Chapter 18: - And the Gears Keep Turning
Two weeks later and there was still no sign of the Millennium Items. No student had been revealed to have been hiding them when they'd gone through every student's trunks and things, and there was no sign of them in any of the teacher's belongings..
Yugi had pretty much stopped talking to anyone, while Yami was in such a foul mood that everyone had started avoiding him for their own safety. Meanwhile Bakura was partially amused and partially ready to murder someone, Ryou was trying to keep the situation calm and everyone else was staying out of it in an attempt to make sure that Kari and Harry were ready for the last task.
"So how does it work?" Joey asked as Kari scooped up the last of the potion.
The Bloodline potion had been bubbling away and was now in fact finished and the gang was waiting tensely.
"We should only need one Clan member to take it, but we should probably all do a sheet." Kari said, thinking, "We drink it today, tomorrow we have to give up half a pint of blood and transfer it to this." She held up the paper she'd specially prepared in a different type of potion. "The two potions will interact over eight or nine days, somehow seeking out the magicks in the blood and the ties that bind those magicks together, and if everything goes well we should get a list of those linked to the Clan Bloodline."
"So we should get the list on the day of the third task."
"Hopefully two days before." Kari nodded, "But we'll have to wait and see."
"And you're sure you got all the ingredients right?"
"As sure as I can be." Kari nodded, splitting the potion into nine, one for each of the founders who were here, who looked at each other, and downed the potion.
"Guess all we can do now is wait."
"And duel." Joey proclaimed. "I have a semi final waiting for me."
"Get." Harry laughed, pushing Joey out of the door, the others following, leaving Yugi and Kari to clean up.
"Kari, may I speak with Lord Yugi privately?" Mana asked, pausing as she came out of her room, cooing over Nakia.
"Sure, just let me take this." She lifted the empty cauldron by the handles and staggered out of the room with it, making Mana watch in a bemused manner, before turning a concerned gaze back to Yugi.
"You can't keep this up, Lord Yugi."
Yugi didn't answer, shuffling papers around.
"Yugi, please, at least talk to me." Mana sighed.
Yugi paused, looked at her and then turned back to shuffling papers around.
"Has Yami said anything to you?"
Yugi shook his head.
"Has he spoken to you at all?"
Yugi shook his head.
"Since when?"
"Last Thursday." Yugi's voice was quiet, but Mana caught it.
"So I was right to get Mahado to speak to him."
"No!" Yugi's voice cracked and he grimaced, "It was my fault."
"Yugi, we knew it had to happen eventually." Mana sighed.
"Great, so everyone knew I was a screw up."
"That isn't what I meant and you know it." Mana mock glared at him, causing Yugi to cringe, "Oh Yugi…"
"Sorry."
"Stop apologising, you're not a screw up, everyone makes mistakes. Didn't Joey try and tell you that two weeks ago?"
"Maybe…" Yugi sighed, "I shouldn't make mistakes, Mana. If I make mistakes, people get hurt. You know that."
"Everyone's allowed a screw up once in a while."
"But this isn't a screw up, this is an approaching apocalypse." Yugi wheeled around to look at her, "All it'll take now is one loss, that's it, and the M. Items are in someone else's hands again…" Yugi just shook his head, "I've been carrying them for years, and not once in all that time did I leave my bag behind, no matter how tired I was… I just forgot and… Yami's never going to forgive me if we don't get them back."
"There isn't anything you can do Yugi. We've searched the castle from top to bottom, all of the students have had their belongings turned upside down, the teachers have had their offices searched… I don't think the missing Millennium Items are in the castle any more."
"That doesn't help."
"I know it doesn't, but you might stop looking and eat or sleep if you admit that to yourself and whoever has them has to get through you or Pharaoh before they can use them anyway."
"I don't have a choice do I?"
"Well considering it's either that or have Harry and I force feed you, I think the former might be easier…"
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"You can't keep this up, Pharaoh."
"Go away Mahado."
"It's killing Yugi."
Yami paused in his tracks. "What?"
"Yugi's killing himself over this and you haven't even noticed."
Yami froze for a moment before turning to face Mahado.
"I understand that you're angry with him. I would be in the same situation, but Yugi cannot hold on much longer the way he's going and neither can you."
"I'm fine."
"You're not. You've both slipped into the routine that you had last year, when you weren't eating or sleeping properly. I'm warning you, this year I'm not going to hesitate; Joey's already offered his help in force feeding you if it comes to that."
Mahado could see Yami's hesitation.
"And Robyn's already offering nutritional potions."
"I don't want to eat or drink anything Robyn offers!" Yami yelped.
"Yes… those cookies looked… wrong."
"I'm pretty sure cookies aren't meant to glow green."
"Then I guess you'll have to start eating." Mahado paused, "Are you going to start talking to Yugi again?"
"He isn't letting me." Yami growled, "He's keeping the link tightly shut, even against Harry, and has been avoiding the Common Room or the Dorm like the plague. I have no idea where he's been sleeping for the last couple of weeks."
"The sofa in the Monster's Wing." Mahado told him, "Out of guilt and because he figures you hate him."
"But I don't hate…"
"Tell Yugi that."
Yami leant against the wall and shook his head, "I've done a pretty good job of screwing things up the last couple of years, haven't I?"
Mahado didn't want to agree, but…
"I'll have to corner him if I even want to see him for longer then five minutes. I can't seem to catch him during lessons and he's always gone by the time I get to the door of the classrooms."
"Yugi's very good at avoiding being caught when he wants to be."
"I know." Yami's low growl told Mahado exactly how he felt about the bullies who had helped his hikari gain that particular skill.
"So what do you want me to do?"
"Mahado?"
"You need to speak to Yugi, I need you to speak to Yugi, Mana's going to hunt you down and beat you to death with her staff if you don't speak to Yugi and I think Joey was talking about inflicting bodily harm as well…"
"Not that you lot are ganging up on us at all…"
"Would we do a thing like that?"
"Yes."
"Well there you go then." Mahado smirked, "Besides, Joey was talking about kidnapping Yugi and locking both of you in a room until you sorted this out, Mana and Harry are threatening to force feed Yugi and I would quite happily stand guard outside the room so neither of you could leave until this was sorted."
Yami smirked, his bad mood broken for the first time in days, "And how exactly would you get us in a room together if we weren't co-operating? It's not like you can slip anything into our food."
"That's what stunners are for."
"Have you been hanging around with Professor Moody?"
Mahado didn't answer, he just smirked.
"Oh… so which room is it that you're planning to lock us in? Because I'll just come quietly if it saves me the trouble of being unconscious again, that has happened far too frequently of late."
"There's a spare room at the top of Dragon Tower, with an outside lock."
"So I'll meet you up there when?"
"Tonight, eight o'clock. We have to make sure the semis are safely out of the way first."
"Alright." Yami nodded, "I'll see you then."
"I will come and get you if you don't come willingly."
"I can believe it." Yami laughed, "Alright, I'm going to watch Joey's match. I'll see you later."
"Wish him luck from us."
"I will." Yami left and Mahado was left surprised at just how easy that had been. Robyn had been right; appealing to Yami's protective streak when it came to Yugi had been the right thing to do. He would have to thank her.
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This wasn't something Joey had been looking forward to, well… he had but at the same time he hadn't been. Duelling with Bakura wasn't exactly something that was particularly appealing.
Oh sure Bakura had behaved so far… but Joey had no great urge to play another Shadow Game, once had been enough for him… so he had to hope that he was uninteresting enough for Bakura to leave him alone.
Of course that didn't mean that Joey wasn't going to try his best to defeat him, it just meant that there was something else Joey had to worry about besides the duel itself.
"You ready Wheeler?" Bakura snorted, completely unconcerned.
Joey cast the spell and activated his Duel Disk, "Whenever you are."
"I'll go first then." Bakura drew. He had no intention of Shadow Gaming Joey, there was no point to it, but that didn't mean that he intended to lose the match. "One card in defence mode, and two cards face down." He smirked, "Your turn, Wheeler."
Joey drew and thought quickly, "I set two cards face down and summon the Blue Flame Swordsman in attack mode!"
The warrior with the sword wreathed in blue flames appeared on the field, glowering at Bakura.
"Attack Bakura's face down card!"
"I activate Fearful Earthbound!" Bakura called, as the swordsman attacked.
Joey's life points dropped by five hundred and his swordsman rebounded off of the weird monster card's shield.
It was a zombie like thing, with a shield and sword appearing from a bed.
"What happened?" Joey demanded.
"The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams matches your Blue Flame Swordsman, at least in defence, but Fearful Earthbound is a continuous trap card, which inflicts five hundred points of damage to your life points every time you declare an attack." Bakura smirked. "Are you done?"
"Your move." Joey growled.
Bakura smirked as he drew, "I sacrifice my Gross Ghost to summon Dark Ruler Ha Des, in attack mode." The level six fiend appeared, with a rather terrifying smile and a cruel laugh. "Not only is he stronger then your Blue Flame Swordsman, but any monster of yours that is destroyed by one of my fiends has its effect negated."
"That's fine." Joey thought, "I don't play anything like Old Vindictive Magician or Princess of Tsurugi." "So? Are you going to move or not?"
"Dark Ruler Ha Des, attack his Blue Flame Swordsman!"
"I activate Chasm of Spikes!" Joey grinned.
The Dark Ruler disappeared, falling into the chasm and Bakura's points dropped by 613, which was a quarter of Dark Ruler Ha Des's attack, rounded up from 612.5.
"You got lucky." Bakura snorted, "One card face down and I end my turn."
"I summon my Flame Swordsman." Joey called, "In attack mode, and activate Blue Flame Swordsman's special ability, decreasing Blue Flame's attack by 1700 and increasing Flame's attack by the same amount."
The Flame Swordsman grew to 3500 while Blue Flame Swordsman dropped to 100.
"Now Flame Swordsman, attack Bakura directly!"
"I activate Dark Spirit of the Silent, which negates the attack of your Flame Swordsman and forces your Blue Flame Swordsman to attack instead."
Bakura points only dropped by 100, while Joey's dropped by another 500 because of Fearful Earthbound.
"Unfortunately since you didn't declare the second attack, my card only takes five hundred points from you instead of a thousand, but…" Bakura shrugged, "I'm still ahead."
"Stay focused, Joey." Yami murmured, "You can still win this."
"I end my turn." Joey growled.
"I play Dark Designator, allowing me to guess if a monster is in your deck and if it is, it gets moved to your hand. And I know that you have your Red Eyes Black Dragon in your deck, so I'll pick that."
"Fine." Joey wasn't too concerned, searching through his deck and taking out his Red Eyes before shuffling the deck and putting it back in it's slot. "I don't know how that helps though."
"Oh it helps because of this, I activate Exchange."
"Damn." Joey glared as Bakura took his Red Eyes, and took Bakura's Spiritualism card.
"You can't play him though."
"No, but I can do this." Bakura summoned Headless Knight, "And then I can have him attack your Blue Flame Swordsman!"
Joey's swordsman exploded, taking 1350 of his life points with it.
"I'll win this shortly." Bakura laughed, "I end my turn."
Joey frowned as he drew. He was at a serious disadvantage, at only 1650, while Bakura still had 3287 life points, especially while Bakura still had his Fearful Earthbound… Spiritualism would help for one turn, and it was possible that one turn would be enough; Bakura had just one face down card…
He had both a ritual and the ritual monster in his hand too, so if he tributed the Alligator's Sword in his hand he could summon his Knight of Dark Dragons, but its effect wouldn't be overly helpful since Bakura had just taken his Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Still… 1900 attack points would be useful…
"I activate my Dark Dragon Ritual!" Joey called, "Offering my Alligator's Sword to summon my Knight of Dark Dragons!"
The 1900 attack point warrior appeared on the field, glancing at Joey before glaring at Bakura.
"I don't think your cards like me very much." Bakura sounded incredibly amused.
"I'm not surprised." Joey growled, pausing to think… if he attacked now… "I play Spiritualism, returning your Fearful Earthbound to your hand."
Bakura didn't look too bothered. Joey grew concerned. But there was nothing Bakura could do… right?"
"Knight of Dark Dragons, attack his Headless Knight!"
Bakura still didn't look worried, even as his points dropped to 2837.
"Flame Swordsman!" Joey decided to risk it, "Attack Bakura directly!"
Bakura was wreathed in flames for a moment… Bakura's life points hit zero.
Joey stared at him. "Were you even trying?" The shock in his tone was obvious. "You let me win that!"
"It's not over yet, White Knight." Bakura smirked, "You see I have a special card that I can only activate when I run out of life points."
"What?"
"I activate Relay Soul!"
Yami recognised that card, he knew that Yugi had one. If you ran out of life points, it allowed you to summon a monster from your hand and as long as that monster stayed on the field, you couldn't lose the duel…
Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon took the field on Bakura's side…
"I'm safe as long as I have your Red Eyes on the field."
"You're only safe for one turn." Joey snarled.
"That's what you think and since all of your monsters have attacked, I guess it's my turn."
"Go." Joey growled.
"One card face down." Bakura smirked, they all knew what that card was, "And I play Spiritualistic Medium and choose Red Eyes."
"You need to send cards to the Graveyard to use that power up." Joey reminded him.
"Oh I know," Bakura laughed, "It's why I also play Card Destruction, sending these two from my hand to the graveyard, and drawing two new cards and you have to discard your entire hand too."
Joey only had one card in his hand but it was enough, causing Red Eyes to grow to 3900 instead of just 3400.
Making it stronger then Joey's Flame Swordsman.
"And I remove the three fiends in my graveyard from play to allow me to summon my Dark Necrofear." The monster appeared on the field. "Now, Dark Necrofear attack his Knight!"
The Knight exploded and Joey's points dropped by 500. This was cutting it far too fine…
"And Red Eyes, attack his Flame Swordsman!"
Flame Swordsman attempted to protect himself, but was destroyed by the Inferno Fire Blast… taking Joey's points down to 750.
"I activate Time Machine." Joey called, "Allowing my Flame Swordsman to return to the field as he was one turn ago."
The fire warrior returned to the field with 3500 points.
"I end my turn." Bakura snorted, not worried.
Joey paused before he drew. He knew what Bakura's face down card was, it had to be Fearful Earthbound… but that meant that Joey only had one more attack… and he had to use that one attack to destroy his own dragon…
He didn't want to do it and if he was honest he didn't know if he could. Even with his Flame Swordsman back, Red Eyes was still at 3900, the Flame Swordsman didn't stand a chance…
"You giving up?" Bakura asked mockingly. "You should, you can't win."
"Joey! Don't give up!" Kari called, "You can win this!"
"You just need the right card." Yami nodded.
Joey's eyes fell on Yugi, who was watching, even if he wasn't saying anything. The young man gave him a nod and the tiniest smile imaginable.
Joey drew.
"Yes!" Joey crowed, "I play Salamandra and equip it to the Flame Swordsman!"
The Gryffindors in the crowd cheered as the Flame Swordsman grew by another 700, to 4200. A dragon made of fire wrapped around the warrior's sword.
"Now I have you!" Joey grinned, "This Duel is done! Flame Swordsman attack Red Eyes Black Dragon!"
The dragon exploded and Bakura snarled at Joey.
"I win. Now give me back my Dragon."
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Astraea frowned as she looked at her hand and then at the field.
Adelle had a huge machine out on the field, which seemed to have equipped Adelle's Red, Yellow and Green Gadgets to itself, called Stronghold the Moving Fortress. It had 3000 attack points and 2000 defence points.
This wasn't good news for Astraea, who was currently protected from attack by dint of trapping her opponent in a Nightmare's Steelcage, which would last another turn, and hiding behind her Mist Archfiend, which was in defence mode.
Once the Nightmare's Steelcage broke, Astraea would be in trouble.
"Do you have a move yet?" Adelle asked.
"Yes," Astraea nodded, "I set a card face down and I end my turn."
"That's it? Your Steelcage breaks at the end of this turn and that's all you have?"
"Just make your move."
"I activate Heavy Storm!"
Astraea's Nightmare's Steelcage, along with her two face down cards were destroyed, but it took Adelle's face down card with it.
"Why didn't it destroy Stronghold?"
"Because once he's been activated, he counts as a Monster Effect card." Adelle grinned. "Where as Heavy Storm only destroys spell and trap cards."
"Damn."
"Now, Stronghold, destroy her Mist Archfiend."
It exploded and there was nothing that Astraea could do about it.
"Your move."
Astraea drew, thinking quickly, "I set a card face down, then I have to end my turn."
"You're going to lose."
"No way."
"Oh I think so." Adelle was confident, "Stronghold, end the game, attack her life points directly!"
"Magic Cylinder!" Astraea called, activating the card, Thank you Yami! She thought as Adelle's attack backfired and the French girl's life points dropped by 3000, leaving them almost equal with Astraea on 300 and Adelle on 400. "Told you it wasn't over."
"Your turn."
"I set a card in face down defence mode and end my turn."
Adelle wasn't quite so cocky this time. "I summon Mechanicalchaser in attack mode."
The odd machine appeared on the field holding a spear. "Mechanicalchaser attack her face down card."
It flipped over, revealing a Spirit Reaper, which didn't die.
"What?"
"Spirit Reaper can't be destroyed by battle." Astraea grinned.
"Oh. I play a card face down and end my turn then."
"I play a card face down and sacrifice my Spirit Reaper to summon my Lich Lord, King of the Underworld!"
The odd, winged zombie appeared on the field again, with that skeletal smile creeping Adelle out.
"Lich Lord, end the Duel! Attack her Mechanicalchaser!"
"Activate Sakuretsu Armor!" Adelle yelped.
Astraea's Lich Lord exploded.
"Your comeback ends now." Adelle said, relaxing.
"You do realise that my Lich Lord comes back at the end of the turn, right?"
"It's not strong enough to take out Stronghold, I'm not worried."
"Alright then, I end my turn."
The Lich reappeared.
"Now it's my turn to end the duel." Adelle growled, "I attack your Lich with my Stronghold!"
"Activate Dimension Wall."
"What?"
Astraea's Lich died in the attack, but it was Adelle who lost the 600 life points, not Astraea, meaning that Astraea won the Duel.
"But, how? I'm one of the best Duellists around back home!" Adelle complained.
"I had a good teacher." Astraea smirked.
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"I said I'd come willingly damn it!" Yami protested as he picked himself up off the cold, hard floor, having just come round.
Just a few feet away Yugi was just beginning to stir and just to be certain Yami tried the door, which was locked just as Mahado had said it would be.
Yami patted himself down. Nope they'd taken his wand too. What about the…?
'Oh that's going to improve Yugi's mood.' Yami thought sarcastically as he noticed that Yugi didn't have the Puzzle.
It was probably outside, it was certainly close enough to let Yami sense Yugi's shifting mood as he worked out what had happened, but it would not help at all for Yugi to work out that he had been drugged and locked in a tower and that the Puzzle had been taken from him.
"You ok?" Yami asked, offering Yugi a hand up.
Yugi just backed away quickly. Eyes widening as his hand automatically went to check the chain the Puzzle was attached to was still there, only to look down to gain confirmation that it was, in fact, gone. "Now the Puzzle too…"
"I think Mahado or Harry have it." Yami sighed, "We're locked in. Mahado was threatening something like this earlier, but I forgot to warn you in the excitement about the match."
"It's alright, I shouldn't have them anyway. It's not safe."
"Yugi, they're safer with you then with me."
"I lost three of them and obviously can't be trusted with the Puzzle." Yugi stared at him, before shaking his head and looking at the stone floor, falling silent.
"Yugi it was an accident, you didn't lose them on purpose. It's not like you got up and said, 'hey, I'm going to lose the Millennium Items today', is it." It was statement, rather then a question.
"I still lost them."
There was silence for a moment then, "Yes, you did." Yami sighed, "But I can bear losing them, what I can't take is if I lose you as well."
"But you hate me."
"What in the name of the Gods gave you that idea?"
`Err…guys? Is there a reason I have the Puzzle?`
Harry's plaintive question made Yugi smile slightly and Yami roll his eyes, amused. "Told you." Yami snorted.
"Mahado decided it would be funny to lock me and Yami in a room at the top of Dragon Tower." Yugi replied.
`Oh, me and Joey came up with that idea. That doesn't explain why I have the Puzzle.`
'Safety?' Yami hazarded a guess, then paused, 'Wait, you and Joey came up with this idea?'
`Eeep, gotta go, bye guys!`
"Harry!" Harry was already gone.
"Well at least we know it's safe." Yami sighed, before turning to give Yugi the most serious look he could muster, "Why do you think I hate you?"
"You should do." Yugi said, as Yami sat down next to him.
"I don't think so, not for making a mistake."
"But it's not that simple, is it?" Yugi asked, "It's never is that simple. Every mistake we've ever made has led to something going really wrong."
"That doesn't mean that we don't still make them, Yugi."
"But I shouldn't! It's my job to guard the Millennium Items! I shouldn't have been so careless."
Now Yami could see why the others had taken the Puzzle away. If it had been here it would have been reacting to Yugi's self hatred and there would have been shadows causing all kinds of havoc… as it was…
"Yugi Muto," Yami snapped, "You are the least careless person I have ever known."
A moment later he realised that that particular tone of voice wouldn't help in the slightest as Yugi sank in on himself. He sighed and tried again. "Yugi if anything this is my fault for not suggesting that you leave them behind when you went for your detention."
"You shouldn't have to have done." Yugi murmured, staring at the stones that made up the floor and refusing to look at Yami. "I should have remembered my bag."
"How many times in four years have you forgotten your bag?"
"Once."
"And how many times before your late night detention with Moody did you forget your bag?"
No answer.
"Not once." Yami reminded Yugi. "If you were careless you would have forgotten it lots of times before now. What it was was an accident, nothing more, nothing less."
"But you…"
"I wasn't angry at you for more then a day, Yugi. It's hard to stay angry at someone for making a mistake when they're doing everything they can to fix it."
"I still…"
"Beating yourself up isn't going to help." Yami warned, "You're killing yourself over this and I don't intend to let it continue."
"Yami, I'm fi…" Yugi trailed off at the look on his dark half's face.
"No, you're not, if you were fine then you wouldn't be starving right now and you would have had more then three hours sleep last night."
"I did have more then three hours sleep!"
"How many?"
"Four and a half…"
"That's not any better." Yami frowned, "You'll do yourself in like this."
"You're not any better." Yugi accused.
"I had six hours sleep last night."
"Yeah, but when's the last time you ate?"
"Dinner time, it's how they got me."
Yugi fell silent.
"You're not going to forgive yourself until the items are back in our hands, are you?"
"Would you?" Yugi asked scornfully.
"Probably not." Yami admitted. "But you're currently in no fit state to play someone for them, remembering that we have to lose before they will work for anyone else."
"How about we don't spread that around?"
"I haven't told anyone outside the Clan, but there are others who know." Yami nodded, surprised at Yugi's momentary vindictive streak.
While that would be one way to find out who had taken them, to find the person who had attempted to use them and died or gone crazy, it wasn't one that Yami found particularly tasteful.
"I don't want anyone to get hurt." Yugi denied, "Or dead, or crazy, or anything. I'm just…"
"Tired, annoyed, upset and hungry." Yami listed, "Two, hopefully three, maybe all four, of which can be remedied tonight."
"The tired and the hungry, I guess…"
"The upset too, hopefully, if you'll open the mind link. Everyone's been trying to reach you for weeks."
"Why?"
"You still don't get it do you?" Yami snorted, "Did you eat a millipede that Golden gave you or something? We care about you, and worry about you when you're like this." Yami sighed, "Besides, I should have shared the load. I've been letting you carry them for far too long and they're my responsibility too."
"Yes, but…"
"No buts. I'm more to blame then you are. I've been shirking my responsibilities."
"No you haven't. You just have more of them then you used to."
"In what way?"
"You have me, Harry, the Millennium Items, Astraea, the Clan, it all builds up."
"You have just as many," Yami pointed out, "You have to put up with me, as well as look out for the others, do your school work,…"
"I think your problems are bigger." Yugi interrupted.
"I don't." Yami disagreed. "You've got the same problems as me, but without the advantage of having a hikari who takes all of the load from you without you realising it."
"You don't deliberately…"
"I've already worked out that I offload onto you without thinking Yugi, there's no point in denying it."
"I don't mind…"
"I know, that's why I haven't realised it before now. But I should have done." Yami looked at him, "We're still partners, right?"
"Always."
Yami smiled sadly, leaning back, "Always is a long time to have to put up with me."
"I can cope."
"Just don't have a breakdown on me, let me share the load instead of breaking under the weight. I need you by my side, I'd go crazy otherwise."
"You didn't see what I was like during second year."
"No, but Joey's made it perfectly obvious that neither of us are to go missing, or get petrified if the other doesn't too, ever again."
Yugi laughed lightly, "Like we can help being kidnapped or being petrified by a basilisk."
Yami just snorted.
"I mean how could I have found the basilisk to get him to petrify me too?" Yugi continued, "I don't speak snake."
Yami just shook his head, amused.
"If we can get out of here, shall we see if the House Elves have any food going in the kitchen they'd been willing to share?"
"I'm not hungry." Yugi said, only for that to be revealed as a lie as his stomach complained loudly, now that Yugi was thinking about food again.
Yami cracked, laughing for a full minute and a half before he managed to calm himself down.
"It's not that funny."
"I'm sorry, it shouldn't be funny at all, but that was classic timing." Yami said, still smiling, "You have to eat, Yugi."
"I will do."
"That's what you said to Joey too." Yami turned serious again, "And that was a week ago."
"I'll eat." Yugi said stubbornly, "I don't…"
Yugi was interrupted by a House Elf with a plate of sandwiches and a plate of glowing green cookies. "Miss Golden said that you'd be wanting food?" The House Elf asked.
"Thank you." Yugi took the plates and the House Elf vanished with a pop.
"Do you think they're safe?" Yami asked, poking one warily.
"Maybe. Obviously they're not planning to let us out any time soon though, if they're sending food."
"Or maybe Golden is trying to poison me again." Yami glowered at the cookies.
"I'm sure they're not meant to be green."
"Or glowing."
"The sandwiches are probably safe."
"Probably."
Yugi picked up a cookie.
"I really wouldn't eat that."
"I dunno, it reminds me of those radioactive treats in that anime we watched a while back."
"That's what worries me."
"That they might be radioactive, or Robyn magicked them from an anime?"
"Either, both… I don't know."
"Well considering Robyn's beliefs on what is and isn't edible..."
"Put the cookie down Yugi."
Yugi took a bite. "Tastes good."
"I'm sure that sandwiches are supposed to come before cookies."
"Just try one."
Yami, warily, picking one up and looking at it as if he thought it might bite him.
Yugi tried not to laugh through a second mouthful of cookie. "Besides." Yugi said, once he'd finished the first cookie, "What're the odds that we're not getting out of here until we've eaten everything on both plates?"
"Too high." Yami growled, "It's a conspiracy."
"Well we could try to break the door down, but I don't think we're heavy enough, and it's too far to jump."
"Accio broom?"
"Took our wands, remember?" Yugi picked up a sandwich, examining it, "Tuna and salad. It looks safe."
Yami ate his cookie and picked up a tuna sandwich, before looking at Yugi, who seemed to be enjoying his own. He shrugged, and took a big bite.
Yugi was curled up on the empty bed, having fallen asleep a couple of hours ago, while Yami was attempting to prod Mahado over the connection.
'Mahado? Harry?'
No response.
'Mahado? Harry?'
Still no response.
'Mahado!' Yami growled as he realised that it was highly probable that the pair had fallen asleep in the time it had taken them to empty both plates, not that Yugi had wanted to eat much, but something was better then nothing. 'Harry!'
'Guys?' Yami called finally, 'Where the hell am I supposed to sleep?' Yami grumbled the latter mostly to himself as he looked around the room, figuring that they weren't getting out of here tonight and stealing a couple of pillows from underneath the bed.
He gave up and led on the floor, on the pillows and gazed at the ceiling, still wondering what had made those cookies glow green like that.
He was asleep soon after.
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"You do realise they're still up there, right?" Joey asked at training the next morning.
"Yeap, Yugi hasn't woken up yet." Harry laughed, "And if Yugi, who's an early bird, hasn't woken up yet…"
"We won't see Yami until midday at the earliest." Joey nodded, understanding. "I suppose we can let them off of training today."
"I just hope they got everything sorted." Kari said turning to look at the window of the Monster's Wing, where Mana was waving from. "Mana, do you know what happened last night?"
As far as I'm aware, Yugi and Yami seem to have settled things, but Miss Golden asked us to leave them alone until they wake up.
"Thanks." Kari replied, "Mana says they're still asleep and Robyn said to leave them alone."
"Robyn's interfering?" Seto asked sharply.
"She is Clan." Kari reminded him.
Seto shrugged, "As long as no one forgets to let them out at some point today, its fine."
"I don't think Yami would be too amused if we left him locked in a tower for the whole weekend."
"Damsels in distress." Hermione giggled.
The mental image of Yugi and Yami as damsels in distress, evening gowns and all, hit the whole group and they all either ended up flat on their backs, laughing uncontrollably, or looked incredibly disturbed.
"Question." Joey gasped, as they began to calm down, "Wouldn't Yami have to rescue himself, since he's royalty and it's always the prince who does the rescuing?"
"There's always the knight in shining armour who can rescue the princesses…" Kari grinned at Joey, who quickly figured out who she was talking about, causing her to squeak as he chased her halfway around the lake.
"I'm not sure which is more disturbing." Hermione shuddered, "Imagining Yami and Yugi as girls, or Joey as their knight in shining armour?"
"Can we please change the topic of conversation?" Ron begged.
"Wouldn't this make Seto the villain, since it's always the evil vizier who tries to take over from the royalty?" Ombre asked.
"Shut it Ironhide." Seto glared.
"You're just proving my point."
"My big brother's not evil." Mokuba chipped in.
"Thank you Mokuba."
"Besides, Seto could run a country better then Yugi and Yami, all they'd do all day is play games."
"You're not helping."
"Or fight Bakura."
"I could beat Bakura."
"Still not helping."
"Could you win against Bakura?"
"Anyone the Mutos can beat, I can beat with more life points remaining." Seto growled.
"Anything you can do I can do better…" Ombre sang, trying very hard not to giggle and failing miserably as Kari and Joey returned.
"He can do anything better then who?" Kari asked.
"He can beat anyone easier then the Mutos can." Harry said, ignoring Seto's glare. "He was trying to convince us that he wasn't the evil vizier trying to take over from the royalty, but he doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of it."
"So Seto's the one who imprisoned Yami and Yugi in a tower?" Joey asked.
"Uh huh." Kari nodded.
"Okay then, in the name of the Pharaoh, I challenge you, foul vizier, to a duel!" Joey said, with a perfectly straight face.
"You're on, you mangy mutt, but if you lose, you'll never see your princes again." Seto smirked back, an evil smirk that startled everyone.
"This is getting silly." Hermione complained.
"It passed silly five minutes ago." Ombre advised, "Now let the boys have their fun."
Yugi had pretty much stopped talking to anyone, while Yami was in such a foul mood that everyone had started avoiding him for their own safety. Meanwhile Bakura was partially amused and partially ready to murder someone, Ryou was trying to keep the situation calm and everyone else was staying out of it in an attempt to make sure that Kari and Harry were ready for the last task.
"So how does it work?" Joey asked as Kari scooped up the last of the potion.
The Bloodline potion had been bubbling away and was now in fact finished and the gang was waiting tensely.
"We should only need one Clan member to take it, but we should probably all do a sheet." Kari said, thinking, "We drink it today, tomorrow we have to give up half a pint of blood and transfer it to this." She held up the paper she'd specially prepared in a different type of potion. "The two potions will interact over eight or nine days, somehow seeking out the magicks in the blood and the ties that bind those magicks together, and if everything goes well we should get a list of those linked to the Clan Bloodline."
"So we should get the list on the day of the third task."
"Hopefully two days before." Kari nodded, "But we'll have to wait and see."
"And you're sure you got all the ingredients right?"
"As sure as I can be." Kari nodded, splitting the potion into nine, one for each of the founders who were here, who looked at each other, and downed the potion.
"Guess all we can do now is wait."
"And duel." Joey proclaimed. "I have a semi final waiting for me."
"Get." Harry laughed, pushing Joey out of the door, the others following, leaving Yugi and Kari to clean up.
"Kari, may I speak with Lord Yugi privately?" Mana asked, pausing as she came out of her room, cooing over Nakia.
"Sure, just let me take this." She lifted the empty cauldron by the handles and staggered out of the room with it, making Mana watch in a bemused manner, before turning a concerned gaze back to Yugi.
"You can't keep this up, Lord Yugi."
Yugi didn't answer, shuffling papers around.
"Yugi, please, at least talk to me." Mana sighed.
Yugi paused, looked at her and then turned back to shuffling papers around.
"Has Yami said anything to you?"
Yugi shook his head.
"Has he spoken to you at all?"
Yugi shook his head.
"Since when?"
"Last Thursday." Yugi's voice was quiet, but Mana caught it.
"So I was right to get Mahado to speak to him."
"No!" Yugi's voice cracked and he grimaced, "It was my fault."
"Yugi, we knew it had to happen eventually." Mana sighed.
"Great, so everyone knew I was a screw up."
"That isn't what I meant and you know it." Mana mock glared at him, causing Yugi to cringe, "Oh Yugi…"
"Sorry."
"Stop apologising, you're not a screw up, everyone makes mistakes. Didn't Joey try and tell you that two weeks ago?"
"Maybe…" Yugi sighed, "I shouldn't make mistakes, Mana. If I make mistakes, people get hurt. You know that."
"Everyone's allowed a screw up once in a while."
"But this isn't a screw up, this is an approaching apocalypse." Yugi wheeled around to look at her, "All it'll take now is one loss, that's it, and the M. Items are in someone else's hands again…" Yugi just shook his head, "I've been carrying them for years, and not once in all that time did I leave my bag behind, no matter how tired I was… I just forgot and… Yami's never going to forgive me if we don't get them back."
"There isn't anything you can do Yugi. We've searched the castle from top to bottom, all of the students have had their belongings turned upside down, the teachers have had their offices searched… I don't think the missing Millennium Items are in the castle any more."
"That doesn't help."
"I know it doesn't, but you might stop looking and eat or sleep if you admit that to yourself and whoever has them has to get through you or Pharaoh before they can use them anyway."
"I don't have a choice do I?"
"Well considering it's either that or have Harry and I force feed you, I think the former might be easier…"
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"You can't keep this up, Pharaoh."
"Go away Mahado."
"It's killing Yugi."
Yami paused in his tracks. "What?"
"Yugi's killing himself over this and you haven't even noticed."
Yami froze for a moment before turning to face Mahado.
"I understand that you're angry with him. I would be in the same situation, but Yugi cannot hold on much longer the way he's going and neither can you."
"I'm fine."
"You're not. You've both slipped into the routine that you had last year, when you weren't eating or sleeping properly. I'm warning you, this year I'm not going to hesitate; Joey's already offered his help in force feeding you if it comes to that."
Mahado could see Yami's hesitation.
"And Robyn's already offering nutritional potions."
"I don't want to eat or drink anything Robyn offers!" Yami yelped.
"Yes… those cookies looked… wrong."
"I'm pretty sure cookies aren't meant to glow green."
"Then I guess you'll have to start eating." Mahado paused, "Are you going to start talking to Yugi again?"
"He isn't letting me." Yami growled, "He's keeping the link tightly shut, even against Harry, and has been avoiding the Common Room or the Dorm like the plague. I have no idea where he's been sleeping for the last couple of weeks."
"The sofa in the Monster's Wing." Mahado told him, "Out of guilt and because he figures you hate him."
"But I don't hate…"
"Tell Yugi that."
Yami leant against the wall and shook his head, "I've done a pretty good job of screwing things up the last couple of years, haven't I?"
Mahado didn't want to agree, but…
"I'll have to corner him if I even want to see him for longer then five minutes. I can't seem to catch him during lessons and he's always gone by the time I get to the door of the classrooms."
"Yugi's very good at avoiding being caught when he wants to be."
"I know." Yami's low growl told Mahado exactly how he felt about the bullies who had helped his hikari gain that particular skill.
"So what do you want me to do?"
"Mahado?"
"You need to speak to Yugi, I need you to speak to Yugi, Mana's going to hunt you down and beat you to death with her staff if you don't speak to Yugi and I think Joey was talking about inflicting bodily harm as well…"
"Not that you lot are ganging up on us at all…"
"Would we do a thing like that?"
"Yes."
"Well there you go then." Mahado smirked, "Besides, Joey was talking about kidnapping Yugi and locking both of you in a room until you sorted this out, Mana and Harry are threatening to force feed Yugi and I would quite happily stand guard outside the room so neither of you could leave until this was sorted."
Yami smirked, his bad mood broken for the first time in days, "And how exactly would you get us in a room together if we weren't co-operating? It's not like you can slip anything into our food."
"That's what stunners are for."
"Have you been hanging around with Professor Moody?"
Mahado didn't answer, he just smirked.
"Oh… so which room is it that you're planning to lock us in? Because I'll just come quietly if it saves me the trouble of being unconscious again, that has happened far too frequently of late."
"There's a spare room at the top of Dragon Tower, with an outside lock."
"So I'll meet you up there when?"
"Tonight, eight o'clock. We have to make sure the semis are safely out of the way first."
"Alright." Yami nodded, "I'll see you then."
"I will come and get you if you don't come willingly."
"I can believe it." Yami laughed, "Alright, I'm going to watch Joey's match. I'll see you later."
"Wish him luck from us."
"I will." Yami left and Mahado was left surprised at just how easy that had been. Robyn had been right; appealing to Yami's protective streak when it came to Yugi had been the right thing to do. He would have to thank her.
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This wasn't something Joey had been looking forward to, well… he had but at the same time he hadn't been. Duelling with Bakura wasn't exactly something that was particularly appealing.
Oh sure Bakura had behaved so far… but Joey had no great urge to play another Shadow Game, once had been enough for him… so he had to hope that he was uninteresting enough for Bakura to leave him alone.
Of course that didn't mean that Joey wasn't going to try his best to defeat him, it just meant that there was something else Joey had to worry about besides the duel itself.
"You ready Wheeler?" Bakura snorted, completely unconcerned.
Joey cast the spell and activated his Duel Disk, "Whenever you are."
"I'll go first then." Bakura drew. He had no intention of Shadow Gaming Joey, there was no point to it, but that didn't mean that he intended to lose the match. "One card in defence mode, and two cards face down." He smirked, "Your turn, Wheeler."
Joey drew and thought quickly, "I set two cards face down and summon the Blue Flame Swordsman in attack mode!"
The warrior with the sword wreathed in blue flames appeared on the field, glowering at Bakura.
"Attack Bakura's face down card!"
"I activate Fearful Earthbound!" Bakura called, as the swordsman attacked.
Joey's life points dropped by five hundred and his swordsman rebounded off of the weird monster card's shield.
It was a zombie like thing, with a shield and sword appearing from a bed.
"What happened?" Joey demanded.
"The Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams matches your Blue Flame Swordsman, at least in defence, but Fearful Earthbound is a continuous trap card, which inflicts five hundred points of damage to your life points every time you declare an attack." Bakura smirked. "Are you done?"
"Your move." Joey growled.
Bakura smirked as he drew, "I sacrifice my Gross Ghost to summon Dark Ruler Ha Des, in attack mode." The level six fiend appeared, with a rather terrifying smile and a cruel laugh. "Not only is he stronger then your Blue Flame Swordsman, but any monster of yours that is destroyed by one of my fiends has its effect negated."
"That's fine." Joey thought, "I don't play anything like Old Vindictive Magician or Princess of Tsurugi." "So? Are you going to move or not?"
"Dark Ruler Ha Des, attack his Blue Flame Swordsman!"
"I activate Chasm of Spikes!" Joey grinned.
The Dark Ruler disappeared, falling into the chasm and Bakura's points dropped by 613, which was a quarter of Dark Ruler Ha Des's attack, rounded up from 612.5.
"You got lucky." Bakura snorted, "One card face down and I end my turn."
"I summon my Flame Swordsman." Joey called, "In attack mode, and activate Blue Flame Swordsman's special ability, decreasing Blue Flame's attack by 1700 and increasing Flame's attack by the same amount."
The Flame Swordsman grew to 3500 while Blue Flame Swordsman dropped to 100.
"Now Flame Swordsman, attack Bakura directly!"
"I activate Dark Spirit of the Silent, which negates the attack of your Flame Swordsman and forces your Blue Flame Swordsman to attack instead."
Bakura points only dropped by 100, while Joey's dropped by another 500 because of Fearful Earthbound.
"Unfortunately since you didn't declare the second attack, my card only takes five hundred points from you instead of a thousand, but…" Bakura shrugged, "I'm still ahead."
"Stay focused, Joey." Yami murmured, "You can still win this."
"I end my turn." Joey growled.
"I play Dark Designator, allowing me to guess if a monster is in your deck and if it is, it gets moved to your hand. And I know that you have your Red Eyes Black Dragon in your deck, so I'll pick that."
"Fine." Joey wasn't too concerned, searching through his deck and taking out his Red Eyes before shuffling the deck and putting it back in it's slot. "I don't know how that helps though."
"Oh it helps because of this, I activate Exchange."
"Damn." Joey glared as Bakura took his Red Eyes, and took Bakura's Spiritualism card.
"You can't play him though."
"No, but I can do this." Bakura summoned Headless Knight, "And then I can have him attack your Blue Flame Swordsman!"
Joey's swordsman exploded, taking 1350 of his life points with it.
"I'll win this shortly." Bakura laughed, "I end my turn."
Joey frowned as he drew. He was at a serious disadvantage, at only 1650, while Bakura still had 3287 life points, especially while Bakura still had his Fearful Earthbound… Spiritualism would help for one turn, and it was possible that one turn would be enough; Bakura had just one face down card…
He had both a ritual and the ritual monster in his hand too, so if he tributed the Alligator's Sword in his hand he could summon his Knight of Dark Dragons, but its effect wouldn't be overly helpful since Bakura had just taken his Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Still… 1900 attack points would be useful…
"I activate my Dark Dragon Ritual!" Joey called, "Offering my Alligator's Sword to summon my Knight of Dark Dragons!"
The 1900 attack point warrior appeared on the field, glancing at Joey before glaring at Bakura.
"I don't think your cards like me very much." Bakura sounded incredibly amused.
"I'm not surprised." Joey growled, pausing to think… if he attacked now… "I play Spiritualism, returning your Fearful Earthbound to your hand."
Bakura didn't look too bothered. Joey grew concerned. But there was nothing Bakura could do… right?"
"Knight of Dark Dragons, attack his Headless Knight!"
Bakura still didn't look worried, even as his points dropped to 2837.
"Flame Swordsman!" Joey decided to risk it, "Attack Bakura directly!"
Bakura was wreathed in flames for a moment… Bakura's life points hit zero.
Joey stared at him. "Were you even trying?" The shock in his tone was obvious. "You let me win that!"
"It's not over yet, White Knight." Bakura smirked, "You see I have a special card that I can only activate when I run out of life points."
"What?"
"I activate Relay Soul!"
Yami recognised that card, he knew that Yugi had one. If you ran out of life points, it allowed you to summon a monster from your hand and as long as that monster stayed on the field, you couldn't lose the duel…
Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon took the field on Bakura's side…
"I'm safe as long as I have your Red Eyes on the field."
"You're only safe for one turn." Joey snarled.
"That's what you think and since all of your monsters have attacked, I guess it's my turn."
"Go." Joey growled.
"One card face down." Bakura smirked, they all knew what that card was, "And I play Spiritualistic Medium and choose Red Eyes."
"You need to send cards to the Graveyard to use that power up." Joey reminded him.
"Oh I know," Bakura laughed, "It's why I also play Card Destruction, sending these two from my hand to the graveyard, and drawing two new cards and you have to discard your entire hand too."
Joey only had one card in his hand but it was enough, causing Red Eyes to grow to 3900 instead of just 3400.
Making it stronger then Joey's Flame Swordsman.
"And I remove the three fiends in my graveyard from play to allow me to summon my Dark Necrofear." The monster appeared on the field. "Now, Dark Necrofear attack his Knight!"
The Knight exploded and Joey's points dropped by 500. This was cutting it far too fine…
"And Red Eyes, attack his Flame Swordsman!"
Flame Swordsman attempted to protect himself, but was destroyed by the Inferno Fire Blast… taking Joey's points down to 750.
"I activate Time Machine." Joey called, "Allowing my Flame Swordsman to return to the field as he was one turn ago."
The fire warrior returned to the field with 3500 points.
"I end my turn." Bakura snorted, not worried.
Joey paused before he drew. He knew what Bakura's face down card was, it had to be Fearful Earthbound… but that meant that Joey only had one more attack… and he had to use that one attack to destroy his own dragon…
He didn't want to do it and if he was honest he didn't know if he could. Even with his Flame Swordsman back, Red Eyes was still at 3900, the Flame Swordsman didn't stand a chance…
"You giving up?" Bakura asked mockingly. "You should, you can't win."
"Joey! Don't give up!" Kari called, "You can win this!"
"You just need the right card." Yami nodded.
Joey's eyes fell on Yugi, who was watching, even if he wasn't saying anything. The young man gave him a nod and the tiniest smile imaginable.
Joey drew.
"Yes!" Joey crowed, "I play Salamandra and equip it to the Flame Swordsman!"
The Gryffindors in the crowd cheered as the Flame Swordsman grew by another 700, to 4200. A dragon made of fire wrapped around the warrior's sword.
"Now I have you!" Joey grinned, "This Duel is done! Flame Swordsman attack Red Eyes Black Dragon!"
The dragon exploded and Bakura snarled at Joey.
"I win. Now give me back my Dragon."
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Astraea frowned as she looked at her hand and then at the field.
Adelle had a huge machine out on the field, which seemed to have equipped Adelle's Red, Yellow and Green Gadgets to itself, called Stronghold the Moving Fortress. It had 3000 attack points and 2000 defence points.
This wasn't good news for Astraea, who was currently protected from attack by dint of trapping her opponent in a Nightmare's Steelcage, which would last another turn, and hiding behind her Mist Archfiend, which was in defence mode.
Once the Nightmare's Steelcage broke, Astraea would be in trouble.
"Do you have a move yet?" Adelle asked.
"Yes," Astraea nodded, "I set a card face down and I end my turn."
"That's it? Your Steelcage breaks at the end of this turn and that's all you have?"
"Just make your move."
"I activate Heavy Storm!"
Astraea's Nightmare's Steelcage, along with her two face down cards were destroyed, but it took Adelle's face down card with it.
"Why didn't it destroy Stronghold?"
"Because once he's been activated, he counts as a Monster Effect card." Adelle grinned. "Where as Heavy Storm only destroys spell and trap cards."
"Damn."
"Now, Stronghold, destroy her Mist Archfiend."
It exploded and there was nothing that Astraea could do about it.
"Your move."
Astraea drew, thinking quickly, "I set a card face down, then I have to end my turn."
"You're going to lose."
"No way."
"Oh I think so." Adelle was confident, "Stronghold, end the game, attack her life points directly!"
"Magic Cylinder!" Astraea called, activating the card, Thank you Yami! She thought as Adelle's attack backfired and the French girl's life points dropped by 3000, leaving them almost equal with Astraea on 300 and Adelle on 400. "Told you it wasn't over."
"Your turn."
"I set a card in face down defence mode and end my turn."
Adelle wasn't quite so cocky this time. "I summon Mechanicalchaser in attack mode."
The odd machine appeared on the field holding a spear. "Mechanicalchaser attack her face down card."
It flipped over, revealing a Spirit Reaper, which didn't die.
"What?"
"Spirit Reaper can't be destroyed by battle." Astraea grinned.
"Oh. I play a card face down and end my turn then."
"I play a card face down and sacrifice my Spirit Reaper to summon my Lich Lord, King of the Underworld!"
The odd, winged zombie appeared on the field again, with that skeletal smile creeping Adelle out.
"Lich Lord, end the Duel! Attack her Mechanicalchaser!"
"Activate Sakuretsu Armor!" Adelle yelped.
Astraea's Lich Lord exploded.
"Your comeback ends now." Adelle said, relaxing.
"You do realise that my Lich Lord comes back at the end of the turn, right?"
"It's not strong enough to take out Stronghold, I'm not worried."
"Alright then, I end my turn."
The Lich reappeared.
"Now it's my turn to end the duel." Adelle growled, "I attack your Lich with my Stronghold!"
"Activate Dimension Wall."
"What?"
Astraea's Lich died in the attack, but it was Adelle who lost the 600 life points, not Astraea, meaning that Astraea won the Duel.
"But, how? I'm one of the best Duellists around back home!" Adelle complained.
"I had a good teacher." Astraea smirked.
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"I said I'd come willingly damn it!" Yami protested as he picked himself up off the cold, hard floor, having just come round.
Just a few feet away Yugi was just beginning to stir and just to be certain Yami tried the door, which was locked just as Mahado had said it would be.
Yami patted himself down. Nope they'd taken his wand too. What about the…?
'Oh that's going to improve Yugi's mood.' Yami thought sarcastically as he noticed that Yugi didn't have the Puzzle.
It was probably outside, it was certainly close enough to let Yami sense Yugi's shifting mood as he worked out what had happened, but it would not help at all for Yugi to work out that he had been drugged and locked in a tower and that the Puzzle had been taken from him.
"You ok?" Yami asked, offering Yugi a hand up.
Yugi just backed away quickly. Eyes widening as his hand automatically went to check the chain the Puzzle was attached to was still there, only to look down to gain confirmation that it was, in fact, gone. "Now the Puzzle too…"
"I think Mahado or Harry have it." Yami sighed, "We're locked in. Mahado was threatening something like this earlier, but I forgot to warn you in the excitement about the match."
"It's alright, I shouldn't have them anyway. It's not safe."
"Yugi, they're safer with you then with me."
"I lost three of them and obviously can't be trusted with the Puzzle." Yugi stared at him, before shaking his head and looking at the stone floor, falling silent.
"Yugi it was an accident, you didn't lose them on purpose. It's not like you got up and said, 'hey, I'm going to lose the Millennium Items today', is it." It was statement, rather then a question.
"I still lost them."
There was silence for a moment then, "Yes, you did." Yami sighed, "But I can bear losing them, what I can't take is if I lose you as well."
"But you hate me."
"What in the name of the Gods gave you that idea?"
`Err…guys? Is there a reason I have the Puzzle?`
Harry's plaintive question made Yugi smile slightly and Yami roll his eyes, amused. "Told you." Yami snorted.
"Mahado decided it would be funny to lock me and Yami in a room at the top of Dragon Tower." Yugi replied.
`Oh, me and Joey came up with that idea. That doesn't explain why I have the Puzzle.`
'Safety?' Yami hazarded a guess, then paused, 'Wait, you and Joey came up with this idea?'
`Eeep, gotta go, bye guys!`
"Harry!" Harry was already gone.
"Well at least we know it's safe." Yami sighed, before turning to give Yugi the most serious look he could muster, "Why do you think I hate you?"
"You should do." Yugi said, as Yami sat down next to him.
"I don't think so, not for making a mistake."
"But it's not that simple, is it?" Yugi asked, "It's never is that simple. Every mistake we've ever made has led to something going really wrong."
"That doesn't mean that we don't still make them, Yugi."
"But I shouldn't! It's my job to guard the Millennium Items! I shouldn't have been so careless."
Now Yami could see why the others had taken the Puzzle away. If it had been here it would have been reacting to Yugi's self hatred and there would have been shadows causing all kinds of havoc… as it was…
"Yugi Muto," Yami snapped, "You are the least careless person I have ever known."
A moment later he realised that that particular tone of voice wouldn't help in the slightest as Yugi sank in on himself. He sighed and tried again. "Yugi if anything this is my fault for not suggesting that you leave them behind when you went for your detention."
"You shouldn't have to have done." Yugi murmured, staring at the stones that made up the floor and refusing to look at Yami. "I should have remembered my bag."
"How many times in four years have you forgotten your bag?"
"Once."
"And how many times before your late night detention with Moody did you forget your bag?"
No answer.
"Not once." Yami reminded Yugi. "If you were careless you would have forgotten it lots of times before now. What it was was an accident, nothing more, nothing less."
"But you…"
"I wasn't angry at you for more then a day, Yugi. It's hard to stay angry at someone for making a mistake when they're doing everything they can to fix it."
"I still…"
"Beating yourself up isn't going to help." Yami warned, "You're killing yourself over this and I don't intend to let it continue."
"Yami, I'm fi…" Yugi trailed off at the look on his dark half's face.
"No, you're not, if you were fine then you wouldn't be starving right now and you would have had more then three hours sleep last night."
"I did have more then three hours sleep!"
"How many?"
"Four and a half…"
"That's not any better." Yami frowned, "You'll do yourself in like this."
"You're not any better." Yugi accused.
"I had six hours sleep last night."
"Yeah, but when's the last time you ate?"
"Dinner time, it's how they got me."
Yugi fell silent.
"You're not going to forgive yourself until the items are back in our hands, are you?"
"Would you?" Yugi asked scornfully.
"Probably not." Yami admitted. "But you're currently in no fit state to play someone for them, remembering that we have to lose before they will work for anyone else."
"How about we don't spread that around?"
"I haven't told anyone outside the Clan, but there are others who know." Yami nodded, surprised at Yugi's momentary vindictive streak.
While that would be one way to find out who had taken them, to find the person who had attempted to use them and died or gone crazy, it wasn't one that Yami found particularly tasteful.
"I don't want anyone to get hurt." Yugi denied, "Or dead, or crazy, or anything. I'm just…"
"Tired, annoyed, upset and hungry." Yami listed, "Two, hopefully three, maybe all four, of which can be remedied tonight."
"The tired and the hungry, I guess…"
"The upset too, hopefully, if you'll open the mind link. Everyone's been trying to reach you for weeks."
"Why?"
"You still don't get it do you?" Yami snorted, "Did you eat a millipede that Golden gave you or something? We care about you, and worry about you when you're like this." Yami sighed, "Besides, I should have shared the load. I've been letting you carry them for far too long and they're my responsibility too."
"Yes, but…"
"No buts. I'm more to blame then you are. I've been shirking my responsibilities."
"No you haven't. You just have more of them then you used to."
"In what way?"
"You have me, Harry, the Millennium Items, Astraea, the Clan, it all builds up."
"You have just as many," Yami pointed out, "You have to put up with me, as well as look out for the others, do your school work,…"
"I think your problems are bigger." Yugi interrupted.
"I don't." Yami disagreed. "You've got the same problems as me, but without the advantage of having a hikari who takes all of the load from you without you realising it."
"You don't deliberately…"
"I've already worked out that I offload onto you without thinking Yugi, there's no point in denying it."
"I don't mind…"
"I know, that's why I haven't realised it before now. But I should have done." Yami looked at him, "We're still partners, right?"
"Always."
Yami smiled sadly, leaning back, "Always is a long time to have to put up with me."
"I can cope."
"Just don't have a breakdown on me, let me share the load instead of breaking under the weight. I need you by my side, I'd go crazy otherwise."
"You didn't see what I was like during second year."
"No, but Joey's made it perfectly obvious that neither of us are to go missing, or get petrified if the other doesn't too, ever again."
Yugi laughed lightly, "Like we can help being kidnapped or being petrified by a basilisk."
Yami just snorted.
"I mean how could I have found the basilisk to get him to petrify me too?" Yugi continued, "I don't speak snake."
Yami just shook his head, amused.
"If we can get out of here, shall we see if the House Elves have any food going in the kitchen they'd been willing to share?"
"I'm not hungry." Yugi said, only for that to be revealed as a lie as his stomach complained loudly, now that Yugi was thinking about food again.
Yami cracked, laughing for a full minute and a half before he managed to calm himself down.
"It's not that funny."
"I'm sorry, it shouldn't be funny at all, but that was classic timing." Yami said, still smiling, "You have to eat, Yugi."
"I will do."
"That's what you said to Joey too." Yami turned serious again, "And that was a week ago."
"I'll eat." Yugi said stubbornly, "I don't…"
Yugi was interrupted by a House Elf with a plate of sandwiches and a plate of glowing green cookies. "Miss Golden said that you'd be wanting food?" The House Elf asked.
"Thank you." Yugi took the plates and the House Elf vanished with a pop.
"Do you think they're safe?" Yami asked, poking one warily.
"Maybe. Obviously they're not planning to let us out any time soon though, if they're sending food."
"Or maybe Golden is trying to poison me again." Yami glowered at the cookies.
"I'm sure they're not meant to be green."
"Or glowing."
"The sandwiches are probably safe."
"Probably."
Yugi picked up a cookie.
"I really wouldn't eat that."
"I dunno, it reminds me of those radioactive treats in that anime we watched a while back."
"That's what worries me."
"That they might be radioactive, or Robyn magicked them from an anime?"
"Either, both… I don't know."
"Well considering Robyn's beliefs on what is and isn't edible..."
"Put the cookie down Yugi."
Yugi took a bite. "Tastes good."
"I'm sure that sandwiches are supposed to come before cookies."
"Just try one."
Yami, warily, picking one up and looking at it as if he thought it might bite him.
Yugi tried not to laugh through a second mouthful of cookie. "Besides." Yugi said, once he'd finished the first cookie, "What're the odds that we're not getting out of here until we've eaten everything on both plates?"
"Too high." Yami growled, "It's a conspiracy."
"Well we could try to break the door down, but I don't think we're heavy enough, and it's too far to jump."
"Accio broom?"
"Took our wands, remember?" Yugi picked up a sandwich, examining it, "Tuna and salad. It looks safe."
Yami ate his cookie and picked up a tuna sandwich, before looking at Yugi, who seemed to be enjoying his own. He shrugged, and took a big bite.
Yugi was curled up on the empty bed, having fallen asleep a couple of hours ago, while Yami was attempting to prod Mahado over the connection.
'Mahado? Harry?'
No response.
'Mahado? Harry?'
Still no response.
'Mahado!' Yami growled as he realised that it was highly probable that the pair had fallen asleep in the time it had taken them to empty both plates, not that Yugi had wanted to eat much, but something was better then nothing. 'Harry!'
'Guys?' Yami called finally, 'Where the hell am I supposed to sleep?' Yami grumbled the latter mostly to himself as he looked around the room, figuring that they weren't getting out of here tonight and stealing a couple of pillows from underneath the bed.
He gave up and led on the floor, on the pillows and gazed at the ceiling, still wondering what had made those cookies glow green like that.
He was asleep soon after.
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"You do realise they're still up there, right?" Joey asked at training the next morning.
"Yeap, Yugi hasn't woken up yet." Harry laughed, "And if Yugi, who's an early bird, hasn't woken up yet…"
"We won't see Yami until midday at the earliest." Joey nodded, understanding. "I suppose we can let them off of training today."
"I just hope they got everything sorted." Kari said turning to look at the window of the Monster's Wing, where Mana was waving from. "Mana, do you know what happened last night?"
As far as I'm aware, Yugi and Yami seem to have settled things, but Miss Golden asked us to leave them alone until they wake up.
"Thanks." Kari replied, "Mana says they're still asleep and Robyn said to leave them alone."
"Robyn's interfering?" Seto asked sharply.
"She is Clan." Kari reminded him.
Seto shrugged, "As long as no one forgets to let them out at some point today, its fine."
"I don't think Yami would be too amused if we left him locked in a tower for the whole weekend."
"Damsels in distress." Hermione giggled.
The mental image of Yugi and Yami as damsels in distress, evening gowns and all, hit the whole group and they all either ended up flat on their backs, laughing uncontrollably, or looked incredibly disturbed.
"Question." Joey gasped, as they began to calm down, "Wouldn't Yami have to rescue himself, since he's royalty and it's always the prince who does the rescuing?"
"There's always the knight in shining armour who can rescue the princesses…" Kari grinned at Joey, who quickly figured out who she was talking about, causing her to squeak as he chased her halfway around the lake.
"I'm not sure which is more disturbing." Hermione shuddered, "Imagining Yami and Yugi as girls, or Joey as their knight in shining armour?"
"Can we please change the topic of conversation?" Ron begged.
"Wouldn't this make Seto the villain, since it's always the evil vizier who tries to take over from the royalty?" Ombre asked.
"Shut it Ironhide." Seto glared.
"You're just proving my point."
"My big brother's not evil." Mokuba chipped in.
"Thank you Mokuba."
"Besides, Seto could run a country better then Yugi and Yami, all they'd do all day is play games."
"You're not helping."
"Or fight Bakura."
"I could beat Bakura."
"Still not helping."
"Could you win against Bakura?"
"Anyone the Mutos can beat, I can beat with more life points remaining." Seto growled.
"Anything you can do I can do better…" Ombre sang, trying very hard not to giggle and failing miserably as Kari and Joey returned.
"He can do anything better then who?" Kari asked.
"He can beat anyone easier then the Mutos can." Harry said, ignoring Seto's glare. "He was trying to convince us that he wasn't the evil vizier trying to take over from the royalty, but he doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of it."
"So Seto's the one who imprisoned Yami and Yugi in a tower?" Joey asked.
"Uh huh." Kari nodded.
"Okay then, in the name of the Pharaoh, I challenge you, foul vizier, to a duel!" Joey said, with a perfectly straight face.
"You're on, you mangy mutt, but if you lose, you'll never see your princes again." Seto smirked back, an evil smirk that startled everyone.
"This is getting silly." Hermione complained.
"It passed silly five minutes ago." Ombre advised, "Now let the boys have their fun."