Chapter 13 - Chapter Thirteen
Submitted January 23, 2009 Updated April 22, 2009 Status Complete | Takes place in the middle of Season Five- right after the Grand Prix tournament, and before they go on the memory journey to Egypt. I hope you guys like it! I'm not used to writing fanfictions! X]
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Anime/Manga » Yu-Gi-Oh! series |
Chapter 13 - Chapter Thirteen
Chapter 13 - Chapter Thirteen
My eyes were closed, but I was awake. I felt short of breath and …and… devastated.
I opened my eyes; my vision was blurry with tears. It felt as though my heart had been ripped right out of me. I was alone and cold. I looked up; in front of me was an enormous stone slab, engraved with a picture of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
I looked down and had to repress a sob; a woman was lying in my arms. She wasn’t moving, or breathing… she was dead. Someone had killed her. A terrible evil had torn the soul out of her in order to use its power. But… but I had known that there was so much more to this girl; that she was more than just a powerhouse, or a container for a monster. She was a beautiful person, full of light… the only person who had ever even brought a shred of true happiness into my life…
Tears streamed from my eyes. I didn’t want this girl’s dragon. I had wanted her… I gripped her tighter. I was alone. She had died in front of my eyes; I had watched it. Someone had killed her, and I’d been forced to witness it.
Vaguely I could feel my long, heavy cape being moved around by the light wind. Vaguely I felt the weight of the solid gold bands on my arm and ankh fastened to my chest. Vaguely. I was mostly aware only of the incredible sadness that gripped me. The world was silent and empty; I had been in love with the girl in my arms. Now, she was gone.
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes; I was in the room in Dartz’ castle. I swallowed hard and lifted my head off of my chest. My vision was blurry. Something… was strange. I felt short of breath and… and… devastated.
What was wrong with me? I had seen that vision before, during my duel with Ishizu… but…
I lifted my hand to my left cheek. To my surprise, it was wet… wet! Like I was crying… I looked down at the heavy book in my lap. Its pages had a few scattered teardrops staining it. Unbelievable. I wiped my eyes. Why did I feel so sad? Geez…
I looked at the clock on the other side of the room, sitting on the bedside table. It was only 9:30 at night; I had fallen asleep early and not stayed that way for very long. I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. I was very unused to this …emotion. I had conditioned myself to get rid of every shred of emotion I possessed, in order to succeed as a child; and, more recently, in order to deal with my enormous work load. This sadness was weird.
There was a knock on my door a moment later. I wiped my eyes again, set the history book back onto the coffee table, and grumbled, “Come in.”
To my surprise, Joey Wheeler walked into my room, wearing a light-yellow jacket over his night clothes, which made him look stupid- but, he was also looking angry.
“’Ey, Kaiba, we gotta-“he began, but paused when he looked at my face. “You… your face is red… have you been… crying?” He asked, incredulous.
“No. What do you want, Wheeler,” I asked, thoroughly irritated.
“Now, I don’t like you, and you don’t like me,” he said quickly.
“That about sums it up,” I replied.
He ignored me. “But, I think you’re the only one here who agrees with me in believin’ that Dartz is still a no-good son of a dog.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Tell Yugi that,” I said.
“I’m tryin’!” he said, exasperated. “He don’t listen. I think you and me need to do some searchin’ or somethin’. What makes you think that Dartz isn’t trustworthy? Do you just… think he’s not? That’s the way I’m thinkin’ of him. I got a bad feeling.”
“Wheeler, don’t be an idiot. I actually have reasoning behind my thought- the fact that Dartz didn’t throw away the Orichalcos stone when the Pharaoh defeated him last time; and that he still wears an Orichalcos stone fragment,” I said.
He looked stunned; didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he shouted, “Yes!” and punched the air. I sighed.
“Damnit, Kaiba, I swear,” he said, enthralled. “Sometimes, you piss me off so bad, I just want to rip your balls off with my bare hands-“ What?? I thought, horrified- “…but I gotta say, you’re right on the dot. Who made you so smart?”
“My verbally-abusive stepfather, whom I drove to suicide a year and a half ago,” I replied.
“Well, yeah,” he said, dismissing my statement. “Come on, grab your coat! Let’s go annihilate that asshole!”
“With what,” I asked dully.
“Slifer,” he said, with a tone of voice that suggested that I was the idiot, completely contradicting the …uh… compliment that he had just given me. He held up the card after removing it from his pocket; I was surprised. “How did you get that…” I stammered.
He chuckled. “Yugi and me are sharin’ a bathroom. Yugi had put this in the under-the-sink safe… but, I got a key to the safe, too…” he said carelessly. I frowned. “Ain’t really stealin’, right? Come on.”
I stood up. “I don’t exactly enjoy working with you…” I began angrily, but he said, “Look, what else can I do? Yugi kinda don’t believe me. He wouldn’t want to do anything that might hurt Dartz. I’m afraid that he’ll hold back if we have to fight Dartz, because he’d be scared to hurt him.” He sighed. “Yugi… and the Pharaoh… they’re great duelists… amazin’ duelists, and they’re geniuses and pretty much always knowin’ what they’re doin’… but, I just think they’re wrong this time. And I don’t like you, but I wanna get this done, and I know you wanna do it too.”
I frowned. Joey was completely in-tune with Yugi, usually- sort of like a shadow. I was somewhat surprised to hear him doubt Yugi; but, I felt the same way he did. “Fine,” I said irritably. I didn’t think that Joey was an entirely good duelist, but I could beat Dartz if we were faced with him. “What do you want to find?”
“I’m thinkin’ we break into the room where he keeps the big Orichalcos rock and use Slifer to blast it off of the face of the Earth. It’ll stop those monsters from coming! Those other guys can’t use it to create more monsters, right?”
“Well, they have their own fragment of the Orichalcos stone,” I said.
“Yeah, but they get a lot of power from this big main one, don’t they?” he asked. “If we beat up this thing, then those other guys are gonna be weaker. Let’s go get Slifer to dissolve that thing, and if Dartz don’t like it, then we can make Dartz dissolve too.”
“Very well,” I said, taking my coat off of the chair that I had thrown it over and putting my arms through the sleeves. “Give me the card.”
“What?” he asked, angry. “I don’t think so, pal! I want to use it!”
I laughed. “Nice try, you scrub duelist. Give me the card. Do you even know how to use it?”
“Sure, I do!” he growled. “You… it’s… you get the attack power from… uh…”
I smirked as he stammered, at a loss for ideas. What a retard.
He scowled and grudgingly handed me the card. “Good,” I said, pocketing it.
We left my room and went to the hallway that led to Dartz’ quarters. The castle seemed somewhat eerie at night; the crystal walls seemed to glow in the sunlight, but at night… even the candles lighting the hallway didn’t help brighten it, much.
We could see the door in front of us. Joey, walking in front of me, reached for it; it burst open before he could open it, and I reacted quickly, grabbing the back of his shirt and wrenching him out of the way barely in time to miss being hit by a thin, green laser- a monster was just on the other side of the door. Joey and I were now pressed against the wall, somewhat concealed in the darkness, five feet away from the door.
The monster exited the room, and I saw the fragment of the Orichalcos stone next to the door- I quickly grabbed it from behind the door and crushed it by stomping on it; the monster vanished. Cautiously I peered around the corner through the doors; no more monsters were ahead.
“Be more careful, you stupid dog,” I told Joey, who was leaning against the wall in shock; he came to himself and frowned, and said, “Thanks for saving me, you stuck-up jerk. Come on, let’s go.”
We entered the enormous room that held the Orichalcos stone; this room was completely bright, owing to the enormous meteorite in the center. It was glowing, dark-green… chipped and cratered in many places, and a large chunk missing out of the side of it, where Donno and Adella had stolen a few pieces. I hadn’t known that the stone was this large; it towered perhaps twenty feet in diameter.
“Damn,” Joey said, in awe, when he saw it. I frowned and reached for my pocket to remove the Slifer card.
“Good evening, Gentlemen,” a misty voice came from behind us; it felt as though I had been electrocuted. Joey and I whipped around to make eye contact with Dartz, who was standing in the doorway, frowning at us.
“Dartz,” I whispered. “Get out of here. We’ve got a plan to weaken Donno and Adella. We’re going to destroy the stone.”
Dartz slowly approached us. “I can’t let you do that,” he said softly.
Joey yelled in rage. “I knew it!” he shouted. “I knew you hadn’t changed, you piece of slime! You’re gonna pay for brainwashing Mai into stealing my soul!”
“Wheeler, don’t!” I yelled, as Joey leapt forward to physically beat up Dartz; Dartz lazily reached out his hand and grabbed Joey by the throat when he got close; Dartz lifted Joey a few inches off of the floor by his throat. I lunged at them and grabbed Dartz’ arm, trying to pry him off of Joey, who was choking and could hardly breathe; Dartz’ arm wouldn’t budge. His hand was a vice grip around Joey’s neck.
“My advisors are right,” he said calmly, as I continued to tug hopelessly at his arm, and Joey cringed with pain. “Right all along. I know what is good for my nation. The Orichalcos will make my nation paradise again.”
His eyes turned slowly to me; they met mine, and after a split second, I felt a horrible, invisible force violently throw me off of his arm and send me flying into the wall; I felt my back crash into the crystal. Stars blinking in my eyes, stunned by splitting pain, I looked up and saw Dartz toss Joey aside just like he did, me; Joey crumpled to the ground next to me. Was he breathing? Still somewhat disoriented, and on the ground, I leaned over and turned him on to his back; his eyes were closed, and he was trembling, and he shakily whispered, “That… bastard…” I frowned at the sight of the enormous bruise on his neck.
Dartz was now standing over both of us, holding a card that featured the Seal of Orichalcos. I realized, with a rush of horror, what he was going to do-
“Good-bye, gentlemen,” Dartz whispered, sinister look back in his eye. This was the look that he had sported so famously the last time I had dueled against him. “This time, you will not escape.”
I reached for the Slifer card, in my pocket; at that moment, a strong voice yelled, “Dartz!”
I looked up. It was the Pharaoh. His eyes darted to us for a moment; I saw them widen in shock just briefly, before he looked up at Dartz.
Dartz smiled and left me, now approaching the Pharaoh. “Ah, Pharaoh…” he said softly. “I’m glad you’re here.” He lifted his hand; the crystal doors slammed shut. “My, it is my lucky day,” Dartz continued casually. “Three of the most powerful souls on earth, right in the room with me.”
He lifted his hand, holding the Orichalcos card; the stone on his chest shone brightly. Wind rushed the room; I shielded my eyes from the huge flash of light that burst from beneath Dartz’ feet. In a second, the seal had expanded to the entire room; I felt my breath catch in my chest for a split second; Joey recoiled, flat on the ground. We were trapped.
“Unarmed… you have no chance,” Dartz continued.
“No,” I said, shakily pushing myself off of the floor; I was now standing, and the Pharaoh rushed over to me. “Nice try,” I told Dartz. His eyes narrowed; he didn’t know that I held the Slifer card. As far as he was concerned, we had no cards; I knew he held his deck. He thought he would just summon a bunch of monsters... wrong.
“No?” Dartz asked. “I am not challenging you to a duel. I, the king of Atlantis, invoke the powers of the cards and monsters, without the annoying rules of a game- this is no duel.” He held up a card; it was a monster that I recognized: Orichalcos Malevolence. Immediately the monster appeared. “With the new power of the Seal, this monster can send a shockwave that will capture each of you,” Dartz continued, with a chuckle. “Deliver to me the souls of all three of them!” he shouted, triumphantly.
The Pharaoh grabbed the Slifer card from my hand and held it up. Dartz’ eyes widened; immediately, his face went completely white. The ground shook, and lightning filled the room wildly; Slifer the Sky Dragon appeared in a spectacular burst of white light. I watched in awe as the sky dragon coiled itself in front of the Pharaoh; it was a magnificent beast.
“Dartz! You don’t know what you’re doing!” The Pharaoh yelled, as Dartz took several steps back, in shock. “Stop this! Stop this nonsense now! “
Dartz did nothing, only stared, horrified, at the superior god monster. Then he whispered, “Slifer the Sky Dragon… you found it…”
“Dartz,” The Pharaoh persisted, desperately. “Please don’t make me destroy you; I don’t want to do it, but you’re beginning to leave me with no choice… please, remove the Seal from this room…”
Dartz still looked up, with, now, a pained look in his eye. He was now a shadow of the man who had once stood in battle against me and the Pharaoh, breaking immediately when he looked death in the face. “I cannot… allow you to destroy this great power. I must do… what I can… Orichalcos Malevolence… attack…”
It was, of course, useless. Slifer immediately destroyed the monster with a single blast of lightning; Dartz was thrown off of his feet. The fight was over. The Pharaoh had won and saved himself, me, and Joey.
The Seal begin to slowly contract around Dartz; the Pharaoh ran towards him, shouting his name. It had gotten smaller, and was no longer under my feet, or Joey’s. I watched as the Pharaoh propped Dartz up on his arm, saying, “You made such a foolish mistake… to believe Adella and Donno…”
Dartz closed his eyes slowly and smiled. “No… no, they are right,” he whispered, as if satisfied, even though he lost the duel. “My kingdom… I have done my part for my kingdom. My soul will feed the Great Beast… it will be strong. You kids… will fail.”
His head fell back off of the Pharaoh’s arm. The Seal circled Dartz; the Pharaoh was thrown out of it. He landed a few feet away; in a flash, the Seal was gone, and Dartz was still, on the ground, there. The Pharaoh cursed silently; I bent down and lifted Joey’s arm and slung it around my shoulder and lifted him up; he was conscious, but disoriented from pain. Propped up on my arm, he shakily shouted, “Yuge! Are you alright?”
The Pharaoh turned around. “Yes,” he said. He was unhurt, but looked very unhappy. “What a shame. Now, we are in a worse position than ever. His soul is powerful; it was the final piece that resurrected the Great Beast last time.” The Pharaoh walked up to us. “Are you two alright? Did he hurt you?”
I felt Joey plant his feet on the ground, sturdy; I let go of his arm and he remained standing, wobbling for a moment, but he balanced himself. “We came in here to smash that big stone,” he said, pointing at the Orichalcos Stone. The Pharaoh frowned. “Joey, your neck… it’s very badly bruised…”
“Dartz found us… tried to choke me, sent Kaiba smashing into the wall…”
I, all of a sudden, felt dull, throbbing pain in my back and a sharp pain on the back of my neck; I had been so involved with Dartz, I had forgotten until just now that he had actually hurt me when he sent me flying into that wall- I looked over my shoulder at the place I had hit. It was cracked; a jagged piece of the crystal was sticking out of it. I placed my hand on the spot on my neck that hurt; when I looked at my hand, I saw that a little bit of blood was on my fingers.
“We’re okay, though,” Joey continued. “Not too badly hurt.”
Tea, Mokuba, Duke, Tristan and Serenity entered the room. “What’s going on in here? What’s all the noise about?” Duke asked.
Mokuba gasped and ran up to me. “Big brother, you’re bleeding!”
“I’m alright, kiddo,” I smiled down at him. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What happened to Dartz?” Tristan gasped, looking at the crumpled man.
“Come back to my room,” the Pharaoh said. “I’ll explain everything.”
Minutes later, after Yugi had told some of Dartz’ men to get him to a hospital, I was sitting on Yugi’s bed, while Mokuba had a first-aid kit with its contents sprawled out everywhere. The Pharaoh was telling everyone else the story, sitting in an armchair, while everyone else sat on the floor, sitting in front of him- I was forcefully reminded of a grandfather telling his grandchildren a compelling bedtime story.
I cringed and flinched as Mokuba stuck an antibiotic-soaked bandage to the cut on the back of my neck; he said, “Sorry!” but he was done fixing my wound; he closed the first-aid kit and sat next to me and continued to listen to the story.
“Dartz appeared, and summoned an Orichalcos monster; I destroyed him with Slifer,” he said. “Dartz used the Seal; it engulfed all four of us. He was never on our side.”
“You were in the Seal?” Téa asked, horrified; the Pharaoh nodded, and she threw her arms around him. I knew she was frightened of the seal, as well as she should be- she had been so destroyed when the seal had defeated Yugi last time. When Téa let go of him, I realized that he had switched back to the regular Yugi.
“I’m okay,” he told us all; we had all walked towards him. “We’re all okay. We’re not hurt. But… I feel like an idiot for believing Dartz. I wanted to believe him… I wanted to believe that he was good. I’m… I’m really sorry, guys,” he said, directing that at me and Joey. Joey said, “’Ey, it’s only the first time you’ve ever been wrong,” with a laugh. I frowned. “We should finish what Wheeler and I started,” I said irritably. “Summon Slifer and destroy the Orichalcos Stone.”
“Yeah,” Yugi said, standing up. “Let’s go.”
We followed him out of his bedroom and back down the hallway to the room where the stone was kept. As we walked down the hallway, everyone seemed nervous or upset- Serenity kept very close to Joey, and Mokuba was looking up at me sadly. Serenity whimpered, “I can’t believe he used the Seal on you guys…” and I could tell that Mokuba was thinking the same thing. I held out my hand to him; he took it quickly. I smiled down at him for a moment. “It’s alright. I promise.”
He smiled mildly; we reached the room where the Orichalcos stone was. Yugi held up the Slifer card; with another incredible burst of lightning and wind the beast appeared. Yugi commanded it to destroy the Orichalcos stone; Slifer shot a sparkling blue beam out of its mouth that shattered the stone into dust. It was gone.
“Good,” Yugi said. “The Orichalcos’ power isn’t gone completely, since Adella and Donno still have a large piece of it… but that should make it weaker.”
My back was throbbing angrily; I felt lightheaded and irritable. “Good,” I said. “I’m going to bed.”
I left the room, with Mokuba at my heels; I heard everyone else tell each other good night and follow me down the hall, to their own rooms. I reached the door of my room. Mokuba looked up at me with sad, worried eyes; I patted the top of his head sleepily and opened the door to my room.
I collapsed onto my bed, cringing from a surge of pain from my back. The pain subsided and returned to its normal sore throbbing; I sighed. It was only eleven o’clock; I was exhausted, but my mind still raced, now that I was alone, stomach-down on my bed.
So I had known it all along. Dartz never wanted to help us. He brought us here to be easy targets for Donno and Adella; he had been sure that we would fail to retrieve the god cards. He had been a good actor; actually giving us useful advice. But, he certainly believed in his assistants more than he believed in us.
I sighed again. He had used the Seal of Orichalcos. …his assistants believed in him as much as he believed in them. Perhaps they had purposely left the majority of the stone to Dartz, knowing that he would use it- why else would they not just steal the whole thing? I frowned in the darkness. We had been saved by Slifer. I closed my eyes. At least, if anything, Dartz was out of the picture… and it was about time. Damn, I hated him.
I slowly awoke to a quiet voice and a gentle prodding on my arm. I opened my eyes; through blurry vision I saw that Mokuba was standing over me.
“Sorry to wake you up,” he said. “But Ironheart wants you and Joey and Yugi to be looked at by a doctor. Yugi told him about what happened last night.”
I groaned. I was still tired and didn’t want to get up yet. Face buried in my pillow, I grumbled, “tell Ironheart to shove his doctor up his @$$,” voice muffled by my pillow.
Mokuba chuckled. “Come on,” he said, happy but exasperated. “This is the new Orichalcos. It might have hurt you.”
“I think my bleeding neck and broken back hurt more,” I replied.
“Well, there you go,” Mokuba said. “Please see the doctor, Seto.”
I cracked open one eye and looked up at him through my messed-up hair. “What’s in it for me,” I finally asked.
He frowned. “Are you bribing me?”
“Yup,” I said, closing my eye again. “What’s in it for me.”
He sighed. “Um… I’ll draw a picture of a Blue-Eyes-White dragon…”
“Go on…” I said.
“… um… behind a picture of you dressed as the overlord of the Earth?”
“I like it,” I said groggily, lifting my head off of the pillow. I sat up slowly, because my back was still sore.
Mokuba smiled as I shakily stood up and opened my suitcase. “Ironheart is in the main foyer,” he said. “I’ll see you down there.”
I gave him a sort of approving hum as a response; he left the room. I changed into my day clothes; after brushing my teeth and taming my hair, I went down to the foyer. Joey Wheeler and Yugi were already in here; a doctor was shining a pen light into Yugi’s eyes.
“Pupil reaction normal…” he muttered, before noticing me and saying, “Ah, Mr. Kaiba. Please sit down, and thank you for coming. I apologize for what our king did to you… all three of you. It’s my pleasure to provide this free service to make sure that the Seal hadn’t harmed you.”
“Seal ain’t the one that harmed us,” Joey said angrily. “Dartz is the one who choked me!”
I frowned at him, but he was right. The Seal itself had done nothing to us. Maybe it could give new powers to monsters played within it, but the golden rule remained the same: only the loser of a fight- whether it was really a duel or not- would succumb to it.
The doctor finished with Yugi, dismissing him as healthy; Yugi said goodbye to us and left the room. The doctor went over to Joey and lifted his chin to get a look at the bruise on his neck. In the light, I could see the imprint of Dartz’ hand; it was an angry bruise. He had been hurt worse than I had.
“Here,” the doctor said, taking a small, square device out of his pocket. “What’s that,” Joey asked.
“This will illuminate your blood vessels, so that I can see if any major ones were damaged,” he replied. He held the box about four inches away from Joey’s neck; a purple beam shot from it, and I gasped; all that I could see of Joey’s neck was a network of blood vessels- no muscle, or skin, or anything; like his head was simply suspended by a large aorta and millions of tiny capillaries. I could almost see through his veins to the wall on the other side of him. Joey laughed, “Heh, that tickles.”
“Nifty device, isn’t it,” the doctor said, in reply to the stunned look on my face. I was mesmerized. What technology! The doctor turned the device off; his neck looked normal again. “A lot of small capillaries are broken, but they’ll heal by themselves. You’ll be fine, Mr. Wheeler.”
“Yo,” Joey said, getting out of his seat. “Hey, Yuge, wait up!” he shouted, rushing out of the room.
The doctor turned to me. “I’ve been told that you were thrown into a wall?”
“Correct,” I said.
“Are you still in any pain?”
“My back is sore, but not so much that I am crippled by it.”
“Very good. Let me make sure that none of your bones were fractured or broken.” He re-pocketed the first device and took another one out of another pocket; it looked the same. “This one works the same way, but illuminates bones instead of blood vessels.”
“A portable X-ray device?” I asked. “That’s interesting.”
“It’s a wonderful invention. It’s much less harmful than X-rays. Please remove your coat and shirt.”
I did so; the doctor held the device a few inches from my back. I turned my head over my shoulder as much as I could, to see; a purple beam shot from the device and hit me; a sort of tingling sensation engulfed my back, and I was astounded to see that it appeared that my entire torso had disappeared, except for my spine and ribs. It was the most fascinating thing that I had ever seen.
Mokuba entered the room and gasped, “Woah!” at the sight of me. I chuckled. “Cool, isn’t it,” I said. He ran up to us; I felt his finger poke my side; but saw his finger simply stop in midair a few inches from my spine. Of course the rest of me was still there, but it was made invisible in the light of the device.
The doctor muttered, “hmm…” a few times; then, turned the device off. My flesh re-appeared. “Nothing seems to be wrong. Your skin is red… but, you’re okay. Tell me about the cut on your neck.”
“It was small,” I said. “I can’t feel it, now. When I hit the wall, part of the crystal buckled and a piece stuck out and nicked me.”
“Did you take care of it?” the doctor asked. “I see a bandage…”
“We put antibiotics on it,” Mokuba said. The doctor nodded approvingly and said, “I’ll take your word for that. You boys are very lucky.”
I put my shirt back on. “What about Dartz,” I asked carelessly. I kind of didn’t care what had happened to him.
“I do have an announcement about that…” the doctor said hesitantly.
I frowned. An announcement? The doctor left the room, bidding me good day; I put my coat back on. Mokuba shrugged up at me.
“Alright,” I told him, with a yawn. “You know what you owe me, now.”
He sighed. “What color robes would you like to be wearing,” he asked, with a laugh.
“How about red?” I asked. “And don’t forget to give me a tall crown.”
“Deal,” he said. “Let’s go find Yugi and them. They were all in the main dining hall, last time I saw them.”
“Dining hall? Did they serve breakfast?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Mokuba replied. “I had, like, eighty pancakes.”
“I’m proud of you,” I said, and followed him back to the dining hall. Indeed, Yugi and all of his friends were in here, some with syrup-slicked plates in front of them. But, I was surprised to see Ironheart in here, too. He was sitting on a chair, head in his hands. The Pharaoh looked up at me as I entered the room. I supposed the Pharaoh had just told Ironheart about Dartz losing his soul. I frowned. I felt bad for Ironheart; Ironheart had been a righteous king who never believed in using the power of the Orichalcos.
The Pharaoh frowned up at me. “I have heard from some of Dartz’ men… his heart did not start again. He doesn’t have the will to live… he let himself die.”
I frowned. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. Chris, Dartz’ 10-year-old daughter, ran into the room, looking cheery, but stopped in her tracks at the sight of her sobbing grandfather.
“What… what’s the matter?” she asked.
“Dartz… your father… is no longer with us,” he replied quietly. “They took him to the hospital… but, he just shut down.”
Chris didn’t say anything for a moment; then, she threw her arms around Ironheart’s neck and sobbed. I felt a twinge of empathy for her; she was only slightly older than I had been when I lost my real father. Ironheart, also destroyed, held her, and they stayed that way for a moment, before Chris said, “How… how?” shakily. “Daddy… daddy was a good guy!”
Ironheart stroked her hair sadly. “He… he just couldn’t resist the Orichalcos’ power,” he said gently. “He’s a good man who wanted to help his kingdom.”
The girl continued sobbing; Ironheart held her, and looked up at us. “It is more urgent than ever, now, for you all to retrieve the god cards and foil Adella and Donno,” he said. “My son… while falling to power… is a strong soul that will give the Leviathan great strength. Please. For the sake of my family, don’t lose hope… finish your quest.”
“Of course,” the Pharaoh said. “We can travel to the second temple immediately.”
“The quickest way to get there is by the bullet train,” Ironheart said. “There are one-way transportation pods from the temple to the castle, but we have yet to install the ones that go both ways, so you must take the train.”
“That’s cool! I’d rather take the train anyway!” Téa said. “Those are the trains that go five hundred miles per hour, right?”
“Yes,” Ironheart said. “They are enjoyable.”
“Come on, then,” Duke said, standing up from the table. We all followed him outside and down the road from the castle. The Pharaoh kept his hand pressed to his pocket; I was sure that he held the Slifer card, there. I was unafraid of the next temple. Slifer would get rid of any monsters that might have given us trouble.
We boarded one small train- it was shaped like a bullet, made of the same crystal that everything else here was made of. Mokuba sat down next to me; the doors closed and immediately the train was moving. I marveled at the view, outside- everything was a blur. I had never traveled this fast before. The technology was stunning; even the highest military planes couldn’t travel this fast. The change of scenery was spectacular and quick- it seemed to go from lush and green to icy and snowy in only a matter of minutes. After winding through mountains and plateaus, the train skidded to a stop.
I opened my eyes; my vision was blurry with tears. It felt as though my heart had been ripped right out of me. I was alone and cold. I looked up; in front of me was an enormous stone slab, engraved with a picture of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
I looked down and had to repress a sob; a woman was lying in my arms. She wasn’t moving, or breathing… she was dead. Someone had killed her. A terrible evil had torn the soul out of her in order to use its power. But… but I had known that there was so much more to this girl; that she was more than just a powerhouse, or a container for a monster. She was a beautiful person, full of light… the only person who had ever even brought a shred of true happiness into my life…
Tears streamed from my eyes. I didn’t want this girl’s dragon. I had wanted her… I gripped her tighter. I was alone. She had died in front of my eyes; I had watched it. Someone had killed her, and I’d been forced to witness it.
Vaguely I could feel my long, heavy cape being moved around by the light wind. Vaguely I felt the weight of the solid gold bands on my arm and ankh fastened to my chest. Vaguely. I was mostly aware only of the incredible sadness that gripped me. The world was silent and empty; I had been in love with the girl in my arms. Now, she was gone.
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes; I was in the room in Dartz’ castle. I swallowed hard and lifted my head off of my chest. My vision was blurry. Something… was strange. I felt short of breath and… and… devastated.
What was wrong with me? I had seen that vision before, during my duel with Ishizu… but…
I lifted my hand to my left cheek. To my surprise, it was wet… wet! Like I was crying… I looked down at the heavy book in my lap. Its pages had a few scattered teardrops staining it. Unbelievable. I wiped my eyes. Why did I feel so sad? Geez…
I looked at the clock on the other side of the room, sitting on the bedside table. It was only 9:30 at night; I had fallen asleep early and not stayed that way for very long. I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. I was very unused to this …emotion. I had conditioned myself to get rid of every shred of emotion I possessed, in order to succeed as a child; and, more recently, in order to deal with my enormous work load. This sadness was weird.
There was a knock on my door a moment later. I wiped my eyes again, set the history book back onto the coffee table, and grumbled, “Come in.”
To my surprise, Joey Wheeler walked into my room, wearing a light-yellow jacket over his night clothes, which made him look stupid- but, he was also looking angry.
“’Ey, Kaiba, we gotta-“he began, but paused when he looked at my face. “You… your face is red… have you been… crying?” He asked, incredulous.
“No. What do you want, Wheeler,” I asked, thoroughly irritated.
“Now, I don’t like you, and you don’t like me,” he said quickly.
“That about sums it up,” I replied.
He ignored me. “But, I think you’re the only one here who agrees with me in believin’ that Dartz is still a no-good son of a dog.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Tell Yugi that,” I said.
“I’m tryin’!” he said, exasperated. “He don’t listen. I think you and me need to do some searchin’ or somethin’. What makes you think that Dartz isn’t trustworthy? Do you just… think he’s not? That’s the way I’m thinkin’ of him. I got a bad feeling.”
“Wheeler, don’t be an idiot. I actually have reasoning behind my thought- the fact that Dartz didn’t throw away the Orichalcos stone when the Pharaoh defeated him last time; and that he still wears an Orichalcos stone fragment,” I said.
He looked stunned; didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he shouted, “Yes!” and punched the air. I sighed.
“Damnit, Kaiba, I swear,” he said, enthralled. “Sometimes, you piss me off so bad, I just want to rip your balls off with my bare hands-“ What?? I thought, horrified- “…but I gotta say, you’re right on the dot. Who made you so smart?”
“My verbally-abusive stepfather, whom I drove to suicide a year and a half ago,” I replied.
“Well, yeah,” he said, dismissing my statement. “Come on, grab your coat! Let’s go annihilate that asshole!”
“With what,” I asked dully.
“Slifer,” he said, with a tone of voice that suggested that I was the idiot, completely contradicting the …uh… compliment that he had just given me. He held up the card after removing it from his pocket; I was surprised. “How did you get that…” I stammered.
He chuckled. “Yugi and me are sharin’ a bathroom. Yugi had put this in the under-the-sink safe… but, I got a key to the safe, too…” he said carelessly. I frowned. “Ain’t really stealin’, right? Come on.”
I stood up. “I don’t exactly enjoy working with you…” I began angrily, but he said, “Look, what else can I do? Yugi kinda don’t believe me. He wouldn’t want to do anything that might hurt Dartz. I’m afraid that he’ll hold back if we have to fight Dartz, because he’d be scared to hurt him.” He sighed. “Yugi… and the Pharaoh… they’re great duelists… amazin’ duelists, and they’re geniuses and pretty much always knowin’ what they’re doin’… but, I just think they’re wrong this time. And I don’t like you, but I wanna get this done, and I know you wanna do it too.”
I frowned. Joey was completely in-tune with Yugi, usually- sort of like a shadow. I was somewhat surprised to hear him doubt Yugi; but, I felt the same way he did. “Fine,” I said irritably. I didn’t think that Joey was an entirely good duelist, but I could beat Dartz if we were faced with him. “What do you want to find?”
“I’m thinkin’ we break into the room where he keeps the big Orichalcos rock and use Slifer to blast it off of the face of the Earth. It’ll stop those monsters from coming! Those other guys can’t use it to create more monsters, right?”
“Well, they have their own fragment of the Orichalcos stone,” I said.
“Yeah, but they get a lot of power from this big main one, don’t they?” he asked. “If we beat up this thing, then those other guys are gonna be weaker. Let’s go get Slifer to dissolve that thing, and if Dartz don’t like it, then we can make Dartz dissolve too.”
“Very well,” I said, taking my coat off of the chair that I had thrown it over and putting my arms through the sleeves. “Give me the card.”
“What?” he asked, angry. “I don’t think so, pal! I want to use it!”
I laughed. “Nice try, you scrub duelist. Give me the card. Do you even know how to use it?”
“Sure, I do!” he growled. “You… it’s… you get the attack power from… uh…”
I smirked as he stammered, at a loss for ideas. What a retard.
He scowled and grudgingly handed me the card. “Good,” I said, pocketing it.
We left my room and went to the hallway that led to Dartz’ quarters. The castle seemed somewhat eerie at night; the crystal walls seemed to glow in the sunlight, but at night… even the candles lighting the hallway didn’t help brighten it, much.
We could see the door in front of us. Joey, walking in front of me, reached for it; it burst open before he could open it, and I reacted quickly, grabbing the back of his shirt and wrenching him out of the way barely in time to miss being hit by a thin, green laser- a monster was just on the other side of the door. Joey and I were now pressed against the wall, somewhat concealed in the darkness, five feet away from the door.
The monster exited the room, and I saw the fragment of the Orichalcos stone next to the door- I quickly grabbed it from behind the door and crushed it by stomping on it; the monster vanished. Cautiously I peered around the corner through the doors; no more monsters were ahead.
“Be more careful, you stupid dog,” I told Joey, who was leaning against the wall in shock; he came to himself and frowned, and said, “Thanks for saving me, you stuck-up jerk. Come on, let’s go.”
We entered the enormous room that held the Orichalcos stone; this room was completely bright, owing to the enormous meteorite in the center. It was glowing, dark-green… chipped and cratered in many places, and a large chunk missing out of the side of it, where Donno and Adella had stolen a few pieces. I hadn’t known that the stone was this large; it towered perhaps twenty feet in diameter.
“Damn,” Joey said, in awe, when he saw it. I frowned and reached for my pocket to remove the Slifer card.
“Good evening, Gentlemen,” a misty voice came from behind us; it felt as though I had been electrocuted. Joey and I whipped around to make eye contact with Dartz, who was standing in the doorway, frowning at us.
“Dartz,” I whispered. “Get out of here. We’ve got a plan to weaken Donno and Adella. We’re going to destroy the stone.”
Dartz slowly approached us. “I can’t let you do that,” he said softly.
Joey yelled in rage. “I knew it!” he shouted. “I knew you hadn’t changed, you piece of slime! You’re gonna pay for brainwashing Mai into stealing my soul!”
“Wheeler, don’t!” I yelled, as Joey leapt forward to physically beat up Dartz; Dartz lazily reached out his hand and grabbed Joey by the throat when he got close; Dartz lifted Joey a few inches off of the floor by his throat. I lunged at them and grabbed Dartz’ arm, trying to pry him off of Joey, who was choking and could hardly breathe; Dartz’ arm wouldn’t budge. His hand was a vice grip around Joey’s neck.
“My advisors are right,” he said calmly, as I continued to tug hopelessly at his arm, and Joey cringed with pain. “Right all along. I know what is good for my nation. The Orichalcos will make my nation paradise again.”
His eyes turned slowly to me; they met mine, and after a split second, I felt a horrible, invisible force violently throw me off of his arm and send me flying into the wall; I felt my back crash into the crystal. Stars blinking in my eyes, stunned by splitting pain, I looked up and saw Dartz toss Joey aside just like he did, me; Joey crumpled to the ground next to me. Was he breathing? Still somewhat disoriented, and on the ground, I leaned over and turned him on to his back; his eyes were closed, and he was trembling, and he shakily whispered, “That… bastard…” I frowned at the sight of the enormous bruise on his neck.
Dartz was now standing over both of us, holding a card that featured the Seal of Orichalcos. I realized, with a rush of horror, what he was going to do-
“Good-bye, gentlemen,” Dartz whispered, sinister look back in his eye. This was the look that he had sported so famously the last time I had dueled against him. “This time, you will not escape.”
I reached for the Slifer card, in my pocket; at that moment, a strong voice yelled, “Dartz!”
I looked up. It was the Pharaoh. His eyes darted to us for a moment; I saw them widen in shock just briefly, before he looked up at Dartz.
Dartz smiled and left me, now approaching the Pharaoh. “Ah, Pharaoh…” he said softly. “I’m glad you’re here.” He lifted his hand; the crystal doors slammed shut. “My, it is my lucky day,” Dartz continued casually. “Three of the most powerful souls on earth, right in the room with me.”
He lifted his hand, holding the Orichalcos card; the stone on his chest shone brightly. Wind rushed the room; I shielded my eyes from the huge flash of light that burst from beneath Dartz’ feet. In a second, the seal had expanded to the entire room; I felt my breath catch in my chest for a split second; Joey recoiled, flat on the ground. We were trapped.
“Unarmed… you have no chance,” Dartz continued.
“No,” I said, shakily pushing myself off of the floor; I was now standing, and the Pharaoh rushed over to me. “Nice try,” I told Dartz. His eyes narrowed; he didn’t know that I held the Slifer card. As far as he was concerned, we had no cards; I knew he held his deck. He thought he would just summon a bunch of monsters... wrong.
“No?” Dartz asked. “I am not challenging you to a duel. I, the king of Atlantis, invoke the powers of the cards and monsters, without the annoying rules of a game- this is no duel.” He held up a card; it was a monster that I recognized: Orichalcos Malevolence. Immediately the monster appeared. “With the new power of the Seal, this monster can send a shockwave that will capture each of you,” Dartz continued, with a chuckle. “Deliver to me the souls of all three of them!” he shouted, triumphantly.
The Pharaoh grabbed the Slifer card from my hand and held it up. Dartz’ eyes widened; immediately, his face went completely white. The ground shook, and lightning filled the room wildly; Slifer the Sky Dragon appeared in a spectacular burst of white light. I watched in awe as the sky dragon coiled itself in front of the Pharaoh; it was a magnificent beast.
“Dartz! You don’t know what you’re doing!” The Pharaoh yelled, as Dartz took several steps back, in shock. “Stop this! Stop this nonsense now! “
Dartz did nothing, only stared, horrified, at the superior god monster. Then he whispered, “Slifer the Sky Dragon… you found it…”
“Dartz,” The Pharaoh persisted, desperately. “Please don’t make me destroy you; I don’t want to do it, but you’re beginning to leave me with no choice… please, remove the Seal from this room…”
Dartz still looked up, with, now, a pained look in his eye. He was now a shadow of the man who had once stood in battle against me and the Pharaoh, breaking immediately when he looked death in the face. “I cannot… allow you to destroy this great power. I must do… what I can… Orichalcos Malevolence… attack…”
It was, of course, useless. Slifer immediately destroyed the monster with a single blast of lightning; Dartz was thrown off of his feet. The fight was over. The Pharaoh had won and saved himself, me, and Joey.
The Seal begin to slowly contract around Dartz; the Pharaoh ran towards him, shouting his name. It had gotten smaller, and was no longer under my feet, or Joey’s. I watched as the Pharaoh propped Dartz up on his arm, saying, “You made such a foolish mistake… to believe Adella and Donno…”
Dartz closed his eyes slowly and smiled. “No… no, they are right,” he whispered, as if satisfied, even though he lost the duel. “My kingdom… I have done my part for my kingdom. My soul will feed the Great Beast… it will be strong. You kids… will fail.”
His head fell back off of the Pharaoh’s arm. The Seal circled Dartz; the Pharaoh was thrown out of it. He landed a few feet away; in a flash, the Seal was gone, and Dartz was still, on the ground, there. The Pharaoh cursed silently; I bent down and lifted Joey’s arm and slung it around my shoulder and lifted him up; he was conscious, but disoriented from pain. Propped up on my arm, he shakily shouted, “Yuge! Are you alright?”
The Pharaoh turned around. “Yes,” he said. He was unhurt, but looked very unhappy. “What a shame. Now, we are in a worse position than ever. His soul is powerful; it was the final piece that resurrected the Great Beast last time.” The Pharaoh walked up to us. “Are you two alright? Did he hurt you?”
I felt Joey plant his feet on the ground, sturdy; I let go of his arm and he remained standing, wobbling for a moment, but he balanced himself. “We came in here to smash that big stone,” he said, pointing at the Orichalcos Stone. The Pharaoh frowned. “Joey, your neck… it’s very badly bruised…”
“Dartz found us… tried to choke me, sent Kaiba smashing into the wall…”
I, all of a sudden, felt dull, throbbing pain in my back and a sharp pain on the back of my neck; I had been so involved with Dartz, I had forgotten until just now that he had actually hurt me when he sent me flying into that wall- I looked over my shoulder at the place I had hit. It was cracked; a jagged piece of the crystal was sticking out of it. I placed my hand on the spot on my neck that hurt; when I looked at my hand, I saw that a little bit of blood was on my fingers.
“We’re okay, though,” Joey continued. “Not too badly hurt.”
Tea, Mokuba, Duke, Tristan and Serenity entered the room. “What’s going on in here? What’s all the noise about?” Duke asked.
Mokuba gasped and ran up to me. “Big brother, you’re bleeding!”
“I’m alright, kiddo,” I smiled down at him. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What happened to Dartz?” Tristan gasped, looking at the crumpled man.
“Come back to my room,” the Pharaoh said. “I’ll explain everything.”
Minutes later, after Yugi had told some of Dartz’ men to get him to a hospital, I was sitting on Yugi’s bed, while Mokuba had a first-aid kit with its contents sprawled out everywhere. The Pharaoh was telling everyone else the story, sitting in an armchair, while everyone else sat on the floor, sitting in front of him- I was forcefully reminded of a grandfather telling his grandchildren a compelling bedtime story.
I cringed and flinched as Mokuba stuck an antibiotic-soaked bandage to the cut on the back of my neck; he said, “Sorry!” but he was done fixing my wound; he closed the first-aid kit and sat next to me and continued to listen to the story.
“Dartz appeared, and summoned an Orichalcos monster; I destroyed him with Slifer,” he said. “Dartz used the Seal; it engulfed all four of us. He was never on our side.”
“You were in the Seal?” Téa asked, horrified; the Pharaoh nodded, and she threw her arms around him. I knew she was frightened of the seal, as well as she should be- she had been so destroyed when the seal had defeated Yugi last time. When Téa let go of him, I realized that he had switched back to the regular Yugi.
“I’m okay,” he told us all; we had all walked towards him. “We’re all okay. We’re not hurt. But… I feel like an idiot for believing Dartz. I wanted to believe him… I wanted to believe that he was good. I’m… I’m really sorry, guys,” he said, directing that at me and Joey. Joey said, “’Ey, it’s only the first time you’ve ever been wrong,” with a laugh. I frowned. “We should finish what Wheeler and I started,” I said irritably. “Summon Slifer and destroy the Orichalcos Stone.”
“Yeah,” Yugi said, standing up. “Let’s go.”
We followed him out of his bedroom and back down the hallway to the room where the stone was kept. As we walked down the hallway, everyone seemed nervous or upset- Serenity kept very close to Joey, and Mokuba was looking up at me sadly. Serenity whimpered, “I can’t believe he used the Seal on you guys…” and I could tell that Mokuba was thinking the same thing. I held out my hand to him; he took it quickly. I smiled down at him for a moment. “It’s alright. I promise.”
He smiled mildly; we reached the room where the Orichalcos stone was. Yugi held up the Slifer card; with another incredible burst of lightning and wind the beast appeared. Yugi commanded it to destroy the Orichalcos stone; Slifer shot a sparkling blue beam out of its mouth that shattered the stone into dust. It was gone.
“Good,” Yugi said. “The Orichalcos’ power isn’t gone completely, since Adella and Donno still have a large piece of it… but that should make it weaker.”
My back was throbbing angrily; I felt lightheaded and irritable. “Good,” I said. “I’m going to bed.”
I left the room, with Mokuba at my heels; I heard everyone else tell each other good night and follow me down the hall, to their own rooms. I reached the door of my room. Mokuba looked up at me with sad, worried eyes; I patted the top of his head sleepily and opened the door to my room.
I collapsed onto my bed, cringing from a surge of pain from my back. The pain subsided and returned to its normal sore throbbing; I sighed. It was only eleven o’clock; I was exhausted, but my mind still raced, now that I was alone, stomach-down on my bed.
So I had known it all along. Dartz never wanted to help us. He brought us here to be easy targets for Donno and Adella; he had been sure that we would fail to retrieve the god cards. He had been a good actor; actually giving us useful advice. But, he certainly believed in his assistants more than he believed in us.
I sighed again. He had used the Seal of Orichalcos. …his assistants believed in him as much as he believed in them. Perhaps they had purposely left the majority of the stone to Dartz, knowing that he would use it- why else would they not just steal the whole thing? I frowned in the darkness. We had been saved by Slifer. I closed my eyes. At least, if anything, Dartz was out of the picture… and it was about time. Damn, I hated him.
I slowly awoke to a quiet voice and a gentle prodding on my arm. I opened my eyes; through blurry vision I saw that Mokuba was standing over me.
“Sorry to wake you up,” he said. “But Ironheart wants you and Joey and Yugi to be looked at by a doctor. Yugi told him about what happened last night.”
I groaned. I was still tired and didn’t want to get up yet. Face buried in my pillow, I grumbled, “tell Ironheart to shove his doctor up his @$$,” voice muffled by my pillow.
Mokuba chuckled. “Come on,” he said, happy but exasperated. “This is the new Orichalcos. It might have hurt you.”
“I think my bleeding neck and broken back hurt more,” I replied.
“Well, there you go,” Mokuba said. “Please see the doctor, Seto.”
I cracked open one eye and looked up at him through my messed-up hair. “What’s in it for me,” I finally asked.
He frowned. “Are you bribing me?”
“Yup,” I said, closing my eye again. “What’s in it for me.”
He sighed. “Um… I’ll draw a picture of a Blue-Eyes-White dragon…”
“Go on…” I said.
“… um… behind a picture of you dressed as the overlord of the Earth?”
“I like it,” I said groggily, lifting my head off of the pillow. I sat up slowly, because my back was still sore.
Mokuba smiled as I shakily stood up and opened my suitcase. “Ironheart is in the main foyer,” he said. “I’ll see you down there.”
I gave him a sort of approving hum as a response; he left the room. I changed into my day clothes; after brushing my teeth and taming my hair, I went down to the foyer. Joey Wheeler and Yugi were already in here; a doctor was shining a pen light into Yugi’s eyes.
“Pupil reaction normal…” he muttered, before noticing me and saying, “Ah, Mr. Kaiba. Please sit down, and thank you for coming. I apologize for what our king did to you… all three of you. It’s my pleasure to provide this free service to make sure that the Seal hadn’t harmed you.”
“Seal ain’t the one that harmed us,” Joey said angrily. “Dartz is the one who choked me!”
I frowned at him, but he was right. The Seal itself had done nothing to us. Maybe it could give new powers to monsters played within it, but the golden rule remained the same: only the loser of a fight- whether it was really a duel or not- would succumb to it.
The doctor finished with Yugi, dismissing him as healthy; Yugi said goodbye to us and left the room. The doctor went over to Joey and lifted his chin to get a look at the bruise on his neck. In the light, I could see the imprint of Dartz’ hand; it was an angry bruise. He had been hurt worse than I had.
“Here,” the doctor said, taking a small, square device out of his pocket. “What’s that,” Joey asked.
“This will illuminate your blood vessels, so that I can see if any major ones were damaged,” he replied. He held the box about four inches away from Joey’s neck; a purple beam shot from it, and I gasped; all that I could see of Joey’s neck was a network of blood vessels- no muscle, or skin, or anything; like his head was simply suspended by a large aorta and millions of tiny capillaries. I could almost see through his veins to the wall on the other side of him. Joey laughed, “Heh, that tickles.”
“Nifty device, isn’t it,” the doctor said, in reply to the stunned look on my face. I was mesmerized. What technology! The doctor turned the device off; his neck looked normal again. “A lot of small capillaries are broken, but they’ll heal by themselves. You’ll be fine, Mr. Wheeler.”
“Yo,” Joey said, getting out of his seat. “Hey, Yuge, wait up!” he shouted, rushing out of the room.
The doctor turned to me. “I’ve been told that you were thrown into a wall?”
“Correct,” I said.
“Are you still in any pain?”
“My back is sore, but not so much that I am crippled by it.”
“Very good. Let me make sure that none of your bones were fractured or broken.” He re-pocketed the first device and took another one out of another pocket; it looked the same. “This one works the same way, but illuminates bones instead of blood vessels.”
“A portable X-ray device?” I asked. “That’s interesting.”
“It’s a wonderful invention. It’s much less harmful than X-rays. Please remove your coat and shirt.”
I did so; the doctor held the device a few inches from my back. I turned my head over my shoulder as much as I could, to see; a purple beam shot from the device and hit me; a sort of tingling sensation engulfed my back, and I was astounded to see that it appeared that my entire torso had disappeared, except for my spine and ribs. It was the most fascinating thing that I had ever seen.
Mokuba entered the room and gasped, “Woah!” at the sight of me. I chuckled. “Cool, isn’t it,” I said. He ran up to us; I felt his finger poke my side; but saw his finger simply stop in midair a few inches from my spine. Of course the rest of me was still there, but it was made invisible in the light of the device.
The doctor muttered, “hmm…” a few times; then, turned the device off. My flesh re-appeared. “Nothing seems to be wrong. Your skin is red… but, you’re okay. Tell me about the cut on your neck.”
“It was small,” I said. “I can’t feel it, now. When I hit the wall, part of the crystal buckled and a piece stuck out and nicked me.”
“Did you take care of it?” the doctor asked. “I see a bandage…”
“We put antibiotics on it,” Mokuba said. The doctor nodded approvingly and said, “I’ll take your word for that. You boys are very lucky.”
I put my shirt back on. “What about Dartz,” I asked carelessly. I kind of didn’t care what had happened to him.
“I do have an announcement about that…” the doctor said hesitantly.
I frowned. An announcement? The doctor left the room, bidding me good day; I put my coat back on. Mokuba shrugged up at me.
“Alright,” I told him, with a yawn. “You know what you owe me, now.”
He sighed. “What color robes would you like to be wearing,” he asked, with a laugh.
“How about red?” I asked. “And don’t forget to give me a tall crown.”
“Deal,” he said. “Let’s go find Yugi and them. They were all in the main dining hall, last time I saw them.”
“Dining hall? Did they serve breakfast?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Mokuba replied. “I had, like, eighty pancakes.”
“I’m proud of you,” I said, and followed him back to the dining hall. Indeed, Yugi and all of his friends were in here, some with syrup-slicked plates in front of them. But, I was surprised to see Ironheart in here, too. He was sitting on a chair, head in his hands. The Pharaoh looked up at me as I entered the room. I supposed the Pharaoh had just told Ironheart about Dartz losing his soul. I frowned. I felt bad for Ironheart; Ironheart had been a righteous king who never believed in using the power of the Orichalcos.
The Pharaoh frowned up at me. “I have heard from some of Dartz’ men… his heart did not start again. He doesn’t have the will to live… he let himself die.”
I frowned. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. Chris, Dartz’ 10-year-old daughter, ran into the room, looking cheery, but stopped in her tracks at the sight of her sobbing grandfather.
“What… what’s the matter?” she asked.
“Dartz… your father… is no longer with us,” he replied quietly. “They took him to the hospital… but, he just shut down.”
Chris didn’t say anything for a moment; then, she threw her arms around Ironheart’s neck and sobbed. I felt a twinge of empathy for her; she was only slightly older than I had been when I lost my real father. Ironheart, also destroyed, held her, and they stayed that way for a moment, before Chris said, “How… how?” shakily. “Daddy… daddy was a good guy!”
Ironheart stroked her hair sadly. “He… he just couldn’t resist the Orichalcos’ power,” he said gently. “He’s a good man who wanted to help his kingdom.”
The girl continued sobbing; Ironheart held her, and looked up at us. “It is more urgent than ever, now, for you all to retrieve the god cards and foil Adella and Donno,” he said. “My son… while falling to power… is a strong soul that will give the Leviathan great strength. Please. For the sake of my family, don’t lose hope… finish your quest.”
“Of course,” the Pharaoh said. “We can travel to the second temple immediately.”
“The quickest way to get there is by the bullet train,” Ironheart said. “There are one-way transportation pods from the temple to the castle, but we have yet to install the ones that go both ways, so you must take the train.”
“That’s cool! I’d rather take the train anyway!” Téa said. “Those are the trains that go five hundred miles per hour, right?”
“Yes,” Ironheart said. “They are enjoyable.”
“Come on, then,” Duke said, standing up from the table. We all followed him outside and down the road from the castle. The Pharaoh kept his hand pressed to his pocket; I was sure that he held the Slifer card, there. I was unafraid of the next temple. Slifer would get rid of any monsters that might have given us trouble.
We boarded one small train- it was shaped like a bullet, made of the same crystal that everything else here was made of. Mokuba sat down next to me; the doors closed and immediately the train was moving. I marveled at the view, outside- everything was a blur. I had never traveled this fast before. The technology was stunning; even the highest military planes couldn’t travel this fast. The change of scenery was spectacular and quick- it seemed to go from lush and green to icy and snowy in only a matter of minutes. After winding through mountains and plateaus, the train skidded to a stop.
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