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Chapter 45

Tristan frowned as he took the Locator Card from the duelist he\'d just defeated, giving him a polite bow in thanks. He\'d chosen not to take the woman\'s rarest card because honestly all he would have done is sell it as it really did nothing to help his deck. Besides, as he\'d told her, she had an awesome Fiend deck and that card was the lynchpin to its entire strategy. He just couldn\'t bring himself to ruin that because he wanted to make a quick buck.

He was walking away when a horn honked and he looked around before spotting a convertible... and a familiar face in the driver\'s seat.

"Duke!" he called out, his early low mood forgotten as he spotted the other teen. While Tristan and the rest of the gang hadn\'t known Duke for long he\'d quickly became a good friend. With Yugi\'s Grandpa training Joey all the time (\'Don\'t think about it\') sometimes the gang needed someplace else to hang out and Duke\'s card shop was the perfect place to do that.

Hopping out of the car Duke grinned, Tristan and him sharing a hearty half hand shake half grapple grab. "Hey Tristan, how is the tournament going?"

"Good enough. Got my second locator card." He paused, looking Duke over. "I\'m surprised you didn\'t enter. Didn\'t Edwin offer you the chance?" It was thanks to Edwin that Tea and Tristan had been able to enter the tournament, using his pull as the sole member of the Kaibacorp board to force through their inclusion.

"He offered, which I thought was odd. Didn\'t expect someone like Seto Kaiba to give him that kind of power. Or to allow people to enter he didn\'t vet." He paused, scratching at his chin. "Honestly Kaiba seems like the kind of person that would say he\'s going to throw a tournament and when Yugi showed up he revealed that a large net was named \'Tournament\' and then he threw it at Yugi."

Tristan snickered at that. "Heh. Maybe... but Kaiba has some weird honor code and stuff. Edwin gets annoyed by it a lot... he rants to us all a ton when we hang out and ask him how his job is."

"That must be fun," Duke said with an eyeroll.

Tristan though quickly shook his head. "It actually is! Edwin loves to jerk Rich Boy\'s chain and has no problem talking smack about him... I think it has to do with the fact that he knows Kaiba can\'t fire him. With him owning the stocks and Pegasus liking Edwin his job is pretty secure." Tristan shrugged. "As for entering us into Battle City I think he managed to slip that into the tournament rules without Kaiba noticing."

Duke chuckled at that. "Sounds like Edwin. As for me... this tournament really isn\'t my thing. I like making games more than just competition at them."

"Fair," Tristan said.

"So... are you okay?" Duke asked, leaning against his car. "You seemed a bit down when I spotted you. I thought for a moment you\'d lost."

"Nah, I won." Tristan rubbed the back of his head. "Other things though that are giving me problems."

"OH? What\'s wrong?"

"The win," Tristan said. "It just wasn\'t... satisfying."

"Wanted something hard fought? Or wanted to blow her out of the water?"

"Neither. I don\'t know I just... I don\'t feel all that excited. I mean this was my first major win. I\'ve done dueling most with simulators and against my friends. Tea and I are evenly matched and Edwin and Yugi usually kick my ass-" He had a feeling that Yugi in particular was being nice and pulling his punches; Edwin it was hard to tell as he seemed to always be scheming so it might just be natural for him to appear as if he were faking something, "-so this was a big deal. But I just feel like..." He gave his hand a wiggle from side to side.

"Well... I can\'t really answer that," Duke admitted. "But I hope you figure it out." He reached out and gave Tristan a pat on the shoulder.

Tristan... just stared at him.

"I\'m really bad at these comforting moments, aren\'t I?" Duke asked.

"It would only be worse if you had said, "That\'ll do, Pig"." He paused before smiling, shaking his head. "Dear lord I sounded like Edwin there for a moment."

"Well, I can\'t say as normally my interactions with him are money based."

"He\'s been hitting up your store hard?"

"Apparently, from what he\'s told me, being insanely rich without having to do much work leaves you bored so he needs things to do...

~A week earlier~

Duke frowned. "Shouldn\'t you be prepping for a tournament or something?"

"Meh," Edwin said as he dumped an armful of Transformers onto the counter. "Saving the world fighting the Rare Hunters and shit? Okay. Assembling the entire Beast Wears Season 1 cast? Much better. You agree, right Renard?"

Renard merely shrugged, busy reading a Tin Tin graphic novel.

Duke frowned. "I\'m just saying-"

Hina, head of the Black Clown Game Shop\'s inventory and merchandising, elbowed Duke hard in the stomach. Edwin frowned at that but she quickly distracted him by passing him a catalog with more toys he could buy, allowing her to turn to her boss, glowering at him. "We are beating all sales projections thanks to him spending like crazy! Shut the hell up!"

"Hey, do you carry Jurassic World dinosaurs?" Edwin asked, looking at the Fossilizers he had bought.

Duke frowned. "No we-"

"WE CAN!" Hina exclaimed, eyes lighting up.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Hey, you want to stop for lunch?" Duke asked. "Or are you busy trying to win this tournament?"

"Did lunch but I\'ll join you while you eat, get a snack or something," Tristan said. "I honestly don\'t care if I win this tournament... or even make it to the finals. The point was to prove I could do it, that\'s all. No reason to starve." He moved to get into Duke\'s car. "Besides, I\'m sure the others are way ahead of me already. Probably already meeting up where the locator cards say to go."

~MC~MC~MC~

"Marik," the Pharaoh said, at once taking back control of Yugi\'s body; while he had trusted the boy to handle the duel, knowing that Yugi was more than skilled enough to be able to defeat Cabal, when it came to the likes of Marik Ishtar and the power of the Millennium Items he much preferred having his soul be the one on the line. The memory of Yugi passing out, his soul so weary from constantly shifting back and forth to fight off Pegasus\' Millennium Eye as well as the constant pressure of the Shadow Realm still haunted the Pharaoh. \'I won\'t let him face the likes of this madman.\'

He did feel a bit better with Edwin at his side. The older man had faced off against the Spirit of the Millennium Ring and hadn\'t blinked. Marik had also attempted to convince Edwin to work with him and the \'Guardian Devil\' had made it clear that there were some deals even he wouldn\'t accept. That had made him just as much of a target but in turn meant he was an ally in this fight, the previous feud the two had participated in during Duelist Kingdom forgotten and moved beyond.

\'And then there is the Key,\' he thought, chancing a glance at Edwin. He\'d summoned the Millennium Key and his eyes were blazing black and gold, making it clear that he was tapping into the power of the ancient artifact and wasn\'t afraid to use it. \'He was right... I should have learned what the Millennium Puzzle can do. Marik, Pegasus, Ishizu, Edwin... all of them have shown greater aptitude with their Items than Yugi and I have.\'

\'We\'ve managed well so far,\' Yugi chimed in.

\'Yes,\' the Pharaoh admitted, \'but I\'d rather face Marik and his Rare Hunters from a position of power rather than weakness.\'

"We meet again, Pharaoh!" Marik said, Cabal\'s body hanging loose and limp like a marionette whose strings had been cut save one. "It seems you managed to defeat dear Cabal."

"And kept her from being maimed," The Pharaoh declared, glancing at the saw blade that stood now still, silenced once it had reached its end point. "Your trap was poorly thought out, Marik. You nearly lost one of your Rare Hunters to it."

Marik scoffed though Cabal\'s face didn\'t twitch in the slightest. "Do you believe I care either way about her? She was just another means to an end. She could have bled out for all I care... if she wasn\'t strong enough to defeat either of you two then she is worthless!"

"Human life is so meaningless to you that you so carelessly throw it away?"

"Do not speak to me and wasted lives, Pharaoh. My family has wasted our lives serving your memory! Countless generations, glimpsing the sun only for brief moments, knowing only the darkness of the crypts we were forced to protect. All in your name."

"I never asked for that Marik," the Pharaoh said softly. "And I am sorry for what you have gone through." He narrowed his eyes and his voice grew more firm. "But that doesn\'t give you the right to torment the innocent!"

Marik though merely laughed. "That is why they exist though! To amuse their betters! Cabal had a chance to prove herself stronger and when she failed she earned only the right to serve as yet another pawn to use in my game against you."

"So is that what you\'re doing?" Edwin finally said, speaking up. "Trying to prove that you are one of the \'betters\'."

"I am one of the betters," Marik said hotly.

Edwin though rolled his eyes, taking his cards of his duel disc and placing them back in his deck box. "You steal the souls of others in order to make yourself feel big, Marik. But the truth is you are a pathetic little man who was the son of an even more pathetic father."

That caused Marik to growl. "You will pay for every insult and joke you send my way."

"Come and get your pound of flesh then!" Edwin taunted, holding his arms out wide. Cabal\'s form though merely stood there. "Well? Come on then! The Devil will see you now!" But when Marik did nothing Edwin merely grunted in annoyance. "Pathetic, utterly pathetic. You preach about how mighty you are but the only thing you can do is weakly send out your puppets to battle the Pharaoh and me. Don\'t have the balls to do it on your own."

"This is merely a warm up," Marik told him. "A way to tenderize the meat before I finally smite the two of you and have my revenge."

"Revenge?" Edwin said with a laugh. "Oh... the most worthless of endeavors."

"It isn\'t too late to end this madness, Marik," The Pharaoh said, taking a step forward. "Put aside this feud... I have no wish to quarrel with you. Let it be done."

Marik though merely turned Cabal\'s body to face him fully. "Not until I hold your Millennium Puzzle, Pharaoh, and hear you wail as you are banished to the Shadow Realm!"

"There is no reason for any of this!" the Pharaoh exclaimed in frustration. "You and I have no reason to be enemies! I have done nothing to you! I was trapped in the puzzle for thousands of years according to Ishizu and-"

"Ishizu," Marik growled. "You would be wise to not believe a word she says, Pharaoh. She has more than one face and is willing to show you whichever one gets her that which he desires before turning the other\'s gaze upon you. She is not your ally."

"She\'s a bitch who likes to hide things, I\'ll admit that," Edwin stated. "But that doesn\'t make her our enemy."

Renard chose that moment to speak up. "Your family... you say they kept you trapped, correct?"

"All in the name of serving the Nameless Pharaoh! We were never allowed lives. Never allowed to know freedom! Every moment of our existence was meant towards guarding the Millennium Items. Rituals and torture were my toys and gifts, and the chains of tradition my only comfort in those dark and horrible days. All I ever heard was how this was for the good of the Pharaoh! How we must serve the Pharaoh! How we could not have dreams and desires because of the Pharaoh! I wanted a life and he ROBBED that from me. And for that the Pharaoh MUST pay! I will take his power and I will rule this world, destroying all he created!"

The Pharaoh winced at that. \'is this truly my fault? While I do not have my memories Ishizu made it clear that she served me. Addressed me as a servant would a king. Is it possible that before I placed myself in the Millennium Puzzle I gave the orders that led us to this moment? That I doomed Marik and his family to thousands of years of servitude?\'

Edwin frowned though, raising his hand like he was a student asking permission to speak in close. "Pardon me for being an American Idiot-" his phone began to play a song only for Edwin to look down. "No, I wasn\'t setting up for that, please be quiet." The music instantly cut off. "Thank you." He looked back at Marik. "Pardon me for this but I have to ask... what power do you think he has?"

"The Power of his Puzzle."

"Uh huh. And what power is that again?"

"The power within the puzzle," Marik said in a bored tone, as if he were talking to a rather stupid child.

"You keep saying that. Pegasus too. \'The Power of the Millennium Puzzle\'. The thing is..." Edwin began to pace, "...I\'ve been around Yugi and the Pharaoh for a while now and honestly... I have more power than him." He held out his hand and Shadow Realm magic crackled and danced along his fingers. "I can do a lot of shit. All I need is to do a little twirl and I might as well be an Anime Magic Girl. Sailor Namek." He closed his hand and the shadow realm magic disappeared, his black and gold eyes the only sign he was still calling on the power of the Millennium Key. "And you have the Millennium Rod and that can do all sorts of things, can\'t it? Summon the shadow realm, brainwash people, control minds, manipulate them... all sorts of nifty tricks."

He paused.

"Name one fucking thing the Puzzle does."

Cabal\'s body stood there.

The Pharaoh blinked.

"See, I\'ve been begging the Pharaoh to let me help him figure out the powers of the puzzle but he keeps ignoring me. Yugi too. At first I thought it was because I\'m the Guardian Devil and hey, I might guard people but the word \'Devil\' is still there in the title so do you really want to trust me with knowledge and power? But..." he tapped his chin and the Pharaoh and Yugi both realized that Edwin was entering is \'college professor mode\'.

They settled in to watch, grateful that, for once, it wasn\'t them who was the focus.

"I think there are only three powers the Puzzle has and the Pharaoh knows it. He\'s just embarrassed that the Millennium Puzzle, the Item of the Pharaoh... is the bitchest bitch ass of the Bitch items." He began to tick off his points. "The first power is Mind Crush, able to banish people to the Shadow Realm."

"Indeed!" Marik proclaimed. "A mighty power that-"

Edwin\'s key flashed and they all felt a pulse of dark magic.

"Both of us can already do that so that\'s just overkill, Marik." He smirked and ticked off the second point. "The Puzzle holds the spirit of the Nameless Pharaoh. Now, I don\'t know about you but I have enough of hearing his speeches without him being able to do them in my head uninterrupted."

Renard scoffed. "You are complaining about another giving long speeches?"

Edwin flipped his bodyguard off before continuing. "Can you imagine it?" He mimicked the Pharaoh\'s voice. "Edwin, it appears there is too much dairy in your diet. As such we will need to triple wipe, for if we are going to pull solutions out of our ass it must be clean. Believe in the Heart of the Toilet Paper!"

"I don\'t sound like that," the Pharaoh muttered.

"That leaves the final power of the puzzle... I suppose that must be the one you want."

"Yes! That power-"

"To grow exactly 5 centimeters!" Edwin thrust out his hand, fingers spread wide.

Cabal... actually blinked at that.

"...what?"

"I can\'t be the only one who noticed," Edwin said, walking over to the Pharaoh and carefully placing his hand at his forehead. "The Pharaoh gets slightly taller when he\'s in control. Now, I know you are wondering why he doesn\'t grow taller. After all he is still short. Sometimes I like to pick him up and stick him in high places like he\'s an Elf on the Shelf."

"You have never done that," the Pharaoh grumbled, turning away from Edwin. And he wasn\'t blushing in embarrassment... he wasn\'t.

Honestly.

"Shhh, the tall people are talking." Edwin continued on, "But he can\'t grow more than that. It has to be natural! He wants people to think he\'s still growing!" He smirked and walked back to where he had started. "Honestly Marik you don\'t need to take over women\'s bodies if you want to be taller. Just get some lifts in your shoes like Tom Cruise does. Then you can also run away from your gay thoughts like Tommy Boy does-"

"ENOUGH!" Marik roared, a pulse of power shooting out of Cabal. "I will not stand here and take your mockery!"

"You can sit if you like," Edwin innocently offered.

Renard spoke up before Marik could say another word. "Let us ignore the puzzle. I never heard your story, Marik Ishtar. I merely arrived to save the man I was paid to protect. So tell me... what exactly did the Pharaoh do to you?"

"I already told you," Marik complained, "he caused me to suffer-"

"The Pharaoh was sealed in the puzzle until only... 2 years ago?" he looked at the Pharaoh who nodded. "Yes, two years. So how exactly did you do all you claim? How did he torture you? Rob you of your childhood? Abuse you? Keep you trapped and imprisoned?" He rolled his hand, almost lazily so. "I am not diminishing what you went through. The world is a dark enough place that I can readily believe that you faced some true horrors. But what I wish to know is how exactly the Pharaoh did these things when he was trapped and the puzzle. You are not claiming Yugi Muto hurt you, correct?"

"Litte Yugi wouldn\'t hurt a fly, let alone me!" Marik boasted.

"You are very quick to maim then someone who is no threat to you," Renard pointed out.

"He is the vessel for the Pharaoh!"

"Ah, so he is guilty because he associates with the criminal. Of course. I suppose that means that anyone who you have associated with has tainted you with their crimes. If one of your Rare Hunters raped a woman, let\'s say... then you are a rapist?" He held up his hand. "It does not matter, we\'ve gotten off the topic at hand: how did the Pharaoh harm you?"

"His word, his commandment, caused my people to disappear into the darkness."

"Are you sure of that?" Renard pressed.

"I know," Marik growled.

Renard frowned. "Then what is his name?"

Cabal\'s body just stood there.

Edwin beamed. "Oh Renard you brilliant man."

"It isn\'t a hard question. What is the name of the man who gave the command?"

Marik didn\'t say a word.

"Curious. Then tell me of his life. What did he do?" He waved his hand about. "And I do not mean that he fought some great evil. Your sister already bored us with that tale and her refusal to actually explain what happened. It told me a lot... as your silence does." Renard raised an eyebrow. "How odd is it that you know nothing of the man who you blame for every pain and suffering you have ever faced... except he is to blame. If I were harmed by a man... I would know EVERYTHING about him so I could properly have my revenge. I would learn of his hopes and dreams, his kin and his friends, every place he had gone, every hobby he had. I would know him almost as well as I knew myself. Yet... you don\'t, do you? You know nothing."

"It is his fault," Marik ground out. "Everything we did-"

"Was because of others. Your family chose at some point to continue serving a ghost they couldn\'t even remember. You don\'t even know what the original command was! I could lie to my child... tell him that Edwin here demanded that we, for the rest of our lives, father to son, leave out McDonalds for him to eat every Christmas."

"I was born on the 25th," Edwin pointed out. "And I do love McDonalds."

"So let us be clear... your father is the one that chose to do this. Everything that happened was because of him."

"And you killed him," Edwin said softly. "Already took your revenge."

"I did not kill him!" Marik snapped. "It is him! He is to blame! And I will take his power-"

"Which you can\'t even tell us what it is!" Edwin roared. The Pharaoh watched, feeling like a member of an audience, watching a three man play and not daring to say a word as the actors played their roles. "You hated your father because he did the commands of the Pharaoh and tortured you! Ruined your life! You father dies... but it is the Pharaoh\'s fault as well. He killed your father but he also used your father to hurt you. And around and around the wheel goes! We keep getting trapped in this moronic circle of blame that makes no sense! You can\'t even explain what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what you want out of it! You can\'t even tell us the architect of your downfall\'s fucking name!"

Cabal\'s body just glowered at them all before letting out a dismissive snort. "It matters not. All of you will pay soon enough. I will claim the God Cards, the Pharaoh\'s power, and I will rule the world!" Cabal\'s body began to twitch. "But first, I think I will rid myself of this useless servant-"

Edwin suddenly leapt forward, the Millennium Key flashed and he slammed his hand against her forehead.

"What are you doing?" The Pharaoh asked.

"Trying to lock her mind before he banishes her to the Shadow Realm!" Edwin declared, grunting as Shadow Magic began to swirl around him and Cabal. "No one... fucking deserves that!" He hissed in pain. "Harder than it looks though... little help!"

The Pharaoh paused only for a moment before racing forward, the Millennium Puzzle pulsing with its own magic as he placed one hand on Cabal\'s shoulder and the other on Edwin\'s back. The two grunted and shuddered as they tried to force their magic into her, to counter the strength of the Millennium Rod...

...and then they were falling.

~MC~MC~MC~

Ishizu smiled as she reached under the bench and picked up the locator card, slipping it into the pocket that was built into the long sleeves of her dress. So far she\'d managed to find three locator cards, meaning she was very close to securing her spot in the finals.

Not that there was any doubt in that.

\'I see it all so very clearly,\' she thought as she sat on the bench and watched the children playing football in the grassy area beyond the walkway she\'d chosen to haunt. \'The Pharaoh will soon collect his final locator cards and along with his friends journey to the stadium Kaiba is building... but that won\'t be the end of our journey. No... all of us, everyone who has a role to play in the events to come, will board his blimp and fly to his own island, where the next step of the Pharaoh\'s journey will begin. I will defeat Seto Kaiba and then face off against my brother, using the power of Obelisk the Tormentor to defeat him and finally make my brother see the light. Then the Pharaoh and I will engage in a Ceremonial Duel, where he will prove that he is worthy still of being the Champion of Light. Only then will he be allowed to claim the God Cards and begin his great final task to save the world from darkness.\'

Yes, she had seen it all. Every step.

Even if... some steps were not quite what she had expected.

\'Joey Wheeler never gave the Pharaoh his Red-Eyes. Yet in my vision I still see him using it to defeat his friend when Marik attempts to use their love for each other to destroy them both. So in the end it does not matter. His other friends... their entries in this tournament were unexpected but I imagine they will fail to collect the locator cards and thus return once more to standing at his side, advising and aiding him as the Pharaoh\'s own court once did.\' It made Ishizu smile to see that the Pharaoh had gathered such good friends to him in this life. He deserved and needed them to remain entrenched in the light...

Her smile fell though as it was a different light she found blinding her. The light of a pale cold moon... which made the shadows darker and only illuminated one figure.

Edwin Chaos.

\'Does he even realize the powers that he is playing with?\' Ishizu thought to herself, clouds shifting to hide the sun. \'Mai Valentine... she is the goddess Selene. The lover of Endymion. And that mage... the writings are clear on him. He was no ally to the Pharaoh. He came to his court as the Nameless Pharaoh mourned the death of his father, so recently gone he hadn\'t even been mummified yet, and called the Pharaoh\'s father a monster. He accused him of murder, of brutally cutting down the innocent, and swore that he would make the plagues of Moses resemble the tantrums of a child before he was through.\'

Her Millennium Necklace flashed and she tried to peer into the past only to find the light of the moon shining in her eyes, making it impossible for her to see what had happened that could cause the Greek to believe such things. And when she tried to look towards the future any moment that involved Edwin Chaos was bathed in the shadows that came from the terrible moon of the Goddess Selene.

\'They are keeping the future from me... because they are plotting. Is Edwin allied with my brother? Or with the dark god that comes? Is Selene the threat the Pharaoh must face or is it another and she merely seeks to make things interesting and amusing for herself?\' Ishizu balled her hand into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. \'I can not tell! They have robbed me of my sight when it comes to them. Shielded themselves! Is that not proof enough of their evil?\'

She took a breath, calming herself. The clouds shifted and the sun danced across the world again and she felt relief flow through her.

\'It matters not. The Pharaoh will defeat the great evil and I will help him do it. The suffering of my people will not be in vain.\' She rose. "Now... I believe soon a young woman will become rather desperate to obtain some money... and I will be more than happy to buy her locator card from her-"

Before she could finish Ishizu felt a pulse of energy and turned, eyes wide.

"Someone... someone is engaging is a Shadow Duel!" she whispered in shock. "Not with cards but with their very souls! What... what could cause this?!? My brother?" She touched her heart. "No... I would know if it were him. Someone else... someone else has caused this." She narrowed her eyes. "Which means I must work even harder to make the future I have seen come true!"

~MC~MC~MC~

I came to a stop, letting my feet touch the ground... though I knew that in reality there was no ground. Just more darkness. I simply desired for there to be something that felt like ground and came to a stop. I could fall for a thousand miles if I wished and create steps. Such was the way of the mind.

"Where are we?" Yugi said and I looked over to see both him and the Pharaoh standing there, confused.

Before I could answer and reveal things I shouldn\'t have known the Pharaoh spoke up. "I believe we are in our own minds... or, at the very least, a junction point between our minds." He turned and I saw at once a hall with two doors. One was a basic wooden door and within were all manner of toys and games. "That is your mind, Yugi."

Yugi looked nodded. "And that chamber..." he nodded towards the other door that led to a labyrinth of stairways, passages, and traps, "...that is your mind, right?" The Pharaoh nodded. "Why couldn\'t my mind be cool like that?" he complained and I could help but snicker.

But then I saw Yugi\'s pout and I let out a soft sigh, a smile forming on my lips. "You know," I told him, "there is something to be said about deflection."

"Deflection?"

I nodded. "There are many ways to protect the mind. The Pharaoh... I\'m guessing that his mind is like an Egyptian Tomb you see in the movies. Full of traps and wrong turns and dead ends. Everything to force someone to either turn back or become lost forever. That\'s a good way to do it... but you still have to let someone into your mind in order to achieve that. You go for what might be a better route: making them not interested at all." I gestured at his room. "Someone sees your room and thinks nothing of it. Blows it off as uninteresting. Maybe they even walk inside but within a few moments decide it\'s not worth their time. Not realizing that the toy soldier they kicked has the secrets to your Dark Magician deck hidden inside if you twist the head. Or the ball contains your dreams for the future but only if you bounce it a certain way. Sometimes a lock is great... other times it is better to make someone not even try to get in at all. Because you never know when someone will walk up to a big door with a big lock... and give it a knock."

The Pharaoh, however, was focused on something else other than Yugi\'s mind. "Yet you created... that."

I turned and saw that yes, of course the Pharaoh was focused on the construct I\'d built to protect my mind and soul: a massive golden wall.

"Fun fact," I said casually, "it\'s not actually flat. I just made the sphere so fucking big that you have to get really far away to see the curve. Like the earth, really."

The two blinked.

"What?"

"...how?" Yugi finally exclaimed, waving his arms about wildly.

"I\'m a writer," I said with a soft smile. "And the mind of the writer... is so very, very big. Populated by stories. Others. My own. Yours. I have them all. And they need room to play. That sphere holds The Citadel, my mind and soul given form... and it is a very big place." I slowly turned away from our minds and towards the final one that loomed before us. "But right now we need to focus on Cabal."

The Pharaoh frowned as he looked upon the representation of Cabal\'s mind space. "I suppose that is rather fitting for her, isn\'t it?"

"Oh, very much so," I said.

Cabal\'s mind had taken the form of a large theater front, something that would have been right at home in the 1930s. Red brick walls with the doorway sunken into the building itself, a ticket booth in the center with two doors, and a large light board declaring \'The Great Arkana! SOLD OUT!\' in huge black letters. The brick walls had posters plastered on it showcasing Arkana, only without his mask and smiling brightly as he pointed to the sky, with Cabal in her Catherine persona standing beside him. She was wearing a silver dress and her body was turned facing Arkana while her face was directed towards us, a smile on her lips as she rested her hands on Arkana\'s shoulder.

"They look... happy," Yugi said softly.

"They probably were," I told him. "That is the tragedy in all this."

"But we can\'t assume anything," the Pharaoh pointed out. "This is her mind... her belief in what the past was. That doesn\'t mean it is the past itself."

"Aren\'t you Mary Sunshine?" I groused as we made our way to the theater.

"It\'s... eerie, isn\'t it?" Yugi said, looking this way and that. "I can hear people... but there isn\'t anyone here."

I nodded at that. It had been faint when we\'d been first making our way to the theater but now I could hear clearly the sounds of people waiting to get in for the show even though we were the only ones in the darkness. The murmur of the ticket buyers, the dull roar within the theater itself... I could even hear cars faintly in the background, stopping and starting, honking their horns, trying to get to some important place...

\'Is this truly based on a memory she has?\' I thought to myself. \'Or just her idealized belief in what she wishes life had been like back then?\' I leaned towards the latter as while Arkana had claimed to be the world\'s greatest magician when he and the Pharaoh had dueled on the show there was nothing to suggest that was actually the case. No one to exclaim that they recognized him, no listings of his performances. He could have been a hack who worked comedy clubs to kill time on Tuesday afternoons for all I knew. \'I doubt that though,\' I thought because hey why not contradict MYSELF? \'It\'s just as possible that he was a big deal just not as big as he claimed.\'

We walked up to the ticket booth only to find the person inside to be rather... hazy. The figure blurry, indistinct. Clearly a composite of all the other theater workers that Cabal had seen in her life merged into one.

Also SHE DIDN\'T HAVE A FUCKING FACE!!!!

"I find this growing more and more troublesome the further it goes on," The Pharaoh said.

"Not the word I\'d fucking use!" I complained before taking out a missile launcher from hammerspace and aiming it right at the ticket taker. "Think this will cause any permanent damage to Cabal?"

"Edwin!" Yugi scolded.

"Fine!" I complained, tossing the weapon away... and wincing when I heard it fire, the whistling of the explosive growing quieter and quieter until, in the distance, there was a faint \'boom\'.

"How did you do that, Edwin?" the Pharaoh asked as we made our way into the theater itself. "How did you summon that weapon?"

"Easily, honestly," I said. "This is the mind... we are all currently connected to each other meaning that whatever you can dream up... can become real." I glanced at the two of them. "I\'d remember that because I have a feeling what is inside isn\'t going to be bunny rabbits."

We walked inside... to find the seats filled with bunny rabbits.

"...well," I muttered, "fuck."

"I would scold you on your language Edwin but I find myself unable to find anything else to describe... this." The Pharaoh waved at the bunnies, all dress in evening wear, who were watching the stage.

"People\'s minds do crazy things," was all I could say. "It\'s why Seto\'s head is probably full of clown porn."

Yugi and the Pharaoh just stared at me.

"Come on, with how buttoned down he is? You know he is actually into some kinky shit." I waved my hand dismissively as I began to walk towards the stage. "And I bet it\'s the wild kind too. Not garish clothing and a few honking horns... the girls wear big shoes because they have huge feet and they like to use them on men\'s-"

"EDWIN!" the Pharaoh exclaimed.

"What?" I asked, before looking at Yugi. "Oh... right. Yugi, cover the Pharaoh\'s virginal ears." I smirked at the two glowered at me. "Come on, a bit of light entertainment before we face off against the demented psychopath!" I leapt onto the stage and the curtain began to rise, Yugi and the Pharaoh joining me. "And there is our host... a bit more canine than I expected."

Cabal was in one of those water torture traps that magicians always try to escape from, pounding on the glass as the water began to rise. Standing before her was Marik... except his head was that of a black dog, eyes glowing purple and mouth curled back into a snarl. He was wearing the robes of a Rare Hunter and had the Millennium Rod clutched in his hand as he stared us down, his growl filling the stage completely.

"Anubis... the God of the Dead," the Pharaoh said. "You think mighty highly of yourself, Marik. Why don\'t you show us what you relaly look like?"

"And spoil the fun?" Marik taunted. "No no, Pharaoh... I love the idea that you won\'t know who I am right before I spring my final trap and claim your puzzle... and your life!" He threw back his head and cackled. "But if you insist of facing me here to prevent the wait I have no problem show you my-"

I thrust out my hand and blue lightning raced out of my fingertips, sending Marik flying across the stage.

"UNLIMITED! POWER!" I cackled.

Marik, realizing that I wasn\'t going to let him give his big speech, summoned a golden shield to block my attack before spinning the Millennium Rod. "So be it... we\'ll battle in this wretch\'s shattered mind and determine what end awaits you!"

"Remember what I said about being able to create anything in the world of the mind?" I asked them as Marik began to advance. "Now is the time to do it!"

It was, unsurprisingly, Yugi who acted. The Pharaoh was clever and cunning... but not creative. Oh, he could create strategies to be sure but he couldn\'t make something out of whole cloth. Yugi was the one who dreamed of creating his own game. He was the one who thought wild dreams and held onto grand hopes. The Pharaoh was a smart man with a limited view of the world... Yugi was the one that burst though the limits. It was why, in the end, he had defeated him in the ceremonial duel.

And it was why it was Yugi, and not the Pharaoh, who closed his eyes, held out his hand, and willed Excalibur, complete with the stone itself, to appear so he might draw forth the blade of Kings.

"Nice," I said as Yugi shifted his clothing to that of his armor from the Virtual World. "Though you must be willing to dream a little bigger, darling."

With that I held out my hand, light forming around it as I focused on the key.

"When you walk away..."

Marik charged and Yugi moved to meet him, swinging his sword and striking the Millennium Rod which Marik wielded like a morning star. The Pharaoh was trying to figure out some way to help him, looking about desperately, but I was focused on my own weapon, knowing that the more thought I pumped into it the strong it would become.

"You don\'t hear me say..."

I focused on the light, only dimly seeing Yugi summon his own shield that resembled the Millennium Puzzle, using it to block Marik\'s attack before he lashed out himself.

"Please... oh baby... don\'t go.

Steel formed on my palm as the light solidified. A weapon fit for me: the man who had journeyed to a new world and now wielded a Key. What other blade could I choose?

"Simple and clean is the way that you\'re making me feel tonight..."

It was golden in color, the crossbar obsidian angel wings, the shaft the perfect length for my reach and the head\'s teeth forming into a crescent moon. And upon the pommel was a chain... with the Eye of Horus charm dangling from it.

The music suddenly changed to the Hikari Orchestra Theme.

I gripped my Keyblade and launched myself forward just as Marik swung the Millennium Rod Yugi\'s head, catching his strike with my own weapon, the clang of gold upon light-forged steel filling the air.

"Why?" Marik hissed. "Why do you throw your life away for this meaningless boy?"

"Because Marik... even without the power of the Puzzle Yugi has a gift you will never have: He\'s REAL good at making friends!"

I could feel his arm trembling and shaking from the blow and I pressed my advantage, storming towards him, using my greater height to keep him well away from me while I, in turn, was able to drive him back. He brought his shield up to try and block but Yugi, bless him, was suddenly there and the two of us began to hammer Marik hard.

"What\'s the plan, Edwin?"

"Drive the bitch out!"

Marik found himself being pushed towards the back of the stage, trying to find some way to drive one of us away so he could focus on the other but it wasn\'t working. I would go for heavy blows, wanting to see the bastard on his knees, while Yugi was darting in and out with Excalibur, knicking away as the shield Marik was wielding, making it smaller and smaller as we reached the end of Cabal\'s mind... and moved towards his own. For what felt like hours Yugi and I alternated between blocking Marik\'s blows and delivering our own, doing all we could to keep him from striking back.

That wasn\'t to say that Marik didn\'t get in his blows. I had a cut on my brow from where the winged edges of the Millennium Rod had caught me and Yugi\'s armor had been shed after Marik had dented the breastplate so badly it was worse to wear it than to keep it on. He also began to fire off Shadow Realm magic, the touch of which was like dry ice: a horribly freezing burn that clung to your flesh no matter how much you tried to rid yourself of it.

Still... we were winning.

Something smashed behind us and I chanced a glance to see that the Pharaoh had summed a sledge hammer and used it to smash in the water torture trap, causing Cabal to spill out onto the stage, gasping for breath. Yugi at once began to back off, Marik panting as he glared at us.

"So you\'ve freed her," he said with a sneer. "You think that matters?"

"It\'s one less life you\'ll ruin," Yugi challenge.

"Leave, Marik," the Pharaoh said coldly, moving to protect Cabal who was still wheezing. "You are done."

"No... I am far from DONE!" With that he suddenly swelled to the size of a giant, body so large he crashed through the wooden floor of the stage so only his upper body was visible. Yugi cried out as he leapt away just as Marik swung his fist down, shattering the floor and revealing that under the stage was the Shadow Realm, hungry to consume us. "I will simply banish you to the darkness right here! Then I will collect your puzzle from your lifeless corpse!"

"Yugi!" The Pharaoh called out. "We must go now!" The boy nodded and moved to run only for Marik to drive his fists into the floor, blocking off his path. "YUGI!"

"How does it feel, Pharaoh! To know that you will get to watch your precious partner be banished to the Shadow Realm, unable to do anything!" Marik raised his hand and slammed it down...

...only to stop as I blocked the attack.

"The mind," I said with a grunt, feeling something swelling in my chest. Not the power of the Key. Something else. Something dark and light and terrible and beautiful. I grasped it and squeezed it hard. "is the only limit!"

I\'d once heard that within everyone there is a door. And behind this door they place everything they fear. Everything they want to forget. No matter how powerful it might be. It must be put behind that door and a lock placed on it. And depending on the person this door might be as small as a mouse hole or as giant as a mountain. But the door is there. And sometimes some fool will come by... and bang on the door. Rattle it. And that terrible thing would come crashing out.

Marik had knocked on the door.

The last thing I heard... was a VERY big lock open.

~MC~MC~MC~

Selene\'s eyes widened as she watched the battle. Even though it was taking place in the mind of that little whore Cabal who had dared to get close to her beloved she could see all that was going on. For what were thoughts but dreams dreamt with the waking eye? And dreams were the products of the night where the moon was the only witness.

So she saw her love grasp onto his power and a smile blossomed on her face. \'Oh... there you are,\' she thought to herself before allowed her own consciousness to rocket forward, brushing aside the boundaries of reality so she might get a closer look...

~MC~MC~MC~

Yugi stared in shock as Edwin forced Marik\'s giant hand back. He knew that Edwin had said anything was possible in the mind but this? He shouldn\'t have been surprised because he knew that logically just because Marik was gigantic that didn\'t mean anything when it came to power. After all there were plenty of Duel Monsters who were rather small yet still had great power. And yet there was a difference between throwing cards out onto the field, even with them made physical with hologram projectors, and seeing someone he knew and was friends with holding off a giant with just his bare strength.

"How... how are you doing this?" Marik demanded, just as startled as Yugi by what was happening. "My power is greater than yours!"

"You think you have power," Edwin said...in a voice tinted with a Greek accent. His eyes were shut and a smile on his face. Suddenly several more keyblades appeared, flying through the air and striking Marik\'s giant form, forcing him back. Edwin, now no longer needing to push back Marik\'s hand, rose in the air as dozens... no hundreds... of Keyblades swirled around him like snowflakes in a blizzard. He held out his hand and the keyblade he held twisted, growing longer, warping and transforming... into the Staff of Endymion. His eyes snapped open and blazed with power. "And in the mind it isn\'t Obelisk or Slifer or Ra who matters." He smirked. "It\'s me. Here? I am the god."

Something... flashed across his face. An older, more powerful visage. Clawing at the surface, making its presence known.

"Théleis tis dynámeis mou?" He said, holding out his hands. "Molon labe."

"I... I don\'t think Edwin is in the driver\'s seat anymore," Yugi whispered.

He thrust out his right hand and the keyblades launched forward, striking Marik like hail, forcing him to shield his face as he tried to guard against them. Edwin merely drove his left hand forward and sent more of his swarm at Marik, now truly forcing their foe back into the depths of his mind. He began to wave his hands like a conductor as the music played around him, cutting into Marik\'s giant projection as his eyes blazed and dark energy poured from him. And as he did so his clothing began to change, his coat lengthening, a black mask forming over his face...

"You will pay for this!" Marik roared even as he covered his face with his forearms. "When you least expect it I will destroy all you hold dear! You will BEG for your torment to end!"

There was a flash of light and Yugi\'s eyes went wide as a woman in a silver dress suddenly appeared next to Edwin, startling him just as much with her appearance. She draped herself around him before merely flicking her hand, banishing Marik. The Leader of the Rare Hunters howled as he was cast from the shared mind space.

"Geia sou agapiméni."

"It\'s her," The Pharaoh whispered. "The goddess."

Yugi looked at the immortal woman who was still pressed against Edwin, swallowing at the sight of her. She paid them no heed, instead grabbing Edwin\'s face and giving the man a deep kiss that quickly shifted into something so personal and intimate Yugi felt a bit dirt and embarrassed watching. She was practically grinding her pelvis into Edwin\'s hip as she latched onto him.

Only... Edwin\'s body twitched and the goddess pulled away, startled, as the staff turned to dust and the aura around him faded.

"Get out of my head," he whispered in his own voice again.

And then there was a flash of light and Yugi found himself on the ground in the dueling arena, looking around in confusion before getting his bearings and realizing that he was back in the real world.

"So..." Edwin said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "we all saw that, right?"

Yugi nodded. "Yeah. I... I think that\'s the goddess the Pharaoh kept mentioning."

"That or Marik has really weird ways of showing how much he hates me," Edwin muttered.

Renard frowned. "I really don\'t want to know what you two were doing, do i?"

"Not really."

A groan filled the air and Yugi turned away from Edwin, eyes widening as he saw Cabal begin to stir. He rushed over to the other duelist, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It\'s okay, you\'re alright. We got Marik out of your head and-"

Cabal shoved him away, Yugi falling onto his rear as Cabal scrambled to her feet, rushing over to the curtain where her boyfriend Arkana\'s shadow was still being projected. She tore down the cloth only to stop, staring at the bed... and the mannequin that was lying there.

"No..." she whispered.

"I\'m sorry, Cabal," Yugi said, getting up. "I know-"

"You did this," she hissed, turning back and glaring at them. "All you had to do was die and Master Marik would have brought him back to me! And now he\'s gone and you cast my Master out so I can\'t even gain his forgiveness."

"...but we saved you," Yugi said softly.

"You took EVERYTHING from me!" Cabal snarled, bunching up her fists and taking a step towards Yugi, who scrambled back in shock only for Edwin to step in front of him, shoulders tense and muscles bound and ready.

"Leave," he hissed. Renard stepped forward as well, cracking his knuckles.

Cabal looked at the two of them before turning and storming off.

"I... I don\'t understand," Yugi said. "I thought Marik-"

"Not everyone is a good person that was led astray," Edwin said with a shake of his head, walking over to where Cabal had been standing. Yugi dimly realized that Cabal, thanks to Edwin tackling her, had spilled some of her cards on the ground and failed to grab them when she\'d stormed off. "Some people are just horrible and can\'t be saved... don\'t want to be saved."

"I... I don\'t believe that," Yugi stammered.

"I\'m not saying you should," Edwin informed him. "Only that you should realize that\'s a possibility. It will save you a lot of heartache down the line." He reached into the box that had been near Cabal\'s feet, finding a key... and two locator cards. "And to the victor goes the spoils," he said as he tossed one of the locator cards to Yugi, pocketing the second for himself. "And I think I\'ll let you claim both of the Rare Cards... you can pay me back later with something that works better from my deck." He grabbed two cards and walked back over to Yugi, revealing that he\'d snagged Secrets of Dark Magic and one of Cabal\'s Red Dark Magician.

Yugi though shook his head. "I can\'t accept these."

"You won them fair and square," Edwin reminded him. "That is how the tournament works."

"But-"

"Cabal used her Dark Magician poorly. Saw it as only a weapon of revenge. You have a chance to use it properly, to bring honor to it. To show it how it feels to be wielded by a true duelist. So stop being an idiot and take it."

Yugi shot him a dark look but took the cards all the same. "Well, I guess we should be getting out of here."

"Yeah." Edwin looked about the arena, a frown forming on his lips.

"What is it?" Renard asked.

"Nothing you need to worry about... something I need to take care of."

~MC~MC~MC~

"Edwin!"

I had just broken away from Yugi, leaving him to, if canon tried to reassert itself, face off with Strings and claim Slifer. As for me I had no idea who my next opponent would be but honestly with the thoughts swirling in my mind at that moment I wasn\'t really focused on Battle City.

Looking up I saw Mai running towards, me, Yuri a few steps behind. She flung herself at me, giving me a hug before letting out a sigh. "What happened to you? You never showed up and we couldn\'t find you..."

"Long story," Renard muttered. "Involved more crazy women than you might expect."

But I just stared at Mai, not saying a word.

"Edwin?" she asked, touching my check. "Are you okay?"

"Whose asking?" I said. "You... or the goddess?"

Mai blinked... before her entire demeanor changed. The fear and concern bled away and in its pace was delight with just a touch of arrogance.

"Hello lover," the goddess said as my life got far more complicated.

/UzumakiLegacy