Chapter 10: - Battle
"Who are you?" Kaiba demanded.
"I was about to ask you the same question." The blonde male stood up. "I am Dr Alex Brisbane. This is the pyramid of Alexandros the Great. What are you doing here?"
Kaiba's response was cut off by the appearance of a bright light, which died down to reveal Yugi and the others.
Alex shoved past Kaiba to help Solomon up. "My dear friend, you're okay."
"Yugi?" Kaiba demanded, watching Yugi slowly stand up, a pained squeak escaping his lips as he leaned slightly on Joey to do so.
"Seto?" Yugi asked, surprise crossing his features.
Yami, though he had winced when Yugi had squeaked, was acting surprisingly calm considering that Yugi seemed to be quite badly beaten up, and had turned to watch the interaction between his Grandfather and the Doctor who had been waiting for their return.
"Yami, may I?" Solomon asked.
Seto watched Yami pull an oddly shaped pendant out of his pocket and carefully pass it to Solomon, noting the whole dynamic of the group had changed the moment that the pendant had come into view.
He frowned as a ghost in roman clothes appeared just behind Solomon and leapt at Dr Brisbane.
One of the members of search party A stepped forward as the ghost was absorbed by the man.
"No!" Yugi commanded, his tone surprising Seto, who had no idea how to respond to that tone from Yugi. It had an effect on the person who'd moved though, causing them to freeze in place as Alexandros picked himself up. "Dr Brisbane?" Yugi asked.
"I'm fine, I just…" He snatched the pendant, "Need this!"
He turned and bolted up the stairs.
"Get him!" Yugi snarled, pushing Joey away and chasing Dr Brisbane up the stairs.
Seto was moving third, only just behind Yami, though he wasn't sure why, just aware that if Yugi didn't want someone to get away with some odd object it couldn't be good.
By the time he had reached the top of the stairs, Yugi and Yami were trying to stop Dr Brisbane from entering a door he had opened and none of his B group knew quite what to do.
Dr Brisbane threw himself threw the door, taking Yugi and Yami with him, and the three of them fell, Seto launched himself forward, moving before he really knew what he was doing, and managed to catch a hold of Yami's arm, wincing as his shoulders protested his attempts to stop the falling of three people.
"Hang on." Within seconds, Joey was giving him a hand, helping him pull them up.
Dr Brisbane did not like this in the slightest and managed to push himself away from the wall using his legs, taking Yugi and Yami with him.
The shift in weight caused Joey and Seto to over balance and fall and when Ombre, Serenity and Solomon tried to grab them, they too were dragged down into the darkness with them.
"Mr Kaiba!" Someone was shouting then there was a loud slam and darkness, like, most likely, the ground, rushed to meet them.
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To hear that his brother had found Yugi and the others was a relief.
Right up until the search party had told Mokuba that Mr Kaiba, upon locating Mr Muto and the others, had proceeded to follow aforementioned group up the stairs and had last been seen falling into a hole on the other side of a door which, now, was refusing to open and had resisted blasted charms.
Also A Group, who had been with Seto when he had gone down into the odd map room that Mr Muto and his friends had emerged from, had discovered that one of their number had vanished upon stepping on a tile which appeared to make up the map and what did Mokuba want them to do about it?
Mokuba stared at the Group D party leader for a moment, wondering how he would go about organising a search party for the missing member of the search party.
His primary concern, of course, was that door that his brother had gone missing through, but since it had been Kaiba Corp who had brought people here; it was Kaiba Corp who was responsible for anyone who vanished.
"Your group see if you can track any magic leaving that room, but DO NOT step on that map again, got it?" Mokuba replied. "Meanwhile, where are groups B and C?"
B group was currently trying to get through the door, while C group had gotten lost in the catacombs under the pyramid somewhere.
Mokuba had to fight very hard not to face palm.
What was it about this Pyramid that made people get lost so easily? Were the confundus charms on it or something?
"Mr Mokuba, sir, what are you going to do?"
"Get me inside the pyramid, I'll summon a Duel Monster to find group C, then I'll locate my brother. Report back to me when you have any data on where that missing group A member could be."
"Yes, sir."
Mokuba followed Group D into the pyramid, leaving ground control in the capable hands of the newly founded group F, who were all support, like healers, technicians and the two wizards who had refused to enter the pyramid (they were using the excuse of someone needing to be outside in case of an attack), and successfully navigated the traps to reach the room where C group had split off from the main group, calling a Blue Eyes White Chick to find them and lead them back up, then headed upstairs, towards the room where his brother had vanished behind that door.
This was a nightmare…
Where on earth could Seto have gone? How far had he fallen? Was he injured? Was he…?
Alone as he reached the top steps, Group D having split off to help group A, he arrived to find all of Group B unconscious.
A mysterious man in a turban was stood, with a Millennium Item, examining them.
"What did you do?" Mokuba demanded, drawing his wand and figuring (justifiably, since everyone they had run into with a Millennium Item was trouble or attracted it) that this man would know what the heck was going on, "And where is my brother?"
"Who are you?" The turbaned man demanded, amused by Mokuba's threatening posture.
"I should ask you the same question." Mokuba returned, deciding that butting heads with a Millennium Item wielder was not the smartest thing he'd ever done, but he was going to do it anyway.
"I am Shadi, Guardian of the Millennium Items. I watch over this Shadow Game, as I do many others."
"I'm Mokuba Kaiba," Mokuba replied, worry sinking in, "Did you say this Shadow Game?"
"Yes."
"Is my brother caught up in it?"
"Your brother? The one who commands the Blue Eyes White Dragon?"
"Yes."
"He joined the Shadow Game when he attempted to prevent Prince Yugi and King Alexandros from taking the final task."
"What will happen to him?" Mokuba demanded, having heard the horror stories about people who had interfered with Shadow Games, that had been passed round Hogwarts, probably by Bakura, and they never ended well.
"Unless your brother can defend himself from Duel Monsters, it is likely that he will die."
"WHAT?" Mokuba snapped, glowering at Shadi.
"Your brother fell into the final battle between Prince Yugi and King Alexandros, they are about to fight a war. Unless your brother can defend himself, he will either die or get someone killed." Shadi told him bluntly.
"Get out of our way." Mokuba demanded. "And stop interfering with my people."
"If you interfere in the Shadow Game, it will cost Prince Yugi and everyone with him their Souls."
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Seto was already on his feet, examining the odd gold bracer on his right arm when Yugi turned to look at him, "You're not supposed to be here." The heir said, eyes wide, concern obvious, reaching for a capsule on his belt.
"A little gratitude would be nice." Seto growled, "I came to find the lot of you, perhaps you'd prefer to remain lost next time."
"It's not that." Yugi shook his head, "Of course we're grateful, but…" He was cut off by a menacing laugh.
"You've got yourself into trouble again." Seto nodded, understanding as the evil side of Alexander the Great appeared before them.
Yugi shoved a gold capsule into his hand, as the former King started talking. Kaiba gave the hikari an odd look, but Yugi's attention was fully on Alexandros.
"I see you've gained an advisor, Prince Yugi." Alexandros gestured towards Seto, who just responded by raising an eyebrow.
"He didn't come by choice." Yugi told Alexandros, "This fight is between you and me, leave my friends out of it."
"But what kind of a test of Leadership is it, if you do not command your troops in battle?" Alexandros snorted, "After all, my vassals have been waiting two thousand years for this…" Apparently from no where, five people, in roman clothing, appeared to stand behind the King.
"I don't mind one more round." Joey shrugged, "What do you say, Yams?"
Kaiba hid his amusement at the nickname well, and glanced at the Pharaoh, who was looking irritated. "One more. Then we go home."
"Seto, I wish I didn't have to ask this of you…" Yugi hesitated.
The CEO snorted, "If you're going to be family, I'm not letting you screw up." He replied, noting the small smile that Yugi gave him, before turning serious again as he turned back to his enemy.
The enemy sent out all of their capsule monsters, Yugi's team followed suit, Seto quickly grasping what he had to do from seeing Alexandros do it, shocked to find that Yugi had been holding a capsule containing a Blue Eyes White Dragon, more stunned by that then by Yugi using the armour he was wearing to fuse with his Sunset Magician.
"I think you have some explaining to do when this is over." Seto told Yugi, who nodded.
Suddenly even Blue Eyes looked swamped as Alexandros summoned his monster to fuse with, a huge golden monster that went by the name, Reshef, the Dark Being.
"It's big…" Serenity murmured, as Alexandros fused with it, cackling uncomfortably like Yami Marik had when his grip on reality had been practically gone, her Ancient Fairy Dragon taking to the skies, alongside Seto's Blue Eyes, Joey's Red Eyes and Solomon's Curse of Dragon.
"Yes." Yami nodded, "But Yugi's stronger."
In brute strength, yes, Sunset Magician was stronger, Seto conceded that Yami was right about that, but in terms of special abilities, Reshef had the advantage in Capsule Monsters, and that would make this battle difficult enough as it was. He assumed that their task was to clear the way for Yugi to get to the maniac up there, a simple enough task for his dragon, but Seto couldn't help wondering why Yugi had ended up leading the fight, when normally Yami was the one who led the troops in battle.
If he was judging things correctly, Yami had just got out of his 'Crazy over protective' stage, passed through his 'useless' stage, and was still in 'but I should be saving the world' stage, with a nod to the 'Yugi is fully capable' stage.
"Let me go after Alexandros." Yugi told them, "You concentrate on taking out his helpers."
"Yuge…" Joey hesitated, not through lack of willingness to follow Yugi's orders, but through concern about the injuries that Yugi was still hiding.
"I can handle it. I promise." Yugi replied, knowing, and hoping his friends would trust him.
"If you're not up to the task, mutt, Blue Eyes and I can take them on alone." Seto prodded Joey to distract him, and then hoped no one knew what he was up to.
Silence fell as Shadi's voice echoed over the virtual battle field, "Dr Alex Brisbane, who contains the soul of King Alexandros the Third, shall face Yugi Muto, Prince of the Shadows in an all out Capsule Monsters war. Only he who is worthy to be named the 'True King' shall prevail. Now, begin."
Alexandros opened fire with the lasers from his armour, before the word begin was halfway over, causing Yugi to cast a shield to protect those on the ground as the dragons darted easily out of the way.
Before the gang could recover, the monsters summoned by those serving under Alexandros were on them. Seto nodded to Joey as his Flame Swordsman helped Seto, who had been under attack by Dark Jeroid, since he only had his dragon to protect him, and in return Seto's Blue Eyes had helped Joey's Red Eyes as a Manticore of Darkness attempted to attack it from behind.
Serenity and Ombre had each other's back, as Serenity's Ancient Fairy Dragon easily annulated the Succubus Knight that had been approaching and Ombre's Heircosphinx had little trouble destroying the Firewing Pegasus that had been approaching the girls.
Meanwhile, Solomon was in the process of locating the Stealth Bird belonging to the other side and Yami had just sent Magician of Black Chaos to assist Yugi, who had darted around the fighting and was heading for Alexandros.
"Hey Rich Boy," Joey called as his Red Eyes destroyed a monster, since Seto had called him a mutt earlier he didn't call him on it, "Bet my side can take down more enemies then yours."
It took Seto a moment to process what Joey was on about, and then smirked as it hit him. "Please, my one dragon's worth six of your guys." He snorted.
"Fight now; compare the size of your dragons later." Yami growled at them, as he jumped backwards narrowly avoiding an attack, which was then intercepted by his King's Knight.
Joey snorted and Seto rolled his eyes before the pair of them threw themselves back into the fight.
"Begone." Alexandros's voice distracted them, as Yugi went flying backwards in a flash of red laser light, crash landing at Seto's feet. Yami's Magician of Black Chaos was there in a heartbeat to help him up.
Alexandros sent out a monster, "Loyal servants, you and your monsters are now dismissed." In flashes of many different colours, all of the enemy monsters vanished. It was obviously painful for the servants, because their cries of pain stopped Yugi in his tracks, causing him to turn around to try to work out what was going on. "I sacrifice you all to summon my Seven Armed Fiend."
Yami darted over to his hikari, concerned, but the hikari was staring at the monster that had appeared, covered in grey fur, with six arms and a hand with a face on for a head.
"Yugi?"
"That monster… it was in my nightmare…" Yugi murmured.
"Great…"
"Be careful, that's one of the most dangerous monsters in Capsule Monsters." Solomon shouted down from the back of his Curse of Dragon.
Seto snorted as he looked at the creature. Capsule Monsters was Mokuba's game, and Mokuba had begged him to let him have control over the capsule monsters virtual tech that was in development, so Seto didn't have much clue about the abilities of the monsters, but in the game of Duel Monsters, Seven-Armed Fiend was a level one normal Dark fiend, with only 666 attack points…
Yugi took off again, attempting to blast the fiend before it could do any damage.
It raised a hand, forming a black shield. Yugi's starlight blast bounced off of the shield and nearly hit Blue Eyes, who roared angrily at Yugi, who gave it an apologetic look over his shoulder, while trying to work out what had happened.
Alexandros laughed, "It's Arm of Defence is only one of the powers it has in this game, your highness." That explained why it was so dangerous, "Every attack you try, will fail, and every arm has its own special ability. You'll never win!"
"Try me." Yugi called back, unwilling to admit defeat that easily.
"Arm of Skulls!" Alexandros ordered.
Suddenly the field was swamped by Skull Knight #2, forcing Yugi's friends to defend themselves from all angles. A lot of them ended up on their dragons as it was the safest place to be, since it was difficult to target one dragon with a whole wing of them flying together, defending each other.
Unfortunately the fiend's Arm of Regeneration was making it difficult for their ground based monsters to destroy their targets, while the Arms of Entrapment and Destruction were slowly picking off their numbers.
For Yugi, who had sent all his other monsters to help the others and now stood, facing the fiend alone as the others fought off Skull Knights, the problem he was having was that the Seven-Armed fiend knew every move he was going to make before he could make it and he had been swatted back more then a few times.
The Arm of Clairvoyance was seeing to that.
By now he was more then aware that hitting the floor, or a roof, at high speed hurt.
A lot.
"You can't win as long as I can read your mind!" Alexandros crowed.
An idea hit Yugi, who glanced at Yami, who was ground bound and had Joey, who had chosen to stay by Yami's side, to back him up, passing a single thought along the link. Yami's nod was all the permission Yugi needed.
He launched an attack.
Alexandros chuckled as he tried to read Yugi's mind.
Only to find himself lost within the depths of the Puzzle, unable to find his way out, unable to break free…
Yugi destroyed the Seven-Armed Fiend and when it exploded, it took the Skull Knights with it, depositing the monsters that had been sacrificed back on the field.
"How? How did you do that?" The rather annoyed Roman King demanded of the Shadow Prince, having been ejected from the Puzzle upon his fiend's destruction. Yugi just smiled slightly as his friends' monsters started picking themselves up, refusing to say, in case he needed to do it again.
He had forgotten that his mind was linked to the Puzzle as well as to Yami and Harry, until that point, and he thanked the Gods that it was.
This was far from over though, he still needed to get through the laser defences he had so badly underestimated the last time he had tried to attack Reshef, he was sure there was a weak point in the armour somewhere, but coming at it from above had been a complete failure…
"It's time you stopped hiding, and faced me in battle!" Yugi demanded of Alexandros, who gave him a rather impressive death glare, "If you want your precious reward, you're coming to have to prove you deserve it by defeating me!"
"Yugi…" He heard Serenity's concerned call as Reshef started firing again, but it was what Yugi had been aiming for, not only getting him to fire so Yugi could see where the open spots where, but getting Alexandros to aim for him only.
Yugi had to dart backwards to avoid being blown up, but then was able to dart between lasers, alongside Magician of Black Chaos and Celtic Guardian, and find the weak point, at the centre of the armour, directly below where Alexandros was fused into a seat in Reshef's head.
Yugi and Magician of Black Chaos took off, while Celtic Guardian jumped, the three of them striking direct blows to the King, to go with the one Yugi had managed earlier before he'd been blasted back by the lasers, that left Alexandros both in pain and pissed off, while the lasers that had been constantly firing since Yugi's challenge, suddenly shut off.
Yugi pulled back, as once again Alexandros sacrificed the monsters that his vassals had left, to power up his armour. The fists detached, one propelled by a red ball of light, one propelled by a blue light and the upper torso started floating, the lower body kept separate by a ball of yellow light that hovered between the two.
This couldn't be good.
Yugi took a moment to total up his side's monsters.
Yami still had Magician of Black Chaos, but it looked like Black Luster Solider was gone, along with Hinotama Soul and King's Knight.
He still had Kuriboh in it's capsule, and Celtic Guardian out while his Gaia the Fierce Knight was over with Serenity, who was taking this opportune moment to heal Seto, whose Blue Eyes White Dragon was hovering protectively nearby, using Ancient Fairy Dragon's powers, but Mystical Elf and Guardian Angel Joan were nowhere in sight.
Joey only had Red Eyes Black Dragon, Yugi's Grandfather still had Curse of Dragon and Ombre was down to her Hieracosphinx, which didn't look too amused by the situation.
Yugi wasn't sure how he'd managed to retain so many of his monsters, while everyone else was down to just one, perhaps it was because the enemy was much more interested in taking him down directly instead of his monsters.
The fists shot away from the armour with no warning, causing the group have to scatter. The blue one following Yugi, who turned around and blasted it, while the red one made the mistake of gunning for Blue Eyes who just fired a White Lightening Attack at it.
Blue lightning played around both fists, as Red Eyes got a shot in on the main body.
Alexandros's goons screamed in pain as the fists shot past their targets and into the sky.
"That's weird…" Joey's voice was easily heard, "When we attack Alexandros, his guys take all the damage…"
"Human shields…" Serenity sounded horrified.
"Prince Yugi." Alexandros sounded far too amused as his voice echoed over the battlefield, "Are you beginning to understand the proper way for a King to unitise his underlings? You should thank me for the lesson."
"You couldn't be more wrong." Yami protested angrily, "A true King respects his subjects."
"YAMI!" The Pharaoh's Magician of Black Chaos exploded on contact with the fist of Reshef that had swooped in behind them, having tried to stop the incoming attack and Yugi didn't have time to react before Yami was knocked from the roof that his Magician had forced him to retreat to when he'd been under direct attack, hitting the floor hard.
The Pharaoh didn't rise…
"Yami!" Yugi shot forward but was blocked from going to Yami's side by the second fist swooping in.
"You see? You'll end up like him if you listen to his nonsense. See what happens when you harp on about such ridiculous concepts as honour and respect?" Alexandros chuckled, causing Yugi to glower at him.
"You're wrong." Yugi snarled, trying to distract Alexandros long enough for Serenity to get to Yami's side. "Honour and respect is what makes a King great. Without them he's nothing but a tyrant!"
"Yugi, look out!" Yugi wheeled around at Joey's call, managing to dodge the first attack, but he was struck down by the second, sent flying into a wall hard enough to break through it.
"A Prince who refuses to learn how to properly use his men, shouldn't have the chance to command any." Alexandros laughed, directing the fists still flying around to strike the others down before Yugi could pick himself out of the rubble.
"I… won't let you…" Yugi pulled himself out of the rubble, injuries as painful as they were obvious, as, job done, the fists returned to Reshef and a huge ball of multicoloured crackling energy grew between them. "I won't let you hurt them anymore!"
Yugi deliberately defused himself, separating back into Yugi and Sunset Magician, the latter of whom stood in front of his Grandfather. At a look from Yugi, Gaia put himself between Joey and the huge fiend that was readying an attack and Celtic Guardian stood guard over Serenity.
Yugi then released Kuriboh, who protested for a moment, then stood over Ombre, to protect her.
Yugi hesitated as he realised he couldn't protect Yami and Seto himself…
Blue Eyes, too injured to fly, raised her head, turning to look at Yugi for a moment, before curling her tail around her chosen human.
Yami opened his eyes as Yugi thanked Blue Eyes and put himself in front of Yami with a determined glare at Alexandros.
He could hear Yugi's thoughts, felt some of Yugi's pain, the hikari wasn't trying to hide either, as he thought Yami unconscious.
Yugi was thinking about how if he didn't shield them, his family would all be killed and there was no way he was letting that happen.
Wasn't Yugi aware that if he was unable to fight any longer, they'd all lose too?
That even if they were released from this game upon his… defeat, Alexandros would take over the world?
That if Yugi sacrificed himself again, Yami would never forgive himself?
Yami's anguish caused Yugi to look over his shoulder for a moment, a small, attempting to be, reassuring smile, on his face before he turned to face his enemy again.
"What's this? The Shadow Prince has given up his own protection to save his friends?" Alexandros sounded far too amused by this fact. "A true King would never value the lives of his servants over his own!"
"I hate to admit it Yuge, but he may have a point." Joey said, slowly getting up, every movement an effort.
"Yugi, take back your monsters." Yami begged, pushing himself to his hands and knees and staring at the hikari, who was stood, arms spread wide, in front of him, ready to take the blast himself to protect his dark side.
"No." Though his stance told them nothing, the emotions surging through the link and Yugi's tone of voice revealed just how frightened he was, "I can't."
"You've got bigger things to worry about, so don't worry about us." Ombre tried to reason with Yugi, right hand hugging left side, pain obvious.
"Stop it." Yugi cringed, "You're wrong. I can't… I won't…"
"Listen to reason, if you don't save yourself then we all lose." Solomon growled at his Grandson, having feared it would come to something like this. "Now take your monsters back."
"No."
"Idiot." Seto grumbled under his breath, well aware Yugi was not going to move, no matter how much his friends pleaded, but as aware as the others that if he didn't they were going to lose.
"You have to win, no matter what happens to us." Serenity tried.
Yugi wheeled around, stance suddenly turning angry; posture reflected in his voice, "Look guys, I'd never abandon you, no matter what the cost."
"Yugi, please!" Yami protested.
"Never."
"Fine." Alexandros smirked, Yugi wheeled around to face him the moment he started speaking, "I have given you more then enough opportunities to prove that you have what it takes to deserve the throne that you're supposed to be ascending to," The armour that he was sat in spread it's hand, the ball of energy inside growing larger, easily big enough to wipe out all of Yugi's monsters in one fell swoop, "But no, you insist on putting the lives of your minions above your own! And for that, you shall pay!"
Alexandros fired.
"I was about to ask you the same question." The blonde male stood up. "I am Dr Alex Brisbane. This is the pyramid of Alexandros the Great. What are you doing here?"
Kaiba's response was cut off by the appearance of a bright light, which died down to reveal Yugi and the others.
Alex shoved past Kaiba to help Solomon up. "My dear friend, you're okay."
"Yugi?" Kaiba demanded, watching Yugi slowly stand up, a pained squeak escaping his lips as he leaned slightly on Joey to do so.
"Seto?" Yugi asked, surprise crossing his features.
Yami, though he had winced when Yugi had squeaked, was acting surprisingly calm considering that Yugi seemed to be quite badly beaten up, and had turned to watch the interaction between his Grandfather and the Doctor who had been waiting for their return.
"Yami, may I?" Solomon asked.
Seto watched Yami pull an oddly shaped pendant out of his pocket and carefully pass it to Solomon, noting the whole dynamic of the group had changed the moment that the pendant had come into view.
He frowned as a ghost in roman clothes appeared just behind Solomon and leapt at Dr Brisbane.
One of the members of search party A stepped forward as the ghost was absorbed by the man.
"No!" Yugi commanded, his tone surprising Seto, who had no idea how to respond to that tone from Yugi. It had an effect on the person who'd moved though, causing them to freeze in place as Alexandros picked himself up. "Dr Brisbane?" Yugi asked.
"I'm fine, I just…" He snatched the pendant, "Need this!"
He turned and bolted up the stairs.
"Get him!" Yugi snarled, pushing Joey away and chasing Dr Brisbane up the stairs.
Seto was moving third, only just behind Yami, though he wasn't sure why, just aware that if Yugi didn't want someone to get away with some odd object it couldn't be good.
By the time he had reached the top of the stairs, Yugi and Yami were trying to stop Dr Brisbane from entering a door he had opened and none of his B group knew quite what to do.
Dr Brisbane threw himself threw the door, taking Yugi and Yami with him, and the three of them fell, Seto launched himself forward, moving before he really knew what he was doing, and managed to catch a hold of Yami's arm, wincing as his shoulders protested his attempts to stop the falling of three people.
"Hang on." Within seconds, Joey was giving him a hand, helping him pull them up.
Dr Brisbane did not like this in the slightest and managed to push himself away from the wall using his legs, taking Yugi and Yami with him.
The shift in weight caused Joey and Seto to over balance and fall and when Ombre, Serenity and Solomon tried to grab them, they too were dragged down into the darkness with them.
"Mr Kaiba!" Someone was shouting then there was a loud slam and darkness, like, most likely, the ground, rushed to meet them.
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To hear that his brother had found Yugi and the others was a relief.
Right up until the search party had told Mokuba that Mr Kaiba, upon locating Mr Muto and the others, had proceeded to follow aforementioned group up the stairs and had last been seen falling into a hole on the other side of a door which, now, was refusing to open and had resisted blasted charms.
Also A Group, who had been with Seto when he had gone down into the odd map room that Mr Muto and his friends had emerged from, had discovered that one of their number had vanished upon stepping on a tile which appeared to make up the map and what did Mokuba want them to do about it?
Mokuba stared at the Group D party leader for a moment, wondering how he would go about organising a search party for the missing member of the search party.
His primary concern, of course, was that door that his brother had gone missing through, but since it had been Kaiba Corp who had brought people here; it was Kaiba Corp who was responsible for anyone who vanished.
"Your group see if you can track any magic leaving that room, but DO NOT step on that map again, got it?" Mokuba replied. "Meanwhile, where are groups B and C?"
B group was currently trying to get through the door, while C group had gotten lost in the catacombs under the pyramid somewhere.
Mokuba had to fight very hard not to face palm.
What was it about this Pyramid that made people get lost so easily? Were the confundus charms on it or something?
"Mr Mokuba, sir, what are you going to do?"
"Get me inside the pyramid, I'll summon a Duel Monster to find group C, then I'll locate my brother. Report back to me when you have any data on where that missing group A member could be."
"Yes, sir."
Mokuba followed Group D into the pyramid, leaving ground control in the capable hands of the newly founded group F, who were all support, like healers, technicians and the two wizards who had refused to enter the pyramid (they were using the excuse of someone needing to be outside in case of an attack), and successfully navigated the traps to reach the room where C group had split off from the main group, calling a Blue Eyes White Chick to find them and lead them back up, then headed upstairs, towards the room where his brother had vanished behind that door.
This was a nightmare…
Where on earth could Seto have gone? How far had he fallen? Was he injured? Was he…?
Alone as he reached the top steps, Group D having split off to help group A, he arrived to find all of Group B unconscious.
A mysterious man in a turban was stood, with a Millennium Item, examining them.
"What did you do?" Mokuba demanded, drawing his wand and figuring (justifiably, since everyone they had run into with a Millennium Item was trouble or attracted it) that this man would know what the heck was going on, "And where is my brother?"
"Who are you?" The turbaned man demanded, amused by Mokuba's threatening posture.
"I should ask you the same question." Mokuba returned, deciding that butting heads with a Millennium Item wielder was not the smartest thing he'd ever done, but he was going to do it anyway.
"I am Shadi, Guardian of the Millennium Items. I watch over this Shadow Game, as I do many others."
"I'm Mokuba Kaiba," Mokuba replied, worry sinking in, "Did you say this Shadow Game?"
"Yes."
"Is my brother caught up in it?"
"Your brother? The one who commands the Blue Eyes White Dragon?"
"Yes."
"He joined the Shadow Game when he attempted to prevent Prince Yugi and King Alexandros from taking the final task."
"What will happen to him?" Mokuba demanded, having heard the horror stories about people who had interfered with Shadow Games, that had been passed round Hogwarts, probably by Bakura, and they never ended well.
"Unless your brother can defend himself from Duel Monsters, it is likely that he will die."
"WHAT?" Mokuba snapped, glowering at Shadi.
"Your brother fell into the final battle between Prince Yugi and King Alexandros, they are about to fight a war. Unless your brother can defend himself, he will either die or get someone killed." Shadi told him bluntly.
"Get out of our way." Mokuba demanded. "And stop interfering with my people."
"If you interfere in the Shadow Game, it will cost Prince Yugi and everyone with him their Souls."
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Seto was already on his feet, examining the odd gold bracer on his right arm when Yugi turned to look at him, "You're not supposed to be here." The heir said, eyes wide, concern obvious, reaching for a capsule on his belt.
"A little gratitude would be nice." Seto growled, "I came to find the lot of you, perhaps you'd prefer to remain lost next time."
"It's not that." Yugi shook his head, "Of course we're grateful, but…" He was cut off by a menacing laugh.
"You've got yourself into trouble again." Seto nodded, understanding as the evil side of Alexander the Great appeared before them.
Yugi shoved a gold capsule into his hand, as the former King started talking. Kaiba gave the hikari an odd look, but Yugi's attention was fully on Alexandros.
"I see you've gained an advisor, Prince Yugi." Alexandros gestured towards Seto, who just responded by raising an eyebrow.
"He didn't come by choice." Yugi told Alexandros, "This fight is between you and me, leave my friends out of it."
"But what kind of a test of Leadership is it, if you do not command your troops in battle?" Alexandros snorted, "After all, my vassals have been waiting two thousand years for this…" Apparently from no where, five people, in roman clothing, appeared to stand behind the King.
"I don't mind one more round." Joey shrugged, "What do you say, Yams?"
Kaiba hid his amusement at the nickname well, and glanced at the Pharaoh, who was looking irritated. "One more. Then we go home."
"Seto, I wish I didn't have to ask this of you…" Yugi hesitated.
The CEO snorted, "If you're going to be family, I'm not letting you screw up." He replied, noting the small smile that Yugi gave him, before turning serious again as he turned back to his enemy.
The enemy sent out all of their capsule monsters, Yugi's team followed suit, Seto quickly grasping what he had to do from seeing Alexandros do it, shocked to find that Yugi had been holding a capsule containing a Blue Eyes White Dragon, more stunned by that then by Yugi using the armour he was wearing to fuse with his Sunset Magician.
"I think you have some explaining to do when this is over." Seto told Yugi, who nodded.
Suddenly even Blue Eyes looked swamped as Alexandros summoned his monster to fuse with, a huge golden monster that went by the name, Reshef, the Dark Being.
"It's big…" Serenity murmured, as Alexandros fused with it, cackling uncomfortably like Yami Marik had when his grip on reality had been practically gone, her Ancient Fairy Dragon taking to the skies, alongside Seto's Blue Eyes, Joey's Red Eyes and Solomon's Curse of Dragon.
"Yes." Yami nodded, "But Yugi's stronger."
In brute strength, yes, Sunset Magician was stronger, Seto conceded that Yami was right about that, but in terms of special abilities, Reshef had the advantage in Capsule Monsters, and that would make this battle difficult enough as it was. He assumed that their task was to clear the way for Yugi to get to the maniac up there, a simple enough task for his dragon, but Seto couldn't help wondering why Yugi had ended up leading the fight, when normally Yami was the one who led the troops in battle.
If he was judging things correctly, Yami had just got out of his 'Crazy over protective' stage, passed through his 'useless' stage, and was still in 'but I should be saving the world' stage, with a nod to the 'Yugi is fully capable' stage.
"Let me go after Alexandros." Yugi told them, "You concentrate on taking out his helpers."
"Yuge…" Joey hesitated, not through lack of willingness to follow Yugi's orders, but through concern about the injuries that Yugi was still hiding.
"I can handle it. I promise." Yugi replied, knowing, and hoping his friends would trust him.
"If you're not up to the task, mutt, Blue Eyes and I can take them on alone." Seto prodded Joey to distract him, and then hoped no one knew what he was up to.
Silence fell as Shadi's voice echoed over the virtual battle field, "Dr Alex Brisbane, who contains the soul of King Alexandros the Third, shall face Yugi Muto, Prince of the Shadows in an all out Capsule Monsters war. Only he who is worthy to be named the 'True King' shall prevail. Now, begin."
Alexandros opened fire with the lasers from his armour, before the word begin was halfway over, causing Yugi to cast a shield to protect those on the ground as the dragons darted easily out of the way.
Before the gang could recover, the monsters summoned by those serving under Alexandros were on them. Seto nodded to Joey as his Flame Swordsman helped Seto, who had been under attack by Dark Jeroid, since he only had his dragon to protect him, and in return Seto's Blue Eyes had helped Joey's Red Eyes as a Manticore of Darkness attempted to attack it from behind.
Serenity and Ombre had each other's back, as Serenity's Ancient Fairy Dragon easily annulated the Succubus Knight that had been approaching and Ombre's Heircosphinx had little trouble destroying the Firewing Pegasus that had been approaching the girls.
Meanwhile, Solomon was in the process of locating the Stealth Bird belonging to the other side and Yami had just sent Magician of Black Chaos to assist Yugi, who had darted around the fighting and was heading for Alexandros.
"Hey Rich Boy," Joey called as his Red Eyes destroyed a monster, since Seto had called him a mutt earlier he didn't call him on it, "Bet my side can take down more enemies then yours."
It took Seto a moment to process what Joey was on about, and then smirked as it hit him. "Please, my one dragon's worth six of your guys." He snorted.
"Fight now; compare the size of your dragons later." Yami growled at them, as he jumped backwards narrowly avoiding an attack, which was then intercepted by his King's Knight.
Joey snorted and Seto rolled his eyes before the pair of them threw themselves back into the fight.
"Begone." Alexandros's voice distracted them, as Yugi went flying backwards in a flash of red laser light, crash landing at Seto's feet. Yami's Magician of Black Chaos was there in a heartbeat to help him up.
Alexandros sent out a monster, "Loyal servants, you and your monsters are now dismissed." In flashes of many different colours, all of the enemy monsters vanished. It was obviously painful for the servants, because their cries of pain stopped Yugi in his tracks, causing him to turn around to try to work out what was going on. "I sacrifice you all to summon my Seven Armed Fiend."
Yami darted over to his hikari, concerned, but the hikari was staring at the monster that had appeared, covered in grey fur, with six arms and a hand with a face on for a head.
"Yugi?"
"That monster… it was in my nightmare…" Yugi murmured.
"Great…"
"Be careful, that's one of the most dangerous monsters in Capsule Monsters." Solomon shouted down from the back of his Curse of Dragon.
Seto snorted as he looked at the creature. Capsule Monsters was Mokuba's game, and Mokuba had begged him to let him have control over the capsule monsters virtual tech that was in development, so Seto didn't have much clue about the abilities of the monsters, but in the game of Duel Monsters, Seven-Armed Fiend was a level one normal Dark fiend, with only 666 attack points…
Yugi took off again, attempting to blast the fiend before it could do any damage.
It raised a hand, forming a black shield. Yugi's starlight blast bounced off of the shield and nearly hit Blue Eyes, who roared angrily at Yugi, who gave it an apologetic look over his shoulder, while trying to work out what had happened.
Alexandros laughed, "It's Arm of Defence is only one of the powers it has in this game, your highness." That explained why it was so dangerous, "Every attack you try, will fail, and every arm has its own special ability. You'll never win!"
"Try me." Yugi called back, unwilling to admit defeat that easily.
"Arm of Skulls!" Alexandros ordered.
Suddenly the field was swamped by Skull Knight #2, forcing Yugi's friends to defend themselves from all angles. A lot of them ended up on their dragons as it was the safest place to be, since it was difficult to target one dragon with a whole wing of them flying together, defending each other.
Unfortunately the fiend's Arm of Regeneration was making it difficult for their ground based monsters to destroy their targets, while the Arms of Entrapment and Destruction were slowly picking off their numbers.
For Yugi, who had sent all his other monsters to help the others and now stood, facing the fiend alone as the others fought off Skull Knights, the problem he was having was that the Seven-Armed fiend knew every move he was going to make before he could make it and he had been swatted back more then a few times.
The Arm of Clairvoyance was seeing to that.
By now he was more then aware that hitting the floor, or a roof, at high speed hurt.
A lot.
"You can't win as long as I can read your mind!" Alexandros crowed.
An idea hit Yugi, who glanced at Yami, who was ground bound and had Joey, who had chosen to stay by Yami's side, to back him up, passing a single thought along the link. Yami's nod was all the permission Yugi needed.
He launched an attack.
Alexandros chuckled as he tried to read Yugi's mind.
Only to find himself lost within the depths of the Puzzle, unable to find his way out, unable to break free…
Yugi destroyed the Seven-Armed Fiend and when it exploded, it took the Skull Knights with it, depositing the monsters that had been sacrificed back on the field.
"How? How did you do that?" The rather annoyed Roman King demanded of the Shadow Prince, having been ejected from the Puzzle upon his fiend's destruction. Yugi just smiled slightly as his friends' monsters started picking themselves up, refusing to say, in case he needed to do it again.
He had forgotten that his mind was linked to the Puzzle as well as to Yami and Harry, until that point, and he thanked the Gods that it was.
This was far from over though, he still needed to get through the laser defences he had so badly underestimated the last time he had tried to attack Reshef, he was sure there was a weak point in the armour somewhere, but coming at it from above had been a complete failure…
"It's time you stopped hiding, and faced me in battle!" Yugi demanded of Alexandros, who gave him a rather impressive death glare, "If you want your precious reward, you're coming to have to prove you deserve it by defeating me!"
"Yugi…" He heard Serenity's concerned call as Reshef started firing again, but it was what Yugi had been aiming for, not only getting him to fire so Yugi could see where the open spots where, but getting Alexandros to aim for him only.
Yugi had to dart backwards to avoid being blown up, but then was able to dart between lasers, alongside Magician of Black Chaos and Celtic Guardian, and find the weak point, at the centre of the armour, directly below where Alexandros was fused into a seat in Reshef's head.
Yugi and Magician of Black Chaos took off, while Celtic Guardian jumped, the three of them striking direct blows to the King, to go with the one Yugi had managed earlier before he'd been blasted back by the lasers, that left Alexandros both in pain and pissed off, while the lasers that had been constantly firing since Yugi's challenge, suddenly shut off.
Yugi pulled back, as once again Alexandros sacrificed the monsters that his vassals had left, to power up his armour. The fists detached, one propelled by a red ball of light, one propelled by a blue light and the upper torso started floating, the lower body kept separate by a ball of yellow light that hovered between the two.
This couldn't be good.
Yugi took a moment to total up his side's monsters.
Yami still had Magician of Black Chaos, but it looked like Black Luster Solider was gone, along with Hinotama Soul and King's Knight.
He still had Kuriboh in it's capsule, and Celtic Guardian out while his Gaia the Fierce Knight was over with Serenity, who was taking this opportune moment to heal Seto, whose Blue Eyes White Dragon was hovering protectively nearby, using Ancient Fairy Dragon's powers, but Mystical Elf and Guardian Angel Joan were nowhere in sight.
Joey only had Red Eyes Black Dragon, Yugi's Grandfather still had Curse of Dragon and Ombre was down to her Hieracosphinx, which didn't look too amused by the situation.
Yugi wasn't sure how he'd managed to retain so many of his monsters, while everyone else was down to just one, perhaps it was because the enemy was much more interested in taking him down directly instead of his monsters.
The fists shot away from the armour with no warning, causing the group have to scatter. The blue one following Yugi, who turned around and blasted it, while the red one made the mistake of gunning for Blue Eyes who just fired a White Lightening Attack at it.
Blue lightning played around both fists, as Red Eyes got a shot in on the main body.
Alexandros's goons screamed in pain as the fists shot past their targets and into the sky.
"That's weird…" Joey's voice was easily heard, "When we attack Alexandros, his guys take all the damage…"
"Human shields…" Serenity sounded horrified.
"Prince Yugi." Alexandros sounded far too amused as his voice echoed over the battlefield, "Are you beginning to understand the proper way for a King to unitise his underlings? You should thank me for the lesson."
"You couldn't be more wrong." Yami protested angrily, "A true King respects his subjects."
"YAMI!" The Pharaoh's Magician of Black Chaos exploded on contact with the fist of Reshef that had swooped in behind them, having tried to stop the incoming attack and Yugi didn't have time to react before Yami was knocked from the roof that his Magician had forced him to retreat to when he'd been under direct attack, hitting the floor hard.
The Pharaoh didn't rise…
"Yami!" Yugi shot forward but was blocked from going to Yami's side by the second fist swooping in.
"You see? You'll end up like him if you listen to his nonsense. See what happens when you harp on about such ridiculous concepts as honour and respect?" Alexandros chuckled, causing Yugi to glower at him.
"You're wrong." Yugi snarled, trying to distract Alexandros long enough for Serenity to get to Yami's side. "Honour and respect is what makes a King great. Without them he's nothing but a tyrant!"
"Yugi, look out!" Yugi wheeled around at Joey's call, managing to dodge the first attack, but he was struck down by the second, sent flying into a wall hard enough to break through it.
"A Prince who refuses to learn how to properly use his men, shouldn't have the chance to command any." Alexandros laughed, directing the fists still flying around to strike the others down before Yugi could pick himself out of the rubble.
"I… won't let you…" Yugi pulled himself out of the rubble, injuries as painful as they were obvious, as, job done, the fists returned to Reshef and a huge ball of multicoloured crackling energy grew between them. "I won't let you hurt them anymore!"
Yugi deliberately defused himself, separating back into Yugi and Sunset Magician, the latter of whom stood in front of his Grandfather. At a look from Yugi, Gaia put himself between Joey and the huge fiend that was readying an attack and Celtic Guardian stood guard over Serenity.
Yugi then released Kuriboh, who protested for a moment, then stood over Ombre, to protect her.
Yugi hesitated as he realised he couldn't protect Yami and Seto himself…
Blue Eyes, too injured to fly, raised her head, turning to look at Yugi for a moment, before curling her tail around her chosen human.
Yami opened his eyes as Yugi thanked Blue Eyes and put himself in front of Yami with a determined glare at Alexandros.
He could hear Yugi's thoughts, felt some of Yugi's pain, the hikari wasn't trying to hide either, as he thought Yami unconscious.
Yugi was thinking about how if he didn't shield them, his family would all be killed and there was no way he was letting that happen.
Wasn't Yugi aware that if he was unable to fight any longer, they'd all lose too?
That even if they were released from this game upon his… defeat, Alexandros would take over the world?
That if Yugi sacrificed himself again, Yami would never forgive himself?
Yami's anguish caused Yugi to look over his shoulder for a moment, a small, attempting to be, reassuring smile, on his face before he turned to face his enemy again.
"What's this? The Shadow Prince has given up his own protection to save his friends?" Alexandros sounded far too amused by this fact. "A true King would never value the lives of his servants over his own!"
"I hate to admit it Yuge, but he may have a point." Joey said, slowly getting up, every movement an effort.
"Yugi, take back your monsters." Yami begged, pushing himself to his hands and knees and staring at the hikari, who was stood, arms spread wide, in front of him, ready to take the blast himself to protect his dark side.
"No." Though his stance told them nothing, the emotions surging through the link and Yugi's tone of voice revealed just how frightened he was, "I can't."
"You've got bigger things to worry about, so don't worry about us." Ombre tried to reason with Yugi, right hand hugging left side, pain obvious.
"Stop it." Yugi cringed, "You're wrong. I can't… I won't…"
"Listen to reason, if you don't save yourself then we all lose." Solomon growled at his Grandson, having feared it would come to something like this. "Now take your monsters back."
"No."
"Idiot." Seto grumbled under his breath, well aware Yugi was not going to move, no matter how much his friends pleaded, but as aware as the others that if he didn't they were going to lose.
"You have to win, no matter what happens to us." Serenity tried.
Yugi wheeled around, stance suddenly turning angry; posture reflected in his voice, "Look guys, I'd never abandon you, no matter what the cost."
"Yugi, please!" Yami protested.
"Never."
"Fine." Alexandros smirked, Yugi wheeled around to face him the moment he started speaking, "I have given you more then enough opportunities to prove that you have what it takes to deserve the throne that you're supposed to be ascending to," The armour that he was sat in spread it's hand, the ball of energy inside growing larger, easily big enough to wipe out all of Yugi's monsters in one fell swoop, "But no, you insist on putting the lives of your minions above your own! And for that, you shall pay!"
Alexandros fired.