The Darkness Returns Part IV

'The time has arrived,' Marik declared. 'Winged Dragon of Ra, destroy his monster and drain his soul!'

With a roar, the flame form of the Winged Dragon charged.

'There is nothing that can prepare you for the devastation you are about to endure!' Marik crowed, laughing manically.

The blast hit.

YGO

At the foot of the tower, even Serenity saw and felt the shockwaves.

'Joey!'

YGO

An inferno consumed the field. The Pharaoh, Mayet, Tea, Tristan, and Duke were forced to raise their arms. But they could all still hear Joey screaming as he was practically burnt alive. It was almost enough to drown out, Marik's voice. No one, though, was that lucky, because he was gloating again.

'There's no escaping the fury of the most supreme Egyptian God!'

'Fight it, Joey!' the Pharaoh called out.

'Can you feel every ounce of energy leaving your body?' Marik crowed before he began laughing again.

'We've gotta help him!' Téa insisted.

'Right now,' Mayet said, 'we can do nothing.'

'Your Gilford is gone,' Marik said, and the flames stopped, leaving only thick, billowing smoke behind. 'And you're about to follow, Little Joey. So return to me, my great beast! Your task is now complete!'

With a roar, Ra dispersed.

'When the smoke clears, you'll be nothing but a motionless shell,' Marik stated. 'Huh. And without your inner strength, the Shadow Realm will easily consume your mind and your soul. At least your friend, Mai, won't be alone. You'll be wandering the shadows together!' As he spoke, the smoke cleared.

Marik made a sound of surprise.

Joey was still standing.

'It can't be!' Marik insisted. 'No one can withstand the devastating fury of an Egyptian God Monster! No one!'

His friends stared up at him in horror – but not from the fact that he was standing there.

'No way…' Duke gasped.

'Joey!' Tristan called.

'He's standing,' the Pharaoh murmured.

'But for how long?' Téa asked.

'Right.' Mayet turned her head. 'Kaiba!'

Kaiba looked over at her.

'If Joey falls, let's all assume he's unconscious,' she said.

Kaiba gave her a hard look.

Mokuba looked up at his brother. 'Joey looks like death warmed over as it is, Seto. I don't think we ought to wait if he does go down.'

Kaiba held his gaze for a moment later, before he nodded his assent.

In the meantime, Marik was freaking out on the duelling field. 'No! You can't! You should be wiped out by now!'

'In…your…dreams…!' Joey managed to get out.

The Pharaoh and Mayet looked at each other.

YGO

Joey suddenly found the darkness around him turning white and he was looking across at Yugi instead.

…Huh…Speaking of dreams…Where am I? Is that Yugi, or is Marik messing with my head?

Then he heard Yugi's voice as he watched him put his deck into his duel disk. 'It's me, Joey! I'm getting ready for our duel: the last match of the Battle City Finals!'

What are you talking about, Yug? Aren't I in the middle of a duel with Marik? Last thing I remember, he attacked me with his Egyptian God Card. Hey! Where is that freak, Marik, anyway? And the rest of the gang? What's going on here, pal?

'Your mind's in a state of shock,' Yugi told him. 'Don't you remember, Joey? Your willpower was enough to resist the Force of Ra.'

Joey's face lit up. Right! Now Marik's wide open for my attack!

'Exactly!' Yugi threw aside his jacket. 'Now get back there and finish him off so you can save the world!'

YGO

'Time to…put an end to Marik's evil…for good!'

Marik was sweating bullets. 'Ugh! If he succeeds in attacking my life points, I'll lose the duel and my Egyptian God Card!'

'All right…' Joey managed. 'This…is it. It's…my turn now. And you're…wide open.'

'This can't be happening!' Marik insisted.

YGO

'Oh, yeah!' Tristan cheered. 'Joey beat Marik at his own game!'

'All he needs is a monster with enough attack points,' Duke said.

'Yeah!' Téa agreed. 'And then Joey'll make it to the final round of the tournament, guys!'

'Make your move, Joey!' the Pharaoh called. 'And end this madness, now!'

YGO

'Here goes…nothing.' Joey drew. His vision swum but he easily recognised the card in his hand. Gearfried, the Iron Knight. He's got more than enough power to wipe Marik out. Joey laid the card on the field in attack mode. 'All right, Marik,' Joey said as the monster appeared on the field. 'I summon…Gearfried the Iron Knight!' He gave a weak smile as he heard Marik's response.

'No! This can't be possible!'

'Hurry up and call your attack, Joey!' the Pharaoh called.

At that moment, Serenity ran up and saw him. He vaguely heard her call out. 'Joey, no!'

The world faded away.

YGO

'Duke, with me!' Mayet sprung up as Roland called out, declaring Marik the winner.

She ignored him as the Shadow Game faded away, Duke right behind her. Their little adventure in Noah's world had taught both Mayet and Sharee that Serenity's presence would make Tristan stop using his brain; he'd be more concerned with being the White Knight. On the other hand, Duke, even if he liked the girl just as much, would keep focused on what needed to be done.

She swapped back as she dropped to her knees next to Joey.

YGO

Sharee grabbed Joey's shirt and pulled him over. He flopped bonelessly. Sharee lifted the back of her hand to his face and frowned. 'He's not breathing,' she said to Duke. 'Start mouth-to-mouth.'

Duke moved around and did as she told him, breathing for Joey. Sharee leaned over and pressed her hand over his collarbone, keeping out of Duke's way but still looking for a pulse. It wasn't a good place to check, but his heart was still beating sufficiently that she found it. It was still thrumming under the skin.

Sharee kept her hand there even as the rest of their friends gathered around and she raised her other hand to tell them to stop.

'Mokuba?' she called.

'The medic's on his way up,' Mokuba said.

'Thank you,' Sharee said.

'Joey, wake up!' Tristan yelled, rushing over. He reached down for Joey, moving in a way that made it clear he was going to grab him and punch him.

'No!' Sharee quickly grabbed his wrist before he could make contact.

Tristan froze, tears in his eyes, and looked at her.

'I know your first instinct when it comes to unconscious friends is to punch them awake,' Sharee said. 'But this isn't "unconscious". This is "fried-by-a-God-Monster-drained-of-energy-teetering-on-the-brink-of-death". Trying to punch him awake is the absolute worst thing you could do right now.'

The doors behind them opened and, thankfully, the medic rushed out.

'Huh,' Marik sneered. 'He'll be consumed by emptiness by eternity!'

Sharee stepped back for the medic and waved at Duke to do the same. 'Well, sure, if you'd met the conditions of the duel.'

'What?' Marik demanded.

'You said you'd overwhelm and drain him of all energy,' Sharee said, glaring at Marik. 'But he still had fight in him. You just pushed him to the limits of his physical endurance. Spiritually, though,' her gaze hardened, 'he was still fighting. You didn't break anything, Marik.'

Malik stared at her, then he sneered. 'We shall see.'

YGO

I must admit, Kaiba thought as he watched the medic work, Wheeler's performance today was quite impressive. Perhaps he's not the third-rate amateur I thought he was.

Kaiba turned his head and Marik chuckled.

'Now that your friend's out of the way, I'm one duel away from World Domination, Pharaoh!'

A smart remark was right on the tip of his tongue, but Kaiba held it back. Sharee had been right when she said it didn't matter if he believed it. Marik very clearly did. And that was enough to make him a threat in the situation. Yugi turned his head, his face hard and angry as he met Marik's gaze.

'Enough!' he snapped. 'When will all this madness come to an end?'

'When the infinite power of the Pharaoh belongs to me!' Marik declared as he began to stride across the field, laughing maniacally.

'Marik!' Kaiba snapped.

Marik stopped laughing and turned his head slightly.

Kaiba smirked. 'You'll be duelling against me in the last round. And I intend to win.'

'Is that so?' Marik asked.

'Yes,' Kaiba said. 'First I'll face off against Yugi. And once I strip him of Slifer the Sky Dragon, I'm be ready to face you and claim your Winged Dragon of Ra. You see, I've studied it quite carefully.' He pulled a card. 'And I have just the card to destroy it.'

Marik smirked and chuckled. 'Well, you have it all figured out.' He turned away again. 'But perhaps you should focus on getting past the next round first.' Marik walked from the field.

Mokuba, meanwhile, was coordinating getting Joey moved to medical.

'You're wasting your time,' Marik declared as he went. 'He'll never awaken.'

The whole dork patrol ran alongside Wheeler's stretcher – with the exception of Yugi and Sharee.

Roland lifted his arm and declared, 'The next duel will begin in one hour! Yugi Moto will face Mr. Kaiba! The winner will duel Marik in the final round!'

'I've been waiting for this moment, Yugi!' Kaiba declared. 'Victory will be mine.'

Yugi was silent for a moment. 'Right now, Joey needs me. Once I know he's all right, I'll deal with you, Kaiba.' He walked from the field, Sharee falling into step behind him.

'I'll see you in one hour,' Kaiba declared.

And I'll take you down once and for all.

YGO

'What's the deal, doc?' Tristan demanded just as the Pharaoh and Mayet walked in..

'His brain is functioning normally,' the doctor explained. 'And his heart rate is fine.'

'He doesn't look fine!' Téa insisted. 'He hasn't moved or spoken in twenty minutes!'

Mayet sighed. 'Téa, the doctor said his heart rate was fine; not that he is.'

Serenity sobbed and practically fell to her brother's bedside. 'Joey! Please! You gotta open your eyes!'

'It's so strange,' the doctor mused. 'Joey's brain activity is quite high. However, he's not conscious at all. To be honest, I've never seen anything like this before.'

Ishizu walked over from the corner of the room 'Excuse me.' She then spoke to Mayet in Arabic. 'His will is very strong. Is his mind fighting off the shadows?' As she asked, she laid a comforting hand on Serenity's shoulder.

Mayet nodded once, and then responded in kind. 'That would be my guess. It's difficult, but it can be done.'

Ishizu nodded. 'It's all right, Serenity.'

'I just want my brother back,' Serenity sobbed.

Ishizu looked at Joey.

'Can't you do anything to wake him up?' Tristan demanded.

'Tristan,' Mayet said. 'He's a doctor, not a miracle worker.'

Tristan frowned and drew back. Then he turned as the door opened and Mokuba walked in with a sad look.

'Mokuba!' Téa spun around too. 'When are we moving Joey to a real hospital?'

'I've got bad news,' Mokuba said. 'I don't think we're gonna move Joey anywhere right now, guys. Those orders came from Seto.'

'You've got to be kidding!' Tristan snapped, running over.

Mokuba looked down. 'He says our own doctors are good enough.'

'I don't believe this!' Tristan snapped.

Mayet sighed again. But Sharee piped up. Let me.

Mayet glanced back at her. Be my guest.

They swapped over again.

YGO

'Sure,' Sharee sassed. 'Let's get mad at the kid that has no control over the situation at all.'

Tristan stopped and drew back. 'I'm sorry, Mokuba.'

Mokuba shook his head. 'You've got reason to be upset.'

'Yeah,' Sharee said. 'I'm tempted to kick Kaiba up the keister myself, but it won't get us anywhere. Kaiba didn't move for Bakura, he didn't move for Mai, and I doubted he'd move for Joey either.'

Mokuba nodded. 'Besides, our engines are damaged; we can't move.'

Everyone looked at him in alarm.

'It happened when we barely escaped that explosion on the way to KaibaCorp Island,' Mokuba explained. 'The ship made it here, but now our engines are down. I'm not supposed to tell anyone.'

'So we're stuck here?' Téa demanded.

'Until they fix it, yeah,' Sharee agreed.

Mokuba nodded. 'Don't worry about a thing. I'll radio headquarters and make sure they send over a helicopter right away, guys.'

'Mokuba,' the Pharaoh said, 'thank you.'

'Just promise you won't tell Seto,' Mokuba said.

'Our lips are sealed, dude!' Duke agreed.

The door closed as Mokuba headed off.

The whole group looked back as Serenity continued begging her brother. 'Please, hang in there, Joey.'

YGO

The Pharaoh stood over Joey's bed and watched as Yugi stumbled over and collapsed at his best friend's bedside. It's my fault this happened to Joey. I should have faced Marik!

No, Yugi, the Pharaoh told him. With a tug, he ushered Yugi up and away from the bed and out of the room.

I knew that duel was too dangerous! Yugi insisted, and the Pharaoh stopped in the hallway. And I should have stopped it! Now it's too late…Marik is pure evil! First he got Mai, then Bakura, now this! It's not fair. Maybe we should stop fighting. It just…seems to make things worse.

As he'd been speaking, the Pharaoh lifted his arm and disconnected the duel disk from his arm. The idea of accepting defeat, of stopping fighting, caused a twinge in his skull.

I can't take it anymore!

'Wait, Yugi,' the Pharaoh said out loud. 'We've come too far.'

The Pharaoh ground his teeth as he remembered Joey's pledge, way back at the beginning of the Tournament to fight by his side and never give in. Oh, he had kept his word…and at such a cost. The Pharaoh jammed his eyes shut. I know this is hard for you, Yugi. Marik is the toughest foe we've ever faced. But if we walk away now, then he wins. And that thought caused the pain in the Pharaoh's head to spike.

Yugi looked up at him.

True, Yugi said softly. Joey never gave up and neither can we. We have to finish what we started. He slowly stood up. No matter what. Marik's madness has to stop now! He's caused way too much damage already, and I'm not gonna lose another friend!

The Pharaoh punched the wall, partially out of Yugi's anger but mostly to send the tension and pain in his skull somewhere.

The door behind him opened and Sharee spoke up.

'If we've all stopped crying over something that hasn't even happened yet, can we actually do something productive?'

'Huh?' The Pharaoh and Yugi both turned.

Mayet, in her spirit form, shrugged. 'Sorry. She's extremely irritable with everyone crying like Joey's dead, when they haven't even hung a tag on his toe.'

The Pharaoh flinched.

'Your brain sure is weird,' Mayet remarked.

'Heard that one before,' Sharee remarked. 'Don't you still have the Millennium Necklace, Pharaoh?'

The Pharaoh's eyes lit up. The Millennium Necklace! Of course. He dug into his pocket. The Millennium Necklace glowed brightly as he drew it out. The eye of the Necklace glowed brightly as its power was activated. The Pharaoh gazed at it for a long moment before he closed his eyes.

Oh, yeah. Ishizu said she didn't need it anymore. This Necklace has the power to show me events before they happen. But the last time Ishizu used it to predict the future, it was wrong. The Pharaoh closed his hand around it. So can I trust what it shows me?

The Pharaoh had a feeling…they could.

He let the vision wash over him.

YGO

Sharee watched the Pharaoh open his eyes with a gasp.

The Pharaoh opened his hand and looked down at the Millennium Necklace again. He attention to it didn't last though, as the PA blared to life.

'Attention duellists! Please report to the top of the tower for the next duel of the semi-finals! Yugi Moto will face off against Mr. Kaiba. The winner will continue on to the final round.'

The Pharaoh looked back down and closed his hand around the Millennium Necklace again.

Then he put his duel disk back on his arm.

Sharee met his gaze and the two of them walked back into the room.

'I'm right here,' Serenity was telling Joey.

'How is he?' the Pharaoh asked.

'He's pretty much the same, Yugi,' Tristan said as they walked past. 'But, knowing Joey, he's doing whatever it takes to wake up.'

Yugi leaned over and picked up Joey's duel disk. 'Then he'll need this.' He leaned over and took Joey's arm, sliding the duel disk on it.

Serenity looked up in surprise – and hope. 'His duel disk?'

'He'd want it close by,' the Pharaoh said by way of explanation.

'Good point,' Tristan agreed.

'For what?' Serenity asked.

'His toughest fight yet,' the Pharaoh said.

Sharee clarified. 'If Joey's going to wake up…he needs to fight back the Shadows.'

The Pharaoh turned and headed out again. 'Look after him. I shall return from this duel as soon as I can.'

Sharee took a seat at the table opposite Ishizu. She wondered if the compulsion to obey the Pharaoh's orders was a leftover one from Mayet's lifetime.

Téa, though, ran out after him. 'Yugi!'

Sharee cocked her head and, with the slightest tug of the magic in her Bandanna, she listened.

'So you're actually gonna go ahead with this duel up there?' Téa demanded. 'Did you forget how many people have gotten hurt in the tournament so far? Please, Yugi! Enough's enough! I can't stand the thought of losing you too! Just end it! It's not worth all this suffering! This tournament's been nothing but bad news.'

'I know,' the Pharaoh said.

'Huh?' Téa asked.

'But if I walk away now, that means everyone suffered for nothing,' the Pharaoh stated. 'Téa, remember what we learned on our trip to the Domino Museum? About my destiny?'

Téa gasped. 'Yes! We found out that you were a Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt, and that now you need to save the world again from some…evil force thingy, like you did 5,000 years ago.'

The Pharaoh let her stand in silent rumination for a moment.

'Téa, do you now understand why backing out of the tournament is not an option?' he finally asked.

'Yeah, but…'

'No buts, Téa. The reason I joined the Battle City Tournament was to fulfil Ishizu's prophecy and stop this great evil from endangering mankind.' As he was speaking, the other guys stepped out of the room. 'And when Joey found out, he vowed to help me. No matter how tough the fight. And that's why I must press on, otherwise not only would I be giving up on Joey, I'd be giving up on the entire world. So you stay here and I'll deal with Kaiba.'

'Yeah!' Tristan agreed. 'Crush him!'

'I will,' the Pharaoh said. 'There's too much at stake to lose.'

'We're right here,' Duke added.

'Good.' And the Pharaoh walked up to his duel.

'You know,' Ishizu remarked to Sharee, 'eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves.'

'Good thing they weren't talking about me,' Sharee quipped.