As Ra's attack died down and the Necrovalley field faded away, taking the pyres with them, Honda launched himself over the wall and slid to a stop next to Amane's fallen form, terrified that he'd lost her forever.

He only got half of the potent healing magic past Amane's lips before tendrils of darkness wrapped around his wrists and dragged him back, away from his friend, slamming him into the wall. His head hit the stone, stunning him and causing him to drop the healing water, which spilled everywhere as it rolled to a stop at Hanaq's feet.

The malicious laugh Hanaq loosed in response to his pained groan made Honda's skin crawl. The Wrath scooped up the bottle, considered its contents, then tipped it on its end, sending the water trickling to ground, wasted.

"You can bury your mistress in a minute, I have things to collect first."

Honda tugged against the magic violently, a frustrated snarl escaping him when he couldn't stop Hanaq from dragging his unconscious friend up by the throat.

"You realise I've done what your Queen couldn't?" She asked Honda, whose glare was sharp enough to stab as Hanaq ripped the Millennium Ring from around Amane's neck, "I've dealt with the traitor. I've completed her destiny for her. She's not needed anymore."

"Get away from her." He snarled, his heart quivering at the complete lack of response from the Ring Bearer except for the slow easing of the marks across her skin, suggesting the magic Meisa had given him was taking effect.

"I'm just taking what's mine." Hanaq shrugged as she reached into a pocket and fished out the Millennium Eye, giving her two additional Millennium Items to the Pharaoh's one.

"She doesn't need it anymore and you have no right to it. The magic cleaning up the remains means nothing. Your mistress lies dead. If anything, you should be serving me now."

"I'll never, ever serve you." Honda snapped back, yanking on his bindings again.

"What's the matter? Want to be buried with your owner instead, little slave?" Hanaq sneered, the Shadows weaving around her and taking the form of the demon that'd given her everything as she let go and Amane collapsed into a heap on the floor. "It is traditional after all."

"She's not my owner, she's so much more than that." Honda snapped out, "And once I get loose, I'm gunna kick your ass on her behalf."

"Then why should I let you live?" Hanaq questioned, drawing the blade from her Millennium Item. She stalked forward and pressed it to his neck.

"Because if you kill me, the Pharaoh will destroy you, and Yugi won't stop her." Honda hissed out as the blade scratched his throat, trying to hide the fear that was attempting to consume him, behind bravado.

"The Pharaoh was too scared of me to show her face and watch her friend die. She knows she doesn't stand a chance against me. I'm going to grant 'Yugi' final judgement, just like I did Bakura. She's going to pay for the crimes her family committed. That she committed."

"She didn't…"

"I saw Bakura's memories, I saw the Pharaoh try to stab the thief in the back." Hanaq bit out as she pulled back, pocketed the Eye and slipped the rope of the Ring around her neck.

"But I don't have to prove it. Her magical signature is all over the healing spell you were trying to use. She sent you, didn't she?"

His mouth snapped shut, refusing to answer.

"Her actions now? Sending you to threaten me when it's against the rules? They prove my words. They prove to her court, to her people, that she's nothing but the lying, treacherous bitch the Thief Queen's memories prove her to be."

Honda vibrated with rage but didn't lash out. He couldn't. The Shadows held him fast, and no matter how much he wanted to slam his fist into her face, he couldn't rise to do it.

"She didn't need to send me." Honda snarled back instead, "You hurt my friends. You kidnapped Jou's sister. You almost drowned Yugi! I came to defend myself and everyone I care about!"

"What I did, I did because Yugi wouldn't do what I wanted. The suffering of your friends? Yugi's dip in the ocean? None of it would've happened if she'd just killed Bakura months ago. She's responsible for everything. Not me. And now I'm going to send you back with a message for her: either she can surrender to me tomorrow and submit to judgement for the suffering of my people and the people of Kul Elna, or I'm going to kill her and anyone else who stands in my way."

Hanaq's voice was ice cold as amber eyes stared directly into Honda's soul, too distracted to sense what was left of Ishizu fleeing to take refuge in the soul of one of her former servants before she could be sealed away again.

"And if you really don't believe me about her trying to stab Bakura? Ask her about her khopesh." the Wrath's smile was toothy and promised pain, "Bronze and gold, absolutely stunning. I wonder how many souls it held."

Still disbelieving and barely holding back several curse words, remembering how well they had gone over on the yacht, Honda could only watch as Hanaq left.

The moment she was out of sight, the Shadows released Honda, who rushed to the side of his friend.

"Amane!"

Relief slammed into him when he found Amane was still breathing. It was a weak and stuttering with breaths that were few and far between, but she was alive. And, if the stories he'd been told held true, that meant Amane's soul had survived.

Casting his gaze around, he spotted the water bottle and that it had a few drops left. He scooped it up and was just tipping the last into Amane's mouth when he was pulled away by a member of the medical crew that had finally arrived.

As two of the medics swept past him to get to their patient, Kawai yanked him further back and shot him a frustrated glower.

"I don't know what was in that water, but you can't just give an unconscious person a drink!" Kawai hissed out, fuming. "You could drown her. Her breathing's already shaky enough as it is."

"That water had a healing spell mixed in and she got about a third of it." Honda hissed back, trying to keep his voice low enough to avoid being heard by the other medics. "If her breathing is bad now, imagine how much worse it would have been."

Kawai grimaced and glanced over at the girl who was being loaded onto a stretched, "Point, but she's breathing, and we can keep her breathing without you risking her health any further."

"But…"

"Trust us to do our job." Kawai demanded quietly, grateful for the security that were herding away the only member of the press on site.

"I've already released Yugi into the care of your friends and sent them over to the accommodation. You should go join them and get some rest. Doctor's orders."

"But…"

"Honda." Honda froze at the soft, understanding tone. "She's alive, isn't she?"

He nodded.

"Then trust me to do my job. I'm a doctor. It's my job to heal people. Bakura wouldn't want you staying with her all night, exhausting yourself and getting hurt if Ishizu goes nuts tomorrow. Even if you come back to the hospital first thing tomorrow, you'll be much more able to help her, once you've had a chance to sleep so you don't pass out."

Honda's shoulders sank.

"I promise, once this tournament is over and you're all more with it, I'll let Yugi use her magic to fully heal whoever she wants to, but right now, you all need rest more than anything. Or you could end up in as bad a condition as she is. You can't help her if you get yourself killed."

Honda nodded, knowing that Kawai wasn't wrong, no matter how much she disliked it.

"Does that hurt?"

At Kawai's question, confusion flickered across Honda's face. The doctor lifted one of his hands up to his eye level, allowing him to see the inflammation wrapped around them, where he'd been seized by the darkness. Red marks that pulsed painfully in time with his heartbeat and were matched on the other wrist.

"A little." Honda breathed, surprised that the doctor had noticed considering everything else going on and more concerned with the other medics, who were loading Amane on a stretcher and rushing her to the infirmary.

"Take these with you." Kawai fished a bottle of painkillers out of her bag, "Take two before bed, and two first thing in the morning if it's still inflamed."

"O… Okay."

As he rose to his feet, he couldn't help but be amused and relieved to see his friends, who'd finally caught up to them, having ignored Kawai's instructions to get straight to the apartments in their concern for their friends.

As Anzu and a stumbling Yugi tried to talk to the medics that were getting into the vehicle, Kawai gestured to her son, who vaulted the wall and hurried over. "Kaasan?"

"Your friend's alive, but needs medical treatment. If you come to the hospital you'll be in the way, so please take Honda with you to Mobius's Monarchy?" Kawai asked her son, who nodded rapidly and budged Honda, reassuring him that he had his back. "And I don't want to see any of you until after the tournament is over, understand? Unless Yugi starts feeling faint again or starts having problems with her breathing."

"Got it." Katsuya nodded.

He knew she wasn't too happy about having to release Yugi early, but that she agreed keeping her in with the Ishtars was asking for trouble. Releasing them to the apartments kept them safe and prevented trouble.

"Can we get a ride or do we have to walk?"

As she headed for the ambulance, she grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, only one vehicle. Honda, don't take those pills until you head to bed. They'll make you drowsy."

Then she shut the door and it pulled away.

Once it was just Honda and his friends, Anzu turned to Honda, worried, "They wouldn't talk to us. Is she…?"

"Alive." His smile was watery. "But she's badly hurt. I don't… I think I stabilised Amane but... I don't know. I just don't know.. And Ba-Khu-Ra..."

"We have her… Kinda of." Yugi promised, thinking of the charred shards of soul that her sister was guarding so carefully, "Anesan pulled her into the Puzzle, but…"

Yugi trailed off, tears tumbling down her cheeks as she thought about the fragments of her friend's soul. She didn't want to lose anyone. Watching the duel on the screen had been hard enough. Having the sheer agony of her friends slam into her like a tank and barely managing to save one of them, only for them to dissolve into ash, was heart breaking.

Honda was in the same condition, with tears blurring his vision. If he'd arrived sooner, he could've shielded Ba-Khu-Ra or Amane from that last attack. Instead, he'd arrived just in time to watch Ra decimate them, and it'd been horrifying.

"Maybe we should hole up in one apartment." Jou suggested, patting Honda on the shoulder and pulling his girlfriend into a much-needed hug, "Ishizu's gone off her rocker, so…"

"We have two locked apartments." Honda's voice was flat and his hands were balled into fists as they started moving towards the Red Eyes monorail. It was the slower route, but it went closer to Mobius's Monarchy, giving them less time out in the open.

"And each only has space for four. There's no way she can get in either of them, as long as no one lets her in."

"Honda…" Yugi hesitated, pulling away from Katsuya slightly, aware that Honda was close with both Amane and Ba-Khu-Ra, "I…"

"Don't. Yugi." His hand went to his upper arm, where a band of Shadows had rested for almost a year. A band that'd seared as it'd disintegrated into ashes. He didn't want to blame Yugi, but he couldn't help the fury that had him wanting to yell at her for letting things get so far away from her.

That, more than the space issue, was why he wanted to stay in the other apartment.

For a moment, just one moment, he was almost tempted to pass on Hanaq's message. All the pain, all the chaos that'd happened was because of the problems caused by Yugi's ancient past, so an unkind part of him thought it was only fair that she put a stop to it.

Then he squashed it. Yugi was his friend and she wasn't responsible for the actions of those around her. He knew her well enough to know, that if he told her that there was an option for her to end the pain and suffering now, by handing herself to Ishizu, there was a strong chance she'd do it.

And he refused to be responsible for her death and the consequences of it.

"I'm sorry." Yugi stepped away from her friend group, her head dropping, "Maybe it's best if I stay away from you guys. Hanaq…"

"The last time we let you wander off alone, the fire happened." Anzu shook her head as she cut Yugi off. "And you ended up in hospital for months. We're not letting that happen again."

"We're safer if we stick together." Katsuya agreed as Shizuka clung to his side, frightened by what she had seen. "She can't pick us off one by one if we're in a group."

"Or kidnap anyone else." Shizuka agreed quietly, still unsure that she'd made the right choice in coming to Battle City after the events of the day.

"It's not like there's anywhere else for us to stay anyway, so we have to go in the same direction." Honda huffed, "Unless you plan on sleeping outside?"

"No…" Yugi's shoulders sank but she did start moving with them again. The five of them reached the monorail just ahead of the rain. As the Red Eyes train left the station, it poured down around them, drumming on the roof in a soothing pulse that allowed them to relax a little.

Giving Yugi the chance to slump into the Puzzle, where Meisa was still processing what'd happened and the collection of tiny, ashen edged fragments of black gem stone, only a fingertip or less in size, that rested in her hands and across the floor.

"Anesan?"

"Sh... she's..." Meisa trailed off, still trembling from the sheer pain, panic and fear that'd rolled across the connection to the Thief and been echoed in the blue-grey eyes that'd stared at her before Ba-Khu-Ra had shattered.

"Can we put her back together?" Yugi asked hopefully as she knelt to examine the pieces, hoping to find a way to connect them.

"We… we might be able to, but we didn't get all of her and if we put the fragments together wrong, we could do irreparable harm. It would be better to get the Ring and rest of her back and let Ba-Khu-Ra put herself back together. Or get Hanaq to undo the Penalty."

Meisa wasn't one for physical violence, but right now she wanted to slam her fist into Hanaq's face. Repeatedly. Until she stopped moving. She was only refraining because Battle City rules wouldn't allow it, and Amane and Ba-Khu-Ra had endangered themselves to give them the chance to rest and recover, and throwing it away was disrespecting that sacrifice.

"Really, the only one who could assemble her soul properly, besides Ba-Khu-Ra herself, is the one who holds the other half of it."

"Amane…"

Yugi had to fight back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her as she thought of the friend whose physical form had been rushed to the hospital in the back of an ambulance and whose soul was the Kami only knew where.

"And we'd need to, carefully, put Ba-Khu-Ra back in the Ring to be able to connect them, or you'd need to hand the Puzzle over."

"So, we get the Ring back from Hanaq. We can do that. We have to do that. For both Amane and Ba-Khu-Ra."

Yugi's mood wasn't entirely dissimilar. She didn't want to lash out physically, but she did want to crush Hanaq in a duel as completely as Yugi had crushed Rebecca and make her undo everything she'd done to Yugi's friends and family.

"I just…" Meisa's hands balled into fists as she trailed off, her entire form shaking in her upset and fury, her soul vibrating hard enough to set the Puzzle trembling around them.

"I'm sorry Anesan." Yugi breathed as she helped her sister collect up the fragments, knowing how attached she was to Ba-Khu-Ra.

Not just because of the kiss, but because the Thief was the only one of their friends who really understood what it was like for Meisa day to day.

"I thought... she seemed invincible. Immortal... What if she's…?"

Dead.

The word hovered between them like a huge neon elephant.

"Then we do what we can to make things right." Yugi breathed, her heart aching at the thought that her friend could be lost forever. "We can't undo what we did in the past, but we can try and help her people now."

"How? We don't know anyone's names, or what they looked like. Or even how to get them into the afterlife."

"If we win, we can see if Azra will let us use the Necklace." Yugi offered, "That'll let us collect all the information we need."

Meisa nearly pointed out that it would mean using the very items Ba-Khu-Ra's people had died to create, but stopped, knowing it was the only way to recover that information.

Perhaps if they used it for good, used it to help those who had suffered so much, they could start to atone.

"What're we going to do?" Yugi asked, gazing down at the tiny shards of soul nervously. "Do we have somewhere safe for her?"

"Can she stay in your room?" Meisa dared to ask, knowing the magnitude of what she was requesting. "It's not safe for her here in the Puzzle, she could get lost, or destroyed. I know there's a piece of her in here somewhere, I felt it echo when the Shadows triggered our connection. I can look for it later, but I don't want to risk what we have here."

Yugi shuddered at the reminder of the moment the Shadows had screamed through their senses, bringing Amane and Ba-Khu-Ra's fear and pain with them and helping them save what they could. She couldn't help but wonder if the people of Ba-Khu-Ra's village had wanted to protect the Thief and her sister, just as Atem had been helping her and Meisa all day.

"Of course." Despite the massive risk to her soul and memories, Yugi didn't hesitate to offer her soul sanctuary.

Instead, she darted across the corridor, into her room, and over to the desk, where several important things lay. For a moment her hands hovered over the spectral version of her Puzzle box, which held her memories of her good times with her sister as Meisa followed carefully.

Then, deciding not to put Ba-Khu-Ra's soul fragments in something that might trigger negative memories, she instead tipped the shards she held into a ramen bowl etched with cherry blossoms and fixed repeatedly with kintsugi gold.

"What memories does that hold?" Meisa asked, trying to ignore the little voice in the back of her mind reminding her that she could end this war now.

All she'd need to do was destroy the soul fragments and it would end in an instant.

But she couldn't do it, not with everything Ba-Khu-Ra had given to help her and save Yugi. The Thief Queen wasn't the true enemy.

So, she gently tipped her collection of soul fragments into it, trusting her twin.

"Cooking, enjoying meals at home and out at restaurants, food with my parents, nothing I can't afford to lose if she recovers enough to get violent, but plenty of pleasant memories for her to rest with."

Meisa let out a soft breath at the fact her twin was risking some of what little she remembered of her parents but nodded and let Yugi take the bowl and place it back on the desk, secure and safe.

"Thank you."

"She's my friend too."

Yugi's mobile phone ringing caused her to dart around the games and toys on her floor, and scramble back to her body so she could answer it, knowing that any call that was coming in at this time of the morning was important.

"Hello?"

"Yugi." A wave of shock washed over her, making her sit bolt upright, at the sound of Rishid's voice.

"Rishid, hi! How's Marik?" Yugi's friends also sat upright at her words.

"No change." The anger and upset in his voice came through the phone clearly, "But… Yugi, you need to end this. Before I lose anyone else."

"I…"

"Don't get me wrong. I hate you for taking Ishizu from us. But if you fall, this world falls and I lose Marik for good. So don't you dare lose to Hanaq."

"I won't, but, Rishid? Ishizu can't be gone." She could feel the confusion from her twin and the eyes of all her friends on her. "Ishizu is the primary soul, isn't she?"

"She's the only soul. Hanaq is a different identity, not a spirit like the Pharaoh or the Thief Queen…"

"So, she can't be gone, or the body would be gone too."

Rishid's stunned breath came at the same time as the gasps from those around her.

"What are you saying?" The older teen demanded, confusion and hope warring.

"Ishizu should have control of the Khat and the Ba, the body and the life energy. If she was gone, she would be dead. The body wouldn't be able to survive." Yugi offered as she watched the dark carnival of Yami shift to the rivers and ponds of Umi and remembered the lessons Mahad had given her on the soul. "I think Ishizu's still in there somewhere, and Hanaq's just controlling her, probably with the demon riding her. At least, I hope…"

There was silence on the other end of the line, then…

"If she's alive. If she's still in there… give her back to us. Please." Rishid begged, "Give me my family back."

"I..." Yugi hesitated. If he'd asked an hour ago, she would've jumped at it. Even after Ishizu had killed her and she'd been forced to win her way back to the world of the living, Yugi would've been willing to try.

But the agony of her friends burning alive still echoed along her nerves, making her tremble. The feel of Amane's soul fading away into nothingness still spun through her mind. She had a sudden, horrible comprehension of how it'd felt for her friends when her soul had tried to do the same at Duelist Kingdom and she absolutely hated it.

For the first time, Yugi didn't want to help.

She didn't want to restore the woman who'd attacked her home and family, kidnapped, blackmailed and brainwashed her friends and nearly forced her to leave her sister all alone.

She didn't want to help the woman who'd burned two of her friends' souls so badly that the only signs that either still clung to life, were a barely breathing body and a pile of ashen, but solid, soul pieces.

She didn't want to do anything except stop Ishizu and Hanaq in their tracks, before any more of the people she cared about were made to suffer.

"Please, my Pharaoh. Please. Ishizu isn't Hanaq. And Hanaq isn't the demon. They're both parts of my sister. I can't lose them. Please..."

It wasn't the words that got through to her, but the emotions behind them. The sheer desperation and despair that spoke of a man at rock bottom. A desperation and despair she understood all too well, having lost so much of her own family.

Her shoulders sank, her blazing fury sputtering out as her gaze fell to the floor, her stomach flipping as a thought hit her.

Hanaq and Ishizu were hurting people because their family had been hurt. The same as Ba-Khu-Ra. The same as her Anesan had done during the early days, when the Puzzle had first been assembled.

If she doomed Hanaq for Zorc's influence upon her, if she condemned Ishizu for the actions of her Other Self, then it would be equal to saying Ba-Khu-Ra was un-saveable, Anesan was irredeemable, and she and Amane were just as culpable for letting them hurt others.

That, and if she didn't help them now, then she had no right to expect anything except grief and anger from Marik and Rishid later.

"I'll try." Yugi finally said, wary of making a promise she might not be able to keep when the Shadows had hung on every word spoken all day, "I don't want you to lose your family. Not if I can do anything about it."

"Thank you."

"Don't… don't thank me. Not yet. I don't know if I can do it." Katsuya's hand on her shoulder made Yugi look up and smile at him sadly. "But I just want everyone safe at the end of this."

"Yugi… if you're not careful, Hanaq WILL kill you." Rishid warned, "She murdered our father, Ishizu's betrothed, Karim and a whole bunch of others. She won't hesitate to kill you if she gets the chance."

"I won't let her." Meisa took over, "If it comes to Imoto or your sister, I'm going to do my best, but I will not lose my twin. Not again."

"I understand." Rishid's voice hardened. "Good night, Pharaoh."

"Keep us up to date on Marik?"

"I will."

With that, the call ended.

"Are you serious?" Honda demanded, shooting to his feet when Meisa lowered the device. "She killed Yugi! She hurt Amane and Ba-Khu-Ra! She kidnapped Jou's sister! She possessed Jonouchi!"

"And she did it all to protect her family." Meisa pointed out, "I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea myself, but giving her back to her family, if I can, will stop Marik and Rishid attacking us later. If it helps, consider it like Jiisan trying to stop Otogi going off the rails after the fire."

"And I don't want to have to be the one to kill her." Yugi took over and looked around. "She was set up to die, at our hand, by Shadi. He set me up to murder her and I won't do it. I'm not going to be forced to kill because assholes think it's okay to keep bullying someone. She might be fixable. She might be able to be pulled back."

"She killed Ba-Khu-Ra!"

"Maybe… I hope not. I think Ba-Khu-Ra's fragmented but still here. I promise, I have some of her in my Soul Room." Yugi shook her head. "But either way I need to try and win back the Millennium Ring. Both because Anesan needs it and because more of Ba-Khu-Ra's soul might still be in there. That means dueling against Hanaq. And if she is alive, and I can free Hanaq from the demon, it might give me insight on how to free Ba-Khu-Ra."

That settled Honda's anger a bit. Katsuya wasn't much happier but he got it.

"And if it comes down to your life or hers?"

"You heard Anesan."

That settled her friends, but Yugi's shoulders sank as the Red Eyes monorail pulled into the station next to Mobius's Monarchy, where the apartment blocks were.

She couldn't blame her twin for her answer. It was the same answer she should have. That she, honestly, had to have. But she didn't want to say it. She didn't even want to think about it.

Still, the thought kept tumbling through her mind as they disembarked and headed for the white coral building.

As much as she hated it, if it came down to her life or Ishizu's, if there was truly no other way, there was no choice. Not anymore. Not with Anubis' warning and the Shadows already trickling back into the world through the cracks in a badly damaged seal.

Hanaq would have to be stopped.