PRELUDE TO CONFLICT

Review responses at the bottom, as always. Also, kudos to anyone who can recognize the reference in the chapter title.

"Right, this is the hotel Joey texted Tristan about," muttered Tea, peering through the windshield up at the name plastered across the top floor of the building in big neon lettering. The lighting, of course, had only just been turned on as dusk had just about set in.

Solomon was in the driver's seat, and he nodded before flicking his turn signal and turning into a side lane to park out of view of the main street.

"Did we really need to use a rental like this?" she muttered as he found a spot and then turned the car off.

The old man shrugged. "This is Kaiba Corp we're talking about. They hire ex-Japanese military intelligence officers to run their security division. They're looking for Kaiba of course, but they know Yugi is with him and the two of us are their closest link to Yugi. Extra caution in this situation can't hurt anyone."

Tea nodded with a frown as they disembarked.

"You're right… I still just can't believe Mokuba of all people is doing this…"

Solomon nodded.

"I don't know the full story of course, just what Yugi told me before they broke into the airfield, but yes, it really doesn't seem like a very pleasant situation. I don't doubt there's something very amiss here: from what I remember of Mokuba, he has his head on his shoulders and absolutely adores his brother. These actions… they don't seem like something he'd do."

They rounded a corner, and the third member of their party they were supposed to meet was waiting for them there.

"Tristan!" Tea grinned, running forward and embracing her long-time friend.

"Hey, it's good to see you too, Tea. How's New York bee-… Ouch!"

The tall and lithe young man found himself nursing his ribs, where Tea had landed a not-so-playful punch. "What the hell was that for?!"

"Do you really think you guys can get involved in something like this and not involve me?" she growled.

Tristan put his hands up defensively.

"One, it wasn't my call, this was Kaiba's deal and he came to Yugi alone. I don't think he was even that happy about Yugi involving me and Joey. Two, you were a fourteen hour flight away, so it's not like we could just-…"

"It doesn't matter if I was on another planet, if any of you called and it was this important I would still come," she retorted. "Do I need to remind you of what we've been through together? We've literally saved the world at least THREE times together, that tends to be the sort of thing that binds you together for life. When I drew that friendship symbol on our hands years ago, it wasn't for show… at least for me."

"Tea, Tea, please, I'm telling you this wasn't my call," groaned Tristan. "Look, if you feel this strongly: take it up with Yugi, given we'll be seeing him soon obviously."

He then glanced over at Solomon and grinned. "Looks like your plan worked, gramps. You must be one hell of an actor to keep all those guards' attention on you for me to still be a free man."

"This old dog still has plenty of tricks left up his sleeve, young man, and don't you forget it," came the prim response. "Come now, let's go see my grandson…"

They discretely made their way down the street and entered the hotel on the right.

It was nothing fancy, a very basic three star that Tea presumed Kaiba would never be caught dead at under different circumstances.

There was still some basic security, however, and the concierge called ahead before directing them to the third floor. After a short elevator ride they were knocking on a door in a narrow corridor.

There was a brief pause during which someone was presumably looking through the peephole before they then heard a chain being unlatched and the door swung open to reveal a rather haggard looking Joey, who nonetheless had a slight grin upon seeing his friends.

"Hey, Tea, it's been a while-…"

Similarly to Tristan, he was cut off as well first by a lunging hug and then a gut-punch.

"What was that for?!" he complained.

"You know perfectly well," she hissed back. "Do you think you could just get involved in another… mess like this and not include me after everything we've been through?"

"Look, Tea, it wasn't my-…"

"Yeah, yeah, Tristan gave me that spiel too. No one ever really made those calls before when it came to including each other, and I don't see why there was any need to start now."

"Yeah, but you were in-…"

"And like I told him, I'm telling you that I'd have come anyway, and I literally did," she snapped back.

Joey grunted and shook his head.

"Look, can we get out of the damn corridor?"

The others agreed and shuffled into the room.

It had two twin beds and was fairly spacious, with two armchairs in the corner and a stool in front of a dresser. The curtains were drawn.

Joey flopped onto one of the beds, while the others seated themselves around him.

"I'm glad you two are ok," he muttered pointedly, addressing Solomon and Tristan. "You both really did me, Yuge and Kaiba a solid at his airfield. No way we make it onto that jet without your help."

Solomon tipped his head. "Ah, a bit of excitement here and there like that is a welcome addition to an old man's life. Tell me though, Joey: where is Yugi?"

Tea was glad that Solomon had gone ahead and asked about his grandson's whereabouts, as she didn't want to do so herself and make it seem like she wasn't as happy to see Joey and Tristan as well. She was, but it was fruitless to pretend it wasn't different when it came to Yugi…

She shook her head. Now wasn't the time for these thoughts.

"He's in Kaiba's room, they're talking plans for tonight," grunted Joey, picking up a bag of chips lying on the bed and loudly biting into one. "He'll be back soon."

Tristan raised an eyebrow. "Not-so-rich-boy still has his own room?"

"Yup, both him and Pegasus do. He booked the place, I figure he expects Kaiba will pay him back when he gets his company back," he replied, while rolling his eyes. "Marik and Odion are sharing, as well as Mai and Ishizu."

Tristan blinked. "Marik? Ishizu? MAI? Joey what the hell have you guys got going here? Where did you even go? I thought you were off to Pegasus' island."

"We did go there. Turns out Mai is actually working for Pegasus now, and has been for a while. She then came with us to Egypt, where we met up with the Ishtars and they decided to help us and come back here."

"You went to… Egypt?" muttered Tea. "For what, exactly, from what Grandpa here told me this all had to do with something about Kaiba's company."

Joey put the bag of chips down and gave them a brief version of all events that had taken place from the moment him, Yugi and Kaiba got into the Blue-Eyes White Jet. To their arrival at Duelist Kingdom, the video conversation with Not-Mokuba, the flight to Cairo and the previous night's incident at the warehouse.

His audience was less slack jawed than most people would be upon hearing an account like that, which was understandable given they'd all been through some pretty wild experiences, but they were nonetheless rather shocked.

"A fourth… Egyptian God?" managed Tea.

Joey nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty insane. Ishizu can explain it further, but this one is different from the ones we knew of. Supposedly, the ancient Egyptian version of Kaiba locked it away way back then but now it's back and wants revenge."

"And this thing is only back because Kaiba used Diva's artifact to try and find Atem in the afterlife?" she continued, with rising indignation in her voice.

"Yeah, well, when you put it that way-…"

The door clicked open behind them, and they all turned to see a short form walk in topped with spikey hair. It was Yugi.

He looked up, surprised to see more than one person there.

"Hey Grandpa, Tristan… TEA?!"

Joey grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, I might've forgotten to mention she was in town."

Before Yugi had a chance to respond, his oldest friend had run across the room and thrown her arms around him.

He stiffened up initially, his mind unable to compute exactly what was happening, before one part of it woke up and told him she probably wouldn't react well if he didn't respond appropriately, so he then hesitantly hugged her back.

They held on probably a little too long given the fact they were in the company of others, but Tea finally pulled back, her face a bit flushed.

She turned back to Joey and glared. "You didn't tell him I was coming here?"

Joey shrugged. "Come on, I swear, I just forgot! Tristan told me and by that point he was already asleep… and then I was too in a little bit."

Tea frowned and then turned back around.

"Yugi: he just told us what happened in Egypt. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," came the mumbled, nervous reply. "Tea, how are you here? I thought you were in-…"

"I wasn't in New York! I was in Hawaii since my class were performing at a recital there… then I got a call saying your grandpa was in the hospital for a heart attack. They said they couldn't reach you and I was the next emergency contact so I got on the next flight back!"

Yugi groaned. "Oh my God, I am so sorry. Yeah, he put on a bit of a show to help us sneak onto Kaiba's plane, I can't believe you had to-…"

"Yugi, I don't care that I ended up flying out here for a fake emergency: I'm just upset you guys had a real one going on and didn't think I'd come out to help regardless!"

"Look, it really wasn't any of our calls to make either, Kaiba was unhappy enough that Joey and Tristan-…"

"And let's talk about Kaiba here," interrupted Tea heatedly, holding up a hand before continuing. "This guy pulls all the shenanigans he did last week at the Duel Exhibition last week, not to mention digging up the Pharaoh's grave, and then he uses an artifact he knows nothing about and tries to break into the afterlife, getting poor Mokuba possessed as a result, and we're all just going to act is if he's not a monumental screw-up here?"

"Jeez, Tea, that's a bit harsh," muttered Joey.

"It's not," she snapped, glaring at him pointedly before turning to look back at Yugi.

"Honestly, one of the reasons I wish I had been there was to maybe get you all to cool your jets on getting into another life-threatening situation because rich-boy here messed around with something he shouldn't have."

Yugi frowned. "Tea, that is really unfair."

She looked at him in surprise. "How was anything I said wrong?"

"You're missing a ton of context," he replied calmly, walking over to the unoccupied bed and seating himself on the edge. The other four sets of eyes were all on him.

"First of all, yes, Kaiba did come to me for help, but it's not as if he hasn't helped us, all of us, in the past before. Yeah, at Duelist Kingdom he dueled Atem and I for the chance to face Pegasus, and that actually worked out in our favor. We got to watch him go first and actually get some sort of inkling of how Pegasus' mind-reading actually worked. If we went in completely blind, there's a good chance we'd have lost and Grandpa would have never gotten his soul back."

"Wait a minute, but that's-…"

"Then at Battle City, he directly helped us against Marik. He gave me his Fiend's Sanctuary spell card, without which there is no way we'd have had any chance against the Winged Dragon of Ra. Marik would have won, and he'd probably be Pharaoh right now, spreading anarchy over the world for the next few centuries."

Tea opened her mouth to respond to that, but no words came. She then closed it and let him continue.

"I wasn't there for the duel with Dartz obviously, but the Pharaoh later told me that even as he was about to lose Kaiba sacrificed his Legendary Dragon to increase his life-points and help him stay in the duel. Without those extra life-points, Atem would have lost again, and we know for a fact what Dartz was going to do then.

"Dang, never thought about it that way," muttered Joey. "Guess rich boy has actually been pulling his weight after all."

"That's not even mentioning that he teamed up with Atem to fight Zorc when we were in the Memory World, and then sacrificed himself to save me again during our duel with the corrupted monster that Aigami had become.

"He's not perfect, but he's been the difference between winning and losing for us on more than one occasion, when losing would have been catastrophic."

Tea finally spoke up. "All right, yes, I get all that Yugi. He's done good things in the past, but first defiling the Pharaoh's grave and then literally trying to break dimensions to fight him? That's a whole other level of deranged…"

"I thought that too at first," admitted Yugi. "Then, I thought about it some more, and specifically everything that Kaiba has been through since he was a kid."

"My grandson is really growing up," Solomon thought with a smile in the corner, unnoticed by everyone else in the room who were staring at Yugi.

"He's never opened up to any of us about this, but Mokuba has. They were orphaned as young children, and Kaiba basically had to take on the responsibility of looking out for Mokuba a hundred percent of the time when he was eight. They spent two years in what was probably a horrible orphanage before being adopted by a monstrous old man who wanted to mold Kaiba into a replacement for his dead son. Kaiba spent his childhood shielding Mokuba from the harsh realities of their lives as orphans while simultaneously being tormented by Gozaburo.

"When you grow up like that, you take on a very different view of the world. No one ever showed him any kindness, so he internalized the idea that the only thing that ever had any meaning was his own strength. The way he took over Kaiba Corp and then became a dominant duelist validated that notion: that by being strong he would rise above and conquer everything. Any ideas that the world would make sense unless he forced it to were just a delusion.

"Dueling and losing to me, well, to Atem, completely shattered his worldview and sense of self. He had held his life together by sheer force of will until then: anything he wanted to make happen he just did it. Dueling was in some ways a metaphor for life and losing to us completely traumatized him and took him back to his childhood and the lack of control he felt when his parents died, leaving him and Mokuba to be thrust into the system. He's doing what he's doing precisely to try and reassert that control."

Joey's jaw was almost on the floor.

"Damn, Yuge, how the hell did you figure all this out?"

Yugi blushed a bit and shrugged. "I shared a body with a five thousand year old Pharaoh, if you remember. I guess I picked up some of his life experience. Plus, I know how much losing Atem affected me. Once I realized how much of Kaiba's recent actions have to do with the same thing, I took some time to think through why."

"You seem to understand him so well that if I didn't know any better I'd think you guys were BFFs instead of rivals," commented Tristan.

"He's been through a lot of stuff with us over the years. I'm not saying it hasn't been a bumpy ride, but after being in a foxhole with someone for that long it's kind of hard to not know who they are, at least somewhat."

Tea looked a bit embarrassed at this point, having remained silent the whole time, before finally speaking up.

"Yugi, I didn't realize you'd thought so hard about this. I'm sorry-…"

"Don't apologize," he replied, cutting her off. "I know you were just concerned about us, that's all. Hell, I half feel bad for getting all of you involved in the first place, he came just to me and-…"

"That's some bullshit, Yuge, and you know it," snapped Joey. "You didn't force any of us to sign up for this, we came along firstly because of Mokuba, and second because we're a package deal, and there's no way we'd let you get wrapped up in something like this alone."

"Yeah, yeah, of course, I get it," Yugi replied with a smile.

Tea remained silent, but her mind was spinning.

Was this really the same Yugi? Had he changed so much in a matter of months… or had the transformation been more gradual, and she'd been simply been unable to see it?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kaiba ran his hand under the cold stream of water, and then brought it up to his face to splash some over his eyes.

He felt the bite of the chilliness just a little bit, but the ringing in his head that had been there for the last half a day didn't subside.

He let his hand fall from his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

He always had fairly sharp features but right now he looked positively gaunt. He had dark circles under bloodshot eyes despite sleeping for most of the flight over. The key, of course, was it was probably among the most fitful and restless sleep of his life.

As it turned out, hearing voices in one's head while in the middle of a desert tended not to play well with one's sanity, and as a consequence, their ability to relax.

Kaiba had given Yugi the lowdown on what he had seen while the wormhole had somehow linked his mind with that of Apep's. He did not, however, mention a word about the fact that it had been words in his head that were not his own that had led him to try and manipulate the wormhole.

The subconscious knowledge of whatever he did that led to opening the mental connection: fine, he could accept that. It was the same brand of weird as his somehow being able to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It wasn't something he understood at all, but he had made peace with it years prior.

Hearing voices though? That was where he drew the line.

There was no way he would ever accept that had happened to him. He was Seto Kaiba, the one and only, not some ancient Egyptian do-gooder. Nor was there any conceivable way said do-gooder was presently sharing his body, just hanging out somewhere in his cranium the way the Pharaoh did in Yugi's.

There was a part of him that almost pointed out that if it was somehow possible in Yugi's case, and he had long since accepted that even if he didn't understand it, then why was it so impossible in his case?

Yet he simply shut those thoughts down. It was not possible, simply because it wasn't. he was Seto Kaiba, and this sort of thing did not happen to him. End of story.

He closed his eyes for a minute, almost as if he was trying to blink the redness away.

The other reason he was completely unwilling to entertain such notions was that it was approaching night, and he'd be leaving soon for Kaiba Corp. He was fairly certain that Yugi and some others would be joining him, and he wasn't planning on stopping them, but he was leaving regardless.

He had a mission, a very definitive goal, and such distractive thoughts were simply in the way of that.

Said mission was to get Mokuba back, whatever the cost.

Kaiba really did mean that last part. There really was no price he was unwilling to pay to do right by Mokuba here.

He had already gone very far for Mokuba's wellbeing in the past. He had maimed bullies twice his size in the orphanage, became a champion-level chess player to get the both of them adopted by Gozaburo, and lost his soul in a duel to Pegasus in an attempt to rescue Mokuba.

He'd go one step further this time if necessary. He'd have done it anyway, but the fact that this whole situation was his fault cemented that determination.

"Mokuba, I'm coming. I know you're in there somewhere, just hold out a little while longer."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later, it was close to ten p.m. and everyone was in the sitting room of Pegasus' suite for final preparations before they left for Kaiba Corp.

"Ok, first of all, I know that everybody is going to want to come, but I think it would be best for some of us to stay behind. We have no idea what Apep has planned and if he actually succeeds in whatever it is he wants Kaiba for, we need to make sure people are on the outside to figure out what to do next," announced Yugi.

Everyone present seemed to realize he had a point, but at the same time no one wanted to offer to be seen as quitting on the cause.

Yugi realized this and decided to make a suggestion. "Ishizu: I think you know better than anyone what we're dealing with here, and you can read ancient Egyptian texts. You're very capable, but I think it would be best if you waited here to decide what to do next if the worst happens."

The Egyptian woman didn't seem happy about the idea of leaving her brothers to walk into danger without her, but nonetheless nodded with a pursed smile.

"Odion, if our sister is staying behind I want you to as well," interjected Marik. "It would ease my mind to know that you're there to protect her… plus, you're injured."

The bald man was in a reclining armchair and sported a bandage wrapped around his head from his fracas with the Skull Servant. Moving much was painful, let alone fighting. He grimaced, but didn't argue.

"Marik, you'll be on your own. Will you-…" began Ishizu anxiously.

"I will be fine. This is something I need to do," he replied firmly.

"While we're at it, we might as well not pretend we need an old geezer slowing us down in there," grunted Kaiba.

"Oh believe me, Kaiba, that heist from yesterday was enough excitement for this old man for quite a while," chuckled Solomon.

"I was talking about Pegasus," came the deadpan response. "His resources might be useful to the rest of you should things go… sideways."

"Oh, you're not getting rid of me that easy, Kaiba-boy," sang Pegasus. "I will echo Mr Ishtar's sentiments here being that this is something I need to do. As for my resources, I don't plan on things going sideways, but if they do, Croquet will be in charge of my company and is agreeable to anyone I order him to be."

Yugi turned to Tea and began to speak, but she cut him off before the first word.

"Don't even start," she said dangerously. "Tristan and I might not be the duelists that you and Joey are but we've been near the frontlines with you guys no matter how dangerous things have gotten. We're not about to stop now."

Yugi sighed but then said nothing.

He looked around the room one more time, lingering on Joey and Kaiba who both nodded.

"Ok. Let's roll."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The group of eight drove to the Kaiba Corp HQ in two cars, with Joey driving Yugi, Tristan and Tea and Kaiba driving Pegasus, Marik and Mai.

They parked a few lanes down from the tower and then walked over in the darkness.

It was beginning to rain, and the first drops of water were running down the giant Blue-Eyes White Dragon statues they passed by on either side of the entrance.

Normally, the corporate headquarters of a company like Kaiba Corp were still buzzing at this hour, but it seems like every employee had been sent home, for the entire structure was dark.

Kaiba grimaced, took a breath, and walked up to the main, giant glass door. It was automated and swung open as expected.

Without a second thought, he strode through. The others hurried after him.

They were standing in the giant atrium that began on the ground floor of the building and ran all the way up to the roof. One could likely hurt their neck and get dizzy if they tried to stare at the ceiling hundreds of feet above them. Buried in the far wall were a dozen elevators.

"Damn, rich boy really knows how to spend his money," muttered Joey. None of them had ever stepped foot in the Kaiba Corp corporate HQ before.

Before anyone could respond, another voice pierced the silence.

"So, you came."

Everyone whirled around to see where the words came from. Standing to their right was Mokuba Kaiba, dressed in a black business suit and white shirt with the collar unbuttoned. A cruel, cynical smile was on his face that looked very out of place on the features of someone so young.

Kaiba let out a pained roar and lunged in that direction, his arms outstretched. He covered the distance in a matter of seconds but then seemed to pass through Mokuba's body. His momentum carried him forward a bit longer before he stopped and turned back around.

It was clearly a hologram.

"I see you brought friends as well. That's good, I was counting on it. None of you had to come, as I have no quarrel with anyone here except the reincarnation of the Pharaoh Seto. But since you came anyway, you will be given a front row seat to something beyond your wildest dreams… or nightmares."

Kaiba was white with rage, and shaking.

"I… I'm here. I did what you asked. Now give me back my brother, you swine."

"Come now,Pharaoh. You know it's not going to be that simple. Or did you not remember what you saw when we had that little incident with the Quantum Cube earlier today? I'm going to need something more from you than just your presence here before I can relinquish my control over this pitiful child."

"We all know what you are," interrupted Yugi angrily. "I don't know what Kaiba saw when you shared consciousness, but I know enough that you're angry with him because a version of him locked you away where you rightfully belong thousands of years ago. We're not going to let you exact your vengeance on him because for one, he isn't the same person and second, you're a monster and you deserved it anyway, Apep."

Apep-Mokuba's eyes flared with rage momentarily before he spoke in the same deathly cold voice.

"Ah, the reincarnation of the Pharaoh Atem. Incredibly foolish of you to speak my name with such carelessness. Your yami would have known better… or would he have, considering he didn't have his memories?"

The last words were dripping with disdain.

"Memories or not, he was a darn sight better guy than you are," growled Joey. "What kind of "god" do you think you are, snatching little kids' bodies that way?"

"One who does not need to answer to the arbitrary moral standards of mortals," came the cool and quiet reply. "You're all trash. Worthless mites who will be forgotten in seconds on a cosmic scale after you die. I can feel the nausea rising in this mortal's stomach as a consequence of my even having to be in your pathetic presence."

"So, did you want Kaiba-boy here just so you can spend all night insulting us?" asked Pegasus wryly.

Apep-Mokuba stopped his diatribe and then smiled thinly.

"Ah yes, I get carried away sometimes. You might feel the same if you ever found yourself in the presence of creatures who can't even truly conceive what you are. In any case…"

The hologram held its arm up and pointed to the elevators. Four of them opened.

"You will proceed to those elevators, which will stop on different floors. On each of these floors I have an opponent waiting, and you will engage in a particular kind of Shadow Game with them. Once and only once each of these Games is concluded, you, Pharaoh," he pointed to Kaiba as he said these words, "will be able to proceed to the top floor where we will meet."

"I'm not playing your bullshit games," snarled Kaiba. "What's to stop me from just taking the stairs and coming after you directly?"

"Oh, I suppose you could, but if you want little Mokuba's body back undamaged you would be wise to… not," came the cold response.

After these words, the hologram fished into his jacket pocket and pulled out a seven inch switchblade. He traced the knife lightly across his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

Kaiba was white again, and the rest of the group looked horrified.

"Trust me, I have a much higher tolerance for pain than any human could even conceive of. This could get very ugly… So, best be off now."

With a cackle, the hologram then disappeared.

Silence reigned for a moment before Yugi spoke up.

"Kaiba… It'll be ok. We'll do what he says for now, but it's clear he needs something from you. I don't know what, but it gives us leverage. We'll-…"

"Shut up, Yugi," came the response in a form of a snarl, before the CEO strode furiously towards one of the open elevators.

Pegasus patted Yugi on the back. "I'll go with him, Yugi-boy. Don't you worry about us."

He then followed at a quick trot.

Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Mai and Marik all looked at each other.

"Mai… I'd like to come with you, if that's all right," stated Marik.

She looked at him stiffly, but internally seemed to know where this was coming from, so she nodded with a slight smile.

"Well, it sounds like there's gonna be dueling happening, so it makes sense for you and me to split up, Yuge," muttered Joey.

Yugi nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Yugi, I'm with you," mumbled Tea in a small but determined voice.

The spikey haired duelist had a minor start at this, but then slowly nodded.

Tristan clapped a hand on Joey's shoulder. "Well then, it looks like it's you and me together as usual, buddy."

Kaiba and Pegasus had already disappeared behind the closed elevator door, so the remaining three pairs all nodded at each other and then followed behind them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

One of those elevators opened its doors ten floors up into a very dimly lit corridor.

Mai and Marik exited.

"Marik… Why did you specifically want to come with me?" she asked in a low voice.

"Because I have a theory, and I'm hoping it's wrong, but if it's not, then the only right place for me to be is by your side."

There was a neon arrow painted on the right side of the wall where the corridor split off, and they followed it.

"Care to explain what that is?"

"All right," said Marik evenly.

"Mokuba-… I mean, Apep mentioned Shadow Games right? Well, like we talked about back in Egypt, he doesn't come from the Shadow Realm, which was created by Zorc, who was himself born of the ill intentions of mortals. No, Apep comes from a different dimension, one that allows him to feed off the fear of men and use it to go stronger."

They reached the end of the corridor and turned right, leading to another one, this one with a row of doors on either side. Every light in the corridor was off, except for one at the very end which was lit up.

The entire setting made Mai's skin crawl, it was as if they were in a horror movie.

"Go on," she said, nevertheless.

"He has the Quantum Cube. Clearly he can use it to open portals, like he did back in Egypt. I don't think any of us thought about it at the time, but we probably all subconsciously assumed those monsters came from the Shadow Realm, because that's what we have always dealt with. I thought that too, initially, but like I said, it doesn't make sense. Apep has no connection to the Shadow Realm, and besides, Duel Spirits don't live in the Shadow Realm, they live in the Duel Monster Spirit World."

"Right, and from what I remember Joey telling me they learned from Dartz's family, the Duel Spirits aren't naturally hostile to us… In fact, they helped fight against the Orichalcos all those years ago," replied Mai.

"That's correct. So then, where did those monsters come from, and why were they hostile to us?"

"You're asking the wrong person," she grunted in response.

Marik swallowed. "I think they came from Apep's own realm, the Fear Dimension."

"What do you mean?" Mai asked, while getting increasingly uncomfortable.

"Think about it. It's the only answer that makes sense. We know Duel Spirits aren't violent or hostile towards humans, and even if Apep summoned them he doesn't have a way to control them. No, I don't think those were actual Duel Monster Spirits… I think they were manifestations of our own fears."

"But how did he…?"

"That's what he used the Cube for. He opened that portal to our dimension and allowed energies from there to come out into our world and take physical form in the shape of those monsters. Apep himself takes a physical form that is supposed to be so terrible that it terrifies mortals to insanity to even look at it. So I believe that the energies from his dimension will also be able to manifest in the form of our fears."

"I wasn't exactly thinking about Duel Spirits before we got attacked though," countered Mai.

Marik nodded. "Neither was I. But we were in the Egyptian desert at night, anyone is going to have a general sense of unease. I don't think he was preying on our conscious thoughts, not at that distance. Just the fact that most of us were likely uncomfortable with the whole situation to begin with was enough. Not to mention Karim was around when the portal was first opened and he was nothing short of terrified."

"What do you mean, at that distance?" came the uneasy reply.

They were almost to the end of the lit up door in the corridor. Though the degree of illumination was increasing, her trepidation was growing.

"Right here, we're much closer to the Cube, and I have no doubt he's using it again for the same purpose. At this range, he can use energies from the Fear Dimension to target our personal fears and bring them to life."

Mai turned white.

"So the Shadow Game he talked about…"

"Yes, I believe that's what this is about. It's why I wanted to be here by your side."

They were at the door.

Mai stared at the handle, like touching it would give her an incurable disease.

"Are you ready?" ventured Marik.

"No," she thought.

"Yes," she said blankly.

Marik reached over and pulled down on the handle, swinging the door open.

The room in front of them was dark and empty. It had wall to wall windows against which the now torrential rain was battering, and a stream of moonlight poured through and illuminated a figure standing near said windows, its back to the room.

Said figure was dressed in a purple robe with khaki pants, and had wild spikey blonde hair contrasted with olive skin.

The figure turned around to reveal a sickly smile splayed across his face. He then spoke in a harsh, crackling voice, one that had haunted Mai's nightmares for years since the day she first heard it.

"I was sure it would be one of you, but not both. What a pleasant surprise you've brought me, aibou."

Mai stared ahead numbly, paralyzed with dread. Words were unable to form in her mouth, and the only movement any of her muscles could generate were involuntary twitches, for she was literally staring at her worst fear brought to life.

Yami Marik.

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Hi, I apologize for the delay. Have had the time but had some other things going on in my life that sapped my motivation to write for a while. I actually probably wrote the last 2500 or so words today itself.

As you can see, we are getting to the meat of the story. There will be a lot of dueling soon. This first one will be hard to write but once I get in the groove I think writing this phase of the story will be a lot easier.

Currently on vacation for the rest of the month so I imagine I will get to the next chapter in Jan and hopefully update before the month ends.

Superscribe CJ: Well, trust me, there is more to come on all three of those things! I am glad you are enjoying things so far, hope you continue to do so.

ChroniclerDL: Yup, Kaiba is changing and can see how far Joey has come. He'd never EVER admit it to his face though. And yes, when I had Joey and Odion team up I did actually have Battle City in my mind. If you like long chapters, go read my old stories haha, some of those chapters DWARFED 10k words. Now though I think quality quantity.

Birthday Pikachu: Couldn't be happier you got around to reading this story. I am glad you like it so far. I will respond to your reviews for these earlier chapters in more details in a PM.

Metal Overlord 2.0: I mean, if you think about it, a Skull Servant is a walking zombie skeleton which is PRETTY scary in its own right, moreso than a Kozaky for example which actually has more attack points than it haha. The voice Kaiba is hearing is important, so I won't expand further on that, but rest assured it will be addressed. As for the lack of dueling: fear not, you will wait no longer. There will be a LOT of dueling from hereon out. That's always how the story was supposed to go, a bunch of setup to line up a bunch of dominos, and now it's time to knock them over.