Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Meeting My Yami ❯ Castles ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimers: Don't we all just love them and love putting them up.

"Regular speech"

/Yugi to Yami or duel monsters/

//Yami to Yugi or duel monsters//

[Mirai to Yami/Yugi or other duel monsters]

{Calin to Yami/Yugi or other duel monsters}

///Any other duel monster to Yami/Yugi///

Once we had finished breakfast, we had started packing our gear. From our location, it would only take a couple of hours to reach the castle by foot so we decided to pack lightly. Joey and Tristan, on the other hand, didn't seem to hear us as they packed a lot of food. We could always come back for more if we need to. Both Blue Eyes White Dragons and Seto volunteered to stay behind. I suggested that one of us guard the helicopter so our belongings wouldn't be stolen. Since it was his machine, Seto offered to guard it. Drake stayed with his master. Arian wanted to come, but I told him to stay behind. Besides, I had two duel monsters and a yami guarding me.

Malik and his yami stood off to one side while we walked towards the castle. Joey and Orion chatted about everything and anything. Orion seemed to be curious about this world, just like a certain magician. Tristan and Cyan didn't chat with each other. They must be deep in thought by the looks on their faces. Ryou and Bakura were trying to keep Duo in line. I knew they had packed an entire bottle of head ache medicine, just in case. I think the Maliks could use another dose, cause Duo was starting to pester them again.

"Yami?" I asked breaking the silence between our subgroup.

"Yes?" Yami answered me.

"Who do you think is behind this?" I asked curiously.

"Honestly, I don't know," Yami sighed.

"I'm tellin' yah it's Pegasus!" Joey interrupted our conversation.

"It can't be," I shook my head.

"Why?" Malik joined in.

"Because I have the millennium eye," Bakura replied coolly.

"He had it before you?" Yami Malik asked while looking back and forth at all of us.

"Yes," Ryou answered for his yami. "You see Pegasus tried to collect all seven millennium items by holding a duelist tournament."

"He kidnapped my grandpa's soul and forced me to enter the tournament," I continued. "Pegasus knew I had the millennium puzzle."

"Remember, he wasn't just after the millennium items," Tristan spoke up. "He was also after Kaiba corp."

"How could I forget?" Joey said half mockingly. "That dirty weasel kidnapped Mokuba's soul in order to make his older brother play. Unfortunately, Seto didn't have an item and fell prey to Pegasus trap."

"Oh really?" An evil Yami Malik grinned.

"We had to bail him out," Yami said without any feeling.

"Master, I sense something," Mirai had completely stopped in his tracks. "Someone is following us, but it isn't Seto or either Blue Eyes."

Calin pulled out his sword while Orion followed suit. Cyan had his guns out immediately while the yamis griped their respective millennium items. We waited patiently for the being to come out. Whatever it was had made a quick departure once we sensed his presence.

"I should have heard that," Calin protested, placing his sword back in his scabbard.

"I thought it was you I was sensing," Yami shook his head. He looked at all the dark based magicians. "We should be more careful from now on."

"I second that," Joey agreed. He calmed down after the initial sighting.

"What was that?" Ryou asked his yami.

"I don't know," Bakura replied.

Both Maliks held grim looks on their faces. It must be something to rattle their nerves. From what I have seen of them, they were not to be taken lightly.

"Remember this?" I said pointing to a nearby cave.

"How could I forget that?" Joey groaned at the thought.

"I though I'd never see that place again," Tristan also groaned.

"And the rocks is still there," Ryou observed.

"What are you talking about?" Bakura questioned his hikari.

"It happened while you were away," Ryou explained.

"What has that got to do with our mission?" Yami Malik complained.

"For starters, it could be useful," I mentioned. "We were trapped in it when Bandit Keith decided to be a sore loser. Since we had no way out, we ventured further into the cave and discovered a way leading to the castle."

"That's how we'll get there," Cyan said.

"I don't like it," Ryou complained.

"I'm open up to suggestions," Yami stated.

"I say let's go for it," I said, trying to dislodge the stone. Calin and Mirai both lent their strength. Together we managed to push it a little bit out of the way before Joey, Tristan, and their duel monsters helped us remove the offending stone.

"It still creepy," Joey murmured.

"We should go in pairs," Yami declared. Both Maliks and Bakura looked as if they were going to charge Yami. I guessed they didn't want to be ordered around by him. Then they looked at me, when I started to glow again. This caused them to shut up and listen.

"We're listening," Tristan said.

"Mirai and Calin will be the first pair," Yami announced. "Malik and his yami will be the second. Tristan and Cyan will make the third pair. Joey and Orion for the forth. Me and Yugi will create the fifth. Ryou, his yami, and Duo will be the sixth, since we have an odd number."

"Works for me," Yami Malik said before dragging his aibou off into the cave.

"We'd better catch up with them before they cause any more trouble," Ryou stated flatly.

"Don't you mean we'd better keep an eye on Duo," Bakura retorted before discovering their duel monster missing. "Where did he go?"

"I think he went after the Maliks," I said. "He's rather attached to them or perhaps he just likes annoying them, who know?"

Soon all of us followed the Maliks. We headed further into the cave until we reached the dueling platform where we battle Para and Dox. At least we knew which direction to take since we had been here during the duelist tournament. Yami Malik was inspecting the room when we arrived while his partner kept the annoying duel monster at bay.

"Have you been here before?" Yami Malik asked us without turning around. Apparently he managed to get himself lost in the maze before stumbling into this room, by accident.

"We have been here once," I confirmed. "While we were trapped in here, we had to battle the Paradox brothers in order to leave."

"So which door do we leave?" Malik asked, very irritated at a certain duel monster.

"Either door will due," Yami stated as he walked past Yami Malik and picked one door. "It's a long story that we don't have time for."

"I see," Yami Malik said before turning his attention to his aibou.

"Shouldn't we be going?" a nervous elf asked.

"Why are you in a hurry?" Mirai asked while looking at the nervous guardian.

"Cause of what happened here," Calin replied hastily.

"I would also like to get out of here," Orion second that.

"Fine by me," Joey agreed. "This place brings back old memories. I'd rather forget about them."

After who knows how long, we arrived near the doors of Pegasus' castle. It still remained the same even after this time. Well, it should since we've been for a little over a week. Glancing up, I saw the place where Seto nearly took his life trying to save his brother. That was a bad move, because in the end, he only got his soul trapped along with his brother. Yami and I had to rescue him. Some rescuer he turned out to be. Then again, he didn't stand a chance without a millennium item backing him up.

Once inside the castle we split up into our different groups. Yami and I headed to the dueling platform. When we arrived, we noticed nothing has changed except for some dust. We stepped onto the balcony, where we had witnessed Seto's defeat and capture. This was also where we defeated Mai and Joey Bandit Keith. You get the picture.

"No one has dueled here since we have left," I commented off hand. I peered down towards the platform and both sides.

Yami didn't answer for a short period of time. "I believe so." His footsteps approached me as he walked over. "Stay close to me."

"Why?" I asked turning to face him.

"Because I have a bad feeling about this place," he answered.

"You have a bad feeling about everything," I said exasperated. "Besides we all know that someone is out to get us."

"Still we should be cautious," Yami warned before facing the exit. "Let's keep moving. We need to check the platform itself even if no one has used it."

Shrugging I responded, "Your call." We both headed down towards the platform. I took the side we dueled when we faced Pegasus. Yami took the side Pegasus used. I wondered why he immediately went for that side, when I realized he was trying to protect me. He thought that the latest events could be related to a certain person named after a winged horse.

I feel sorry for Hercules' flying horse. To be sharing a name with a person like him, it must be awful especially when they get the names confused. Then again, who in their mind would confuse a demented psycho with a beautiful, loyal flying horse. Not me.

Standing upon one side, it felt like I was dueling again, for my grandpa's soul. Except this time whoever kidnapped my grandpa took everything instead of just a soul. He or she wanted to stop the prophecy or use it to their own advantage. I had only recited part of the prophecy, there was much more than two sentences, but what were they. I needed to find out before this got out of hand. Yami seemed to be scanning every inch of his side. Maybe I should be doing the same thing. I brushed off the dust before searching my side, only to find nothing.

"I can't find anything here," I announced.

Yami looked up from where he was. "Me neither, maybe our duel monsters have discovered something."

/Hey guys?/

[Yes, Master Yugi.]

/Have you found anything?/

[Nothing of importance.]

{The bedrooms are boring! I mean where's the action?}

//Calin, this is no time to be having fun. We're on a mission.// My yami chided the elf.

/He's right./ I backed up Yami.

Calin sighed through our mental link. {I guess you're right.}

[Where do you want us to meet you?]

/I don't know./

//Perhaps we should meet at the entrance once we are finished searching the castle.//

/Sounds good to me./

[Master we will be ……………… what was that for? …………………….. oh.]

/What happened?/ I asked completely panicking.

{A creature nearly had Mirai for lunch.}

[Yes, I was fortunate Calin has good reflexes.]

{Why thank you.}

//We're coming up there.//

[Master no need to trouble yourselves.]

{Everything's under control here.}

/Yes, but that's the first sighting we've heard of in the castle./

//And where there's one, there will be bound to be others.//

///Master what happened?/// A very worried dragon called out to us.

/No need to worry. The situation is taken care of./

///Okay, but be careful.///

//Of course we will.//

/We're still coming there. Just hold still./

[Very well.]

Yami lead the way with me a step behind him. He wanted to be there as soon as possible so I had to run most of the way. I had a hard time keeping up when suddenly out of nowhere my feet weren't touching the ground. My wings beat effortlessly to keep up with my yami. Smiling, I overtook him within a matter of seconds.

Raising an eyebrow, Yami looked at me. "What are you up to?"

I returned his question with a smile and an answer. "Just trying to catch up with you."

"You have no armor this time nor weapons," Yami pondered.

"Well, I just wanted to keep with you," I said as innocent as possible. "Besides, the armor takes more energy and I don't really need it."

"I see," Yami said while trying to keep up with me. "Why didn't you tell me you were falling behind? I would have slowed down."

"Mirai and Calin might need our help," I tried to reason.

"I know you want to help our friends," Yami said.

We reached the bedroom area to find both our duel monsters waiting for us at the entrance to one of the rooms. They both appeared to be very serious.

"This way," Mirai said before motioning us to follow. Calin stood guard at the door while we entered the room to find a mechanical mess.

"So this is what attacked you?" Yami inspected the robot, but kept his guard up.

"Yes," the magician replied.

"If Seto was here, he could tell us more about it," I mused while looking over the robot from a safe distance. I folded my wings and tucked them behind me.

"Have they attacked the others?" Yami asked out loud, to no one in particular.

"I wish we had contact with them," I sighed. "Who knows what trouble they could get into especially Duo. I feel sorry for Ryou and Bakura having to put up with him."

"For the first time, I feel sorry for that soul stealer," Yami agreed. "Now to the matter at hand." He picked up a few pieces and thoroughly inspected them. "There seems to be no logo or any clues of some sort."

"What about this?" I asked, picking up a small piece that had eluded his very thorough inspection. "It has some sort of weird symbols on it." I handed it over to Yami, who then looked at it, before handing it to Mirai. He studied it for a second.

"It's not any language that I know of," Mirai commented.

"We can safely rule out Egyptian, Japanese, or English," Yami stated the obvious.

"Calin," I called out to the elf.

"Yes, Master," Calin called right back.

"We need you to see something," I said.

"I'll be there," Calin said. In less than a minute, he entered the door and was ready for whatever we required of him. "We need you to look at that." I pointed to the piece of metal Mirai was currently holding out for the elf to view.

Calin picked it up and inspected the drawing. He concentrated for a minute or two before declaring he didn't have a clue to what it was. It wasn't any form of elven script, but what was it. So much for that. Maybe we can look it up in the books, though it would take awhile. We didn't have much time to save my grandpa.

"We'd better start looking for the others," I said.

"Sure, Aibou," Yami answered. "Calin, hold onto that piece. Who knows, maybe one of the others would recognize that symbol."

"Yes Master," Calin said, pocketing the object.

Out of nowhere a scream pierced the air, filling the silence. We quickly ran to the source of the disturbance and stopped immediately in our tracks when we saw………………….

Wingzero: Cliffies are the way to go.

Kai: I prefer cliff notes.

Ray: Just what happens.

Wingzero: Uh, I don't know? ^_^;

Death Scythe: Who do you think is screaming their heads off?