Fateful Salvation: Chapter 3

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

Genre: Supernatural, Romance

Description: An old man's Blue Eyes White Dragon card brings about the crossing of their paths. After that, life will never be the same for the two of them. A Seto Yami fanfiction.

Pairing: Seto Kaiba x Yami Yugi (Prideshipping)

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Fateful Salvation
by: scarlet wax petal

Click here to return to Chapter 2. Click here to see the Table of Contents.

Chapter 3: Duel Versus Evil

Seto Kaiba awakens in some strange dark place. The sheer cold nips tightly on his bare skin, and he shivers. Promptly, he stands and walks about, cautiously trying to discern his location, carefully feeling his way through. But, all around, he finds nothing but vast unending emptiness. There is no single vestige of light, nor of touch, nor the slightest trace of sound, not even of his own footsteps or of his own voice. It seems he has been plunged into the midst of the deepest, darkest abyss, where the void confining his naked form presses down upon him so torturously. Where he is, he doesn’t know, yet a disturbing sense of recall exists, and lingers. He hates this place.

He calls, and hears nothing. He steps, and goes nowhere. After countless tries, he realizes the futility of his efforts and finally stops walking, glancing around at pitch-black space that seems to drain him of every ounce of strength. Exhausted and frustrated, he slumps weakly and permits morose thoughts to form in his head. He wonders if he is already dead, and asks. Once again, he receives no answer.

Almost immediately, fatigue overwhelms him and he loses consciousness again.

-o-o-o-

What disturbs Yami most is the expression in Kaiba’s eyes. Or rather, the lack thereof. In his gaze exists a sort of iciness that parallels the winters Yami has yet to encounter. Appropriate, given the cool blue hue; but the utter neutrality, devoid of all emotion, is simply inhuman.

Is he who stands before me even human? Yami wonders.

Those eyes look down on the old man groveling miserably on the floor. When the Blue Eyes White Dragon card had fallen in pieces to the ground, Sugoroku had, despite himself, immediately lunged for his most valued possession, took it in his hands and cradled it so lovingly in his chest. He called out its name repeatedly, whispered words of reassurance and caressed it with his cheeks, as if doing so would bring it back to life. But all are in vain. The Blue Eyes White Dragon card, a memento of a most precious friendship, remains torn in his hands.

And Sugoroku, struck by realization, raises his eyes to the sky and wails. Wails as much as his feeble strength would allow him. The pathetic sound claws on Yami’s heart and he frantically rubs his arms, trying to ease the prickly feeling that runs upon his skin, trying in vain to wipe away the grief of losing. Finally, when he could bear it no longer, he bites his lip and looks away. And, in so doing, by chance he comes upon Kaiba’s face.

He finds nothing. Those eyes look at the same direction, upon the same old man, but they are totally unmoved. Unaffected, almost unseeing. Yami waits, hoping that a trace of emotion -- of misery, of triumph, even of perverted joy and fury -- would appear, would flash for just a moment…

But when they remained chillingly unchanged, Yami recalls the darkness, the thunderstorm clouds, those that had threatened the ocean waters that were Kaiba’s eyes. Now, he sees nothing but the clouds, the thick gray haze that blocks the light and plunges everything into darkness. Nonetheless, he knows, in his heart, that somewhere below, the ocean and its waves, the life and its vitality still exist.

"I don’t really know what’s wrong with you," he finally remarks, "but I swear your evil ends here!"

"So you wish to avenge your grandfather, eh. How lofty." Kaiba crosses his arms and smirks. "Very well, I’ll take the challenge."

The duel commences. The players draw their cards, and they battle. After a few turns, Kaiba clearly has the advantage, with a heavily powered Saggi on his side of the field. Yami, on the other hand, has no monsters on his side.

"Still believe in the Heart of the Cards?" Kaiba says mockingly. "How foolish, like your grandfather."

Yami glances at his deck. No, Sugoroku’s deck, the one that Kaiba’s had just defeated. A sense of doubt soon enters his mind. But he recalls Sugoroku, who had put his heart and soul into creating his deck. He remembers his friends, who, though away tending to the old man, are constantly by his side, supporting and encouraging him.

And then he sees Kaiba. The one person whose mystery has never ceased to intrigue him. He has sensed it, from the start, the moment Kaiba first set foot in their classroom. Despite the lack of social attachment between them, Yami has found himself inexplicably drawn towards the reserved young man, as if something hidden beneath that cold hard shell beckons to him endlessly, enticingly, wanting to be drawn to the open.

But, this evening, an aura of evil envelops, so dense that Yami could no longer glimpse the preciousness that he had so often perceived as he looked at Kaiba. And so he craves to ease away the evil and once again sense that which attracts him so much. Before it is too late.

All that Kaiba needs is a savior. All that Yami wants is to save.

"I believe!" he proclaims. Driven by these thoughts and with renewed faith, he places his hand upon the deck and draws the next card. In an instant, he calls upon Gaia the Fierce Knight and destroys Saggi.

Yami looks at Kaiba, who doesn’t seem perturbed as he draws the next card. A smirk forms; Yami catches his breath.

"I now call upon… Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

The white dragon gradually rises, spiraling into its awesome form before finally soaring in all its glory. Kaiba’s eyes watch intently as the beast takes shape on the dueling field and, for once, they sparkle. It was only for a moment, so brief it would have been imperceptible before the neutrality returns, but the moment has been more than enough; Yami has noticed.

A glimmer of hope. And he smiles.

-o-o-o-

Three Blue Eyes White Dragons now hover above the playing field. In the next turn, the effect of the Swords of Revealing Light will pass, the duel will be over, and Kaiba will once again be victor.

Victor. Is that the term to refer to Kaiba once he brings his opponent’s life points to zero? Yami isn’t certain if there would be a victor indeed if that happens. For as the duel progressed, he had discovered more of the inhuman darkness that cloaks this being, and he supposed that he and Kaiba are not actually fighting against each other, but rather, fighting the same thing together. And if it occurs that Yami fails to bring his opponent’s life points to zero, then Kaiba would lose. Perhaps, forever.

Yami does not want that to happen. But when he looks at the three Blue Eyes White Dragons, each with an unmatchable attack power of 3,000, the meager strength he has flees his form and every iota of hope diminishes before his very eyes. His knees wobble; he rests his palms firmly upon the counter as he attempts to keep himself upright. He glances at Sugoroku’s deck and tries to touch it; it recedes from his reach.

Believe in the cards, Yami. Believe in yourself. Save Sugoroku. Save Kaiba.

His faith revived, he reaches for the deck… and touches! He breathes in relief, and draws a card -- the last piece of Exodia! Triumphantly, he lays all five pieces and assembles the huge Egyptian beast, before Kaiba’s unbelieving eyes, and obliterates all three Blue Eyes White Dragons with one powerful blast. And together with the destruction of the dragons, the foundations of the darkness that envelops Kaiba cracks. Yami glimpses, catching a faint flash of light. It is just the assurance he needs.

"You lose," he declares, "so release him now."

His opponent growls, a sneer on its face. "How perceptive of you. Too bad that can never happen. He and I will stay this way, as one, forever."

"We’ll see about that." Yami holds the Millennium Puzzle in his hands and says a silent prayer. The golden relic glows, and awes those who behold with its intensity.

Kaiba, wait for me. I will rescue you. He wordlessly gazes at his opponent and studies the cracks, the vulnerabilities, of its armor. And then, suddenly, he splays his hand at its direction and hollers two commanding words:

"Mind Crush!"

And the creature screams in anguish, and falls to the floor, senseless. Yami has paved the way to the enclaves of Kaiba’s soul, and he enters.

-o-o-o-

Seto Kaiba blinks his eyes open. He finds himself in the strange dark place, the pitch-black void, the one he detests for its disturbing familiarity.

Not again, he mutters. But then, he thinks, it is much better here than where he was a while back, when he was a mere spectator to his own wickedness. He recalls the last moments when he was still in control (or so he thought); when he stepped out of the Kame Game Shop, after the fruitless meeting with that old shopkeeper who had denied him the Blue Eyes White Dragon card.

He could’ve just ignored it, and searched somewhere else. Ah, but it was too good an opportunity to pass! He was obsessed with the card, too consumed with it and its power. It was then when he thought of how much power he has in his hands… and how much more he could obtain with it!

Big mistake. As told, time and again, by the stories of leaders past, power inevitably corrupts. And Kaiba’s case was no different. The thirst for the card and its raw power, among other things like anger and humiliation, hit him so strongly he had lost control of his actions.

He had always suspected things would eventually come to this. He should’ve been more cautious.

As he sped through the streets of Domino, he had thought he would die. When he finally concluded that he was actually out of control, he decided he’d rather die. But things didn’t go his way, and despite the many close calls, he arrived at his destination safely.

After that, everything is a blur, as if he had been severely drunk. The only things he could remember are momentarily waking in this darkness, and rousing again to find himself in discourse with… himself (certainly; who else?), before finally destroying the old man’s Blue Eyes White Dragon card. And after he had acquired it! He was definitely out of his senses.

There are also vestiges of the duel that had just occurred. He remembers Exodia, and how it had easily destroyed his three Blue Eyes White Dragons. He also recalls the man who had delivered him his first ever defeat.

Defeat. A word which Kaiba had long thought would never apply to him.

He longs for unconsciousness to claim him once again, if possible for good. But nothing happens, and he remains awake in the darkness.

(to be continued)

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