Chapter Nineteen - Walking With Legends
"I'm just sayin' we could've taken him - if Yami had been there supporting our efforts with his Shadows!" Joey jabbed the stick in his hand fiercely at the cooking fire, causing sparks to rise up.
"I doubt it. His Shadows are not powerful enough to tip the balance of power." Seto scowled at the sparks that danced too far from the cooking pit until they fell to the ground as instantly chilled former embers.
Joey glowered at Seto. "Are you sayin' you don't think we can ever win? Why are you with us, then?"
"I didn't say I didn't think we could ever win. I don't believe that Yami's presence at our last encounter with the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos would have made any difference." Seto paused and looked up. "As to why I am 'with you' I am not. I am with the Hero. I believe in him. Good morning, Yugi."
"Blaurgh." Yugi's inarticulate comment accompanied a bleary-eyed half-glare in the general direction of the two Kindly Lords.
"Wow, he's really not a morning person, is he?" Joey left off poking at the fire and stood up.
"You are just now noticing this? Makes sense, I suppose. You are rarely up as early as this yourself." Seto crossed his arms and smiled coolly at the Lord of Fire.
"Forgive us, lords, we didn't realize he was up and about yet. We will take care of him." Vialla bowed toward Joey and Seto as Celador grasped Yugi by the elbow and led him away. "We have royalberry hearthcakes cooling at our tent, Hero," Vialla told Yugi. Though still prone to stumble as if still half-asleep, Yugi went with the elven siblings willingly enough.
"I trust you are feeling more alert and ready to face whatever this day brings?" The Purple Knight sat on the log next to Yugi and offered to fill Yugi's mug with more coffee a short while later. Yugi's eager acceptance made him smile. "I am sure you don't wish to discuss it, but discuss it we must. What can you tell us about your dream?" Only then did Yugi realize that Lord Joey and Lord Seto had followed behind the Purple Knight.
"I'm scared of it - the dream. Nothing bad happened, but I think bad things are about to because I just dreamed it," Yugi admitted slowly.
"You mentioned the word 'Legends' last night." The Purple Knight prodded gently.
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon, evidently listening to the conversation from the edge of camp, whipped his head around swiftly and Joey yelped.
"It seems as if my dragon knows something of it. Don't tell me you know what these 'Legends' are?" Seto demanded.
"No, my sword might, though. It jumped. Kinda-sorta. Well, mentally, I guess." Joey drew his sword and rested the blade of it reverently across his left palm as he gazed at it.
"It must have been a very vigorous jump to affect that tiny lump of grizzle you call a brain," Seto retorted.
"Hey!"
"What do you know about the Legends?" Yami asked his Guardian Knight as he shadow-walked right into the conversation.
"Very little, my lord. Just a line of a prophecy the Water Sage told me once about the Point being both the 'grave' and the 'birthplace' of Legends," the Purple Knight replied easily enough. Yet, shadows of worry seemed to gather within the confines of his helmet, darkening his face.
Yugi shivered. "I have a bad feeling about this. I don't want to go to the Point again."
"You are aware, Hero, that even with the power you have amassed, we cannot defeat the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos? That you dreamed it indicates that we need these Legends to succeed," Yami said.
"But, I think there is more loss than gain - somehow," Yugi replied slowly.
"Naw, if so, we'll just backtrack and try somethin' else. Let's at least go to the Point and check it out!" Joey suggested.
"I guess - we have no choice," Yugi agreed slowly.
They left the bulk of their troops in the camp, reasoning that there wasn't much their fighting forces could do at the top of the mystic mountain. It gave their Warriors, Dragons, and Shadows a chance to rest and regain their strength after the various battles they'd fought against the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos's minions. Ashelocke, Yami's skeletal Shadow Dragon, would only be able to carry his lord the entire distance. Daire, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon likewise bore the Fire Lord. Seto locked eyes with Tekhenu for a moment in silent communication before he tossed Yugi onto the back of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and lifted his hand in a negligently mystic gesture to endow both himself and the Purple Knight with wings for the journey.
"It's - bigger!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Must be some illusion. It can't be bigger. It's just a weird structure on a weird mountain - they don't grow," Joey disagreed.
"He's right. There is less area at the top than there was before. There's barely enough room for the dragons to land." Seto pointed and spiraled down himself to confirm that the flat, broad area was indeed large enough to serve as a landing runway for the dragons. Even though each dragon crowded toward the near side after landing, Yami's Shadow Dragon, the last to descend as he was the smallest, still came perilously close to sliding over the edge.
"Huh." Joey shaded his eyes with his arm and gazed at the structure itself. "It hasn't got any bigger. Why is there less mountain than before?"
No one tried to hazard an answer. There didn't seem to be any obvious damage or erosion that could account for the significantly smaller area. Leaving the dragons in the landing field, the rest of the party approached the monolith. Seto dismissed his and the Purple Knight's wings to get them out of the way.
The focus of Yugi's eyes softened in a semi-familiar fashion as one side of his Pendant started to glow. "Element to release sword," he muttered. He gestured toward Joey's sword. Bemused, the Lord of Fire surrendered the Flameblade to the Hero. Yugi started to walk around the sides of the Point held in the thrall of his odd daze. Yami indicated Yugi, and the edge of the mountain that he was walking perilously close to. Both Seto and Joey nodded, and paced alongside Yugi flanking him so he couldn't walk any closer to the edge.
When Yugi got to the middle of the side of the Point it started to glow a faint red. He looked down at the sword in his hands. Only then did the lords realize that the impression of the length of the sword in the side of the Point had changed - even as the sword had changed.
"Point to power up sword." His vague gaze seemed to take in the altered sword impression on the point. Another side of Yugi's Pendant lit at his words.
He slowly walked around the corner of the red-glowing side to the side of the Point that faced the Dragonlands. He stared down at the sword in his hands for a long moment, then up at the Purple Knight, then toward the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, where he and the other two dragons shifting uncomfortably on the tiny bit of land still available for them on the top of the mountain.
"Knight to release Dragon..." Another side of the Pendant of Pharaoh lit at his words, and the side of the Point facing Seto's Dragonlands started to glow a faintly bluish-white.
Expecting it now, the lords paced alongside Yugi as he walked around the corner to the final side, the one facing Yami's Shadowlands. It glowed already with a faint black-violet energy. Unlike before, Yugi walked right up to the side, where the impression of Yami's Shadowblade was faintly visible.
"All three to power up lord?"
He shook his head after murmuring these disjointed phrases. The rather blank expression on his face, that had become so familiar to the lords, this time seemed to change from a vague curiosity to a faint horror. His movements were hesitant, almost as if he were warring with himself and not entirely certain that he wanted to do whatever his Pendant-induced trance compelled him to do. In a motion too swift for the observers to stop, Yugi tried to place Joey's sword against the imprint of the Gloomblade on the pyramid face. The entire Point flared with energy, lashed at Yugi, and flung him away.
"No!" Yami cried out as he reached for Yugi, but just missed.
Yugi pitched over the side. The Purple Knight dove off the side of the Point after him, and caught the inert Hero in his arms. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon immediately took off, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and the Curse of Dragon only a wing-beat behind. Tekhenu positioned himself under the falling Knight and Hero, deftly caught them on his back, and carefully returned them to the Point. Yugi appeared unharmed, but seemed to be profoundly unconscious.
"We should take him back to the camp," Joey said.
"No. Best to watch him here. If this happened to him because of the Point..." Yami argued.
"But that is my point! If the Point did this to him, and we take him away, he should get better, right?" Joey demanded.
"It's worth a try," Seto said.
Yami stared at his fellow lords for a moment. It seemed the only time the Lord of Fire and the Lord of Ice agreed on anything, it was something that involved Yugi. "All right."
The trip was short-lived. The only dragon strong enough to bear two riders was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Yugi began to writhe and spasm in Seto's arms (as the Dragon Lord wouldn't permit either of his fellow lords to ride his dragon), even though he remained unconscious, once the dragon took to the air and winged away from the Point. Reluctantly, the lords agreed it was best to keep Yugi here and hope he woke up on his own.
Yami set up a small shadow camp between the base of the Point and the dragons' roost. Two of the dragons either circled the air around the Point, or rested at the base, while one, usually the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, remained between the camp and the drop off as a barrier to the Hero walking off the edge. They were concerned that Yugi might walk around in a daze as he had done when retrieving the various swords. The Pendant of Pharaoh around Yugi's neck glowed fiercely in a way they had never seen before.
After a night of worry, where each lord kept watch one third of the night, and none of the dragons even tried to sleep, the Purple Knight, who had also stood watch the entire night, called out. "My Lords, something is happening!"
"Fire, then ice, then shadow." It was Yugi's voice, thick with sleep and muffled by the shadow-tent material. "Fire, then ice, then shadow."
Yami stared intently at the shadow that composed the tent, and it dissipated, whirling away into nothingness in the weak morning light that stained across the Point. Revealed, Yugi tossed on his sleeping pallet in the grip of a nightmare. "Fire, then ice, then shadow." He twisted around, still sleeping, and Joey pointed.
"Look!"
The Pendant of Pharaoh glowed with a bright, piercing light. "Fire, then ice, then shadows!" Only then did they realize that each time Yugi uttered the litany, it was with greater intensity than the last time.
"Why does he keep saying that?" Seto demanded. He looked away from the increasingly bright glow of the Pendant, and flicked his irritated gaze across his companions, finally settling his sights on the Purple Knight.
"Fire, then ice, then shadow!"
"I don't know, but he seems to be compelled to repeat it," the Knight replied. Yami made as if to go to Yugi's side. "No, my lord. It might be dangerous to touch him now. Better I risk it, than any of you."
"But..." Yami protested.
"At the worst, if I take an injury, you can recall me from your shadow - or have you forgotten already, my lord?" The Purple Knight smiled slightly, knowing that Yami had indeed forgotten that change in his guardian and friend. He turned and took a single step toward Yugi.
"Fire! Then Ice! Then Shadow!" The call ripped roughly from Yugi's throat, while his back arched completely off his pallet. The Pendant, which was now glowing as painfully bright as the sun, flared. Everyone staggered, somehow feeling that power flash through their souls, as well as washing over them physically. After an alarming moment, when each feared he had been rendered blind by the flash, dazzle-sparkled vision returned.
Joey was on his hands and knees, staring at the ground. "What the hell was that?"
Seto immediately noticed the giant void that had been filled with the bulk of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon only a moment before. He gasped, and raced to peer over the edge. He watched in relief as the dragon opened his mighty wings and caught himself from his fall long before nearing the ground.
Yami and the Purple Knight knelt next to the Hero, the locus of that incredible psychic blast. Yugi's eyes blinked, then opened. He raised a hand to his head. "That was bad." He started to shake.
Yami wrapped his arms around Yugi, and helped him to stand. "Let's move away from here." He glared at the shadow pallet and it obediently disappeared.
They walked over toward the dragons' roost, until Seto's lifted hand halted them. Yami wanted to get Yugi as far from the Point as possible while remaining on the mountain. He left his arm across Yugi's shoulders, mutely offering comfort. Ashelocke and Daire, the Curse of Dragon and the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, circled looking for a way to land. Evidently, though they had not seen what happened, they too were caught up in the psychic backlash of the power flare from the Pendant of Pharaoh.
Yugi watched Tekhenu, Seto's Blue-Eyes White Dragon move aside as much as possible after landing to make enough space for the other two dragons. Though it was vaguely silly watching the three great beasts, each one bigger than the last, jostle, sidestep, and shimmy so that each one had enough room, he didn't smile. Bleak shadows surrounded his eyes, and he couldn't seem to meet anyone's gaze for more than a moment or two.
"I don't want to talk about it," Yugi said in the lull that developed once the dragons had settled themselves.
"You will have to let us know..." The Purple Knight started.
Yami motioned him into silence. "All right. You've just woken up, and it's obvious this was a very unsettling dream. Breakfast first?" All of them knew that while the Hero was normally a cheerful and optimistic person, he did better on a full stomach. At Yugi's nod he continued. A gesture served to solidify shadows into a table and chairs for everyone who wasn't a dragon to seat themselves. "We have the rations we packed at camp, since there's no room to start a fire up here. The dragons just got settled, it would be rude to ask them to move."
"I don't mind the rations," Yugi said, though a slight flash of disappointment slid across his face.
"Here ya go!" Joey presented Yugi with a steaming mug of...
"Coffee!" Yugi pounced on the offering and downed a large gulp. "Thank you, Joey!"
"How did you contrive to make coffee with no fire?" Seto demanded.
Joey smirked. "You can give him wings." He waved his hand as if that was but a trifle. "I can use my ability as the Lord of Fire to manage the well-timed cup of coffee! Which lord has the more impressive powers now, hmm?"
Seto lifted an eyebrow and turned away, but Yugi caught the faintest smile on the Lord of Dragons' face before it was completely obscured by his movement.
He shook his head. The not-as-fractious as they liked to think it was by-play between the Lords of Ice and Fire made it even harder for him to even consider that his dream was prophetic, indicating the next step he had to take as the Hero. He used the next swallow of coffee to look surreptitiously at the Lord of Shadows. Unfortunately, it wasn't as hidden as he thought, as Yami was watching him closely. Directly behind Yami, the Purple Knight also focused on him. Yugi sighed. "You're going to make me talk about it, aren't you?"
"The last time you tried to avoid it, there were consequences," The Purple Knight reminded him. "These dreams have proven they will make themselves known."
Oh yeah. Before they found the dragons - that had been the dream that led them to the Point the first time. The time that lost them the Knights. Well, maybe not lost, entirely, since Akai was now somehow the spirit of Joey's Flameblade, and Tekhenu, Seto's White Knight had evidently been the incarnate soul of the White Dragon all along. Yugi closed his eyes against the remembered pain. The Purple Knight. They really thought they had lost him forever. Yami mourned the most, leaving everyone behind as he went to some private place and surrounded himself with shadows of sorrow. If not for the most dangerous of circumstances, they never would have realized that the Purple Knight hadn't been lost when they gained Ashelocke, Yami's Shadow Dragon. The Purple Knight had been transformed as his fellow Knights were - not into sword or dragon, but into something of a guardian shadow, living within his lord's very shadow.
Still, Yugi feared that his dream this time pointed to a far different outcome - one that might lose him all the friends he had made on the path to becoming the Hero his pendant insisted he already was. If I've got some power to save the world, how is it I'm so easily manipulated by a piece of pushy jewelry? Yugi thought.
"Yugi? Did you dream show you anything about the Legends?" Yami asked.
"Like what the word 'Legends' even means in this context," Seto groused.
"And why this hunk of rock is smaller than it used to be? Back up, Daire! You're crowdin' me!" Joey pushed playfully at his dragon's head, which was indeed crowding close. All the dragons were contorted into odd shapes to remain on the small ledge, but crane their necks around so they could look at the Hero and hear the conversation.
"No, there wasn't anything about the Legends. Or even the Point. But... I did dream of each of your elements. Fire, then Ice, then Shadow..."
"You kept saying that before you woke up," Yami told him. "Over and over again, like it was important."
"Did I? I guess it might be. But..."
"What is it? Out with it, Yugi, we are going to get it out of you eventually. Who knows what the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos is doing while you dither!" Seto snapped. Yugi stared up at him with a reproachful look. Everyone, including his own dragon, stared at Seto with similar expressions. "You know I'm right," he added more gently. "The dreams are upsetting, I do understand that, but they are the only clues we have as to how to defeat the Dragon of Chaos."
"You're right." Yugi put his coffee cup on the table, pushed his chair back and stood. He paced uncertainly a few steps, then turned back. He looked at each one, even the dragons, for a long moment, his earnest eyes somehow searching and sad.
"Fire first. A sword, your sword, Joey, floating on its own, blade up, and blazing with fire. The glow of the fire spread and touched your dragon, somehow limning it with fiery light. Not like the dragon was on fire, more like he was outlined in non-burning flames. And Akai, the Red Knight, even though I know he is also the soul of your sword, he was there, too. All three surrounded you, as if they were giving you power, all of their power, and then..."
Yugi paused, and looked down. He shook his head, not wanting to continue. After a long moment he looked up and forced himself to finish. "They gave you their power, then it went out."
"What went out?" Joey asked.
"All of it. The sword, the dragon, the knight, then you, all glowing with the outline of fire - all of it going out - and I couldn't see any of you anymore. It was the same for the Frostblade, Tekhenu, and Seto, except it was a blue glow that I knew was ice, and the glow surrounding the Gloomblade, Ashelocke, the Purple Knight and Yami was a shadowy purple. Each time, once it seemed as if the power transfer was complete, the glow went out. I'm afraid - afraid that - it means I have to lose all of you."
"You can't get rid of us that easily," Joey said.
"What?"
"Doesn't it seem weird that he's always worried he's gonna lose us, yet we are still here? I admit, freeing the dragons was a bit - rocky, but we didn't lose anyone, not really." Joey grinned. "Doesn't it seem as if the Hero is tryin' ta get rid of it, that he worries so much about it?" Joey placed his hands on his hips and half-turned toward the other lords.
"That's not it!" Yugi shouted. "That's not it at all!"
"I know." Joey reached out and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "I'd just rather see you mad, than sad. Even if it's mad at me."
"I guess." Yugi looked down at the ground again.
"You know." The Purple Knight stared at him. "You know what to do. You know what the next step you have to take is."
"Yeah," Yugi finally replied. "I didn't dream it, but somehow, I know what to do. I just... I don't want to. Not if it means risking all of you."
"Do you know that it's risking us?" Joey demanded.
"N-no, not exactly..."
"You can't decide something so important based on vague feelings," Seto told him flatly. "Not when there is so much at stake."
"But..."
"Lord Icewater for Blood has a point - er, that is, he's right. Wrong side of right, but that's as close as he can ever get. If you know what you need to do, let's give it a shot. A warrior faces things head on, remember? He charges right in and..."
"Waits for the ones who know what they are doing to save his sorry ass from his reckless consequences," Seto finished.
Joey wheeled and glared at him. "Look, I'm tryin' to get the Hero to go along with this and you aren't helping!"
"Both of you, knock it off. There's an easier way to determine if this is the only course of action open to us," Yami said.
"Really, now?" Joey folded his arms and smirked.
"Do tell." Seto followed suit.
For an answer, Yami approached Tekhenu. "Would you be so kind as to permit Yugi to climb aboard, and fly him - slowly - away from the Point? And be ready to turn around and return immediately if he should call out?"
Tekhenu stood, waited for the other dragons to vault off the edge, and unfurled his wings. He dipped one, leaned low to the ground, and crooked a leg to give Yugi easy access to his back.
As Yami had feared, the further Yugi traveled from the Point, the greater his discomfort grew. After only a moment Yugi reluctantly called out for the Blue-Eyes White Dragon to return.
"As I suspected. This is the next step that must be taken, Hero, whether you want to or not," Yami said.
Yugi closed his eyes, and nodded. Convinced there was no other option, Yugi gestured for Joey to give him the Flameblade.
"Are you sure of this? Last time it hurled you off the mountain!"
"Last time, I deliberately placed the sword against the wrong side," Yugi told him. "I really don't want to do this, but I have no choice. Forgive me..."
"For what? For bein' the Hero? Whatever happens now, it's not your fault. None of us," Joey looked up at everyone else, his fellow Kindly Lords, the sole remaining Knight, and the three dragons. "not a single one of us blames you for any of it. It's the fault of the Lord Dragon of Blackness and Chaos. Now, let's get this over with!"
Yugi asked Lord Seto to manifest wings for him. He flew up to look at the top of the Point, wondering if he needed to place his heartstone into the concavity as he did before. To his surprise, the shape of the top of the Point had changed. It took only a moment of reflection for him to realize what needed to be placed now to make the construct complete. He slipped the Pendant of Pharaoh off, dropped the chain into the hole that now made him think of the loop at the top of the Pendant, and used the now upside-down Pendant itself to form the completed top of the Point. After he landed, Seto's gesture got rid of the now-superfluous wings.
"Okay, you and Daire stand over here, near the side that faces your lands." Yugi looked down at the sword in his hands for a long moment, then to where Joey waited next to his Red-Eyes Black Dragon. "Here goes," Yugi murmured, placing the sword lengthwise, pointing up, in the impression on the side of the Point. A sheet of red energy flared across the entire side of the Point, then raced up the side to coalesce at very top of the Point, in the corresponding side of the Pendant of Pharaoh. After a moment, a red beam shot out across the sky, over the heads of the Lord of Fire and his dragon. It reminded Yugi of the locator beam they had used the last time to find where each dragon had been trapped in stone, but it was much more focused, and nearly instantaneous, instead of being the steady beacon they had followed before.
After only a moment the beam returned, magnified a hundred-fold, shaking the mountain with a thundering that sounded as if the very sky was shrieking at being torn apart. The red energy latched onto the Red-Eyes Black Dragon and pulled him with stunning force toward the side of the Point. The dragon screamed in betrayed protest, and scrabbled uselessly against the beam dragging him, clawing deep furrows into the rocky ground. Only then did Yugi realized the Flameblade was gone, and the very Point had changed. Instead of being the solid side of the monolith that had borne the impression of the Flameblade, the side facing the Firelands had become a whirling portal seething with red energy. Despite Daire's desperate resistance, the beam drew the dragon through into that portal.
Joey looked up from the marks his dragon had left in the solid stone and met Yugi's eyes. The Lord of Fire and Warriors' eyes blanked out, becoming an eerily glowing pupil-less red. He turned, and without word, expression, or hesitation followed his dragon into the maw of red energy. The entire event, from the moment Yugi had slotted the sword against the side of the Point, and the disappearance of both dragon and lord into the portal it had become, took less than a minute.
"JOEY!" Yugi cried out. "No!"
Eyes wide from what they had just witnessed, unable to articulate anything, Lord Seto and Lord Yami could only look with dawning horror into the fiery maelstrom Lord Joey had willingly walked into.
Author's note
I know it's been a long time since I updated this story. I had the hardest time taking my raw notes for what I wanted to happen and flesh them out into writing worthy of sharing. On the plus side, what was to be one chapter developed into three (the other two are complete, they just need a bit of rewriting and polishing, so they will be posted very soon), and an interesting twist developed that might become the third follow-up story to The Remedy.
I have a favor to ask of any readers who like Seto Kaiba, and/or who like Eric Stuart, his English voice actor – specifically anyone who likes Eric Stuart's music. There's a short note at the top of my profile page. If you have a moment, would you please read it?
Next chapter teaser – Legendary Fire, Legendary Ice