Chapter 42 - Grappling With A Guardian

"This is unbearable!"

Rose was sitting with Yugi and Joey amidst the crowd of lost souls, constantly fidgeting and practically tearing her hair out. She finally stood up, throwing her hands into the air, "I can't stand not knowing whats happening!" she ranted, before beginning to pace from side to side.

"Rose, sit down," Joey insisted, grabbing her arm and pulling her down next to him. She just grumbled, crossing her arms in front of her. "Relax, there's nothing we can do," Joey tried to calm her down, and she sighed.

"But what if the Pharaoh is in trouble?" she asked, "We just don't know. I hate not knowing!"

Yugi gave her a sympathetic smile, "Try to relax, Rose, we'll be out of here soon."

She sighed, "I just wish I could somehow see what was going on at least..." The three of them sat in silence for a moment, before the millennium heart lit up. "Huh?" she said in confusion, looking down at it.

"What's going on?" Joey asked, looking at the heart also.

Rose blinked at the Millennium Heart on her chest. "I...don't know..." she murmured. Yugi noticed the Millennium symbol appear on Rose's forehead, before the heart shot out a beam of light before them, opening up a window. The three of them watched on in confusion in shock. They looked at the image being projected in front of them, and gasped when they saw the image of Yami standing across from Raphael surrounded by the seal of oricalcose.

"Rose, you did it!" Yugi cheered. "We can see what's happening!"

Joey had his eyebrows raised. "That heart of yours is really something," he said, "what else can it do?"

"Lots of things," Rose said with a laugh, and they all turned their attention to the duel playing out in front of them. They could see Yami and Raphael in the middle of a duel, and Tea, Tristan, Kaiba and Mokuba were the audience.

"Whoa, is that me?" Joey asked, looking over at Tristan who was indeed, carrying Joey's body in his back.

"Looks like it," Rose said, "But where am I?" she asked, "They can't possibly have left me behind," she wondered.

"Don't worry Rose," Yugi said with a laugh, "I'm sure your body is safe."

"At least you don't have to worry about yours," Rose said, crossing her arms in a huff, "The Pharaoh is looking after it for you."

Joey then asked what was going on, for Raphael was on his knees. Rose pointed out that it must have been a good sign, and it appeared that Yami was in the middle of explaining something to the other man.

"Shut up and we might actually be able to hear them," Joey said, waving a hand in Rose and Yugi's direction.

They listened carefully, and the voices managed to float through to them.

"There's only one problem," Raphael was saying, "The Seal of Orichalcos still needs to capture one of our souls." Yami did not look happy about that. Raphael stood up and continued the duel, bringing back every monster that had been sent to the graveyard. Nobody understood what he was doing, and he now had 4 monsters on the field, none of which could attack. "Well that's it," Raphael said, lifting his head up, "My grave yard is completely empty, and my guardians are free."

Joey, Rose and Yugi were shocked to see that each monster Raphael brought back cost him 500 life points, which was more than he could afford. They watched on in surprise as his life points hit zero, and Raphael bowed his head, before the Seal closed in around him.

"Wait...so he just made himself lose?" Joey asked, his eyebrows raised.

Rose nodded, "The Pharaoh must have been able to talk some sense into him," she said with a smile.

"Aw, so we basically missed the entire duel!" Joey complained, crossing his arms. Yugi just laughed at him, telling him that he would have plenty more chances to see a duel.

...

Yami was amazed to see that when the Seal circled around Raphael, the events that followed were not as usual. The Seal disappeared, and the man was still conscious. The gang-what was left of it-ran over to the man, questioning the Seal and why it had not taken his soul. Yami then explained that the Seal derives it's power from the darkness inside the person's soul, but Raphael had been able to conquer that darkness before the duel came to a close. Raphael looked down at the necklace that until moments before, had held the Orichalcos stone, but now it was gone, having smashed into a thousand little pieces.

Much to their surprise however, the building began to shake, and they were at the very top of it. Tristan asked what was going on, and Tea replied with wide eyes that Paradius was collapsing.

"We've got to get out of here!" Mokuba said, turning to head towards the elevator. Before he could get very far though, the roof of the large concrete structure split in half, only a metre in front of the dark haired boy.

Tea looked towards the split in the building, looking quite worried. "There goes our ride down!" she wailed. There were a few more cries of worry, before a loud noise above them caught their attention. To their relief, the KC helicopter was flying overhead, and Roland was waving his arms around, trying to get their managed to make their way up to the helicopter, all but Yami and Raphael. The building was collapsing fast, and so Raphael pushed Yami up onto the helicopter landing, before the stairwell collapsed, and he was consumed by the mass of concrete that fell from all directions. Shocked at the events, Yami only just managed to jump onto the helicopter before the entire building collapsed.

The gang were finally relaxed as they sat in the helicopter, having only narrowly escaped the falling structure of Paradius headquarters. Seto finally looked up from his seat, looking around at the group of people.

He was quite surprised when he saw that someone was missing. "Where's Rose?" he asked, "Didn't she go after Wheeler before?" he inclined his head towards the limp body that Tristan had placed down on the seat beside him, and Yami's eyes widened.

"Rose is still down there!" he exclaimed, jumping up to look out the window. Tea let out a shriek of surprise, having not noticed her absence either.

While watching this all from another realm, Rose wished they could hear her saying, "Gee, thanks guys," in a sarcastic tone.

Yami explained how he had left her at the entrance along with Mai, and Seto demanded that Roland turn the helicopter around, so that they could go back for her. As the helicopter descended beside the dilapidated structure, Yami felt his chest tighten. How could I have been so stupid to leave her there?!

The helicopter finally landed, and Yami, Tea, Tristan and Mokuba all jumped out, rushing over to the building. It was now nothing but a crumpled mess of concrete. Yami fought back the urge to call out Rose's name, for even if her body was unharmed, she would not be able to reply. He ran through the rubble, with the others on his tail, and Seto casually following behind at his own pace. Yami stopped suddenly, when he saw the remains of the outer walls loom up in front of him.

Sitting there, against the wall where he had left her, was Rose.

He let out a sight of relief, as he approached with confused eyes; she was completely unharmed. It looked like there was a circle of debris around her, and it appeared that nothing had touched her.

"What the?" they were surprised to hear Seto speak from behind them, and Mokuba asked why she hadn't been hurt by the falling debris. Yami crouched down beside Rose, and he could see the gleam of the Millennium Heart on her chest, almost winking at him in the sunlight.

"The Millennium Heart," he murmured, gently running his hand along the shiny surface. He turned back to the gang, "It protected her."

"But how?" Mokuba asked.

Tea made a noise of realisation, "That light shield she can conjure! Like when those bikers tried to attack us!" Yami nodded, a relieved smile on his face. He lifted her up into his arms, and they all turned to head back to the helicopter, relieved that she hadn't been harmed. After Yami placed Rose down beside Joey and the helicopter took off again, Yami handed Seto a computer chip that Raphael had given him just before the building collapsed. Seto placed it in one of his self-made devices, and it opened up a map, leading them straight to Dartz's real headquarters.

"Let's go kick some Atlantian butt!" Tristan cheered.

Im sorry this chapter was short and boring! D: i'll make it up to you guys, don't worry, this story is only like half way :P so i have a feeling theres gonna be heaps of chapters but i don't think that splitting this into two stories would work :/ what's your opinion?

Always happy to heart what you think!

PharaohsThrone :)