Chapter 5: - Returning
"Harry, if something happens to me, make sure this gets back," Kari demanded, holding the chain attached to the Orb of Light, a determined look on her face. "Nothing else is important, but the Orb has to go back to Ombre." She stood up and wheeled around, blasting the approaching Death Eater backwards with a telekinetic wave.
"Harry…"
The Death Eater's mask went flying, and the stunned man sat up to reveal a man whose face they knew rather well, "Lucius Malfoy?" Kari snarled, half surprised. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy's wand flew into Kari's hand as the woman approached the Death Eater warily, her own wand pointed at his chest. "You're behind this?"
When he didn't answer in favour of watching the Orb swing on its chain, Kari snapped at him again. "Malfoy!"
"Harry, wake up."
"Kari, watch out!" Harry struggled to push himself to his feet. He could see Wormtail fast approaching to intercept. He was too slow to stop him, the effort of movement amplified the pain in his leg to excruciating levels.
"Avada Kedava!"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry bellowed, but the spell escaped the traitor's wand a fraction of a second before Harry's spell hit it. The piece of wood went flying towards Harry, but it was too late. The green light of death struck Kari in the back and she…
"Harry!"
Harry started at Yugi's mental call, and found himself in the room he'd awoken in after his Shadow Game with Draco, only this time instead of a concerned Yami in the room, both Mutou twins were hovering nearby.
"Wha…?" Harry asked his link partners, taking in the fact that Atem was leaning against his doorframe while Yugi was the one who had shaken him from his sleep.
"We saw." Yugi murmured sympathetically, causing Harry to blink at him, confused for a moment until he remembered that nightmares on the part of one tended to disturb the sleep of the other two and occasionally, depending on how bad they were, even intruded on the dreams of the others in the link.
"Sorry." Harry turned away from the other two, not wanting to show weakness in front of them when they'd gone through so much this summer.
"For what?" Atem snorted, not moving from the doorway. Harry winced slightly at his tone, which was somewhere between barely awake, concerned and irritable.
"For disturbing you."
"I have no right to complain," Yugi replied, concerned less for the interrupted sleep and more for his friend. "Not after all the nights I've woken you and Atem up."
Harry let out a soft scoff at that. Yugi tended to have horrendous nightmares, and while he'd gotten rather good at blocking off the images from his link partners, Yugi had never been very good at suppressing his emotions, meaning that there had been many occasions when the raw sensations surging over the link had pulled Harry and Atem out of a deep sleep.
This was the first time they'd gathered in one of their Soul Rooms though.
"Is this the first?" Atem asked, finally coming in and leaning against one of the bookcases when Harry sighed and sat up, gesturing for the pharaoh to come and settle in his room.
Harry hesitated to answer, knowing that while he'd prefer to keep it a secret from the others there wasn't much point in trying. There hadn't been since the link had been formed. They knew when he was hurt, or scared or lying, just as he knew the same about them.
"No." Harry admitted bitterly, glad that they'd kept the link between the three of them blocked while they'd been planning the party. It was bad enough that he'd failed to save Kari the first time, having to relive the events every time he slept or saw Ombre was almost more than he could take and he just knew it would worry his friends further.
"It wasn't your fault, you know," Yugi murmured softly, earning himself a sharp look from the black haired teen, "Kari..."
"It is my fault!" Harry interrupted, shooting out of bed and glowering at Yugi, who didn't back down an inch. "We knew something was going to happen and I let myself get hurt! If I hadn't been hurt I might have been able to save Kari! I should have…"
"Harry." Atem's tone broke through Harry's fit of rage and self-disgust. The combination of anger and sympathetic frustration caused the teenager to freeze and turn to the pharaoh. It wasn't that he was frightened of Atem. Unlike some of the others he knew the dark well enough to know that it didn't matter how mad Atem was, he would never deliberately harm his friends. It was that the pharaoh had never taken that tone with him before. Harry settled down slightly, sitting back down on his bed and watching the pharaoh warily. Atem's shoulders sank, the moment of anger passing quickly as grief settled.
"You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened to Kari," Atem told him with a mournful sigh, "Not when the fault rests firmly on the shoulders of Crouch, Wormtail and Voldemort."
"But I…!"
"You and Yugi are too much alike," Atem grimaced, causing Harry to realise that, for once, he meant it as an insult. "When something happens to your friends you blame yourself, even if there's nothing you could have done. You have to accept that you can't save everyone."
"You two do!" Harry's accused the Mutous, making them both flinch. "You both save everyone every time!"
"It wasn't always that way," Atem's pained tone and the sudden burst of memories and feelings that crossed the link caused Harry's expression to change from indignation to shock.
"Was that…?" Harry gasped. The images of the devastation that had occurred in Egypt during Atem's reign were clear and vivid in his mind as if he were there himself. Not all of them were from Zorc's attack.
"Yes," Yugi's tone was full of grief, "It was…"
The three of them sat in silence for a while, none of them really looking at each other, the emotions each of them were feeling mingling and amplifying as they bounced along the link.
"Sorry." Harry mumbled.
"No." Yugi shook his head, understanding even as he sounded despondent, "You're not the only one who thinks that way." He let out a heavy sigh but before he could continue, his eyes widened and he vanished from the Soul Room.
"What do you think that was about?" Harry asked Atem, who was just getting to his feet when shock surged over the link, washing away any other emotion and leaving the pair reeling.
"Yami," Yugi's voice whispered through their minds, "You need to get out here right now."
'What's wrong?'
"Pegasus has been murdered."
'WHAT?' Atem exited the Soul Room to find a panicked-looking Mokuba watching as Yugi scrambled out of bed and tried to find his clothes bag.
"Atem?" Mokuba asked as Atem joined his hikari in his efforts to find his clothes, "Yugi told you?"
"Details. Now." The pharaoh demanded as he tossed Yugi's bag across the room and found his own.
"Someone broke into Industrial Illusions and murdered Pegasus around seven pm our time last night." Mokuba informed him. Atem glanced at the clock, which read 6:46 am, before pulling on his clothes, finishing seconds behind Yugi who was adjusting his leather choker and the Puzzle's chain as Harry entered the room. "According to the security cameras, Pegasus and his attacker fought using Duel Monsters but Pegasus was overwhelmed and…" Mokuba trailed off for a moment then. "We're increasing security around the mansion and Yako and Gekko Tenma need to speak with Yugi. Urgently."
"Who?" Harry asked Mokuba, who blinked at him for a moment before realising that none of those gathered had ever heard about the children Pegasus adopted many years ago, long before Yugi had completed the Puzzle.
"Pegasus's sons." Mokuba kind of enjoyed the shock that his little revelation brought.
Yugi was the first to recover, "Where are they and why do they want to speak to me?"
"Downstairs in the dining hall. The cook is preparing food. It is lunch time their time after all. As for why they're here…well they'd be better off telling you that.
"All right," Yugi nodded, "Show us the way."
"All right, but Yugi?" said Mokuba. "Watch your back."
"What do you mean?" Atem demanded as Yugi gave Mokuba a confused and worried look, suddenly realising that the boy was shaking. "Do you think it was the Tenmas who killed…?"
"N…no. They brought the tape from Pegasus's office…" Mokuba stammered, shaking his head as he spoke. "It looked like a Death Eater."
"A Death Eater? A Shadow-Duellist Death Eater?" Yugi was gob-smacked.
"That's not the worst of it, but I'll let the Tenmas explain," Mokuba ushered the three of them out of the room and downstairs, seeing no point in telling Atem and Harry not to follow. Considering what the Tenmas were about to say, it would affect all of them anyway, and Yugi would share what had happened in the meeting.
The four of them reached the dining hall quickly, and as Harry entered he was surprised to see none of the decorations from last night's party were still visible except one little lonely balloon.
"Tenma Gekko, Tenma Yako," Mokuba nodded to the two strange men, who paused their conversation with Seto and turned towards the door. "May I introduce the Mutou twins, Yugi and Yami," he pointed to each of them in turn, "And their good friend, Harry Potter."
"Mutou-shacho." The pair bowed to Yugi, stunning the trio, catching the three off their guard.
"I...I'm sorry?" Yugi asked, eyes wide, "But what did you just call me?"
"I apologise, Mutou-shacho," Yako spoke as Gekko nodded to Atem and Harry, "There is a lot to discuss and it is very early."
"I... I'm sorry but I think you have the wrong honorific," Yugi said, voice sharp and confusion obvious. "I'm not the president of anything."
"You mean you haven't told him?" Gekko frowned at Mokuba.
"I thought it was better if you informed him," Mokuba shook his head. "He'd probably think I was joking."
"Informed Yugi of what?" Atem growled impatiently at the businessmen.
Yako sighed, "When our father was killed, Mutou-San, his will came into effect."
"And what has that to do with my brother?"
"Upon the death of our father," Gekko replied, "Ownership of Industrial Illusions passed to your brother until such time as he can decide between the heirs to the company. Consider it, if you will, a regency which is to be held until you," Gekko looked at Yugi, "Can decide which of the heirs is the most suited to continue the game of Duel Monsters."
"But I don't know how to run a company!" Yugi yelped.
Seto quietly scoffed as he mentally acknowledged the fact Yugi was severely under prepared for such a position to be dropped on him. Still, he didn't plan on letting Yugi mess up since this development suddenly made the heir to the Shadowed Throne his most important business partner. After all, everything Kaiba Corp. did with the game of Duel Monsters went through the CEO of Industrial Illusions first.
"Our father was semi-retired," Gekko explained, "He's basically asking you to be Industrial Illusions's face and voice during this transitory period and finalise any big decisions while his sons help to keep the company running smoothly until you can choose who should lead. He wanted to entrust the leadership of the company to someone who truly loved the game, knew its true history, would be able to choose who would really be best to carry on its legacy without bias and would actually give it up when the decision was made."
"You'll be compensated for your time and effort," Yako added, his tone edged with acidity, "He's leaving you a large lump sum of money and his vacation home, along with the island it's situated on."
Yugi nodded, but Atem could tell that he was already too overwhelmed to really take in that last piece of information.
"I…" Yugi trailed off and his link partners could feel him trying to pull his thoughts into a coherent state and take in everything he'd heard.
"Sorry. Can I borrow Harry?" Sirius asked, poking his head in the door and looking around.
"Sure. I'm not useful right now anyway." Harry stepped out before his link partners could say a word against it and closed off his end, to allow both parties their privacy.
"What do I need to do now?" Yugi asked once the door had shut behind Harry.
"Before you do anything, there's something else you need to be told," Gekko growled, "The Shadow-Touched who broke into Industrial Illusions took the beta versions of some rather potent new cards, the Dark Gods, and swore to kill both of you." He looked between the Mutou twins.
Yugi had quickly filled his shocked quota for so early in the morning and this news was, understandably after the decade he'd had, less shocking than the fact that he'd suddenly acquired Industrial Illusions. Atem, however, growled viciously and went on high alert pretty much instantly.
"Dark Gods?" He demanded, his hand going automatically to his deck holster where the original God cards rested.
"They were my creation," Yako admitted, "But they were never meant for release. I made them because they wanted to be made, not because we planned on mass releasing them. There are three of them, each in answer to one of the Egyptian Gods; to Obelisk, the Wicked Dreadroot, to Slifer, the Wicked Eraser, and to Ra, the Wicked Avatar. Just like the originals, these three are Divine monsters who cannot be affected by trap and monster effects, well, except for those of the Gods and even then the Avatar is the Ra of the set in every way." Atem grimaced at that news. "And they all have their own powers."
"So they're like the Legendary Demons," Yugi questioned, "Except as dark aligned Gods?"
"And they have a lot more power," Yako sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger in exasperation, "I was actually considering them as a gift to you, Mutou-san." Atem blinked speechlessly. "After all, the Egyptian God Monsters were never officially yours, Mutou-shacho just lets you use them. However, when I finished them I realised they couldn't be released. They felt…wrong."
Atem nodded his understanding while Yugi frowned slightly.
"If the attacker wasn't Shadow-Touched, I wouldn't be as worried, but…" Yako trailed off.
"No, I understand." Atem grimaced, remembering all too well how hard it had been to fight against the God monsters when they had been in Marik's hands, and that had been when the powers of the Shadows were usable only to someone with access to an artefact able to control them.
There was silence for a moment, then Yugi spoke up, "There's nothing we can do about him until we have more leads. We'll just have to watch our backs." He let out a soft sigh, "Now, what's the next step while the investigation takes place?"
"We hold a press conference to announce the new CEO and what information we have," Yako grumbled. He had seen the newspapers that morning. Someone had already leaked news of Pegasus's death and it was splashed around everywhere.
"And you and Atem still need to talk to the press regarding what happened during Shadowmorn. It can't be put off much longer. The only reason it didn't happen yesterday was because you weren't allowed out of bed." Seto glowered at Yugi, who responded with a sheepish look.
"Technically I'm still not supposed to be out of bed."
"I hate to say it," Mokuba looked Yugi over thoughtfully, "But it's a shame you don't look more beat up or we could have used it to our advantage."
"You are not beating Yugi up as some publicity stunt!" Atem snapped irritably at the younger Kaiba.
"I know! I know!" Mokuba backed up defensively. "But we have to think of something!"
"Well, I guess the first port of call is for you two to tell me everything I need to know before I face the press," Yugi told the Tenmas, "And then I guess it's time for Yami and I to face the music."
LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN
Rebecca wanted to pace, or write or read or something to get her mind of the possible situations that she was flying into in Japan but she hadn't thought to pack a book in her carryon luggage and there wasn't exactly anywhere out of the way she could go to pace up and down in an airplane.
Instead she'd settled for looking through her deck, which she'd nearly been banned from coming onboard with, and trying to work out if she needed to change her strategies. She had been going to compete in the Kaiba Land Asia version of Battle City, but changed her mind before Shadowmorn happened. Now she wasn't so sure; with everything that had happened there were probably a lot of withdrawals and they needed the numbers to be up. She'd checked the stock exchange before she'd flown. Kaiba Corp. needed the good publicity and it needed it bad. That their CEO had been directly involved in Shadowmorn was both a good and a bad thing.
Good because he'd been on the, 'pharaoh's side', and most people she'd overheard seemed to be under the impression that it was the still-hiding Yugi, who filled that role. Bad because he had been involved at all and the knowledge that he had been involved in the events that killed tens of thousands and left many more in comas was, apparently, a bad thing, even if he had been on the right side.
She gave up on her deck when she realised she was getting evil looks from several passengers, put it back in its box and stowed that safely away, only to realise she did have some paper on her. The diary that updated every time Luna spoke a new prophecy. If she didn't use her auto-update quill and wrote from the back of the book, she could use it as a regular note pad and she wouldn't draw any more suspicion then she already had.
She knew what people were like. They were probably already wondering if she was for or against the pharaoh and what she'd been doing during Shadowmorn. People were already asking questions like, "Why hadn't this been prevented sooner?" and, "Why was it allowed to happen?" as well as, "Why weren't people warned?" "Who let Bakura Malfoy walk the streets?" and, "Why was the pharaoh allowed to walk around unprotected if he was the only one who could prevent Shadowmorn?"
There were also an awful lot of people she'd overheard saying that either, "Bakura Malfoy should have been locked up a long time ago and left there," or, "Yugi Mutou should have never been allowed to walk around the streets for his own safety, along with all of ours."
The worst part was part of her actually agreed with some of them, and she knew the truth of what happened. She knew Shadowmorn had been the culmination of everything that Yugi and Yami had fought so hard for during the last decade, that Yami earning his name had been their reward for every time they'd saved the planet, that Zorc had twisted it to suit his own purposes, and still she agreed that Bakura should have been locked up and the key thrown away, that Yugi should have been kept in a gilded cage so no one could trigger Shadowmorn by killing him, that her friends should have been kept away from the rest of the human race to prevent hundreds of thousands of lives being lost.
She hated herself for it, especially considering that she was such good friends with the group. It wasn't their fault that an insane mage and a demon had set them up, nor was it their fault that the grand prize at the end of all the insanity had been booby-trapped, but still she couldn't help but agree with some of the comments. It was part of the reason she wanted to write. She wanted to get all of these thoughts and feelings out of her head so she could get on with helping her friends settle everything into the way they would now have to be when she got there. They couldn't hide anymore. Everyone knew about Yugi and his 'court,' as the press were beginning to call the group recovering at the Kaiba mansion.
Not to mention the International Statute of Secrecy, which had been blown so far out of the water it had flown well out of orbit and possibly past Saturn by now. The first thing she needed to do when she got to the mansion was warn the group about the rumours, though she might leave one or two of the less innocent ones out. The innuendos about so many hot guys belonging to such a small assemblage were flying thick and fast.
The last thing Yugi and the rest needed was to be caught unawares by something she could have warned them about. Her train of thought was derailed as she realised why it was so easy for the public to assume that Yugi was the one in charge.
It was always, 'Yugi and Yami,' 'Yugi and the others,' or, 'Yugi, Yami and friends'. When the Mutou twins were interviewed, it was always Yugi they spoke to first, even when people talked about the King of Games they didn't always mean Yami, who had won the title from Yugi years ago, but the original King of Games, though to those in the know that distinction was hard to make.
Yugi was engrained in the public eye, even now, nearly four years after Atem had taken his title.
It was almost to be expected that when someone announced that one of the Mutou twins was, 'the pharaoh,' who had been guarding the Shadows and preventing this from happening, and that they had nearly died, it would be Yugi they would think was the one in question. He took far longer to recover, and had always been more in the public eye, with his insane talent for Duel Monsters, and the rumours of magic that followed him wherever he went.
There were even questions about whether Yami was his, 'champion,' or bodyguard and if Yugi had willingly given up his grandfather's deck and his title in order to get some of the public eye off of himself since he'd been at such risk. It was nonsense of course, but then people spouted nonsense when they didn't know what was really going on. Rebecca started jotting down notes about what she'd seen and heard, adding in little things that her Grandpa had heard or talked about as the pair of them very quietly discussed how best to bring them up in front of the Mutou twins, only for the people in the seats around them to realise what they were discussing and start asking questions and suggesting comments to be passed on.
As the noise spread slowly down the plane and Rebecca realised that she was only an hour into a twelve hour flight, she wished she had a bigger notebook and a much smaller mouth.
LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN
"You wanted a word?" Harry asked as he and his godfather settled by the fountain in the backyard of the Kaiba mansion, tipping a nod to a worried-looking Joey and a stunned, vaguely ticked looking Ombre as he passed.
Sirius let out a heavy sigh and they sat in silence for a moment, before the wizard finally decided on what he was going to say and how he was going to say it, "I've really enjoyed this summer…" Sirius started.
"You're going back to England, aren't you?" Harry asked, having wondered for a while if Sirius would want to return to his home country when he reached his final destination, considering that Sirius had been talking about the things he wanted to show him when they got back for a while. He'd been hoping he was wrong when Sirius started talking about moving to Japan full-time, but obviously not.
"We need to find out what the prophecy is, and I can do a lot more among wizards than I can here," Sirius tried to explain, "You're safer here, among friends, than you are back home at the moment. Between the ICoW, the Ministry and Dumbledore there's too many people hunting you right now."
Harry watched his godfather for a moment, wondering if it would have been so easy for Sirius to let him go if he'd made more of an effort to get along with him. Sirius shifted uneasily under his gaze. He didn't know what he'd expected when he'd first been pardoned, but he knew that Harry wasn't anything like he imagined him to be. He'd always envisioned Harry being a carbon copy of his father and in looks they were very, very similar, but in every other way except in loyalty to his friends there was no similarity. Sirius just didn't know how to handle the teen in front of him.
"What if I don't want to know what the prophecy says?" Harry asked. "What if I'm happy where I am and knowing what I know?"
It was a lie, though. Harry knew from the experiences of his friends how much fate could rule someone's life. Ignorance wasn't an excuse. If he didn't find out what the prophecy was, eventually it would hunt him down anyway.
"You'll be better off here, with your friends, than you would be going back with me, kiddo," Sirius sighed, ruffling Harry's hair. "Besides if you come with me you're going to mope around the entire time and want to be back here."
"Are you taking Dudley?" Harry asked, trying not to care and ignore the emotions battering against the barricade he'd put up in his mind against the thoughts and feelings of the others.
"Can you honestly see Dudley fitting in here? Your friends don't like him and he's freaked out by them. Besides, both Dudley and I are here on tourist visas and neither of us has anywhere to stay on a long term basis.
"But…"
"I have space in the flat above the shop, but I can't stay there forever and Dudley keeps getting forgotten. Kaiba only took him in because there was literally no room at the time. We need to head back, both so we can open up some room and so I can find out what that prophecy is and help my friend. I can't leave poor Remus alone with the Order after all."
Harry smiled slightly at that. He wouldn't have wanted to be alone with Dumbledore either. Harry wasn't foolish. If Dumbledore could mess with Yugi and Atem's minds so thoroughly that neither of them had noticed until someone else had pointed it out, then he held no false illusions about his own ability to stand strong against him.
"I wanted to give you something before I left, though." Sirius brought out a present that was wrapped carefully in fabric. Harry opened it, only to find a hand mirror.
"Sirius, wha…?" Harry trailed off as Sirius held up a second mirror, and his face appeared on the surface of the one Harry was holding. The teen's face lit up as he realised the implications.
Sirius had always been bad with mobile 'phones and Harry hadn't seen a telephone in a magical household so he'd been afraid he'd lose contact with his godfather. Part of Harry had been afraid that that was the way Sirius wanted it. Evidently he was wrong, and Harry had almost never been happier to be so.
"They're two-way looking glasses. Much better than Muggle mobiles. This way you get video calls too," Sirius teased, pleased by Harry's delighted reaction. "This set is a pair. If you ever need to get in contact with me, or I with you, we can do it using these. Just call my name and if I don't answer the mirror right away it'll inform me the moment I get back and I'll call you then, okay?"
Harry nodded quickly, "And I'll do the same for you. After all, we will be in different time zones."
"Exactly," Sirius grinned at him. "Now, I'm leaving in a couple of hours so shall we have one last meal before I go?"
LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN
Yugi stood in front of the mirror and adjusted his clothes, nervously trying to settle himself down. Atem had gone to get their food, since they hadn't had time to eat before they needed to be ready for the press conference, though it hadn't been easy to convince the pharaoh to leave after what had been said in the meeting. They were both hungry, and Yami's paranoia had induced him to go and watch their meal being prepared.
For the first time in a while, Yami's overprotective nature wasn't aggravating Yugi. It was different when he was able to defend himself, but right now he was almost helpless. He'd had some combat training, most of his battle skills laid in the magic he was so good at controlling and right now even the Puzzle's magic was almost completely unresponsive to him. As such, with an obviously magical enemy after them, Yugi was more than happy to hold back any frustrations he might have had. Unfortunately, Atem's over-protectiveness wouldn't save him from what was to come. This press conference was important for all sorts of reasons and not just because of what they were announcing. He could deal with the Duellist crowd, they were the easy ones. It was the press that would be there who didn't know him that he worried about.
The sound of the door opening attracted Yugi's attention and he turned towards it rapidly, reaching for his deck on instinct only to calm down when he saw that it was Ombre entering.
"What's wrong?" Yugi asked with concern in his tone. Ombre didn't look like she had slept last night. The false princess just stared at him with a look on her face that even he couldn't read. He moved towards her, worried that something was very wrong. "Ombre?"
"Why?" Ombre's tone, one of hatred, grief and pain, stunned Yugi.
"Ombre?" He asked again as he returned her gaze, uncomprehending.
"Why, Yugi?" Ombre asked, "Were we not good enough for you?"
"W…what? I don't…" Yugi trailed off as Ombre's features morphed, pure hatred filling the previous blankness.
"You could have saved her! You could have…!" In a move that was too fast for Yugi to track, Ombre darted across the room and seized the heir by the throat, slamming him against the wall before he could blink, and pinning him there. Her magic flared wildly. "But you didn't! You held back the one power that we needed the most!"
"I…I don't understand!" Yugi stammered, frightened not of Ombre but of what her magic could do with her in such a state. His lack of comprehension angered her further and she shook him. He let out an involuntary yelp.
"You have the power to bring back the dead!" She hissed as she lifted Yugi off of his feet, her rage fuelling her strength. "You could have used it to bring Kari back! You didn't! You let her go!"
Yugi's eyes widened as he realised what she was accusing him of, "I couldn't…! I can't…!"
"You used it to save your precious 'Yami'!" Ombre interrupted him with a snarl. Her grip tightened, "Was it that you didn't think Kari was worth your time and magic? That you didn't care enough about her to drain yourself?"
"No!" Yugi protested, beginning to feel light-headed. He tried to wrestle Ombre's hands away from his throat. "No! That wasn't it at all! If I could bring people back from the dead I would have saved Kari! But I can't! I don't know how I saved Ya…!"
"You lie!" Ombre didn't let him finish. "You knew exactly how to bring Atem back! I've seen the memory! You didn't hesitate for a moment!"
"Yami's my other half! I share his soul!"
"You're laying the blame on me?" Ombre seethed at him, her magic pulsing and her twin-handed grip on Yugi's throat intensifying, almost completely cutting off Yugi's airways. "You're the one at fault! You're the one with the power!"
"I don't…" Yugi wheezed, terrified now not of Ombre's magic but of the woman herself. He struggled to find the air to plead with his friend, to bring her back to her senses as he tried to free himself from her vice like grip. "Ombre…" He could feel himself slipping into darkness. Black nibbled at the edges of his vision, her grasp cutting off more than just his air. She was killing him. "Please..."
She considered him a moment longer as if waiting for something, then his pleading seemed to sink in at last and she released him. Yugi crumpled into a quivering pile at the base of the wall. He coughed and gasped, trying to rake in the air she'd denied him.
"You let her die, Yugi," Ombre's tone as she backed away slowly, as if realising what she'd almost done, caused the still gasping hikari to look at her. "It's not my fault. It's yours. You could have brought her back! You could have saved her! You always save everyone! What makes my light so different? What made her undeserving of 'Prince Yugi's' rescue?" She spat out the name like a particularly foul curse word.
"If I could have saved her, I would have done," Yugi said, rising uneasily to his feet and taking a step forward. He forced the words out painfully as both his link partners promised that they were on their way. "If I could have taken the spell instead I would have done that too, but I wasn't in the graveyard when Wormtail killed her and I don't have the power to bring back the dead. I'm sor…"
Yugi's attempt to apologise caused Ombre's rage to spike and her magic slipped its leash, striking him hard. The hikari couldn't move fast enough, and although he avoided hitting the wall again, he crashed into the second bed in the room, tumbled over it and landed heavily on the other side, slamming his head into the bedside table as he fell. He let out a pained cry as he tried to push himself up, only for pain to lance up his right side. His right arm buckled underneath his weight and he slumped down onto the mat. It was a concerned Ombre who knelt down next to him as Yugi fought against the darkness trying to claim him, frightened and in excruciating pain.
Ombre winced as Yugi whimpered, passing out when she tried to roll him onto his back. "You let your guard down far too easily. One day it's going to get you killed," She murmured, worried, as she tried to pull Yugi up and onto the bed. "Not that…" The door slammed open and Atem burst into the room, absolutely furious. Instead of depositing Yugi on the bed, Ombre got a better grip on the unconscious hikari and turned to glare at the more imposing figure, one of the real targets of her actions.
"Let. Him. Go." The pharaoh growled, ready to blast Ombre into next week for harming his light.
"You're a fool, Pharaoh." Ombre retorted, not stupid enough to let go of the one thing preventing Atem from unleashing his full wrath against her. She was fully aware that in a fight between the pair of them, Atem would win hands-down. She edged around the room, biting back any guilt or frustration brewing in her brain.
"Let him go. Now." Atem's tone, low, angry and full of the promise of agony the moment she released her captive just pissed Ombre off further.
"You need to learn. Our secret is out. We're no longer safe, even in our homes…"
"So you hurt Yugi to teach me a lesson?" Atem cut her off.
"No. To teach everyone a lesson, including him," Ombre shook her head but didn't take her eyes off of the pharaoh. She hadn't meant things to go this far, she'd lost control of herself and if she survived this encounter it was something she would have to learn from herself.
"Lesson learnt. I won't leave him alone again. Now let him go." Atem demanded, worried for his light and silently admonishing himself for not even considering that Ombre might attack someone within their circle. It should have been clear to him. She had lost her mind. He inched towards the door, anticipating that Ombre might try and take Yugi with her.
"That's not the lesson, Yami." Ombre glowered at him. She had no intention of doing anything except leave Yugi with the healers, but she had to make her point to the pharaoh first.
"Then what is?" Atem demanded, only holding back on Shadow Gaming Ombre because she had Yugi, and without magic, Yugi wouldn't have lasted very long in the Shadows, even if he wasn't injured.
"The lesson is that the Clan has to be on alert from now on. In the time it took you to respond to a threat to a key member, I had three opportunities to kill him. You can't be that slow. I'm family and I let him live. Someone outside our family with a grudge wouldn't be so merciful. You can't be that slow, nor can you rely on outside assistance so completely."
"What do you…?"
"Where are the Shiragiku, Atem?" Ombre asked, driving her point home. "They're supposed to be guarding us, but they're on changeover. There's no one else around either. You have to start thinking about your key players and the fact that there are people out there who want them dead. The prophecy might say that, 'not all will live to see the view,' but I'd like you all to at least live a little longer." With that, Ombre shoved Yugi towards Atem, who darted forward to catch his counterpart before he hit the floor, and then she vanished with a pop.
On cue, the healers swarmed to Atem's side, took Yugi from him and set him down on the bed. Harry, who had arrived split-seconds before, just blinked at the spot Ombre had been in. "Since when could Ombre apperate?" he asked. Healer Akata had already cast the proper diagnosis spell and sent Serenity for potions.
"I don't know." Atem grimaced, wondering if this was an ability she'd learnt from the memories in the Orb, before looking at Harry properly as something finally clicked in his mind, but before he could say or do anything, both boys were kicked out of the room as Dr Hoshigawa and Healer Akata started work.
LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN
Hermione sighed as she stretched and put the book back on the shelf, slowly getting to her feet. This library wasn't as interesting as the one she'd gotten lost in when she'd had trouble finding her way back from the Memory World, but it was full of books that Yugi would probably find useful, considering his new job.
She slumped into a chair as a maid brought her breakfast and a cup of tea and put them on one of the tables in the middle of the room, before bowing and leaving. She was still tired, but from what she'd been told by the healers who had been shocked when Yugi managed to wake her up, she was lucky to be alive to feel anything at all.
She wasn't that surprised to hear that, not when there was a Kuriboh in her Soul Room that carried a fraction of her soul with it. She'd only survived her battle with Akhenaden because she'd used the Relay Soul card Yugi gave her to summon the Kuriboh in question, using the game against itself to save her life.
She needed to tell the others about the Kuriboh soul fragment, but she had a funny feeling Yugi had worked out something was wrong when he'd entered her Soul Room to try and help her get back to the real world. He'd certainly seemed confused when he'd had to help her traverse the maze-like library that constituted the impossibly intimate chamber. Remembering that Yami's room had gotten more complicated the more questions they'd had, she wondered if her library was acting much in the same way.
She couldn't help feeling guilty about needing Yugi's help to return to the world of the living. Part of her hadn't wanted to leave the incredible repository of all her knowledge and memories, even though she knew people were waiting for her. All she recalled was going through the door from Memory World and waking up at the centre of her library.
The worst part was that while she roughly recognised it from when Shadi had invaded her Room to test her, it had changed so much that it had taken Yugi pointing out where she was to get her to actually register the fact properly and think about leaving. Still, she could make it up to her friends now by being there and supporting them as they endured the changes. Something Joey said to her years ago finally made sense. He'd told her that until he'd had his first Shadow Game, he hadn't really understood magic very well, but afterwards he'd been able to sense the Shadows shifting.
She had a similar feeling, in fact she could sense the magic around them, however that she could not use it proficiently was disconcerting. She had a theory. She was almost certain that the Shadows never truly let go of someone they had had in their clutches, which was why Yugi and his friends had more power than a Shadow-Touched who had yet to play a Shadow Game. The magic had touched those lives before Shadowmorn, either through friends, or through the game of Duel Monsters, or even via their parents. However the Shadow-Touched outside the Clan hadn't had to escape the sharp, vicious claws of the Shadow Realm, nor had they brought a little of the Shadows back with them while doing so. A loud pop made her jump. She grabbed her wand and shot to her feet, dropping her toast on the table as she spun to face the noise.
"Ombre?" Hermione blinked, confused as to why she had apperated into the room when there was a perfectly good door. Ombre simply glimpsed her way, grabbed the bag that was stashed under the table and vanished again, causing the bushy-haired brunette no end of befuddlement. She didn't have to wonder long as Akane, tail bottle-brushed, fangs bared and fur on end, burst into the room.
"Where is she?" The Nekomata demanded with a feline hiss, further baffling Hogwarts' prize boffin for a moment. "Where's Ironhide?"
Hermione's eyes were fixed on the huge cat. She hoped this wasn't to do with the magic she'd sensed upstairs but figured for Atem throwing a fit as he had been most of the morning, ever since they'd been informed that Pegasus was dead. When she spoke it was as neutrally as she could possibly manage, "She apperated in, grabbed her bag and apperated away again. Why?"
"Damn it! She's fast." Akane complained, the words sounding strange coming from the voice-box of a cat, even a magical one. "Granger-san if you would be so kind as to go to your room, immediately…"
It was phrased as a request but Hermione knew an order when she heard one. She quickly gathered her stuff and followed the nekomata out of the room, still puzzling out why the Shiragiku was in such a state, and was heading upstairs to her room when she asked again, "What's going on?"
"Ironhide attacked Mutou Yugi-san," Akane growled. Hermione stopped dead. "The healers are in with him now, but it sounds serious."
Hermione paled. She could bet it was. Magic was always dangerous, but it was less so when you had magic of your own to defend yourself. The only way to block magic if you didn't have any of your own was simply to dodge, which was often not an easy feat. If Yugi had been hit by the sort of power she had sensed earlier, then considering the state his soul and his magic were in, it could have been a potentially devastating blow.
"I'm fine." Hermione's head whipped towards the open door to the room that the Mutou, 'twins,' shared. Yugi's voice, a wavering, stumbling version of its normally bright tone escaped through a crack, "We have to do this and we have to do this…" Yugi started coughing as the words caught in his wind-pipe.
"Yugi." Hermione recognised Atem's tone, it was the patient yet frustrated one the pharaoh took when Yugi was beyond hurt and well into the realms of should-be-unconscious but refused to stop to look after himself. "You can't hold this press conference now. You can barely talk, yet alone stand…"
"The healers have done all they can, and they've reduced the…" The modern-born Mutou paused to cough, "…swelling from the bruises." For emphasis, his hand covered the front of his bruised neck, making quite clear his discomfort but otherwise hiding it from view. "Besides, we should have done this yesterday, before Pegasus was…" Yugi let out a barely audible sigh as Serenity handed him a potion, which he downed quickly, grimacing at the taste but appreciative it took the edge off the pain. "I like it less than you do, Yami, but it needs to be done."
Atem said something rude. Hermione didn't catch it since it was in a language she didn't recognise, but Yugi gave Atem a sharp look. "There's no need for that language. She was right."
"She didn't need to beat you senseless to prove it!" Atem shot back, still understandably furious with Ombre. Yugi didn't say anything, but Hermione could bet he was thinking the exact same as her. Atem always learnt faster when Yugi was the one who paid for his mistakes.
"Granger-san?" Akane nudged her.
"Coming." Hermione nodded, wondering where Ombre had gone and suddenly understanding why the princess had fled as swiftly as she had. Hermione had seen Atem punish people for much smaller infractions. Injuring Yugi was the one thing simultaneously guaranteed to teach Atem a lesson and earn the teacher a one-way ticket to the Shadow Realm, first class. She just wondered what lesson Ombre had been trying to teach that required such a brutal lesson.
LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN
Joey's exhibition match against Seto had been planned to take place in the, 'Meadow,' area of Kaiba Land Asia, but with everything going on, he fully expected it to be cancelled and the press conference pushed ahead. Instead, Joey found himself duelling in the outer grounds of one of the park's other, grander areas. Namely the Sanctuary in the Sky. Meanwhile, a white limousine had been hired to rush Yugi, Atem and Pegasus's children (and hadn't that been a surprise?) straight to the park. Serenity was with them, assigned to attend to the reluctant new chief executive's medical needs while he was away from the mansion. The arrangement, as it was told to him, was to keep the worst of the crowds away from the entrance so they wouldn't interfere with setting up the conference.
He wouldn't have minded, but he couldn't keep his mind on the match. Rich-Boy looked like he was suffering no such inhibitions and was easily countering his frankly ridiculously obvious moves before he could finish making them.
Part of it was the cards. Seto had upgraded his deck massively before he'd come out to duel in public, whereas Joey only had access to the cards in his spares to make any changes he needed, and he hated to admit it, but his deck was laughably out of date. What he honestly needed was to get his hands on a couple of hundred boosters, but that would involve money, and that was something he was lacking. Somehow he didn't think his best friend becoming CEO of the company that made the game would suddenly earn him the right to hundreds of free cards.
The major part, however, was his lack of focus, which was a shame because if he could have done, Kaiba had left him plenty of openings to exploit, if only he had been paying less attention to the press, most of whom had departed midway through, calling something about, 'the Mutou twins arriving,' and more attention to the fact that Kaiba's seemingly unstoppable syncro dragon had one gaping weakness he could have taken advantage of. Still, he made a good show of it all, despite the weight on his and everyone else's minds, and when Seto rushed off to take his place at the conference, which was due to start any minute, Joey was left dealing with the Duellists who wanted answers, or to thank him for saving them, or to warn him that they were going to seek him out during the tournament.
It was quite nice to have fans for a change, though he was horribly aware that a lot of them wouldn't be giving him a second glance if he hadn't been mentioned among those who had stopped Shadowmorn and named outright as the guy who had, 'saved the lives of both Yugi and Yami Mutou'. By the time he managed to escape the crowds, he was thoroughly sick of requests for him to show those who hadn't been able to summon during Shadowmorn how to do so, or requests for the same info over and over again, especially when it was information he couldn't rightly give them. Even with the huge crowds on all sides, he wasn't oblivious to the specific pair of Duellists watching him. One was a woman that matched the description Harry had given him about Mel, the woman who had wanted Harry to go against Atem, the other was a man who seemed to dislike him intensely, if the glower he was getting was anything to go by.
He supposed it made sense. It was well known that anyone who wanted to go after the Mutou twins had to get past him first, and if people hadn't known before they did now after what had been released in the press.
He made his way across to them, hoping to dispense a few choice words of warning against giving his buds any more trouble than they already had, only for them vanish.
"Testing!"
Joey jumped a mile as the screens around the area switched from the maps and text directions they were displaying previously, to a live feed of the conference. He was instantly swarmed by tourists and duellists alike.
"1, 2, 3." The microphone test continued as the last of the reporters sat down, and Joey joined a throng of people at one of the bigger screens, worried about how this would go. The sudden quiet that descended was shattered as Yugi, harshly beaten and leaning heavily on Atem for support, entered the room, followed by Kaiba, the Speaker for Magical Japan, the Muggle Prime Minister and the Tenma brothers.
LINE_RECOGNITION_HAS_GONE_AGAIN
"Last chance," Sirius said as Ombre watched the big screen at the airport showing the event, "You could always go back and apologise."
Ombre tore her eyes away from the scene of Yugi and Atem, who were handling themselves well enough in the wake of the several million questions being fired their way, and shook her head. "I burnt that bridge for a reason, Sirius. I won't be coming back, and while I know Yugi will forgive me and Atem might understand, the Clan won't trust me if I'm falling apart like this. It's better this way."
Sirius just frowned. He didn't like the thought of taking the princess back into a war, when she could have stayed here, safe with the others, but it was her decision. At the end of the day, she was older and more powerful than him and if he didn't take her than she would find another way to get there, leaving him unable to maintain a close watch on her.
"Flight LHR2001 now boarding from Gate 7."
The tannoy call cut in between them and Ombre zipped off ahead of Sirius, not wanting to have this conversation for a third time. She knew her options. She'd considered everything carefully and she knew what she wanted to do. When it was all said and done, her friends would be much safer if she left, she had proved that today and she could be more useful in England, helping the Order of the Phoenix, than she could in Japan where, with Kari's death, she was little more than a random NPC. The key players worried about her, that was true, but they were better off not having to look after her all the time.
There was enough of a membership in Domino to keep the Clan ticking, to handle any disasters heading their way, and though she would miss the power bonus that she got while she was around members of her Clan, a side effect of their ritual, she was much better off far away from them.
Besides, Domino held too many memories. For much the same reason Kari had fled to Japan after the death of her twin brother, she was now returning to England. She couldn't stand being around the game shop or the Kaiba mansion, seeing everyone tip-toe around her, having to deal with the constant assault of a life now past, not to mention the way Harry flinched whenever she was around like he thought she was going to kill him.
She let out a soft, derisive noise as she joined the end of the short queue and Sirius caught up just before the rest of the passengers descended on the boarding gate. If he'd been worried about that before, he certainly had to be now.
"Boarding pass, please."