Chapter 8: - Maze
Seven hours, twenty seven minutes and forty two seconds after they had arrived in this forest that appeared to be heavily populated by fruit and little else, and Yugi had yet to wake up.
Not that Yami was timing at all.
Joey had woken around an hour ago, and had spent the greater majority of his time stuffing his face full of fruit, rather juicy, soft, delicious… Yami was waiting for Yugi, but the others had all eaten for what felt like the first time days and now felt refreshed and restored.
Joey was currently staying away from the group, pacing the outside of the group's little campsite, keeping an eye out for wild monsters, not that there appeared to be any, Yami could guess why, he was probably feeling guilty.
Yugi would want to speak to his friend upon waking. Yami would have to make sure that Joey didn't wander off again.
"You should eat something." Solomon brought over a few of the plum like fruits for Yami to try.
"I'm not hungry."
"Yami…"
"I'll eat once Yugi wakes up."
"He won't be happy if he wakes up and finds you've turned away food because he's injured."
A phrase Kari had once used about pots and kettles sprang to mind, but Yami took one of the fruits, and took a bite, enjoying the juice, suddenly feeling stronger then he had since he'd given Yugi the boost after the wolves. "What?"
"I'm guessing that they were put in the game to give those playing a fair chance and the next couple of trials. Anyone who reached this point was probably as tired and injured as we are." Solomon watched Joey walk past, limping slightly from the bruising his leg had sustained, "Doesn't heal injuries though, just restores energy and eases pain."
"Better then nothing." Yami nodded, finishing one fruit and taking another. He was on his third when it exploded in a cloud of white smoke, to be replaced by a rather less tasty scroll. Yami glared, willing the scroll to burst into flames. "Guys!" He held it up, making the others look.
"Now we wait for Yugi." Ombre nodded as Serenity came to Yugi's side again, checking his pulse again, just as she had every half hour for the last few hours.
"Steady… even…" She bit her lip, berating herself for forgetting to stock up her medkit before she'd left. She was sure he was just sleeping at this point, but she wondered if she should get her Ancient Fairy Dragon to use her power again.
Her eyes flickered to her brother, who had steadfastly refused her help, guilt preventing him from seeking relief. He was being kept an eye on by the aforementioned dragon, at Serenity's request.
Yami closed his eyes, taking his hikari's hand in his. Ombre, realising what Yami was up to quickly gathered more fruit, knowing that both Pharaoh and Heir would need some if what the Pharaoh was trying worked.
Yami's face had paled considerably and his breathing was heavy when he finally opened his eyes and Yugi finally started stirring.
"Eat. Now." Ombre snarled, shoving an apple under Yami's nose, as he curled in on himself, still panting heavily, more then exhausted, having given Yugi over three quarters of the energy the fruit had returned to him.
"Y…Yami?" Yugi asked as he opened his eyes, confused at his dark half's exhaustion and at his own energy boost.
"Hey…hikari…" Yami smiled slightly, straightening to hide how tired he was and knowing it was a failing effort when Yugi gave him a worried look.
"I told you not to…" Yugi got it.
"It's okay for him to do it." Ombre interrupted Yugi, as she helped him sit up and gave him a plum as Yami tucked into his apple, "The fruit around here restores energy and take the edge off of pain, your Grandfather thinks they're to balance out the playing field for the last tasks."
"Maybe." Yugi relaxed slightly when he sensed Yami's magic levels rise again, and tucked into the pile of fruit. The pair of them demolished it rather quickly, causing Ombre to make a comment around the lines of 'and I thought Joey was bad when he's hungry.'
While the comment made the others smile, it did little more then cause Yugi to look around, to try and see his friend, who was currently skulking in the trees, avoiding them.
"Joey? You eaten?" Yugi asked concern obvious.
Joey nodded, but didn't come any closer.
Yugi's shoulders sank, knowing what this was about. "Joey…"
"What does the scroll say?" Joey responded, not wanting to talk about it, and trying to distract Yugi.
Yugi frowned but looked at his Grandfather, who unfolded the scroll, "Choose the apple that gives you a raise, then offer it up in the Sacred Maze." Solomon read, causing the gang to look around at the fruit trees around them, groaning when they saw there were ten or fifteen apple trees in sight of here alone.
"I hope we haven't eaten it." Yugi murmured, looking at the pile of apple cores.
"I wouldn't have thought so." Solomon said, reassuringly as Yami got up and helped Yugi to his feet. "Surely it would look unusual enough to be noticeable."
"We were rather hungry…" Yugi hesitated.
"What does it mean, give you a raise?" Serenity asked. "Raise our energy? Our magic…?"
"It's rather unhelpfully vague."
"Mystical but not particularly helpful…." Yami snorted, something hitting him.
"What?" Yugi asked, poking his dark side.
"Nothing, nothing." Yami smirked, "Just a thought."
"Shall we look for this apple then?" Yugi asked, hesitating as he took a step forward, trying to hide a wince. Luckily Serenity, who had been stashing a few fruits in her bag, missed it.
"Apple, maze, next task, home." Ombre nods, closing her bag, having joined Serenity in stashing fruit.
"Let's go."
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"You're late." Mai scowled, having waited at the gates to the theme park where the Stroder Corp Tournament was being held, for the trio now rushing through the gates. "You were supposed to be here half an hour ago, registration closes in ten minutes."
"Sorry." Sirius scowled as Mai rushed them towards the registrars, "We would have been here on time, but someone refused to get off the phone and get ready." Sirius indicated Harry who was pulling out his Duellist card and invite from his pocket, while trying not to be amused that his Godfather, who normally fawned over the blonde haired, purple eyed Duellist, was so irritated at Harry that he was actually behaving for a change.
"Girl trouble?" Mai teased Harry with a grin, having noticed Sirius's change in attitude herself.
"I wish." Harry scowled as he registered quickly, "I was on the phone to Mokuba."
"Mokuba Kaiba?" Mai looked confused, "Why?"
Harry sighed. "There's trouble."
"Again?" Mai frowned, as they headed for the centre of the park, where the opening ceremony was due to kick off in half an hour. "What is it this time? Evil cults? Crazed wizards…?"
"Pyramids in the wrong place."
"That's… new…"
"Not completely." Harry disagreed, "At least this one is a real pyramid, not like the Pyramid of Light a few years ago…"
"I heard about that in the news." Mai frowned, "No one knew where it came from or what it was for, it was assumed that it was a Kaiba Corp experiment gone wrong."
"You could say that." Harry snorted, a small smile crossing his face for a moment, "Seto got a hold of a card that could stop the God cards and decided to test it out."
"What?" Mai stared, her eyes wide.
"He got a hold of a card that could stop the God cards and decided to test it out." Harry rolled his eyes, "And it worked."
"So why hasn't he used it since?" Mai asked.
"It wasn't a real card, it was created by Anubis, Lord of the Dead, in an attempt to get his revenge on Yami, and it created a Shadow Game where every time someone lost life points, it drained some of their life energy, in order to give Anubis the power he needed to come back to life." Harry replied, "Yugi and Yami nearly died and Seto got possessed."
"Oh…" Mai nodded, understanding why Kaiba would be hesitant to play that card again.
"Yeah." Harry agreed.
"So this Pyramid is better then that one?" Mai asked, stopping far enough away from the group that was gathered to talk, but close enough to be able to hear when the announcements started.
"We hope so." Harry nodded, "But we'll know more when Seto and Mokuba finally join up with the search party. If they're not back by tomorrow night, we're heading over to try to help."
"What is it with those guys and getting into trouble? I'll come with you, if they're not back." Mai sighed, watching the Duellists who were gathered, interacting. "You do realise that this is going to be your test right?"
"What do you mean?" Harry frowned.
"Up until this point you've been playing small time opponents." Mai explained, "Oh don't get me wrong, that French tournament we met at had some decent duellists, and it was enough to get you noticed, but there's a lot of big names here, and it's going to be interesting."
Harry looked around, wondering why Mai was so concerned. "What do you…" Harry paused, faces matching up to second hand memories, "Weevil, Mako, Espa…" He pointed to each in turn for his Godfather's and cousin's sakes, "None of our lot, except us of course, but they were supposed to be on holiday…"
"You know them?"
"Heard of them." Harry shook his head, "Yugi told me a lot about his opponents."
"What did he say about me?" Mai asked, curious.
"That you're a fantastic Duellist, an honourable one too and that he was looking forward to Duelling against you."
Mai preened slightly, making Harry smile.
"Do you two want anything to eat or drink?" Sirius asked, noting that Dudley seemed bored and remembering that Harry had made him promise to let him wander around on his own for a while.
"I'm not hungry." Mai shook her head, "But I could use a coffee."
"Harry?"
"Coke and a sandwich or something, since you wouldn't let me get breakfast."
"You were the one made us…" Sirius growled, gave up and stomped off, Dudley in tow.
"How long do you think it'll take them?"
"Considering that Dudley doesn't speak German and Sirius will get lost if he gets distracted by a pretty girl…"
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"I… what the…?" Yugi stared at the edge of world barrier that he had literally just walked through.
"You ok, Yuge?" Joey asked, having been one of the pair that had dragged Yugi back through the barrier, rescuing him from the void.
"I'm ok." Yugi gave his friend a reassuring smile, relieved to have Joey finally say something to him.
"Well if you had any doubt that we were in the Shadow Realm…" Ombre scowled at the barrier which separated the world they were in from the rest of the Shadow Realm.
"I thought maybe…" Serenity hesitated, "We're really fully immersed in the Shadow Realm?"
"It must have taken an incredible amount of power to create a whole world like this." Yami commented, now sticking closer then ever to his hikari, "It doesn't surprise me that the boundaries would be thin, if this game has been set up as long as we think it has. The rest of the Shadow Realm has probably been eroding the power protecting this world."
"It's dangerous." Solomon frowned at the barrier, "You can't tell that the world ends here, if we hadn't been here…"
"Do you think anyone else has fallen out of the game and into the Shadows?" Serenity asked, worried.
"Well, we're just going to have to make sure that we don't do the same." Yugi said, taking a deep breath and looking around. "Plus side, this means there's less area to search."
"I am not searching through an entire forest waving my arms in front of me to check whether or not there's a world barrier in front of me." Yami growled.
"Well, we could head back to that giant watermelon and see if there's anything else odd about it." Yugi suggested, "If we weren't looking for an apple, it would have screamed suspicious."
"It's the most suspicious looking thing here." Yami agreed.
"I'm wondering when a giant watermelon became suspicious." Solomon looked at his grandsons with a small, amused smile.
"When it was the only fruit in the whole forest that was bigger then usual, plus it was embedded in the ground." Yami pointed out.
"I bet it turns out to be a worm of some kind." Yugi giggled. "Or a larvae." There was silence for a while as they started heading back, "No one willing to take the bet?" Yugi challenged with a laugh.
"I'll take it." Solomon nodded when no one else would, "I'll bet you a day's shop duty that it's actually blocking the way to a hidden passageway."
"Deal." Yugi and his Grandfather shook on it. They headed back to the clearing, where the watermelon in question was, only to find that it was gone, and a tunnel that led downwards and to the south east, had replaced it.
"You owe me a day's shop duty." Solomon told his Grandson, as Joey helped his sister down into the hole.
"I know, I'll take an extra day when we get back." Yugi nodded, more concerned about what had taken or eaten the giant fruit, and taking point as they headed downwards, along a surprisingly well lit tunnel, which led to a huge room.
On the other side of the room, revealed to them only by the light from there, brightly glowing, glowing objects on the top of three rather tall pillars, at the top of a small flight of stairs, was a stone alter.
"So there's the alter we have to offer the apple on…" Yugi murmured.
"So those," Yami indicated the glowing objects, "Are probably the apples." Yami stepped forward but Yugi put his arm out to block his dark side.
"I don't think I owe you anything Grandpa." He said, indicating something moving at the bottom of the stairs.
Ombre would have asked why, except the melon that had been blocking the passageway, had crept around the corner, revealing itself to be a bug of some kind. What kind it was, was hard to work out since they couldn't tell what colour it was or see the markings properly other then its head looked like the melon.
"No, it appears not." Solomon agreed, "It appears we were both correct."
"Stay here." Yugi requested, going to launch his Sunset Magician capsule, only to find that it was still silver. "Oh…"
"He probably needs a rest." Solomon advised Yugi, who nodded worried.
"Let us handle this." Ombre sent out her Criosphinx, intending to send the sphinx to collect one of the fruit.
Unfortunately at that moment the ground started shaking.
"What did you do?" Serenity yelped as the square tiles started rising and falling, forming walls around them.
Yugi attempted to leap from the tile that was moving under his feet, to one a bit closer to his Grandfather or Yami, but was hit by a tile that was coming up out of the ground and he hit the floor, a pained squeak escaping as he held his ribs, which had been bruised enough as it was before he'd been hit by the rising stone.
Then they lost sight of both him and Joey as the pair was sent off in one direction, Yami and Serenity in another and Solomon and Ombre in a third, the walls closing behind them and a roof appearing above them, imprisoning them all within the maze.
"Serenity!" Joey pounded the wall, trying to break through as Yugi got up with a light whimper, leaning on the wall.
'Yugi?'
"Yami?" Yugi and Yami breathed a sigh of relief as their mental calls reached each other at the same time.
'You're…'
"Joey and I are fine." Yugi sent reassurance down the link, sensing Yami's concern. "What about you?"
'I'm ok, Serenity is too.' Yami replied, 'I don't know where Ombre and Grandpa are.'
"I hope they're alright… I'll tell you if anything happens, try and find the exit, we'll meet you there."
'Be careful.'
"You too." Yugi turned to face Joey, "Joey, Serenity's ok, she's with Yami."
"You're sure?" Joey asked, wheeling around to glare at him.
"I can still hear Yami." Yugi nodded, "The room was big, but not that big. He told me she's alright, I told them to head for the exit."
"She'd better be alright otherwise I'm going to do something drastic…" Joey grumbled.
Yugi chuckled, offering Joey a small smile. "I'll help, if you like."
Joey went to make a comment, then closed his mouth, shook his head and slunk off around the corner.
"Joey!" Yugi yelped. He would have chased after him, but a moment later Joey came sheepishly back around the corner.
"Dead end." He explained.
Yugi stood between his friend and the only other route out. "We need to talk."
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"Are you alright, Mr Muto?" Ombre asked as she recalled her sphinx, concerned for the elderly man who had taken her in when she'd had no where else to go.
"Did I mention I'm getting too old for this?" Solomon complained as he looked up at the roof, half joking, smiling as he caught the look on Ombre's face. "I'm ok, Ombre. Thank you for asking."
Ombre just shrugged.
"And how many times to I have to ask you to call me Grandpa?" He asked, as he considered their routes. They were at a crossroads. One route was obviously blocked, since he remembered the path being blocked off behind them, which left three routes they could try.
Ombre just smiled lightly, the smile not reaching her eyes as she turned to look down the left route. "Mr…" She paused, "Grandpa, this way."
"You know the route?" Solomon frowned as he followed her down the path she had chosen.
"No, I don't remember it." Ombre shook her head, turning left at the next junction, tapping the Orb that hung from the chain around her neck. "But someone who held this came through here and the Orb stores the memories of those who hold it."
"Then you've known what we're supposed to be doing the whole way through?"
"No… well yes, but I didn't want to say anything. These are Yugi's trials, I didn't want to influence him in any way."
"Even if we could have been stuck here?"
"I wouldn't have let that happen."
"Then why did you tell Yugi to destroy the dragon in the last task?"
"Destroying the dragon would have revealed the sword and we would have been able to destroy it."
"Let me guess, the person whose memories that you hold had no love for Red Eyes?"
"It wasn't Red Eyes," She offered the capsule that they'd come across to him. "It was a Pyro monster that the Orb bearer's closest advisor was friends with."
Solomon tapped the capsule, still unsure about Ombre's stand on the situation, having to move back rather quickly as a huge stone golem appeared, breaking through the left wall and the ceiling.
"Well, you'll come in handy." Solomon grinned, "Can you see the Alter from here?"
The Ancient Giant raised its arm, knocking down more of the wall and roof, pointing right.
"Clear us a path." Solomon ordered.
"Mr Muto…" Ombre protested as the golem proceeded to knock down all the walls in their way.
"I don't care how the last man you remember coming through here completed this task. My grandsons' are hurt and lost in this maze and I'm going to find them." Solomon warned her.
Ombre frowned but said nothing as they broke through wall after wall. They travelled in silence for a moment, then, "You're not going to say anything, are you?" She asked, hesitantly after they had broken through several walls.
"How much do you know that you're not telling them?"
"I know more then I should, but less then I used to." Ombre said cryptically, thinking of the amount of memories she'd traded with the Shadows to get them to allow her to recover the fragments of Kari's soul, "Even if I was helping Yugi, which I shouldn't, other then to give him backup, I would be unable to help him during the last trial."
"Why?"
"The Orb Bearer failed it."
Silence again.
"I won't tell him, Ombre, but if you have any knowledge that could help my Grandsons and they get seriously hurt because you didn't share it…"
"I understand."
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Serenity screeched as a Wall Shadow shot out of the wall and took a swipe at her, ducking under the attack and letting Yami's Dark Magician attempt to blast it.
The Warrior monster retreated back into the wall, the Dark Magic Attack bouncing off and nearly hitting the Pharaoh, who had to dive out of the way himself.
"Serenity, are you alright?" Yami asked, dashing over, keeping an eye out for the Wall Shadow, but aware that if he let anything happen to Joey's little sister, Joey would murder him.
"I…" Serenity stared at the walls that surrounded them, fear obvious.
"I won't let you get hurt, I promise." Yami offered her his hand. "Your brother would kill me."
Serenity glanced around at the walls once more, then nodded and took his hand. He helped her to her feet. "You think Joey's okay?" She asked hopefully, still warily watching the walls as they continued their progress around the maze.
"Yugi says he is." Yami nodded.
"Huh? You can still hear Yugi when he's not close by?"
"The link's stronger when Yugi's wearing the Puzzle, and this maze isn't big enough for the distance to affect it." Yami explained, "Your brother's ok."
"Yugi's not though, is he?"
"He's fine." Yami replied shortly.
"Yami, I saw how much pain Yugi was in. My monsters aren't healing people any more are they?"
"They're helping… not healing." Yami said with a small sigh.
"What do you mean?" Serenity stared at him.
"They're not healing the injuries." Yami said, "They're just suppressing the pain, kind of like when you use Apparaître on Dien Kento the Cure Master," He saw her blank look, "It suppresses the pain, but can't heal someone properly. It's a stalling tactic to give someone time to do what needs to be done and get to a healer."
"But just being here is stopping any wand magic from working, other wise I'd…"
"I know. I'm not complaining." Yami held up a hand, cutting her off, "Without your help we'd have been in trouble back during the first task, even with Yugi pushing himself as far as he is."
Serenity was worried, pain suppression was dangerous; pain was an indicator of when to let someone else take over, when to stop and rest… pushing yourself when you were injured wasn't likely to do more then cause the injuries to be worse, and the treatment and recovery to be longer.
And even when they got out of here, they still had to get to civilisation before a Doctor could look at them, not that she wouldn't see what she could do before then, but she'd only been working in a hospital since the end of exams a few weeks ago, she didn't know enough to trust herself too fully yet.
Yami wheeled around, pulling Serenity behind him as Wall Shadow leapt out again, his Dark Magician attempting to blast the Warrior again, only to have it slip away, unharmed. Yami cursed in Egyptian, then snorted and shook his head with a small smile.
"Yami?"
"Last time I faced one of these," He explained, "Your brother helped me out."
"How?"
"We were at Duellist Kingdom and your brother used his trap card to insure that my Celtic Guardian could actually catch the monster before it escaped back into the walls again."
"So you might need two monsters to catch it?" Serenity asked, thinking.
"Mystical Elf doesn't have enough attack points and I don't think Ancient Fairy Dragon is small enough to fit in the corridor." Yami frowned, thinking, as they reached yet another crossroads.
Serenity paused, looking at the moss in the corner, which appeared to be hiding something. "Yami." She called, edging over carefully, watching for sneak attacks and smiling as she tapped the capsule, which revealed three tiny fairies who danced around her and Yami.
"Cute." The Pharaoh commented, unimpressed, as the fairy with long brown hair giggled and drifted past his head.
"Helpful." Serenity corrected him, "They can recover a monster's health and they've got a decent attack too."
"Cute and helpful." Yami corrected himself, more interested in the stone and the fact he was almost certain that if they went left from here, they'd end up back where they started.
This would have been fine, had the route to the right not led to a dead end and the other route not led backwards.
Yami tried not to growl as they had to start all over again.
How much time had they just wasted?
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The receptionist was surprised when a young man with long white hair suddenly appeared, leaning on the reception counter, enquiring about a young woman he was meant to meet.
"I don't remember every woman who stays here." The receptionist tried to look busy, checking over some files.
"It's really important." Bakura tried, having tracked Robyn here using a combination of the Millennium Ring and some magic detecting spells, "She's about five foot, short bl…dark hair," He remembered she'd dyed her hair at the hotel before last, although that didn't mean that she hadn't cast a disguise charm on herself, though she didn't appear prone to Wizarding methods to disguise herself, "Quite slight, light on luggage."
The receptionist looked up from her sparkly silver nails, thinking, "And she's been here for a couple of days?"
"Yes, we were going to meet up here, but I've been delayed."
"We had a lot of brunettes coming through here, was there anything special about this one?"
"Her name's Robyn Golden, she might have seemed confused or lost a lot of the time… rather shy, and she's taken a liking to Egyptian stuff lately so might have been wearing something strange."
The receptionist tapped the details into the computer, "If it's the girl I'm thinking of, she checked out this morning." She tapped the screen, "Yes, I remember her. She was wearing this really odd necklace with the eye of Horus on it and said she had to catch a plane."
"You're sure?"
"Wait a moment. I remembered her because of the odd necklace. She left a letter for…" She reached under the desk. "Ryou, Bakura and Draco?" The receptionist nodded, noting that there were some people waiting to register, "She probably waited until her flight was called."
Bakura frowned as he moved away from the counter, taking the letter with him. She had shown no inclination to head abroad before the last couple of places, which had both been close to airports. If she was heading to Japan, then it was likely that she was going to give the Millennium Items to the Pharaoh, who technically owned them, even if he constantly left them in the care of his hikari.
If she handed them over, then the opportunity that her holding them until the end of the summer had presented, would be lost and he'd have to go through the Pharaoh just to get his hands on them.
But he couldn't completely believe that she would wait until now to go…
Ryou and Draco were outside, waiting for him.
"Anything strange?" Ryou asked, noting Bakura's mood and wondering what Golden had done this time.
"She's gone."
"Any clues where?"
"She left a letter for us, and was waiting for a plane"
"What does the letter say?"
"It says, 'Ha ha, you're too late, can't catch me now.'"
"She's gone to Yugi?" Draco looked worried.
It amused Bakura that Draco, like most of Slytherin house was still convinced that Yugi was the more dangerous one out of the Puzzle pair, even though it was Yami's explosive rages that caused the most openly shown fear from the snakes that inhabited the house… well except for Bakura's own dangerous fits of temper, but no one admitted to being scared of someone from your own house, it was thinly veiled in respect or dislike.
"It appears so." Ryou, physically, didn't react to the situation, but his shifting emotions caused Bakura to wheel on his hikari with a scowl. "What do you know?"
Ryou hesitated.
"Ryou." Bakura growled.
"Even if Golden went to Japan, she won't be able to hand over the Millennium Items until the end of next week. The guys are in India on holiday."
"How do you know that?"
"Ombre told me." Ryou admitted, knowing it was safe to do so, since Bakura had approved of his relationship with Ombre, if only because it was proving useful when his hikari had information that only people on the inside of the group could know. "Golden wouldn't know, because the dates were set up after the last time she spoke to the group."
Bakura gave him a considering look, then nodded. "I'm going to Domino."
"You sure? It could be a trap." Draco scowled.
"Shut up and let me finish." Bakura growled, "I'm going to Domino. You two are staying in England and keeping an eye out for any news. Use the tracking spells; see if you can find her if she is still in England."
"Do you have your passport with you?" Ryou asked, looking at Bakura's bag.
"No." Bakura replied, amused "It's in your bag."
"All right…" Ryou held his hands up, trying not to incur his dark's wrath, "We'll drop you off at the airport, then we'll try some tracking spells. Good enough?"
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There was silence as they walked along. Yugi was using the fact that he could sense Yami to direct him, in an attempt to meet up with the others, while Joey was too busy worrying about his sister to be chatty. They would have run, but Joey's untreated leg had stopped that idea before they'd gone more then a few paces.
"You're getting your leg treated willingly, when we find the others." Yugi told him, as he turned to give his friend, who was being assisted by Panther Warrior, a concerned look, the crashing sounds that had been echoing down the corridors to them getting louder. "Or I'm sitting on you till Serenity treats it, got it?"
Joey snorted, amused. It took a lot to annoy Yugi, but he'd successfully managed it when Yugi had found out that he hadn't let Serenity treat him because he felt like he deserved every injury he had for being unable to stop himself attacking when he'd been possessed.
Yugi, when annoyed, could, apparently, keep a rant going for longer then Hermione could when unleashing a full tirade about why they should be studying rather then playing games a week from exams, and that was saying something.
Okay, so he still felt like he should have been able to do something about being under the control of Red Eyes, but he didn't particularly want to invoke the wrath of the hikari again and Yugi was right, neither of them had been killed and he had managed to stop the Red Eyes from finishing Yugi off.
"Joey…" Yugi growled when he didn't get a satisfactory answer.
"All right, all right." Joey laughed at Yugi's over protectiveness. "My Pharaoh." He mock bowed.
The heir paused at Joey's comment, a confused look crossing his face for a moment, before the implications sank in properly and Yugi chuckled too.
The crashing sounds were drowned out by a rather loud rumbling noise.
"Oh you're kidding me." Joey groaned, recognising the rumble from the virtual world that they had entered in order to save Kaiba after he'd been trapped there by the Big Five, the same one that had the Princess version of Mokuba.
A Labyrinth Tank rolled around the corner.
"Sun…" Yugi froze as he realised that his Sunset Magician was still silver.
"Red Eyes!" Joey called, sending it out only to be squashed against the wall, his Panther Warrior roaring in protest then reverting to his capsule, the dragon proving too big for the corridor and the ceiling preventing it from flying above the maze.
Yugi reached for a different capsule, having nothing that was strong enough to take out a Labyrinth Tank without his Sunset Magician, but figuring that he could give Joey enough time to get away.
Something crashed through the wall, a huge stone foot coming through the wall and squashing the tank, which exploded, while a huge stone arm broke through the ceiling revealing an Ancient Giant with four passengers, two on each shoulder.
Yugi opened his mouth, then shut it again as Joey recalled his dragon, Serenity clambered down, with the help of her fairies, and Ombre waved at him.
"You're enduring, Yugi?" Solomon asked, amused at his Grandson's reaction as Serenity glomped her brother.
"I'm ok." Yugi nodded. He couldn't help asking. "Not that I'm not grateful, but isn't that cheating?"
"Not if the monster was inside the game." Solomon shook his head as his Ancient Giant put a hand on the ground for the three to climb up onto.
Once Serenity's fairies, which where actually part of one Monster, called Dancing Fairy, had eased the pain that had been plaguing Joey, the three climbed up onto the hand, and were soon at the exit of the maze, which was lit by the glow from two golden apples and had no low ceiling to prevent dragon flight.
"Where did that bug go?" Yami asked as they all climbed down, looking around with a wary scowl, having had enough of monsters jumping out at them to last for months.
"Cocoon." Joey pointed out, sending his Red Eyes back out as it started glowing pink and shattered, revealing a Great Moth.
Yugi didn't waste time going for Sunset Magician again, as Ancient Fairy Dragon and Criosphinx joined Red Eyes, sending out Gaia the Fierce Knight to stand by Dark Magician's side.
The Giant Moth batted its wings, sending poison at their monsters.
The dragons blew the dust away before it could reach anyone.
"Gaia!" Yugi turned to his monster, who turned his horse to look at him.
"Yugi, borrow Dark Magician." Yami interrupted him before he could activate the Duel Armour, then looked at Gaia, "That is, if Gaia would deign to lend me his aid."
The rider nodded.
"You're sure?" Yugi asked. When Yami nodded, Yugi fused with the Dark Magician, taking to the sky, to join the dragons.
The moth attacked, attempting to knock the dragons or Yugi out of the sky. It didn't work as Red Eyes managed to hit it with an Inferno Fire Blast and while the moth was still shaking off the first hit, Yugi, Ancient Fairy Dragon and Criosphinx had managed to get blows in.
Something exploded.
Everyone backed off…
With a cry the dust was blown away, the Great Moth had changed form, become a Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth.
Far below them, Joey swore.
Yugi flew between the dragons and the moth, horribly aware that they had nothing that even came close to beating the moth, which had a ridiculously high number of attack points, somewhere in the range of 3500…
The moth flapped its wings, creating a tornado which blasted through the air, the force of which caused Yugi to be blast straight past the two dragons that had been backing him up and hit the wall hard.
"No! Yugi!" Yami and Gaia darted forward, but it was Ancient Fairy Dragon who caught Yugi as he fell, catching the hikari in its huge handlike claw before roaring a challenge at the moth.
Red Eyes moved between it and the moth as a blue light surrounded Ancient Fairy Dragon, and drained into Yugi, who groaned and sat up. Red Eyes attempted to attack the moth with an Inferno Fire Blast, but the moth generated a shield, which reflected the attack back, striking Red Eyes down, causing it to come crashing to the ground and Joey to cry out.
Ancient Fairy Dragon, who hadn't long finished helping Yugi, let the young man take off again, before it started helping Joey's partner.
Meanwhile Criosphinx and Ancient Giant were distracting the moth as Yugi reached the pillars.
"He's taking a lunch break now?" Joey yelped as Yugi made short work of one of the golden apples.
As Yugi stood up, the armour came off, becoming Dark Magician again for a heartbeat, before the pair was surrounded in a rather bright, golden light. When it died, Yugi was stood on the pillar with a Magician of Black Chaos.
Then Yugi was fused with it.
The moth wheeled around, losing interest in everything else on the battle field.
That was just fine with Yugi, who attacked with Chaos Sceptre Blast, destroying the moth in one blast, before bringing the last apple down safely.
"You worked it out?" Serenity asked.
"Uh huh." Yugi nodded, "Once the moth became Ultimate Moth I worked out what we needed to do. You see we only needed one apple, but there were three up there. One was for the moth, one was to be offered up. So I reckoned that I could use one to power up a monster." He looked down at his armour, then grinned sheepishly at Yami. "Sorry."
"What for?" Yami looked surprised, "I'm sure the Dark Magician didn't mind."
Yugi handed the apple to Ombre and defused, sitting on the steps while the others recalled their monsters, waving off any concern, as Ombre darted up the steps, placing the apple on the alter.
Another segment on the pendant Serenity was wearing turned red.
The apple vanished and a staircase, which looked like it was primarily made of light, appeared, leading up to a stone door which opened to reveal a bright white light.
"That's a lot of stairs." Joey commented as Yugi sighed and stood up.
"Come on guys. One more task." Serenity grinned, "We're nearly home."
"True. Maybe we can actually go on vacation after this." Joey agreed with a small smile.
"Let's go, then." Yami chuckled, starting up the steps.
Serenity and Ombre rushed past him, "Last one up's a monkey's uncle." Ombre smirked, already ahead by miles.
"I'm the monkey's uncle, then." Solomon scowled as Yami darted after them.
"Not necessarily, Gramps." Joey said, as he and Yugi kept pace with him, "I feel a bit like a monkey today, what about you, Yuge?"
Yugi made a noise like a monkey and giggled. One more task. He could do this, he was sure of it.
Reaching the top of the steps, Yugi turned around to look down at the maze, shaking his head at the destruction that was obvious from up here. He couldn't help wondering who had created this Shadow Game, and what happened to each task once it was complete. Did it vanish or did it just reset for the next person to try it?
"You coming Yuge?" Joey asked, about follow Solomon through the portal of light.
"Coming." Yugi nodded, darting through just ahead of Joey.
Joey grimaced at the thought that he was now the monkey's uncle and followed his friend through, leaving the maze behind and hoping the next task would go as smoothly.
Not that Yami was timing at all.
Joey had woken around an hour ago, and had spent the greater majority of his time stuffing his face full of fruit, rather juicy, soft, delicious… Yami was waiting for Yugi, but the others had all eaten for what felt like the first time days and now felt refreshed and restored.
Joey was currently staying away from the group, pacing the outside of the group's little campsite, keeping an eye out for wild monsters, not that there appeared to be any, Yami could guess why, he was probably feeling guilty.
Yugi would want to speak to his friend upon waking. Yami would have to make sure that Joey didn't wander off again.
"You should eat something." Solomon brought over a few of the plum like fruits for Yami to try.
"I'm not hungry."
"Yami…"
"I'll eat once Yugi wakes up."
"He won't be happy if he wakes up and finds you've turned away food because he's injured."
A phrase Kari had once used about pots and kettles sprang to mind, but Yami took one of the fruits, and took a bite, enjoying the juice, suddenly feeling stronger then he had since he'd given Yugi the boost after the wolves. "What?"
"I'm guessing that they were put in the game to give those playing a fair chance and the next couple of trials. Anyone who reached this point was probably as tired and injured as we are." Solomon watched Joey walk past, limping slightly from the bruising his leg had sustained, "Doesn't heal injuries though, just restores energy and eases pain."
"Better then nothing." Yami nodded, finishing one fruit and taking another. He was on his third when it exploded in a cloud of white smoke, to be replaced by a rather less tasty scroll. Yami glared, willing the scroll to burst into flames. "Guys!" He held it up, making the others look.
"Now we wait for Yugi." Ombre nodded as Serenity came to Yugi's side again, checking his pulse again, just as she had every half hour for the last few hours.
"Steady… even…" She bit her lip, berating herself for forgetting to stock up her medkit before she'd left. She was sure he was just sleeping at this point, but she wondered if she should get her Ancient Fairy Dragon to use her power again.
Her eyes flickered to her brother, who had steadfastly refused her help, guilt preventing him from seeking relief. He was being kept an eye on by the aforementioned dragon, at Serenity's request.
Yami closed his eyes, taking his hikari's hand in his. Ombre, realising what Yami was up to quickly gathered more fruit, knowing that both Pharaoh and Heir would need some if what the Pharaoh was trying worked.
Yami's face had paled considerably and his breathing was heavy when he finally opened his eyes and Yugi finally started stirring.
"Eat. Now." Ombre snarled, shoving an apple under Yami's nose, as he curled in on himself, still panting heavily, more then exhausted, having given Yugi over three quarters of the energy the fruit had returned to him.
"Y…Yami?" Yugi asked as he opened his eyes, confused at his dark half's exhaustion and at his own energy boost.
"Hey…hikari…" Yami smiled slightly, straightening to hide how tired he was and knowing it was a failing effort when Yugi gave him a worried look.
"I told you not to…" Yugi got it.
"It's okay for him to do it." Ombre interrupted Yugi, as she helped him sit up and gave him a plum as Yami tucked into his apple, "The fruit around here restores energy and take the edge off of pain, your Grandfather thinks they're to balance out the playing field for the last tasks."
"Maybe." Yugi relaxed slightly when he sensed Yami's magic levels rise again, and tucked into the pile of fruit. The pair of them demolished it rather quickly, causing Ombre to make a comment around the lines of 'and I thought Joey was bad when he's hungry.'
While the comment made the others smile, it did little more then cause Yugi to look around, to try and see his friend, who was currently skulking in the trees, avoiding them.
"Joey? You eaten?" Yugi asked concern obvious.
Joey nodded, but didn't come any closer.
Yugi's shoulders sank, knowing what this was about. "Joey…"
"What does the scroll say?" Joey responded, not wanting to talk about it, and trying to distract Yugi.
Yugi frowned but looked at his Grandfather, who unfolded the scroll, "Choose the apple that gives you a raise, then offer it up in the Sacred Maze." Solomon read, causing the gang to look around at the fruit trees around them, groaning when they saw there were ten or fifteen apple trees in sight of here alone.
"I hope we haven't eaten it." Yugi murmured, looking at the pile of apple cores.
"I wouldn't have thought so." Solomon said, reassuringly as Yami got up and helped Yugi to his feet. "Surely it would look unusual enough to be noticeable."
"We were rather hungry…" Yugi hesitated.
"What does it mean, give you a raise?" Serenity asked. "Raise our energy? Our magic…?"
"It's rather unhelpfully vague."
"Mystical but not particularly helpful…." Yami snorted, something hitting him.
"What?" Yugi asked, poking his dark side.
"Nothing, nothing." Yami smirked, "Just a thought."
"Shall we look for this apple then?" Yugi asked, hesitating as he took a step forward, trying to hide a wince. Luckily Serenity, who had been stashing a few fruits in her bag, missed it.
"Apple, maze, next task, home." Ombre nods, closing her bag, having joined Serenity in stashing fruit.
"Let's go."
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"You're late." Mai scowled, having waited at the gates to the theme park where the Stroder Corp Tournament was being held, for the trio now rushing through the gates. "You were supposed to be here half an hour ago, registration closes in ten minutes."
"Sorry." Sirius scowled as Mai rushed them towards the registrars, "We would have been here on time, but someone refused to get off the phone and get ready." Sirius indicated Harry who was pulling out his Duellist card and invite from his pocket, while trying not to be amused that his Godfather, who normally fawned over the blonde haired, purple eyed Duellist, was so irritated at Harry that he was actually behaving for a change.
"Girl trouble?" Mai teased Harry with a grin, having noticed Sirius's change in attitude herself.
"I wish." Harry scowled as he registered quickly, "I was on the phone to Mokuba."
"Mokuba Kaiba?" Mai looked confused, "Why?"
Harry sighed. "There's trouble."
"Again?" Mai frowned, as they headed for the centre of the park, where the opening ceremony was due to kick off in half an hour. "What is it this time? Evil cults? Crazed wizards…?"
"Pyramids in the wrong place."
"That's… new…"
"Not completely." Harry disagreed, "At least this one is a real pyramid, not like the Pyramid of Light a few years ago…"
"I heard about that in the news." Mai frowned, "No one knew where it came from or what it was for, it was assumed that it was a Kaiba Corp experiment gone wrong."
"You could say that." Harry snorted, a small smile crossing his face for a moment, "Seto got a hold of a card that could stop the God cards and decided to test it out."
"What?" Mai stared, her eyes wide.
"He got a hold of a card that could stop the God cards and decided to test it out." Harry rolled his eyes, "And it worked."
"So why hasn't he used it since?" Mai asked.
"It wasn't a real card, it was created by Anubis, Lord of the Dead, in an attempt to get his revenge on Yami, and it created a Shadow Game where every time someone lost life points, it drained some of their life energy, in order to give Anubis the power he needed to come back to life." Harry replied, "Yugi and Yami nearly died and Seto got possessed."
"Oh…" Mai nodded, understanding why Kaiba would be hesitant to play that card again.
"Yeah." Harry agreed.
"So this Pyramid is better then that one?" Mai asked, stopping far enough away from the group that was gathered to talk, but close enough to be able to hear when the announcements started.
"We hope so." Harry nodded, "But we'll know more when Seto and Mokuba finally join up with the search party. If they're not back by tomorrow night, we're heading over to try to help."
"What is it with those guys and getting into trouble? I'll come with you, if they're not back." Mai sighed, watching the Duellists who were gathered, interacting. "You do realise that this is going to be your test right?"
"What do you mean?" Harry frowned.
"Up until this point you've been playing small time opponents." Mai explained, "Oh don't get me wrong, that French tournament we met at had some decent duellists, and it was enough to get you noticed, but there's a lot of big names here, and it's going to be interesting."
Harry looked around, wondering why Mai was so concerned. "What do you…" Harry paused, faces matching up to second hand memories, "Weevil, Mako, Espa…" He pointed to each in turn for his Godfather's and cousin's sakes, "None of our lot, except us of course, but they were supposed to be on holiday…"
"You know them?"
"Heard of them." Harry shook his head, "Yugi told me a lot about his opponents."
"What did he say about me?" Mai asked, curious.
"That you're a fantastic Duellist, an honourable one too and that he was looking forward to Duelling against you."
Mai preened slightly, making Harry smile.
"Do you two want anything to eat or drink?" Sirius asked, noting that Dudley seemed bored and remembering that Harry had made him promise to let him wander around on his own for a while.
"I'm not hungry." Mai shook her head, "But I could use a coffee."
"Harry?"
"Coke and a sandwich or something, since you wouldn't let me get breakfast."
"You were the one made us…" Sirius growled, gave up and stomped off, Dudley in tow.
"How long do you think it'll take them?"
"Considering that Dudley doesn't speak German and Sirius will get lost if he gets distracted by a pretty girl…"
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"I… what the…?" Yugi stared at the edge of world barrier that he had literally just walked through.
"You ok, Yuge?" Joey asked, having been one of the pair that had dragged Yugi back through the barrier, rescuing him from the void.
"I'm ok." Yugi gave his friend a reassuring smile, relieved to have Joey finally say something to him.
"Well if you had any doubt that we were in the Shadow Realm…" Ombre scowled at the barrier which separated the world they were in from the rest of the Shadow Realm.
"I thought maybe…" Serenity hesitated, "We're really fully immersed in the Shadow Realm?"
"It must have taken an incredible amount of power to create a whole world like this." Yami commented, now sticking closer then ever to his hikari, "It doesn't surprise me that the boundaries would be thin, if this game has been set up as long as we think it has. The rest of the Shadow Realm has probably been eroding the power protecting this world."
"It's dangerous." Solomon frowned at the barrier, "You can't tell that the world ends here, if we hadn't been here…"
"Do you think anyone else has fallen out of the game and into the Shadows?" Serenity asked, worried.
"Well, we're just going to have to make sure that we don't do the same." Yugi said, taking a deep breath and looking around. "Plus side, this means there's less area to search."
"I am not searching through an entire forest waving my arms in front of me to check whether or not there's a world barrier in front of me." Yami growled.
"Well, we could head back to that giant watermelon and see if there's anything else odd about it." Yugi suggested, "If we weren't looking for an apple, it would have screamed suspicious."
"It's the most suspicious looking thing here." Yami agreed.
"I'm wondering when a giant watermelon became suspicious." Solomon looked at his grandsons with a small, amused smile.
"When it was the only fruit in the whole forest that was bigger then usual, plus it was embedded in the ground." Yami pointed out.
"I bet it turns out to be a worm of some kind." Yugi giggled. "Or a larvae." There was silence for a while as they started heading back, "No one willing to take the bet?" Yugi challenged with a laugh.
"I'll take it." Solomon nodded when no one else would, "I'll bet you a day's shop duty that it's actually blocking the way to a hidden passageway."
"Deal." Yugi and his Grandfather shook on it. They headed back to the clearing, where the watermelon in question was, only to find that it was gone, and a tunnel that led downwards and to the south east, had replaced it.
"You owe me a day's shop duty." Solomon told his Grandson, as Joey helped his sister down into the hole.
"I know, I'll take an extra day when we get back." Yugi nodded, more concerned about what had taken or eaten the giant fruit, and taking point as they headed downwards, along a surprisingly well lit tunnel, which led to a huge room.
On the other side of the room, revealed to them only by the light from there, brightly glowing, glowing objects on the top of three rather tall pillars, at the top of a small flight of stairs, was a stone alter.
"So there's the alter we have to offer the apple on…" Yugi murmured.
"So those," Yami indicated the glowing objects, "Are probably the apples." Yami stepped forward but Yugi put his arm out to block his dark side.
"I don't think I owe you anything Grandpa." He said, indicating something moving at the bottom of the stairs.
Ombre would have asked why, except the melon that had been blocking the passageway, had crept around the corner, revealing itself to be a bug of some kind. What kind it was, was hard to work out since they couldn't tell what colour it was or see the markings properly other then its head looked like the melon.
"No, it appears not." Solomon agreed, "It appears we were both correct."
"Stay here." Yugi requested, going to launch his Sunset Magician capsule, only to find that it was still silver. "Oh…"
"He probably needs a rest." Solomon advised Yugi, who nodded worried.
"Let us handle this." Ombre sent out her Criosphinx, intending to send the sphinx to collect one of the fruit.
Unfortunately at that moment the ground started shaking.
"What did you do?" Serenity yelped as the square tiles started rising and falling, forming walls around them.
Yugi attempted to leap from the tile that was moving under his feet, to one a bit closer to his Grandfather or Yami, but was hit by a tile that was coming up out of the ground and he hit the floor, a pained squeak escaping as he held his ribs, which had been bruised enough as it was before he'd been hit by the rising stone.
Then they lost sight of both him and Joey as the pair was sent off in one direction, Yami and Serenity in another and Solomon and Ombre in a third, the walls closing behind them and a roof appearing above them, imprisoning them all within the maze.
"Serenity!" Joey pounded the wall, trying to break through as Yugi got up with a light whimper, leaning on the wall.
'Yugi?'
"Yami?" Yugi and Yami breathed a sigh of relief as their mental calls reached each other at the same time.
'You're…'
"Joey and I are fine." Yugi sent reassurance down the link, sensing Yami's concern. "What about you?"
'I'm ok, Serenity is too.' Yami replied, 'I don't know where Ombre and Grandpa are.'
"I hope they're alright… I'll tell you if anything happens, try and find the exit, we'll meet you there."
'Be careful.'
"You too." Yugi turned to face Joey, "Joey, Serenity's ok, she's with Yami."
"You're sure?" Joey asked, wheeling around to glare at him.
"I can still hear Yami." Yugi nodded, "The room was big, but not that big. He told me she's alright, I told them to head for the exit."
"She'd better be alright otherwise I'm going to do something drastic…" Joey grumbled.
Yugi chuckled, offering Joey a small smile. "I'll help, if you like."
Joey went to make a comment, then closed his mouth, shook his head and slunk off around the corner.
"Joey!" Yugi yelped. He would have chased after him, but a moment later Joey came sheepishly back around the corner.
"Dead end." He explained.
Yugi stood between his friend and the only other route out. "We need to talk."
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"Are you alright, Mr Muto?" Ombre asked as she recalled her sphinx, concerned for the elderly man who had taken her in when she'd had no where else to go.
"Did I mention I'm getting too old for this?" Solomon complained as he looked up at the roof, half joking, smiling as he caught the look on Ombre's face. "I'm ok, Ombre. Thank you for asking."
Ombre just shrugged.
"And how many times to I have to ask you to call me Grandpa?" He asked, as he considered their routes. They were at a crossroads. One route was obviously blocked, since he remembered the path being blocked off behind them, which left three routes they could try.
Ombre just smiled lightly, the smile not reaching her eyes as she turned to look down the left route. "Mr…" She paused, "Grandpa, this way."
"You know the route?" Solomon frowned as he followed her down the path she had chosen.
"No, I don't remember it." Ombre shook her head, turning left at the next junction, tapping the Orb that hung from the chain around her neck. "But someone who held this came through here and the Orb stores the memories of those who hold it."
"Then you've known what we're supposed to be doing the whole way through?"
"No… well yes, but I didn't want to say anything. These are Yugi's trials, I didn't want to influence him in any way."
"Even if we could have been stuck here?"
"I wouldn't have let that happen."
"Then why did you tell Yugi to destroy the dragon in the last task?"
"Destroying the dragon would have revealed the sword and we would have been able to destroy it."
"Let me guess, the person whose memories that you hold had no love for Red Eyes?"
"It wasn't Red Eyes," She offered the capsule that they'd come across to him. "It was a Pyro monster that the Orb bearer's closest advisor was friends with."
Solomon tapped the capsule, still unsure about Ombre's stand on the situation, having to move back rather quickly as a huge stone golem appeared, breaking through the left wall and the ceiling.
"Well, you'll come in handy." Solomon grinned, "Can you see the Alter from here?"
The Ancient Giant raised its arm, knocking down more of the wall and roof, pointing right.
"Clear us a path." Solomon ordered.
"Mr Muto…" Ombre protested as the golem proceeded to knock down all the walls in their way.
"I don't care how the last man you remember coming through here completed this task. My grandsons' are hurt and lost in this maze and I'm going to find them." Solomon warned her.
Ombre frowned but said nothing as they broke through wall after wall. They travelled in silence for a moment, then, "You're not going to say anything, are you?" She asked, hesitantly after they had broken through several walls.
"How much do you know that you're not telling them?"
"I know more then I should, but less then I used to." Ombre said cryptically, thinking of the amount of memories she'd traded with the Shadows to get them to allow her to recover the fragments of Kari's soul, "Even if I was helping Yugi, which I shouldn't, other then to give him backup, I would be unable to help him during the last trial."
"Why?"
"The Orb Bearer failed it."
Silence again.
"I won't tell him, Ombre, but if you have any knowledge that could help my Grandsons and they get seriously hurt because you didn't share it…"
"I understand."
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Serenity screeched as a Wall Shadow shot out of the wall and took a swipe at her, ducking under the attack and letting Yami's Dark Magician attempt to blast it.
The Warrior monster retreated back into the wall, the Dark Magic Attack bouncing off and nearly hitting the Pharaoh, who had to dive out of the way himself.
"Serenity, are you alright?" Yami asked, dashing over, keeping an eye out for the Wall Shadow, but aware that if he let anything happen to Joey's little sister, Joey would murder him.
"I…" Serenity stared at the walls that surrounded them, fear obvious.
"I won't let you get hurt, I promise." Yami offered her his hand. "Your brother would kill me."
Serenity glanced around at the walls once more, then nodded and took his hand. He helped her to her feet. "You think Joey's okay?" She asked hopefully, still warily watching the walls as they continued their progress around the maze.
"Yugi says he is." Yami nodded.
"Huh? You can still hear Yugi when he's not close by?"
"The link's stronger when Yugi's wearing the Puzzle, and this maze isn't big enough for the distance to affect it." Yami explained, "Your brother's ok."
"Yugi's not though, is he?"
"He's fine." Yami replied shortly.
"Yami, I saw how much pain Yugi was in. My monsters aren't healing people any more are they?"
"They're helping… not healing." Yami said with a small sigh.
"What do you mean?" Serenity stared at him.
"They're not healing the injuries." Yami said, "They're just suppressing the pain, kind of like when you use Apparaître on Dien Kento the Cure Master," He saw her blank look, "It suppresses the pain, but can't heal someone properly. It's a stalling tactic to give someone time to do what needs to be done and get to a healer."
"But just being here is stopping any wand magic from working, other wise I'd…"
"I know. I'm not complaining." Yami held up a hand, cutting her off, "Without your help we'd have been in trouble back during the first task, even with Yugi pushing himself as far as he is."
Serenity was worried, pain suppression was dangerous; pain was an indicator of when to let someone else take over, when to stop and rest… pushing yourself when you were injured wasn't likely to do more then cause the injuries to be worse, and the treatment and recovery to be longer.
And even when they got out of here, they still had to get to civilisation before a Doctor could look at them, not that she wouldn't see what she could do before then, but she'd only been working in a hospital since the end of exams a few weeks ago, she didn't know enough to trust herself too fully yet.
Yami wheeled around, pulling Serenity behind him as Wall Shadow leapt out again, his Dark Magician attempting to blast the Warrior again, only to have it slip away, unharmed. Yami cursed in Egyptian, then snorted and shook his head with a small smile.
"Yami?"
"Last time I faced one of these," He explained, "Your brother helped me out."
"How?"
"We were at Duellist Kingdom and your brother used his trap card to insure that my Celtic Guardian could actually catch the monster before it escaped back into the walls again."
"So you might need two monsters to catch it?" Serenity asked, thinking.
"Mystical Elf doesn't have enough attack points and I don't think Ancient Fairy Dragon is small enough to fit in the corridor." Yami frowned, thinking, as they reached yet another crossroads.
Serenity paused, looking at the moss in the corner, which appeared to be hiding something. "Yami." She called, edging over carefully, watching for sneak attacks and smiling as she tapped the capsule, which revealed three tiny fairies who danced around her and Yami.
"Cute." The Pharaoh commented, unimpressed, as the fairy with long brown hair giggled and drifted past his head.
"Helpful." Serenity corrected him, "They can recover a monster's health and they've got a decent attack too."
"Cute and helpful." Yami corrected himself, more interested in the stone and the fact he was almost certain that if they went left from here, they'd end up back where they started.
This would have been fine, had the route to the right not led to a dead end and the other route not led backwards.
Yami tried not to growl as they had to start all over again.
How much time had they just wasted?
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The receptionist was surprised when a young man with long white hair suddenly appeared, leaning on the reception counter, enquiring about a young woman he was meant to meet.
"I don't remember every woman who stays here." The receptionist tried to look busy, checking over some files.
"It's really important." Bakura tried, having tracked Robyn here using a combination of the Millennium Ring and some magic detecting spells, "She's about five foot, short bl…dark hair," He remembered she'd dyed her hair at the hotel before last, although that didn't mean that she hadn't cast a disguise charm on herself, though she didn't appear prone to Wizarding methods to disguise herself, "Quite slight, light on luggage."
The receptionist looked up from her sparkly silver nails, thinking, "And she's been here for a couple of days?"
"Yes, we were going to meet up here, but I've been delayed."
"We had a lot of brunettes coming through here, was there anything special about this one?"
"Her name's Robyn Golden, she might have seemed confused or lost a lot of the time… rather shy, and she's taken a liking to Egyptian stuff lately so might have been wearing something strange."
The receptionist tapped the details into the computer, "If it's the girl I'm thinking of, she checked out this morning." She tapped the screen, "Yes, I remember her. She was wearing this really odd necklace with the eye of Horus on it and said she had to catch a plane."
"You're sure?"
"Wait a moment. I remembered her because of the odd necklace. She left a letter for…" She reached under the desk. "Ryou, Bakura and Draco?" The receptionist nodded, noting that there were some people waiting to register, "She probably waited until her flight was called."
Bakura frowned as he moved away from the counter, taking the letter with him. She had shown no inclination to head abroad before the last couple of places, which had both been close to airports. If she was heading to Japan, then it was likely that she was going to give the Millennium Items to the Pharaoh, who technically owned them, even if he constantly left them in the care of his hikari.
If she handed them over, then the opportunity that her holding them until the end of the summer had presented, would be lost and he'd have to go through the Pharaoh just to get his hands on them.
But he couldn't completely believe that she would wait until now to go…
Ryou and Draco were outside, waiting for him.
"Anything strange?" Ryou asked, noting Bakura's mood and wondering what Golden had done this time.
"She's gone."
"Any clues where?"
"She left a letter for us, and was waiting for a plane"
"What does the letter say?"
"It says, 'Ha ha, you're too late, can't catch me now.'"
"She's gone to Yugi?" Draco looked worried.
It amused Bakura that Draco, like most of Slytherin house was still convinced that Yugi was the more dangerous one out of the Puzzle pair, even though it was Yami's explosive rages that caused the most openly shown fear from the snakes that inhabited the house… well except for Bakura's own dangerous fits of temper, but no one admitted to being scared of someone from your own house, it was thinly veiled in respect or dislike.
"It appears so." Ryou, physically, didn't react to the situation, but his shifting emotions caused Bakura to wheel on his hikari with a scowl. "What do you know?"
Ryou hesitated.
"Ryou." Bakura growled.
"Even if Golden went to Japan, she won't be able to hand over the Millennium Items until the end of next week. The guys are in India on holiday."
"How do you know that?"
"Ombre told me." Ryou admitted, knowing it was safe to do so, since Bakura had approved of his relationship with Ombre, if only because it was proving useful when his hikari had information that only people on the inside of the group could know. "Golden wouldn't know, because the dates were set up after the last time she spoke to the group."
Bakura gave him a considering look, then nodded. "I'm going to Domino."
"You sure? It could be a trap." Draco scowled.
"Shut up and let me finish." Bakura growled, "I'm going to Domino. You two are staying in England and keeping an eye out for any news. Use the tracking spells; see if you can find her if she is still in England."
"Do you have your passport with you?" Ryou asked, looking at Bakura's bag.
"No." Bakura replied, amused "It's in your bag."
"All right…" Ryou held his hands up, trying not to incur his dark's wrath, "We'll drop you off at the airport, then we'll try some tracking spells. Good enough?"
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There was silence as they walked along. Yugi was using the fact that he could sense Yami to direct him, in an attempt to meet up with the others, while Joey was too busy worrying about his sister to be chatty. They would have run, but Joey's untreated leg had stopped that idea before they'd gone more then a few paces.
"You're getting your leg treated willingly, when we find the others." Yugi told him, as he turned to give his friend, who was being assisted by Panther Warrior, a concerned look, the crashing sounds that had been echoing down the corridors to them getting louder. "Or I'm sitting on you till Serenity treats it, got it?"
Joey snorted, amused. It took a lot to annoy Yugi, but he'd successfully managed it when Yugi had found out that he hadn't let Serenity treat him because he felt like he deserved every injury he had for being unable to stop himself attacking when he'd been possessed.
Yugi, when annoyed, could, apparently, keep a rant going for longer then Hermione could when unleashing a full tirade about why they should be studying rather then playing games a week from exams, and that was saying something.
Okay, so he still felt like he should have been able to do something about being under the control of Red Eyes, but he didn't particularly want to invoke the wrath of the hikari again and Yugi was right, neither of them had been killed and he had managed to stop the Red Eyes from finishing Yugi off.
"Joey…" Yugi growled when he didn't get a satisfactory answer.
"All right, all right." Joey laughed at Yugi's over protectiveness. "My Pharaoh." He mock bowed.
The heir paused at Joey's comment, a confused look crossing his face for a moment, before the implications sank in properly and Yugi chuckled too.
The crashing sounds were drowned out by a rather loud rumbling noise.
"Oh you're kidding me." Joey groaned, recognising the rumble from the virtual world that they had entered in order to save Kaiba after he'd been trapped there by the Big Five, the same one that had the Princess version of Mokuba.
A Labyrinth Tank rolled around the corner.
"Sun…" Yugi froze as he realised that his Sunset Magician was still silver.
"Red Eyes!" Joey called, sending it out only to be squashed against the wall, his Panther Warrior roaring in protest then reverting to his capsule, the dragon proving too big for the corridor and the ceiling preventing it from flying above the maze.
Yugi reached for a different capsule, having nothing that was strong enough to take out a Labyrinth Tank without his Sunset Magician, but figuring that he could give Joey enough time to get away.
Something crashed through the wall, a huge stone foot coming through the wall and squashing the tank, which exploded, while a huge stone arm broke through the ceiling revealing an Ancient Giant with four passengers, two on each shoulder.
Yugi opened his mouth, then shut it again as Joey recalled his dragon, Serenity clambered down, with the help of her fairies, and Ombre waved at him.
"You're enduring, Yugi?" Solomon asked, amused at his Grandson's reaction as Serenity glomped her brother.
"I'm ok." Yugi nodded. He couldn't help asking. "Not that I'm not grateful, but isn't that cheating?"
"Not if the monster was inside the game." Solomon shook his head as his Ancient Giant put a hand on the ground for the three to climb up onto.
Once Serenity's fairies, which where actually part of one Monster, called Dancing Fairy, had eased the pain that had been plaguing Joey, the three climbed up onto the hand, and were soon at the exit of the maze, which was lit by the glow from two golden apples and had no low ceiling to prevent dragon flight.
"Where did that bug go?" Yami asked as they all climbed down, looking around with a wary scowl, having had enough of monsters jumping out at them to last for months.
"Cocoon." Joey pointed out, sending his Red Eyes back out as it started glowing pink and shattered, revealing a Great Moth.
Yugi didn't waste time going for Sunset Magician again, as Ancient Fairy Dragon and Criosphinx joined Red Eyes, sending out Gaia the Fierce Knight to stand by Dark Magician's side.
The Giant Moth batted its wings, sending poison at their monsters.
The dragons blew the dust away before it could reach anyone.
"Gaia!" Yugi turned to his monster, who turned his horse to look at him.
"Yugi, borrow Dark Magician." Yami interrupted him before he could activate the Duel Armour, then looked at Gaia, "That is, if Gaia would deign to lend me his aid."
The rider nodded.
"You're sure?" Yugi asked. When Yami nodded, Yugi fused with the Dark Magician, taking to the sky, to join the dragons.
The moth attacked, attempting to knock the dragons or Yugi out of the sky. It didn't work as Red Eyes managed to hit it with an Inferno Fire Blast and while the moth was still shaking off the first hit, Yugi, Ancient Fairy Dragon and Criosphinx had managed to get blows in.
Something exploded.
Everyone backed off…
With a cry the dust was blown away, the Great Moth had changed form, become a Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth.
Far below them, Joey swore.
Yugi flew between the dragons and the moth, horribly aware that they had nothing that even came close to beating the moth, which had a ridiculously high number of attack points, somewhere in the range of 3500…
The moth flapped its wings, creating a tornado which blasted through the air, the force of which caused Yugi to be blast straight past the two dragons that had been backing him up and hit the wall hard.
"No! Yugi!" Yami and Gaia darted forward, but it was Ancient Fairy Dragon who caught Yugi as he fell, catching the hikari in its huge handlike claw before roaring a challenge at the moth.
Red Eyes moved between it and the moth as a blue light surrounded Ancient Fairy Dragon, and drained into Yugi, who groaned and sat up. Red Eyes attempted to attack the moth with an Inferno Fire Blast, but the moth generated a shield, which reflected the attack back, striking Red Eyes down, causing it to come crashing to the ground and Joey to cry out.
Ancient Fairy Dragon, who hadn't long finished helping Yugi, let the young man take off again, before it started helping Joey's partner.
Meanwhile Criosphinx and Ancient Giant were distracting the moth as Yugi reached the pillars.
"He's taking a lunch break now?" Joey yelped as Yugi made short work of one of the golden apples.
As Yugi stood up, the armour came off, becoming Dark Magician again for a heartbeat, before the pair was surrounded in a rather bright, golden light. When it died, Yugi was stood on the pillar with a Magician of Black Chaos.
Then Yugi was fused with it.
The moth wheeled around, losing interest in everything else on the battle field.
That was just fine with Yugi, who attacked with Chaos Sceptre Blast, destroying the moth in one blast, before bringing the last apple down safely.
"You worked it out?" Serenity asked.
"Uh huh." Yugi nodded, "Once the moth became Ultimate Moth I worked out what we needed to do. You see we only needed one apple, but there were three up there. One was for the moth, one was to be offered up. So I reckoned that I could use one to power up a monster." He looked down at his armour, then grinned sheepishly at Yami. "Sorry."
"What for?" Yami looked surprised, "I'm sure the Dark Magician didn't mind."
Yugi handed the apple to Ombre and defused, sitting on the steps while the others recalled their monsters, waving off any concern, as Ombre darted up the steps, placing the apple on the alter.
Another segment on the pendant Serenity was wearing turned red.
The apple vanished and a staircase, which looked like it was primarily made of light, appeared, leading up to a stone door which opened to reveal a bright white light.
"That's a lot of stairs." Joey commented as Yugi sighed and stood up.
"Come on guys. One more task." Serenity grinned, "We're nearly home."
"True. Maybe we can actually go on vacation after this." Joey agreed with a small smile.
"Let's go, then." Yami chuckled, starting up the steps.
Serenity and Ombre rushed past him, "Last one up's a monkey's uncle." Ombre smirked, already ahead by miles.
"I'm the monkey's uncle, then." Solomon scowled as Yami darted after them.
"Not necessarily, Gramps." Joey said, as he and Yugi kept pace with him, "I feel a bit like a monkey today, what about you, Yuge?"
Yugi made a noise like a monkey and giggled. One more task. He could do this, he was sure of it.
Reaching the top of the steps, Yugi turned around to look down at the maze, shaking his head at the destruction that was obvious from up here. He couldn't help wondering who had created this Shadow Game, and what happened to each task once it was complete. Did it vanish or did it just reset for the next person to try it?
"You coming Yuge?" Joey asked, about follow Solomon through the portal of light.
"Coming." Yugi nodded, darting through just ahead of Joey.
Joey grimaced at the thought that he was now the monkey's uncle and followed his friend through, leaving the maze behind and hoping the next task would go as smoothly.