Chapter 8: - Aftermath
Yugi was trying to work out the Prophecy and Joey and Kari had his back, using wand, fist and foot to keep the Mummies away.
The eye was still stopping their spells from time to time.
The eye…
"I've got it!" Yugi grinned, pushing the lid off the sarcophagus. "Dagger, dagger, please be here… got it!" Joey spared a quick look over his shoulder to see that Yugi had an ornamental dagger in his hand.
"What do you need to do with it, Yuge?" He asked, then yelped as Kari accidentally set part of his jacket alight with her spell. He threw it off and chucked it into the blaze that had taken over three quarters of the room… they were running out of time, the smoke couldn't hurt them, but any burns from the flames wouldn't heal and would injure their souls. After all, what happens in a Soul Room is permanent…
Yugi lobbed the dagger as hard as he could, but it struck handle first as Kari got dragged off the plinth. Yugi heard her terrified scream, saw what had happened, and knew he'd failed.
Something cracked and Yugi wheeled back around to see the eye was cracking… giving off magical sparks…
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Anubis snarled and Yami gasped as the Pyramid's power dropped exponentially. I sense a weakness in the Pyramid's Power…Yami's eye flickered over to his hikari, Yugi… There was real pride in his tone and he made up his mind what he was going to do. "I activate Double Spell, by discarding one card I can select a new one from my opponent's graveyard and use it as my own and I know just the card I want." It flew from Kaiba's Duel Disk to Yami's hand, "Monster Reborn! So come forth, mighty Blue Eyes Shining Dragon!" It appeared behind him, "And I have a hunch that this time, your Pyramid won't stand up to it!" Yami looked at Blue Eyes Shining, "Use Shining Nova, to finish what you started before and destroy the Pyramid of Light!"
The card exploded. "Impossible!" Anubis roared as his monsters blew up.
Yugi was too close to the flames for his liking when everything vanished around him in a burst of white light.
The Pyramid crashed down around Yami and Anubis's ears but Yami didn't take his eyes of Anubis until Mahado called.
Yugi was sitting up and quickly taking in what was going on, his Duel Disk reactivating on it's own, as Kari tried to figure out who, what, where, when and how?
"You!" Anubis snarled at Yugi, who glared back. Yami, who wasn't used to Yugi glaring watched as Yugi retook his place in the Duelling Arena. "You did this."
Yugi just smiled at Yami who grinned back.
"And with that I'll end my turn, now the Pyramid of Light is gone." Yami said, smirking at Anubis.
"If you get your tag team partner back so do I, Pharaoh." Anubis snarled.
Kari's eyes widened and she collapsed to her knees. "Not enough room in my head for you, you'll have to bother someone else." Yugi heard her murmur as she tried to stay in control. Ombre was on the move already, from the balcony, down to her hikari's side, with Mana's help.
"Leave Kari alone, it's me you're fighting." Yami snarled, "Yugi stay out of this."
"But…" Yugi started.
"Just do it." Yami growled. Yugi frowned but backed off.
"You can't possibly win," Anubis snarled. "You destroyed the Card, Pharaoh, but not the Pyramid of Light that hangs around my neck. Behold its power!" Another monster started to form, "Inspired by your modern saying, 'two heads are better then one.'" Yugi and Yami watched with a combination of horror and disgust as it finally finished taking shape, "Thinien, the Great Sphinx!"
The monster had both the heads of Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia and the body to match.
"And now Pyramid of Light, feed this perfect beast with dead souls set free!"
Ghosts shot from the Pyramid and what Mummies hadn't been burnt already escaped from the Puzzle and shot towards Thinien, who swallowed them whole, boosting his attack to around 20,000.
"Please tell me that attack meter's broke!" Joey yelped as the huge screen, one of the only parts of the Duel Dome still standing, showed Thinien's attack rising still further.
"Say hello Thinien." Anubis growled, Thinien growled. "Five thousand years ago I never got the chance to summon Thinien to our battle, so I think it's best I make up for lost time. Thinien, meet the Pharaoh and Pharaoh, meet your doom!"
"Yami, you have no cards left, how are you going to fight that thing?"
'If I'm right about what Kaiba was planning, I can still win this.' "All right Anubis, this is still a Duel and I still have one card to play." Yami activated his very last card. "Reverse of Reverse, which allows me to use the last card played by Kaiba!" It activated and Yugi could sense the relief in his yami's spirit, "Return from the Different Dimension!"
Yugi got it instantly, Anubis was going down.
"When Kaiba spoke of dealing us the perfect defeat, he meant wiping us out with our own Egyptian God Cards." Through a portal that had appeared arrive the three Gods in all their glory, "Allow me to introduce, Obelisk the Tormentor, Slipher the Sky Dragon ad the Winged Dragon of Ra! Egyptian Gods combine now for infinite power!" Ra went into phoenix mode and both it and Slipher rested on Obelisk's shoulders. "Titan Firestorm!"
The ground shook as the attack rushed at Thinien, causing it's destruction and destroying the last of Anubis's life points.
Anubis was blasted back into the broken ground, where magma had supposedly risen, and no one could look away as he collapsed in the flames, exploding just like a Duel Monster would.
Yugi grinned at Yami for a moment and then rushed forward as Yami collapsed. "Yami? Yami!"
He's alright Yugi. Boh passed Mahado's message on, Just tired.
The Gods faded away now the battle was over and Mahado gave Yugi a hand with Yami who was trying to insist that he was fine to walk and it was only a couple of minor bumps and they were to stop fussing over him this instant because he was fine and as per usual Yugi paid absolutely no attention.
Ombre was hovering around Kari who was helping Kaiba to his feet. "Seto, you've got to rest that arm." She was scolding him as he tried to use the arm on the side that had crashed into the ground after his head, instead of taking her help.
All of them froze as Anubis laughed and the red gem from the Pyramid that had shattered glowed a very bright red.
"What the?" Kaiba started but was cut off by black flame rising from the jewel.
"Shadows take life, creatures be born, now lets see how well you play this game when the monsters are real!" The Duellists who'd gained Duel Monster partners looked at them and then to the doglike shape that was forming. "It is no longer time to duel, now it is time to die!"
The dog Anubis shot black flame at them, but they all escaped the flames and turned back to face him in battle.
"Mana, get Kari and Ombre out of here, Joey…" It didn't need to be said, Joey nodded and started moving the group he was with out of the building.
"Mahado, take Yami and go." Yugi growled, reaching for his deck, Boh by his feet.
"Yugi, don't even think about it." Yami snapped.
"Nothing in your decks of cards can save you now!" Anubis snarled, something hit the Duellists opposite Anubis, and their Duel Disks exploded and launched cards all over the place.
"It appears you're one card short."
"Yeah, but I'm not!" Joey yelled.
"Joey, no!"
"I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight and Gilford the Lightening! Attack!"
Anubis blasted away Joey's monsters and Tobias only just got his partner out from under a falling piece of roof.
"We need a real monster…" Kari growled.
"But none of ours can take that thing on!" Ombre growled.
Anubis started launching dark magic missiles at everything. Yami was suddenly aware of one heading for him and froze as he realised he'd never get out of the way in time.
Then there was something between him and the magic. It was slammed back into him and they both crashed to the ground. Yami looked up to see what it was. "Yugi! No!"
The Pharaoh's heart stopped for a second as Yugi didn't respond.
The hikari was led limply on top of him, the pain tearing through the hikari's soul the only implication that he wasn't...
Then Yugi's eyes opened and pain filled violet met terrified ruby for a split second before Yugi rolled off of Yami and attempted to get to his feet. Yami could sense it as he pushed himself to a sitting position, the amount of effort it was taking Yugi just to remain conscious, let alone move...
Yami winced as Yugi half fell, stopped by Kari supporting him. Yugi glared at Anubis, "Pick on someone your own size!" He growled as Yami wondered how much longer Yugi could keep this up and couldn't help thinking that there was no one there Anubis's size, he'd been huge as a human and his dog form was almost as big as the Gods.
"Yugi!" Kaiba tossed Yugi a card, "You have to use a real monster to beat a real monster. Use this; it's the one card that can beat him!"
Yami felt Yugi gather his magic, and made up his mind, even as Yugi's attempt to summon the Shining Dragon failed. Staggering to his feet, Yami moved to his hikari's side and placed his own hand on the card, receiving a thankful look from Yugi as he did so. "Shining Nova!" The two yelled in unison as the Dragon appeared, Anubis attempted to blast it but the dragon responded on its own even before they gave it a target, "Destroy Anubis!"
The dragon exploded and took Anubis out with her.
The huge dog melted into a puddle of gloop and the red gem broke into about a million pieces.
"Did we get him?" Yugi asked, Yami could hear the pain in his voice and winced.
"I think so." Yami said, trying to reassure himself as much as Yugi.
"Please, Anubis is gone, no one can come from a defeat as devastating as that," Pegasus said, as he, Mokuba and Joey who'd been dragged out by Tobias, arrived back in the epicentre of the events. "Well, no one but Kaiba that is. I'm sorry did I say that out loud?" He asked.
"Where did Pegasus come from?" Yugi asked over the mind link; completely confused.
'I don't know, but as long as he doesn't want to duel I don't really care right now.' Yami replied, too tired and hurting too much to care.
"Yugi, Yami… I'm sorry for today's events." Kaiba actually apologised causing Yami to wonder if he was still possessed.
"Kaiba?" He asked.
"I was controlled by an outside source. I won't let that happen again. And next time, I will beat you." The last part sounded more like Kaiba.
"Thank you."
"Yeah well, this conversation is over." Kaiba growled, "Come on Mokuba."
The two left.
Yugi and Yami grinned at each other, and then simultaneously, they both passed out.
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The first thing Yami saw when he opened his eyes was a plain white ceiling.
If he was at home the ceiling would be Artex, if it was the dorms at Hogwarts there would have been fabric above his head, and if it was the Hospital Wing the ceilings would have been a lot higher and arched.
Yami sat up and looked around, his head spinning as he tried to get his bearings.
The Hospital. Domino Central Hospital to be precise, he remembered being in here with Yugi before.
Yugi...
Everything came flooding back. The duel, Anubis, Kaiba... Yugi!
The link was practically non existent and Yami attempted to scramble out of bed to find him but found himself face to face with a nurse the moment he got near the door. "Mr Muto, I suggest you go back to bed right now!" She growled, in a tone not that dissimilar to the one that Madam Pomfrey used to scare the gang out of the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.
"My brother, Yugi Muto..." Yami said hurriedly.
"He's in a different ward," The nurse said, her gaze softening, "You can go see him after we've done some tests, as long as you don't wake him up."
"How bad...?" Yami asked.
"It'll take a couple of weeks but once the worst of the burns have gone he'll be fine." She sighed, "That must have been a pretty bad fire."
Yami just looked down at the floor. Yugi had been hurt protecting him; of course the Doctors would have removed the Millennium Puzzle to treat Yugi.
"The necklace my brother wears..."
"Your older brother has it." The nurse said with a smile, "A nice young man, he and your sisters were the ones who brought you in."
Oh, Yami knew this story, the Muggle Hospitals wouldn't let anyone who wasn't family see the patients, so Joey and Tristan became their adopted older brothers, and the girls became sisters. Not that Tristan and Tea were around, Tea had managed to live her dream and go to America to study dance and Tristan had a job with a security company that he wouldn't talk about and wasn't home very often.
"Can I see them?"
"Well," The nurse said as she led Yami back to his bed, "The littler sister said she had to go back to work and she'd be back soon, but the other two are practically hovering."
Kaiba had Kari back in work already then. But then it had been Kaiba that had been injured, not Kari, so perhaps she'd gone back of her own fruition, knowing that Joey and Ombre would report everything that happened to her.
Yami put up with the poking and prodding without complaint so that he could get to Yugi's side quicker.
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Joey and Ombre were in the waiting room when the nurse came in and told them that Yami had woken up but they weren't to badger him about things and they weren't to wake Yugi up either.
"Are you gonna move them into the same room?" Joey asked as the Nurse led the way down the corridors.
"Probably, Mr Kaiba said to give them the best care, and siblings are normally better off together after something like a fire, or an accident."
"Kaiba?" Ombre yelped.
"Yeah, he phoned earlier to ask if the Muto twins were here and when we informed him they were he said that he'd pay the bills."
Joey and Ombre looked shocked, wondering if Kari had said something to her boss.
"By the way, the entire hospital staff knows you're not the twins' family, but no one really cares, we're well aware that you guys are as close to family as they're going to get other then their Grandfather." Joey sighed, they'd been in here way too often if the entire staff roster was aware of this fact. "Speaking of Muto Solomon, one of you should probably phone him to tell him Yami's awake."
"I'll do it." Ombre said, "I need to tell Kari anyway."
"This is the door, make sure you're quiet." She said sternly, and let them in.
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Yugi opened his eyes slowly.
He felt stiff and sore, but it wasn't until he attempted to sit up and he felt like every muscle in his body was screaming that he remembered what had happened, slumping back onto the soft, cool bed.
"Yugi?" Yugi smiled slightly and looked around properly.
Yami was slumped in a chair by the bed, Joey was leant against the window sill and Ombre was sat on it. "Is Kari alright?"
"She's gone back to work." Ombre answered, "She and the baby are fine."
"That's good." Yugi said with a soft smile.
"How're you feeling?" Yami asked, Yugi reached for the Millennium Puzzle and yelped as his shoulder felt like it was burnt. Remembering what had hit him, Yugi failed to be surprised. "Yugi!"
"I'm fine, just a little sore." Yugi said, attempting to sit up again.
"I wouldn't Yuge," Joey said, "The nurse said you're gonna be sore for a few weeks yet."
"How long have I been out?"
"A week, week and a half, Yami was out for a good five, six days." Ombre replied.
"Guess we're slowing down, hey Yami?" Yugi joked. Yami was giving him a speculative look and Yugi realised there was going to be a rant when the others left the room about jumping in front of that magical energy...
"We'll go tell the Doctors you're awake." Joey said, with a look at Ombre, who nodded and followed. The door shut behind them and Yami opened his mouth.
"Can you wait to tell me off until I've worked out how to get this bed so I can sit up?" Yugi cut him off. Yami waited until Yugi had got the bed to the point where he was comfortable and sat up, without being sat so far up that he wasn't supported by the bed. "All right, go on."
Yami just shook his head, "You could have been killed."
"You would have been if I hadn't done what I did." Yugi decided to get his points in before Yami started on his. "You didn't have enough energy left to survive that blast and I hadn't been hurt at all. It was better I got blasted then you got killed."
"You shouldn't have had to... it was..."
"You can't protect me from everything, Yami, sometimes you're the one who needs protecting and if I'm there, and I'm gonna be the one to do it. We have each other, sure we drive each other mental sometimes but we have to look out for each other. We're two halves of the same whole after all."
"But..."
"I know you think you're the one who's supposed to do the protecting, but you were too drained from saving us from the Pyramid of Light..."
"I couldn't have done it if you hadn't done... what did you do?" Yami asked and Yugi grinned having successfully managed to distract Yami from his rant.
"Well..."
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"Kari?"
The woman in question looked up from her pile of work. Mana, who had trailed her to work, had opened the door to a concerned looking Mokuba. "What's wrong?"
"Are you really all right?" He asked, "Because Yugi and Yami ended up in the hospital and Seto's arms in a sling..."
"Honest, I'm fine squirt." Kari smiled at him, "I got off lightly, the others are..." Kari's phone went off and Mokuba was about to leave when Kari told him it was Ombre. "Ombre? What? Yami's up? That's great! Yugi's conscious too? Cool! Tell them I'll see them around half five." She looked over her shoulder, "One sec." She put her hand over the mouth piece, "You wanna come see 'em, squirt?"
"Only you can call me that." Mokuba scowled at her, "But yes, I want to come."
"I'll be bringing Mokuba too, is that alright? Sure? Ok, we'll see you then. Byes." Kari put the phone down and grinned at Mokuba, "You do realise what we have to do now?"
"What?"
"Get your brother's permission."
"I wanted you to come see him anyway. He's locked himself in his office and won't even let me in."
"What?" She looked at Mana who nodded and followed them down the corridor and up the lift.
On the thirty ninth floor, where Seto and Mokuba's offices and Personal Assistants were, Seto's PA was sitting behind her desk with a glazed fearful look on her face, and didn't immediately register their presence. Mokuba sighed slightly and tapped her desk, making the shell shocked PA jump a mile. "What's going on?" He asked the shaking girl.
"Oh, Master Mokuba sir, sorry." She glanced up. "Miss Ironhide!" She dropped the pen she had just picked up. "Mr Kaiba doesn't want any visitors. Sorry." She winced again, glancing at the door to Seto Kaiba's office.
"Tell him… no wait. Which button is it to buzz his office?" Kari demanded.
"I can't; he's threatened to fire the next person who disturbs him because he's doing something regarding Duel Monsters and..."
Kari pursed her lips, the only two things it could possibly were the Wizard Duel Monster cards or the new Duel Disk, and the second of those wasn't even in more then the planning stage... unless he was furious about the Duel still...
"I don't want to get fired." She said, looking at Mokuba.
"Don't worry, I won't let him." Mokuba reassured her.
"Fine." Kari sighed, Mana watched in amusement as her partner drew herself up to her full height and her most imposing, "SETO KAIBA; OPEN THE DOOR THIS INSTANT!"
The sounds of crashing from inside stopped for a moment, "GO AWAY IRONHIDE!" Kaiba roared.
"NO!" Kari roared back, the two PA's grinned at each other, listening to the two of them bellowing at each other was always interesting, "LET US IN RIGHT NOW!"
"GET BACK TO YOUR OFFICE!"
"NO. MOKUBA WANTS TO GO INTO YOUR OFFICE AND HE CAN'T GET THROUGH A LOCKED DOOR AND YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN TO HIM SO..."
"GO BACK TO YOUR DESK OR YOU'RE FIRED!" Kari visibly flinched back, looking back over her shoulder at the younger Kaiba who looked at her pleadingly.
"IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR, I'LL HAVE MANA BLAST IT TO PIECES!"
That did the trick, the double doors slammed open and before Kari or Mana could move, Kisara had swept out of the office, attacked Mana and pinned her.
Kari collapsed to her knees, pain racing through her, "Please, call her off!" Kari pleaded with Seto.
Mokuba's partner Duel Monster, a Blue Eyes White Chick by the name of Geki, launched out of Mokuba's office and tackled Kisara, sending the two dragons tumbling across the room. Mana shakily got to her feet and stood between Kaiba and her partner.
"Geki, stop it!" Mokuba called, "Seto, call Kisara off! I asked Kari to get you to open the door!"
"I don't take kindly to threats, Ironhide." Kaiba snapped at Kari.
"It worked didn't it?" Kari replied, "Mana, are you alright?"
Fine, are you alright?
"I'm more worried about you, Kisara isn't a weak opponent."
I'm fine, I promise. Kari sighed and dared to glance at the two dragons, who'd stopped fighting, Kisara had settled for glaring at her. "What do you want?" Kaiba asked Mokuba.
"You've been locking yourself in your office every day since the Duel, and you're barely ever home long enough to eat, I wanted to see if you were all right!" Mokuba said, close to tears.
"Apologise to him." Kari growled at Kaiba.
"Get out." Kaiba snapped at her.
Kari froze, he couldn't... he wouldn't...
"You have five minutes before I call security."
He had.
"Big brother! No! You can't."
"Mokuba." Seto growled.
"Kari was following my orders. You can't fire her. I'll just hire her again."
"Both of you. GET OUT!" The last was a bellow, and they fled from the murderous look in his eyes.
The eye was still stopping their spells from time to time.
The eye…
"I've got it!" Yugi grinned, pushing the lid off the sarcophagus. "Dagger, dagger, please be here… got it!" Joey spared a quick look over his shoulder to see that Yugi had an ornamental dagger in his hand.
"What do you need to do with it, Yuge?" He asked, then yelped as Kari accidentally set part of his jacket alight with her spell. He threw it off and chucked it into the blaze that had taken over three quarters of the room… they were running out of time, the smoke couldn't hurt them, but any burns from the flames wouldn't heal and would injure their souls. After all, what happens in a Soul Room is permanent…
Yugi lobbed the dagger as hard as he could, but it struck handle first as Kari got dragged off the plinth. Yugi heard her terrified scream, saw what had happened, and knew he'd failed.
Something cracked and Yugi wheeled back around to see the eye was cracking… giving off magical sparks…
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Anubis snarled and Yami gasped as the Pyramid's power dropped exponentially. I sense a weakness in the Pyramid's Power…Yami's eye flickered over to his hikari, Yugi… There was real pride in his tone and he made up his mind what he was going to do. "I activate Double Spell, by discarding one card I can select a new one from my opponent's graveyard and use it as my own and I know just the card I want." It flew from Kaiba's Duel Disk to Yami's hand, "Monster Reborn! So come forth, mighty Blue Eyes Shining Dragon!" It appeared behind him, "And I have a hunch that this time, your Pyramid won't stand up to it!" Yami looked at Blue Eyes Shining, "Use Shining Nova, to finish what you started before and destroy the Pyramid of Light!"
The card exploded. "Impossible!" Anubis roared as his monsters blew up.
Yugi was too close to the flames for his liking when everything vanished around him in a burst of white light.
The Pyramid crashed down around Yami and Anubis's ears but Yami didn't take his eyes of Anubis until Mahado called.
Yugi was sitting up and quickly taking in what was going on, his Duel Disk reactivating on it's own, as Kari tried to figure out who, what, where, when and how?
"You!" Anubis snarled at Yugi, who glared back. Yami, who wasn't used to Yugi glaring watched as Yugi retook his place in the Duelling Arena. "You did this."
Yugi just smiled at Yami who grinned back.
"And with that I'll end my turn, now the Pyramid of Light is gone." Yami said, smirking at Anubis.
"If you get your tag team partner back so do I, Pharaoh." Anubis snarled.
Kari's eyes widened and she collapsed to her knees. "Not enough room in my head for you, you'll have to bother someone else." Yugi heard her murmur as she tried to stay in control. Ombre was on the move already, from the balcony, down to her hikari's side, with Mana's help.
"Leave Kari alone, it's me you're fighting." Yami snarled, "Yugi stay out of this."
"But…" Yugi started.
"Just do it." Yami growled. Yugi frowned but backed off.
"You can't possibly win," Anubis snarled. "You destroyed the Card, Pharaoh, but not the Pyramid of Light that hangs around my neck. Behold its power!" Another monster started to form, "Inspired by your modern saying, 'two heads are better then one.'" Yugi and Yami watched with a combination of horror and disgust as it finally finished taking shape, "Thinien, the Great Sphinx!"
The monster had both the heads of Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia and the body to match.
"And now Pyramid of Light, feed this perfect beast with dead souls set free!"
Ghosts shot from the Pyramid and what Mummies hadn't been burnt already escaped from the Puzzle and shot towards Thinien, who swallowed them whole, boosting his attack to around 20,000.
"Please tell me that attack meter's broke!" Joey yelped as the huge screen, one of the only parts of the Duel Dome still standing, showed Thinien's attack rising still further.
"Say hello Thinien." Anubis growled, Thinien growled. "Five thousand years ago I never got the chance to summon Thinien to our battle, so I think it's best I make up for lost time. Thinien, meet the Pharaoh and Pharaoh, meet your doom!"
"Yami, you have no cards left, how are you going to fight that thing?"
'If I'm right about what Kaiba was planning, I can still win this.' "All right Anubis, this is still a Duel and I still have one card to play." Yami activated his very last card. "Reverse of Reverse, which allows me to use the last card played by Kaiba!" It activated and Yugi could sense the relief in his yami's spirit, "Return from the Different Dimension!"
Yugi got it instantly, Anubis was going down.
"When Kaiba spoke of dealing us the perfect defeat, he meant wiping us out with our own Egyptian God Cards." Through a portal that had appeared arrive the three Gods in all their glory, "Allow me to introduce, Obelisk the Tormentor, Slipher the Sky Dragon ad the Winged Dragon of Ra! Egyptian Gods combine now for infinite power!" Ra went into phoenix mode and both it and Slipher rested on Obelisk's shoulders. "Titan Firestorm!"
The ground shook as the attack rushed at Thinien, causing it's destruction and destroying the last of Anubis's life points.
Anubis was blasted back into the broken ground, where magma had supposedly risen, and no one could look away as he collapsed in the flames, exploding just like a Duel Monster would.
Yugi grinned at Yami for a moment and then rushed forward as Yami collapsed. "Yami? Yami!"
He's alright Yugi. Boh passed Mahado's message on, Just tired.
The Gods faded away now the battle was over and Mahado gave Yugi a hand with Yami who was trying to insist that he was fine to walk and it was only a couple of minor bumps and they were to stop fussing over him this instant because he was fine and as per usual Yugi paid absolutely no attention.
Ombre was hovering around Kari who was helping Kaiba to his feet. "Seto, you've got to rest that arm." She was scolding him as he tried to use the arm on the side that had crashed into the ground after his head, instead of taking her help.
All of them froze as Anubis laughed and the red gem from the Pyramid that had shattered glowed a very bright red.
"What the?" Kaiba started but was cut off by black flame rising from the jewel.
"Shadows take life, creatures be born, now lets see how well you play this game when the monsters are real!" The Duellists who'd gained Duel Monster partners looked at them and then to the doglike shape that was forming. "It is no longer time to duel, now it is time to die!"
The dog Anubis shot black flame at them, but they all escaped the flames and turned back to face him in battle.
"Mana, get Kari and Ombre out of here, Joey…" It didn't need to be said, Joey nodded and started moving the group he was with out of the building.
"Mahado, take Yami and go." Yugi growled, reaching for his deck, Boh by his feet.
"Yugi, don't even think about it." Yami snapped.
"Nothing in your decks of cards can save you now!" Anubis snarled, something hit the Duellists opposite Anubis, and their Duel Disks exploded and launched cards all over the place.
"It appears you're one card short."
"Yeah, but I'm not!" Joey yelled.
"Joey, no!"
"I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight and Gilford the Lightening! Attack!"
Anubis blasted away Joey's monsters and Tobias only just got his partner out from under a falling piece of roof.
"We need a real monster…" Kari growled.
"But none of ours can take that thing on!" Ombre growled.
Anubis started launching dark magic missiles at everything. Yami was suddenly aware of one heading for him and froze as he realised he'd never get out of the way in time.
Then there was something between him and the magic. It was slammed back into him and they both crashed to the ground. Yami looked up to see what it was. "Yugi! No!"
The Pharaoh's heart stopped for a second as Yugi didn't respond.
The hikari was led limply on top of him, the pain tearing through the hikari's soul the only implication that he wasn't...
Then Yugi's eyes opened and pain filled violet met terrified ruby for a split second before Yugi rolled off of Yami and attempted to get to his feet. Yami could sense it as he pushed himself to a sitting position, the amount of effort it was taking Yugi just to remain conscious, let alone move...
Yami winced as Yugi half fell, stopped by Kari supporting him. Yugi glared at Anubis, "Pick on someone your own size!" He growled as Yami wondered how much longer Yugi could keep this up and couldn't help thinking that there was no one there Anubis's size, he'd been huge as a human and his dog form was almost as big as the Gods.
"Yugi!" Kaiba tossed Yugi a card, "You have to use a real monster to beat a real monster. Use this; it's the one card that can beat him!"
Yami felt Yugi gather his magic, and made up his mind, even as Yugi's attempt to summon the Shining Dragon failed. Staggering to his feet, Yami moved to his hikari's side and placed his own hand on the card, receiving a thankful look from Yugi as he did so. "Shining Nova!" The two yelled in unison as the Dragon appeared, Anubis attempted to blast it but the dragon responded on its own even before they gave it a target, "Destroy Anubis!"
The dragon exploded and took Anubis out with her.
The huge dog melted into a puddle of gloop and the red gem broke into about a million pieces.
"Did we get him?" Yugi asked, Yami could hear the pain in his voice and winced.
"I think so." Yami said, trying to reassure himself as much as Yugi.
"Please, Anubis is gone, no one can come from a defeat as devastating as that," Pegasus said, as he, Mokuba and Joey who'd been dragged out by Tobias, arrived back in the epicentre of the events. "Well, no one but Kaiba that is. I'm sorry did I say that out loud?" He asked.
"Where did Pegasus come from?" Yugi asked over the mind link; completely confused.
'I don't know, but as long as he doesn't want to duel I don't really care right now.' Yami replied, too tired and hurting too much to care.
"Yugi, Yami… I'm sorry for today's events." Kaiba actually apologised causing Yami to wonder if he was still possessed.
"Kaiba?" He asked.
"I was controlled by an outside source. I won't let that happen again. And next time, I will beat you." The last part sounded more like Kaiba.
"Thank you."
"Yeah well, this conversation is over." Kaiba growled, "Come on Mokuba."
The two left.
Yugi and Yami grinned at each other, and then simultaneously, they both passed out.
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The first thing Yami saw when he opened his eyes was a plain white ceiling.
If he was at home the ceiling would be Artex, if it was the dorms at Hogwarts there would have been fabric above his head, and if it was the Hospital Wing the ceilings would have been a lot higher and arched.
Yami sat up and looked around, his head spinning as he tried to get his bearings.
The Hospital. Domino Central Hospital to be precise, he remembered being in here with Yugi before.
Yugi...
Everything came flooding back. The duel, Anubis, Kaiba... Yugi!
The link was practically non existent and Yami attempted to scramble out of bed to find him but found himself face to face with a nurse the moment he got near the door. "Mr Muto, I suggest you go back to bed right now!" She growled, in a tone not that dissimilar to the one that Madam Pomfrey used to scare the gang out of the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.
"My brother, Yugi Muto..." Yami said hurriedly.
"He's in a different ward," The nurse said, her gaze softening, "You can go see him after we've done some tests, as long as you don't wake him up."
"How bad...?" Yami asked.
"It'll take a couple of weeks but once the worst of the burns have gone he'll be fine." She sighed, "That must have been a pretty bad fire."
Yami just looked down at the floor. Yugi had been hurt protecting him; of course the Doctors would have removed the Millennium Puzzle to treat Yugi.
"The necklace my brother wears..."
"Your older brother has it." The nurse said with a smile, "A nice young man, he and your sisters were the ones who brought you in."
Oh, Yami knew this story, the Muggle Hospitals wouldn't let anyone who wasn't family see the patients, so Joey and Tristan became their adopted older brothers, and the girls became sisters. Not that Tristan and Tea were around, Tea had managed to live her dream and go to America to study dance and Tristan had a job with a security company that he wouldn't talk about and wasn't home very often.
"Can I see them?"
"Well," The nurse said as she led Yami back to his bed, "The littler sister said she had to go back to work and she'd be back soon, but the other two are practically hovering."
Kaiba had Kari back in work already then. But then it had been Kaiba that had been injured, not Kari, so perhaps she'd gone back of her own fruition, knowing that Joey and Ombre would report everything that happened to her.
Yami put up with the poking and prodding without complaint so that he could get to Yugi's side quicker.
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Joey and Ombre were in the waiting room when the nurse came in and told them that Yami had woken up but they weren't to badger him about things and they weren't to wake Yugi up either.
"Are you gonna move them into the same room?" Joey asked as the Nurse led the way down the corridors.
"Probably, Mr Kaiba said to give them the best care, and siblings are normally better off together after something like a fire, or an accident."
"Kaiba?" Ombre yelped.
"Yeah, he phoned earlier to ask if the Muto twins were here and when we informed him they were he said that he'd pay the bills."
Joey and Ombre looked shocked, wondering if Kari had said something to her boss.
"By the way, the entire hospital staff knows you're not the twins' family, but no one really cares, we're well aware that you guys are as close to family as they're going to get other then their Grandfather." Joey sighed, they'd been in here way too often if the entire staff roster was aware of this fact. "Speaking of Muto Solomon, one of you should probably phone him to tell him Yami's awake."
"I'll do it." Ombre said, "I need to tell Kari anyway."
"This is the door, make sure you're quiet." She said sternly, and let them in.
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Yugi opened his eyes slowly.
He felt stiff and sore, but it wasn't until he attempted to sit up and he felt like every muscle in his body was screaming that he remembered what had happened, slumping back onto the soft, cool bed.
"Yugi?" Yugi smiled slightly and looked around properly.
Yami was slumped in a chair by the bed, Joey was leant against the window sill and Ombre was sat on it. "Is Kari alright?"
"She's gone back to work." Ombre answered, "She and the baby are fine."
"That's good." Yugi said with a soft smile.
"How're you feeling?" Yami asked, Yugi reached for the Millennium Puzzle and yelped as his shoulder felt like it was burnt. Remembering what had hit him, Yugi failed to be surprised. "Yugi!"
"I'm fine, just a little sore." Yugi said, attempting to sit up again.
"I wouldn't Yuge," Joey said, "The nurse said you're gonna be sore for a few weeks yet."
"How long have I been out?"
"A week, week and a half, Yami was out for a good five, six days." Ombre replied.
"Guess we're slowing down, hey Yami?" Yugi joked. Yami was giving him a speculative look and Yugi realised there was going to be a rant when the others left the room about jumping in front of that magical energy...
"We'll go tell the Doctors you're awake." Joey said, with a look at Ombre, who nodded and followed. The door shut behind them and Yami opened his mouth.
"Can you wait to tell me off until I've worked out how to get this bed so I can sit up?" Yugi cut him off. Yami waited until Yugi had got the bed to the point where he was comfortable and sat up, without being sat so far up that he wasn't supported by the bed. "All right, go on."
Yami just shook his head, "You could have been killed."
"You would have been if I hadn't done what I did." Yugi decided to get his points in before Yami started on his. "You didn't have enough energy left to survive that blast and I hadn't been hurt at all. It was better I got blasted then you got killed."
"You shouldn't have had to... it was..."
"You can't protect me from everything, Yami, sometimes you're the one who needs protecting and if I'm there, and I'm gonna be the one to do it. We have each other, sure we drive each other mental sometimes but we have to look out for each other. We're two halves of the same whole after all."
"But..."
"I know you think you're the one who's supposed to do the protecting, but you were too drained from saving us from the Pyramid of Light..."
"I couldn't have done it if you hadn't done... what did you do?" Yami asked and Yugi grinned having successfully managed to distract Yami from his rant.
"Well..."
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"Kari?"
The woman in question looked up from her pile of work. Mana, who had trailed her to work, had opened the door to a concerned looking Mokuba. "What's wrong?"
"Are you really all right?" He asked, "Because Yugi and Yami ended up in the hospital and Seto's arms in a sling..."
"Honest, I'm fine squirt." Kari smiled at him, "I got off lightly, the others are..." Kari's phone went off and Mokuba was about to leave when Kari told him it was Ombre. "Ombre? What? Yami's up? That's great! Yugi's conscious too? Cool! Tell them I'll see them around half five." She looked over her shoulder, "One sec." She put her hand over the mouth piece, "You wanna come see 'em, squirt?"
"Only you can call me that." Mokuba scowled at her, "But yes, I want to come."
"I'll be bringing Mokuba too, is that alright? Sure? Ok, we'll see you then. Byes." Kari put the phone down and grinned at Mokuba, "You do realise what we have to do now?"
"What?"
"Get your brother's permission."
"I wanted you to come see him anyway. He's locked himself in his office and won't even let me in."
"What?" She looked at Mana who nodded and followed them down the corridor and up the lift.
On the thirty ninth floor, where Seto and Mokuba's offices and Personal Assistants were, Seto's PA was sitting behind her desk with a glazed fearful look on her face, and didn't immediately register their presence. Mokuba sighed slightly and tapped her desk, making the shell shocked PA jump a mile. "What's going on?" He asked the shaking girl.
"Oh, Master Mokuba sir, sorry." She glanced up. "Miss Ironhide!" She dropped the pen she had just picked up. "Mr Kaiba doesn't want any visitors. Sorry." She winced again, glancing at the door to Seto Kaiba's office.
"Tell him… no wait. Which button is it to buzz his office?" Kari demanded.
"I can't; he's threatened to fire the next person who disturbs him because he's doing something regarding Duel Monsters and..."
Kari pursed her lips, the only two things it could possibly were the Wizard Duel Monster cards or the new Duel Disk, and the second of those wasn't even in more then the planning stage... unless he was furious about the Duel still...
"I don't want to get fired." She said, looking at Mokuba.
"Don't worry, I won't let him." Mokuba reassured her.
"Fine." Kari sighed, Mana watched in amusement as her partner drew herself up to her full height and her most imposing, "SETO KAIBA; OPEN THE DOOR THIS INSTANT!"
The sounds of crashing from inside stopped for a moment, "GO AWAY IRONHIDE!" Kaiba roared.
"NO!" Kari roared back, the two PA's grinned at each other, listening to the two of them bellowing at each other was always interesting, "LET US IN RIGHT NOW!"
"GET BACK TO YOUR OFFICE!"
"NO. MOKUBA WANTS TO GO INTO YOUR OFFICE AND HE CAN'T GET THROUGH A LOCKED DOOR AND YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN TO HIM SO..."
"GO BACK TO YOUR DESK OR YOU'RE FIRED!" Kari visibly flinched back, looking back over her shoulder at the younger Kaiba who looked at her pleadingly.
"IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR, I'LL HAVE MANA BLAST IT TO PIECES!"
That did the trick, the double doors slammed open and before Kari or Mana could move, Kisara had swept out of the office, attacked Mana and pinned her.
Kari collapsed to her knees, pain racing through her, "Please, call her off!" Kari pleaded with Seto.
Mokuba's partner Duel Monster, a Blue Eyes White Chick by the name of Geki, launched out of Mokuba's office and tackled Kisara, sending the two dragons tumbling across the room. Mana shakily got to her feet and stood between Kaiba and her partner.
"Geki, stop it!" Mokuba called, "Seto, call Kisara off! I asked Kari to get you to open the door!"
"I don't take kindly to threats, Ironhide." Kaiba snapped at Kari.
"It worked didn't it?" Kari replied, "Mana, are you alright?"
Fine, are you alright?
"I'm more worried about you, Kisara isn't a weak opponent."
I'm fine, I promise. Kari sighed and dared to glance at the two dragons, who'd stopped fighting, Kisara had settled for glaring at her. "What do you want?" Kaiba asked Mokuba.
"You've been locking yourself in your office every day since the Duel, and you're barely ever home long enough to eat, I wanted to see if you were all right!" Mokuba said, close to tears.
"Apologise to him." Kari growled at Kaiba.
"Get out." Kaiba snapped at her.
Kari froze, he couldn't... he wouldn't...
"You have five minutes before I call security."
He had.
"Big brother! No! You can't."
"Mokuba." Seto growled.
"Kari was following my orders. You can't fire her. I'll just hire her again."
"Both of you. GET OUT!" The last was a bellow, and they fled from the murderous look in his eyes.