Chapter Eighteen

On the roof, Seto was barely containing his rage. It was all he could do not to tear across the playing field and start beating up on every one of the Big Five. As it was, he wasn't playing rationally. Atem had already chided him for two reckless moves. But he couldn't stop himself. The Big Five had made it so none of them could save Mokuba. And there were no sirens from fire engines. No help was coming; his brother was being burned alive.

Was there any chance it was a bluff? Oh, how he wanted to believe that! He was deathly afraid it was all too real. They had toyed with Yami Bakura's emotions, Johnson playing all manner of cruel tricks when Bakura was in actual fact alive. But for him, Seto, the one whom they truly hated, nothing other than the real thing would do. They wouldn't hesitate to destroy a life to get at him, even one so young. They had tried before. Now, through more trickery, they had managed to get the Five-Headed Dragon on the field, determined to doom every one of their opponents.

"Kaiba, the best thing we can do now is to defeat the Big Five once and for all!" Atem cut into his thoughts. "They cannot be allowed to spread their evil any further!"

"And they won't be," Seto snarled. "Now I fuse my three Blue Eyes White Dragons into Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

"And I'll power him up with two Dragon Treasures, so he'll be stronger than Five-Headed Dragon," Joey chimed in.

"But he won't be when I play a De-Spell to remove one of your Dragon Treasures," Gansley sneered.

"Face it, Junior, your time has come," Crump cackled. "There's nothing any of you can do against our dragon!"

"Oh really?" Atem's eyes were dark and cold. "I beg to differ." He raised his hand to the sky. "Come forth, Egyptian God Monsters!"

Everyone fell back.

"What?! Pharaoh, are you insane?!" Seto demanded. "We don't have the God Monsters!"

"You put them in the game, did you not?" Atem countered. "Then they are real, just as all the other Duel Monsters in this game are now real! And they should answer my call!"

"That's preposterous," Johnson frowned, adjusting his glasses. "They won't . . ."

The building shook. As the Big Five looked around in horror, Obelisk stormed up to glare at them over the top of the building. The Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon were flying in from two more directions.

"Alright!" Yugi exclaimed. "Just like always, the Egyptian God Monsters answer the call of the Pharaoh!"

"No!" Gansley fell back in horror. "This won't work! You don't have enough monsters to sacrifice to get them in the game!"

"We will if we pool all of our creatures together," Atem said. "Kaiba, you have successfully wielded a God Monster. Yugi, you are my direct descendant. They will obey you now. Together, we will take down the Big Five!"

Yugi and Seto both nodded in agreement. This was a team effort.

"And we'll be right here rooting for you," Joey said.

"We couldn't have done this without your and Mai's monsters," Atem said, giving him a thumbs-up.

"Now, Obelisk," Seto ordered, "obliterate!"

"Help him, Slifer!" Yugi added.

"And Ra, add your mighty force!" Atem boomed.

The Big Five's monsters and their lifepoints vanished. They screamed, shaken by the sheer force of the God Monsters' attacks.

"And now," Seto snarled, "I'm going to find my brother. If you have any sense of preservation at all, you'll all leave right now—because if he's dead, I'm going to find a way to take even more than this from you!" With that he turned, running towards the door leading into the building.

Sullen and defeated, the Big Five vanished.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Yugi worried. "Somehow, I don't think they're done yet."

"I'm afraid you're right, Yugi," Atem said. "But right now we need to focus on Mokuba. Let's go with Kaiba!"

"He couldn't possibly still be alive," Mai objected.

"Well, we're gonna try anyway!" Joey insisted. "We never give up on a friend." He smiled a bit. "Don't you know that by now, Mai?"

Mai smiled too. "Yeah. I sure do. Alright, Joey. Let's go!" She ran for the door, followed by Joey.

Yugi and Atem chased after her, fearing the worst yet desperately praying for the best.

xxxx

The others were still en route to KaibaCorp when the sight of the Egyptian God Monsters in the distance stopped them in their tracks.

"Holy . . . !" Valon gasped. "It's them!"

"Oh wow," Téa moaned. "I hope they're not mad about being put in the game!"

"With any luck, they will help the Pharaoh and Kaiba defeat the Big Five," Ishizu said.

"Well, let's get closer," Solomon encouraged. "I would love to see them in action!"

"But maybe not too close," Bakura cautioned. "We don't know how far the shockwaves from their power will extend."

". . . Good point," Solomon conceded.

In the sky, Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon roared, followed by the warbling of Mai's Baby Dragon. They were worried and wanted to be there. Their friends were in that game; they were sure of it!

Wingweaver was worried too. "Trouble!" she called in concern.

The reason for the cry was almost immediately obvious.

"Uh oh, guys," Téa gasped now. "It looks like we'll have all we can handle down here. It's a ground army of Warriors and Beast-Warriors and Zombies, coming right at us!"

Rishid stared in alarm. "Oh no!"

Ishizu opened the door of the van and stepped out. "There must be more power-ups we can use for our monsters, and magic and trap deterrents." Although outwardly calm, she was more than a little distressed. Marik was still missing and now they were being thrust into a battle they were not ready for. What if they couldn't figure out how to combat their new foes?

Serenity's eyes were filled with fear, but she got out of the car too. "I'll help!"

Her Lady Panther was finally catching up with her. A welcome crack of a whip and a roar echoed off the buildings as the Duel Monster charged in to fight. Crawling Dragon snorted as he advanced towards the army as well, along with Berfomet and Des Frog.

"This is great," Téa said in relief. "More back-up!"

Her Shining Friendship flew off, then swiftly returned holding a Silver Bow and Arrow.

"Awesome!" Téa grinned. "Just what we needed! Let's show these enemy Duel Monsters the power of friendship!"

Shining Friendship chirped in agreement and threaded an arrow.

The Dark Magicians were eager to contribute their help to the situation. "Double Dark Magic Attack!" Dark Magician Girl called as she and Dark Magician pooled their power.

Wingweaver also joined in with the assault.

Magic attacks and weaponry from both sides were flying through the air. Solomon ducked out of the line of fire, calling instructions to Curse of Dragon all the while.

Raphael jumped a mile when someone suddenly appeared at his window. But when he saw who it was, he had to smile. "Guardian Eatos. . . ."

The Duel Monster who had saved his life on more than one occasion smiled at him in recognition and turned to help fight.

Bakura bit his lip. "I wish I could help more. . . ." He got out of the car, staying below the various attacks and blasts. When he located a Trap Hole on the ground, he had to laugh. "This should take care of a great deal of our problem!" he called, and held the card up. "Trap Hole!"

A hole opened up under many of the enemy Duel Monsters and they fell with angry cries and roars.

"Awesome job!" Téa congratulated.

"And now I summon my Embodiment of Apophis!" Rishid announced. He had just discovered one of the grotesque Duel Monsters slithering around the van, and it had been quite willing to help. It lunged now, sword bared, as several Dragons swooped down from the sky.

"Zolga!" Ishizu announced. "Cape of Destruction!"

"And here's a Cyber Commander!" Alister cried.

Between the old and new Duel Monsters and a Radiant Mirror Force Serenity discovered, the battle was finally won. Relieved, everyone started climbing back into their vehicles.

"Let's go before any more show up!" Téa exclaimed.

"We need to get to KaibaCorp immediately," Alister agreed. "The God Monsters are gone now. The duel must be over."

"Well, Yugi and Atem and everyone had to have won!" Téa cried. "Nothing could beat the God Monsters!"

"Perhaps, but if they won, why is the Duel Monsters game world still here?" Solomon gravely asked.

"The monsters probably won't leave that easily, if a dimensional rift was torn open," Bakura said. "But that wouldn't explain the rest, it's true."

Oh Yami, he thought in despair. Are you safe?

xxxx

The building was still burning by the time Tristan came back with a vicious sea creature. "Man, it figures this would happen nowhere near Gansley's water section!" he berated. "I had to look in everybody's swimming pools before I found this big guy. Alright, Phantom Dragonray Bronto! Put out this fire!"

The creature shrieked and blasted the warehouse with a barrage of water. When the smoke cleared, the fire was out.

"Yes!" Tristan pumped the air. "Now, where's Yami Bakura? And Mokuba, if he was really in there?"

Seto ran through the front doors of KaibaCorp just then. "Tristan, where's Mokuba?!" he demanded.

"I don't know," Tristan exclaimed. "I thought he was in there, but we never really knew for sure. I just got the fire put out now!"

"It better not have been too late!" Seto tore across the street and over to the wreckage. "Mokuba! Where are you?!"

He wasn't expecting to hear crying around the side of the building. "Seto . . . I'm over here."

Immediately Seto took off again, running around the side into the alley. Then he stopped short. Mokuba was kneeling on the ground, hugging Marik as he cried. Marik held him close, looking helpless. Duke and David were standing awkwardly to the side, also looking helpless. Dark Necrofear was hacking away at the wreckage with her axe, while Revival Jam wobbled worriedly.

"What is this?!" Seto demanded. "What happened?!"

Mokuba looked up. "Seto. . . ." He got up and ran to his brother, hugging him around the waist. "We were all trapped in there. We couldn't get out. Then Yami Bakura showed up and helped us find a way out with his Ring."

"He did what?!" Seto stared at him.

"He had us all go out first, but he couldn't make it." Mokuba shut his eyes tightly. "We saw a beam come down and hit him and then it started burning on the windowsill. He didn't have any other way to get out. And then the building started coming down. . . ."

Seto held the boy close. He was overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness that Mokuba was safe, when he had been torn apart with anguish fearing he was dead. And to think of who he owed that to. . . .

He looked back at the building. It was blackened and weak, with barely any beams still standing at all. Water dripped from the twisted mess, pooling on the ground.

Tristan had run over just in time to hear Mokuba's story. He stopped short, turning pale. "No way!" He looked to the wreckage too. "We've gotta get him out of there!"

"He couldn't be alive," Mokuba objected. "The Ring . . . it makes him mortal, so that means he can die. And there's no way he survived that. . . ."

"I'll get him out anyway," Tristan insisted. He stepped into the mess, throwing several beams aside. "Is this about where he was?"

"Yeah," Duke said. Shaking himself out of his daze, he went over to help Tristan. David and Marik did as well.

Mokuba scrambled over too, struggling with a heavy beam. Seto quickly came over, helping him lift it.

Yugi gasped as he and the others ran over to see so many of the others working with the building's remains. "What's going on?!" he exclaimed.

"Talk later. Just start clearing this away," Seto shot back.

The others were agreeable to that.

With so many working, they soon managed to dig under the beams and rods to where Yami Bakura was lying lifeless on the floor. Sickened, Mokuba stared at him, then away.

Tristan swallowed hard. "Come on, man," he whispered. "I said to find Mokuba, not get yourself killed!" He slammed his fist into a nearby beam.

"Bakura!" Atem gasped. "What on Earth?!"

"He saved us," Mokuba trembled. "He saved us and now he's dead!"

"He's not even crushed," Mai said in amazement. "Those beams were right on top of him!"

Seto bent down next to him. "He's still breathing," he said in disbelief. "There must have been an air pocket here."

Mai rocked back. "That's impossible! There wasn't any room for an air pocket!"

"Not just that, but there are no bones broken and no burns." Seto looked shaken. He wasn't sure how this was possible either. But it didn't really matter right now. "Come on, let's get him out of here."

Seto could have lifted him out by himself. But Tristan came forward, wanting to help. Together they carried him away from the debris and over to the alley, where they laid him down with his head on Dark Necrofear's lap.

"Wake up," Marik pleaded. "You're safe now. We owe our lives to you."

There was no response.

Seto shook his head. "You said a beam hit him. He's not out of the woods yet. If the blow was serious enough, that alone could be fatal."

"No. . . ." Mokuba stared at him. "He's gotta be okay. . . ."

Tristan snarled. "I know somebody who might be able to bring him back. Only . . . he's already gone. . . ."

"No, he isn't," Seto said. "Bakura's alive! I saw him earlier."

"What?!" All eyes turned to Seto.

"He's right," Mai said. "Joey and I saw him too."

"Why didn't you tell us this before?!" Atem demanded.

"The Big Five didn't give us any time to chat," Seto retorted.

"Well, where is he now?!" Duke looked around in despair.

"I don't know," Seto said. "The Big Five pulled me away from everyone else."

"Us too," Mai frowned, indicating herself and Joey. "He's probably still with the rest of them."

"Well, we have to find them," Atem exclaimed. "Not only for Yami Bakura's sake, but to know they're safe!"

"We will," Yugi vowed. "And I'm also worried about the Big Five. We beat them, but you can bet they're still around. Especially since . . . well, did you notice that everything is still here?! We're still stranded in their world! Beating them didn't stop it!"

"No surprise," Seto said. "We'll probably have to shut down the game from the central computer in Kaiba Land to fully stop it." He clenched a fist. And would that really erase the game? He didn't want to believe it. But how would he check on the status of the back-up copies without risking the Big Five infecting them as well? . . . Provided they hadn't already done it, as Gansley had insisted they had.

Mokuba looked down sadly at Yami Bakura. "What are we gonna do?"

"We'll take the van and maybe a couple of company cars and go to Kaiba Land," Seto said. "We'll have to take Yami Bakura with us; I don't trust leaving him at the infirmary as long as the Big Five are still running the city."

Dark Necrofear nodded and stood, taking Yami Bakura in her arms. Revival Jam tried to carry her doll. Smiling a bit sadly, Marik reached down to pick him up.

xxxx

The Big Five reconvened in their conference room, defeated, angry, and not ready to give up their quest.

"Well, now what?!" Lector demanded. "Not only did Mokuba survive that inferno thanks to that thief, we got walloped by the Egyptian God Monsters! Everything we've tried has failed, badly!"

"But our game is still in play," Gansley said. "We still have a chance to ruin their lives and take over KaibaCorp."

"And what happens if Seto Kaiba tries to shut down the game, as he will no doubt try to do next?" Johnson wondered.

Nesbitt smirked. "I programmed one other fail-safe into the game," he bragged. "He has to get the system to recognize him in order to shut it down. Instead of erasing the game, as Gansley told him it would, it will erase him as soon as it recognizes him! Once he's dead, our game can continue blanketing the city and giving us physical form. I would have been a fool to have programmed game erasure into the computer!"

"Brilliant!" Crump cheered. "You're right, Nesbitt—that's a far better fail-safe, and a much more fitting one. Our chance of victory is still 100 percent!"

"Let's go to Kaiba Land so we can witness our moment of triumph," Gansley sneered.

Everyone fully agreed.

xxxx

The others were just trudging out from the wreckage of the building when all the other vehicles pulled up at last. The occupants stared at the procession.

"Oh my gosh!" Téa exclaimed. "What happened?!"

Bakura's heart went cold. "YAMI!" He fought with the door of Raphael's car, finally forcing it open and running over to the limp body in Dark Necrofear's arms.

"He's alive," Mokuba told him. "But he's hurt because he saved us. Me and Marik and Duke and David. . . ." He looked down, blinking back tears. "The Big Five trapped us in that building and then torched it."

"Why, those snakes," Valon snarled. Seeing Mai, he got off his motorcycle and ran over to her. "Mai!"

"I'm okay, Valon," she told him. "Yami Bakura is the only one who's hurt here."

"Téa!" Yugi hurried over to her.

"Hi, Yugi," Téa greeted, so happy to see him yet shaken by the scene before them. "We saw the God Monsters in the sky! Are you all okay?!"

"Yeah, we're fine," Yugi said. "Then we got down here and found all this. . . ."

Téa bowed her head. "He looks pretty bad off. . . ."

"Not anywhere as bad as he could have been," Yugi said, trying to smile. "I don't know what it was, but something was sure protecting him. I can't believe he'd be spared only to die now."

Téa didn't want to believe that either. He had been their enemy, but those days were long over now. He was their ally . . . their friend. She had meant her words earlier that day. She didn't want him to die. . . .

"Marik!" Ishizu exclaimed, catching sight of her precious brother.

"Ishizu! Rishid!" Marik ran over to meet them, still holding Revival Jam.

Rishid looked him up and down. "You're not hurt?"

Marik sighed. "Well, I was in the fire. I guess I'll have to be checked for smoke inhalation, but yes, I'm alright thanks to Yami Bakura."

"Thank goodness." Ishizu drew an arm around Marik but watched sadly as the thief remained still. That could have been Marik, if not for him. . . .

"Joey! Mai! Duke! David! Tristan!" Serenity was running over as well, her hair streaming out behind her.

"Hey, we're all fine, Sis," Joey smiled.

"That's right," Duke said. "And what about you, Serenity? Are you alright?"

"Uh huh." Serenity hugged Joey, then settled into an embrace from Duke. "I'm just fine." She looked worriedly to Yami Bakura. "Is he going to be okay?"

"If he is, Bakura should be able to draw him out," Tristan said. He clenched a fist at his side. "He said most of you said you wanted to be friends," he said quietly. "He asked me if I could, and I . . . couldn't answer him. . . ." He looked away. "And now he's . . ."

"He's going to be okay, Tristan," Téa firmly interrupted. "He has to be. . . ." She watched with her heart in her throat as Bakura just stared down at him almost in disbelief.

Dark Necrofear looked sadly at Bakura. Her master was indeed still alive, but even if the blow wasn't fatal, she wondered if he had the will to wake up. He had been in so much pain. Always, so much pain. . . . She had always been his Duel Monster, ever since he had first acquired the card pack with her card in it. She had been with him through so much. And she had seen how he could not handle being without Bakura. Her cold heart was broken as it had only been broken one other time, when the inhuman experiments on her had left her body mutilated and half-robotic, unable to bear children.

Bakura was wondering the same thing about the man's will. He sobbed as he gently turned Yami Bakura to face him. "Yami, it's me!" he cried. "I've come back, just as I promised! Please, Yami! Please, wake up! You have to be alright. . . ."

At first there was no response. But then Yami Bakura's eyes fluttered as the teardrops landed on them. "What? . . . Bakura?!" He went stiff, staring up at the cherished boy. "No . . . not another trick! . . ."

The anger and anguish in his voice shattered everyone's hearts.

"I'm not a trick, Yami!" Bakura insisted. He brushed the hair away from the older man's face, praying that he would know what to do, as Solomon had insisted he would. "I'm real! They were holding me prisoner just to torture you. They wanted you to use the Infinity Ring in hate so it would backfire on you and they could claim it!"

Yami Bakura reached up, gripping Bakura's wrist with a shaking hand. "How can I believe you?" he rasped. "How can I believe you're not Johnson again? Or one of the others? Or even just a hologram programmed by them?!"

"They couldn't know everything," Bakura insisted with a shaking, sad smile. "They couldn't know about Amunet, or about . . . about how much I love you. They couldn't duplicate those feelings. Look in my eyes, Yami! Look and you'll see that love, my dear friend. My brother. . . ."

For a long moment Yami Bakura stared into Bakura's eyes. Then he climbed out of Dark Necrofear's arms, convinced of the truth. The miracle he had longed for had actually come to pass. "Bakura. . . ." He threw his arms around the boy, embracing him close. "I thought I'd lost you. . . . If you knew what I did, I doubt you'd want to . . ."

"But I do know, Yami!" Bakura hugged him, then pulled back to look firmly in his eyes. "I saw everything on the screens in the room they were using. I could never fear you or reject you for what you did. Especially when . . ." He swallowed hard. "When you did it because of your love for me. . . ."

"You know?" Yami Bakura stared at him, still in disbelief. "I used Berserker Soul. I went berserk myself. And I'm not sorry."

"I know," Bakura said softly. "And I used the Change of Heart on Gansley once I knew what their cruel plan was. And . . ." He swallowed hard. "I'm not sorry either."

More staring. "Bakura . . ." Shock and concern flickered through Yami Bakura's eyes.

"Oh, I know you went too far with Johnson, Yami, but you can't be blamed," Bakura insisted. "Not under the circumstances. Not when he was being so cruel. And I do feel guilty for using the Change of Heart, but I don't regret it. They're both alright, I'm sure."

"True, they are," Yami Bakura said. "They were dueling Kaiba and some of the others on the roof. . . ." He looked around, suddenly realizing that Seto, Atem, and the rest were now here.

"The duel's over, and we need to get to Kaiba Land to shut this game down," Seto interjected. "And . . . I owe you my gratitude for what you did."

Mokuba nodded, beaming up at Yami Bakura. "You saved us! Thank you."

Marik, Duke, and David added their agreement as well.

Yami Bakura actually looked awkward and embarrassed. ". . . I did what had to be done," he said gruffly.

Bakura hugged him close. "Which not everybody would," he insisted. "Oh Yami, I'm so glad you're alright!"

Yami Bakura welcomed it. "You're really here," he whispered. "This is real. . . ."

Téa smiled happily.

"I knew everything would be just fine when they met again," Solomon said. "Bakura knew exactly what to do."

"And now we really do need to get going," Seto said. "You can keep reuniting on the way."

Once again everyone began separating to their various vehicles, none of them knowing of the final horrors that awaited them at Kaiba Land.