Noah's Final Threat Part I

With worried noises, Téa and Serenity both backed up.

The boys did likewise. Only Mayet stood in place.

'Yugi's gotta be outta his gourd to go through with this duel,' Joey remarked, glancing at the petrified Kaiba brothers.

Noah bragged as he got ready to resume the duel. He placed the duel disk on his Deck Master's arm. 'You're starting this match with only 400 life points, thanks to your friend, Seto! Taking his place was a mistake.'

The Pharaoh's eyes narrowed. 'Look, Noah, you overpowered Kaiba using deceit and betrayal. Then you used your vitual technology to turn him and Mokuba into stone. If you think that makes you a superior duellist, you're sadly mistaken!'

'Believe what you wish,' Noah sneered as he gathered energy. 'But as soon as I finish refreshing my deck with new cards, you and your friends will meet the same fate as Seto and Mokuba.'

'Yugi's been involved in some pretty tough duels against some major whack jobs in the past, but I gotta say: this duel definitely takes the cake.' Joey spoke up again. 'Not only is Yugi almost outta life points, he has no monsters on the field. And Noah just merged himself with his Deck Master, Shinato.'

'That means Noah can crush Yugi with one attack!' Tristan piped in. 'Then I'll be a robot monkey statue!'

'Yugi!' Téa called out. 'We're all here for you! I know you can save Mokuba and Kaiba and get us out of this place! Now whip this freak!'

YGO

The Pharaoh looked back at the petrified Kaiba and Mokuba.

The two brothers were the only family the other had. It was tragic, but it was also why his brother was the only one Kaiba openly cared about. It made his blood boil to know that such a relationship had been used against them. Sure, what happened to Noah was also tragic and the Pharaoh had to wonder what kind of monster the shared father between the three had to be to do such a thing; to consider…

No, they had no proof of that yet.

'Blah, blah, blah!' Noah drew his attention back.

The Pharaoh was sure that was supposed to convey Noah's power over the situation. Really, though, it just displayed him for the immature child he was.

'Let's do this!' Noah declared. 'Then I can silence your cheerleaders by turning them into statues. Now, just to be fair, I'll let you go first.'

'Very well. Let's duel!' The Pharaoh drew. This better be a monster card, or I've got nothing to protect my life points! 'You think you can control us like pawns, but I'm about to end your game. Now I play…' He set the card. 'Giselle, the King of Mythical Beasts, in defence mode to protect my life points!'

The monster appeared on the field.

'Way to get a monster on the field, Yugi!' Joey cheered. 'All right!'

'I wouldn't be so quick to start the celebration cause it's my move now, and I'm afraid you're not the only duellist capable of drawing a monster card so prepare to lose your Giselle, Yugi.' Noah drew. 'Behold!' He immediately growled.

'Disappointed with your draw?' the Pharaoh asked. 'I guess that means my Giselle isn't going anywhere, is it, now?'

'Well, then you guess wrong because I can still annihilate it!' He raised his arms to the heavens. 'Feel the power of Shinato!' Six purple spheres with Chinese characters appeared directly in front of him.'

'No!' The Pharaoh narrowed his eyes. 'What are those?'

'These six orbs combine to form the Divine Ring!' The orbs began to circle faster and faster and faster until a ring was, indeed, formed. 'Now, Shinato, attack!'

The ring spun through the air and crossed the field. Giselle was circled by the ring, and then he shattered. The Pharaoh growled as his life points dropped to 200. That drew his attention. The Pharaoh looked down at his duel disk in confusion and lifted it slightly with a sound of confusion.

'What's this? My monster was in defence mode…which means I shouldn't have lost any life points.'

'It seems that Shinato's special ability has caught you off-guard,' Noah preened. 'You see, when my Deck Master destroys a monster that's in defence mode you lose half your life points.'

The Pharaoh ground his teeth.

Noah was on a roll. 'But that's not the only thing that happens, Yugi. It gets much worse. All of the life points you just lost get added to mine.' His life points flew up to 7600.

Behind the Pharaoh, Tristan made worried monkey sounds. 'Like that guy needs any more life points!'

'Yugi's still gonna beat the virtual stuffing outta this kid!' Joey declared.

'You were a fool to think you could defeat me!' Noah bragged. 'And now you and your friends are about to pay the price! All because you're defending the honour of someone who didn't even like you, Yugi.'

Mayet scoffed. 'Kaiba doesn't like anyone.'

No, he just hated certain people less. 'Kaiba and I have a far more complex relationship than a person like you could ever understand. But we do have quite a bit in common – something you'd know nothing about, Noah.'

'Really?' Noah asked in mocking. 'And what might that be?'

The Pharaoh elected to ignore it. 'He duels with honour and respect!'

'Is that so?' Noah asked. 'And you think that makes you both superior to me?'

Who said anything about superior? 'It makes us human.'

'Well, you won't be human for long,' Noah declared. 'Once I blow away what's left of your life points, you'll all be motionless objects! Do you honestly believe you can win this with only 200 life points left?'

'Yes! I'll take you down somehow, Noah!' The Pharaoh ignored Noah's snort of derision. 'You'll see! Now it's my move!' He drew. 'I place this monster face down in defence mode and then I shall end my turn, Noah.'

The card appeared on the field in front of him.

'Even your defensive monsters aren't safe! So you set them up and I'll just keep knocking them down. My move.' He drew. He looked annoyed at his draw again. 'It's time for me to play a monster who resides in the spirit world. I summon the spirit monster known as Yata-Garasu in attack mode!' He set the card and the bird-like monster appeared on the field.

'A spirit monster?' the Pharaoh asked.

'Yes, and I'll get to that in a moment. But first I'll destroy your face-down monster card!' He let fly another Divine Ring. It sailed across the field.

The Obnoxious Celtic Guardian was revealed and lifted his sword. The two forces collided and the Pharaoh watched calmly. It only lasted a few second. Then the Guardian flicked his sword and the ring was once again divided into orbs. And those orbs fell to the ground, rendering no harm to his life points or his monster.

'Wrong!' the Pharaoh declared.

'What?' Noah demanded. 'But your monster's weaker!'

'Obnoxious Celtic Guardian's special effect protects it from all monster with 1900 attack points or more, and yours has over 3000.'

'Well, I can still activate the magic card known as Spring of Rebirth!' Noah retorted. He set the card and it appeared on the field. 'This card grants me 500 life points whenever a monster returns to my hand. So watch this!' Yata-Garasu shrank down and returned to the card, and then returned to Noah's hand. 'Good bird.' He held up the card. 'And now that Yata-Garasu is back in my hand my Spring of Rebirth activates, raising my life points to over 8000.'

The card in question glowed and Noah's life points shot up to 8100.

The Pharaoh narrowed his eyes. 'You broke the rules again! You can't just call a card back to your hand.'

'That's where you're wrong. When Maxillion Pegasus was designing the game of Duel Monsters, his travels brought him to the mystical orient. Here he learnt of the legendary Spirit Monsters: beings with otherworldly powers. So he based a series of powers on these beasts, giving them the ability to return to their owner's hand after every turn. How dare you accuse me of cheating, Yugi!'

'My move.' The Pharaoh drew. His eye was drawn to the card. It's one of Kaiba's monsters! And now that Noah merged with his Deck Master and moved onto the field, he's wide open for an attack! If I can destroy him with Kaiba's monster, I'll win this duel and get us out of this place. 'I shall place this monster in defence mode.' He set the card and it appeared on the field next to his Guardian. 'Make your move, Noah.'

'Nothing would thrill me more!' Noah drew. 'Now I summon my Asura, who's yet another spirit monster!' He set the card and a many-armed monster emerged from the card. 'Now, say goodbye to your Obnoxious Guardian, Yugi! Asura, attack with Daggers of Demise!'

Asura spread his arms and a short sword appeared in each hand. Asura flung the blades at the Guardian, one by one. Despite multiple projectiles being flung at him, only one actually hit him. But that one pierced his heart.

'You mentioned earlier that your Obnoxious Celtic Guardian is immune to damage from monster with 1900 attack points or more,' Noah said. 'But, unfortunately for you, my Asura only has 1700 attack points. So say goodbye!'

The Obnoxious Celtic Guardian was destroyed.

'And now witness the power of my Asura's special ability!' Noah's monster moved into attack position again. 'Multiple Attack!'

'What?' the Pharaoh breathed out.

'The power of Multiple Attack gives Asura the ability to attack every monster on your side of the field on the same turn,' Noah explained. 'So I'm afraid your face-down monster is about to go, leaving you defenceless.' He gave the order. 'Now, Asura, wipe out Yugi's last monster, with your Daggers of Demise!'

Oh, well, that wasn't as bad as he'd thought.

Asura attacked and skewered the card with all six blades.

'Too bad, Yugi!' Noah sneered. 'It's over!'

The Pharaoh smirked. 'Yes, it is, Noah.'

'Huh?' It seemed Noah only just noticed that, despite being full of blades, the card was still there.

'It looks like you've fallen right into my trap, by attacking one of Kaiba's favourite cards!' The effect of the card activated with a bright glow. The glow faded. 'Cyber Jar!'

'No!' Noah wailed.

'I'm afraid so!' The Cyber Jar began to activate. 'And that means all monsters on the field are destroyed! And since you moved your Deck Master to the field, your Shinato is destroyed as well. And you lose the duel!'

The vacuum activated, taking in Asura first.

He heard his friends chattering excitedly down below, even if he couldn't make out the words.

'No!' Noah whined. 'This can't be happening! No! I won't go!' For a moment, it seemed like that would be it. 'I activate my Deck Master's second ability – Reversal!'

What?

YGO

'Hold on!' Duke called out. 'What happened to Noah?'

'He's gone!' Téa gasped.

'What's the deal?' Joey asked.

'I thought Yugi just won the duel,' Serenity said.

'He did!'

No sooner had Joey said that, though, a portal appeared where Noah and Shinato had been.

YGO

The Pharaoh watched with some confusion as Shinato reappeared and Noah fell from his body. The boy landed on his patch of rock and fought to catch his breath. The Pharaoh waited until he started to stand up.

'But how were you able to escape the destructive power of Cyber Jar?' he asked.

'It's quite simple, Yugi,' Noah said. 'Shinato has more than one power and before it was destroyed that power was activated. See, whenever Shinato is targeted by an opponent's monster it's ability of reversal is activated, allowing my Deck Master to leave the playing field and return to its original position on the sidelines. In exchange, Shinato cannot be summoned back to the field for the duration of the duel.'

'That means you can't use it to attack me for the rest of the duel.' The Pharaoh drew a new hand. 'Now, thanks to the second effect of my Cyber Jar, we much each draw five cards. Then every monster we pick must be summoned to the field.'

Noah still had a smirk on his face as he complied.

'I summon two monsters, Sangan and Gamma the Magnet Warrior, both in defence mode!' The Pharaoh set the cards and they appeared on the field. 'And now you must summon every monster that you've drawn, Noah.'

Noah looked up, scowling. 'I don't have one.'

The Pharaoh drew. 'Good, then it's my move. So I'll sacrifice Gamma the Magnet Warrior and Sangan.' Both monsters dissolved. 'This activates Sangan's special ability,' a card was pushed out from his deck and the Pharaoh took it, 'allowing me to add any monster with 1500 attack points or fewer into my hand.' He turned the card around. 'So I'll take Big Shield Gardna.' He added it to his hand and took another card out. 'And thanks to my sacrifice, I'll summon this: Dark Magician in attack mode!'

The Pharaoh set the card and the monster was summoned onto the field.

Noah drew back. 'Oh, no. Not him!'

'You have no monsters on the field to defend you. You know what that means.' The Pharaoh called out the order. 'Dark Magician, attack his life points directly!'

The blast hit and Noah was blown back. His life points dropped to 5600.

Below, Joey loudly cheered.

'Noah,' the Pharaoh said. 'I've cleared out your monsters and taken a bite out of your life points.'

Noah stood, glaring hatefully at him. 'Yugi, how dare you humiliate me like that!'

'Humiliate you?' The Pharaoh demanded scornfully. 'It's you who humiliated Kaiba and Mokuba just so you could prove to your father that you're superior!'

Noah glared at him. 'I am! No one's better! Yugi, I deserve to be rewarded for my unsurpassable power!'

The Pharaoh looked at the brat and answered, 'You must earn respect, Noah, not demand it. It's true; perhaps your father should have recognised your talents. And maybe you have been treated unfairly.' Being forced to exist after a physical death was very much unfair. He pointed up at the sphere floating overhead. 'No one deserves to be locked away in isolated, the way that you were by your father. However, that's still no excuse for the way you've been treating us, Noah.'

'That's enough out of you, Yugi!' Noah barked. 'Watch this!' He drew and played the card he'd drawn. 'I activate my Next World magic card!' The effects took shape on the playing field. 'Take a close look at this magic carpet, Yugi. You may recognise someone.' The pattern took form on the object, truly making it look like a carpet. Then an image of his monster appeared over the pattern.

'My Dark Magician!' the Pharaoh gasped. 'What's going on here?'

'It chooses one of your monsters and allows me to summon one with the same number of stars,' Noah said. He took a card from his hand. 'So I choose this, Yamata Dragon!' He played the card and a dragon with several heads appeared on top of the carpet in a bright flash of light. It had 100 more attack points than the Dark Magician.

The Pharaoh tensed. 'Oh, no!'

'Get a load of that thing, guys!' Joey exclaimed from below.

Tristan made a frightened sound. 'It's even stronger than Yugi's Dark Magician! That Dragon will devour it!'

'Dragon, attack him now!' Noah ordered. 'With Eight-Headed Flame Attack!'

The Dragon roared and pulls the eight heads back before letting forth a stream of fire from each mouth. The blasts hit his monster head-on and he was destroyed. The Pharaoh covered his face from the impact of the blast. He lowered his arm as his life points dropped down to 100.

'Dark Magician's gone,' the Pharaoh said.

'That's right! And 100 of your life points transfer to me!' Noah's life points went up to 5700.' He lifted the card. 'Now, spirit monster, come back!' The Dragon returned to the card. 'You remember what that means, don't you? My Spring of Rebirth magic card is automatically activated,' the card in question glowed, 'adding an additional 500 life points to my score.' His life points flew up to 6200.

His life points keep increasing with every turn! If Noah keeps this up, I'll never get them down to 0!

Noah laughed arrogantly. 'Poor Yugi. You only have 100 life points left now. It's only a matter of time before you lose.'

'Come on!' Téa called. 'Don't let this kid push you around, Yugi! We need you.'

The Pharaoh looked down at his friends. 'Téa's right.'

'Come on!' Joey called. 'We're all behind you, Yug!'

'Everyone's counting on me,' the Pharaoh murmured.

'Go get 'em, Yugi!' Duke called.

The Pharaoh nodded. He turned back to Noah. 'The safety of all my friends depends on my victory. So let's get on with this duel! It's my move now!' With that said, he drew. Kuriboh. He added it to his hand and took another from his hand. 'Now I shall activate the magic card, Swords of Revealing Light!'

'Big deal!' Noah huffed.

'This wall of swords will prevent you from attacking me for three turns!' As the Pharaoh spoke, the swords came flying down and surrounded Noah, to his surprise.

Noah looked at him and sneered.

'Nice move, Yugi!' Duke called.

'Yeah, now you've got Noah right where you want him!' Tristan cheered.

'And he's got nothing on you!' Serenity added.

'That's right!' Joey threw in. 'And now you just bought yourself three turns to figure out how to kick this twerp's virtual butt and get us out of here!'

The Pharaoh couldn't help but notice that as they'd been cheering, Noah had looked more and more annoyed. It worried him. 'Pay attention! Now I summon Kuriboh!' He set the card in attack mode and Kuriboh emerged.

'I'm shaking,' Noah remarked dryly.

'Kuriboh, attack Noah's life points, right now!' the Pharaoh ordered.

Noah would have barely felt the furry headbutt, but his life points still dropped down to 5900.

Kuriboh returned to the Pharaoh's side.

'Your pathetic little puffball barely made a dent,' Noah bragged.

Kuriboh made an offended sound.

'Your duelling tactics are beneath me,' Noah sneered. 'You can swat at me with that dust bunny all day, but I'm afraid it's not going to help you. And as soon as your Swords of Revealing Light are gone, I'll erase you, Yugi. And since you seem to be a much better duellist than Seto, by defeating you I'll be proving my power over him.'

The Pharaoh chose not to address the fact that Noah had just contradicted himself in the same braggart speech.

'Now on with the duel!' Noah drew. 'I'll place one monster face-down in defence mode.' He set the card and it appeared on the field. 'All right, Yugi. It's your move. Now there's only two turns left, and then I'm allowed to attack you.'

'I still have time.' The Pharaoh drew. He looked at the card in his hand. Dark Magician Girl! Even if she could help me, I'd need Kaiba's Deck Master to summon her without a sacrifice. But his Kaiser Seahorse can only summon monsters of light, and Dark Magician Girl is a monster of darkness. Oh, well, I'll have to do this instead.

The Pharaoh added the Dark Magician girl to his hand and took a different monster from his hand and played it. 'I summon Big Shield Gardna in defence mode.' He appeared on the field. 'And then I'll switch Kuriboh into defence mode.' Kuriboh drew back as he did so. 'Now go ahead and make your move, Noah.'

Noah drew. 'I will.' He looked at the card before setting it. It materialised on the field. 'First I place this monster in defence mode. And last, but not least, I place one card face-down on the field.' It appeared too. 'Now it's just one more turn, and then it's lights out.'

'And I'll be ready.' The Pharaoh drew. What am I gonna do? None of these cards can help me! The Pharaoh had an idea though and he took a card from his hand. 'I'll place this card face-down and end my turn.'

'Well, Yugi, I think it's clear how this will end,' Noah said. 'On my next turn, you're going to lose this duel. Then you and your friends will be turned to stone!'

YGO

Mayet scowled up at Noah.

'You can beat this guy, one, two, three, Yugi!' Téa called up.

'Your friends still think you can win,' Noah remarked dismissively. 'I guess they're more clueless than I thought.'

'Come down here and say that!' Joey snapped angrilly. 'I bet you're just jealous because Yugi over here actually has friends! And you're just a spoilt little brat who's angry at the world cause someone stuck you in a computer with no one to hang out with except your sorry self!'

Mayet's eyebrow went up. That was…accurate.

'Well, I think your friend made his point,' Noah said disdainfully. 'So now it's only fair that I get a chance to make my point.' He glared at the Pharaoh and shouted. 'I've listened to your loudmouthed friends insult me for too long now! So take this!'

Something shot out of the sky and Mayet moved on instinct. She spun around, hopping back at step. There was a bright flash of light and, when it cleared, her eyes widened. The others cried out in alarm and fear. Narrowing her eyes, Mayet focused on finding the familiar heart signature.

'Duke, no!' Joey cried out.

Tristan leaned up onto Duke's petrified body. 'Oh, no! That kid made a stiff outta Duke too!'

Like the Kaiba brothers, Duke had been turned to stone.

Noah just laughed. 'Much better! That was so much fun, I think I'll transform you all into stone one-by-one with each turn I take. What d'you say?'

'I say I'll rearrange your face, you little brat!' Joey snapped.

'Silence, or you'll be next to go!' Noah ordered. 'Since you're all so confident that Yugi's going to win, I've decided to put your fate in his hands.'

'So what's the change?' Mayet asked.

'I said silence!' Noah barked.

'Too bad I don't take orders from you,' Mayet said.

'Oh, that's it!' Noah sneered. 'You're next. You'll be frozen in time with a look of despair on your face. Because Yugi failed to save you!'

Mayet just cocked an eyebrow.

'Sharee?' Téa asked.

Mayet glanced back at her and shook her head.

'And in the end, Yugi,' Noah went on, 'you'll be left in the middle of a circle of motionless statues that were once your friends.'

The Pharaoh smirked. He began to chuckle.

That wiped the smirk from Noah's face. 'Hm? What's so funny?'

'You're nothing but a child,' the Pharaoh said. 'Six years may have passed, but I'm afraid you haven't matured at all. You're a weak boy.'

'I am strong!' Noah insisted.

'Well, not strong enough.' The Pharaoh gestured back to their group. 'Just look.'

'Come on!' Joey called. 'You can still beat this lame-o!'

'That's right!' Téa added. 'So don't you even think about giving up this fight, Yugi!'

'This can't be!' Noah insisted. 'They still have faith!'

The Pharaoh faced him, head on. 'Noah, you wouldn't be surprised if you had been given the chance to experience true friendship. You're just bitter.'

Noah ground his teeth and snapped, 'The only thing I need to know about friendship is how to destroy it!' He drew. 'My move!' He added the card to his hand. 'And now I activate my face-down card!' The card flipped up and a large Ancient Egyptian disk. The center burned with a flame. That flame quickly extended into an arm. 'The trap card, Pyro Clock of Destiny!'

Somehow, the Pharaoh knew that wasn't anything close to what the original had looked like.

'Oh, no! My Swords of Light!' The Pharaoh watched them disappear one-by-one. 'They're gone! But that's too soon!'

'True,' Noah said. 'But my Pyro Clock of Destiny trap card causes time to move faster, so they expire one turn sooner!' He took another card from his hand and played it. 'Now, I summon the dreaded Otohime to the field in attack mode!' The female monster appeared on the field. 'And thanks to my new monster's special ability, I can switch any of your monsters from defence to attack mode, or vice versa, Yugi! And I chose your Kuriboh!'

Otohime glowed and Kuriboh moved into attack mode.

'So your fluff-ball switches to attack mode,' Noah went on.

'Oh, no,' the Pharaoh said. 'If he's attacked, I'll lose the duel!'

'Now I'll sacrifice Otohime and my face down card,' Noah declared and both were shattered, 'to bring back an old friend!'

Not good, Mayet thought.

The creature reappeared on the field. The Pharaoh gasped and drew back. 'It's his Yamata Dragon!'

'The time is finally here!' Noah declared. 'This duel has come to an end! My Dragon will wipe out your Kuriboh and your life points!'

The Dragon began powering up.

Noah gave the order. 'Yamata Dragon, attack!'

Yamata Dragon let the blast loose, firing straight at Kuriboh.