A Spiritual Matter Part I

'This duel is now over, Kaiba,' the Pharaoh declared. 'I told you: hatred never triumphs!'

'But…' Kaiba protested. 'I had the perfect strategy!'

'My Dark Paladin would disagree, Kaiba,' the Pharaoh responded. 'For thanks to his attack, you've lost.'

'No! There must be some mistake!'

Kaiba was fighting for all the wrong reasons, Yugi said. And, in the end, it was his own anger and jealousy that did him in.

Kaiba stared straight ahead, unseeing and unbelieving. He muttered, almost too low for him to hear, but he still made out the words. 'I was close…Now, it's over…I'm nothing…'

Roland raised his hand. 'And the winner is Yugi Moto, who now advances to the final round and faces Marik Ishtar for the Battle City Crown!'

The duelling arena lowered.

The voices cheering behind him – and once voice in particular, made the Pharaoh turn around.

'Hm? Joey?'

Joey grinned and gave him a thumb's up. 'That's right! I'm back!'

Even as the Pharaoh turned to face him properly, he noted the apparatus Sharee had slung across her torso – indicating he'd run out before he'd actually been discharged from the medical bay. 'I see. But how?'

'It was easy,' Joey said as the two of them clasped hands. 'Think about it, Yug. I'd never let a freak-show like Marik get the best of me. And, besides, I gave you my word that I'd help you beat him, so here I am.'

'Thank you,' the Pharaoh said.

Awesome! Yugi exclaimed. The gang's together again!

The Pharaoh and Yugi nodded to each other.

'That was some ending, right?' Joey declared. 'You know, the way my Red Eyes Black Dragon came through and helped Yugi to win!'

'Yeah,' Tristan agreed. 'You were snoozing, but your card wasn't.'

Joey laughed in good humour. 'I guess you're right. Either way, I was there for my pal.'

Joey's right, Yugi agreed. If it wasn't for him, I would never have crushed Kaiba. Thanks to Joey's Red Eyes, I got the power boost I needed. We won this duel together!

At that moment, Kaiba drew the Pharaoh's attention even though he walk talking to himself. 'My deck was unbeatable! Where did I go wrong? I executed my strategy perfectly, carefully playing each card exactly as I planned.'

With a sigh, the Pharaoh walked over. 'That was the most challenging duel I've ever fought, Kaiba.'

Kaiba looked up at him. 'Just save it!'

'It's true,' the Pharaoh said. 'Destiny may have chosen me to be the victor, Kaiba, but you fought well.'

Kaiba ground his teeth and glared at him. 'I don't need the pep talk, Yugi!'

'It's quite obvious to me that you haven't learned anything from our duel today,' the Pharaoh responded. 'And I'd say that's a shame.'

Kaiba drew back.

'You can never truly be a success until you're able to conquer the monsters within your heart, Kaiba,' the Pharaoh said.

'All right!' Kaiba snapped. 'I've heard enough outta you!'

'Deny the truth and it will destroy you!' the Pharaoh warned him. 'You were doomed from the start. Fuelled by your anger, your hate, your jealousy, your rage, and lastly the denial of your past. I, on the other hand, was fuelled by faith. Faith in destiny and faith in my friends. That's how I won.'

Kaiba growled in agitation.

It's true, Yugi agreed. Even though Joey was unconscious for most of my duel, it was like he was right here with me. And there's no way I could have beaten Kaiba without him. After all, it was Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon that made my victory possible.

'Kaiba, I didn't crush you on my own,' the Pharaoh said. 'Joey and I did it together, using the card he gave me.' He took the card from his duel disk and held it up. 'Red Eyes is no ordinary card. Its strength comes from the bond of my friendship with Joey. That means I never duel alone, Kaiba.'

'That's right,' Joey said.

'You never duel alone?' Kaiba demanded. 'Wake up! Don't you realise that every single one of us is alone in this world, Yugi?! Look at me! I've never had to ask for anyone's help.'

That's not true! Yugi declared. I've helped Kaiba plenty of times before, and he's helped me too.

More accurately, he'd never learned to ask for help because, in his youth, help had never been willingly offered, and if he did ask…it was likely he was ignored or laughed at. What Yugi was overlooking right now was that Kaiba had never actually asked for help; and when he had helped Yugi, there was generally an ulterior motive for it.

In fact, I wouldn't be the duellist I am today if he hadn't pushed me to be my best.

The Pharaoh was tempted to point out that Kaiba hadn't done that on purpose, but refrained.

He may be one of my toughest rivals, but I also consider him a friend, Yugi thought. Deep down, I bet Kaiba feels the same way about me. He's just too caught up in his need for power to realise it.

If there was any truth to that, Kaiba could never admit it.

'You don't consider anyone your friend, Kaiba?' the Pharaoh asked, already suspecting the answer.

'Friendship is for fools,' Kaiba huffed disdainfully. 'Didn't I tell you I duel alone? Depending on others is for the weak, Yugi. My future is in my own two hands. So keep your friendships to yourself! I'm not interesting having any "pals" to slow me down.'

'How sad,' the Pharaoh remarked.

Kaiba scoffed. 'The time has come to accept my defeat like a man, Yugi. Since there's no one else that I rely on, there's no one else that I can blame.' He took his whole deck from his duel disk and pulled a specific card from the deck. He almost shuddered. 'As per the rules, take my rarest card.' He sent it flying.

The Pharaoh caught it.

Obelisk the Tormentor! Yugi exclaimed. Now I have two Egyptian God Cards.

With an annoyed sound, Kaiba went to walk away. 'Let's go, Mokuba.'

The younger Kaiba brother jumped up and followed. 'Wait up, Seto!'

As he passed them, Joey turned. 'Hold on, Kaiba!'

'No.' Sharee immediately grabbed Joey's shirt and yanked him back.

'Huh?' Joey looked back at her.

'I know you're a glutton for punishment when it comes to Kaiba,' Sharee said, 'and usually I'm quite happy to let him wipe the floor with you. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes – that sort of thing. But you just woke up from a coma, for crying out loud.'

Kaiba had stopped, but he didn't turn. The Pharaoh had a good feeling he was smirking.

'How'd you know that was what I'm gonna say?' Joey asked.

Nearly their entire group dropped their heads in exasperation.

'It's what you always say,' Sharee answered. 'But, seriously, you just woke up from a coma and then ran out here without getting yourself checked. You're not getting involved in another duel before that happens. If I have to drag you back to the med-bay myself, I will. And you know I will.'

'Oh, come on,' Joey griped. 'I'm fine.'

'You don't know that,' Sharee said. 'So you're going back down. And, no, I'm not going to wait until you've tried to satisfy your testosterone-fuelled pathological need to try and get on up on Kaiba.'

'She's right, you know,' Téa said. 'We only let you come up here because you felt Yugi might need you. Now Yugi's won the duel. You should really go back and make sure, 100%, that you're all right.'

Joey waved it off. 'I feel fine.'

'Dude, you can feel fine and still be on the verge of a heart attack,' Sharee responded. 'So either walk, or be carried.'

'But—' Joey started to argue.

'Be carried it is!' With that, Tristan seized one of his arms.

Duke grabbed the other. The two of them lifted up Joey.

'Hey! No fair!' Joey complained even as Tristan and Duke carried him back inside. With a light smile, Serenity followed.

Sharee chuckled. 'Didn't even have to do anything.' She turned. 'Do us a favour, Kaiba. Wait until the medics are done with him before we do the next duel. Last thing we want is him running out of the med-bay in the middle of the check-up. And Yugi versus Marik is sure to do that.'

Kaiba was silent for a long moment.

Sharee frowned. 'You're not thinking of shutting the whole thing down now, are you?'

The Pharaoh frowned. That could pose a problem.

Sharee, of course, was on top of it. 'That'd be bad for your company, wouldn't it?'

Kaiba turned and looked at her. 'What would you know about that?'

'I know that Battle City made your profits jump,' Sharee answered. 'If you cancel the whole thing just because you lost the semi-finals, not only will those profits tank, but your professional reputation will tank too. People will see you as a spoilt brat who can't stand losing and no one will take you seriously anymore.'

There was a dead silence on the platform.

Finally, Mokuba cleared his throat. 'We did gain significant profits with the Battle City Tournament, Seto. She's right about that. If you did cancel the tournament, we probably want to consult with the PR department first.'

'Besides,' Sharee added. 'Aren't you the slightest bit curious to see how Marik will play this one? He's done something different every duel. You can say what you like about him, but he's sure not boring.'

Téa pulled a face.

Even Yugi blanched. But the Pharaoh knew what Sharee was doing. She had given him negative consequences for cancelling now. She had thus moved onto enticing him to keep going, by making it look like a good idea. The Pharaoh wondered how much of that was Sharee and how much of it was due to Mayet's influence.

'Besides, you know Yugi's liable to win,' Sharee said. 'Don't you want to see Marik getting trashed? Especially after his mass kidnapping of our friends and, in your case, family?'

Kaiba regarded her for a moment before he turned and walked away, leading Mokuba back inside.

Sharee let out a breath.

Téa stepped over. 'How did you know about the profits and things?'

'I considered he may want to cut down the whole show once Yugi beat him,' Sharee answered. 'So I had Shauna look into anything we could find as an incentive not to.'

YGO

Sharee walked into the med-bay along with Téa and the Pharaoh to find Joey sitting up on his bed and complaining about all the tests. Sharee took off the medical apparatus and put them down on a nearby table. She was careful because she was quite sure if she broke any of them she'd never be able to pay it back. The doctor saw her do as such and nodded to her.

'How's he doing?' Sharee asked.

'Better than I was expecting,' the doctor answered. 'I'll want to keep him in observation for another hour though.'

'Aww, man!' Joey complained.

The whole group laughed.

…Well, almost the whole group.

Sharee sensed it happen – or maybe Mayet did. Sharee twisted around and was instantly alarmed to see that Téa was gone. She met the Pharaoh's gaze and nodded her head back to the door. He nodded and followed her out. As they stepped out of the room, Sharee looked around.

Téa was gone.

'Uh oh,' she said.

'Where's Téa?' the Pharaoh asked.

With a sigh, Sharee relinquished control of her body over to Mayet.

YGO

As soon as she was in control of the body, Mayet scanned with her powers.

'Her heart signature's off,' she said. 'It feels like she's been possessed.'

The Pharaoh scowled. 'And where's she being taken?'

'Feels like she's getting pretty close to Ishizu.'

'Then let's go.'

YGO

Ishizu had been walking down the stairs, heading to get more supplies for Odion when she heard something unexpected.

'The time is near, Ishizu.'

'Huh?' Ishizu stopped and turned.

It looked like Téa but…her eyes were blank, and her voice echoed with another voice…a familiar voice…

'Téa?' she asked. 'Are you all right? You seem a bit lost.'

'Sister.'

Ishizu's eyes widened as she realised why the voice was familiar, and what he had done. 'It's me again,' Marik said through Téa.

'Marik?! Your good side is back!' Maybe that meant he could be saved! 'Marik, its been so long since you last appeared to me. I knew that your good half took shelter within Téa's mind. But I also knew you were weak and couldn't hold on for long.'

'That's true,' Marik agreed. 'As my dark side grows strong, I grow weak. But I've been in Téa's mind long enough to have learned the truth about our past. Through her ears, I listened to you tell the story of our family and the emergence of the evil within me. I never knew that I was the one who killed father.'

Ishizu hated that he'd learned that way. 'Yes, but…'

'I know,' Marik said. 'It was the evil force within me that committed the act. So you came here to save me from myself. Despite everything I've done in my quest for power, you've had faith. You knew there was still good within me. However, that good is almost completely extinguished now.'

'Oh, no!' Ishizu insisted. 'If the evil force defeats the Pharaoh in the final battle…you will be gone forever! And the entire planet will suffer greatly.'

'Well, I can't allow one duel to decide the fate of the whole world,' Marik said. 'The time has come for me to step in and reclaim my body, sister.'

Ishizu had a bad feeling about this plan. 'But how?'

'I don't know,' Marik admitted, 'but I must banish that evil before it's too late. There's just too much at risk.'

Marik turned Téa's body and rushed away.

'No!' Ishizu called after him. 'It's far too dangerous!' She began to follow. 'Wait! Marik!'

'Sister!' he called back. 'Take care of Odion!'

'Marik! Don't go, please! Marik! Come back!'

But he paid her no heed.

AN: NO ARTWORKS OR COMMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED. SEE STORY SUMMARY.