/Text/ Spirit to Host
/Text/ Host to Spirit
Chapter 47: Control
There were two things Seto noticed almost instantly once the thick fog of sleep somewhat dissipated from his mind. The first was that he was no longer in Gryffindor Tower. The cold, dark dormitory had been replaced by his office, and instead of the small windows situated near each bed letting in only tiny fractions of natural light, he sat facing the huge wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows behind his desk showing off all of Domino City below.
But there was no phone or laptop in sight so this had to be his soul room.
Seto furrowed his brow, still a tad disoriented. His link to Set was gone, and he hadn't been able to reach this room since he was abducted out of his real office. Why did it suddenly reappear again?
He'd have to dwell on that later, for not only was he back in his soul room, but he woke sitting not on the leather sofa to the side of the room or even in his cushy chair behind the desk, but in one of the seats sitting in front of it. And like the sporadic memories of being trapped elsewhere in a cellar, he was thoroughly tied down by his wrists and ankles to the chair arms and legs.
By purple-hued chains that looked to belong in the Shadow Realm. Except, as far as he was aware, this wasn't the Shadow Realm.
Seto heard the swishing of robes from somewhere behind him and Voldemort passed by to move around the desk to sit. He leaned back, and ran a hand across the fine leather armrests before he swiveled forward to face him.
"Good morning," Voldemort said, his voice stinkingly smug.
Seto pulled at the chains biting into him, but they didn't shift an inch, and he glared back at Voldemort. "That's my chair."
"Funny," Voldemort grinned snidely at him, "I don't see your name on it."
"This is my office."
"No, it isn't," said Voldemort, "This is a recreation of your office, created by the Millennium Rod to separate your mind from that of Priest Set. He has a room of his own, though it is currently inaccessible."
"And how would you know anything about –"
A chill wormed its way up his spine, cutting him off as long clawed hands suddenly dug deep into his shoulders, and he felt a dark presence looming over him. Seto didn't bother trying to twist around in the shred of leeway he had in his seat, or crane his neck to look up. Suddenly the Shadow Realm-esque chains made a lot more sense, along with Voldemort's knowledge of how soul rooms worked.
"I have learned quite a bit about these places," Voldemort said conversationally, and his eyes darted up for just a brief moment, to focus on the Shadow Magus. "I understand they differ from person to person. Your counterpart, the Priest, will not have the same setting. And Yugi Muto's will differ from the Pharaoh's. Each room is a reflection of the individual, wouldn't you say?"
Seto didn't answer and merely held his gaze.
"Each represents something," Voldemort continued, "Now, I cannot speak for Yugi Muto or the Pharaoh. I have not had the pleasure of visiting either of their minds, at least not yet. But you, I know. I've come to know a great bit about you from these last few weeks."
"You don't know anything about me."
Voldemort's grin widened. "In the last several hours of your little impromptu nap, I have had the chance to dive deep into your mind, and your memories. I know that you were the one who made it possible for Yugi Muto's friends to disappear. I also know that you don't know where they are, so forcing a location from you is a pointless exercise.
"I know that you have spoken to your brother less and less since your return to Hogwarts, and I know it is because I am here. You are distancing yourself to protect him from me. How incredibly noble."
Voldemort leaned forward, his red eyes glinting. "I know that you project a cold air around your companions, but not to the Mudblood. You are unable to maintain that façade with her. Why is that, I wonder? What is she to you, Seto Kaiba? A friend? Something more?"
He does not have friends, said the Shadow Magus wickedly and flexed his claws into Seto's shoulder blades. Isn't that right?
Voldemort chuckled. Seto's glare didn't waver at all. Impressive. "An anomaly then."
"What you described are actions. Things I've done. That's it," said Seto icily. "That doesn't prove anything."
"But actions mean something, under the surface," said Voldemort, leaning back. He ran a hand back along the chair's leather surface again. "Do you know why you are sitting there of all the places in this room?"
He didn't wait for Seto to respond; the laser-focused glower he was currently receiving didn't let up in the slightest. "This is your throne, your command post. So much of your life has been framed by outside influence, but here, you are in charge."
Voldemort gestured to the chair he sat in. "This is what you've fought to keep after wresting it from your father's grasp, is it not? Power. Control."
Seto's eyes narrowed, his jaw tensing. Voldemort smirked. Got him.
"But you're not in this chair, are you? I am." He held his hand, palm up over the desk, and the potion bottle that Seto pulled from his trunk materialized in it, and he waved it in the air. "You remember this, I'm sure. Your last stand to keep me at bay. Quite an ingenious plan, I must say. You knew I couldn't pull your strings while you slept. As it stands, you drank enough of this to put you out through the end of the day. But, like all of your other futile attempts, it was all for nothing.
"I will admit, you were able to resist for far longer than I would have liked to admit, but this…." A quick wave of his hand and the bottle vanished again. "Was your fatal error."
Again. No reaction.
"You see, when one sleeps, their mind is vulnerable. I'm sure you recall the Shadow Magus's prior visits in the fall…."
Seto stiffened. The Shadow Magus was flexing again, and he could practically feel the purplish aura absorbing through his skin, sending painful shivers from his shoulders right down to his toes.
"It was next to nothing for him to insert the both of us into your mind. And I've taken the liberty of countering the effects of your little sleeping potion while I am here. While you are weak, I will be able to do what needs to be done without interference. So despite your best efforts, I will be leading my raid on Hogwarts after all."
Voldemort leaned back into the chair and tilted his head curiously at Seto's continued silence. "What, nothing to say?"
Seto huffed and shook his head at him. "You talk too much."
Voldemort chuckled.
Seto squared his jaw and leaned forward slightly. He felt the Shadow Magus move with him. "So you got me. Congratulations. Now what?"
"In just a few minutes, the school Quidditch match will start. Once that happens, I will bring down the wards, and Death Eaters will swarm the castle and lay an ambush for everyone once they return. Dumbledore and Potter will fall - I will see to that personally, and the Ministry will soon realize that without their champions, there will be no choice but to surrender."
"And then what - going to leave me here to deal with the fallout? The token patsy to your little plan?"
There was a dark glint in Voldemort's eyes that didn't sit well with him. At all.
"Oh, no," Voldemort said nastily. "You will return to the mansion with us. I can think of quite a number of uses for you still."
"You really think you're going to be able to get away with this? Or get me out of the school?" Seto pulled at his wrists again, and again to no avail. "There are Aurors all over the grounds. I'll be stopped before the bubble over the castle is gone."
"I have already accounted for that," Voldemort tilted his head high to stare down his nose at him. "It will be rather hard for the Aurors and professors to try and capture you, when a faction of my men are interrupting the Quidditch game. By the time that Dumbledore and the others have their poor, frightened student body calm and under control, I will have you back at my base with no one else the wiser."
He leaned forward and splayed his bony fingers flat along the top of the desk. "And this time, I've made sure you won't get out."
"You told me that once before and I remember it backfiring right into your face," said Seto. "And if you think I'm just going to sit here and wait for you to just come collect me like some trophy, then you're sorely mistaken."
Voldemort suddenly looked up towards the ceiling, and swiveled around in the chair to gaze out the window behind him. When he finally turned back, he was grinning.
"It seems I won't have to wait long," he said. The disgusting smug overtone was back. "As I anticipated, it would appear your peers have found you."
He waved his wand towards the window, and the birds-eye view of Domino City vanished, replaced by the sprawling Hogwarts grounds. Seto didn't have to be out of his soul room to know that Voldemort had placed him in the Astronomy Tower. It was both the most secluded point in the school and hard to see from the Quidditch Pitch. In front of him on either side floated both his research and…the Marauders Map? When did he have the opportunity to sneak that out from right under Harry's nose?
Voldemort rose from the chair and slowly moved around the desk.
"What are you doing here?" Seto heard both Voldemort and his voice ask, and he struggled against his bindings again. This was just like the very beginning of his linking with Set. Set, however, could be reasoned with.
"I could ask you the same thing, Kaiba," Seto heard Yami say, but he couldn't see him. Voldemort still had him facing out in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
He hadn't formulated completely what it was he was going to say and to whom – would it be easier to try and tip off the others to what was going on? Or continue to spar with Voldemort and the Shadow Magus? It didn't seem like Voldemort purposely left a trail for Harry and Yugi to find, so they must have figured his plan out on their own. In which case warning them of the imminence of an attack was downright pointless.
There wasn't much he could do from within his own mind, not like this.
Both options turned out futile, for before he could even get half a word out, cold hands grabbed hold of his hair, roughly yanked his head back, and Voldemort's wand was pushed up against the exposed base of his throat.
"Shh," Voldemort hissed, and without even uttering a spell, Seto felt a flare of heat where the wand was pressed into him. The moment it was pulled away, he shook Voldemort off and opened his mouth, but to his horror no sound came out.
Voldemort chuckled and gave his head a condescending pat before looking towards the window, fully aware of Seto's seething stare on the back of his head. "Enjoying the view…."
He turned to stare down haughtily at Seto. "…While I can." A brief pause. "For being so eager to watch the game, you're all rather far from the Quidditch Pitch."
"You're rather far from your laptop," Yami shot back, "For someone who claims to have so much to do."
"I'm right where I need to be," said Voldemort.
"And so are we," said Yami, and Voldemort listened as Yugi chimed in almost immediately after him. "Kaiba, we know what's going on! You don't have to do this. Let us help you!"
"Persistent, aren't they?" Voldemort said, more to the Shadow Magus than anyone else.
"You can't help him," Voldemort snapped, "I've seen to that."
"Seto, please! We know what he's done to you, and we know you're still in there. You have to fight him!"
Hermione's voice rang through his mind and Seto balled his hands into fists along the edge of the chair arms. Voldemort noticed, having stood right next to him, and grinned wickedly before leaning down to whisper in Seto's ear.
"Ah, the Mudblood. What do you say, should I dispose of her with the others, or perhaps save her for last?"
Seto's eyes narrowed even further.
Voldemort laughed a terrible gleeful sound that shot right through Seto's ear like a bullet on its warpath, and he relished in the visible flinch that crossed Seto's face. "Now, what was that you were saying about 'not getting away with this'?" He circled around the chair. "You cannot move or even call out to your friends. I have control over your voice and your movement, but don't worry…."
He gestured to the windows. "I'll leave you a front row seat to watch the show."
Voldemort suddenly pivoted and headed for the door. "And that is where you're wrong…."
Seto's view suddenly shifted, and his body turned away from staring out at the grounds, and into the Astronomy Tower, towards Yugi and Yami and the others. He saw all five of them – seven, really, if Yugi and the Spirit of the Ring, floating out beside them like ghosts, even counted in the first place.
They all had wands out and at the ready, but there had to be something that changed once he turned around. Hermione gasped and backed away and onto Ron's toes, her face one of absolute horror. Harry's eyes were narrowed, focused. Yami had a grim expression on his face.
What did they see?
"Seto Kaiba lost his fight," he heard Voldemort say, as the door to his soul room slammed shut. The Shadow Magus finally – mercifully – let go of him and glided around to sit at his desk in the chair Voldemort vacated.
"…He belongs to me now. And in a few minutes, so will all of you."
"What have you done to him, Voldemort?" Yami demanded.
Cold eyes raked him up and down. They shifted over to Yugi's spirit form, and then returned to Yami. "The 'Nameless Pharaoh', I presume," said Voldemort. "I look forward to meeting you properly in my study. And very soon."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you," said Yami, "But that meeting you crave is not going to be today. Now answer me – what have you done to Kaiba?"
Voldemort gestured Seto's arms out in a long sweep. "Do not fret, Pharaoh. I haven't done anything to him."
"Then what do you call this?" Harry shot back. "You've got him under some sort of Imperius Curse."
Red eyes flickered over and bored into angry green ones. "Harry Potter. Meddling once more. Dumbledore will not be able to save you this time."
"I'll take my chances."
"Your friend was defiant too, right up until the end," said Voldemort, and he turned on his heel and walked back to the railing. "It did him no favors."
"Let him go!" Ron shouted.
Voldemort chuckled and withdrew Seto's wand from the pocket of his robes. "I'm rather fond of this new little toy of mine, and don't have any plans to give him up. And from the other side of that wall, there is really nothing you can do to stop me."
He began waving the wand in a sort of complicated zigzagging pattern that Harry had never seen before. A small purple ball of light appeared, floating idly between the Marauders Map and the school notes, but it seemed Voldemort wasn't finished, and he started to change the pattern of his wand arc.
Harry quickly whirled around and looked to the others. "Please tell me there's a plan to get across the room and stop him."
"I have an idea," said Yugi, "It's crazy, and it's dangerous, and there's almost no real shot of it working."
"Okay, cool. What is it?"
"First," Yugi whispered, sliding in closer. "We need to get around the barrier. If you don't know a spell to get it down, maybe Bakura can get us onto the other side."
"And then?" asked Ron.
"We need to get the Puzzle around his neck."
Ron wrinkled his nose. "What good is that going to do? And how do you expect to get close enough to him to pull that off?"
"I said it was a longshot," Yugi hissed, "And you need to trust me on this."
Hermione eyed past him, and tightened the grip she had on her own wand. A new darker blue orb appeared beside the first, and Voldemort had started a third wand-waving pattern.
"I think I can blast though the wall," she whispered. "But…if You-Know-Who is really possessing him, he's going to know a lot more spells than Seto did before he was abducted. And that he is going to be a far better dueler…so we need to be prepared to deal with that."
Ryou nodded. "It's a good thing the first spells you taught us were shield charms."
Ron looked around at all of them before his gaze ended squarely on Hermione. "Okay. I got it. Hermione, you're on the barrier. We'll give you an extra second head start and then the rest of us are going right for stunners. Maybe we can catch him off guard and be fast enough that he doesn't have time to react."
Ryou bit his lip. "If we all hit him at the same time…that won't kill him or anything, will it?"
Harry shook his head. "No…but I'm sure it won't do him any favors either."
"Can't be worse than having You-Know-Who in your brain," Ron muttered. He looked at Ryou, though more so to the Spirit of the Ring hovering behind him. "If we're in over our heads – use that Ring trick of yours and get Dumbledore while the rest of us hold down the line. You'll be able to get to him and back faster than any of us will."
Bakura rolled his eyes but finally nodded. "Fine."
Harry couldn't help but agree with him and then looked back at Hermione. "As big and explosive as you can make it."
Bakura suddenly frowned and turned away from the others to face towards the doorway going back down the tower. The Millennium Ring sprang to life, the five pointers spun wildly before targeting squarely on Seto's back.
"What is it?" Bakura muttered, as a third orb, this one a dark red, appeared and started circling the two other balls of light. "What do you see?" He squinted out in Seto's direction, but aside from Voldemort's clear control over him, didn't see anything else out of the ordinary.
"BOMBARDA!"
He whirled around just as the barrier in front of them splintered apart in what appeared to be shards of glass. Harry and Ron, standing closest to it, threw arms up over their faces to avoid getting debris in their eyes and Yami sent a stunner right past them in Seto's direction.
The half-second delay did not work to their advantage. Voldemort spun on Seto's heel the moment the barrier shattered and threw up a shield charm. The spinning orbs floating just beyond the tower railing slowed to a stop.
Spell blasts of all different sizes and colors started pounding the shield, and Yugi felt a bare glimmer of hope. If Voldemort had to concentrate on maintaining the shield, he couldn't be working to take down the wards. The moment he stopped work on that, the orbs had paused and remained in a floating limbo, and he could only hope that meant a few precious moments of time were gained before Voldemort called in his cavalry.
But even now he felt they were at a standstill. Harry, Ron, and Hermione knew more spells than he and Ryou, but the firepower from the five of them didn't make a single dent in the barrier Voldemort created. If anything, the stronger stunners were being rebounded back, and Harry and Ron's quickly-timed shield was now just pinging spells back and forth until they merely fizzled out somewhere between them.
Voldemort clenched a fist and waved Seto's wand out in a wide arc. The barrier protecting him exploded out towards the opposite end of the Astronomy Tower. The shockwave barreled right into their shield charms and broke through with enough force to knock them all off their feet.
He strode forward, easily blocking the few measly spells the Weasley boy managed to fire off in his direction. "I tire of your meddling," he said. "I thought it would be fitting for you to see your last efforts gone to waste, but I think instead I will dispose of you all before my army arrives."
Harry quickly recovered and grabbed his wand from where it had fallen next to him, but the weak disarming spell never made it to him. "Ah, ah," Voldemort tutted. "Your wand cannot stop me that easily this time, Harry Potter. But do not worry – your death will not happen here. This is too small a stage for you. An example must be made of the Ministry's little Chosen One."
The Shadow Magus sat, watching. Not the office windows Voldemort charmed to see what went on through Seto's eyes, but the boy himself, sitting across the desk. For someone who could not utter a sound, he spoke volumes.
Seto's hard glare didn't waver once from the windows and he didn't relent once from trying to get out of his bonds – a truly futile exercise. A cringe, no more than a brief twitch in locked muscles, snuck out when the Pharaoh and his friends were sent flying. He struggled harder.
The Shadow Magus got up and circled around to stand beside him. The Pharaoh and his friends were scattering around the room now, trying to get a lead on them. The redhead's stunner rebounded, and then Harry Potter's third attempt to disarm them failed, and he had to chuckle. Surely that wasn't the only spell the boy knew.
A jet of red light hit one of the center pillars, crumbling it, and the boy with the Millennium Ring dived away.
They watched Harry turn to him. "GO!"
Ryou nodded, and to Voldemort's snarl – and the Shadow Magus's delight, he vanished in a quick swirl of purple smoke.
"You should have followed him," they heard Voldemort say, both from outside in the corridor, and layered over Seto's voice.
"We're going to stop you," Yami said defiantly.
"You're doing such a fine job so far," Voldemort taunted. "You, Pharaoh, I have no true qualm with this day. There is much I wish to learn from you, once this petty distraction is at an end."
"No chance!" Yami said, ducking another jet of bright red light that otherwise would have whizzed right past his ear.
They watched Hermione spin around from where she was hiding and send a fast 'Incendio!' which was easily ducked, until Voldemort seemed to realize that he was not its intended target.
The spell hit Seto's research, still idly hovering off the edge of the tower, and the parchment instantly disintegrated into a few falling specks of ash onto the railing.
"That will not stop me," Voldemort sneered, and jerked his wand in a quick, upward motion. Another raw blast sent them all running.
The view spun back to the edge of the tower, and the orbs started spinning and rotating around each other. Energy sparks sizzled between them and Seto's wand, waving in such arcs that Seto felt his arms were conducting a destructive symphony.
Until finally, the orbs stopped moving, energy bolts running from this one to that one and to the third one and back. With each passing seconds, the sparks grew louder and brighter.
Voldemort shifted his stance, and created a spinning motion with Seto's wand. The three orbs started moving again, not in orbit, but together in a circle, going faster and faster until they blended together into one. He raised his arm high, wand aimed directly up for the sky –
– and there was a quick flash of red and their vision went sideways. Half a second later, Seto winced, feeling his back slam into the stone tower floor. Ron had tackled him.
That was certainly one way to try and stop him.
What a fool, the Shadow Magus said. All that did was stall a few measly seconds.
But a few seconds was all they seem to have needed – enough time for him to throw Ron off and to catch Hermione's next well-aimed spell. Seto couldn't hear what it was she cast, if she said it aloud at all, but whatever it was struck the energy ball Voldemort took such care in creating.
Dark cracks started to form against the bright aura surrounding it until it detonated in a blast far more destructive than any firepower Voldemort had used before, causing another massive wave that threw them back against the tower walls, and rained down dust and rock from crumbling flecks of the ceiling.
Voldemort roared in fury, shot back to his feet, and Seto's fists clenched against the arm of his chair. Ron's body slam, for all the good it did to distract him from getting the spell fired into the barriers, sent him mostly out of the energy blast's war path. But Ron and the others were caught up in it, and were down and out, stunned, at the entrance to the tower.
Seto watched him cross the room, wand out. This was it – Yugi and the others had no way to fight back. He didn't doubt for a second that Voldemort wouldn't make good on his threat. Yugi might make it – only because Voldemort and the Shadow Magus had an interest in him – but Harry and Ron? Bakura – eh, the Spirit of the Ring was resourceful enough that Ryou would live. But Hermione?
They were all going to die, and there was no one else left who could do anything about it.
He glared down at his wrists. Voldemort trapped him here, but it wasn't as if he was back in the cellar in that house. He wasn't really tied down – his body was walking and casting curses left and right. Voldemort spoke through him. None of this was real. Not this office, his restraints – hell, Voldemort himself was just a projection from whatever he did to place him under his control.
The Cruciatus Curse he was subjected to weeks ago wasn't real either. Sure, the feeling of the pain was real; but once he managed to convince himself that no: fiery hot knives were not piercing every inch of his body over and over and over again and it was nothing more than an illusion on his own nerves, he was able to overcome it.
However, he didn't have days to break out of this funk. He barely had seconds.
Seto could feel his nails digging into his palms. Voldemort took his voice, but it was the Shadow Magus holding him down, and he had never managed to beat him on his own. Getting past even one of these traps would be better than nothing, but he'd have almost no time afterwards to come up with a plan to fight back.
He watched Voldemort stop in front of the others and Seto closed his eyes. This wasn't necessarily a battle of brute strength, but one of wills. He needed to concentrate.
Hermione winced and with a shaking hand reached behind her head to feel a knot forming from where she hit the wall and dropped.
Wonderful.
She slowly blinked her eyes open. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, but had by some miracle missed her, her wand which had fallen out of her hand, and Yami, who was still unconscious a few feet away. Harry and Ron must have been somewhere on her other side – but the tower was quiet. Perhaps they were still knocked out too – she could only hope it was just that and nothing worse.
Her wand sat just out of her reach, and she stretched forward along the floor for it. Her fingers managed to ghost the end of the handle when a polished black shoe pressed down overtop her wrist, pinning it to the floor.
Hermione glanced up. Seto towered over her; his wand pointed right between her eyes.
"Nice try," said Voldemort. "I think you've caused me enough trouble today."
"If it keeps you from putting the entire school at risk, then it was worth it," she said, surprised that her voice stayed even throughout, despite the unnerving cold red eyes that bore right through and rooted her to the spot.
Voldemort pressed his foot down harder as he crouched in front of her, and didn't bother to hide the cruel curl of his lip when she whimpered, trying with no success to free her arm.
"A valiant attempt, but not good enough," he said, and tipped her chin up with the end of his wand. "I fail to understand what he sees in you."
Hermione twisted her face out of his grip, and gasped against the shooting pain in her wrist. "Let go."
A cruel smile. "Of him? Or you?"
Voldemort shifted his weight and rocked back on his heel to straighten up, but not before feeling her wrist snap from under his foot, and he grinned against her agonizing scream. When he finally removed his foot off, she rolled onto her side and dragged her arm back, curling in on herself. A single tear rolled down her cheek.
He knelt down again as Harry and Ron started to stir next to her. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her upright once they got to her feet, wands raised.
"Let her go!" Ron shouted, and took a step forward, green sparks emerging from the end of his wand, but he stopped once Voldemort pressed Seto's wand against her forehead and glared coldly at them.
"Surrender this pointless crusade," Voldemort sneered, "Drop your wands."
Harry quickly raised his hands, palms out, and dropped his wand, Ron following suit mere seconds later. "You win, Voldemort." The words sounded like poison on his tongue. "Let Hermione go."
With a quick wave of his wand, the discarded ones – including Yami's – zoomed into his open hand, and then he roughly shoved Hermione away. She stumbled into Ron's arms, and he lowered her back down onto the floor where she buried her head into his shoulder, shaking and gasping.
Seto stepped back as Yami began to come around and waved his wand again, erecting another barrier between them and the railing.
"Now, if you excuse me, I have work to complete, and this time, there will be no interruptions."
Harry stepped around Ron and Hermione and helped Yami to his feet. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Yami groaned. He looked about at the mess around him, eyes wide. "What happened?"
Harry shook his head. "We're back at square one, only he took our wands."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that just yet," said a voice from the doorway, and as Voldemort resummoned the first of the floating energy orbs, they all turned. Bakura was in control now, standing with Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and – to their complete dismay, Professor Umbridge.
Harry groaned. What poor timing – if only he managed to show up two minutes earlier!
"You know, when we said to get help, I didn't realize you were getting…everyone," said Ron.
Dumbledore stepped across the destruction in the middle of the tower, right up to the edge of the barrier. "Stand down, Seto. Let us help you."
"Voldemort is controlling him," said Harry. "If Seto's in there, he can't hear us."
Umbridge balked. "Preposterous!"
Harry glared at her before turning to Bakura. "Really?" he hissed.
Bakura rolled his eyes. "My host was trying to be discreet, except she happened to overhear everything. Believe me – I was tempted to leave her in the Shadow Realm."
Harry wrinkled his nose. "I wish you would've."
The chains circling him shattered apart and vanished in a swirl of purple light. Seto gasped and jolted forward with nothing left to hold him down.
The Shadow Magus roared, enraged, and Seto quickly backed out of arms reach of him and into the middle of the office. The Eye on the mask flashed but the dark aura around his claws suddenly faded and he flickered out of the room.
Seto spun on his heel, but he didn't see him anywhere. There was no possible way that getting himself out of his chair got rid of him for good. He didn't have time to dwell on it though; Voldemort was weaving a new wave of spells, and this was his one shot to stop him.
His wand appeared in his hand once he pushed through the door. Voldemort stood with his back to him, staring off at one of the two dead-ends in the corridor, watching his handiwork through Seto's eyes.
Nothing in his limited arsenal would be enough to stop someone who had practiced dark magic for decades, but he surprised himself when a blast of blue light emerged from his wand and struck Voldemort square in the back. It sent him right into the wall opposite the door to the office and he stumbled down, stunned. His wand fell and rolled across the floor.
Seto quickly scooped it up and pressed it against his throat. A calm, cooling sensation rushed through him, and with his own wand aimed down at him, Seto stepped into the center of the corridor, and for the first time in what had to be weeks, felt in command of his own actions.
He forced himself to drop the extra wands he didn't even realize he was even holding and hunched over the railing. Voldemort's fight against the others took a larger toll than he realized. His arms shook from trying to hold him up.
"Kaiba," he heard Yami say, "can you hear me?"
Seto gave the barest of nods; never before had he been so relieved to hear his insufferable rival's voice – and properly. The view Voldemort set up for him in the office while he was trapped didn't count. His body felt like lead as he turned, just enough to see the Pharaoh standing beside Professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall? She must have shown while he was ultraconcentrated on escaping – but honestly, if the wizarding Nerd Herd was going to run to an adult in this place for help, he would have rather it had been Dumbledore.
"Okay," said Yami, "Now…are you able to take the barrier down?"
His mind was whirring away so fast, that he didn't even catch himself shaking his head. Voldemort wouldn't stay down for long, and there was no telling where the hell the Shadow Magus even disappeared to. Removing the barrier would help the others stop Voldemort's spell in its tracks, but it also worked both ways and kept them all safe – from him. It had to stay up.
"Why not?" he heard Umbridge ask, and he couldn't help but gnash his teeth together. Why the hell was she here!? "He put it up, didn't he?"
"He's going to come back. It's – safer this way." he said, and oh! – what a glorious sound he heard as he spoke: his own voice without anyone else's stacked on top of it.
Dumbledore's voice rang out next. "You have to fight him, Seto. We can help you."
Oh good – so the Headmaster was here. Wonderful. How lovely that everyone was spewing encouraging words of support. Words weren't going to get Voldemort out of his head. And until he could figure out just what it would take to actually do that without completely losing his mind, he'd just had to stall out and try to maintain command of himself for as long as possible.
A blindingly bright light flashed in the corner of his vision, and he barely had enough time to turn and duck as a sizzling beam of who knows what whizzed right past his head and left a fist-sized burn mark in the corridor wall.
Urk! The moment the spell struck the wall, it felt like someone had clobbered him over the head, and he pitched forward with a gasp. Seto quickly recovered himself and raised both wands, but while distracted by the sudden attack, Voldemort managed to vanish. How did he not even notice Voldemort get back up again – and what the hell was that and how did he cast it without a wand?
More importantly – where was he?
He turned slowly, eyes sharply raking every bit of the corridor for anything that appeared out of place, but nothing called out to him. Voldemort and the Shadow Magus wouldn't have gone through all this trouble just to throw in the towel now, so they had to be here somewhere. And with Set's door completely gone, that left only one place where they could be, if not in the hall.
Seto aimed both wands out from either side of him. "Revelio." It was a complete guess – he had no idea if it would even work, but small bursts of light fanned out from each one as he slowly made his way down the corridor, but if Voldemort was merely hiding and invisible, he didn't get caught.
He stopped in the center of the hall, in line with the open doorway, and peered inside. Still nothing.
"Ngh!" A blast of cold energy struck him square in the back with enough force that the wands in his hand dropped, he went flying hard into the front of his desk, and the last thing he saw before his vision blacked out was the hem of the Shadow Magus's robes as he glided toward him.
Seto's body violently trembled before he suddenly straightened up, let go of the railing, and then bent down to pick up his fallen wand. Red eyes triumphantly stared back.
"Right on time, I see," said Voldemort irritably. "In a few moments, the wards around the school will fall, and I will have won. You're too late, Dumbledore."
"One man cannot bring down the wards around Hogwarts," Umbridge insisted. "Those protections have been in place far longer than any of us have been alive!"
"I'm afraid Voldemort would not have gone through this much trouble if there was not a way," said Dumbledore, and then spoke directly to Voldemort. "You cannot hope to succeed, Tom."
"And you cannot stop me, Dumbledore," Voldemort snapped, created the third orb once again, and then started them on their sparking circular path. "But I suppose I should give you credit for coming to me – it will save the time of tracking you down later."
"I can, and I will," said Dumbledore.
Voldemort laughed; his high, cold cackle mixing terribly with Seto's voice. "Are you really willing to risk the boy's life in order to stop me?"
"I will do what I must," said Dumbledore, and waved his wand against the barrier, silently dissolving it with such ease that Ron really wished he knew what the spell was because maybe, just maybe, if they hadn't made so much noise when they first broke it…the entire wand fight that followed could have been avoided entirely.
Voldemort sneered and fired a volley of curses in Dumbledore's direction. Dumbledore summoned a massive silver shield in front of him. The curses struck the shield and bounced off harmlessly with such a booming gong! that it send shivers down Harry's spine.
"Using my own spells against me?" Voldemort taunted. "Have you run out of tricks?"
"Merely acknowledging its effectiveness," said Dumbledore.
Voldemort snarled and raised his wand arm again, firing another curse at Dumbledore, and then started to jerk his wand towards the orbs only for a rope to wrap itself around his wrist, halting his spell in its tracks. He twisted his head angrily to his left to see a whip conjured from the end of Snape's wand. He pulled at his wrist, but Snape's hold on him tightened and his arm didn't move. He pointed his free hand down towards the stolen wands on the floor, and Yugi's flew into his open palm.
"No you don't!" Professor McGonagall roared and caught his other hand with a rope of her own. She yanked hard, and Voldemort stumbled in his step. Yugi's wand clattered back onto the floor.
"Give up, Tom," Dumbledore said, striding forward.
Yami froze; Voldemort started cackling loudly again, only this time, he could have sworn he heard a third voice layered over both Voldemort and Kaiba. He had only heard the voice once, the night he and the Spirit of the Millennium Ring ventured into Seto's mind to save him from the Shadow Magus.
"It hasn't even begun, Dumbledore!" Voldemort and the Shadow Magus both laughed, and Seto's shadow started growing and transforming out from under him. A purple aura surrounded him for a split second, and then he vanished from sight. The ropes holding him still fell limply to the floor.
"What the – where did he go?" asked Umbridge, "Apparation is impossible!" She cast a quick Accio on all of the wands on the ground, and they landed neatly in her open palm.
"He didn't…" Professor McGonagall began, but Dumbledore shook his head as he slowly looked about the tower.
"No, the wards haven't fallen, not yet…" he murmured, eyes scanning the ground. The spells Voldemort created were still circling and sparking just beyond the edge of the tower.
Bakura stowed Ryou's wand into his back pocket and held up the Millennium Ring. "Where did he go?"
The Ring activated; all five pointers fanning wildly in all directions, and he scowled. Not helpful in the slightest.
Umbridge waved her wand around the room wildly. "Revelio! Revelio! Revelio!" Small bursts of white light erupted out and fanned the room as she circled the group. "He has to be here somewhere…."
Hermione cradled her broken wrist against her chest and got back to her feet.
"What if he left the tower?" asked Ron. The Marauders Map managed to avoid all of the spells flying about in the fight, but it was still floating along the edge of the rail. So far no one had paid it any mind, but there'd be no way to make use of it without Harry having to give it over. Even if Dumbledore was in the best of spirits following this whole mess, there'd be no way he'd allow Harry to keep it if he knew what it was.
That only left the Millennium Ring…which didn't seem capable of coming to a solid conclusion. Great. Just great.
"What do you think, Ya—Yugi," Harry said, but Yami was oddly quiet, staring down at the Puzzle with a blank look on his face.
"Yugi?"
The Millennium Puzzle flared and Yugi emerged, one hand tightly holding onto the chain around his neck, his face grim.
"I…I think he's still here," said Yugi. If he was going to get their plan to work, he had to act once he had an opening – once Kaiba reappeared.
A blast of purple magic erupted out of the corner of the room, and Professor McGonagall stepped in front it with a quick shield charm.
Snape sent a jet of red light back in the same direction, but it only hit the wall, crumbling the stone face.
A second and third attack shot out from different areas of the tower, and each one blocked by both Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall. Umbridge sent back a volley of spells into the area where the last one originated, but it only shattered a section of the railing.
Hermione heard the shifting of broken stone directly behind her and felt the hair raise on the back of her neck. She quickly reached out to snatch her wand out of Umbridge's stubby grasp, and spun on her heel. "Revelio!" Her aim shook and it wasn't quite as dead center as she wanted it to be from using her left arm instead of her right, but it managed to still make a clean hit.
Seto stood mere feet behind her, wand raised and aimed right at her. The tips of both of their wands were close enough to each other that they could reach a hand out and touch them.
She took a hard, labored breath, and felt it catch down in her chest. Seto was breathing heavily, visibly exhausted, blue eyes locked onto honey brown.
"S-Seto," she whispered, and he winced. His wand arm shook violently.
He blinked back, and for an instant saw flecks of red flash across his eyes before they returned back to normal.
"Kaiba," Yugi said, taking a hesitant step forward.
Red started to creep over icy irises until Seto managed to shake his head, forcing it back. His gaze remained locked on Hermione.
"Kaiba," Yugi said again, "I know you can do this. You have to fight him!"
Seto's wand arm remained rooted in its spot, but angry blue eyes shifted to stare at him. He glared at Yugi and spoke through gritted teeth. "Don't you think I've tried?"
He brought his other hand up against his wand arm, and Yugi couldn't tell if he was trying to hold his aim at Hermione steady…or break out of it. But his eyes looked past them both, at the professors standing in the back, all wands aimed directly for him.
"Get rid of it," he said, eyes flitting to Voldemort's handiwork before landing on the nearest professor to it: Professor Snape. "B-before they combine. Just…ngh…don't blow us all up."
"How?"
"R-reverse – ungh," he groaned, and pressed his left hand against his forehead, eyes screwed shut. "…Reverse order. Red, then – argh…blue…."
Dumbledore nodded to them, and Professor McGonagall moved to stand beside Snape. She set a shield charm around them while he worked on separating and picking the orbs apart one by one. Dumbledore moved around Umbridge, still standing off to the side with her wand half-raised at Seto and placed his unwithered hand on his shoulder.
"Seto," said Dumbledore gently, "You are stronger than you know."
Seto opened his eyes to glare at him but anything he meant to say was cut off, usurped by the sudden cluster of white sparks that emitted out of the end of his wand.
Ron surged forward – Hermione was far too close. Any spell that Seto cast – whether he meant to or not – would strike her before she could react. Hermione didn't have terrible reflexes, but she wasn't the quickest on her feet, and she was hurt. He reached for her arm to pull her back, but she immediately shrugged him off and stood her ground.
"Seto, please," she begged, "Look at me."
Seto finally turned to her. "Y-you need to go," he said desperately, and shut his eyes again, flinching, "I – I can't stand down, and I can't stop them."
"I won't," she said. "We're all here, with you."
Seto's face twitched again. His wand arm steadied out, and frigid red eyes opened, rooting her on the spot. "Then you will fall with him."
Before Harry, Ron or Hermione could even react, Voldemort jerked his arm out in a wide arc, and a jet of orange light blasted out, striking Hermione directly in the chest but the rest hit the shield Dumbledore managed to throw around the rest of them before it could harm anyone else. Yugi surged forward and threw the Millennium Puzzle around Seto's neck. The Millennium Ring activated the instant Dumbledore cast his shield, swallowing everyone close enough to him in the Shadow Realm.
The final orb shattered in a small explosion that didn't make it past Professor McGonagall's shield and she lowered it as Professor Snape turned around to see the purple mist cloud disappear, leaving Umbridge standing alone, dumbstruck in the center of the tower.
"What the –" Professor McGonagall started, but couldn't find the words to finish her thought.
Professor Snape sighed. "…It seems we've been delegated to clean-up their mess."
It was the strangest sensation, connecting to another person's mind. The only other times someone other than Yugi had worn the Puzzle was when he placed it around both Joey's neck in Battle City, and Kaiba in his office during Christmas holiday. With Joey, he hadn't been able to forge a connection at the time, not really. He had been merely trapped inside, waiting either for Yugi to take it back…or…well…another round of eternity in dark.
But Kaiba wasn't like Joey – he did have a link to the Millennium Items, and in the single afternoon where he wore the Puzzle, Yami found himself with easy access to Seto's soul room, and spent those hours sitting in the office with Priest Set in their failed attempt to draw out the Shadow Magus.
He landed easily in Seto's corridor, and found himself frozen to his spot, standing in the center of the hallway, jaw dropped. This clearly was not the hall he remembered during his brief visit over Christmas holiday. Set's side had been taken over by another office wall, and the familiar stone walls carved with hieroglyphs were gone. There was only one door – leading into Seto's soul room.
…What was left of the door, at any rate.
Yami's eyes doubled in size as he slowly took in the sight around him. Blast marks of all different sizes marred the walls. The office door hung on one hinge, with a decent chunk of it splintered apart. Half of the "S. Kaiba, CEO" nameplate lay in pieces across the floor.
He jumped at a crash from the other side of the wall, and he tensed, his hands balled into fists. If the corridor looked this bad, he honestly was terrified to see what happened to Kaiba's actual soul room.
A bright orange light flashed across the open doorway, and before he realized what was even happening, his legs hurried him over the threshold, and stopped short just before he could be struck by something red that barreled right past his face. He heard the sound of something clattering to the floor, and Yami's next breath seized up somewhere deep in his chest.
After standing in the damaged corridor, Yami expected the office to look terrible.
But terrible didn't even come close to covering it. One of the windows had a huge crack running from the top of the pane all the way to the bottom. Another had completely blown out. The same sort of burn marks out in the corridor littered the office and the floors. Kaiba's desk seemed to be mostly unscathed, though there was a huge dent in the front of it, and the fancy leather chair had fallen onto its side. Two of the wheels had broken off and rolled away.
Kaiba had dropped his wand – letting out a cross between a scream and a groan, muffled through a clenched jaw. A conjured whip, made of fire, sprouted from Voldemort's wand and coiled around his right wrist and up his forearm in a sizzling, smoking hiss.
He wrenched at his arm, both against the flames licking at his clothes and against his skin, and then Voldemort's hard yank on the whip to knock him off of his equilibrium.
Yami could only watch as the shield charm Kaiba had erected around him faded away into nothingness the instant the wand fell from his hand, and a dark shadow with no body to associate with slithered along the edge of the room near the windows, around what remained of the chair and the desk to stop right behind Kaiba.
No one seemed to even notice him just inside the entrance, blocked from sight by the damaged door. But the purple mist Yami easily recognized as the Shadow Realm started forming around the shadow on the floor until it kept growing, larger and larger, transforming into the same dark creature Yami found the last time he and the Spirit of the Ring visited this very room.
Kaiba didn't know the Shadow Magus was behind him, but Yami did – and the dark glob of magic that appeared around the shadow creature's hands was all he needed to get himself moving.
The Millennium Puzzle around his neck activated before he had even finished running, and the sudden blast of magic hurling towards Seto's back stopped dead in its tracks, blocked by the flash of a golden shield that appeared between him and the Shadow Magus.
Seto faltered in his struggle as he twisted around to face the Pharaoh's back, brow furrowed in both pain and surprise that it took him several blinks to find words, and the precious wasted seconds were enough for another spell to catch Seto right in his chest. He choked back another groan as his knees buckled.
"What," Seto hissed, his free hand braced against his knees, "are you doing here?"
"Yes, Pharaoh," Voldemort spat, and pulled hard on the whip. The flames flickered brighter running up Seto's arm and his body jerked forward until Seto found his footing. "What are you doing?"
"Offering my assistance," Yami spat at him. With one hand continuing to hold the chain on the Puzzle, he turned to watch both Voldemort and the Shadow Magus. From his vantage point, he could also see through the one giant intact window left in the office, rigged up to see out through Kaiba's eyes.
Bakura's quick summoning of the Shadow Realm gathered up the lot of them that were standing close enough to Kaiba and he managed to transport them out of the Astronomy Tower, activate the Room of Requirement and drop them all inside. Dumbledore, Yugi, and Bakura were the only ones close enough in Kaiba's line of sight Yami could see. Surely Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also here, but somewhere out of eyeshot.
He had to give it to Bakura's quick thinking – Voldemort couldn't cast the spells to take down the wards from within the castle. And there was no better place to try and trap him than the Room of Requirement: a place with no doors or windows.
Having forged a connection to Kaiba's mind – like, he supposed, how Voldemort and the Shadow Magus already managed to – he could feel the muscles in Seto's arm locked in place, and now understood why Voldemort's flaming whip which was long enough to probably circle Kaiba several times over only went for his one arm: his wand arm, and both Kaiba and Voldemort were fighting to control it, despite the real one being empty-handed.
Yami didn't doubt for a second that if Voldemort pulled the lead out again, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for him to steal one back, even if it wasn't Kaiba's own.
Voldemort sneered. "I will have to thank you immensely for handing over your Millennium Item so willingly. When the dust of the battle has ceased and I whisk him back to my headquarters, I will have two Millennium Items in my possession, and the powers within them."
He jerked his wand arm up with a quick flick of his wrist and Seto fell back again with a sharp inhale sucked through his teeth.
Seto's knees landed hard against the cracked floor tiles, and tried to no avail to unwrap the flaming cords that kept him from both using his arm, and tethered him to that spot. All it did, however, was start to burn his other hand.
Yami suddenly had the fleeting memory of another time that this had happened, in almost this exact setting: Kaiba's office. Dark magic. Severe burns. A new connection into his mind. The differences? The Millennium Rod wasn't in play; just Voldemort, who seemed to take extreme pleasure in wearing Kaiba down to overtake him, while back then Set was just released for the first time, and didn't actually anticipate harming Kaiba in any way.
Voldemort was doing all of this on purpose; not out of curiosity, but malice. And with the Shadow Magus here with him, he wasn't alone.
It was time he evened the odds.
"Your assistance," Seto hissed, struggling to balance himself, "Is not necessary."
Yami couldn't help but roll his eyes, even as the Shadow Magus sent another blast of dark magic right into his shield, leaving a large crack on impact, but otherwise continued its job and kept him out. "You're right. I'm sorry," he said dryly, "You're doing so well on your own."
The Shadow Magus winked out of sight, ground shadow and all, and Yami spun around the room but couldn't find the moving dark shape from before. At his feet lay Seto's wand and he grabbed for it, aiming wildly, but his counter spell missed Voldemort entirely and lodged into the wall behind him.
Kaiba bit back another painful groan and rounded on him, his entire body shaking. Blue eyes normally so bright and vibrant, even in anger, were now so dull and lifeless that Yami's heart tightened in his chest. Another flaming whip caught the other arm and he was forced back down to his knees with a sharp, hissing intake of breath. Kaiba was losing his battle.
"Sorry," Yami winced. He saw a glimpse of Yugi and Bakura duck out of sight as an icy blast of something escaped Kaiba's wand, and a new fight started in the Room of Requirement. Voldemort didn't seem interested in attacking him directly, now that he had assumed control once again and recovered a weapon. His focus was split from keeping Kaiba down and leading a new charge on the others. "What can I do?"
"Go."
"I won't leave you to fight both of them alone, Kaiba!" He flicked his wrist out in a quick, jerking motion, and both whips coming from Voldemort's wand slashed cleanly in half and vanished.
"Then be useful," Seto snapped, and snatched the wand back out of Yami's grip.
A volley of spells of different colors went right for Voldemort's head, and Yami hadn't a clue to what any of them were. Kaiba had managed the art of nonverbal casting earlier than the majority of their classmates, but even still, he didn't recognize half of the wand movements.
Voldemort blocked them with a lazy wave of his wand and before Yami could even move, something sharp caught him around his throat and rammed him backwards and into the wall with such force that the door rattled on its remaining hinge, and a new crack splintered down the side of it.
The Shadow Magus blinked back into sight again, tightened his grip and raised Yami up to level with the Millennium Eye. This is not your battle, Pharaoh. Wait your turn.
Yami gritted his teeth and the Puzzle came to life again, burning bright between them, but a quick flash of the Millennium Eye quelled his counter attack. He grabbed at the Shadow Magus's wrist with both hands, but couldn't pry him off.
"K-Kaiba!" Yami gasped. He could only watch as Seto managed to throw together a shield charm at the last possible second, but it clearly wasn't strong enough for the glob of purple magic that Voldemort cast. It pierced right through the shield and sent him flying backwards to land in a crumpled heap on the floor, stunned.
Voldemort crossed the room and pushed Seto's bangs aside with the tip of his wand before pressing it against his forehead. "Imperio."
"NO!" Yami roared, but the Shadow Magus didn't let up on his hold, and he merely found himself pushed further against the wall, and the claws tightened further around his throat.
"Up," Voldemort said, and made a vertical swipe with his wand. It took several seconds for Kaiba to stir, but with a quiet moan was back up and on his feet.
"Good," said Voldemort. "Perhaps this time you will be a little more compliant."
"NO!" Yami gasped. "FIGHT HIM, KAIBA!"
Voldemort pointed through the window. Dumbledore had him magically pinned against the wall. Harry Potter and Yugi Muto were standing just off behind him – easily within striking range of a wand, if he still held it. Dumbledore disarmed him at some previous point in the battle, while he was distracted by Seto's little mental coup.
But with the Shadow Magus here as well, they weren't restricted to normal mundane limitations. Apparition impossible within Hogwarts? Not for someone with ties to the Shadow Realm. Seto Kaiba may have gotten his wand taken, but getting it back (again) would only take seconds.
"I took care of the Mudblood," said Voldemort calmly. Yami could feel the wicked satisfaction oozing out of his voice, and turning his head, Yami could have sworn he saw Kaiba's face twitch, eyes narrow for a sparse second before the blank mask was back on his face.
"I need the Pharaoh's vessel to live – for now, and Potter and Dumbledore are mine to deal with personally. You will strike down the Blood Traitor, and then relieve the Bakura boy of the Millennium Ring."
Seto looked down and held out his right hand. In seconds, his wand flew into it. He continued to blink down at it, brow furrowed before his fist tightened around the handle.
Yami continued to struggle against the Shadow Magus's grip on him, and tried to bring his legs up and kick out to try and dislodge him, but his feet only sailed right through the Magus's body.
Nice try. The Shadow Magus cackled. Unfortunately for you, Seto Kaiba tried this some time ago. You cannot best me the same way.
"What are you waiting for?" Voldemort snapped. "The Weasley."
Seto blinked himself out of his trance and glanced at Voldemort's view of the Room of Requirement, before raising his wand.
The Shadow Magus suddenly froze, the Eye flared, and he slowly turned his head away from Yami and towards Seto in the middle of the room, just as Seto fired a bright white spell instead at Voldemort.
As Yami expected, Voldemort instantly parried, but he took such immense pleasure at the absolute fury across Voldemort's face that his curse failed to hold.
"What?!"
The Shadow Magus snapped his fingers. Purple-hued chains sprang out from the floor and the walls and took over holding Yami in place. He let go of Yami's neck, dropping him to the floor and rounded his focus to the center of the office.
Damn! Yami started pulling at the chains but, like when the Shadow Magus had him, he couldn't find any purchase against them. There was no way to assist Kaiba like this – even if it was gradual, sooner or later Kaiba was going to run out of energy to give. He could already see it – Kaiba's reflexes were definitely not as quick as when they first stumbled upon him in the Astronomy Tower. It had to be a miracle that he was still able to resist and put up his fight.
There had to be something he could do, here from the sideline.
"What will it take," Voldemort snarled, and fired another wave of curses. To his immense surprise, the same giant shield that Dumbledore summoned against him appeared around Kaiba. "Yield."
"No." Seto straightened up, and spun the shield around him to block Voldemort's next spell. It bounced off with a deafening clang! and created a new crack in the center window pane. He stumbled a step, hunched over, with loud panting breaths. He waved his wand out and three more shields appeared and started an orbit around him.
"I'm impressed you know one of my own spells," said Voldemort, and he started a wide circle around him. Seto straightened and circled from within the safety of his defense, wand raised, and refused to break eye contact with him.
"I have you to thank," Seto snapped. "Your reliance on the Imperius Curse meant I had everything I needed to do your stupid little research project – and then some. Your Unforgivable doesn't work on me anymore."
I beg to differ.
Seto spun on his heel in time to see the Shadow Magus' body disappear into a single laser-beam of energy – gunning right for him.
Yami screamed out until his voice went hoarse. The Shadow Magus crashed right into Kaiba, and he could only watch as Kaiba's entire body started emitting the same aura as the Shadow Realm. His eyes only widened as Voldemort's body also took on the same dark misty overlay, transformed into a similar beam, and slammed into Kaiba from the other side, leaving only the two of them in the ruined office.
The mist faded away seconds after Voldemort joined the Shadow Magus, and Seto staggered, dropping his wand again, and reached to steady himself against his desk.
Yami balled his hands into fists and called out Kaiba's name. This was so unreal – they were all in Kaiba's soul room – not out in the real world. So where did the two of them go? Voldemort had already seized control of Kaiba's body – this was just a room, reflective of his soul.
Did this mean they had control over him…twice over? Was that…even possible in the first place?
Yami gritted his teeth and activated the Puzzle again. Narrow golden beams of light burst from the eye in the center of the pyramid and circled around his manacles, sawing away at them until they fell away to the floor and disappeared.
He got to his feet slowly made his way across the room. Kaiba had one hand braced on the desk, the other was clutching his head. Eyes closed, face scrunched up, clearly in pain.
Halfway to him, Yami reached down and picked up Kaiba's wand from where it was dropped and tucked it away, out of sight. The last thing he needed was for Voldemort – or the Shadow Magus – to make a snatch grab for it and then blast him into oblivion.
He gave a fleeting glance to what was going on outside. Kaiba was still shaking, but he seemed to have stopped fighting them. Even with Dumbledore and the others holding him back, he expected the Shadow Magus to fight dirty. No ground would be made this way.
Kaiba put up one hell of a fight holding them off as long as he had – but unless he was able to get on the offensive, this day was never going to end in his favor.
"Kaiba," said Yami. "You have to fight back. I know you can overcome this."
Seto's eyes finally opened, leveling Yami the hardest glare his exhausted eyes could manage. "You all say that," he said through gritted teeth, "But you – ngh – aren't the ones who actually have to do it."
He squeezed his eyes shut again and gnashed his teeth. "D-do you know – how hard – it – ugh – is to fight them like this?"
"You can't give up," said Yami, "Look how far you've come already!"
"Not – far – enough."
"Kaiba, look at me," said Yami. He hesitated a moment and then grabbed both of Kaiba's upper arms. "You overcame the Imperius Curse, remember? You stopped Voldemort from outright enacting his plan. This is no different."
Seto hissed out a sharp exhale, eyes still tightly shut. Yami holding onto him kept his knees from buckling under the heavy strain on his head, like someone with a massive hammer was trying to beat him into the floor.
"You said you couldn't stop them," Yami continued. "That's a lie. You are a Kaiba. There is nothing you can't do."
Seto shoved him off, stifling a cry as the Shadow Realm started misting around him, but it was gone in seconds, and he fell to his knees.
Yami dropped down next to him. "I know it's painful – and that this is difficult. I don't begin to claim to understand the horrors that you have witnessed – and are still dealt, and I'm sorry. But you need to hold on."
Seto tilted his head up to glare at him before pressing his arms into his chest and doubling over, head bent down to the floor. "What do you think I've been doing?"
"You're doing admirably," said Yami. He reached out to lay an arm on Seto's forearm – not forcefully, they were barely touching. Not as if he too wanted to take Kaiba's autonomy away, but in a touch of support. I'm here.
"You can do this," said Yami, "Not just for Hogwarts and this Wizarding world. You need to do this for Hermione – who stood steadfast in the line of fire knowing under Voldemort's eyes and thirst for vengeance you were there, working to come back. She didn't doubt for an instant that you could return. …And you need to do this for Mokuba."
Now Seto did look up at him.
"Mokuba, who's unwavering support that his big brother can overcome any and all obstacles isn't meant to be a hindrance or a weakness in this time – but a strength…."
Yami leaned forward until their heads were maybe a foot apart. "Because it's true."
"Ngh…." Seto doubled over again and pressed one palm flat against the broken tile floor to keep himself from toppling over, right into Yami. "I – I can't."
Yami pressed his lips into a thin line and took a deep breath. "The Seto Kaiba I know –"
He stopped short – Seto had pitched forward and grabbed a trembling fistful of his collar. "The – the Seto Kaiba you knew didn't – ah – have two malevolent assholes tearing him apart from the inside out…"
Yami reached up and clasped his hand around Seto's. "No. But you know what I do know? That those two malevolent assholes have no power over you."
Seto laughed, a single, dry bark that sounded more painful than anything. "I-I've been telling them that for weeks. They – they don't take no for an answer."
"But Kaiba," Yami said, and gave Seto's hand a confident, reassuring squeeze. "Neither do you."
Seto's body gave another violent tremor and the hand fisting his jacket dropped until Yami caught and grabbed hold of it.
"Do you remember…," Yami began, "When you came upon me, while I was dueling along the waterfront? You gave me the encouragement I needed to get back on my feet, to stand up and win my fight."
"T-that was a d-duel," Seto shuddered. "T-this is not a card game. And…" He groaned and dipped his head back towards the floor, eyes shut again. "Now…is really not the time for a damn history lesson."
The purple mist started to make its return, spreading from Seto's shadow on the floor and across the room. Yami quickly activated the Millennium Puzzle in a blaze of golden light, and the edge of the growing cloud shrank back, but this time it didn't dissipate.
"This isn't – arrgh!" Seto yanked out of Yami's grip and pressed his hands against his forehead, digging his fingers through his hair. "I can't!"
"You can!" Yami roared. "Kaiba – what is there that you can't do?! You are a tech genius! A master strategist! The most stubborn individual I've ever met! A magical necklace said you were going to lose – and you spat in its face and sacrificed a God - your entire strategy, out the window - just to prove her wrong!"
Seto choked out another moan as the purple mist expanded further, obliterating the windows.
"Kaiba," Yami said, "You told me that if a God stood in my way, I was to mow it down – because our road to battle was up ahead. Well you know what? Slifer the Sky Dragon doesn't stand before you. You have two obstacles in your path, true, but none of them are anywhere near as powerful."
Seto finally picked his head up again. His fingers dug in painfully to his forearms.
Yami reached forward and clasped a hand on Seto's shoulder. "Our next duel is just across the horizon, Kaiba. The challenge, the thrill of battle. Pushing each other to our limits – Yugi and I both count the days until we meet again on the dueling field. And you can't tell me that you're going to let them keep you from that."
There! Through the anguish flooding from Seto's eyes, Yami saw it – the hint of a spark. A shred of life.
He pressed on. "Do this for you, Kaiba. Show them the true force they have foolishly reckoned with, so at the end of the day, you can finally rest, so your mind can finally be at peace. So you can heal. Do this so you can see Mokuba again – outside of a hospital, and in person, not thousands of miles away through a screen!"
Yami clenched his fist. "You are stronger than even your mightiest dragons, Kaiba. Unleash your rage and drive. Them. Out."
The spark he saw slowly grew into a slow-burning fire behind Seto's eyes, and Yami clenched one fist and stretched out his other arm, open palmed. "Let's finish this. What do you say?"
Seto stared at Yami's hand and then dislodged a shaky arm from where it was pressed against his chest. Long fingers clasped around Atem's hand and he hoisted himself upright.
Yami reached into his pocket for Seto's wand. "Here. Do you –"
Seto shut his eyes again and wobbled; Yami reached over and held his arm, steadying him. "I…have an idea…but it'll probably backfire."
"Alright," Yami nodded. "All of our plans backfired so far, so I'm game."
Seto took his wand back. "I need to – ngh – I need to force them back out here…."
"Then what?"
Seto's entire face flinched. "…No idea."
Yami groaned. That wasn't reassuring at all, neither was whatever the Shadow Magus and Voldemort were doing within his mind, hurting him behind the scenes. He needed Kaiba's mind sharp. "Are…you able to at least think?"
"I'm –" Seto squeezed his eyes shut again, and forced back Voldemort's latest prod deep in his head. "I'm not under an Unforgiveable anymore. I – I know that much."
Yami sighed. Kaiba really didn't answer his question. "…Okay…but if that's how he was controlling you…."
"H-he's not. He's here with help."
Yami glanced around the office again. The Shadow Realm had overtaken most of the floor, but he could still make out the rough outline of the desk and a filing cabinet in the far corner. Perhaps that was why the fight with Voldemort, at least here within Seto's head, went nowhere.
Perhaps they were fighting the wrong villain. Voldemort himself was merely a smokescreen…attacking him alone didn't seem to be getting them anywhere. If the Imperius Curse really was gone, Voldemort shouldn't have any legs to stand on here.
Yet here he was, so his appearance had to be tied to the Shadow Magus. With that knowledge under his belt, maybe now they could really turn the tide of war.
Seto pointed his wand against his temples, to Yami's alarm, and stared down at him. "I…I don't know what this is going to do to me. If I go under, I need you to drive them out."
Yami's words landed stuck, somewhere in his lungs. There was a small determined fire in Kaiba's eyes, yes...but that wasn't all. He caught flecks of fear - something that on any normal day he would never see Kaiba expressing. All of Kaiba's defensive layers were gone, and he was stripped raw. This would not do.
"No," Yami said, his voice firm. Unwavering. "You're far too stubborn to let me have the finishing blow and after everything they've done? I wouldn't dare rob you of this. You're going to stay awake through this, and we're going to take them together."
Seto merely stared at him and shuddered. "F-fine."
He closed his eyes and pressed the tip of his wand further against the fringe of his bangs.
Yami watched Kaiba take several deep breaths, clearly to psych himself up for the task, before he quickly flung out his wand arm, away from the both of them.
Using his body as the epicenter, dark shadows erupted out of him, and Kaiba couldn't hold back his cry; louder and more agonizing than any noise Yami had ever heard him make – even during the worst of their duels, and it made his chest tighten.
Yami reached for him when Kaiba stumbled back as the Shadow Magus and Voldemort rematerialized out of the shadows, but Kaiba held up a hand, stopping him. Thankfully, he saw that the tremors had drastically diminished and Kaiba raised himself up to his full height with a new light in his eyes.
"It's time you packed up and went home," Seto said. The waver in his voice was still there, though highly subdued, and he shifted into a new dueling stance, wand aimed directly for the Millennium Eye on the Shadow Magus's mask.
"I don't think so," Voldemort spat. "You think the Pharaoh's little pep talk is enough to stop me? You aren't strong enough to take me on again and hope to win. Hide it all you want – we both know one more strike and you're mine."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Yami move to stand beside him, hand resting on the top of his glowing Puzzle, and Seto waved his arms out in an open gesture, breaths still heavy. "Better make it a good one then."
"Very well," said Voldemort, "I will enjoy breaking you myself once this day is done."
The Millennium Eye activated, and a new dark energy matter started forming around the Shadow Magus's hands. Voldemort flailed his wand out in a new fast pattern that Seto didn't recognize, but the spell that emerged from the end intertwined with the Shadow Magus's magic and rocketed across the office.
Seto waved his wand out in his own arc, and a beam of white light joined in with the power emitted from the Millennium Puzzle.
The two blasts met in the clear center of the room - one dark, one light - with a thundering boom that rattled Yami to his core. Voldemort and the Shadow Magus barely looked like they were expelling a ton of effort, yet he felt like this attack was taking everything he had – and he was just a spirit with no body to tire.
But Kaiba – who had already run through the mental gauntlet countless times over today? The calm, stubborn façade he wore to stare down Voldemort had to be just that – and there was no way he would be able to maintain it forever. His jaw completely tensed, brow furrowed, focusing all the energy he had left into this one final stand.
"Okay, now what?" Yami said. The energy collision in the center sparked and sizzled, each side trying to gain ground over the other.
"Working on it," Seto muttered, braced his wand arm, and forced one step forward and mentally pushed, shifting their half of the fight closer to Voldemort.
The Shadow Magus's eye flared brighter and the two halves evened out again. No ground was made, but just seeing the mask light up in that brief moment sent a shiver down the length of Seto's spine.
Voldemort's power here derived from the Shadow Magus – which had to be why he was so hands-off during the majority of the battle. His focus was elsewhere.
And the focal point of their power? The Eye.
Seto blinked and stared down at his hands. It took so much inner strength to free himself earlier. So much had happened since the battle started, but he accomplished it through sheer will.
It was all a carefully-crafted mind game.
And he played to win.
He blinked at his wand. His real wand was out there, in the Room of Requirement. His mind summoned this one to him; which meant, in theory, his mind could be willed into creating other things too. With his left hand, Seto let go of his right wrist, and his arm started shaking without the other to brace it steady.
Yami glanced over worriedly as their combined attack started wavering the moment that Kaiba let go, in time to see him glaring murder in Voldemort's direction while a second wand – Hermione's wand – appeared in his open left hand.
"I hope you have a plan!" Yami yelled over the roar of the spells fighting in the center of the office. The more each side fought for control, the larger the energy ball forming in the center became. He didn't want to think of what would happen if it rebounded all the way back to them.
"Yeah," Seto said, and swung his left arm up. "Payback."
A larger, blinding white beam of light exploded out the end with such force that Seto recoiled back, and Yami had to quickly reach out and grab Seto's right wrist to steady him and make sure that they didn't lose their initial ground.
The move, it turned out, was unnecessary. The light from Hermione's wand didn't gun down the previous spell's path for Voldemort, but to the Shadow Magus, and struck him directly in the Millennium Eye.
The Shadow Magus howled, and staggered back, raising a clawed hand to the cracked mask. The Eye flickered madly, attempting to regain some of its control, but without focusing effort on the dark magic combined with Voldemort's firepower, the energy blast reversed its original course and rebounded across the room.
It slammed right into Voldemort – going through him and detonated into the far wall.
There was no biting back just how much that hurt – far worse than anything he had ever felt in his life, and Seto screamed against the new deafening explosion that pounded though every square inch of his skull. His legs gave way and his vision swam sideways.
Yami made a dive for him, but he was seconds too late.
But the last thing he was aware of – before his head slammed to the ground and he slipped away? Voldemort's roar of rage as he and the Shadow Magus transformed into nothing but dark shadows and dissolved from the office, after the flickering Millennium Eye finally went out.