widened, thinking the same thing at once, flashing back to the dark hall of white marble. "A woman, you said?" Tristan asked abruptly.
The Gentleman did a double take at his severity. "Yes… Though I must admit, she seemed – off. Even the Imperial soldiers acting under her seemed to hurry away from her whenever they could. I myself could sense something strange about her manner…"
"Did you see what she looked like?"
"No. Nothing that could distinguish her identity. I was too far away to see much of anything, and her back was turned to me."
Tristan immediately looked over at Yugi, anticipating his reaction. It was a stretch, and they had little to go on description-wise to make certain, but it was definitely possible. The woman the Gentleman saw could be Téa, sent under Scott's control. If there was any chance at all that it was she, he knew, Yugi would take it. Tristan could see these thoughts already forming in his head, and knew well enough their fallacy.
A strange emotion had seeped into Yugi's eyes. His heart felt strangely light and buoyant, despite the heaviness of his body from the exhaustion of their escape. It rose on hope: could it be her, sent to this desert wasteland under Scott's orders? The bizarre presence of a woman within the Imperial army struck him, and he knew there could be no other explanation. It had to be Téa, sent by Scott to perform whatever task he needed of her. They had the chance to save her from Scott's clutches, to free her and draw her close and never let anything touch her again…
No. He was no fool. No matter what his heart dared to hope, he knew the evidence was too weak to assume anything. Even so, he couldn't just let the matter drop… She was too important to give up on so quickly.
"It's gotta' be a trap," Tristan said loudly, enough to bring Yugi back up into reality. "It's something to lure us into attacking so that they can crush us once and for all." He was speaking generally, not really to combat Yugi, but to plant dissent for the idea of storming the castle in the others. "They came out and made a bunch of noise to see if we'd notice. If we react, they're ready to take us down."
Yugi's eyes narrowed, a thread of anger creeping into him. Sparks flickered up his spine and singed the edges of his nerves. "Even so, their actions are suspicious. The fact that they don't appear to have monsters with them is one factor. Whatever their purpose in being out here, it doesn't seem to be to assault us. That leads one to wonder what could be so important to them, other than hunting us down, that they would come all the way out here to do it. It could be that what they're planning is something dangerous."
Scott was up to something. Yugi could feel it coming, like the tensing of the ground before an earthquake splits it asunder. There was something he was after, something on the larger scale. The resistance was nothing but a handful of flies buzzing in his way, preventing him from reaching his goal. They had been too pestering for him to accomplish anything before, but now that he had severely weakened them with the chain of events up to Sygh-Varths, he was free to pursue his real aims. Whatever was going on in that castle was bad, maybe worse than anything they had previously encountered.
"We're outnumbered," Tristan countered. "We're also tired and weak. Why should we risk it in confrontation?"
Inwardly, Tristan was beginning to panic. Was Yugi seriously thinking of risking their lives over something so trivial? Sure, the Imperials were being uncharacteristic in their actions, but they were doing nothing more than kicking around rocks in front of the castle. He could see nothing that would suggest anything dangerous in their actions. There was no reason, no evidence, to fear anything grander than that at stake. Tristan eyed Yugi warily; could he have been using his rationale as a ruse, a means of investigating the identity of the mysterious woman in league with the Imperials?
"In case you haven't noticed, we don't exactly have much left to lose. We risk more by not acting than we do by running."
"Nothing left to lose but our lives!" Tristan threw his hands up over his head. "All because you've got a whim that it might be Téa with them!"
A glint of fang as Yugi's lip curled. "What if it is her, and we do nothing?"
"We don't know that it's her; I'd say doing nothing is better than dying over some faint chance that it is!"
Yugi's eyes flashed their edges. "They're still Imperial forces. As long as they're here, there's a chance they could discover us. We'll want the upper hand and the element of surprise if it comes to that."
Tristan angled his head to glare right back down at Yugi, despite the fact that Yugi always seemed eerily taller than everyone else when he was angry. "That still amounts to fighting! Tell me why Scott would put them out here if he didn't send them to fight us?"
"There are other means of attack than simply fighting," he snarled darkly. "We've learned that all too well here of late." Tristan flinched at Yugi's biting tone. He noticed with a touch of anxiety that Yugi's tail was curling upwards, the blade at the end held high with tension. He wasn't exactly sure what had set off Yugi's temper – this wasn't the sort of thing he would normally get worked up about, but Tristan's heart was nonetheless thumping in his chest. He gulped and was about to holler a counter statement when Mai cut him off.
"Boys!" She moved between them to strengthen her presence over them. "We don't know anything about this either way. Why don't we save the arguing until after we know more of what's going on?"
With terse glares cast at each other the two of them backed down. Yugi turned back to the Gentleman then, and Tristan noted how quickly the anger melted away from his face, as if by turning away from the argument he were looking out a different window on a different day. When he spoke his voice sounded gusty and worn. "See what more you can find out about the Imperials' activities within the castle," he told the fiend. "Do what you can to get close to them or their leader, but do not be seen. We don't want them to know we're here." The Gentleman nodded swiftly and vanished in a swirl of fog.
Tristan raised an eyebrow at Yugi's back. How weird had that been? It wasn't like Yugi to actively seek confrontation with the enemy like that. Even with the potential threat of a friend in peril and a greater evil in the works, he wouldn't be so rash as to attack without information; yet he had only moved to seek that information after Tristan had argued against him. Ordinarily Tristan wouldn't have done such a thing, but he knew that if he hadn't said anything, they might well have followed that plan – what anyone could see was a suicide mission. He would follow Yugi to the ends of the earth, but not if he were being irrational.
Something was bugging the resistance leader, Tristan realized. Maybe it was just his exhaustion, or the knowledge that the Imperials were around and up to no good; or maybe it was that gnawing hope that Téa could very well be in the castle as they spoke. Tristan didn't think so. There was something else that was irritating him, something he was hiding under the surface, and he wasn't about to let their fearless leader plot and plan without knowing exactly what it was.
Yugi watched the spot where the Gentleman had been standing a moment longer, then let out his breath in a sigh. "Let's get out of this heat," he said to his comrades. "I think we've had enough excitement for one day."
Of course, there was only one place the resistance knew of that could serve as a suitable shelter, and that was the researcher base ruins they had used in their previous visit.
"Back here again too. I never wanted to see this place again, either," Tristan muttered to himself. They had returned to the covered shelter they had used last time, where traces of their occupation still lingered in the form of ashen planks. Mai was off with Fizdis being told the stories of their last adventure here, and Shimon had gone to search for anything in the way of supplies that may have been buried in the ruins. Tristan stuffed his hands in his pockets and was about to go poke around outside when he noticed Yugi sitting against the far wall of their shelter, knees brought up in front of him. He had that spaced-out and yet highly focused look that meant he was consumed with his thoughts.
Tristan remembered his previous vow to figure out what was troubling Yugi, and tentatively approached. "Yugi? You all right?"
Yugi shifted slightly at his address, carefully not looking up at him, wary of their last brief face-off. "I think you would understand it," he answered, his tail curling slowly across the sand, "if I told you I didn't like this place."
Tristan didn't need any further explanation. "This place" meant the ruins where Yugi had first found Slypher's Orb – when their troubles had unknowingly began. No doubt returning to this place had made Yugi feel depressed with the state of himself again, if staring at his hands was any clue. Tristan had sensed the guilt rolling off of him since Scott's revelation of the outside world – and of Yugi's fate without – and knew that returning to this place certainly wasn't helping alleviate the depression. Anyone would feel uncomfortable returning to the source of that much negative personal history.
Tristan sat beside him against the wall. Yugi glanced over at him, and Tristan saw in his eyes a flicker of uncertainty, like he wasn't sure if he should say what was on his mind. He noticed Yugi shiver, a good several seconds before a breath of wind passed through their slipshod shelter.
Up went a mental eyebrow. "Are you cold?"
Yugi seemed to sense his intent and looked away quickly. Tristan gave him the I-know-something's-up-so-you'd-better-tell-me look, and Yugi shifted uneasily.
"A little, I guess."
Tristan hummed and let his head rest against the wall, eyes closed. "Any particular reason for the fires of hell escaping today?"
Yugi grit his teeth, staring down at his knees. "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I guess the news the Imperials were in town set me on edge."
Tristan sighed heavily. "Hey, no problem. I understand. We're all pretty frazzled right now. Although you might want to be more careful next time," he said, nudging Yugi's shoulder jokingly, "or else we might have to cite you for your reptilian temper." Yugi's eyes narrowed indignantly as Tristan chuckled at his own pun.
"You don't have to make fun of me," said Yugi, who was smiling a little despite the pout on his face.
"Hey, it gets old just teasing you about your hair or your height. Besides, the way I see it, it's better to make fun of scales than to mope about having them."
Yugi's eyes widened. "Tristan?"
"Look, I know you're feeling pretty bad about what happened back in Sygh-Varths. But it's not your fault."
"Hmm." The despondent look had returned to Yugi's eyes and he sank a little lower against the wall, his tail curling against his shins.
"So what if the entire populace thinks we're evil because you look like you do?" he went on. "We know you're practically a saint, and for now I'd say that that's all that matters."
"It's not fair to you, though," Yugi said softly, almost without voice. "Everything being brought upon us, all the hate… It's because of me." The dimness within their enclave made his eyes look like their former deep violet color, and Tristan felt a pang of guilt for having noticed this. "How is that fair to you, to drag you down with me…?"
There was a silent pause. Then Tristan took a breath and gathered himself within the dusty breeze that whispered through them as it passed. "No one's dragging us anywhere," he said. "Last time I checked, we were all in this voluntarily. We all want to stick with you."
"Why, though?" Yugi's voice rose, "Why would you want to? After all the things I've done wrong, all the trouble I'm causing you, why would you want to stay with a dem–"
He cut off quickly, realizing what he had almost said, and jerked his gaze away. Tristan put a hand on his shoulder. "You're our friend, Yugi. We can see past the scales. We can see that you're a good person. We can see that you're the only one who can beat Scott. But there's more than that: you're our friend, and we aren't going to just abandon you because other people decide we should hate you. You're worth more than that.
"Don't worry about our popularity situation, okay? We can handle it. We're willing to take the lumps with the gold."
Yugi remained silent. He almost thought that nothing he said had gotten through when, eyes still closed, Yugi said, "A saint, huh?"
Tristan grinned. "Or Napoleon."
Yugi half-smiled wryly. "As long as I don't have to speak French." Tristan laughed. He released Yugi's shoulder, and a soft snap sounded between them.
"Ouch!"
"Oh." Yugi sat up, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I'm still feeling some residual sparks from Scott's spell. I imagine magnets and other small metal objects would like me right about now. I feel like I'm charged:"
"You could have warned me," said Tristan broodingly.
"Think of it as payback for that 'reptilian temper' comment." He reached over and grabbed Tristan's arm.
Snap-snap-snap. "Ow! Hey! Static!"
It was some ridiculously late hour of the night, and Yugi couldn't sleep. It seemed that the static he had been feeling all day pulsed more strongly at night, as if the absence of light bolstered its boldness and encouraged it to run rampant through his nerves. His nervous system was alive and on full-throttle; his skin felt like it was crawling with insects. Mahado was dutifully keeping him company as he tried to fall asleep, but Yugi's nerves were already thin as it was. 'Go to sleep, Mahado. I feel guilty keeping you up like this.'
'You shouldn't feel guilty, Soulmaster. I couldn't sleep anyway, given the stress your heart is under. It would keep me awake just as the energy you feel is keeping you up.'
'Energy I feel? What about you? Can't you feel it?'
'No,' Mahado answered bluntly. 'Your senses are supremely acute: you can sense the remnants of spells that wouldn't even register under most magical means of detection. Whatever it is that you're feeling is too faint for Mana or myself to detect, though we have tried.'
'Great.' Yugi growled to himself. The static flickered along his nerves and caused him to flinch involuntarily. He turned over, ignoring the painful feeling of wing bones pressing into his back. He hardly noticed it over the crawling magic, and the feeling of rough dirt scratching against his scales helped soothe his plague, if only slightly. He cracked his eyes open and caught a glimpse of the starry sky outside through a gap in the planks above him. Their peaceful glimmering felt like cruel mockery of the sleep he so desperately needed. 'You wouldn't happen to know of a way to turn off my senses, would you?'
'That would involve shielding your aura, but it wouldn't do you much good to try. It requires strong concentration on the part of the aura's owner, and even you could not maintain that while asleep.'
He took that as a "No," meaning that he had no choice but to suck in his breath and bear it. Yugi growled again irately. By now it was apparent to him that the only way he would ever get to sleep would be if he passed out in exhaustion. Deciding instead to make the most of his conversation with Mahado, he was about to inquire further on the subject when a sound outside the shelter caught his attention.
He turned his focus to the outside world and caught the sound of faint huffs of breath: sobs? He'd been awake this whole time, and hadn't noticed anyone leave... Then again, his outward attention hadn't exactly been perfect while engrossed in his mental conversation. Mahado retreated further into his gem as Yugi quietly rolled over and pulled himself to his feet.
He stepped cautiously toward the opening, and the sobbing intensified. Someone was crying, but it wasn't the hysterics of someone bawling his eyes out. These sobs were soft, rigid; the kind made when keeping one's sadness to oneself, and straining against the tears despite all need for them to be expelled. He moved clear of the wooden planks jutting into the entranceway and saw pale white dusted with the darkness of night.
"Fizdis?"
He stepped carefully into her line of sight, so she could see him there. She gasped at his voice, caught off guard by the fact that she had been discovered, and hurriedly rubbed at her eyes to hide her tears. Yugi felt slightly guilty for finding her thus, alone in the cold. "You don't have to do that," he said. "If you need to cry, you should. Holding it in is bad for your heart."
"Why?" Yugi froze; he had been taking a step towards her when the question hit him. It hadn't been frail in tone like he had expected – like what was normal for Fizdis. Her voice was quiet, but only quiet in that it wasn't loud enough to wake anyone in their shelter. Otherwise it was strong; a solidity of emotion such that Yugi had never seen before in her permeated her stance, and only now did he realize how straight and dignified she had been standing throughout her tears.
He pulled his foot back and cocked his head, keeping his expression as level as he could despite the strangeness of her character at the moment. His tail curled nervously; he was slightly unsettled by this bout of uncharacteristic behavior. "Why what?"
"Why should I cry? Why does it matter?" she demanded, still keeping her voice just below normal speaking volume. Loudness had been traded for intensity, and Yugi could feel the weight of her words like stones stacked upon his heart. It would almost have been a little more settling if she were yelling at the top of her voice, like most people did when emotion seized them so fiercely. At least then maybe he would have been more prepared for her next words.
"Nothing matters, really. Nothing at all. Whether I cry, or scream, or not. After all…" She looked at him, brown eyes like solid stone walls, holding back even the rampant restlessness of the land. "I'm not real."
If he had been expecting anything, it wasn't that. "What? What do you mea–?"
"You know what I mean." Yugi shut his mouth quickly, startled once again by her controlled anger. Somehow, the strength of her voice commanded that he listen. "I've heard you talking about it. All of you: Joey, talking about how Scott could 'delete' you at any time. Mai, about how much she wants 'out of this world.' Ryou, Téa, Tristan, and even you, mulling over your ability to return home. All of you, late at night, when you thought Shimon and I were asleep and couldn't hear…
"I ignored it at first because I didn't know what any of it meant. But now I understand it." She glared at him. "I don't know how all of it works, but I know this: you're not from this realm. You're all from some other world outside of here – a world in which, somehow, Scott created this one. This whole place is false, a lie. You six were dragged into it somehow, and this whole time you've been searching for a means to escape."
Yugi could only stare at her, agape. He knew that they had all talked about the computerized aspects of this world before… but never once had he realized what effects this knowledge could have on someone that was a part of it. "If this whole world was created, then so was I," she went on. "I'm not real either. I don't have a heart or a soul… I'm not a real person."
Enough was too much. "Fizdis, maybe this world was created. So what? That doesn't make you any less of a person!"
She looked directly at him. Her eyes glinted like the dark edges of obsidian knives laid upon an altar stone. "Even your words to me are false. You treat me like an equal… but you and I are not the same. If I'm not real, then what do I mean to you? Once you leave this world, what then? You and your real friends will be back in your real world, and you'll all forget about me. It'll be as though this place or I never existed. And if this world was created by someone in yours, then surely it can be destroyed the same way…"
"Fizdis, stop it," Yugi cut in. The way she was talking was scaring him now. She was nothing like the innocent, shy-spoken girl he had trusted to be on his team since he first arrived. Now he felt as if she were a towering judge, bearing accusations of his integrity down on him, and that he was pleading not only for his innocence, but for her to see her own. "You can't say that we don't see you as an equal. You've been through so much with us…"
"But you don't care," she countered. "You don't, because you can't. How can anyone care about something like me? I'm not a person; I was created. And because all of you know it, you don't even bother to care about me."
Yugi could hardly bear what he was hearing. Everything he had come to know of Fizdis was gone, shattered by her anger and hurt. She had been the purest of any of them, and here, now, she was the grimmest, holding the truth of her whole world within her like a scar that sealed her heart. "Fizdis…"
"Stop trying to sweet talk me!" she snapped. "You always do the same thing, like I'm some little girl you have to take care of; give her a hug and tell her what she wants to hear, just to make sure your perfect battle plans aren't derailed!"
Again, Yugi could only gape. All those times he had comforted Fizdis, he had just done what felt right to him. Never once had there been an ulterior motive, nothing other than to ease the pains of her heart, because that was what Yugi believed was the right thing to do… for a friend.
Tears edged Fizdis's eyes, the angry sort of tears that sparkle abnormally brightly with hate. Had she really come to the conclusion in her mind that she meant nothing to him? That he had been using her for the advancement of his tactics and didn't even view her as a fellow human being?
"Fizdis, I will not tolerate you talking like this." Yugi couldn't let her go on thinking these things. He couldn't leave her while she still believed that she was worthless and unloved. "Listen to me, right now. I can care about you. Why? Because I do. If it's not possible then how is it I am, right now?"
"You don't care." She seemed to be talking more to herself than to him, as if his constant empty claims had degraded his status in her eyes. "I'm not real to deserve that emotion, and you aren't fit to give it."
"Fizdis–!"
She would have no more. She pushed past him and marched into their shelter, never once looking at him. In a flash the white of her robes was claimed by shadow, and she was gone. Her mind was made up.
Yugi was left standing outside, alone in the starlight, feeling in his heart a sense of deep guilt and failure. (2)
Yugi had finally managed to fall asleep the night before, but had only stayed that way for a few hours. When he woke up again he felt even worse than he had before. His eyes bore the ache of sleep deprivation and the rest of his body felt slightly raw, as from sunburn, from the currents of static still buzzing within him. The morning felt inexplicably grim as he watched the sky outside lighten to a deadened gray. During the quiet stillness before he moved to roust the others he thought solely on what had happened with Fizdis. He still couldn't believe the things she had said… Scott had already taken three of his friends from him, and now, his heart beat thickly with the knowledge that he had lost a fourth.
When the time came to wake the others, he didn't go near her, deciding to let the noise from Tristan's grumbling do the work instead. Yugi watched her carefully from the corner of his eye, and as she stirred awake she looked as delicate as she always did, like a bird rustling dew from its feathers. Then the events of last night seemed to come back to her: her eyes immediately hardened with enmity and she shot him an arrow-tipped glare. Yugi pretended not to notice it; though he felt her coldness cling to his shoulders throughout the morning like chilled fog.
Mai, Tristan, and Shimon had their own downtrodden looks as they trudged outside into the morning light. Most of it was the disheartening events of Sygh-Varths, but what really dragged them down was the fact that as much as their situation had changed, so much was still the same. There were Imperials doing who knew what in the Badlands… and where there were Imperials, there would be fighting. Over and over again: battle after battle, escaping with their lives, only to have to fight for them again. It was an endless cycle, the drain of war on one's stamina. Yugi knew his friends must be nearly at their limits. He also knew that it would be a long time before they made any headway against Scott and the Empire and recovered their former status, let alone achieve the victory they needed to escape back to the real world. He could only hope that they could hold out against their exhaustion a while longer.
For the rest of the morning the resistance milled about the researcher base. They couldn't make a plan of action without knowing more of what they were up against, and the Illusory Gentleman had not yet returned with the information they needed. Yugi had not bothered to think through possible scenarios of attack or defense, because he knew it wouldn't matter. The others could think he was waiting for information so that he could plan some all-encompassing strategy, but in reality his one goal was to storm the castle. He knew, in a way that not even Yugi himself knew how he knew, that it was she stationed as the Imperial leader there. He could feel it as surely as he knew which way was up. He refused the faint suggestions from Mana that it might be wishful thinking overpowering his rational thought. There was no one else it could be; his heartbeat reinforced his logic.
Right now all he could do to override the anxiety in his mind was pace around the expanse of the researcher base and pretend to be engrossed in his thoughts. It wasn't something he had any desire to do, but he had little choice otherwise. He needed to keep moving to keep himself focused, and only by means of constant motion could he quell that jittery feeling in his nerves. It was also necessary because sitting still made it harder to hide the sporadic shivers that ran through him with the currents of electricity, which had become more frequent since yesterday. He didn't want his friends to notice and face their inquiries to his health.
Tristan was slumped over one of the higher walls some distance away, his upper body resting on crossed arms and stone. He had a look of sleepy boredom in his eyes as he watched his friend pace about the piles of stone. "Eight," he said aloud.
Mai was a few feet to his side, sitting on the wall like a perched vulture, alert for the sake of being alert, and for nothing else. "What?"
"Eight," Tristan repeated, lifting his head to look at her. "It's the number of times Yugi's been around the ruins."
She nodded, following the one in question as he made his way along, though sounding as if she couldn't care less. "Ah."
Tristan glanced over at her, checking to see if she actually looked awake and capable of thinking. From the tone of her voice he could tell she wanted to be left alone, but he needed a second opinion to check against his own thoughts. Talking the depression out of Yugi yesterday hadn't cleared up his suspicions. There was still something that he wasn't telling them. "You notice how weird he's been acting lately?"
Fingernails clicked on the stone wall idly. "Not really. What do you mean by 'weird?'"
"I don't know, it's just… You saw how angry he got at me when we were arguing about the Imperials earlier? But when I talked to him later, he seemed completely mellow. He even apologized for getting angry."
"That sounds like the normal Yugi to me, taking responsibility for his actions."
"Yeah, but it felt really drastic. Look at him now." He waved a hand at the pacing resistance leader. "He looks… nervous. When was the last time you saw Yugi act nervous?" Mai remained silent. Though she had seen him show things like appropriate militaristic caution and the occasional fear in a moment of battle, she had never seem him nervous before.
"It's a little unsettling to think of what could be making someone like him nervous," Tristan went on. "It's got me worried."
"I think you're getting ahead of yourself, Tristan. So Yugi's having a bit of a mood issue. So what? He's under a lot of stress right now. What happened back in Sygh-Varths… really hurt him." It had hurt all of them, really, including her. A hole had appeared in her happiness that a certain youthful spirit used to fill. "If you ask me, there's nothing to worry about. It'll pass."
Tristan frowned at her lenient attitude. She wasn't the one who felt ice slip down into her stomach every time she caught even the vaguest signal that something was up with Yugi. He had been thinking about it since yesterday, and the only answer he had been able to draw up after exhaustion and Téa was magic. There were no real grounds for suspecting that magic was involved with anything, but the static Yugi had described yesterday had Tristan worried despite the fact that he hadn't openly mentioned feeling anything foreboding from it. Whatever the cause, something was bothering him, and magic just fit as the perfect answer. Emotional stress could be a factor, but it didn't fit the symptoms. Sensing magic didn't just do physical things to Yugi; it also tended to affect his persona slightly, which was why the red flags in Tristan's head had been thrown up with the angry outburst of yesterday. It was apparent, however, that either Mai hadn't noticed these things or didn't care, and there was little use in pressing the matter further.
He tried a different angle. "Earlier, did you see how Fizdis never even said a word to him? Usually it's always 'Good morning, Yugi' or something like that; but today, nothing. They didn't even look at each other. I swear I saw her make a fist when he walked by…"
She sat up with interest. "You think something's up between them?"
"I don't know. It was abnormal."
"You don't think that Fizdis would…?"
"No," he said immediately; but he didn't think that Yugi would do anything to start a feud between them either. He wasn't sure what to think, because either way it was hard to believe that one of them could hurt the other.
"Well, I'm not going to ask them about it," said Mai as she stood and brushed loose bits of rubble from her skirt. "If there's even anything wrong between them, it's theirs to deal with."
Tristan didn't agree with Mai's laissez-faire attitude and opened his mouth to say so, when out of the corner of his eye he saw Yugi jolt to attention. Yugi's gaze snapped to the right, and exactly where he looked the Illusory Gentleman appeared in wisps of hazy smoke.
"Finally. News." Yugi immediately started for the informant, whom was customarily bowing. "What have you learned of the Imperials' aims?"
"…In truth, little. We were unable to get close enough to the castle to learn too much in the way of motive, for patrols of soldiers blocked the way. As you wished, we did our best not to be seen.
"In terms of what they were doing, they brought in many loads of supplies, which did not seem to be intended for military use. There were standard items like food and fabric… rations, perhaps. Archfiend of Gilfer, flying overhead at night, saw these things gathered on the castle roof. As for their purpose, we cannot say for certain, only that it looks as though they are planning to remain within the castle for some time."
A sigh of defeat came from the resistance. "In other words, nothing?" asked Tristan.
"Nothing," agreed the Gentleman.
"You didn't even see the woman from earlier?"
"No. We saw no one but the guards outside the castle."
They slumped at the shoulders, another setback weighted against them. Yugi's eyes flickered with visible defeat. So desperately he had prayed for news on the mysterious woman, for he had felt so sure that with any detail he could judge if it was truly she. "Thank you for what you've given us," he told the Gentleman. "If you want to return to stakeout, you may, but it looks as though we won't be getting anything more from them."
The Gentleman nodded curtly. He held his silver-tipped cane in one hand, and just as he was about to vanish he looked directly into Yugi's eyes. Yugi felt himself freeze, for though he couldn't see the Gentleman's face behind his silver mask he knew somehow that the monster had made direct contact with him. The fiend moved the hand holding his staff, and Yugi noticed in the one second it was visible that he held his ring finger extended away from the cane.
A flash of smoke, and then he was gone. Yugi blinked and realized that all of that had happened in one moment. He shook his head slightly, and then caught himself, for he knew that the others hadn't sensed anything. As it had happened, the whole world had felt strangely bloated and dim, like the landscape in the heat of summer.
A sudden wave of seriousness came from Mahado. 'Soulmaster, quickly. Move away so that we may speak.'
Yugi turned and made for the ruins again without a word – the others would think that he was formulating a plan based on the report. He started pacing again before slipping into autopilot and connecting with Mahado. 'Mahado, what was–?'
'The Gentleman has not told us everything that he knows. He is keeping a secret from us.'
With careful willpower Yugi kept his expression as though he were deeply focused on his thoughts. 'How are you sure? Nothing in his manner suggested he was lying.'
'He was not lying. Not directly. Even so, he is withholding information from us.'
'How do you know?'
'That action he performed – you felt it draw your attention? It is a means of passing a message without others knowing – a symbol, as the ring finger is a place where secrets could be kept hidden in the stone of a ring. In the past it was used among spellcasters and magic-users to signal that a secondary meeting must be held in the future… outside the presence of the current company.'
'So… are you saying that the Gentleman doesn't want the others to hear what he has to say?' Yugi asked.
'We must assume such. I do not think he knows of my presence, meaning that he performed the gesture thinking that you, a soul of magic, would recognize its meaning.' Mahado half-smiled to himself. 'I did not think anyone used that method much anymore. Though, to live in the Badlands, he must be as old as I…'
Yugi's tail swished back and forth in curiosity. 'I wonder what he could have to tell me?'
'We shall find out soon. In the meantime, think of a way to be alone sometime in the near future. It would not do to leave him waiting.'
In the end he had waited maybe a quarter of an hour before he could take the pressure no longer. He had told the others that he was going off flying for a while, just to clear his head, and that they should rest while they could, as they would be leaving upon his return. He didn't care what the others thought of it. He needed to know what the Gentleman wanted to tell him. His head was already leaping around at ideas of what the Imperials were really up to. Were they readying an attack of some kind? Had the Gentleman witnessed Scott's true goal within the castle, the likes of which would utterly devastate them?
As Seiyaryu flew for the distant outcropping of rock, he growled and clenched the reins in his fists. Maybe instead the Gentleman had seen his friends there, trapped in Scott's service. The idea of what Scott had done to them and was making them do even now made his blood boil with hatred. Just thinking of what she might be doing at his hand brought a snarl to his lips; he could just see Scott forcing her to dote on him as he laughed at the resistance's misery. Laughing and laughing, eyes flashing with arrogance, and Yugi felt an inexplicable urge to choke his mental image, every instinct in him screaming that he rip the laughing Scott to bloody shreds–
'Soulmaster!' Mahado urged. Yugi started, dazed by the heat of his own emotion. 'It is unwise to let your anger flare like that. With the current state of your nerves and your heart, it could easily grow out of your control.' Yugi forced the snarl away though he continued to simmer bitterly to himself, unwilling to fully abate his anger.
Seiyaryu fluttered to the ground and settled its wings against its sides. They had flown to that same rocky hill where the resistance had first encountered the band of fiends during their last visit to the Badlands. Yugi leapt off and started pacing impatiently, habitually, with a nervous quickness to his steps. Seiyaryu watched its master cautiously, Mahado and Mana doing the same from their gems. They knew that everything weighing on his shoulders was quickly wearing him thin, like a rug dragged along the ground with a load of crates upon it will quickly become threadbare. They feared that the guilt he harbored would soon wear a hole within his heart.
'Hey,' Mana gave him a mental poke, 'calm down will you? Getting antsy won't make him come faster.'
'Who says I'm not calm? I'm perfectly calm,' Yugi countered.
'Yeah, well, if your idea of "calm" is a heart rate through the roof, then sure…'
Not a few minutes more passed before the Illusory Gentleman appeared several yards away from him. The Gentleman didn't seem to have anticipated Yugi coming there, and was surprised to see him. "You came this far to meet me?" he asked. "I'd have thought you to wait for nightfall for us to meet."
"Nightfall seemed too long to wait. My comrades are expecting departure orders soon."
"Is that so?"
"Yes." Yugi's gaze sharpened and cut the air between them. "With your report they assumed that there was nothing at all to fear from the Imperials, and want to move on to a new hiding place." He had outwardly expressed agreement with this plan to placate them, but inside he never once had wanted to do that. He wanted to know more about the mysterious activities of the castle before they left. In his mind he had secretly scorned them for such naïveté: they wanted so desperately out of the Badlands, but with their status as outcasts just about everywhere on the continent was equally as bad as this place. At least out here they didn't have to hide from anyone who might seek vengeance.
"I had perceived as much from the group." The Gentleman stepped forward, looking down on him with something that could almost be described as pity: the look of someone wishing to aid the underdog, all while knowing the gravity his actions took with the sharing of information to him. "While I and the Archfiend have been on stakeout duty at the castle, I posted the Neck Hunter near you, to watch the group dynamics."
"You were watching us?"
"Only because I knew there would be trouble for your group if I told you the information outright. I needed to see where everyone stood. I needed to make sure you didn't change your mind about wanting to storm the castle. I assume that belief still holds?"
Yugi nodded. "Yes. There's something there I must see for myself. If the others won't do it, I'll do it alone."
The Gentleman half-hummed and turned away. "Then I must ask something else. Is the reason you wish to face the Imperials because of the woman I described to you earlier?"
"What?" Yugi exclaimed. "What makes you–"
"The moment I mentioned her, your eyes showed profound interest. Do not forget that I was also there when you quarreled with your friend and fought so desperately to go and enter the castle." Yugi could only stand in numb silence. "The reason I ask is also the reason I have come to you. The woman I saw was dressed in the same strange manner as your group, and I can tell that she was at one point a member of the resistance."
"So it was her!" Yugi blurted, his heart already quickening with anticipation. "It really was Téa… Why didn't you tell us this outright?"
"I needed to make sure your group was up to the challenge of braving the castle to fetch her. From the look of things, your group was against this idea, so I said nothing."
Yugi caught himself in his rising hope, and refocused his energy. "She is one of my greatest friends and allies. She has been taken by the Emperor's evil magic; I would do anything to free her from it," he explained, his voice strong. "Regardless of what my companions might think, I will risk storming the castle if it means getting her back."
"Listen, it's not that simple. Even though the one you seek is here, there is more danger to the situation than you realize." The Gentleman stamped his cane on the ground. "The Imperials are not doing harmless things, as I have led the rest of your group to so believe. They are invoking a force more deadly than anything this continent knows.
"The supplies they have received are not mere rations for the soldiers, nor are they meaningless. They are in actuality rare stones and jewels, exotic herbs, and other magical items, which together are the components necessary for the casting of an extremely powerful curse. It takes two days to prepare everything for the casting, before the unleashing of magical energy at the second night's moon. It is a curse that will obliterate everything as we know it and draw everything into ruin. You, a magic-user's soul, should know of it."
'I don't,' Yugi said to Mahado bluntly.
'Yet I do.' Mahado's voice had suddenly taken on a deeply grave tone, a tone Yugi had never heard him use before, as if his voice were reaching him from across the deepest cosmos. 'Surely he cannot mean… The curse whose purpose is naught but to destroy; magic woven by the Devil himself…'
Mahado recited: '"Wickedness shall coat the Land, to fester in the shadows of the deepest mountains; And the Land, Tainted, will be sundered, to be drawn back into the Earth; And the Oceans shall rage into nothingness; And the Sun itself shall perish, casting hate and despair into motion…" The Curse to Destroy Worlds.'
'Wh-What will happen?'
'The land will crumble into the sea, and the sea itself will be swallowed by the cracks in the land. Those living will die, and the souls of all the dead will be cast directly into eternal damnation in Hell without the hope of Heaven. Everything will return to the core of the planet, until all that is left is a void of desolation on a barren world…' Yugi paled and gave a choking gasp.
The Gentleman nodded to him sadly. "You see what I mean. We haven't much time to act."
"Why didn't you tell the whole group this? This is serious!" Yugi cried. "We're going to have to fight them to stop it, we'll need our full force…!"
"No." The Gentleman pounded the hard earth again with his cane. "This cannot be done as a group. The Imperials knew that if you caught wind of their actions, you would try to stop them. Therefore they have used magic to erect an anti-monster barrier around the perimeter of the castle. No Duel Monsters may be summoned within it, and none already called can enter. They have also stationed a legion of soldiers at the entrances of the castle to bar your way. Without your monsters, you cannot fight them, and you would surely be outnumbered in a physical confrontation with the guards themselves.
"The resistance cannot enter." The Gentleman advanced and gripped Yugi's shoulder suddenly, spinning him around to meet his own reflection in the shining mask. "Yet it would be possible for a single person to get past the guards."
A single person. One person, to slip past such impregnable defenses. Now it was clear why the Gentleman had singled him out. None of the other resistance members thought storming the castle was a good idea. None of them wanted so desperately to enter, possibly to risk his life, just to confirm a silly belief. Only Yugi held that stance.
"You are a magic-using soul," the Gentleman went on. "Your own soul should be enough protection from the initial waves of the curse to keep you safe. You alone of your group can stand in the presence of the curse."
'It's true,' agreed Mana. 'Magic like that has power even before it's completely cast. Its energies would ravage the souls of those without magic who got too near. It's like the opposite of what magic does to you most of the time. They would feel incredible pain – a pain caused by their souls not operating on the plane of magic.'
'We should also be able to aid you, Soulmaster,' Mahado added. 'We can act from our soul gems without being summoned. Though we cannot attack, we may cast spells to your defense.'
Yugi took in a deep breath. The enormity of the situation numbed his brain cold, yet at the same time lifted a small part of him to its greatest courage. "I – I understand what you're asking of me," he said. "I'll do it." The Gentleman seemed to smile and bowed to him.
"As I knew you would. It was yet another reason I chose to tell you this." Yugi looked at him confusedly, and the Gentleman explained: "I have appeared off and on near your group since we first met, so that I would know where to find you if the need ever came to report activity to you. Through those visits I have seen the great feats you are capable of with your strong heart.
"Now, you must part with your companions. They cannot join you in this fight." With that, the Gentleman vanished in a whirl of cape and smoke.
Yugi stood stock still for a moment after that. He became aware that he was shaking, though maybe that was just his nerves firing with electricity again. Seiyaryu moved beside him and nudged his arm reassuringly with its beak. Yugi stroked his dragon's neck automatically, his thoughts a violent swirl in his head. It was another long moment before he moved to clamber onto his dragon's back, Seiyaryu taking off quickly for the researcher base.
Mahado stirred guiltily in Yugi's heart. '…Soulmaster, there is one other thing.' Yugi paused questioningly, and Mahado said, very quietly, 'To unleash the massive power of the curse, there must be a human sacrifice.'
Yugi blinked. It made sense that a curse like that would need the purity of human life to call such destruction, so why was Mahado–
He froze so abruptly he jerked. Human sacrifice.
No.
No.
The guards were defending the curse casting from the resistance. They were needed to prevent intruders from foiling the plan – and there was only one other person within the castle that Scott deemed unnecessary.
Notes:
(One) – This is the most incredibly corny introductory paragraph of the game. I copy these from the game word for word, save a little editing here and there to accommodate my version of the story. When I came to this level, I thought: Frick. I have to write this chapter. So, basically, this chapter became creative license chapter, allowing me to tie up several bits of plot, since writing it exactly as it was in the game would have been poison for your eyes. It's funny how the Badlands end up doing that for me.
(Two) – Hey, you knew it was coming. Did you ever wonder, "Hey, what do Shimon and Fizdis think when the others go on and on about programming and stuff?" Well, I assumed you thought that. I was waiting for a good time to put it in, and after Scott showing their real-world selves the ANGST ANGST ANGST time seemed like a good time.
SC: So sue me. I hate that this took so long, I really do. But the chapter was getting way out of hand, and I thought it would be better if I really worked through it to make it better before just posting a load of clichéd, subpar, cheesy crud. So there ya' go.
On the plus side, I already have about seventy-five percent of the next chapter done (Part II). I still need to edit it, and write the final scene. I'd wager Spring Break.
Thank you for returning and reading, if you're still there. Please review! Comments are welcome, and constructive criticism is appreciated.
Word Count: 13,640 (and that's only half! See, I told you it was long!)