Chapter 44 - A Fearful Score

"Tell me gentlemen," Dartz spoke in his usual calm manner, "What do you think of my newest monsters? I'm sure there's no need for introductions," he finished his sentence with a laugh as he smirked at Yami and Seto.

Yami's free hand was balled into a fist at his side, "That's not funny, Dartz," he growled, narrowing his eyes. Yami couldn't believe the sight before him, previously he had thought that his friends couldn't be in a worse position having their souls taken away, but now it seemed that he was wrong. The four knights stood across from him, their eyes blank and lifeless, but he knew that somewhere inside those knight statues, were his friends. He could barely think straight by this point, afraid that once again it would be by his own hand that his friends would suffer. As Kaiba stood next to him though, he assumed that the man didn't seem fazed by this at all. Of course Kaiba wouldn't think any of this was real, he never did.

"You should be thanking me, Pharaoh," Dartz sneered. "I'm giving you one last chance to see your friends before their souls are gone forever."

This caused something to snap inside of Yami, and he shouted at Dartz with so much intensity that Tea was caught by surprise, "You'll never take them away from us, Dartz!"

Dartz simply chuckled in amusement, waving off Yami's anger. In reality Dartz wanted to make the two men as angry as possible, so that the Orichalcos could feed on the darkness in their hearts, making the great Laviathon stronger. "Now, I think I'll put my knights to good use..." he said, "Mirror knight Yugi, go and attack your other half," he demanded, pointing a long finger towards Yami. The other man looked to Yugi as boy started to move, and the look of fear in his eyes was hard to miss.

Rose watched from the corner of her eye as Yugi struggled to stay in his place, trying to fight against Dartz's command. He's fighting back! She thought with glee. Maybe we still do have some control. If she had been able to move she would have smiled, but it gave her comfort knowing that if she was commanded to attack she at least had a chance to fight it.

"What's this?" Dartz asked, looking at his shortest mirror knight. "My soldier is still loyal to you? How touching. Even though you turned your back on him, he refuses to seek revenge, that will change."

Yami narrowed his eyes at the other man, "We'll see."

Well done, Yugi. Rose thought with an internal sigh of relief. Dartz gave up on making Yugi attack, and the duel continued. Kaiba's turn began, and he summoned his Different Dimension Dragon to the field. I'm not going to be put off just because he put a few familiar faces on the field, he thought as he narrowed his eyes at the knights.

"Keizer Glider, attack Mirror Knight number 3!" he demanded, pointing straight at Joey. Everyone standing behind him gasped, including Yami. It seemed that Seto was the only one who wasn't taking this seriously. Yami tried to reason with his partner, but Seto simply brushed him off, claiming it was all a mind game. "So, you've got a dweeb army?" Kaiba spat at Dartz, "Am I supposed to be scared to attack?" Seto smirked, before continuing, "Keizer Glider, continue your attack on his mirror knight!"

Everyone watched on in fear as Joey was hit with the force of Kaiba's attack, destroying his mirror shield. Then without hesitating, Seto continued, demanding his Dragon to attack the blond and destroy the knight. Rose was stunned, after everything she did to try and save Joey from such a dreadful fate, here they were, once again in danger and she couldn't just stand back and watch one of her best friends get destroyed. Using every part of her will power that she had, she broke the invisible binds surrounding her and jumped in front of Joey, blocking the attack. As her mirror shield was destroyed, she could barely understand what she had just managed. She had no idea that she would have been capable of such a feat, and she was relieved that Joey was alright.

The next thing she noticed was the stunned looks on everyone's faces who were watching, even Seto had raised his eyebrows slightly. Yami was staring at her with wide eyes, "Rose blocked the attack," he said in awe.

"But now she's lost her mirror shield!" Tea said, sounding overly worried as usual.

"Joey's alright, thanks to Rose," Tristan explained, trying to calm down Tea who was standing next to him with her hand covering her mouth.

"Yes and thanks to her using her shield to protect Joseph, Rose managed to ruin your attack," Dartz explained to Seto. The brunet man simply grunted as he placed a card face down, ending his turn. As Yami drew his next card, Seto explained how the only way they could win was by attacking those knights and destroying them. I can't endanger them! Yami thought to himself, hesitating on his move.

"Come on," Seto urged, growing impatient, "Neither of those two have a shield now attack!" He pointed towards Joey and Rose, who were standing side by side, with nothing to protect them. Yami looked down at his hand, hoping that there were a different way out of this. He didn't want to attack his friends, he had sworn to himself that he would never turn his back on them again, especially Yugi. His mind ran wild as he tried to think of what to do, and memories were brought forth to the front of his mind.

Joey risking his life to save him and Yugi two times, once in a fire and another when they were almost pulled to the bottom of the ocean.

Then of Rose, bravely stepping forwards to face that biker gang that had surrounded them, and successfully blocking their attack. Shortly following, was the memory of her kneeling in front of Yami after his duel with Raphael, and giving him the strength to get back up and go after Dartz.

Finally, the memory of when Yami had been pushed away from the Orichalcos, only to turn and see Yugi take his place. "I'm letting the Seal take me instead..."

I can't put my friends in harms way...he thought, a defeated look on his face. "Alright Dartz, I have no choice but to end my turn."

Seto looked outraged, turning to Yami with an incredulous look, "What are you doing?!"

Dartz found this all quite amusing, as he smirked at the two men before him. Although Seto wasn't co-operating, as long as Yami continued to hold back, they would both fall right into his hands, and be the last two souls to feed the great beast. He was almost bursting with the anticipation. Finally, after all this time, he would be able to rule over a perfect world once again, after being rid of all it's corrupted inhabitants, just like the ones standing before him now. His plan was working perfectly, and there was nothing they could do to stop him. Yami was almost starting to believe that, too.

Dartz began his turn by activating the magic card Twin Bow Centar. "Now I choose two monsters," he explained, "One on my side of the field, and one on yours. Then my Centar will randomly choose one of them to remove from the game. I think I'll target Kaiba's Keizer Glider, and Mirror Knight Joseph!"

There was a chorus of gasps from behind Yami and Seto, and Rose could see Tristan, Mokuba and Tea had stunned looks on their faces, voicing their concerns for Joey being removed from the game. Rose could almost feel his fear as the Centar pointed an arrow straight at him. That wasn't the only concern however, for if the Centar took out Seto's monster, he would lose most of his life points, giving Dartz quite the upper hand. Heck, thanks to his card combination Dartz had over 12,000 life points by now anyway, he already had the upper hand. Dartz snapped his fingers and the Centar chose its target: Seto's monster. As it released the arrow and destroyed Seto's Keizer, Mokuba looked terrified, watching his brother's life points drop down to 600. Seto certainly wasn't happy about that.

Dartz announced that there was indeed an upside to this, that being that he had to end his turn, and Seto agreed as he drew his card, glaring at the man. Seto had had enough, so he angrily announced his attack on one of the mirror knights, and since Joey seemed to have nine lives or something, he decided to attack Rose this time. She's just a hologram, he thought to himself, there's no way the real Rose is that knight!

Yami's eyes widened in horror upon hearing Seto's decision, "Kaiba, wait!"

Seto wouldn't listen though, "Save it! This is all just a cheap trick!" Seto pointed a long finger towards Rose's knight, "Different Dimension Dragon, attack!" After completely ignoring Yami's protests, the Dragon went to attack Rose, who had nothing to protect her. The gang watched on in horror as the dragon advanced on her, opening it's mouth to strike...

But it didn't hit its target.

Instead, it had attacked Yugi, who had jumped in front of Rose to block the attack, and his mirror shield burst into a million tiny pieces as it was destroyed. Thank you Yugi! Rose thought with relief and gratitude. She didn't know what might have happened if she had been destroyed, and she didn't want to find out. She then saw that everyone in front of her had shock plastered on their faces once again.

"Yugi protected Rose!" Tea announced, pointing out the obvious.

Dartz looked highly amused by this point, laughing at the scene before him. "How cute, maybe friendship does conquer all. And thanks to your friends' loyalty to one another, I'll be able to conquer you!" Rose would have scrunched her nose at him, had she been able to, but the duel continued none the less. Kaiba was only one attack away from defeat with 600 life points left, and Yami refused to attack Dartz's knights, so things weren't looking up. It came back to Yami's turn once again, and Seto urged him to attack the Mirror Knights, or they would lose the duel.

"Kaiba, I can't!" Yami said, turning to the man with balled fists. He was about to continue, when another voice interrupted him.

"You have to attack!" Yami's eyes went wide as he turned back, to see Yugi standing there struggling to speak. He was frozen in his place as he stared at the boy, unable to believe what he was hearing.

Rose then managed to speak up as well, grabbing Yami's attention, "We'll be fine, If you don't attack, you'll lose!"

Yami almost couldn't find his voice, as he stared wide eyed at them both, "But, your souls may be lost forever!"

Seto decided to butt in at this point, looking beyond impatient as he crossed his arms. "This is ridiculous," he commented, "Do you realise you're talking to a hologram with your head on it?" He obviously had not noticed the difference in looks between Yugi and Yami, for he failed to accept the fact that the Pharaoh existed at all.

"Kaiba, once again, you're clueless," Yami muttered, not turning to look at the man. Rose assumed that there must have been some silent conversation going on between Yugi and Yami, from the look on the Pharaoh's face, but they were interrupted by Dartz speaking.

"Let's go Pharaoh, everyone is waiting," he urged, his usual smug smirk still on his face. Yami moved his monster into defence mode, placed a card face down and then ended his turn. Dartz let out another loud obnoxious laugh, "It's quite obvious that there's nothing either of you can do to stop me!" he announced.

This can't happen, Rose thought to herself, If they don't attack, then we're all doomed!

dun dun duuuuun

poor Yami, not wanting to attack his friends but still wanting to save the world. It's a hard life being a duellist xD

Anyway, i hope you liked the chapter!

Please let me know what you think :)

PharaohsThrone