Noah's ongoing attempts to read Seto's mind finally ceased, and Seth took the opportunity to turn his full attention to Seto for the first time since the duel started.
Seto! Seth's presence surrounded him like a warm arm around his shoulder, close and concerned.
"I'm fine, Seth," he panted quietly, knees still stinging from his fall but that was hardly his primary concern. "I'm just… out of practice."
The ancient spirit was frustrated. He so desperately wanted to touch him—to help him stand, to hold his hand, to let him feel Seth's support. He knew that Seto needed something real to anchor him right now, and Seth couldn't provide that.
Steady footsteps fractured the fraught silence, growing louder with each step.
"Who's there?" Noah demanded, looking towards the sound, just like Seto. His body had tensed, assuming that the new presence was an enemy.
But a familiar figure emerged from the shadows, and Seto sighed with relief.
"Yugi?"
He came to a stop in front of the brunette.
"Not quite."
"Pharaoh."
He smiled in response.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Noah stared at the intruder with suspicion and venom.
"I'm here to help my friend, Noah." The pharaoh spared the teen a disapproving look. "That's something you'll never understand." Then he turned to face Seto once more with a calm manner. "We all believe in you, Seto. You're not alone." More quietly he added, "You never have been."
"Never?" Seto repeated, staring up at the spirit in disbelief. That just wasn't true. He'd spent so much of his life feeling alone, like it was just him and Mokuba against the world. Is that what he meant? That he'd always had Mokuba?
"You've never been alone." The pharaoh extended his hand through the bars of the cage with a confident smile and twinkling red eyes. "Stand, Seto. You've never been one to kneel before your enemies. Noah Kaiba shouldn't be the exception."
Seto reached up and grabbed his hand firmly, impressed by the strength that helped pull him back onto his feet, the chains of Holding Legs clanking against the bottom of the cage. Standing once again, his grip loosened, but the Pharaoh's didn't.
"Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?" he whispered, his expression earnest.
"I think so," Seto whispered back. He understood the message, that he wasn't alone now, and that was the important part.
"You're interfering with an official tournament duel, Yugi."
The Pharaoh released Seto's hand and turned around, eyes narrowed into a crimson glare.
"You wish I was Yugi, Noah. Yugi would be more merciful to you."
The billionaire looked startled.
"If you're not Yugi, then–" But Noah stopped short of his question. Seto had a foreign presence in his mind, someone ancient and violent. Yugi also possessed a Millennium Item, so maybe the same was true of him.
The Pharaoh turned back to Seto.
"Seth is tiring. I can feel it. Let me protect your mind, like you did for Yugi and I against Pegasus."
"That's cheating!" Noah protested behind them.
"I would argue that reading your opponent's mind is the highest form of cheating." Bright eyes flashed at their opponent before turning back to his friend.
"You should leave," Seto insisted, looking past his friend at Noah, who had started to smile. "I can take care of myself, Pharaoh."
"Nonsense." Yugi's Pharaoh waved a hand dismissively. "Accepting the help of a friend doesn't make you weak, Seto. It makes you stronger."
"That's not why I–"
"I'm fine with him staying." Noah offered them both a wide grin. "It will give us a chance to talk. Tell me, Yugi–"
"Don't–"
"How innocent do you think your friend is?"
Ruby eyes widened in surprise, looking back at Seto to see him shaking his head slightly.
Please, Pharaoh, don't engage him.
He turned to face their opponent with the start of a smug grin.
"How innocent do you think I am, Noah?"
The green-haired teen's jaw dropped in shock, and the Pharaoh chuckled. He looked back at Seto with a calm smile.
"Joey was right: you're afraid of what he'll say."
"I can take care of myself," he replied, choosing not to address his statement. "I'll finish my duel on my own."
"I'm not leaving until you draw your card." He reached through the bars of the cage to touch Seto's arm. "It is your turn, isn't it?"
"Yes." Seto reached for his deck, but hesitated, eyes on Noah, who seemed to have recovered from the Pharaoh's quip. "I draw."
He added the single card to his hand, barely glancing at it.
"Do you want to know how I met Seto?"
Seto tensed, fully expecting him to take the bait and preparing himself to cut Noah off again.
"I don't care about anything you have to say, Noah!" the Pharaoh burst out, glaring at Noah one last time. "Seto, did you draw the card that you need?"
Confused and relieved, he answered, "Yes."
"Then I'll go, if you're sure that's what you want."
The Pharaoh looked hesitant; he truly didn't want to leave, but he understood how badly Seto wanted him to go. He also understood what Noah was trying to do.
"I'm sure."
"Very well." The Pharaoh extended his hand to clasp Seto's one more time. "Remember to have faith, and believe in the heart of the cards."
Seto nodded, squeezing his hand before releasing it and watching his friend's confident retreat.
Yugi opened his eyes and blinked, the sunlight a harsh change from the swirling purple shadows inside the bubble of magic Seto had made.
"Yug? You back with us?" Joey put a hand on Yugi's shoulder, and the short teen looked up at him, his expression serious.
"You were right, Joey. The whole time I was there, Noah tried to poison my opinion of Seto."
"Yeah?" Joey's expression turned grim. "How's he doin'?"
"I think he's alright now." Yugi looked back at the solid wall of shadows. "He just lost faith for a moment."
"Sometimes a moment is all it takes," Anzu murmured, looking unexpectedly sad, and Yugi reached for her hand.
"Well." Noah looked miffed. "He completely sucked the fun out of that."
Seto suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.
"It's still my turn, and guess what, Noah?" Seto smiled. "It doesn't matter anymore if you can read my mind. There's no way you can stop what's about to happen."
Seth sighed with relief and Seto could feel him settling, joining their minds for the finish of the duel.
"First I activate Card Advance, letting me draw the first five cards from the top of my deck and replace those cards in any order I choose." He drew the five cards and his smile grew. He only changed two cards, then placed them back on the top of his deck.
"Good for you, you know what card you're going to draw next."
His sarcasm didn't dampen Seto's excitement, though.
"Next, I activate The True Name!" he announced, placing the card face-up on his duel disk. It was a card he'd drawn at the beginning of the duel, but he hadn't dared to take that risk.
"What?" Noah looked startled. "What does that card do?"
"I'm surprised at you." His smile shifted to a smirk. "A player of your caliber should know that The True Name lets me declare the name of any card in my deck." He moved his hand, ready to draw. "If the card I draw from the top of my deck matches the name that I declared, then I get to add it to my hand." He took a deep breath as Noah's concern became apparent on his face. "The card I choose is: United We Stand!"
He drew the card with a flourish, knowing of course that the card he held up in full view, the card he had named, was the card that Joey gave him.
"Not only do I get to add this card to my hand," he continued, placing the card with the others he held. "But I get to summon something very special."
The ground shook.
Lightning flashed.
Thunder rumbled, sounding distant and echoey, as if the sound were traveling through a tunnel to reach them.
"No, there's no way…" Noah began to look truly afraid. "You can't be…"
"Oh yes." Seto grinned, perhaps a bit sadistically. "Since I guessed correctly, I get to summon Obelisk the Tormentor from my deck!"
His duel disk spat out the card and he grabbed it, slamming it onto the disk and causing bright light to emanate from the card as the ground shook again.
Then Obelisk appeared, leaning into the field of battle from behind Seto. He towered over the Lava Golem and especially over the duelists, lifting his arms and seeming to flex them, as if he were eager to demonstrate his power.
"Like what you see?" Seto laughed, already feeling the familiar rush of imminent victory. "I'm still not done, though. I activate the card Monster Reborn from my hand, allowing me to bring back any monster from my graveyard." He reached for his graveyard. "You didn't actually see this monster in play, Noah, but I'm sure it'll be familiar to you. Come forth, my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
Seto was never going to tire of seeing the Blue-Eyes hologram, the way it glittered to life with shining scales and wide wings and a roar that pierced the soul.
Noah looked furious; he would probably never forgive Seto for winning that card from him, and that made playing the card that much more satisfying.
"I have one more card to activate, Noah." Seto held the card above the duel disk, ready to be played. "It's the one I drew earlier. The one that my friend gave me."
Noah scowled and Seto smirked, placing his card and watching the card itself manifest in front of him.
"United We Stand gives all of my monsters an attack boost. They each get an additional 800 attack points for each monster on my side of the field, and since I have five monsters, that means they all gain 4000 attack points each."
The color drained from Noah's face as he watched the counters for his monsters' attack points go up. In the face of such power, even Mirror Wall couldn't save him, and definitely not the Mask of Weakness trap card that lay hidden on his side of the field.
"Luster Dragon, Lava Golem, and Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon, destroy his monsters!"
Mirror Wall cut the attack of all three monsters in half, but they had enough attack points left to still destroy Noah's Bowganian, Mystic Tomato, and Holding Legs. All monsters had been in defense mode, so Noah's life-points were still untouched, but now he had nothing to protect him. Either of Seto's monsters, Obelisk or the Blue-Eyes, could destroy him.
"Any last words before I end this duel?" Seto asked.
"I'll never forgive you!" Noah practically spat the words in his anger.
"I can live with that. Obelisk the Tormentor, attack Noah's life-points directly!"
It had to be Obelisk, Seto decided. With an attack of 8000, even halved back down to 4000 by Mirror Wall, it left no room for escape. It was also the closest he would get to the kind of overkill Noah had inflicted on his own victims during the tournament.
The god monster lifted both fists, which began to glow red-hot with power. Noah braced himself, throwing both arms up, but such a feeble gesture was useless protection from a god.
Obelisk raised both fists and brought them down on top of Noah Kaiba together, making the floor shake so much that Seto feared he would lose his balance. Taking the duel to the Shadow Realm had probably protected the Duel Tower from sustaining any real damage, Seth realized.
The monster lifted his fists to reveal that their opponent was intact and that his life-points had fallen to zero.
Noah lay on his back, unmoving as he recovered from the shock of the blow.
The duel officially over now, the holograms dissipated and the walls of shadow dissolved into a thin mist around them until their surroundings were revealed.
"Seto is the winner! Noah Kaiba has been eliminated!"
The referee's announcement prompted celebration from the spectators, but the cheers of his friends were merely white noise as Seto slowly approached his opponent.
Noah sat up with a groan and pressed one hand to his head as he refused to meet his opponent's gaze.
"Aren't you going to send me to the Shadow Realm?"
He had imagined himself being banished and his body looted for what he had gambled. It was what he had planned to do to Seto, after all.
"No."
Noah lifted his face and stared at his adversary in confusion.
Seto extended his hand.
Noah stared at it in disbelief before shakily accepting it.
Seto helped pull Noah back to his feet. Once he was stable, Seto squeezed his hand hard, enough to pull a small gasp of pain from the millionaire's lips and to pull him a little closer.
"We're even now," Seto whispered, too quiet for the spectators or even Roland to hear. These words stayed between Noah, Seto, and Seth. "But if you ever hurt my brother or my friends again, I will hunt you down and give you a fate worse than death."
Noah nodded slightly, his face betraying only his physical pain.
Seto released Noah's hand, turning his own with the palm facing up, and waited.
Reluctantly, Noah pulled Slifer and Ra out of his deck. He placed the cards in Seto's hand, and they were immediately tucked into his own deck. Then his hand was out and open again.
Slowly, Noah removed the Millennium Ring from around his neck and placed that in Seto's hand as well. He transferred the Ring to his left hand and held out his right again, staring expectantly.
"Must I? Now?" Noah implored, his voice quivering.
"Yes."
Noah's hand went to his face. He tried to relax his features and moved his fingertips to the Eye.
"Oh my god!" Anzu exclaimed, turning her face away as she realized what Noah was trying to do.
His fingers dug into the socket, separating gold from flesh. The first couple tugs didn't have enough force. Then Noah pulled hard, gasping as his shoulders hunched and his eye socket made a terrible sucking sound.
The Millennium Eye fell into Seto's hand. He didn't spare it another look before he pocketed the artifact. His gaze was fixed on Noah as the green-haired teen cupped the empty socket with his hand.
"Is Ishizu free?"
Blood trickled down the side of Noah's face.
"Yes," he panted. "She returned the moment the duel ended." He had actually felt his powers weaken as her soul was freed.
"Go find your doctors," Seto instructed, and Noah obeyed without another word. Seto watched him leave using a smaller platform than the one they had all used to reach the top of the tower, disappearing quickly from sight.
It was over.
"The final duel of the Battle City Tournament will commence after a ten minute break," Roland announced before following his employer. It was unclear if this break had been planned all along or if Roland had made an executive decision in order to check on the state of his employer.
"Wait, can I go with you?" Marik ran to catch up with Roland. "I need to see my sister."
The man nodded and they disappeared together.
For the first time since the duel ended, Seto turned to face his friends. He was greeted with smiles of support. Mai and Duke both gave him a thumbs up. Anzu looked shocked and Ryou looked intensely relieved with Mokuba grinning at his side. And Yugi…
Yugi looked so proud of him, he almost couldn't stand it.
Seto approached them steadily, each footfall heavy. He had expected this victory to feel like a burden being lifted from his shoulders, but it felt quite the opposite way at this moment.
"I knew you could do it!" Mokuba burst out, rushing forward to hug his hero. Seto smiled and rumpled his brother's hair as Mokuba stuck to his right side, absolutely beaming. "I never doubted you."
"Thanks." Seto smiled at him, a fraction of his weariness showing. He wasn't done, though. That was just the semifinals. He lifted his gaze. "Yugi."
"It's almost time for us to duel again," the short teen answered calmly.
"I've been looking forward to this rematch."
Yugi smiled, looking sentimental.
"So have I."