Chapter 3: - Directions
Hermione had been minutes away from her second round battle when her phone had gone.
How had she just known that something was going to go wrong with her family? Things always went wrong when the Clan was involved. At least this time she wasn't out of the loop, Mokuba had promised to call her when they had more information.
But it didn't help to stop the worrying. While she welcomed knowing what was going on with the general weirdness that was her family, she couldn't help feeling useless, as there was nothing that she could do to help.
"Are you paying any attention at all, Granger?" Jenny Farrent called across the field, as Hermione considered her hand.
This wasn't easy. She was too distracted to keep her mind on the duel, and if she wasn't careful, Jenny was going to win easily.
After her poor showing at the Tournament back in school, she had no intent of going down easy. "I play Card Destruction!" She called, discarding her entire hand, which included two level five Spellcasters and drew a new one, hoping for a particular card.
Which she didn't draw.
"Ra damn it." Hermione hissed, her deck was playing up too; she guessed it was because it could sense she didn't really want to be here, she wanted to be finding a way to get to Japan and help find the others. "I set a card in defence mode, play a card face down and end my turn."
Jenny considered the field as Hermione considered her options, she could forfeit the Duel, drop out of the tournament and try activating the locating part of the beacon that she and Kari had made, but without being there in person, it wouldn't do much more then point in the general direction that they were, not allow her to find them…
"I attack your face down card!" Jenny called, her Dunames Dark Witch attacking Hermione's card.
"I activate Draining Shield!" Hermione called.
Dunames Dark Witch hit the shield, and its attack point total was added to Hermione's life points, pushing her up from 300 to 2100.
"Fine, that ends my turn."
Of course Hermione had already thought to mention the beacons to Mokuba, who had said that he'd try them the moment he got off the phone and would call her much later with any answers they'd gotten since he'd last called.
Hermione drew, considered her hand and… "I sacrifice my Ancient Elf for the Dark Magician Girl!"
Hermione had to pause when Dark Magician Girl came to the field. Most of Kari's deck had gone to Ombre, when the hikari had died, but this Dark Magician Girl, specifically, had been left to Hermione.
"And I equip her with Magic Formula." Hermione continued, "Boosting her to 2700."
The Dark Magician Girl took a couple of moments to skim read the book, then turned her eyes back to her opponent.
"Dark Magician Girl, destroy Dunames Dark Witch!"
The Dark Magician Girl blasted away the fairy on the other side of the field, taking 900 points from Jenny's life points. "And play a card face down. That ends my turn."
Jenny scowled as she looked at the field, "I set a card face down and end my turn."
"Please, please please…" Hermione drew and grinned, "I set a card face down." She hesitated. Jenny didn't have enough life points left to survive another direct assault, so there had to be something Hermione was missing and it was probably to do with that face down card.
She didn't want to risk losing her Dark Magician Girl. "I play a monster in defence mode and end my turn."
Jenny grinned, "You should have attacked," She called, "My face down card's not a trap. I play Monster Reborn to bring back my Fallen Angel Superbia, allowing me to also call back my Athena from the Graveyard too."
Both fairies appeared on the field, making Hermione scowl.
"And I'll activate my face down Luminous Spark, to increase their attack by another five hundred."
"Oh." Hermione did the math quickly.
"Fallen Angel, attack her Magician Girl!" Dark Magician Girl screamed and vanished, making Hermione cringe. She hated it when that card was sent to the graveyard, "Athena, attack her directly!"
Hermione's points hit zero.
"I win." The crowd roared.
"Not quite." Hermione replied with a grin, "I activate Relay Soul."
Her Magician's Valkyria took the field.
"Your life points hit zero!" Jenny protested.
"I know, Relay Soul gets activated when my Life Points hit 0. It lets me special summon a monster from my hand and as long as that monster remains on the field, I can't lose."
"You won't last much longer anyway." Jenny snorted, "Your Valkyria is no match for my monsters."
"We'll see."
"I end my turn."
Luminous Spark was a field card, so it boosted Hermione's light monsters too, pushing her Valkyria up to 2100, no match for Jenny's two monsters, but she had a crazy idea… if she drew the right card. She drew.
"I remove from play two level five Spellcasters from my graveyard in order to summon my Millennium Witch to the field."
Her trump card, her partner card, appeared on the field, fiddling with her hat for a moment, before settling down, her points automatically going from 2900 to 3400, matching the fallen angel. "And I can use her special ability to boost my Valkyria's attack by 1500, making her more then a match for your Athena."
Valkyria hit 3600.
"Valkyria, attack Athena!" At 3100, Athena had no chance and exploded. "Millennium Witch, attack the fallen angel!"
Millennium Witch and Superbia exploded simultaneously. "Your move."
Jenny frowned, considering everything. "I set a card in defence mode and that's all I can do."
Hermione nodded as she drew. "Magician's Valkyria, attack her face down card!"
It flipped face up, and exploded, taking Valkyria with it and ending the game.
"What was that?" Hermione asked, partially glad that it was over and she could go worry about her family without being distracted now.
"Old Vindictive Magician." Jenny grinned. "Nice try though, better luck next time."
"Thanks, good luck in the next round." Hermione nodded and left.
She had other things to worry about…
She paused to think about it logically. She needed to speak to Harry, see if the link was active, and then if it was, see if he could find them.
One step at a time…
They'd find them.
Hopefully before something major happened…again.
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The sun was rising on the game world and they were all shattered.
Yugi had given up arguing with Joey about an hour ago and was currently having a piggy back because he was shattered from repeatedly using his magic to blind and repel the wolves that had stalked them downriver and chased them to the edge of the lake they were walking around now.
Yami had been sending energy down the link, draining himself to help Yugi stay awake, but when Solomon had realised what Yami was doing, he'd told Yami to stop it and that it would be better for Yugi to recover on his own, then for Yami to keel over later because he'd sent too much energy to his hikari.
Within a few minutes of Yami cutting the energy transfer, Yugi had fallen asleep.
The others were only better off by dint of not having used much magic, but everyone was hungry and only Yugi had gotten any sleep.
"Did we have to leave the bags behind?" Joey complained.
"We didn't exactly have time to grab them." Ombre pointed out quietly, trying not to wake Yugi.
"But I'm hungry…"
"We're all hungry." Yami growled back irritably.
"I don't see why we couldn't go back for them now." Ombre said, looking back as giving Serenity a reassuring smile that she didn't quite feel.
"Because we have no idea where they were." Solomon said firmly.
"We have to go back for the bags." Yami groaned something suddenly hitting him, "Our wands were in them…" He indicated himself and Yugi.
"I thought Yuge's was in his pocket." Joey frowned.
"He put it in his bag when we realised they were useless." Yami said, feeling like an idiot.
"I'll go." Joey nodded, "We were in a clearing to start with last night, it shouldn't be too hard to find it if I fly overhead with my Baby Dragon."
"Sorry."
"Hey, this means I get to find food. I'm not complaining." Joey grinned.
"Yugi…" Yami shook his hikari, who gave him a bleary eyed look.
"Hey… did I fall asleep? Sorry."
"It's ok, but Joey's going for the bags, so…" Joey dropped Yugi, who landed on his feet.
"You gonna be alright?" Yugi asked his best friend, concern obvious.
"I'll be ok, Yuge." Joey nodded, launching his capsule, and Baby Dragon gave them all a curious look. "Wait here, on the lake edge."
"We'll try not to go anywhere." Solomon nodded.
Joey and his dragon took off and they sat on the lake bank. "You know, it would be just our luck for some sort of water creature to pop out at us now." Yami growled.
"Touch wood it won't happen." Ombre said, quickly touching a tree.
"You alright Serenity?" Solomon asked as Yugi took off his trainers and socks and let his feet rest in the water.
"I thought this was a game." Serenity complained, sitting down next to Yugi, "Shouldn't it have rules and win conditions and things?"
"There should be rules and things, we just haven't found them yet." Yami said, agreeing full heartedly with Serenity's complaint.
"How is that fair?" Serenity asked. "What if we never find them?"
"We will." Yugi said confidently, though quietly. "We'll get out of here, we just need to find out what we're supposed to be doing and then do it."
Yami smiled slightly at the young man who was his guiding light, as Yugi leant back on his arms and looked up at the sky, trust Yugi to try and get everyone thinking positive. 'You should try to go back to sleep, you're still shattered.'
"You're tired too Yami. Should we find somewhere safe for everyone to rest?"
'Everyone's tired and hungry, aibou.' Yami replied, without anyone being aware they were talking.
"You feeling better?" Ombre asked Yugi, poking the young man who had suddenly started looking at his feet.
"The water's moving." Yugi's answer confused the spirit of the Orb until she saw the mountains that were over the other side of the lake were moving.
"Get away from the edge." Yami pulled Yugi away, while Ombre pulled Serenity away from the water.
"So… is it the scenery or us that is moving?" Ombre asked.
"Us, I think." Yugi said, forgetting his shoes and running the opposite way to the water flow, reaching the edge quickly, only to find something popping up from the water.
Yami pulled Yugi behind him as the huge head turned to look at them.
"Easy Yami, it's only an Island Turtle. They're pacifists." Yugi said, stepping out from behind his dark and smiling up at the Duel Monster. "No wonder those Wolves stopped chasing us, they probably didn't want to annoy the turtle."
The turtle's head disappeared underwater again and Yugi squeaked as the island started disappearing underwater. "Uh oh."
Solomon arrived, with Serenity and Ombre and holding Yugi's shoes, which the hikari quickly threw on, discarding the socks as he had too little time. "We have to jump."
"Jump?" Two horrified voices echoed each other. Yami and Ombre looked at each other.
"Into the water." Solomon nodded.
Yugi face palmed. "Kari tried to teach you how to swim." He groaned at Yami.
"You can't swim?" Serenity asked.
"Don't really have time for this." Solomon growled.
"I'll help you," Yugi promised, "But you have to jump in."
"Come on." Solomon growled, "If we stay on the back of here, the water displacement will pull us under." He jumped.
"I promise, Yami. I've got you." Yugi swore.
Ombre and Serenity jumped.
Yami nodded.
They jumped in.
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Ron Weasley wasn't sure how to react to the news.
His family were missing again.
There was a way these things normally panned out, and he was expecting to get a call saying that Harry was missing next.
When had the abnormal become quite this normal for him?
There was a reason that they were out here playing Quidditch, it was a distraction for the twins, Ginny and himself, to try to take their minds off the fact that the gang were missing and most likely in some sort of life threatening danger… again.
Why? Why was it always when he couldn't help?
The gang had been in America… Harry had gone missing… Yugi had been taken… Ombre kidnapped… and all he'd known was that Harry wasn't replying to any letters.
The snake, the Stone, the hut, Anubis… Voldemort…
There was a reason Ron ranted and raved at his friends when they were around. It was because whenever he wasn't, they would fall into situations where they could possibly get killed… and he would never know what happened to them.
Not only that but they then kept details from him, allowed him to make an idiot of himself and then kept their own council.
Did they ever phone him themselves… no.
But then Mokuba had said that there was a problem with their fellytones… tellyphones… so maybe they really hadn't been able to get help this time…
Always when Ron couldn't help, always when the Duel Monsters weren't around…
Ron scowled as he caught the Quaffle and threw it back at Fred.
Always when they were alone… stranded…
Ron weaved in and out of the hoops, ready for the next ball.
He'd rung Hermione, who had been unable to reach the gang who were missing, not that Ron found himself particularly surprised.
"Ron, heads up!" Ginny bellowed.
The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and the twins were stood over him.
"Honestly Ron, you're supposed to catch the Quaffle…"
"Not the Bludgers."
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Joey was worried.
The piece of land from earlier was missing.
So… new question. It the piece of land had vanished, did that mean that…
They did a sweep of the lake edges and then Joey directed his dragon towards the small temple like structure that he'd noticed when he'd taken off, in case they'd swum to that when the land had vanished, afraid that the rest of the land would vanish.
It looked quite old, Greek possibly from this angle, though he supposed if it was a game in a Roman Tomb then it was probably Roman, not Greek, and if he was right… it was on his map…
That reminded him, as Baby Dragon spiralled down and landed on the steps, he needed to show the others the…
Ombre was the only one awake, and she gave him a small smile as he nodded to her. They were all soaked, wet clothes clinging, hair drooping…
"What happened?" Joey hissed.
"The Island was an Island Turtle." Ombre hissed back, "Which decided it wanted to dive under."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Serenity stirred, blinking twice as she realised Joey had reached them and then he staggered backwards as she hugged him.
"Hey Serenity." Joey grinned as his sister pulled away, carefully setting the bags down. He looked over to Solomon, only to find that the old man was already awake. "Our clothes and stuff were all over the floor and the food's gone."
"What about the wands?"
"They're fine." Joey pulled two gold wands out of his back pocket, "They'll need polishing, but they're not damaged."
"That's good."
"Well if there's no food, I suppose we'd better wake the other two up." Ombre sighed.
There wasn't any need, the pair were already stirring, stretching and looking around as sleepy brains tried to catch up with current events.
Yugi, who was a morning person naturally, was the first to stand up, poking his dark side; who most certainly wasn't and took another couple of minutes.
"Thanks Joey." Yugi smiled, accepting his wand.
"Food?" Yami asked, taking his wand from Joey and shoving it in his pocket.
"The food was gone, I think some of the clothes were wreaked too." Joey scowled, "Looks like the wolves tore apart the stuff in the bags when we vanished."
"Damn." Yami would have started checking his stuff over, but there was a loud noise from behind him and he wheeled around in time to see the temple doors open inwards of their own accord.
"Huh, think obvious game clue much?"
"Don't complain, just accept the hint." Yugi said, hefting his bag onto his shoulder.
"It could be trap."
"Yes, but currently it's the only clue we have to what we're actually supposed to be doing." Yugi pointed out.
"I'll take point." Yami said instantly, picking up his bag and walking over to the door.
"Wait up!" Joey growled at him, chasing him inside.
"Yami!" Yugi was gone next.
"Come on, we'll lose them at this rate." Ombre scowled.
Serenity hesitated.
"You're safer with them then out here." Solomon recommended, halfway through the door, "They're the best people to be around when it comes to magical games, besides, we're going to have to play through this game in order to escape."
Serenity nodded and followed last, entering the temple, where a fire raged on the steps to the front, but there seemed to be little else.
"This has got to be a…"
The doors slammed shut behind them.
"Trap." Yugi, Yami and Joey groaned simultaneously.
"We have to go forward anyway in order to complete the game." Yugi said, turning away from the doors and reaching for his capsule as the fire seemed to dance, the smoke curling up and around the ceiling and vanishing through a hole in the roof.
The fire appeared to solidify, forming into a blazing crocodile that stomped towards them.
'Great, just great.' Yami scowled, as the group launched their capsules, "Everyone be careful, that's a Firestorm Prominence, I don't know if it has the same abilities as it does in Duel Monsters but…"
"Oh no…" Yugi breathed, remembering its effect in the card game.
"Yuge, what does it do?" Joey asked nervously.
He didn't have time to answer as the doors slammed open and a wave of water shot through the door, flowing around Solomon, Ombre and Serenity and seeming to settle, as if held in place by some force, allowing a huge black water serpent to rise from the waves.
"Silent Abyss… brilliant." Yugi's tone was heavy with sarcasm.
"Another one with an insane effect?" Joey asked.
"In Duel Monsters, when Silent Abyss is destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard, it destroys all face down and non-Water monsters. Firestorm Prominence does the same but for non-Fire…" Yugi trailed off, a thought striking him.
"I've got Silent Abyss." Ombre said, her Gigantes moving between her and the Reptile.
"I've got Firestorm then." Yami nodded.
"Wait I have a…" Yugi didn't get the chance to say plan as he had to dive out of the way of the blaze that shot from Firestorm Prominence.
"Hey, pea brain!" Ombre bellowed, distracting the serpent, who seemed intent of washing her Gigantes away.
Fire shot from the crocodile's mouth, causing King's Knight to have to roll under the flames, attempting to attack the Fire attribute creature who just twatted the Knight with his tail, sending King's Knight sprawling and causing Yami to groan.
Ombre went crashing into a pillar as Silent Abyss attacked her with a powerful water spout instead of her monster.
"Everyone recall your monsters!" Yugi growled, moving between Yami and Firestorm Prominence.
"Yugi?"
"Trust me."
"But if we don't have any monsters out…"
"We don't need them." Yugi sounded certain.
"King's Knight, return." Yami put his faith in his hikari's plan and recalled his monster and, following his lead, everyone else did the same.
"Get to one side."
"No way, we're in on this too, Yugi."
"We have to get them to attack each other, they have the same attack strengths and each one is weak to the other and this way we won't lose our monsters." "I hope."
"I get it." Joey nodded as Yami gave Yugi a sharp look at the bit he hadn't said out loud.
Silent Abyss attacked from behind, causing Ombre and Joey to pounce on the group, pulling them to the ground.
The water spout shot over their heads, hitting Firestorm Prominence who roared and exploded, but fired off one last fireball, which hit Silent Abyss causing it to explode too and the water to recede.
When everything had fallen silent again and the last traces of both monsters were gone, Joey looked around.
"So we stopped the monsters, now what?"
Ombre was examining something behind the pillar she'd hit, touching a Capsule that revealed a really odd thing that looked vaguely like a sphinx but more like someone had decided that it wanted to play genetic experimentation. "Hello Criosphinx." Ombre nodded.
The 'sphinx' bowed and shot into her Capsule launcher, becoming a gold capsule which Ombre added to her belt.
The group wheeled around to look at where the fire had been when they had first entered the temple as the ground shook and something rose from the plinth.
"Egyptian text." Yami sounded more surprised then he probably should have.
"Can someone translate it please?" Joey asked.
"Sure."
"Uh huh."
"Certainly."
The three Mutos, who had spoken simultaneously, all looked at each other and laughed.
"You can read ancient Egyptian?" Serenity sounded… amused if anything, as if she had kind of expected it.
"Well Gramps used to be an Archaeologist, Yami's…" Joey trailed off.
"I was there when Marik was causing trouble, remember?" Serenity glared at him.
"Yami's from ancient Egypt, and Yugi was taught by…"
Heads went down, silence fell for a moment.
"Before the shadows blanket the land, go to the Fortress of Fear, locate the place where the spirits sleep and the pathway you seek will appear." Solomon's voice cut through their brooding, "Huh, I wonder what it means."
"Before shadows blanket the land probably refers to sunset." Yugi said, thinking quickly.
"I have an idea on the Fortress of Fear thing." Joey said, "I've been meaning to show this to you all day." He pulled a piece of parchment out of his back pocket and spread it out on the floor. "I think I found a map."
They gathered around it. "This has to be us, here." Yami pointed out the temple in the middle of the lake on the map.
"Which would make this the Fortress of Fear." Ombre nodded, pointing to the other marked building, "But that's the other side of the lake and it doesn't look close by any stretch of the imagination."
"If this is a Shadow Game, it has to be fair." Yami said, standing up and looking around, "Which means that it can't be impossible."
"So how do we get there?"
"Can Baby Dragon take us across the lake?" Serenity asked Joey who frowned.
"One at a time maybe, but it would take too long."
"So what do we do?"
"Well swimming isn't an option." Yugi said, glancing at his dark and then out the door at the water, which was glittering in the sunlight. "I'll go look for a boat."
"I'll come with you." Serenity said, feeling rather useless at the moment.
"We'll look around in here and see if there are any clues." Yami nodded.
Joey watched Yugi and Serenity go with narrowed eyes, making Yami laugh. "Relax Joey, I'd be more worried if it was Tristan or Duke going with her, you know Yugi won't try anything."
Joey just grumbled at him under his breath and started searching.
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Rebecca stretched and took a sip of her, now flat, coke cola, pausing in her research, to acknowledge the fact that she wasn't really sure what she was looking for.
It helped, having something to do, even if there was nothing she could do, and she'd decided that her best bet would be to research Indian myths and legends in order to see if they had any relevance to the current situation.
There was a part of her that just knew her old classmates would have laughed at her for this, those who she'd studied with at College would have thought her odd and dismissed it as childish, just as they'd dismissed her a child even though she had an IQ that was higher then most of theirs…
Her real friends had never done that. Not once, when she had needed to look through something to get information had they turned their back on her and left her to it, no, they had settled down in a chair right next to her and asked what she needed them to do.
They even pushed her to limits that she hadn't even realised she had on occasions, when they were pitting their brains against hers, or studying together or…
And even the older members of their family, Yugi and the others, had never been rude towards her when she hadn't been being a complete brat, and yes, she could admit being a brat towards them when she had first met them, but in her defence she had been a lot younger then…
It hurt, when she thought about Yugi.
She didn't know if she still loved him. Liked yes, as a friend, as a brother… but as a boyfriend?
She didn't know.
The same part of her that was growing up, had been able to see that Yugi hadn't really been happy as her date, and had been the same part of her that had decided against the love potion, even after everything she'd gone through to brew it without her friends' knowledge.
When did love stop being love and become obsession?
Yugi had enough obsessed fan girls… he didn't need his little sister acting like one.
However there were plenty of other things that she could do, and that she was good at, like matching up facts to figures and joining up the dots that she could see were related…
There were hundreds of tales of magic and gods in India, and she just knew something in there had to be relevant.
With a huge stack of books in front of her, a map of India to her right and her mobile phone to her left, Rebecca dove back into her books.
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"No boats." Yugi groaned, standing just to one side of the door, having walked the whole way around the temple and not really wanting to go back to Yami with the suggestion that they attempt swimming across. It had been hard enough getting him to jump into the lake in the first place.
"What should we do then?" Serenity asked, "Yami can't swim."
"I don't know." Yugi sighed, "The only thing I can think of is getting Baby Dragon to take Yami…" Yugi face palmed again, "That won't work."
"Why not?"
"Yami doesn't like heights, especially not on dragons. He has a good reason but…" Yugi sighed. "Sorry for ruining your vacation."
"Did you break our portkey?" Serenity asked.
"Well no, but…"
"Then it isn't your fault."
"I didn't break the portkey but things always get…" Yugi trailed off as Yami's voice echoed in his mind.
'Yugi, you and Serenity had better come quickly. I think we've found a route under the lake.'
"Yugi?" Serenity asked, worried.
"They've found something inside." Yugi said, forcing a smile and racing inside, "What's up?"
"Joey found a trap door." Yami said, giving his hikari a grin, "There's a passageway down there."
"Well there's no boats and you can't swim, so short of getting Baby Dragon to take us all across, this is our best bet."
"Let's go then."
They dropped down into the passageway, running along in the darkness, unsure how there was just enough light to see, even though there were no torches or lights of any kind.
"Wait up, I have short legs."
Yugi paused to let his Grandfather catch up, having forgotten how much faster they had all become over the last school year because of all the training they'd been doing and that his Grandfather was much older then they were.
"You alright, Grandpa?" Yugi asked, noting Yami had stopped a couple of meters on, waiting for them.
"I'm too old for this." Solomon panted, making Yugi freeze and look at his Grandfather, worry coursing through him.
"Gramps?" Joey called back, his voice lost in the darkness. "Yuge? Yams?"
"Yams?" Yami sounded completely disgusted, "Yams?"
"Uh oh…" Joey's voice echoed.
"I'd run if I were you." Ombre could be heard to be advising.
"Yams? Where?" Serenity's voice echoed, the sounds of a stomach rumbling sounding like a monster down here.
There was the sound of footsteps fleeing in the other direction and Yami took off after them.
"Come on, we'd better rescue Joey." Solomon chuckled.
Yugi nodded, amused, "Yami can be terrifying when he wants to be."
They caught up with them at the end of the tunnel, where the trap door was open and Ombre and Serenity helped them out, while Yami and Joey bickered at each other.
"So, where are we?" Yugi asked, trying to break up the mock-argument.
"Well," Joey got his map out as Yami considered the sky, "If I'm right, we're here." He pointed to a skull in a circle on the map.
"A cemetery?" Ombre frowned, thinking about all the zombie monsters in Duel Monsters, "That's not good."
"We don't have time to worry about it." Yami growled. "The sun will set soon and then we'll be stuck here."
"Which way?" Solomon asked.
"That way." Joey pointed north east, "At least, that's if we haven't been turned around…"
"Guys!" Yugi yelped, already sending out Celtic Guardian.
"What's wrong, Yugi?" Yami asked, then noticed what Yugi was looking at. "I thought the undead only came out at night?"
"What do you mean, the undead only come out at… ahhh zombies!" Joey yelped.
"There's too many." Ombre growled, as Solomon sent out his Summoned Skull.
"Release more monsters." Joey called, tapping two capsules at once.
Flame Swordsman and Panther Warrior moved between Joey and the zombies.
The zombies attacked.
Flame Swordsman and King's Knight were backing each other up and Summoned Skull took out the first couple of rows.
"Criosphinx! Attack!" Ombre bellowed, her sphinx following her orders and taking down the two zombies that were sneaking up behind Summoned Skull.
Panther Warrior struck from the trees, striking some of the monsters down that had only just come out of hiding.
"Celtic Guardian! Help Mystical Elf!" Yugi ordered as the Light Spellcaster was nearly overwhelmed.
"Yugi!"
"Serenity!"
The pair were getting further away from the main group, and had been cut off from the others.
"Serenity, behind you!" Yugi ducked under Serenity's out stretched arm and took the blow from a Zombie Servant, causing him to be knocked back into the young woman, and both went crashing into a pair of capsules.
Serenity wriggled out from underneath Yugi, moving between him and zombies. "Ancient one, take them out!"
Yugi watched in surprise as a huge blue dragon, with golden armour, long greenish fur that could almost be mistaken for hair, great white butterfly like wings and odd, spindly arms, took down all the zombies at once.
"Thank you, Ancient Fairy Dragon." Serenity bowed to the dragon, who appeared to bow back, closing its great golden eyes for a moment, before vanishing into a capsule.
Only then did Serenity turn to look at Yugi. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, thank you." Yugi nodded, his smile broken as he groaned when Serenity gave him a hand up, hand going to his chest where the blow had struck him.
"Yugi!" Yami rushed over, now that the zombies were gone.
"I'm fine." Yugi lied, steadying himself and standing up.
"Where does it hurt?" Serenity demanded, already calling her Mystical Elf over.
"We don't have time." Yugi shook his head, looking skyward to where the first tinges of red were already beginning to taint the sky.
"Kuriii!"
"Hi Boh." Yugi smiled slightly, recognising the Duel Monster instantly.
"Kuriii!" Kuriboh pushed Mystical Elf towards Yugi, ignoring Yugi's statement.
"Boh?" Yugi hesitated, chest constricting painfully, though he tried to hide it, "Can you hear me?" He sent towards the little fuzzball.
"What was that?" Joey asked his sister as she directed Mystical Elf to heal Yugi and Yugi gave up arguing since it was wasting time. "That dragon?"
This world is dangerous, Light Prince. Yugi's head shot towards the Kuriboh. It didn't sound like Boh, but at the same time... the voice was the same, the mannerisms were different. You should accept the healing. You still have time.
"Ancient Fairy Dragon." Serenity replied, as light surrounded Yugi and Yami sensed his hikari's pain lessening, "She's a Monster World Guardian who pledged her aid a couple of years back."
"Pledged her help?" Yami questioned as the light died and Yugi thanked Serenity profusely.
"Monster World Guardian?" Joey asked.
"I'll explain later." Serenity promised. "It's a long story."
"We have to go now." Yugi nodded his agreement of her statement. Yami hesitated and Yugi knew he wanted to make a fuss about Yugi's health, but there just wasn't time… "Kuriboh, return."
The Kuriboh gave him an odd look and they ran for it, towards the mountain.
"We are cutting this way too fine." Yugi growled, more to himself then anything.
'It'll be ok, we're nearly there. We'll make it.'
Yugi put on another burst of speed, reaching the bottom of the stairs, which led up the mountain and to the temple, touching a tree as he passed. "Touch wood."
'Nothing's going…'
"Don't jinx it!" Yugi yelped, glancing over his shoulder at his dark. "Whatever you do don't jinx it!"
'Sorry.' Yami sounded like he was chuckling, though Yugi could still sense his concern, 'You alright?'
"I'm fine." Yugi told his dark as he reached the top of the steps, pausing to catch his breath, "And here's the 'Fortress of Fear'."
'Really?' Yami paused at the top of the steps and looked around. "Well… this has to be the place…"
"Wow, it… looks… amazing." Serenity gasped.
"It would have… looked just as amazing…at the bottom of the mountain." Joey complained between breaths.
"Guys, sunset?" Ombre asked, looking over her shoulder to where the sun was just an hour from the horizon line.
"Let's go." Yami nodded, stepping towards the temple.
The ground shook and from it rose four great walls that sealed the Fortress inside and was made of stone that was too tall and too smooth to climb.
The wall in front of them looked like it had a doorway of some kind, with a symbol on it, a rectangle with a circle in each of the corners.
"Great, just great." Joey growled. "Anyone got any suggestions?"
How had she just known that something was going to go wrong with her family? Things always went wrong when the Clan was involved. At least this time she wasn't out of the loop, Mokuba had promised to call her when they had more information.
But it didn't help to stop the worrying. While she welcomed knowing what was going on with the general weirdness that was her family, she couldn't help feeling useless, as there was nothing that she could do to help.
"Are you paying any attention at all, Granger?" Jenny Farrent called across the field, as Hermione considered her hand.
This wasn't easy. She was too distracted to keep her mind on the duel, and if she wasn't careful, Jenny was going to win easily.
After her poor showing at the Tournament back in school, she had no intent of going down easy. "I play Card Destruction!" She called, discarding her entire hand, which included two level five Spellcasters and drew a new one, hoping for a particular card.
Which she didn't draw.
"Ra damn it." Hermione hissed, her deck was playing up too; she guessed it was because it could sense she didn't really want to be here, she wanted to be finding a way to get to Japan and help find the others. "I set a card in defence mode, play a card face down and end my turn."
Jenny considered the field as Hermione considered her options, she could forfeit the Duel, drop out of the tournament and try activating the locating part of the beacon that she and Kari had made, but without being there in person, it wouldn't do much more then point in the general direction that they were, not allow her to find them…
"I attack your face down card!" Jenny called, her Dunames Dark Witch attacking Hermione's card.
"I activate Draining Shield!" Hermione called.
Dunames Dark Witch hit the shield, and its attack point total was added to Hermione's life points, pushing her up from 300 to 2100.
"Fine, that ends my turn."
Of course Hermione had already thought to mention the beacons to Mokuba, who had said that he'd try them the moment he got off the phone and would call her much later with any answers they'd gotten since he'd last called.
Hermione drew, considered her hand and… "I sacrifice my Ancient Elf for the Dark Magician Girl!"
Hermione had to pause when Dark Magician Girl came to the field. Most of Kari's deck had gone to Ombre, when the hikari had died, but this Dark Magician Girl, specifically, had been left to Hermione.
"And I equip her with Magic Formula." Hermione continued, "Boosting her to 2700."
The Dark Magician Girl took a couple of moments to skim read the book, then turned her eyes back to her opponent.
"Dark Magician Girl, destroy Dunames Dark Witch!"
The Dark Magician Girl blasted away the fairy on the other side of the field, taking 900 points from Jenny's life points. "And play a card face down. That ends my turn."
Jenny scowled as she looked at the field, "I set a card face down and end my turn."
"Please, please please…" Hermione drew and grinned, "I set a card face down." She hesitated. Jenny didn't have enough life points left to survive another direct assault, so there had to be something Hermione was missing and it was probably to do with that face down card.
She didn't want to risk losing her Dark Magician Girl. "I play a monster in defence mode and end my turn."
Jenny grinned, "You should have attacked," She called, "My face down card's not a trap. I play Monster Reborn to bring back my Fallen Angel Superbia, allowing me to also call back my Athena from the Graveyard too."
Both fairies appeared on the field, making Hermione scowl.
"And I'll activate my face down Luminous Spark, to increase their attack by another five hundred."
"Oh." Hermione did the math quickly.
"Fallen Angel, attack her Magician Girl!" Dark Magician Girl screamed and vanished, making Hermione cringe. She hated it when that card was sent to the graveyard, "Athena, attack her directly!"
Hermione's points hit zero.
"I win." The crowd roared.
"Not quite." Hermione replied with a grin, "I activate Relay Soul."
Her Magician's Valkyria took the field.
"Your life points hit zero!" Jenny protested.
"I know, Relay Soul gets activated when my Life Points hit 0. It lets me special summon a monster from my hand and as long as that monster remains on the field, I can't lose."
"You won't last much longer anyway." Jenny snorted, "Your Valkyria is no match for my monsters."
"We'll see."
"I end my turn."
Luminous Spark was a field card, so it boosted Hermione's light monsters too, pushing her Valkyria up to 2100, no match for Jenny's two monsters, but she had a crazy idea… if she drew the right card. She drew.
"I remove from play two level five Spellcasters from my graveyard in order to summon my Millennium Witch to the field."
Her trump card, her partner card, appeared on the field, fiddling with her hat for a moment, before settling down, her points automatically going from 2900 to 3400, matching the fallen angel. "And I can use her special ability to boost my Valkyria's attack by 1500, making her more then a match for your Athena."
Valkyria hit 3600.
"Valkyria, attack Athena!" At 3100, Athena had no chance and exploded. "Millennium Witch, attack the fallen angel!"
Millennium Witch and Superbia exploded simultaneously. "Your move."
Jenny frowned, considering everything. "I set a card in defence mode and that's all I can do."
Hermione nodded as she drew. "Magician's Valkyria, attack her face down card!"
It flipped face up, and exploded, taking Valkyria with it and ending the game.
"What was that?" Hermione asked, partially glad that it was over and she could go worry about her family without being distracted now.
"Old Vindictive Magician." Jenny grinned. "Nice try though, better luck next time."
"Thanks, good luck in the next round." Hermione nodded and left.
She had other things to worry about…
She paused to think about it logically. She needed to speak to Harry, see if the link was active, and then if it was, see if he could find them.
One step at a time…
They'd find them.
Hopefully before something major happened…again.
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The sun was rising on the game world and they were all shattered.
Yugi had given up arguing with Joey about an hour ago and was currently having a piggy back because he was shattered from repeatedly using his magic to blind and repel the wolves that had stalked them downriver and chased them to the edge of the lake they were walking around now.
Yami had been sending energy down the link, draining himself to help Yugi stay awake, but when Solomon had realised what Yami was doing, he'd told Yami to stop it and that it would be better for Yugi to recover on his own, then for Yami to keel over later because he'd sent too much energy to his hikari.
Within a few minutes of Yami cutting the energy transfer, Yugi had fallen asleep.
The others were only better off by dint of not having used much magic, but everyone was hungry and only Yugi had gotten any sleep.
"Did we have to leave the bags behind?" Joey complained.
"We didn't exactly have time to grab them." Ombre pointed out quietly, trying not to wake Yugi.
"But I'm hungry…"
"We're all hungry." Yami growled back irritably.
"I don't see why we couldn't go back for them now." Ombre said, looking back as giving Serenity a reassuring smile that she didn't quite feel.
"Because we have no idea where they were." Solomon said firmly.
"We have to go back for the bags." Yami groaned something suddenly hitting him, "Our wands were in them…" He indicated himself and Yugi.
"I thought Yuge's was in his pocket." Joey frowned.
"He put it in his bag when we realised they were useless." Yami said, feeling like an idiot.
"I'll go." Joey nodded, "We were in a clearing to start with last night, it shouldn't be too hard to find it if I fly overhead with my Baby Dragon."
"Sorry."
"Hey, this means I get to find food. I'm not complaining." Joey grinned.
"Yugi…" Yami shook his hikari, who gave him a bleary eyed look.
"Hey… did I fall asleep? Sorry."
"It's ok, but Joey's going for the bags, so…" Joey dropped Yugi, who landed on his feet.
"You gonna be alright?" Yugi asked his best friend, concern obvious.
"I'll be ok, Yuge." Joey nodded, launching his capsule, and Baby Dragon gave them all a curious look. "Wait here, on the lake edge."
"We'll try not to go anywhere." Solomon nodded.
Joey and his dragon took off and they sat on the lake bank. "You know, it would be just our luck for some sort of water creature to pop out at us now." Yami growled.
"Touch wood it won't happen." Ombre said, quickly touching a tree.
"You alright Serenity?" Solomon asked as Yugi took off his trainers and socks and let his feet rest in the water.
"I thought this was a game." Serenity complained, sitting down next to Yugi, "Shouldn't it have rules and win conditions and things?"
"There should be rules and things, we just haven't found them yet." Yami said, agreeing full heartedly with Serenity's complaint.
"How is that fair?" Serenity asked. "What if we never find them?"
"We will." Yugi said confidently, though quietly. "We'll get out of here, we just need to find out what we're supposed to be doing and then do it."
Yami smiled slightly at the young man who was his guiding light, as Yugi leant back on his arms and looked up at the sky, trust Yugi to try and get everyone thinking positive. 'You should try to go back to sleep, you're still shattered.'
"You're tired too Yami. Should we find somewhere safe for everyone to rest?"
'Everyone's tired and hungry, aibou.' Yami replied, without anyone being aware they were talking.
"You feeling better?" Ombre asked Yugi, poking the young man who had suddenly started looking at his feet.
"The water's moving." Yugi's answer confused the spirit of the Orb until she saw the mountains that were over the other side of the lake were moving.
"Get away from the edge." Yami pulled Yugi away, while Ombre pulled Serenity away from the water.
"So… is it the scenery or us that is moving?" Ombre asked.
"Us, I think." Yugi said, forgetting his shoes and running the opposite way to the water flow, reaching the edge quickly, only to find something popping up from the water.
Yami pulled Yugi behind him as the huge head turned to look at them.
"Easy Yami, it's only an Island Turtle. They're pacifists." Yugi said, stepping out from behind his dark and smiling up at the Duel Monster. "No wonder those Wolves stopped chasing us, they probably didn't want to annoy the turtle."
The turtle's head disappeared underwater again and Yugi squeaked as the island started disappearing underwater. "Uh oh."
Solomon arrived, with Serenity and Ombre and holding Yugi's shoes, which the hikari quickly threw on, discarding the socks as he had too little time. "We have to jump."
"Jump?" Two horrified voices echoed each other. Yami and Ombre looked at each other.
"Into the water." Solomon nodded.
Yugi face palmed. "Kari tried to teach you how to swim." He groaned at Yami.
"You can't swim?" Serenity asked.
"Don't really have time for this." Solomon growled.
"I'll help you," Yugi promised, "But you have to jump in."
"Come on." Solomon growled, "If we stay on the back of here, the water displacement will pull us under." He jumped.
"I promise, Yami. I've got you." Yugi swore.
Ombre and Serenity jumped.
Yami nodded.
They jumped in.
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Ron Weasley wasn't sure how to react to the news.
His family were missing again.
There was a way these things normally panned out, and he was expecting to get a call saying that Harry was missing next.
When had the abnormal become quite this normal for him?
There was a reason that they were out here playing Quidditch, it was a distraction for the twins, Ginny and himself, to try to take their minds off the fact that the gang were missing and most likely in some sort of life threatening danger… again.
Why? Why was it always when he couldn't help?
The gang had been in America… Harry had gone missing… Yugi had been taken… Ombre kidnapped… and all he'd known was that Harry wasn't replying to any letters.
The snake, the Stone, the hut, Anubis… Voldemort…
There was a reason Ron ranted and raved at his friends when they were around. It was because whenever he wasn't, they would fall into situations where they could possibly get killed… and he would never know what happened to them.
Not only that but they then kept details from him, allowed him to make an idiot of himself and then kept their own council.
Did they ever phone him themselves… no.
But then Mokuba had said that there was a problem with their fellytones… tellyphones… so maybe they really hadn't been able to get help this time…
Always when Ron couldn't help, always when the Duel Monsters weren't around…
Ron scowled as he caught the Quaffle and threw it back at Fred.
Always when they were alone… stranded…
Ron weaved in and out of the hoops, ready for the next ball.
He'd rung Hermione, who had been unable to reach the gang who were missing, not that Ron found himself particularly surprised.
"Ron, heads up!" Ginny bellowed.
The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and the twins were stood over him.
"Honestly Ron, you're supposed to catch the Quaffle…"
"Not the Bludgers."
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Joey was worried.
The piece of land from earlier was missing.
So… new question. It the piece of land had vanished, did that mean that…
They did a sweep of the lake edges and then Joey directed his dragon towards the small temple like structure that he'd noticed when he'd taken off, in case they'd swum to that when the land had vanished, afraid that the rest of the land would vanish.
It looked quite old, Greek possibly from this angle, though he supposed if it was a game in a Roman Tomb then it was probably Roman, not Greek, and if he was right… it was on his map…
That reminded him, as Baby Dragon spiralled down and landed on the steps, he needed to show the others the…
Ombre was the only one awake, and she gave him a small smile as he nodded to her. They were all soaked, wet clothes clinging, hair drooping…
"What happened?" Joey hissed.
"The Island was an Island Turtle." Ombre hissed back, "Which decided it wanted to dive under."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Serenity stirred, blinking twice as she realised Joey had reached them and then he staggered backwards as she hugged him.
"Hey Serenity." Joey grinned as his sister pulled away, carefully setting the bags down. He looked over to Solomon, only to find that the old man was already awake. "Our clothes and stuff were all over the floor and the food's gone."
"What about the wands?"
"They're fine." Joey pulled two gold wands out of his back pocket, "They'll need polishing, but they're not damaged."
"That's good."
"Well if there's no food, I suppose we'd better wake the other two up." Ombre sighed.
There wasn't any need, the pair were already stirring, stretching and looking around as sleepy brains tried to catch up with current events.
Yugi, who was a morning person naturally, was the first to stand up, poking his dark side; who most certainly wasn't and took another couple of minutes.
"Thanks Joey." Yugi smiled, accepting his wand.
"Food?" Yami asked, taking his wand from Joey and shoving it in his pocket.
"The food was gone, I think some of the clothes were wreaked too." Joey scowled, "Looks like the wolves tore apart the stuff in the bags when we vanished."
"Damn." Yami would have started checking his stuff over, but there was a loud noise from behind him and he wheeled around in time to see the temple doors open inwards of their own accord.
"Huh, think obvious game clue much?"
"Don't complain, just accept the hint." Yugi said, hefting his bag onto his shoulder.
"It could be trap."
"Yes, but currently it's the only clue we have to what we're actually supposed to be doing." Yugi pointed out.
"I'll take point." Yami said instantly, picking up his bag and walking over to the door.
"Wait up!" Joey growled at him, chasing him inside.
"Yami!" Yugi was gone next.
"Come on, we'll lose them at this rate." Ombre scowled.
Serenity hesitated.
"You're safer with them then out here." Solomon recommended, halfway through the door, "They're the best people to be around when it comes to magical games, besides, we're going to have to play through this game in order to escape."
Serenity nodded and followed last, entering the temple, where a fire raged on the steps to the front, but there seemed to be little else.
"This has got to be a…"
The doors slammed shut behind them.
"Trap." Yugi, Yami and Joey groaned simultaneously.
"We have to go forward anyway in order to complete the game." Yugi said, turning away from the doors and reaching for his capsule as the fire seemed to dance, the smoke curling up and around the ceiling and vanishing through a hole in the roof.
The fire appeared to solidify, forming into a blazing crocodile that stomped towards them.
'Great, just great.' Yami scowled, as the group launched their capsules, "Everyone be careful, that's a Firestorm Prominence, I don't know if it has the same abilities as it does in Duel Monsters but…"
"Oh no…" Yugi breathed, remembering its effect in the card game.
"Yuge, what does it do?" Joey asked nervously.
He didn't have time to answer as the doors slammed open and a wave of water shot through the door, flowing around Solomon, Ombre and Serenity and seeming to settle, as if held in place by some force, allowing a huge black water serpent to rise from the waves.
"Silent Abyss… brilliant." Yugi's tone was heavy with sarcasm.
"Another one with an insane effect?" Joey asked.
"In Duel Monsters, when Silent Abyss is destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard, it destroys all face down and non-Water monsters. Firestorm Prominence does the same but for non-Fire…" Yugi trailed off, a thought striking him.
"I've got Silent Abyss." Ombre said, her Gigantes moving between her and the Reptile.
"I've got Firestorm then." Yami nodded.
"Wait I have a…" Yugi didn't get the chance to say plan as he had to dive out of the way of the blaze that shot from Firestorm Prominence.
"Hey, pea brain!" Ombre bellowed, distracting the serpent, who seemed intent of washing her Gigantes away.
Fire shot from the crocodile's mouth, causing King's Knight to have to roll under the flames, attempting to attack the Fire attribute creature who just twatted the Knight with his tail, sending King's Knight sprawling and causing Yami to groan.
Ombre went crashing into a pillar as Silent Abyss attacked her with a powerful water spout instead of her monster.
"Everyone recall your monsters!" Yugi growled, moving between Yami and Firestorm Prominence.
"Yugi?"
"Trust me."
"But if we don't have any monsters out…"
"We don't need them." Yugi sounded certain.
"King's Knight, return." Yami put his faith in his hikari's plan and recalled his monster and, following his lead, everyone else did the same.
"Get to one side."
"No way, we're in on this too, Yugi."
"We have to get them to attack each other, they have the same attack strengths and each one is weak to the other and this way we won't lose our monsters." "I hope."
"I get it." Joey nodded as Yami gave Yugi a sharp look at the bit he hadn't said out loud.
Silent Abyss attacked from behind, causing Ombre and Joey to pounce on the group, pulling them to the ground.
The water spout shot over their heads, hitting Firestorm Prominence who roared and exploded, but fired off one last fireball, which hit Silent Abyss causing it to explode too and the water to recede.
When everything had fallen silent again and the last traces of both monsters were gone, Joey looked around.
"So we stopped the monsters, now what?"
Ombre was examining something behind the pillar she'd hit, touching a Capsule that revealed a really odd thing that looked vaguely like a sphinx but more like someone had decided that it wanted to play genetic experimentation. "Hello Criosphinx." Ombre nodded.
The 'sphinx' bowed and shot into her Capsule launcher, becoming a gold capsule which Ombre added to her belt.
The group wheeled around to look at where the fire had been when they had first entered the temple as the ground shook and something rose from the plinth.
"Egyptian text." Yami sounded more surprised then he probably should have.
"Can someone translate it please?" Joey asked.
"Sure."
"Uh huh."
"Certainly."
The three Mutos, who had spoken simultaneously, all looked at each other and laughed.
"You can read ancient Egyptian?" Serenity sounded… amused if anything, as if she had kind of expected it.
"Well Gramps used to be an Archaeologist, Yami's…" Joey trailed off.
"I was there when Marik was causing trouble, remember?" Serenity glared at him.
"Yami's from ancient Egypt, and Yugi was taught by…"
Heads went down, silence fell for a moment.
"Before the shadows blanket the land, go to the Fortress of Fear, locate the place where the spirits sleep and the pathway you seek will appear." Solomon's voice cut through their brooding, "Huh, I wonder what it means."
"Before shadows blanket the land probably refers to sunset." Yugi said, thinking quickly.
"I have an idea on the Fortress of Fear thing." Joey said, "I've been meaning to show this to you all day." He pulled a piece of parchment out of his back pocket and spread it out on the floor. "I think I found a map."
They gathered around it. "This has to be us, here." Yami pointed out the temple in the middle of the lake on the map.
"Which would make this the Fortress of Fear." Ombre nodded, pointing to the other marked building, "But that's the other side of the lake and it doesn't look close by any stretch of the imagination."
"If this is a Shadow Game, it has to be fair." Yami said, standing up and looking around, "Which means that it can't be impossible."
"So how do we get there?"
"Can Baby Dragon take us across the lake?" Serenity asked Joey who frowned.
"One at a time maybe, but it would take too long."
"So what do we do?"
"Well swimming isn't an option." Yugi said, glancing at his dark and then out the door at the water, which was glittering in the sunlight. "I'll go look for a boat."
"I'll come with you." Serenity said, feeling rather useless at the moment.
"We'll look around in here and see if there are any clues." Yami nodded.
Joey watched Yugi and Serenity go with narrowed eyes, making Yami laugh. "Relax Joey, I'd be more worried if it was Tristan or Duke going with her, you know Yugi won't try anything."
Joey just grumbled at him under his breath and started searching.
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Rebecca stretched and took a sip of her, now flat, coke cola, pausing in her research, to acknowledge the fact that she wasn't really sure what she was looking for.
It helped, having something to do, even if there was nothing she could do, and she'd decided that her best bet would be to research Indian myths and legends in order to see if they had any relevance to the current situation.
There was a part of her that just knew her old classmates would have laughed at her for this, those who she'd studied with at College would have thought her odd and dismissed it as childish, just as they'd dismissed her a child even though she had an IQ that was higher then most of theirs…
Her real friends had never done that. Not once, when she had needed to look through something to get information had they turned their back on her and left her to it, no, they had settled down in a chair right next to her and asked what she needed them to do.
They even pushed her to limits that she hadn't even realised she had on occasions, when they were pitting their brains against hers, or studying together or…
And even the older members of their family, Yugi and the others, had never been rude towards her when she hadn't been being a complete brat, and yes, she could admit being a brat towards them when she had first met them, but in her defence she had been a lot younger then…
It hurt, when she thought about Yugi.
She didn't know if she still loved him. Liked yes, as a friend, as a brother… but as a boyfriend?
She didn't know.
The same part of her that was growing up, had been able to see that Yugi hadn't really been happy as her date, and had been the same part of her that had decided against the love potion, even after everything she'd gone through to brew it without her friends' knowledge.
When did love stop being love and become obsession?
Yugi had enough obsessed fan girls… he didn't need his little sister acting like one.
However there were plenty of other things that she could do, and that she was good at, like matching up facts to figures and joining up the dots that she could see were related…
There were hundreds of tales of magic and gods in India, and she just knew something in there had to be relevant.
With a huge stack of books in front of her, a map of India to her right and her mobile phone to her left, Rebecca dove back into her books.
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"No boats." Yugi groaned, standing just to one side of the door, having walked the whole way around the temple and not really wanting to go back to Yami with the suggestion that they attempt swimming across. It had been hard enough getting him to jump into the lake in the first place.
"What should we do then?" Serenity asked, "Yami can't swim."
"I don't know." Yugi sighed, "The only thing I can think of is getting Baby Dragon to take Yami…" Yugi face palmed again, "That won't work."
"Why not?"
"Yami doesn't like heights, especially not on dragons. He has a good reason but…" Yugi sighed. "Sorry for ruining your vacation."
"Did you break our portkey?" Serenity asked.
"Well no, but…"
"Then it isn't your fault."
"I didn't break the portkey but things always get…" Yugi trailed off as Yami's voice echoed in his mind.
'Yugi, you and Serenity had better come quickly. I think we've found a route under the lake.'
"Yugi?" Serenity asked, worried.
"They've found something inside." Yugi said, forcing a smile and racing inside, "What's up?"
"Joey found a trap door." Yami said, giving his hikari a grin, "There's a passageway down there."
"Well there's no boats and you can't swim, so short of getting Baby Dragon to take us all across, this is our best bet."
"Let's go then."
They dropped down into the passageway, running along in the darkness, unsure how there was just enough light to see, even though there were no torches or lights of any kind.
"Wait up, I have short legs."
Yugi paused to let his Grandfather catch up, having forgotten how much faster they had all become over the last school year because of all the training they'd been doing and that his Grandfather was much older then they were.
"You alright, Grandpa?" Yugi asked, noting Yami had stopped a couple of meters on, waiting for them.
"I'm too old for this." Solomon panted, making Yugi freeze and look at his Grandfather, worry coursing through him.
"Gramps?" Joey called back, his voice lost in the darkness. "Yuge? Yams?"
"Yams?" Yami sounded completely disgusted, "Yams?"
"Uh oh…" Joey's voice echoed.
"I'd run if I were you." Ombre could be heard to be advising.
"Yams? Where?" Serenity's voice echoed, the sounds of a stomach rumbling sounding like a monster down here.
There was the sound of footsteps fleeing in the other direction and Yami took off after them.
"Come on, we'd better rescue Joey." Solomon chuckled.
Yugi nodded, amused, "Yami can be terrifying when he wants to be."
They caught up with them at the end of the tunnel, where the trap door was open and Ombre and Serenity helped them out, while Yami and Joey bickered at each other.
"So, where are we?" Yugi asked, trying to break up the mock-argument.
"Well," Joey got his map out as Yami considered the sky, "If I'm right, we're here." He pointed to a skull in a circle on the map.
"A cemetery?" Ombre frowned, thinking about all the zombie monsters in Duel Monsters, "That's not good."
"We don't have time to worry about it." Yami growled. "The sun will set soon and then we'll be stuck here."
"Which way?" Solomon asked.
"That way." Joey pointed north east, "At least, that's if we haven't been turned around…"
"Guys!" Yugi yelped, already sending out Celtic Guardian.
"What's wrong, Yugi?" Yami asked, then noticed what Yugi was looking at. "I thought the undead only came out at night?"
"What do you mean, the undead only come out at… ahhh zombies!" Joey yelped.
"There's too many." Ombre growled, as Solomon sent out his Summoned Skull.
"Release more monsters." Joey called, tapping two capsules at once.
Flame Swordsman and Panther Warrior moved between Joey and the zombies.
The zombies attacked.
Flame Swordsman and King's Knight were backing each other up and Summoned Skull took out the first couple of rows.
"Criosphinx! Attack!" Ombre bellowed, her sphinx following her orders and taking down the two zombies that were sneaking up behind Summoned Skull.
Panther Warrior struck from the trees, striking some of the monsters down that had only just come out of hiding.
"Celtic Guardian! Help Mystical Elf!" Yugi ordered as the Light Spellcaster was nearly overwhelmed.
"Yugi!"
"Serenity!"
The pair were getting further away from the main group, and had been cut off from the others.
"Serenity, behind you!" Yugi ducked under Serenity's out stretched arm and took the blow from a Zombie Servant, causing him to be knocked back into the young woman, and both went crashing into a pair of capsules.
Serenity wriggled out from underneath Yugi, moving between him and zombies. "Ancient one, take them out!"
Yugi watched in surprise as a huge blue dragon, with golden armour, long greenish fur that could almost be mistaken for hair, great white butterfly like wings and odd, spindly arms, took down all the zombies at once.
"Thank you, Ancient Fairy Dragon." Serenity bowed to the dragon, who appeared to bow back, closing its great golden eyes for a moment, before vanishing into a capsule.
Only then did Serenity turn to look at Yugi. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, thank you." Yugi nodded, his smile broken as he groaned when Serenity gave him a hand up, hand going to his chest where the blow had struck him.
"Yugi!" Yami rushed over, now that the zombies were gone.
"I'm fine." Yugi lied, steadying himself and standing up.
"Where does it hurt?" Serenity demanded, already calling her Mystical Elf over.
"We don't have time." Yugi shook his head, looking skyward to where the first tinges of red were already beginning to taint the sky.
"Kuriii!"
"Hi Boh." Yugi smiled slightly, recognising the Duel Monster instantly.
"Kuriii!" Kuriboh pushed Mystical Elf towards Yugi, ignoring Yugi's statement.
"Boh?" Yugi hesitated, chest constricting painfully, though he tried to hide it, "Can you hear me?" He sent towards the little fuzzball.
"What was that?" Joey asked his sister as she directed Mystical Elf to heal Yugi and Yugi gave up arguing since it was wasting time. "That dragon?"
This world is dangerous, Light Prince. Yugi's head shot towards the Kuriboh. It didn't sound like Boh, but at the same time... the voice was the same, the mannerisms were different. You should accept the healing. You still have time.
"Ancient Fairy Dragon." Serenity replied, as light surrounded Yugi and Yami sensed his hikari's pain lessening, "She's a Monster World Guardian who pledged her aid a couple of years back."
"Pledged her help?" Yami questioned as the light died and Yugi thanked Serenity profusely.
"Monster World Guardian?" Joey asked.
"I'll explain later." Serenity promised. "It's a long story."
"We have to go now." Yugi nodded his agreement of her statement. Yami hesitated and Yugi knew he wanted to make a fuss about Yugi's health, but there just wasn't time… "Kuriboh, return."
The Kuriboh gave him an odd look and they ran for it, towards the mountain.
"We are cutting this way too fine." Yugi growled, more to himself then anything.
'It'll be ok, we're nearly there. We'll make it.'
Yugi put on another burst of speed, reaching the bottom of the stairs, which led up the mountain and to the temple, touching a tree as he passed. "Touch wood."
'Nothing's going…'
"Don't jinx it!" Yugi yelped, glancing over his shoulder at his dark. "Whatever you do don't jinx it!"
'Sorry.' Yami sounded like he was chuckling, though Yugi could still sense his concern, 'You alright?'
"I'm fine." Yugi told his dark as he reached the top of the steps, pausing to catch his breath, "And here's the 'Fortress of Fear'."
'Really?' Yami paused at the top of the steps and looked around. "Well… this has to be the place…"
"Wow, it… looks… amazing." Serenity gasped.
"It would have… looked just as amazing…at the bottom of the mountain." Joey complained between breaths.
"Guys, sunset?" Ombre asked, looking over her shoulder to where the sun was just an hour from the horizon line.
"Let's go." Yami nodded, stepping towards the temple.
The ground shook and from it rose four great walls that sealed the Fortress inside and was made of stone that was too tall and too smooth to climb.
The wall in front of them looked like it had a doorway of some kind, with a symbol on it, a rectangle with a circle in each of the corners.
"Great, just great." Joey growled. "Anyone got any suggestions?"